NaNoWriMo Take Two

A few years ago, I tried to do NaNoWriMo. And I failed. I definitely did not hit my 50,000-word mark. Instead, I got 23,911 and 61 pages, which really is a decent accomplishment. And being a person who does not like to fail, I decided to try it again - as a total whim.

So, last time, I had a plan. I had ideas for characters and a very brief outline. That made life a smidge easier. This time, I decided to start it a day into the month with absolutely no pre-planning at all. I had a basic idea, but for the most part - I'm flying by the seat of my pants.

I'll be posting on my Twitter what my daily word count is. So far, I've actually caught up to where I should be, and once a week I'll be doing a check in here.

So here's to finishing (or at least getting more words than last time!).

Catching Up on My Reading List

Wow. It's been more than a month. But, my blogging takes a huge nosedive when I start reading through short stories. It's hard to want to read or write when you've been reading for work for multiple hours a day. So, my finished list is a little longer than normal. I'm going to keep up with this again since I won't have any writing to grade for a while. 

Reading

I'm not even going to break up my reading list right now because I've been carting books back and forth (which is part of the reason this list is a little longer than usual). I forget to bring the book back to school and then start another one. I've also had a little bit of reading ADD because nothing has been holding my attention.

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa (third in a series) - Puck, Ash and Megan think that they've been banished from the fey so they won't have to deal with the war with the Iron King (the false one) again. Wrong. Their fate twists so they are sucked back into the petty fighting between the Summer and Winter fey.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman - Yup. Still reading this more than a month later. Remember that ADD I was talking about? This book was the biggest victim. 

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran - I've been looking at this one since it came out in September. It's about a 14-year-old girl who is trying to find her place in the world. I thought it would be a good one for the classroom, but nope - slightly inappropriate for freshmen (it's one of those that I talked about during Banned Books Week; not one I feel comfortable having on my shelves but wouldn't tell you that you couldn't read it). Let's just say the main character isn't so innocent.

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer - I forgot The Iron King at home one day, so I picked this one up from my to-read box behind my desk. It's short, so I thought I could plow through it - but the next day I brought The Iron King again. So, now this one is sitting on my bookcase. This takes place in the future in an undisclosed location. Eleven previous groups have taken an expedition to Area X, but all have failed (a lot of them have ended in death). This follows four women (you only know them by their job title psychologist, anthropologist, biologist and a surveyor. They find out all kinds of secrets about the area. This trilogy is a little unique because the author is going to release all three in this calendar year. I know the second one is out, but I'm not sure if the third one is yet or not.

I was going to put down the third one in the Daughter of Smoke & Bone but I hadn't read it since AUGUST. So I've decided that one just needs to be abandoned for a bit. 

Finished

*I'm going to be lazy and not discuss these because there are so many. Feel free to ask me about my thoughts and opinions of them. I honestly did booktalks on all of them, so if you've been in class - you know about them!

The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by MG Buehrlen

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Ungifted by Gordon Korman

Variant by Robinson Wells

Feedback by Robinson Wells

The Dirt by Motley Crue  

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

Up Next

Prince Lestat by Anne Rice - You have NO idea how excited I am about this one. I have been waiting for it since Anne Rice announced it. I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Anne Rice. Like enough that on one of my trips to New Orleans, my friends and I sat outside of her house because there was a limo outside. We were hoping to get a glimpse of her. No dice. Anyway, I will buy any Anne Rice book as soon as it comes out, and this one is no different. But, I'm trying to practice some control; I'm not going to start it until I finish The Magicians. We'll see if that lasts. Anyway, a few years ago, Rice said she had finished her Vampire Chronicles. Thank goodness she was wrong! This is probably my favorite series; I can't tell you how many times I've read Interview with the Vampire. The series is wonderful (minus Tale of the Body Thief that one wasn't the greatest), so I'm excited to hear more about the exploits of the Brat Prince, Lestat.

NaNoWriMo - What I Know So Far

We are now more than halfway through NaNoWriMo. Am I up to where I'm supposed to be word countwise? Um, not even close. I may catch up, but I may not. But, I've already learned some things through this process that should help me if I ever choose to do it again.

1. I'm not good at not revising while I write.
It's the editor in me. I want to go back and polish write away. But, in this situation, I know I need to just keep writing (I won't discuss how many times I get "just keep writing, just keep writing, just keep writing" in my head. Thanks Finding Nemo.) I can go back later and polish. This month is just concentrating and getting a word count done.

2. Know your characters!
Usually, I write by the seat of my pants. I got used to it as a reporter because typically you don't have time to make a detailed plan before you write an article - you just write. With this, though, I did have some notes and ideas (although I still don't have an end). But, I didn't really think about my character's motives, thoughts, feelings before I started writing. This has made dialog tough, and it's made coming up with their names even tougher (as of today, most of the character's are just referred to by their relationship to the main character).

3. Don't force writing.
Part of the reason I don't have my word count is that I haven't made myself write every day. I only write when I'm inspired to because if I force myself, it doesn't come out right.

4. Find inspiration, ideas everywhere and anywhere.
Keep your eyes open when you're out and about. You may get some weird idea for a scene -- or even a character. For example, as ridiculous as she was, I owe a very, very drunk girl at the Iowa Wild game a big thanks. Her antics have given me more than 2,000 words for one scene that I didn't know would be in the book but made a great comedic relief scene.

5. Any words are good words.
I may not be happy with what they actually are, but at least I'm writing. I honestly have never written this many words or stuck with a project for this long. So, that makes me really proud and happy. This book may never see the light of day, no one else may read it, and I may never go back through and revise, but it's there. I'll have finished it and written a book. And that's a huge accomplishment in itself.

NaNoWriMo - Taking the Plunge

One of my goals for this quarter was to post on the blog more and to write more with you guys. But that was before I decided to do NaNoWriMo - the challenge to write a novel or at least 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November.

I'm not sure what crazy has overtaken me on this. It's not like I've never thought about writing a book ... That is one thing on my bucket list. But in a month? And during the school year? That's super crazy. 

So, I have been writing more during quick write time, but I haven't been good about posting. And in the next month, I'm going to be posting even less. I have a feeling I'll be using quick write time to get some extra words in. But, I most likely won't post anything I write during this time. I don't even want to give you the plot because I don't want to feel like I've completely locked myself in. I could see myself occasionally posting some excerpts but never the entire thing. 

I will be writing with you - just not what you're writing about. And I will post my progress as the month goes on. Then, on December 1, I'll give you a rundown of how it went, what I learned and if I reached my goal.