NaNoWriMo Day 26

Okay, my stats:

Word count goal for today: 43,333 words
Total word count at the end of today: 45,535 words
Words ahead: 2,202

That's. Amazing. No seriously -- I'm not sure if I've ever been that ahead in NaNoWriMo. I always seem to be right on track or a little behind.

But let me admit to you why I'm ahead and you might not be so impressed...

All of the words in that word count are, indeed, my original words. Well, I've quoted Mom's journal occasionally, but most of it is indeed mine. However, some of those words I've written in the past. Like, before this November. *gasp* I know. I'm typing up some journal entries or picking excerpts from my blogs to include in my novel. I've done this particularly the past two days because I was a heavy journalist (journaler?) and blogger during the years I am writing about.

But I have two good reasons for using past words in my auto-bio:

1. Those source documents, so to speak, are the best way to tell my story. Rather than re-telling about my trip to Mt. Rushmore, wouldn't I rather record some of the thoughts I wrote down in my journal four years ago from the day I was actually there? The second choice sounds better to me. In fact, that's exactly what I did. And by re-reading and typing up those journal entries, I was reminded of the actual timeline of that trip. I would have had it all jumbled up if I'd tried to write that trip from memory. After typing up the journal entries, I expanded my thoughts and details with some original words.

2. I want to have a unified record of my journal/blog entries. (I consider my blogs to be public journals.) Let's pretend my house burns down, the internet completely crashes, or I'm an old woman who can't remember a thing about her life. Wouldn't you want your life story all in one, handy-dandy book that you could just grab and go or read through on a whim. If I lost my pictures or journals or if my blogs suddenly disappeared from the internet, I want at least one hard copy of all the highlights.

So, I am using words I've written before. But big deal. I am adding thousands and thousands of more words, original words from this month, to the stockpile. In just a little over three days, I'll have a masterpiece that I'll call my first 18 years.

NaNoWriMo Day 26

I hit 35,000 words today!

Other than that victory, however, the past two days have kind of been lazy. I wrote about one day's quota yesterday and about one day's quota today. Normally, that's great! But when I'm thousands of words behind and need to write two word quotas per day, one day's quota doesn't cut it. But, I am off work tomorrow and (at this moment) cannot think of any obligations keeping me from doing anything tomorrow besides NaNoWriMo. That means it is time for a Nuclear Weekend! (Yes, I am aware that tomorrow is Wednesday.)

What is a Nuclear Weekend? (Don't worry -- it's not as painful as it sounds.)
Usually done on a Saturday or Sunday, a Nuclear Weekend is basically an exercise for building tons of wordcount in one day. The goal is to have three writing segments during the day (morning, afternoon, evening) where you write 40 minutes on, 20 minutes off until reaching 3,000 words per segment. After three segments throughout the day, the work in progress is 9,000 words longer!

If I don't get myself in the chair (futon, couch, lazy boy, or whatever) tomorrow and do this, I might not win NaNoWriMo this year. Although it wouldn't be the end of the world if I lost, it would be kinda sad considering the fact that I'm pretty close.

Wish me luck!

NaNoWriMo- the Final Days

Well... the last 11 days I was behind every single day. No joke. I would catch up occasionally and then the next day I would get behind again. Sometime around days 20-25, I would sit at the dining room table instead of on our Lazy Boy. Wow, what a difference achair can make. It actually had to sit up straight *gasp*. Needless to say, it helped a lot. I also did some "Nuclear Weekend" (See No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty) type writing where I set the timer for forty minutes and wrote as long/fast as I could and then take a twenty minute break. I repeated this process until I made it to 1500 words. Then, take a long break (eat a meal, watch TV, read a book, talk to actual people, etc.) and do it again with another 1500 words. Then take a break. Then write again. So, I did this a few times (even though I usually only did it twice in a day rather than three times) and it helped a lot.

The last five days of NaNo ended up being pretty interesting. We were staying at a little house in New Braunfels where there was no internet access. That was sad for a couple of reasons: no e-mail, no blogging, no research for the book. But, it ended up helping a lot. On day 27 I had approximately 14,000 words left. I wrote about 3,500 on that day, 4,500 on day 28, 2,000 on day 29, and 4,000 words on day 30. It was a killer and I doubt the last 14,000 words of my book are all that great. But they are written and I am a winner with a grand total of 50,004 words.

As far as the story goes (I haven't really blogged about it) here's a synopsis:  It opens with the birth of a girl named Shiloh Ella Smith in a small town in Michigan. Her dad is a Baptist pastor there. Shiloh grew up without even leaving the state. In fact, she never even left her city unless it was for one of the families summer trips to Lake Superior. In high school, she meets a boy named JJ Wilburn. They are friends at first but by the end of high school they are sweethearts. JJ is a year older than Shiloh but as soon as she is old enough, Shiloh goes off to school with JJ that is only a couple of hours from their home (and still in the state). When he graduates college, he proposes to her. She leaves school early to marry him and JJ takes over the preaching at the Baptist church Shiloh's dad was the pastor at. They have four kids, all of them named after cities/countries that Shiloh had wanted to visit. Their names are Sydney Australia, Seoul Korea, Paris France, and Dublin Ireland (in that order). They go to the lake every summer just like Shiloh and her parents did. Shiloh's happiness does not last long enough, though, as she and Dublin both die that summer. JJ shuts down and the remaining three children have to raise themselves. Years later, the three siblings end up traveling the world together to the cities they were named after. On the trip, they find out a lot about each other, their thoughts on the past, and their faith in something bigger than themselves. 

Sorry this post is so late! Thanks for all the support from my family and friends. It was a crazy month but so much fun. This book is going to need a ton of editing but it may take me more than a month the second time around :P

120 pages!