Stumble number two!!!! :-)

Ok… I don’t think that we can even call it a stumble… this week it was more of being lazy! I went to my local Nano Write-in and met some more great people that are all in the same boat as I am. After that day I came out with a grand total of 17,450 and I was feeling on TOP of the WORLD as they say… which was just enough for me to get cocky, lazy, and not write anything for the last 3 days!

Monday I went to bed easily knowing that I wrote over 3,000 words that day. Tuesday I arrived at home late, had dinner, and while watching tv in bed shortly afterwards I feel asleep. “No Problem”,  i thought, “I’m only behind one day.”  Wednesday I came home late and fell asleep again. Thursday I had gone out with some buddies from work (my friend Jon is leaving to Mass. so we had to give him a good send-off), and by the time that I arrived at home, 10:30pm, I had just enough time to watch a tv show with my girlfriend before passing out… and here we are… FRIDAY!

The carrot at the end of our stick (aka… the work week). The reason that we keep telling ourselves that we work hard all week for, just to relax for the weekend! The day that we all wish EVERY WORK DAY was! Good ole Friday, and I don’t have anything else to show for it on my word count.

On the positive side… I did write down some interesting plot twist that should make for some explosive writing spurts this weekend! I’m sure as hell hoping that they do! I calculated that by the end of tonight I should have 26, 672 words! So i’m about 9,000 words shy! As long as I have my plot twists on hand… i will be good for it.

Now, I will have to write ahead because I’m planning on going up to NY for the Thanksgiving weekend. I’ll spit out the details later! (the procrastinator in me always wins out!).

So i’ve received some words of encouragement from my two NY buddies… Phil & Johnny… and I just wanted to say that as always, thank you for your friendship and most importantly for your support! Check you later!

Finally! A writing spurt for NaNoWriMo!

So I was pissed about losing my Fantasy Football  game today, and I pretty much stayed home all day. All i wanted to add (since it  is 2:40am and I have to go to work today morning), is that I finally wrote with honor today! At current count I am up to 14,470 words! A new record for me! Just 35, 530 to go! LOL

I will say that the preparations  that I made seem to have helped me alot. First of all I went through alot of the forums at the Nanowrimo website, and this helped me flesh out a few things like at least having a rough character profile, an excel spreadshett with a timeline that I could space out some thoughts, and I even created a daily word counter where I can put the daily amount of words that I wrote that day, it would add up the total, calculate by how much I am off pace (or ahead of which hasn’t happened yet… but give it time!), and it even displays a pie chart showing how much i’ve completed based on my numbers and how much I have to go. To be on pace, and in total to get up to 50,000 words!

Suffice to say, I  do think that it helped! I was able to double my word count in one day because of  it, and  I think that it was  pretty decent writing to boot! The other thing that really helped me out was  re-reading through my first 3 chapters. I know that we aren’t supposed to look back at what we wrote, but for me it helped because I was able to add alot more detail to my story and think about how it was all going to come together (now that I had a timeline). So if it helped me, then I guess that it couldn’t be all that bad right? 

Well, i’m going to take a quick shower and go to bed. I will  shower before going to bed because I KNOW that I will be waking up late and be in a rush. If i shower now I will be eliminating shower time in the morning! See, I do like to plan ahead!

Wish me luck! And hopefully later today (Monday) I’ll be able to catch up and write the 5, 000 + words that I will need to write to be caught up to my daily amount for Tuesday! I’m looking forward to that! Good night!

Still behind… but writing strong!!!

So today, after watching my CBS Fantasy football team do NOTHING! (I’m still pissed) and to see Peyton Manning play the worse football that I have seen ANY BOOTY quarterback play… I turned away from the TV and finally started writing. Channeling some of the anger and frustration.

I was in first place in my Fantasy League till this week. I was officially kicked to 2nd place in my division after i’ve been talking smack to the other guys about being in first place for the last 4 weeks. Oh well. The only good things that I have to show for today are that i’ve reached past 11,000 words (and counting!), and that I saw an enjoyable movie during dinner. It was “Wild Hogs” with John Travolta, Martin Laurence, Tim (the tool guy), and this other guy. I’ve never been good with names! It was pretty funny. Anyway… i’ll get back to writing and i’ll write more on that later!

Peace!

OK… let’s just say what I HAVE been doing?

I’ve always been a natural  procrastinator. It’s a shame that that isn’t the kind of thing that they keep track of in a family tree, because i’m sure that I come from a long line of native procrastinators. Or maybe there was someone, way back in my family tree that was planning on putting something together, and documenting this family fact… but they just put it off till later. 

Either way, I didn’t even ATTEMPT to write yesterday, or today. I am going to finish some of  my research and hope to make it all  up this  weekend! All I know is that if I don’t catch up this weekend… well, let’s not  even go there, but I better do it this weekend!

But, as long as I AM procrastinating… here are some of the things that I HAVE been doing! Watching the latest Naruto Shippuden (not sure if that’s how it’s spelled… but Naruto lovers will recognize what i’m saying), watching (for like  the 3rd time) the Transformers  Movie!  On this note I will say that  I wasn’t as happy with it when i first saw it in the theater, but the more I watch it, the  more  it grows on me.  And thinking up another invention which I believe could HONESTLY revolutionize the world… but of course i’ll never “get around” to  it. Aaahh.. the life of a dreamer! Ok… I need  to get back to finishing my research…  maybe i’ll even write something tonight. At least I don’t need to go to  bed to wake up early for work! Hooray for weekends!!!!

No writing… but still productive NaNoWriMo time!

Didn’t get to write like I wanted to last night either, but today I decided to take a different route. I think that I’m slowing down because I don’t really know what direction to take it in and i’m seeing a brick wall coming up after the next chapter! So I’ve decided to do research! That’s right!

So far i’ve received some tips on how to flesh out my characters, a few additional chapter ideas and plot twists, and some grisly scenes (mostly from  checking out the NaNoWriMo forums where I saw some bodily harm descriptions which I had not thought of for one my characters!).

So far, i believe that it’s been productive, but only time will tell. At least i’m getting pumped about what i’m writing again… I just need to make sure that i’m moving in the right direction! I better make up for my writing by this weekend or i’m screwed! Till later!

Still falling behind!

So it is Wednesday, everything at work seems to be going crazy, and i’m falling behind even more! I didn’t get to finish my 5,000 words to catch up, and a combination of the wedding weekend trip, the daylight savings hour, and the extra work at my day job are contributing to a level of fatigue that I had not known since… well, I don’t remember what at the moment… too tired to think that far back, but you get the gist. I don’t think that it was helping that I haven’t had the time to work out lately either (or even walk around the block, appx. 2 and 3/4 miles, as I had been doing a few times a week). So with that in mind when i came home, I went for my walk and i’m feeling a bit energized… for now at least. Although each night i’m writing at least 800-1000 words… I must be behind about 7,000 words at the moment. So I can’t wait for the weekend where I can catch up on my sleep and on my writing. I’ll try to give an update tonight after writing… or I may just write what I can and aim to make it up during the weekend. Maybe i’ll use this time to think about a new character and what they want to get revenge on someone for… WHOOOPPPsss… I let out a bit of my plot! (I meant to do that!)

So as long as I did let me ask for some feedback. I want to know how some one wronged you once. How bad you felt (what actions did you take, what was your behavior, etc.), who the person was to you (boss, husband, girlfriend, stranger), and IF (this is a BIG IF!!!), but IF you can do something to this person… plot a plan of revenge to make them pay for what they did… or just to give them a taste of their own medicine… what would you do to them. (It could be legal, illegal, funny, stupid, mean… as long as it has meaning behind it!) I have a few ideas of my own… but I need a “spark” to fire up my imagination for my story, and to have me writing at full blast!

So if you could comment back I would appreciate it. So here are the 4 questions, just cut and paste, and put in your reply:

1)Something significant, and life changing, that was “done” to you. Either directly or indirectly.

2)Who was this person and what do they signify to you. Do you still harbor feelings of anger/injustice or have you forgiven them?

3) If you’ve forgiven… explain why. If you haven’t (and yes… this is what I needed some feedback on), what would you LIKE to do to them to get your revenge? The more complex and significant in comparison to what they did to you… the better.

Now of course… I am looking for something more… “creative”. Anyone can want to kill someone or just punch them… but I want to take the story further than that. What kind of plot/plots would you concoct? So let me hear it people!

My first “write-in”!

Hello again!

Well, it is 1:15am on Tuesday morning (technically Monday as far as  i care), and i’ve made some progress, though not as much as I would have liked. I went to work today and I was feeling tired all day, no matter how much coffee I drank. Also, when I awoke this morning I felt as though I might be coming down with something as I had a slight sore throat. During lunch Andy and I were going to try and write for a few minutes, but then we were distracted by conversation with Yeny and Monica. I left work and made a few stops for errands (the library to drop of some books & videos, a store to shop  for a specific gift) and on my way there I spoke with an old friend (Denise) that reminded me of how much I always enjoyed proposing “What if”questions and specially how I enjoyed torturing her with them.  I need to  add some to my book! I’m just so fond of them! LOL

I had also received an e-mail by the Moderator, Claire, in which she had e-mailed me and other users in the area about our first “write-in”. This is where other NaNoWriMo writers would meet to chat, get to know each other, share each others ideas and push each other to keep writing. They actually had a “kick-off” event and write-in on Sunday, but I missed it because of my wedding trip. I finally showed up at the Border’s on Atlantic & University and met some great writers!

There was a small group of people there, but they were great… and YOUNG! Claire, for example,  while apparently is a smart and well organized young woman, didn’t look older than 18 (though she might have been a bit older than that!) I also met Sandy, Lisa and (oooohhh.. their going to want to kill me if they read this!)… I can’t remember the name of the other bright young lady and the only other guy that showed up. It was nice to see other people that are your “support group” for this event. They were all friendly, answered all my questions, and were very helpful.  We will be meeting every Monday from 6pm  to 9pm, and while there  I wrote 1,884 more words! At home, and after midnight I wrote an additional 830 words before I ran out of gas and figured that I will hit the bed.

My total word count so far is 5,523 words! At the moment I am short 2,812 words to be on pace, but  i’ll focus on catching up tomorrow. Tomorrow I will need to complete 2,812 + 1,667 for a total of 3,479 words to be up to date! I think that I can do it!

Till then!

Nope… not going to make it tonight…

I’m soooooo tired! I guess that my body is just tired from driving around for almost 5 hours in a car. It was a crazy weekend and I was going to bed pretty late every night (went to be at 2:30am Sat. morning, to wake up by 8am to get ready for the wedding and then going to bed at 3am Sunday morning, to wake up at 9am), plus the real kicker is that I have to get up in the morning to go to work! Almost wish that I could take the day off!

So on the bright side, I tried to write my 5100 words, but I was literally writing while falling asleep (I’ve never done that before!), so I kept re-reading the last sentence and then thinking where I was and what I wanted to write, before going through it all over again on the same sentence. So i’m going to bed.

The GOOD THING though is that I found out where they are having write-ins (places where other NaNoWrimo writers are convening to write. (think i spelled it wrong… but basically… ahhh forget it. Too sleepy).  But i’m hoping to go for my first write in tomorrow after work. So I’m going to take a step back (and go to bed so that I may get at least a solid 6 hours of sleep) so that I hopefully leap ahead tomorrow. I did write an addition 923 words.

So total words written are 2809 out of 50,000.  Leaving only 47,191! To be on  pace I need to write (6668 words to be up to day tomorrow, minus the 923 that I wrote today), making my goal for tomorrow to be 5745.

Till tomorrow! Ciao!

The first stumble!!!

Ok… so i knew that I was going to go away for a wedding (left Friday morning at 7:45am and knew that I would return on Sunday), and as expected I haven’t written again since (though I was hoping that to continue writing at our hotel location, which is why I took my laptop), but alas, with all of the commotion and events, it just didnt’ happen. I somewhat expected that I would not be able to continue writing for those two days, and I didn’t. With that said, I’m expecting to make up for it and write over 5,100 words TODAY! So this will probably be my first true test of commitment… to come back from behind!

How did the wedding go you asked… oh… let’s just say that it will be a memorable event! LOL. I’m  sure that somehow I’ll incorporate SOME of what happened… i’ll leave it up to others to tie it together with whatever i  write! Let’s just say that there were enough setbacks on our way there that we missed the rehearsal! Then the would-be-bride freaked out, aaahhh… fun times, but BACK TO WORK! It took  us  9 hours to get there…we made it back in 4 hours and 45 minutes! Yeah… we were speeding.

Hopefully i’ll be able to complete 5100 tonight and write an update. For now, I HAVE TO get back to watching the Colts vs. Patriots game! Two teams, both undefeated this season till today where ONE of them will lose! Plus I have a few of the keys players on my Fantasy Football team… but more on that later. Till then!

Day one… over 1667 words written… CHECK!

Woohoo! It is a super small goal, but a completed one for me… my first official day of writing and I completed writing 1,886 words today! Only 29 more days, and 48, 124 words to go! WOOHOO! LOL

Well, the way I see it, it is a small milestone… i’m just making the most of it.

So as i’m checking out my tempo, what a world of difference it makes with me writing before going to bed, or after waking up! My writing at night has alot more flair, came alot easier, and I was enjoying what i was writing. My morning writing… aaaahhhh… not so much. It’s a good thing that i’m a night owl to begin with, but I will most likely stick to writing at night.

I didn’t know if I was going to make my small milestone either. Right now I just want to make sure that I’m writing the 1,667 words a day to keep on pace but I was feeling pretty tired today, mostly because we’ve been preparing for this wedding that I will be in this weekend. So after getting out at work I wanted to take a nap, but I wasn’t “tired” enough to fall asleep. Weird huh? I just hope that i’m not getting sick or anything.

As far as my friend and family that I tried to convince to write as well, so far my daughter said that she will write, and I haven’t checked on my sister. I checked in with Andy around 11:00pm and he had written about 700 words… so at least he started, but I haven’t followed up on the others who said that they would. I even called my cousin who has written a few screenplays, to see if he might be interested in writing a novel but it wasn’t his thing. I guess that i’ll check on the rest of them tomorrow.

Althought i’m taking my laptop on the trip, i’m not sure how much i’ll get to write on the road, or if i’ll be able to get on the internet. I would like to think that I will, but you never know. But, where there’s a will, there’s a way. If there is internet access I will find it!

So I will definitely be writing, i’m just not sure if i’ll be posting anything till i get back on Sunday! So till next time! And only 48,124 more words to go!

I have to start packing before taking off in the morning! It is going to be a long day (with a 6 hour car ride to boot!)

Till the next “verse”… Wevmax