Wednesday, November 5, 2014

1st Week of NaNo: COMPLETE

Sorry about the delay. I was too busy NaNo-ing yesterday that I didn't get to working on this post until about 11pm. I passed out about five times while writing it. I would wake up and notice that my sentence became something along the lines of "he's not a fan of 'a wall of text' and so I have to spread out mayonnaise and then add pickles to the right side door."

I don't even know where half the stuff came from. Yay, sleepy stream of consciousness.

My update wasn't done, but it also wasn't making any sense anymore. So I submitted to having a late update and I gave up for the night. Then I had work first thing in the morning up until 1pm. I did have my chapter done and posted before midnight last night though. Does that count?

Man, I need to remember to write up the short "what I did today" blips on the actual day they happen, not wait until Tuesday and then quickly try to compile them.

OCTOBER 29TH – WEDNESDAY
I was excited to get started on writing during NaNo. Plus, I had Wednesday off in who knows how long, and for who knows how many more weeks. I was geared and itching to write. I ended up bombarding The Bard with a whole bunch of questions about our game, and some insight in to Lottie; my vampire character whom I'll be writing about during NaNo.

I spent hours researching 1940s lingo/slang, when the draft was extended to include 18-year-olds, and the different WWII attacks/campaigns that were getting started shortly after August. I just absorbed as much background info as I could.

OCTOBER 30TH – THURSDAY
Mostly more researching in order to get as ready as I could for writing Lottie this month. I wrote down a bunch of info that I already knew about Lottie, and wrote down questions I needed answered about her.

I sent a copy of the list off to The Bard for him to look over. He was supposed to send me back some critiques and notes before I moved on to the actual project. Unfortunately, he's not a fan of "a wall of text" and so I have no clue if he actually read what I needed him to.

In the meantime, I'm a bit stuck until I get the answers I'm looking for. I'll have to focus on the plotline Bard came up for us for the game, and then branch out from there as Lottie's story starts to develop. Here's hoping it works that way...

OCTOBER 31TH – FRIDAY
Thankfully it wasn't November yet, because this day was just a wash. I dropped Hubby off at work, messed around on Facebook for a little bit, cleaned up a touch, and then went in to the shower. After showering, grooming, tracking down make-up and putting it on - a very slow task for me since I rarely wear it - and figuring out what "Halloweeny" outfit I could wear, it was time to go to work for my two hours of wellness. I did my work, and then waited around a little bit for Hubby to finish his shift. Add in some grocery shopping and by the time we got home the Trick-o-Treaters were already heading out. The whole event was nearly done by the time Hubby and I finished dinner. Didn't even see any of the kids all dressed up. Such a bummer. Did get a surprise visit from the sister-in-law and niece. She was an adorable little owl for Halloween. We then finished the night with a few "monster" movies: UltraViolet and ZombieLand.

NOVEMBER 1TH – SATURDAY
Well, it was a bitter-sweet day. I had a long, tiring day at work. Saturdays are already crazy. The first of the month - when everyone gets their social security/benefits checks - is even more crazy. Both happening on the same day is already recipe for disaster. Now add in an unexpected: our store's main competitor was closed for three hours while the electric company did maintenance on the power lines. This meant all of THEIR customers became OUR customers. Sprinkle in that the power outage also hit residentials, and so now we also have people who couldn't make themselves coffee or a hot breakfast.

Not. A fun. Day.

One of the newest members of the X-Future board just happens to be my co-worker: Spink. Originally, we were going to swing by my place after work, allow me to get changed and grab the game, and then we were going to her apartment to Zumba; mainly because she actually has the floor space for more than one person to dance. Hubby even had my clothes all picked out, the game all packed up for me, and he had made me a lunch so I was all good to go. Problem being, after all the running around at work, neither Spink nor I wanted to Zumba. We wanted to stay at my place and play Hyrule Warriors.

Oh! That's right. I never told you guys. Hubby preordered the Dynasty Warriors/Legend of Zelda cross-over game.
Gonna Do A Thing
It's so pretty!!! :D <3
How Hubby and I spent our October...
Anyway, point is, we decided to stick around and play that. However, Hubby already had a friend over and they were playing the latest Madden game. Spink still stuck around and we chatted for an hour or so before we could swipe the system away from the guys - who did end up playing HW as well - and that's pretty much how I spent my Saturday.


Normally, I would have used the time Hubby was preoccupied with his game to sneak away and write. However, I couldn't just disappear while Spink was around. Plus, we rarely get time to socialize outside work with her in college right now.

Sure, I missed a day, but it was only the first day. I can catch up. I can consider it a Last Hurrah before I have to give up socializing.

Ironically, while I wasn't able to get myself to write, I was able to convince Cyhyr to get cracking. She always seems like she WANTS to participate in NaNo, but never seems to actually do so. After a little nudging, she managed to write 3047 words before she called it a night. Pretty impressive for someone who was just going to let another NaNo slip by. Here's hoping she keeps up that momentum.

NOVEMBER 2TH – SUNDAY
After failing at both writing during Saturday and writing while my husband was on the overnight shift, I had no other alternative. I had to write in the afternoon shortly after picking Hubby up. We had a delayed Halloween party - which, I guess, could have been considered a Dia De Los Muertos party since it was on that Mexican holiday - that evening. I didn't want to lose another day of writing, and so while Hubby napped before the party, I hunkered down and got to writing. I only got 1415 words in before I had to stop and get my costume together. Not nearly enough to make up for missing a day; not even enough to "complete" this one day of writing. However, I got words down on paper - er, up on Google Docs - and that's more than a lot of people do. I also didn't give up even though I had a moderately full day. So I consider that a minor win. Is it bad that part of me wanted to ditch the party and keep writing???

NOVEMBER 3TH – MONDAY
Another tiring day. Part of the problem being that a co-worker screwed up so badly that our boss had enough and sent her home; leaving us short-staffed. Then the person who was supposed to come in early in order to help cover the staffing hole had some sort of issue and not only didn't show up early like she agreed, but showed up late for her normally-scheduled shift.

Fantastic.

I was also still a bit sleep-deprived from the socializing and attempting to still get some writing done. Finally, I think I'm coming down with a head-cold; probably due to the lack of sleep.

As soon as I got home I went in to the bedroom in order to write. I didn't care that Hubby had one of our couple friends over. I felt a bit bad for the fiance since she wasn't actively playing Madden with the guys, but she seemed content to be hanging out with them before I showed up. I figured she'd be fine while I knocked out a few words. Perhaps an hour or so and then I would have caught up to the target word count. I'd allow myself the reward of socializing then.

Problem was that as soon as I sat in bed I leaned against my upright stack of pillows and promptly passed out. Hubby woke me about two hours later when dinner was ready. We ate, the couple went home, and the primetime shows Hubby and I are really in to were on.

I'm sure I can push through and catch up Tuesday; as long as I drink enough coffee...

NOVEMBER 4TH – TUESDAY
After two full cups of coffee, I was alert enough to finally finish off my chapter. I'm not at all excited about the pacing. It felt too slow, and I introduced about 10 characters at once. Probably not the best idea. But it's NaNo. We don't go for perfection. We go for getting the words on to the page. Sadly, the words just aren't getting to the page fast enough. Missing Saturday and Monday killed me. I even failed at hitting the suggested 1667 daily target word count; ending with only 1662 words. My end count for this first half-week was only 3077 words. A "full" two days of NaNo would be 3,333 words, and so I didn't even hit that even though I did actively wrote for two of the past four days. Having full - and tiring - days at work have been really killing my motivation; evidenced by my nap Monday. I'm hoping that I can catch up at some point this weekend. Or at the very least, Wednesday since I only have a six-hour shift, and I'll have the house to myself for a couple hours. Plus, I'm now working on the more exciting fighting chapter. My only concern this time is that I was never all that great at writing fight scenes.

In the meantime, feel free to read my first chapter. As I stated in my last post, I'm attempting to publish a new chapter every week during NaNo. However, that's only five chapters for a 50,000 word story; unlikely. Here's hoping I can really pick up the pace and write multiple chapters....

"I Don't Have A Title For This Story Yet"

How about you guys? Anyone working on NaNo too? How far are you?

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