Unfinished Nanowrimo novelists check in...

[nuxvomica]

I made it to 50,346 but I have 20-30K words to go before my novel is finished. There are a few major scenes left but I'm taking a break now for a few days. I hope to get the first draft finished by Christmas. It's still amazing to me that I got all of this written in one month. Once I get started again, I'm going to track my progress in Excel and post milestones here. I invite my fellow novelists to do the same.
:hi:

[MorningGlow]

1. Hiyer!

:hi:

I upped my count to 52,000+ after validating, but I had to take a break as well. Got an article to write that was due...er...Monday...ahem...

But I hope to get back to the novel after finishing the article...and cleaning the house (which has been sorely neglected during November in favor of NaNo)...and Christmas shopping. I really, REALLY want to keep going with it and even finish--and even revise it! I feel very strongly about it. NaNo works wonders for self-discipline and confidence building.

[nuxvomica]

2. The novel demands to be finished, doesn't it?

I probably won't start writing again myself until tomorrow but I've been spending all of my idle moments thinking through how my characters -- most of them anyway ;-) -- are going to find their way to the end of it.
:hi:

[crispini]

3. Hey! Good to see you back over here.

I just bought a ream of paper tonight and am looking forward to my foray into editing. I was going to give it another week, but I'm so excited to start reworking it, I can't wait anymore. I don't need any distance, I need to get that baby up on the rack and tear out the tranny! :D

[nuxvomica]

4. Pity us who have not finished our first drafts yet

Last I looked you were over 100K and I'm just hoping I can get to 75 by Christmas. :scared:
I actually also want to get back to it myself but I'm trying to keep away from it for one more day and catch up on some other things. I think I'm past my first burnout period.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. The one I wrote is getting a whole new treatment and a whole new

world.

For many reasons I decided to just let Future Nexus lay, and go for a new world. Sad but I need to do that. Though unlike FN, I think major characters will need to die from word go.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Well remember what papa wrote about first drafts

and I paraphrase... all first drafts are crap...

Realize papa Heminwhay was a hell of a perfectionist but there you have it, from a master.

And anybody who says a first draft is a piece of finished work... I give you this PFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!

Na, na, la, na, na...

Oh and a healthy LOL

Good for you. The first task is actually getting that first draft out...

Now back to work... new toy... my noveling software for the IPOD WORKS SWEET and I should now try to do a first draft for a short story. Good way to get to meet my new toy.

:-)

[nuxvomica]

8. I managed only 1417 more words yesterday

I have to keep in mind that it really is just a first draft and tame that "editor within" that thinks its a final one. ;-)

[MorningGlow]

10. During NaNo I kind of wasted some valuable time

by going back and editing what I had already written. I used the excuse that my plot changed (timelines, motivation, situations, etc.), so I had to alter stuff I had already written to make it fit before I forgot. But I suspect it was just a way to stall. :D Oh wait--I've got another excuse. Sometimes when I get stuck, I go back and reread parts of my novel to get back in the groove. Yeah, that's the ticket.
:rofl:

[sybylla]

7. Congrats, everyone!

You've all accomplished far more than me. I've never been able to commit to NANOWRIMO because of other obligations in November. I'm very jealous. I have about 15,000 words on my next novel and could have really used the contest to get it done.

[nuxvomica]

9. I set up an Excel worksheet with a graph like Nanowrimo's

I can describe how to do it if you like. To me, the word quota graph was the key to getting up to 50K.

[nuxvomica]

11. How's everyone else doing?

A made it to 53,653 last night. My goal was 53,500 with a daily quota of 1500 a day. Its tougher now and not just because Nanowrimo is over. A lot of plot devices set up early on are finally paying off and I have to keep reading back to make sure I've got character names and such correct.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. You're using Windows?

I will recommend a great little program to get all your plotting, noveling et al going

Liquid Story Binder.

If you are on a budget, YWriter is free.

Oh and forgot Mac, Jer's novel writer is also free. It helps to have all that data in a handy little program where you can just create your character bibles or add to them as you go.

[nuxvomica]

13. I have a free app called Storybook

I made a lame attempt at configuring it for my novel last night but I didn't get too far due to my laziness after slamming out my word quota. I will check out your suggestions. I don't think I investigated either one before.

edit: yes, I'm using Windows XP.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Depending on how you work

I happen to like LSB the best, to the point that it FINALLY runs on my mac under WINE... tapping for joy.

[nuxvomica]

15. I just finished loading the first chapter into yWriter

The interface is a little more standard than Storybook so loading was pretty easy. I think I'm going to go with that. I love that it breaks the novel up into scenes. That's exactly what I need. My chapters are simply divided by day but the first one has 20 different scenes, divided among six character viewpoints. I had no idea the story was so complex when I was writing it.
LSB looked a little too overkill for what I was doing but I may use it for editing later because of the textual analysis. For now, though, yWriter fits the bill. Thanks for the brilliant suggestion. :D

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. LSB allows you to work in many ways

That is what I like about it. Oh and every upgrade (and the program has gotten better over the years) is free. Now YWriter IS free... no argument from me.

[nuxvomica]

17. I have finally reached the 60K mark

So 60,173 is where I am at year's end. :)

[nuxvomica]

18. I am now at 67,820 words

I'll probably finish off at 80K. It's been slow going but I'm shooting to finish the first draft by the end of the month. Finishing by Christmas was a crazy dream. :silly:

[nuxvomica]

19. 72,331 words

I could possibly finish it by the end of the weekend. It's taken so damn long to do this draft I can't wait to start editing.

[sybylla]

20. Yeah! Keep working it.

Having finished a non-nanowrimo novel, I absolutely understand the urge to edit.

I've never waited until I was done with anything to edit, but I like the nanowrimo proposition to just sit and write and worry about editing when it's all done. I sometimes think I fall back on editing when I'm not feeling creative that day and that's a bad habit to get into.

Work that muse. Pour creativity out. And feel the blessing that is finishing that first draft.

Cheers nuxvomica :toast:

[nuxvomica]

21. Done! Word count: 84,918

I really pushed it this weekend and finally got it done. The first draft at least. I expect it will get a little longer on editing. When I did the word-usage count in yWriter, it says I actually have 85,747 words of which 7,941 are unique. I don't know if that's a good ratio or bad but I'm surprised I know that many words.
Yay! The first draft is done!

:bounce: