Well, I remember reading somewhere at some point that the first million words that you ever write will be crap. I personally happen to think that that is a fairly arbitrary line to choose (why a million?), but regardless of its arbitrary-ness, I have crossed that mark.
I added up all of the fiction works on my computer, and came in with about 1.01 million words.
I would love to say that that makes me some kind of literary genius.
Sadly, I fear that it does not.
I still have my nightmare quartet of books. Provisionally, they're in a folder on my laptop called "Hero Quartet", but whether that name will stick is debatable, and I'm not entirely sure why I chose it in the first place.
I've written the first book of the quartet, and written the second about 4 times so far. I still don't know which would be the most publishable first book. Now that Nano is over, I'm supposed to be working on editing the first one, which has been alternately titled The Beat of Terror and Not Immortal, and it's probably going to end up as neither of those. I like the way it's written, but it gets hugely rambly, especially towards the end. The second one, Not a Hero, is a story that I've been writing for 5 years, and I've still not found the right way to tell it.
A million words might be a milestone, but that is all and nothing more.
I will consider myself publishable when I get my first book published, and not a second sooner.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Done with Nano 2006
Well, I came to the conclusion this morning that I just don't have it in me to write any more this month. I have a paper due tomorrow that seriously needs my attention, and my hands are hurting so badly that they may fall off within the next hour or two.
Total word count for this year: 236,424. (And if we're counting the abortive lit-fic, it's about 244k)
Quite short of the 300k goal that I set myself, but I took several days off, and while a 10k a day pace isn't really that hard for me, it starts to get tricky when one takes five or six days off and then has to make up those words in the last few remaining days.
All in all, I'd have to say that Nano was a success for me, and a learning experience. I've never written quite this much in a month before, and by the end of it (last night), I was typing 4044 words an hour (actually, 50 minutes) which stunned me beyond all belief, considering that my normal pace is a sedate 2k an hour.
I intend to finsh the fantasy story that I didn't finish, I like it, I just can't bring myself to write it right now. I will polish up the other fantasy one, because I like that one too. I'm on the rocks about the fourth one, the one that I wrote in 3 days and is really quite odd and I doubt there is much salvageable in it.
So what am I going to do now? Well, I have a shipment of books coming in today, and I think that I'm going to celebrate by having a nice lazy day, with only one class that I need to go to. After November is over, I'm going to be starting on the exciting world of editing.
I'll be doing Nano next year, too, and next year, I will hit 300k.
Total word count for this year: 236,424. (And if we're counting the abortive lit-fic, it's about 244k)
Quite short of the 300k goal that I set myself, but I took several days off, and while a 10k a day pace isn't really that hard for me, it starts to get tricky when one takes five or six days off and then has to make up those words in the last few remaining days.
All in all, I'd have to say that Nano was a success for me, and a learning experience. I've never written quite this much in a month before, and by the end of it (last night), I was typing 4044 words an hour (actually, 50 minutes) which stunned me beyond all belief, considering that my normal pace is a sedate 2k an hour.
I intend to finsh the fantasy story that I didn't finish, I like it, I just can't bring myself to write it right now. I will polish up the other fantasy one, because I like that one too. I'm on the rocks about the fourth one, the one that I wrote in 3 days and is really quite odd and I doubt there is much salvageable in it.
So what am I going to do now? Well, I have a shipment of books coming in today, and I think that I'm going to celebrate by having a nice lazy day, with only one class that I need to go to. After November is over, I'm going to be starting on the exciting world of editing.
I'll be doing Nano next year, too, and next year, I will hit 300k.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Day 20...part 2...
Well, it is just shy of midnight, and I am at 17,521 words, which makes me quite happy, because that is only 2.5 short of my 20k goal that I had for today.
All in all, today has been a good writing day. Tomorrow might be a little more difficult, because of my Tuesday schedule, but Tuesday is my last day of classes before Thanksgiving break, and I'm leaving sometime on Wednesday, so that is going to be plenty of time for me to write. The fact that I have other homework to do, that I really, really have to do, is of course, important, but I will always find time to write. That is more important to me than anything, as I have said before.
All in all, today has been a good writing day. Tomorrow might be a little more difficult, because of my Tuesday schedule, but Tuesday is my last day of classes before Thanksgiving break, and I'm leaving sometime on Wednesday, so that is going to be plenty of time for me to write. The fact that I have other homework to do, that I really, really have to do, is of course, important, but I will always find time to write. That is more important to me than anything, as I have said before.
Day 20....Catching up....
well, I'm theoretically aiming for 20k words today, and I'm at 10k. This fantasy that I'm writing, Shadow of the Ashes is certainly a lot more fun than the stupid lit-fic piece that I tried to convince myself that I would enjoy writing. Anyway, so I'll probably update on that by the end of the day, just because I'm so excited about catching up. Heh.
In other news, though, I think my laptop is dying. Quite a long time ago, the 'b' key fell off my laptop; the plastic piece just popped off; and so I can still use the b key, I just have a piece of tape over it now. But as of two days ago, the spacebar became really sticky, as in it takes a long time to come up after I've pushed it down, and I haven't spilled anything on it at all. And then when I went to close my laptop down last night, and closed the top bit, the hinge went kinda wonky. This laptop is getting a little on the old side, but short of a harddrive crash, I don't think I'll be getting a new one until, at the very earliest, next summer.
And in other good news, I got the proposal done for the paper, and it's not even due for another 7 hours! Stunning! Of course, I've done nothing else - I've been too focused on catching up - but hey, I'm getting there. I'm just counting on Thanksgiving to save me.
In other news, though, I think my laptop is dying. Quite a long time ago, the 'b' key fell off my laptop; the plastic piece just popped off; and so I can still use the b key, I just have a piece of tape over it now. But as of two days ago, the spacebar became really sticky, as in it takes a long time to come up after I've pushed it down, and I haven't spilled anything on it at all. And then when I went to close my laptop down last night, and closed the top bit, the hinge went kinda wonky. This laptop is getting a little on the old side, but short of a harddrive crash, I don't think I'll be getting a new one until, at the very earliest, next summer.
And in other good news, I got the proposal done for the paper, and it's not even due for another 7 hours! Stunning! Of course, I've done nothing else - I've been too focused on catching up - but hey, I'm getting there. I'm just counting on Thanksgiving to save me.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Day 19...And I Decided...
That Final Night was the best cure for insomnia yet. It was going nowhere and I was loathing writing it. So I tossed it out the window. As I wasn't actually scheduled to start writing it until tomorrow, I'm still, amazingly, ahead of schedule. (The fact that I've not touched the papers that are due yet? Pah! Insignificant!)
In any case, it looks like the third one, in place of Final Night, is going to be called something along the lines of The Last Winter, and it's going to be a kind of post-apocalyptic fantasy world, but fantasy only because I like drawing maps and I would rather do that than do the proper research to make it plausible in a real-world setting. Yes, I know that's bad. But this is nano. I don't have time to do the research.
Probably an update on it's progress before the end of the day as I didn't post anything yesterday.
In any case, it looks like the third one, in place of Final Night, is going to be called something along the lines of The Last Winter, and it's going to be a kind of post-apocalyptic fantasy world, but fantasy only because I like drawing maps and I would rather do that than do the proper research to make it plausible in a real-world setting. Yes, I know that's bad. But this is nano. I don't have time to do the research.
Probably an update on it's progress before the end of the day as I didn't post anything yesterday.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Day 17....keyword of the day:procrastination
No, not procrastination in writing (though there was a fair bit of that, as well). No, just general lethargic procrastination. So much stuff to do, and I cannot quite convince myself to do any of it. I know that I work best under pressure, but I'd still like to get SOME things done in advance.
In other news, I'm likely to hit 10k on Final Night before I go to bed tonight/this morning. It's actually turning out to be just as pretentiously crappy as I imagined it would be, but I think I'm managing to put a bit of life into some of the characters. Or at least I'd like to think that I am.
Ah well. I'll get all my work done. I've been good at that so far. Been a year and a half (nearly) at an Ivy League school, and I've still got a B+ average, and I'm perfectly happy with that. So far, I have A's in nearly all of my classes, excluding psychology and probably Russian. That doesn't meant that I'll blow stuff off, but for everything that's not due next week, I tell myself that I have Thanksgiving break to work on it.
At least when I'm home for Thanksgiving, I won't have unlimited internet access, and I've been making myself a kind of promise that I'll not spend more time than I need to when I am home. Not that I'm tpyically a very social person, but we have dial-up at home, and there's no connection from my room, which means that I have to go and kick someone off the downstairs computer, and so I'll just stay in my room and read and write.
It actually sounds like the perfect holiday to me. :)
In other news, I'm likely to hit 10k on Final Night before I go to bed tonight/this morning. It's actually turning out to be just as pretentiously crappy as I imagined it would be, but I think I'm managing to put a bit of life into some of the characters. Or at least I'd like to think that I am.
Ah well. I'll get all my work done. I've been good at that so far. Been a year and a half (nearly) at an Ivy League school, and I've still got a B+ average, and I'm perfectly happy with that. So far, I have A's in nearly all of my classes, excluding psychology and probably Russian. That doesn't meant that I'll blow stuff off, but for everything that's not due next week, I tell myself that I have Thanksgiving break to work on it.
At least when I'm home for Thanksgiving, I won't have unlimited internet access, and I've been making myself a kind of promise that I'll not spend more time than I need to when I am home. Not that I'm tpyically a very social person, but we have dial-up at home, and there's no connection from my room, which means that I have to go and kick someone off the downstairs computer, and so I'll just stay in my room and read and write.
It actually sounds like the perfect holiday to me. :)
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Day 16...so much for taking a break
Well, I intended to take a break for the next few days and start again on Monday.
Unfortunately, when you write so much in a short period of time, abruptly stopping leaves you with this huge empty gap in your day that just demands to be filled.
So I started the next one.
Who wants to bet that it gets more attention than the things that desperately need to get done?
I really need to shut down the noveling part of my brain. I wish I knew how.
Until then, I am going to be writing, writing, writing. It's not a bad thing that I write so much...well, not really. I know that the more writing I do, the better it is slowly going to become, hopefully one day giving me the ability to write something that other people want to spend money to read.
One day, that will happen.
Until then, I shall write for myself.
Unfortunately, when you write so much in a short period of time, abruptly stopping leaves you with this huge empty gap in your day that just demands to be filled.
So I started the next one.
Who wants to bet that it gets more attention than the things that desperately need to get done?
I really need to shut down the noveling part of my brain. I wish I knew how.
Until then, I am going to be writing, writing, writing. It's not a bad thing that I write so much...well, not really. I know that the more writing I do, the better it is slowly going to become, hopefully one day giving me the ability to write something that other people want to spend money to read.
One day, that will happen.
Until then, I shall write for myself.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Day 15.....Hurrah!
Well, as of just a few minutes ago, I finished the fantasy nano, clocking in at 100,143 words, which is incredibly awesome, and I am so deliriously happy right now that I swear I could fly (no, I'm not going to jump out of my 4th story window and try...haha). It means that I've reached the 150k mark by halfway through nano, which means that I am more than halfway through my goal of 250k in the month!
The next novel, Final Night, is going to be a contemporary lit-fic piece, with 10 different characters (each, conveniently, with a single 5000 word chapter) and while there are 4 different arcs, everyone is connected to everyone in some way. This books is going to show 10 different people on the eve of the greatest night of their lives, and it is going to show the inter-connected-ness of things. Or something like that. More likely, it's going to be 50k words of bullshit. But that's okay. I can deal with that after November.
I'm not starting that until Monday (probably). There's too much stuff that I've been neglecting over the past 2 weeks, and so the next four days are going to be completely devoted to getting it done. That means that when I start next Monday, right before Thanksgiving, I'm more or less caught up with everything.
Of course, considering how boring my Thanksgivings usually are, I'll be able to write over the whole break, and so maybe I'll finish the nano in less than the five scheduled days. After all, I've got a fourth nano to write!
heh.
The next novel, Final Night, is going to be a contemporary lit-fic piece, with 10 different characters (each, conveniently, with a single 5000 word chapter) and while there are 4 different arcs, everyone is connected to everyone in some way. This books is going to show 10 different people on the eve of the greatest night of their lives, and it is going to show the inter-connected-ness of things. Or something like that. More likely, it's going to be 50k words of bullshit. But that's okay. I can deal with that after November.
I'm not starting that until Monday (probably). There's too much stuff that I've been neglecting over the past 2 weeks, and so the next four days are going to be completely devoted to getting it done. That means that when I start next Monday, right before Thanksgiving, I'm more or less caught up with everything.
Of course, considering how boring my Thanksgivings usually are, I'll be able to write over the whole break, and so maybe I'll finish the nano in less than the five scheduled days. After all, I've got a fourth nano to write!
heh.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Just a Random Aside
I just got back from class, and on my way back to the dorm, I stopped by at the little cafeteria/shop to get lunch. I do this maybe two or three times a week, depending on my mood and how hungry I am. Anyway, I only ever get one thing: chicken on ciabatta (mmm). Ever since I started at this school, it is the only thing I have ordered from this particular cafeteria/shop (the reason is, there's a dining hall on the bottom floor of my dorm, and that's where I eat most of the time).
Anyway, I go there today, and, for the first time, they've got my order memorized! I walk up to the counter, the woman looks at me and says, "Chicken on ciabatta?"
I'm just like, "Yeah."
I was amused by it, at least.
*big grin*
Anyway, I go there today, and, for the first time, they've got my order memorized! I walk up to the counter, the woman looks at me and says, "Chicken on ciabatta?"
I'm just like, "Yeah."
I was amused by it, at least.
*big grin*
Monday, November 13, 2006
Day 13...Slow Day
Well, today I only wrote 6.5k words, but fortunately, I had given myself one more slow day and today just happened to be it. I've had very little sleep, but am strangely not very tired. I intend to, after posting this, go and lie down for a bit, and hopefully sleep with follow shortly, but I have learned that my body can do whatever it damn well pleases, with little thought as to how that might fuck up the rest of my schedule, and there's nothing I can do about it.
I think I'm starting to lose interest in my fantasy novel. Not because I think it's a boring plot, because I'm just coming up to the assassination attempt, but because I have such an awful tendency to ramble and monologize (is that a word?) that it seems that none of the action actually gets to take place. It's not that my characters are angsting, they're just doing a lot of thinking. Something else I've noticed, is that I have a woeful lack of dialogue. Which is funny, because I've been told by friends that dialogue is the strongest part of my writing. Yet it seems to all but disappear in my fantasy novel, because my characters are so busy living inside their own minds to talk to anyone else. Hey...that sounds like me ! (heh)
Still on track to finish it by Thursday, so looking forward to that nice weekend break. Only it's not a proper break, because I get to do my papers then, but it'll give my creative mind some time to refresh so that I can start on a fresh note next Monday with a completely different type of novel in Last Night.
I'm still enjoying this, very much. I'm used to having a fairly high output when I do actually get my mind set on it and sit down to write, but if I get everything done, and hit that magical number of 250k, I think that will be the most that I have ever written in a single month.
Awesome.
I think I'm starting to lose interest in my fantasy novel. Not because I think it's a boring plot, because I'm just coming up to the assassination attempt, but because I have such an awful tendency to ramble and monologize (is that a word?) that it seems that none of the action actually gets to take place. It's not that my characters are angsting, they're just doing a lot of thinking. Something else I've noticed, is that I have a woeful lack of dialogue. Which is funny, because I've been told by friends that dialogue is the strongest part of my writing. Yet it seems to all but disappear in my fantasy novel, because my characters are so busy living inside their own minds to talk to anyone else. Hey...that sounds like me ! (heh)
Still on track to finish it by Thursday, so looking forward to that nice weekend break. Only it's not a proper break, because I get to do my papers then, but it'll give my creative mind some time to refresh so that I can start on a fresh note next Monday with a completely different type of novel in Last Night.
I'm still enjoying this, very much. I'm used to having a fairly high output when I do actually get my mind set on it and sit down to write, but if I get everything done, and hit that magical number of 250k, I think that will be the most that I have ever written in a single month.
Awesome.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Day 12....The Insanity Continues
Well, I got to 130k today, and that's great! The not-so-great news? On my whiteboard, on Friday, I made a list of 6 things that I needed to do this weekend, that I really, really needed to get done. Do you know how many of them I got done? One, and that was to get to 130k by the end of the weekend. I have not finished either of the two books that I was supposed to read, I have not studied for Russian and am woefully behind, have not done my statistics homework, have not started a paper. So do you know what I will be doing tonight? That's right, as many of the things on that list as I can possibly manage, starting with Russian and ending with the paper. But I feel strangely not guilty about not doing any of them...at least I reached my writing goal. Gah.
And I have also managed to reason myself into trying to write a FOURTH nano novel. I think that I have gone insane. But it's justified...I should be able to do it, if I really want to. Here's why:
So far this month, I've only written less than 10k words twice, and right now, I'm averaging 10k words a day (day 12, just over 120k words).
For my third nano, I'm scheduled to write 5k a day for 10 days, which, as stated above, is about half of what I'm writing per day so far.
So it COULD be done.
It's just, do I want to do it?
We'll see.
And I have also managed to reason myself into trying to write a FOURTH nano novel. I think that I have gone insane. But it's justified...I should be able to do it, if I really want to. Here's why:
So far this month, I've only written less than 10k words twice, and right now, I'm averaging 10k words a day (day 12, just over 120k words).
For my third nano, I'm scheduled to write 5k a day for 10 days, which, as stated above, is about half of what I'm writing per day so far.
So it COULD be done.
It's just, do I want to do it?
We'll see.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Day 11...Struggling to stay on schedule
Alright, alright, yes I have nearly 120k words all said and done. That doesn't mean that I can't be behind schedule, though. I had a lazy day on Wednesday that really threw me for the weekend, and now I am trying to get back onto that schedule. I am finishing tonight with 118k words rather than 120k, with tomorrow's goal being to hit 130k. Completely do-able, just stressful and tiring.
Don't get me wrong, I love writing, and I am always a schedule-oriented person when it comes to writing. So this isn't tiring on me because of either of those things. No, this is tiring on me because I just feel as though I am spending too much time writing - which I am - and not spending nearly enough time on school and things like that. I know I should be, but I'm not. And so when I tell myself that tomorrow I have to write 12k words - which means about 6 hours worth of writing - I silently groan to myself that that's a huge chunk out of my day, and how am I supposed to get all of that done?
I probably will, of course, but at the expense of what else? I really want to finish it by Thursday so that I have the weekend free next weekend to do all the things that I really, well and truly, need to get done.
One day, I hope that I am free of all constraints on my time other than writing. Maybe then I will look at a 12k goal and think 'oh, that's fine, I can have that done by mid-afternoon'.
Until then, I reserve the right to grumble.
Don't get me wrong, I love writing, and I am always a schedule-oriented person when it comes to writing. So this isn't tiring on me because of either of those things. No, this is tiring on me because I just feel as though I am spending too much time writing - which I am - and not spending nearly enough time on school and things like that. I know I should be, but I'm not. And so when I tell myself that tomorrow I have to write 12k words - which means about 6 hours worth of writing - I silently groan to myself that that's a huge chunk out of my day, and how am I supposed to get all of that done?
I probably will, of course, but at the expense of what else? I really want to finish it by Thursday so that I have the weekend free next weekend to do all the things that I really, well and truly, need to get done.
One day, I hope that I am free of all constraints on my time other than writing. Maybe then I will look at a 12k goal and think 'oh, that's fine, I can have that done by mid-afternoon'.
Until then, I reserve the right to grumble.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Day 10...Finallly...
Well, today I finally hit the 100k mark, so that's always a good thing. I didn't get quite as far as I would have liked (105k as opposed to 110k), but I think that I'm still on track for finishing up Wednesday/Thursday/Friday of next week, and I'm really looking forward to that.
The thing is, I've got two books to read for class, a paper to start seriously considering, several bits of homework that I've been putting off, etc. Sadly, those are going to have to start to take priority, and that makes me sad. I would much rather be writing than doing schoolwork. But at least the books are mildly interesting (Crime and Punishment and Что Делает), and the paper shouldn't mean too much work this weekend. It's just a case of taking time out of my writing life to make time for the less enjoyable parts of my life.
I hope that one day I can afford to live off of what I write, but I know that if that day ever comes, it is in the quite distant future; I know how difficult it is for a writer to live off of their writing, and so I will not plan my future around being able to do so. I will just look forward to the day that I can, and hope that it comes at all. What I do know for certain is that if I do not write at all, and if I do not try to get published, then it will never happen. And that means that everyday, I will write, or edit, or take some step towards that ultimate goal.
The thing is, I've got two books to read for class, a paper to start seriously considering, several bits of homework that I've been putting off, etc. Sadly, those are going to have to start to take priority, and that makes me sad. I would much rather be writing than doing schoolwork. But at least the books are mildly interesting (Crime and Punishment and Что Делает), and the paper shouldn't mean too much work this weekend. It's just a case of taking time out of my writing life to make time for the less enjoyable parts of my life.
I hope that one day I can afford to live off of what I write, but I know that if that day ever comes, it is in the quite distant future; I know how difficult it is for a writer to live off of their writing, and so I will not plan my future around being able to do so. I will just look forward to the day that I can, and hope that it comes at all. What I do know for certain is that if I do not write at all, and if I do not try to get published, then it will never happen. And that means that everyday, I will write, or edit, or take some step towards that ultimate goal.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Day 9....Hugely Unproductive
Well, today I only wrote 3000 words, so I didn't even hit 50k words today. But I'm intending to stay up into the early morning hours, so I intend to hit it before dawn. I have no reason for not having written much, so I am simply going to blame it on the Week Two Slump and hope that I can write myself out of it.
On the other hand, I've also decided to attempt a third Nano novel after I'm finished the second one sometime next week. Probably not the smartest or most advisable idea, but I've already started plotting it - which took away valuable writing time, I do admit. It is going to be literary fiction, so I am sure that it's going to be a load of pretentious crap. Should be fun!
Anyway, not much work done on the writing front today, but hopefully that will change over the next day or so. By tomorrow, I hope to have hit 110k total, which I think is a nice goal for me to have. And I only have one class tomorrow, so that will help. And it's Friday, and as I have no social life, I have nothing to do tomorrow night. What a loser I am...heh.
On the other hand, I've also decided to attempt a third Nano novel after I'm finished the second one sometime next week. Probably not the smartest or most advisable idea, but I've already started plotting it - which took away valuable writing time, I do admit. It is going to be literary fiction, so I am sure that it's going to be a load of pretentious crap. Should be fun!
Anyway, not much work done on the writing front today, but hopefully that will change over the next day or so. By tomorrow, I hope to have hit 110k total, which I think is a nice goal for me to have. And I only have one class tomorrow, so that will help. And it's Friday, and as I have no social life, I have nothing to do tomorrow night. What a loser I am...heh.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Day 8....Bad, bad girl
Well, I did get to sleep, I woke up at 3 and wrote for a bit, then went back to bed at 7, setting my alarm for 9, which would give me a chance to get ready for class at 10. I had a bad dream, and so I reset my alarm at 10-minute intervals, and now I'm using it as a justifcation to skip Russian, which I KNOW is bad, I KNOW I can't afford to do...and yet I'm doing it anyway. Ugh. I disgust me sometimes. I think that, lacking a forced structure in my life...I kind of let my life fall apart. Or at least, I only focus on the things that I consider most important.
Don't get me wrong, I know that college is important. My parents are paying lots of money for me to get a good education and I know that I should take advantage of it. But I still have no idea what I want to do with myself after college, and I really want to be a writer. You don't need a degree for that. And I'm also thinking of doing teach for america, and that only requires a 2.5 GPA, and mine's about 3.4 or so. I just don't know, and so I can't quite feel bad when I do dumb shit like this. There's not even really an excuse for it this time. I'm not in the mood to write and so I probably won't. I tell myself that I'll spend a couple hours studying Russian tonight, but I know it's fairly likely that I won't. I'll blow it off, because that's what I tend to do when it comes to Russian. I'm not very good at it, but seem to harbor the mentality that it's all going to click with minimal work on my part.
Anyway, back to writing, which is what this month's posts are SUPPOSED to be about (as are, largely, the rest of them). I'm already at my daily quota, but I've rearranged my goals so that I'm not permanently ahead and I actually have to push to hit my goals each day, which is something new...heh. So, I'm at 36k words, and I think that I'd like to hit 40k today and 50k tomorrow, because I want my green bar back on Nano.org.
What a silly reason.
Don't get me wrong, I know that college is important. My parents are paying lots of money for me to get a good education and I know that I should take advantage of it. But I still have no idea what I want to do with myself after college, and I really want to be a writer. You don't need a degree for that. And I'm also thinking of doing teach for america, and that only requires a 2.5 GPA, and mine's about 3.4 or so. I just don't know, and so I can't quite feel bad when I do dumb shit like this. There's not even really an excuse for it this time. I'm not in the mood to write and so I probably won't. I tell myself that I'll spend a couple hours studying Russian tonight, but I know it's fairly likely that I won't. I'll blow it off, because that's what I tend to do when it comes to Russian. I'm not very good at it, but seem to harbor the mentality that it's all going to click with minimal work on my part.
Anyway, back to writing, which is what this month's posts are SUPPOSED to be about (as are, largely, the rest of them). I'm already at my daily quota, but I've rearranged my goals so that I'm not permanently ahead and I actually have to push to hit my goals each day, which is something new...heh. So, I'm at 36k words, and I think that I'd like to hit 40k today and 50k tomorrow, because I want my green bar back on Nano.org.
What a silly reason.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Day 7...milestone reached
Well, I'm actually awake as I'm typing this, so that's definitely an improvement over the last few days, when I've been a zombie for most of the day. I only woke up about half an hour ago from my little nap after taking my psych midterm. Fortunately, I've been able to write plenty in the last couple of days so that I'm actually 3,000 words ahead right now, at 30,000 words (YAY!). I'll probably do some more writing this evening, just because I like to be prepared for if there is a day when something comes up and I can't write that day.
When it comes to writing, I'm very schedule-oriented. I'm also very competetive, so I'm forever cutting my schedules down and telling myself, 'of course you can write 10,000 words day', even with classes and everything. (Speaking of classes, I'm a bit regretful that my nap took me through Lit class...we were discussing Notes from the Underground today and I must confess that I could use all the help I can get on that particular book.)
There's a more practical reason that I want to finish my nano early. It's not midterms - I'm done with those now, but I have three papers that I have to write, and a proposal for one of them. The proposal is due on the 20th of November, one of the papers is due on the 27th, and another of the papers is due on Dec 7. And unlike my papers from last year, where the professor told us that we should only use the course materials so that he did not have to go and check our sources (for fear of plagiarism), I actually have to do some research for these suckers, and I'm really too much of a procrastinator to be very good at that. But if I have nano as well as papers to write in conjunction with each other, then things are just going to get messy and I'll end up a zombie again.
But, fingers crossed, I'll finish my nano sometime next Friday or Saturday, and then I can focus on trying to cram a little bit of research into the weekend so that I can write my proposal and then get to work on the writing that is far less fun than nano.
When it comes to writing, I'm very schedule-oriented. I'm also very competetive, so I'm forever cutting my schedules down and telling myself, 'of course you can write 10,000 words day', even with classes and everything. (Speaking of classes, I'm a bit regretful that my nap took me through Lit class...we were discussing Notes from the Underground today and I must confess that I could use all the help I can get on that particular book.)
There's a more practical reason that I want to finish my nano early. It's not midterms - I'm done with those now, but I have three papers that I have to write, and a proposal for one of them. The proposal is due on the 20th of November, one of the papers is due on the 27th, and another of the papers is due on Dec 7. And unlike my papers from last year, where the professor told us that we should only use the course materials so that he did not have to go and check our sources (for fear of plagiarism), I actually have to do some research for these suckers, and I'm really too much of a procrastinator to be very good at that. But if I have nano as well as papers to write in conjunction with each other, then things are just going to get messy and I'll end up a zombie again.
But, fingers crossed, I'll finish my nano sometime next Friday or Saturday, and then I can focus on trying to cram a little bit of research into the weekend so that I can write my proposal and then get to work on the writing that is far less fun than nano.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Day 6....damn....
I knew that the late nights were going to screw me over eventually.
I missed my 10 a.m class today, which pisses me off. It's Russian, and trust me, I'm not good enough at it (not by far) to be able to miss it and not automatically get even further behind than I usually am.
But every cloud has a silver lining. I hit 20,000 words on my second nano early this morning, and that almost makes up for it.
I know that college is important, but sometimes writing just seems that little bit MORE important. I doubt that my parents would agree, but we'll see who's right in the end.
Hoping for the 25k mark by the end of the day, but we'll see.
I missed my 10 a.m class today, which pisses me off. It's Russian, and trust me, I'm not good enough at it (not by far) to be able to miss it and not automatically get even further behind than I usually am.
But every cloud has a silver lining. I hit 20,000 words on my second nano early this morning, and that almost makes up for it.
I know that college is important, but sometimes writing just seems that little bit MORE important. I doubt that my parents would agree, but we'll see who's right in the end.
Hoping for the 25k mark by the end of the day, but we'll see.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Wonderful
So, due to my not going to sleep until about 7 or so this morning, and not wanting to completley throw off my sleep schedule, I woke up at 11. That means that I was tired all day, and so decided that I'd go to bed at 8-ish tonight, because I've found that I really like writing in the really early, quiet hours of the morning (if you've never lived in a dorm, you'll never quite understand why the quietness of the early a.m. is so precious).
Anyway, I assumed that, because I was so tired, that I'd easily sleep until about 2a.m., which would be fine.
But nope. I'm up now, at 20 of midnight. That means that IF I manage to stay awake all night, I'll be a zombie by my last class today, that ends at 3:30pm. On the other hand, it means that I'll get to write all night, and because I'm promptly on schedule for my fantasy novel and my weekday pace of 6000 words is not too strenuous, I'll probably shoot ahead. And that's really good, because I want to get this written as soon as I can, because I'm competetive like that.
Here's to being a zombie! Yay!
Anyway, I assumed that, because I was so tired, that I'd easily sleep until about 2a.m., which would be fine.
But nope. I'm up now, at 20 of midnight. That means that IF I manage to stay awake all night, I'll be a zombie by my last class today, that ends at 3:30pm. On the other hand, it means that I'll get to write all night, and because I'm promptly on schedule for my fantasy novel and my weekday pace of 6000 words is not too strenuous, I'll probably shoot ahead. And that's really good, because I want to get this written as soon as I can, because I'm competetive like that.
Here's to being a zombie! Yay!
Day 5...I should be sleeping...
It's now 6:32 in the morning.
I haven't been to bed yet.
No, that's not true. I went to bed at around 8-ish and woke up at just before 11pm. So I've managed to get some sleep.
I DID finish the shorter story, with a whopping 50,097 words, and I'm very proud of that. It got kind of silly in the end, as I got tireder, but as that one is purely for my own entertainment, I'm not too bothered.
Later today (assuming that my body decides to go to sleep), I'll be starting on the harder one, and hopefully will make some progress with that.
I haven't been to bed yet.
No, that's not true. I went to bed at around 8-ish and woke up at just before 11pm. So I've managed to get some sleep.
I DID finish the shorter story, with a whopping 50,097 words, and I'm very proud of that. It got kind of silly in the end, as I got tireder, but as that one is purely for my own entertainment, I'm not too bothered.
Later today (assuming that my body decides to go to sleep), I'll be starting on the harder one, and hopefully will make some progress with that.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
day 4....grrrr
Well, I wanted to hit 44k words before I went to bed last night.
That so didn't happen.
And today's goal is 58k, i.e., finishing the silly smutstory. That leaves me a nice and oh-so-comfortable 18k words to write today.
Damn, that's a lot.
So far, at 2:30 in the afternoon, I'm to 45,000 words.
This is going to be a looooooooong day.
-edit-
well, at 6pm, I am at 50,000 words. I've reworked the rest of my schedule so that now I'm due to finish on the 17th and don't have to write anymore today.
I should also probably get around to studying for my psych midterm.
Others might find it funny that I'm not celebrating the 50k mark. Well, I'll be celebrating the 58k mark, because that'll be the point where one of the stories is actually finished. That should be sometime tomorrow.
That so didn't happen.
And today's goal is 58k, i.e., finishing the silly smutstory. That leaves me a nice and oh-so-comfortable 18k words to write today.
Damn, that's a lot.
So far, at 2:30 in the afternoon, I'm to 45,000 words.
This is going to be a looooooooong day.
-edit-
well, at 6pm, I am at 50,000 words. I've reworked the rest of my schedule so that now I'm due to finish on the 17th and don't have to write anymore today.
I should also probably get around to studying for my psych midterm.
Others might find it funny that I'm not celebrating the 50k mark. Well, I'll be celebrating the 58k mark, because that'll be the point where one of the stories is actually finished. That should be sometime tomorrow.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Day 3
Well, I hit 40,000 words a little while ago.
It feels comfortably good to be writing at this pace. It is more than I usually write, but there is something about the competetive nature of Nano that makes me write more. I look at the list of authors and their wordcounts, and judge where I am on them, and it always make me want to push to reach the next person.
The funny thing is, that I'm not even skipping classes, like I typically do during the rest of the semester (I'm sooo bad at going to classes, especially when all of the material is straight out of the textbook). But since nano started, I have gone to every single one of my classes, which is ridiculously rare. And yet I'm still doing well wordcount-wise.
My lovely little pointless story (the 50k one) is going well, and because I already know the characters in it fairly well, it flows out of me without any problem. I do intend to finish that one at some point tomorrow, and then start thinking about how best to attack the more difficult one.
It's not that I don't think I can write it; there's no reason for me not to be able to. But it's just harder to write, because I don't know the story or the characters as well. It means that the writing will come out of me a lot slower.
Nevertheless, I have already figured out a decent schedule that will have me finished the second one by the 16th of November, and that is more than satisfactory! (Especially as that then gives me a glorious 4 days to figure out what I'm writing a paper on for one of my classes and submit a proposal for it!)
It feels comfortably good to be writing at this pace. It is more than I usually write, but there is something about the competetive nature of Nano that makes me write more. I look at the list of authors and their wordcounts, and judge where I am on them, and it always make me want to push to reach the next person.
The funny thing is, that I'm not even skipping classes, like I typically do during the rest of the semester (I'm sooo bad at going to classes, especially when all of the material is straight out of the textbook). But since nano started, I have gone to every single one of my classes, which is ridiculously rare. And yet I'm still doing well wordcount-wise.
My lovely little pointless story (the 50k one) is going well, and because I already know the characters in it fairly well, it flows out of me without any problem. I do intend to finish that one at some point tomorrow, and then start thinking about how best to attack the more difficult one.
It's not that I don't think I can write it; there's no reason for me not to be able to. But it's just harder to write, because I don't know the story or the characters as well. It means that the writing will come out of me a lot slower.
Nevertheless, I have already figured out a decent schedule that will have me finished the second one by the 16th of November, and that is more than satisfactory! (Especially as that then gives me a glorious 4 days to figure out what I'm writing a paper on for one of my classes and submit a proposal for it!)
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