Lack of progress

Well, still nothing is happening with the novel. I really really can't stand it. I look at it and it's just a pile of meaningless words that do nothing for me.

I think I need to take out some anger on it. Watch this space.

Apathy

Complete and utter apathy to the 'novel'.

How hard can it be? Write a load of rubbish, and try and make 50,000 words with it. But now my rubbish seems like even more rubbish (because that's all it is), and I just don't have it in me to put more rubbish to paper. Or keyboard. Or any form of format at all.

Overall, that's not a healthy position to take for this project.

At least this blog makes for better reading than the 'novel', even with its startling irregularity.

Hoorah, I wrote something that isn't a total pile of tripe.

Apologies

I apologise for the total lack of updates as of late. Things have been busy and stressful and I've been prioritising my work.

As to the NaNoWriMo novel, I know i will not get 50,000 words done by the end of Nov. I will however, continue to aim for 50,000 words, this blog continuing until I reach it.

The plot is lagging a bit, and I don't see how i can stretch it out to 50,000 words. However, I've had an idea that will allow me to do so. I will wrap up the current plot at 25,000, then start a new story, with the same characters, possibly a prequel, or a sequel that follows a different adventure or mission.

Therefore reaching 50,000 words, in two linked stories.

Status

I apologise for the pretty much silence over the past week. Personal issues arose as a result of the circumstances I outlined earlier. As a result, I do not feel that I will be able to finish NaNoWriMo this year.

However, I am still aiming to complete the 50,000 word novel, just not in time for the end of November. Who knows, I may still make it, but right now I'm not pushing it. I have been able to get some more words out recently, not as many as I'd like, but it's a start.

Drama Stall

Ok, I know there has been a very small number of posts to this blog as of late. Unfortunately work on the novel has stalled, which is a very bad thing as I'm really far behind and wondering if I'll get it done in time.

The reason for the stall is complicated. It started with writers block, moved on to just not being around, managed to get a few words done on Monday, but has culminated in a police raid. Yes. A raid on the house I was staying in.

Nothing came of it, nothing was found, no one was arrested (I was the only one in), but suffice to say it has stressed me further to a point of total non-writing. I'm going to try again tomorrow, but I can't promise anything.

I really don't need this.

Writer's block

Yep. Writers block hit me. Hopefully it will go away soon. I want to get this written, but suddenly the characters and plot have just gone 'blah' on me. Not happy at this turn of events, but what can you do?

I am determined to finish this!

Words written: 172

Hot chocolates: 1

Back on form

Well, after a really busy day yesterday, and a rather busy one today, I am now back on some sort of track with enough words written today to mean that if I average out my wordcount for the last week of NaNoWriMo, I will finish on time.

I have hot chocolate again. Hurrah. Nothing yet on the podcast front, no one has posted any questions. Grr. In the event of bugger all, I may just make a podcast anyway.

So, slightly more than a week of NaNoWriMo. How do I feel? Pretty good actually. The plot has reached a point of 'Hmm, where next?', but I've been really good at throwing in new ideas on the spot, so I'm thinking all will be good.

Words written: 1790
Spelling mistake of the day: Instead of "He looked carefully at it." I wrote "He looked carefully at tit."

Quote of the day: "A split second before it hit him, he looked rather surprised. After it hit him he didn't look anything other than dead."

Ask the Author

Ok, so I got nothing done today. Tuesdays is my busy day. However, next week is reading week, and so I'll have a lot of free time (though of course I'll be reading and doing assessments. Yes.)

However, I'm thinking of starting a weekly 'Ask the Author' podcast. So please, comment with your questions and the like, and I will do my best to answer them, no matter how absurd or past the point they are.

Number of words written today: 0

Number of crazy podcast ideas: 1

Mugs

On a lighter note, this is why I shouldn't leave mugs on my desk. Yes, I still have one hanging about.

Day's report + thoughts

Already gone over the minimum word count for the day. This is good as I'm not in tonight and plan to have an early night. This also frees me up for the next few hours as I have some rather important stuff to do.

The plot seems to be hitting a bit of a trough at the moment, I'm not quite sure where I want to take them next. I'm sure I'll work it out though.

I was thinking today, I'm writing more than an essay a day's worth of words. That's quite scary.

Words written: 1632
Number of A4 pages it would take up if printed: 18

QOTD: Mink looked at Timor, a serious query on his face. He wiped it off carefully.

Update

There we go. Hit the minimum word count for the day. Happy now that that's out of the way. Probably not a good way to be thinking about it considering I'm only a fifth of the way through. Things will work out though, I've still got some ideas.

I've noticed how I come up with some quite plot-changing ideas on the spot. I wonder what kind of a feel that will give to the novel when it's finished.

Words written today: 1588

2nd QOTD: "Run back the other way and distract them while we get away." "Well screw that, I'm staying with you guys."

One fifth.

I have made it to 10k, so I'm a fifth of the way there. The story is flowing pretty easy at the moment, and I hope to write another 500 words today, just so I can hit the day's target (even though in overall word count I'm ahead).

I also have an essay to write, which is intruding in my thoughts. It's not like it's due for a few weeks, but I've begun, and the ideas for Doors to Nowhere (the new working title) are clashing and making it hard to type.

And I've run out of hot chocolate. But I still hit 10k.

Number of mugs STILL on desk: 2

QOTD: "Uh... two hundred light years. No that can't be right, I forgot to carry the one..." [...] "Two thousand light years."

9k

That's right, I am two words short of 9k. I was hoping to get to 10k today, and be two days ahead of myself, but the words weren't flowing near the end, and so I stopped.

It's certainly an interesting thing, trying to keep a plot going, trying to give enough detail, watching that you don't break continuity, trying to keep everyone in character, making sure there's enough action but not too much, making sure there's enough dialogue, etc...

It's far harder than you'd think actually, and remember, I'm writing all this without editing, I don't have to worry *too* much if it doesn't all line up. But I want it to, because I want to go back over it all at the end.

Writing without a plot is also very interesting. For example, I literally came up with a whole new branch on the spot just because I needed a very sudden way to break up an argument. I'm nearly a fifth of the way in though, and ideas are starting to come to me, I'm not worried about this running out of steam. Not yet.

Total words written today: 1857 (including that written 'last night' at 1am)

Hot chocolates: 1

Number of mugs on desk: 2 (including the one that was left from the last hot chocolate I drunk)

Number of clean mugs I own: 0

Paraphrased quote of the day (because it's all on my switched off laptop): "That was the part where you were supposed to tell me I'm good at my job." Timor grinned nastily, "I know, I'm not one for convention."

Update to previous

I was up a little later than expected and managed to get a bit more written.

Words: 384
Number of plates of pasta tuna bake eaten to supplement strength: 1
Quote: "I'd still shoot you if I could." A grin from Mink, "I know. The feeling's mutual."

Status update.

So I made 7,141 words just now. And it's only 21:05. Just hit a roll I guess. I think I've screwed up the progress report script, it has a few issues with the way it calculates things. It thinks it will take me 182 days to finish. Which it better not.

I have a feeling that this blog will still be useful after NaNoWriMo, as I plan to go back and edit it all and see where things go from there, and of course I'll keep regular updates in this blog.

Words Written: 1762

Number of Hot Chocolates: 0

Number of Mugs left from previous day's writing: 1

Quote from today's writing: Finally he pressed 'Y' and 'N' together. The scanner's screen promptly went blue, displaying the message "STOP ERROR: USER IS AN IDIOT."

Playlist Take 1

Well, I was sitting here writing (aiming for 7,000 words tonight), and then I realised I mean to post a picture of my playlist.

So without further ado, the playlist that I listen to when writing. I'm sure I will add to this, and I'll post pictures for comparison later.

Today's writing.

Well, it's only 20:30, but I don't think I'm going to get any more writing done tonight, my brain is tired, so I think I'm going to leave it for the day. I did get some done though. Much less than the recommended minimum per day (1666), but then I did do a lot yesterday, so I'm not too worried.. yet.

Words written: 552.

Mugs of hot chocolate drunk: 1

Quote of the Day: "Give me one damn good reason why I shouldn't just shoot you now." "You haven't got a gun."

Further information

Just thought I'd make a quick entry explaining a few things about Desolace.

I have no 'plan', I'm writing purely as I go along. I generally have an idea of what's going to happen in the next page and that's it. Seriously. Possibly not the best idea, but it works for me.

The style I'm writing in is very much inspired by Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and Star Trek, and while it's not meant to be a Trek parody, many bits do turn out that way due to my inspiration.

After NaNoWriMo (by which point I hope to still be writing), I will go back and with the aid of my partner, edit the story immensely, sorting out any mistakes and the like. The purpose of NaNoWriMo is basically just to write and write. At least in my mind it is. Editing comes later if you wish.

I have made the statement to the right regarding copyright because I don't know where this could go, last thing I would want is for someone to pick it up off the net and try and publish it. Of course, that could still happen, but thanks to resources such as archive.org, and blogger's archives, if I can prove I wrote the story first and wrote the statement to the right, it serves me a lot better in the long run.

As to my photography, I don't mind what people do with it, as long as it adheres to the terms of the CC license it's under.

The Beginning

NaNoWriMo has already started. It started on the 1st November (i.e. yesterday) at midnight local time.

This blog is to categorise my experiences during NaNoWriMo, and also to record how many cups of coffee I drink to keep up. Which at present will be quite hard as I do not have any coffee in the flat.

I discovered NaNoWriMo through a friend, at about 11pm on the 31st October. I was at first hesitant to join in, as I was well aware of my university commitments. However, after an hour or two of deliberation, I signed up.

I began writing at about 1am GMT and by the time I was finished at around 3am (it took longer due to issues in the flat) I had written the first 2000 words, and as the next day (well, the same day) was my day off, I wrote another 2827 words then.

My word count is now up to 4827 as can be seen by the handy bar on the right, as I have written nothing today.

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this yet, but NaNoWriMo is actually making me more productive in terms of university work. Instead of just procrastinating about everything, I actually want to finish this novel, but because of my university work, I ensure that it's done first, so I can work on Desolace (the working title of my novel) with no worries that an assignment will be forgotten.


To finish, I thought I'd attach a working picture of my desk. The desktop on the left is that which I listen to my playlists with, and am typing out this entry, whereas the laptop on the right is where my NaNoWriMo work is done. I also plan on keeping a record of how many encrusted pieces of cutlery or plates are left as I slowly go insane to keep myself writing.