Blam! And it's done!

Wow. The last eight days have gone by in flurry of keystrokes. I've nominally finished this novel, but now that it's "done," I need to finish it. Like last year's novel, this one's completion is just the start. I think there are another 100k-150k words still to be written before it's ready for editing. There's no doubt that this will be as good as the first novel, which I have yet to write the last couple of scenes. Then edit. Then edit again. Then smoothe out. Then submit. And by then it'll be time for NaNoWriMo 2006. Gleesh!

Brunch and Typing

Way fun time had today. by 11 we had several folks over, and only with reluctance did the last of the writers turn from typing to pie-eating at 3 in the afternoon. New traditions were born: in the Betazoid style of having a triangle rung at each bite of food consumed by important personages, we clutch of writers celebrated each person's completion of one thousand words by ringing a ceremonial chime and then everyone else proclaiming Huzzah! at their accomplishment.

A haiku written for the moment, and the month:

A keystroke rainfall
Words in this monsoon season
Wash minds of their doubt

Getting down and typing seriously. Note the chime on the far right.
	The silence was intense, palpable, and jsut a bit daunting. The flickering of keys, the pauses, were like looking inside a living brain and trying to spot thoughts.

30k and holding

This is the part I hate. I enjoyed playing the martyr to get this far, but now I've got to bite down and get the last 20k down on virtual paper.

It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't mourning the loss of my laptop, with its gigs of data that I hope was backed up somewhere or another.

Or that I really hoped that I had something to write. Chris Baty's little platitudes are starting to rub raw on me; I'm not freaking bunny nibbling in a garden, I'm a writer, damnit, and I'm trying to write a novel that falls within this 11/1 through 11/30 time period. And the words don't always match the required word count.

Or maybe it's just that I'm balking against the tick-tocking of the NaNoWriMo clock.

Be that as it may, I'm off to write some more. I'm off through Monday, and then from Wednesday on. If I can't get this novel at least to 50k by them, something's gone horribly wrong!

Later that evening...

Postscript on the evening. Even when sick I can knock off about 1,000 words an hour. 2,000 words a night is just not hard. Which is a weird thing to say; even after I did it last year it seemed like an impossible number. Since then I moved 'Induction' from 50,025 to almost 107,000 words, and the process of word production has really gotten easier and easier.

Another thing: my characters have become much more inventive. They've come up with plot complications and solved them much more handily, more honestly, than "I" could. (No, I'm not going schitzoid!)

I'd like to end with a blessing to Jeff, creator and host until now of NaNoProMe: the progress meter (you can see the link to Jeff's page in the links section of this blog). Apparently his feature has died due to success: I think he had over 38Gb of traffic so far this month, and the ISP is wailing on him. Bro, you've done us all an honor. I wish I could host it from work, but parasitic free enterprise is frowned upon there. What am I saying: any free enterprise is frowned upon! (Note to self: FIND ANOTHER JOB!)

Thank you Jeff, for a great tool that I loved. May luck and good karma haunt your works until the end of time!

(I think I need more meds.... )

Yeah, well...

Started out with a bidabang, bidaboom. This week was a simper sigh, though. Went to a local write-in on Sunday and again on Tuesday -- and managed to get little done in the way of word count, but much in the way of socializing. I really need to get out more -- but after NaNoWriMo, shall we? Good thing I'm taking off the Mon/Tues before T-Day. An orgy of writing, a veritable fire hose of words shall (be decree) spew forth. I'm starting to think that this year's NaNoNovel will need a lot more editing than the last one.

Speaking of which, it's _STILL_ not quite done, owing to all the other things I wanna do. Like sleep. Or work. Feh! Details!

Foosh!

Another quick post; I find myself doing so much writing aside from NaNoing that it amazes me that I can get in my goal of 2,000 words a day (when I write. 15,638 as of today. Last year was harder: I had characters yet to develop, scenes and background I needed to study and research before putting into the novel. I don't know what other people are doing, but my goal is not just to splort 50,000 words together, but create something that, like last year, I can continue to grow into a fully-fledged novel.

My daughter is pushing to get her 10,000 words up by today (which has eight minutes left by my clock -- I hope she's in bed!!!). I am exhilarated by her pushing forward with this lofty goal: I can't imagine me, at her age, being capable of even considering 50,000 words as an achievable goal. I am in awe of this young woman.

Meanwhile, my character still hasn't done much but almost get drowned. I'm alternating chapters in first person with third-person background or weaving events. These are much more exciting, usually, than the first person, although I expect they will weave together. After all, Laramie needs to get off the boat and onto shore to visit all the countries I have planned for him... .

Kid-o-WriMo

My daughter has been possessed by the NNWM monster. Click on the image to see the short video clip. I wish I had her dedication to the cause. Of course, getting the right fingers on the right keys is also an issue...

Chris Baty, check this one out!

Galumph, galumph, galumph!!!!

Off to the races. My characters weren't milling around, they were discussing dialog, and scene direction, and practicing action numbers I did't know they had in them. Wow. I needed to go back and read part of my first novel to get continuity, and I am (and I'm not bragging here) amazed at the level and coherence of the 1st novel. Induction needs to get finished so I can tweak the edits; it's really close to getting to a publisher even as it is. (Well, that might be conceit on my part.)

So is this a Mayan god, or just a pregnant skeleton used for a lamp? My character needs to figure some of this out; there's a message buried steganographically in the picture (not this one, silly!), and the message is not just the encrypted data, but also the picture, its meaning, the positioning, etc. I'm going to squeeze every last bit out of it. But does anyone know what this sculture is really about? If you do, drop me a comment! I'm pretty sure it's not Ixtab, suicide goddess, or Ix Chel the fertility, childbirth, etc. goddess. Although some folks have a pretty broad impression as to Ix Chel's scope of powers.

On second thought, maybe there is a link between them...

Snuggling -- Hah!

Slept ill instead.