The Twilight Arbor

mood: numb

music: Milwaukee Youth Center Choir, "New Planet"

( Chapter Six: In which there is an expedition and sundry other excitements. )

Current wordcount: 27362. Well, I suppose that's curtains on this one. I'm going to keep writing, but barring some truly remarkable writing sprees in these last four days, a NaNoWriMo loser is me. I blame a huge spat of writer's block, triggered by Chapter 6 being damn hard to write at points and a little too on-the-fly plotted, but mostly I'm disappointed in myself. This is the problem: if I'd failed early, I would have laughed it off, but having done a decent job for a while, I find myself cringing at the concept of losing. Oh, well. Maybe next year?

Tags: chapters

Posted at 05:39 pm | Link | Leave a comment | 1 comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: anxious

music: Iron and Wine, "Each Coming Night"

( Chapter Five: in which we meet our villain at last. Contains an uncommon level of exposition. )

Current wordcount: 20669, about three paragraphs into Chapter 6, and I've only really started writing tonight. We'll see how it goes... I'm back on track right now, but I doubt I'll make my 2000 today, plus I've only just realized about Thanksgiving. Will not give into pessimism...

Tags: chapters

Posted at 04:02 am | Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: busy

music: Harvey Danger, "Carlotta Valdez"

( Chapter Four: In which there are some thrillin' heroics, after a fashion... )

( ... and an Interlude. )

Current wordcount: 16958. This puts me roughly a day behind, but I'm going to try to push and get as close to 19K as I can manage tonight. I knew the writer's block had to come eventually, and right now I just have to soldier through and try not to lose my nerve to finish my story.

Tags: chapters

Posted at 01:19 am | Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: determined

music: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Only Living Boy In New York"

( Chapter 3: In which the plot at last commences to thicken. )

Current wordcount: 12321. Whoo, five-digit wall breached! It's a bit less than I wanted to have at this point -- I had exams on both Monday and Tuesday, pulled an all-nighter Sunday night, and as a result had my first only-triple-digit day on Monday -- but my schedule has slackened a bit and I'm picking up steam again. Plus, you know, I think I may actually have enough plot now to propel me through 38,000 more words. Let's rock!

Tags: chapters

Posted at 05:04 am | Link | Leave a comment | 4 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Posted at 03:47 am | Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Posted at 11:28 pm | Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: satisfied

music: Sufjan Stevens, "Casimir Pulaski Day"

Current wordcount: 5915. Over 10% done, and well on schedule! Unfortunately, Chapter Two is not yet done, due to turning into a giant bastard of exposition on me. (You know that NaNo advice about "just put your characters in a situation and see what happens?" In terms of my pacing, it bit me on the ass. In terms of my wordcount, hot damn.) Hopefully I'll have it posted tomorrow and be able to get started on Three by the end of Day 4, but we'll see.

I'm starting to get proud of this, whether I succeed or fail in the end. Almost 6000 words in three days is not a trivial achievement, and the prose isn't even totally execrable. I'm finding myself more and more engaged in the project as I go. Now I just need to figure out where it is that it's going...

Tags: status report

Posted at 03:40 am | Link | Leave a comment | 2 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: tired

( Chapter One: In which we meet some protagonists. )

Wordcount: 3121, and I'm still writing today. I hope to hit at least 3600 by the end of the day and to carve a decent bit into Chapter 2.

Tags: chapters

Posted at 12:22 am | Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: productive

( Prologue )

Current wordcount: 1616 out of 50,000. I'm currently two scenes and change into Chapter One, and if my current rate of progress holds, I'll have that posted tomorrow. Given that Wednesday is one of my worst days and I didn't get started before going to bed last night, I'm very pleased with my progress so far.

Tags: chapters

Posted at 11:25 pm | Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: creative

music: The Mountain Goats, "Old College Try"

Why am I doing NaNo? I don't have time for NaNo. This will end in tears. Tears, I tell you!

... Well, uh, I actually have an idea this year? So I figure I might as well try. Here goes nothing...

( The results of my initial brainstorming: setting, characters, the start of the plot, and some goals for myself. Comments welcomed. )

God help me.

Tags: author's notes, brainstorming

Posted at 08:26 pm | Link | Leave a comment | 3 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend