NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 20

2/3 of the way done and I'm still sticking with it!  Woo hoo!  The problem now is that I don't think the story will be anywhere near finished at 50,000 words.  Ugh.  Sometimes the really difficult thing about stories is how long they take to write.  I get as anxious about what's going to happen as the people who are nice enough to read for me!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 18

I broke 30,000 words today.  That means I have less than 20,000 words left.  Holy cow, I'm on the downhill slide.

Thank goodness.  I've been having a hard time keeping up lately, but I'm hanging in there.  It's still almost all junk, but hopefully when it's over I can salvage something.  My main character's personalities are still jumping around on me a little, but I've nearly got them pinned down.

Meanwhile, I still haven't stopped thinking about my other story even though I haven't been able to work on it.  Hopefully this time is just allowing it to mature in my subconscious and become even better.

Yeah.  We'll see.

You know, it will be pretty crappy to do all this work and never see anything come from it.  I hope that someday I'll have something that's not too embarrassing to see the light of day.

Someday.

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 15

HALFWAY DONE!

Yes!  That's right, I passed the halfway point tonight!  I'm happy.  I'm especially happy because I was too tired to finish yesterday and I fell about 1,000 words behind.  But I made it up and it's over half done!  Yay! That's all I have today.  Does anyone else have goals that they're trying to meet?

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 13

I feel a little like a runner; at first I had such a hard time doing NaNo.  My daily writing took more of my time than I could afford, it took so much more effort than I was used to, and yes, sometimes I even had sore muscles after (in my wrists).

But now I'm whipping myself into being a lean, mean, writing machine!  Some days, if I know the direction I want the story to go in, it takes me less than an hour to write those 1667 words.  Can you believe that?  I wish I'd been that fast in college!  I probably would have done a lot more of my homework...

Anyway, as I've often heard people say about running: now that I'm in shape, I love it!  Alright, not always, but I don't dread it anymore, because I know I can do it quickly and even half-decently.  Well, the story is half-decent, not the prose.  I've decided what I'm getting out of this is actually more of an extremely detailed outline, probably because this free, non-editing style is how I write when I outline.  It's nice to feel like that, because then the pressure I feel for it to sound polished right now is gone.

Also, I need to make a public apology for not coming through on my public promise.  I did not write a chapter in my other story last week.  Sorry guys!  I mean well, and maybe if I didn't have a million sewing/crafting projects to finish because of Christmas I'd be able to do it.  However, I spend half my free time and some not-really-free time in my sewing room right now, and unfortunately the stuff with a deadline is the stuff that gets priority.  I will keep trying to find time, though!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 11

I did it.  Today I've officially written more on my NaNo novel than I have on my other one!  It's weird, to have passed in 11 days what took me months to make myself do.  I think I may want to keep up this habit of writing for an hour or so every night when I'm done with this!

I'm sort of getting into the non-editing discovery-type method, too.  I'm not sure if things will keep going this well because I've never managed to finish an entire story this way, but there's definitely something to be said for the ideas that come to you while you're in the thick of writing.

I am getting  faster at making junk up, and I'm liking this story better as I go along and it gets more complex. I'm so excited to finish this and be able to say that I've written two books!  And I hope I can figure out a non-contrived way of ending this when the time comes.  Now that I've started, though, there's a lot more story than I thought there was.  I've been wanting to stay away from trilogy-type things until I actually get published, but this might turn in to one.

Anyway, things are going well with it and someday (after I've finished my other story) I'll definitely come back to this one to see what it will look like when it's cleaned up (a lot).

In other news, Chaela had a line in the primary program at church today!  For the non-LDS, a primary program is where instead of our usual meeting the kids speak and sing LDS children's songs.  I was so proud of her!  And can I just say as a biased mom, she has a nice clear little voice and I wouldn't be surprised if her clear voice and fearless, dramatic personality made her a very talented performer of some kind some day!  :)

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 9

I say it every day, but I can't believe I'm still on top of this!  It's gotten hard to want to write most days, but I make myself.  Look at me, accomplishing goals!  How strange.

Tomorrow I'll almost be tied for words with my other story, which I haven't worked on like I said I would.  Sorry guys!  I really do want to, but I don't want to give up on this good thing I've got going here where I actually finish what I start.  Don't worry, though!  I'm hoping my good habits will carry over and I'll finish it much faster than I would have without doing NaNo, and that taking this break from it will actually help me complete it more quickly, if that makes sense.

Anyway, there's still tomorrow, and I did promise.  Chaela is having a birthday party, but it's only a little one, so I should still have time in the evening if I'm not too worn out.  If only I had the willpower to do my NaNo words in the morning and could dedicate my less distracted evenings to the other one.  Oh, well.  I am trying to do all this and a few other things and not neglect my poor kids.  It's hard.

NaNo is almost 1/3 over!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 8

Wow, I can't believe I'm still doing this.  Yesterday and today have been huge struggles to force myself to write my words.  I sort of hate this story, but I'm also sort of starting to love it.  It will never be good as it is, but I think there may be some gems in there that I can polish up and use later.  At first I thought I'd have to (figuratively) trash this thing after NaNo, but now I think with revising (a lot of revising) it might be worth the trouble.

Anyway, other than that yesterday was Chaela's 5th birthday!  So that was awesome.  I can't believe I have a five-year-old!  She's such an awesome girl, so pretty and so smart.  Sometimes she has an attitude, but she's still pretty great!

Well, I managed to finish my words early enough not to collapse when I finished, so I think I might go sew some stuff for a little while.

I still can't believe I haven't given this up yet.  I'm starting to think I may actually do it!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 6 (kind of)

Well, technically it's after midnight so it's Day 7, but whatever!  I did my words.  Look!  It's over 10,000 now!  By the end of this week I'll have surpassed my word count for my "real" story (as I call it in my head).

I mean, whatever, my NaNo novel is ok, but I just haven't had the time to get as attached to it as I have the other one, and I'm not really sure that I will.  But that's ok, I'm still happy to participate!  Because I want to win!

Also, presidential election today.  I'll admit to being bummed about the outcome, but unlike many of my friends on Facebook, I do not think America will spontaneously combust.  Honestly, when it comes down to it, I think Romney=economy and Obama=social issues, and people chose social issues.  I don't think it was the right choice for the country at this point, but what can you do?

Anyway, whatever.  Tomorrow is Chaela's 5th birthday (I can't believe it!) and my first meeting as a Cub Scout leader (new church calling), meaning there will be a lot of baking to do, so goodnight!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 4

Still going.  My story is a YA fantasy novel.  I think it's a lot easier to write about teenagers, because you can just let the melodrama carry you where it will.

So tired, but proud of myself for getting my words done today even though I had a lot of other things going on.

Deb, Ash, and Lindsay: I am making a public promise to you to write a chapter of my other story at some point this week.  I hope I can keep it!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 3

I didn't think I'd get my words done today because we spent most of the day in the Ogden area, but I did it! I'm getting faster, this time it only took me about two or two and a half hours!  Yay!

And I'm glad that it's Daylight Savings tomorrow, because I get an extra hour!

I'm still not sure how much this will benefit me, but practice is practice, so I'll keep going.  And I'll probably update my blog most days, too, just because feeling like you guys are holding me accountable is helping.  Sorry if it's annoying!

I may tinker with how many words I write during the week so that I can take Sundays off.  We'll see.