Writer at Large

Fourth week down and two days to go . . .

• Total word count: 49,513
• No new characters introduced this week. Okay . . . no new major characters. I gave some of the characters in the background first names so they weren’t just anonymous drones, but that doesn’t really count.
• Average daily word count for the week: 1,865. Nicely above average, thank you. I had set myself a stretch goal of 1,800 words a day and was pleased to not only meet, but exceed it this week.
• The muse cooperated for the most part this week. It hasn’t been as smooth of sailing as 2007 was, but definitely much less painful than 2006. (Never again!) I still don’t think I’ve quite found the voice for this novel, but I think it will sort itself out shortly.

And why didn’t I just push through and crank out those last 487 words and finish two days early? Because it was late, I was tired, and I knew I still had two more days to go. (And also I there were scenes I still wanted to try to write between now and the 30th.)

See you in two days . . .

And on Week 3, this is what NaNoWriMo did to me . . .

• Total word count: 36,458
• I introduced another character this week. I also realized that there are two of them that I know I need, but have done little more than introduce them. One of them needs to connect up with the main character, but I have yet to devise a believable manner of doing so that doesn’t smack of cliché.
• The muse has been kind, particularly during the latter part of the week. I’ve learned that she gets nervous when I take her away from the work and then starts spouting off ideas. Good muse! Biscuit!
• Average daily word count for the week: 1,759. This is back up from last week and just about dead on where I want it to be. I’m shooting for a minimum of 1,700 words each day, with a push toward 1,800 words if I can manage it.

And one last note . . . true to form, the muse has already determined the last scene in the book, as well as a scene in the sequel. (I had not originally planned on a sequel to this book, but the muse had her own ideas on the matter. And I do like how she tied it into another book of mine [yet to be written].)

One week and a small number of days to go . . .

On the second week of NaNo, my muse she said to me . . .

• Total word count: 24,142
• I have introduced a new character that will help immensely in dealing with one of the main thematic issues in the story.
• The week continued to be almost exclusively sequential storytelling, from the beginning toward the end. I can see, however, that starting to slip away. But words is words. There’s nothing in the rules that said they had to be in the right order.
• Average daily word count for the week: 1,685. This is slightly down from last week, that’s chiefly due to a lesser word count than expected on Saturday. Thank goodness I was (and still am!) slightly ahead.

The muse tended to stay fairly focused this week, (that lower count on Saturday was not her fault), but I can see her attention wondering. I have a bad feeling that Week Three is going to be, for me, nearly everyone else’s Week Two.

That’s all the procrastination for now. Until next week . . .

Let’s see . . .

• Total word count: 12,345 (yes, really)
• I have a title: Soul of the Machine.
• I have some main characters who are doing things, or starting to do things.
• Average daily word count for the week: 1,764

I have to admit, although it’s taken a swift kick in the adverbs to get the muse going some days (she usually decides to poke her head in around word 1,200 or so), it has been going a  bit better than I originally anticipated. Am I going to end up with a readable, interesting story out of all this?

Ask me again on December 1^st.