Yup, it's that time of the month again folks.




I'm an official NaNoWriMo winner! Huffahs all round! I like the banners and such this year, too. Nice colour scheme (though I'm not sure about the whole viking thing they seem to have going on).

Anyway, I may be an official winner, but the story is still not finished! This is probably largely because I have been neglecting it ever since the 15th. So now I'm still trying to get it finished by the end of the month, but that's one of those far-off goals that you know you're probably not going to get (such as 1,000,000 words, in all-but-two-peoples' cases). Instead, I'm aiming for 70k. Nice and easy to obtain - I'm currently on 58, 778 as we speak. Roughly 11k in less than a week seems reasonable to me!

Oh, and Hartwin Falk is my favourite character ever. He's just brilliant. At least he is in my head - I'm not sure I'm really doing him justice. :S It'll be a relief when people can actually read over this (so I can edit it). The fact that this also means I'll be able to start something else without feeling guilty helps, too.

The End. Must be able to type those two words soon, or I'll go crazy.

In other news, I have a cold. And it's not fun. Bah. I hate having colds. They take *ages* to go away.

Well, that isn't true, I just felt like saying that.

In actuality, though, it hasn't been that hard. I'm still nowhere near the level of some people (675k and still going strong . . .) but I think that qualifies as pretty darn good. I could now, if I wanted to, aim for 100k and get there by writing less per day that I have over the last couple of days . . . but I probably won't My story wouldn't last that long, I don't think.

For example, at 50k, they're just about to find out where the missing pieces of the watch are and that it *gasp* travels through time before Hendrix and Johan Reinout, the two man bad guys (plus others, 'cause there's three of them) jump out and attack. DIDN'T SEE THAT ONE COMING, DID YOU?

Then even though the major plot points after that take up about 2/3 of a page in word, I don't think it'll go much above, say, 80k. And then I'll have finished a story for the first time in my life! Next year, maybe I should actually plan to finish one in 50k. o.O

But yeah. Basically all our heroes have to do now is find the two pieces of the watch that are in Holland (I know where one is, the other I shall probably just make up) and then travel to Paris to find the other one. Twice. Which means in the last quarter or so of the story I get to introduce [probably] the best character! And somebody finally gets seriously injured - except . . . wait. Damn, that sort of screws up the plan where Derek was supposed to get revenge for his friend who died - because, really, who can you see being seriously injured the easiest - the two gymnasts, or the jeweller in merely better-than-average-shape?

Well, I can work that out. It's still a while away . . . my ending is probably going to be very unsatisfactory, though. Maybe I'll write two (in case I neevr get around to writing that series I was thinking of . . . which I probably won't).

Overall, hurrah! 50k! But the month isn't yet over, and I still have a lot of writing to do if I want to try and finish the story.

Okay, so I got 40k today - just before midnight.

In short, I'm awesome.

I'm pretty much there now. So close I can almost touch it. And the best thing is, now I can look at the people who have 80, 100, 200, even 500,000 words written and not feel inferior. Awe, yes (I doubt anybody WOULDN'T), but because I've achieved so much myself I don't feel like they're amazingly awesome writers or something like that. I mean, they might well be. I meant comparatively.

Well, whatever. I feel happy.

Also, I've got through a couple of those plot-points I listed below. I might even finish this story in the month, too! :D Then it will not only be my longest story, but also my only finished one!

. . . And then I can start on a sequel, maybe? XP (In all seriousness, the sequel idea is really really short, so it's definitely doable even outside of NaNo).

So, today I wrote a tad more than first planned. I was aiming to reach 25k. My current word total is 27,311.

Today (still counting stuff wrote after midnight as today) I wrote over 7000 words. That's quite an achievement. AND I managed to get my homework done.

But I still haven't actually wrote any more of those plot points I listed in the thingy below (though I did finish the one about getting that information on the watch). I have, however, decided that I'm not going to try and draw things out for as long as possible anymore. I don't *need* to describe every single thing that each character does anymore. And although I'm still going to be wordy with my main scenes (and, actually, with my writing in general), I'm going to cut out the wordy interludes in between them . . . mostly.

I'll still get 50k, but that way I might actually finish the story this month, too. I hope so, because the other night the idea for a sequel sprung on me (which is why this story doesn't end with something crazy and fun like the watch exploding). Actually, it's not like a sequel - more a paraquel. But it will eventually have something to do with the time-travelling pocketwatch.

I've also had a good idea that occurred to be a while ago come back and annoy me for most of the day. It's especially annoying because I think it's a *really* good idea and I'm all enthusiastic about it and want to write it but . . . I can't. Damn you NaNo!

Yes, I really did just say that. One and only time.

In case you're wondering about this mega-awesome idea I had, it's basically planning a revolution . . . via a brothel! :D And if I do eventually write it, it's almost certainly going to be called The Bee Keepers. I don't usually think up titles before I start writing (I used to, but I don't anymore) but that one fits so perfectly that I will have to call it that.

And the great thing is? Title and plot both occurred to be at the same time. I'm not even kidding. "The Bee Keepers - story about a brothel! Hmm . . . but what about the brothel? I know, a revolution!"

I'm crazy. In a good way.

Okay, so: it's the 8th of November.

I'm on 19,042 words.

I will so have 20k AT LEAST by the end of tonight (or I will if I stop procrasinating, anyway).

I'm so high on my word count! ^_^ Reading back, I was struggling soooo much last year, and now the words are just flowing so perfectly. And I'm so much busier this year than last year! It's crazy!

Since I reckon I'm going to go over that 50k target, my aim THIS month is to finish the novel. That still poses something of a challenge, considering the following has happened . . .

-The MC (Radimir) recieved the pocket0watch from his friend, Thomas van Kempen.
-Radimir found out that Thomas had been murdered and took the watch to an antiques guy, Derek Lancashire, who is also an old friend of Thomas's to have a look at.
-Radimir got back home and was attacked. Radimir beat them up and escaped.
-Radimir and Derek hid in Derek's old shop.
-Derek is just about to go off to Thomas van Kempen's house and sneak in with help from a neighbour, to see if he can find more information on the watch (which he will, by the way).

(Oh, and also: Derek Lancashire is a completely new character. I just put him in there to fill a plot hole, but now he's become a third MC. Oh well, I'm happy because he has an awesome name)

THIS still has to happen:
-Derek and Radimir fly to Germany to see another antiques dude who specialises in watches.
-Radimir calls his friend Hartwin for directions, Hartwin turns up outside the hotel and offers to give them a lift.
-Radimir tries to stop Hartwin from getting involved. Since he doesn't say much, it doesn't really work.
-The three go off to see this specialist together. He confirms the watch as a genuine 19th century artcle, but is confused by it's condition, which is nigh-on perfect.
-Hartwin is informed of everything that happened up until this point. Much 'wtf' ensues.
-The three of them are attacked . . . somewhere. I don't know where yet.
-Derek discovers some of the watch's maker's notes amongst all of the crap he took from Thomas, which says that he hid three pieces of the watch's mechanism and replaced them with others.
-Um, I'm sure what leads up to this, but sometime at night, the three are attacked again and have to leap across rooftops and all that stuff. Hey, two thirds of the group are gymnasts!
-They fly to Holland, hoping to find out more about the guy who made it - Derek wants to know why he took out these three pieces of it.
-The find the dude's diary in the possession of a guy called Johan Reinout, which tells all.
-Unfortunately it turns out that Johan Reinout is the one who is actually after the watch and the three have a narrow escape. But that's okay, because they still have the watch and know where the pieces are! Bad news: the bad guys also know.
-First piece found inside the watch currently owned by the Dutch monarchy (hidden inside, that is, not actually part of the thing). Score one for the good guys!
-Second piece found . . . somewhere.
-Third piece found and put into the watch. Success! Unfortunately the bad guys have them surrounded. Hartwin travels back in time, telling the watchmaker to hide the piece somewhere else. This means that the watch is no longer complete and Hartwin is abruptly shifted to the present again. Somehow, the three of them or most of them (I dunno, I might kill Derek off here) escape the bad guys.
-Hartwin knows where the third piece can now be found, so they go there (Paris) and find it. Success! Hartwin gets in touch with a friend, Armelle LaRue.
-Somewhere, this friend has to lead the trio/duo through the sewers of Paris to escape the bad guys again (fun fact: the sewers of Paris exactly mirror the streets above).
-Stuff happens, and in it the two main bad guys after the watch (Johan Reinout and some dude called Hendrix, who is also his cousin) die. No more running away! Huffah!
-The end. One of the guys probably ends up with Armelle. Hartwin keeps the watch, which they can't destroy (plot point for the series I just thought up surrounding this! I didn't want to have a series on my hands, I swear . . .)

So yes. Lots to go (but now I have a nice handy plan to refer to!).

Ha ha ha.

But seriously, Illicit Law was never going to work as a title. I think I've found another one though:

Five Hands.

Maybe I'll explain it to you one day. =P

Okay, well, I won't say that October has flown by, because it hasn't. And I won't say that I know exactly what's going to happen in my novel, because I don't.

But heck, I'm doing pretty well so far!

I've done . . . 4.4k in words. Today. It's only the 1st of November! <3 If I keep this up I should have no trouble winning. My only worry is that I'll become complacent and not bother on some days until I fall behind, but . . . well, we can hope not.

I started writing at midnight and did over 2k in words then! I could probably get 5k today, easily, but unfortunately non-novelling aspects of my life demand attention. Also, the NaNo site isn't working well at all for me. Apart from being horribly slow, random pages keep not loading at all. I don't know what's up - I hope it fixes itself, though. It may just be the giant influx of people.

My story so far hasn't been terribly interesting . . . but I'm at an exciting bit now and it's been fairly fun to write. I can't wait to introduce Hartwin (whose last name is now Falk), because he seems like such a fun character.

Still, this time last year I was scrapping my story and trying to think of a new one. I hadn't even started, much less got over my daily word dose.

If only the NaNo site would work properly I could do something FUN whilst procrasinating too. :( Can't be helped.

Next year, I think, is going to be the introduction of Max and Muller. Only I'd have to come up with a convincing lie for Mum, because she would want to read that one. Nobody's allowed to read these! Nobody I know in real life anyway. >_>; Online people don't matter so much.

Aha! I have a plot sorted! SCORE!

As of yet it's not very fleshed out and a possible ending escapes me entirely . . . but who cares, I have a plot! It's an Adventure story with a fantasy twist, in case you (all zero of you) were wondering. It's currently titled Illicit Law, but that's bound to change - I hate it and it really doesn't have much to do with the story. It's just easier to refer to something by a title than "my NaNo novel".

~Main Characters~

Radimir Petrov, Russian, 32 (M)
Former Olympian gymnast
Now living in England, although his family still live in Russia. Determined, serious and hard-working. On the flipside, he's stubborn, bears a grudge and his sense of humour isn't the greatest. He's not known for being particularly tolerant of idiots either, and can often be sarcastic.

Hartwin Wagner, German, 30 (M)
Former Olympian gymnast
An old rival of Radimir's, and was narrowly beaten to a medal by him in the high bar final (multiple times). A back injury then forced him to retire. Despite their rivalry, Radimir and Hartwin retain a warm, if strange, friendship. The German is, in contrast to his friend, somewhat relaxed and a bit of a joker, although he does like things to be neat and orderly; almost to an obsessive extent. He also has a knack for stating the obvious.

The rough plot involves a chase around Europe, the bad guys (because there has to be bad guys) being after a pocket-watch that has fallen into Radimir's hands. Yes - a pocket-watch. But no just any pocket-watch! A watch that, if you collect all the right pieces, can let you travel through time! :D

Maybe I'll expand on that later . . . when I have more of an idea than that.

I have been ever-so-slightly ignoring this.

ScriptFrenzy turned out to . . . not work at all. I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that I'm better at watching films than I am at writing them - I believe I got up to something like 16 pages by the end of it.

But now, October. Some things you ought to know before I engage on this rant:
-I'm in Year 11, meaning GCSEs and serious thinking about my future
-Typical teenage angst about weight and a lack of boys, made worse by the knowledge that the prom is later this year
-I haven't been writing as much as I would've liked, partially due to schoolwork but also due to sheer laziness. I promised myself Hex would be finished by this time, and it isn't. Yet more angst
-In order to get me in the mood again, I've started writing tiny shorts based on songs in my music collection. So far, I've got about 4 done, with mixed results

Thus, this is probably not the best of times for NaNoWriMo to hit me again. But I loved it last year and am going to try anyway. My art coursework is bound to suffer (again) but honestly I have stopped caring about that at this point, and may still drop the thing entirely.

Despite the fact that I am not considering any career seriously involving English at this point, I want to do well in these exams. In the past months I've discovered a desperate, and probably ill-fated, ambition to enter Cambridge University. Yes, that's one-of-the-best-in-the-world-and-certainly-Britain's-best Cambridge. If I work hard enough at A-level and get the four A/A*s I'm going to aim for, I can make up for not attaining as many A*s at GCSE as perhaps other candidates - I hope. If I could manage to get an A* in English Language that would be a massive boon. The problem is thus: my two exams are scheduled during NaNo.

So that's NaNo - 0, Rest of Life - 1.

I also have the first of my exams for Additional Science in January, and if I don't get an A* in that I'll be severely disappointed. I do have a little more leeway with those exams, though, as I'm much more confident in the coursework-based part of that GCSE (I already know I got 23/24 in the Physics section, and my Chemistry teacher has assured me that I was basically going to get full marks). I wouldn't be particularly worried about this except I really, really need all the A*s I get get if I am going to get into Cambridge.

NaNo - 0, Rest of Life - 2 (consider that one a penalty shot, if you like).

Lastly, and probably most crucially, I really have very little idea of what to write. Actually, that's not true. The Adopt-A-Plot thread and a character that has been kicking about in my head for some time have just inspired some sort of plot.

Note to self: Retired Russian gymnast, 30-ish and . . . bugger, I've forgotten which plot inspired me. It was either the mirror showing things as they were 50 years ago, or the guy who finds strange stuff appearing in a private locker. Sigh.

Oooh. Another note to self: the sewers of Paris and some sort of race across Europe.

Score one for the good guys! NaNo - 1, Rest of Life - 2.

Yeah - about that crazy plot I was going to go with . . .

I'm not going with it any more.

Well done, Lin and the Russian, NOW I have a good plot I feel obliged to go with, except that it's full of holes! And because I seem to like randomly starting FE fics recently, I might not actually get it entirely sorted out before I start in April. ARGH!

. . . I still put you both in there, though. x.X Whyyyy?

Bah. As soon as Lin gets his ass on MSN, he is helping me with this plot. Period. Exclamation Mark.

ScriptFrenzy: like NaNo, only . . . different?

100 pages of a script in 30 days. Yeah, I can do that. (That's 3 and a third per day, in case you're wondering).

. . . Problem is, I don't seem to have a plot that I think will work.

I write novels. I'm not so good with films, especially when the films I watch are often not the sort of things I write (I rarely watch fantasy or sci-fi). I also suck at humour, which throws the most obvious genre out of the window entirely.

Basically, I'm going to be writing 100 pages of crap this April, and going with a plot that was originally intended as a joke.

Welcome to THE MISADVENTURES OF NICK: WHY YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ME SINCE JANUARY.

Now accepting characters, sub-plots, and crazy dare submissions.

It's December the 9th.

Novemeber is over. I had plans for finishing my novel this month, but they seem to have gone out of the window. I've been THAT busy.

First, there was the 'break period' where I didn't want to even LOOK at a book, much less write one. That takes us to, say, December the 2nd (I had the whole of the 30th to recover too, because I'd already finished).

Then, on December the 3rd, I started work experience.

Oh dear.

If anyone ever tells you that working with little kids isn't exhausting: DON'T BELIEVE A WORD OF IT.

Trust me, I haven't even been doing anything that would normally be classed as exhausting. But I come home after work every day, climb into bed, fall asleep, wake up, eat and go back to sleep again.

Also, if anyone ever tells you little kids don't really have that many germs to pass on, don't believe it. I should have done my first week of work experience by now but instead I've only done 3 days. 2 days missing! You know why?

I've been laid up in bed with a damn headache that could count as my own personal boombox, a throat that not only feels like it's been rubbed with sandpaper but feels like it's being grated every time I swallow and did I mention my nose has been running constantly. I've probably used enough tissues to fill twenty bins.

Of course it's Saturday now (well, Sunday morning) and I'm almost completely better, so I will, thankfully, be going in on Monday.

Don't get me wrong: despite my moaning, I do really like it. I love the kids (they're SO CUTE ^_^) and seeing all the old teachers is amazing. It brings back so many memories of wehn I was in Reception. Aww.

Of course, there's also the satisfied feeling you get when kids ask you 'Are you coming in tomorrow?', you reply that you're there for two weeks, and they say 'YAY!' and give you a hug.

Little kids: best and worst things ever.

Yeah. I fricking won, bishes.

At least, I got the 50k. The story itself still has quite a long ways to go. But, now I figure I can finally start to slow down in writing it. No more feverish, up-until-midnight writing days!

. . . Yeah, right.

Who the heck am I kidding? I'm so into this story and these characters that I really owe it to them to finish the story. And even if it isn't publishable material, so what? I fricking wrote a novel. What's more, I bet I can finish it in December, which means it will have taken only two months total.

How many people can say that? Not many, so there.

So my writing doesn't end here. Oh no. And after this story . . . well, we'll see. But I definitely WANT to carry on writing after this. I just love the way the words come out and arrange themselves on the paper. I love the way the characters seem to dictate the story and I feel like I'm just a tag-along trying to follow behind recording what they say and do. I love the way things jump out and surprise you (Romaro is actually gay? Go figure).

I'm now going to be a nerd and quote from The Book Thief by Markus Zusack, because it's such a brilliant book and I had to fit it in here somehow.

I'm so close to getting that 50k now. I'm still no where near actually finishing the story. But if I get that 50k, I know I can finish it.

50k. In one month.

Now it's actually achievable.

Wow.

My current word count is 43, 313 (close to my target of 45k by this weekend and still with tomorrow to go!), which means I have 6,687 words left to write in order to get 50k.

Whoamg.

That's a lot of words. I'm going to have a very happy end of November (and probably an even happier December if I manage to finish the story too).

6.6k left to go.

Only 6.6k.

Zomg. I can actually do it.

I really think I should do this more often.

Whilst taking a break (note that it's "taking a break" not "whilst procrasinating" - improvement!) I was reading a thread on the NaNo boards: What has NaNoWriMo taught you?

It's really got me thinking.

* The best source of inspiration is other people. On a side note I have now found a use for Nick's moment of unintentional and slightly crazy  genius - Wols Si Levon. I said 'Novel is going slow' and he said 'wols gniog si levon'. It's a really good name for someone in another project.
* Write. Just write. I discovered that there's a reason people have done 3 100k stories this month (I am serious here folks). It's because they just write - leave the 'oh my god I can't believe I actually wrote that crap' until later. WRITE.
* Go with the flow: who would've thought that animated skeletons showing up in my story would be a good thing? But they've ended up tying everything together nicely and I think I can use them to *finally* bring all the characters together - 37k in and I still haven't done that one simple thing that was supposed to happen right at the beginning. Hehe. 80k novel here I come?

But the one important thing I've learned is this:

I can write a novel.

At least I can write a novel for the moment. Who knows what might happen later?

So, consider this a reminder to myself: December is for finishing and editting. January - March is for Project two.

Oh yeah, and by the way, I want 45k by the end of this weekend . . . I don't care WHAT I have to give up to do it. I'm going to get that 45k.

You know you're too into NaNo when: You start thinking "Only 13k more to go!"

The main villain doesn't take stupid risks. Unless they sound really fun.

<3

Anyway, so tomorrow I'm at school, but we have Friday off (there's a write-in, but I've decided not to go. I need to go do my art for half the day instead). So I have a three-day weekend of writing in which I'm going to *try* for 45k. That means if I really start struggling in the last week I can still make it.

By this time last year I'd pretty much quit, so I'm still proud of myself for getting so far! <3 But I'll have to use the December holidays to finish the story. It's not planning on finishing itself in 50k, apparently.

And after that, I can start editting. And then I'll let people see it.

I started good, but things seem to have come slightly undone somewhere in the middle. Today is the 15th of November, so I should be at 25k by now. Instead, I've only just cleared 23!

This is mainly my fault - I knew I shouldn't have taken that day off from writing - but school definitely helped as well. Makes me wish we could just take the whole of November off.

Still, it doesn't help that the 15th managed to land itself on a Thursday. That means I can't stay up all night tapping away at the keyboard (dammit!) because I've got school in the morning. But tomorrow I can just go the whole hog.

Let's see . . . the sunday is the 18th, where I should be at 30,006 words. Let's see if I can get 35k instead. :3

And next week, we're off on the friday - and although I might have to go in to do some of my art coursework, I should still have a big day to devote to writing. Then there's the weekend as well. If only it were a Bank Holiday Monday, I'd be completely sorted!

Actually, I am really worried about my art - it's about half done at a rough estimate, and needs to be finished by the 28th November. I can stretch that to the 30th, but no later. And we've moved onto the second sheet for lessons, so I can't work on it then. I am so freaking buggered. D:

Of course, we all know what to do in a situation like this: PANIC AND RUSH.

So, um . . . yesterday I was on about 13.5k when I finished for the day. Behind the 1667/day wordcount target, but not by massive amounts. Now I'm on 15k still with hours of writing ahead of me! SUCCESS!

Of course that doesn't make me feel much better compared to the people with 25k or 40k or - hell - the ones who have finished already and are starting another novel, but it does make me feel a *little* better.

Went to the Manchester region Write-In today - so many plot bunnies! And not all of them for this NaNo, unfortunately . . . however, if I decide to do something similar next year, or do a sequel to this one -- well, let's just say there won't be any problems there.

But really, it was good fun.

STICKY DRAGONS. LIMERICK PROPHECIES. SLIGHTLY OVERWEIGHT WATCHMEN. A CHARACTER CALLED JACK. A FINISHED NOVEL ALREADY.

This is . . . the manchester region! XP

Yeah, that's right -
MY WORD COUNT IS OVER 10,000.

But considering I only had to do about 850 words it took forever. :( I was being so distracted by the NaNo forums. And stuffs. Eh, it's my fault . . . but I got there in the end anyway!

2.5k and I'll be a quarter of the way there (and also with more than halkf of what I had by the end of the month last time)! Wewt!

Hehehe . . . I'm 10k in and the MCs don't even know the location of the main villain yet - hell, they don't even know his name. Or even a name he goes by.

MYSTERY MAN? FUCK YEAH.

I AM NOT HIGH ON MY FRIGGING WORDCOUNT.

To save me panic about daily targets, I decided to set me some 5-day hurdles to get over instead. Guess what?

Target for Nov. 5th: 8,335
Current Wordcount: 9,123

5 DAY WORDCOUNT HURDLE FSCKING OWNED, BITCH! (I wrote over 2,000 words today . . . and I thought I was having a slow day . . . )

Also planning to go to a write-in in Manchester this Saturday - at least for a few hours. Should be fun to meet fellow mad people - Mum's coming along, but that's okay. I'm kinda nervous about meeting a load of strangers, but I should be able to manage. I hope.

I'm seriously loving this story . . . it would never get published, but I think when it's finally finished I'll be really proud of it.

And I will finish it. I will I will I will.