NaNo Days 25 & 26: Winner!

So yeah, I won! I don't know if I've ever won on Day 26 before, it feels awfully early, but I can't be bothered to check right now. 50,196 words in total, according to the NaNoWriMo website. I actually wrote 4,006 words today, all on the write-in at IKEA, where I'm also writing this from. My last word war I wrote 57 words per minute, so it was a sprint to the finish.
Somehow, winning feels better when you do it amongst fellow Wrimos, with also the Discord channel to cheer you on. I got several congratulations, both real life and online, which makes the win feel more real.
Concerning my story; yeah, it ended how it's supposed to end. They get each other, they kiss, all is well with the world. Although there are some nice parts, some pretty neat dialogue, and even some stupid in-jokes I didn't actually plan for, I can safely say I will never ever do anything with this story again. And I probably won't ever write romance again either. But I got to 50,000 words in a month (a month? 26 days!) and that's what counts!

NaNo Days 19 to 24: 40k and the home straight

So last week I had the week off. I had to many days still left over to take with me to next year, and I could also do with a bit of a break in the middle of the busy season (sales, holidays, etc). Also, of course, it was good for writing.
The aim was to write 2,000 words every day, which would bring me pretty close to 50,000 by the end of this week. This did not work out exactly as planned, as on Day 21 I didn't actually write a single word. But I still made the 40k on Day 22 and am now a little over 43,000 words. Feels like I should be able to finish the story in a couple of days, especially as I still have a write-in ahead of me on Monday. However, I feel like I should have more words on the page by now, because my going has been pretty slow.
What makes the writing pretty tough is that I have sort of lost interest in my characters and story. I know they will end up together, despite all the tension I've been trying to put in their exchanges, I know when and where it will happen, but I can't actually be bothered with all the stuff happening in between. It is kind of silly; I already knew what the ending would be before I started to write, which is a unique situation for me, as I generally don't write an ending to any story, but somehow that didn't make it easier to get there. So I've been putting in all kinds of personal experiences just to flesh out the story a bit more, which doesn't really have anything to do with the main narrative. Scenes that have nothing to do with the actual romance portion of the plot, but are there just to get more words in. A proper editor would put a red cross over them in a heartbeat.
This is fine. It is what NaNo is about; getting words on the page. Also, I never expected the romance genre to be the thing for me, and it turns out I was right all along. You live and learn, and learn and write. Just a little under 7,000 words to go.

NaNo Days 11 to 18: Flat and up

Last week was week 2 of NaNoWriMo, also known as Hell Week. The week where you come to the realisation that 50,000 really is a lot, your story is actually not as great/funny/exciting as you thought, your characters are all a bit meh, and you can't for the life of you remember why you ever thought doing NaNo was a good idea.
I didn't really suffer very much from Hell Week this year, mostly because I didn't actually have the time to write anyway. But I kind of foresaw this happening, and put in a nice buffer of 4,000 words on day 11, followed by three days of not writing. Not even thinking about writing, to be honest. By day 14 I was 1,000 words behind par. Nothing to worry so far, as on day 16 I did another write-in that gained me 3,500, which, combined with the 2,500 words I wrote yesterday, puts me right back on track. It does make for an interesting stats chart:

We are now on day 18, par is 30,000 words and I started today at 30,049. So yay me!
I haven't written a single NaNo word yet, but I hope to put in at least 1,000 before I have other things on my mind (company, films, chocolate). Somehow, this year's November seems more filled with social events than any other November ever was. Must remember not to have a social life next year.
I put up bird food a couple of days ago as the temperatures have turned to freezing around here, and I am now joined by a colourful crew of fluttering birds outside my window. The cats are too invested in staying warm to go outside, so my feathered company is quite safe. And distracting, but in a good way.
Anyway, time to write something that actually counts towards my wordcount!

NaNo Days 9 & 10: 20K!

So the last two days have been very grey and rainy and sad, which makes for perfect writing weather. However, somehow, this year all of my days got swamped with social events, so I'm not as far ahead as may have been expected. However, I just crossed the 20K boundary with 20,012 words. This means I'm two days ahead of schedule. It also means I can stop writing for today, which is a blessing, since for the last 500 words one of my cats has been leaning against my right arm, putting it into an awkward position and now somewhat of a cramp. Time to give it a rest!

NaNo Days 5 to 8: Fits and bursts

Is it already November 8th? How time flies!
On Monday, I attended my first write-in since 2011. Two of the people who were there in 2011 were still there, only older and with many more NaNo words below their belts. We were nine in total, the youngest was only 12, the oldest must have been around 45. We sat at IKEA, talked, joked, ate, and also occasionally wrote some words. I managed to write about 2600 words, which is pretty good for a write-in. At that point I was about 4,000 words ahead of par.
Then on Tuesday, I sat in a bar with a friend, had good conversations, drank a little too much, and didn't write  word.
On Wednesday I wrote about 1,000 while on the train to a meeting. I was planning to also write on the way back, but I fell asleep.
This morning, I was below par for the first time this NaNoWriMo. That should have given me an anxious feeling in my stomach, but after such a busy week I was now so sleepy that it didn't really hit me until I got home and saw that most of my writing buddies were already way beyond 15,000 words. So I sat down, participated in 3 word wars, and am now at 15,016 words. The par for tomorrow is 15,000, so I'm one day ahead again. Fits and bursts, that's for sure.

Story-wise, I can't actually remember everything that I wrote. The characters are coming to life more, and I've written lots of dialogue because I got so fed up with all the exposition. It feels like I'm coming into my stride, although at the same time it feels like I'm not really writing romance anymore, like the romantic bits are tacked on top of a 'normal' story. I never expected this genre to be 'the thing' for me, so I'm glad I'm making it work anyway!
2,234 words down so far for today, let's see if I can make that 3,000 before my eyes fall shut.

NaNo Day 4: Raptors?

Today was a beautiful sunny day, which I spent mostly running around to fix all the weekend chores I had to cram into one day. But I managed to find time to write as well! I participated in three word wars, one of which I organised myself, and have gained 2,828 words so far. I hope to be writing some more later on, as my overall goal for today was 10,000 words, but for now the well of inspiration is slightly depleted at 8,689 words total.
So today I decided I was done doing introductions, and got right down to the main point of the novel; the love interest. Can't write romance without a love interest. I had not thought about him before, as usual, so the character just sort of appeared out of thin air as I put words down on the page. We'll see how much of him remains in later writing sessions, as I tend not to be too consistent in my character traits throughout NaNo.
So what about those raptors? Apparently, whenever you participate in a word war, there is a chance you'll get a raptor. Team with the most raptors wins, of course, and the Netherlands is at 51 raptors so far. Two of those were contributed by me, as I received a raptor after two of today's word wars. No idea where they came from, it is just a part of the craziness that is NaNoWriMo.

NaNo Days 2&3: rolling onwards

So yesterday I was at a conference and didn't write a single NaNo word. Hence the buffer on Day 1, of course.
Today I recuperated from the busy day, but didn't get home until about four, and didn't start my writing until about half past five. It's now ten minutes past seven, and I managed to pour out 2,390 words in that hour and a half. And 2,390 words will be my score for today, because my brain now feels like it is fried to a crisp.

In the actual writing, I realised I'd forgotten to add my main characters main hobby; musing about situations that will probably never happen. I'd given myself this option to add such musings in between the main actions, so when I feel like doing something a little bit different, I can add a standalone 'mini story' in between the main story to get some words down, without actually disrupting the storyline. I wrote the first of these during a 30 minute word war, it turned out to be 1,414 words (47 words per minute). If they all turn out around that size, I could reach the daily goal just writing a side-story, if needs be. And, if all goes well, they'll even fit into the main story line!

For now, no more NaNo, just dinner, relaxing series, and an early night.

ETA: I just realised I hadn't added my total word count so far, even though you can of course calculate that for yourself; 5,861 words. That means I've reached two achievement badges by now; 1,667 words and 5,000 words. 10,000 words is up next!

NaNo Day 1: Romance, anyone?

So today is November 1st, which means it's NaNo time! For some reason, I hadn't discovered the DutchNaNo Discord channel in previous years, so I kept my NaNo'ing mostly to myself. Today, I joined the website, and discovered a world of random chatting, writing distractions, and word wars. Also a neat bot that keeps track of the word wars and provides writing prompts and what not. It is a bit of a distraction, with 50+ people all talking at the same time it is pretty hard to keep track of things, so I mainly joined for the word wars, which means 20 or 30 minutes of non-stop writing and then posting the word count you managed in that time. Apparently, my writing speed is about 50 words per minute.
So at the end of today my score is 3471 words. A little over the 3,000 that was my goal, but way lower than the 4,808 count I reached on my first day of the 2016 NaNo. Never mind, I put in the buffer I needed to tide me over tomorrow, when I will be at a work conference the whole day and unable to write. After that it is the weekend, which should give me plenty of writing time.

Story-wise, I'm supposed to be writing a romance, as that is the genre I set myself, but today I didn't really get into that atmosphere. Surprisingly, it didn't take long at all to get into the 'second person perspective', where my main character is 'you'. Also, I could fit some dialogue in there, which I thought might be difficult. Other than that, it's been exposition, exposition, and more exposition, as I laid down the main character's surroundings and job. Will have to get more into the romantic atmosphere this weekend, because now it reads more like a manual than a love story. Anyway, I'm very much done for the day!

NaNoWriMo 2018

Ha, the middle of October is here. That means it's almost November, and almost National Novel Month time! (I just checked, I wrote posts of similar type on October 18th 2013, October 17th 2015, October 14th 2016. I also wrote a 'NaNoWri-NO' post on the 8th of October 2012. It has been quite a streak so far.) As you can see, there is no 'no' in the title of this year's post, and I am pleased to tell you I will be participating again. Last year I kind of dodged the issue and didn't actually write a blog post about it, even though I did register a novel and crammed out about 900 words of a rewrite that wasn't really going anywhere. The rewrite of the same novel I spent two Camp NaNos revising. The rewrite of the novel that I now seriously want to rewrite again, as I have new insights on the matter.
However, NaNoWriMo is something different than Camp NaNo. For one thing, you actually have to stick by the rules, and the rules say you have to write something new from scratch. For another thing, you have to write the full 50,000 words, and as I mentioned in 2016, rewriting just doesn't give you the same drive as a whole new story does. So another rewrite is not what I will be doing this November. Great as my 2015 NaNo novel was, I've spent enough NaNo time writing, rewriting and editing it. It's time for something completely different.

The last time I said that, I went in for 'comedy' and really had to fight to get the words out by the end. So we'll see how this one goes.

The genre I picked is 'romance'. Not a sentence I'd ever thought I'd ever write. But there were are.
I was inspired by Call Me by Your Name, a novel I recently finished, and The Only Story, a novel I'm currently reading. As far apart as those two novels may seem in plot and style and space of the story, they're both about love, and they both spoke to me on a different level. Added to that, I decided it was time for me to write from a female protagonist's point of view, something I haven't done since my 2010 novel. So for the 2018 instalment of NaNoWriMo, I will be writing a romance novel from the point of view of a female protagonist. The working title is "How not to fall in love", which should tell you something about the happiness of the love portrayed in the story. I have working titles for most of the chapters too, and quite probably already an ending. For the style I've settled on a mix between The Only Story and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, and if you don't know what I mean by that, you should definitely read either or both of those novels. The only thing I was still debating was whether to write in Dutch or in English, but I've pretty much settled that the story will take place in Groningen again, which makes for a Dutch novel.
Basically, it feels like I'm more prepared than I ever was. Plot wise, that is. I have no idea what my main character is like, or her love interest, or who will pop up beside them in this story. But that's okay, as long as I roughly know where the plot is taking me, the characters usually sort themselves out. I'll keep you updated on any novelling related info as usual, so in roughly a month's time we'll know whether the crazy novelling path I'm sending myself down this year turns out to be fraught with peril or paved with success!