NaNoWriMo Winner!

 I finally did it, and with an hour to spare.  The third time was definitely the charm, and things were looking a little iffy for awhile.  I was about 5,800 words down going into the final day, but somehow rallied late and finished faster than I thought I would.

Now what?  To be honest, though I finished NaNoWriMo, my novel is only 2/3rd's of the way to its own goal line.  I figure if I crank out about 1,000 words a day, I should be able to hang up the first draft of this novel before Christmas.  What a gift that would be to myself.  I know that a first draft is a lumpy and awkward pile of shit that needs to be dug through to find the gold hidden inside.  It will take numerous rewrites, extra drafts, and a lot of cutting and stitching to get this thing to a place where it would be readable to other eyes than my own.

Regardless of all that is in front of me in this novel, I was pretty damn excited to have gotten across that finish line.  Some celebration was in order.  I rewarded myself with a bottle of Crispin Stagger Lee rye whiskey cask aged cider, a slice of lemon poppy seed cake, and hunkering down on the couch with my wife and watching my new favorite show, American Horror Story.

I will let you know how things go, but in the meantime, I found a great blog post by Chuck Wendig that enlightened me as to where I go after a first draft here.

40,000 Word Mark

November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, so I've been pounding away at trying to finish my 50,000 word novel by this coming Wednesday at midnight.  This is my third attempt, and by far the closest I've come to actually completing this thing.

The Thanksgiving weekend put an abrupt halt on my efforts, and now I find myself with 10,000 words left and three days to write them in.  I have to crank out at least 3,400 words a day to finish, but I don't think that it's going to be too difficult.

The story in the novel might not be finished by the 50,000 word mark, but the goal is 50,000 words.  After that, pushing myself to keep going until the end of the story won't seem nearly so hard.

Almost there.

23,000 Words and 27,000 More To Go

I was behind in the count, I took a day off, which soon became three days.  Two days ago I decided to play catch up.  I wrote 9,000 words in two days.  My head hurt, my eyes were sore, and best of all, I discovered some really great things.  New aspects jumped out, several characters introduced themselves, and grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me into dark tunnels where secrets lie.

It's only been fourteen days, sixteen more to go.  This NaNoWriMo attempt is on schedule with 23,431 words and counting.  Wish me luck.

9,000 Words In

I've been working on a story for a graphic novel collaboration.  The idea is there, but it's the execution that I've been having trouble with.  I've written screenplays before, but a script for a graphic novel is a little different.  There are panels involved, and as a first time comic writer, it's a little daunting.

So NaNoWriMo came along, and I jumped in head first.  I used the comic idea for the novel as a way to explore and brainstorm the story and the world in which it takes place.  Working in a structured way, and putting down words daily, has gotten me exploring dynamics in my story that I wouldn't normally have gotten into.  I'm now over 9,000 words in, and the whole thing is opening up to me in an amazing way.

I'm excited about where it's going, and hope that eventually I'll have something amazing to show you.

NaNoWriMo time

Every year I think about doing the National Novel Writing Month challenge.  I've even tried it twice before, as the two partial novels on my hard drive can attest to, but I've never actually finished the challenge.  This year is going to be different.  I'm lacking something in my life right now.  Some kind creative spark that I need to sustain me through the doldrums of another Minnesota winter.  I find myself bored by work, frustrated by a lack of creative outlets, and ready for something to energize me in a way that I desperately need.  When I'm writing, I'm happy.  When I'm not, I'm crabby and tightly wound.

I got an email from NaNoWriMo today, and I jumped on it.  So far I've written 5,250 words.  I need to average 1,667 to finish the 50,000 word challenge by the end of the month.  This is the year I do it.