Oh the Glee!

I got into the room filled with computers that resides in my new school and just about dropped my purse, tilted back my head and let out a deeply maniacle laugh "MWA HA HA HA HA!" I wanted to cackle "I have found the internet connection!"

This is for another blog though.

While I'm here I thought I'd catch ya'll up with my latest doings concerning the International Three Day Novel contest. Jesus lord all mighty is that a marathon or what? I always forget just how physically taxing it is. One wouldn't think that their legs, arms, shoulders, neck, and ass would all come out sore from such a thing, considering you aren't moving much, but then, one remembers that not moving hurts as much as moving too much and a revelation is had.

The first night of the contest I sat in front of my computer - which I had just hooked up - and, after figuring out how to do everything I needed to do without a mouse, started writing. I was about three hundred words in when I determined that the story I was writing wasn't the story that I was going to be sticking to.

When I had been meditating before hand I had been thinking about other stories, and they'd been screaming at me a lot louder, so I gave in and allowed myself to be consumed by the story of John and Emily (my fingers know how to type those words, they cramped just doing it once. I think that's a sign.) The premise was a paranormal romance with an edge of mystery. I enjoyed writing it.

To keep on track I found myself following a system of schedules. By four/five I should have at least twelve pages by six it should be fifteen. By the time I was ready for dinner I needed to have twenty (normally around 8/9) by the end of the night I'd have about thirty. I ended up only writing about twenty six or seven on the last night, but by the time I finished I was so tired that I forgave myself.

That's all I'm willing to get out on this blog, even writing about the damned event is making me weary - my eyes hate staring at this screen...

28,263 words

DONE!

I'm going to wait an hour or two and then read it through/edit. I want to change a bit in the second chapter.

I just used Word's replace function and changed all my Bonnie's to Katie's. It's gonna feel so stragne to read that.

I'm so done with typing right now.

24,248 words

NOW I'm feeling it.

I am blaring Evanescence, and I know exactly where this thing is going, and I have less than eight hours to get it there.

Good Morning Blogger

This is a wake up post to re-teach my fingers how to type and my mind how to create sentences. There's no point posting a word count because I just woke up and haven't even opened the document yet.

Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, died yesterday day. I was so sad when I heard that. He was filming for some show and got stung by a sting ray in the heart. Yikes. When I heard that last night, a little bit of novel writing inspiration kinda leaked away... I think I have it back, but poor Steve! Not only was he entertaining as all heck, he was a great environmentalist.

I do not count it as a good sign that my wrists and fingers were stiff/sore when I woke up. I am realizing, writing this post, that no, indeed that is really not a good sign. Especially painful is reaching my pinky down to hit the SHIFT button for capitalization or certain punctuation. Oh. Dear.

I am almost certain that I will not achieve 30,000 words this year. Based on what I'm reading on the 3-day discussion board, this year is harder for most -- even vetrans who have easily made their goals in years past are having troubles this year. I wonder why that is. The again, it is sort of silly to judge all 400-ish entrants on the 10-ish that post regularly on the board. As Susan said yesterday, there is a certain comfort in talking to someone who is going through it. That comfort extends to reading their discussion board posts. They say some neat things in there.

Now I'm going to have a long serious conversation with my hands and get to work.

20,413 words

I'm a little more than 2000 words below my day's goal. I'm going to bed. I'm setting my alarm though; I will only sleep until 10:30. That's eight hours from now. It should be enough to revive me so that I can fly through the end.

I still plan on having about 30,000 words (though this one may come in a little under that) so I am two thirds of the way through, but I'm hoping for some time to edit tomorrow. I'd also like to be done a little early so I can go to bed at a reasonable hour for school. Like Susan, I have class at 8:30 on Tuesday.

My hair is really soft.

I am having more trouble with the writing this year than I was last year. It makes sense to me, and Susan warned me, but it's still a little un-fun -- the trouble, that is. Overall I'm having a blast. Okay, well I'm not too convinced of that at this precise moment, but I maintain that really I am, I just don't know it right now.

Oh, and one more thing: in the past few thousand words I've gotten really sick of my protagonist's name. Genera. Isn't that a dumb name? It is terribly, terribly clever, but it's kinda a dumb name. Oh well. Poor Genera. I'm sticking with it.

19,617 words

It is past 1:30 in the morning. I am so tired. I am drinking a Ginseng/Taurine/B Vitamin drink, eating nuts and dried fruit, and I'm still tired. If that combo doesn't have me bouncing off the walls, however will I keep writing?

I am way not getting to 22,700 words tonight, as was the plan. It just ain't gonna happen.

I'm gonna go put some more words on the page.

Gaaaaaaaaaah!

15,999 words

I know, I know, not a lot of words since I last posted. But there were was one break and then a thinking break (I took notes) then an eating break...

I'm ready and rarin' to go. I've got my next section plotted and it can come out now.

Susie misses you Mr. Bloggerman.

15,074 words

All rightie, so how am I doing? Well that depends just how you look at it. The first way is that I have 7000 words to write today in order to meet my day's goal. That's a lot of words. And there's not that much day left.

However.

The 3-day vetrans seem to agree that you should be half way through by 6:00 on the second day. Well here I am, eight minutes to that time, and I have 15000 words. Last year, I wrote about 30,000, so that has been my goal for this year. There you go. Half way through. I'm also half way looking at pages. Last year's was 105 pages, and I'm currently on page 52. We're talking an almost exactly half-way point.

So I'm either going too slow or right on schedule, depending how you want to look at it.

I am a little worried that I'm only half way through here. I don't know if I have enough story to double this. I may need more thinkies soon.

I'm gonna go make words.

11,980 words

I started late today. I didn't wake up until 11 and it took a few minutes for me to stumble into the computer chair. My goal for the day is 12000 words, which as you can see is actually how much I have right now. I'm actually 1000 words into my goal, so I'm hoping it will all turn out good.

I actually know what's going to happen. I have conflict, I have good guys, and bad guys. I know all sorts of things that are going to happen to up the tension. I still am not 100% sure on how it will end. I don't know if it's a happy ending or a sad one. Basically the clone with either live or die. I'm not certain yet, though I am leaning one way. I figure I have some time before I have to decide though.

10,759 words

Goals complete. I think I know how it is going to end, though I'm not married to that particular ending. I at least know what's happening for the next third or so of the novel so I'm okay. I've also reached my 10,000 + goal, and considering my last year's submission came to just over 30,000 words, I think that puts me in a good place.

I was hoping, I admit, for a little bit more tonight. I'm pretty sure, based on last year's blog entries, that I am a little bit behind where I was at this time last year, but I'm really tired right now. I was just listening to Sarah McLaughlin's Rarities CD, it was working really well, but the last song on it, that goes "Just close your eyes... just clooooose your eeeeeeyyes" was seeming all too convincing. I think I might go to bed now and hope I rise early in the morning for a really productive day.

I did meet my goals, so all is good. Good night.

8774 words

So. The last four hours or so have generated a whopping 500 words. That's way not comforting.

I've got a little block going on. I'm not a big writer's block kinda person -- I think that's largely because pretty well all the major works I do are co-written with Susan. What this means is that whenever I'm stuck, or that uncertain zone just before stuck, I can talk it out with her, and between us we figure out what to do. It's a neat arrangement, and it works both ways. I know that even if I was doing a major work individually, I'd be able to come up with some comperable arrangement with her -- she's my writing buddy, and would be willing to talk through it with me. The unfourtunate thing about this situation is that she too is doing a long work within a limited time, and she doesn't have the luxory to talk me through my block. It might be better if she had regular phone service. I remember last year she talked some of it through with me, or rather I talked it through, saying things like "I wish it could have a happy ending" and then she said stuff like "give it a happy ending then moron" and I did and life was good. We're having check-in points, but no real long conversations because she has the unfourtunate malady of being stuck with her minutes-plan cell phone until her parents hook up the real live phone.

My goals for tonight (because I know that progress can only be made in these situations if one has goals) are to reach 10,000 words and to decide how this thing is going to end. I'd like to know how we get to the end, but at the very least I want these character's final destinations. It's only almost 10:30 -- I should be able to manage. Although... I am feeling the sleepies. Good thing I just made coffee. I may end up having another shower. And perhaps drinking that MONSTER energy drink.

8292 words

Things are going a bit better, I guess. I want at least another ten pages before I go to bed tonight, and considering it is only 6:30, I should be okay.

I'm getting to the end of the amount of plot I'd had predetermined. I'm soon going to have to start coming up with my own storyline. Hmm... wonder how that will go.

Hey, anyone know what's up with the Blogger Beta thing? I'm kinda confused. Maybe I'll try to find out. I'm on a legitimate break right now, because I just finished a very important scene, and I need to stew about what comes next. I have an idea for the next scene or two, but after that I really don't know what's happening.

My concept last year fascinated me: birth certificates with an expiry date. Living your entire life knowing exactly when you are going to die. It was fun to write, and I was able to throw in some romance. At first I had thought it was going to end tragically, but then I changed my mind and wrote in some Navajo nuns who made it all okay. It was a fun project. This one is kind of different. I also liek the premise of this one: what does it mean if you fall in love with your clone? Where the last one had an actual problem to resolve (the chick didn't want to die...) this one's premise doesn't have one. So I'm having to come up with the conflict as I go. It's getting there, but I wish I had a clearer idea of what it was.

I talked to Susan a couple hours ago. She's doing okay. At that point she was about ten pages behind me, but that last scene I wrote was a slow process, so she quite possibly may have caught up by now. Apparently she's had some rather drastic changes in her original plan.

My mom bought be an energy drink for tonight (but, alas, not more bugles). Let's hope it actually perks me up, unlike that one I had before that made me sleepy!

5650 words

I'm not being too productive, and this sort of worries me. I kind of stamp out a page or two, then I sit and bob my head to the music, or snack on some munchies, or find my water bottle fascinating. I'm on page 20.

This check in is also to report some internet browsing. Naughty me. Not too much, I swear: just some blogs, and my e-mail. I tried to go to happymeal.com but it didn't work. There's some kind of Mario contest to enter but I couldn't get in the site.

I don't really know how Susan's doing with hers. I got a text message a while ago asking for the five stages of grief, so I looked them up and texted them back. Sounds like a cheery story eh?

Well, I'm going back to my novel now.

Going to bed

I'm on the 10th page and have about 2600 words. It's not a lot, but it's a start, and that's what's important for the first night. I was up early and then I was out all day, walking around, so I'm tired. Tomorrow will be the big day of productivity.

3-day novel 2006

Aaaand she's off.

This blog will be my internet conscience. Unless for research, I will not go on the internet without checking in here.

I've showered, had coffee, and am now ready to begin!