Tag Archives: Word count

NaNoWriMo 2015 Day 30: The End is Nigh

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I hope everybody had a safe, sane, and happy Thanksgiving weekend.  If you don’t celebrate the Day of the Turkey, I hope you had a good weekend regardless.

Welp, it’s the last day of NaNoWriMo and I  have not finished Secret Book.  I have written 15,250 words this month, which is more than I wrote on the thing in quite a while, so I don’t consider it a failure at all.   My total words come out to 94,997.

According to my NaNoWriMo stats, at the rate I went this month, I will finish on February 7, 2016.  Maybe.  Maybe sooner, if I push myself through December.  I’m starting to see the links in this story (actually, it’s two stories that converge, then break apart again), and that perks me up a little.  It’s like building something; at first, it’s just a jumble of parts, but when you get to a certain point, you start to see the finished product emerging.

Just stack those over there; we'll have this done in a jiffy.

Just stack those over there, Nigel; we’ll have this done in a jiffy.

Photo: Elizabeth West

I don’t think I’ll do NaNoWriMo to finish something this complicated again.  Tunerville had the distinct advantage of being somewhat simplistic; it’s just a straightforward urban fantasy and I could fly by the seat of my pants throughout.

Remember this guy?  Like him.  

Remember this guy?  Kinda like him.

Image: circuswarehouse.com 

So now there is a month left to go before New Year’s Day.  I shall lurk a bit and see if I can finish the draft by then.  I’ll keep posting the increased word count (I made a cool spreadsheet) so watch the counter on my homepage.  You’ll know when I’m done.  Hell, they’ll probably hear me scream all the way in London.  I still have a couple of vocabulary posts to go, so expect those upcoming.

Thank you for sticking with me through the lamest NaNoWriMo of all time.  I PROMISE I WILL FINISH.

Now I shall leave you lovely people and go watch The Walking Dead.  Here is a video of a dog who feels my pain at having to get up to go to work after a long weekend.

NaNoWriMo 2015 Day 19: Boost!

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Word count: 1,873

Holy marathon, Batman, I finished the most annoying scene ever.  It sucks like a giant Dyson from space, but that’s okay.  I just repeat my mantra for pushing through a first draft:  I can fix it later.

Possibly influenced by Scarlett O'Hara.

Possibly influenced by Scarlett O’Hara.

Plus, I broke the 90,000-word mark.  Yay me!  \0/

This book will need to go through several rewrites and about a zillion edits before I’m anywhere close to ready for any beta readers.  In fact, I think I’ll probably have to start on the Rose’s Hostage sequel next, or that poor thing will never get done.

Our bizarre 1960s video for tonight–a cinema snack bar advertisement.  Anyone besides me think that peanut at the beginning looks a little…..protruding?

NaNoWriMo Day 30 – FINISHED!!!!!!

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Word count – 7,266.  Yes, you read that right.

Final word count  – 76,212.

I AM FINISHED.  The first draft of Tunerville is done!

I wrote all day and my hands are killing me.  There is a lot of rewriting to do, and I still have some stuff I’d like to add.  But the rough draft is complete.  It has a beginning, a middle and an end.

Thanks very much to everyone who encouraged me to do NaNoWriMo and for those who were kind enough to comment.   For those who participated, I hope your work went well, even if you didn’t finish.   Keep on going.  There’s no reason to stop now!

Now go celebrate!

 

 

 

 

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NaNoWriMo Day 29 – One Day Left

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Word count – 1,382.

Ugh, my WordPress screen is different.  I hate it.

I don’t know if I’m going to finish this book tomorrow.  It’s doubtful.  My total for the NaNoWriMo 2012 is only 23,522 words altogether.  But the book is almost finished, and so I consider it a success.  That’s what I wanted NaNo to do for me this year.

I’m not making excuses, but it’s very hard for me to write when I don’t have other stuff going on.  For most people, that would be heaven.  For me, it sucks.  Not having a job means that instead of thinking about writing, I’m thinking about not having a job, what’s going to happen if I can’t find one, where I should look next, etc. etc. ad infinitum forever and ever.  Makes it really hard to concentrate on anything else except all the things that are making me miserable.

I’m going to try and finish the book before the holiday gets here.  Then I’m going to sit on it for a while, maybe a couple of weeks, before I begin rewriting.  By NaNoEdMo in March, I hope to have at least a second or third draft done.

Here’s a guy who didn’t think his strategy through very well.  WARNING: Spider, but you can barely see it so it’s not very scary.

 

 

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NaNoWriMo Day 7 – Back on Track!

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Day 7.

Word count –

 

1,958!

 

I finished a new scene, a pivot point before the third act.  Not only that, but there are things that were vaguely contradictory that are now beginning to work themselves out.

In a book where there are speculative elements, your world rules have to be very clear in order to allow suspension of disbelief.  You must set them up in the beginning, and not deviate from them.  It doesn’t matter how outlandish the world rules are.   If you present them as truth, and keep to them, the reader will be able to accept what happens in the story in the context of those rules.

You’re just dying to know what this story is about, aren’t you?  I don’t dare divulge it at this point.  Maybe once it’s finished and I start querying it.

If I told you, I’d have to kill you.

Image:  Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Since I started NaNo, and it actually seems to be working, I have come up with a plan.  If I can finish this book by the end of the month, and hoping like hell that even worse things don’t happen in my life (pleez no moar!), then I can get the first edit done by February.  If all goes well, I can quite possibly have it ready to query by the time spring rolls around.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PROMISE ME YOU WILL NOT QUERY A NANO BOOK WITHOUT EDITING!

Sorry, but so many agency screeners get hit by crappy first drafts, and in January, New Year’s resolutions (“I’m gonna dust off that old thing and send it in this year!”), or so I’m told.  You really should be presenting no less than your best, polished work.

Time to go watch X-Files reruns for the evening.  Later.

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