That’s as far as I’ve gotten in my NaNoWrimo project so far, occasionally stopping to rest my keyboarding fingers and be stupefied that the PlayStation Network actually has Trine and Braid (both were released earlier on PC, and both games are pretty freakin’ awesome). The word count that I’ve got right now is 75% of what I’d be expected to have right now if I were going to make the 50,000-word quota at the end of the month. Realistically, I don’t think I’m going to make it that far, but I’m not going to quit this time because I (think that I) have some good ideas going. I’m thinking 37,500 words would be a respectable stopping point for me. I don’t expect my book to exceed that many words, even with padding and other unscrupulous word-count-boosting techniques.
I’ve pushed the word count on my NaNoWriMo project to over 9,000 (insert picture of Vegeta crushing his scouter with his bare hands here). I’m still behind my daily goal of about 12,000, though…I was feeling ill yesterday and went to bed at 9 PM, unusual for me for a Friday, when I can usually go to about 11 PM without having to go to sleep. I guess tomorrow, I’ll have to get up at 5 AM or something to bump my word count up. I hate to have to resort to word tricks to artificially inflate my score, but if I get more than 5,000 words behind on this (which is likely, given my weekday schedule), I may have no choice. I’m going to try to finish this year, for sure. I’ll worry about joining up my disjointed conversations and scenes later, after the initial month has passed.
Okay, so maybe eschewing my driving exams to save a few bucks by riding public transportation has hit a tiny snag. The SEPTA strike (they’re calling it a “service interruption”) has put a chokehold on traffic all over the Philadelphia area. I missed work yesterday for an unrelated reason (one of the trains caught fire at a station that my normal train always passes), and I don’t know if it’s got anything to do with the larger traffic problems, but I was so frustrated by it that I lost a lot of my motivation to do anything today. Thankfully, tomorrow is Friday, so I’ll get a chance to cool down and unwind with some fresh(?) story ideas. NaNoWriMo entry is currently at 6,600 words, so I’m behind where I want to be right now. Guess I’ll pour some extra typing power into my weekend session to get back on track…
The first 5,000 words on a NaNoWriMo project used to be the toughest for me. The first time I attempted writing one two years ago, I didn’t make it to that point until day 6, and I don’t think I was able to write any more after that. This time, I managed to cross that plateau before the end of day 3. It helps that I did a big chunk of my writing (2,500 words) on Sunday, and filled in the rest later. My novel-in-the-works currently looks like a bunch of scenes barely strung together by dialogue and line breaks, but I plan to flesh it out and connect them together after everything’s been verified…if I survive that long.
The other secret to my success? I can type really fast.
Less than two weeks until the next edition of National Novel Writing Month, according to my calendar. Why should I care about a big time-waster like that since I didn’t participate last year, you say? This year, I have time (and a definitive plan) on my side this time. Rather than attempting to solely pad my word count to the required 50,000 at night, I’m going to attempt to use the small window that I have in the daytime to put my fast-typing skills to work. I’ll also worry about the actual clean-up (you know, editing it so that it actually makes sense) once the contest has concluded. Then, and only then, will I post my piece of cr–I mean, my work of art for the whole world to see! *nervous chuckle*
Category: Literature
Author: WillyFourEyes
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Tags: nanowrimo 