An Island Where No One Lives

Yeah, I managed it this year.  In the end, I got 52,815 words which I think may be my lowest word-count*.  Interesting contrast to the last two years, when I would write at least once a day about my progress, sometimes twice or three times.  How many entries have I written about NaNo this year?  Ten?

The first year was so exciting, because I’d been trying (and failing) to write more fiction for years, and for that month, the whole process was unbelievably exhilarating.  The next year was more problematic, as I chose a story that had a definite beginning and a definite end (though I eventually went past that point).  It was when I started running short of “middle” that I wondered if I could pull it off.  I managed it, though only just, largey because of that “post story” bit (which was one of the best bits, really).

This year, as previously noted in tedious detail, I had no ideas going in, no plan.  I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to do it, but I sat down and started anyway.  And I just sort of plowed on through, having things happen, noticing a turn of phrase and turning it into a story element, taking a random bit of dialogue and making it a major plot-point.  I suspect that’s one reason why I’ve written so little about the process; the thing was just so fluid, anything I could say would be irrelevant an hour or so later.

In some ways the experience was a lot of fun, but in others it was frustrating.  It was like the old Surrealist technique of “automatic writing,” in which a person would put themselves into a trance and just start moving a pen across a page.  It’s interesting what comes out, but now that I’ve experienced something like that, I have to say there’s a certain lack of “will” in the end product.  I rarely felt as if I was steering the story; mostly, I just sort of transcribed it.

And I didn’t even do all of that.  As I write this, the ending hasn’t been written for the story, though I have a pretty good idea of how it’s going to go.  (I’m not that fond of the ending, though it fits.)  I’ve officially submitted for word-count, though, so it’ll be interesting to see if I can actually keep going with it.  Usually, the final submission meant the end of fictioneering.  Maybe I can wring out the ending.

Still, even if I can’t, that’s better than nothing, I suppose.  And I’m pretty sure I would have been unhappy if I’d sat it out.  I’m just not too sure how much credit I can take this time around.

Thanks, as always, to my tireless writing buddies for their encouragement, as well as Shona and Hippie of NotebookInHand for the cheerleading.

*Odd that the NaNo website doesn’t keep any stats for previous years, at least not that I could find anywhere.  You’d think as obsessed with word-count as we are, they’d be accomodating.  (Oh, and I actually had a lower word-count last year, by about a thousand words.) 

Current Word Count:  41,000 and change.

That would be the word count I should have, as of mid-day on the 24th.  Since it’s only mid-day on the 20th, I think I will slack off a bit and try to think about what I’m actually putting on the page.  After all, I’ve got ten days to come up with a bit over 8,000 words.  That seems doable. 

So far, what I’ve written approaches automatic writing.  While the story is developing nicely, I still have absolutely no idea how it’s going to end.  The tiniest clue eludes me.

A couple of off-hand remarks show promise, but they just point to making the story form a certain kind of sense.  Now, I’m certainly not knocking that.  But I’m going to have to put some serious thought into the sentence I’m going to put right before “The End.” 

Unless it’s “Suddenly, everyone was hit by a speeding cement mixer.”

Best of luck to my fellow scribes, and thanks for coming round again.

Current word count: 33,600 and change.

Well, I started the week about 1000 words below where I needed to be, and as I write this (close to 6PM on the 17th) I’m over three days ahead.  (33,340 would be the normal word count on the 20th day.)  Not bad for a week’s work–but going from “I dunno about this” to “Hey, this might actually work” seems like an even better gage of progress.

It’s been very, very interesting watching the creative process shift into gear.  You might recall one of my “problems” with this story is that I have no idea where it’s aiming.  Well, last night, my hero made an offhand speculation…which suddenly made perfect sense, and pointed a possible avenue to pursue.

Interestingly, the offhand bit was just that–a few words thrown in to add to the word-count.  And it’s amazing how that sort of thing can work at times. 

My first NaNo experience was a lot like that, although there I had a pretty rough idea of how the story should go from the beginning.  (Naturally, that changed completely by the time I got to the end, but it still counts, so there.) 

This is getting interesting.  (Which is not the same as getting good, of course.)

Thanks for stopping by, and good word-counts to all participants.

Current word count:  28,800, on the nose.

That puts me a couple hundred words ahead–if this were the 17th, which it isn’t.  Since it’s actually the morning of the 15th, I feel fairly pleased by that number. 

It’s weird.  I wasn’t going to do NaNo this year, and started on the 3rd when I’d suddenly run out of other projects and, shall we say, felt the itch.  Now it’s going like gangbusters, and I still have more plot to go.  If I can keep up the pace, 50,000 words before November’s end. shouldn’t be a problem. 

“Keeping up the pace” could always surface as an issue, of course.  I’ve had a couple of major events in the story, but I’m still only partly on the way, and what might happen next is entirely in the air.  (This is, I must confess, because I still have no idea what the ultimate plan behind these events is–my “villains” have yet to appear directly.  This is actually good, believe it or not, because it fits the story so well.)

(I have come to many conclusions regarding NaNo, my participation in it, and my own creativity in general.  They are…interesting.  I’ll be sure to share once the month is over–win, lose or draw.)

Best of luck to all this year’s participants, and thank you for visiting.

Yesterday, the 13th, marked three years that this blog has been up and going.  And I forgot all about it!

That says a lot right then and there, I think.

Word count:  23,187

As you can see, I had quite a burst of activity yesterday, continuing somewhat today.  A couple hundred more words and I’ll be caught up as of the 14th…this being the 13th, that’s not bad at all.  “Burst” can certainly be a good thing.

Of course, “burst” can also call to mind what can happen when carrying a garbage bag that’s way too full.  Although I kid my story, there actually is a story there–events progress, characters adapt to those events, things change.  I just have absolutely no idea where the story is going.  I don’t know if my villains are even villains.  (I have no idea what they’re up to; I am just as much in the dark as my characters.) I also don’t know if my heroes are all that good, and who (or what) will live to see the end

So, this story is starting to sound interesting to me.  It may turn out to be all right after all.

Back to the grind.  See you here and there, and happy writing!

Current word count:  17,500 and change

That puts me a little less than 1000 words below where I should be on the 11th; with a bit of luck I can catch that up tomorrow (actually today, the 12th), maybe even gain a bit, and word-count will be one fewer worry I’ll have with this project.

Which will, of course, bring up the next worry:  making this mess into a story of some kind.  Word-count worry has kept me from the true problem–a full realization of just what it is I’m hammering out.  Which appears to be world’s most generic story.  It’s amazing how adaptable this little cuss is; since basically nothing is happening, it doesn’t matter what does.  Here goes another thousand words–heave!  Doesn’t that sound like something you can’t wait to wrap your eyes around?  Sure does! 

Ah well, I’m sure the word processors of the world will breathe a weary sigh of relief when December 1st rolls around.  So much stuff pounded out over the course of thirty days…

At least my fingers are getting a nice work-out.  You never know when that touch-typing skill will become meaningful again…

But hey, it’s fun, right?  Best of luck to my fellow writers and thanks for visiting.

Current word count: 10,100 and change.

Fell back a bit in my wordage, though I still managed to surmount NaNo’s 1667 per day.  So I’m slowly chipping away at NaNo’s lead.  By the end of the day I’m supposed to be around 15,000.  Well, maybe…if one of my characters developes a severe stutter, and another becomes hard of hearing and has to have everything repeated.  Yeah, that’ll work great.  Still, it is (as I write) just a shade under 3PM so there are still a number of hours to go.

The big news, I guess, is that I had a fourth thing happen!  Wow, talk about action-packed! 

I still haven’t read over a significant amount of what I’ve hurled up.  Every now and then, I’ll have to reference something previously noted, to make sure I don’t contradict myself, so I gotta scroll back up and look for it, which…well, I don’t let my eyes linger.  Find what I need and dash back down to the bottom of the page.

I almost came up with title–”Shapes.”  I like it because it’s both a noun and a verb, and, well, I like things like that.  When I think about it, though, I think it promises more than the story delivers, at least so far.  How does it promise with such a non-specific title?  Trust me, it does.  So that one goes back in the hat.

Well, I got 4000 more words to cough up, so see you guys later.  Thanks for visiting! 

Current word count, around 8,100 (as of 2AM)

Yeah, this 2AM stuff seriously puts a crimp in the next work day, but what can you do?  I’ve never, ever been a morning person (unless you count 2AM) and have always done my best work in the evening and later.

Of course, I’m not including NNWM07 among my “best” work, not by a long shot.  I’m pretty sure it’s total garbage, but I’m going to keep slogging at it.  Because the world needs more garbage after all, doesn’t it?

The nice thing about yesterday’s work is that I got nearly 3,000 words in.  If I can continue that pace, I shouldn’t have any trouble catching up to where I should be.  Instead of 5,000 behind, I’m around 3,500.

The not so nice thing about yesterday’s work is that, as noted, it’s got to be some of the worst stuff I’ve ever written.  If you read things posted here regularly, that statement ought to give you pause.  I mean, 8,100 words and I’ve had about three story-impacting things happen.  Heaven forbid one of the characters notice that his shoelace is untied; I can easily see myself hurling that into a thousand words, which makes me tremble in fear over what I’ve become. 

Oh well, it’s only NaNo after all.  It’s not like this is going to see the light of any day down the road.  Unless I get so famous that anything by me is considered publishable–which also makes me tremble in fear over what the rest of you will have become.  What kind of a future world is that?

Best of luck to all the participants, and thanks for visiting.

Word Count: 5,100 or thereabouts (as of 2AM).

Yeah, I decided to participate this year.  Honestly, I didn’t want to, and at the same time I did.  Turns out, though, that it was another project which made me feel I had no NaNo in me this time round.  Remember the Thrown-Up Ghost of Sighing pictures in a post or two back?  Well, I finally finished that webcomic on Saturday and found myself with some creative energy.  So NaNo it is.

This year is strange because I have no idea how the idea I’m using is going to play out.  The last two years, I know vaguely how I wanted things to begin and to end, and I had some scenes I knew I wanted to include.  A lot of that changed between the brain and the page, but the plans were there from the start. 

This year, I’m basically building a bridge across an abyss, and I can’t see the other side.  I’m either going to run out of bridge, or find that the other side is much further than I thought.  In fact, there may be no other side.  I have no plan, no idea about an ending, not a single clue about what might happen in the next paragraph.

Sounds like a great way to write garbage, doesn’t it?  Of course, it might turn out great.  I guess we’ll see.  As of today, I’m about half where I should be, in terms of word-count (given the 1,667 per day requirement).  I took the last two days off because I was just feeling blah about the whole thing.  I may catch up by the weekend.

Or I might decide it was a bad idea after all, and go back to drawing or painting or building death rays.  Whatever used to occupy my time.

Thanks, as always, for popping by.