The End of NaNoWriMo 2007

I'm so sad that it's over already!  (Even though just an hour ago or less I wanted it to die.  =P)

I didn't even finish my novel!!  Can you believe it?  I never thought I'd be able to write that much!

I am so happy that I was able to complete nanowrimo, and with about half an hour to spare too!

Now I am going to get some much needed sleep.  (I've been getting 5 hours Sunday-Wednesday and 4 hours Thursday night.)  I'm having a party with my friends this weekend to celebrate NaNoWriMo and I will be purchasing a frame for my certificate on Sunday (I know, I'm weird, but I'm just so extremely happy right now!)

Congratulations to everyone else who finished!  And to those who went way beyond the word requirements!  Good luck to all in editing your novels and if you try and get it published, I'll be cheering for you!!

Thank you to everyone who supported me and typed/suffered with me this year.  It was most definitely worth it in the end and I cannot wait to do it next year.

And now that my wrists are about to fall off and I am about to collapse from exhaustion, I am taking my leave.  Hopefully I will talk to some of you even though NaNoWriMo has ended.  You can keep in touch with me about all your writing, life, etc through e-mail if you like.  If not, I hope to talk to you all again next year!

Man, I am so happy and excited I finished.  (I'm sorry, I just HAD to add that one more time!)

3 days left!!

Okay, with three days left, I have already screwed up my word count.  I was supposed to have 5,000 more words typed tonight.  Well, I finished at 1am yesterday and now I'm stuck and have to study for a test tomorrow and it's 11:40.  So more work for me over the next three days.  Thank goodness I have a half day on Thursday, although I won't exactly be home until the normal time that day which is really not good...plus I have more tests and quizzes this week....okay, well wish me luck!  I'm going to be really upset if I don't finish this!

Quick Update

Recently I discovered it was the last week of nanowrimo and I have five more days to write half of my novel!  (AH!)  Well, the past two days (24th and 25ht) I am proud to announce that I have typed 10,000 words!!!!!!!!  =D

Wish me luck finishing this week since I'm almost half way done with my novel!  I have a few friends cheering for me already but it helps to see participants miraculously finish nano in the last week!  Good luck everyone, I know we can all finsh our novels by the end of November!!  =)

Day 16 +17 Worrying

Day 16: I was so tired from staying up late every night studying that I fell asleep while reading at 5pm!! So, obviously no typing. =(

Day 17: I read a bit, baked for lunch, and hung out all day and NO typing. Now that my friend's finally online, we're not even talking! So yeah, I'm going to start typing now and I think I'm just going to ignore her tonight since she's obsessing over her other friend at the moment.

P.S. I need to find someone to compete with! Ever since my friend quit NaNo, I have been REALLY slipping on my word count as you can all tell. Let's see if I can do it! Man, I really hope I can make it! T_T

Day 15 Studying

I had two tests and a quiz to study for, not to mention homework in my other classes and a book I had to finish. I had hoped to reach 15,000 tonight but that is not going to happen. However, I plan on outlining my story tomorrow during school and typing 5,000 words on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to catch up. So about 1,667 words in the morning, 1,667 words in the evening, and 1,667 words at night might be a plausible sum. If not, I can race myself late at night. Wish me luck, I'm so stressed out!

Day 14 Slowly Working

So far I typed 1,000 words tonight! (Hoping for more within the next 40 minutes) Such an improvement compared to the past week and a half! I finished my homework so early too, but have been having the worst time with the relationship between my main two characters. I don't know, it just seems to be developing too quickly. But if lives are on the line already and dangerous situations pop up, that's natural, right? Please say right!

Well, I better get going if I don't want to fall asleep in class tomorrow! Happy typing to all!

Day 12 +13

Day 12: Reached 12,300 words!! Pretty darn good if I do say so myself, considering I kept getting writer's block all day!

Day 13: Too much homework to do anything. Couldn't even get up in the morning to get ready for school, let alone type. Oh well, that just means more work for me this week.

Day 11: Terrible

Absolutely NO progress made today. (A LITTLE outlining and maybe a couple hundred words but that's about it). I'm getting lazy already and really need to type non stop tomorrow. I'm going to try to type a bit more tonight OR finish my homework to lessen my workload tomorrow. Wish me luck!!!!

Day 9 +10 Busy

Day 9: Volunteered at the library and two of my books came in so I was happy. Then I had two friends over for a sleep over so obviously, no time for writing.

Day 10: They left late and then I had to read this book online before we left to go to my cousin's house. Got home late and have to get on traditional Saturday night video call with my friend so not much time to write tonight. My goal, however, is about 3,000 words tonight to bring me up to 12,000 words. Let's hope I make it!

Day 8: Snail's Pace + Planning

Well, still swamped with school work and presentations and I still need SOME sleep so I've only written about 500 words tonight, leaving me with 9,300 I believe?

Busy just about all weekend so that leaves Monday to catch up and by then I'll be about 10,000 words behind.

But I'm not going to worry about that now, I know I can catch up, no matter when that is and however painful it may be. =)

Right now I am concentrating my efforts on my beloved outlines and am writing down everything I can think of for the plot, etc. I've really come to realize that I need outlines in order to write about 10,000 words in one day and night.

AND, I'm getting up at 5am tomorrow no matter how foolish that may be. My goal is for 10,000-12,000 words by tomorrow. I'm assuming it'll only be about 10,000 since I don't have time by myself until Saturday afternoon and I'm busy most of the weekend as I think I mentioned earlier. Well, it's late so forgive me. I'm going to study for my english quiz tomorrow and get some much needed sleep!

I hope you all are doing really well with your word counts! And if you're more like me at the moment, we can do it!! We can reach 50,000 words no matter what it takes!!!!

Day 7: Hectic

Well, absolutely NO writing got done today! T_T

I had to work on two powerpoint presentations. I finished one and tomorrow I have to finish one or two more slides AND translate the whole thing into spanish. That took long enough tonight. Not to mention all the other homework I had to do. I didn't even read the 100 pages that was assigned in english class...

On the positive side: I have a good idea to get readers hooked on my novel and to get the two main characters on the run and traveling the world I created! :) I hope to write those parts....tomorrow I have homework and reading....Friday I volunteer and friends are coming over....Saturday I'm not home....Sunday I'm doing homework and then gone toward the afternoon/night. Okay! So all of Monday will be my typing day!! 14,000 words in one day...no problem? I guess I can get up at 5 to type... :-/

Day 6: Decisions, decisions, decisions

Okay, I sent my story to my friend and she really liked it and I ran some ideas by here and was able to pick one with her opinion so I am ready to write tonight! Unfortunately I have to study for one more quiz and read half an english book as I will postpone my presentation for history until tomorrow. That only leaves me one night to do it but oh well, that's my own fault. But thankfully it really won't take that long since I know exactly what I'm doing! =)

Not sure if I'm going to type tonight..I hope so. I think I'm going to stay up until 11 so I've got over two hours to finish my homework, which is plenty!

Oh, and my wrist support came in today! So now my wrist feels much better. =)

Day 5 Keeping Pace!

I've been doing better with nano. I've started typing in the morning and am slowly starting to get up earlier to type and I've been typing ever since I got home. I downloaded the program HED told me about. Thank you so much HED, it really works!! =)

All I need to do tomorrow is keep signed off of MSN and I'll really get a lot of work done. I'm only on 8,000 words as I type this, not even 400 words away from the daily goal, and I hope to reach 9,000 words before I get to bed. Wish me luck!

My overall goal is to type more than 50,000 words since I have a lot of worlds to explore. I may expand on this idea and write a trilogy in this world I've made, I'm not sure yet. :) Although, that's assuming I don't kill off the main character in the end..I may save that for the third book. O:)

Day 4 Damage

I've been typing more at night and have been competing with my friend, which has really motivated me. I am currently at 5,300 words or so and I believe I've done permanent damage to my wrist...I hope to get my wrist support tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

Days 2+3: Far Behind

Day 2: I was so tired when I got home from school that when I started writing my novel over again, I only reached about 600 words.

Day 3: I was writing a short story for my friend's birthday and then I worked on my fan fics so I have about 1,757-ish words. I'm going to write down what I want to happen next so that I can catch up tomorrow morning and then I'm going to make two powerpoints for school in the afternoon. Let's hope I can make it!! I guess I can always catch up on my work Monday after school but still! I can't believe I'm already THIS behind! =(

Day 1: Perfectionist

I never thought the inner editor would be so hard to suppress but even after the second sentence I've written in my novel, I continue to go back and edit what I have written. I think I've also re-written the beginning at least three times already!! And I've been re-reading what I've written. I've also placed the word count button in the tool bar and am constantly clicking it! This is going to be MUCH harder than I thought. Maybe I should type my novel on notepad! =P

So pretty much, I've done just about everything that you're not supposed to do during national novel writing month. However, on a good note, I've gotten a basic character list written and have named and partially described the races in my world. :)

My mom got really mad at me since I took a few extra minutes in the shower so I am currently spending the night killing my wrists, trying to type my novel from an odd chair while my computer chair is trying to keep the door closed so my mom can't come in. My keyboard's on my lap and I'm wearing my glasses which really aren't helping me see my computer screen any better. What a way to spend my absolute first day ever of nanowrimo!

Man, I even have the hiccups for the second time today! They're driving me absolutely insane! =P Well, I guess I really have to go work on my novel again. I think I'm just going to end this scene and skip to another one. I really can't continue the beginning of my novel and may re-write it completely tomorrow after school.

Current Word Count: 519

8:20pm: So, I've finally decided what I want to happen in the opening scene of my novel. Now all I need to do is type it straight through without worrying about the diction of all my characters and the descriptions. Boy am I getting up at five am tomorrow to type SOMETHING decent!

4 More Days! PANIC TIME!

Okay, as the title suggests, I am in serious panic mode. I've been doing homework all weekend, am volunteering at the library Monday, and going out for Halloween. Therefore, I only have Tuesday night to come up with a plot for my story!

So on Tuesday, I need to outline EVERY race of magic wielders and their cultures. Then I have to read all my notebooks and pick one of my ideas and expand on it. I really wanted to use this one idea I came up with but I already wrote like 1/10 of the first chapter.

My plan: go to the forums! lol If anyone has any way of helping me pull something from my head, comment or send me a message on nano! Panic time begins....now!

17 Days Left

As the title states, there are only 17 more days left to prepare for the nanowrimo challenge. However, I must admit I am slacking a bit (not a good sign, right?!). The rest of this is my ideas for my novel. (just a warning if you don't want to read it). I hope those who do read it enjoy it and feel free to leave your thoughts whether they be good or bad. Constructive criticism is VERY much appreciated. I hope maybe I can inspire some ideas to all of you who read this to make your nano novel just a little bit easier to write.

I've copied my 'world' so I can work on landforms and geographic features. Currently is has:
1) The main continent
2) The main island
3) A smaller island that was separated from the main island (explanation along the lines of stopping the first attack from my soon-to-be created bad guy/power/thing)
4) A ritual ground which I currently have as floating due to the power that fuels it
5) Two decent sized, weirdly shaped island (MUCH is unknown about these). So far they are unexplored/undiscovered which is kind of hard to work with since the world was CREATED by the magic wielders when the Earth as well as most humans were eradicated due to global warming. Some ideas are popping into my head though so we'll see how those things go when I am through.
6) Remember #2? Well, there are 5 really small small islands branching off of that where the humans live. Some of the species saved their loved ones and that's where they live, on those islands with a barrier so that they can have the same polluted atmosphere in which they can live in

At first I thought it was getting a little crowded but I am warming up to having about 5 land masses. First off, I will have more to work with, and there will be more words I will be able to squeeze out of my brain to reach my goal and longer. (I hope to have 100,000 words when I am done with the actual story). Who knows, I may end up being able to write a sequel with all of this.

My main character is Rækella (Rei-kel-lah) who was born on the main island next to the island's largest river. The beings that inhabit this island have straight brown hair and purple eyes (marks on their sides?). However, she was born with curly blond hair and green eyes (something happened to her at birth.--idk if I want it to be that her parents were of two different species so I'm trying to think of something else).

The second main character will be some sort of necromancer but I want to change the word necromancer to something similar so I have more to work with and I can alter what he does (it WILL have something to do with the dead). My friend has this thing for royal families so I was thinking along the lines of him being born on the main continent and something happened so that he was kicked out (exiled, someone impersonated him so he was thought of as a crazy person, etc.) but he still has his sisters and brothers who can help him regain the throne as there is some serious corruption in the palace. (parents -king and queen- are being manipulated in a way). --Does that make any sense? I hope so!-- I want his kingdom to be at war with another and yeah, that's all I have so far.

They're both going to meet on the broken off part of the main island (#3 above). That's where the main school is located. EVERY child is forced to go to some sort of school similar to that so their powers can be controlled. That broken off island is going to have the most varied climate and geographic features and I'm ready to have a lot of fun with that.

I plan on having a lot of subplots which will connect to bigger plots, which will eventually connect to the main plot. I plan to explore most of the cultures I am in the middle of creating and to explore all the possible types of governments the people of each species are under. (I hope to stay away from being really too political though).

OKAY, I am done rambling for now. Those are some of my ideas that I think I just needed to tell somebody as I don't really have a family member to tell them to. And I have about one friend who I'm going to tell when everything is put together a bit. Her name is Eydis so we'll be having some write-ins together to help smooth our plot lines out a bit. And finally, I am done chewing your ears off. I hope you enjoyed reading about my progress and maybe I've instilled some ideas in your head so you can play with them and make your nano novels amazing! Thanks for reading!! =D

The preparation

Well, as you probably know, I'm Talathiel from nanowrimo.org and this is my little blog where I'll document my status and write down how my first nano experience is going day by day.

Before NaNo even starts, I've taken the challenge of getting 30 minutes of exercise every day in October. When November comes around we won't be getting up from the computer very often. If you've taken this challenge also put it in your sigs!

Now for the fun stuff, the actual novel planning process :P

So far I've created the basic structure of my world and am using an old world I had set up to enrich the plot (don't ask how, I'm still working on that). I've got a ton of ideas for cultures and landscapes that have pushed their way into the front of my mind and onto random pieces of paper now flying around the room. I've still got a LOT of work to do. Especially because I've written multiple subplots and minor characters and have yet to work on the MAIN plot. Nothing original has come to mind and that may take a while.

Anyone who needs help creating a world for your fantasy novels try this website. It's helped me tremendously. http://www.sfwa.org/writing/worldbuilding1.htm

Goals to prepare for November:
1) 5am alarm
2) strict schedule
3) Outlines
4) Suppressing my inner editor.
5) Writing often
6) Spending more time outside and away from the computer (get it out of my system)
7) Secret stash of food in my room

Finally
Well, that's it for this long blog. More progress updates will be up throughout the month. I'll be posting my ideas and such as well so comments and constructive criticism are much appreciated.

( Well now that that's over with and I've actually looked at the length, I'm MUCH more confident for November as now I am reminded of how well I can ramble when I am passionate over something or just want to talk. :P )