April Novel Writing Month -
2009
The story behind NaNoWriMo is that you write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Usually this happens during the month of November, the official National Novel Writing Month. For the last three years, I've participated in NaNoWriMo and written at least a 50,000 word novel each time. I also wrote another of my novels, A New Witch in 30 days, during the months of July and August, 2007.
So this year I decided to write a story in 30 days in both April and November. So this is my April story. It's called Litch. It's a story about a vigilante who stumbles upon a secret and then tries to deal with this new knowledge. I'm calling this endeavor ApNoWriMo — April Novel Writing Month.
The goal of ApNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. That comes out to about 1,667 words a day. This page is my diary of my ApNoWriMo progress for this year.
Update: Okay, it's obvious to me that I'm not going to reach 50,000 words, or the end of the novel for that matter, in April. So I'm extending this to be MayNoWriMo, or in other words, May Novel Writing Month. I'm hoping I can crank it all out by May 15th, but I may be overly optomistic, just like in April. Stay tuned for updates.
Update: I didn't make it. Not in 30 days, not in 46 days. My final word count is 38,319 and I'm calling it quits. It's not that great of a story, so I don't think I'm really missing that much. There are some gems in here, but it's not enough to keep even me interested in it. So I cut it off after 46 days, even though I didn't even write that long.
May 16, 2009— 38,319 words total
May 15, 2009— 38,319 words total
May 14, 2009— 38,319 words total
May 13, 2009— 38,319 words total
May 12, 2009— 38,319 words total
May 11, 2009— 38,319 words total
May 10, 2009— 38,319 words total
May 9, 2009— 38,319 words total
May 8, 2009— 38,077 words total
May 7, 2009— 38,077 words total
May 6, 2009— 38,077 words total
May 5, 2009— 38,077 words total
May 4, 2009— 38,077 words total
May 3, 2009— 38,077 words total
May 2, 2009— 38,077 words total
May 1, 2009— 33,757 words total
April 30, 2009— 33,757 words total
April 29, 2009— 33,757 words total
April 28, 2009— 33,757 words total
April 27, 2009— 33,757 words total
April 26, 2009— 33,757 words total
April 25, 2009— 30,908 words total
April 24, 2009— 30,544 words total
April 23, 2009— 29,759 words total
April 22, 2009— 27,054 words total
April 21, 2009— 26,118 words total
April 20, 2009— 23,853 words total
April 19, 2009— 22,018 words total
April 18, 2009— 17,712 words total
April 17, 2009— 12,040 words total
April 16, 2009— 12,040 words total
April 15, 2009— 12,040 words total
April 14, 2009— 11,139 words total
April 13, 2009— 11,139 words total
April 12, 2009— 11,139 words total
April 11, 2009— 10,185 words total
April 10, 2009— 8,476 words total
April 9, 2009— 8,476 words total
April 8, 2009— 8,476 words total
April 7, 2009— 6,092 words total
April 6, 2009— 6,092 words total
April 5, 2009— 3,430 words total
April 4, 2009— 3,430 words total
April 3, 2009 — 3,273 words total
April 2, 2009 — 3,273 words total
April 1, 2009 — 1,035 words total
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 — 1,035 words total
Writing wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I had a lot of stuff going on at work and it kept me distracted, as well as other things like the family and the Internet. But, I did finally settle down and get a little over a thousand words on paper. I'm not through with the introduction yet, but I will be tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on my word count. I should be between 1,700-2,000 right now.
Thursday, April 2, 2009 — 3,273 words total
Although I got a slow start, I made a lot of progress. I finished the Introduction and got into the first chapter. I almost made up for my deficit yesterday, but not quite. I should be at a total of 3,334 words, but I'm not quite there. I should be caught up tomorrow.
Word count for the day is 2,238. A good day but it seemed to come hard.
Friday, April 3, 2009 — 3,273 words total
No, I didn't actually write. I meant to. I wanted to. But I procrastinated. That, and my allergies were just kicking my butt. I had a headache all day. But I know, that's just an excuse. Tomorrow will be different. I promise.
Saturday, April 4, 2009 — 3,430 words total
Okay, I planned on doing a lot of writing today, I really did. My new iPod Touch really got in the way though. There are just so many cool apps and things to discover. Today's excuse is an application that allows me to play Texas Hold 'em online against real players. It doesn't use real money, and, well, dang, I started winning. Talk about addictive.
That's why I don't play computer games. I will stay on 'em for hours, losing all track of time. And that's exactly what happened today. i knew I was supposed to be writing, but I just couldn't pull myself away. It probably would have been easier if I had been losing. I should be up to 6,668 words and I'm only at half of that. That means that I'm about 2 days behind. I am going to work really hard to get caught up, I swear!
For the record, I wrote a whopping 157 words today, for a grand total of 3,430.
Sunday, April 5, 2009 — 3,430 words total
Dang the iPod! I just couldn't bring myself to write. On top of the iPod Touch, my wife is suffering from terrible tooth pain. She needs a root canal and the pain is excruciating. I know. I had a similar experience when I flew up to Iowa for my father's funeral. I had a tooth light up and there was nothing I could do about it. If Maria hadn't been with me, I don't know how I would have made it back onto the plane to fly home, I was that incapacitated by the pain.
So I'm trying to make Maria as comfortable as I can, and it isn't easy. My computer where I write is in the bedroom and I don't want to bother her. She doesn't even want the light on. Sure, it's a laptop and I could take it out into the dining room, but that just seems to bee too much. I'll just play Texas Hold 'em and get her food or drink or pills or whatever and worry about writing tomorrow.
And for the record, this is so unlike me. Once I commit to a writing project, I am usually quite tenacious about it. I don't know what's up this time. Maybe I don't like the idea for this book as much as I thought. I don't think that's it, but who knows. Maybe when I get back into the writing, I can fall in love with my character. That's usually what happens. I just don't think I've given it enough of a chance this time.
Monday, April 6, 2009 — 6,092 words total
A great day for writing! Once I started, I just couldn't stop. I wrote a total of 2,662 words today. I don't know if I was feeling guilty from not writing this weekend, or if my eyes were too tired from the strain of looking at the iPod Touch screen for I-don't-know-how-many-hours this weekend playing Texas Hold 'em, or what. But I know that once I sat down, I couldn't stop writing. It was awesome.
But I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this is the 6th day out of 30. My word count today should be 10,002, so I'm still a little less than 4,000 words short. Today's writing spurt helped to narrow the gap and I hope to keep that momentum up. This is the fist time in all of my "novel in 30 days" endeavors that I've fallen behind. It's not a position I like being in and I plan on catching up. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009 — 6,092 words total
It's true, I didn't write today. But I have another excuse. Maria and I bought a car last week and we decided that we didn't want to keep it. CarMax has a 5-day return policy, so we ordered a different one (we found it in Houston and they transported it up to Austin). Well anyway, tonight was the night we had to go take the one back to pick up the other.
So far, we really like this second one; way more than the first one, but that didn't help my writing. I'm beat and I'm going to hit it again tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009 — 8,476 words total
A great writing day. I cranked out 2,384 words today, in spite of a lot of running around doing errands tonight. It was nice. The words flowed and I'm starting to get in tune with my characters, which will make this story much easier to write. A couple more days like this and I'll be closer to my goal, and hopefully caught up. For the record, my word count today should be 13,336. I'm only 4,860 words behind. I know from experience that I can make that up in a day if I'm on a roll. So let's hope for the roll!
Thursday, April 9, 2009 — 8,476 words total
I have never found it harder to write than this time. It's not writer's block. That's not it (and honestly, I don't really believe is such a thing, but I might if it ever hits me). But there's still a reason I'm not writing.
I don't know what that reason is. Maybe I'm not as into this story as I've been into previous stories. Maybe the story isn't flowing as well (not the same as writer's block).
But maybe it's something else altogether. I don't know what that is, but I'll let you know what it is when I figure it out.
Oh yeah, one more thing. It was a tough day at work and I was beat when I got home. My wife and I spent an hour or so at Buffalo Wild Wings drinking beer and eating wings. Combine all of that and you have a night of no writing.
Friday, April 10, 2009 — 8,476 words total
I should have written today, but there was something about it being Good Friday. I was feeling lazy at work and I think that laziness carried over when I got home. That's the only excuse I have.
Saturday, April 11, 2009 — 10,185 words total
We drove to Dallas today to go to a Saving Abel/Seether/Nickelback concert. We made it to the hotel early. Sarah and I spent some time before the concert writing. I wrote before the concert and after, coming up with a total word count of 1,709 for the day, 10,185 total. Still a few days behind, but plugging along.
For the record, my word count should be at 18,337. I'm about 8,000 words short of that. I'm going to have to work to catch up!
Sunday, April 12, 2009 — 11,139 words total
I had some time in the hotel this morning to get some writing done, although it wasn't as much as I needed. I wrote 954 words, about 700 words less than my goal. The rest of the day was spent at The Dallas World Aquarium and then driving back to Austin.
To be on track, I should have 20,004 words written. I'm about 9,000 words below my target. Let's hope for a good week. The good news is that I haven't given up yet and again, I've never had this hard of a time cranking the story out.
Monday, April 13, 2009 — 11,139 words total
No time to write today. I didn't even have time to update this page. I had to come back and do it another day.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 — 11,139 words total
All I have to say is that there are too many days in a row that I'm not writing. I've never found it this hard to squeeze in the time to write.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 — 12,040 words total
Tax day and I finally got back to some writing.
Thursday, April 16, 2009 — 12,040 words total
I didn't write today. Too much work to do for my day job.
Friday, April 17, 2009 — 12,040 words total
Yesterday and today were particularly hard days at work. I came home and still had work to do and by 11:00 at night, I wasn't finished. And it's stuff that has to be done by Monday. Not so easy to write when work is taking up so much of my time.
Saturday, April 18, 2009 — 17,712 words total
Finally, a great writing day. Although I'm not caught up, I made a lot of progress. I wrote 5,672 word today. That's my word count goal for a little more than three days.
Now, that's not to say that I'm in good shape, I'm not. I should be at 30,006 words today. But I am very pleased about one thing; I'm still writing. I haven't given up on the story or the idea of writing a book in the month of April. But I do need a few more days like today to get caught up!
Sunday, April 19, 2009 — 22,018 words total
Another great day of writing. That makes two in a row. I wrote 4,306 words today. I'm about six days behind where I should be, which is a lot better than I thought. Today, I should be at 31,673 words. I'm a little less than 10,000 words short of that. But a few more days like this will do wonders to catch me up.
Monday, April 20, 2009 — 23,853 words total
I didn't get as much writing done today as I would have liked to, but I did make my word count goal. I didn't start writing until late in the evening. I hadn't been feeling well all day. But when I did start writing, I worte 1,835 words for a total of 23,853. I should be at 33,340 for the day. I'm 9,500 words short of that.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 — 26,118 words total
A good day of writing, although like other days, I got a late start. I worte 2,265 words today. I'm just over half way, from a word count perspective, that is. I should be at 35,007 words today, so I'm offically less than 9,000 words behind. That means I have to either write an extra thousand words a day, or I have to use the weekend to get caught up. Honestly, I think it's going to be a little of both. The story is going good, but it might be a little much to ask to ger 1,000 words more each day.
I say that, but maybe not. All I know, as I write this, is that I think that as of this moment, 50,000 words is within reach. It wil be a stretch goal, but do-able, nonetheless. Stay tuned to see if I'm right.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 — 27,054 words total
Well, I wrote. Not as much as I would have liked to, but I wrote. I managed to knock out 936 words, almost a thousand. I know that I'm coming up to the wire and I can't afford not to get my word count, but I'm really suffering from my allergies this year and it's all I can do to force myself. But, I am still writing and any progress is better than no progress. For the record, I should be at 36,674 words today.
Thursday, April 23, 2009 — 29,759 words total
A good day of writing. I made up for yesterday's shortfall and a little more by writing a total of 2,705 words today. I should be at 38,341 today, so I still quite a bit short. Another couple days like this, and a good writing weekend and I hope to be caught up. But I am aware that the clock is ticking. I have to get moving.
Friday, April 24, 2009 — 30,544 words total
I didn't get a lot of writing done, but I did get some done, 785 words, to be exact. But it wasn't as much as I would've liked. For the record, I should be at 40,008 today. I'm almost 10,000 words light, but it is the weekend. I hope to have a couple of good writing days to put me all the way back on track.
Saturday, April 25, 2009 — 30,908 words total
Yeah, that's right, I wrote a whopping 364 words today. My word count today should be 41,675 words. I'm far short of that. I think that I'm going to concede that I'm not going to make it to 50,000 words this month. There have been too many things working against me. But, that's not to say that I'm giving up. I'm not!
I'm going to extend this by a few days. I have a novel to finish and I'm going to do my best to finish it. I mean, I'm at almost 31,000 words. That's not too shabby. I'm proud of it. So, tomorrow is another day. I'm going to get up early and start pounding the keyboard. Let's see where this ends up.
Sunday, April 26, 2009 — 33,757 words total
Nice day of writing. It was freeing to know that I'm not going to make 50,000 words this month. I didn't feel the pressure to keep writing when I didn't want to. But I still had a good day, topping out at 2,849 words. I sghould be at 43,342 words today, but that would be assuming I was on track to hit 50k. So I made up for yesterday and maintained my "just about 10,000 words short" status.
Monday, April 27, 2009 — 33,757 words total
I actually spent the night working on my website. I had a story published and there have been several changes that I've been intending to make, so I made them. Bad Doug.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 — 33,757 words total
Another night of not writing. My wife and I decided to go out and when I got home, I spent the rest of the evening working on other things.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 — 33,757 words total
It was my birthday and I had an extremely difficult day at work, so I came home and kicked back with my family. I am going to write tomorrow night though. It's the last day of my ApNoWriMo.
Thursday, April 30, 2009 — 33,757 words total
Okay, it's official. I ended the month with only 33,757 words. Now, I say only, but in reality, it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's half, a novel, just not a whole novel. I wanted to get a big writing push out tonight but I have a big training push at work tomorrow and I had a LOT of last minute changes. So many, in fact, that it's about 11:30 pm as I write this and I just finished all the work things and have no time left for the writing, that I must admit, causes me no small amount of stress and distress. But, work is what pays the bills so far, not my writing, so I have to keep my priorities in mind.
That being said, I'm going to extend the 30 days of ApNoWriMo into MayNoWriMo until I finish this novel. So stay tuned.
Friday, May 1, 2009 — 33,757 words total
Wow, this had to be the longest work week ever. At least that's what my coworkers and I decided. Didn't feel like writing, but I have some time this weekend set aside to do it. So, tomorrow. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
But, I will say that I recorded a piece of flash fiction as a podcast that I will be submitting soon, once I edit it. The piece is Pixie Vision.
Saturday, May 2, 2009 — 38,077 words total
A great writing day! I cranked out 4,320 words and more importantly, the story advanced nicely. I now have direction and focus again. Hopefully the next few writing days will go along smoothly. Three more days like today and I'll be at my 50,000 word goal.
Sunday, May 3, 2009 — 38,077 words total
I did writing things today, but no writing on this novel. I spent time editing a story I recorded on Friday; Pixie Vision. I hope to submit it soon and hopefully get it published (again).
Monday, May 4, 2009 — 38,077 words total
Work, work, work. It really is getting in the way of my writing.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 — 38,077 words total
Today is our anniversary. Nuff said.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 — 38,077 words total
Today was my wife's birthday. To top it off, I wasn't feeling well. Combine those and I didn't write.
Thursday, May 7, 2009 — 38,077 words total
I did spend the evening writing, and even wrote 1,871 words, just not on Litch. I spent some time on a short story I've been wanting to write, and I think it came out pretty good. Now I just need to polish it and send it off, all the while working on this project. No problem.
Friday, May 8, 2009 — 38,077 words total
Spent the night packing for vacation. We're taking a trip to Las Vegas for our anniversary. My wife does a really good job getting the best deals for airlines and hotels, but boy does she work at it!
We also went to bed early. We had to get up at 4:00 in the morning. That is a long way of saying that I didn't do any writing tonight. But it also means that I hope to get some writing in during our flight. I did manage to sqeeze in a story submission tonight though.
Saturday, May 9, 2009 — 38,319 words total
First day in Las Vegas. I did some writing on the plane, but only 242 words that could be attributed to Litch. I'm kind of at a stall with the story. I need to make something happen, but I don't know how. I think I'm going to put in a placeholder and just say that it happened. I will help me carry the story forward and may give me some idea of how to come back and fill in the blanks.
I did some writing on another story of mine too. I wrote a total of 822 words on that story, plus the 242 for Litch made it a fairly productive writing day with 1,064 words total, considering I spent most of the day sitting at Blackjack tables and slot machines.
Sunday, May 10, 2009 — 38,319 words total
Wow. Las Vegas. I don't even have time to sleep, let alone write. Maybe on the plane trip back to Texas, but not today.
Monday, May 11, 2009 — 38,319 words total
No writing in Las Vegas.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 — 38,319 words total
The idea of writing on the flight back to Austin sounded good, but I was way to tired and hung over to write anything. Hopefully tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 — 38,319 words total
I can't believe how exhausted I am. Las Vegas takes a lot out of you. Maria and I are both beat. No writing, at least not on Litch.
Thursday, May 14, 2009 — 38,319 words total
Still no writing on Litch. I did work on some smaller projects. Slowly, I'm getting back into it.
Friday, May 15, 2009 — 38,319 words total
I think today is the day. I have to do some backtracking on the story. I wrote myself into a corner and I have to go back to get out of it. Stay tuned for my updates.
Friday, May 16, 2009 — 38,319 words total
Okay, I'm just delaying the inevitable. I'm only kidding myself. I'm not happy with the manuscript. I'm sure that has something to do with why I'm having a problem sitting down to write. There are some real gems in the story, but I've decided that it's moving to slow and the only cure I have is a rewrite. So now, will a rewrite make me like the story? I don't know. Time will tell. Stay tuned. But for now, ApNoWriMo is over. My final word count for 46 days is 38,319. Not bad, but not successful.