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| Words written: 2693
Total word count: 11,049/50,000
Well I passed 1/5th of the goal word count! I am just as surprised as anyone. It's coming along nicely, I must say. One of my characters is taking a while to develop, but it will all get ironed out soon enough. I'm surprised at the story progression that I'm making, that's for sure. It's a great feeling to have made it this far at least.
Normal stuff:
I talked to my friend Neil for the first time in 4 months today. He's with the Marines, and has been deployed to Afghanistan, and is back here on leave until after Christmas (I think). It was good to hear his voice over the phone, and I'm glad that the prayers have been answered. I'll get to hang out with him sometime this week hopefully. Please keep praying for him, however. Being a Marine has changed him somewhat. He isn't psycho or anything like that, but his attitude has changed from being that of a Christian, to that of an alcoholic (See edit below). He said the only things he's done since he got back were sleep, eat, and drink. He used to not be like this, I remember when he balked at even the hint of drinking or smoking a cigarette. Since he joined the Marines he hasn't had many positive influences, so I'm pretty sure it has only made things worse for him. I'm hoping to make a good impression on him while he's back, so that he can see the changes I've made in my life in the past couple of years.
EDIT:
I want to say, for the sake of his reputation and all that (even though you may not know him), Neil is not an alcoholic, his mindset has just seemed to have changed to include a lot more drinking than he used to. Even though most of you probably don't know him, I don't think it's right to say something that could cause someone to think of him in an untrue way. I just couldn't find any better way to put how he sounded to me over the phone, so I said that it sounded more like an alcoholic than a Christian. Anyway, just thought I'd clear that up.
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| Words written: 1,967
Total word count: 5,410/50,000
I passed the 1/10th mark of the goal word count for my NaNoWriMo novel! Words are starting to flow a lot more easily now that I have background out of the way. I want to be able to bang out a few more chapters, but I've got to rest sometime, and I think that if you put too much effort into it at one time, the ideas you thought were great end up sounding pretty stupid after a good night's rest. For now a satisfying mini-goal has been reached. In college I would have cringed at the thought of writing a 5,000 word paper. Now I've written 5,400 words in 3 days and didn't blink an eye. I am impressed with myself so far, we'll see how long this keeps up. I'm posting all of this stuff because it will motivate me to keep going, if anything because I don't want to look like an idiot for starting something and not being able to finish.
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| Words written: 1,569
Total word count: 3,443/50,000
They mentioned this in an email we got, that we would probably stop and take a look at what we had written and start to rethink what we are writing. Then they said not to give up, but to press on. That is exactly what I did today. I woke up with the feeling that I was going in the wrong direction with what I had written, but I gave that notion up and kept writing. It's a good thing I did. I finished a second chapter and introduced my second main character. The two characters are going to have interweaving stories, but will not know each other for a good amount of time in the plot. I know I'm crazy for attempting to keep up with two different stories at once, with this being my first novel and all, but I feel that with the overall story I've developed, two main characters with different stories are necessary to achieve my goals.
A personal note. I've seen the others on the NaNo site who have word counts of already 9,000+ in only 2 days. I know it's not a competition, but I feel like a midget among giants with the stats I've seen from some of these people. I need to try to relax and just remember that it's for fun and enjoyment that we do this, not for competition. You are considered a winner of the event if you reach 50,000 words. I just try to think too hard, and having that daily 1,667 word goal is such a pain to overcome. It becomes more like a deadline. I'm great at handling deadlines, but I don't know how well I'll handle a month of straight deadlines. I think sometime this week I need to head to a coffee shop and sit down to give myself a good word-count buffer. Maybe if I reach 10,000 words soon I will start to feel more comfortable and less uptight about the whole thing.
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| I did decide after all to participate in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, for those of you who have never heard of it. I spent last week catching up on putting the finishing touches on some characters and plot scenarios I had in my head. I may reveal a little more about my characters later on, but for now I will keep it quiet, in case some, less creative, writers come to my site and take advantage of the free inspiration. I will let it go at least a week, hopefully by then people will have their own characters and story developed. I need to write at least 1,667 words a day to meet the 50,000 word deadline at the end of the month. I decided I would keep a little journal here. I may not post every day, but when I do, I will try to keep up with my daily count, and the total word count. If I lack creative posts other than the "this is how my week went" posts, please forgive me, it is because I am pouring all of my creative juices into writing this novel. So here goes:
Day 1
Words written: 1,874
Total word count: 1,874 / 50,000
I had a strong first day. I wrote in the car on the way home from my grandparent's house, and finished up my writing after church. The first chapter is coming along nicely. I'm developing the back story to my first main character. Nothing drastic yet. The way it's going now, I may shoot way past 50,000 words in my novel. 1,800+ of those are just in the beginning, and I have so many other plans. I think I get the wordiness from reading so many Tom Clancy novels as a boy. Oh well. This seems like it will be a lot of fun, so let's hope I don't give up easily after the 2 week mark is met and the stress starts coming in.
If anyone else is participating, my name on the NaNoWriMo site is also respawn87, so add me as a writing buddy and we can keep each other encouraged.
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| Trust me, I have stuff to write about, I just don't have time to formulate a good post for all of it. I need to get some of this out so I can think it through, but every time I sit down at my computer it is for another purpose other than Xanga. Fixing so many computers leads to a lack of ambition to be on a computer in my leisure time.... so usually when I sit down at my computer on my own time, I just check emails and see what's up on Facebook.... you know, thoughtless stuff that doesn't require a lot of time or effort. I'm also hopelessly addicted to Bejeweled. My evenings are spent with my family usually talking or watching TV.... and I'm playing Bejeweled on my laptop while talking or watching. I promise sometime there will be a post with something good to say about a subject.... soon.
I want to mention that I went to the North Carolina State Fair with my parents on Friday. None of my friends wanted to go, so I tagged along with my folks. It was fun, I haven't been to the fair since I was a little kid.... over 10 years ago. We saw all the usual agricultural stuff like cows and pigs and stuff, went to a BMX stunt show, and ate fried stuff. My parents had fried pecan pie.... haha. I didn't ride any rides because it was anywhere from $3-$6 to ride one ride! In the evening they had a Jeremy Camp concert, but we went to the demolition derby instead. (It was cheaper and more my style.) Apparently as a 2 year old, I used to love demolition derbys, because my dad took me to them on weekends when we lived in Washington. I haven't been to one since we moved here though. I could write a ton about how much fun they are. Taking a machine that we ordinarily would not want to harm and slamming it into another machine, it's totally contrary to everything we're taught, but it has a beauty all its own when it's done in the right context. Anyway.... fun Friday for me and my parents.
Last thing before I go to bed. I am thinking of trying out NaNoWriMo this November. I have no clue where to start, but I've always wanted to write a novel, so maybe this will jump start me in the right direction. I don't know if I'll get 50,000 words in by November 30th, but it will push me to just throw some of my ideas out on the table. Writing a novel is on my life's to-do list, so why not cross it off early? We'll see. It's a little under a week away, so I need to come up with a plan. Any suggestions for what type of novel I should write, or characters, or anything related would be awesome from you guys!
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