Matt Jones’ Neighborhood

Woohoo! Why yes, Virginia, I can write 50,000 words worth of fiction in thirty days. However crappy those words may be, they are mine all mine.

Of course, I may only be a third of the way through the book. And I am certainly ready for a vacation from it, so I won't be finishing it this year. But then, I did leave off in a rather nice place - just as my group of three sets off on their journey. I may go back and add a bit more today to make sure it's a nice tightly wrapped pseudo ending. That'll make it easier to pick up again and finish later.

But now, here's my gratuitous winner's page screen shot:

And my official winner's certificate:
And, because it's one of the things I was doing when I ought to have been working on my novel, here's my crummy lovely makeshift mock up book cover.:
Hooray hooray! Now I can sleep and do other things.

Eek! It's the final day, and I'm behind! Stupid Thanksgiving. I've been trying to catch up for the last couple days, but I have the attention span of a peanut. Seriously. One or two sentences and I'm off piddling away on the internet or - get this - totally redoing my computer's windows theme and icons. (It's lookin' really spiffy, by the by. I'll have to share those downloads with you soon).

Just before Thanksgiving I was on a really hot roll, too. Seriously, there was fire involved. As in I was 'on fire' writing about a fire. Did 2,000 words in just a couple hours. But then, I got bored with it, or something, because I've been slogging ever since. I mean, the stuff in the story is interesting enough, but maybe a month of solid writing takes that toll. This will be a vacation when NaNo is over.

Anyhoo. Here I am giving a final update before I hit my final stretch. The last one before I know if I win or lose. I've got 20 hours to get my final 2,000 words. Totally doable. If not for that peanut. If I could just get my attention span to be - I don't know, the size of a walnut? That would be an improvement. Either way, I refuse to go to bed until I win or the deadline passes me by. But I really don't want to go Douglas Adams on this. ("I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they go by.") I want to win!

Okay, so here goes....

Forgot to update yesterday. But I guess now that I'm caught up, the drama of the daily struggle has lessened and the only jucy thing remaining is what story elements I will choose to divulge. (Am I sounding like a writer yet? ^__^) Also, being caught up makes it a cinch to hit my NaNo quota. After breaking myself in at 3,000+ words a day, the regular 1670 goes by quick. My current word count is 17,138 (and it's the end of chapter 4) - I'm actually above quota!

I absolutely hated everything I wrote yesterday, so the hard part was to NOT go back and redo it all - because that would kill my word count. I was on the verge of needing to type with my monitor off. Yesterday saw some boring real world type stuff - parts of town, introducing the classroom setting. Bleh. (probably why I hated it - I'm bad at that stuff. Hence the fantasy writing.)

Better stuff today: some foreshadowing (some of it for the story this is prequel to, though it may come out at the very end of this book as part of a subplot) including a crazy mysterious man shouting "RUE" amidst his mumbling; Two houses, two conservatories, and secret stuff going on in both. My Main Character is quite perplexed.

Whew! I caught up (13,407 words)! [hoorah! hoorah! - the crowd of one in my apartment goes wild!] And I just barely made it. Okay, I sort of cheated, but not really. I'd written a couple hundred words in Michigan on the first day, but decided I didn't like it as the beginning of my story.  I put it aside, and started again when I got home and could concentrate better. Today I got to exactly the spot where that bit could go in, so TaDa! So, "cheating" in that I copied and pasted, and only made a few quick changes to make it fit (now that there were more people in the scene than the way I'd first written it). But definitely NOT cheating because I did write it for this story and in the month of NaNo. I just did it so quick it felt like cheating (it was about 7 minutes to midnight when I realised I was precisely AT the setup for the scene), but I'd always intended to see if the snippet could go back in. I mean, if anything, I've actually been shortchanging myself on my word count all this time, 'cause no one ever said you had to write the thing in order.

In the story today: My MC caught the local shop owner gossiping about her and decided to listen in. And she also heard there's a new boy in town who apparently thinks my MC is pretty. Then he walked in and caught her eavesdropping!

I am 1/5th the way through! More than 20%! I passed today's NaNo catch-up goal (10,000 words) with over an hour to spare, and surpassed it (10,578) with half an hour to spare. I'll catch up tomorrow for sure! I'm only stopping now because my MC is going to bed, too, so it seemed like a good spot.

In the story today: Apparently my MC has a revered ancestor named Quinlin Hart and her mother was having a bit of a salamander problem - the magic kind that are made of fire. It lost its tail, but it'll grow back....

...Don't know when my main plot will kick in. Not that I know what that is yet. Maybe tomorrow it will reveal itself. She's gonna catch some unsettling gossip about herself. And there's someone new in town. Now if only I knew what that gossip was...

Didn't quite hit my double quota before midnight like I needed to catch up for nanowrimo, but I should get there before I go to bed tonight. Currently at 6,120. Need to get to 6,668 before I go to sleep. (Though I really should be at 10,002 if I were caught up.)

In the story today: a gnome named Hollaby, a gnomide (that's a female gnome), an injured rabbit who got some healing and is now being chased by a kunal trow flying about on a bulrush. But the rabbit's in good hands in my main character's saddlebag....

I wrote over 3300 words for NaNo today, but I'm still 5,000 behind due to my late start! But if I can write double the daily quota for the next three days I should catch up.

In the story so far: a shapeshifting woman, a very dark cavern, and a garden built by gnomes out of rock, moss, and non-native plants....

I spent the first few days of November at my mom's in Michigan, where there was only dial up internet, no cell phone signal, and adorable nephews to distract me. So I'm getting a late start on my writing. The daily quota (if you write every day) is 1,667 words. I'm about 7,000 behind.

Here I go!