I Failed NaNoWriMo 2011!

As you can see from the graph above, I did not reach the goal of writing a 50,000 novel in 30 days.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disapointed in myself, but considering what I accomplished over the past month (a draft of 14k words and an epic story with a possible sequel), I do have some things to be proud of.

NaNoWriMo helped me learn about writing under preassure. I realized I could write almost anywhere I wanted to, and got better at ignoring distractions that would creep up and try to take my attention away from my writing.

I also learned that my biggest problem with writing wasn’t distraction, but rather procrastination. Once I got into a groove could sit and write for hours on end.

Getting into that groove is what proved most difficult, and it was then that I realized the most important lesson of all: there will be time to review everything later. The goal of NaNoWriMo isn’t to write a completely revised and publishable novel in a month, but rather to write 50,000 words in a month.

If you cannot learn to avoid what some ‘Wrimos’ have dubbed the ‘Inner Editor’, odds are you will spend the majority of your time rewriting the same passage instead of putting to paper new words that serve to push your story forward and increase your wordcount. As many have pointed out in various forum and blog posts: ‘You’ll have plenty of time to revise your work once the month is over’.

So, what’s next?

Well, I think I’ll put aside the draft for a couple of weeks and get the second half of Equanimity posted on the site. After that’s done, I’d like to try some video ideas, as well as see if I can finish my NaNoWriMo novel and maybe get it published.

Of course, I’ll be waiting for November 2012, where I hope to attempt the challenge once again!

The 11k word first draft I’m holding in my hands is really nothing more than a beefed up story board.  The paragraphs are short, dialogue is virtually missing, and the written words contain much more action than character development.

The story also starts in first person, ends in third, and contains a few dead ends along the way (that is, parts that I initially wrote but later ignored due to changes in the plot).

But that’s ok: no one said it had to be perfect… right?

So what now? 

Well my work is not over.  I’m still aiming for 50k words, and now I have something to work with. I’ll be taking the next few days as break (catching up on some much needed Arkham City gaming) and will start adding substance over the weekend.

It will be interesting to see how fast I can increase my wordcount between then and the last day of NaNoWriMo. I still have 39k words to go, but with a clear path between here and there, I think I can make it…

*fingers crossed*

Today is the 15th, the midway mark to get to 50k words. I’m not even close yet, but I have increased by wordcount to just over 8k:

I've just hit my 8029th word!

Though I have a lot of work ahead of me, I feel I’m in a good spot.  My story is almost complete, and considering this was my first draft – and was mostly written on my phone while commuting – I expect the editing process will help baloon the number of words upwards.   What remains to be seen is how many words I can add between now and November 30th ( I may have a few overnight writing sessions between now and then to boost my numbers).

I’m also starting to write some very interesting and difficult parts, the most difficult of which probably have to do with writing the villains in the story.  I find its important to have a villain that is not stupid-evil, but rather that makes somewhat intelligent and rational decisions.  The kind of villain that someone would read and think:

“I don’t like him, but I understand why he did what he did.”

Its much more fun when you can feel that kind of a connection with the villain and see not only what they want to do, but why they want to do it.  

That Why? question is important, because otherwise the villain is just a plain, cartoonish caricature of a bad guy, and writing those kinds of characters is about as interesting as reading them.

And with that said, I’m off to bed… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

So, what’s happened?

Well the first week or so I spent thinking about a plot line and creating reference material.  I know you’re supposed to just sit down and write, but I’ve found that I can’t aimlessly write about people without first having an idea of the situation they are in and what’s about to happen to them (or, dare I say, what I am about to put them through).  In retrospect, had I known about NaNoWriMo before the start date of November 1st, I would have spent at least the last week of October working on this kind of stuff.

By the end of the first week of November, I knew at a high level who I wanted to write about, where I wanted the story to take place, and where it would go.  And with that in mind, I began writing.

With my schedule the way it is, it was difficult to find the time to write, but I quickly started an old habit up, and now find myself writing while on the metro, during my 30 minute commute to and from work.

I write on my cell phone – a 1½ Nexus One – and am now able to write between 600 and 700 words per ride (which is about 30 minutes long).  The quality of the language isn’t that great (a lot of typos), and delving into character development is not easily done while navigating through masses of people changing trains, but I’ve managed so far to move the story along to the point where I feel it is about half way done, which is both great and disappointing.

Its great in that I have moved the story forward into unknown territory, and every time I write I learn something new about the story I didn’t know before.  And it’s disappointing in that, with a goal of 50,000 words, and half of the story written, I only have 3,375 words so far.

Eeeek! 3,375 words…!  That’s only 6% of the goal!

When I re-read my writing, its obvious where all the words have gone, they’ve disappeared in the cracks of the story while I try to hammer out the plot as quickly as possible before we arrive at the next metro stop and I have to hop off.

So, I’ve no doubt that by the end of next week I’ll have a good story, but at possibly 15k to 20k words, odds are there will be a lot of reviewing and rewriting before I can get to 50,000 words!

To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, “To write is to write is to write is to write is to …”

You get the picture!

For anyone interested, here are my latest stats:

My NaNoWriMo Stats

Try to say it three times real fast, I dare ya!

I was reading through my twitter feed this morning and was stunned to find out today marked the beginning of NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month.

As a participant in the event, your goal is to write a 50,000 word novel between the 1st and 30th of November.   The event itself is organized by The Office of Lettes and Light,

I have to admit the thought of writing a 50k word story in 30 days seems insane.  The average story post on Folaji is about one thousand words.  To write a novel for this event would therefore be the equivalent of writing 50 one thousand word posts in under 30 days.  

Then again, I remember reading somewhere that over 200,000 people participated in the event last year, and if they can do it, there’s no reason I can’t.

So, I’ll be going for it, trying to write a completely new novel from a scratch over the next 30 days… As I’m writing this post, I haven’t started writing yet, nor am I decided on what story to write.  Regardless, this should be a very interesting experiment.

For anybody who wishes to participate, take a moment and visit the NaNoWriMo.org website for tips, tricks, resources and community help.  If you create an account, feel free to add me as a writing buddy (username Folaji)

Hope you all took the time to dress yourselves up into something scary.  I’m a little disappointing with my costume this year.  My initial idea didn’t really pan out, so I had to grab my backup.  Hopefully I’ll be able to make up for my lack of originality next year.

Also, today the last part of Ezmereth Nemrin’s story was published, and it would seem the site played a little trick on us, publishing them out of order…  So I’ve reset the order of the posts, and you can read the whole story by starting here.

Enjoy!

Ezmereth Nemrin’s Back Story, a story that Alisttair began writing back in April 2010 when the RAWR D&D campaign began, has been completed and is ready to be published.

The six part story will be published over the next week, every day at 12pm.

Hope you enjoy!

Its too tight!

Hubert didn’t know much about babies.

He did, however, love his niece very much, and jumped at the opportunity to babisit her for a full day.

But when he put her in his car, and put on her seatbelts, he couldn’t help but feel that he might have made her seatbelts a little too tight…

Note: I should say that the baby in the pic is my niece, and that she was not in any danger, nor was she really squeezed.  Instead she was working on a present for her parents  

Of course the evidence wasn’t perfect, it rarely was, but any good attorney could find a way around the few facts that were in the way.  Steven felt he could certainly do it, but could Helen?

She had dismissed his plan so quickly that Steven began to wonder if the legend was really as good as they said she was.  As though being paired with her wasn’t bad enough, if Helen kept on insisting they plead not guilty, they risked losing the case.

The young attorney didn’t need such a stain on his career. He had already won his first case, and wanted to keep the streak going for as long as possible.  This way he would build himself a good reputation, and with a good reputation came more money and partnership in the firm.

There would be a private elevator.  The elevator would bring him to a large office room, where an imposing oak desk and old style large leather chair would wait for him every day.  One of the walls of his office would be covered by a large intimidating library filled with law books (none of which he would have read, they were mostly for show after all).  The two walls opposite would be made of large windows that revealed the city below.

A small voice in the back of his head made itself heard;breaking down the illusion of grandeur Steven had built in his mind.

What about Helen’s argument? It asked.  What about premeditation?

Nonsense, Steven thought, any good lawyer can argue against what little evidence the prosecution has for premeditation.

Having silenced the small voice, Steven took a deep breath and thought about the situation for a while, regressing back to the future he had promised himself.

One of the window walls would have a door that gave access to a large patio, from which one could live like a king above his subjects.  Here Steven would spend most of his time, basking in the warm hot sun, drinking expensive liquor, and entertaining the odd customer who had earned the privilege of his service.  All this as a reward for becoming the firm’s youngest and most successful partner.

His record was unbeatable, his reputation perfect, all because he had stood up to Helen Kramer those many years ago, and won the Pent case despite her meddling.

Steven needed to get himself out of this mess.  He needed to save this case from Helen’s incompetence and get it back on track or his dream would be lost.

But what could he do?  If he reached out to the firm partners, they would no doubt side with Helen.  She had the longest history with them and, Steven had to admin, had won a fair number of cases on her own.

No, he couldn’t go the firm.  Instead he needed to work from within the defense team, to somehow convince Helen that insanity was their best chance of winning, or, if Helen couldn’t be convinced, to force her into changing the plea.  The question was how to go about it.

Then, with a wave of relief, the answer flooded into Steven’s mind.  It was a perfect plan, one that would force Helen’s hand and finally make her see why she had to accept an insanity plea.  He just had to keep it secret until the right moment.

Steven grabbed his phone and dialed the prosecution’s number, his dreams now closer to reality than ever before.