On the advice of Sheila I have started up this thread so that we can officially start discussing our novels with each other.

This thread will be used for:

*Introductions to our stories
*Word Count progress
*Desperate pleas for help and encouragement
*Fun

So lets get the ball rolling. Let's hear a little about those stories!

Since I posed the question I'll answer the questions:

NaNo Name: jojo_da_crow

Years Doing NaNo: This is my second year.

This Year's Genre: Romance/suspense/fanfiction =P

This Year's Idea: My fanfiction will be based around Alt-Clark. As Clark finally gives up hope and ends the search for his Lois, he has to begin the process of letting go of a destiny that was never his to hold... but will one last journey to let go of that dream open up a brand new destiny for him? Or will it be the end of Superman?

Novel Title: Jojo's Diabolical NaNo Novel (No really I don't have one yet)

Word Count Goal: 50k. I'm not brave enough to shoot for more.

NaNo Name: aromassa

Years Doing NaNo: this is my first year

This Year's Genre: fanfiction (although I chose fantasy as the genre on nano's website)

This Year's Idea: Lois' family moves to Smallville when she's still high school aged. She joins the ranks of the Smallville High Newspaper where she meets Clark. They spend the story trying to outdo each other with their articles. Lois takes the competition deadly seriously while Clark is in it for the fun.

Novel Title: Whose By-Line Is It, Anyway? (Thanks to Woody for the title from which sprouted this little plot bunny)

Word Count Goal: 50k would be good

NaNo Name: CarolM
Years Doing NaNo: 1st
This Year's Genre: Er... Elseworlds? You know, not our Alt Clark, but a deviation of an Alt Clark universe...
This Year's Idea: See above...
Novel Title: Do I have to have one?
Word Count Goal: 50K - and I hope to reach half of that - I want to finish, but I have a lot going on this year...

NaNo Name: sheilah
Years Doing NaNo: my first year
This Year's Genre: fantasy
This Year's Idea: Aided by Lindsey Walker, a female private investigator, Caleb Pries goes on a quest to find his father, presumably the source of his strange abilities, while trying to elude the government agents who seem to think he is a threat to national security.
Novel Title: The Foundling
Word Count Goal: 50,000. The book will take more than that, but I should be able to get the basic story down in 50,000 words.

NaNo Name: LaraMoon
Years Doing NaNo: 2nd
This Year's Genre: L&C Fanfic
This Year's Idea: it's an elseworld thing, I guess? Last year, I did the switcharoo between Lex and Clark - this year I'm doing a bit of a switch between Lois and Clark. *giggles*
Novel Title: ..... (nooooo idea, yet!)
Word Count Goal: 50k at least, but there's a chance I may go for 100k (if you see what I mean?)

NaNo Name: Catherine Bruce
Years Doing NaNo: First Year
This Year's Genre: Science Fiction. Fan Fiction
This Year's Idea: Crossover between Farscape and Stargate SG-1 where Vala is actually indeed Aeryn, though she has no memories of this, and John comes looking for her. And then stuff happens. And there's chaos.
Novel Title: Hypomnesia
Word Count Goal: 50,000

I did it last year and it was lots of fun. Not sure if I'm doing it this year because I'm supposed to be going for surgery near the beginning of the month, but... what the heck. I can start and then if I have to drop out... oh, well. So...

NaNo Name: MLT
Years Doing NaNo: 2nd year
This Year's Genre: Mystery
This Year's Idea: There has been a shooting at the court house. The reader isn't told who the shooter is. Then, we flash back to the beginning of the day and follow a number of people's days from that morning until the moment of the shooting. Can you figure out who the shooter is?
Novel Title: But For The Grace Of God
Word Count Goal: 50,000+

By the way, I should mention that last year, if you succeeded, you could get a free bound copy of your book sent to you. Let me tell you, it's a real thrill having a bound book in your library with your name on it

ML

OOooooo ML! That would be so cool!

May have to make extra sure to finish now...
Carol

That's so cool, ML. Do they just bind the stuff you turn in? I'm wondering because I'm expecting to write a pretty sloppy freewriting/outline rough draft.

The free book isn't offered directly by NaNoWriMo. Last year it was offered by an online publishing company called LuLu Publishing. Here is link to the site from last year. LuLu Promotion

Again, I don't know if it's being offered this year. But keep your eyes open for it.

But they give you directions on how to space your margins, etc. You submit your manuscript online and then they send you a copy of your book. I got a novel size paperback of my book, but there were other options.

I was worried at first that it was a scam to steal my book, but I didn't have any problems with it. Of course, I can't guarantee that they are on the level, but it appears to me that they are - given that I can understand their motivations of trying to promote online self-publishing.

ML

Oh, and one more thing. Although you had to finish 50,000 words in the month of November for the NaNo contest, you didn't have to submit the manuscript to Lulu until January - to give you a couple of months for editing. And they didn't hold me to the 50,000 words. I think my manuscript turned out to be about 70,000 words.

ML

I decided to change the plot again. (What? I'm allowed.)

New Idea: A rewrite from the start of the Pilot, with my original idea as backstory. So when Lois busts in on Clark's interview, they greet each other like old friends (because they are). And Lois would have learnt about Clark's powers at some point. I'm thinking something along the lines of Second Choice by Nan Smith without the whole pregnancy issue. And I'll be writing first person from Lois' point of view.

Still, ML - that's awesome! Here's hoping they do it again this year and that I can A: finish NaNo and B: get it into a semifinished form .

Thanks for letting us know about it.
Carol

I'm going to ask a stupid question, probably - but I can't figure this one out and I looked all over the site. How do you add other writing buddies? I mean, how do I find people at all...?? Like if I wanted to add Brucie, here - I've no way of finding her through the site, like there was before. Or have I suddenly gone blind/brain dead?

Thanks!

Lara - I think they took the search function down. However, you can still go to someone else's site: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/202869 is KSaraSara's site - replace her number with the number of the author you want. Then you can click add as buddy or whatever on the left side.

The trick is to know everyone's numbers .

Mine is 200582. So that might be another thing to post here until they get that back up and running.

Clear as mud??
Carol
Edit - I unhyperlinked the website so it's easier to see.

Mine is 228856.

You can also go to "My Nanowrimo" and see other people who have added you as a buddy and go to their profile there and add them.

Or see other people's friends and get to them that way.

Yeah, that's what I've been doing so far. Thanks girls!

Sheilah, I just added you. Brucie, if you see this, can 'ya give us your ID so we can add you?

I think I added all the friends of friends that I knew I knew - you know...

Can't wait until 11pm tonight because I think I'm going to start at ET *g*.
Carol

Eeeehhhhhh!!! Got my first Chris Baty email (one of my favorite things about nano). I know it's getting close when he is starting his pep talk!

I *just* closed that email!

Now to find that door...
Carol

Jojo, I don't have that message in my inbox. Do I have to be signed up for email notifications to get it?

Sheilah, I think you do. You are gonna want to be signed up for it to because they have famous authors doing the pep talks this year as well. Here is his email for those of you who didn't get it (it tells you how to turn on notifications):

Dear NaNoWriMo participant

Well, we're on the cusp of another beautiful noveling November. The turn-out so far has been phenomenal. Between our main program and Young Writers Program, we'll have over 90,000 authors on board by the end of the week, making this officially the largest NaNoWriMo since the event was first adapted from an Andorran mule-wrestling ceremony back in 1999.

For those of you who are new to NaNo, I want to quickly run through the noveling schedule for the month ahead.

Step 1: Keep reading this email; learn the secret of NaNoWriMo.
Step 2: Wait for 12:01 AM local time on November 1.
Step 3: Write a novel.

No problem.

Okay, back to Step 1. The secret of NaNoWriMo. Which is this: There is a door in your brain. The door has been there your whole life. You may not have noticed it before because it blends in with everything else in your brain. Weird art. Mismatched furniture. Squis hy gray bits clinging to everything.

So what does this door have to do with your novel?

Your job this month is not so much writing a book (which is intimidating) as it is finding that door (which is easy).

It's easy because you'll have guides in November who will take you right to it.

These guides are also known as your characters. They're kind of an abstract notion now, but you'll meet them in all their glory in Week One of NaNoWriMo. They'll be a strange lot. Insecure warlocks. Stamp-collecting squirrels. Teenage detectives.

Whoever shows up, go with them. And go quickly. You may have a general sense of where you're going together; you may not. It doesn’t matter. Just write your allotment of 1667 words (or more) on November 1. Don't edit any of it. Editing is for December. Then come back and write another 1667 words the next day. And the next. And the next.

By Week Two, you'll be at the door. A few words later, you'll be through it. You'll know you're there because the writing will feel different. Less like work, and more like watching a gloriously imperfect movie with cringe-worthy dialogue, heaps of confusing tangents, and moments of brilliance so delightful that you'll want to scream.

Once you've stepped through that door into the vast reaches of your imagination, you'll be able to return there as often as you like. It's an enchanted, intoxicating place, and there are other great things besides novels in there.

But we'll talk about that later.

For now, here's our game plan for the coming week.

1) Make sure you've affiliated with a region and then made it your Home Region. This is a two-step process. You do it by signing in and then going to the My Regions page of My NaNoWriMo. The far-left tab gives you a list of regions to choose from. Choose one by clicking "affiliate," then go to the far-right tab called Home Region and make sure your region is ticked.

2) Make sure you have your Edit Profile settings geared to allow emails from us (if you got this, you're good), and that your email program knows to accept messages from noreply@nanowrimo.org. Pep talks from esteemed authors will begin landing in your inbox this week, and will continue to arrive every four days or so. To turn off emails from us, just head to Edit Profile and change your settings to "No mail."

3) On November 1: Begin writing. At this point, you'll be able to begin updating your word count on the Author Info tab of the Edit Profile page. You can do this on the honor system by just typing in the number, or you can paste the whole book in and let our robots count it for you. If you paste your book, please scramble it first, using instructions in our FAQ. You can also post an excerpt of your book in the same area of the Edit Profile page.

4) For the first week of the event, the site will be on fire. This year we moved to a completely new back-end system, and it has made me beat my head against the wall almost every single day. Pages disappear. Parts fall off. Error screens everywhere. It handles high traffic the way a country lane would handle a freeway. We have so many plans on rebuilding the site it for next year it's not even funny. But for now, we have to work with what we've got. Russ is making all the improvements he can to make it suck less.

If the site isn't functional, just postpone updating your word count until the dust settles. NaNoWriMo does not live on a website. It lives in your heart, in your powerful typing fingers, and in your dramatically escalating word count.

We'll keep working on the site. You keep working on your novel.

Together we will rock November.

Happy noveling, everyone! We're so glad to have you writing with us.

Chris
NaNoWriMo

You beat me, JoJo.

Carol [who is avoiding schoolwork by hitting refresh, constantly looking for new story parts]

My problem apparently is that something is wrong with my edit profile page. No matter what changes I try to put in it, nothing happens when I click submit.

However... I just checked my own email, and the letter from Chris is there, so the profile must have been set to default to it.

I hope.

Thanks, ladies

Oooh yay I'm wanted!

I think my number is: 221021

It's what I got at the end of the doodad address thingy from my profile. *nods*

*rocks back and forth back and forth*

Can't wait until midnight... must write now... the voices are talking, telling me to write write write ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!!!

Man, and I won't even BE awake at midnight :p

OMG, I can't wait to start!!!!!

/takes a deep breath.

I managed to write on the way in to work on the train this morning. Couldn't find that Neo thing, so hand writing, longhand, in my notebook, with my friend sitting next to me trying to engage me in conversation at the same time. Even after I told her that I was going to ignore her for the trip and write.

So, 303 words... not bad. Now I'm gonna write like mad for the next hour. (Lunch time! Food? Who needs food? I'm *writing*! )

I can't wait either. (/takes a deep breath with Lara) But the more grading I do before I go to bed tonight, the less I'll have to do during the coming week, so the more time I'll have to write. Right?

Just stopped by to wish you guys good luck. I'm afraid I'm going to have to wait for next year. Damn. And I've been looking forward to this all year!

ML

I could start in an hour... as that is when it officially begins. BUT... I'm a bit tipsy and tired so it will have to wait till tomorrow.

*eeeeehhhh* Can't wait. ^_^

So I'd planned on starting at 12 ET, but I was good and waited till 12 here [actually, I was doing other stuff... but we'll pretend it was because I was good].

Then I did something I'd never done - wrote a middle of the fic scene. It popped into my head about 3 weeks ago, begging to be written and it finally is! Some of it I like better than I thought I would some of it worse, but that's how it goes. Another couple short scenes followed it and then I went back to the beginning of the fic where I discovered it wasn't in Kansas after all, but in Colorado... imagine that!

Anyway, 2,225 words today .

Off to bed! Work to do tomorrow...
Carol

Oooh! Carol! Way to go!!

Starting mine during my lunch hour today.

Heeeeeee!!

NaNo Name: Mr_d8a
Years Doing NaNo: First year
This Year's Genre: Sci Fi
This Year's Idea: A young man goes on a camping trip with his best friend and his friend's father. Did I mention that this is on another planet and they have a run in with something that is a cross between a bear and a porcupine that just happens to be a female with a cub?
Novel Title: No One to the Rescue?
Word Count Goal: 50k.

Based on a universe I created 22 years ago.

James.

I did another 2200 words or so this morning - unfortunately it was an insurance transcript *g*.

I hope to get some done this afternoon, but I also have other work to do... DH won't be home until 10pm tonight at which time I hope to be asleep as I've been up way too late lately, but that means I have other work I have to get done in the meantime...

Carol

NaNo Name: MrsMosley
Years Doing NaNo: this is my first
This Year's Genre: historical fiction
This Year's Idea: how a young couple came to be married during a flood in Mississippi in the 1920s
Novel Title: High Water
Word Count Goal: 50,000

I've been thinking for the last week that I wouldn't do NaNo after all because I've got so much stuff going on. Then, this morning, I read the email from the guy (the one Jojo quoted above) and thought, I can do 1667 words a day.

Heh.

I took an hour lunch (which is twice as long as I usually get) and only got about 700 words done. Argh. But now that I've started, I'm going to try to keep going!

Heee! I started. It's probably crazy to get excited like this just because I wrote a few words in a Word document while I was having soup and crackers, but... heh. I'll take all the excitement I can get.

I managed to get 510 words on the page in half an hour and I've even got myself a working title for now. ...and, I'm a bit annoyed that I had to close the file because I was just starting to feel it and had just gotten into that zone where my brain is on pause and my fingers do all the typing on their own. I love when that happens - my fingers are smarter than my brain!

Gotta go back to work. Looking forward to picking this up again this evening.

I hope you all have a GREAT first day!!!

Well I started trying to write at work today. I started off staring at a blank page and trying to get my LnC story rolling... when suddenly I jumped the boat and started writing and original story.

I figured if they were my own characters at least I could keep them in character.

I think as someone who struggles with writing large amounts it might be best for me to start off with original fiction since I can do just about whatever I want with it.

Anyway, I haven't gotten to write much and I'm at 550 words right now. So.. I'm confident I can hit my goal.

I could write more but sadly everyone at work decided to either be late today or not come in. So I'm off to the grind.

NaNo Name: KSaraSara
Years Doing NaNo: first time
This Year's Genre: Fanfic! (Because I suck at OF)
This Year's Idea: I'm hoping that the sequel to Wherever You Will Go will sort of just flow out... once I get past that small, little roadblock called Editing As I Write. I know this one's going to be a long one, but it's been quite some time since I've been in this universe. I might semi-cheat and throw some Away From the Sun sequel stuff in there. I mean, hey, it's all the same universe, so to speak.
Novel Title: Far Away (tentative title, using Nickelback's song as inspiration)
Word Count Goal: 50,000 (so I can say I'm a winner )

I still have to add some of you, it seems! That'll have to wait til a bit later when the site's not so bogged down and I don't have class.

I spent most of my morning today re-reading parts of Wherever You Will Go (and trying not to cringe too much at my older writing! :p ) and my notes for the sequel. I only have 183 words so far. I'm really trying to get past that mental block that tells me I have to write well the first time. Bah! I'm horrible with editing and revising. But, hey, that's one of the main reasons I wanted to challenge myself to do this.

Is anyone else going to the Write-Ins with other local NaNo'ers? I'm thinking about doing one or two because I think it'd be neat, but then there's that dreaded question: Ooh, what are you writing about? *g* Eh, we'll see.

Off to class now!

Sara

By 11:30 pm on day one I had written 1692 words! I couldn't believe it! Especially when I didn't actually get to a computer until 8:30 pm. Before that it was all handwritten. Yay me!

I wrote during the two times I had scheduled today and got 2010 words. Considering that I usually write about 250 words per hour, that's pretty impressive for about 3 hours work.

Sara, I have the same problem with editing as I write, trying to make a perfect draft, which is why I decided to try NaNo this year. How did I shut off my editor? I sat down with a timer set for five minutes, turned off my monitor and started typing. I couldn't see the screen, so I couldn't correct my errors. When I couldn't think what to type, I typed a string of "and and and and" until the next phrase came to me because the rule with freewriting is that you can't stop writing. When the timer went off, I turned the monitor back on, reset the timer for about 4 minutes and corrected what was on the screen. So out of my 3 hours of writing, I only wrote for 120 minutes or so while the rest of the time was cleaning up my typos, filling in missing words, etc. For me, that's a staggering output.

The nice part about the process I used is that it can be used with very short periods of free time (like 5 minutes ).

Looking forward to tomorrow and finding out what happens next--a strange situation for a natural-born plotter to find herself in.

I'm at 4339 at the moment. My goal was 5000 but I don't think it's going to happen. Yes, that's higher than the daily average goal but I know there's going to be days that I won't be able to write at all. I finally did something I rarely do - wrote nonlinearly. I literally couldn't think of what to write in one scene - it would have been like three pages of sheila's ands... I finally moved on to something else - I know where it's going and a macro view of how it's going to get there but... Once I decided to move on I went from 3612 to 4339 in no time. I have more in my head but doubt I'll get it on screen tonight...
Carol

Okay... so dropped the OF idea quickly... and went back to the LnC story. LOL I'm so fickle.

[img]http://picometer.writertopia.com/words=1191[/img]

Well... This is a quick overview of my first day:

I started adding words to the story I had started at lunch time. The one that's basically a rewrite of the pilot... I got up to 852 words (up from 500-some).

Made the "mistake" of reading it again.

Decided it sucked, that I hated it, that I never wanted to see it again and... and.... and... OMG, whine! IsoterriblywantedtowriteaboutBatmaninstead!

So... I put "Fates Entwined" on my USB key and opened up a new Word document and then I started typing something else.

I put in 1131 words, then went to bed - smiling and seriously looking forward to being able to write again.

So in fact, I've written 1983 words. Sadly, they don't all count. Heh.

I don't know yet what I'll do with Fates Entwined. All I know for sure is that forcing myself to write a story for the sole purpose of being able to post it here was a really bad idea. The story I'm working on now won't fit on the boards for damn sure, but it's definitely going to make me a happier person.

Okay guys. Little participation question for today:

Now that most of us have started, what is the first line or paragraph of your story?

Mine:
Her current situation was one that would either make for a fantastic story later if she escaped or a horrific tale once they found her body.

Post if it is good or bad. ^_^

Emma leaned out the window of the Model T Ford. They were speeding along at thirty miles an hour, and the moist air rushing past her face and rustling her hair felt wonderful. It must have been at least one hundred degrees out, and four hours in this tin can they called a car hadn’t made it any more pleasant.

Must research Model T's. Not sure they actually had windows. But I can look that up in December.

First line:
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

I doubt that's enough to hold back the masses so...

Next para:
The young boy ran down the road, yelling at the top of his lungs. He moved faster than humanly possible, running towards the two people he loved more than anyone else in the world.
Better?
Carol [word count: 5042]

First line of the story I stopped writing was:
All Clark Kent had ever wanted was to have a normal life.

Really original, huh?

First line of the story I'm gonna keep on writing is this:
I've seen him here a few times.


(hey, you said first *line*! [giggles madly and runs away])

I ought to try that, Sheila. Thanks for the idea! *wonders idly how to turn off the laptop monitor...*

Half of my first paragraph (because I seriously cannot resist the urge to edit if I post the whole para):

It'd been a month now since he'd come home. She knew he needed time to adjust to being back on Earth, time to get used to having a daughter, time to be human again. But something more was bothering Clark.

Have I mentioned how excited I am that there are a few of you writing alt-Clark stories??

I'm only at 214 words. And I've got some major homework to get done, so I'm trying to get that done earlier rather than later. *sigh* Sadly, one bit of homework is to write a story for fiction class! :p And there's really no way I can combine the assignment with NaNo (seeing as I have to edit it and it can't be fic and is only 10 pages long ;P). *whines*

Sara

First paragraph:

John Crichton trudged through the snow towards the being he had long ago named Einstein standing near a small rock enclave. His Farscape module, more battered and patched together than it had been three cycles ago, sat behind him in a hiss of cooling metal.

Yeah yeah it needs work, but I'm trying not be be all edity

NaNo Name: D_Smiley1
Years Doing NaNo: this is my first
This Year's Genre: Chick lit
This Year's Idea: A girl thinks back on her personal history, and wonders where she went wrong, and what she would do if she could do it all differently.
Novel Title: none as of yet
Word Count Goal: 50,000

My number is: 245997

Current first line is (but I'm writing in chunks, whatever part of the story I can find in my brain today is what gets written, so this won't actually be the start):

When Caleb Pries called to his imaginary friends for help, he didn’t know what to expect. But it sure wasn’t a bolt of lightning and simultaneous crash of thunder that left him deaf and blind, as helpless as a newborn kitten.


Sara, you might try draping a hand towel over the monitor on your laptop. There's also so F-key button that shuts it on and off (F3? F8?)

Okay, first paragraph of Whose By-Line Is It Anyway:

I sat at my desk basking in the glow of my latest scoop. “Million Dollar Car Theft Ring Exposed,” the Daily Planet proclaimed. After such a successful story, I figured I deserved a short break, and so, I was working on my novel while I waited for one of my sources to call with a break on my next story. Whatever that was.

And I now have 2592 words!

I now feel completely stupid because I typed this entry under my sister's logon...

4026, and I'm off to bed. Because I'll be on vacation for five days in mid-November, I'm shooting for 2000 words each day--while continuing to do my work, stay up with grading, and keep a basically clean house. So far, it's working, but we'll see what happens next week. Happy writing tomorrow, everyone.

I'm in awe reading your entries so far. I simply cannot write this way. I'm the Rewrite Queen. It's just NOT possible for me to progress to paragraph two until I've wrestled paragraph one into the dust with endless rewrites until every single word is...just...so... Believe me, I've tried.

I'll just get the pompoms out and go 'whoo whoo - go authors!' instead.

LabRat

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Aromassa:
<strong> </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Okay, first paragraph of Whose By-Line Is It Anyway:

I sat at my desk basking in the glow of my latest scoop. “Million Dollar Car Theft Ring Exposed,” the Daily Planet proclaimed. After such a successful story, I figured I deserved a short break, and so, I was working on my novel while I waited for one of my sources to call with a break on my next story. Whatever that was.

And I now have 2592 words!

Give me the credit, give me the credit!



Lexy

@ Lexy

I hope everyone is doing well today. ^_^ One of my friends has been reading a book on how to help get yourself past writers block. One of the ways to do that was to bribe yourself with a reward... so since this is NaNo... let's apply this to our current situation:

What is your writing goal for today? What reward will you give yourself if you meet that writing goal?

I am only at 1705. I need to be at about 5,000 to be on schedule. So my bribe for today is that I get to read the new cheesy romance novel I picked up after I hit 5,000.

I've had a really slow start today (sleeping in and playing with my granddaughter for 5 hours), and I've got another 2000 words to hit my goal for today. I'm shooting for 2000 words per day for the first fifteen days to make up for the 3 days I'll be in NY with my friend and won't be doing any writing.

So my goal for today is to get 2000 words in the next 3 hours. And if I do? I get to watch tonight's L&C ep with the rest of the #lanekent crew.

I didn't make 2000 words in that time, but I made 1000, so I let myself go onto IRC for half an hour. Now I only have 400 words to go.

I have to admit, writing this way is completely opposite of my normal pattern of careful planning and constant editing, but it's kinda fun. I've met at least one character I never expected, so now I'm wondering what's coming up next.

EDIT: Okay, I just hit 2053 words tonight, and it's time for bed. I had to use part of the extra hour from "falling back" to standard time tonight, but I got it done. Yay!

I'm up to 6079 total, so far. The NaNo site is down right now, so I figured I'd better post my total somewhere so I won't forget what it was by the time the site comes back up.

I was trying to follow that 1667 words per day thing. So ... I need a total of 6667 words written by the end of today ... which means I have ... 3785 words to write between now and the end of the day.

3785 words!!! What am I doing here?!

*races off with a speed to rival superman*

Catch you later!

LOL, Aromassa! Too bad we can't write as fast as Clark can. I was going to correct you to say you only needed 5000 words today when I realized you're already on day 4 in Australia. Good luck!

Dunno about my goal, per say, but I do try to write more than I did the day before.

Of course, tonight I wrote 2,963 words and I'm almost afraid of trying to match that tomorrow... But I WILL tell you this: Writing while intoxicated greatly reduces the urge for rewrites.

Although, 8000 words in, and I'm beginning to wonder if my plot will EVER start... >.<

I've decided not to do that again. The last story I did that on, I killed off Clark. In front of Lois, no less. I was lucky my sister was co-writing with me and immediately decided to delete the last paragraph or so in which I'd done such a ghastly deed.

Oh, and I now have a total of 4153 words. Because I kept getting kicked off the computer all day by my sister and my dad, both separately and to work on something together.

*sighs* suffering heavily from "constant rewrite" syndrome right now.

I remember doing it last year the first few days and then realizing I was so totally behind I needed to stop doing that at once. I'm hoping the same realization will make it to my brain again this year, else I'm screwed!

I had firmly decided I was *not* going to do this this year. Every year I wanted to, but I used to tell myself, "I'll do it when I get out of college." Well, now I'm out of college, but I had another excuse. "Being a first year teacher is almost as bad as being in college. I'll do it next year." Plus I live in a new city and have no social life, so I figured if I was going to have free time I should be out meeting people instead of sitting in my living room writing a novel.

And then last night I changed my mind, threw caution to the winds, and wrote 1,862 words of a brand new novel. It's something very new to me. It's not fanfic. It's not even a genre novel. I have no outline, no idea where it's going, and I've lost two days' worth of writing time. Deep down I have a feeling I'm not going to be anywhere close to 50,000 words by the end of the month, but I'm going to try. 50K words / 28 days = 1,785 words per day.

Anyway, all this to say, I'm throwing my hat in the ring, let's see how far I get

I'll be posting the story in friends-only posts on LiveJournal; if you have an account there and would like to see the story, drop me a line and I'll send you the address

Ooh, that's a good idea! I'm just posting the word count at the moment. And actually posting the story as I go will make me stop with the re-writes. Hopefully. Maybe. We'll see.

ok, I admit that I only have 1621 words, but, on the brightside, I am having fun.

Part of the lack of words is that this is an insane time of year at work and, Elisabeth is writing her story based in one of my imagined favorite places on earth, which I can't tell you under pain of {fill in the blank}

James

Well I have been struggling the last few days with my story. I didn't love my characters and each word was painful.

So this morning I sat down to write a totally different story.

I'm at word: 2465 right now and the creative juices are still flowing. I have more than surpassed the other story I was writing and I think I might hit 3-4,00 words tonight.

Finally I'm really excited about what I'm writing!

EDIT: I ended the day with 3247. I could write more but sadly I have to fold laundry and go to bed. *sigh* Dang it! I was just getting started.

Jojo! That's awesome!!

Haven't written a word since Thursday, but sick kids and weekends will do that...

Doc appointment for DD6 [who may be heading towards pneumonia if we're not careful] will also see DS getting weighed just because we're already there...

Maybe tomorrow night...
Carol

Jojo, I'm glad to hear that you found a story that excited you. Another two days like this, and you'll be caught up.

Carol, I hope your daughter is doing better.

I didn't quite make my goal yesterday, so I finished at 7394. I've got a little catching up to do to finish today on track. I'm up to 7775 now at 11:30 my time, so I need to really start pushing.

I keep meaning to comment on this...

I was hoping someone would find this amusing *g*. First line is supposed to grab the reader isn't it?!?!

Carol [who reread what she had because no one is in the hospital, made a couple of small edits, and is up to 5069 and is praying to get to write tonight...]

Okay. I hope everyone is doing well. ^_^ Here is another question for you guys. I'm stealing these questions by the way from my good friend Alicia. I'm really not that creative.

In about 50 words, or less, describe your least favorite character (so far), and explain why you don't like them.

Porter. One of my main characters. I like him but he isn't behaving. He is being a perfect gentleman and I know he isn't one. He just isn't producing the snark I want out of him. *sigh*

But I just started on this new story so he is still blooming. I'm sure he will come out of his shell at some point. Although since I have made him temp. blind he may be a bit nicer until he gets his sight back.

(for those who knew my original NaNo idea... don't ask me what's up with the blind characters.)

EDIT: and I'm ending the day so far with about 5114

I don't like Great Aunt Louise Lane. She's being way too nice. She's supposed to be this crotchety old woman but she's turning out to be a wonderful woman who just doesn't want kids. But she's even just called herself crotchety and everyone knows you can't be crotchety if you call yourself that...

*sigh*

Oh well, I can make her work.
Carol

Current word count: 8269

My least favorite character is General Landry... of course, he's also my least favorite character in the show, so I guess my opinion of him was biased from the get-go

He's just so... so... GENERALY!!

And I'm still stuck at 12,346 words. My beloved computer got a major hardware update yesterday, and now the computer won't recognize the version of windows I had install. Grr. Must remedy!

Erm... so far there are only two actual characters in my story. I like both of them.

The only other people so far that aren't "a crowd" or "a group" are two other guys who don't have names are are really just... extras. You know, the type that have no lines and get listed as "guy with gun" or "man at table" in the end-credits?

One is the owner of an inn and I have no feelings for the guy, good or bad. He just is.

But the other dude... Ooooh. That dude! I hope he gets hurt later on. He held Bruce at gunpoint, threw him on the floor and stepped on his back, breaking one of his ribs and then... then, he kicked him in the head. Meanie!

*giggles*

But I love all my characters! You wouldn't really want be to choose the least favourite of my children, would you? Although, they're not really my children because they're all l&c canon, but you know what I mean...

I have one character who seemed funny when I imagined her, but she isn't coming out that way, so I don't like her very much. I've going to have to go back and rework her in the next draft.

How's the word count coming? I didn't reach my goal last night of 7000 But I did get to 6239. I hope to get a lot more in today.

So here is the next NaNo Question:

What is your single most favorite line/paragraph so far?

(If this is going to cause you to edit because you have to go back and look don't do it!)

I have to think about my answer today. I think it may be the part where my main character rants about office work and how she is sure that paperwork is what killed all the unicorns and everything else magical.

Yeah it makes no sense but it makes me giggle.

Will be back with my answer, but...

I don't care if that's your favorite line or not jojo - you have to paste it now!
Carol

Okay - this is Missy's favorite so it's what I'm going to go with...

"So, Lois, what cabin are you in?"

She looked at her piece of paper and made a face. "I'm a wombat. What's a wombat?"

Clark laughed. "It's an Australian marsupial. They're about 3 feet long when they're full grown. They are the favorite food of Tasmanian devils." He grinned at her. "I'm in the Tasmanian devil cabin."


I contemplated posting "Lois, will you marry me?" but I do like this better .

I am up to 10009 words and I am trying to reach 13333 by the end of the day.

My favourite line/paragraph is:

Still at the 12something mark... been having computer issues... If I can't get em fixed I may just get desperate to try to write on this laptop... *pout*

However, I think that my favorite line so far is:

"Don't come near me! I know where that tongue has been!"

Do I want to know what that means, Cat?

Anyway, and to everyone who's NaNoing for the such a high level of courage and insanity to take on such a task. You keep on writing; I'll wave the pom-poms.

I liked these lines from my heroine's POV:
I'm sitting at 11,400 words right now and plan to make at least 900 more before quitting for the night.

I noticed you're over 12G sheilah - that's awesome! Cat - I dunno how you hit that mark so fast!

My own little personal goal the last few days has been to keep up with sheilah - not because it's a competition or anything but when I went to put my number in the other day I noticed she was only a couple words ahead of me . Unfortunately, RL [no not Roger ] has been a bear.

Two sick kids [DD6 is still not 100% from the weekend, DD2 is 102* at the moment after being 103*+ last night and shaking to the point she almost couldn't take her medicine. That's on top of DS3mos probably going in to the hospital after our doc appointment tomorrow. So writing fell down the list .

However, today is my birthday and I'm going to do schoolwork and then I'm going to write my little heart out! And we're going to be on TV tonight! And DH got a present for me all on his own and helped DDs pick something out [$1 each said they did good - but DD6 didn't think I'd want a candle b/c all you can do with it is blow it out ].

I'm at 10968 at the moment.
Carol [off to do schoolwork so she can write guiltlessly later]

Excuse me for my ignorance, but what is DD? Oh wait, I answered myself. Dear Daughter, right? and the number on the end is their age? For a second I thought you had six kids. :rolleyes: at my original conclusion.

Oh, and Happy Birthday.

I'm at word count: 8112. Still behind but I'm still doing enough each day that it is doable.

I wanted to post up last years week two encouragement from Chris Baty. If you did NaNo last year you've read it before but the rest of you who haven't it is worth a read. I'm pretty sure he doesn't send out the same one each year so this year's will be different.:

Dear NaNoWriMo Participant,

Hi there! It's Chris Baty again. And if you accepted the challenge in last week's email, you opened a comfortable word-count lead right out of the gate, increased that lead in the first weekend, and are now sailing far ahead of pace, preparing to plunge into the 20,000s.

You are looking good, feeling great, and your back is slowly accumulating an array of "kick me" signs, placed there by your fellow participants as you sprinted past us. A few signs, though, are a small price to pay for victory. And you *are* going to be victorious. If you are a day or less from 20K, you have everything it takes to win, and win big. Keep it up. Don't slow down. We admire you, even if you made us feel so bad about ourselves that we had to put those signs on you.

But this email is not for those doing exceptionally well. It's for the rest of us---authors with underdeveloped word counts, overdeveloped novel-guilt complexes, and sensational procrastinating abilities. Because we are the ones who are going to begin having serious misgivings about this whole escapade in the next seven days.

Why?

Because it turns out we are too busy to do this.

Or because a crisis has brought some novel-eating turmoil into our lives.

Or because our stories are really, really bad, and we're wondering why we're sacrificing so much of our time to produce a consistently crappy book.

It all adds up to the fabled Week Two Wall---a low-point of energy, enthusiasm, and joie de novel that strikes most NaNoWriMo participants between days 7 and 14. This is when our inner editors, who largely turned a blind eye to our novel flailings in Week One, return to see how things are going. And their assessments are never kind.

The plot is draggy. The characters are boring. The dialogue is pointless, and the prose has all the panache of something dashed off by a distracted kindergartner.

If you're feeling any of these things---or find yourself starting to feel them this week---know that nothing is wrong. In fact, you're likely on track for a great NaNoWriMo. Just lower your head, pick up your pace, and write straight into the maw of your misgivings. If you are thinking about quitting, DO NOT DO IT IN WEEK TWO.

If you have to quit, do it in Week Three.

I'm serious.

Because if you quit in Week Two, you're going to miss an amazing moment---the moment when your novel begins to click. You'll miss a genius plot twist you can't foresee right now that will suddenly elevate your book from a distressing mess to a sort-of-tolerable mess. And then you'll miss the euphoric breakthrough that follows that twist, when your book improves itself all the way to not-half-bad.

Not-half-bad will make you scream, it feels so good.

And you know what? The more you write, the better it gets. So make it a priority to write in torrents this week. Allow your characters to change, and have change forced upon them. Follow your intuition, even if it leads away from where you thought your book was heading. And know that writing a novel is like building a car. Your only job this month is to create a clunky machine that will eventually move people from one place to another. If your beast rolls at all at this point, you're doing great. Pretty prose, snappy dialogue, brilliant metaphors---they're all part of the high-gloss paint job and finishing touches we put on *after* the body is built.

In December, we'll have nothing but time for adding flames to our hoods and airbrushing a majestic eagle or pair of sunrise stallions on the sides of our new rides. For now, the 20,000s are calling, and we can't get distracted by the small stuff if we're going to get there. In the challenging confines of Week Two, our books will truly be built. Characters will evolve. Plots will unfold. It's going to be difficult at times, but once we make it into (and out of) the 20,000s, everything gets much easier. And envious tales of our literary feat-in-the-making will begin circulating amongst our friends, family, and co-workers.

At which point, we'll probably find a note or two on our backs as well.

It'll be awesome.

Keep plowing onward, brave writer! Good things are coming. I'll be back next Wednesday for some thoughts on Week Three.

Dreaming about my airbrushed eagle,

Chris
NaNoWriMo
8400 words and counting

LOL - yes dear/darling daughter, age 6 . Not 6 kids at this point! I do know some people who do birth order - so DD6 would be DD#1 or DD1.

And thanks!
Carol

LOL, carol! My goal for the past few days has been to stay ahead of you and aromassa because I noticed that you were either right behind or even ahead of me. I'm so sorry your kids are sick, and frankly, I don't know how you're doing any writing at all, but my hat is definitely off to you.

I didn't really have any excuse, but Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I fell way short of my daily goal, and now I'm almost 2000 words behind where I need to be to finish by the end of the month. Thank goodness the Thanksgiving break is coming. Maybe I can do some catching up then.

Off to catch Catherine before I go to work today.

Okay - I know it's a bit early but if anyone has a chance to nag Missy about next year's nano... She's got a FABULOUS premise she's talking about outlining for next year .

Carol [who has done a bit of schoolwork but who is going write anyway even though its not done]

WOOO!! I hit 10,000!! *runs around screaming*

Okay so here is the next question:

As we should all be settling right into our plots right about now, this is a big one: What is your book about??

I have a plot... kinda. I'm trying to think of a way to word it though that isn't one long ramble.

My plot is still what I originally posted. But I'd describe what I have so far as:

Caleb Pries and his parents are attacked by a (para?)military unit, the leader of whom insists that Caleb is some kind of elf and poses a homeland security threat. The three Prieses are rescued by one of Caleb's 'imaginary friends,' an incorporeal being who communicates with Caleb telepathically.

After they escape, Caleb hires Lindsey Walker, a female private investigator, to help him find his father, presumably the source of his strange abilities and possibly the reason the military whackos appeared on his doorstep. Having apparently lost his pursuers, Caleb has deliberately chosen not to tell Lindsey that men with guns are after him or that he has a number of ... unusual abilities.

So far, Lindsey has tracked down his mother's roommate, who remembers his father, and Caleb and Lindsey are about to visit her and hear her story. But Caleb's lack of openness will soon result in their both being on the run.

Hmm... my plot... I have one... er kinda...

Vala is really Aeryn but she doesn't remember and John somehow finds her and tries to convince her of this all the while they're trying to figure a way to destroy the Ori.

Oh shoosh, it's been circling my brain for literally over a year

Um... plot...? We're supposed to have a plot? I thought it was 50000 words of unadulterated fluff...

Okay...

Um, Lois and Clark meet, stuff happens. Aunt Louise turned out to be wonderful [love of her life died on Iwo Jima had no idea he did, but she told me the other day ], there's Lucy and Luthor and Jimmy and Perry... There's some flying involved... I'm sure Sman will show up at some point... There's a wedding at some point... and a honeymoon... Daily Planet...

Does that help? *g*
Carol

Don't forget she's a Wombat and he's a Tasmanian Devil!!!

Tasmanian Devils PREY on Wombats!!!

----> wombat?

Um, no. That's a chicken.

And you still HAVE to write that fic next year or I will send the Tanzmanian devil after you... And not in that 'oooo clark is a tanzmanian devil' way...

CoughTOGOMrewriteCough

Carol

I notice JoJo always starts the new "topic" but she rarely leads by example. JoJo?

Jumping on the bandwagon late, but I'm going to give this a try! Wrote 400 words in a half an hour last night and the plot bunnies are hopping all over this one.

This story has been outlined in my head for years and I think the only way it was ever going to get written is to just do it this way.

I'm scared but I think it will be a lot of fun!

Let's go Missy Let's go clap clap clap
Let's go Missy Let's go clap clap clap

Give me an M - (crowd chants) M
Give me an I - (crowd chants) I
Give me an S - (crowd chants) S
Give me an S - (crowd chants) S
Give me an Y - (crowd chants) Y

What's that spell? MISSY.

Okay - don't nag her to outline it for next year. Nag her to WRITE LIKE THE WIND MISSY!

The plot is FABULOUS!

At least I think so .
Carol

Erm... Mine is... um... ah.... erm... A rewrite of Batman Begins? Sorta.

/runs away from the thread before people start throwing things at her.

WHEEEEEE!!!!

1132 and counting fast!! I have a lot of catching up to do before work today!

Mine's another spin on TOGOM...

Favorite line/paragraph so far....

Off to writing again!! This is fun!!!

Edited to add:

I made it! Got my first 2000 words before I have to go to work!! 2000 in 12 hours!

I can't believe I'm doing this! I usually agonize and fret over everything, rewrite and procrastinate!

So... it's go to work, create more plot bunnies and come home and write some more!

*cries*

I'm never going to catch Sheilah now .

Though I am stuck in the hospital until at least tues...

Carol

Oh, Carol, don't cry. You'll have a chance to catch me next weekend. I won't be writing at all on the 17th, 18th, and maybe not the 19th, while I'm in NY visiting my best buddy. that's why I'm pushing so hard now.

I'm distressed to see that you're going to be in the hospital until Tues. Did one of the kids end up with pneumonia?

Missy, I'm glad to see you succumbed to the nano bug, which is what I did: just plunged in and started writing. Can you tell us what your nano number is? It should be a 6-digit number at the end of your web address when you click view profile on the NaNoWriMo website. That way, we can make you one of our writing buddies and you can do the same.

No - no pneumonia. DS only gained 1.5oz this week. At 3.5 months he's back down to 7lb 12oz. Was at 8lb 2oz a couple weeks ago but is down since then. There's one test they can't start until Monday - after he's off the new antinausea med for 3 days. It's a 24 hour test. They've already done a CT scan, EKG, upper GI, and ultrasounds of his kidneys and bladder. So far the only result I've got is the upper GI and that was the doc who did it said he didn't notice anything.

I am going to write for a little bit until it's time to pump and feed the little guy again. I have about 20 minutes .

Thanks.
Carol

ETA: never mind am going to watch NCIS on the other laptop, head hurts too much, am ready for bed but need to feed DS in 30 minutes...

I have passed 15,000 words!!!



ETA: I just had to say that I am now up to 15803 words which beat sheilah, at least tonight, so I can now go to bed happy. (2am here.)

My story is a rewrite of the Pilot where Lois and Clark already know each other. And Lois knows. And I just had to say that writing in first person as Lois is so much fun! Her opinions flavour everything and since she babbles like no-one's business, the words are just spilling out.

I was seriously thinking about rewriting my other stories in the same way, but I'll be leaving Begin the Begin as it is because otherwise my readers would probably kill me. They've been waiting so long for the next part to come as it is.

Darn it, aromassa, you scorched on past me again. I better get some writing done today.

Congrats on your word count. You're closing in on 16,000.

/me hasn't written anything in days

/me hopes to get some done as she's now 6000 words behind...
Carol

I don't know if this will help anyone else, but I'm trying to juggle grading, housecleaning, writing, exercise, and errands today, and I was feeling a little overwhelmed. So I took a page out of FlyLady's book (she helps people organize their housecleaning) and sat down with a timer.

For 15 minutes, I write. When the timer goes off, I post my word count and reset the timer for 15 more minutes, during which I clean house. When the timer goes off, I stop, reset the timer, and go back to my writing for another 15 minutes. When the timer goes off then, I post my word count, reset the timer, and start grading for another 15 minutes, during which time I also help my grand-daughter with her homework.

After completing that whole cycle, I take 15 minutes to rest, look at my email, read the boards, etc. Then I start all over again.

I'm in my second cycle today, and I feel really good about what's getting done. Of course, I don't have little kids around, which makes that kind of schedule hard to stick to, but it does help me organize a huge block of time like my day off.

Happy writing, Carol, and I hope things go well with your little guy. Don't feel like you have to make up the 6000 words all at once. Just adding another 333 words a day to your total will let you catch up easily before the end of the month.

Okay!!

Made my goal for this morning! In this very noisy household, I've reached 3007 words in 36 hours.

I have to go to work soon, but hope to write later tonight. But so far I've been meeting my goals and the plot bunnies continue to mulitply!

If only I'd started a week ago!!

SIGH!!

erm... I was too unhappy with the beginning of the story, so I've just started writing it again. I put 3000 words into a brand new file and should be able to start doing lots cut and paste very soon. I hope to have at least the 8000 back by the time I got to bed. And tomorrow is another day.

YAY! Got some writing done! Up to 12034! May get some more done tonight and over the next couple days...
Carol

Aw, darn!! I thought I had someone race with, but you're recycling fic!!

Missy (who pets her muse and promises her a week long vacation in the Bahamas if she cooperates for the whole three weeks)

Okay, I'm a late start.

But it was my sister's idea! Not mine! :p

She thinks I'll get my story going if I have the right kind of motivation...last minute panic!!!


But this is good! Challenges are good for you
My no. is: 257592
Lexy

Current word count: 14,459

I'm dead in the water today so far. I wrote a little bit and then have been staring at it the rest of the day.

In the meantime, I'm going to read a book and relax and not worry so much about it.

I got a late start. It wasn't that I didn't start on November 1; I did, but without the clear-cut outline that I planned to have. (I got back from the second funeral on Oct. 31 and didn't have the time.) Unfortunately, that meant that I didn't notice until about four days ago (give or take a little bit since time is kind of woozy these days) that I didn't have a good enough overarching conflict to make the story interesting. I'm still going to write that story someday, but not until I've given it a whole more thought.

Anywho, back to my point--and I did have a point, in case you were wondering. I wrote 6000 words on my story and then gave up and started over on a different story. My 5-yr-old came up with a great idea, so I'm writing that story instead.

I've got just over 9,000 words written, with many hours left of my day-of-rest. But the good news is that this story is actually getting written instead of having me try to pull each word out of thin air. The other good news is that instead of writing bad fanfic very slowly, I'm writing good fanfic at a moderately fast pace.

I'm just hoping to get up to 12,500 words by the end of the day.

Elisabeth
who has been writing like the wind, but is now too tired and is simply breaking wind

I didn't read the first three pages of this topic (I've been avoiding the boards so that I can actually get my writing done), so I didn't realize I was supposed to fill out details.

NaNo Name: Elisabeth_queen_of_d8aland
Years Doing NaNo: newbie
This Year's Genre: L&C fanfic
This Year's Idea: Thank you to my lovely second child for the idea. It's a cross between Vatman and Madame Ex, kind of an angsty little bugger
Novel Title: no idea, but I picked a wordy one for a working title to get my wordcount up
Word Count Goal: 50,000 (Plus I'm typing up a novel with each of my homeschooling kids)

Also, many thanks for explaining DD and DS. I'd always thought it was initials and wondered why everyone on the homeschooling board was married to someone with the initials DH.

Elisabeth
who will type in a first line at some other time, but who must relinquish hubby's laptop to him at some point before he changes colors (he looks good in blue, but when his face is purple it doesn't bode well for my future)

Oh, that is a story that I want ot read. Can you imagine intentionally creating a dup of Superman? I had just one thought that is printable at reading that. "Go Jimmy!"

James

Trust me, James - it's worth reading!!!!! Missy is doing a fabulous job!

Carol [who has seen lots of what is already written of it]

I'd say "Lucky dog!", but then again I remember all of the other stuff you've been going through IRL. You've been in our prayers.

I finally have transferred my stuff to a computer that can easily access the internet, so I had better post my first line while I still can:

BTW, I'm up to 13,500 words. Woo hoo! I'm so proud of myself. I wrote 8,000 words today. Of course, in order to do that I had to stay home from church today with my sick kids (strep throat).

Elisabeth

Word count at the beginning of the day (and for the past five days...): 12346

Word count just now: 17613 and still going

*plops onto the ground, panting like a fish out of water*

Dear god, when the bug bites, it bites you hard!

Go little muse, GO!

Wow! You guys have been running up some impressive word totals for a single day. I probably wouldn't feel so stressed this week if I thought there was any chance that I could write like that during my Thanksgiving break. But I know myself pretty well. I've never in my life had bursts of creativity like that. In fact, I was really excited about turning out daily word counts in excess of 2000 words. But you guys ... wow.

Currently at 12000-some words. Considering I trashed my first version and started writing all over again on Friday night, I think I'm doing pretty damn good.

Yes, I did some cut/paste from the original I'd started on November 1st - probably about 4000 words in all - but I don't see how that counts as "recycled fic"!

It's not. It's all been written in November. Is your excerpt from the new story, because I really like it.

Elisabeth
who wishes she could cut/paste from the original story started on November 1, but their set in two vastly different L&C elseworlds

Yep, that's from the new story. And thanks, I'm glad you think it's interesting.

Okay guys, I put up a short excerpt on my author's page as well. I finally have one that I was happy enough with to post up. ^_^

I'm at 15,233. ^_^

I'm hoping to get more in tonight though.

/me cries

I did get some writing done this weekend but I'm still 5000 words behind some of you .

Hoping to get more done but we'll see...
C

Whoo-hoo!!! I finally hit and surpassed my daily word goal!!! (ok, so I am about 10,500 words behind for the month, but I gained ground today!!!))

I am posting excerpts, but Elisabeth liked this part.

Please note:cub and mother are a hybrid grizzly bear and procupine. Lon is psionically gifted.

Excerpt
Jon accidentally opened a can of food. The smell of Terran tuna permeated the cave.

“JON!”

“IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!”

“Jon, quick, give me that can! Lon, get up here.”

A strange dancing shuffle took place. Lon, who had been in the back of the cave, squeezed past Jon, his backpack and Lon’s partially packed backpack. He tripped as he had almost cleared the mess. The elder camper caught Lon who had started to catch himself using his left hand, but instead pushed mentally with the hand instead, allowing Mr. Martin to slow his decent.

Pulling Lon next to him, he asked him question, “Feeling up to seeing how far you can repel this can of food from us? We need to get it out of here and fast.”

Lon nodded and took the can in his hands. It weighed next to nothing so it didn’t cause him any discomfort. Placing his hands with the heels of the palms touching and resting the offending can between them, Lon focused on sending the can as far away as possible. In one mighty burst of mental energy, the can sailed through the opening of the cave and landed about half a jepirot away.

~*~

The cub stopped crying when he smelled something wonderful. Underwater prey! His favorite! He started to head toward the source when the smell came to him. He quickly ran to the prey smell.

It looked odd. It didn’t look like underwater prey, but it smelled like underwater prey. The thing that it was in had an odd hard dirt smell. Hard dirt usually hurt the teeth when you chewed it. But sometimes it was worth it to get what was inside.

The cub picked up the can in it mouth and started to chew it. Oh, it was good underwater prey!

The cub made happy sounds.

This seemed to confuse the mother, but she didn’t slow done her pace. Quills were flying off of her left and right, but she was going to get her cub!

Then she too noticed the underwater prey smell. And she was hungry. She bellowed that she wanted her share.

~*~

The animal cries outside the cave were getting closer.

“Quick, give me some of the dryer sticks and that dried out dung. I’m going to try and build a fire in the mouth of the cave.”

The boys scrambled to obey. Jon in his enthusiasm, accidentally wacked Lon’s left arm. “Ow!”

“Sorry, Lon.”

“Come on, boys! We may not have that much time!”

~*~

The cub bellowed back that it was all gone. It would try and get more.

~*~


Mr. Martin started building the fire. He hadn’t looked up in a long time. He was just getting ready to light it when Lon stammered, “M-mr. M-Martin?”

“Sort of busy here, Lon.”

“Dad? We have company.”

Mr. Martin looked up into the face of a Mertzel cub. It had grin. It was not a very happy grin.

~*~

YAY! I did get some done tonight!!

I'm up to 15009 which is slightly misleading as I used quite a bit of dialog straight from the show and copied the descriptions as well though I will rework those later. I already did some but I wanted to have them handy without having to go back to the script each time.

Still... I feel accomplished. That's almost 2000 words all together and I think about 8-900 were original.

Of course, I'm still over 3000 words behind some of you...

Carol

Okay, I'm up to 4500 words and plan on catching up a lot tomorrow and Thursday. It's Friday for me so I'll have two whole days off to write.

Plot bunnies continue to multiply, I've updated my profile on the NaNo site, including an excerpt.

My Nano number is :256860.

See what you think!

Missy

Just a note guys, you can now search authors again by name.

Also, you can now have the sight do a word count for you by uploading the document though your profile. ^_^

I'm up to 16,500 (only about 7000 words behind my goal for the day). That's not bad considering how late in the game that I started over. The really good news is that I still like my story. (Although my 7-yr-old was grumbling yesterday that short stories are just fine and she doesn't know where to send her story anyway. Of course, after she killed some pirates today, she's feeling much better.)

Hang in there, Carol. You can do it!

BTW Missy, Nano won't let me add you as a buddy, although your excerpt scores pretty high in my book.

Elisabeth

A big round of cheers to all those still plugging away.

I'm still wondering why Woody isn't writing with us, although I think you make a great cheerleader.

Elisabeth
PS My 5-yr-old thought your avatar was your real picture. She wondered why you wore a mask. "Is he playing or did he hurt his face?"

Aww, how cute. I guess FinLi and I must be identical twins then.

As for why I'm not writing, I struggle to write 5000 words with any time limit, much less 50000 in a month.

My muse is a complete couch potato.

NaNoing Day!!

Already this morning, I've written almost 1000 words to up my total to just over 5500 words and still going strong!

Goal for today - 10,000 words

It may be crapters, but Carol, my ever nagging cheerleader says edit later!

Onward and word count upward!!

ETA - new total and still counting 6700 - total so far today - 2200 words.

8000 words!! I've practically doubled my total word count for the fic today!

YAY! I'm really pleased at the way this is going!

How's everyone else doing?

Roll call!!!!

Okay, Missy, you asked for it.

22,609 words as of last night.

In my part of the world, today is the 15th, which means that I should have 25,000 words written by the end of the day.

So, only 2391 words to go...

At least it's only twenty to eleven in the morning ... so where is that *fingers crossed* icon?

Oh, and I just updated my excerpt on nano's website if anyone is interested: My Nano Page .

Aromassa!

You go girl!! I'm in awe of your productivity!

I wish I had started on time, but I'm feeling pretty good so far.

Your excerpt was awesome! Can't wait to see what else you have brewing!

I envy anyone without a day job, headaches from hell and a MC who is so damned stubborn, getting him to do anything is a real chore. *sighs*

Am currently at 16600-some words. And starting to feel defeat catching up with me. I've got plans on Friday night, then again on Sunday and the weekend after that. There's no way I'll catch up.

I am *so* screwed.

I guess starting over a second time was a really AWFUL idea.

(ETA: oooh! my next post will be #2000 - how cool!)

You certainly could use a pep talk. The headache is a killer, but the day job is your friend. It helps you to organize your time better. Try going on a date with that Main Character tonight; you might just need to rekindle the romance between you two.

Elisabeth
PS You're still a long way away from defeat. Don't give up, yet. You can do it! (If for no other reason than the fact that Woody has devoted his entire November to cheering you on.)

Lara, I was feeling the same way yesterday. I've been out of town for the past several days during my normal writing times, and I'm trying to get ready for a 5 day trip across the country to see my best friend, so I won't get ANY writing done while I'm visiting her. I know I'm about 4500 words ahead of you, but I also know I write s-l-o-w-l-y, so it's terribly hard to catch up if I get behind. And I'm about 2200 words behind the regular NaNo schedule right now.

BUT--I realized that I have written 21,121 words on a book that I couldn't write even one word on during my summer break. The 50,000 word NaNo deadline is an artificial deadline, especially because this book is probably going to be 65-85,000 words, so if I only make 45,000 words, I haven't lost anything. In fact, I've won! I will have most of the rough draft finished on a book I've been trying to write for almost two years.

Okay, so maybe I won't win NaNo. But the reason I never tried before was that I knew November was a terrible month job-wise for me to take on that kind of writing task. And I'm okay with that. I'm still shooting for the 50,000 mark, and if I make it, you may be able to hear the screams all the way across the country. But the purpose of this "contest" isn't actually to write a book in one month. It's to write the book. And that's what I'll do.

Hey guys, I too am at a standstill. I open my novel and stare at it.

Between abscessed tooths, root canals, crappy job situations, and the massive amount of overtime I'm probably going to be forced to do today... I think that I'm pretty screwed on getting caught up. Oh and of course as I mentioned... I've gotten writers block.

I'm going to keep pushing and see what I can do but man, I just don't know. Real life isn't playing nice.

(I do feel better seeing that Chris Baty, who has won every year, is only at about 17,800 words)

Yahoo, aromassa!! Has everyone seen her total for halfway through the month? Way to go!!!

Let's go, JoJo, let's go
Let's go, Lara, let's go
Let's go, Sheila, let's go.

And Lara, how do I *know* you can do it? Three words. Reversal of Fortune.

As for the MC, pretend he's Clark in Contact, and have at him. Give him a good talking to. And if you do it through one of the other characters, it'll add to your word total.

Oh, how I wish he would want to go out with me. *giggles* I would SO date that guy.

Yay Sheilah! That's wonderful.

We should all get together and give our stories a good few kicks in the behind. LOL! I think some of our MCs deserve it!

You should see her progress bar on LJ - she's over 100% on some of those counters. Way to go, girl!!

Awwww!!! Thanks Woody!

I sometimes wish he were Clark. Clark is nice, he listens to me. LOL! My MC is Bruce Wayne and he hates people. I've had him beaten up a few times already. In fact, last I heard, he had a concussion. Serves him right! *lol* Oooh! I know, I'll send Clark over to talk to him. *giggles*

oooh! omg! I finally got my Kerth back. YAY!!!!

Somehow I doubt I'm going to make it either. DS has been in the hospital since last Friday.

I also feel like crap. Went to Urgent Care last night - sinus viral thing. Can't cure it but they did give me some stuff to feel better but not a decongestant b/c I'm nursing. Sort of. All I really want to do is sleep but I can't because...

I got a nasty gram from one of my bosses yesterday about being behind on my grading. So I'm working on that instead of sleeping like I need to or writing like I want to.

*sigh*
Carol

awww! *hugs Carol* I'm sorry you're having such a tough time. Hope you and your son get well real soon.

And I'm way behind everyone!! But I'm not giving up!

Just 3000 words a day! Let's go muses!!


And Lara, your Reversal Of Fortune was great! If I can turn out something even half as good, I'll be really happy!

Back to writing!

10500 words!!

And writing!!

GAH! I think I'm having fun!

Just an off-topic suggestion, but since we're at the halfway point what if we all had a party where we backed our stories up. I e-mailed my story to myself this morning, just in case. I know I couldn't do it a second time.

I got stuck last night, so I made James read my story last night and tonight while I made suggestions in the margins of his story. Of course, he didn't ask me to betaread, but I'm a rather opinionated woman. (He knew that before he married me.)

Elisabeth
who wrote 700 or so words today, so I'm not totally at a standstill

Would posting the story every day on lj count as backing up?

I am now at 27,093 words, but I have only managed to do that because:

1) I took the month off work

2) I still live with my parents and they let me stay in my room writing all day and night as long as I come out for meals and wash the dishes

3) I have no significant other and all my friends are online anyway

So I just have to applaud those of you who have managed to do so many words in a day while having to worry about real life at the same time.

Bravo!

As of today, I'm only 4 days behind on grading so I took a little break...

Today's count: 3060
Total: 18070

Just found out [literally, while typing this]: we're heading home for the weekend. Back Tuesday for surgery. Will be here for 48-72 hours after that most likely.

*sigh*

My head hurts...
C

My hat goes off to Aromassa and Brucie, who have both passed the halfway point.

There's at least ten of us who are contenders. (I'm putting on Woody's cheerleading uniform.) Let's go, team!

Elisabeth

Elizabeth, I don't know if it would fit you. I'm veerry tall. Maybe Martha should make you one of your own. (We hear Martha's sigh, "Sheesh, am I now the seamstress for the entire L&C fandom?).

Hurray! LaraMoon is past the halfway point!

Elisabeth
who is not giving back the cheerleader uniform. Nanowrimo has stretched me enough that it should fit

Haha, fooled you. You think you've got the real cheerleader outfit, but that's just a knockoff. I'm wearing the real thing under my clothes. *spinchanges* See! Wait, gotta go. *spinchanges back* See you later.

I got so stuck today that I thought my story was done for. Then, when Lois was at her worst point, when things couldn't get any worse, who should walk into the courthouse but Ellen Lane. There may just be hope for the story, even if Lois is having a rotten evening.

Elisabeth
who really didn't have anything to say, but since this mixed-up forum was having me double-post hours apart, I decided to use this as an opportunity

I thought for sure that my brain had sputtered to a dead halt. For the past several days I haven't been able to write more than a couple hundred words at a time.

And then, today, as I sat down and thought deviously, my fingers started to move again! I managed to crank out 4,025 words today to give me a grand total of 32,647. (Thank you Questionable Things Generals Do and the Righteous Anger it Brings Out in Characters!)

And I think I'm actually going to be starting more on the subplot here pretty soon! Woot!

*falls into bed, realizing it's just after midnight*

Congratulations to anyone who is still writing at this point and still takes the time to actually read this thread.

I am at 35,788 at the moment but I am getting so close to the end of my story that I very much fear that I'll run out of words before the 50,000 is up.

haven't been keeping up with this thread as much as I could/should have. /ducks

Elisabeth, you deserve a star for cheering us on like this -- and writing, too, cause your story is coming along nicely, it seems, huh?

I have - as usual - developed a love/hate relationship with my story, but thanks to someone's constant encouragement, I'm again in the "omg, I love it!" phase and so things are looking up. In fact, I plan on being at 30k this evening. If I have to stay up all night, I'm going to hit the damned 30k. I am NOT going to bed without it.

Congrats to everyone who's still writing - especially to those who have things more important in life than to worry about adding words in a text file. *hugs*

I am so jealous of all of you who are so far along! I'm pretty proud of my 18050 words given everything else that is going on . I am currently all caught up on grading but new assignments were turned in last night that I have a week to do. I'm going to try to do them today so I don't have them hanging over my head at the hospital. DS's surgery is first thing in the morning [miscommunication between the pediatrician and surgeon - meeting with the surgeon is today, surgery is tomorrow, probably 6am!]. If I can get all of that done, then I can write to my heart's content at the hospital [when not caring for DS of course - another reason I don't want schoolwork hanging over me - I have no idea how much actual time he'll need].

Congrats to all of you who are doing so well!
C

Congratulations to all those above 30k and to those almost there And Carol, I have no idea how you managed to write 18k with everything that's going on in your life. A big round of for Carol.

Thanks woody .

I have to feed DS at 2am tomorrow morning - last thing he can have before 8am surgery [am grateful it's that late!]. My goal is to have assignments graded by then so that I won't have them hanging over me all weekend and when I do have down time I can do something fun - like figure out how Luthor and Nigel and the evil stuff they're doing is going to figure in to the eventual creation of the Sman... And exactly how long Lois is able to keep her hands off a certain soon-to-be-superhero and how long Clark, under... not quite normal circumstances is willing to be patient [/me tries desperately not to give too much away ;-)].

Okay - off to gulp down a hot pocket before hitting those essays...
Carol

*hugs* Carol - you really have all my admiration. ...and I'm really anxious to read that story of yours, now!

I hope everything goes OK. You guys will definitely be in my thoughts.

I keep hoping that a strong wind will blow that will push me past that 30K mark. (Besides, I'm getting pretty tired of chasing LaraMoon , not that the view is bad.)

Elisabeth
who could have been a contende'

Made 35,106!

"Who invited you?!" she asked :rolleyes:

"You did!!" I answered with a smile...

She walked away grumbling to herself.

If anyone is interested, my nano number is : 257592

And my live journal is here: Lexy\'s Livejournal , which I update daily, when I can


Lexy

Lexy, I've tried to add you as a buddy since the first day you posted in this thread, but the website always kicks me back to the homepage instead of asking if I'm sure I want to add you to my buddy list. Thanks for posting your word count and member number so I can see how you're doing.

Now that I'm finally home, I've got to knuckle down and write 2500 words a day if I'm going to finish. We'll see.

I unfortunately had to bow out this year. I made it to a little over 18k which is much better than last years total for me.

I've had a lot of problems that hit this month. Abscessed teeth, root canals, and work is so terrible I have almost walked out and quit on the spot 2-3 times.

With all this going on not only could I not get into my story enough to write I just haven't had time.

I think next year I will do another original story but I will prepare much better for it than I did this year. This year I went into the story with no plot and no characters. Next year I think I at least need to have a general idea of what I want.

Until then, good luck to everyone. ^_^

@Sheila - Yay! *cheers* You're back! I have no doubt that you will make it with flying colours!

@Jojo - poor you! *huggles*
Good luck for next time!

19029

Am surreptitiously typing while sis is rocking C. Will type less surreptitiously once she's gone .

Carol

Glad to see you're finding some time for yourself, Carol. Enjoy those moments of peace.

Sheila, you have added her as a buddy. There is a glitch in the nanowrimo software that only allows you to see the first eleven buddies in order of their user number. If you click on the "My Nanowrimo" tab and then select the "Writing buddies" tab it will show you all of your buddies (but no details, I'm sorry to say). If there are some people who said they wanted to wrimo, but didn't do it you can delete them here. If not...

Jojo, it's really sad that you're dropping out since you were the cheerleader that got so many of us in. I do hope you finish, even if it is in December. I am reminded of an original fiction forum I once knew...

By the way, I ditched the really long novel excerpt and replaced it with a short, fun one.


Elisabeth
33029!

Thanks, Elisabeth. I deleted some people who either never got started or only wrote a bit before quitting--or in jojo's case, announced that they were quitting. And you're right. Now I can see all of them.

/me grabs everyone and twirls them around the thread.

TWENTY THOUSAND!!!

Was at 184xx when I started today. Most of that has been in the last hour or so.

Will probably write a little bit more tonight and then tomorrow - that's all I have on my agenda - take care of C, pack up stuff to go home at some point and write all day - shouldn't have too many visitors tomorrow - sis was here about 9 hours today...

Carol

ETA: 21011 and I'm done for the night.

Hopefully, I can write like the wind tomorrow .

Oooh! Carol, way to go!!

And Elisabeth, I see you're ahead of me now - I hope the view's better from that side. *lol*

Keep it up, everyone! We can do this!

I've been watching the little troops while the rest of the family does a bunch of work at the bank to manage the estate. Still, since everybody's playing so nicely you would think I would have more than 700 words written.

LaraMoon, maybe my down day will help you to catch up again. It's not so much your view that I'm worried about, but the odor--since I've given up bathing in November to provide more time for writing.

On the over-30's nano-forum they were messing around with autosummaries. If you are using Microsoft Word, you click on Tools, Autosummary, select 10 or 20 sentences in a new document. This is how Word summarizes my story:

Makes you want to run out and read it, doesn't it?

My favorites from the board were: and this one: (The main character's name is Ack, but it is still too funny.)

Elisabeth
33738 and still writing--in between cruising the forums

OMG! That is totally hilarious!!!

The summary for one of my stories looked like this (and I'm laughing like mad now cause this could totally be a story all in itself!)

My NaNo story yielded results that are totally uninteresting, including a line about Nepal, one about stolen fish and one about picking locks. *shrugs*.

Just testing my word counter here.

Wish I had known about these earlier.

James

[img]http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive/nanowrimo/badge.php?uid=200538&offset=-6[/img]

The above can be found at NaNoWriMo Widgets independent

Okay, I had to try that autosummary, too:

Lindsey nodded.
Lindsey sighed.
Caleb.
Caleb grinned.
Lindsey nodded.
Lindsey shrugged.
"Thanks, Lindsey."
Caleb grinned.
"Lindsey?"
Caleb nodded.

Hmmm... if Word thinks that summarizes the main points of my story, does that mean I'm overusing those particular beats? Worth thinking about.

Got it!

In 100 words or less:
Lois sighed. Clark Kent." "I'm Lois." Clark laughed. "Lois?"

Clark stopped. "Oh, Lois." "Lois?"

Lois sighed. Lois sighed. Lois sighed. "Clark..." Lois sighed. Lois gasped. Lois stood. Lois nodded. "Thanks, Clark. "Clark? "Lois?" Clark nodded. "Clark?" "Morning, Clark."

Clark laughed. "Whatever, Clark. Lois nodded. "Lois." "Clark! Clark! "Um, Lois. "No, Lois. "Clark?" Clark shrugged. Clark shrugged. Lois nodded. Clark teased.

Lois nodded. Lois nodded.
Clark groaned. Clark laughed. Clark grinned. Lois nodded. "Thanks, Clark."

Lois sighed. Lois sighed. Clark laughed. Lois laughed. "Clark?"

"Clark." Clark sighed. Clark sighed. Clark sighed. Clark nodded. Lois nodded. "Thanks, Clark."

*****

"Lois? "Lois, darlin'.

hmmm...this is cool! And funny!


___________________________________

Joseph blinked.
"Richard?" "Richard?"
Joseph flinched.
Richard!
Joseph bellowed.
Joseph cursed. Joseph guessed.
Joseph blinked.
“Joseph?”


Lexy

I tried that autosummary for 10 sentences:

“Clark!”
“Uh, Lois,” Clark interrupted.
“Stop it, Clark!”
“Clark!”
“Clark!”
Especially Clark’s.
Clark asked.
Clark asked.
“Hi, Clark!”
Good idea, Clark.

It's slow going today, but it's going at least. No part of the story is striking my fancy so I've got them playing Scrabble and Lois is trying to get away with chumpy.

Posting the word count may make me do more...

Have to feed C in just a minute, but for now:

21677

Today I *need* to make it to 22000, but I'd really like to make it to at least 23000 [okay 24000 is more necessary - 3600 or so a day if I'm going to make the end of the month...]. Heck, I'd prefer 24000 if there's any way possible...
Carol

I'm glad so many of you are having fun with this still. I may have had to bow out this year before the end but I am proud of my word count. I hung in there for quite a while. ^_^

I'll be cheering the rest of you on to reach 50,000. keep going guys you are all so close!

Go Carol, don't give up. You rock, girl!!


And, hum... those summary things are way more amusing than they have any right to.

For some reason if I run that on my laptop (as opposed to the computer at work...) I get something different for my story. mmm... Makes the story sound all mysterious.

Slow going tonight... 22007

Almost time to feed C. Doubt I'll write any more afterwards. Am very tired. May write more tomorrow...

Will have to see. If I do write more tonight, I'll post an updated number later...

Carol

41623

And that autosummary feature is so addictive and makes my story sound like it belongs in nfic, which it doesn't. At least I don't think it does.

Current auto summary [22540 words]:

"Lois?"

"Lois?"

"Clark..." "Clark? "Clark?" "Clark! Clark! "Clark?" "Clark?"

"Clark."


Still writing. Not holding out much hope that I'll actually finish in the next 6 days but...

Updated word count: 23002
Carol

Random question:
Does an introduction/author's note count towards your word count? Or no? I'm guessing no, but... have to ask ;-) [23108]

28215

Yesterday was a pretty good writing day for me, but today was terrible. I've pretty well resigned myself to not reaching the goal by next Friday, but I still want to make it as far as I can.

My worst problem is that I've reached the point where I have a couple of unresolved issues. Not knowing the answers to these were what kept me from starting this book last summer, and despite nearly 30,000 words, I still don't know the answers. I think instead of just giving up, I'll do my brainstorming as part of the novel itself. Otherwise, I'll have to back off for several days while I figure out where to go next.

Oh, just great!!

I have a trogan virus that is threatening to close down my whole computer and wipe everything out!

I was already one week late and then there was Thanksgiving week with everyone home.

BUT!!!! I'm not giving up to writing this thing in one month's time. Just have to coordinate the month with virus's, kids and RL!

If I get this right, my ten sentence summary:

"Clark!"

"Which one?"

"No, I'm me!"

"No you're not!"

"Yes, I am!"

"Prove it!"

"I can."

"When pigs fly."

"Just ask Lois."

ETA - in my quick reading of this thread because I was thinking it was going to close down or flash more ads, I missread the auto summury.

I don't have enough words to qualif yet, but that was what popped in my head.

Retraction if necessary.

GAH!! I hate viruses!!

Where's Doc Klein when I need him!!

Yes, it does.

From the official post :

SWEET!!!!

/me guesses she can squeeze another 1000 out of that easy *g*.
Carol

516 word Author's note [so far ] brings total count to 23624. Two doc appointments this week sure won't help any...

Removed all contractions [well, mostly - can't to cannot doesn't help any] and am now at 24420

I've been updating my last post, but this deserves it's own:

25000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*twirls everyone around the thread*

Thanks to Kaylle for helping me realize there are 25000 words of story left to write [heck, the GGGOH rewrite part of it alone is probably worth 10K] and for helping me figure out how all the right people survive the confrontation near the pond.
Carol [who is actually at 25046]

congrats to laramoon ... over 40,000!

10:04 pm Central time: 26171

Still going...
Carol

heee! yeah, I just went over 40k. I'd jump for joy, but I'm just too tired right now.

Way to go Carol on going over 25 - that's wonderful! Keep it up!

Everyone else, too. Let's go gang, we can do this!

James rubs his hands together and laughs ily.

I have not yet given up the fight!!!!

11:39pm Central time: 27321

That is 2797 actual words [although I may have written a sentence or two in another part of the fic but I don't remember]. I wrote the end. It just came to me . Now to finish filling in the middle...

That 2797 doesn't include uncontracting contractions or the author's note...
Carol [who may write some more]

1:07 am: 28032

So, um... I just uncontracted all the contractions and - poof! just like magic, I have 2000 more words. haha! I should so have done this before.

Carol, you are so making my Christmas card list this year! *giggles*

*does a little 42000-words happy dance*

It was on one of the emails I got - DO NOT USE CONTRACTIONS! So I undid all of them. The sentences sound so weird and stilted. /me goes to find one. Like something from a Dick and Jane book.

"I am Lois Lane."

"I am Clark Kent."

"I do not know, Clark. I just do not know."

The fun part is going to be recontracting them *rolleyes*.
Carol

heh. It made me realize that I'd been using things in a way that's not right like "Why'd you think I did?" *rolls eyes at self* -- and some sentences actually sound better without the contractions. Not all of 'em, but several. Which is a great thing, really.

....and, that gave me a real big high, so I started writing on my lunch hour and got a full scene done that's really good. Stupidly forgot to take a word count before I removed the USB key from the slot, though... I'll get it later.

I've left all of my contractions in. I want to be able to post this thing when I'm done, so I'm trying to do it correctly the first time. If I have to, I'll just paste my first (unrelated) story back in as a far-out dream sequence and get an instant 6096 words.

BTW, in the elementary section of the boards they encourage the authors to write an "about the author" section at the end. It makes for a better book when the teacher prints it out at the end of the project.

If their words count, I bet it could count for us, too.


Elisabeth

/me grabs everyone and twirls them around the thread

Over 30000!!!!

My Word file says 30005 but the NaNo site says 30094. Think I'll go with their's... .

Off to bed...
Carol

11 days of silence and my muse pops up and says... "Hey let's write!"

23,486

I wrote 6,093 words today and if I write 6628 words per day I can make it.

I don't think I will. I foresee me getting lazy. But hey you never know. ^_^

I have no idea where that came from. I could have continued on tonight but I'm sleeping and me and the muse are tired. Eh, I'm doing it for fun now and not to finish but we will see where it goes. I always did wait till the last minute to write term papers in college and did my best work under pressure. Maybe this will be the same.

I won't go back and fix the contractions - though I've had a really huge guilt trip over that. I'm going to try and make up the 2300+ words before Friday night, though.

Congrats to everyone who's getting close to the finish line! And YAY Jojo for starting to write again. Very cool!

Given my month, I feel no guilt whatsoever about uncontracting everything and writing without them now. Would I love to hit 52000 words to take that into account? Sure, but I'm also realistic. It's unlikely I'm going to crank out 5000 words a day this week so I'll take what I can get. I also do not feel guilty at all [okay maybe just a bit] for resetting my time zone further west because I don't usually get time to get into a groove until 1130-1/130. Is it technically cheating? Yes, but I'm okay with it at the moment given this month. If this had been a normal month then I would either a. feel really bad about it instead of just a little or b. [more likely] not do it at all. Since I spent nearly half the month in the hospital with a 3 month old, I don't feel much guilt about it at all.
Carol

I'm sorry, but I neeed my contractions! I can't write without them, it's just ... wrong!



But hey, to each his own.

Lexy

Oh it is driving me crazy! It truly is, but it is about quantity not quality is what all the emails I keep getting keep telling me . Editing is for December!

Carol [32162 according to the official counter, 32066 according to my Word count]

The first one in D8aland finished their story today. Unfortunately it was the five-year-old. The seven-year-old will probably finish tomorrow. The 40+-year-old has said he probably won't finish. And then, there's me.

I have so much calling for my attention this week. I need to do lesson plans. I need to read something that I promised would already be read today. I'm going to be out Thursday evening. And I probably should supervise my children. But I'm so darn close...

I also want to shout a word of encouragement to Sheila, James, Carol and Jojo who have had steady progress made to their word counts, usually each day, even though they haven't topped 40K.


Elisabeth
who made 2000 words today

Thanks for the endcouragement, Elisabeth. I got sick 10 days ago, and the worst part of it is that I feel totally exhausted. I got home from work at 8:30 last night and planned to write. Instead, I went to bed and slept until 7 this morning. Then I took an hour-and-a-half nap this afternoon instead of grading. That's 12 hours of sleep out of the last 24, and since I'm also back at work, I'm not getting much else done.

However, I'm still writing, and I plan to have the rough draft done before the end of the year.

29076 and counting.

So much for spending all day today [and likely tomorrow] writing...

DH woke me up at 430ish in incredible pain. Spent several hours at the ER then another 3 at the urologist with a kidney stone.

*sigh*

Official count: 32455

May get some done at church tonight. 75min video in the class we teach - I've seen it about 5 times...
Carol

*hugs to everybody!*



We can do this!



Pump up the energy!



Lexy

CarolM,

Sorry you are having such a crappy time of it.

I am going to finish this thing and I look forward to reading yours as well!

James






[img]http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive/nanowrimo/badge.php?uid=200538&offset=-6[/img]

Sorry to hear about your rough time, Sheila. The exhaustion can sometimes be just as tough as the illness.

And sorry to hear about your husband, Carol. The two of you have had such a rough couple of months. And stones are painful, too. I'll keep you all in our prayers.

We had our second one cross the finish line in D8aland today. My 7-yr-old finished up. Both of the girls are happy to be done and proud to have written a few words more than they had originally pledged. I thought my 7-yr-old was going to quit at the end of last week, but she made it with a top-notch story.

I have an extremely busy day tomorrow, so I may not get any words in. We'll see how things work out. Either way, I'm proud of what I've accomplished so far.

Elisabeth

i wrote about 300 words last night. that's it for yesterday. and a bunch of what i wrote may get mass deleted [do you guys really want to hear lois and clark reading trivial pursuit questions?]. They are going to play 'ungame' once DH brings it home - that should spark good conversation rather than just reading TP questions [though it worked well when they were playing with perry and alice and jimmy and lucy]. i have 17xxx words to write and probably 10 hours to do it in... remotely possible but unlikely when you consider everything else i'll have to do in those hours. DH normally is gone all day thurs but will be home for about 6.5 hours he normally wouldn't betoday since he's only teaching and not working too.

i may end up writing a bunch of crap and mass deleting later. we'll see. i really want to finish this - i'd rather it be decent and finished, but i'll settle for finished at the moment.

december is for editing right?!?!

Carol 32703

[edit: beat yesterday's word total already with 408 at the moment for a total of 33149]

Edit, 1144AM Central: 10 sentence summary is
"Clark..." "Clark? "Clark?" "Clark! Clark! "Clark?" Clark?"

"Clark?"

"Clark." "Clark!

1667 words today, official word count: 34519

Okay - this warranted it's own post.

GO AROMASSA!!!!!!

Am so proud of you for finishing! Early even!

YAY!

Carol [who runs back to her fic file]

Edit, 3pm Central: 5086 official words today, 37541 total. 3686 more words today and I will be half done from where I was this morning, with 8773 words to do tomorrow. Is it possible? Maybe. Likely? Who knows...

I'm frustrated. The nanorobots have rejected 96 of my words. That's a whole heck of a lot.

At least, I still have time left.

Elisabeth

(((((((Elisabeth)))))))

I cannot catch a freaking break.

DH left to teach about 2.5 hours ago and I've sat down for about 20m combined. I went downstairs right after he left and the pipe that comes out of the wall to the toilet is leaking like a sieve. Two of my neighbors are fixing it for me. One [we're friends with] came down and looked at it and went to see if the other guy [construction] was home but he wasn't. The construction guy came by and the other guy came back and now our friend is going to buy the piece while the construction guy goes to get his stuff to solder it back together *sigh*. And while I'm not real helpful, sitting up here typing away while they work...

They both just made our Christmas list, but the word count isn't moving.

Elisabeth - sorry about your words . You still have 27.5 hours to stick 100 words in! If all else fails - UNCONTRACT!!!
Carol

Go Elizabeth! You can make it! Thanks to laramoon for her support, and I'm cheering for you!

Lexy

I see that LaraMoon and Catherine Bruce are getting awfully close. James, Sheila and Carol are still making steady word count increases, as well. I'm so glad we're doing this together.

Elisabeth
who didn't think she would get any time in at all today & was really happy with 2 45 minute spurts

Yay, Elisabeth, Lexy, and aromassa!! All winners at least a day early!!!

And I know this isn't even close, but I finally passed 30,000, so I'm feeling pretty good about what I've managed to do this month.

YAY! For the three of you who are done!

I was thinking 'oh, I only have about 200 words to hit 40000, but I looked wrong - it was 200 to hit 38000. Current official count: 38182

Can I do almost 12000 words tomorrow? Maybe. Remotely possible. I still have to finish writing the creation of Sman, rewriting the globe scenes, and introducing Jason Trask and the beginning of the showdown with Trask and Lex [very GGGOH with Lex tossed in] - the end is already written - and so on. There's way more than 10000 words left in the story, but whether or not I can get it done in the next 24 hours and still take care of kiddos and a sick DH...

Our neighbors did get the pipe fixed, so that helps...

Regardless of whether or not I actually finish the other 12000 words or not, I'm quite proud of what I have accomplished so far, especially given the trials and tribulations of this month.

I say we have another party at midnight tomorrow .

Carol

it's almost 3AM. but I made it.

I pasted the text in the box and it came back, telling me I had 49,997 words. I edited again, pasted the text once more and added "this is the end" at the bottom (four words, yes) and the validation widget counted and said... that I had 50,000 words.

Clearly something weird with the validation tool, but I'm so not complaining.

I'm now going to bed. Whether I make it to the office or not tomorrow is anyone's guess.

Well, congrats! In my line of work there is no such thing as a sick day or even a day off, so I decided that I couldn't stay up half of the night to finish. I was so afraid that the system speed would be so slow that if I didn't finish early the 'bots would chew on it for an hour or so before it proclaimed me a winner. (Besides, it has always started my new day at 11 PM, despite what it says for my time zone.) I hadn't expected more than a dozen words to be kicked out. I'm so happy to be past 50K, even if I am so far from being finished.

Elisabeth

Is she going to make it?

That is my question of the day .

2:07pm Central Time: 40399

3:20pm Central Time: 42435 [mostly done one handed with a babe in arms or two handed, also with a babe in arms and some time spent walking with said - very cranky - babe]

WOO! Congrats to those who have finished!

I have 1690 words to write left, and I have to be at a dinner think in about an hour and a half, and I highly doubt if I'll be back by midnight. Or, if I DO get back, I will probably be a bit more than slightly drunk. Yay Dining Ins! :p

*Cracks neck* Ow... come on yall, we can dooooo this! WOOOO! YEAH! GO US!!

Good luck, Cat!

I have fed kids and helped DH [who is still sick but in bed again now] and so on.

6:20pm Central: 44390, 5410 to go [8:40 time since I changed my time zone - no I still don't feel very guilty about that but I am going to shoot for midnight my time]

Cat asked me to tell you she DID IT!!

50,051 words.


Go Carol - I'm totally pulling for you. You rock, girl!!

*cries* half of [okay not that much] last count was copy/pasted wedding ceremony that i would have copy/pasted regardless of when I wrote it, you know? No sense in reinventing the wheel [or rewriting a wedding ceremony].

Carol

No, no! No crying! Writing. Crying not allowed - December is for crying. I mean.... *lol*

(and reinventing the wheel, no point in doing that, either!)

Go Carol Go!

Okay, okay, writing.

7:40 pm Central: 45921

The official counter keeps getting farther from my Word counter - Word counter is 45750.

The second question now becomes [the first one was 'can she do it?'], what scenes can I write quickly with enough word count... The proposal/wedding/aftermath [not L/C but they're involved closely] was 6514 words but I think it's done - I could maybe put a bit of filler in but... not where the word count is going to be. Maybe a reveal with Perry or a Christmas scene... *sigh*

ETA: YAY! DH took DS who needs someone to cuddle with him to sleep. We're normally not big cosleepers [neither of us sleep well when we do that], but DH is lying there with a kidney stone and can handle a cuddly baby. Off to type like the wind!

GOGOGO!! I'm so proud of all of you for making it so far. I'm sorry that I was unable to make it to the end but I'm so happy to see so many of you who did!

Carol, whether or not you make it, you've come so far that we're all proud of you. You, too, Brucie! Way to be!

Elisabeth

I am so ready to scream!!!

This is so freaking doable and I just cannot find inspiration for the last few words!

Okay it is more than a few, but not that many more.

9:40pm Central, official word count: 48129, 1871 to go

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I feel a little better...

WOOOOO!!! Yay Carol!!!

I'm glad you were able to finish. Anyone else close who hasn't quite made it? I'm available to be your personal cheerleader. ^_^

Yay, carol, cat, and Lara!! Six winners out of this group. You guys are inspiring!

LOL!!!

Thanks to JoJo and Kaylle who cheered me on the last hour!

Official count is 50216 but I wanted to make it on my Word file which stands at 50020 right now.

And I didn't even have to cheat on my time zone . My author's note is almost 900 words but that's okay - it is legal! I do not even want to knwo how many contractions I will need to put back in or how many times I wrote "Nigel St. John" instead of just "Nigel". And Lois went Step. Pause. several times when she was in a wedding but it's all good.

*Sigh*

It's done!!!

Okay - it's not really done. There's still quite a bit more story to stick in there and large sections that may get deleted, but that's okay. I can write in contractions again and that makes me happy .

Thank you so much to everyone for the cheerleading! This has been an absolutely crazy month, but I did it and you guys believing in me sure helped!

Carol

A big congrats to every one who has come up from behind and been able to come up with such large amounts in one day! I've never been able to get more than 2,600 ... I think... :rolleyes:

Anyway, congrats!



@Carolm - 12,000 in one day! I am so proud! How did you do it?!

I wish you and your family a merry christmas, and I have your son's recovery in my prayers.

Lexy

YAY Carol! I was so happy to see a purple line next to your name just now! Way to go!


And *CHEER* for everyone who took on the challenge and made it to 50k on time.

*hugs* everyone who gave it a try this year. Even if you didn't get to the finish line - I say we all rock!!

You guys bring tears to my eyes. Honestly. The support here has meant so much this month.

The plan... I am going to bust my heiny on schoolwork to be done by Tuesday so Missy and I can play all day Wed and Thurs and work on getting this in to posting shape by the new yearish .
Carol

Congratulations to all who worked steadily throughout the month, regardless of the color of your bar at the end of the month. Also, many thanks to our good-looking cheerleader, Woody.

Around Thanksgiving I decided to find a beta-reader and get things ready for the boards. Since that time I've changed my mind. I may not have written a publishable novel (they aren't my characters, in case nobody noticed), but I'm still proud enough of my work that I'm going to do a proper job of editing. Honestly, it's not that rough of a rough draft. I didn't do any word padding or chase any rabbit trails. By the boards standards, I could probably beta it and post it as is, but I think I want to edit it more in the way recommended in No Plot? No Problem!

Elisabeth

Yay.

Give me a L. L!
Give me a C. C!
Give me a F. F!
Give me a A. A!
Give me a N. N!
Give me a S. S!
Give me a W. W!
Give me a H. H!
Give me a O. O!
Give me a P. P!
Give me a A. A!
Give me a R. R!
Give me a T. T!
Give me a I. I!
Give me a C. C!
Give me a I. I!
Give me a P. P!
Give me a A. A!
Give me a T. T!
Give me a E. E!
Give me a D. D!
Give me a I. I!
Give me a N. N!
Give me a N. N!
Give me a A. A!
Give me a N. N!
Give me a O. O!
Give me a W. W!
Give me a R. R!
Give me a I. I!
Give me a M. M!
Give me a O. O!

What's that spell?

LCFans who participated in NaNoWriMo.
A big to you.

And for those who finished.

For those who didn't, I remember your effort like Haldir and Boromir are remembered. Especially Boromir.

Woody, you crack me up!

My kids are practicing The Little Drummer Boy for a Christmas show, and all I can think about as I work with them is that it sounds like a bunch of Nanowrimo word padding since every part of a phrase is followed by "Pa rum pa pum pum."

Elisabeth
who is wasting way too much time trying to figure out if Woody's joke is about real people or imagined people

This seemed like a good place to put this since it's about LAST YEAR'S nano...

I got this from Chris Baty overnight:

Dear NaNoWriMo 2007 Winner,



Last November, you and those typing fingers of yours did something amazing. And while you were busy bashing out your novel, we were frantically trying to line up a prize worthy of your feat.



Our goal was to find a self publishing company who would give every NaNo winner a free copy of his or her winning manuscript in paperback book form. It's taken us until now, but we've finally found them.



CreateSpace, an Amazon.com Inc. owned company, is generously offering every NaNoWriMo 2007 winner a "free proof copy" of their 2007 manuscript. What this means: A free proof copy of your manuscript in paperback book form–just by following the instructions below. They'll even cover the costs of basic shipping to you.



To redeem the offer, you'll need a special NaNoWriMo winner's promo code.



Yours is: QN6UPQGY



It's good for six months from today. Here's how you go about using it:



1) Go to http://www.createspace.com/nanowrimo and create a free member account.

2) Set up your title: you will be asked to fill in information such as title, author name, page count, etc.

3) Submit your title: make sure that your title’s information is accurate and complies with CreateSpace's Submission Requirements. Your Submission will be reviewed to ensure it can be printed.

4) When everything's uploaded and perfect, just request a proof copy and use the above discount code at check out. Presto!



After you receive your proof copy, you can then choose if you want to make it available to the public at large—everything from showing up for sale on Amazon.com to complete invisibility.



We asked CreateSpace to write up an introduction to who they are and what they do, and I'm pasting that below. You can also read a bunch of their helpful FAQs about copyright, ISBNs, and other important matters at http://www.createspace.com/Help/Book/FAQ.jsp


And if you have any further questions, you can contact them directly: http://www.createspace.com/Special/SalesInquiry.jsp



Thanks so much to CreateSpace for making our dream-prize come true! And congrats again on your NaNoWriMo victory. We look forward to another year of literary abandon together this November.



Warm regards,


Chris Baty

Director, NaNoWriMo

www.nanowrimo.org



CreateSpace, an Amazon.com, Inc company, provides one of the easiest and most economical ways to self-publish your work. CreateSpace offers self-service publishing tools that allow you to upload ready-to-print PDF book files and make your trade paperback book(s) available for sale on Amazon.com and your own E-store with no setup fees. Your product is manufactured and shipped only when customers order so there is no need for a large upfront investment in inventory to start selling.



CreateSpace Key Features & Benefits:



· No setup fees for the CreateSpace Standard Program and no print minimums

· CreateSpace Pro Plan enables you to keep more on every sale and pay less when you order copies of your own book

· An inventory-free fulfillment model

· Earn monthly royalties based on the list price you set

· Non-exclusive agreement keeps your publishing options open

· One of the easiest ways to distribute through www.amazon.com

· CreateSpace ISBN provided at no additional charge

· Amazon's Search Inside!™ feature for your book

· Choose from many different trim size options and print in full-color or black & white

· CreateSpace also allows you to self publish video and audio content via DVD, CD, MP3, and video download; and distribute your music or video through Amazon.com as well.

But wouldn't this only be available to those with original works? Surely copywrited material would get CreateSpace in trouble???

James, who is only thinking with half a brain.

I think ML got one two years ago [but I could be wrong on that and I have no idea if it was original or not]. My thoughts would be that as long as it's just the one copy it wouldn't be an issue, but you wouldn't want to put it out to market or whatever. I haven't looked at it any closer than reading the email though.

Anyone else?

Carol

I think you're probably okay with the one copy, Carol, but you couldn't possibly sell it anywhere when you don't have the copyright holder's permission.

That's my thought...

Carol