Reflection

Currently Listening To: Carry On Wayward Son, by Kansas
Word Count: 50,117 (yay!)

So I caught a nasty cold on the final few days of NaNoWriMo (figures), but through a lot of work, I managed to keep on writing and now I have 50,000 words! (Of course I am not done yet in terms of plot!).

But looking back at the three years I have done NaNoWriMo, I have to say that overall I have enjoyed the challenge of NaNoWriMo. However, I also am humbled in that I know how much effort goes into planning a novel and writing it. Not to mention taking the time (and courage) to go back and edit it.

I've also learned to not let it all go to my head. Sure I finished a novel, but that doesn't make it good.

More to come later!

Almost There!

Currently Listening To: Butterflies and Hurricanes, by Muse (AWESOME SONG!)
Word Count: 46.866

Keep in mind that I have not used any stuff from my first attempt this month.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I've had a really productive week of writing (along with good food!). I'm liking my writing because I've taken new turns with the plot and character development.  The general plot of the story is the same, but I've explored more aspects of the story. All in all it has been great fun!

One more week to go!

Currently Listening To: an Episode from Dragonball Z
Word Count: 29031

I have written about 8467 words today. Can I break 10,000 words?

The Final Stretch

Currently Listening To: Love Lockdown, by Kayne West
Word Count: 18394

So  for the past week or so I had to deal with important projects and a midterm. But now I am back to writing mode!

This weekend has been crucial and relaxing for me.

Friday I took some time to enjoy some delicious wine and write. It was very productive.
Saturday was the craziest write-in day for me! Total words written: 7064(!). What was also special is that I went to this restaurant not too far from me. Lots of other writers were present as well! After a delicious three-course meal, we wrote, wrote and wrote! The people I was sitting with were a lot older than me, but we had some good conversations!

I was always in the top 5 for word wars. The record for a 10 minute war was 890+. I had 633 as my record.
Overall, a lot of fun!

Back to writing!

Starting Over

Currently Listening To: Take Me On, by Big Reel Fish
Word Count: 0 (!)

So after a day of thinking and realizing that I am honestly not having fun writing this novel, I have decided to throw it out and begin writing again. This time I will focus on retelling my 2009 NaNoWriMo. Who knows, I might try to write it again in 1st person?

I'll post what it was about later.

H-H-Hard

Currently Listening To: We R Who We R, by Ke$ha
Current Word Count: 18265

So I didn't realize how bad this week would be in terms of homework and exams. I have a crucial midterm in my Bioinformatics class this week, some revisions for some poems due as well. Next week I have two important coding projects due. Good grief.

Anyway, today was a moderate day of writing. I fell a bit over 400 short of the daily word count, but that's fine. Tomorrow is an important day for me to catch up. This way, I can be allowed to go easy on writing when I have to deal with other assignments.

Seriously, NaNoWriMo really tests your time management skills.

Oh yeah, so in my fiction workshop class, the class critiqued my story. It was in a similar style as to how I plan to finalize the book. Reactions were mixed. I think I could have explained some characters better in exchange for setting. But some people noted that by using first person, I really opened up the mind of my main character- a major strength.

Yes!

Good Day

Currently Listening To: Overkill, by Motorhead
Word Count: 17065

Overall good weekend of writing...well more like good day. I lost most of Saturday because of an important event I will not share in this entry (it's not bad, don't worry).

So Write or Die really helped me type like a mad man today. My record for the 15 minute session is 875 words. My hands are aching (and should be for that matter!)

I got lucky with some project extensions so I should be fine in terms of school work. With work work I'll be putting in more hours since I don't have many prior commitments this time around (like going to Virginia!).

I will have to spend some time reorganizing all my files. I've written on separate files so I need to organize my scenes/chapters together or things could get ugly!

Catch-up...or Ketch-up?

Currently Listening To:Visions, by Abnormality
Word Count: 12345 :-)

Thursday I took the day off to catch up on school work and give my hands a break.

Today I had to go to Virginia. Since I was taking the Metro (rail and bus) I had lots of time to write. Plus there was a Starbucks and I had Panera for lunch, so I was good to go! I will say this though - trying to write on a rocky train ride while holding in a full bladder is truly torture.

At this point I am writing some of my preferred scenes, hence the big jumps in word count.  Also this is the first NaNoWriMo weekend, so I am sure to get an even bigger boost in my word count.

That is important, because next week I have to really stick to my schedule for work and school. As a rule to myself, I cannot let my grades slip or work quality degrade because of NaNoWriMo.

Also, next week I have projects, a midterm and interviews to handle. This is going to hurt.

On a different note - I think I might have found a catchphrase for my protagonist to use:

Hello Bombshell!

Where did I get such a random phrase from? I'd rather not tell you all.

Slackin'

Currently Listening To: Lower Norfair, by Metroid Metal
Word Count: 8646

I made some decent progress yesterday. Mostly thanks to a delicious grande White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks.

I am about 2000 words above the minimum amount I need to be in order to hit 50,000 by the end of November. However, because of incoming computer science projects and interviews, I might take a big hit in production. I don't know yet, it depends on my time management. School comes before NaNoWriMo.

I almost lost about 1600 words yesterday because I thought I didn't save my Write or Die sessions when I put my laptop on hibernate. Fortunately, I had kept the Write or Die session page open, so I was still able to copy/paste my words into a text file as an official record. Phew.

Oh Yeah!

Currently Listening To: Hoodoo, by Muse
Word Count: 7012

So today was a much more productive day. I got over how bad my introduction to ACoTitA was.

I credit today's write-in for that. I wrote with four amazing (well five, one person had to leave early) other writers challenging me to write, write and write! We had a few word wars, which really are just timed sessions where we see who can write the most. There were a total of four rounds. I won the final two with word counts of close to 600 in ten minutes.

If there was a tool I recommend for people behind on their word counts, it's the app Write or Die. The idea is that you set a goal for yourself (say 15 minutes or 500 words). You then start writing in a desgnated text field. The catch is that if you stop typing, eventually the words you have written...get removed! You can set the grace period before words start disappearing and how severe the deletion will be!

Overall though, a fun day where I got to catch up!

Top 5 in terms of writing buddies:

1. 15250
2. 7012 (me!)
3. 5148
4. 5051
5. 5021

Zing!

Day One: Meh

Currently Listening To: Scream, by Avenged Sevenfold

So the final word count for the first day?

2735.

That's a little over 1,000 the bare minimum. Last year I know I was on fire, hitting close to 5,000.

I think I got off to a very bad start with the novel. The issue I guess is that I chose a poor way to introduce the main character. I was having difficulty creating the various scenes for the first two chapters. Hopefully tommorrow I can shake off the rust and really power through my writer's block.

Where do I stand with 15 other insane writers?

1st place: 10638 (Good lord...)
2nd place: 3601
3rd place: 3162
4th place: 2735 (me!)
5th place: 2661.

Not bad I guess. Bonus goal: surpass the 1st place person for at least three days!

May The Games Begin

Currently Listening To: Your Betrayal, by Bullet For My Valentine
Word Count: 537

Sorry for faking on the synopsis post. I fell asleep in the middle of the day after a heavy lunch. Then there was NFL Sunday, printing out 20 copies of my fiction workshop piece.

Anyway, so I have begun writing! Right now this is a just a warm up for me. Just a small scene in the first chapter.

Oh yeah, so what's this book going to be about?

Title: A Cup Of Troll In The Afternoon.

Summary: Sachin Shankar is an arrogant high school senior. He never seems to find anything difficult and enjoys pissing other people off. He is going to the same college as his childhood friend and secret crush Sarah Kerenza. When he arrives, he is instantly the most popular kid on his dorm floor. He finds his classes to be a breeze and everyone likes him. Life is perfect.

However, Sachin's mighty ego is very fragile, and all it would take is a stranger to break it. What would happen if Sachin was tripped up? Will his relationships suffer?

That's the gist of it really. The goal of this story is to explore what some internet trolls feel - a false sense of superiority. I like watching characters who are complete pricks (think Gary Oak from Pokemon) get what they deserve.

I want to be able to not dooze off in class, so I'm heading to bed. Expect more updates!

A Post About NaNoWriMo

Currently Listening To: Psycho, by System Of A Down

This post is mostly for my non-NaNoWriMo buddies who wonder why I torture myself with writing a novel in the course of a month.

Let's start with the basics.

• What is NaNoWriMo?
  To quote the website:
  

  National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

  Something to note: Your story doesn't need to be constrained to 50,000 words. If you have to go over that...that's good! The final product of 2009 NaNoWriMo was about 90,000+ words. Of course by the end of November I was at 52,000.
  
  
• Who can participate?
  Anyone! You do not have to be an English or Creative Writing major to play! Just have the drive to write! If you have some idea for a story...well then November is your chance to try it out!
  
  
• What's the prize for winning?
  
  A cool looking certificate you can print out. This year, if you manage to hit 50,000 words, you'll be able to get a free proof copy of your book. Essentially, it is a copy of your book that would be published. You use it make sure the design of the book is perfect. Overall though, I say the biggest prize is the feeling of "Holy cow...I just wrote 50,000 words for a novel!".
  

Now, I know lots of people who say "well, I could just copy a word 50,000 times." Hey, go ahead and do that. I don't know what kind of gratification you get for doing that (other than having a Word Document that has the word "the" copied 50,000 times).

I know when I took NaNoWriMo seriously last year, it was a very rewarding experience. Knowing I could manage my time and still output a decent story was something I don't think many people I know can brag about.

Plus I've met a lot of friends through doing NaNoWriMo. It's a very social event. You talk with others about your characters, your plot, etc. It's like going to a club about something you like: you meet people with similar interests!

I also have to add that no one is expected to have a polished, ready-to-publish novel by the end of November. For many folks, this is a first draft. December and beyond is for editing!

Overall, I feel that people don't take NaNoWriMo seriously because of the lack of a monetary reward. I personally do a lot of things without thinking about the money I could/could not be getting. It's all about how I feel in the end, which is something many (but not all) of my friends never understand.

(Oh, and expect a post on Sunday about what this year's novel is going to be about!)

Planning Round 3: Software

Currently Listening To: Diagla/Palkia Battle from the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl


So for the past three years I used word processors only to write out my NaNoWriMo novels. First two years was Microsoft Word. Last year I used OpenOffice, but the word count it gave was slightly higher than normal.

However, it made it easy for me to create PDF files.

This year I am trying something different:

yWriter5.

It's free novel writing software!

To quote from their website (http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html)

• Organise your novel using a 'project'.
• Add chapters to the project.
• Add scenes, characters, items and locations.
• Display the word count for every file in the project, along with a total.
• Saves a log file every day, showing words per file and the total. (Tracks your progress)
• Saves automatic backups at user-specified intervals.
• Allows multiple scenes within chapters
• Viewpoint character, goal, conflict and outcome fields for each scene.
• Multiple characters per scene.
• Storyboard view, a visual layout of your work.
• Re-order scenes within chapters.
• Drag and drop of chapters, scenes, characters, items and locations.
• Automatic chapter renumbering.

Sounds useful eh?

It will be interesting to use software that focuses on writing scenes. In fiction workshop, we always talk about balancing scene and summary, so I can focus on that with yWriter.

Again, it's free!

Planning Round 3 - Warm-up

Currently Listening To: A remix of the Pokemon Gold Kanto Gym Leader Theme

Yes, in just over a week NaNoWriMo will be starting!

So in order to get pumped for it, I am working on my fiction workshop piece! It's going to mimic the style of writing I will be using to write this damn thing.

It is going to be beautiful. BEAUTIFUL I tell you!

Planning Round 2: Clean and Build

Currently Listening To: Mr. Crowley, by Ozzy Ozborne


Applying for jobs while planning a novel? I must be insane!

Anyway, so at this point I am cleaning up the wiki I made for myself. Articles are scattered everywhere and some are still empty! My thoughts will be slowly converging together to form...my novel!

At this point though, I am more concerned about getting comfortable in a writing style. This is why I am going to take advantage of my fiction workshop piece and write it in the way I plan to write this year's NaNoWriMo novel. If I am comfortable in a style, then I can write it faster (meaning more words!)

On a different note, I am going to be writing against twelve other insane people who think they can write novels. Handful of them are good friends of mine, so it will be great.

One thing that keeps bugging me: Should I be planning out a cover? I am willing to spend money on a copy of this book, and I've seen people already make some well-designed covers.

Cheers.

Planning Round 2 - Procreate.

Currently Listening To: Heroes Of Our Time, by Dragonforce

Sorry for not posting in a while. I had exams and other school assignments to worry about. However, I have made lots of progress in preparing for the book.


Here's the list:

• Characters - This is the section I am working on. I have drawn out the main character in my story. The next task is creating the supporting crew. In finishing the plot, I have created a bunch of new characters. Now I have to give them some traits!
• Plot - I think I have nailed down a solid plot through the development of the protagonist. The story seems very believable!
• Setting - I have begun the observing phase of my planning stage. No...I am not stalking people. Just observing my setting. It is crucial for this story.

 Also, I've worked on various writing exercises to get comfortable in writing in the first person. It's my first time attempting a story in the first person, so I want it to be good.

Once I get paid, I can also begin stocking up on necessary goodies to get me through November.

Expect more posts as November 1st gets closer!

10 Day Hiatus

Currently Listening To: Eye Of The Storm, By Bullet For My Valentine

Unfortunately, I have not spent much time planning for NaNoWriMo...

but I did get some advice from Stephen King (via reading a book of course!). He states that if you are a science fiction fan, stick to writing science fiction! If you like mysteries...then write mysteries! He says it's not good to write a particular genre just for money...your works just won't be good!

I'm going to look over my character designs. I had some thought-provoking debates with some friends last week and I feel that it can help me shape my character the way I want to. I mean...they should be human in nature right?

Planning Round 1 - Cutting up the pie.

Currently Listening To: Conflict, by Disturbed.

Well shucks, I am in quite a conflict.

It's Labor Day weekend! Time to spend with friends and family! Time to enjoy the good weather!

I am not going to get another free weekend like this to plan out NaNoWriMo 2010 though...

Where do I stand with the whole planning out part you ask?

Let's split it into three parts.

• Characters - This will be a character-driven story. As I learned in my fiction writing workshop by reading works by Flannery O' Connor, the main characters need personality! It's what makes them interesting! We're humans right? Well we'll connect with humans! So I have to spend some time developing the protagonists, antagonists, etc. In the end, I should be able to introduce the main guys and gals to you all.
  
• Plot - Now come on, I need a believable plot! O'Connor made an interesting point in one of her essays. When you are writing fiction or fantasy, you have to make it somewhat believable. Sure the story can take place on the Planet of the Squids where the rouge group of Jellyfish take over various kingdoms...but something has to make sense in the story! So I will be spending some time working through quick outlines of how I want the plot to advance. Rise, Climax, Fall, etc.
  
• Setting - This is an area I have neglected over the past few years when I have done NaNoWriMo. In the end, I really can't describe the world my characters are living in to a friend. I am in control of their [the characters'] Universe,  I need to make them a remarking setting that anyone can visualize as they read. For this one...well I'll just say I will be quite observant.

I won't really assign percentages this time, but I will sum up what has been happening.

• Characters - I am still in the process of creating the protagonist. I have a basic appearance down and some back story about him/her. I have neglated the other characters, but I have some ideas.
  
• Plot - I have a very basic outline down. The story only seems only somewhat believable. I am shooting for a realistic fiction plot this time around.
  
• Setting - If the weather is good next week, I can begin working on this section.

Remember,  I am making a wiki as the primary tool for planning this tool. I do have to give credit to the Scott Pilgrim vs The World  website for providing a nifty little tool that can make custom avatars.

(Give the movie a try).

Planning Round 1 (and the very first post!)

Currently Listening To: Gimme Shelter, by The Rolling Stones

Evening guys and gals!

I meant to start posting on this blog about a week ago. However, classes have begun, leaving me with little time to do some pre-NaNoWriMo work.

That said, how I am planning out my novel for this year?

Previous attempts have included:

• Winging it. (2007 - barely 10k)
• Writing out ideas in a journal. (2008 - barely 50k but the story was not worth editing)
• Drawing flowcharts, character designs, and a simple outline (2009 - finished the novel at 94k. It could have been better).

So, what will I do this year?

Create a wiki for the novel.

You read that correctly.

Create a wiki for the novel.

After consulting with a good friend, I decided this might be the best way to go about planning a story (for me that is). Articles dedicated to each of the main characters. Articles about the setting. Articles about...anything!

Where is this wiki?

Good luck finding it! For the time being, I am keeping the wiki hidden. However, for the very curious, I will post a brief overview of the novel in the days to come.