Imminent Failure

I am going to fail NaNo. No, really - just look at my progress bar.

It's hard, because this is the first time in three years that I've failed and I feel dreadful as a writer. I really wanted to prove to myself that I could actually finish a book. Well it's not finished, nowhere near. Not even close.

And I know that November has been a month straight out of hell. Severe money worries made me stressed, insomaniac and very nearly brought about a seperation between my husband and I. After surviving that - which includes a week where we had £40 to feed the seven of us, heat the house and run the car - missing out on 50K of words seems like small beans. Should feel like small beans. But it still bugs me.

It means that, except for October when I was writing fanfic, I've not hit my monthly word target all year. The only thing I have to show for 2010 is one published story and the fact I'm somehow still alive. I'm not sure about how sane I still am.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, though. Right?

NaNo: Progress to Date

NaNo, as you can see from my sidebar, is going really very well. My MMC has totally taken over, which has meant me A) dropping the idea of alternating view points and B) having to mark up chapter two for major changes come the edit. This made me swear a lot at first, but as I continue writing I've seen how those changes make for an expanding plot with a few twists and turns.

In other words enough plot for a novel-length fiction, which is kind of the point.

Countdown to NaNo: Three Days to Go

I still have no outline. I go blank after a certain amount of lines, because I don't know what my characters are going to do so how can I possibly plan beyond that?

So while other people are singing the praises of techniques like the Snowflake Method (tried and doesn't work for me), I'm still stuck on my planned two chapters and rough plot points.

Countdown to NaNo: Five Days to Go

After waiting almost all of October for Scrivener, I wasn't very impressed by the offering and so am using yWriter as usual. I'd use StoryBook, but for the annoying tendancy to label scenes with the actual day.

So the project file is started and saved, automatic saving enabled and my word count target set up. Time to start filling in the blanks. Today I'm concentrating on characters.

My MMC is Nath Valentine, the black sheep of a mobster family, living at the butt end of the galaxy in an attempt not to get involved. The FMC is Kara Montford, a diplomat trying to bring law and order to a gang war-torn solar system who quite literally crashes into Nath's life. Then we have Lucas Stewart, officer in the largely ineffectual galactic police who's been trying to close Nath's establishment for years and challenger for Kara's affections. There is also a small cast of secondary and incidentary characters who need names/development, which I've not really gotten around to as yet.

Still Alive

I know, it's been a while since I last updated, but I've been deep in NaNo'ing. I've written over 35K on To Recover the Satellites and I've a new WIP called A Thousand Words, which stands at almost 9K.

ATW is an erotic romance that I described on Absolute Write as "a travelogue with added sex". I'm expressing my latent desire to move go to New Zealand by having my FMC travel there.

NaNo Update

I kicked off in good style, racking up a lofty 6,500 on my first day.

Then I began to tail off, managing 1,777 yesterday. Today, after waking up at 4am because of my imminant trip to America, I've written 158. Though I am still writing...