CampNaNoWriMo: Day 29

Yes, it's Day 29. I've got two more days, and then I should, hopefully, have my 50K written and ready.
The novel, however? Not so much. I'm still not sure how to kill off Hamlet or his uncle or Laertes or the new person that I somehow accidently added to the hitlist. His mother is dead, though, which I suppose is a start.
 I'm getting supremely weary of this novel, but still it's all fascinating me. I originally aimed for a writing style reminiscent of The Silver Linings Playbook and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer -- mystical but simple and understated. I don't think that writing style will be particularly obvious in this first draft, but it's a feeling I have constantly while I'm writing it (even if it is hidden under a pile of fatigue and moaning). Hamlet, to me, is Shakespeare's greatest play because Hamlet is his greatest character. There are so many layers to him because he's an onion, and he continually surprises others -- and himself. He's like a dark and depressed teen at times and at others he's the class joker, except most of his jokes are so intelligent that his classmates don't know he's laughing at him (note to self: add in intelligent humour because there currently isn't much).
 I'm not going to say I've been recreating that -- I don't think it's possible -- but I've been trying, and it's been wonderful to attempt to make a character so wonderful and alive.
 In short, unless the next two days fall to pieces in a hail of bullets or something, this is the best NaNo I've ever done.
 Let's ignore the fact that it's only the third, people. Just enjoy the moment.

[Edit: I forgot to mention that the Stats page on the Camp website lied to me. It turns out that it's been giving me false hope all along, because its 'Words per Day to Finish on Time' thing counts the day that you're on, even if you've updated your word count for that day. Thankfully, I noticed this before Something Bad Happened and I found myself supremely unable to hit that 50K. Yesterday I got to the point where my daily word count matched up with what I started with having to do (when I worked it out myself because of the website lying). So, yay!]

WriMo out!

CampNaNoWriMo: Day 25

These days have started going faster. It feels like yesterday that I posted for day 22.
 So, day 25... the day that you can start winning. I think I won on maybe the 27th or somesuch in November, but not this time. I've got a good 12,000 words to go and no understanding of how I am actually going to get to the place that I will have to get at some point: the end. Just a couple of days ago, I felt like I was going to run out of story before I got to the big 50K; today, I feel as if I'll get to 100K before my characters actually do each other in like Shakespeare intended.
 Speaking of what Shakespeare intended, this isn't so much a re-telling of Hamlet now as a thing that was origjnally a re-telling of Hamlet. I'm pretty sure that his uncle insn't going to be the one to kill him. And his mum has to die at some point, too. And I don't know what to do about Laertes, because he has to die too and he also has to be Hamlet's uncle's right-hand-man and all sorts of things that should happen in the end don't seem like they'll stick with the characters. Oh, and Hamlet's got another best friend and another murder to do.
 This is probably why I don't feel like it's ever going to end -- because I don't have a clue how it's going to end, not really, even though I think I just said above that I do. I don't know. This is why I don't write thrillers or detective novels or anything like that. I just don't have the brain power to mastermind a murder (let alone like five or however many). Although it is nice to be able to write on a Sticky Note on your computer (for the whole world to see), 'The train isn't a safe place to plan to murder someone'. That was a fun moment of my life.
 In other news, I read a blog post about word wars/sprints, and how you could just do the magainst yourself. I tried one yesterday, just made myself write as much as possible as fast as possible for fifteen minutes, and it really speeded up my time for getting my 1700 words or so done. I've mentioned before how I hate having to rush things and not having the chance to stare out of the window and contemplate life and everything and soak in feels, but I did actually quite enjoy writing that fast. It makes me feel productive.
 And I need to be productive right now.

WriMo out!

CampNaNoWriMo: Day 22

I thought I had another day before I had to write this post. Huh.

You may remember that I put my word count down to 45K because I'm a wimp. Well, I put it back up again, because the stats told me that I didn't actually have to write as much to catch up as I thought I did. Of course, that was before I gave up at 750 words yesterday because I felt so shattered, but, you know. I still don't have to write a load more a day than I originally did. And I've finally got to a place where I can actually get back to the plot, which is always good.

But nine more days, people! Sigh. I don't know if I have nine days more energy left in me. Which is a shame, since I really want to actually be able to finish this first draft. I stopped everything else I was doing because I really wanted to write this. Sigh.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

WriMo out!

CampNaNoWriMo: Day 19

So, it turns out I was using hyperbole on day 13. Just about hitting your word count? It's cool. It's a nightmare and hard and a total love/hate thing, but it's fine. It's not the end of the world.
 What is the end of the world is feeling like you have to drop your word count goal.

Gasp.

I know, it's lame. It's like losing, except worse because you know you're going to win without putting half as much effort in at all. Basically, it's like cheating. However, it was out of my control. I missed two days (and possibly today; I've got a headache already and I've only been checking Tumblr) because of a really bad migraine. I can see what you're thinking: two days, pah! That's not that much to make up -- but the thing is, when you're wimping out of your word count as it is, it's difficult to see how you would make two/three days of words up. I'm going to try, of course I am. But I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself -- I've already learnt that that's a pointless thing to try and do. Besides which, of course, my novel will never end regardless of it's word count.

In other news, Dropbox is SO slow on my phone it is ridiculous and was a waste of time downloading the app.

WriMo out!

CampNaNoWriMo: Day 16

Well, it's all been going on in the past three days, I have to say.
I have given up on Q10. I don't know if I mentioned it in that previous post, but the thing didn't have scroll bar and the longer my novel got, the longer it took to get to the bottom of the page so I could actually start the thing. Grr.
I did the unthinkable, guys. I copied it all into MS Word.
I know, it hurts me, too.

I also, after a bit of nagging from my mum, 'But what if the thing with the battery breaks the laptop?' etc., I have downloaded Dropbox. I thought it'd be a bit like Google Docs, but actually it's just a folder on your computer that you can get at from the net. It would be cool if it didn't want to sell more space to me.

And Day 13, I think, was The Day That It All Went Wrong. I mentioned how the novel had now stepped into the unknown with no hope of survival, and it's possible that that will still be the case. I barely wrote anything on Day 13, just about caught up on Day 14, and then yesterday I just lost all my motivation. That lack of motivation is still quite obviously there, unfortunately, which is why I am writing this now. Hopefully it'll jump-start my brain, but I don't know.

On another note, my Inner Editor is very unhappy with my lack of research and the marked change in the whole tone since I stepped into the unknown. This part could very well be a sequel to the first part, if the first part was long enough to count as a novel on its own.

I don't think that was 'another note', really, but there you go.
 On another another note, in case you were wondering about the whole 'I have no clue how he'll get out of this' line from my last post, I still don't. I'm leaving it until a certain point that I've fixed in the future of the novel to worry about how that will work. I might have to kick Shakespeare when he's down and change one of the best parts of Hamlet to suit my personal preferences.
 Hurray!

 Well, we'll see how far it's been driven into the ground on Day 19, I suppose.

WriMo out!