The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: NaNoWriMo

  • Rhythm, Routine, and Ass in the Chair

    I didn’t finish.

    Let’s get that out at the start. I didn’t reach 50K. But truth be told, I’m kind of ambivalent about it. I really wanted to reach that goal, but all things considered, this was a great NaNo experience.

    As one of my fellow Café contributors, R.L. Naquin, likes to say, it was about learning to write every day. In the past, that’s been a difficult routine for me to maintain, but I feel like I finally discovered the value of it this year. If you put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, every day, it starts to add up. Even the slow days count for something.

    (more…)

  • Failure and other F-Words

    Did I succeed or did I fail? It is a matter of perspective. Given my course load for grad school and the responsibilities of being a single parent, I set a small goal of 25,000 words for Nanowrimo. I managed that. So success?

    It doesn’t feel like it. It was tough watching other people’s word counts climb as I spent my time writing papers on thematic conflict and duality as a literary mechanism. It felt bad not making it write-ins, being on the outside of all the inside jokes.  Failure to meet a word count is bitter pill to swallow when your girlfriend is the municipal liaison, the person whose job is to badger people about their word count. Although in fairness to her, there was no badgering.

    I don’t like watching other people succeed at something, knowing I can’t do it myself. It builds a sort of artistic jealousy that is fairly common in writing. It is generally a good thing. Your friend sells a story and you think it could have been you. Another reveals a new book cover, and it could of been you. You use it to drive you. In a race, no one tries harder than the person in second. In this case, person after person finished writing a novel, and it could have been me.

    This isn’t competition, and I am happy for everyone who made it. Happiness and jealousy are often handmaiden’s in the arts. In the end, I just have to hope that the next couple of years with writing as a secondary focus to my education will be a worthwhile sacrifice, and that the experience will make me a better writer.

    I certainly hope so. As much as I have enjoyed my classes and think I am producing good literary criticism, my creative writing is getting left behind, and I don’t like it.

    The good news is that I think what I did writing of Heaven’s Edge is promising. It has a ways to go, but I think it has a chance to be a fun book. I look forward to finishing it, even without Nanowrimo.

  • The Post-NaNoWriMo Wrap-Up (Week Ending Dec. 15)

    http://www.nanowrimo.org

    It’s December, and that means the 2012 National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is officially at an end. To all the writers — both ours here at the cafe and those all over the world — who participated, this coming week will likely be one of reflection and relief.

    Now that the word sprints and write-ins are finished, it’s time for each of our writers in the Cafe to look back at the past month and take stock of what they have done. This week, our writers are going to give a post-NaNo report, summing up what this past month has meant for them.

    We hope your own NaNoWriMo experience was productive and inspiring. May your coming year be filled with more writing, editing, and — hopefully — publication!

    Until Next Week,

    The Cafe Management

  • NaNoWriMo Standings – Final Tally

    It’s December 1, and that means it’s over. We are finally finished (for better or worse) with  National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

    So let’s take a moment and look at the final tallies of those who participated. We had a lot of winners, and even those who didn’t hit 50,000 words should be proud of what writing they did finish. Every word is a victory.

    As of last night at midnight, here are our final standings. We’ve also asked our Confabulator Cafe writers to include either their last line, the last line they wrote, or just a really good line.

    Jessi Levine (58,381 words)

    Ashley M. Poland (55,339 words)

    Christie Holland (53,308 words) — Municipal Liaison

    Paul Swearingen (53,075 words)

    Ted Boone (52,341 words)

    Some people can’t be helped. They can’t escape their demons, their addictions, their needs and desires that society deems unhealthy or inappropriate. Some people never fit in.

    Jason Arnett (50,532 words)

    Not the actual last line of the book, but the last line I’ve written:

    Blood dripped off the heel of the hand and Albert had to be grateful he couldn’t feel what must have been tremendous pain.

    Aspen Junge (50,325 words)

    Sara Lundberg (50,198 words) — Municipal Liaison

    R.L. Naquin (50,009 words)

    Alma reappeared, looking flushed and excited. “Wonderful. Let’s begin!” Her eyes had a generous dose of crazy swirling around in them, and I worried she might pee herself in front of everyone. I kind of felt bad, in a way. She was such a pain in the ass, but she had no real idea of what she’d gotten herself into. And odds were excellent that I was about to ruin it all for her.

    I liked it better when I hated her. Feeling pity made my teeth hurt.

    Larry Jenkins (40,324 words)

    Idle hands may be the devil’s playground, but Nadine’s activities didn’t exactly speak to her virtues.

    Kevin Wohler (26,535 words)

    The Rat King began to laugh again, a helium-filled laugh that made me think of a cartoon more than a flesh and blood creature. I could see Abby continue to struggle, but his claw dug into her arm and held her tighter. I noticed that she was getting more and more agitated by the second, and as she struggled the scepter began to pulsate with energy.

    Jack Campbell, Jr. (25,651 words)

  • The Intermission After ‘Winning’

    Since last we met, I haven’t written one word on my NaNoWriMo novel. Not one.

    I’ve been thinking about it, working out some story problems and I sure haven’t been sitting on my hands. Instead, I went back and started editing (again!) and revising last year’s novel for passive-voice verbiage.

    Hoo boy. That’s been a LOT of work. I wrote about that on my blog on Wednesday.

    Why am I doing this? I don’t I’ve mentioned it here but I got feedback from the publisher I sent last year’s novel to ‘revise and resubmit’ it. Since I’m writing the sequel to that novel for this year’s NaNoWriMo, reaching the word count goal and then going back to edit made sense.

    Because I’m seeing a lot of things I can clean up besides just the passive stuff. And once that’s done then I can clean up the passive stuff in the current work and make everything better going forward.

    I’ll cover a lot of this in the postgame report post next week, and hopefully be able to tell you that I’ve finished the work.

    But making it to 50K was a big deal. It always is. Yes, I made it to that goal a couple hours before Christie did but only because she let me. The push between her and Ashley and me was a lot of fun and made it a good challenge to get me to that point. I might not have done it without those two working alongside me. I’m grateful for the motivation.

    So. That’s the update. Next week I’ll look back and give you my impressions of the entire month.

  • Dispatches from the Trenches – Week 4

    NaNoWriMo 2012This is it. The end of the war. And while many of our brave writers have already passed that imaginary line marking the end of their involvement in NaNoWriMo, I am looking at a word count that is just over halfway there.

    I will not finish my 50,000 word count by tomorrow.

    I’m not happy about this. But neither am I depressed. I finished NaNoWriMo last year, but failed to finish my novel. I was determined this year to spend the month editing and finishing last year’s manuscript. But, as you may know, I realized early on that the novel could not be salvaged. I needed to start over.

    So I decided to join in on NaNoWriMo this year. Again. One more time.

    (more…)

  • Downtime

    Image from http://www.caughtatwork.net

    So, obviously, I’m not doing a double NaNo. Or even the NaNo and a half, which was my revised plan.

    The logic behind the plan seemed pretty solid. My day job is to write this book. I should be writing 2k a day already. Everyone else works a day job, then does NaNo, so I should be able to do the same.

    Bzzzzt. Incorrect.

    There was a hole in my logic. The rest of my writer buds went to work or school and did their work there, then switched gears to do NaNo afterwards. I’m not saying it’s been easy for them. I’ve watched everyone sweat through this. The day only has so many hours, and several Lawrence writers pushed themselves so hard they finished before Thanksgiving. (Way to go, guys! I am so proud of  you all!)

    I did pretty well for the first two weeks. I might have finished the first 50k by Thanksgiving too if I hadn’t bitten off so damn much all at once. But I had no downtime. I worked on it all day, then I worked on it again at night. Every waking hour was either writing this book or thinking about the next scene. There was no switching gears for me. No refresh button.

    I lost my freaking mind. I shut off completely and barely wrote a word for nearly a week. So much for being way ahead of the NaNo word-count goals. It took a lot of days of not writing to get behind.

    Had I walked into this with a cool head and said “Hey, I have a book due soon. How convenient that NaNo is here and my writer buddies can help me finish it,” everything would have been fine. I’d have breezed right through the damn thing without breaking a sweat. But I had to go all manic and think I could conquer the world.

    So. Lesson learned. I’m fine now. I’ve got less than 8k words left, and three days to do it in. That’s only a little bit more than what I need to do on a regular work day. I’ll finish on time and walk away knowing my limits and how to organize a proper work day for myself so I can keep those habits forever.

    It’s almost over. Everyone else will go back to their regular lives, and I’ll still be doing NaNo. Every day. Every week. Every month.

    Because first NaNoWriMo taught me how to follow through, and now it’s taught me to stick within my limitations.

    I got this, now. I got this.

  • Looking for a Nap

    So, for the past few posts, I’ve been all over the place. I’ve been happy, I’ve been sad. Mostly this week I’ve just been exhausted.

    Last Tuesday I had my last day of filming for the Doctor Who spinoff I’ve been acting in all summer. It was bittersweet, because while the film shoot was a blast, I’m going to miss seeing those kids. Shameless self-promotion time here. The first episode has aired on youtube, Doctor Who: The Purging of Earth, go check it out. I’ll still be here in half an hour when you come back. I promise. (more…)

  • Escape from Hell is Nigh

    It’s been a weird month. Although I suppose writing a novel that takes place entirely in Hell could have something to do with that.

    It’s also been a stressful month, so at times it’s been figuratively Hell, as well as literally (literature-ally??)

    I knew going into November that it was going to be a tough one. December seemed very far away, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit back and relax again until then.

    I wasn’t too far wrong, although there’s been more relaxing than I originally thought. It’s just guilt-filled relaxation. The kind of relaxation plagued by panic – I have an eight page final exam due in a week and I haven’t started, I’m almost six thousand words behind on my novel, this house is a filthy mess and I’m losing my shit – so even as I’m relaxing, I’m freaking out.

    I’m almost there, though. Only a few more days of NaNo, and right now I’m back on track word count wise. I could write what I have left in one day if I had to.

    Then I can focus solely on my final for a few days before I spend all of December sleeping.

    Although I still have plenty of other responsibilities in December. My duties here at the Cafe, holidays, family, and I may have some responsibility to my novel to actually see it through to the end.

    It’s been a wild ride that has been loads of fun, but many times I was bucked off. In the spirit of NaNo, I kept getting back on the horse, writing more words, and I think somewhere in there might be an entertaining novel with an almost-plot when I’m done on Friday. I might have to cast it loose to my beta readers to see if it’s worth my time, and I will have to be prepared if they tell me it’s not.

    I’d like to keep writing to at least see poor Kit out of Hell, either way. The poor girl has been working awfully hard for the last 45,000 words. I’d hate to leave her on the brink of escape and never find out if she actually makes it or not.

    We’ll both enjoy the TGIO party once it’s done.

  • Pencils Down: You’re Living a Lie

    Stop.

    No matter where you are in your novel right now, just walk away. There’s no point in finishing. We were sold a bill of goods.

    Now you might be saying to yourself, “No, Larry. I’m almost there. 50K is within striking distance.”

    Well, I’m with you fellow sufferers. I’ve got the end goal in my sight, and I was all hyped for that final push until reality hit me in the face this morning. For those of you who haven’t ventured out into the world today (and I’m sure there are many of you, and can I just say you might want to mix in a shower every now and then) here’s how it went down.

    When I was first encouraged to go on this grand hateful adventure, it was my understanding that the final week would be magical. Scantily clad groupies would line the streets and cheer us on with words of encouragement and promises of . . . affection. It is a well-known fact that the opposite sex finds the supple, sloth-like physique of us writer folk irresistible, and I was ready to claim my just rewards. I had, after all, spent countless hours not at the gym, so I was due.

    Having just returned home from walking my children to school, I am sad to report the streets of my neighborhood were largely devoid of anything overtly sexy. (I exclude myself from this sample group, of course.) It is my concern that this may not be a localized phenomenon, and if that is the case, why are any of us killing ourselves over this?

    If we are not writing for glory, sex, and the vanquishing of our enemies, then what is wrong with us? Is it possible we need to recalibrate our goals?

    I say we put a pin in that for now. No need to do anything drastic.

    On the off chance that this morning was just a fluke, I’m going to cobble a few words together and see if the afternoon provides better results.

    You, though. You should just quit. Groupies love a quitter.