NaN-Uh Oh

[Warning: This is written in as a stream of conscience at multiple intervals until I reach a respectable word count.I'm curious.]

Nov. 1
7:09p

Well, after weeks of pep talks and planning, it's finally here! November first. The official start of NaNoWriMo. And while I didn't hack out thousands of words that had been building for weeks at the stroke of midnight (Haha. Very far from it, actually), I still feel the excitement boiling over.

Hot coffee? Check.
Slow music playlist on? Check. (Jason Mraz!)
Scribbled notes of the past few days? Check.

Let's go!!!

7:11p
The blank page of the Word window stares back at me, the blinking cursor seeming to be screaming: "WRITE!!!" It may as well be a flashing neon sign. It blinks like one anyway.

What should my first word be? What do I want it to be? How do I want to start what will eventually become a 50,000 novel by the end of a month?

Wildfire.

7:15p
Header? No header. Page numbers? No page numbers.

Page numbers.

No page numbers.

Novel title as a header?

Page numbers.

7:21p
The sweet sound of tapping keys is soothing. I'm accomplishing something. Something.

With the music, coffee, and laptop I feel a bit pretentious. Maybe I should be in a coffee shop... Wanna watch me write?!? Sure!

Well, maybe not so much pretentious as cliche. Yet somehow right. It's odd.

7:32p
Word count: 76.

Stupid AIM. "Stop IMing me!" No, that's mean.

Away message?

No away message.

Invisible.

No invisible.

7:36p
Note to self: PRESENT. TENSE.

That is all.

7:54p
How the fuck did Rachel write 2818 words in one day?

8:09p
No Doubling Back. How appropriate.

8:17p
217 words. This is depressing.

8:18p
As if on que, text from Chris Taylor: "Word count? :-)"

Response: "A dismal 217. :("

8:21p
PRESENT. TENSE.

8:28p
No music. Too distracting.

8:31p
Just took the biggest sip of cold coffee. Not pleasing.

As I write this, I'm reminded of Twitter for some reason...

8:43p
Begin concentrated writing hour.

Invisible.

No response to texts.

Playlist set.

Just writing. One hour...

8:58p
2 unread text messages.

It's so tempting.. But I am not removing my hands from this keyboard for another 50 minutes.

9:11p
I just realized I haven't been saving this document.

Wow.

To the desktop with you!

9:19p
TWO PAGES!

There's something oddly satisfying about writing a line of text and having it unexpectedly roll over to a second page. It's like a well-welcomed surprise.

545 words. This concentrated writing hour is working.

9:32p
Phone call... Hmm... Decisions, decisions.

It's Alexis. Oh, may as well.

9:46p
Mandatory power hour completed.

Word count: 845. Halfway!

9:56p
Heart attack. After four beautiful, instrumental songs on the "Disney" playlist, Timon and Pumba's "Hula" just scared me half to death.

10:12p
Page three!

Word count: 1073

10:18p
...I just coded text. I literally just enclosed text in html tags.

Shows how often I write in Word.

10:29p
Hmm.. my computer doesn't know the word "hardass".

Neither does Blogger.

I know I've heard the term... :/

10:58p
Apparently, "mic" is not the correct abbreviation for microphone.

Word is so strange.

11:02p
I'm going to cut Rachel.

11:32p
Thoughts drained.

Final word count for day 1: 2152

.:~o*Kaylyn*~o:.

And I shall call it Wildfire

Not that I've totally forgotten about NaNoWarMo.. But I have been thinking about my actual NaNo more and more. It's all about the planning. I know the title. Wildfire. And today, I started working on a synopsis (like what you'd find on the back of the book). Here's what I got so far:

(And, yes, I'm aware some of this may seem familiar)

Wildfire
n.

1. a raging, rapidly spreading fire
2. something that acts very quickly and intensely
3. any large fire that spreads rapidly and is hard to extinguish


Carly Jameson, still sunburned from her Christian youth group's camping trip, is thrown into another unfamiliar wilderness: high school.

Being knocked down to the bottom of the food chain is never easy, especially when your older sister has her 3-inch stiletto implanted firmly on your neck. Not to mention being hated by teachers who think you're just like her. The worst part being it's only 11am!

Carly is about to discover how one off-handed comment can be misinterpreted, repeated, interpreted again, repeated, and spread in the unending, vicious cycle known as gossip; the wildfire quickly consuming her school and life.

not enough / 20,000

.:~o*'Kaylyn'*o~:.

Open Mouth, Insert, Pull Trigger

It's painful to think I have to give up now. It kills me. I'm killing myself. "It's just not the right time," they say. "You're too overwhelmed." "It shouldn't exhaust you like this."

Even with all these (reasonable) excuses, I still feel horrible. But it's too late to push through now. I'm wayyy too far behind. I've wasted so much time.

I do want to finish though. I will finish. This has helped me get back into writing. For that, I am thankful. Now I know I can complete a project. That I need to. That I want to. Just.. timing.

So, my dear readers, I ask you--because without you, I am nothing--which would you rather: Me post pieces/chapters/sections/blurbs periodically here (like every Friday or something) OR take on a project of my own (like make the 31 days of Dec my new goal)?

.:~o*'Kaylyn'*o~:.

So how's NaNo going?

How's it going? How's it going?! I'll tell you how it's fucking going. It's hell! Absolute hell.

Oh, I love writing and I want to feel accomplished so I'm going to enter this contest to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Yeah, I know. No, you don't get anything for winning. Well, it's just to say I've done it, to feel good about myself. Published? No. You just.. do it. Well, you can't officially start until midnight Nov 1st. I gues syou can cheat. But then you wouldn't feel as accomplished. No, they don't read them. Just count the words. That would pointless, though. I could just write crap or copy something if I only wanted to reach 50,000 words. Yeah, I know. Yeah.

Word count? Oh, it's coming along. Well, I don't feel inspired today, so I wont' write. What do you mean it's the 10th?!?! What the fuck? Let's see... That 1666 a day.. and I've missed like 8 days so... Oh shit!

Must write. Write whatever. Write what sounds good. No, no, that's crap. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah! That's awesome. Awesome. Keep going. Oh, this is great! Yes, yes, more words! Keep writing. What does she see? How does she feel? Is this relevant? Did you allude to that.. Yeah, yeah. Good. Let's see... WHAT?!?! 1027 words?! But I wrote so much. Fuck fuck.

____

Yeah, it's something like that.

.:~o*'Kaylyn'*o~:.

Shifting Gears and Moving Forward

Alright, so it's officially Nov 5th and now that all the election hype has died down and the votes are actually counted and we have a new president elect, (Wow! run-on sentence much?) I can actually focus on NaNoWriMo. I can actually start NaNoWriMo.

I have all these ideas in my head. Lines I want certain characters to say, names for them, names for places, basic plot structure and few twists... But actually getting them down in written word is nearly impossible. Especially considering the fact I have 8330 words to write by the stroke of midnight tonight if I want to stay on track and complete this. Which I WILL!

Here's the dilemma: I've decided to change stories. Yup. I'm insane. The story, piece, idea, whatever I originally planned on developing into a 50,000-word novel is no longer up to par for me. I don't feel as though I can go all the way with it. Even in my head, I get stuck so I know trying to write it will be an epic fail.

However, this new idea I have--although, technically an old short I'm just going to expand and develop--I feel I can really go somewhere with. It seemed to have positive feedback when I posted it here before, so we'll see how well I can develop it further.

As always, I know I have a ton of support helping me through (Rachel, Nick, Harrison, Mr. Taylor... Love you guys!). And I don't intend on disappointing.

So "keep it locked" here for all NaNoWriMo updates as I "officially" start.
Today.
Right now.
Here I go.
Seriously.

.:~o*'Kaylyn'*o~:.

P.S. - Oh, and in case you're wondering exactly which one of my previously posted shorts I'm going to use for NaNo is, it's
this one.

Sands Through the Hourglass...

I was supposed to write (and post) a really cool poem today. One about Halloween, of course. It was going be very awesome with fast pacing and eerie word-choice. And I was going to repeat the line: "On this the night of All Hallows' Eve..." It was going to be epic.

But, I'm having a little trouble focusing.

Because as I'm looking at the date, I can't help but thinking I have less than 24 hours before beginning a journey that I cannot turn away from.

I'm speaking, of course, of NaNoWriMo.

I have pledged to write a full novel in the month of November. That's 50,000 words in 30 days. Period.
Which averages to about 1666 words everyday.
Which averages to about 60 words an hour.
Which averages to like a word a minute
Every minute.
Of every hour.
Of every day.
For 30 days.

And why would I subject myself to such torture and stress? Because I'm a writer. It's what I do. It's what I love. And what makes me happy. Deadlines are inevitable. It's like Christa says, "Writing's never done. It's due." And this deadline I'll be forced to follow. There's no changing when November 30th will come and mark the end of NaNoWriMo.

So, here's to the next 30 days!

.:~o*'Kaylyn'*o~:.

P.S. - Also, I've decided to start a new label for the series of posts specially dedicated to NaNoWriMo. Chronicling my progress and possible meltdowns and what not as I travel along this road.