NaNoWriMo Journal part 2

Day 1:Word Count: 12,386 This is my NaNoWriMo update post, to be published upon completion of my NaNoWriMo event. Day one started off terrible, I was barely able to type at midnight, and I grew very frustrated. However, as the day went by, and I was able to sleep off my anguish of not being able to concentrate, I was able to complete all three chapters in the first day, as I was hoping for, and I am now twenty-one pages in, ready to start chapter 4, and that means by Day 5, I’ll have seven chapters finished, and that means I can do a quick edit. That’s nearly sixty pages of editing, but that would only take a few hours, then I will continually write from there on. My fingers are a little sore, and I can tell I’m beginning to make some minor mistakes, but I believe that they’re up for the challenge. I will be doing chapters four and five tomorrow, then chapter seven on Day 3. I may even have chapter eight, but I’ll also be doing some minor editing from this point on, however, I’ve made sure to do well over six thousand words a day, just to make sure I’m above and beyond my minimum. However, I’m not exactly sure that will be enough. I am doing so, because I have to factor in perhaps sick days, days where I’m not feeling as inspired, so I have to use inspiration days up in order to get as much typed as possible. I must be a sadist, because on top of writing all day long, I’ve decided to write a side piece explaining my day-to-day operation. I’m quite tired believe it or not, I’ve must’ve been writing for a good five hours, if not longer. I started at two o’clock in the afternoon, which was the bulk of today’s writing. I did about 800 words after midnight, but I have bounced back greatly. I’m stopping on chapter 4 for tonight, because my eyes, and my fingers are both starting to give out, and staring at a screen for as long as I have, it cannot be good on the body. However, I found it exhilarating, and again, it’s not a speed event, although you could say I’m treating it as such, but it’s an endurance event. Can I maintain a steady writing curriculum, and succeed? The minimum goal is set at 50,000 words. As of this moment, I have 37,614 words until I reach my goal. Not bad, but seeing as my actual minimum goal is around 80,000, I actually have 67,614 words to go, and that means I’ve got a lot more work than seems plausible in order to defeat NaNoWriMo. I’ve been able to do so much today, and now that I’m in my groove, I’m feeling like it will be possible to actually complete the book, let-alone the minimum requirements to slay 50K. The first eight hundred words were the toughest, but after I got over the starting hump, which usually affects me towards the end of the book, where you get climaxitis, a nicely coined term where you seem to get very, very exhausted from the book, and tend to not put in the same spirit as you had for the beginning. I’m second-guessing my ideas, but now that I’ve gotten into the meat of the first part of the novel, I feel like I’ll be able to complete it within record timing. I know deep down, that something can always go array, which comes with the nature of error, but human, and otherwise. However, I’ve made sure to make it clear that I will not be hindered by such, I have a good start, but I’m not going to let that fluff my ego. I may have go and ice my fingers, but if not, I’ll be able to see just how far I can push on to twenty thousand words by tomorrow, and then I’ll do about five thousand a day for the rest of next week, then switch back on to a few days of ten thousand. I have my organizer, but again, that is mostly guideline, as is the chapter outlines. I’ve already gone off the course, but I feel the direction I’m taking is more lead by the structure of the said outline. I’m excited to see how far this goes. However, my biggest worry right now is that I’ve not come up with a decent title. The title may escape me, but I’m sure it will come from within the work, and if this does go on to be a series, that means titles, and subtitles. However, if this is a serial, I will have to figure out just when I want to continue the story further on down the road. It could be something I complete before NaNoWriMo 2015, but it could also be what I do for NaNoWriMo 2015. I already know what is coming after this book: my Lolita sequel. So although I had an eventful day, there’s nothing I can really state here that will give you any advice. Simply write, I was lucky to have a whole day to write, and still have time to write nearly a thousand words here. Most people will not believe that I’ve written over thirteen thousand words in a day, but seeing that I’ve prepared for nearly a year for this event, I’m certain I’ll succeed. If not, I’ll be proud to fail while achieving so much in a short amount of time. So here is to Day 1 of NaNoWriMo, it has inspired me to push the boundaries of what I can do as a writer, and I cannot wait to go at it again tomorrow Day 2: Word Count 18,336 Having nearly doubled my first day‘s attempt, I have decided to take a breather for now, but I could very well write some more later tonight. I may just take a short nap, and get back at it again. I have finished chapter 4, which was a long, taxing chapter, I may very well cut it down a bit, but as of now, it came out very well, introduced a lot of conflict, introduced the new character, Boo-Boo, and referenced Clara, who will be a healthy portion of chapter five. I‘ve written about 5950 words today, so far. I may actually write some more, and it would be nice to write some more today. If I do decide to write several more pages in chapter 5, then I‘ll relay that information here, and update the word count for today. Technically I‘m on route to do nearly ten thousand words each day, however, I feel that may not be the case for tonight. If I can do over eight thousand words before Day 3, I‘ll be satisfied, but I know that is entirely realistic, but I might just take a break for now, having written quite a bit. Again, updates will along soon. I have to say thank you to all those who are following this day-to-day update, and knowing that the extra writing here is not doing the most wondrous job on my aching fingers. I’m still very excited to see just where the story takes me next, and for better, or worst, I’ll make sure to add in much more information, the problem is when you’re typing it so fast, and for so long, you tend to forget just what you’ve written ten pages before, and what needs to be added in the last five paragraphs. It’s very difficult to always stay on point while writing a book, because it can become very monotonous, hence why I don’t mind this tiny bit of distraction. I don’t mind the focus that comes from a book, just knowing how the story will go, and sometimes, how the story may even surprise me, makes it hard to know if I’m not being detailed enough, or sometimes if I’m not writing enough detail. Sometimes it’s a tough balance, even for the most conditioned of writers, but seeing that I’ve nearly written half of my expected goal in a matter of several hours, this shows that I’m not only on track to “slay 50K, which is quite an achievement, but I have the upper hand at having practiced a great deal, and coming off just a few months of completing a full-length novel (over 80,000 words) in about two months, and that was not writing every single day. So far, I’m two days in, and nearly two weeks ahead of what’s expected of NaNoWriMo. I rather be brutally ahead, so the editing process is far more lax, than doing a constant. I’m able to keep writing all the way through, I am even on track of doing an extra fifty thousand words, but the hardest part of this journey is keeping the confidence built up. I do have some rest days thrown in, which will inherently be measured as editing days, but I attempting to be done by the twenty-first, if not the twenty-fifth, so the book can be fully uploaded. I have yet to find a proper title, but that’s not unusual, I do like to see the work fully realized before I give it a proper title. Seeing as this may become the first in a serial, I’m going to start adding in an abhorrent amount of detail in the next few chapters, so I can start to climax the story by chapter twenty, and find the resolution between twenty-one, and a potential twenty-second chapter. I may just end it at chapter twenty, and have the resolution be short and sweet. Since I’ve foreshadow the ending within the first three pages of the book, I know pretty much the end of the main conflict, but how do I tease the potential second book? I’m still going to tease it as a cliff-hanger, even if the second book is never recognized. So if I decide to type up some more, expect to see the updates here. If not, expect updates for Day 3. I’ll also be editing on Day 5, and I’ll type how that goes, but by then, I expect to be at chapter seven, if I finish chapter five tonight, I may just do chapter up to chapter ten. Until later, or until tomorrow, thank you for continuing to read this, and I’ll keep everyone posted on the grueling process of NaNoWriMo. Day 2 Continued: word count: 22,252 Well, I decided to type some more, and I nearly doubled my first-day word count. Technically it is November 3rd right now, but I sat down to type when it was still November 2nd, and with-that, I am counting all this frightfully painful carpal tunnel as a badge of honor for day two. Tomorrow I’ll start chapter 6, having just powered through chapter5, and although my golden rule is normally ten pages per chapter, I’ve been staying away from that golden rule, which is technically a guideline, and writing each chapter until it feels finished. I’m having a much more laid-back approach to this book, because it is for NaNoWriMo, and also because it’s well outside my element. The book follows a more satirical Fantasy Sci-Fi aspect, whereas most of my books follow an oratory style of storytelling, where it could be more like a fable, or a modern noire tale. This is by far my most revealing book yet, because I’ve kind of laid-off the traditional path, but still am honing down to the classical British humor that I’ve grown to love. The book is technically a paranormal satire, but it will have a great depth than that, and a classic adversary, and a relatively original adversary with classic villain roots. I’m so tired, and naturally so, seeing that I’ve written nearly ten thousand words again tonight, and nearly 16 pages in one day. Although the word count is slightly lower than I’ve expected, that is because of the dialogue formatting, however it still short of my record day (twenty pages in a twelve-hour period, twenty-eight in a 24 hour period.) but even so, I’m learning so much about myself, and I’m sure this sounds more farcical than realistic numbers, but I’ve literally been typing every single moment of the day with enough time to catch the newest episode of the Walking Dead, and the Talking Dead, respectively. If I can keep this up, I’ll have reached my first milestone much faster, then the grueling editing process (one of at least three) will begin. I would love to get the book down to a manageable length, but I also want it to be relatively close to publication. Let’s face it, I’m not just writing this for fun, I’m writing this to make it a marketable book, and once I go through with a fine brush, and detail all the parts that need detailing that come from a first draft, then I’ll be able to have a proper chance of legitimate publication. I’m quite tired tonight, and I really don’t want to push my fingers any further, so I’ll get to the nitty-gritty of what’s going on here so far: NaNoWriMo is about reaching fifty thousand words in a month. I have literally started at midnight November 1st, and am now approaching the halfway mark, pre editing. I am on chapter 6 currently, which is a relatively longer chapter, because a great deal of action, and plotting will go into this chapter, especially with the unveiling of the main antagonist coming to fruition. To be honest, I thought this would be more taxing, but having mulled it over the past two months, plotting, or at least describing my characters has given me a fresh perspective on what to do with the story. It does follow some elements of the Greek Play, and completely makes a mockery of that, all-the-while being something holistically British, but with that bit of American flare that comes from being, well…American. I believe it may not pay homage to the greats like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, but it’s a rather unflattering form of imitation, however, it’s also very much my own creation with some subtle, and not-so-subtle inspiration. Any lover of science fiction will get the references, although I’ve made them much more subtler than even I think is fair, but I like my readers to think, and see if I’m yanking their chain, or I’m being literal. Time will have to tell if it ever gets sent to print. Finally, I would say that if you are thinking of participating in NaNoWriMo, and you haven’t yet invested in one, I submit a suggestion that is both reasonable, and critical: buy a rest for your wrists, because I’ve not used one yet, and they are killing me. I don’t know how I will make it through to 120,000, let-alone 50,000 words without a break, but I believe I will have no choice, because sooner-or-later, something is bound to suffer, whether it be my writing, or my aching fingers, everything needs a rest eventually. Thank you for reading this so-far, I can’t believe how insane I must truly be to do a daily update, along with writing this book, but maybe I’m an overachiever, but I’m going to see just what I can do to make sure neither this day-by-day journal, or the book grow stale. Thank you for your continuous reading, and I hope to be back again tomorrow (today) with more updates on my progression through NaNoWriMo. As of now this journal has 2610 words, in-case you were wondering. Day 3: word count 26,840 at 5:20 p.m. Day 3 so far has been partially exciting. I’m taking a quick break for now, and having finished chapter 6, which was not much longer than I’ve expected, ten pages per chapter is not always the norm, but next chapter will be a much longer, much more plotted chapter. I’m not one of those people who believes in set ways when it comes to the structure of a book, but I do believe that certain aspects of all books fit to a marketable organization. As of now, I’m taking a short break for today, but I will most likely come back, and write chapter 7, and finish it, if not partially finish it tonight. The word count could be higher, I was hoping to get to thirty thousand words minimally today, and there is still plenty of time to reach that goal, but I’m sure that it will be finished tonight. This chapter was great, because the last chapter was a break from the action, a slight change of direction and scenery. This allows for chapter 6 to be a more personal interaction between Peregrinus Stanton, and Reade Ian Parker. Although Parker’s personality is still a bit wobbly, because he’s still coming to grips with being dead, but it’s shining through here and there, and Stanton, who is more upstanding, although a bit trite, will now show off some exemplarily personality. I may have to go back and reevaluate both characters, because when having back-to-back dialogue, it is sometimes possible to make both characters accidentally blend, coming off very one-dimensional. However, I think it’s just because I’m writing so much now, and always second-guessing my skill, that I tend to psychologically do better when I’m constantly on guard with my writing. NaNoWriMo has become a thrilling experience, and since I’m taking a bit of an earlier break than usual, I’m finding this journal entry to be much easier to type without feeling much pain, or pressure in either of my hands. We all know that the right hand tends to do most of the typing, but I’ve also realized that my left hand has started to ache just as much, and that’s never a good sign. I have nearly thirty-thousand words, and that roughly means I’m typing ten thousand words a day, which is nearly double my expected writing goal. This doesn’t mean I’m all peacock and no grouse about it though, because I know that I can eventually have a bad day, hit a brick wall of writer’s block, or I could find myself wanting to scratch the whole thing, which is very dire, very terrible, because I am starting to admire this story, because it feel so different to what I’ve done in the past. I look at it this way, I’m already over the halfway mark of fifty-thousand words in three days, let alone three weeks. Does this mean I can potentially do a novel a month? Not really, because that means it will eat up more of my time than I can allow. However, I could look at it this way: I’m going to exceed the NaNoWriMo goal, overly achieving what most people can expect to do at a given time. The question most people would want to have answered is: is it easier to write once you’re already in the thick of it? I’d say it’s as tedious in the beginning hours as it is now, because I may have a better inkling on just where the story is going, I also have the ability to find myself trapped in that aggravating situation of being halfway finished, and no longer able to type, simply because I cannot find the right words to write. Writer’s block doesn’t necessarily plague me, I never have a problem writing, it’s how and where I want to order my writing that frustrates me. It’s like when you want to start a proper sentence, or a scene, and you just can’t find where to start it, or how to continue on, it’s a nuisance. So, I’ve been through the ringer for so long, I’ve well over a million words in books, and I can say it is a new experience every single time I sit down at the computer and type. In this fiscal year (2014) I will have written three full-length novels if I finish this story on-time. I am not sure I like this story more or less than the other ones, but I feel it’s one that I would like to read, and like to see come to publication. I’m not necessarily prouder of this work in progress, but it’s perhaps the most similar to what I was going for, so in that sense, it’s my most successful writing project when evoking a certain style, so far. I’m going to give my aching joints some rest, probably take a nice hot shower, and in a few hours or so, come back to writer chapter seven, maybe I’ll finish it, or get very close to finishing it tonight, either way, I’ll surely make 30,000 words before bed. If you’re writing, know that I wish all writers luck, whether they’re writing for NaNoWriMo, or simply writing for the joy of potential publication. I admire writers of all ages, races, creeds, and sex. I believe that we all are the potential future of literature, and whether that’s potentially good, or predominately bad; stay true to the craft, and never let your fingers fail you! If I write more tonight, (I suspect it will be the case, I have to have at least six thousand words a day, and I’ve barely made over four thousand so far.) expect an update. Thank you again for continually reading this Day-by-Day journal on my journey through NaNoWriMo. Day 3 Continued: word count:30,972 at 11:00 p.m. Well, I did it! I didn’t think I would, but not only did I finish chapter 7, readying myself for the long-haul of chapter 8, (I will most likely edit in more story and background in chapter 7 on an editing day. For now, I’m very much satisfied in how it turned out, and is by far some of the best back-and-forth dialogue I’ve written yet) I believe that by tomorrow I’ll have fifty thousand words, especially since chapter 8 and 9 are going to roll off my fingers like salty, delicious word butter. They’re going to be the pulp of this juicy novel, and I’m excited to see just how the elements at play are going to arouse certain plot-points within the next ten-to-twenty pages. I’ve reached page fifty, which is the point of which I wanted to edit, but I may just wait until page sixty, even page seventy to do the first edit (That will be roughly fifty thousand words.) I’ve never thought it possible to write this many words in a matter of days, it makes me think what I can do with six months of non-stop writing, but I’m sure by that time I’d have hands that looked like bony witch hands, and broke on impact with anything stronger than a foam cushion. I’m excited, very, very excited at how well it’s going, but I always keep a level-head that things can always go south. So I’m always on the ball. I’ve never written such an amount of words at one time in my life. Maybe having the experience has helped me. However for those who are up-and-comers, slightly less experienced writers, heed my warning: pace makes for saving grace! Set a word count goal, but more importantly, if you don’t make that word count, don’t feel obligated to reach it every single day. That’s why I set the bar so high on Day 1, I know that someday, maybe even tomorrow, since it is Election Day I will have to take a cut in time spent writing to go vote, but that’s mere minutes. Yet, if the for some reason I miss the entire day of typing, I know I’m well ahead, and could probably take a breather. However, my breather is supposed to be tomorrow, but due to Election Day, I may just write all of Chapter 8, then begin editing long into the wee hours of the night, the on into early next day, then start chapter 9. I’ve finished two chapters a day, roughly, nearly three the first day, so I’m certain to hit the benchmark of twenty chapters in this book, which means I’ll have a completed book, edited to the best of my abilities. I’m sure most people won’t believe I’ve written all of this, plus the book, and over time I can see why that would seem logical, but if you cut television out, games, and focus primarily on writing. I do suggest most people read as they write, but since I’ve seen just what it takes to do NaNoWriMo to the fullest extent, I don’t think it’s a disservice to yourself if you decide not to read a book in November. Would I do this again, knowing what I do now? Probably not, because this is the rare occurrence when I have the time to sit down and write. I feel this would be very difficult to complete if you were juggling a full-time job, kids, school, or even marriage. I believe it can be done with all those things and more, and done to the extreme extent I’m pushing it (Remember, the average NaNoWriMo participant is aiming at 50K words, I’m minimally aiming at 80K words, but more apt to reach 100-120K words fully edited before Thanksgiving. My hands must be getting used to the typing, because I’m easily typing this, even after a full day’s worth of typing. I don’t mean to sound like I’m bragging here, I’m just as shocked, and humbled that I’ve been able to accomplish so much, and I hope many other writers are hoping to do so, too. I especially hope my writing buddies achieve their personal goals as well. I know writing is tough, I know it’s a challenge for many of us to get to sit down with the struggles of day-to-day obstacles, but if you truly love to write, if you truly believe yourself the next great storyteller, willing to pen down all their deepest, most thrilling imaginations to share with the rest of humanity, then this is a very humbling challenge. I’m attempting to do at least three month’s worth of work in about three and a half weeks, if not earlier. The stress isn’t there, because I’ve seen the confidence I have pay off. I know deep down I want to complete NaNoWriMo, and even if I don’t necessarily “win” the way so many writers hope to win, I’ll be happy to say I’ve done something that’s pushed me to be a better, less procrastinating writer. I hit some bumps early, and that’s the best time to hit bumps, because that’s when you most expect them, and are not as drained to overcome them, and press on. I’ve learned so much about myself, and how stressed I can get. I meditated on it for a good two hours, that’s how frustrated I was, and I decided that although Rome wasn’t built in a day, as the haggardly cliché goes, I knew that in the first three hours at midnight on November first was a weak scaffolding on which to build my novel. So sometimes it’s best to lay off the accelerator, and gently pump the brake, than ruin all your potential in a several regrettable paragraphs, passing that point to where you’re scraping the entire manuscript. Is this going to be easy? Is this going to be something I can accomplish with a passing grade in an envious fashion of other writers? I look at it this way: Stephen King, who was lucky enough to become so famous, so rich off of his own imagination at such a startling young age, had written well over three manuscripts in his sophomore year of college, that would’ve seen the circular file on any given day if it wasn’t for Carrie. Whether it be a star, or a flop, Stephen King owes every success today, and in the future to Carrie, because without that entry novel, he’d have just been retiring as a school teacher this year, if not earlier! So what’s the moral of that tidbit about Stephen King? The point I am making is that you have to be willing to nearly starve yourself (within reason of course) for your work. In a day where anyone, and I mean anyone and everyone is publishing a book, it’s hard to stand out from that crowded market and say I am worthy of publication! That’s why I like NaNoWriMo, it’s not about becoming a famous author, like Mr. King, it’s about doing something that proves you have the potential to be a writer like Mr. King. It shows your love of the word, the frenzy of the keyboard’s aching buttons. The fading “A” key from being hit so many times it looks like a crumbling teepee. That is what writing should represent, and that’s why I’m discovering the real core of what it means to participate in NaNoWriMo. Yes, we would all love to be the next Stephen King, or J.K. Rowling, or, (God help me for this example) Stephanie Meyers, but it’s a sound mind that knows the reality of that is slim. So I can be happy if I’m not the next megastar of the publishing world. I know that writing far succeeds books sales, and it is accountable form of modest work. The goal is to be the novelist, the reality is that any of us would count our blessings to be a weekend columnist to our local newspaper. Be humble as a writer, but be furious, shine as brightly as you can. Even if you’re just a firefly, be the brightest firefly so you attract the most opportunities, the big and the small of them. Despite all that seemingly hokey figurative platitude writers throw around to feel you with inspiration; the fact is that if you want to be a great writer, not just well-written, you have to make certain sacrifices, but don’t feel bad about rewarding yourself for a job done often, and done to a set goal! I for one am going to sit down and watch Gotham in a few minutes, because I’ve typed my brains out, and I’ve typed them out to the point of overdoing it for tonight. This is by far the longest entry I’ve done, and I hope you’re appreciative of it, and I hope it meets you with words of…well, maybe not wisdom, but words of a slightly dorky cheerleader that wants you to reach your goal. So raa raa raa! Write on! This journal now has 5106 words, just in-case you’re keeping track. NaNoWriMo Day 4: word count: 41,236 Four days in, and wow, do I feel like I’m nuts! I’ve literally written more in these past four days, and trust me the will to do so, and write these journal entries is far transcending what I was expecting to do in the short amount of time. I actually will confess, I wrote a paragraph of this journal a few hours before, but decided to delete it instead of sparing you the gruesome disorganization of having two Day 4s, especially since I went over ten thousand words today. I’m approaching chapter 10, which was initially the plotted out mid-point of the story, and it feels like the midpoint, because I feel a lot of the action is going to be coming up rather quickly, and less “comedy” (comedy is subjective, one person could find humor in the book, the rest utter distaste or indifference.) more thrills, and more original one-lines. I feel I’m relying a tad too much on clichés, but the great thing about clichés is that they’re noticeable, so in the editing process, I could simply trade them out for far-greater composition, real original stream of consciousness variety that will not overdo, but not undermine as much as I believe the generic clichés do. However, I believe since I’m truly plotting each sentence out, and omitting words that add nothing to the value of the story as I proceed, I’m finding it an enjoyable experience, and the story, although not really my favorite, feels contemporary. Maybe because it is inherently a different kind of story, and the language I use if different, the emotions my characters are evoking is not nearly as serious as others; I just feel a bit dissuaded to want to write this sort of book again. I feel like I have to hold back so much story, because whether or not I decide to make it a serial in my life, it is written as a serial. There is no way I can fit all this universe in one book, and the story I’m telling has several subplots that will developing in the coming days. I’m glad I made a roadmap to help me with this story, but I’ll be honest, the outline has been the map, but I’m driving a dune buggy. I have not stayed on track much, and when I do, it rarely goes as expected. I just realized something: I’m not only ten thousand words away from reaching my goal of fifty thousand words, I’m also halfway done with the minimum word count for a major marketable novel! Even if I don’t get this published due to NaNoWriMo, the fact that I can write a full-length novel of this caliber (higher-end mediocre, it’s not gold, and a very good edit might make it pyrite. It’s written well for the sort of story I was trying to tell. Although I might have to go back and detail in certain aspects, but I try my best not to give mindless details that are not essentially vital to the overall plot. Unless it sounds like that information is required, which I’ll learn from the edit, which I’m going to do after the day after tomorrow (I will hopefully have a minimum of fifty-thousand words by then, and have completed the halfway point of the novel, the best time to go back and fix things.) Again, my fingers are aching, and I was able to get five thousand words in before six o’clock PM,, just in time to head out to the voting booths and cast my ballot. Yes, I’m one of the few young people who actually vote outside presidential elections. I do vote in congressional elections, and I vote in local, which are usually the more damaging elections if left unchecked. I was happy to vote, and do my part as an American citizen, and I was happy that it gave me a few minutes of freedom from my aching hands! I’ve written well-over ten pages today. In-fact, it was sixteen pages, technically seventeen, but I’m not counting the bit I wrote well into the night last morning. That is quite a lot of pages to have completed. I have 67 typed pages as of today, and although formatting truly dictates just how many pages that actually is, it still feels like a great accomplishment. I try not to make an embellishment of writing, I really don’t think writing should be an impressive feat. Selling millions of copies of books is quite the more impressive feat, but even that is not really all-too impressive. L. Ron Hubbard sold millions of copies of Dianetics, I rest my case. What is truly the most impressive feat of any writer is marketing mediocre writing to a wide audience that will turn it into a debauching debate. I would love to have my work criticized, loved and headed, seen as controversial as a piece, and not in some shock value way, but in what it states, how it states the fact, and how people react. If people find me abhorrent, uneducated, or typically a blowhard, that is just as wonderful to me as those who would call me a genius, a wordsmith, a voice of my generation, and all the other ridiculous monikers that come with the territory. For every Chaucer, or Alighieri, or Thoreau, Melville, or even Hawthorne, his protégé, I would rather fall in line with those far more absurd writers, like Palahniuk, Shakespeare, or even Hemingway, who evoke such opinion-churning pieces that are either damned as smut, hailed as literature, or simply seen as the worst that man has to offer. I don’t know if NaNoWriMo will make any of this year’s participants the next anything, all I know is that they’ll have a nasty hand cramp after it’s all said and done, and definitely want to cool down their fingers. I know that many writers out there don’t follow the same suit as I do, and are just as passionate, perhaps more, than I am about writing. To me, it’s not just about storytelling, it’s not just about creating a plot that holds people, or even for a few paragraphs out of pages of nonsense, to make them think, and think hard about their lives, and their purpose. I’m not a moralist, I’m not a censor, but I’m also someone with a bit of taste, a bit of brash, and a ne’er-do-well attitude that shines so vibrantly in my most nihilistic, and libertarian ventures. I’m not a pig, but I can write like one, and I’m not a martyr, but I can sure play the part. I’m a writer, a fool who lives in the imagination, having to be everyone, everything, and nothing less. Has NaNoWriMo made me better? No, but has it made me stronger? An explicit, resounding yes! I’ve learned I can break down the barriers I once thought were there, and instead of wondering what I’m limited to doing, I’m questioning where my limits lie now, and can I surpass them? After I edit the book down some on Day 6, my new goal will be to get an earlier start, write a very minimal journal entry here, and try to reach 20,000 words in a single day proper. I think that will be the breaking point, I think I will fail at that particular challenge, but if I don’t, I would probably have finished by book days before. If I can do that, if I can successfully do 20,000 words in a day, which is close to twenty five, thirty pages of pure text. Then I may just bite the bullet, and feed off my obsession, and go for two books in one month. I’m sure it could be done, and I’m sure it can be done well. I’d even say if you donated more time a day to do so, you could in a thirty-day period write three 80-100,000 word books, and edit them proper. Whatever limit you set for yourself, there is always someone out there that has surpassed that limit, and already set new personal goals for themselves. I am obviously only limited by my personal strength, and the mentality of how much I can take in a short among to time. I’m sure this is considered an endurance test, but I also know it’s about setting limits, and I would like to see just how far my limits can be pushed. Either way, I’ll be excited to see how chapter 10 comes out, because it is a major plotting chapter, and will reveal a great deal of information, kind of like a power boost for the book at that point. I’m hoping to tackle it tomorrow, or at this point, later today, because it has surpassed midnight quite a while ago while I began writing this, and once I get started I’m sure it will flow like I never stopped tonight. I feel like a reverse addict, pushing my extremes, addicted to the pressing of the keyboard, rather than the desire to be fulfilled by doing only one constant, I want to don constantly changing variables, like move straight on to the next chapter, changed the pretense, change a section so it is a three-hundred sixty degree turn from the last part. I want to be the mad scientist, and the artist of my book. I want it to show the gentleman, and the monster, and so far, I am succeeding in my obsessive writing. Remind you from the point I typed Day 4, until right now, I’ve been writing, on top of the 12,00 plus words I put into my novel. I feel battered, bruised, and tired, but not broken, not beaten! I feel quite successful, and I hope dearly the rest of you are on the same rush as I, and are doing as well, if not greater. In the end the social aspects of NaNoWriMo are what makes us successful writers. Sure, I know deep down its isolation at a computer desk with the minimum distractions possible, but even I know that in-the-end this event is to bring together the writing world, and not just a figure of speech, I mean writers on all six major continents. This is what we yearn for, a group of like-minded individuals with the similar goal. I am a writer, and I am a proud one at that. Tomorrow, I expect to slay 50K, officially winning NaNoWriMo in five days! If I can do it, surely the rest of you can too! Good luck, and Write on! Raa Raa Raa! As always thank you for reading these journal entries, I cannot wait to give my hands a rest after I finish this novel, and I hope that everyone is doing well with their NaNo, because I know how hard it can be without encouragement, but just remember that encouragement is a very nice way of making someone slow down, and feel too comfortable with their own work. Always feel on edge, and you’ll always succeed. You might lose a few strands of hair, but everything eventually falls out, don’t let it be your passion for writing! Good-night. If you’re wondering, this journal is now 6985 words long. NaNoWriMo Day 5: I only wrote about five thousand words, barely. So I’ve decided not to do a whole journal entry. The word count was approx. 44,800 NaNoWriMo Day 6: 50,219 I’ve decided not to do a full ten thousand words today, because in a little while I’ll be doing my first round of editing. I wrote quite a bit today, and tomorrow I’ll take something of a rest, but I will attempt to reach 60,000 words before Saturday. Which means if possible, I can have 80,000 words finished by the weekend, and possibly have the book completed sometime by next week. If that’s possible, I will most likely take a well-deserved break, after all editing as been done, and update my word count. I’m not sure if it will count past fifty-thousand words, but I don’t really care, I won, and that’s all that matters. Now, fifty thousand words is difficult to do, for anybody, whether they have all the time in the world, or no time at all. I plan on doing another fifty thousand words into this story, but I’ll just write it out until it’s completed. So if the book ends about 90,000 words, or even 120,000 words which is my maximum word count, then it ends there. I don’t mind either way, so long as the book is coherent. I’m over 50K right now, so that means it’s time for the first edit, which will probably cut it back down a few thousand words, but it should even out, but I seem to have found a boo-boo I made, and that will not make the story mesh well, so I will have to go back and fix that later on tonight, and later on tomorrow. I’m not going to fail, I’m going to succeed! Monday I’ll go in, and I’ll update my word count, because by then I’ll have made substation improvements, and I’ll have written over 60,000 words. I’m very excited to win NaNoWriMo, but I’m starting to question if I’ll ever participate again, because writing a novel, it’s just…it shouldn’t feel like it has a set deadline. However, I’m quite enjoying this book, I’m enjoying the vagueness of everything, it is so resoundingly British in so many ways, I hope it doesn’t deter any American readers. I’m American, born and raised, but I’m fascinated with British humor, and British writing. I hope I’ve done a swell job, and make the writing world proud, but the job is not done, and so I’m not done. The writing will go on, and since I’ve hit a nice snag, I’ll have to either cut around my leg to escape, or just lop off the metaphorical leg of this story, and redo the whole section. I don’t think it’s that mismanaged that I couldn’t simply fix it, but I’m looking forward to seeing this book in all its shining glory done. The next week or so will be the deciding factor. I think that I can finish this book in record time, and since tomorrow I’m taking a “break” (I’ll be editing mostly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if afterwards I put in a couple thousand words more, preferably finishing Chapter 13, (which I’m working through now.) and starting Chapter 14, which I may need to check my notes on, because I’ve really gone off that beaten path. However, I know that since the end is relatively in the beginning, I really have to make it star struck, just awe. So I’m going to take my leave, and enjoy a nice hot shower, because I’m not tired, but I feel cold and funky. I’ll edit some tonight, and will skip an entry tomorrow ONLY if I don’t make significant progress in the writing. I would like to note I added some more humor and shocking twists and turns in the last chapter or so, but I have written quite a bit today, it just doesn’t feel that way in the word count. (Currently I’m on 81 pages of writing for this format and word processor, so it seems like I’ve made great strides, but I am technically 10,000 words behind my usual goal. I’m still however 5,419 words, so just slightly under my 6,000 word minimum goal. Then again, I could still finish the chapter later tonight, and get that ten thousand today, but I’m not going to press it any further than it needs to go. I’ve written a lot, and ignoring any editing for the sake of simply hating to edit, I’m just going to have to grin and bear it, because it’s a vital part of the writing process. I have, say three weeks, with a few make-up days in-between, to get this book up and going, and I expect it to be completed and edited by next week. So I’m going to have a nice hot shower, and clear my mind, and come back to this book clear-headed. It might just be the motivation to continue on, even though my hands have become as solid as stones from all the keyboard punches I’ve been throwing down. Wish me luck, and as always I will you all the luck in the world. This Sunday (November 9th, NaNoWriMo Day 9) will apparently be the last day before I post his all up for the first time Basically I’ll try to get all these journal entries up on the blog whenever I can, but they’ll unfortunately be up in batches. For that I apologize, although I’m grateful for anyone who takes the time to read these, I know everyone is really busy, so before I go for tonight, I’ll give you some more tips and tricks that will help you in your efforts of NaNoWriMo for this, or any year: I’ve noticed that beginning a new chapter is always the easiest way to have consistency in the book, but if you’re going to end your writing mid-chapter, like I do on occasion, the obvious suggestions are to go back and re-read the chapter, so nothing gets muddied by the split the day, week, month, etc. before you last wrote a single word into that said chapter. It’s rough, because how you emotionally feel during the beginning of that chapter, is not necessarily the same mindset you bring on how you go about ending the chapter, and this can be good or bad, but never feel like it will hinder how you go about finishing the writing. The next thing you should know is that while writing any book, if you go about an outline that is rugged, and will be the book’s entire blueprint, or if you just go rogue, and trail away from whatever conventional methods come with plotting, especially the infamous snowflake plot system, which is a fancy diagram if I ever saw one: remember that writing doesn’t have to be a certain method, it just has to inherently make sense to your reader. The simpler it is for anyone to follow, the broader your audience will be. Sure, go show off those ten dollar words all you want, I feel proud using words that most people go huh? Although that’s a talent all it’s own, remember that the real talent is using those makeshift words in their proper, understanding context. I’m not saying dumb down your language and vocabulary skills, but remember that your readership is not necessarily as smart as you, and although that is understandably not your fault, it can be a faulty mistake for people turning away from your book. If you come off more snobbish than you mean to, remember your voice is the narrator, or the narration of your character, and whether or not it reflects you, it will be reflected upon you as a writer. Writing is something we all know: unless we were given very poor opportunities, or if we’ve made mistakes in our education, most of us can read and write, we are literate, so we assume everyone picking up our work is equally, if not greater in their literacy. When you go back and re-read certain paragraphs, you’ll notice some aberrations in the sentence-structures. Fix them, even if they’re proper sentences. Words are the lines you sketch to a canvas, erase unwanted marks, don’t just call it abstract design. Trust me, the abstract design excuse can only work so many times, because although many will say it’s proper art, it won’t grasp an audience who prefer more contemporary pieces. Well, that’s all for now, if you don’t find that helpful, I apologize ahead of time, but come back for more tips if you have found this useful. Thank you for the support, and thank you for reading! Good luck, raa raa raa! Write on! NaNoWriMo Day 7: word count58.137 Wow! It’s been a whole week! I can’t believe it! I have written so much, and I mean, a so much that I swear my fingers are pressing keys in my sleep! I’m certain to reach 80,000 words by this Sunday, it may even be more! It depends on how much I need to write to actually finish the book. I’m not going to press the issue, but I’ve decided that writing the story, and finishing it is better than editing in-between, and not finishing the book at all, but have the parts done fully edited. I think the editing will go smoothly, because, even if it’s over 100,000 words, because it’ll be rather easy to do it over the course of a few days. I’m so happy to have complete a whole week, although I wish I was closer, but you know what, not too shabby! I stuck with it, and even on my slowest days, I’ve done so much, and even though the outline has become completely useless, the fabrication of the story has become much easy to follow. I have only five chapters left (four if I actually finish Chapter 15 tonight.) I think that the story is coming together okay, I will have to do some overhauling once it’s completed, but I’m going to do quite a bit more background and explaining, although I’ve done quite a bit of this chapter. I think chapter 16 will flashback to Clara and Lilith. After that, chapter seventeen will be more of look back at the some of the measures I might have missed. I feel even if I edit out a ton from each chapter, I will be adding quite a bit more. The problem is in the frenzy of typing, you sometimes forget if you’ve accomplished your goal for that particular part, you may have to go back and overwrite some parts. The fine-tuning of a book is almost as icky as math, because it requires so much aggravation, and of course, you feel like a moron if you forgot a crucial part of the story, or you’ve forgotten to highlight a character over ten chapters, that was important to the story, yet they got eaten up by so much word vomit. We are all at times at fault for word vomit. I’m happy with what I have so far, but I fear I don’t have enough details, enough background, etc. the common fears of all writers, because there is a balance, as is in life, to do enough, maybe even a little bit more than you’ve expected to do, but not waste one’s energies on such extreme details as the color of the individual stripes on a characters said tie. It’s difficult at times to balance, but that’s why everything deserves a hearty edit. Seeing as editing is something I’m not a fan of, because it’s very, very depressing just how much I allegedly screw-up, but it’s not necessarily an ego thing, it’s more that I’ve had issues with editing in the past. You can plainly see that in the little “typos” or “misspellings” that plague just about every post of my blog. So I’m taking a break for now, I may come back and write some more, currently I’ve 58.137 words in the book, and I’ll probably get through to 60,000 before the end of the night.(Note: I’ll put the official word count at the tope. Sure I could edit this out, an replace it with actual information, but I’m in a zesty mood to give you some more, and see how my mind is working after writing almost seven thousand words today. I really want to push through, and do this chapter until it’s done. I believe Chapter 15, the current chapter I’m barely halfway through, is going to be the longest yet.) Writing is not about length, it’s about consistency, and I believe that the book so-far has consistency. I’ve made the chapters relatively shorter than I would for most other books, and I’m still sticking with finishing on chapter 20, the true, not double, or triple, or quadruple resolution. No, it’s going to end there, and I’m sure it’ll be amazing This means before Monday, I could very well have eighty thousand words, and although I’m torn between writing the entire story, then editing, as I’ve done so often in the past, and editing at certain crucial points, I’ve found myself far more open-minded to both suggestions. So I’ll think it over, see where I am by Monday, and see if the artist, or the architect is needed to see this project successfully flourish. Either way, it should be exciting. If I don’t write anymore tonight (doubtful) I’ll bid you all good night, and always cheer you to write on!” NaNoWriMo Day 8: word count: 66438 Well, as you can see from the word count on Day 7, I didn’t go back and do as much as I hoped, but I hope to get so close to 80,000 tomorrow (Technically today) I’ll be able to just say I wrote a full-length novel in a matter of days! I’m so excited, but I’m also very tired, and I’m craving a little bit of television before I head to bed. So this is a short and sweet post. You may not be here with me as I write this, and I can only say so much in these pages, but I’m so excited about what I’ve done in the short amount of time, that I’m almost flabbergasted it’s barely a week into November! Does this make me a great writer? Absolutely not! I’ve stated it so many times before, speed and longevity, which I clearly have, does not replace good writing. However, in many cases of this book, I’m proud of the writing of this first draft! I can’t believe I’ve done so much, and have still so much to do! I’m proud of myself, and I think deep down most people don’t see just how much work I’ve accomplished, or simply because I’m typing at a desk this even constitutes as ‘work’, but since the term work is subjective, I could say professional power napping is a job for some, and a job many might think they could do, but I guarantee there is a person out there who is destined to do that job better than anyone else, and he or she is making a substantial amount of money for it! Well, I’m happy I’ve done what I did, even though I was very frustrated today with Life, The Universe, and pretty much Everything inside it. I’ve learned I’m sometimes too good a person for my own good, and I’m sure I’ll have to grow a pair and start being meaner, but I’m afraid I’ll lash out in the wrong ways. I need to stop being a pushover. Finally, thank you for reading these! It’s sincerely a pleasure! I hope to have these up by November 10th, and my first official word count update, which is going to seem skeptical, but if this journal isn’t proof, I’ve been truly honest throughout, and I don’t have a reason to lie. This has been an incredible journey, and though officially a winner of NaNoWriMo, I’m statistically only half-way through finishing this novel from a first draft, to a finished, edited piece. Thank you again, and I’ll be doing my next updated entry tomorrow, and it will be up by Monday. Have a good day, and thank you again for all the support, even if it’s one person cheering me on! Write on! Finish NaNoWriMo, and then ice your fingers! NaNoWriMo Day 9: word count: 70,112 Well, I didn’t get to 80,000 words yet, but that’s besides the point, I’ve made it much further than expected. My fingers are killing me, and I can’t believe that after all this time, I’m only twenty thousand words behind my expected word count, not including the edit I’m going to do. Ah, editing! How I wish to procrastinate more so I can completely pawn you off onto someone else! Yes, I’m a lazy editor, because I hate editing, I’ve always hated editing, and I’ll never remember why I admired the “tedious work” and using a “detailing scalpel” to go over the book and make it marketable. I’ve written quite a bit, but not nearly as much as I’ve expected to write. Granted, in-the-end, writing is the key point to this event, and really, who doesn’t like the idea of editing into the wee hours of the morning? Not I, no not I indeed. Writing is a sport of the mind, it takes place all in one stadium, the brain. The images of the play inside the brain are transmitted by broadcasters in all the vein, arteries, and muscles, as the game that play inside the head, which only the author can see, is now able to be shown through writing down the play-by-play action, dialogue on the field, and the editing for decency, and voila! You have a book! You also have a lot of edited out plays that just didn’t fit well to the game. A good edit is like accidentally referencing a hockey play during a football touchdown. Anyhow, I’ve just been writing like a nut, so thank you for reading this, and I must say, the ending of my book will be awesome, because it’s one of those annoying endings that just lead into the details of a sequel. Yet, I promise to make my resolutions, and be done well before turkey day here in the states. Thank you for reading this, and have a wonderful day. I also would like to make a note here that on NaNoWriMo Day 10, I didn’t write at all, so I’m going to state that here , and why this goes straight into Day 11. NaNoWriMo Day 11 word count 78,005 Firstly, I need to wish all veterans of American wars a very happy Veterans’ Day. Thank you for your service, and know that without you, I, and many other NaNoWriMo authors would not be able to write their books in the great country of the United. States, and for foreign veterans of free nations who have defended their people’s freedom of the press, I’m sure your nations owe you an equal amount of gratitude. Firstly, this is technically Day 12, as it’s past midnight, but I will be writing more tomorrow, and separate, so you see that it’s a bit of a cheat, and I apologize for that, but know that deep down I don’t think it’s going to matter. Oh! And Monday, Day 17 of NaNoWriMo I believe, I will be doing my first updates and everything, because I’m not sure how this will work out, but by then I will have the book done, and hopefully edited properly, and if not I’ll be closer to a finished novel than ever before at this amount of time. Three weeks to have written and edited a book, not entirely bad, but I may be able to get done earlier, so yippee! I hope all of you are having as much fun as I have, or even more fun, because I do this for a (sic) living, if you dare call it that, but I’m proud of my writing capabilities, and the amount of writing I’ve had done in this amount of time. I was watching one of my favorite television shows today (Yes, it’s okay to be a writer, and actually watch television! It depends on what you’re watching, of course!) I love the show Person of Interest, I find the characters are engrossed in the world, and it could be happening now, meaning in the near-future, the idea of a mass surveillance system on the cities around the world (England already has a primordial idea of this system concurrently meshed up with internet regulations that act like a digital footprint) and will most likely be a way to prevent crimes, or at least have a foresight of crimes in the future. Sure, many can say that that terrible Tom Cruise movie, which the title escapes me at the moment, and I’m not near internet to look it up, can be a precursor to this show, but there is a huge difference: this show isn’t a bunch of Hollywood garbage. I wrote 8,007 words tonight, which is quite impressive for a five-hour period of writing. I started around midnight, and finished at five-thirty this morning. I’ll have the book done today, unless something comes up, because I have a great ending in-store. I’m calling it at about 89,000 words. I was going to go a tad longer, but I feel that’s stretching the book further than it really needs to be stretched. It can be done though, you could easily double 50,000 words in a month, you could even do 200,000 words in a given month, but you’re really not leaving any serious room for editing. So-far I’m beyond tired, my fingers and especially my back have been on fire from all the damn writing, but I’ve made up greatly for my time off, and I cannot wait to edit this thing, and have it completed. Thanks to NaNoWriMo I have a story, written in a style that is unfitting my usual style, and has the potential, as do all things, to be a success. I believe in this story, and as a first entry in a potential series, although I’m more humble to say it may deserve just a sequel, I believe the book will be a rigorous testament of what is possible if you actually have the fortitude to sit down and do it! This book was inspired by great writers like P.G. Wodehouse, Douglas Adams, Sir Terry Pratchett, and of course the great American satirist: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. This book was especially damaging to my fingers because ten thousand words nearly every single day is uncalled for by most writing standards, but I try to, and to be frank, have to be above the average writer, because it is blatantly obvious that speed rounds are what make you type better, faster, more accurately, or at least type faster than you normally would at the accuracy you’re best known for doing. I’m so tired, I am not psychically as tired, or nearly as drained as I should be for that rousing round of typing, but I’m just so happy the book is nearly completed. I would do it now, but I feel chapter 20, the last chapter, unless I need to add a 21st, is a very special chapter that is full of enlightening aspects to all the characters. Clara, perhaps my favorite character in the story, and of course Wrinkles, the only sleuth that was able to solve the caper, is perhaps the greatest character I’ve personally created. In any mystery novel, and this novel is a mystery without a mystery, a Schrödinger’s box of a mystery that is sometimes there, but usually never present at all, you have to have a pair of characters that mesh so well together, that when apart, they feel broken, and that’s Boo-Boo and Wrinkles. I’m proud of this damn book, and I don’t believe being proud is about pass or fail, but I’m happy with myself for completing it thus far, and in-turn I hope to have it done sooner, rather than later. I’m not an overachiever by any means. I don’t believe that I’m any better than a writer who is just starting, or a writer that has been typing longer than I’ve existed. I’m just hoping that all this pays off, because every obstacle I’ve overcome was to be a better writer, write a better book, and show that I am a bright, young star in this industry. This is my second-to-last journal entry, and I just want to take this moment to thank my benevolent host for allowing me the time to write all this on his blog. He has been promoting this post for so long now, and because it’s much longer than a normal blog post has been separated into sections. Thank you again to “Malacast Agent”, and thank you for allowing me a symposium to express myself. So did I complete the task at hand? I’m well beyond the task at hand, but the wretched editing, oh, how I lament my disdain for editing! Forlorn thoughts of dragging my eyes over text, and then having to rewrite parts that I know needed rewriting, but never do I imagine myself look in the mirror and saying “You must fix that which you’ve ruined, and not ruin it any further!” I know I have quite a bit to add, but for now I think I’m going to be close to resting soon, because even if I cannot shut off my mind, I can surely shut my eyes and pretend to dream wondrous dreams, until the nightmares come. Yes, I’m a writer plagued by nightmares, and some have come to be great inspirations, but still I’ve become lost in immoral despair over these affluent specters that haunt me when I close my eyes. I jump from dream to dream like a trapeze artist loses grip, and spirals to a ghastly end below. Sorry, I’m off-topic, the purpose is to help you write, which I’m not sure I’ve answered the question. I’ve written so often now that I’ve come to see it as rinse, reword, and repeat, but there are only so many words that “fit”, and not enough words that don’t come with the impression that you’ve opened up a thesaurus and added something that sounds grammatically displeasing. The only problem with Strunk’s omit needless words is that everything becomes a technical drab, and without embellishments, we wouldn’t have the tastiest of dialogue, the doggerel language that becomes dogma for scholars and rebel poets, nor would we have catchy lines that stick to the psyche: “To boldly go.” is an example of not following the guidelines, and making a bold choice, that goes to the back of the mind, and is recalled whenever you hear that faithful musical theme coming out of your television’s speakers. Genius does not mean perfection! Genius is also not defined as making imperfections the standard, nor dictating perfection from a pedestal that other one is put on, or one delegates for themselves. Genius is for those who see what others are too scared to, and in-turn make great marks against the grain, that make others think. Genius to simply the ramification that comes from making others appreciate the value of learning something that will aspire them to discover something more than the standard, and dare-I-say , common core. Writing is not a place of genius, unless it broadens the spectrum of writing. We young, and not-so-young writers (ie, retirees that are now becoming the hobbyists that will be the next bestselling authors) are going to find this era of writing truly difficult, because we are lost in a catacomb of technologies that can hurt us, or define us as the next generation of influential writers. Quite a cross to bear, but let’s not forget that many who were cited as instant failures, are now remembered in history as the great proponents of the written word. Writing is essentially what you know, how you convey the message, and do people want to keep coming back for more? Can you become the one that makes us all yearn for more, the one that can look past the critics, which so many take to heart, and should not ever feel burdened by such things! Criticism is a gift! It means someone had the audacity to read your work, and cared enough to say you could improve! Never feel like you’ve accomplished everything, even with a finished work, because you never will accomplish everything you set out to do. All books are imperfect wonders, and so is yours, never feel like you’ve done all you can with what you have! Nothing is ever finished, even when you say it is, because the next sequel will always prove you wrong. Even when in print, you’re never done, you’re never whole, because your books are like your children, and they will come to define themselves differently with age, and soon, they will belong to the world, like all children, some will get along nicely, and succeed, other will need your guidance, your wholehearted love and affection. Some will simply need you to never stop caring about them, even if they’ve completely and utterly failed you, disappointed you as a parent. Remember, even the roughest, coarsest finished product can come to define you in some positive way. I’ve read some of the best and worst of authors over the years, and all those books, for the good, and for the bad have come to mean something important! Even with serials, if all books are bestsellers, if all those tales mean something, then guess what, there’s still the one book that’s considered the worst of the bunch. Not one single piece of your writing can be measured by the sum of all your writing. Face it, you will make bad choices. Even NaNoWriMo may be a nightmare for you right now! I had that feeling at first, but I’ve overcome that emotions early on by luck, or by some measure of astronomical faith, whatever it was, I am happy with the direction of the book, because I know other than some editing, it is written to the best ability, and is the best book possible. The story came out better than I’ve expected, and like all the books I’ve written beforehand, it didn’t come so-much with an outline, but more of a suggested guideline. Writing is not about doing something that will make you rich, because that’s a flagrant joke that someone has roped you into believing. Few writers make money, those who can support themselves comfortably, are some of the most renowned writers in the world. Most writers, even those with movie deals, are not making J.K. Rowling money, most are barely making enough money to say they’re “working writers”. I don’t write because I expect to be rich, or famous, or have movie deals, because I don’t expect any of that, or even a teeny portion! No, I write because I hope to one day say that I’ve been published, have made some money, and that means I’ve made something greater of myself than I was ever told I could be. The reality is, writing is a skill, an art, and publication is the sound business that determines of what caliber skill, and what quality art is good enough, or rather at the professional level to make a certain bracket of money. It’s a business, as true a statement as can be made. I’ve written so much more than I should in this particular journal, but let’s look at it like this: as a writer, I don’t measure word count very often, I don’t care about writing too little, or too much, so long as the story is propagated to its most potential, and I am left with no regrets. If you approached this as a writer who wanted to see how much you could do in a month, then you’ve done this for all the right reasons. If you’ve approached NaNoWriMo with the intent of getting noticed, or having someone read/critique your work, I think that’s a sound reason, and should be applauded, but I don’t think it’s all that realistic. Statistic will show that most writers are here to simply write, not read or critique, but many do come for that, and that means you should probably go on the forums and find writers that are willing to, and without malicious intent, that is, steal your ideas, or plagiarize, or some other miscreant deeds, read your work, and constructively criticize it proper. To those who do NaNoWriMo thinking it’s their ticket to the big time, I’ll talk to the two or three people who actually go on to a full career from here on out, or have actually been published writers. This is not a place for you to start your career, it may be a place to promote it, and even if you’ve somehow become famous for writing for NaNoWriMo, be cautious on how you approach your next work, because what made you famous during this event, may become your undoing outside of the event. Despite how I sound here, I do wish you all good luck, and just be happy that you can potentially be one of the many who have 50,000 words typed, and earn that badge of recognition. As always, keep writing! Write on through the night if you must, just like I have, and I feel like I’ve gone overboard for this evening. I’ve written well over ten thousand words today so-far, and that’s including this journal entry, one of the longest yet. I hope it was helpful, I’d hate for it not to be, but at this hour in the morning, I can’t promise anything but my undying devotion to finish this book, and give you a proper day-by-day entry on the struggles, triumphs, and follies of NaNoWriMo, for me personally. Thank you again, and join me in slaying 50K! Also, this journal has 12,698 words so far, in case you were curious to know. NaNoWriMo Day 12: no change in word count. Today has just been awkward for me in-terms of writing. I didn’t write all day long, and when I figured I’d anchor myself to the chair overnight, I so-far have no enthusiasm to write. I could take the day and just relax, keeping my fingers on ice, and come back strong, finishing tomorrow, but I’m not sure, I just feel a bit displaced all of the sudden. It’s an odd feeling for me to have: I don’t have writer’s block, because I know how the story will end, and I kind of have an idea on where to start, it just feels like I’m not up for the challenge of getting it done. I’m not tired, but I’m thinking of maybe taking a shower, clear my head, and come back strong. I’ve done it before, and it had amazing results, perhaps twice is truly a charm? Either way, I’m not sure just how, or why I’m going through what I am at the moment, but I’m thinking once I have a nice hot shower, I’ll be able to clear my mind, and just get down to the nitty-gritty of typing what I need, and lessening the workload tomorrow. Yes, I’m shocked I’m almost done, and again, the 85,00-95,000 range is kind of what I’m aiming for, and considering I now have nearly 13,000 words up to this point in this journal, I have truly outdone myself. Again, I don’t care much for word counts, I never have, always thought it was just a way for teachers to limit the reading, and in-turn it hurts the writer, because they don’t know when to write more or less. A full-length novel has been shrunken to the point of what was considered a novella before, and now is more like a novelette standard today. I don’t know what it is, maybe I’m worried because I want to finish it right now, and I know if I don’t I’ll probably second guess the ending. However, when I wrote other novels, an ending was never an ending for me, it was always about telling the story as best as one could, not feeling like it was over. I love old-fashioned endings that made it sound like it ended, perhaps something a bit less sophomoric as :“and they lived happily ever after”, but it showed you that the last sentence isn’t as important as the first, the second-to-last on the third-to-last page, and so-on. Who cares? I rather see a book that has a cheesy last line, but an amazing story full of triumph and hardships. I haven’t figured out the last line of my book, but it tends to write itself, and forced writing is never good for any draft at any point of the novel’s writing. I hate forced writing, and so-far it’s felt semi-fluid, although the beginning was obviously forced. The first 800 words were other finger diarrhea, and I know that for a fact, because I’ve read over it multiple times. The beginning is up for a major redesign, but I think up until this point, I’ve made it pretty fluid. Well, I just took my shower, I feel cleaner, but no more motivated as I was before. I guess I’m just going to have to take a breather. I did type over ten thousand words the other night/morning, so I can always just finish up everything later on today. This feels like I’m copping out, when I know I can get some things done, but the better I write later, the less editing that comes along tomorrow. I love how the book is forming, and I do hope a sequel is possible some time in the future, but I’m not certain if a new project after this will be what I aim for, or I finish/write the sequel to another book. Everything will work itself out, and I can’t focus on later, when I need to focus on now. Fifty thousand words? I’ve done it, and I’m proud of it, but most importantly, I’m prepared to see just what 80,000 plus means for me in this event. Maybe nothing, maybe something bigger, or maybe nothing at all. It doesn’t really matter, because all that matters right now is that I finish this book! I will have then written six full-length novels, which will be very exciting to say I’ve accomplished in such a short time. Who knows, if I decide to muscle through, before next year, I can have seven, or eight done! By next year I want to write, at the very least; ten books. That sounds like a lot, and it probably is, but the fact that I’ll have written ten novels in a year, bringing my total books written up to somewhere around 18, then I will have proof that I’m someone who can write, and imagine novels, and hopefully sell one or two of them! As I get older, and of course, I’m always looking at the idea of age, because I’ve been writing books since I was essentially a child, and you know I find my writing becomes more abstract as I age, where it was so absolute in the stereotypes of English class, that I often wonder what English actually taught me! I wish I was surrounded by other writers, some that may not be as passionate as I can be, or at times passive as I find myself to become; but I would love to talk to other writers. It is regrettable that when I do find certain writers, they don’t seem to be faced with the same situations as I have been placed, and perhaps that is what makes me the writer I am today. I hope that this book helps me, but I’ll never stop writing, and I’ll never stop reaching for that next great manuscript aloft in my mind, itching to escape from my prickling fingers as they type out in grueling agony. I’ve done over eighty thousand words in less than two weeks! That’s incredible, and that makes me wonder what else I can accomplish this month! I may write several short stories, but I’ll learn to map them out much better, because I want to have a set word count in mind. I’m also very happy because I have written so much, and done it so consecutively, that I wonder if others have surpassed me. Not that this is a contest, or a race of some sort, I’m just excited to see if anyone else has reached the word count that I’ve been able to reach in such a short period of time. I’m also learning it doesn’t take me as long as it used to type out a thousand words, where it would normally take me about thirty minutes, I’m now typing at a speed of less than twenty minutes, so long as I’m not stifled by what to write next. I’m just so fascinated by what I’m discovering about myself, and even if my writing is not of someone’s personal tastes, I’m thankful for all criticism, not because I don’t find it degrading, which it often is, but I take it with stride, because I’m not one to take it personal. We all have our bad days, weeks, even years! To quote Taylor Swift: “And all the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, but I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake shake, shake, shake, shake it off, shake it off.” so don’t take it personal when it comes to criticism. I most likely stated this earlier in my journal entry, but I think like so much, it needs restating. On a separate note; I do wonder if Taylor Swift is already sick of that song. I can already see this being a song used in the Thanksgiving Day Parade in the states, and something Christmas themed dealing with this damn song. Anyhow, Ms. Swift should teach you that writing isn’t necessarily a standard format for such things as say lyrical poems, as “Shake it off” shows us, but when it comes to hard-line prose, I find it so delectably devilish to go against the grain to a degree, aggravating the purists at times. Do not let such a liberal philosophy of the written word fool you! I’m quite the purist when it comes to the language, but I still feel that certain elements could be adjusted. English is full of jargon, and guess what? Most language are developing the concept of jargon to become as modern. Jargon is nasty, but it’s been around well-before modern English, and of course, the Post-Modern English we speak today. No, that is not my coinage, but it’s true, and it comes in parts of speech, and directly affects the written word. Text is still, and always will be text, almost another form of English. However, with technical writing put aside, and legal writing being a whole other monster, the type of writing we are talking about here is the unequivocally measured prose, which has now become the abstract art of the writing world. Don’t feel bad if your writing is “bad” because “bad” is immeasurable when it comes to the function of writing. If it sounds good, and isn’t necessarily accurate, style may outweigh the purity of what is “English”. Now I’m not against the rules! I follow them, studied them my entire life, and they’re not even rules to me; they’re second nature! If you were to ask me to teach a writing class, I’d probably get caught up in big scary words like participle and gerund, which more describe the tools of what one writes with, rather than how they write. Participle is of course the form of a verb, such as loved, loving, love, etc. past participle, or second participle, etc. You see, these words may make you feel dumb if you don’t know them initially, but you’re probably doing what they describe without a second thought from years of actually writing! Also, gerund is a noun that forms into a verb by adding -ing to the end. Writing is really a crapshoot on who will love your work, and who will curse it all to Hell. Just remember that no matter how you write, poor, or grandiosely with perfect function, you are essentially telling a story, and your story’s style must be reflected upon the way you write. Thank you for humoring me some more, I have not typed a lot tonight, barely two hundred words, but I’ll pick up later today/tomorrow however it falls, and I will update the word count then. NaNoWriMo Day 13: word count: 82215 I’m officially over the minimum of what a full-length novel is considered, so the book should be coming to a close, because the ending is going to be long, but it’s going to be meaningful. I may have to add a 21st chapter, but I’ll figure it out as I go along. I’m so close! This is extremely exciting! All I can say is that you have to push through, get the last of your words done, and then you’ll be set to win NaNoWriMo! NaNoWriMo Day 14: word count: 90,149 Now I’m just finishing the novel, no real rush, not necessarily as rushed as I was before. I don’t think your novel is automatically published because of NaNoWriMo, but still, I would love to have it done well before the days are up, and I can’t wait to now focus on more freelance work, and a possible sequel to my other novel, which I’ve finished a few months back. I think it was very early September that I finished it, but I don’t really keep track of such things. Update: it’s about five A.M. on Day 15, and although I started writing when it was still technically Day 14, I have unofficially finished the book. This means that I still have to edit, and that will be far more grueling than writing, but it will take just about as long as having written the blasted book! However, I’m still very excited to say that the story is done, and yes, I left it open for a sequel, which I will not write for a very long time. Now that it’s finished, I don’t’ mind sharing a bit about my influence on the book itself, because they come from several sources: some of which I’ve already mentioned, and quite a few that may even be overreaching. The story itself is an amalgamation of ideas I’ve been throwing around, and although the plot itself did not follow the exact outline I’ve created, it was very helpful to see this book go to the twenty-one chapters that I so desired to fulfill. I’ve written 7.942 words today in the novel, which is a good number to finish at, and well above the minimum amount of words needed to complete . I was worried of pressing forward, but I wanted it done, and I’m not one to celebrate early, because there is still a great deal of work to be done, and it’s the most unappealing part of this whole damn experience: editing. Granted, I could get it professionally edited, but I’m not living on a profitable writer’s salary at the moment, so that hard laborious task fall on my shoulders. This is the “Math” of the writing business, because it is like going to an accountant: looking at expenses, what you can afford to keep, what needs to be cut from the “budget”, in-this-case, the “novel”. editing is not an easy procedure, nor is it a rewarding job, but it sure takes a special kind of person to do it. I’ve done it a few times, and once I nearly lost my mind, and a book deal over the whole scenario. I’ve learned from my past mistakes, now I’m very particular on book sizes, and their organization. I’m not going to sweat this any further tonight/this morning, because I’ve felt a sense of accomplishment, and although the job is not even close to done, it’s a hump that I’ve traversed, and will carry on to completion. Now, because the book is done, that doesn’t mean NaNoWriMo is complete, and neither is this journal. I’ve written well over the minimum, and I say this without any disrespect to 50,000 words, but even with a full-time job, and kids, you could statically hunker down, and do the minimum. Remember, nobody has ever been extraordinary by simply doing the minimum, but don’t ever shake a finger at 50,000 words either! If you’ve won NaNoWriMo, then congratulations to you! You have the makings of a potentially successful writer, and we all know that there’s not enough of them in the world, especially from the current generation of writers who truly believe in their craftwork. So congrats to all the winners, you’ve earned your badge, and really I think if you want to buy the shirts and all that’s great, but I’d rather have a coffee mug, I might buy one to remember the pain in my fingers from all this typing! I just wish I’ve paced myself better, but seeing as I’m working on a very unique schedule, I have to make sure I was able to fit the book into a timely schedule, and still gain access to the internet. I don’t believe after today I’ll be typing much for a few days, at the very least, because my fingers are killing me, and I mean, lock-up-if-I-stop-typing killing me. 90,00+ words in less than fifteen days. That’s absolutely ridiculous, but I’ve proven it can be done, with ease, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I could get halfway through another novel if I started later on next week, but I’m not going to press my luck! Thank you for sticking with me through this particular process of NaNoWriMo, and if you want, you can continue following these blog posts, but I’ll be returning the Malacast Editorial back to it’s regular format of writing tips, reviews, and the occasional rant. I would like to thank “Malacast Agent” again for allowing me to spread this NaNoWriMo experience far and wide, and thank you all again for reading! I’ll be doing editing critiques, and sharing my successes and failures over the next two weeks, but as for writing here, I’m done for now, and I hope you’re close to finished too! I know that this has been a grueling experience, and I hope many of you made it to the Night of Writing Dangerously, because I’m not really up for flying all the way to San Francisco this year, and I also don’t have the extra cash, or the frequent flier miles to do it! Thanks everyone! Have a great time with the rest of NaNoWriMo, and please, feel free to comment. Ra! Ra! Ra! Write on! This portion of the NaNoWriMo journal finishes with a whopping total of 15,532 words.