NaNoWriMo 2010 day 3 part 2

After returning home, I was able to spend a couple hours writing, and reached 12,004 words. Since I started at 5,711 today, that gives me 6,293 total words on the day! All of this got me to the second sentence in my five-sentence snowflake paragraph.

So I doubled my words today. If I can double them again for the next three days, I'll be done, right?

NaNoWriMo 2010 day 3

I may or may not have a chance to write more later. If I do, I will post a separate update on it. Today is my girlfriend's son's 14th birthday. He's due home from school any minute now.

I'm currently at 9,305 words, giving me 3,594 words for today. We are in chapter five. The invasion army is in motion, and events are beginning to unfold that will change the courses of the main characters' lives. I've also determined that the Lirris Device makes a good alarm clock. I'm not sure what else it does, but we'll find out!

In other news, the NaNoWriMo site has gone from an ugly "can't connect" error to a friendly "over capacity" error akin to Twitter's Fail Whale that suggests I have a cup of coffee. But the site is still failing, so I once again can't update my word count there. I hope they get this straightened out soon.

NaNoWriMo 2010 day 2

Today's word count ended up being 5,711, meaning only 589 new words today. It's an anemic number, I know, but instead of writing, I got to play a game with my girlfriend - something we haven't done in a long time. I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I am hoping to make up some ground today.

As to the story itself, it takes place in a fantasy world of my own devising where there is only a little magic, and it's not well known in two respects: not many people can use it, and not many people can even identify it as magic. So far, I've introduced a bit of the military heirarchy and several of the key players within that heirarchy. I've revealed that there is an upcoming invasion, and that the city of Corburn*, where the story thus far has taken place, is the one doing the invading. Raykeep* is their target.

I also finally introduced the main characters, Kada and Ismo, in chapter three. I had just finished chapter four when I realized that I left out a few details about them that I wanted to make sure were there, so tomorrow I am going back and adding those details in. It's almost like editing, which is a NaNoWriMo sin, but I feel it's absolutely necessary to the story.

After that, I hope to push forward through the other two chapters I have vaguely outlined. Wish me luck!

I should add the other frustration of my day: When I went to update my word count on the nanowrimo.org web site, it was "down for maintenence." This has been a big frustration this year. I rather enjoy pushing my word count up every day and seeing it on that site makes it more tangible to me somehow.

* Note: All names should be considered malleable.

NaNoWriMo 2010 day 1

While I spent most of the morning working on the "snowflake" of the story I'm writing -- I really should have done more prep work -- and while my actual word count at 1 PM today was still 0 despite having worked on elements of the story all morning, I made up ground this afternoon. I took a two-hour break to feed the horse, but wrote both before and after, ending up with 5,122 words at the end of the first day. Given that the pace I need to keep is 1,667 words per day, this is an excellent start. What's more, I like what I wrote (mostly), and think that it is on track with regard to the quick outline I put together.

NaNoWriMo 2010 - A Story Forms

This morning on the way to work, a story began to take shape in my mind. It fulfulls the various requirements I had for a story this year. That is to say, it doesn't involve a high-school protagonist, isn't set in modern-day United States and doesn't (necessarily) involve the supernatural, although it could.

I wrote down a handful of notes about the nascent idea, and think I can now begin the world-building process. Good thing, too, since I now have four days before NaNoWriMo begins!

Lightning - reading

Finished "Lightning" by Dean Koontz. I am amused that I finished this one not long after "Watchers" since the stories are VERY similar in a lot of ways. I'm glad I finished "Watchers" first because "Lightning" is the better story between the two.

NaNoWriMo 2010 - No Story Yet!

NaNoWriMo 2010 begins in about 12 days. So far, I don't have a story to work on. This was not my experience for the past two years. Last year, I had a story idea that I really liked in June and over four months to let it develop in my head before beginning writing in November. This year, I have no real strong direction.

I know what I don't want to do. I don't want to repeat themes from the past two years. For example, both were set in the modern day. That makes me want to do some sort of fantasy setting. Both had teen protagonists - one about 18 and the other about 16. Both had mystical or supernatural elements central to the story. Heck, I've even toyed with the idea of having the main characters from those two stories meet up with each other for some third story. That's how "compatible" the stories were.

The story that I'm coming up with to work on for 2010 feels very forced so far, and doesn't have a lot of direction. Furthermore, it's going to require quite a bit of world-building before I can really get into the writing part. This does not bode well for keeping my word counts up.

On the bright side, I do get some time off in November that should help me stay on track with my word counts. At least, I hope it helps!