NaNoWriMo Day 18: And, We Have a Poet!

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Finally, the poet in my NaNoNovel has been revealed. I thought it would never happen and that I'd have these poems hanging around with nowhere to go. But, it happened. The poet has shown himself. Now I can put in the poems somewhere appropriate. I think a couple of them were written by someone else to him, and that's okay. But at least he has made an appearance.

My total words written today (mostly before work, though I did squeeze some in on my dinner break tonight) is 2046. My total word count right now is 33,145! Woo!

As soon as they are done with the ice breakers, the characters will be having dinner. Some may go for a walk on the beach (that's my plan for them). And then, later at night but not too late, a surprise visitor will be showing up.

Unless she changes her plans. One of the characters who is already at the retreat house knows about it, but she has said nothing. It will be a good surprise. I think. We'll see what she has up her sleeve when she gets there.

In addition to giving the big reveal of the end of the play they've been working on.

But wait! What about the dead body discovered in the opening scene? We still don't know who it was. Or what happened. And what about the actor who disappeared. His replacement is the poet, so that was a good exchange from my author's vantage point. But those two things - a body, a disappearance - are only two of several dangling enticements which have yet to come to fruition. I think things are about to be exposed, though!
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NaNoWriMo Day Twenty Eight

Day Twenty Eight of NaNoWriMo 2011 and I'm on Chapter Thirty. I do expect I will cross the finish line tomorrow - surpassing the 50,000 word mark. Yes, I think by tomorrow night I will be a winner.

My ending word count today is 48,110. Today, in three writing sessions, I wrote just under 2800 words.

In the story, the cat or whatever it is, wanders in the bushes still. But the house's owner is headed out in his yellow rain slicker.

Wait! What's that? A Yellow rain slicker? Oh, my. There was a murder involving someone in a yellow coat at the opening of the novel. It wasn't clear if it was the yellow coat person or the pink coat person who died - but I suspect I know.

So a murderer in a yellow coat, perhaps, is going out to kill a cat. The character in the hospital is being held overnight in spite of no medical reason being found yet to explain her two fainting spells. And another character was visited by the spirit who had inhabited the body of her ex-partner, or something like that. Spirits and murderers and rain slickers in the park in the early morning mist.

Oh, my. Where will this end? I suspect a little past the 50k mark. Yep, this won't be wrapped up in 2000 words. I mean, I could - but that would make it unbelievable. Or outside the realm of believability as far as ghost stories and murders go. Right? Or is that even possible.

Ah well. Tomorrow I will be a winner and then we'll see what the characters have to say.

#SheWriMo
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NaNoWriMo Day Seven

I'll start with the update: my total word count at the end of day 7 is 10,599. Which means that the number of words I wrote today was 627 (on the computer, so it's accurate). And that leaves only about 1,000 behind.

So far this NaNoWriMo is going like some other things in my life: a lesson in patience and letting go, taking things as they are. More technology trauma which started last night (on my go home, straight to bed after work plan night -- didn't happen, had to save my scheduler and my BBerry calendar -- grr). Which I resolved by staying up too late and then one of the devices took its final breath this morning and the other won't play nice, after all.

Technology. Love it/hate it!

Back to NaNoWriMo. The new section I started tonight is great. I really like it. It's flowing. If I had enough time I think I would easily get out at least 2,000 - 3,000. I hope that will happen tomorrow as I have a long period of writing blocked out between jobs. I hope.

In the new piece of the story - which may not go in exactly the order it is being written - one of my characters does become a postsecondary instructor. This will be fiction, so if anyone reads it, don't think this is about anyone you know. It is a montage of pieces and things straight from the depth of my imagination. I don't know if there will be more murders there or if it will be connected to the murder - well, somehow it will because the instructor character is one of the main four and she lives in the primary neighborhood.

The mysterious Juliette has not yet appeared. Though I do feel her presence very near and there is something in that sage green house and the end of the street beckoning her. She will be there shortly.

And Hank hasn't surfaced since his fall. Or was it a fall? Did someone knock him out on their escape from the house and why were they there?

What is the significance of the pink button?


photo from BargainBox.au

#SheWriMo

illness and body parts and murder, oh my

so, i've been sick this week. not sick enough to miss work (or can't afford to stay home from work is most accurate). but my head has been stuffy and nose stuffy and weak and tired and yada yada. i've been writing bits here and there but it has felt stilted, stale, slow - sluggish. like me.

i whined a little. slept. whined, worked, napped, slept. oh, and ate a little. and drank coffee. whined. wrote.

was feeling a little blah about the story or that we have not gotten to the exciting part yet. everything feeling drawn out.

i let the one character be murdered instead of hurt and in a coma. oh well.

then a body part appeared in the hamper. weird. and that thread is going no where so far.
and. stale. ugh. sloshing through the muck.

then today, i was feeling better, had another eight hours of sleep (careful, this could become a habit). even got up and went for a two mile walk (i could not do the eight i was scheduled and was advised to not push my body that much). home. showered. went for breakfast (in true nano fashion, this "breakfast" was at 1:30 pm) at one of my writing spots, along with my laptop.
oooh. so i said the story was getting stale.

well, over breakfast and writing, they (the characters, of course) decided that someone would die. well, another one would die. and this was the dog. omg, i told them. no, not the dog. geesh, what do you want people to think?

then i went to work.

oh well. it is their story. and the dog is dead as i approach 40,000.

back to work.

originally posted at

The Nano Project

on 11/22/09

by Dot

murder in nanoland: day 8

Word count update: 17,478 ...

The following was originally posted at
The NaNo Project blog
by Dot.

I was typing away, blissful in the productivity I was able to attain once I actually got to the writing meet-up with my buddy this morning. (It took a while, we were both late, but we did eventually make it.)

Then, all of a sudden, from out of the blue, it happened.

The story wants one of my characters dead.

I'm not ready to kill someone off, yet. And not this character. She was going to be one of the primaries once I get to the exciting part of this plot. But, no - they want her dead. I'm currently deciding whether to overrule with my author's privilege and just have her be injured and taken to the hospital - I'll even give them a coma if they want. But I don't want her dead. No.

Who wins? The characters or me? What will I lose later if I try to play god in my story now? Or am I already god and this is their way of rebelling?

Oh, a NaNo dilemma.

I don't mind killing off a character. Really. And it - to be totally, brutally, honest with myself - is about time something exciting happened; I will give them that one. This plot needs to move along. Although I suppose that slow and plodding has its benefits during NaNo. But still.

Oh, what to do?