NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 30 - WON

NaNoWriMo 2011 is in the books! I finished this afternoon with a validated word count of 50,830. And guess what? I STILL love the story. (That's something that has never happened in my NaNo history; I usually despise everything about my novel by the last day.)

I am totally smitten by Beckon, and I can hardly wait to start editing it. This is most definitely something special, and I have a publisher in mind already.

I leave you with a final excerpt from this novel that I love:

My eyes scanned the landscape. The village was in a shambles. The buildings, even though they were on fire, were very unlike the buildings in my world. I wondered what had started the fires, and automatically looked to the skies for dragons.

Soaring high above, through white rain clouds and black soot columns, giant stiff birds with strange wings and noses flew in a V-formation.

I touched Beck's shoulder, where he crouched on the dirt. "What are those birds? Did they start the fire?"

He looked up and squinted at the shapes. "Those aren't birds." His eyes widened.

I turned back and saw that the birds were dropping what looked like little dots from where we stood.

"Chan, we have to go." He grabbed my hand.

"Where are we going?"

"Away from here!" He pulled on my arm, urging me to run.

I lifted one side of my dress and ran after him.

Oh yes. This is something special indeed.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 9

Writing days have been up and down lately, squeezing in just a few hundred words here and there. It's been a weird week, and I've found myself behind. Tonight, I've got to get some serious noveling done!

'Round about chapter 7, I decided that it was time to change POVs (point of view) to the secondary main character, Beck. He's from a contemporary world (ours) and, as I discovered surprisingly, a total geek. He even wears glasses. I love, love, love his voice. Some great lines have come out from Beck's third person POV.

He had no idea the the old doorframe from the antique shop would take him to a distant realm of fantasy where there was no indoor plumbing and certainly no wi-fi to speak of. If he had known, he wasn’t sure if he would have walked though that shimmering portal at all. But standing here, even freezing to death in the stables, talking to Chan, he wondered if maybe she was the reason he was here.

Back in his world, a techie geek was sexy in theory, but in practice? Perhaps not so much. Not many cute girls liked to hang out in the computer data server room at corporate offices. It was dusty. And hot. And there was always the possibility of breaking something just by turning around. Or getting electrocuted.

And here's an awesome, comical scene from today's writing:

Beck stared at the ground from atop the enormous horse. He really didn’t want to meet the dirt any faster than necessary, but Chan was already too far off the road to call. No, he didn’t need help to get off of a horse. How hard could it be?

Fingers gripping the saddle horn, Beck leaned forward and brought one leg up. He rested it atop the horse. While adjusting his other shoe for balance, he lost track of his higher leg, and his body twisted. He reached out for something--anything--to grab. Finding nothing but air, he peeled backward off the side of the stallion and fell on his face.

The horse whinnied and sidestepped away.

Beck spat gravel from his mouth and tried to stand. His every sinew ached. “Thanks for nothing, Lester,” he muttered to the animal, who whinnied at him once more. Funny, he sounded like he was laughing at him. Or was that his pride turning into a cherry slushie?

I'm having a ton of fun writing both of these characters. So far, I still love the story. Here's hoping it lasts at least another 21 days.

In other news, the next episode of Month of the Novel was released today. Check it out!

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YOU TUBE CHANNEL: MonthOfTheNovel
WEB: monthofthenovel.com

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Day 9 Word Count: 12,580 (pre-noveling tonight)
Words Remaining: 37,420

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 3

Didn't get a whole lot of writing done today--about 1,000 words. But I'm still a bit ahead, so there's no cause for alarm just yet. This excerpt is actually from yesterday's writing, but I still like it, and it shows the main character's personality very well.

"Stay alert, Princess.”

“Yes, indeed I will, Sir Joshue.”

It was the burly man’s turn to blush. “Please, Princess. You embarrass me.”

“Precisely what I intended then.”

ON A RELATED NOTE: A handful of my young writer friends from the east side of the country and their cohorts have started a series about a writer who is attempting to write a NaNo novel, but she's...running into some creativity issues. This is hilarious and done completely by teens and young adults.



YOU TUBE CHANNEL: MonthOfTheNovel
WEB: monthofthenovel.com

I just discovered that they were working on this project and had to share. Enjoy!



Day 3 Word Count: 6,211
Words Remaining: 43,789

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 2

I didn't get any noveling done during the day today, but my friend MightiMidget and I squeezed in three 10-minute Word Wars in the wee hours of the night. Here's an excerpt from tonight's writing.

Now that I looked closer, I could see that he wore some kind of decoration on his face. Two circles of metal with glass windows in them, perched on his nose and affixed to his head by two metal bars that wrapped around his ears. “This is curious,” I said, reaching for the adornment.

I didn't realize Beck wore glasses until this moment. Love surprises like that!

Day 2 Word Count: 5,212
Words Remaining: 44,788

As a side note, I entered a short story into a contest at Lulu.com. It required putting that short story in eBook format to submit it, so here it is if you're interested in taking a look: The Question: A Short Story

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 1

Today, NaNoWriMo 2011 began. Having taken the day off of work, I went to the all-day write in in the morning. It was quite a productive handful of hours. The novel got off the ground, and my final word count after leaving the write-in was around 2,700. Each day, we need to write at least 1,667 words in order to make the 50K goal by November 30. I've still got some writing I want to do tonight, but I've got a great head start.

Here's an excerpt from today that I particularly enjoyed writing. It's a description of the view outside Princess Chan's window.

I gulped down the lukewarm tea, staring out the stained glass window into the fields around the castle. The forest spread out to the west, nestled up against the slate rock of the mountains. Snowy peaks whispered misty secrets to one another high in the light blue sky. Royal dragon riders circled the formations as they scouted the borders for signs of invasion by Westonia’s sworn enemy across the sea.

Day 1 Word Count: 3,764
Words Remaining: 46,236

The Dark Side of White by Inkaholics VI

The latest book from the Inkaholics Collaborative Writers Groups is now available! We tried something totally new with this story, which ended up making this our longest book yet. Another first is that the cover art was commissioned by my dear friend Rachael Selk. She did a fantastic job capturing our characters! (Check out the preview below to see the wraparound art on the back.)

Kevin, Parker, and Mŭshi Rū are all running—from the past, the present, the future. Curiously odd circumstances thrust them together when Kevin’s adversaries come to kidnap him. The adverse allies are compelled to unite, but differing opinions and peculiar secrets keep them from fully becoming one.

Meanwhile, the beginning of a terrible penguin reign is about to befall the earth. Kevin, Parker, and Mŭshi are forced into battle. Will they learn to trust and lean upon one another as they face a common enemy? Or will their own fears tear apart the fragile friendships?