November 2021 Challenge - Build a Writing Habit!

[Pterofan]

Day 22 - 200 words
Day 23 (so far) - 1225 edits/rewrite

That 1225 is mostly edits, but I added to as well as cut from the scene, so I can truthfully say I wrote today. I didn't realize how close I was to the end of the chapter; I'll probably go back and finish it later. It's now more active and more visual. I'll just stand inside the doorway to the 1K lounge, maybe filch a cookie.

I've mentioned I have a main character who gets turned into a vampire. I think I've figured out a way to cure him, if changing him from one paranormal monster into another can be considered a "cure." He won't be human, but he'll be mortal, so he doesn't have to watch his family grow old and die while he stays the same. It'll be another several books before all the pieces come together that will allow this, so I've got plenty of time to consider all the ramifications.

 

[Layla Nahar]

Taylor - keep up the good work!
Ptero - nice 57! ("Or writing Amish porn on Amazon" <-- double dog dare you)
Lea - hope those tireds are behind you soon - & congrats on the readthrough
kae - excellent work
Cindy, wtg with the 99!
Taylor - nice work
Nether - great work! (I think that might have been the first time I mentioned it)
Hello cmnbob, Tstarnes, Lea - keep on keeping on!


Day 23

I was going to say I took a skip day but then I realized maybe it's just skip on a WIP because I actually did some work on another writing project.

 

[Psychoclown]

Haven't much to report sadly. I've done some more revising on "Last Days and Deeds of Jasper McAllister" and provided some feedback for my new crit partner on a piece that was shared with me. Beyond that, not much has happened. Work is going to suck this week and yesterday I found out my parents, my brother, and his entire family were in an auto accident. They got rear ended while at a dead stop by a guy going about 65 mph.

No one was seriously hurt, thank God. But they were all bruised and shaken up. The car was totaled. Could've been much worse, so I'm thankful everyone is ok, but uggh, just one more thing in what's been a pretty lousy four days now.

 

[PraiseRao]

Psychoclown- terribly sorry to hear.

I'm at a rest period I don't want to be in so I am doing things kind of randomly? I managed to write about 4 blog posts today I think. Not quite the end of day yet just wanted to report in. So far +9 pomodoros, yesterday was a half day at 4.

 

[Vaitalla]

Am also debating if I’ll ever want to use a pseudonym. People mistake me for a woman too often these days, and I like the idea of added privacy.

At Viable Paradise they were very much about pseudonyms if you had a name that was at all uncommon. Privacy can't be over-rated. I was visiting a writer friend who had a fan who had "hunted him down" show up on the front porch and make his wife pretty uncomfortable. Witnessing that convinced me that I was definitely going forward using pen names.

 

[Vaitalla]

Very sorry to hear about the many slow days everyone is having! I'm starting to think maybe the third week of NaNoWriMo is about everything in your life throwing itself in front of the bus in an effort to distract you from finishing/cementing your shiny new writing habit...

With all that, I have managed to stay afloat. I have written every day, and did enough extra in the first week to keep me abreast of the goals when I've had a few unproductive or frustrating days. I'm excited to keep pushing forward. Less than 10K left to go to hit the 50,000 mark! And by far the most coordinated writing I've ever done in a NaNoWriMo.

Sending good vibes and writing mojo in the direction of all of the rest of you! Write on.

 

[Cindyt]

Day 23

WORD COUNT 514

A DEADLY SPILL OF SCARLET (Draft 3) – Skipped to the last chapter in Part Three: Echoes of August for rewrite, edits, new wordage.

DRESS HER IN CHAMELEON (historical ebook published in January 2021, editing the ebook with an eye toward paperback version) – Finished Chapters 31, 32, 33, 34, 35

Layla – WTG on work on another project. It’s always nice to remember we did indeed do something when we think we didn’t.

 

[Taylor Harbin]

At Viable Paradise they were very much about pseudonyms if you had a name that was at all uncommon. Privacy can't be over-rated. I was visiting a writer friend who had a fan who had "hunted him down" show up on the front porch and make his wife pretty uncomfortable. Witnessing that convinced me that I was definitely going forward using pen names.

Yikes...

 

[Nether]

Day 23 - 3,339
Overall - 73,374

I'm apparently closer to finishing my first draft than I thought. There's a little more I need to add to the current scene, and then the final chapter shouldn't be absurdly long.

I had thought about stopping a little earlier as a result, but... I was just a bit under 3k words for the day and it was still around the time of a normal writing session (albeit the catch-up session).

The first draft might clock in at 75-76k, which I'm considering trying to bulk up to 80k+ in revision... although it's such a small difference that it probably won't be an issue and horror trends a little shorter. The bigger issue is potentially dropping under 70k during editing/revision. However, I'll be adding descriptions to the novel which should offset at least some of whatever I trim down.

If I finish the draft tomorrow (or I guess now today?) as planned, I'm debating whether to go back in and add some foreshadowing now or put it in my revision notes.

Otherwise, I still need a LOT of planning for book 10. Other than the killer's nickname, I don't have any character names worked out; and I need to work out the characters themselves. Once I have those, I can probably just work my way through the first few chapters and then figure out the rest.

Plus I'm still finishing that crit partner stuff. It's just been such slow going, and I still have a lot left.

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Vaitalla -- The only thing about pseudonyms is that anonymity is probably impossible after a certain point. It's good if you're at the start of your career or stay at a certain level, but sooner or later that information gets out there. That said, there are still plenty of valid reasons to want to use pseudonyms.

As for NaNo, the other thing is the closer people get to the holidays, the crazier things will get. And a lot of people are going to lose Thanksgiving, and possibly the surrounding days.

And pre-grats on getting close to 50k.

PC -- Sorry to hear that, although at least everybody is okay... or, at least, not hurt that badly. Did they arrest the guy who rear-ended them? He had to be on something if he was doing 65 into a parked car.

Layla -- That's kinda how my "skip days" go... and, I guess, gap days between projects.

Ptero -- I'm guessing he went from vamp to wolf? Personally, I've started to like the idea of werewolves aging differently because they're transforming, so I've been dropping references to characters being older than they appear (although they aren't immortal or anything)

 

[Taylor Harbin]

My next task is to create a desire for my protagonist. He has to protect my time traveler, and maybe that’s enough, but I think the character needs to be fleshed out more.

 

[Pterofan]

Day 24 - 1670 (edits/rewrites)

Not so much rewriting on this section, so maybe I'll write actual new words later. Sure does look impressive, though.

Layla - depending on the state of my finances, I might take you up on that dare. "Amish Erotica" is an actual category on Amazon. I'll just go to the New Holland horse auction and start taking notes.

Nether - damn, you're good. I have a character with a magical artifact that vaporizes vampires (from Book 3). I have a vampire who was infected by a werewolf. The artifact burns away the vampirism, leaving the guy pure werewolf, and mortal. From there it was an easy jump to, "Hey, I'll bet I could cure my infected hero that way." It's kind of a frying pan/fire solution, but at least he'll avoid the fate of most ancient vampires: returning to high school and hitting on teenage girls.

 

[CMBright]

Today, I've written one sentence and I'm not 100% certain I got the grammar correct. I think に is only used for a specific time, such as "at 8pm" but omitted from general times such as every evening.

毎晩ハリーポッターを私の子供によんだ。

Every night, I (used to) read Harry Potter to my child.

After four runs though the entire seven book series, when the pandemic hit and the routines went out the figurative window, the evening reading sessions was one of the things that got lost.

 

[kaejomul]

1292 words today. Not thrilled, was hoping to his 1800 but have run out of time today!

 

[PraiseRao]

+11 pomodoros

6 blog posts, but one is a repost from something I wrote from before I had a blog. 2 were example charts. 11 pomodoros is ok it's just I really dislike not doing something. I don't want to throw another ball into the air though so I guess I just have to deal with it.

 

[Cindyt]

Day 24

ADDED WORDS

A DEADLY SPILL OF SCARLET – Edited, came up with a better title of the Epilogue.

DRESS HER IN CHAMELEON ebook– Edited Chapter 36

Taylor – Double yikes! Fanatics are spooky. I don’t use the city I live in. Of course, anyone can be tracked down on the internet for roughly 25 bucks.

Ptero – Isn’t is awesome when one’s writing turns out to impress on a reread?

CMBright – One sentence is forward is progress. Me? I’ve written a single word. I bought a whole set of Harry Potter books and could not get into them.

kaejomul – Heck, 1290 is a good word count to me. But I know what you mean about running out of time—or energy or creative juice.

PraiseRao – I like your blog template. Even with 1 repost, 6 blog articles is good progress.


HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

 

[Nether]

Day 24 - 1,168
Overall - 74,542

I kinda finished the first draft of Sometimes the Moon Howls Back, so I guess I'm done with this year's NaNo?

There are some things I could go back in to add (like the fact I never bothered to describe my main character, which I often don't do when first drafting a novel) and other things I could change, but I plan on starting my edits/revisions reasonably soon -- maybe in 2-3 weeks -- so I figure I'll just handle that stuff then.

I'm still surprised that the draft came in a little short, but I blame the fact I skipped ahead a few times which made timing difficult. I imagine the other part of the problem is that I'd planned on having a final fight scene, and then I realized it just wouldn't work given how the MC needed to escape. It still ends the same way past that, which works in context although it maybe a bit of a letdown.

Anyway, I got some more planning done for the Christmas slasher. So far, I just have a barebones impression of the first scene (or two scenes), a vague sense of a few characters and their dynamic, and maybe some very preliminary names. The problem is I need to introduce at least seven characters from the get-go, since I'll be teasing that the murderer is among them.

It's possibly going to be a bit of a challenge, so I might need a day before starting, or... idk, I'll see how I feel. I could just use placeholder names and change them later (I changed the name of the MC's love interest in STMHB 2 or 3 times -- first because I realized the fact they both had J-names might make the dialogue harder to follow, and then again because I kept typo'ing her name and, unlike book 8 where I kept a name I kept typoing, I figured *this* time I'm just going to change the stupid thing)

And going forward, I'll probably refer to book 10 as Christmas slasher (or XMas slasher) because I haven't settled on a name and, honestly, this more or less encapsulates what it is (minus the hook, which I probably won't discuss until I've finished drafting the novel).

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CM -- I'm kinda thinking it'd be really neat to write a book in a different language one sentence at a time... although I guess it'd take years, and there would be a constant temptation to rush things.

Ptero -- I can't imagine how bored teen vamps must get sitting through the same classes year after year.

As for Amish erotica, I wonder what (legal) erotica isn't represented by an Amazon category. If they have dinosaur erotica, surely they have everything because it feels like people have to be scraping the bottom of the barrel before they decide on dinosaurs.

 

[Taylor Harbin]

I’ve got to put my creative writing on hold for a time. Our preacher is out of commission so several young men are stepping up to fill in for a few Sundays and Wednesdays until he recovers. Writing a different sort of thing now!

I was skimming a book my wife just bought and came upon something inexcusable. The author was quoting statistics and wrote “Forty %” instead of “forty percent.” That kind of thing drives me bookoo bonkers! I don’t want to see Twitter-speak in a book.

*mourns the death of formal language*

 

[Vaitalla]

Day 23 - 3,339
Overall - 73,374



Vaitalla -- The only thing about pseudonyms is that anonymity is probably impossible after a certain point. It's good if you're at the start of your career or stay at a certain level, but sooner or later that information gets out there. That said, there are still plenty of valid reasons to want to use pseudonyms.

As for NaNo, the other thing is the closer people get to the holidays, the crazier things will get. And a lot of people are going to lose Thanksgiving, and possibly the surrounding days.

Congrats on the productivity! I still haven't hit over 3K in a single day.

That's an excellent point on pseudonyms. And yes, I do seem to hear that it works to differentiate brands if you write in different genres, which makes a lot of sense to me.

On NaNo, I am blessed/cursed this year with no relatives visiting, so I should be able to take advantage of extra writing time. "Should" being the operative word.

I'm still ahead on the writing goal coming into today, and I haven't fallen behind once, which is really crazy. Usually I'm rushing to catch up in the last week. It gives me hope that this writing habit might stick!

 

[Lea123]

I was skimming a book my wife just bought and came upon something inexcusable. The author was quoting statistics and wrote “Forty %” instead of “forty percent.” That kind of thing drives me bookoo bonkers! I don’t want to see Twitter-speak in a book.

*mourns the death of formal language*

I hear you on that one...

DAY 25
At the moment, I feel like I don't know what day / month it is.

- I've read through a few scenes today and done some epic chopping. 2,000 words cut from my WIP. My target of reaching 180,000 by the end of November is now under 6,000 words away.

It's do able. It will be done.

It's been nice to go back through this thread and note the ups and downs of it all. It's so easy to get dragged into, 'it's been a poop few days so it's been a poop month,' but looking back, it's not true. I've been productive. I've done what's needed to be done...

A to B is never a straight line with me anyway.



Now I just need to grow some hypothetical body parts and mentally prepare to ask for some beta readers after Xmas. I think I just need to stop now and finish fiddling with the story plot or I'll spend the rest of my life doing it.

 

[Pterofan]

Day 24 (last-minute addition) - 100 new words
Day 25 - 1000 on the nose (edits)

Very little rewriting on the edit section; I'll have to write something later.

Nether - You'd think centuries-old vampires would put all that time to better use, like creating works of art or curing cancer. But no, they lurk in sleazy clubs and perve on high school girls, at least until Buffy stakes them. Maybe their brain cells die along with their bodies when they get turned.

Taylor - I hear ya. I personally get anal over grammar and spelling errors unless it's part of the character's speaking voice. But then, I've been working as an editor for the last couple of years. By the way, you meant "beaucoup bonkers," correct? (Sorry, but you see what I mean? I just can't help myself.)

For everyone who's celebrating, Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[PraiseRao]

So far +7 pomodoros, but the day is still pretty young.

Medium speed today since I decided to say 'screw waiting any longer' and to get back on the train. So I organized a treatment plan for the draft, harvested issues listed in my notebook (which took an ungodly number of pomodoros), typed out the problem list and printed it out. Still have some more prep work to do before getting onto the revision itself. Added a couple of relevant blogs.

Cindyt - Thanks the notebook paper is a provided option on blogger, but it's what I wanted anyway.

 

[Taylor Harbin]

Congrats on the productivity! I still haven't hit over 3K in a single day.

That's an excellent point on pseudonyms. And yes, I do seem to hear that it works to differentiate brands if you write in different genres, which makes a lot of sense to me.

On NaNo, I am blessed/cursed this year with no relatives visiting, so I should be able to take advantage of extra writing time. "Should" being the operative word.

I'm still ahead on the writing goal coming into today, and I haven't fallen behind once, which is really crazy. Usually I'm rushing to catch up in the last week. It gives me hope that this writing habit might stick!

Day 24 (last-minute addition) - 100 new words
Day 25 - 1000 on the nose (edits)

Very little rewriting on the edit section; I'll have to write something later.

Nether - You'd think centuries-old vampires would put all that time to better use, like creating works of art or curing cancer. But no, they lurk in sleazy clubs and perve on high school girls, at least until Buffy stakes them. Maybe their brain cells die along with their bodies when they get turned.

Taylor - I hear ya. I personally get anal over grammar and spelling errors unless it's part of the character's speaking voice. But then, I've been working as an editor for the last couple of years. By the way, you meant "beaucoup bonkers," correct? (Sorry, but you see what I mean? I just can't help myself.)

For everyone who's celebrating, Happy Thanksgiving!

I tried to Google the correct spelling but nothing came up!

 

[Nether]

Day 25 was the start of the Christmas slasher (actually, I wonder if A Christmas Slasher would be a good title, since A Christmas Story is a cult classic and it's been kinda-spoofed (in name only) with A Christmas Horror Story), and I only managed 1,800 words (total 1,958 on the new book, since I wrote the opening earlier in the month).

It's been a rough start because *nothing* is set at this point. Character names will change. Character descriptions will change. So much is open to change for the first week because, again, I didn't formalize very much prior to starting. And that's going to be tough, but it's okay. The last two (or even three) have started a little rough (although book 7 I outlined on my first or second day of drafting).

That said, after finishing the first thousand or so words (a few hundred were prior to the project), I started to get a feel for some of the characters and found a way I can build some easy contrasts. It *should* be an interesting project, although I worry that the final act will just be the MC chased dealing with the slasher.

And having just started a new manuscript, I probably won't be participating in the "Find that word in your WIP" for at least a week



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Taylor -- That's weird mostly because you'd think they'd just say "40%" instead of going half text. Also iirc there's usually a hyphen when using full text, so it'd be "forty-percent" for the other way.

Vaitalla -- Thanks. It was a bit more of a struggle than it had been with the other projects where I kept a 3k+ average. My hourly writing speed seemed to be down a bit, so I wound up spending longer writing at times which in turn probably contributed to other difficulties. The problem is just once I start to hit 3k/day on a project, it's hard to be content with anything, and I wanted to finish the entire draft in November... although if I'd known it was going to come in shorter, I wouldn't have needed to be as concerned about finishing in time.

And I'm also not with family this Thanksgiving.

Lea -- Yes, these topics are neat as a writing journal. Although I kinda can't go into as much detail on WIPs as I would in an actual journal.

Ptero -- Vampires tend to be hedonistic and self-centered, so it's not terribly surprising. And when they do aspire to larger things, it's usually out of ambition -- like building a vampire army, or controlling human society. Plus scientists are very rarely turned, so vampires don't tend to be the best or brightest. The only luminaries they generally seem to touch are actors. (That said, the cure for cancer -- and any number of other illnesses -- seems to be vampirism.)

 

[Cindyt]

Day 25

ADDED WORDS

Editing, new wordage, formatting.

Nether – When you get that feel for the characters everything usually starts coming together, which is an awesome experience.

Taylor – I’m right there with you when it comes to bad grammar in publications. My pet peeve right now is when to abbreviate public roads. I don’t know how many times I’ve run across, say, Williams St. when the correct use is Street. You abbreviate only when there’s a number as in 55 Williams St. It also irks me when people use granite instead of granted as in "I never take things for granite." I'll shut up now.

What an honor for you to help fill in for your preacher.

Vaitalla - Good luck on reaching your goal!

Lea – May you’re a to B be straighter more not.

Ptero – Grats on new words!

PraiseRao – Good prepping!

 

[Pterofan]

Day 25 (final tally) - an additional 155 words exploring a possible side project

I've been keeping an eye on my publisher's website, and it looks like they'll be in business for a while longer after all. Still, this has been a wake-up call. I'd better get my butt in gear on the writing, and keep an eye out for other opportunities, just in case.

Taylor - Yeah, I've run into that too. Google's great for research and fact-checking, not so hot on spelling, especially when non-English words are involved. This is one of many reasons I don't trust the spell-check feature.

Nether - I agree with everything you said about vampires. The older ones are out to rule the world, thus ensuring themselves a food supply. Of course they're not going to turn anyone smarter than they are. Who needs the competition? My evil vampire leader is about 300 years old, Old World European and contemptuous of his far-younger recruits, a bunch of boorish Americans with short attention spans who spend their time on the Internet and troll bars for victims. Sometimes you're forced to make do with what's available...