Green with Env…er…Excitement!

Ecstatic!!!

That is how I’ve felt today since 4 PM. Utterly ecstatic. Why? Because NaNoWriMo is officially OVER!

Ending this month at 100,050 words and I am finished with NaNoWriMo 2011.

Remember how I said I was going to try to write at least 2k words absolutely every single day this month? Well, I did it! I’ve never written every single day for 30 days in a row before. I am quite excited.

On the NaNo site they have little word count widgets you can put on your website or forums signature or wherever you want to show off your progress. One of the widgets is a little calendar that colors in each day. If you write a lot that day it will be green or if you did bad it will turn red. From the beginning of the month, I thought it would be really cool to have every day of the calendar green, thus making me decide to write 2k every single day.

Well, here is my little calendar…

I did it. And goodness is it a relief to have that done.

I’m speaking like I did not enjoy doing NaNo. What an absurd thought. I had a blast!

*takes a moment to reflect over the crazy month*

The first few days were a little rough. I was having a much harder time getting into it than I did my first time last year. After the first week though, my story began to grow easier to write and more interesting, making me enjoy myself more. By the twelfth day I found myself hitting 50k and, as you saw, spinning merrily in the winner’s circle. The third week proved to be one of the best. My story was really into full swing and for some reason I felt this great passion and was enjoying nearly every minute I wrote. This last week was much the same, except, unlike most of the month, it was a rather calm week for some reason. Most days I wrote 3k and just really enjoyed myself. Then today, the very last day, I wrote my 2k words then felt like dancing. It was over. I made my goal, had a lovely month, and could now relax.

So, what now?

The exact same thing I’ve been doing.

Writing.

It is true. I have yet to reach the end of my novel. I am getting there and hope to make it within this next month or sometime in January. I want to finish it soon and hopefully get back to editing another one. Now, though, I can just relax and not feel pressured to write every day. When someone asks me to do something with them I can finally answer with an, ”Okay!” instead of, ”But…I have to write.” Which is what I’ve been saying almost every day this month. Hurray for freedom!

Still, it has been a fantastic month and I do not regret doing it a bit. I very much look forward to a third year of  another insane month of writing. That’s right, NaNoWriMo 2012, I’m looking at you.

But first…

Sleep. For NaNo allows for no such trifle as sleeping.

Favorite Writings of the Day:

Naidren laughed himself. "Nyria is probably the most impatient person in all of Aerigethel," he explained. "She once told me sitting and waiting was the most torturous method of torture in all the world."

"Torturous method of torture?" Rem looked most amused.

Nyria shuffled uncomfortably. "I'm not the best at analogies," she murmured.

I fear it is true. One day Nyria said this gem about Ferrleth the dragon:

Nyria grew serious again. "Just think about it. Ferrleth has the kindest heart of any dragon we know and yet possesses the bravery of a...dragon."

"You know, you are not the best at making analogies."

"Stop it. We are not discussing my ability to compare things."

Oh, Nyria, I do not know what I am to do with you.

~~~~

Now that NaNo is over I hope to talk about more interesting things on this blog. I know reading about my NaNo updates has probably been a most torturous method of torture indeed. Hopefully my failure of a brain will work hard and come up with some interesting posts. If not, well…thinking is overrated anyways.

Thanksgiving – The Lord’s Blessings Abound

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Whenever this time of year starts rolling around and we begin making plans for Thanksgiving, I cannot help but run through my mind all the things with which the Lord has blessed me. I am a constant complainer. I easily get dissatisfied with things. I can be so spoiled. Then I stop and realize what all God has really done for me in my life. He has blessed me in unfathomable ways. His love pours out on me everyday, beautifully and endlessly.

And I remember The Cross.

God loves me, you, everyone in the world, so much that He gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Now that is something to be thankful for.

In the rut, busyness, and commonplace things of life, it is easy to forget what the Lord did for us, is doing for us. Every day He is blessing us. Everyday He pours out His love for us. Everyday He shows His ultimate mercy towards us. And yet we often forget.

As we celebrate this holiday with friends and family, let’s take a moment to stop and remember Who blessed us with these people, Who made it where we live in this country, Who provided that beautiful turkey and all that food we are allowed to eat and enjoy, Who gave His life so we can fellowship with Him.

The Lord blesses us everyday.

And I am so thankful.

Working Muse, Excitement, Flowing Writing…

…I don’t understand.

Just suddenly, a few days ago, my writing became easy and I’m having so much fun doing it. What is happening?

I’ve made a promise to myself to write 2k words every single day this month. To make myself actually do it I always write 2k before I let myself even touch the internet. This is hard…very hard. But it gets the 2k written every time. Unfortunately, I am usually just trying to get those words finished as fast as possible and get on with my life (a.k.a spending the rest of the day on the internet, eheh). But something hit me just the other day, and I do not even know what.

I’ve become so excited about writing. Each morning I wake up and greatly anticipate when I get to start writing that day. Even after I hit those 2k words I want to continue writing more. I’m having so much fun.

Why could this not have happened on November 1st onward?

But I will not complain. I just hope it stays this way until I finish my book.

Today I have hit 70k words, which is rather exciting. Unfortunately, I am only a little bit past halfway of my book. But on the not so unfortunate side, my story has hit a point where I think all the rest will be much more exciting and fun to write. I think this is partially why I’ve been having so much fun writing. While I was enjoying writing my story for the first half, this next half proves to be a whole lot more easier and fun to write and, hopefully, will stay that way to the end.

So what are my characters doing? Well, they just finished fighting in a huge battle where my male main character almost died giving his sister, the female main character, hysterics. See? Fun stuff! Heh.

I cannot believe the halfway point of NaNo has come and gone. We are almost there, Wrimo’s, just keep on trekking. Only 11 more days starting tomorrow. November 30th will be here before we even know it. Make those characters happy and write!

Though…

…I think my character wish I would stop writing at this point. Whoops.

Favorite Writings of the Day:

Strong arms grabbed Nyria from behind and she tried to push them off. "No, no! I need to help Naidren!" The arms pulled her farther and farther away. "No! Naidren! Naidren!" she screeched. She kicked and pushed and screamed as she was dragged out of the room. Her head began to throb again making her vision grow dark. The last thing she remembered was shrieking out her brother's name as a door closed in front of her, blocking her view of him.

Nothing funny to share I fear. Everything I wrote today was dreadfully dramatic…

Spinning Merrily in the Winner’s Circle

As of today I am an official NaNoWriMo 2011 winner.

My thoughts?

Yep. This afternoon I hit 50k words and, to be quite honest, am most ecstatic.

I still plan on writing all month. My goal was to write at least 2k words every day this month, and I plan on sticking to that. Maybe I can just be slightly more relaxed now.

Though I’ve been a bit more stressed out than last year’s NaNo, this one thus far has been quite enjoyable. I’ve hit the part in my story that I’ve been waiting for and I think it might be even more fun to write from this point on. My characters have resulted into having pillow fights and chasing chickens though, but, you know, what can you do?

I hope everyone is having a lovely almost first two weeks of this wonderful month, NaNo or not. ^_^

Favorite Writings of the Day:

"Do you always make it a habit of chasing chickens?" Rem asked with amusement.

Nyria smiled up at him. "I don't exactly make it a hobby."

Halfway There and Going Strong

Side Note: I’ve decided I am going to try and update my NaNo progress here on my blog regularly and bore you all with it. Maybe it will help me actually post on this poor, very often neglected blog of mine, and it is initiative to keep writing. Plus, I am never really thinking about much else in November, so I don’t know what other things I can blog about. So you shall be bored with pointless updates this month! Yay!

Despite promising myself I would not go as crazy and spend so, so much of my time writing this NaNo like I did last year, I have been doing it anyway. Still not quite as much as my obsessive insanity last year, but still.

I hit 25k words today marking the halfway point.

This is not a good thing.

I keep telling myself to stop writing. It is okay if I am not spending absolutely every second of everyday doing it. That I need fresh air and to see my family and do more productive things, but I am always in a bad habit of ignoring myself, and thus I write…and write and write.

Maybe now that I’ve hit halfway I’ll take it more easy. Knowing me though…probably not. I don’t know why I torture myself.

Despite all this, I have been enjoying NaNo. The first couple of days were rather difficult because I was running on practically no sleep and having a hard time getting into it, but now my story has really taken off and I am having a lot of fun. Today I found writing easy and very enjoyable. I’m hoping it will continue that way.

My characters are also behaving a thousand times better than they were the first few days. Maybe they were just reflecting my emotions. Today I have been quite happy and content, and so have they, while the other days I was tired and they grew grumpy. Which makes me think of something I never have before, do our characters often act the way we do on certain days? I suppose our writing might be different depending on our moods, so it would make sense our characters might as well. Something to think about.

The first NaNo weekend is upon us. For all you readers who are doing NaNo, this is the time to really boost those word counts. Weekends are a beautiful thing. So grab that coffee and write!

Hope you all have a very writerly weekend!

Favorite Sentences(s ) of the day:

"I do not think that was the best way to reassure him we are not going to escape," Naidren commented to his sister dryly once Tylvan was gone.

"Well, I do not think keeping us hostage while our cousins are in probably great danger is very dragon riderly of him."

"Dragon riderly?" Naidren repeated, looking at her with amusement.

"Yeah. You know, respectable, helpful, kind. That is how dragon riders supposed to act, and he is not acting dragon riderly at all."

"That is an interesting way of putting it. Or should I say very interestingerly?”

That was much longer than just a sentence or two (maybe I should call it “Favorite Writings of the Day” instead. Hm…), but I could not help sharing it. You know it is bad when your characters start making up words. O.o

Sleep? That Exists in November?

No sleep, little to eat, fingers already crying out for mercy, and eyes literally burning inside their sockets (if their still inside their sockets properly that is).

First day of NaNo equals success!

I stayed up until *cough*2 in the morning*cough* last night because I was determined to write 2k words before I went to bed. I managed it, not easily, but it happened.

I got a later start than I would have liked today, wonder why? *coughity cough* But I had an ideal day for writing the entire time. A lovely Fall day, the house entirely to myself, and my characters screaming at me to really get them going. So I wrote and wrote and wrote and managed to end the day with 7,052 words. My goal was at least 5k today, so I am quite pleased. I was secretly wishing that maybe I would push myself to 10k because last year I made it to 9k the first day, but that is not happening. It is days like this that I wish more than anything I liked coffee. Sleep beckons. Boy does it beckon.

ZZZZZZzzzzzz……..

Huh? What? Ahermher. Where was I?

I will probably not write that much for the others days except for maybe an occasional one here and there. I just like to go all out the first day. It especially helps because it gives you some room for breaks and a little bit of a cushion for those days that you cannot find time to write or your muse is just refusing to flow.

As far as my story, it is going all right I suppose, except I’ve used “upon” probably 30 times so far. It is worse than “slightly.” I’ve thanked myself a thousand times today for making an outline. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t. O.o Better not to think about that.

My characters are not behaving themselves very well at all though. They are not being nearly as nice and considerate as I would like them to be and they are annoying me to no end. I’ve never had characters behave so badly before. But, alas, such is the life of a writer. There are always going to be some. I am only two and a half chapters in, so maybe they will straighten themselves out in the days to come. Otherwise, I fear I might have to do something dreadful to them…I do hate torturing my characters. I can be such a pushover as far as they are concerned. Tsk tsk.

Despite the characters’ behaviors, today has been quite a success. I look forward to the rest of the month!

Onward and upward!

Favorite Sentence of the Day: (This idea just popped in my head, it might be fun to do during the month.)

“He looked down at his own dragon but the bright pink scales nearly blinded him worse than the midday sun.”

Oh, did I forget to mention my characters have pink dragons?