NaNoWriMo 2010: An Unfortunate End

Well, with 15 minutes left in the month, I'm going to sadly call my attempt over, falling short of 20% completion. I could make excuses, but honestly, if I had pushed myself, I probably would have done better.

Having said that, here are my excuses.

1) 2 Literature Classes and another class called "Research and Argumentation" which demands an 8 page research paper a week can really sap the drive and motivation to write something for myself.

2) I spent way too much time on my notes and not on actual writing. The blueprints are there, but the crew had to reschedule.

3) School. Again. School. Always. School.

4) It's hard to make progress when you have to edit what you wrote while drunk or sleepy. Or both.

So yeah. What it comes down to is school ate up all of my time. If I wasn't writing for a class, I wasn't writing at all.

What does this mean for the story?

Not a damn thing. I'm not stopping this one. I might put it on hold to work on a short story or two to submit to my school's writing journal, but Maelstrom (working title) will be finished. Probably better now that I'm not just trying to throw in as much as possible as fast as possible.

I'll keep posting the status of it as I make more progress.

And I look forward to trying again in 2011 with something brand new.

Oh, and before I forget.

NaNoWriMo 2010 Word Count: 7070 words.

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day One

I started at around 1:30 AM.

I had to rename a bunch of characters as well as invent a couple, but the prologue is basically finished, save for an un-fleshed out scene that I will improve. I've also reworked the third faction to be split into two groups, depending on their careers. Sor'ran will be the ones who live in secrecy, while Mystics are the ones that interact with the other groups.

I'm going to stop for now (seeing as it's 4 in the morning) but I might add more later today.



1559 words and counting.

NaNoWriMo 2010: SOON.

Less than a week until I start. Hopefully I'll be able to fill my major plot issues before I get to them.

Around 1000 words a day? I can pull this off. Brainstorming and planning alongside this while keeping up with my schoolwork?

..............We'll see.

Here's my page there (http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/546002) It'll show my progress as I go along. I'll see if there's a widget I can put up on the side of the blog.

NaNoWriMo 2009?: Last Year's Entry (UPDATED 11-20-2010)

After delving through Google Docs, I found last year's attempt at the book. It is the same idea that I'm working with this year, so any notes for this year apply. The basic outline is about 98% different. Link will follow after the break.

NaNoWriMo 2010: The Artifact

This is my MacGuffin, the thing everyone wants in my story.

NaNoWriMo 2010: The World

This is a basic description of the world. Will be updated as it goes

NaNoWriMo 2010: Solomon

Solomon is one of the main antagonists of the book. I don't know how big of a villain he'll be in the first part, though, or even if his name will stick (it probably won't). More will change as I go through it.

Full description after the break.

NaNoWriMo 2010: MacGuffin Mystery Solved

So my story has a MacGuffin.

"Goodwin, you devilish rogue! What is a MacGuffin?"

I'm glad you asked. A MacGuffin is a plot device that drives the plot in fiction. Sometimes it's an object. Sometimes it's a person. Think of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, the maltese falcon from... The Maltese Falcon, or the Grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The term was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock.

Basically, it's something that characters in a story all try to get. It does something amazing, or something horrible.

NaNoWriMo 2010 and Current Work

This is a long one, so bear with me.

What is NaNoWriMo 2010? It is a contest. Sort of. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to, from November 1st to November 31st, write 50,000 words. Let me spell that out for you. Fifty. Thousand. Words. That's over 1000 a day. Every day. For a month. The Prize? There is no prize. Except for the fact that YOU WROTE A NOVEL. Here's the official website

I tried last year, failing miserably with a paltry 2481 words. I thought I could pull it off by writing off of this idea I had, just making it all up as I went along, following a premise that I hadn't fully worked out yet. It was awful. I made up characters on the fly and I only had a vague outline to work with. On top of that, my outline included a plot line I had not even attempted to flesh out. Needless to say, It was a train wreck of amateurishness. Defeated by my own style of "make it up as you go," I shelved the idea, wanting to get back to it after writing other things.