Okay. Did you see what that image says?
It was a L-O-N-G day and I have NEVER written so much in one day, but I did it!
WOO-Hoo!
NaNoWriMo 2014 is history. My story isn’t finished, but I am…for now.
Thanks for your support.
Now I am off to bed and I am NOT setting an alarm.
I doubt I will see ya tomorrow,
Leanne Ross aka Read Faced (daily word count: 7,539 / overall word count: 51,556)
While a lot of people had today off, it is not the case for me. I had to work on more than just my novel.
I am going to finish tomorrow or Sunday. Count on it.
See ya tomorrow,
Leanne Ross aka Read Faced (daily word count: 2,271 / overall word count: 44,017.)
Now that that is out of the way…
Once I finally emerged from the Thanksgiving coma I somehow put myself into, it was a VERY productive day.
NaNoWriMo is no longer kicking my butt.
AND…I did not burn anything.
Good day all around.
See ya tomorrow,
Leanne Ross aka Read Faced (daily word count: 3,762 / overall word count: 41,746.)
Good News: A day off came at the perfect time for my NaNo project.
Bad News: I scorched the cranberry sauce I was cooking while I wrote.
I am calling it Cajun Style. No one is going to notice, right?
See ya tomorrow,
Leanne Ross aka Read Faced (daily word count: 5,726 / overall word count: 37,984)
I am obsessing about words. I mean, I have pretty much given up contractions (a trick I learned last year). It had to be done. Why write one measly word when two can do the job just fine?
NaNoWriMo does things like that to a person.
There is no other time in my writing life where I say, “I just NEED ten more words to reach two thousand…then I can go back to bed.” Usually I just go back to bed. Now I am even counting the chapter headings in my tally. The CHAPTER HEADINGS! It is embarrassing.
Whenever I have read criticism about NaNoWriMo the person with the gripe always brings up the emphasis on word count. The competition is thirty days of banging on the keyboard to pass a magic number of words that may or may not be a good story. The critiques then goes on to say that 50,000 words do not even equal a novel (unless we are talking about middle grade works).
For me, NaNoWriMo is like a big vehicle a lot of people climb aboard….maybe a bus with an infinite number of seats. Some people get off at different stops because their destination came early while others get carsick and puck their guts out in the last row. What it all boils down to is we all get ON THE BUS so we all get to sing about how the wheels on the bus go round and round together. At the end of the ride, we have a shared experience. We are all bus riders writers.
So I think these NaNo Nay-Sayers are missing the point. NaNoWriMo is not really about writing 50,000 words (it just feels like it is) or even writing the next great novel. It is about showing yourself that you can accomplish something with the added benefit of having thousands of other people doing the same thing at the same time.
This something just might be a dream you always had or a need that scratches at your gut. For a person who would not normally take the chance, attempting to write 50,000 words in a month is HUGE. It can act as a jump start to see if writing is something you could do the other eleven months of the year.
Plus, I hope we all know what we are writing is not going to be good. Not in its present form. There is no way it could be. Half the things I put down are segues to get me where I need to go in the plot. They are NOT FOR USER CONSUMPTION. What we are striving to make are first drafts. If we are serious and the story merits it, what each of us creates during November is going to be the first in a long, long line of drafts.
Now that I have sorted out that word count is really not that important, I am going to hop out of here. I have a few more words I have to put down and contractions to separate before I get to go to sleep. HA!
See ya tomorrow,
Leanne Ross aka Read Faced (daily word count: 2,840 / overall word count: 32,258)
<BIG sigh>
Day 24 of the National Novel Writing Month is coming to a close. Can you believe there is only SIX MORE DAYS left in November? It is kind of unreal.
Last year I was already considered a winner by this day. My novel was about two-thirds of the way written (I finished it off in December) and my winner’s certificate was waiting to be printed.
As of this moment I have yet to pass the 30K threshold. I am just inches away, but I am still not there. I guess I should be panicking or at least biting my fingernails, but I feel relatively at peace about the whole thing. The truth is that I am not a quitter. I plan to cross the finish line by day 30. Just wait and see. It can be done.
For all of you in the same boat, let’s keep rowing and see just where get. Okay?
See ya tomorrow,
Leanne Ross aka Read Faced (daily word count: 1,314 / overall word count: 29,418)
It turns out today was more about collecting leaves instead of words.
My family was outside raking the yard for collection in the morning. It had to be done, but it wore me out. Once I got inside I took a shower (Yes, leaves went everywhere. I even had to dump out my shoes). When I sat down afterwards, I fell asleep.
The time to write came after dinner. I did two sprints (I am STILL loving them). One for 584 words and then another gave me 533. It is not a lot, but I am happy. My story is going along wonderfully and I know I will finish by the end of the month. I believe it will happen even though I am behind. I guess that is half of the battle.
See ya tomorrow,
Leanne Ross aka Read Faced (daily word count: 1,117 / overall word count: 28,104.)
It really is the end of November 22.
There are only eight more days to finish our NaNo novels.
Whether or not we participants (as a collective) accomplish that, I think it is great that so many people are making the attempt. It makes the world a bit smaller when you think about it.
Tonight I want to tell you about the story I am writing.
It is the third and final installment in a Young Adult Adventure Fantasy series. The first book is technically in its third draft. I have the story all sorted and now I get to work on fleshing it out some more.
The second book I wrote last year during NaNoWriMo. It was easy to write because I was so involved in the first one. I knew exactly where the story was heading. Since I am still in edits on the first book, this one (book two) has sat on my hard drive all year-long.
The third book picks up a few years after the first two. The characters have grown up and are in different places in their lives. Circumstances that started in the first two stories draw them back together.
I am having a harder time with this one than I did with the second. It isn’t that I don’t know where I am heading. I had the series mapped out from the very beginning. My problem, I think, lies in not being as familiar with the second story as I should have been. I mean, I wrote the blasted thing…I should know what happens.
The funny thing is that I spent a good amount of time today re-reading the second story. That is something I wish I could have done in October.
Now I feel like I haven’t been true to my main character in this third novel. I also spent time today taking notes on changes I will make in the third novel after the month is over. This worked to limit my word count, but I think in the end I will be happier with my story.
Good luck all you NaNoWriMoers as we head into the final push!
See ya tomorrow,
Leanne Ross aka Read Faced (daily word count: 1,430 / overall word count: 26,979.)
It was a good day on the NaNoWriMo front.
I managed to churn out more than 2,000 words in just an hour. Plus, even though I am in the middle of my story, it feels like I am heading in a good direction.
I also crossed the halfway point of the 50,000 words requirement to complete the challenge. To bad we are more than halfway through the month.
Here is hoping the weekend brings hefty word counts.
See ya tomorrow,
Leanne Ross aka Read Faced (daily word count: 2,119 / overall word count: 25,549.)
Hmmph.
I am tired of complaining and excuses.
I have nothing good to report, so I will report nothing.
Grrrr.
See ya tomorrow,
Leanne Ross aka Read Faced (daily word count: HAHAHAHA / overall word count: Don’t even ask.)
Leanne Ross Read Faced 