With 50,146 'words' (according to the official counter, even though it makes the same mistakes as my own counter) I've completed the main challenge of NaNoWriMo: writing 50,000 words within the month of November. I've not completed the additional challenge of finishing my story in November (and yes, I realise it's not over, but I don't intend to write much in the next 23 and a half hours), but that's largely because the story had more content than I feared it might, so I don't mind that.
I realise probably nobody notices, but I've found a new continuity bug that I'm about to fix: If CPO Edgeman trained with the USMC, how likely is it he subsequently joined the Royal Navy? Not very... The quick fix is to make him US Navy; a later draft might make Gunnery Sergeant Boss English but that would need me to redo the marine training location research.
So, it's the last week and I've got a little over 10,000 words left to the target. It won't be easy, but it's doable and it'll be only my own fault if I don't manage (like it was my fault that I didn't even keep up with daily targets during my week off).
I've broken through 50% of the word count target on my NaNoWriMo attempt, The Third Wheel. If you're already following, thanks (now is a good time to pop up and prove it, so that the others [and I] will believe you exist); if not there's never a bad time to start.
As always all manner of comments and suggestions are welcome, either here or by sending me e-mail (I think there's a contact form around here somewhere if you don't already have an address for me).
Middle(ish) of Day 16: ~25,600 words, ~51.2%.
Although strictly speaking I haven't finished today's quota, I have clawed back from being much further behind (I think two and a half days was the trough) and I'm on holiday with nothing planned but writing next week, so I might take the night off and see if anyone I know is in WoW.
As always all manner of comments and suggestions are welcome, either here or by sending me e-mail (I think there's a contact form around here somewhere if you don't already have an address for me).
Middle(ish) of Day 16: ~25,600 words, ~51.2%.
Although strictly speaking I haven't finished today's quota, I have clawed back from being much further behind (I think two and a half days was the trough) and I'm on holiday with nothing planned but writing next week, so I might take the night off and see if anyone I know is in WoW.
I've broken one of my 'rules'. For those who haven't already heard them, the objectives (in descending order of importance) were:
You may or may not know what I'm talking about, but if not don't worry too much about what I've changed, just trust me when I say that Emma's birthday is at the right time...
* I do roughly know what how it ends and certain things that should happen in the meantime, but I might finish early if I'm short on time, in which case this objective is effectively to bring things to a reasonable end without breaking the pacing.
- Write 50,000 words of story within November
- Finish the story* within November
- Publish it chapter by chapter and complete 1) and 2) without any retroactive continuity adjustments
You may or may not know what I'm talking about, but if not don't worry too much about what I've changed, just trust me when I say that Emma's birthday is at the right time...
* I do roughly know what how it ends and certain things that should happen in the meantime, but I might finish early if I'm short on time, in which case this objective is effectively to bring things to a reasonable end without breaking the pacing.
This post is a bit like one at One Man Blogs, which is ironic, considering what I managed to do.
Basically, I use an Apache module called Music Index (mod_musicindex) to generate HTML indices of my music collection to allow easy streaming across my network (I do it over HTTP because it saves opening my SMB shares to the wireless segment of the network, which really doesn't need them). However, having not done anything with it for some time, I'd forgotten its name and assumed it was called mod_music.
If you can't see where this is going, feel free to Google 'mod_music music index', which is exactly what I did.
I was amazed to see that the top result was a post by Gordon, who obviously I read frequently. Thinking that I'd missed some vital information I went to reread the post. Getting there I decided to see if I'd commented, and sure enough I had. I'd mentioned the very thing I was looking for, made the same mistake with its name, and hence generated a Google top entry for it, at One Man Blogs.
D'oh!
Basically, I use an Apache module called Music Index (mod_musicindex) to generate HTML indices of my music collection to allow easy streaming across my network (I do it over HTTP because it saves opening my SMB shares to the wireless segment of the network, which really doesn't need them). However, having not done anything with it for some time, I'd forgotten its name and assumed it was called mod_music.
If you can't see where this is going, feel free to Google 'mod_music music index', which is exactly what I did.
I was amazed to see that the top result was a post by Gordon, who obviously I read frequently. Thinking that I'd missed some vital information I went to reread the post. Getting there I decided to see if I'd commented, and sure enough I had. I'd mentioned the very thing I was looking for, made the same mistake with its name, and hence generated a Google top entry for it, at One Man Blogs.
D'oh!
Due to a tragic bit of arithmetical incompetence (which I could try and blame on this cold, but mostly it's just because I've been going soft and can't handle recurring decimals any more) when I thought I was breaking even, plus a couple of days staring at a broken chapter, knowing what must come after but not knowing how to get there, I'm actually now about 5 percentiles (a day and a half) behind schedule.
In theory it's not the end of the world, because I'm on holiday next week with nothing more to do than catch up, and build a lead to sit on down the back straight the week after. That's the theory anyway; in practice if it looks like I have too big a gap I often start doing something else, and many of those things expand like evil time-stealing gasses to fill all available time.
Anyway, I'm sorry about the slow posting; I will have a chapter for you tomorrow (Tuesday) even if it's a short one, then hopefully I can build some momentum again in order to get the real plot rolling.
Status: (by my count, including draft material, which may get shorter before it gets longer) ~17,350 words, ~34.7%. Today was meant to be 40%, so a comeback is definitely what I need now.
In theory it's not the end of the world, because I'm on holiday next week with nothing more to do than catch up, and build a lead to sit on down the back straight the week after. That's the theory anyway; in practice if it looks like I have too big a gap I often start doing something else, and many of those things expand like evil time-stealing gasses to fill all available time.
Anyway, I'm sorry about the slow posting; I will have a chapter for you tomorrow (Tuesday) even if it's a short one, then hopefully I can build some momentum again in order to get the real plot rolling.
Status: (by my count, including draft material, which may get shorter before it gets longer) ~17,350 words, ~34.7%. Today was meant to be 40%, so a comeback is definitely what I need now.
Having bought it ages ago, I've finally got around to ripping and listening to Bat out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose.
Dragon has collected some decent links related to the Writers' Guild of America being on strike. He's also put together one of them badge type things, that I will display a copy of just as soon as I'm finished on this post.
Dragon has a great deal of sympathy for the striking screenwriters, as you might expect, but compare this hopeful but sceptical (and scornful) post from Shamus. I think they're on the same side, but you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise.
Dragon has a great deal of sympathy for the striking screenwriters, as you might expect, but compare this hopeful but sceptical (and scornful) post from Shamus. I think they're on the same side, but you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise.
Chapter 9 is the point at which the story really gets into territory I can't write. We'll see.
It may also be mildly NSFW.
End of day 7: ~12,750 words, 25.5%.
It may also be mildly NSFW.
End of day 7: ~12,750 words, 25.5%.
Warning: I won't put spoilers in the text of these status posts, but there may be some in the comments, from me or others.
End of day 6, ~11,200 words, 22.4% (daily target for today was to hit 20%, which I actually managed in draft yesterday). A tiny bit of CMS tweaking wants doing, but nothing that's a higher priority than the story.
Thanks for the comments and things everyone.
One reader doesn't like the main character, finding her somehow subtly disagreeable. Which is great; I'm chuffed that she can be subtly anything at this stage. Besides, I'm not her biggest fan either.
Dragon likes the CMS. I'm glad, although I wonder whether he's trying to worm his way out of commenting on the story.
Other folk sound like they're getting hooked, so I'm happy so far.
End of day 6, ~11,200 words, 22.4% (daily target for today was to hit 20%, which I actually managed in draft yesterday). A tiny bit of CMS tweaking wants doing, but nothing that's a higher priority than the story.
Thanks for the comments and things everyone.
One reader doesn't like the main character, finding her somehow subtly disagreeable. Which is great; I'm chuffed that she can be subtly anything at this stage. Besides, I'm not her biggest fan either.
Dragon likes the CMS. I'm glad, although I wonder whether he's trying to worm his way out of commenting on the story.
Other folk sound like they're getting hooked, so I'm happy so far.
End of day one, 2,139 words done (4.3%).
The story is being serialised on my new [beta] story CMS. Please go read it, perhaps subscribe to one of the feeds, and come back here to comment. NaNoWriMo is great, but last year I chickened out and the year before I just straight failed, so it would be really nice to get the impression that someone is reading.
Besides, although the text is probably pretty shoddy (not helped by the fact that I have no time for editing or redrafting), the story might get quite interesting. It could almost be worth reading.
Comments on the story are welcome here; the story CMS on its own doesn't support them.
[Commends about the CMS itself are also welcome, but might be better suited to the previous post.]
Thanks, guys.
Update: Day 4 (and not yet over...): ~5,150 words, ~10.3%. I really need a new counting algorithm: the current one counts ' - ' and ' ... ' as words (which inflates the count by perhaps a dozen words in every thousand or so) and counts all new-lines as paragraph breaks (which increases paragraphs by one per scene).
Plus I need to write another 1,500 words tonight to stay on target. But the night is young.
The story is being serialised on my new [beta] story CMS. Please go read it, perhaps subscribe to one of the feeds, and come back here to comment. NaNoWriMo is great, but last year I chickened out and the year before I just straight failed, so it would be really nice to get the impression that someone is reading.
Besides, although the text is probably pretty shoddy (not helped by the fact that I have no time for editing or redrafting), the story might get quite interesting. It could almost be worth reading.
Comments on the story are welcome here; the story CMS on its own doesn't support them.
[Commends about the CMS itself are also welcome, but might be better suited to the previous post.]
Thanks, guys.
Update: Day 4 (and not yet over...): ~5,150 words, ~10.3%. I really need a new counting algorithm: the current one counts ' - ' and ' ... ' as words (which inflates the count by perhaps a dozen words in every thousand or so) and counts all new-lines as paragraph breaks (which increases paragraphs by one per scene).
Plus I need to write another 1,500 words tonight to stay on target. But the night is young.
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