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Les Writing blog, with tips, advice, and my own writing... And Nanowrimo obsession.

Almost there!

November 26th 2008 08:07
I'm sitting at just over 275K now and I wanted to pop in to say congratulations to everyone who's on their way to finishing Nano, or who already has finished. I've seen quite a few people with validated winner bars on the forums in the last few days and I can see so many who are on their way.

Even if you wrote one word this month-congratulations. Even if you just wandered the forums and didn't get anything done at all-congratulations.

You signed up-and there's always next year, right?

Keep in mind that there will only be a next year if they get enough donations to keep the site up and running though; and that takes a lot of money for a site as big and as active as Nano:


Really Long Link is where you can donate if you want to sponsor my writing.

Now that Nanowrimo's almost over I want to talk about its upcoming offshoot, NaNoFiMo. Fifty thousand words is not always enough to finish a novel-and in my case, I'm definitely not going to be finishing Fallen by the end of the month, which will probably end up around 60K then. (I've got about 20K left to write and about 30K on the story so far.)

NaNoFiMo is a challenge to finish the novel you started in November-or any other novel that you've started and not yet finished. Any unfinished WIP is eligible, though it was originally started as an offspring of Nanowrimo.

This challenge starts on December 1st, and in that month you are expected to write 30K or however much it takes to finish your novel. (No one's going to scold you if you don't quite make it.) The site can be found here:

http://nanofimo.org

I'm 'Lithy' on there if you want to find me. Registration is officially open, so go ahead and sign up; and get ready for productivity challenge number two.


Thanks to everyone who's been reading and putting up with me all month, by the way.

~Dianna
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Still going...

November 25th 2008 08:08
So I'm at 265K and still going. I did finish Jihad and ended up starting a sequel, Fallen, because it didn't end like it was supposed to and there were a lot of loose threads as a result. I get the feeling this is going to turn into three or four books. A bit of a commitment but hey...

This is an excerpt from Jihad:
----------------------------- -------
I had watched the world through several centuries, nurturing and building the city of my people

and the civilization of Fidolius. Now it was almost time... almost time to strike at our enemies, at those

who had destroyed and betrayed us all those centuries ago. I was ready, and so was Fidolius. The King

was very carefully trained for this moment, and he would do his duty well...

The man stood before me. He was tall with broad shoulders and a short black beard, his hair

black and tidy. He looked like a man you would not want to fight; but he was much weaker than he

appeared to be. I smiled at him and he knelt. Oh yes, it was a magnificent relationship between the two

of us. He in his dark obedience and me in my dark rule. Me the owner, him the slave. As it was meant

to be. I had spent generations keeping his family like this, chained to me and bound of their own free

will.

But today he would show the signs of disobedience-and I would have to correct him, make him

obedient again. I sat on my throne made of ebony in the hall that was almost like that of an old temple,

the arched ceiling that went on for an eternity. Beside me, on a pedestal, sat a two-foot tall, fairly thick

crystal. It was covered by a cloth at the moment, however; it was not meant for his eyes.

“We go to war,” I said, “we must fight them, and we must fight them now. They are rising to fight us

and so we must launch our invasion. This has been planned for centuries. And now it is time to act.”

“Why can we not just make peace? This fight is ridiculous. A grudge for centuries, why do we still

hold it, keeping it so carefully in tact?”

“They are rising to fight us, do you understand? Their Gods will stop at nothing in order to destroy us;

it is that simple. They cannot be left there.”

“But I do not want another war.”

I sighed and pulled the cloth from over the crystal. It was black, pure black and shaped like any

other crystal. He looked at it, wide-eyed with shock that I had actually revealed it. And then an eye

made of red fire appeared, staring at him for a long moment. A fiery claw reached out of the crystal and

pulled a silver thread of ether into the crystal, and suddenly the King was nodding eagerly.
----------------------------- ----------------------------- ----------------------------- ----------------------

Again I would like to ask for donations to be made here, sponsoring my writing, essentially:

Really Long Link

This page will automatically be closed in January so I'm asking for donations as much as possible now. Please support Nanowrimo, it's a wonderful community and a great writing challenge.

Thankies,

~Dianna
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Home Stretch

November 24th 2008 06:40
With six days left, Nanowrimo is almost over. (5 in some parts of the world) We're now in the home stretch.

For those of you who are behind, it doesn't matter; just push yourself to achieve as much as you can in these last few days. Something is better than nothing. Just do what you can.

And for those of you who are within reach of 50K-it's not over yet! Keep working, you're almost there; this is the final stretch. The last part of the race before you round that corner and see all the cheering fans. This is the last part before you get to collapse on the nearest couch and catch up on all your missed sleep for the month.

For those of you well over 50K-way to go guys! But this isn't the time to relax and just stop writing. Keep going, even if you slow down; Nano is about jumpstarting your writing, but I'm sure you can keep going at least until the end of the month. There are only a few days left-but then there's an entire 11 months until the next Nano.

Are you going to stop writing for those eleven months? I hope not. I hope that Nanowrimo has inspired you to continue writing throughout the year. And if it hasn't, oh well; I hope at the very least you'll come back and try again.

We're almost there, folks. The month is coming to an end-are you ready?

If not-unfortunately, we can't stop time to give you a few extra days for your novel. So it's going to be a mad rush to the finish line, but you can make it. Promise.

~Dianna
------------

I reached my goal of 250K and am continuing to write until the month is over, to see what my total output will be. Please donate here to sponsor my writing:

Really Long Link
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Pep Talk!

November 22nd 2008 11:19
I am now sitting at my original goal of 250, 000 words.

Please donate to Nanowrimo here


[ Click here to read more ]
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Slowing Down

November 21st 2008 08:08
So I've reached 240, 000 and am within ten thousand words of my original goal. At this point my wrist is really acting up, so injuries are going to massively slow down my writing from here on in-and actually I've slowed down a lot since I hit two hundred thousand.

I just want to say that Nanowrimo is a load of fun; it's been great this year as the tenth anniversary came around. People are writing so much and I'm so proud of everyone. The forums are a great place to go just to talk with other writers and read everyone else's complaints and the good stories, too


[ Click here to read more ]
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Fundraising! (Nano)

November 19th 2008 10:43
This is a fundraising website which is sponsoring Nano, and so I get my own page of fundraising! Great job Chris Baty, I'm glad to see something like this.

If anyone remembers, a while back I was looking to do a fundraising thing of sorts: well this will give me donation goodies as well as giving to Nano, which has given me so much


[ Click here to read more ]
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I Hang My Head In Shame.

November 18th 2008 08:40
I wrote... 15K... in a week. But tomorrow night I'm going to be taking on a challenge, and I invite all Nanowriters to join me in my quest:

From 8PM EST to 1AM EST, I will be writing. My goal? 15K in five hours. The normal goal is 10K in five hours, but more or less is just fine


[ Click here to read more ]
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Toronto Is Writing...

November 12th 2008 11:52
Well I hit 200, 000 words this month so far and I'm pretty proud of myself, though there are a few people who have gone above and beyond what I seem capable of. They, quite frankly, scare me. In the good way.

But here's a little tidbit about Toronto


[ Click here to read more ]
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Jihad: Excerpt number 2

November 11th 2008 09:32
I've been making quite a bit of progress on Jihad, so here's just a little poem from the beginning of the chapter I'm currently working on:

Twins together shall make


[ Click here to read more ]
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Mostly Satisfied

November 10th 2008 10:38
So a few hours ago I hit one hundred and sixty thousand and now I am in a very interesting state of mind. I am comfortably relaxed and really rather lazy, unwilling to do anything but wander around the interwebs for an hour or two before I make my way into dreamland. Happy with my word count, though I am behind certain people, but it doesn't matter. Nor does it matter that I'm sick, because when I am not sick I will have to face school, which is a concept worse than anything my characters have faced in the last week, even being trampled by a llama.

No excerpts tonight, but I think I am going to say just how much this has been therapeutic; my depression has backed off for the most part over the last week, though I am despairing that at this rate I will never get through high school because stress from school will keep me endlessly sick. At this rate I will probably end up dropping out and going to university as a Mature Student, because I could do the work in a decent learning environment, but seeing as I can't get into one until I do the work or am a mature student, I will probably never get through high school


[ Click here to read more ]
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Jihad: Excerpt

November 9th 2008 10:40
As the story is completely different and for a number of reasons I had to restart, I am also using Jihad as part of my Nano projects, so I'm inspired to finish it. This is part of the Prologue. Have fun reading! Comments would be much appreciated, as this is the story I care the most about at this point-I want to write it well this time around so there's less work on it later. It's been in the works for far too long already.

Here goes


[ Click here to read more ]
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Prompt: Sudden Death

November 8th 2008 09:02
In an effort to write a last thousand words tonight, I had a friend give me a prompt... it was Sudden Death... and this is absolutely beautiful:

Sudden Death


[ Click here to read more ]
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Nanowrimo: Excerpts

November 6th 2008 09:54
Here are 3 excerpts, one from each of the stories I'm working on:
----------------------------- ----------------------------- ------------------------

[ Click here to read more ]
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Pep Talk: Nano!!

November 5th 2008 19:17
As I'm at 60K, I think I have the right to say I know a little something about Nanowrimo.

The first year, it's a challenge to hit 50K. You slog through it day after day. Sometimes the words flow perfectly, and other days they simply refuse to come. Some days you get your minimum with ease and go well beyond it. Other days it's a struggle just to get to that 1, 667 words for the day. Believe me, I know; my first year was difficult, but I managed


[ Click here to read more ]
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