The final stats

Well, November is over...and with it NaNoWriMo. I did not win. Then again, I did not do NaNoWriMo. I did National Writing Month (or NaWriMo for those that can't get enough acronyms in their daily lives), the goal being to simply write every day for thirty days. I set a minimum of 500 words a day, knowing that if I hit that I'd net myself a nice 15,000 words to the novel-in-progress.

Here's my numbers:

Day 1	2,273
Day 2	1,053
Day 3	1,046
Day 4	533
Day 5	2,367
Day 6	1,539
Day 7	514
Day 8	1,765
Day 9	913
Day 10	562
Day 11	553
Day 12	1,005
Day 13	586
Day 14	590
Day 15	1,354
Day 16	606
Day 17	0
Day 18	548
Day 19	524
Day 20	524
Day 21	646
Day 22	516
Day 23	584
Day 24	554
Day 25	723
Day 26	516
Day 27	505
Day 28	568
Day 29	603
Day 30	572
Total	24,642

Not bad, I say. Only missed writing one day and I blame that on beer, bars, and Philadelphia. Towards the end of the month the writing got harder as I edged closer to the final section of the book because everything before it was just push, push, pushing forward. Once I got there I had to actually sit down and think about some of the happenings and how to make them work. But I'm glad I did it...and I'm happy to take a little break from forcing myself to write every day. Sometimes I just don't want to, especially with the 9 billion other things I try to do.

Anyways, that's that.

Boring metrics

Hey, Paul! Did you write a lot over the weekend? Huh? Huh? Didya?

Nope.

Friday: 606 words

Saturday: 0 words (I blame all the beer at PhilCon)

Sunday: 548 words

Today: 524 words

Yeah, I'm basically just hitting quota and stopping at the moment. Too busy with a thousand other things to worry about. Thanksgiving break looks like it'll be relaxing, offering plenty more time to type, type, type.

Okay, time to see if tonight's episode of Heroes is any good...

Beer me strength, people

Here's what I managed for NaWriMo today: 1,354 words

Also, my review for Electric Velocipede #13 is now up over at the Fix. Go on and check it out!

Lastly, tonight is the last new episode of "The Office," and while I support the strike I think it'll be a bit sad knowing there's less to look forward to in the upcoming weeks. Well, least I'll get some reading done then.

Ur doing it wrong

NaWriMo wordage for the day: 590 words

Just past the quota, but I did end up writing 1,700 words for a review of Electric Velocipede today. So take that and put it on a flag!

And lastly, here's my entry to John Scalzi's LOLCreashun Contest:

Sporty Spec has arrived

NaWriMo wordage for the day: 586 words



I forgot to mention that I received my contributor's copy for Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic edited by Karen A. Romanko over the weekend. It's a nicely put-together book, and I'm not just saying that because I'm in it or that my story "The Sport of Kings" is first in the lineup. Though it helps! I kid, I kid.

Featuring work by 42 authors, there's bound to be something for everyone. Though I'm not afraid to admit that me and poetry get along like snails and salt. Or am I thinking of slugs? Eh, let's move on. So far, I've enjoyed "Perpetual Check" by E.C. Myers, a planes-traveling chess story with some emotional depth, and "Hang Twenty" by Jude-Marie Green, a lighthearted tale about a surferboy, his wolf, and their time amongst the waves. I hope to get to read some more of the stories later on, but I'm very much liking what I've seen so far.

Bookworm alert

Damage done on NaWriMo today: 1,005 words

I finally finished reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie yesterday. I'll be saving my thoughts on the book for a real review, but it was slow reading. 432 pages of dialog, description, and action had nothing to do with it. I've just found myself not reading as much before bed...or any other time during the day. Spring and summer weather is my favorite reading weather, but the colder it gets the more I just want to cozy up with a blanket, some hot chocolate, and watch a flick.

At the moment I'm enjoying Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult. I've found her pacing and characters to be right up my alley, making the book go fairly fast. Then I'm off to tackle two Hugo-winning books one after the other: Dune by Frank Herbert and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.

After that I'm unsure of what I want to read next, which is...odd. There's probably a good 50 or more books in my apartment that I haven't gotten to yet. But where to begin? Oi, the trouble with being a bookworm...

Third marker passed

Well, here's my NaWriMo metrics for the last three days.

Friday: 913 words

Saturday: 562 words

Today: 553 words

I'm not as devoted to writing on the weekend as I used to be. That time is spent more on comics, reading, gaming, and just relaxing a bit. So the above totals are no surprise, but they are all past my 500 word quota which is all that matters.

In the beginning, I suspected that if I did 500 words a day for all of November that would net me a solid 15,000 words and put me right over the third marker of 45,000 words. Well, good news, folks. Since hitting those daily goals and exceeding them a smidge here and there, I've now crossed the 45K marker. Only two more to go though I suspect the novel to end around 70K. That's fine as there's a lot that I need to go back and fill in on the second work through.

The Waterways Novel

45,129 / 80,000 words. 56% done!

But woo...getting closer.

Like start X-mas shopping

Here's what I did for NaWriMo today: 1,765 words

I was going to make a to-do-list, but now I don't want to. Weird? Just know, I have things to do.

Hit my quota

NaWriMo wordage for the day: 514

Not a whole bunch, but I met my quota, which is really what matters at this point. Besides, I'm working on other stuff at the moment. Mostly secret comic stuff. That's how the rooster crows...

Evidently there's no Pushing Daisies on tonight. Gah! Stupid country music awards show!

The sound of crickets

Damage done for NaWriMo today: 1,539 words

Do I have anything else to say?

::crickets chirping::

Guess not.

Curse you to the moon

Well, here's the damage for today's NaWriMo: 2,367 words

I also did a search of my Word document. Evidently, I like to curse a lot in this novel. And this isn't fake cursing, such as: frak, frell, or Jupiter's rings. I use the bad words. The ones that might make grandmommies blush. Ah. Oh well. It happens. There's worse things in the novel, anyways.

Gawd, this month is going to be full of super boring posts like this one. I apologize in advance.

Some metrics

Yesterday for NaWriMo: 1,046 words

Today for NaWriMo: 533 words

Aiming for 500 words a day has been very effective so far. Except for today, I find myself crossing that line rather quickly and then not wanting to stop. So, yeah, that's good and all. I'd write more today, but I've got other plans. Also, I'm not in the right headspace to kill off a certain character...which is coming up real soon. Yeah, that'll be a good time. Luckily, in my world, not all dead things stay dead for long.

In other news, Karen A. Romanko announces the good news that Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic has been published! W00t! It's available at the moment at LuLu.com, but will eventually be seen on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the other usual suspects. This one has my piece "The Sport of Kings" in it. That should be enough incentive for all you readers out there to pick this anthology up! I kid, I kid. Or do I?

Words, words, words

Just a quick post to mark down today's damage for NaWriMo: 1,053 words.

That is all for now. Back to Beetlejuice.

Yup, I wrote today

So, I guess I wrote today.

For NaWriMo: 2,273 words

And then I did some more work on the latest short. Strangely, I don't feel exhausted though I suspect I should.

"She Brings the Light"

New words: 272
Total words: 536
Pages: Page and a half
Deadline: None
Reason for stopping: Just cause I can, people!
Stimulants: A mug of hot chocolate
Songs played loudly: "Fill My Little World" by The Feeling
Exercise: Nada
Mail: Nada
Darling du jour: The smoke made the city only half-visible, maybe not even that, with building outlines so faint it became difficult to tell if some of them still stood.
Other writing-related work: Nothing though I'm still working through The Blade Itself, which, at some point, will turn into a review
Random thought: I am not happy that it is getting darker earlier. That is all. Paul out.

Doing NaNoWriMo sort of

Well, I'm not aiming for 50,000 words or starting a new novel. But November is a great month to get motivated about writing considering the droves of folks gearing up to write, write, write. So, currently the novel-I'm-not-talking-about is around 32,000 words. It's been sitting in the corner lately, waiting for me to do something with it (clean thoughts, people!).

Between comics and reviews and the writing of other short stories, I do not believe I can devote everything to the beast. My daily goal will be 500 words, which, if completed, will net me a solid 15,000 words by the end of the month. And that will put me over my third marker where I get to talk about the novel a bit. I think this is both doable and enough to keep me sane.

So, yeah. I've already started a new short tonight and will eventually be re-writing "Firefoot" from the ground up. I know there's a story in it, and thanks to some great crits I know what needs to go and what can stay and party. November shall no longer be NaNoWriMo to me. It'll just be WriMo.

"She Brings the Light"

New words: 264
Total words: 264
Pages: Not even a page yet
Deadline: None
Reason for stopping: Switching projects
Stimulants: Vanilla chai tea mmm
Songs played loudly: "Big Casino" by Jimmy Eat World
Exercise: Avoiding trick-or-treaters should count for something
Mail: A form rejection from Noctem Aeternus Magazine
Darling du jour: Mothers sending soldier-sons smut, and everyone seemed to understand the world.
Other writing-related work: Reviewing the novel outline, blah blah blah
Random thought: Pushing Daisies is a great television show! I might even call it the c-word one day!

Update

I'm not doing NaNoWriMo. I've decided that, at the moment, I do not need the extra pressure. I'm going to work on my short stories for now. Besides, I like short stories. They are easier (I said easier, not easy!) than novels to me. And that's that. Good luck to those doing NaNoWriMo though! May 50K come before you know it!

Also, I bought Final Fantasy XII. It's amazing so far.

And have started a videogame blog called Game Beliefs. So check that out!

NaNoWriMo - Day #3

Progress notes for November 03, 2006:

Waterways



New words: 583
Total words: 3,739 of 50,000
Pages: 11
Deadline: Dec. 1
Reason for stopping: NEED. SOME. SLEEP.
Stimulants: Coffee, beer
Exercise: I drove for three hours. How's that?
Songs sung too loud to please the neighbors: "The Last Three Years" by Joe Wilson
Mail: None
Today's words Word don't know: I can't remember right now
Mean Things: Suprisingly...nothing
Tyop du Jour: None
The life of a WrITeR: Ugh, no writer today

NaNoWriMo - Day #2

Progress notes for November 02, 2006:

Waterways



New words: 1,440
Total words: 3,156 of 50,000
Pages: 10
Deadline: Dec. 1
Reason for stopping: No more writing for tonight as I need a break
Stimulants: Hot chocolate from Starbucks
Exercise: None, but maybe some stretches before bed
Songs sung too loud to please the neighbors: "The Priest and the Matador" by Senses Fail
Mail: None
Today's words Word don't know: swimmable
Mean Things: Embarassed a boy in front of a girl
Tyop du Jour: None that I can remember
The life of a WrITeR: Took out the trash, got a haircut, and went food shopping

NaNoWriMo - Day #1

Progress notes for November 01, 2006:

Waterways



New words: 1,716
Total words: 1,716 of 50,000
Pages: 7
Deadline: Dec. 1
Reason for stopping: Need to shower and shave. Plus, I need major sleep.
Stimulants: Two cups of coffee...mmm...
Exercise: Went for a short walk
Songs sung too loud to please the neighbors: "Girl in America" by Mat Kearney
Mail: None
Today's words Word don't know: None
Mean Things: Baby knocked off boat
Tyop du Jour: None
The Internet is full of Things: Sushi pillows. I want one!
The life of a WrITeR: Did the dishes

Let's see...

NaNoWriMo is coming up very soon. Seven days. Wait, eight. Ah, who knows. I didn't go to school for counting. The outline for Waterways is mostly finished, but there's definitely enough there to start out at a strong pace. I'll be documenting my progress here daily so if you like word countings, witless ramblings, and that infamous whine that is a writer struggling live without a net, well, this is the place then. Enjoy your stay and don't forget to tip the maid!

Also, I suck at self-promoting things I do. Basically, I just post a link on here and leave it at that. Well, with that out in the open, please visit Greenhorn, my web comic about the speculative fiction world, and if you like what you see/read, leave me a comment. If you hate it, leave me a comment too. Either way, you'll make my day. I promise.

Hmmm...videogame news? I beat Sly Cooper 3: Honor Among Thieves the other day. Fun game though it felt like they threw in every single mini-game idea possible just to have the game brimming over with junk to do. Some were fun, some were stupid, but all in all the game was enjoyable. Now I'm trying to finish playing Killzone, which is really stupid, but I feel bad about buying a new game when I have so many that I still need to finish. So I'm holding back from buying new games until I beat the ones I got. There is one exception though. Final Fantasy XII comes out on October 31. I will either buy it once I complete NaNoWriMo or I will buy it December 1. That'll be a nice treat.

And, to end on a more somber note, I'm currently reading the biography of James Tiptree, Jr./Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips and it's the most engaging thing I've probably ever read. Really, she was a fascinating woman. And all I can think of as I read is how me and her are so similar in a lot of small ways. Several large ones save that I'm not as fascinating. I encourage everyone to learn more about her and read "The Women Men Don't See."

Seacrest ou...Paul out!