NaNoWriMo Day 30: On Winning And Thanks

Current Day: 30
Current Page: 166
Winning Page: 166
Final Line: "Eva and Galen lived reasonably ever after."

I feel like that's a bit of a cliche ending. It could very well be too cliche of an ending. I don't really know. Right now, I'm just happy I won. I've validated, and I've written a story that concluded within a 30-day time frame. (By that, I mean that I finished it in 30 days. The last novel I finished took over a year, and that's partly because half of it was in my friend's trunk for six months). I'm excited, but I'm also terrified.
Why?
Now I have to type the whole thing up.
And then I have to edit.

NaNoWriMo Day 29: Apologies and Nearing The End

Current Day: 29
Current Page: 154
Target Page: 160-1
Pages Until 50,000: 10-13 (Depending on how much I fudge my averages)
Place in Story: Goal has been achieved. After persuading, cajoling, bribing, pleading, stealing, and getting really mad at princesses; after Eva kicking Jasper in the ribs on purpose in an act that may or may not wind up being the real climax of the novel; after three days and three nights of Eva not sleeping and Ekito the Fairy staying up with Eva to make sure she finished the unicursal hexagram, the work is finally done.
My work isn't done, however. I still have around 3,000 words left to write. The trouble is, I don't know if I have 3,000 words left of story. I'll be able to wiggle a little with the word count averages (um... of COURSE I've been writing at an average of 305 words per page, not 300... that was just a miscalculation... obviously...), but that still gets me to the 3,000 remaining words instead of 4,200.
I've achieved several of the goals I set for the month, however (or I will by tomorrow, anyway). Firstly, I will probably write "THE END" before midnight tomorrow. I have surpassed last year's word count, and possibly the year before's as well. I'm pretty sure the story is concise, and it just needs to be edited for themes and consistency. (That's a whole different matter, though.)

I apologize for not posting at all this week - it was partly because I have been busy with school, but I've also been busy writing a lot. I had a twelve-page Tuesday this week (10k is not very achievable when writing by hand), and another 3,000 word day this week as well. My word count, in other words, has been climbing a lot thanks to Thanksgiving break. I'm very thankful I have such a good home to come back to and for the ability to create so much.
I'll post again tomorrow, hopefully, for the FINAL COUNTDOWN.

NaNoWriMo Day 22: Relying A Lot on Thanksgiving Break

Current Day: 21
Current Page: 111
Target Page: 116
Page I Should Be On: 120
Place in Story: Still Looking for gemstones. Nothing new here.


I'm moving way more slowly than I should be, but that's college. I have to wake up early to work on homework tomorrow, which sucks, but I need to do work.
That's all for tonight.

NaNoWriMo Day 21: Winds of the End

Current Day: 21
Current Page: 109
Target Page: 114
Likelihood of Hitting That Page: 1/3
Place in Storyline: Three weeks since Eva entered the palace.  Three weeks until Winter Solstice/ New Year/ That Time When Eva And Jasper Must Be In The Same House And Not Try To Kill Each Other.  Four of the gems have been obtained, out of six that are needed.  I know Jasper's got one of them, and I just need to figure out how to get the other one without underdoing my word count.
HUZZAH!

NaNoWriMo Day 20: Pushing On, Because Why Not?

Current Day: 20
Current Page: about to start 104
Target Page: at least 107, but hopefully 108-9
Likelihood of hitting that: 37:82.
Place in Story: 3 gems achieved, 4th in the process, 2 left to go.
This is starting to feel like a higher fantasy novel than I intended, but I like it.
My word count isn't what it needs to be - it's about 2,000 words behind - but I'm going to target 6-10 pages a day. I'm near the end of the Week of Terribleness, and I've got a strategy to work out my last two things. (Today: major things on Bible essay. Tomorrow: major things on Shakespeare proposal. Saturday: edit proposal. Sunday: edit Bible. DONE.)
Next week, I'm going to mostly focus on Really Big Targets. I have an entire list worked out:
Surviving The Weekend Sunday (write at least 1000 words)
More Words than Yesterday Monday (write 2000 words)
10k Tuesday (target 10,000 words or get carpal tunnel in the attempt)
Write A Lot Wednesday (target 2000-3000 words)
3k Thursday (target 3000 words, even though that might not happen)
5k Friday (because this is really the only day I'm going to write over break, so I'd better make it a good one)
6k Saturday (to compensate for the lack of writing over break)
Schooltime Sunday (in which I write a lot and validate)

I HOPE THIS WORKS.

NaNoWriMo Day 19: On Revising Goals

Current Day: 19
Current Page: 100
Target Page: 104
Likelihood of Hitting That Number: 22/85
Place In Story: MORE RETRIEVAL OF GEMSTONES!  Also, fancy-dress shopping.  I'm not quite sure why Eva has consented to buying herself a fancy dress to impress a man.  She stopped growing a few years prior and has barely bought new clothing since then.  She's the sort of person who doesn't see the point in dresses, and walked out of three stores because she doesn't want to pay that much for a dress.

In reality, the situation is mostly that Eva's not really comfortable in dresses. It's not a bodily discomfort problem. Eva doesn't have a problem with discomfort; the only discomfort she feels is when other people are obviously uncomfortable with her body. Eva's main problem is that she doesn't see the point in dresses. As someone who lives in trousers on a daily basis and never goes to fancy parties (and she wears trousers when she does because it's normally cold out), Eva just doesn't need to buy fancy dresses. Also, she travels a lot. Though a fancy dress could come in handy in the off-chance you need to be acceptably dressed in front of a king, a fancy outfit is not necessarily part of the Average Adventurer's Checklist. Since "Make A Good Impression on a King" isn't on Eva's regular to-do list, she doesn't exactly carry around fancy clothing all the time.
This shopping trip should be interesting.

Right now, the title of "REVISING GOALS" comes at the time in the month when I'm getting really discouraged. I've barely written today, and I've got a long way to go if I want to catch up to the word count. I don't know if I'm going to make it to 50,000 words, but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up. I might revise my standards of success.
I'm currently at 30,000 or so words, and I've decided that if I get past 33,550 words - the word count I stopped at last year - then I will consider this year a Not Failure. (A "Not Failure" can also be "Not Necessarily Success," which it very well might be, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.)
Right now, I could run into the Not Failure becoming the Success.
Before I work myself into a loop, I'm going to go change and write and go to bed.

NaNoWriMo Day 18: Lagging, exhaustion, and discipline

Current Page: end of 95/ top of 96
Target Page: 100-101
Pages left: 4-5
Pages written: 3
Place in Story: retrieved the emerald from a princess who thought she deserved to have it because she spent six weeks NOT LIVING IN ABSOLUTE LUXURY (OMG THE HORROR!).  Now, Galen and Eva have split up (because Galen deserves more words).  I think he's going to another vain princess and she's going to one who died the year prior from venereal disease.

This morning, I woke up early to write.  I didn't write.  I am now very tired, sleep deprived, and running behind on writing and homework, and possibly coming down with something.
I know I need to push myself in order to get everything done on time; it's going to be a long road to Thanksgiving.  I'm looking forward to the break, but I'm also looking forward to the chance to write a lot and not get distracted by silly things like homework.  (That's not true.  Do your homework, kids!).  EVERYONE wants to assign things this week, though - I have a paper proposal due over the weekend, a paper due next Monday, and a test and a presentation in two different classes this past Monday.  Right now, I need sleep.  I can't get it until Friday night, though.  Probably not even then.
I know it's important to eat and sleep and go to the gym, but it's a difficult cycle to break, when you're exhausted and don't want to work, though you HAVE to work late into the night because you took so long to start the work in the first place.  I'm not trying to make excuses for the lousy work I've put forth so far with my writing.
On that note, TO WORK!

NaNoWriMo Day 17: On Vain Princesses and Sex

Day: 17
Current Page: 91
Target Page: 95
Place in Story: Eva is going to break into the palace/ mansion/ super nice house of one of the people who stole a gemstone from Galen, with the help of the princess's younger brother.
Favorite Quote from the Last 24 Hours: "She promised Judas a drink and hot sex the night after the break-in, with the intent to leave gold with the bartender for Judas to buy two rounds and hire a high-class hooker for one night."
I NEVER SAID EVA WAS THE ONE WHO WOULD HAVE SEX WITH HIM.  She wouldn't do that sort of thing.  She's not into drunk fifteen-year-olds.  (In other news, Judas probably has a problematic background that we don't now about yet.  I might have to write one up for him once NaNoWriMo is over.  Why else would a fifteen-year-old drink so much?)

NaNoWriMo Day 16: On Apathy, Sleep Deprivation, and too much homework

Current Day: 16
Current Page: 86
Target Page: 92
Pages Written Today: 0
Place in story: getting people drunk to steal things. Yep.

I've finally figured out why my word count has started tanking halfway through NaNoWriMo.  This is a trend that started when I was in college, and it's because every professor wants us to do homework, take tests, turn in papers, write essays, and do projects before Thanksgiving.  (Why not after Thanksgiving?  You want us to take a break and then study a LOT MORE?  What's the point of seeing family if we're panicked about finals?).
Anyway, I know that I'm not getting much writing done today - I have a book report and a test tomorrow, and I procrastinated a lot this morning.  I really need to get my life in order, but this is Hell Week Part One, so it's not going to be easy.  Like, I should have started finishing my book 45 minutes ago, so I'm probably going to get a sandwich and eat in my room as I desperately try and read 100 pages.

NaNoWriMo Day 15: Livin' on a Prayer (cuz we're halfway there and we'll make it I swear)

Current Day: 15
Current Page: 85
Target Page: 85-7
Location in Story: first gem retrieved. Second gem in the works. How? By persuading the drunken younger brother of a super vain princess to steal an emerald from his sister. I'm a little disappointed that Eva's established pickpocketing skills aren't going to come into play here, because Judas is the one who will actually do the stealing (yes, his name is Judas... don't judge me), but I might have her tag along and actually do the stealing. Drunk Judas is talking Judas, and talking Judas might wake sleeping sister who likes beauty sleep.



CAUTION: SLIGHT SWEARING AT THE END OF THIS POST. (I don't know if there are any actual readers who want a caution on that sort of thing, but it's worth it)



Now that we're halfway through November, the end is in sight. There are a finite number of days between now and the end of the month, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing because I'm over halfway to making a habit of writing more (what is it, three weeks to create a new habit?), but it's also less of a buffer zone - if my word count suddenly tanks, I have less time to make it up. That being said, I took the opportunity to look back over some of my old stats. Though my word count is nowhere near as good as it could be, and it's nowhere near where it was in 2011, it's definitely better than it was in 2013. Currently, my word count is approximately 25,200 words (or it will be by the end of page 85, since I'm not done with page 85 yet). The Wild Card Overachiever target would be 30k-31.5k words, but the NaNo Official Word Count is 25k; as long as I stay above that number, all will be okay. I hope.
The danger, of course, is that I reach the end but not the word count of 50k. If that happens, I'm going to count that as a win. I don't know if my word count is actually 300 words per page; though many of my pages have over 300 words on them, about 1/4 of them have less than a full page written (my chapters are about 4 pages each). My handwriting has gotten smaller than when I did the test page, but I'm also writing a lot of dialogue that might get edited out later, but there might be more than 300 words per page.

In the end, it's not about how much I write, but whether I write. I think that's true for a lot of people. There are a lot of quotes on Pinterest about WRITE BETTER, NOT MORE, and also DON'T STOP WRITING, but I would like to say to those people: GET IN THE HABIT OF WRITING AND MAKE IT SOUND PRETTY LATER.

I'm going to use a makeup metaphor. (I never thought I would say those words, but here we go).
Makeup is an attempt to make people look prettier. Sometimes it enhances a pretty feature. Sometimes it just makes that one zit less prominent. There is one thing that every makeup wearer has in common, though: THEY ALL HAVE A FACE (unless you are a faceless makeup wearer, in which case I apologize). Some have blue eyes and some have brown eyes and some people are Southeast Asian and some people are from Iceland and some people are some interesting mix of their Cherokee mother's cheekbones and their Turkish father's eyes. Not every face is the same, but everyone has a face on which to put makeup (again, my apologies to the faceless makeup gurus).
Similarly, there is one thing that every first draft has in common: words. Like makeup on a face, you can't pretty up the pretty stuff if there's no pretty stuff to begin with; you can't take out the shitty stuff if there's no shit in the first place. Blank pages are the things that go in the back of books whose page numbers aren't in a multiple of 8 or 12. Blank pages only go within the the novel if there is an artistic choice or a printing error.

I don't know where I'm going with this, so I'm just going to write about a drunk prince and then go to bed.