Last year I managed to get something written every day, even if it wasn’t the full 1667 words, but today it just never happened. Thankfully I was ahead, although not by a full day. Unfortunately I’m in London all this weekend, but am taking my notebook on the train so *hopefully* will be able to keep up. I’ll have to properly catch up next week. I’d forgotten how much planning this needs!

Google Docs (nee Writely) says I’ve written 1709 words. The NaNo site says 1664. OpenOffice.org says 1670. I ran into this last year when I uploaded my (just) 50,000 word novel to be verified by the NaNo site and found it was 800 words short. Just something to bear in mind. This may well already be on the official forums, but they’re down atm.

On Monday I found myself digging through old photos, contemplating large-scale scanning projects of old photographs and hey, while I’m at it, why not go through my grandmother’s boxes of slides and have them sent away to a scanning company, and, and…I eventually realised what was happening. My brain was trying to get out of NaNoWriMo, because it’s scary. My brain and I have had words, and I’ve made the task seem exciting with the aid of Really Big Pieces of Paper, which are on my wall and already covered in scrawl. Now that the day is finally here I’m quite enthusiastic It’s a relief to be getting going.

This year I have two ambitions:

1. Stop beating myself up over quality. I got to the end of last year’s novel and thought it was irredeemably bad. This impression stuck, and every time I tried to edit I’d become disillusioned. Having written a fair bit since I’ve found that anything can be fixed, no matter how dreadful it seems at the start. Hemingway said “the first draft of anything is shit”, which seems off-putting at first but is actually quite inspiring, I think.
2. Edit it to the point that I let somebody else read it.

As with last year, I pledge to donate £500 to the Institute for Creation Research if I fail to complete 50,000 words by the end of November 30th. This could be fun, given that I (hopefully) have a job interview mid-month, and am away from any computers this weekend at least.

The widget in the sidebar should display my word-count at the end of each day, and links to a full progress report. The already impressive NaNoWriMo site has implemented some great features this year and does a good job of making the endeavour feel like a worthy project. Which it is.

Last year I bought myself an early Christmas present and had Lulu.com print up two bound copies of the novel. They’re sitting on my bookshelf atm, looking forlorn and unread. Maybe I’ll take another stab at it next year.

Jo was up and writing hours before me. I’d best get going. Best of luck to her and any other passing NaNo-ers!

Update: The widget stubbornly refused to show my updated word count, and I was about to remove it this morning. I then discovered I’d forgotten to change the settings so it referenced my own account rather than the default. Ahem. Fixed now.

wongaBlog is three years old today. Yay! Only 17 months until its light cone of causality reaches Alpha Centaurai, which will have undoubtedly have profound astrological implications.

It’s 31 days until NaNoWriMo. *waves arms frantically while running in circles*

50,039 words. Woohoo!! I now have a NaNoWriMo Winner’s Certificate on my desktop.

Also, the Institute for Creation Research is getting nothing.

The story is finished, too. It’s called ‘The Legacy of Tom Bassford’, and is an adventure story. A blurb may go something like this:

When Tom Bassford killed himself, he left behind the first hints for solving the largest treasure hunt ever created. His friends dedicate themselves to solving the puzzle, aiming to dedicate the $1,000,000 prize fund to Tom’s memory. But all is not as it seems, and when the man behind the competition is found brutally murdered events quickly spiral out of control. With an assassin hell bent on revenge and an MI5 team who will go to any lengths to crack the code first, the friends are in over their heads.

Or something Is it great literature? No. Am I proud of it? Definitely!

It needs a fair bit of work before it works as a proper novel. For example, the first ten chapters are in diary form. I got annoyed with that, so they’ll need to be rewritten! Also, characters’ personalities changed as I progressed, so I’ll need to fix their earlier scenes. I’ll try to do that this week. On Thursday 1st December I’m going to upload it to lulu.com and order myself a paperback copy. Yeah it’s a little vain, but I really want one Lulu.com are actually offering free copies to NaNoWriMo winners, but only in the US, sadly.

I’m going to go rest, read the congratulatory chapter in the official NaNoWriMo book, and relax.

Phew.

Just back from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which I found wonderful. I’ve liked each successive film more, and this was no exception. While telling a remarkable amount of the book in a two hour film, it still managed to cram in layer upon layer of interesting and beautiful little moments. I won’t spoil any, but if you’re a fan of great storytelling I recommend it very much.

The above is despite the fact that my annual broken-ear problem has returned. It felt slightly blocked at around 1900, although I could still hear reasonably well, but when doofus here tipped in some warm water ¹ it completely blocked for good. This is the fourth time in as many years I’ve had this problem, and so far it’s always taken four or five days to fix. Last time I solved it myself by medically dubious methods² and I’d rather not do that again! I’ll pop into the pharmacist tomorrow and see what they recommend.

The novel hit 47,500 words this afternoon. Depending on how well the ending goes, I may make it to 50k tomorrow. I’m still a little unclear on exactly how things will resolve themselves, but hopefully it’ll all fall into place.

If you feel the need for warmer cockles on this bloody freezing winter night, I recommend Tycho of Penny Arcade’s post on the birth of his son.

1. like the books recommend, I’d like to point out [↩]
2. wax-dissolving ear drops, a pipette and some pain were involved [↩]

Just passed 75% of the novel complete. I’ve got a fair idea of the ending now, which helps The beginning is going to need some substantial editing, I think, but hopefully I’ll have time for that before the month ends. If I hit 1667 words per day, I should finish a week tomorrow.

Caught up on words today. Being awake helps so very much!

I found out yesterday that the valuer finally got back to the Halifax with his recommendations. We don’t actually know what he said, but the Halifax have now requested an indemnity document, which the Seller’s solicitors are drawing up¹. This apparently covers them against being sued by…someone. I’m told this is very simple and shouldn’t take long. That’s the final hurdle, as far as I know, so it’s possible things may start to happen in the next few days. That’s good, because the sofa is still being delivered directly to the flat ‘before the end of November’
Just off out for what’s become an annual meet-up with some friends I used to work with. I’ve enjoyed the last couple of get-togethers very much, so it should be fun.

1. at my expense, apparently [↩]

Ugh. I didn’t get to sleep until sometime after 0200, and was up at 0800 today. I generally only get an hour or so more, but at about 1100 I suddenly got knackered, and it didn’t really go away. So only just over 1000 words today. I’ll try to catch up tomorrow, but my projected end date is still the 26th, so the schedule’s ok. I’d best be off to bed - there’s a guitar lesson first thing and I’m out from the early evening. I’ll try to have a busy afternoon, I think.

Just hit 25,000 words, and am rather happy. 24,814 remaining, and I know I can write that many because I’ve done it already! Admittedly there’s a minor roadblock in the form of my plot lasting maybe 5,000 more words before I have to figure out what’s happening next, but that’s the fun bit

One of the houses I walk past every day has some building work going on, and one of the workers seems to have taken exception to me. The park’s increasingly muddy so I’m wearing my boots most days, and I get jeered for it. I swear he must sit around all day waiting for me. I put both headphones in today so that I wouldn’t hear, but it wasn’t quite enough to drown it out. For some reason, I’ve had more personal insults from different sources in the last week than any time since school. I’m trying not to let it piss me off, but I leave the house every day thinking ‘crap, I’ve got to walk down that road before I can get back home’. I don’t know whether to change the route and avoid it, or whether that’s giving in.

Hit 15,000 words yesterday evening, which puts me more than a day ahead of schedule. It’s nice to have that leeway, in case there are any bad days lurking. I’m enjoying reading the NaNoWriMo forums, particularly the post about ‘unexpected events’, in which your characters decide to act in ways you hadn’t anticipated, thus forcing a plot rewrite. It’s so true Stupid characters with minds of their own. Next one that does something to annoy me gets killed off.

Not quite 13,000. But getting there. 25% through!

Only up to 10,484 this evening, which is ok but not great. I didn’t complete the required 1.667 words but am still on target as I had some in the bank from the last couple of days. I’d like to make some headway and hit 13,000 by the end of tomorrow.

Last night I remembered that my webcam had caused the computer to keep restarting last month, and at the time I’d blamed the drivers. When I moved the computer upstairs I plugged in a USB wi-fi adapter, and things started going wrong. Replacing it with a PCI version has solved all the problems, or at least taken me back to the previous state So it looks like I have a USB problem as well as SATA, but for now I’ve gone all day without a crash, and that makes me a happy bunny

I turned on the television at 1745, and was confronted by the image of woman bending over in the bath. The camera angle wasn’t directly behind, but was showing enough genitalia as to surprise me. I checked the channel and discovered I was on Discovery Home and Something. At this point the woman began moaning, and moments later a baby’s head popped out. Which was graphic. Baby was apparently still receiving oxygen through the placenta, and we weren’t to worry about his head being submerged for the next forty-five seconds. Eventually the rest of him squelched into the world, and mother and child met each other properly for the first time. I’m not squeamish about these things, but it was somewhat surprising to see on an early-evening show. Not that I actually think anybody would be disturbed by it, but you know how people like to complain. Mind you, I remember seeing a video in a secondary school science lesson with the same scene shown directly from in front. Some images you don’t forget in a hurry.

I’m currently ahead of schedule writing-wise, which is a pleasant feeling. I’m sure I’ll fall behind at some point - week 2 is meant to be a killer - but for now I’m going to relax. After months of trying and failing to convince others to see it with me, I’ve picked up Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events from the rental shop, so am heading downstairs to watch it.

I’m planning toffee apple raids for tomorrow.

I had various attempts at getting my computer working today, but nothing’s yet worked. Most of today’s writing has been done from Mum’s machine, as mine has been stopping on Windows bootup. I’m leaving memtest86+ running overnight in the hope that’ll turn up something.

I’ve had some more flat news in the past couple of days, but I don’t really know what to make of it. I received a letter from my solicitor containing a copy of a letter to the seller’s solicitors, which says that an amended Deed of Variation is needed to sort out the maintenance payments, or it is likely the buyer will not proceed. Fair enough. I had a phone call from the estate agent this morning, however, and he said that two other solicitors have looked at the lease and concluded that it doesn’t need changing. We’re now waiting on the housing association to put their argument in writing, and hopefully it will amount to more than ‘it’s a really old lease’, this time. Also, the asbestos survey has found some ‘white asbestos’ under the ‘barge boards’. I’m still not sure whether that’s in the flat itself or the communal areas, but I’ll be able to see the report for myself soon.

I’m getting worried, now. If it seems like I’m being awkward in any way then there’s nothing to stop the seller putting it back onto the market. So things are still going backwards. My sister receives the keys for her house tomorrow, at which point she officially wins the race. Hmph!