Goodbye, November, Hello, Great Beyond

One month ago, the very first words of a novel were written on a computer, while three other writers wrote along with this novelist.

Day one began with excitement, joy, and wonder. This young writer couldn’t seem to get enough of the noveling season, writing…writing…writing.

And then, the wonder wore away. These four writers went on, working. Along the way, the deaths of novels have come. That came to one of these writers.

The other three shed tears for their lost fellow writer and went on through the storm of writer’s block, when every key on the keyboard became hard to push down. When the sky grew dark and thoughts turned sour, they shielded their eyes from the blinding snow and stumbled on into the wind, determined to win.

Every moment at that computer screen could become a nightmare for these writers, staying up until 12:00 and 1:00 and 2:00 and 3:00 and 3:30 in the morning, working, crying, screaming, in agony and pain. But they went on. Without even thinking of turning back. There was no way these three writers could be stopped from this crazy journey.

Emails came pouring in, encouraging these writers. They read them and were encouraged. They knew that they weren’t the only ones. Near, far, in far distant windy, stormy, rainy, snowy places as well, other writers slogged through the insanity of this month, typing on those oft-used keyboards, tears rolling down their cheeks as they kept their eyes on the screen and kept working.

These writers are now winners, satisfaction in their eyes, a well-earned pride in their hearts. Because they finished NaNoWriMo. All on the same day…the last day…working hard. They did it because they knew that they must, because they were writers.

And they still are.

Congratulations to all the writers that have finished NaNoWriMo, in the past and during this year. We commend you, and thank you for joining us on this amazing, tragic, awesome journey into noveling.

So, as we leave NaNoWriMo behind, we say goodbye to November and hello to the Great Beyond, knowing that next year, we will all gather together again to make our way along this incredible road. And we’ll all do it again, together. 

Miranda

I’m Still On Track

So, I’m still on track.

I’m probably the only person on earth to read this blog, but it doesn’t matter anyway.

It’s okay, because I’m still on track. I’m still in the running for 50,000 words, and I intend to be for the rest of this month. Because I swear that I’m going to make it. I don’t care what other people say, I don’t care what my NaNo Stalker, (Kayla) says about how I should be writing instead of doing dumb stuff on Facebook. I don’t care, because, by the end of every day, I have already completed my word count.

I’m still on track.

After all of this is said, I’m still on track.

Miranda

Okay, Doing Okay…TV and Strange, Confused and Plotting…

So, as NaNoWriMo stands right now for me, I’m behind in my 100,000 word count. But I’m ahead in my 50,000 word count. Which means I’m doing okay.

It’s because I’ve been watching too much TV this week, you know, three and a half hours of FOTR on Wednesday, four hours of TT yesterday, and nearly two hours of Hangman’s Curse today. Oh, well, I’ll catch up soon.

I tried.

But Willow is being a little weird right now, acting kind of strange and funny. Will’s confused and sad, but he’s happy at the same time. (It’s sort of hard to explain.)

Rath is plotting. Plotting. And running. And plotting some more.

So, that’s where the story is right now, and no one reads this blog, so why am I writing it? Hey, Kayla! Get your friends to comment on this blog, please?

Miranda

So How’s It Going?

If someone were to ask me how NaNoWriMo was going, I’d tell them, “Very good and awesome.”

No, I didn’t meet my word count last night, but that’s okay, because I’m like, 6,000 words ahead of the game. I only didn’t write enough last night because I was watching The Fellowship of the Ring extended version, which was 3 and a half hours long.

It was cool.

Anyway, Inhabitation is going well. Will rocks, Rath is evil and scary, and everything is going awry for both of them. Poor Will! He lost one of his best friends already, and now he’s wounded because Rath gave him a gash on his side.

Rath’s wandering through a forest, trying to find his way out. He’s exhausted, and mad.

Willow’s serving breakfast right now, but things are about to go crazy yet again in a few minutes.

Rathil is kind of gone.

Ace of Hearts just died. Sad. I liked Ace.

Will’s all confused, but he’s relaxing right now. He’ll get more confused later. (Right, Kayla? )

I wonder what’s going to happen next. I want to read this book, but it’s not done yet. I wish the writer would hurry up and finish it.

Workin’ on this awesome book,

Miranda

Yes, I’m the procrastinator…

Miranda can eat words for breakfast, hundreds at a time. Trevor doesn’t seem like he even needs to think while he writes, it just goes. Me, I’m the slow one.
I have no idea where my procrastination comes from. Probably my mothers genes, but let’s pretend I didn’t say that. Maybe it’s because I have that ‘Oh, I can always do it later’ mindset. I don’t think I’m ever in a hurry. Well, NaNo is forcing me to.
I hate hurrying.
You are probably thinking ‘then why the heck are you doing this?’ Ask my friends. My answer will always be because it’s fun. Call me insane… I know I am.

Now, about my NaNo story. I got to 4,619 words last night. 2k less then my buddies. I have to catch up today. So, Miranda, STOP WRITING! Please? Pretty please?

-Kayla

A Very Special Day

Yippie-kye-yay, kye-yay, today is a special day!

NaNo, as Trevor has already said, has begun.

We started at 12:00 AM this morning. I was awake until 3:00 AM, writing my new novel. Inhabitation. I’ve already met my word count for today, but I’m going to write more, anyway. After this post.

I nearly posted on here at 3:00, but I was exhausted, so I didn’t. It was really fun, though, and we talked to Kayla over webcam since she couldn’t be here.

NaNoWriMo has begun. NaNoland is here. Yay!

Miranda

letITbegin

Yippie-ti-yay. NaNoWriMo has begun. Wicked.

I am exceptionally excited, although the lack of vehement punctuation on my part belies every word I write. It’s true, nonetheless. My excitement is as genuine as the fact that I can write a post like this without a dictionary. Magnificent.

I feel brilliant. My personal commitment is to write 100,000 words this November, and as of right now, an hour and a half into NaNoWriMo, at 1:30 AM, I am 1/100th of the way done. That’s right, my beautiful audience. I wrote a thousand words tonight. A grand. One thousandth of a million. Two times five-hundred. Astonishing.

I rock the earth. Literally. The earth trembles at my feet ’cause I have stayed up till midnight to write this crazy novel I call Possessed. I am the Possessed one. I hooked up an amp to my keyboard and turned the volume and the bass up all the way. Now the ground shakes whenever I strike a key. Now, imagine that every word is an average of 4.59 words long. That means that the ground shook 4,200.672 times as I wrote. And that was just the first night. 4,200.672 times one hundred equals 420,067.2. Wowee.

Don’t check the math. You will discover that I didn’t quite write a thousand words. I fudged. I wrote 987. Growl.

And I just told you that I lied. Crud.

Brilliant. Brilliant me.

That’s it. I’m brilliant. And tired.

Goodnight.

And I don’t use this many paragraphs while I’m writing my novel.

And I don’t split infinitives. Ever.

Nevereverever.

And I don’t want to stop typing, because my coffee finally kicked in now that I want to go to bed.

Wonderful.

-Trevor

Five (LAME) Reasons Not to do NaNo

1) I could never write that many words in one month! Golly-jee-whillikers, that’s 1667 words a day!

Answer: Don’t be weird. Join the Young Writer’s Program — you can set your own word count goal. You’ll find a link to the YWP on the NaNoWriMo.org home page.

2) I’m way too busy. I have a job, a life, a wife and four children. They need me, and besides, NaNo is just a waste of time.

Answer: Stop it. You’re making dumb excuses. You know you have time to burn. You had time to eat dinner last night, didn’t you? Huh? Well, skip it in November!

3) I don’t have a plot, and I can’t think of one right now.

Answer: I’ll give you a plot idea right off the top of my head. Your MC is driving down Main Street minding his own business, when suddenly he gets a mysterious phone call from a man with a husky voice. He threatens to blow up the local Big Scoop within the next ten minutes unless you surrender the mysterious stauette of Johnny Depp you discovered last year while digging for buried treasure in the jungles of Africa.

4) I can only write at certain times.

Answer: Yah, that’s what I thought last year. Actually, I found that inspiration is created, not given. Go out and find it with a baseball bat.

5) I won’t win.

Answer: Terrible to be you. If that’s the best you can come up with, you’re probably not cut out to write anyway. Go back to your day job. Millions on welfare are depending on you, anyway.

-Trevor

Welcome to Our NaNoLand!

First of all, I’d like to introduce our authors.

Trevor. Age: 17. Novel: Possessed.

Miranda. Age: 15. Novel: Inhabitation.

Kayla. Age: 17. Novel: Riddock.

Angie. Age: 13. Novel: Ocean.

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is an online challenge for those crazy people who think they can write 50,000 words in one month. Starting tomorrow, this challenge begins. We’re in. All of us.

NaNoWriMo began ten years ago. We’re celebrating those ten years of literary abandon this year. It started out with twenty people. Now, there’s more than 100,000. Biggest turn out of them all. (Wonder what’s going to happen next year?)

We’ll be posting throughout the month of November, and probably December, too, as the adrenaline from NaNo wears off.

If you want to join, visit nanowrimo.org. NaNoWriMo wants YOU.

Looking forward to a month of literary abandon!

Miranda