Well...

We're going to miss out on spending the last several days of NaNoWriMo together. Not that I won't be writing - I just won't have the internet. We're going to stay with some friends for the holiday. It's going to be quiet and relaxing and great! I can hardly wait to get on the road. But, alas, no internet.

So, this is my farewell letter for the month. I hope everyone is successful and everyone has a great race to the finish. Me, I have 15,000 words to write before the month ends. Will I make it? Hard to say. I'll let you know!

I've enjoyed NaNo very much (although this blog has certainly NOT been an aid to my wordcount!) and I can't wait to do it again next year. In the meantime, happy writing (frantically) and happy editing!

~Eryn

5000 to go!

That was an easy 2200 words! Abbey went (with Christian!) to the mall to buy some stockings to wear under her uniform. It finally snowed last night and it's cold, cold, cold in those ridiculous skirts. The mall is big and brings back childhood memories for Abbey. In other words, it's a great place to write about! Now Abbey has what she needs, but I'm guessing it's nearly lunch time. Time for some serious flirting with Christian. No, this doesn't further the plot in any way, but it's FUN!

Here's an excerpt for you, since it's been a while. Then I'm off to take pictures of some seriously cute kids!

"Eventually, she had made it to the end of the book. Most of the pages had already been colored on. Someone had taken a blue crayon and scribbled on the last several pages. Abbey had some strong opinions about what should have happened to that person. She decided that she had colored enough and thought she should go turn the book in to someone important. After all, it was done. No other child would want it. So she descended the little ladder and put the crayons back in the bottom of the chest. Then she turned to find her mother."

I'm back

Yesterday didn't kill me so I came back for more! I am now 7200 behind my current goal. At this rate, I either have to sprint or write 2695 words every day. Let the sprinting begin! My goal today is to write as many words as I did yesterday. If I can manage that, I will only be about 4700 behind tomorrow. Not stellar, but better. Eventually I'll get there. Who knows, I may get it all done today.

A poster on my favorite board (bigbadbabynames.net) suggested that a good way to knock out large word counts is just to leave your novel open all the time. That way, you can do 100 words here and 100 words there and get it done before you know it. Today, that's what I'm trying!

Update for the day

Well, I didn't catch up. I guess I didn't think I really would. BUT I gave myself a nice little boost (over 4,000 words today!) so that should help. I predict I'll be caught up in a couple of days and I'm happy with that.

That being said, my hands are sore and I'm going to bed. You'll have to wait for any Abbey updates until tomorrow. Also, you may have to wait for my current wordcount because Blogger is messing up for me. I'll try again, but it's been freezing on the Layout screen all day. Evil program!

Night!

So far...

So good. I've written about 3,000 words today. I'm officially over 30,000! I know that's not where I should be today, but it's a lot more than I had this morning. And I started a new plot thread - Abbey's falling for Christian, Jenna's mischievous older brother. Is this good or bad? I'm not sure. But after seeing Twilight last night (woo hoo!) it seems pretty normal! What's a YA book without any romance?

By the way, Twilight, while it jumped around and was, in some places, totally unconvincing, was HOT! I haven't squealed at a movie that much in years.

This Day

I am 10,000 words behind this morning. I'm not sure how this has happened. But you know what? I'm just not all that worried. I still think I can make it this month. I'm even foolish enough to think that I can catch up today! So, we'll see. It would feel really good to put 10 or more stickers on my chart Monday morning. It would feel really good to be caught up again...maybe even ahead in a couple of days. I think I can do it. Here we go!

Um... Oops?

This weekend ended up being busier than I'd planned. Or maybe I'm just lazier. At any rate, yesterday we had an appointment, some shopping and a long birthday dinner to attend. We had a lot of fun; everything went well, but my writing suffered.

I am officially behind!

So, today, I should be writing frantically to make up my precious word count and give my suffering plot some direction! But I have a whole day of shopping to do instead. Basically, it's me and the computer for about 15 more minutes (at most) and then a whole day of huge outlet malls, two year olds, Christmas present buying and burning off energy.

If I'm alive when I return, I'll write more then. If not...

So, my goal has changed a little. Between now and... Monday night, I want another 5,000 words. That will put me just over the NaNo goal. With any luck, I'll find a way to write on Tuesday and Wednesday as well and I'll have a bajillion words by Wednesday night. Heck, I could even be done by then! (Ha!)

I guess I should stop procrastinating and start writing. Todays scene: Abbey finally gets the package from her mother. Is it significant or just a heartwarming scene? No one knows.

Quick Update

My hands are tired.

Okay, that's not the update.

Nothing funny or (really) scary happened to Abbey tonight. Some suspicious things happened to her and she's a little confused right now. She got a solo in the upcoming concert. It was a little strange, since she thought she was in trouble. I don't think it's as good as she thinks it might be, but who am I to judge? ;)

Oh, and I wrote over 2000 words tonight!

A GIFT! (AKA Me? Procrastinate?)

These are as close as I could get them. Jenna's is much better than Seth's (which doesn't look anything like him, actually). But, just in case you were wondering...

I'm back!

I had a couple days of horrible headaches and long work days and didn't feel much like writing. I guess it's a good thing that I was so far ahead! Well, now I'm back on track to finish just in time. So I guess I better get writing.

I haven't given a whole lot of thought to what's going to happen in Abbey's life today. Maybe she'll get that packages (it's been in the mail a long time now!) or maybe she'll have something funny happen to her. We'll just have to wait and see!

Hey!

Does anyone have any idea how to make these work?

Good Sunday Morning!

We're on day 9 now. Everyone should be approaching 15,000 at least, so sayeth the NaNo site.

I actually have a little more than that. I passed 20,000 this morning. I'm keeping ahead because I know there are some big things coming up in a couple of weeks and I'll likely fall behind. Plus, I have to do something to help my state. We're #50 on the list this morning. Come on VA!

Anyway, here's what's new in Abbey's life. After spraining her ankle in the lake (silly girl), she is back in classes. It's Friday (in her world. Not here, unfortunately!) and she's trying to hunt down the mysterious boy who leaves her notes. Her roommate freaked out when she found one in their room that morning (although Abbey was kind of flattered). She just asked her English teacher if he knew the boy. It was completely unuseful because the man speaks only in questions and riddles, so she got no where. His answer to her was "What do you use every single day, but never pay for? What is truly yours but came from somewhere else? What is very personal but shared with everyone?" I bet you know, but Abbey was stumped.

She'll probably ask around some more, but it won't be very useful. All of her professors are strange in one way or another. And Jenna would never help her. She's afraid of something and wants Abbey to just keep her nose down and get through the last 2 years.

No word yet on Abbey's mom, either. Abbey continues to write her every day and her letters are becoming more and more frustrated. But without an address, it doesn't matter. Her mother will never see them. I do strongly suspect that Abbey will hear from her mother soon, though. I believe there's an unusual gift heading Abbey's way. I'm just not sure what it has to do with the mystery surrounding the school and the strange camp. . .

11/8/08

Well, guys, we're in week 2. If you made it this far, HOORAY!

I had a whole day to do whatever activities I wanted. I crocheted almost the whole day. The scarf I was working on is finished. I started a poncho and it's going quickly! It was very nice. I just started writing at 8:00 and that went really well and fast as well! I went back and filled in some of the places I skipped last night in my haste to finish the goal quickly. But tonight I wrote just over 2,000 words right away and did a scene that was both interesting and helpful.

Hooray!

Unfortunately, I don't have any more clues for you, but I will say that Abbey has had an unfortunatly stupid accident that has put her on crutches for a while. I guess she won't be solving the mystery this week!

Week 1 blues

You know how Phillip Pullman's email this week said that page 70 was the worst? Well, when I make my writing book-size, I'm on page 63. And I have to say, though I'm not a big fan of his books (quite frankly, they give me the creeps), I agree that these pages suck. Maybe it's the long week we just had. Maybe it's the migranes I'm promised will last another 2 weeks. Maybe it's that I am so close to finishing the scarf I've been picking away at for a week and a half. Whatever it is, I'm just not writing well tonight, I'm hating my characters, my plot, the mystery...everything. So, rather than ruin it all with crappy plot and rushed dialogue (or is it the other way around?), I'm going to take the rest of the night off and watch fluff TV and crochet and chat and not worry that I fell short of tonight's goal by over 1000 words. Tomorrow's Saturday anyway.

11/7/08

It's been a decent Friday so far, but I'm running on fumes. My goal for tonight, therefore, is going to be quite a bit more conservative. Let's say...2000 words.

I'll check back shortly with some updates.

Check it out!

If you're looking at my ticker today, you'll see that I'm 29% of the way done with my novel. That's right. I'm almost a 3rd there. Today I wrote over 5000 words!

I have to go to bed now. I'm braindead and sleeping with my eyes open (plus I had to leave before 6 am this morning, so I'm really beat), but I promised an excerpt and some more clues, so here they are!

"In an empty notebook she began to jot down the notes and the other strange things that had been happening since she’d arrived. Even if it wasn’t a mystery, it would give her something to do while Jenna was away and something to think about when she was home. Abbey’s notebook read,
1. First note: Green paper: “Sometimes the small things are the most important.” (stolen)
2. Second note: Red paper: “Knowledge is power…it is also danger.”
3. Third notes: Orange paper (3): “Follow…your…instincts”
4. Strange camp with small (children?) inhabitants.

It seemed like kind of a pathetic list, but Abbey tucked it between the mattresses anyway. There may be a mystery; there may not. But one thing was certain. This was a strange place to live."

Brilliant prose, it is not, but that's 127 words I don't have to write any more.

With any luck, I'll be able to finish and do a quick edit before NaNoWriMo ends!

Well, night to all. I'll see you tomorrow!

~E

I don't know if it'll work, but... **UPDATE: It works!**

I am such a procrastinator. I've reached today's NaNo goal. Actually, I've gone beyond that. But I haven't reached my goal. Why? Well, I could say it's because I'm waiting on Kim, but really, it's because I've been playing with my spreadsheet. Every year, I make a spreadsheet to keep track of everything I can think of NaNo-related. This year's is the best yet. I'm not sure if I can actually link it to a blog, but I'll try. Just in case it doesn't work, I'm including a screenshot so you can see the awesomeness.

Okay, maybe it's too hard to see, but this thing does it all. I edit only the purple boxes. Everything else is automatic (and locked so I don't mess it up!). I can tell it how many total words I have so far, how many words I write during a sprint and how long the sprint was. It tells me how many words I've written today, how many words I write on average each day, how many words I should have with the 1667 goal, how many words I will need to write each day starting tomorrow if I want to finish on time, how many more words I need to write today to meet the NaNo goal, how many words I need to write to meet the new calculated goal, how many total words I need to write this month, how many words per minute I wrote on my last sprint, the highest WPM for the month. If I mess up, it tells me (see the little X? I haven't updated yet today) AND it graphs my daily word counts compared to the NaNo goal and my total word counts compared to the NaNo goal.

And while I was typing this just now, I think I figured out how to make it automatically update my daily word count. I'm off to try!

I'll update you on my uploading success soon!

UPDATE: I think it will work. Click here to download the spreadsheet (Excel 97 version). It has my data in it, but you can easily change it to your data by editing the purple cells!

Day 6

Is it day 6 already? How did that happen?

I haven't been making very good on my goals so far. But today is different. I am (obviously) not at work and I have the whole day to rest, so I have lots of time to write. And write I will. I would like to write 4,000 words today.

Also, I owe you a couple of passages and clues. Those are on their way as well!

Writing and writing

I have to get back on track after yesterday. I wrote a little at work today (shhhh) while the kids were reading. I have another 1000 words for my daily goal and that may be all I do. It's quarter to 7 and I just got home.

I'm off to write.

Oops!

I didn't end up writing yesterday. I had the news on most of the night and I'm very excited about the outcome!

Of course, today, after work, I have a lot of catching up to do!

Morning!

I have just one thing to tell you this morning.

GO VOTE!!!

I'm off to vote. Writing is secondary today.

Day 3 Continued

So, Kim and I are writing frantically tonight and making good progress. Between sprints and long stretches of silence and positive reinforcement from each of us, we're doing okay, despite the fact that work was emotionally draining today.

In Abbey's life, there's a lot of foreshadowing going on, but nothing much has happened to her yet. That will have to change soon. And I'm still not sure what all of these clues will lead up to! So far we have:

1. Red roses appeared at her home. They scared her mother who wouldn't talk about them. They are the reason Abbey gets sent away to boarding school.
2. Each day, they deliver food to a strange camp. Abbey caught a glimpse of the inhabitants on the last trip ang thinks they may be children.
3. She receives strange notes from another student. Although she doesn't know it yet, they're written on stolen school stationery.

I'm not sure where this is going or how it's going to get there, but it's fun so far!

I want to write another 990 words before I go crochet. It would be easier to do if I got off the internet, so

BYE!

11/3/08

No time to write now. Today, it's back to work for me (well, kinda). I do have a writing date this afternoon. I'll set a goal then and let you know how it goes!

11/3/08

No time to write now. Today, it's back to work for me (well, kinda). I do have a writing date this afternoon. I'll set a goal then and let you know how it goes!

2 down, 28 to go

Well, it's getting near bedtime, so I guess I'm done for the day. I made it to 5800+. That's not quite as far as I would have liked to be this weekend, but it's further than I need to be, so I'm satisfied.

So far, I'm really happy with the direction of my story. As usual, I'm getting too caught up in details. Something needs to happen soon. But I like the characters and I think I'm foreshadowing well (although I don't know what for!)

I hope everyone's writing is going as well! Leave me a comment and let me know how it's going! And don't forget to vote in my new poll!

The Grounds and the Progress

I'm not quite to my goal yet, but I'm only 1000 words off! I've been procrastinating (who, me??) and I made a picture for you. This is a completely crazy map of the grounds. I'm not sure what drug the architect was on when he planned this building, but I'd like some! :)



Anyway, in my head, the building fits together a lot better than it does in this crazy picture (which, by the way, I made in Excel). But at least this way I can keep my turns straight when characters are going places.





Here's today's Novel Excerpt.



Category: Strange

"Jenna yanked at the handle. It opened to reveal an odd sort of room. It was cavernous with ceilings easily 15 feet high and walls made entirely out of stone. In the front of the room was a blackboard on an easel-type stand, a large, dark colored desk and several stumpy bookcases. Just behind that sat 3 rows of 4 desks. But they weren’t like the student desks Abbey had used at her old school. They were actual desks with leather chairs on casters and drawers for books and papers. Each desk had a small wooden box on top that contained 4 thin drawers about 9 inches across. There was a keyhole on each drawer.
Behind the desks, the room seemed to stretch on endlessly so that the desks and chalk easel seemed strangely dwarfed. Bookshelves made of rich, dark wood lined the walls of the classroom. They were filled with books, all of them tall and bound in faded cloth or leather. In the very back of the room, which was only dimly lit with floor lamps, there sat an enormous table, a dozen or so high-backed leather chairs, several armchairs in deep crimson and studded with brass buttons and a single powerful-looking computer.
“English,” Jenna said."

11-2-08

Well, I didn't make my goal yesterday. I got distracted by photography websites (mostly my own: www.epluimphoto.com) and crocheting and solitaire and making this site and playing on the NaNo site. Oh and, of course, BNaBBT!

But today will be better. I'm awake ridiculously early (7:00 now!) and ready to write, at least for a couple of hours. I want to get to... 5500 today I think. We'll see how that goes!

Either way, I'm still ahead of where I need to be in order to finish, so I'm feeling okay.

11/1/08 - Day One

Here we go! I am, at the moment, completely out of ideas. I have absolutely no idea who this story is about or what will happen. I'm leaning towards a mystery that takes place within a really, really messed up boarding school, but what will it be about? What is the problem? What will it turn out to be? Is it a fantasy? Is it YA? Is it funny, scary, serious, instense, silly? Will I enjoy writing it?

I seem to be using all of my words up here, so, without further ado, I'm off.

My goal for today - 5000 words.
My words so far - 1781 words.

Today's Excerpt:
Category: Mystery
"Abbey Etta stared down the dark corridor that led to the dorms. She didn’t know which was scarier: the dark, winding, spider infested walk to the rooms or the fact that one more step would put her too far to turn back. But who was she kidding? Wasn’t it already too late to go back? With a solemn significance, she moved her right foot forward across the threshold and stepped into the hallway. Now it was too late to turn back.
Abbey, whose full name was Abigail Louise Marie Etta, knew exactly how she’d wound up at this strange school in this strange new life. It had started with a single red rose. The rose, which Abbey now remembered with a searing hatred, had been left on the top step outside the apartment she shared with her mother. There had been no note, no card, nothing but that rose. Stupidly curious, Abbey had picked it up and carried it inside with her. "