day 30, 50103 official

Day 29, 48000 words

Pretty much finished story however. Trying to backfill a few scenes that became necessary due to later changes in the story. Still, word count is kinda neat. I think it's the first time I ever hit a triple zero count.

day 28, 45090

Now one day behind, but I only have two days left. I keep thinking I have more.

time to write final scene, then the mop up. Let's hope it doesn't go too hard tomorrow.

day 27, session 2, 42507

Found a bunch of new, really good OSS Training videos as well.

Only 2500 behind now.

day 27, session 1 40932

Over the 40k mark. 3 days left after today--although I admit i am hoping to hit around 3-4k words for the day.

About to leave Istanbul. This is extending a bit more than i thought it would, Which is good--as it also adds a bunch of scenes that were needed previously, fills in some gaps and shortens the scenes that were so hard to write earlier.

Apparently, it's hard to keep writing when you have nothing to say. Who knew?

Music for next story: Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Yes, I've already decided.

day 26, session 2 39806

written at Barnes and Noble's with Alex, so a bit distracted.

day 26, session 1, 39455

So here's the first set for the day. Now I'm off to run again, which I'm not looking forward to [whenever am I however?]

I really hate running. But it works. Also I want to do it while the weather is nice.

Also, I need to figure out what is going to happen to make Del panicked about Julie which will drive the last quarter of the novel. Right now we're having lots of fun in Istanbul, but it's not going to last forever. He has to get back to France somehow.

Next year

So last night I thought about what I want to do next year (novella series) what genre I'd like to play with next (fantasy) and started brainstorming ideas for it.

I had stayed away from fantasy due to the amount of world-building I thought would be involved, but decided to work on something more character based and fill in the details later [a bit like how I am handling the historic elements in my current book].

Still, as I would not be writing this for another 8 months, that will give me lots of time to brainstorm and create a skeleton.

day 25, session 2 38169

Less than 4k words behind now.

Whole new subplot. Will have to be worked back in, but finally I have another thread for Paris--as well as some interesting parallels for the second book.

I think the shower is dripping and it sounds like crackling and it's been driving me batty for the past fifteen minutes. Otherwise I might have even gotten more done.

Also, note to self: running IS good for ideas. Still doesn't make me like running much though.

day 25, session 1, 37544

Spent the morning doing a loose plot structure for the rest of the story.

Twenty-one scenes mapped out—even if I only write 500 words for each one of them, I'll be on target.

Hoping I'll get another session in today.

they used to sleep on the beach

in Coney Island. They don't do that anymore. best writing music ever, apparently. Godspeed on Amazon

day 24, 35999

This number, it amuses me. Happy Thanksgiving!

day 24,i mean day 23, 33930

Deficit finally below 5k. good. Tomorrow should have him join the OSS. should hit training on Friday but... hard part over weekend. Istanbul. ugh. I am realizing that the reason chapter four was so hard to write was because I made it too darn long. Four should mostly be split between three and five. Move five back to four. Six to five. seven is two chapter's worth of materials - back in US; followed by OSS training and sending him to Istanbul. Paris is wonderful but it's really not four chapters! Not in this book at least. Also, needs more Normandy. Everything needs more Normandy. edited because i had marked this day 24. Not 23 [which is correct]

day 23, 31487 erm I mean day 22.

One of, if not the easiest, days of writing in this entire month. And a scene I decided to write two days ago with a character that didn't exist until about day five of the month. Still, 2k words in about 45 minutes may be a record for me. This evening was so horribly rotten--took me two hours to get home--that I'm shocked I was able to decompress enough to write at all. Of course, running always seems to burn out all of my anger. Maybe because my annoyance and hatred of running just overshadows everything else. edited because i had marked this day 23. Not 22 [which is correct]

French Charcoal box

besottment by paper relics

Old french charcoal box. Great site as well. The journaling classes interest me--what a great idea, to share knowledge like that. Short, sweet, personal to the artist.

edited to add: The above is the site where I found the image linked; but the original site [to give full credit!] is here: Jennifer Price Studio.

day 21, 29472

Back to New Jersey with him!

day 20, 26805

So unlike last year (but like this summer) I'm not writing weird sprints to pad my word count. It's all story all the time. Maybe I should change that. Finally left Paris. almost in Orleans.

"A novel is a living thing" day 17, 24650

From the NaNoWriMo pep talk from Chris Cleave:

A novel is a living thing and it resists containment within the structures we erect for it. Even worse, the novel has intelligence and it will inevitably turn against its creator. Think of it like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park. The problem is that a good character in a novel will reach a point of maturity where he or she is not necessarily biddable.

What always keeps me going at certain points is when I myself no longer am sure what happens next. When the characters start to tell me things. I used to love when this would happen when I was acting, on rare occasions. Like I would feel that sometimes, I would raise them, create them, materialize them, separate from me and the page and even the fusion of me and the page until there was almost this third thing, this ghost, that haunted the both of us. This universal character that existed apart from the two things that had made it flesh. This is what I love most about the drafting process, that almost Dr. Frankenstein feeling of something lifted from disparate parts to a life of its own. Except hopefully without the villagers, small child killing, and especially without the bolts. They just look painful.

day 16 23341

Almost got him out of Paris, finally. Some fun and interesting things starting to happen again. I was starting to dislike some of these people.

day 15 21592

haven't quite felt the need to post as often as I have in the past, and it may be because, well, I have more of an idea what i"m doing. That is: I know why things are going the way they are. once I hit editing phase I'll have to post constantly however. I have no idea what i"m doing there.

day 11 addendum

day eleven total: 15410ish. Will update when nano site comes back online.

day 13, session 1: 16439

And see, I thought I'd posted something on Friday. Huh. Still haven't left Paris. Who knew Paris would be so difficult to write? I'd love to leave Paris and get back to New Jersey today. If I can get him home and into OSS training, that would be great.

day ten, session three, 14405

4579 words today which isn't bad at all. Wasn't too hard either; not with writing in sessions. Hoping I can get some details to add in as well, but the first three chapters are down at least. I need things that will happen in Istanbul, which is tough since it's really just supposed to be a desk job.

day ten, sessions one and two - 12680

So now it starts to flow again. Even scenes I couldn't write before and just skipped are going smoothly. Today's target is 16666 words. I am unlikely to hit that, but I should make another 1k words today. Tomorrow will likely be handwritten so I will see how far I can get with that. That's often enjoyable but slow. The next sticking point will likely be Istanbul around 30-35k words. Not looking forward to that.

day nine, 9826

Sweet merciful crap, but it's been painful. Still, FINALLY I'm out of 1939, and to May 1940. Tomorrow the Battle for France begins. Here are some things I did to combat the writer's block I've had for the past few days. -asked most of my friends with art training about their school experiences; -Nichole told me to give him block, which helped -running, -watched lots of tv -ate donuts -long walks -wrote about 5-600 words in French. It seems like writing in French helps whenever there is a stoppage in, you know, the French bits. Duh. Kind of makes sense doesn't it? He also wrote a long letter about how nothing he did was right and that he was homesick. I felt the first one; remembered the second from my own experiences in France. No matter how much I loved it, still....

Things I wish I'd seen earlier.

Have to go back to the Lysander, the SOE stopped using the Halifax in '42.... Futurians: how awesomely perfect are they? I feel like I need to work them in somehow. The 39 World's Fair is all over the other book. Kind of early though, wonder if he could get in. His father is so a Theosophist. Not unknown in that social class, would put him in contact with someone from downtown like his mother (who is more of the Goldman school). I like the idea of the mother bringing the rabble-rousing radical communism, and the father bringing a tempering of pacifism and a spiritual overview to them. Lastly: it's odd considering that this was, in no way, the inspiration for the characters--but there was more of me and my sister in the scene i wrote about Gene and Reed than anything else I've written.

day four, 5266

I dreamed about my story last night. That was... disconcerting a bit. I am very happy that I feel like I am getting things together in such a way that I have enough structure to propel me forward but not so much that I feel trapped, locked in, and the story has nothing to tell me. I write as much for my characters to surprise me as anything else. It always seems so mystical and strange that the characters write the story except that for me, they do. I'm not sure how it psychologically synthesizes, but Gene told me that I needed to write his own story or the story that I told last year wouldn't make sense. And now I know how he afforded all those radios on that FBI salary. I always wondered. I appreciate him letting me in on his secrets.

A little something something

Handley Page Halifax - shows up in the first part of my story.

day 3, 3056

As frustrating as it is that I am writing about 1k words a day... well, it's 1k words a day! I should be less cranky about it.

day two 2109 total

i'm only writing about 1k/day, but... I'm writing 1k/day. can't really complain.

day one, 1052

So I thought I'd done my outline, but... no, it was still a bunch of notes in my notebook, waiting to be entered. ditto with my timeline of events to help me.AND I hadn't finished either 1939 or 1944's research yet! I really need to not mark things off my to-do list until they are, you know, to-done. Still: kick ass opener. Really happy about it. And tomorrow, hopefully, I won't have to muck about with preliminaries anymore. another bonus: I got to call my dad for airplane help and I have an excuse to look at Jane's with him.