Word count: 2,108
Word total: 2,108
Words remaining: 47,892
In the past, the first days were always scary. Today was different. I had few expectations going in, and I just started writing. It was terrible, of course, but it was words. Not surprisingly, nothing happened. I had one piece of action planned for today, and I never got there. Simon, my protagonist, started on his porch and ended on his porch. He was wetter than he started but in no way changed. Something may happen tomorrow. I never can tell.
Word count: 2,012
Total words: 4,120
Words remaining: 45,880
I made it to where the point I hoped to arrive at yesterday. That’s where everything fell apart. I pushed through the rubble and ended with enough words to call it a night. I have no idea what to do with this mess tomorrow. It might be time to introduce characters or a goal or a story or something. I’ll worry about it then.
Word count: 2,089
Total words: 6,209
Words remaining: 53,791
This started as a bad day. I wrote late because of a morning headache—I either slept too much or not enough. It’s always difficult to tell. I’m writing these words after finishing only forty words for the day. I have no idea what should happen in my story. I’m spinning around describing things in the hopes that a description triggers more words.
I eventually moved beyond my bad start. I introduced another character. If my protagonist is going to do a quest, he’s going to need a gang of friends with him. You’ll be happy to know the writing is terrible. I remember terrible from my previous attempts, but some of today’s words...I’m doing you a favor by hiding them. Aren't consternations fun?
Word count: 2,096
Word total: 8,305
Words remaining: 41,695
I can’t believe this is only the fourth day. Things are not looking good. This started as another painful day. We’ll see where I go with it. I’m not feeling very good about the writing. I know that what I’m writing is not important. I just can’t seem to get past it today. Depression struck as I stared at the screen. I’m not sure where this will take me, if anywhere. I’ll keep pushing words and hope for the best. I guess I have to think of hope and springs and eternity. I’ve spent most of my time flipping between Word and the Internet, writing a paragraph every thirty minutes or so. This is getting ridiculous.
Where the last few years, I ran out of things to say or said things badly, I at least had a plan of what to say. Unlike this year, where I’m afraid to reread what I’ve written because I know it’ll not make sense. I need a break. I need a few hours of deep thought to see where to take this. I need to stop consternating and get writing. The one good thing about this year’s writing is that I’m the only one tortured by the words. Sure, these annoying consternations, the only evidence that I’ve written anything, are slightly annoying. But, and trust me on this, they are not nearly as annoying as the two-thousand words of crap written above this fold.
I managed to get the needed words tonight. I took a few steps at the end to try to salvage at least this part of the story. I won’t know if I’m successful until tomorrow. Until then.
Word count: 2,053
Word total: 10,358
Words remaining: 39,642
Today was very busy at work. I finished up my writing at around 9pm. The words came easier and the story took on a bit more form after a few ideas popped into my head last night. I can’t say I’ve turned the corner, but I am hopeful, somewhat. I’m enjoying not publicly posting the words. I don’t have to worry about explaining my sudden and rather drastic changes in direction or story. I haven’t had the nerve to read much of what I’ve written. At this point, it’s probably a good thing.
Word count: 2,060
Total words: 12, 418
Words remaining: 37,582
Work has been very busy these past few weeks. It ended (the busyness, not my job) early this morning. I felt drained the rest of the day, as I do whenever I finish a large project. I didn’t start writing until late tonight, after Julie left for her jazz group practice. After a few false starts, I managed to move the story in a definite direction. Not sure if it’s a good direction, but I was sick of the stagnant conversations and my continued failure to take my uninteresting characters and have them do anything.
Word count: 2,085
Words total: 14,503
Words remaining: 35,497
Today was another late night start. We went to our favorite restaurant for dinner, and then played a bit of Halo 3 with Steven. We’re one level away from beating the game on Legendary. I don’t have much to say about the story or the writing. The words speak for themselves. I wish the story would do the same.
Word count: 2,071
Words total: 16,574
Words remaining: 33,426
I feel as if I’m writing only for the sake of writing words. For every two thousand words I write, there is less than ten words that are any pat of a possible story. The rest is useless filler. It adds nothing to the color or the actions or the characters. I don’t want to complain and consternate here, but that’s all I feel like doing after slogging through another day’s work. I did strike gold: I took a person at work that I’m beginning to dislike and stuck them in the story. The description alone was enough to entertain me. Now, I have to somehow have this person turn out evil.
Word count: 2,035
Words total: 18,609
Words remaining: 31,391
Another day, another dollar.
Word count: 2,033
Word total: 20,642
Words remaining: 29,358
Today was an easy day. It’s amazing how I manage to drag out the simplest of actions. It took me all day yesterday to visit a rest area. Today, my characters managed to get out of the car. It was touch and go for a bit, but after two thousand words, they managed it. Sort of. There’s some sort of monster or something that I’m building up to. Or at least that’s what it looks like.
I’ve given up asking why I bother. Sure, I can meet the goal every day. It’s easy. The real trick is whether any of these words will ever be worth anything. I guess I’ll stop kicking myself and keep writing. It does raise questions about whether I will do this again next year.
Word count: 2,122
Words total: 22,764
Words remaining: 27,236
Word count: 2,048
Total words: 24,812
Words remaining: 25,188
I am rapidly approaching the midway mark of this year’s marathon. Things happen regrettably slow in my story. At this stage, I don’t have much hope for what I have written or what I will write. I guess at a certain point, value or content doesn’t mean much. I am way passed that point. I will keep pushing forward until the end. It’s the least I can do.
Word count: 2,076
Words total: 26,888
Words remaining: 23,112
Do you notice how I swap “words total” and “total words” each day? Yeah, me neither. The story moves along. I complete one thought or action a day. Thankfully, I drag out that thought or action to the full two thousand words, allowing me to sleep well, safe in the knowledge that all is good with the world because I am on target.
On happier notes, as I was writing, I was installing a Windows Home Server on a new computer I built. For $400 I pieced together a rather nice looking computer from spare parts. It worked on first boot, which is amazing looking back on my last experience putting together a computer. I still have to finish configuring the software, but soon I will be able to watch my DVD collection from my server. I know, it’s the little things that make me happy. The very little things.
Word count: 2,024
Word total: 28,912
Words remaining: 21,088
Word count: 2,024
Total words: 30,936
Words remaining: 19,064
It’s very late and I’m very tired. This was another painful day. We watched “Shaolin Soccer,” a rather enjoyable Chinese film, and ate a comforting pizza before I sat down to write. It was a good evening until I spent the last two hours banging my head against the screen. Tomorrow is Friday. I am looking forward to Friday.
Word count: 2,023
Word total: 32,959
Words remaining: 17,041
The weekend is very welcome. I need to catch up on some sleep after too many late nights (not all caused by writing). I also have Windows Home Servers to play with and new Zune waiting for us in the FedEx delivery center. Fun all around.
Word total: 4,405
Words total: 37,364
Words remaining: 12,636
If you hadn’t noticed, I missed posting yesterday. I wrote about two hundred words early in the day, and by evening, a massive headache and a scary cough descended on me. I’m not sure what brought it on, but after watching a late movie with Julie, I went to bed without writing. It was the first day in my Nanowrimo history where I had not met the Goal—at least as far as I remember. There were a few days in the past where I fell asleep before meeting the goal, only to wake up in the middle of the night to pound out the remaining words for that day. Yesterday, I did not wake until late this morning.
When I finally dragged myself out of bed, I immediately began pecking on the keyboard. I aimed to finish yesterday’s words. I surprised myself moving past yesterday’s goal and hitting today’s by mid-afternoon. I spent much of today writing exposition for what should have happened earlier. It’s not exactly good storytelling, but at least it provides a somewhat fragile framework for what could have been a story. I will continue pushing through the last six or so days of writing. I will not have actually told a story, but I will have successfully written lots of words.
I have been formulating plans to write after finishing. It is unlikely that I will tell many more stories. I plan to write often about interesting topics, interesting to me, that is—and I’m using ‘interesting’ in the sense of writing about things I care about, not in the way of blowing off people I don’t want to hear. I’ll give it a go after finishing this year’s Marathon. (And, yes, I realize how easy it is to plan and how difficult it is to follow through with plans.)
Rereading the above has given me a headache. I have included editing as a big part of my going forward plans. The Marathon does a few things very right. What it also does is destroy any ability I have to write coherently
Word count: 2,074
Words total: 39,438
Words remaining: 10,562
Today was a good writing day. My exposition continued and the words came quickly. I finished early to be done before a free work dinner. I was left with only the last hundred words and this summary for when I returned home. Because I was not home to cook Julie dinner tonight, we now have a full duck roasting in the oven. I won’t be awake when it’s done (or when Julie turns it over four more times and coats it with the Chinese basting sauce), but Julie will eat at midnight. For now, I am going to post this and head to sleep. The day before a vacation always means lots of work to finish.
Word count: 2,013
Word total: 41,451
Words remaining 8,549
I hit the single digits—that is, the single thousand digits. This is a good day. I have only about four or five days left in this contest. Today moved a bit slower than the last two days, but I hit target and threw down more exposition and perhaps set up a bit of action for tomorrow. We’ll see if I ever hit that action. Ziggy is upstairs locked behind his new and improved gate. I’ll post about it when I download the photographs. He’s whining and clearly not impressed by my handiwork.
We leave for NYC tomorrow. When I return to Seattle, the Marathon (and two oversized turkeys) will be a thing of the past. I will have more to say about pasts and futures then. For now, I am going to bask in my last hour alone in the Castle. Julie is at her Jazz group practice, and the men (or at least man and dog) are left along to rule the nest. I’ll spend my freedom watching television. Nothing says freedom like doing nothing. Nothing.
Word count: 2,148
Word total: 43,599
Words remaining: 6,401
We’re flying to New York City. It’s been a stress-free travel day. We dropped off Ziggy this morning at the boarding place. He passed his Doggy Day Care exam, where they put him in a room with two other dogs to make sure he didn’t tear their legs off. While he tried, he has very weak jaws, and they checked the “Plays Well with Other Dogs” box, allowing him to join the day care.
We arrived at the airport a few hours early. I always try to get to airports early. When I travel, I tend to stress on missing flights and connections, and when I’m early, my stress levels go way down. We completed our shopping, ate breakfast, bought a book and magazines, and settled into the airplane. We lucked out with a pair of exit row seats, and after boarding first (Julie flashed her Continental airline Elite card), we settled in for the long haul. After a quick nap, I finished my writing for the day, and now plan to doodle a bit before a few more naps. We’re currently flying over Montana passing Bighorn on our way to the East Coast. I’ll post this when I arrive in Brooklyn.
Word count: 2,129
Words total: 45,728
Words remaining: 4,212
Two more days and this thing will be complete. The weather in NY was nice today. We met with Steven and Jennifer, and wandered around Brooklyn, before settling in to our first of two Thanksgiving dinners. My sisters and relatives will be joining us tomorrow for a repeat performance, with a new bird playing the starring role. Julie is watching Heroes as I put the finish touches on today’s entry. I finished most of the words this morning. The last eight hundred words, which I had left until we dropped Steven and Jennifer off at the subway station, were more difficult to push out. I guess when you say nothing, saying more of nothing grows uncomfortable.
Word count: 2,226
Word total: 47,954
Words remaining: 2,046
With day two of the Thanksgiving extravaganza, I didn’t get to write much yesterday. After a late-night video game session, I woke up (earlier than Steven and Julie), and managed to write my allotment for yesterday. This leaves me with less than a day of writing to cross the finish line of the Marathon.
We stayed at Steven’s last night, and played Champions of Norrath, on Steven’s PlayStation 2 until three in the morning. We made it past Act II. I rolled a Cleric, which was not nearly as powerful as Julie’s warrior. These games never do the magic users justice.
Yesterday was the unveiling of my Grandmother’s gravesite. The unveiling is a Jewish custom that occurs somewhere between a month and a year after burial. The memorial stone is covered with a white filmy material, and the rabbi says a few prayers before the closest relative, my father’s younger brother, removed the cloth. It was sunny but brutally cold yesterday in the openness of the cemetery.
Afterwards, my sisters and their monsters met back in my mother’s house for an afternoon with the Figatner family. I’m not sure if it was the traveling or the time change or just the end of the week, but Julie and I were exhausted after the first hour with the monsters. They have this amazing power that saps our energy. We napped a few times during the day, before settling in to the huge dinner later in the evening.
Julie and Steven are getting ready now, and we’re meeting Jennifer for brunch in the city. We leave on Monday to return to Seattle.
Words: 2,059
Word total: 50,013
Words remaining: 0
It’s done.
It took me awhile to finish the last two thousand words. I was on the airplane, returning home from New York, when I put a bow on it, and called it a year.
I wish I could say I found a story at the end, that the characters came together and sang in harmony for at least a few stanzas. I wish I could talk about how I found characters with voices of their own; characters who surprised me at different turns. There is a lot I wish I could say about my writing this year.
What I will say is that I once again discovered the worth of these Novembers: they force me through the painful process of throwing down words. This year, with nothing in front of me except a vague idea, I managed to squeeze out at least one good idea as I scribbled. I will not know until I go back through the words in a few months or years time whether the idea remains good. For now, I am thankful for it to be over.
We’re back in Seattle now, tired but no worse for the wear. I’m hoping these are not the last words I write for a while. We’ll see how strong momentum is and how long it lasts.