NaNoWriMo Day 3 (and Post Card #1)

Two pieces of exciting news today (that are writing related...)!

1) I made it to 6,000 words today!!
2) I am doing a post card swap with 3 other NaNoWriMoers. Yesterday afternoon, I got my first post card from the swap!

Some wise words from Yoda (well, actually, from jazzaholic17).

Isn't it pretty? Thank you, fellow novelist!

Okay, here are the stats for today:

Total word count goal for the day: 5,000 words

Total word count at the end of the day: 6,038

Words ahead: About 1,038

5,000th word: to (I know. Boring.)

Thanks for the continued support fellow friends and family! I have several friends doing NaNo this year. I hope they're having as much fun as I am :D 

Other non-writing exciting news: I participated in two competitions today. One was like a how to cook show and the other one was like Iron Chef America. I won second place in the first competition and first place in the second competition (haha!). So it was a pretty insane day. I woke up at 6:15 to write, went to the competitions from 8:30-3:30. Then I campaigned tonight from about 4:00-8:30. Going to bed right now and will be up again tomorrow at 6:00 for more writing, church, and then campaigning. Busy, busy! But you know what they say: busy people still have time to write ;) So write I shall! 

NaNoWriMo Days 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6

My family and I went out of town for the weekend which has caused me to get a little behind in NaNoWriMo. If I don't get to writing I'll be 2,500 words behind tomorrow (not including my daily 1,667 words...). And it's almost 10 PM so I don't see how I can make much progress before I go to bed. Oh dear. But I guess this wouldn't be exciting if I didn't get a little behind... right?

I started reading a book a few days ago called "How Not to Write a Novel" which consist of about 200 mistakes that new (and even published) authors tend to make. The first chapter of this book pointed out a huge mistake I made in Shiloh's Children. "And what was that mistake?" you ask... I'll tell you! Introducing the main character, introducing his/her family members, showing how they interact together, etc. with no actual story line in sight for 50, 100, or even 200 pages. I kinda, sorta did that in Shiloh's Children. But guess what? I know better now! I know now that I need to start with a little more action and leave off all the history and background. I can still use all that history for my personal use but I don't need to put my reader through all that yapping about Shiloh's childhood. I'll have lots of editing to do come August.

NaNoWriMo Days 2 & 3

Yesterday, Day 2, went pretty well. I got close to finishing the first chapter (of 12) and got to my daily quota which is always nice, especially at the beginning of the month. I got a little discouraged in certain sections of my novel but then a few paragraphs later, I was happy with it. This went back and forth a few times yesterday. My main problem yesterday (and today) is that I was writing late at night trying to get the quota for the day before the day was over. Our power went out last night, though, so that wasn't very much fun and we had no internet so that meant, no blogging for Day 2, lol. The power didn't come on until about 1:30AM.

Today was not easy (to say the least). The best part of today was that I got to Chapter 2. But I had geometry class this morning so I didn't have the opportunity to write until the afternoon. Well, by then, I managed to fill up my afternoon with things that seemed oh so much more important than noveling at the time. When I finally got around to working on my book, I think it took me 1 and a half hours to write what normally takes me half that time (or less!). I tried using Dr. Wicked's Write or Die but stopped after about 200 words. After doing this twice, I just wrote directly on my Word Doc. trying to get at least close to the quota for today. I finally made it! But I am only ahead by about 35 words. My word quota for today was 5,000 words.

So, these past two days haven't exactly been smooth sailing. More days to come, though. The month has only just begun.

NaNoWriMo Day 3

Yes, it is nearly the end of day 3. Right now I am supposed to have 5,000 words written. I have written 5,681 words! I am really glad I am making the minimum and I think my story is coming along well too. I will try to post an excerpt this week or next. :)