Tag: winning

  • NaNoWriMo #6 part 5

    Woo-ha! I got you all in check.
    Woo-ha! I got you all in check.

    So this is the fifth and (almost) final post about NaNoWriMo for me this year.

    I won as I noted last week. I’m over 60,000 words for the month and I’m happy with that. The book is about 60% finished and I know what’s happening next and what happens after that. I know the end.

    I’d hoped to be around or even over 70,000 words for the month but that didn’t happen due to some unforeseen though preventable circumstances. I lost access to my computer for five days and I took up handwriting the manuscript. Because of this I have a newfound respect for anyone who’s doing this every day, every year. (Hi, Aspen!)

    Writing a novel is a helluva lot of hard work. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. If you’re still writing then what the hell are you doing taking time away to read this? Get back to it! When you come to the final write-in tonight – sponsored by the library, no less! – you can relax if you’ve won. If you haven’t, bring your stuff and we’ll cheer you. We’ll run sprints with you.

    Keep going until it’s done. Don’t give up.

    Finally, I need to say thanks to all the crew who helped and inspired me to keep going this year. I didn’t make it to as many write-ins as I intended but that’s more an issue with my work schedule than anything else. I worked at home a lot and always worked as if I were in a room with all of you.

    Okay, last thing: I’m coming back to post regularly in the Cafe starting in December. I need a day and time from the Boss but I’m feeling like I can be here again especially while I’m finishing up writing the first draft of the current work in progress. And then editing it.

    So thanks for reading these updates. I’m glad you did. I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks.

  • Sitting Pretty in the Winner’s Circle

    Crap. This is going up pretty late. Sorry guys.

    But hey, I had a valid reason for forgetting.

    Okay. I lied.

    Basically, I “won” on Saturday and now words are a thing other people do. Which is pretty much the exact opposite of how you are supposed to treat NaNo. Learn from me. Don’t give up just because you passed 50k and you’ve validated and your bar turns purple.

    At some point I will finish my novel. It’s close. I can probably knock it out in less than 5k. But I don’t want to. These are the hardest words to write on this novel, because they have to wrap everything up. Even though I don’t plan on doing anything with this story (I have no plans to edit it into something more readable), I want to finish it right. And that requires effort.

    And I’m not ready for that commitment.

    If you need me I’ll be eating ice cream from the carton while convincing myself that I have no responsibilities.

  • NaNoWriMo #6 part 4

    2013-Winner-Vertical-BannerSo as of this morning I’m a certified ‘winner’ of NaNoWriMo for the sixth time.

    Yay me.

    Really, I’m proud that I’ve done it. Again. I just wish there hadn’t been something that happened on Friday night that kind of made me struggle through the weekend and thus unable to post on Saturday like I’d planned. So, I’m late here. Again.

    Anyway, what happened was – well, it’s not important. Suffice to say that it involved my computer – where all my writing for the last year was stored and stupidly, STUPIDLY, not backed up anywhere else. Except for a few things on my Google Drive and the last addition to the current novel last Thursday.

    (more…)