50,007!

I did it! I made the National Novel Writing Month word count goal of 50k. Of course my story probably sucks (I have not read it) and it is in no way finished, but I got to end with a sex scene and I made the goal with two days to spare.

Gee, now what? I guess life returns to normal, whatever normal is. But hey, I can now add novelist to my head stone, huh? Oh, feel free to send gifts of congratulations and I will accept them graciously ;)

Buy Nothing Day

It's that time of year again. The time of year when people all over the planet add to their personal credit card debt and forestall their retirements by purchasing a bunch of useless crap that no one really needs that will end up in our overburdened landfills or on your tacky neighbor's front lawn for their weekly yard sale. Don't be one of these people, don't wait in line in front of K- Wal- Cheap plastic stuff- mart at 3 am waiting to get $10 off the latest video game console/nose hair clipper/penis enlarger. Just say no to stuff and hello to nothing. Buy nothing, it's a small gesture, but what the hell, do something different this year, will ya?

It's All Down Hill from Here

or so they say. Last night, I cleared the 31k mark with my NaNo novel and I'm starting to run out of ideas. My novel is nonlinear in that I go from present, to the past for back story, to the present again. Now that I'm at 60 single-spaced (someone told me I was crazy for doing single- and not double-spaced) pages I am having a hard time remembering what came before. No, I do not have an outline. I feel like I just met a ton of people with a bunch of different life stories and I am required to remember everything, names included. Hmm, that's exactly what I've done. Next year, I think I'll do this a bit differently...

Half way there!

For those following my speed noveling project, I have crossed the halfway mark both word count-wise and month-wise. At this very moment, I have 26,500 words on the electronic equivalent of paper. On Friday, a nasty cold tried to strike me down but I perservered. Of course I missed a gorgeous weekend and a day and a half at work, but I keep the words flowing from my sinus-achey head. Tonight, I am aiming for another 1,500 words to add to my total. I will be victorious!

NaNoWriMo--Day 12

Day 12 and I'm already at 20,721 words. Pretty darn good considering that I woke up sick yesterday morning and am still suffering today. All I want to do is sleep. I'm. So. Tired. So today I am writing in fits and spurts because I have only enough stamina for 300 words or so at a time. Fortunately I have about a 2000 word lead that I plan on hanging on to, thank you very much.

Other than that, I am heartsick that my beloved city is burning. No, not San Diego, Paris, silly. And we thought only stupid Amerikans rioted in the streets these days (ours are usually sports and beer induced, however). Well, it seems that inequality is a global pandemic (forget the bird flu) and the French are not immune. I remember even back to my first trip to France, sometime in the early eighties, that there was a ton of tension between those of Northern African descent and the native-born. But this new situation is even more ridiculous: the oppressed are native-born! Nationalism rears it's ugly head, again and no country is immune.

Word Count, My Captivating Nemesis

Day 7 of NaNoWriMo. I am churning out words at a respectable rate. At this point, I have 12,388 words committed to paper. Well, to computer hard drive and numerous back-up devices, anyway. Not that I expect my sweet little ibook to go belly up, but if there was an evil Gatesian plot to wave a gigantic magnet over anything Apple looming on the horizon, then the success of such a plot could be the end of my noveling aspirations. Of course I am thinking of changing my middle name to Repetitive Stress Injury, but hey, what NanoWriMo contender isn't?

(A special hello to my pal, Teresa-- I miss you!)

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Well, it seems my novel really wanted to get out into the world. Yesterday, the first day of National Novel Writing Month, I wrote 4,152 words! The daily average to stay on target for the 50,000 word total by the end of the month is 1,667 words. My personal goal was 2,000. Double plus is not too shabby for a newbie to NaNo. I am worried about losing ground, though, as today I may not be able to get much writing in due to work and other commitments. Ah, the life of a struggling novelist :)