50026

Finished it with about 14 minutes to spare. Apparently, I have to pay $25 for the t-shirt that I won, so I think I'll just take the moral victory.

Passed 42,000

This is exhausting. Every 1,000 words I get through reminds me of Cool Hand Luke eating the 50 eggs. I just need George Kennedy here to, like, peel my words or something.

38,509

Moving right along here, although I've only got a couple days left. It will probably come down to a writing marathon/quest/journey before midnight the 30th. Maybe I'll add a couple random subplots just to have a place in the story for word dumping and whatnot.

25,034

Finally passed the halfway mark. Still kind of doing it in pieces, but it's coming together, more or less. Still terrible though. Don't let me give you the wrong impression.

Still going, but not quite as strong

I was starting to catch up, but now I'm falling behind again. I'm getting stuck at certain parts, writer's block and whatnot. So then I'll skip ahead to random other scenes and start writing them. So it's a mess right now. Just a huge dirty mess.

Still at not anywhere near as many words as I'm supposed to have.

Unlike my cohort, Natus Doggus, who is gamely proceeding at wild speeds, I am sucking badly.  I am well behind, and my wife, dog, mother, and mother's dog are coming to town so who knows when next I can write.  Also, io9.com informs me I'm supposed to be 1/4 of the way done.  LOL.

Passed 10,000

This is a pretty good milestone. Still behind, but catching up. Like I said, what I'm putting out is awful writing. Basically one step above bullet points. But as soon as I catch up, I can start editing. And that will add words when I fill in parts I left un-detailed. I do that just to move the story along without stopping to analyze too much. Here is an excerpt from before I started wild non-stop writing:

Brick just shook his head and said, “Look, I need you to open his skull.” At this, the ninja nodded and karate chopped the alien’s skull through the flesh, right in the sweet spot, cracking it open like a coconut.

Yeah that failed

I'm totally behind now. This is a mighty endeavor.

It's done been brought

4,252. Tearing it up. I'm about 1500 words behind schedule now. I'm hoping to actually get ahead, so I can maybe start editing. Because a lot of what I've written is some pretty terrible garbage.

Back on it

1335 words.  That felt pretty good, sorta.  I mean, it's like 3 pages now.  Only thing is that I'm supposed to be at like 4800 or something like that already.  This is hard, and only now do I realize the peril in committing to write 1667 words per day.  The quest is on the edge of a knife or something. 

Story saved!

For those who believe Microsoft is evil, MS Word 2010 saved my unsaved story so my precious 482 words were saved.  Yay!  This post should be cooler, but it's not, so eat my ass.

The Setback of DOOM!

I returned last night from distant Fargo, exhausted, but I decided to man-up and bear down on this nanowrimofo.  How to start, I thought, well of course, I oughtta just pull up my 482 words and continue on, my good man!  Unfortunately I find that I did not save those initial words of my novel, proving that I suck at everything.  In the scheme of things (1667 words per night) I probably shouldn't have been overly upset about the loss of 482 but it was spirit crushing and between exhaustion and the leaking of spirit from my fleshy vessel I decided to just play Battlefield 3 all night.  But, I have not given up, no no.  Tonight I shall put my game face on and try to get back at it... After I watch Beavis and Butthead.


Btw-- I saw the movie 50/50 tonight.  Surprisingly serious and very good movie.  Recommended for nanowrimofos and regular people.

200 words

Ah, the mighty novelist I am. I'm just too tired to crank out more than that right now. I might try to do things in chunks throughout the day, aim for 200 words each time. That seems less daunting than trying to do 1667 or whatever at one time. It's hard to get used to just writing without stopping and worrying about small edits.

I too will attempt this

So John convinced me to take on this near impossible endeavor too, so here I am. In the interest of time, I'm using a story plot that I thought up before but never turned into a story. I've consulted the rules and this seems to not be a violation. I regret that it probably is not the cleverest of plots, but is one that should allow me to incorporate some of my favorite fiction devices, namely sword fights and ninjas and spaceships and stuff. I sort of consider myself not very good at coming up with clever story ideas, but I generally try to make up for it with plot holes and beheadings and whatnot. Also, as my primary POV character, I'll be using the dude from my chain story blog, Clarence Brickhausen (also seemingly in line with the rules). This is mainly because I sort of need to use an Army guy for the main character and if I try to come up with a new character, he'll probably just end up being very similar (should make more sense when writing commences). So it will be like the continuing adventures, but with no hunchback and nothing to do with the other story, and every other character brand new. So, uh, here goes. I have to get up super early tomorrow to attend some legal training, so now is a great time to start.

Fargo Mission

Here I be in Fargo.  Got in at about 9 PM after a fairly long drive.  Talked about work in the car, mostly, so that was a party I guess.  Had a luxurious dinner at the McD.  I was doing the driving and while it's just four hours from the Greater Twin Cities Area Region to Fargo, the last hour felt like about 35 hours.  People stopped talking or fell asleep (something I tried rather hard not to do) and I entered the featureless wasteland that apparently is west-central Minnesota.  There was nothing to look at-- it was overcast, there were no towns or houses, and the only traffic was a semi every 5 or 6 miles.  Anyway, after many generations of travel I made it.  Then I set to my NaNoWriMo business.  486 words were written before I threw in the towel.  Not exactly a successful start, but at least it's a start, as I wasn't sure I'd be disciplined enough to try writing on the road.  Yeehaw.

And so it begins...

Welcome to NonAutNaNoWriMoBlo, the Non-Author National Novel Writing Month Blog.  Following in the footsteps of best bud, Duster, I have decided to take the NaNoWriMo plunge.  It's surely foolish and I have no idea why I think I have the time, but here on this blog I shall capture the trials and tribulations of my novel writing attempt.  I think I have also caused my friend Kyle to throw himself on the novel-writing spikes, but we'll have to see.  I'm thinking I should invite the Nate-Dogg as well.

Best part of all of this is that I'll be traveling to Fargo, North Dakota, for work on Day 1.  Let's see if I'm able to get anything written.  Perhaps I'll write about wood chippers.