Yesterday (day nine) was incredibly slow for me in the world of NaNo. Weekends are expected to be that way as they are family days, and lucky me there are four weekends in the month this year (yikes!)

Anyway, for the majority of the day I had a meager 411 words, then in the last hour of the night I did a few word wars and redeemed myself with a total of 1,565 words for the day – enough for a green square on my progress chart. (Yay!)

At midnight my time I was at: 18,675 words, and still ahead of pace by a full two days.

You can view my progress report here. Here’s my my month widget (these are both slower to update than my profile, which is instant) they might not be reflecting my current word count, though.


By midnight tonight you should be at no less than 16,670 words. Good luck!

Day eight saw some decent writing progress as inner critic still refused to go away. Why he won’t go on that Hawaian vacation I’ve been dangling in front of his/her nose is beyond me.

After I earned myself my green square for the day I stopped and edited. Yep, the big no-no, but I always do it. I’m ahead of pace, and my editing either changes word choices or adds words, so it’s not that bad.. except it takes longer to add up the words.

After starting to read Anita’s post (I need to finish it still!) I realized something. My totem wasn’t perched on the PC! Ever since we get this new computer this past summer it hasn’t been there. Maybe now that he’s there inner editor will be too afraid to come around, LOL. (I can only hope)

When everything was said and done I had 17,090 words at midnight my time. Not bad as I’m still about a day and a half ahead of pace.

You can view my progress report here. Here’s my my month widget (these are both slower to update than my profile, which is instant) they might not be reflecting my current word count, though.

How are you all fairing? By midnight tonight you should aim to be at no less than 15,003 words. Good luck!

Originally posted on: November 08, 2008 10:54 AM EST

Day seven was another bad day. I think part of it was due to worries on a scene needing a 95% overhaul if my facts weren’t right (I was guessing based on what I know – limited knowledge) as well as loathing what I’ve written thus far. I believe part of the issue is the week two blues settling in early.

This whole novel has been like pulling teeth to get out with the exception of a few tiny parts. I knew when I went into this that the novel was not nearly as tightly plooted as I was used to and I knew It’d affect me… I just didn’t think it was going to be this much of a disaster. Sure, I have my words, sure I’m on target for the pacing (but not ABOVE pacing, sadly) but I loathe most of them.

I’m finding that I’m doing two things. I’m writing very stiff… little to no descriptions on similies or metaphors but two in the entire novel. I’m also revisiting things in the novel. Granted these are thought patterns that are relevant to the character, but I’m sure I’m going to be chopping a lot of it out despite the fact that she really does keep revisiting the same thoughts.

While these things are trivial and the novel probably in all actualitiy only needs some minor work, it’s enough to make me have a bad taste in my mouth about the progress I have thus far.

I’m also working with large plot holes that I need to fill in. Between that, loathing what I have here as a rule and needing research, yeasterday was not what I was hoping for. I had hoped to get aheada more so that this weekend – which will be slow as it’s a day Gideon’s home – wouldn’t hurt me as much. That didn’t happen, so come Monday I’m really going to be struggling.

When everything was said and done I was at 15,378 words, which is the minimum for day Nine, so I am ahead of pace.

Now if I could just get lucky and said through week two… yeah… more like a miracle, huh. There’s a reason why the Wrimos call it the week two blues.

You can view my progress report here. Here’s my my month widget (these are both slower to update than my profile, which is instant) they might not be reflecting my current word count, though.

How are you all fairing? By midnight tonight you should aim to be at no less than 13,336 words. Good luck!

Originally posted on: November 07, 2008 09:43 AM EST

Day six was a mix of good and bad for me.

I had decided to add in my second plot (I’m utilizing parallel running storylines/plots/scenes that meet in the end for this novel) earlier than originally planned. So, yesterday I got to work on that side of the story, only doing that caused chaos in my otherwise neat novel. I wound up having to sacrifice my chapter one cliffhanger to add in other details that were needed and to weave in the secondary plotline… and I wasn’t happy. I dealt with it, though and wrote on. Then I ran into issues where I wanted both POVs for one scene as each side had something to bring to the scene. This made a huge mess… and it wasn’t until about 11pm that I sorted it all out.

Things are better now. The scenes are back to normal and less chaotic. The chapter one cliffhanger is back and I’m refreshed and goo to go again today.

When everything was said and done at 12am my time I was at 13,359 words. The minimal was just 10,002, so I am about two days ahead of pace at this point.

You can view my progress report here. Here’s my my month widget (these are both slower to update than my profile, which is instant) they might not be reflecting my current word count, though.

Here’s a fun word war graphic between myself, René Allen, Tracey W., and Renda.
Rene and Renda have progress, but it hasn’t updated just yet.

Tracey. I WILL catch you, LOL.

How are you all fairing? By midnight tonight you should aim to be at no less than 11,669 words. Good luck!

Originally posted on: November 06, 2008 12:28 PM EST

Day five was the first day I could really be proud of this year. Generally I like to get as much ground behind me in the first week as the week Two blues can really make your goal difficult to attain. This year it’s been a rough first week. Let’s hope the week two blues are otherwise busy with another engagement and they overlook my house!

Yesterday I made some massive word counts – in part due to the progress report being live, also in part to several word wars that I had participated in.

I also made an interesting revelation, well, two revelations. After the funeral I have a huge, gaping plot hole and no clue what goes there. As a result I realized that the time I had plan to weave my second plot line was far to late and it’s just seem… odd waiting all that time to introduce the second side of the novel. So, as a result I got a word boost working on bringing in the secondary plot line.

When all was said and done I had written a whopping 3,321 words yesterday. My personal best for this year! More importantly, I made the first milestone – 10,000 words. Yes!

You can view my progress report here. Here’s my my month widget (these are both slower to update than my profile, which is instant) they might not be reflecting my current word count, though.

How are you all fairing? By midnight tonight you should be no lower than 10,002 words.

I’m doubling up on these reports since I’ve been so busy cleaning and writing that I haven’t had a chance to publish them along the way.

Day Three had me wondering if my home should be in the NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul forum. I’ve never found myself there, but hey, I’ve always had a tighter plot, too. Well, maybe I’m jumping a bit too soon, but day three showed me some revelations that I wasn’t all that keen on. One of those was that much of this novel will be my main character going solo… and that would mean little dialogue on her end during these times, and unfortunately a lot of description. This just makes me scared to be honest. Scared the pacing will be all wonky, scared that MY pacing (IE word count) will be slow and so on. Dialogue is my strong point and that’s where I really get ahead of the game. I feel like my feet are mired in mud when I’m doing too much description at a time.

As a result I spent a lot of day three avoiding the novel and cleaning the house. While the house desperately did need to be cleaned, I’m honest enough with myself to know it was avoidance on my part.

At midnight on day three I stood at 6,024 words. The bare minumun if finishing in 30 days (I am to do it in less) would have been 5,001 words.


Day Four was more of the same – to an extent as day three. I was still struggling with little dialogue and issues with a plot point relating to a wake that looked less and less likely to happen. I wound up having to replot that part of the scene differently, but it works okay this way, so no big deal there.

Once again I stalled by cleaning (the house – or at least the living room) is really starting to look great lol. Maybe once the cleaning is done I’ll get to work and be less distracted. Maybe.

I questioned how… dull the one half of my novel was going to be if the character spent large amounts of time flying solo.

I also got a fairly good amount written, though some of that was added to today’s (day five) progress report. Apparently anything done after 11pm my local time counts for the next day’s progress report. As of 12am MY local time I had 7,735 words written. The minumum for day four was 6,668, so a bit ahead, but still not that far, really.

I notice that the My Month widget and the progress report widget are now LIVE on the site. Hurray!

You can view my progress report here. Here’s my my month widget (these are both slower to update than my profile, which is instant) they might not be reflecting my current word count, though.

How are you all fairing?

Day Two, like day one was a bit of an uphill struggle. I didn’t have many chances to write due to it being a weekend, so I only managed to barely stay at the bare minumum (though my progress report shows me at 1,000 words for the day)

I still struggled to find my direction before the event that I had originally planned to be the opening hook, and wound up just skipping to the events afterward. I struggled with concerns about rehashing events in chapter one as the characters naturally are discussing the event.

By 12am I had managed to get down 3,531 words. Just barely staying afloat at just above the bare minimum. My hope was to get ahead of the game on Monday since all weekends will be difficult to write during.

Well, the first day of NaNoWriMo came and went without a hitch… sorta. Well, I’d expcted it to be a rough day to write since Gideon’s home from school and all, but I didn’t look at the big picture and see that I’d be losing about 8 days on the weekends when he’s home that I’ll not write much if at all. Well, that’s more than I typically miss in the entire month, which means that days I need plot work, more research or any other issue like illness or just plain being lazy is going to add to that number. Hmm. Not good.

However, I will have a maximum of seven hours each weekday to work on it, and that’s good. If I can get my butt in gear that should more than make up for the time that I’ll miss on the weekends. Key word here? Should.

Thigs didn’t exactly start off as I had thought they would. The opening scene got pushed back to the end of chapter one, so I’m left with having to backfill the fromt of the novel in. While this opening hook would have been perfect, it seemed to be better placed at the end of the chapter so that the cliffhanger would be the introduction into Chapter Two and so that we can establish who is who a bit before the events take place. I’m not sure when, but I’ll backfill the opening in eventually.

Also, I had a scene in Chapter Two that was unscripted, but it showed something of Natalya that I had been meaning to show, so it was perfect. I love when the characters nicely suggest ideas… and it’s even better yet when they have some amazing ideas.

Anyway, yesterday I wasn’t expecting much, really, but I managed to soar ahead from where I had expected I’d be. Before I turned in for bed I had something like 608 words. I figured that was about all I’d see for the day, which was better than nothing, but not quite what I was hoping for.

I also stopped to do some work on a synopsis. I have a simple one liner one here that could be interpreted in a number of ways, but I kinda want to add on to it while still leaving it open to the reader’s way of interpreting it.

I had hoped to have my research issue decided and taken care of by now, but alas it isn’t. The good news, however is that I don’t need it for a while yet, so there’s still time.  What I did decide and work on was to name the nameless characters in the novel. No more are they called “Friend,” “Co-worker” and other namless affectionate terms, LOL.

Well, all things considered, I wound up with a whopping 2,448 words. MUCH better than I’d expected, thanks in part to Sammie being up for a word war. Thanks Sammie!

Today, if you are planning to finish on precisely the last day of the month, you should be at 3,334 words.

Originally posted on: October 31, 2008 01:16 PM EDT

Well, NaNoWriMo officially starts in TWELVE HOURS! Are you ready? I am… sorta, LOL.

I’ve written out all my word count notes for the month and they are all inside my plot notebook waiting to be used.

I added in 8 more plot points boosting my total to 45 total plot points. Though, some of these newer ones won’t require too many words, but they are important to the plot.

I still have not found the information I’m seeking on body decomposition which leaves me a few choices. A: If I can’t find it, chances are the character can’t either.. and at this point she’d use what is online that I saw. B: She’d have to change her habits to fit the timeframe… which could rush the plot (one thing I do NOT want) or she will have to C: Seek out better sources to find the information.

This gives me something to look over because this is fairly relevant to the plot… and also could make for some interesting plot developments depending on which route I choose.

Twas the Night Before NaNoWriMo

Twas the night before NaNoWriMo, and all through the house
A creature was stirring, but it wasn’t a mouse
The totems were perched on the PC with care
In hopes that our muses will soon be there
The authors were snuggled in their beds,
While visions of their novels danced in their heads;
With Gideon in his jammies and I at my PC
I snuggled around the computer with a warm cup of tea
When at the computer there arose such a clatter
I sprang to life making my beloved novel fatter
Away through the keyboard my fingers flew
With each paragraph more about my characters I knew
Through me surged a horrible feeling of dread
That inner critic would rear his ugly head
Copyright © 2007 Jennifer N. *poysen.gather.com

My NaNoWriMo Totem for the past two years.