Words... what do they all mean?

I thought I'd do sprints this night/morning to get me a head start on the 5k I needed today, and I ended up doing it all! In three and half hours! My hands hurt so much and I'm so giddy I'm shaking and I CANNOT BELIEVE I WROTE 50,000 WORDS!! I don't think I've ever written that much on a single project in my entire life, let alone all in one month. Holy hell.

Silly widgets are slow on the uptake with my new word count but check out my shiny purple bar! (before you're a verified winner the bar is blue): my NaNo profile

Just wow.

I even came up with some semblance of a storyline and an ending while doing my mad dash-y narrative sort of stream of consciousness thing. I should have done that a long time ago. Screw dialogue, it takes too long!

Oh and here's my favorite freak of nature winning his own 50k: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAt8K-5tXwo
Right there with you, Bjorn.

I need 5,000 words each on Sunday and Monday in order to make it. And, well, one of those just got nailed. Whee!


*pets the pretty green box*

Holy moly that's a frakload of words. Will she do it again tomorrow? Tune in and see!

Y'know, when I started today I had 12k to go and now I have 10 and for some reason that seems like SO MUCH less. Still, will need 5,000 words each tomorrow and Monday, which is nearly twice my record daily production thus far. So, still kind of terrifying.



Still taking requests for scenes/pairings in my last entry. Thank you to those who have given me ideas and prompts so far, they really are helpful.

This past week was a horrible mess. I'm very behind and honestly am not sure I'll make it to 50k by Monday. So I'm borrowing an idea posted in nanowrimo to boost my count and get my characters talking to me again and doing interesting things. Also as a bit of a thank-you to you guys for patiently listening to me ramble about them for the past month and being such awesome cheerleaders.

I'll post my story's vitals (synopsis, setting, quick character descriptions), then if y'all would please make requests for short drabbles/scenarios based on pairings or situations you'd like to read about. The finished doodles will be posted as a reply to your comments and included in the story somehow.

So, My premise: Thirteen survivors of a colonial spaceship's destruction must establish civilization on their new planet, with no hope of rescue or help. (Eventually the facts are blurred by history and these figures are seen as gods/goddesses or saints or mythological figures or even just manufactured symbolic archetypes, instead of real people who once upon a time lived and breathed)

The cast:( cut for space )

31k today. That means 5000 over the next two days and I'll be caught up by the end of the weekend. I can totally do this. Esp. since now my daily goal is down to 1877. Keep shrinking, you!

Okay, can't resist.



Ignore the three dark red boxes and focus on the green one for today! Whee! No, that's not because I'm completely caught up, that's "you hit the words-per-day-in-order-to-finish-on-time," but even that feels amazing. Said words-per-day is now 1953 instead of upwards of 2000, and will continue to shrink if I can keep overshooting that (today's count is 2300).

And, wow, seriously? Is that how close to the end of the month we are? For some reason it looks different on my wall calendar.

Alan's having a bit of a rough night, so I'm on Morgan duty tomorrow morning. What with my crazy sleep schedule lately there's no way I'd wake up in time to feed her breakfast and get her to school. So I'm staying awake instead. See if I can't make up some of my lost ground, writing-wise.

Highlights posted as they happen.

Edit * My Soubrette - who still hasn't told me her name and therefore is still referred to as [Bitch] - is cussing up a storm. So much for the lighthearted flirt she was supposed to be! I think she's still kind of in shock from the crash, though, so hopefully she'll mellow out and become, you know, tolerable.

Ani had no idea if [Green Man] were the type of person to resort to violence, but from the look on his face, she didn't want to take the chance right that second. "Um," she said, stepping between him and [Bitch], "I think we can head back to the shuttle now. We're pretty much just in your way," she said to [Green Man], "you can probably cover more ground and discover more plants without us tagging along. So let's, [Bitch], you and me head back, okay?"

"And I’m sick of your cheerful bullshit," [Bitch] rounded on her, "you go around talking to everyone, smiling, making friends like nothing has happened. It's fake and disgusting."

I think someone needs a good smacking nap.

Edit * Awkwardness abounds!

"I'm [Crone]," the younger woman said, so quietly [Poet] wondered if she was hoping no one would hear her.

"Hi, [Crone]," he said, and held out his hand but stopped short of touching her, unsure of how she felt about physical contact.

[Smith] adjusted the little girl on his hip while looking uncertainly at [Crone].

"Would you like me to take her for a while?" [Empress] asked him.

"Um, if she'll let you," [Smith] replied, and seemed relieved at the offer.

"Hey, sweetheart," [Empress] crooned and gently combed her fingers through the little girl's curls, "Can I hold you for a while?" The little girl looked at her but didn't respond. [Empress] held her hands out but still the little girl didn't move. [Smith] shifted but when she sensed he was trying to let go of her, she cried out and grabbed his shirt again. "Okay, okay," [Empress] said, holding up her hands and stepping back, "I'm not going to try to take you." Her voice was soothing, and [Poet] wondered how much practice she'd had talking to small children. "You can stay with [Smith]," she assured the girl, "he's taking good care of you, isn't he?"

[Smith] looked like he wasn't so sure of that, but merely readjusted her position and carried on. [Poet] looked at [Crone] for her reaction but she was pointedly observing the trees and plants, looking anywhere but at the two of them.

I thought these four would be the easiest combo to write, and here they're one of the hardest. Judge/Lorekeeper/Mage/Hermit wasn't too great, either, though Mage gave me a fantastic line:

"What about you two?" he (Judge, that is) asked the other men, "Are you engineers?"

The younger man (that's the Mage) snorted. "Hardly. I'm a [SOMETHING TECHNOBABBLY/PRETENTIOUS], though I do tinker sometimes."

Tinker?! You're lucky the Hermit (who is, in fact, an engineer) is so mild-mannered, you douchebag. I'm tempted to lock Mage in a room with Soubrette/Bitch until they both get over themselves.

On the other hand, I am pleased I've got some conflict without anyone, you know, actually being detrimental to the group.

Blerg. No calendar or graph widget tonight because the bright red boxes are real downers. I am past the midway point of 25k but still way short of the 30k that was tonight's goal. This cold/allergy/sinus whatever has been kicking my ass and Monday and Tuesday I wrote absolutely nothing. Tonight I only did ~1500 but that feels like a _lot_ in comparison. I now need to do 2000+ every day in order to make it (that's only a little "plus," though). My characters have pretty much stopped talking to me and the plot has come to a screeching halt and I feel like we all (me and them) are standing around looking at each other like, "Dude, who was supposed to bring the plot?" "Not me, I thought she was in charge of the plot." "Me?! I haven't been in charge for two and a half weeks now, you hijackers! Now do something interesting!" "Um, like what?"

*facepalm*

So, y'know, that's ... coming along.

24,000 words. Almost halfway to 50k and nowhere near the midpoint of my story. Mostly, I suspect, because my characters seem uninterested in moving the plot forward in pretty much any way. Most of what I've written lately is just random scenes and conversations, them just kind of faffing around. Come on, guys!

The little bit of plot-related writing I did get done was the Judge cracking the whip and trying to organize everyone to figure out what they're going to do now. Surprisingly, the Mage doesn't seem to be objecting to someone else being in charge. This is surprising because he's very much type A and I expected them to clash in highly amusing ways. Maybe I'll just have to wait for their testosterone to get on each others' nerves.

Had a bit of a wibble the past couple of days, but had enough buffer built up to handle it. Until last night, which I finished down by ~400 words. Boo.

_But_ today was made of win because I made up that lost ground _and_ made today's goal _and_ have some to spare. Woot!

Look at that nice dark green box today:


Sprinting _works_. Not so great for plot movement but decent for character studies by way of stream-of-consciousness. Hopefully knowing the characters better will resulting in better plot movement. So win-win. Also I'm still pwning last year's progress. so yay.