Definitely down. Hopefully not out, but it’s certainly not looking likely that I’ll hit the 50K mark during November. The problem is just time – this story is definitely a story that I want to get out there, and I’ve been enjoying exploring the backstory of a character I created ages ago, but the wordcount benchmarks are just not compatible with the other stuff that I have on the table this month, particularly stuff like cycling in the evenings, which is leaving me pretty tired and not really up for long sessions in front of the computer trying to get words out of my head.

Good luck to everyone pushing on for the 50K mark, and hopefully my story will continue itself over time and get out there eventually.

Finally above the pace line! Thursday (during Uni semester) is my “late shift” day, where I stick around until 7pm just in case people have problems. Today, that meant writing, and I managed to get a bit over 900 words written before heading home for the day, which helped. As is often the case, I ended up with a very slow start to the writing at home, combined with a lot of procrastination. After a few false starts, and swearing at myself on twitter, I ended up putting on a burst at the end, pulling out about 1000 words in half an hour to take me over the 8333 target and the 2000 wordcount for the day.

Tonight’s snippet is short and painful …

Felchy’s palms hit the column first, followed closely by his elbows, and then very shortly thereafter, the left side of his face. He barely had time to wince as his arms and face slid down the bricks. His feet slammed into the ground, and although he tried to push backwards off the bricks and roll, the initial impact had dazed him, and he ended up crumpling on the ground, redness starting to show on his forearms and cheek.

Tough day today. Was sick, and didn’t get any writing done until late in the evening. Hopefully will be able to get past the target line and into a lead before the weekend.

Tonight’s snippet:

The rogue simply turned and walked away down the corridor. Felchy followed, matching the woman’s steady, deliberate pace. A clicking sound behind Felchy made him turn around in alarm, his hand straying down to his sheathed dagger. Looking back towards the entrance, Felchy realised the door had silently closed behind him, and the locks had automatically slid back in to place. He shut his eyes for a second and took a deep breath, willing his heart rate back down and letting the tension ebb out of his weapon hand. He turned back towards the inside of the Thieves Guild and looked for his guide, only to be greeted with an empty corridor. Felchy’s eyes narrowed, and again his right hand moved towards the hilt of his dagger. He grasped the hilt and was just about to draw when he felt a small pressure in the small of his back, and breath on his ear as someone whispered into it.

A good day – managed to close the gap to the target line, with 2700 words today. For those following at home, I managed to find the features that I wasn’t using in Scrivener. Who knew that reading the “Start here” document pre-written in the sample Nanowrimo project would be so helpful!

Knocked out a whole chapter tonight, which is both good and bad. It gave me a very definite place to end the night’s writing, but it means that I’m starting a fresh thread tomorrow, rather than picking up mid-stream, which can sometimes be easier. Still, I have hope that I’ll get there yet. Tomorrow I’ll try and get ahead of the target line and start building myself a buffer for the slow days coming up, like Shaulabot’s birthday and the planned weekend of mountain biking later in the month.

Tonight’s snippet is not the cleanest of writing (hey, it’s Nano, and I’m a uni dropout), but it’s a fun move I may have to try in a D&D campaign sometime …

In a low crouch, his black cloak wrapped around his body, he charged at the first guard, who had now stepped outside the gate. In one movement, he pulled the green bag from his belt and hurled it directly into the chest of the second guard, who was still standing inside the gate, squinting at the sudden glare of the fire. As the bag hit the chest of the second guard, Felchy cannoned into the first one, pushing him back into the other guard, knocking the wind out of both of them. The green bag burst, and a white goo burst out, pressed between the two guards. As they fell to the ground, the goo hardened, sticking the guards together, effectively immobilising them. Felchy leaped over their flailing arms, and ducked around to the right of the house, heading towards one of the downpipes on the corner of the building.

Okay, so I’m a day behind, thanks to the Gong Ride yesterday, but I should be able to catch up over the next few days and head into Week 2 on schedule. So far I haven’t started the story proper, I’m starting with backstory and a bit of biography, just as much to refresh my own memory of the character as to pad the wordcount. But it’s mostly working, and hopefully the story will come out better than my previous Nanowrimo win in 2006.

I’m also taking advantage of the fact that Scrivener, a word processor I’ve heard a few rave about, has a special for Nanowrimo participants. So far I’m liking it, and even trying to actually take advantage of the organisational and project management features it has. A few things jar in the workflow – such as not being able to get a combined wordcount for a multi-file manuscript without exporting and counting elsewhere – but it’s possible this is just stuff I have to learn, rather than stuff that isn’t there.

A short snippet from tonight’s writing session.

A sound filtered its way through the alcoholic haze and into Gutgore’s consciousness. Footsteps, running away along the cobbles. He looked up, but the small boy was gone, the sound of his small strides disappearing into the fog.

In the plus side, I do at least have some idea of what I’ll be writing about. I’m going to be resurrecting my first D&D character, a gnome bard/rogue named, ever so wittily, Namfoodle
Felchbetter (Felchy). The big decision I really need to make is if I’m going to retcon his name, but I guess I can sort that out later. For now I’d better get cracking, I’ll need to churn out at least 3000 words today to get the ball rolling.

For anyone involved in Nanowrimo (everyone should be!) head to http://www.nanowrimo.org, register if you haven’t already, and look up Namfoodle (yes, I registered with my D&D toons name back in 2003).