NaNo Madness

Day 29!!!!

2008-11-29T19:41:00.001-08:00

Well, it's day 29. Yesterday I wrote a TON and I was up until 2am just to read 45,000 words. I beat the mini challenge, it said "before bed" right? :P And today, I finished my 50,000 words, not my novel granted, but my 50,000 words and completed nanowrimo my second year running. I can't wait to do it next year. =D Maybe I can even finish writing this novel by the end of December...although don't quote me on that one. ^^;;

YAY FOR THE WINNERS OF NANOWRIMO 2008!!!!!!! =D

~Talathiel

50,005 words and counting.

(Wow, I finished a day early, unlike last year's close call. ^^;; Plus, I finished without an outline and it feels great!!!!! =) I can't believe it...is it next year yet? :P I think I even said something like that last year. ^^;;)

Saved the best for last. Thank you to everyone who supported me, commented on this blog, had word wars with me, or said anything to me during nanowrimo. I honestly could not have done it without you and I'm not just saying that. The shame of letting you all down, as well as letting myself down was too great. Now to go bother my parents for thinking that nanowrimo is not important and that I shouldn't have done it. :P Thanks again you guys are the BEST!!!!! =D =)

Day 27!!

2008-11-27T22:43:00.000-08:00

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the United States! =)

Now to the good stuff. :P Wednesday I had a half day of school and sadly, I caught up on my sleep that day that I had lost the past couple of weeks. =( Today hasn't been much better but late tonight my friend and I participated in multiple ten minute word wars and it gave me the kick in the pants I needed! I'm almost at 40,000 words and about five minutes of typing will send me over that amount. I have a ton of word wars with two friends scheduled for tomorrow so I hope to get at least 5 or 6 thousand words done. I really need Sunday to do all of my homework but we'll see. Homework comes last. :P (No, I'm seriously just kidding). I think I might be able to make it!!!!!!!!1 =D

Talathiel

~39,789 words and counting

UPDATE!!

2008-11-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

~Talathiel

33,336 words and counting

CATCHING UP! =D

Day 24

2008-11-24T19:58:00.001-08:00

I am slowly catching up! haha I am so excited! (Discouraged most of the time: yes, but also determined and excited at the same time!) I've written about 5,000 words already tonight, I'm shooting for 6,000 words then I can get to bed. I can't believe I'm catching up!!

Just thought you'd all like a small update. :P

~Talathiel

32,010 words and counting!

Day 21 or 22? I don't remember.

2008-11-22T15:06:00.000-08:00

I am doing really well if I do say so myself. I am already at the half way mark and plan to get to 30,000 words before I get to bed tonight! That most likely will not happen so 28,000 will be my first goal. We'll see how it goes. I have to read so much for english again so that will probably be all tomorrow night. But you never know. Just thought I'd update this for once. I do plan on finishing it as long as I can keep my confidence up!

~Talathiel

Half way there!

Day 19

2008-11-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

O-M-G. I actually made progress tonight!!!! I finished my homework earlier than expected since I have half as much since tomorrow's a half day of school. I went from about 16,000 to 20,000 words in about two hours! Thanks to my friend who was also aiming for the same goal as me, I was able to do it! All hope is not lost as I once thought it was!! Keep typing everyone, it's not too late to start catching up, and it's not impossible, even at this stage!! Word Wars really work!!!! =)

~Talathiel

Day 16

2008-11-16T20:56:00.001-08:00

Okay, today was not so successful word count wise. xD I went to bed at 3am then got up at 10:30 (I know, I need to work on the whole sleeping schedule thing). Immediately I started reading the last 100 or so pages of my english book. Well, I started out reading a chapter then doing a ten minute writing sprint. I got about 1,000 words done in less than half an hour of writing sprints but then I just keep trying to read my book. Then I had to learn calculus since my sister wouldn't help me and ultimately, I have 6 more pages of that english book to read. I know, I know, all excuses, and I should have been keeping up with my writing sprints all night but still....my fault. I feel so guilty right now. =( But I'm probably just going to stay up as late as a physically can and type away, see how far I get. Who knows, maybe I can manage another 2,000 words and not be TOO far behind.

There is still hope. There is still hope. There is still hope. There is still hope. There is still hope. There is still hope....

Oh, and don't forget about our word war Pen3Inch!! I expect a date and a time frame where we type until we can no longer use our wrists. :P

~Talathiel

14,303 words and counting

Day 15

2008-11-15T21:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I made some progress. I reached 10,000 words (the goal I had in place) by Friday night...OKAY....early early early Saturday morning, before 1am so it still counts. :P I was up late doing homework so I slept in today then spent another hour or so on homework. I typed for a bit, got ready, went to a family party, got back late, and typed all day with many distractions. xD Soooo I only wrote 3,000 words today instead of 5,000 and I still have to read 90 more pages of my english book and do my calculus homework. Great. =/ 20,000 words by 3am Monday morning...maybe not.

Bright side: If I write 3,000 words a day I will finish nanowrimo with time to spare. Anyone think I can actually do that for the next 15 days? Let us hope!!!! =D

P.S. I got a ton of inspiration today which is absolutely awesome and I actually have an idea for next year's novel (science fiction based) so if I outline next year's novel starting in December, next year will be easier I hope. =)

Keep on typing, it is never too late! No matter how far I am behind, I WILL catch up, just wait and see! ;)

~Talathiel

13,327 words and counting

Day 13

2008-11-13T19:55:00.001-08:00

Wow, I've really been neglecting this thing. =( Remember last time I was so excited and motivated to get to 7,000 words by Tuesday that I actually got past 7,000 words the day after I wrote it? Well, now I have pretty much written nothing. I've been focused on school and college and last night...I fell asleep at 11. -_- So yeah, no typing for me that night. Pretty much, I just need to catch up. I have some ideas so another thousand words or so will come pretty easily. My new goal is to reach 20,000 words by Sunday night. Sure I'll still be almost 7,000 words behind but I think typing over 12,000 words in about two or three days is pretty darn good, don't you? So yeah, that's my absolute goal, then I plan on catching up for my Thanksgiving break. Please keep pushing and encouraging me! You guys have been amazing! Becky: It was your comment that really pushed me to reach that goal in about one day!

~Talathiel

7,880 Words

Day 9!!

2008-11-10T03:29:00.000-08:00

Wow, from 1-4am, with much distraction, I managed to type about 3,000 words! Then I managed another 1,000 while at my grandparents' houses. I couldn't type when I got home because I was finishing my homework until 2:30am but I am really happy!!!! Anyone want to bug me to get 3,334 more words typed tonight?! :P AIM= beth22xo and MSN= bethct22@hotmail.com =D I am slowly catching up!!!!! =)

~Talathiel

7,150 words

Day 8

2008-11-08T22:21:00.000-08:00

Wow, I really haven't done anything! I'm still at 3,500 words! =/ I guess this year I just don't like my novel yet and have no ideas what to write about next, unlike last year. However, despite the fact that it's almost 1:30 AM here, I am writing my novel, desperately trying to catch up. I am making it so that I like my story and it will happen no matter what! Listening to people talk about nanowrimo on the podcast kinda got me in the mood to write. ^^;; So I am determined to write a LOT more and I WILL write 5,000 words on my day off Tuesday and before Tuesday I will have at least 7,000 words!

Will someone hold me to that promise? ^^;; I just need motivation to get this done, however, once week three sets in and I can work on my novel as a class assignment I think I will be better off so I'm not TOO worried. ^^ I'd just rather not be flipping out the last week of this month. Thanks! =)

Oh, and for the record, I did NOTHING today. I am WICKED busy tomorrow and I don't think I can finish my homework tomorrow. ^^;; Sooooo I must write 2,000 more words tonight before going to bed then I need to get up early to do homework, no problem. ;) lol Wow, I'm going to laugh when looking back at these entries.

Day 5!!

2008-11-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

Well, I most definitely didn't write as much as I had hoped to tonight and now that it's getting late I better spend an hour doing homework then off to bed. I did get to 2,000 words though and have figured out that 2,000 words a day at this point will get me to 50,000 words by November 30th. I think I'm going to gather some inspiration throughout school tomorrow and see where my imagination take me. I am in desperate need of ideas.

And if anyone wants to help, here is the scene I wrote for a writing workshop in class assignment that I decided to base my novel off of. I'm not using this scene, but I am going to rewrite it from scratch when it comes up in the story. Anyone get any ideas from reading that?

A drop of blood dripped from the edge of his sword, hitting the ground hard producing a sound that sounded ten times louder due to the silence of the forest. He’d cornered the woman he’d been assigned to but she did not tremble nor flinch. Instead her gaze steadily held his as she waited for the inevitable. Her body began to glow, illuminating the pure darkness of the night surrounding them, and small red crystals rose from her skin, taking flight. Red streaks pierced the darkness in all directions as each crystal sought an escape from the endless expanse of trees. The man simply smirked.

He held his sword high and pierced her flesh slowly and accurately, finishing the grim task he had been given. The woman made no cry, her expression never cracked as she left this world she had been cursed to live in for centuries. Blood gushed from the wound and soaked through the ground as her now limp body fell among the leaves with a silent thud. The bright red crystals dropped immediately to the ground and their light slowly faded away like the dying embers from a flame.

Slowly, with extreme care and precision he outlined her face with his sword, lifting the skin delicately and tossing it aside once fully detached from the body. Both eyes were removed just as the skin had been and behind each eye he found two small dark purple stones. As he reached for them the dark surroundings illuminated once again, and while he implanted the purple stones within his own eyes, his body was struck from all sides and thirty-three crystals punctured his body. Fresh blood oozed from each hole and this liquid connected each dot in turn creating the sacred pattern. Just then the skies opened up, releasing a cool rain upon the Earth. These drops of pure liquid diluted the blood of the woman, forcing it to separate then sink into the Earth at multiple points, purifying the planet. The newly formed wind whistled through the trees, creating soft music only audible in complete silence. Each air current a whisper of what was being lost.

Well, time to peace out tonight, gonna finish my homework then off to bed for me. 2.5 hours of sleep gave me a headache all day today and my body aches at this point. I'm sure it'll just take some getting used to but I'll be able to withstand this for the rest of the month. Wish me luck, and I wish you all luck too! Happy typing!

~Talathiel

1,951 words and counting

Day 4!! (and 5)

2008-11-04T23:18:00.000-08:00

Well, I officially spent the ENTIRE day reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles for my AP english class. Started at 4pm (woke up late) and ended at 2am, about twenty minutes ago. The only breaks I took were for dinner and to watch the speeches after the election. Yay Obama!

Back to nanowrimo. As I was about to hop into bed since it's two am here and I have school tomorrow/today, I decided to relax for a bit and listened to the wrimo radio podcast. Listening to everyone's responses to the question of why they are doing nanowrimo reminded me of my absolute love of nanowrimo and inspired me to START WRITING. Sooo I randomly opened a new word document and started typing ANYTHING. Needless to say, I like my story so far. :P So now I am extremely excited. Although I've written like 100 words so far, I am excited to play catch up and really get typing this month! I know I can do it...and I'll never live it down if I don't! I think I'm addicted to nanowrimo after only one year and can see myself doing this every november for a really really long time!

Good luck to those who have just started typing, like me! And congrats to those of you who actually started on time and are keeping up with your word counts! Smart thinking and really really good for you!!! You will be under much less stress than the rest of us. Happy typing!! =)

Day 2

2008-11-02T16:52:00.001-08:00

For the record, did homework ALL day. Still working on it plus have to build a car for physics and print out everything for my portfolio...word count: 0

Hopefully everyone else is further along than I am.

Day 1!!

2008-11-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have written absolutely nothing already. xD BUT I got an idea today! I drew a map of the world my novel was set in last year and I never used a couple continents so I'm going to put my new characters into those environments. And in my writing workshop class, I wrote a random scene for an exercise that was graded and I liked the idea of it so I'm not going to use that scene, but I am going to pull some ideas from it. =)

Just for the record when I look back on this journal entry this is my to do list this weekend:

1) Learn 60 words for early vocab test

2) Write a response to a poem

3) Read 122 pages of the english book for Wednesday

4) Writing Workshop portfolio (54 pages) and binder all decorated

5) History essay due Friday

6) Calculus homework

7) Make a car that runs on rubber bands for physics

8) Finish drawing my art project

=/ I think I'm going to get more writing done on my novel on school nights since I'll get everything done early and make time for my novel.

How is everyone else doing? I'm eager to know. =) Anyone need a push already? :P

Less than one week left for preparation!!!! >_<

2008-10-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

I am officially in trouble. I have been so wrapped up in school that I literally haven't begun ANY brainstorming. I am extremely panicked. I have a project due this Monday, another due Tuesday, about four projects due this Friday, then two due the following Monday. Soooo I'm going to have to start throwing ideas around while I'm sitting in my classes or go around the forums to see how everyone else is coming up with ideas to write about.

Well, just thought I'd keep you guys updated. Plus this will give me something to look back on when I get older. How are you all doing with your preparation? Are any of you starting from scratch? That might be what I end up doing.

Slightly under one more month until NaNoWriMo 2008!!

2008-10-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

I am really excited for this year's nanowrimo! I'm hoping to complete the 50,000 word goal this year as well. Who else is as excited as I am? Anyone willing to "compete" with me so we can motivate each other to finish?

This month I'll pretty much be talking about how excited I am for this year's nanowrimo and I'll be talking about my plot. So if you want to help me out, comment and such! I LOVE reading comments on my blog. =D

Hmm..other than that, just bought this year's nanowrimo shirt and the no plot no problem book. I'm hoping this book will help me out this year. (I have much more homework than last year so this year's going to be tough!)

P.S. If you comment me, I will def. comment you back. =) Any link to websites to help me out this year or blogs of other participants are welcome. =)

The End of NaNoWriMo 2007

2007-11-30T20:39:00.000-08:00

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!!

2007-11-27T20:37:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-17T20:18:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-14T15:19:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-10T17:58:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-08T19:22:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-06T17:38:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-04T17:32:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

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

2007-11-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-10-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

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 )