2009 NaNoWriMo is completed. Technically, I was done on the 19th but see non-internet distractions below.

I haven't read my 50k+ words yet. There are still many more to set down before I'm ready to look over the whole thing but I'm feeling pretty good about this one. It will need some work when the whole draft is finished. Surprisingly, I'm not dreading the next stage. I'm looking forward to it - that's when the novel might start to resemble something readable. That's going to be one fantastic day.

It's turkey day here today. Not going to get too much work done even though we are celebrating with our small, immediate family. Still making a whole turkey and all the tasty trimmings. The pie is done. If nothing else, we will have pie and that is what makes Thanksgiving.

Things that distracted me on the internet today:

~ Catching up with blogs. Never slows down.
~ Reading writer sites and agent sites. Following the publishing chaos as it unfolds and hopefully shakes out into something we can recognize.

Non-internet distractions:

~ Dragon Age: Origins was released on Xbox360 early November. I held out until I wrote at least 50K words. Then I took a week off. Recharged and ready to crank out the end.

Accomplishments:

~ 50,236 words for my novel. Last scenes outlined and ready to go. If I'm not stuffed later, I'll crank out another 2k today.

My character walked off the page again the other day and I've been letting her have her way. I like the direction she's headed in though; it may even be better than what I'd planned for her. Still, had a moment of wtf is she doing when the deviation popped in my head.

Now halfway through November and so far NaNo has taught me that I really have no excuses not to sit down and write 2k words a day. None. Zip. 4 sittings of 500 words will get it done and I can get 500 words in nearly 15 minutes of pure focused writing. 15 minutes. They won't be the prettiest words I can find, and I still have a problem with not describing the scenery in my head but all of that is fixable.

The muse tap must have been turned on full this month because not only can I get a pretty cool sequel out of the novel I'm working on, but I came across another plot idea that would incorporate a previous wip perfectly. I think 2010 is going to be one busy year.

Things that distracted me on the internet today:

~ 800 unread blog posts. I managed to knock out about 100 of the more interesting ones over the last couple of days. Some very interesting things happening in the publishing world that I am keeping an eye on.

~ Official NaNoWriMo website. It's compulsive to check your position in word count more than 3 times a day. I think I've done it at least 10 times most days.

Non-internet distractions:

~ Went in for round two of braces. Wore them for too many years as a teenager and enjoyed straight teeth for a while. Unfortunately, they chose not to stay that way and now I'm back in wires and brackets to fix them. They hurt. A lot.

Accomplishments:

~ Little over 36k as of today. Will make 50k easily and revised to between 75 and 80k before going in for edit. Nearly halfway to goal.

I am flying right along now. Last year at 20k, I hit the wall of middle pretty hard. The wall of middle is the part where the beginning of a story is done, shaped, left behind and the rest of what happens looms in front of you. Now, I'm not totally enthused about beginnings except for planning them but I did think they were easier to write than the middle and even the end.

Most of my stories don't even have a finished end.

This year, my new mindset has allowed me to cruise right along, ignoring the fact that I am in the middle of the story. To me there is no middle, there is just unwritten words that need to be put down in a coherent order. Now, I haven't allowed myself to go back and read anything I've written from Nov. 1 until today. If I did, I might realize that I suck and then I'd give up. I do know that I am a minimalist in my description and settings. Right now my characters basically move and function in white space. The good news about that is it's easily fixed.

Keeping on going. Have to hit 24,594 today.

Things that distracted me on the internet today:

~ The NaNoWriMo site went down for some maintenance today. My refresh button got a work out waiting for it to come back up. I wrote words, I wanted to put the count in!

~ Had a great idea to send my character to Alexandria, Egypt in a flashback. Somewhere around the time of the French Revolution. Pretty much exactly when the Siege of Alexandria happened. Wikipedia to the rescue and it makes a great scene.

Non-internet distractions:

~ Picked up a new keyboard today. Nothing ergonomic, can't stand those. This one has lots and lots of buttons. One touch mail, one touch mute, and some customizable favorites buttons for programs I use all the time. I played. It had to be done.

Accomplishments:

~ 23,092 written. Amazing that I am going into week number 2 and am nearly halfway through on my way to 50k. I've promised myself some fun distractions when I get there. Very excited.

I think I've figured out my groove. 8,068 words so far (aiming for 80k) and just flying through.

The not-so-secrets of my success are:

~ Allowing myself to write crap. First and foremost (see, this is the kind of sentence opener that wouldn't be allowed to stay in the final edit), do not go back and fix anything. The only time I will go back is if my sentence is really, truly gibberish. My brain still thinks faster than my hands can type and it's worse when I am playing beat the clock. Instead of OCDing about my manuscript though, I'm finding the permission to write crap is freeing. It's certainly working.

~ 15 min. word wars. 30 minutes, unless I am alone, is just too long for me to write in. On most days of my life I'm lucky to have 10 minutes without someone speaking to me, calling me, or messaging me so 15 minutes is as much as I can handle. Whatever. It's working. I'm averaging about 28 words per minute.




Things that distracted me on the internet today:

~ My mother in law arrives today for a muchly anticipated week long visit and I, of course, had to track her flight. If anyone's interested, Flight Aware.com has the best tracking that I've seen. All free.

~ Election Day. Had to check the status of returns. None posted. Was a pretty quick distraction.

Non-internet distractions:

~ See above mother in law visit meant I was sweeping and mopping the floors. Gets it done for hopefully most of the month too. My house looks fantastic. This is good because I'm hoping that it can withstand the near total neglect I plan to give it until 11/30.

Accomplishments:

~ 8,068 words so far. 10% done. Doing very well. Have about 300 more words for tonight to reach just over my quota for the day.

Day 1 of NaNoWriMo is going well. Started at exactly midnight and only managed to crank out 450 words in one hour before going to bed. Woke up feeling very refreshed; thank you extra hour and that glorious sun shining through my window at 7:45 am. Cranked out another 720 while everyone in the house wanted my attention. That's going to be interesting to edit later on. 322 words during a 15 min war - come on, can totally do better.

Setting up for an hour of wars broken into 15 min chunks, break, then another hour. Trying to hit 3000 today and give myself some wiggle room.



Things that distracted me on the internet today:

~ Nothing! I cleared anything time sensitive on my facebook. Take that Cafe World - not sucking me in until I'm good and ready to get back to you.
~

Non-internet distractions:

~ I did need to load up the house with groceries, especially the kind that can be cooked in under 15 minutes. This will, hopefully but not likely, keep the fam from bugging me for food.

~ I also learned that hard plastic cosmetic containers can shatter just as badly as glass does. Bronzer all over the floor and then I needed to pick up a new one. Scored a new lipstick though so it was all good in the end.

Accomplishments:

~ 1502 words at 9:08pm PDT. Still have another 2 - 3 hours left in me.

EDITED to add: Finished the evening at 2780 words. It's past midnight so no more 15 min chunks for me. If I can get my 15 minutes up to 500 words per, I will be a happy girl.