The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: NaNoWriMo

  • Moral Victories

    We approach the end of November and my colleagues are hitting their goals. Every day, it seems a new person in our region wins Nanowrimo. I am very proud of them, but also sad for myself.

    It isn’t that I am doing terribly. When I set out on my Nanowrimo tour of duty, this year, I told myself I wanted to write at least 25,000 words. I hit that goal today. However, it will make me a little sad if I am unable to hit 50,000 and get that winner’s bar.

    Writing, and life, are about little goals, and little accomplishments. While most of us aren’t getting any immediate financial gain out of Nanowrimo, although some write with their sights set on publication, there is a lot of satisfaction in saying that you did it. You prevailed against all the other distractions and managed to meet a goal.

    It’s not just any goal. You can’t write 50,000 words in one day, or even one week. It requires a constant commitment sustained over a period of time. That is what life is really about.

    This year, and maybe the next, as well, I know it will be hard to make 50,000 words. There are too many books to read and too many academic papers to write. If I counted all of the academic writing I have done this month, I would easily be beyond 50,000.

    That is part of the price of my master’s degree, to delay my writing career in some way in hopes that the next couple of years will take my writing to an entirely new level. The Nanowrimo after-party will be bittersweet this year. All of the winners will be proud, and I will be proud of them. I will think to the future, to next month and the finishing of my novel, and to all the subsequent Novembers that are bound to be more fruitful.

    Sluggish from leftover turkey, and eyes red from staring at a computer monitor too long, I will be thankful for the experience of Nanowrimo, and all that writing has given me.

    On top of that, I think the novel is going well. My character has had some setbacks, and he has come back more pissed and sarcastic than ever, working around a corrupt system in order to find justice. I am interested to see how it goes for him, and if he gets the girl, who happens to be a nun.

  • NaNoWriMo Standings – Week 4

    It’s Saturday at the Confabulator Cafe. Many of our writers are participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so let’s take a moment and give a special shout-out to all our writers who have already crossed the 50,000 word mark! Great job Jessi, Paul, Christie, Jason, and Ashley. Keep writing!

    As of last night at midnight, here are our standings:

    Jessi Levine (54,598 up from 47,710 words)

    Paul Swearingen (52,899 up from 47,599 words)

    Christie Holland (50,752 up from 33,473 words) — Municipal Liaison

    As we’re lead down more stairs, I want to kill the architect of the building.  I realize that it’s a government building.  It’s a place of business and not a place of entertainment and all, but this is ridiculous.  All the walls are the same color.  And not a color like white, which is boring but at least clears your head.  No.  The walls are an ugly shade of light grey.  It’s a color that drains your will to live and makes you forget what the sun looks like.  Combine it with the floors, an awful grey speckled linoleum, and you don’t even need a torture room for this facility.  Just let someone sit in a room , all by himself, with only the walls to look at, and he’ll be ready to spill his guts for you in a matter of hours.

    Ashley M. Poland (50,713 up from 34,239 words)

    “They’re really fucking fast,” Rod says. He has wet bits of Val all down the left side of his face. For the first time JQ sees the slash along the side of his neck, and the blood gone dry in the hollow below his lip.

    Jason Arnett (50,388 up from 36,805 words)

    This is life, Albert. And I’m a badass thief who’s dealt with this kind of person a lot more than you have. I’ve always been successful at this sort of negotiation.

    Always? Never had a moment where you didn’t see something coming? Never been surprised?

    Ted Boone (43,076 up from 28,061 words)

    Einstein’s theory of special relativity had nothing on human emotion when it came to time dilation.

    R.L. Naquin (38,179 up from 35,546 words)

    “The purifying ritual, technically, is for show. That’s all rituals are, you know. Show. They help the user focus her energy so she can tap into the magic. If doing the chicken dance for five minutes is what you wanted to do first, it would work, as long as you concentrated on it while you did it. You’d look pretty stupid, though.”

    “I make the chicken dance look elegant, I’ll have you know.”

    She patted my hand. “Next time you’re in a church ceremony, feel free to substitute, then. I’m sure everyone will be impressed by your razzle dazzle.”

    I pictured myself flapping my arms during the baptism of a friend’s baby. “You know, sometimes it’s probably best to conform.”

    Aspen Junge (36,712 up from 25,630 words)

    Sara Lundberg (35,311 up from 24,053 words) — Municipal Liaison

    She darted behind one of the heaping piles just in time for another shit cannonball to hit. Shit made a very distinctive noise when hitting more shit, she decided. Something like the sound of taking a dump in an outhouse or portable crapper. The long drop and then the moist, liquidy sound of shit on shit and piss.

    Larry Jenkins (34,635 up from 23,716 words)

    With a quick flick of my wrist, I sent the blade of the shovel arcing in a semi-circle and brought it down on top of Scott’s head. I’d intended it to be a gentle love tap, more of a warning than anything else, but I am not the most graceful of ninjas.

    Kevin Wohler (26,069 up from 21,948 words)

    Jack Campbell, Jr. (22,050 up from 12,430 words)

    I helped myself to the real scotch. It didn’t burn near as much this time. Old habits came back easy, like riding a bike. You never forgot how to be a lush.

  • The First Finish Line

    What’s the most wonderful time of the year? During NaNoWriMo when I cross that first finish line.

    It’s the end of week 3 of NaNoWriMo and hey – look! I broke 50,000 words on Wednesday.

    While I’m VERY proud of having done this for the second year in a row, I’m not done writing. My plan for this book was to get a good novel-length story told as quickly as possible in order to go back and edit it into something I could be even more proud of.

    So I’m not done writing.

    But because I finished early and there’s no one clamoring for this book (it’s a sequel to last year’s) I can slow down into a nice rhythm of writing about 2K per day. If I do that I will have written about 66,000 words for the month. And that would make me very, very proud indeed.

    See, NaNo teaches you the mechanics of how to be a writer:

    1. Sit down. (Or stand up if you’re Ernest Hemingway.)
    2. Put your fingers on the keys.
    3. WRITE. Make your daily word count and don’t whine about it.

    Everything else, EVERYthing else, is secondary. Just get in the habit of writing, of putting one word after another into a line while making some sort of sense.

    I’ll get more into this in the post-game when that comes up, but my biggest headaches so far this month have been making sure I don’t head-hop and trying to put some variety in my sentences, structure-wise.

    But see, that’s just whining.

    I’m enjoying the fact that I wrote 50,000 words so quickly, just as quickly as last year. I’m very happy with my story and how it’s coming along. I like it and it’s getting exciting. Stuff is happening. My goal this year was to write more in the month than I did last year. At one point I was on track to write nearly 75,000 words. I don’t thing I’ll make that but I could conceivably hit 70K+.

    So I want to reward myself. I’m allowing that I have some other work that needs to be done now that this major milestone has been reached:

    1. I have to revise last year’s novel for passivity and resubmit it.
    2. There are plans to be made for the coming calendar year in regards to writing.
    3. And yeah, some downtime.

    It’s been a great NaNoWriMo so far, but it’s not over. I’ve got seven days left. A week is a long time. That’s at least 14,000 words.

    Pretty sure I’m gonna make the goal I set for myself.

  • Dispatches from the Trenches – Week 3

    Although the NaNoWriMo tradition suggests that every day should be filled with writing, it’s Thanksgiving in America. I know this day will be spent with my family. I’m even writing this post in advance, so I won’t be distracted on the big day.

    NaNoWriMo 2012

    For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been posting my correspondence from the front lines of NaNoWriMo. As the battle to finish my story rages on, I’ve shared my triumphs and losses. But not today. Instead, I want to take a break from the war on words and talk about why this holiday really means a lot to me.

    We all have our particular Thanksgiving traditions. When I was a kid, Thanksgiving always meant an extra trip to church, followed by a big family dinner that my mom would prepare — often skipping out on the church service because the turkey needed to be basted or the potatoes needed to be mashed.

    I remember rushing home from church to catch as much as possible of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. For me, the holiday season couldn’t start until I saw all the balloons and floats — and, of course, the jolly old man himself, Santa Claus — march down New York City’s 34th Street.

    Macy's Believe MeterThese days, Thanksgiving is a time for me to share with my wife and family. My wife and I wake up early on Thanksgiving morning. We have coffee while we watch the parade and slowly get ready for visiting family members.

    She and I still delight to see our favorite childhood characters represented on floats and as gigantic balloons. We love to see the Muppets, and the characters from Sesame Street. She cries when the Radio City Rockettes perform. We still wave to Santa at the end of the parade.

    Why? You might say it’s because we’re still children at heart. We still believe in magic. And when the Believe Meter in front of Macy’s goes from “Imagine” to “Believe,” our hearts swell with happiness and tears come to our eyes because we believe in the promise of hope that comes with this season.

    I think that’s what I’m most thankful for — this year and every year. I’m thankful I have a wife who shares my hopes and dreams about the future. I’m thankful that she is a writer, too, and understands my need to tell stories. I’m thankful she still believes in magic. And I’m thankful that she refuses to grow up, even as we grow older together.

  • Dinosaurs and Sushi Bars

    NaNoWriMo, day 21,537,832.

    Here is a plastic giraffe in a tuxedo. Squids have six arms, but sea monkeys only have two.

    So tired. The overhead lights beat down on my head. The sofa cushion has permanently taken on the shape of my ass.

    The words have dried up. I’m at the climax scene. I have to kill someone I love, and my heart is breaking. I don’t want to go on.

    Thanksgiving is almost here. I don’t have to cook. I made reservations. But I still must clean. They’re coming here afterward. I can’t let my family know that we live like this.

    I write a few words. I hunt down all the moldy things in the fridge. I scrub the crumbs and coffee stains off the counters.

    I need to write the words, but we also need food. The sound of my own voice is sharp, and I cackle maniacally at something the cashier says. She and the bagger exchange worried looks. I hope what she said was funny. I’ve already forgotten what it was.

    I have an idea for another story. I could skip over this monstrosity and work on something new, right?

    I have a new kitten. She’s very sweet and loving. My leg looks like it’s been through a meat grinder. Because she loves me so.

    I’m tired. My white board is almost empty. Only a few index cards left. Maybe it’s not too late to save my beloved character. Why does anyone have to die?

    The ice cream is all gone. I ate it. Sorry.

    Alfalfa sprouts.

  • The Magical Week Three

    Last week I talked about how my word count would have to suffer while I put the rest of my life back in order.

    Well most things are now ordered, so I am pushing hard to get back on track with word count. With Turkey Day being this week, I’ll have both down time and busy time, so I should be able to keep on pace.

    I am a little terrified, however, because I just got my final exam for my grammar class, and it’s due by December 3rd. And it looks HARD.

    Anyways. That’s where I’m at in life and word count. Let’s talk about much more pleasant things. Like where I’m at in my story.

    I just have to say, that regardless of the year, the third week of Nanowrimo always ends up being magical. My story is picking up speed. The words are easy to write. My characters are developing themselves. Unexpected plot twists emerge in each word sprint. This. The things that start to happen in Week Three are what I love about being a writer.

    It just takes two weeks of hammering your head against a wall to get to this magical point.

    (more…)

  • Don’t Lose Sleep Over it: Oh, Wait. You have No Choice.

    All right, so we’re nineteen days in and here’s the biggest takeaway I’ve learned so far: NaNo is a jealous and vengeful god. If you ever want to have a relationship with something that does not give a damn about the way you feel, I encourage you to participate in NaNoWriMo.

    Don’t get me wrong, the people involved are great, and it’s the support and camaraderie that suckers us in year after year and convinces us that we’re having fun in this collective misery. And I think we are having fun, at least most of us are, but I can’t help but wonder if we’re not the best judges of what constitutes a good time.

    You know how when you’re really tired even the lamest joke can sound funny?

    I think that’s where a lot of us are right now. We’re teetering on the brink of exhaustion, but it’s a shared experience, so that makes it somehow better. I, for one, have only hazy memories of the previous eighteen days. But I also get a general sense of warmth when I try to recall this month, so I’m sure I’ll be on board again when next November rolls around.

    (more…)

  • Days Late and Dollars Short

    It has been a stressful, busy month, and I apologize for this post being a day late. I’ve been behind on my NaNoWriMo novel, as I expected might happen. I possibly have one of the lowest word counts of anyone within our region. Still, I haven’t given up, and in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think I am doing too badly.

    As I write this, I am at just over 19,000 words. That isn’t near where I would like to be, but is actually pretty good, considering. This year, I set a sort of unofficial goal for myself of 25,000 words. I should make that pretty easily. Perhaps I can finish the rest of the novel during Winter Break.

    The writing itself is going pretty smooth. Things are starting flesh out, and every time I think I don’t know where I am going next, the book takes a bit of a twist. Right now, I am working on an interaction between my investigator, Mac, and a young hacker named Pin in the vein of William Gibson’s console cowboys. Pin has stumbled upon a way to hack into the spinal chips that provide the residents of Heaven’s Edge with their personalized environmental experiences. Pin has been pushing it farther than anyone else dared dream, hacking into the last sensory moments of executed convicts. Mac has realized what Pin has been up to and is hoping Pin might be able to use his talents to get Mac a lead on the dead man in the penthouse.

    I still think it will be a short novel when it is completed, but I am happy to see the story coming together in ways I hadn’t previously considered. I know how this book will probably end and how Halo’s Slip should begin. First things first. I need to get Heaven’s Edge complete, and then I will worry about the rest of the trilogy.

    Grad school is still the priority. I’ve had plenty to do. Finals are coming up. However, my son leaves for his mom’s house for a week starting tomorrow, and I should have time to make some headway this week. We’ll see how it goes.

    I’m still in this, I am just going a bit slower than I would like. As Thanksgiving approaches, I am thankful for the progress I have made. I will keep plugging away until the book is complete.

  • NaNoWriMo Standings – Week 3

    It’s Saturday at the Confabulator Cafe. If’ you’ve been following things here during the month of November, you know that many of our writers are participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Without further ado (although, really, can you ever have too much ado?), we’re posting this week’s standings. Congrats to all our writers for doing so amazing!

    As of last night at midnight, here are our standings:

    Jessi Levine (47,710 up from 28,016 words)

    Paul Swearingen (47,599 up from 26,826 words)

    Jason Arnett (36,805 up from 22,267 words)

    A subsonic hum rose slowly all around them, holding them close, hugging them in the near-darkness. The entire room shuddered causing them all to take a step backward. Lily plastered herself to Albert. Marion made some arcane-looking gestures, trailing light from her fingertips as she did so.

    What’s going on?

    Yinmenmic is taking the city airborne.

    R.L. Naquin (35,546 up from 25,572 words)

    “Sara,” I said, looking over my computer at her. “If you ever accept another job from her, I will publicly humiliate you with the story about the Easter Bunny and the edible panties.”

    Riley perked up. “What? I want to know this story. I want it very much.” He leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded, waiting.

    Sara threw her empty paper cup at him. “You’ll get nothing, and you’ll like it.”

    Ashley M. Poland (34,239 up from 19,407 words)

    JQ wakes up to Rod leaning over him. He’s drinking a cup of coffee and still wearing his pajamas. “The household is on lock down,” he says. “The press is having a field day with you, sir. There’s footage of you leaping out of the windshield of a busted QR-2340 while holding a baby. People can’t decide if you’re a hero, or if Doctor P is a negligent cow for allowing a racer in her midst.”

    Christie Holland (33,473 up from 22,501 words) — Municipal Liaison

    Ted Boone (28,061 up from 16,941 words)

    New title: A Swiftness Beyond Night

    Aspen Junge (25,630 up from 14,850 words)

    Sara Lundberg (24,053 up from 12,602 words) — Municipal Liaison

    Only in hell would they keep giving you hope that there is more to life than monotony, more to love than heartbreak, more to the future than broken dreams…then crush it utterly just when you feel you’re on the brink of something good. Hope was Hell, so what was the point of an entire realm dedicated to constant torture?

    Larry Jenkins (23,716 up from 14,524 words)

    I turned my head and found the business end of a hunting rifle pointed at my face. So this is what it feels like to piss yourself, I thought.

    Kevin Wohler (21,948 up from 13,163 words)

    The magazine stories and newspapers didn’t do him justice. Max Fortune rippled with energy. Not just magic, but raw, sexual energy. Looking at him made me want to trade in my college degree for a small cottage in the English countryside where I could give birth to several masculine children and spend my days ironing his puffy purple shirts. If DNA from Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, and Cary Grant had been genetically combined into a super baby, it might have looked like Max’s uglier little brother.

    Jack Campbell, Jr. (12,430 up from 9,000 words)

  • Death Week

    Wrimos or NoWris? Anyone have an opinion?

    Crap. It’s Week 2. Death Week. The Week of flaccid attempts to go somewhere with the brilliantly (and last-minute) conceived ideas that started the month off so well. The Week where WriMos/NoWris drop like flies.

    Hi, I’m Jason.

    This is my fifth NaNoWriMo, I’m familiar with this week. So are you if you’ve participated more than once. I’ve had trouble with it and I’ve overcome it, too. This year, I’m taking a different approach, though.

    I think I’ve mentioned a couple of places that last year’s novel, after some serious editing and revisions, got a RR notice (Revise and Resubmit). I also believe I’ve mentioned here or somewhere (I’m all over the internet, I can’t remember what I’ve said where – whups!) that this year’s novel is a kind of sequel to last year’s. So as I hit the dreaded Week Two, I wanted to be ahead of the curve and I am. A good five days ahead of the curve. Yay, me.

    I wanted to be ahead so that I could split my time revising the first novel while I’m writing the second one.

    So far it’s working pretty well. I’m topping my personal goals every day for word count and making excellent progress on the revision. In addition, they’re informing each other. I can see where foreshadowing in the first novel informs the second and also I’m able to tie the second book more firmly to the first.

    Another bonus is that this year’s novel is better to start with. I’m not head-hopping like I was last year. Still writing too many passive sentences in the effort for sentence variety but that’s easily fixable. I’m also still avoiding a lot of -ly adverbs and that’s a trap in itself.

    But it’s all good. I’m managing to juggle the day job, writing, and editing all at once.

    So far.

    But you know – jeez, three jobs. And family and chores and even some down time.

    I’ll let you know how it’s going next week. ‘Til then, I’ve got writing to do.