NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Thirteen

Good Morning Everybody,
Today is day thirteen of NaNoWriMo, and the word count goal for today is 21,666, and I am currently sitting at 23,843 words! As you can see, I did manage to get quite a bit of writing done last night, which I am super excited about. I wrote two chapters, and one of them took a turn that I hadn't really been expecting, which made the next chapter change from what I had initially planned out. However, everything in general is still moving along in the way that I had intended for it to go.

I am actually so happy about the two chapters that I wrote last night. Even though the writing in them isn't quite what I want it to be in the finished draft, (I mean obviously, I wrote like 3000 words in just over an hour), the stuff that is happening in them is stuff that is helping my characters to grow, and hopefully readers will enjoy it. Both chapters are now available to read on my Tablo account. If you want to know more about Death's past, then they are going to make for an interesting read!

I'm hoping that I will be able to keep up this pace, and potentially break 30K before the end of tomorrow. I am probably going to be gone for most of the weekend, and I'm not entirely sure how much writing I am going to be able to get done, so I want to try and be as far ahead as possible. It all depends if I can bring my laptop with me, and if I end up actually going. The friend who is planning on taking me to see Flashdance this weekend forgot that she had plans on the day that we were going to travel together, so she wants me to do the travelling by myself, but I have never been to that particular city before, so I don't know how comfortable I am with that whole scenario... I guess we'll just have to see how everything goes.

I am also hoping to have a NaNoWriMo vlog up on my YouTube Channel either later today or early tomorrow morning, that will just be discussing these first two weeks of NaNo-ing and how things are going for me and my story, so if any of you are interested in something like that, be sure to keep an eye out for it!

I hope that you all are having a great day so far (its only 9:30am for me at the moment), and I hope that you get all of your words in for the day! We are almost at the half way mark! Its hard to believe. Good luck to all of you! And of course, as per usual, feel free to leave your Tablo accounts down in the comments so that I can check them out and give you a follow!

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Twelve

Hello Everybody,
Today is day twelve of NaNoWriMo and the word count goal for today is 18,333, and my current word count is 20,548. You may have noticed that my word count goal has gone up a bit, but only by about 100 words. It is only 6:00pm here right now, so I still have lots of time to write tonight, and I think I have broken through my writers block.

I spent my morning watching Katytastic's day nine liveshow, and for some reason it just made me really excited and really motivated to write again. I haven't actually sat down to write today, those one hundred-ish words are what happened when I forced myself to sit down yesterday and attempt to write at least something. I am hoping that tonight (after watching an episode of Halt and Catch Fire with Isadora), I will be able to finish the chapter I started yesterday, and maybe, if I'm feeling really good about it, get another one done as well. I still want to maintain how far ahead I am because of this weekend being my "write all of your essays at once" weekend.

I know, I'm brilliant, aren't I?

Hope that you guys are doing better than I am right now.

Happy NaNo-ing,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Eleven

Hey everybody,
I know, its been a while. Its been a really busy couple of days for me. Today's word count goal is 18,333, and I am currently sitting at 20,463! I am still just over one day ahead with the goals, however I haven't written anything today. It is 7pm here right now, so I still have time, but I have been dealing with a major case of writers block all day.

I actually had my friend Isadora come to visit me at University for the weekend. She got here at one o'clock on Friday, and she left at quarter to eight this morning. She is one of my best friends from back home, and I was so happy to have her here for a few days. I ended up not writing anything on Friday, but I did catch up again on Saturday, and on Sunday I got back to being one day ahead and yesterday I managed to get my word count up to two days ahead. Isadora is the same friend who has been super invested in my story as I've been writing, so I wrote a lot while she was here so that she could read the chapters that I was finishing.

Her being here is also the reason why I haven't updated the blog in a few days, and why I don't have a new video up on youtube. I was going to do a week one update, but that kind of got pushed aside since I wanted to spend as much time with Isadora as I could. She and I had a ton of fun while she was here, but now that she is gone I seem to have hit a bit of a block. I did attempt to start the next chapter of Scarlett, which would now be chapter thirteen, but I only got down a couple of sentences before I realized that I had no idea how I wanted to approach the chapter. It is still within the chapters that I had outlined from before the beginning of NaNoWriMo, so I know WHAT will be in the chapter, but I just can't seem to figure out HOW I want to write that content.

This is a really frustrating time for me to be having this because I wanted to write like a machine this week. This weekend I have to begin working on all of my essays for my classes, and I didn't want to have to worry about NaNoWriMo while I was working on them. I was hoping that I could be two or three days ahead when Friday hit so that I could just concentrate on writing the rough drafts for those. Plus, one of the assignments that I have to have done by Wednesday next week is a review for a play. A friend managed to get me tickets to see Flashdance the Musical live this weekend, which I have been super stoked about. I have never seen a musical performed live, and it is something that I have always wanted to do. I love musicals, and I think that seeing one live would just be spectacular. My professor gave me permission to use Flashdance as the play for my review, but now I am going to have a big chunk of time where I can't do any writing for NaNoWriMo because I will be out of town to watch it, and as soon as I get home that night I am going to want to write my review so that the play is still fresh in my head.

If I can manage to get that assignment done, as well as the rough drafts for the other three essays that I have to write done this weekend, then I will definitely consider it a success. I just don't want to fall behind on my novel in the process, especially when I have been having so much fun with this story and the cast of characters that I have given it. (Plus I know that if I don't finish it, Isadora will kill me via Skype call).

I hope that you all are keeping up with your word count goals, and I hope that you aren't having as much difficulty as I am with your last couple of weeks of NaNoWriMo. Chapters nine through twelve of Scarlett are now available to read here, so feel free to check it out.

As per usual, if you have a tablo account, put the link in the comments section so that I can check out your profile and give you a follow!

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Six

Hello everybody,

I hope that all of you are doing well. Today is the day that we are all supposed to break the 10K barrier! Have any of you managed to do it yet? Its hard to believe that we are one fifth of the way through this crazy adventure!

As I have mentioned in the past, I am trying to stay at least one day ahead with my word count goal. Since the word count goal for today was 10K, I was trying to get past 11,666 words! And I managed to do it! I wrote chapter seven of Scarlett, which can be viewed here. It was my longest chapter so far in this story, coming in at 2,078 words, which brought my grand total up to 12,240 words!

I'm getting close to the number of words where I lost all of my data last year, so I'm starting to get paranoid. I've got my novel backed up on three different hard drives this year.

I hope you are all remembering to back up your novels! Losing your words just over a week in is something that I definitely do not recommend. It was super stressful to get myself caught up again! I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

How have you guys been doing? Have any of you broken the 10k barrier yet? Maybe some of you have even managed to break 20K already? I know that someone on my writing buddies list has on the official NaNoWriMo website! Let me know how your doing, and as always, leave links to your Tablo accounts down below so that I can check them out and follow them!

Lots of NaNo love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Five

Hello everyone!

I'm going to try and do one of these posts every day for the rest of the month, but we'll see how that goes. I've never been very good at sticking with things like this. However, I feel like this is a fun, easy way to keep you updated on how I am doing with my novel, and it doesn't take as much time to do as a vlog, which is nice for me because I don't really have enough time to film much right now.

As some of you may know, I am a University student, and I am planning on majoring in English. This semester in particular, I had some issues with my schedule, which ended with me having all English courses, and the majority of them are literature courses. You can imagine the amount of reading and writing I am being required to do. Plus, I have to keep everything straight in my head, and its getting more and more difficult as the semester goes on.

November, as it seems, is Essay Month. Every single one of my classes is requiring an eight to ten page essay to be written, and all of them are due during the same week of November. One of those classes also requires me to write a review for a play, which has to be at least two thousand words. Basically, what this means is that I am going to be writing like a mad woman over the course of the next couple of weekends.

Since I know that there are going to be a couple of days where I can't work on my NaNo novel (I mean really, I have to prioritize something that is worth over one third of my grade here), I have been trying to stay a little bit ahead. So far, that has meant that I am working on the next day's word count.

For example: Day five's word count is 8,333. Yesterday, which was Day Four, I hit a word count of 8,529. If I want to keep this up so that I don't fall too far behind when it comes time to write my essays, then today I have to break 10,000 words! Which I know I can do, because I have a friend who is waiting for my chapter update on Tablo, and if she doesn't get it, then I will never hear the end of it.

I'm just having trouble believing that I'm already almost one fifth of the way through my NaNoWriMo 2014 journey! This whole year seems to have been going by so quickly, and November is definitely no exception.

As of when I am writing this, which is at 9:30 in the morning, I haven't done any writing yet, so my word count is still sitting at the 8,529 from yesterday. I have two classes today, and will probably be home again around 2:30, at which point I will be sitting down to work on the sixth chapter of Scarlett. I will have plenty of time to write tonight, so I think that I will easily be able to hit my 10K goal for today.

How are you guys doing? Are you keeping up with the word count goals? Are you ahead? Maybe you've fallen behind. Don't worry, there is still the majority of the month to catch up if you have! You just have to push yourself a little harder!

Leave any thoughts or questions in the comments section, and as I said in my last post, if you have a Tablo, make sure to link it so that I can check it out!

Happy Novelling,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Four

Hello everybody!

As you can probably tell from the title of this particular entry, it is day four of NaNoWriMo, which means that the word count goal for today is 6666 words! I am currently sitting at 6,860, and I have yet to do any writing today. (I have to do it after I finish this entry, otherwise my friend Isadora will hunt me down). I have completed the first four chapters of my story! Yay!

I hope that you all are doing well and keeping up with your word count goals! I know it gets a bit difficult after the first couple of days. That is actually why I haven't sat down and written anything so far today, I'm having a little bit of writer's block. I know what is happening next in my story (I have up until chapter 15 outlined, and I am currently writing chapter five), but something about today is just making it difficult to concentrate on my story.

I hope that none of you are having this trouble yet! Save it for after you've hit your 50,000 words! Then you can have a creativity block if you want. I don't recommend having one until that goal is reached. However, if you do find that it happens, relax. Take a break. Spend some time with friends or go watch a movie. Let yourself forget about the stress of writing a story so quickly for a few hours. When you return, try not to let a blank screen intimidate you. Just get your words out: as many or as few as that may be.

One thing I do want to tell you guys about is this site called Tablo. It is basically like Facebook for authors. It allows you to write and publish your stories, and you can gather up your own following of people who like your book! They are also holding a contest throughout NaNoWriMo, where if you use their program to write your novel, there is a chance that it could be picked up by one of five publishers! (That was my understanding of the announcement anyway!) This could be huge for a new author!

Of course, when I heard about this, I had to enter myself into the competition. Even if my story isn't as good as some of the others, at least it is out there and getting seen. Who knows, maybe a publisher will like what they see! Either way, its a great opportunity that shouldn't be missed out on!

I will link my profile on Tablo Here. Feel free to click the link and check out my page. I do have the first four chapters of Scarlett available to be read, and if you like what you see, then please be sure to follow me!

That's everything for today! How have you guys been doing? Do any of you use Tablo? If so, leave a link to your profile in the comments section so that I can check you out!

Keep on NaNo-ing
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day One

Good morning/afternoon/night!
As of Midnight this morning, it is officially November, which means it is time for NaNoWriMo to begin. I stayed up until midnight so that I could start my story right away, and actually managed to finish the first chapter by 1:00! Obviously, I'm still not too sure as to whether or not I like the way that it reads as a whole, but there are definitely parts of it that I think are promising, and that I will use when I'm editing and revising this story in the future.

For those of you who would like to know, I am writing a story that is a bit darker than I'm used to, but is going to be riddled with fun and good humor. It follows Scarlett, the title character, who is a highly skilled nurse, but when she meets the figure of Death; she begins to question her morals as she completes tasks in order to meet him again.

I write most of my stories in chronological order because I like following my characters as they grow from beginning to end. This is why the first chapter I wrote this month was also the first chapter of the story.

One thing that I would like to do with these updates, whenever I remember to do them, is to share a sentence or two that I really like from what I have written. If you would like to do the same in the comments of the posts, then please feel free to do so!

"It all started with a heart attack. I should probably clarify: I didn't have a heart attack."