Nano 2016 Motivation and Confession Thread

[Ireth]

I broke 25K last night, a day early! Buuuut I'm also running out of story. D= My MC just saved her girlfriend from a minor antagonist, and realized too late that it was a setup so the main villain could capture them both. This is leading into the climax of the story, so I might be able to reach 30K, maybe 35, but not 50. Not without a lot of padding. Unless I find a backup story to keep my wordcount up.

 

[Fluffypoodel]

hit a dual roadblock of crushing my finger between an air compressor and a door and a serious case of where am I going in this novel. This week off has hopefully healed both. with 3k words tonight I'm leaning towards fixed it but life is always ready to throw its surprise parties...

 

[Svrtnsse]

Today: 1,200
Total: Just over 18k.
I'm a bit behind, but I'm nearing the end of the first act and that's going to be magnificent!

 

[Chessie]

I'm actually on a roll today with where the story is but have to pry myself away because my family/house need me. 2,137 and now the manuscript is at 27,737. I'm having fun writing this book and the outline is helping tremendously. I never thought that I'd be a transformed pantser but that appears to be the case.

 

[Ireth]

I'm currently distracted by younger siblings, and fighting with plot issues as in this thread. Lucky I reached today's par last night. Thus far I'm at 25,326 words in all.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I'm reading this thread to feel better about myself, lol. Nothing like distracting yourself from your own struggles with others'.

 

[Caged Maiden]

I just spent two days at the waterpark, so nothing new happening here. I've got some real writing to get done tonight, if I want to have a chance of finishing on time. And by "finishing" i mean the 50k word goal. My novel is 150k+ words...so it's not getting done anytime soon. I'm hoping to have it completely rewritten by April, when I go to the writing conference. But, only time will tell. I spent 6 months rewriting the first two chapters (new material that wasn't in the first draft back in 2008). So...fingers crossed I'll be able to get my nano won and THEN finish the actual rewrite by April.

 

[Tom]

Today I wrote 1700 words and hated every one of them. I have such a bad headache. Plus I have a huge assignment due tomorrow in my graphics class and I've spent the last hour uploading and printing giant-ass JPEG files that take five minutes each to download from my google drive. Arghhhh. I hate my life.

 

[ThinkerX]

Work and associated matters was even more annoying today than yesterday. I did get home at a reasonable time, but drew an utter blank when I sat down to start chapter 4. So I finished chapter six, did a wee bit of polishing elsewhere (much more required later), surfed the net, read a while, ate and thought for a time. Then I wrote most of 1300 words. 20200 total.

Solutions begin to appear for the gaping plot holes that plagued me at the start of this project.

 

[SeverinR]

I did a good start but only written 400 words since my last post.

 

[Heliotrope]

Starting to slow down...

Getting into saggy middle now. To avoid saggy middle I'm finding that I really have to pump up my game to keep the story fresh and moving forward in interesting ways... which means I'm adding in stuff I hadn't anticipated and didn't set up or foreshadow, which means it is slowing down my process considerably. I've gone from doing 1700 words easily to managing about 1000 words in the same amount of time.

Which is fine, I guess, just a slower slog.

 

[Svrtnsse]

1,900 words today. Passed the 20k mark. I don't think I'll have a realistic chance of reaching the 50k word target by the end of the month so I'm lowering the target to 40k
On the one hand it feels a bit weak to lower the target, but on the other I feel like I'm better off having a target I have a chance to reach, even if I adjusted it halfway through.

 

[Fluffypoodel]

A little over 2k tonight puts me above 23k. still got some catching up to do but I should be back where I need to be by the weekend!

 

[Tom]

1453 today. I feel a lot better about what I wrote today, and now that Wednesday is over hopefully I'll be able to finish out the week strong.

 

[Caged Maiden]

I spent al day rereading the 50k words I've written in this novel before starting nano. I just had to review what was already begun, so that I could continue strong by progressing some of the things I started and answering some of the things that needed tying up. Hope everyone is cruising along on their progress. This is the hardest part of the month, I think. We got past the "inspired" beginnings, and are now into the real story development phase, where things should be moving, all the players established, and some answers coming to the characters. Definitely a tricky part of story-telling.

SO here's a quote from chapter two. It's not new, but I like it anyways.

Raisa pounded on the apothecary’s door. Loud enough for even an old woman to hear. Four crones tended the shop, reputed sisters, but so far gone with wrinkles it was hard to decide whether they looked alike at all. The tall one, with the jack-o-lantern grin, admitted Raisa, saying, “We aren’t open yet. You either got one hellish husband, or he’s built like an ox, if you need more nightroot already. Can’t keep ‘im sedated forever. It might be time to just castrate the lusty wretch.” She cackled. “We got herbs for that, too!”

Isabella, the bubbly, plump sister entered the back room of the shop, where they kept the interesting and expensive herbs. “Nightroot’s unavailable. No more till spring.”

“I’m not here for nightroot,” Raisa said, before they could presume anything more about her visit. “Good to know. I’ll use what I have left sparingly.” She strode to a hutch with glass doors. “I need some more of that blood-cleanser.”

Isabella grinned, her cheeks rosy and her blue eyes turning into friendly crescents. “Oh, darling, that’s no quick cure. You know that, right?”

“Let’s assume that I’m not the addict in need of treatment. I just need a vial or two. No intervention, no counsel.” She lad a handful of coins down. “Just the concoction, please.”

 

[Ireth]

Aaaagh. I've written 2132 words today, and I'm right in the middle of the climax only to find I'm STALLED. The dramatic speech from the abused heroine who's finally standing up to the villain just isn't working right. *pulls hair* Hopefully sleeping on it will help.

 

[ThinkerX]

Another day, another 1300 words. 21500 total.

(Sort of) finished Chapter Four (not quite happy with it), did a stub for Chapter Seven. That chapter will be pretty much a one man show...but then again, Kyle is a dang big fellow. After that, back to Rebecca.

My plot hole solution involves another really long Rebecca chapter...but that's a ways in the future. As it is, I figure Rebecca's adventures will account for almost a third of the book.

 

[Nimue]

I promised myself I wouldn't post again until I had something positive to say...that hasn't really happened, but yesterday I did get through my first substantial chunk of writing since the 8th. Snip:

The sea breeze hit her like a wave as the raw line of the coast pulled nearer, as though the white fingers of the sea slowly washed over the earth. And on that dull blue horizon lay a shadow: crooked, black, and bare in the sun

Sabhenna had not been sure whether fear or weariness would pull her from her form, but at the sight of that distant skeletal ruin, all the blood in her tiny pulsing heart turned to ice. She fought with wing and tailfeather against the wind, unwilling to hover for even a moment over the tainted tide that washed in from that island.

She hit the pebbly beach not with her feet but with her knees, gasping in lungfuls of the cold, brine-soaked air.

This was the place he had taken her. There, somewhere over dim and roiling waters, hunting her unseen in the billowing fog. While she thought--those last free thoughts--about the chill and the deadening wind and the lands that lay beyond the eastern ocean, beyond the oblivion of the mist, lands that she would never see.

At this point it's pretty clear that I'm not even doing the super-watered-down version of a NaNo...more like a "try slightly harder to write more than usual" month, like I did in October. So yeah, I'd like to bow out of this....whole idea. Don't even want to think about word count.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I'm currently pantsing so hard I've got pocket lint coming out of my ears. This is not like me. I always have a plan of some kind when I write, but this...
The actors of the romantic subplot that showed up unannounced in the fourth chapter are currently facing down each other at gun point and I have no idea where I'm going with that.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Today: 2k words
Not sure about the total. Probably 22k-ish

Managed to resolve the romantic drama without anyone getting shot - but not without shots being fired. The scene isn't over, but I'm done for the day. This could probably be a good scene in its own right, but the story isn't a romantic action comedy so I don't know that it really fits the mood I was going for. But, words are words. I'll enjoy it while it lasts and I'll cut it out later.