Author. Reader.
Didn’t hit 50k for NaNoWriMo.
Managed to get the work in progress to 30k yesterday, which by my estimation is just under halfway. Yay. There’s still a thin hope it’ll be finished by New Year’s Eve, which is my new goal but Christmas does tend to derail things like that.
Congratulations to my fellow writers who achieved your NaNo goals! *sprinkles confetti*
And to those who didn’t – you can do it, keep going! *waves Pom Poms*
The novel is progressing well. Maybe not 50000-words-in-a-month well, but hey ho. That’s the way it goes sometimes.
I’m happy with the development. It doesn’t feel rushed. I’m building up to the big ‘turning point’ moment but it’s not quite there yet.
That’s okay.
So far this year, I’ve written somewhere between 74,198 (the first LWL story) and 175,224 words (LWL1, LWL2 so far & the original third story in a dust-gathering trilogy that spawned the whole thing back in March) this year.
That’s quite a lot.
Maybe not for someone who can write full-time, who doesn’t have a full-time job, family commitments and other silly life factors that get in the way.
For me, though? 175,000+ words over the course of an almost year is good.
There’ll be more before the end of the year, obviously, as there’s still some of November and all of December to go, but even if there wasn’t?
I can live with that.
It’s 175,000+ words more than any of my non-writer friends has written.
It’s 175,000+ words more than any of my colleagues, who think I’m odd for preferring nights in to nights out getting spending my hard earned money on extortionately priced alcohol, have written.
I may not hit my NaNoWriMo target this year, but I’m still happy with what I’ve achieved. My writing may not pay the bills yet (to be fair, I’d kind of have to let someone else read it first for it to do that…) but it’s something I’ve kept doing through thick and thin, something I need to do in order to cope with everything else that’s going on, and I’m happy with that.
I hope my fellow writers out there are happy with their word count achievements, too.
… Because I’ve successfully read three novels during the course of this month, plus Gilmore Girls.
Because, hello, Gilmore Girls. It was the show of my not-so-youth, (I’m about the same age as Rory Gilmore, go figure), and it was a TV show that served as a sort of bonding experience between me and some of my closest friends, one of which is no longer with us and the others who aren’t as close as they used to be. (Which, if you’ve seen it, are you Team Jess? Logan? Dean? Paul?!)
Kind of sad. But never mind. That’s this thing called life for you.
The books I’ve been busy procrastinating with reading are the two Ilona Andrews ‘Edge’ series books I’ve mentioned beforehand and another random novel I had on my Kindle.
Now, I really enjoyed the ‘Edge’ series books, as expected, but the third book… I don’t know. I’m not going to list the title or author, just say it wasn’t quite as expected. To be honest, I don’t know if I enjoyed it or not.
There was this whole subplot set in the future – parts of the book were written in the past, too, but I got those – that seemed to me it’d been added as an afterthought, and amended at the instruction of someone other than the author.
The future scenes were interspersed between the rest of it, conversations between the lead character and her future child (a son, we learn towards the end of the story.) They don’t seem to be in any sort of chronological order and seem to be just kind of thrown in there to ensure a happy ending. In fact, I can almost imagine the below conversation taking place:
Author: There! It’s all done! What do you think?
Editor/Publisher: It’s great! Well, there’s this one thing..
A: What thing?
E/P: It needs a little something more, you know? It’s not really a happy ending.
A: But it is happy! She’s on her own and she realised she just needs to be confident in who she is to be happy!
E/P: Yeah, no, I get that but.. Maybe there needs to be a kid?
A: A kid?
E/P: Yeah! Yeah, do some future scenes. Her and the kid. Make her a mother and she’ll be happy.
A: But she’s never eluded to the fact she likes kids, let alone wants one..?
E/P: Hmm, you’re right. Hey, how about we add a scene in the present time where she’s thinking about kids? She can see someone with them and think that hey, yes, that’s something she wants someday? Then hey presto, in the future, she’s a mum and she’s happy!
A: Um. Okay. I guess. [Obediently adds said scene, and writes dialogue-only conversations between mother and child, though eludes to the fact mother is on her own with child but is okay because a man does not equal everything.] There! What do you think?
E/P: Excellent! Brilliant! Love the kid… But…
A: But…?
E/P: It’s not very happy ending-ish, is it?
A: What do you mean? She has a home, a job, a child? She’s happy.
E/P: She doesn’t have a husband, though, does she? You had the kid ask where Daddy is but didn’t answer, just kind of avoided it?
A: Well, yes. Because she doesn’t need a man to make her whole. You see, that was the point of relationships X, Y and Z. To prove being in a relationship might be what’s expected of women these days but it doesn’t necessary lead to happiness.
E/P: Yeah, yeah. We get that. Girl power, feminism. All that jazz. But… you know… it’s not very happy. A happy marriage would make her happy.
A: But I’ve not mentioned anywhere that she’s married…?
E/P: No. No, but you did mention Bloke P in a scene once. Maybe throw his name into a couple more scenes, the ones where she’s back home and he could be on her mind? Then have him be the dad?
A: … Okay?
E/P: And have the last two sentences… The bedtime story. It can end with the mum telling the kid that she has to go because Daddy’s home. That would work.
A: [Resigned sigh] Okay.
And that basically sums up what went through my head when I finished the story. It didn’t feel like a natural end, nor like the one the author spent so long building up towards.
So there we go. Part of the reason my NaNoWriMo project currently stands at a measly 23065 words instead of the 40+ it should be right about now. And now I’ve spent ten minutes writing 700+ words on this blog, I’ll get back to the actual novel I’m supposed to be writing on.
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the US, Happy Gilmore Girls Day to those of you everywhere who enjoy the series!
(And Happy NaNoWriMo end is in sight to those who’ve successfully kept with it this month!)
Word count update: 19,072.
Book update: Book three in Ilona Andrews ‘Edge’ series is finished; the fourth and final book is in progress.
In summary: Will power, what will power…?
(Silver lining: It’s nearly the weekend. Once the 4th book is read and finished, I’ve got nothing to distract me – other than the Christmas Fayre I’m going to on Saturday and the family lunch I’m hosting on Sunday – so maybe I can do a little writing on Saturday evening or Sunday morning.)
(Silver lining #2: I have the office to myself for an hour tomorrow. It’s sneaky, but what’s to say I don’t accidentally do some writing during that hour? Accidentally… )
Today, for the first time since last week, I got to writing again.
1,754 words written so far today. Not a patch on the number I need to do in order to get back on track with NaNo (we’re supposed to be at 25,000 words as of today – I’m just shy of 18,000 in total) but it’s still a number I’m happy with – and just the first of today’s offering.
There’s not been a sudden surge of inspiration, or anything like that. I just turned back to a trusty old friend and put fingers to keyboard.
Write or Die is a website that is a must for anyone who gets distracted, or anyone who needs a kick up the arse to get back into the swing of writing. I used to have the software downloaded on my baby (aka my laptop) but lost it when that baby crashed and I needed to get a new one. After using the website – WriteOrDie – to get some words out tonight, I’m more than likely going to bite the bullet and buy it again.
Writing is proving difficult at the moment due to a number of things:
Cutting a long and no doubt boring story short, I’m tired. I’m upset. I’ve got so many thoughts and worries and anxieties spinning around my head right now that I’m not sleeping, not eating, drinking too much and just really trying to hold things together.
Huh. This post wasn’t supposed to turn into a pity party for one. It started off all happy and positive because yay, words and now. Yeah.
WriteOrDie. I recommend it. If you’re a NaNoWriMo or a writer in general looking for a fantastic writing tool to help you churn out the words, give it a try.
Bye for now! x
Alexa Preece 