xerinmichellex | Entries tagged with nano

Some updates:

1. Reason #Oh-I-Can't-Even-Keep-Track-Now why I shouldn't be allowed to engage in the "outside" world when I'm trying to write things: This week's Sleepy Hollow (the one with The Weeping Lady) sent my brain into a tizzy for a story idea that I've been waffling on. I'm scrambling now to get some research and plot things pinned down in time for NaNo. Yes, I'm gonna do NaNo. No, I don't expect to hit 50K in a month because there's a very loud part of me that KNOWS I cannot just throw things on a paper without a reason. My hope, though, is that the "frenzy" of NaNo and the basic "pushing yourself through the writing process" will help quiet that voice of self-doubt. My goal isn't the 50K or finishing a novel; rather it's to get back into the constant flow of writing every day and re-gaining some of my confidence.

The basic premise for the NaNo novel is a Hatfield/McCoy type rivalry between two families (that may have supernatural ties, I'm not sure at the moment) and the two youngest members of each family try untangling the centuries long feud and put an end to a curse affecting both families. It'll be part mystery, part ghost story, heavy on the gothic tones, and maybe have some witches thrown in. . .? Again: I haven't decided on a lot of things.

(Additional info: This was the shiny idea that caused me to look up lunar cycles back in July.)

2. I'm trying to finish up my Christmas Wish List because HOLY SHIT October's almost over and then it's Thanksgiving and THEN "the era of pumpkin will fall and the northern winds whisper peppermint everything" (source) AND THEN it's Christmas AND THEN IT'S 2015, and I've basically wasted another goddamn year of doing nothing and getting nothing done and BOOOOOOOOOOO!

3. I'm pretty. . .grumpy overall, and feeling exhausted for no reason (although I should probably try to go to bed earlier than I am), and over everyone's shit, and over being over everyone's shit because I, in turn, feel shitty because of how unproductive I'm being. Basically, I've been like this towards all things lately:

A couple upcoming posts (hopefully):

--I promise a Sleepy Hollow post (this one on Tim Burton's version) is on the horizon and I'd like to post it near-ish to Halloween because, fuck it, I've accepted it as my favorite movie ever for a ton of reasons.

--A fun* Halloween post

*Note: The word "fun" may only prove to be fun to the poster and not to the actual reader of the post.

--I guess since I'm doing NaNo, I'll be posting weekly updates on wordcounts (or lack thereof) and other nonsense. Woo.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: "Seven Devils" - Florence + the Machine

1. I'll be so glad when Election Season is over and the phone-bank calls STOP. I think we're averaging 5 calls a day. Also, I was not aware that when I early voted 4 years ago, that information was going to be collected for the candidates. Twice, I've been asked if I plan on early voting again and if I need any information regarding the nearest polling place. (For the record, I early voted again on Friday.) I'm at the point where I'm not even answering the phone if I don't recognize the number. ALSO! If I don't pick up the phone the first time, calling 3 more times in a row isn't going to change the situation.

2. I knew watching Homeland live would be the death of me...but I had no idea I'd be in this much agony. Especially with everything that's gone down in the past two episodes. (I promise a post focusing on the show later, because a lot of what is happening is fascinating from a writer's perspective.) Now that Rupert Friend's character has been introduced--which, if you remember, was the initial reason I started watching Homeland--I am a very, very happy girl.

3. November's three days away, which means it's NaNo season. My first--and only successful NaNo year--was in 2009. And while I'm not (technically) participating in NaNo, I am using November to kick my butt into gear and get back into the rhythm of writing for most of the day. The last time I finished an actual manuscript was July 2010 (I checked). Back then, I was at the computer by 10 am and writing until 5 or 6 in the evening. So my goal this November isn't so much as getting to 50K, but it is getting back to this schedule. Of course, yesterday I realized that my WiP plot may not fit with my story; so I have three days to find a plot. No big deal. /sarcasm

4. And finally, a meme just in time for Halloween!

1. "Left Behind" - Spring Awakening (Original Broadway Cast)
2. "Populace in Two" - From First to Last
3. "The Key (Instrumenal Clip)" - Emilie Autumn
4. "It Was You" - The Pierces
5. "Dead is the New Alive" - Emilie Autumn
6. "The Taste of Ink" - The Used
7. "2 Hearts" - Kylie Minogue
8. "The Point of it All" - Amanda Palmer

Eh, I think I'll skip this apocalypse. (If only #5 was #8 instead!)

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: "Skyfall" - Adele

I need to make an addendum to my NaNo statistics, but it's okay since it is still November here in Chicago!

After thinking it over the weekend, I realized I needed to add a scene in Elisabeth's narrative. A little scene, nothing too big or shocking, but something to contrast a scene later on in the story. So, today I added it in--3,000 words and all. (Not bad for an idea I slapped together at 11pm yesterday night.) That brings my final total up to 46,000. Still shy of the 50,000 you are suppose to hit for NaNo, but I did finish a novel in the allotted time frame.

Hopefully I can add in roughly 4,000 more words in the revision process to bump it up to 50,000. I don't want to saturate the manuscript too much with needless material that would eventually get cut out in the editorial process--if the novel even makes it that far. I'm kinda happy with the short length, to be honest. I feel like the novel gets right to the point. It hits you in the gut, as it should considering the subject matter.

THE STORY OF ELISABETH ROSE (that's the title, in case you were wondering) isn't my "darkest" novel per se, but it is close. And I feel so much better that it is out of my head and system. Sometimes, you need to write a story that's painful. As much as you hate the subject matter, it's better to get it out than have it rot away inside of you. If anything, I'm just glad TSOER turned out the way I wanted it to and I don't have to listen to Elisabeth and Lola tapping away in my head.

Yes, I sound crazy. You have to be a little bit insane if you spend your entire life creating different worlds and devoting your time and energy to invisible people that nobody else knows or hears until they're in front of them on a sheet of paper, inside of a book, don't you?

Current Mood: accomplished

I did it, I did it! Victory! Victory! Victory! Whew. *catches breath after running around the house like an idiot*

I finished my NaNo novel on time. Eek! That never happens for me. Usually I can approximate when I'll finish as I get near to the end (like five chapters away), but I'll be off by a day or two because my muse is a sadistic jerk. Seriously, it wanders off. I think I may need to invest in some Ritalin for it. But, I truly did finish on time this...time. I did, I did!

The bulk of my writing was finished on Monday, if I have to be honest. I added another 2,000 words, which brought the word count up to 42,000, give or take a few hundred. Since I wrote Elisabeth and Lola's POV's in different documents, the rest of Monday was spent intertwining their narratives. Tuesday and today were spent reading through the manuscript to make sure all things were in proper order and flowed. Blah, blah, blah...I managed to add another 1,000 words while cutting out mistakes, bringing my first draft total to 43,000. This amount coming from someone who typically writes 100,000+ word manuscripts, I am super proud of myself.

I do expect, however, the 43,000 words to increase just a tick. Most of the story--especially Lola's POV--is a lot of internal plot. I will refrain from using the word "angst" because Lola has a genuine reason to be the introverted, shell of a person she is. With most mental dialogue, I'm expecting to add more things in when I re-look at the manuscript for a final edit. It won't be anywhere near adding 57,000 words, but I do want to aim closer to 50,000. Less than 45,000 seems like a short novel in my opinion. Of course, this is coming from someone who does 100,000 words per manuscript and thinks nothing of it. I'm just sayin'...

Also, Lady Gaga is stalking me on the radio. It never fails every time I get into the car and turn the radio on, "Bad Romance" is on or it's the next song to come on. I broke down and bought the video off of iTunes--which is like a crack addict saying, "I'm going to take one more hit and I'll go into rehab." (What? I like pretty things--the video is pretty to look at.) I've already watched the video five times. Today. Does it make things better if I say my muse likes the video and is working her darndest to find a novel plot to fit the song? No? Okay, I'll just go over here and....not watch the video again. Yeah, that's it. Not going to watch it. I know! I'll cold turkey "Bad Romance". That’ll totally do the trick.

Speaking of cold turkey, Happy Turkey Day everyone!

Ow. I think I sprained my fingers. The burst of energy I had last Saturday carried over to the week. I got a ton accomplished and the end is almost here. Thank the lord, because I plan on relaxing through the month of December. I don't want to be stressed over an unfinished manuscript this year.

Though I had the burst, I'm a bit hesitant to call last week's writing a success. Usually I have to mediate on what I write. A lot. As in each chapter/plot point needs to be thought about over many days. The past week, I was writing as the words came to me. I was "free balling" it, if you will. Which makes me think I just spent all week writing a big pile of dung. I shall see when I go through the editing process.

The Stats:

Total Words Written: 39,523

Week 3 Word Count: 13,054

In manuscript terms, I finished Lola's POV and I only have a chapter and some change for Elisabeth's. Which means I could finish the first draft of my WIP by the end of the week. The goal is Wednesday, so it's done by Thanksgiving. Because I was writing all over the place, I know I'm going to need to add a few things to later chapters--specifically Lola's chapters, since hers were written before I knew what was going to happen in Elisabeth's. So, that's what I'm hoping to achieve next weekend and have a good standing first draft going into December. I'm riding off the highs of almost being done, I could very well make it. Hopefully.

On a truly unrelated note, Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" has been stuck in my head since Tuesday. Like, the whole song. It plays in a continuous loop, usually when I'm trying to go to bed, so I've been having weird dreams concerning bath houses. It's so creepy. I have even gotten to the point where I go looking for the video on MTV Hits. If iTunes wasn't being an ass and asking for $1.49 instead of $0.99 I'd just buy the damn thing and end my suffering. Gah! I need a disco-stick intervention really bad.

Speaking of disco-sticks, I'm off to see New Moon. (Yes, I really went there--deal with it) I've got my mace for the rabid fangirls and glitter to throw at the movie screen whenever Edward sparkles. Beats shaving the cat and throwing its fur when Jacob fursplodes.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Lady Gaga--"Bad Romance"

I meant to keep a week by week account of NaNo to track my progress. Well, last Sunday came with my brother hogging the computer all day, and the week continued with me trying to get more written. So, yeah, I just decided to combine the first week with the second.

Week 1:

Going into November, I had begun this manuscript with very little progress (only 7500 words). Essentially, the novel is two stories interwoven together. Elisabeth's story is told in the past, third POV and Lola's is in the present, first POV. I did begin wanting to write it chronologically, like I do with all of my manuscripts. Yes, I am one of those writers--but I will jump around in the manuscript once I get started. However, once NaNo started, I was determined to get Lola's story written and then go back and do Elisabeth's and intertwine them at the end. Week One went like this:

Number of words written: 7400
Total manuscript words: 15,000 (estimated final to be 50,000)

I ended the week with Lola's POV 85% finished when I wanted it to be completely done. Hers is the easiest part of the manuscript and I was hoping to finish it quickly and spend the rest of NaNo focused on Elisabeth's story. Yeah, that didn't happen. Boohoo.

Week 2:

For the second week I really, really was determined to finish Lola out. I ended up doing just that...almost. There's one part of her narrative where I'm completely stumped as to what I should write about. But, to keep this train moving, I switched over to Elisabeth on Thursday and finished out the chapter I stopped at pre-beginning Lola's story. Confused yet? I wrote a little bit more yesterday, that included starting and finishing a chapter and beginning a new one. (Fridays are reserved for The Vampire Diaries recaps--although, I do usually finish them around 3 pm, so I could work on NaNo afterward. Hmmm, will have to try next week.) Typically, it takes me a couple days to finish a chapter--all depends on what I'm writing. To start and finish a chapter in one day is a huge deal for me. Therefore, last week ended like so:

Number of words written: 11,500 (5500 in Lola's POV, 6000 added in Elisabeth's)
Total manuscript words: 26,500 (give or take a hundred)

I am now 95% done with Lola and about 35% into Elisabeth's story. I had a burst of writing yesterday--hopefully my momentum will carry over into the week. Hope all of you are having better success than me!

Current Mood: sleepy

Yeah, I know, for those not in the know, it looks like I just slammed my fist on my keyboard. I didn't know for certain what NaNo was until 10 minutes ago. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Before that, I thought it was one of those write a novel in 24 hours deal. I read posts on those, and they've made my fingers cramp up.

It makes sense for the National Novel Writing Month to be in November. December is sort of a no-no when it comes to querying because of the holidays and that is when most people query. Your wait time for a response seems to double. It's a good idea, in my opinion, to have a new novel ready in the beginning of the year. I always start querying in the start of the year--usually around the third week of January.

I'm doing NaNo by default, since my current WIP has a deadline to be done by the end of November. I'll take December off--a month off is the longest I've ever taken off pre-editing. I'm one of those that has to edit right away; even though that isn't all that good when spotting out the errors. Thus far, only 8,000 words into my WIP, with the final goal being 50,000 approximately. I should probably start writing, me thinks.

Also, tomorrow is my 4 weeks mark for my partial with Agent Z. Eek!