NaNoWriMo Winner

So, I just won the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days.  I still have a bit to write to complete the novel (it's currently at 74,012 words total, with 50,012 of that counting towards the November word count), but this is a huge success.  Go me!

Cover Art

My other half is a very talented artist, and he just concepted the cover of my book.  It's surreal to see my name on a book, even in a digital, early-draft version of the cover.  Even though my book will only be in the first draft, we are going to print off a couple of copies when I'm through in a week or so with the cover he is designing.  That way, I can have a great motivator sitting on my shelf to actually finish the long revision process and see what my book would look like if I were able to design the cover (if I'm ever published it isn't likely I will have a say in what the cover looks like). 

I'd like to show you what the book looks like, but you'll just have to wait and see if it ends up on the book when/if it is published.  I don't want to ruin my chances of actually having a say in the cover by posting the art online - I'm not sure of the legality of the art rights.  Oh well.  Trust me - it's beautiful!

Onward and...Painful

I am writing with other NaNoWriMo folks right now.  With less than 20% of my words left to write, I'm excited to reach my goal this week (I have until Monday!).

Today, I wrote the most gut wrenching scene I have ever written, involving one of my main characters finding out her parents were killed.  Listening to "The Poet Acts" from the soundtrack/score of the movie The Hours really helped get into the mood (if you've watched the movie, I'm sure you can guess the scene I'm talking about) - not in a bad way, just getting the emotions going.  I almost cried.  Is there such thing as a 'method-writer'?  I know there's a 'method-actor' but this may translate to writing as well...

New Widget!

So that I don't feel like I need to update you on my word count for NaNoWriMo, I have added a temporary widget to my blog (see the upper left corner) that you can look at to see my progress.  I'm at a 'write-in' right now, so I've got to get to writing! 

Half-Way Mark

I've made it to 25,000 words, half-way to the 50,000 word goal for November!  There was a party for my area's NaNoWriMo participants today to congratulate ourselves on making it half-way to our goals, with pizza, live readings and writing 'sprints.'  With over 70 people there, we logged approximately 210,000 words written today just while we were there.  That's amazing.  I added about 3,000 while I was at the party, though the constant sound of people talking around me or into the microphone was distracting at times.  Thank goodness for my iPod.

However, my total word count for November is actually 27,447 and my entire novel is now at 51,447 (50,000 is a very short novel).  I'm doing well, and I'm on track to making my goal!  Planning ahead for Thanksgiving means more writing more often to make up for the impending lost time.

Well, I'm sick of writing today, so I'm signing off.  Hope you had a great weekend!