Official NaNo Winner

Close, but enough with 50.131 words!

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Happy accident!!! This is my 100th post! *big-smiles*

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Week Four With NaNo

I made a little NaNo-writing-break ... to write. How crazy is that?

One last note about my accident. On Tuesday I received an email from NaNo-Tech-Support, that they *quote* don't save any backups of any files that are uploaded *end-quote*. It doesn't matter anymore, I'm at peace with that ... in the meantime I've re-typed all the missing parts. I won't say, that it's better, but anyway I typed more words than I had before! And it's all about words in NaNo, isn't it?

Okay, countdown for NaNo has begun, three days left. Since Friday afternoon I'm sitting on my computer, typing and typing and some more typing. When I close my eyes or make a little break (off from computer) I still can see this white screen and that blinking cursor, waiting for some more letters form into words and sentences. Sentences become paragraphs and chapters, filling more and more pages. And in the end, hopefully just a bit more than 50.000 words.

At the moment I'm feeling like that Little Engine: "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." On Wednesday I'll let you know, if I reached the top of the NaNo-mountain!

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NaNo, Lucky Number 3?

I don't think so!
Third NaNo-week started with a blast, with one of writer's worst case scenario. Instead of reaching the magical margin of 25.000 words, my computer made a funny thing and killed my precious NaNo-word-document! *sniff* I can't believe it! God damn it! How could that happen???
Well, I'd had a back-up, but only from Friday ... the whole hard work of the weekend gone! Almost 6.000 words! LOST!!! How could the world be so cruel!?!?!?! Okay, that's maybe better than losing everything, but it's still very hard! It feels like losing a part of yourself. *sigh*
Stubborn as I am I didn't want to accept the loss. I tried everything to recover this stupid document ... nothing worked! I even contacted NaNo-Tech-Support, if there is maybe the slightest chance to get back my uploaded work. I didn't want to believe, that they only count the words and the text vanishes into nowhere. Well, I haven't gotten an answer, obviously I really should accept the loss. *double-sigh*
Within these days I was caught between two feelings: One, that this accident was too severe to finish NaNo successfully, even too severe to continue writing at all. Two, the ambitious part in me still wanted to fight and overcome this obstacle. The race is not over yet!
Obviously the pugnacious part had won, because I continued writing. But I couldn't rewrite the missing parts, it felt like re-animating a dead fish! Instead I edited my beginning, added a new scene there and continued the story at that point, where I'd left it before the accident. While editing I registered something interesting: That there are two voices telling the story. There are parts, where I can hear myself and there are parts, where I can exactly hear my heroine's voice. So, another note for editing, make everything sound like my heroine!
Okay, finally on Thursday, I could proudly announce that I'd cracked the 25.000 word mark: 25.313!
Now, with another weekend gone, word-wise I'm still behind, far behind, but I still hope for a big energy rush for the final week, the grand finale, the final spurt. Well, I'll let you know, how the story ends!

Just one simple question for you: When have YOU made your last backup?

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Week Two With NaNo

On my honor, I've never consumed any illegal drugs in my whole life. But I'd made the acquaintance with a little hangover after consuming a little too much alcohol. You know, as long as you party, you feel so brilliant, everything is so amazing, you are the queen of the night ... but then the other morning, when adrenaline and euphoria are gone, you feel weird. You are much too tired, because you haven't gained enough sleep. Your head feels alien like, not belonging to the rest of your body. Your thoughts are burnt out.

THAT'S like exactly how I felt the first days after my writing rush last weekend. Remember? I've told you in my last weeks NaNo report!

These first days I was having a vaguely imagination, what I wanted to write (I already have the outline of the plot), but then I was sitting in front of my computer, my fingers ready on the keyboard and staring at that stupid, blinking cursor, that seems wanting to tell me something, what of course it not did! You might imagine, that I did not write too much. Luckily I'd had a little 'word buffer', speaking I haven't counted the words of my already existing little story outline. Without them I would have panicked completely. 1.667 not written words a day sum up really fast to a real horror number!

The rest of the week I tried to find my balance. A 'healthy' way for me, where I do a good average of daily writing AND feel fine.

Sunday night MS Word count said 22.263 words, NaNo Total Word counter granted me even seven words more, I have no idea, where it got them from! Anyway, suggested Cumulative Word Count for Sunday was 23.334. NaNo Stats include a point called 'At This Rate You Will Finish On'. I improved from December-09 to December-04.

Okay, I'm still behind and no word buffer anymore! But then I think that today or at the latest tomorrow, I'll reach the 25.000 words mark. That's half (!!!) of the required words, but at that point I've told only a third of my story. When signing up for NaNo, one of my fears was, that my stories wouldn't have book length potential. Now, I'm pretty optimistic according to that!

Well, I think I'm ready to face the second half of NaNo. I've found my rhythm!

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Continue with: NaNo, Lucky Number 3?

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The First Week With NaNo

All right, here we are, the first week of NaNo Writing Month is over. Let's make a short pause and muse a little over my experiences.

Sunday night count said 9.983 words. Sounds quite good, don't you think so, too? It's a 1/5 of the required total sum.
But a 1/4 of the time has already passed ... ah, you might have guessed the problem?!

My start was quite slow, but I gained some speed until Thursday. Then I came to a particular scene. I could see it happen straight in front of my eyes, but I was simply not able to find the right words ... or any words at all. This problem kept me thinking all Friday long! I had written not a single word on that day! *aaargh* How frustrating is that!
After a rather restless night I remembered what children were told for writing a test: "If you have problems with an exercise, you'll better stop and continue with the next one. Is there some time left at the end of the test, have another try with the problem!"
On Saturday then, I skipped the scene and left instead another beautiful yellow note in my document. I started writing somewhere round 03:30 p.m. and wrote and wrote ... and suddenly my clock showed 07:00 p.m.! When did that happen? This was close, there were still some urgently needed groceries to be done! After providing my body with some nutrition (it's strange, how fast you forget to eat when you're caught by writing virus!) and a little TV break, I continued writing. I felt like being fallen into a writing rush! It was a good writing day!
My weekend was technically speaking good, but I'm still missing my lost Friday. I hope to catch up within the next three weeks and hope for a 50.000 words happy end!
And maybe then I could also find some answers to my steadily growing yellow notes, that 'decorate' my text or my personal questions, like: "When is the best time to let someone else read your piece of work for the very first time?"

Until then: Good night and good luck to all the writers out there! May the force be with us!

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Continue with: Week Two With NaNo

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NaNo Writing Month

There wasn't any full moon I could blame. Maybe I was still disorientated because of the time switch. Last night I was completely demented, totally mad, absolutely out of my senses ... I've registered for NaNo Writing Challenge!!!

OMG, what have I done?!?!

You know, it's one thing to write on several projects without any pressure or special purpose. If you write it will be fine, if you don't write it will be fine, too. But it's a whole different thing, when you sign in for a challenge, where literally every word counts. Listen, we're talking of 50.000 (!!!) words. This number is quite frightening for me, because - according to my word count statistic in MS Word - these are more words than I have written TOTALLY in my blog. Means, I should write a lot more words within one month than I've written since March!

With that going hand in hand, there is my fear of failure ... the fear to find out, that I'm not able to write more than just a short, short scene/story ... to discover that I'm NOT a writer?!?! What then? You know, somehow NaNo seems to be kind of a test for my writing qualities. Has one of the stories I have in mind the potential for 50.000 words? Are my rice krispies creative enough to produce enough scenes/ideas to fill out all those pages?

All good things come in threes ... obviously fears also! Usually when I write something I focus on perfect words, accentuation, intonation, syntax, etc. Everything has to be 'perfect'! And now ... for the first time in my writing life I try NOT to focus on these! I've already started (425 words thus far) and I don't have the slightest glue, what I'm doing ... I just try to write down the scenes, that came into my mind and flow out of my head onto the paper, without knowing, IF they are fit in the story at all! I just write ... or at least I try! This is so weird!!!

So, to you all out there: PLEASE, Wish me luck!

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Continue with: The First Week With NaNo

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