2007 Winner!

Well, it's now officially NaNoWriMo-fficial. I added a thirty-fourth chapter to wrap up the novel, more or less. I finished with a whopping 53,520 words.

I spent a few minutes encrypting the novel before sending it off for verification. Encryption is supposed to protect me so that I don't have to worry about the novel being stolen, edited, and published by someone other than myself, but really, it's to protect any would-be theives from hours of reading mind-numbing drivel that poured from my fingertips this noveling season. The amazing word-counting elves did their job in nanoseconds and confirmed that I have more than 50k words. My profile page suddenly contained a link to a beautiful yellow .pdf file that contains my winner's certificate, which I will proudly print and include in the binder with my printed novel - all 193 pages of it (double spaced, Bookman Old Style, 11 point, with a title page).

The bar is now purple and it says "Winner" across it. If only it were this easy to get confirmation of non-loser status in other areas of life... :)

Once again, I am a novelist! Whoo-hoo!

50k!

So, I got there a week ago today and haven't written anything since then. I've reached the word count but not finished the story, so I still have some writing to do this week. I've already written one chapter as an outline, and may have to do that for a few more so at least the story lines are tied together. It's always interesting to read novels that are written as outlines instead of stories, right?

But I still don't like this year's novel as well as last year's. Have you ever heard someone ask a published author which of their books is their favorite? and they usually answer by saying that it's like asking a parent which kid is their favorite? I totally don't believe that. It's complete crap.

Maybe I'll actually finish the novel tomorrow... I still don't think I'll like it any better than last year's, but you never know!

Novel - half full or half empty?

Happy November 15th! It's the halfway point, and I'm happy to say that I got there last weekend during the 2nd annual MO novelpalooza. Thanks to Jude, her living room, two airports and It's a Grind, I managed to spew forth 24,000ish words. (Thanks, Mom, for making me take an entire year of typing class in high school. Most boring class ever, but life has been easier because of it - and you didn't even know about computers back then...) Most of those words are connected in sentences, and a few are connected in relatively coherent story lines.

I even managed to type one sentence while I was asleep. I know I was asleep because I don't remember typing it, and I woke up and it was on the screen. I wonder if my typing is slower when I'm asleep, because there were no typos in the sentence! The sleep-typed sentence has nothing to do with anything my novel! My characters are not living in, going to or talking about Michigan or Minnesota, nor is it anywhere near Christmas as I haven't really placed the novel anywhere on a calendar year. There are no seasons or weather patterns or temperatures mentioned. However, this sentence appears in my 2007 novel: There ain’t no folks like us having Christmas in Michigan or Minnesota this year. It’s just too cold.

Yes, it is written in the dialect/poor grammar of the character who was speaking in the previous sentence, but there was no reason for Mr. Porter to say that. And no, I'm not taking it out because it pads the word count. I did change the color of the text to white so as to not distract from the flow of the chapter. (ha - that's funny!)

Got my LL Bean Christmas catalog today. The name Porter was used in several of their 'you can have this monogrammed' pictures. I wonder if they've met Mr. Porter...

I've come to several conclusions, some more profound than others:
1. I can write narrative or I can write dialogue. I haven't yet found the magical blend of both that makes novels interesting and well-written.
2. I still suck at this, but it's fun.
3. I'm addicted, and I can't imagine not writing a novel in any future November. I would miss it.
4. I lack the self-discipline needed to write a novel in any other month of the year.

and now, I must get back to my characters for a few minutes before Scrubs is on. I've missed them - both my novel characters and the Scrubs characters - and need to check in and see how they are doing.

Noveling Madness!

It's only the sixth, and it feels like mid-November already. This is crazy. I went gangbusters and knocked out 12k of crap in the first four days. I wrote squat yesterday, and wrote 500 words of novel notes - stuff to make happen. So, my current word count gets me midway between the 7th and 8th, so by Thursday, I'll be behind again. Fortunately, I have a superweekend of power writing planned in an out-of-state location. Right, Judeldoo? :)

One character, who was supposed to be minor, is now going to live with her grandmother for the summer. The grandmother was to be one of the three major characters, and as of now, the grandmother is now moral support, and room & board for a troubled teen. But what would happen to make a teenager have to live with her grandmother for a summer? What catastrophic event could have befelled these poor, fictional people? I'm open to suggestions...

The main MC (ah, redundancy!) has to have a best friend. Eight chapters in, I decided that the best friend needs her own sub-plot, rather than just the supporting character role. I think I'm sending her to Copenhagen, thus the research on Hans Christian Andersen this afternoon. One translator was identified as having added sexual innuendo to his translations. Hmmm - were those innuendo written in the originals, or did he really add that? I think the BF/SC might have to find out. I don't want to do too much research - I actually might find the real answer, and that would mess with my story.

One thing that worked for me last year was switching between the three main characters' pov for each chapter. When I got bored or stuck, I'd switch to another character, leading up to the inevitable connection to all in the end, Love Actually style, sans the papier-mache lobster in the Nativity play. The male MC has already been silenced. I actually typed these sentences at the end of his chapter: Boy, I sound like a big jerk. I don’t think I’m going to be allowed to narrate my own chapters anymore. Of course, in a second draft, his chapter would be deleted entirely. But right now, I need those 945 words in my word count!

Other cheats that I'm not ashamed to admit: I added a set of horoscopes and a desciption of a band that I found.

I have also learned about "TIAMAT: The Primordial Dragon Goddess of Creative Chaos. She lived happily in the salt water below the mists of time, joined by APSU, the wettest Water God ever", "PHILYRA: Goddess of Paper. Yes, really. She's also a Goddess of Writing, Healing and Perfume", and "PHANTASOS: God of Dreams. Particularly the surreal ones where you're flying over a lake of custard and seventeen giraffes blow raspberries at you" (www.godchecker.com). Philyra and Phantasos havne't actually appeared in the novel yet. 38k to go - they might make it in yet! And the HCA research has just begun...

Ah, Nano... Oh, how I've missed you!