NaNoWritMo - first deadline

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

If you write a single word today, you have won. Not that National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)thing, but the important task of sitting down and writing something every single day.

But it had better be a damn good word because otherwise, that is going to be pretty dull. You couldn't come up with a second word???

I have my issues with the whole NaNoWriMo thing, and in general feel that Idol is far more useful in the long term. But since we are taking a break, and I know people are going to be doing this thing during the month of November, I figured why not throw some support their way!

Everything in the NaNoWriMoverse is word count based.

So here is your first deadline:

You have until Sunday, November 4th at 11:59 PM to write your first 6,250 words! That's less than 2,000 words a day! Or 1,999 words more than you wrote today! So get to it slacker!!!

Link what you have finished here so people can read it and give you feedback, or just cheer you on. Or so I can mock you. Because you need a good mocking!

Comments

[connie]

Word.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Dude!

[noodledays.livejournal.com]

Chortling.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Only 49,999 words to go to finish your novel!

[teenagewitch.livejournal.com]

Love you Gary!!

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

6250 words would equal...??? How many pages/paragraphs?

I have NaNo issues too, and no, it has nothing do with Pie Hell Week.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

No idea. NaNo still sounds like a bad Mork and Mindy reference to me! :)

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

True! Na-no, Na-no! :)

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

Depends on the size of the page and size of the paragraph. You get about 800 words on a page of A4, depending on font size and whether you put in line/paragraph breaks.

So rough estimate, around 8 pages.

[tigrkittn.livejournal.com]

Good googly moogly - what's A4? I get about 250 words per page, so I've got 198 pages to go after last night. About 99 hours, because I write 500 words an hour. Omg I'm so doomed.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

A4's standard letter size here. I don't know how that would translate to the States.

[tigrkittn.livejournal.com]

That's what I get for double spacing (I set my Word to default that way after submitting a few things to places it was required for) and writing a lot of dialogue.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

Ahhh. Yes. That would explain it. I don't double space unless I'm submitting to someone that wants me to. Annoys the heck out of me and it doesn't take long to reformat when I need.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

"what's A4?"

It is a vowel, and is the first letter of the alphabet. It's very useful.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

Are we supposed to share everything we write for NaNo with the NaNo universe??? I'm not going to do that. My book is a Super Sekkrit project that won't even make sense in some ways until the editing process. But anyone who followed alleyalligator will know the sort of thing I'm going to be writing. I'm that predictable.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

There is definitely some uploading of material involved with "official NaNo"

"8) Starting November 1, you can update your word count in that box at the top of the site, and post excerpts of your work for others to read. Watch your word-count accumulate and story take shape. Feel a little giddy.

9) Write with other NaNoWriMo participants in your area. Write by yourself. Write. Write. Write.

9.25) If you write 50,000 words of fiction by midnight, local time, November 30th, you can upload your novel for official verification, and be added to our hallowed Winner’s Page and receive a handsome winner’s certificate and web badge. We’ll post step-by-step instructions on how to scramble and upload your novel starting in mid-November."


As far as I'm concerned though, I was just thinking of a way that people could be accountable for doing it. Maybe a screen shot of their official count or something! I'm sure you will keep yourself on task! Just let us know when you have met the deadline!

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

Ahhh. Is the uploaded novel available for anyone to read or is it just that you put it up so they can count the words and you get a shiny icon? I'm not that bothered about verification if the book is made public in so doing.

I'm updating my word count as I go though, which I thought was the main point of having a NaNo account. I've already done today's word count with a little bonus, so this afternoon, I'm back to novel layouts.

[magenta-girl.livejournal.com]

It is only for verification. No one needs to see what you've written.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thanks.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Except the Super Secret NaNo Ninja Army who enforces such things!

Don't mess with the SupSeNaNoWriMoNinArm!

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Not only does no one need to see it, you don't even have to upload the actual words. For example, you can copy your 50,000 words into another document, run a global search and replace a few times, and change all the letters into X's if you want.

There are no nano cops (or ninjas) and it's all on a personal honor code.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

You're wrong about the ninjas. Someday you may learn just *how* wrong... but then it will be too late! ;)

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

that's good to know. I know for a fact that the way that I'm doing it means it's going to need MEGA editing when it's done, so won't be in any fit state for someone else to put on Kindle, but still. I always get a little twitchy about putting my stuff on someone else's site.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Still not doing Nano.

Still love ya' Gary, for helping to pleasantly fill up my email box!

Still have tons o' Halloween candy left - I think we got about 2 dozen Trick of Treaters because of the lousy weather; we bought about 90 candy bars (full size)! Oy...

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

The weather was awful here too. We still did well out of it - the trunk or treat event we were going to was moved inside but I think that fewer people went because of the rain.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

You'd think if it were just rain, kids would dress up in shiny yellow rain slickers and go as a Banana!

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

That assumes ownership of a yellow mac though! And this wasn't just rain. It was RAIN! My children all looked amazing when they were dressed and made up before they went out. By the time we were down trick or treating (and we were only out about ten minutes), they could have been going as drowned rats!

[barrelofrain.livejournal.com]

Nice! I have no power at my house because of Sandy, but I actually just came to a friend's house so that I could work on my NaNo.

[i-am-an-angel.livejournal.com]

This is the first year I heard of NaNoWritMo. I've always dreamt of writing a novel, but this is kind of scary.

Maybe I'll try. I just wish I had more research done for what I want to write.

Good luck, all! I can't wait to read all your in-the-work novels!

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

Oh crap, I thought this was only a link post. Oh well.

Anyhow, deadline met already. Well surpassed actually. Here's the screenshot. This is what you get when Pixie is unemployed... Lots and lots of writing.

http://pixiebelle.livejournal.com/705364.html

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

Since I've only written 3179 words so far, I doubt I'm going to make the goal for this post. Also, what I'm writing might not make any sense? Since it's part of something I've been working on for a few months and I completely cheated at NaNo. But if anyone wants to see what I've finished so far anyway, here it is:

http://n3m3sis43.livejournal.com/34434.html

Ooooor, here is an excerpt of the next part, which I am working on now.

*****

"Got any plans for tomorrow night?" Brendan asks as he brushes the dirt off his pants.

"Plans?" I snort. "I'm a robot." I step back and survey our handiwork. The purple flowering cacti we've planted add a touch of cheer to the otherwise barren back yard. No one besides us ever comes back here, so it's kind of our spot now.

"It's your birthday, though," Brendan says. "Shouldn't you be doing something special?"

Oops. When did I tell him my birthday?

"I mean, if you don't want to do anything... that's okay, too." Brendan's face is getting all pink now. It's kind of cute. "It's just... I kind of planned a little party."

"A... party?" Robots don't have birthday parties, do they?

"Yeah, just a little one." Brendan has this hopeful look on his face and that's kind of cute, too. "Wes said he could find us some stuff to drink and I checked and no one has any other plans so they should all be around. I mean, I know you can't really get drunk but I figured... You know, everyone should have a birthday party."

I'm pretty sure my face would be pink now, too, but robots don't blush.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

I'm at 8081 right now. My first few chapters are introducing characters and in my head I've set aside around 2000 for each of them, so if I keep this up, I'm well on target for finishing early (24 November if the site is correct). I am liking the little widget that tells me I only need to write 1500 or so per day now to finish on time.

Sorry no linking though - I don't like sharing my stuff in an unfinished state if I can help it.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

I'm just shy of 15,000 words at the moment.

If you want to read the super-unedited versions of what I have (mostly) so far:

Gray Morning, Chapter One (http://theun4givables.livejournal.com/50789.html).

First 9 chapters are up, chapter 10 is currently in the works. This is actually the newest reincarnation of what I had been posting for Idol, last scene. :) In order, even.

I'm at this point though where I think everything's just too bad to be fixed, though. Craaaaap.

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

Late checking in, but I had 6,603 at the end of Sunday? Technically Sunday afternoon, as I didn't get home from work until after midnight, so anything I wrote Sunday night counted towards Monday instead.

Random Excerpt (the middle paragraphs from a page-long chapter):

To make matters worse, the safe was large enough to simply roll things into on a wheeled cart – supposedly, to save the servants' backs if the kindhearted princess ever needed it for large sums or expensive, bulky presents – and it came with a thick, strong door that had closed itself behind him. Not that it had started out that way; no, Herman had very carefully propped it open when he entered. But somehow, the little yapping lap-dog had made its way into the room, run into the vase with which he'd propped the door open hard enough that it toppled over and broke, and then lunged at him when he lunged for the door.

Now they were both trapped in here, effectively ensuring that if he didn't lose his grip on the upper shelf in the tier along the back wall and become tea for an overexcited fluffball with entirely too many teeth, he'd certainly suffocate to death. And the sure death of the little dog was only a partial consolation.

What would have been more of a consolation was if he had been able to complete his commission first; but the jewels did not appear to be in the safe. Herman had even fetched a candle, before the door was unceremoniously slammed shut, and examined both the shelves and the contents of a large chest on the floor. No jewelry at all was in evidence, not even a moonstone, certainly nothing as gaudy as the princess Swanahilda's ruby-and-diamond-encrusted tiara, necklace, bracelets, brooch, and belt.

Don't worry, he gets rescued in the end -- and the little dog, too. :)