Yay, all!

We're rooting for you, Sir Jay.

*deep sigh* My word count for today reached 9,225. While it is short of my 10,000 word count goal for today, I will say that it went rather well to start things off. If I can keep my word count up there, I should be able to finish my book in twelve days, totaling 120,000 words (though, it may just become longer. . . we shall see). And I am definitely hoping it all comes through.

* points * See, that is why I won't be winning the Most Written In A Day prizes.

Of course... she writes all day long.

You do? How do you manage that?!

Great job so far, guys! Keep going!

Nearly 10,000! I could get that maybe, if I was allowed to play hooky. So I must content myself with 2500.

*laughs* Jay, actually I do not write all day long. I quit counting words at 3pm. It only takes me three and a half hours to type out and skim edit over five thousand words. So, at the most, I spent seven hours on the computer typing in total; not that long.

I spent that much time, and got nearly 3000. Then my computer just had to do a major lag and not save the last four hundred words I typed. My wonderful Venetian apartment fire-escape scene was lost.

Everyone writes at different speeds. I know my writing speed changes greatly depending on my mood and how well the scene is going. If I know what I'm saying, what word comes next, the words can roll. Sometimes, however, one must sit and stare at a blinking cursor for half an hour before the idea will click and you will be able to tweak that one pathetic little scene in a 7-page script.

That being said, I got 3,093 words yesterday. I'm pleased with that, especially in light of what else I was able to accomplish yesterday. My "day job" needed me, too!

Jay and Hannah... I am curious, how do you know that your novels will be 140,000 and 120,000 words? How did you calculate that?

I calculate my length by chapter size. All my chapters are about 5,000 words in length (some greater and some longer but they average out to that), and I have a basic timeline of events in my head (I don't write anything down ahead of time, I just write). And since I know what events need to happen in what chapters (and they get added to as I write as well), I basically form a number of chapters that I will have. For instance, I know for this novel I have a Prologue, an Epilogue, and twenty full-sized chapters. And since my Prologue and Epilogue are the same size as a chapter, I know that I will have approximately twelve 5,000 word segments that will likely expand or be added to as I develop and include back history throughout my story. Thus, I predict I will probably have added two chapters by the end of my novel. This brings me up to my 120,000 word count. Does that make sense?

Interesting, that makes sense. I can't do that though, I have troubles with chapters.

Like Hannah, I estimated my average chapter size. They start out pretty big (5-6k) and I plan for them to get progressively shorter (pacing).

I also have a good grasp of the material I will be covering. So that helps.

I'm dismayed that I wasn't able to write yesterday.

I beg pardon: after my brother's championship, we went out to celebrate...and we didn't get back at a decent hour for writing.

Rats, that stinks. I feel for you. Haha.

Catch up tomorrow, eh?

I did rather better than yesterday, actually, running up a local total of 4767 words done today, to make a sum total of 9101 words so far. That is over a thousand words ahead of schedule, so I am happy.

That does make sense, and is very interesting. I personally don't have enough grasp of my length to make estimates like that, so I admire that you can. (I don't think the way I write is conducive to estimating length very much.)

I've cleared 4,000 total words today, so I am still ahead of the minimum (1,667-day). But I want to get farther if I can, though I may sacrifice in favor of reading & editing something from our lovely Airianna. ♥

10,200 words is my total for today. My total for the whole project so far is 19,455 words.

Wow. I thought 3880 was a lot of words.

It is. You know your own pace. What's a lot of words for you might be a small amount to someone else - and what's a pathetic amount to you might be an accomplishment for someone else. For me, 3,880 is a very successful amount. Doable, especially if I am on a roll, but not something I achieve every day. But that's judging on my personal writing speed and habits.

I only got 1,097 (I think?) words yesterday, but I was still ahead overall. I write a short script and did some comments yesterday, so I don't feel bad about the low total, but today I'll have to make up.

Varon: 3880 is a lot of words! Don't ever doubt that. See, the reason my numbers are going to be bigger is because I have set my goals in order to push myself to my very limits. If I didn't, I would feel that I am not putting my all into it for God's glory. What your goal is and whether or not you achieve it for His glory is all that matters. Do not go by my goals or Jay's. You by your's and try your hardest for the Lord's glory. You are doing a wonderful job, all of you are! Keep it up!

* points up * Ditto what she said.

Alright, thanks for the motivation.

Jay, I about fell off my chair when I saw how much you had written! (you too, Esmeralda.) I have a question...What if I want my novel to be 80k or something but I only want to write 50k in November. Will NaNo still consider me a winner?

Yes, they will! As long as you write 50,000 words (even if you have more to go), you are still a winner.

LOL! You guys are amazing. I take so much longer to write. (probably because I stop and analyze every sentence after I write it. )

Anyway, congratulations to everyone who is still writing! Keep up the amazing work!

Has anyone noticed that it gets easier the longer you force yourself to write?

Yeah, I have noticed it.

Yes, I have noticed... unless you run out of ideas. I know where I need the story to go, but I'm kind of stuck. I need to shove some sort of action in there or something >.>

I just need more time to write.

Well, my final word count as of yesterday was exactly 40,549 words. And I'm done with NaNo writing for today and the weekend. I'll start up again on Monday.

I'm at 5539.

Hannah, my Daddy wants to know if you know how to type.

Well, assuming that I type about sixty to seventy words per minute conservatively, I would say that I know how to type. Is that what you were asking?

Well, clearly you've figured out some typing system that works for you, even if it isn't the standard method! Did you take typing lessons, or just teach yourself? I took some typing lessons, enough to get the flow, and then constant writing took care of the practice.

Haha! I just learned where to place my hands and after that, just started typing whatever there was to type. And my speed just continued to increase to what it is now. No lessons or anything. . . all self taught.

Okay, clarification now. I don’t do traditional typing. I use the hunt and peck method (although I can hunt and peck 60 words a minute). Daddy swears if I would apply myself and actually use proper hand placement then I could type even faster. So when I told him how much you had written in the last 5 days and he said “I bet she knows how to type.” So I had to ask.

*laughs* Yes, I type traditionally. When I know my story (it depends on the chapter), I can reach about ninety words per minute so that I can keep up with my thoughts. Now I get your question, haha! I was like, "Of course I know how to type."

I did hunt and peck for years. I was middling fast at it too. I tried many different programs to try to teach me how to touch type, but they didn't help much.

So I eventually just made my own course and put myself through it, and now I touch type faster than I hunted and pecked (hunt-and-pecked?). I can still do the old style though, when I need to type with one hand.

Now Daddy is going to say "See". The respectful thing for me to do as his daughter is learn to touch type. It obviously bothers him that I don't. I suppose I need to focus on it...

It is definitely worth it. It is a very good Hard Thing.

It mainly just takes perseverance and practice.

I used to peck-and-hunt, but my Daddy made us learn. I can still do both though.

I use a weird combination of pecking-and-hunting and correct typing, but my daddy keeps telling me I need to fix it... so I suppose I'll have to figure it out!

Okay, I am very sorry for derailing this thread. If any more discussion on this subject is going to occur I think we should move it to its own thread. I would be happy to continue this topic and bounce back ideas if anyone has interest. I could create a separate thread (PM me if you would like me to do so anyone), but think the topic should not continue here.

Hopefully I'll get caught up on my word count tomorrow. I'm several thousand behind, I think. I need to stop taking time off of writing to do school.

I had to stay up late last night, but I'm caught up in my word count. We're one fifth of the way there!

I need to celebrate; after 3 misfires I've finally found my story! I had burned out after only a few days with my first two, and I was absolutely miserable. But I've finally found my story! Haha! Now I need to figure out my writing schedule for the rest of the month *gulp*

Hooray, Celearas! I admire you for finding the steam to start over three times. If you can do that, you can persevere to get 50,000 words on this proven story in a month.

I'm on track. I didn't make the word count last night so I caught up this morning and shouldn't have any trouble meeting the count for today. Just holding steady.

Calling all Nanoers to look to the Blog Submissions. Sir Emeth has made a special request.

Hey, that's a good idea. I'll have to try that.

The cookie idea sounds really helpfull. Maybe I should do that with candy for me. hehe...

Halfway point! How are we holding out, friends and countrymen?

I caught a second wind yesterday and worked decently ahead of the minimum. I'm working on the ending currently (I actually just drafted the scene that comes last in the book), and it's sufficiently exciting.

I also spent some time yesterday reorganizing my draft, labeling chapters. Because I'm not writing the book in chronological order, I can't number my chapters yet. So instead, I'm giving them names based on the story "beat" they contain: "The Dark Night of the Soul," "All is Lost," etc. Underneath, I have a chapter title and a list of scenes contained in the chapter. I won't leave the scene list there during editing, but for the moment it helps organize my thoughts. I'll know what scenes I haven't drafted yet, and I won't end up with a 97-page file of random, incomplete scenes that are in no order whatsoever. (I have one of those, and the scenes are from 3 different books in a trilogy.)

I'm a little over 8000 words.