NaNo Week 3: The week from...

This has been a horrible week. It started off great, when I finished my first novel, but quickly went downhill.
My computer died. The hard-drive and motherboard both quit. I had a backup of my novel, so it's fine. I did lose a lot of other stuff though. Pictures are the most painful loss. The hard-drive is gone, and the pictures aren't worth the crazy fees a professional would charge to attempt retrieving them. I've tried quite a few suggestions that I found online, and nothing has worked yet. My final option is an external case for the drive, when I have the money in a few months.

Something to be thankful about, is the many spare computers I have laying around. The computer that quit was one of four that I got for $10 each. I'm not running current generation hardware, but it doesn't sting quite as much when a $10 computer dies.

I've grown a bit more paranoid, and I have three hard drives in my current system. (All of them 30Gb) As long as I remember to make a copy of everything I'm hoping that things will be okay. I also noticed that as of October, Microsoft no longer supports Windows XP. This has been my operating system of choice until now.

That, along with other factors, led me to try one of the free Linux operating systems. I'm running it with Win XP, meaning that I have the option to load either Windows or Linux on startup. I'm pleased with the results so far. I chose Ubuntu 10.10, and it runs great. It can handle the same number of applications as Win Xp could, without any slowdown. There are a few areas that feel a bit slower, but not many. There are other distributions that are focused on lower system requirements, and I might give some of them a try, if it becomes a problem.

I'm completely new to Linux, and fairly inexperienced with most programming languages, so it's going to be an interesting journey. The desktop on Ubuntu is easy to use for all the standard uses, but there is a lot of potential if I decide to try to learn something new.

And... Bringing it back to NaNo again, the free software I use to write, Open Office, is available on both Windows and Linux, making the switch even easier.
That's the end of my moaning and complaining. It's been a tough week, and I've let my writing slip. Hopefully my next post will be positive, with some new achievements to report.

NaNo Day 19

It's hard to believe that NaNo is two thirds over. I have come a long way over the past 19 days. I should say the first fourteen days, as I have not written anything since the 14th. (You can find out why here)

My Thoughts So Far

The Good:

• Well, I've finished my novel, earlier than I expected. I completed the finishing touches, and final chapter on Nov. 14. The halfway mark, and I was up to 70,000 words with a finished novel.
• I feel a partial sense of satisfaction, at having completed the novel. It feels great to not only have reached the suggested goal, but to complete the entire story.
  
• I've met some great people on the NaNoWriMo forums, many of them local. I
• There's also a deep personal joy, at having suppressed my inner editor for so long. Now that I know it's possible, I should be able to continue the trend, in my other projects.
  

The Bad

• Writing more than 5,000 original words a day wasn't too hard for me. It has been a strain though, and a few days my hands and wrists were feeling it.
• I feel at a loss, being so far away from my personal goals. I would love to start another novel, or finally get some of my short story ideas out of the way. I may still do that, but it's been a horrible week and I'm still trying to get over it.
• Knowing that it's going to take just as long to do the first edit and rewrite is a bit overwhelming. I'm 70% happy with this draft, which is great compared to what I see other people saying. Compared to what I usually write though, it's a lot lower.

Overall, it's been a great experience. I've accomplished what I set out to do, I finished a novel. There's more than a week left to go and I would love to try and do more. I'm already looking forward to next year!

NaNo Day 5

Starting the fifth day of NaNo. I've managed to keep up to my overachieving goal of 5k words a day. I'm now almost half way to the traditional goal of 50,000 total words.

The first day I took off, and did more than I had expected. The second and third day I started to fall behind. I was still ahead of my total word goal, but not making my 5k/day. Day four I went crazy, and wrote close to 10k words, to make up for the previous days.

The novel itself if making progress. I have managed to follow the chapter summery, generally. I've expanded on some of the thoughts and ideas. So my novel is up to eleven chapters, while following my summery, I have only got through four or five of the chapters.

It has been an odd four days so far. My free time no longer belongs to me. Every free moment is used in front of the computer, thinking, typing, or trying to do a combination of both. I'm reading a great book, but I can only get stolen glances at the page before being drawn back to my novel. My characters have become just as real to me as any book I have ever read.

The feel of the keys beneath my fingers, as they fly across the letters is addicting. The faint tapping sound, just loud enough to hear over the music. Even the blinking cursor at the end of the line is encouraging. "What happens next?" It asks, then blinks. "What's next?" Blink "Keep going." Blink. As the blinking continues, the prodding speeds up, the sentences becoming words, until it repeats a single word. A question, an answer, a command.

"More?" Blink. "More?" Blink. "More." Blink. "More." Blink. "More!" blink. "More!" blink.

I have to choice, but to comply. "More" I think to myself, and continue writing.

I have also started a blog, from the viewpoint of my main character. I'm writing the novel in third person, and the chance to do a first person alternative is a great way to keep me on track. If you want to take a look, you can find it here: Marcus Dreamwalker

This is a chance to get a small taste of my novel now, as I'm writing it. Let me know what you think.

NaNo day 1 "Caging my inner editor"

As the first day of National Novel Writing Month approached, I felt more than a little apprehension. The last time I made an attempt at this novel, I rewrote the first few chapters over and over again, until I gave up entirely.

To help me get some control over that little beast, I met up with a few other local NaNo participants to create a clay model of my inner editor. Other people smashed theirs, but I chose to cage him for the month, I'm sure he will be of use to me later.

(Yes, it is a rather pathetic looking figure, but my artistic ability comes from crafting words, not clay)

24 hours into my first NaNo, and it seems to have worked. My inner editor struggled, but I have been able to limit him to spelling, and removing the occasional word. As for my current word-count, I've passed 7,000 words already. I don't know if I'll be able to keep that pace, but I'm going to try. I am confident though, that I will complete my novel by the end of the month. I'm starting to wonder what I can work on, if I finish it with time to spare.

I'll keep you posted on my progress. I'm also thinking about starting a blog, from the perspective of my main character. The novel timeline won't match the actual blog posts, but it might be fun to write.