NaNoWriMo Day 30

That’s it! As of about 9:00 last night, the NaNo novel was finished, submitted and I was declared an official winner. YAY! My final word count was like, I don’t know 50,500 or something. So it’s done . . . it’s “the end” . . . but not really.

Because here’s the *brilliant* idea I had while writing it. It’s going to be the first in a three-part series. This book was about an eleven-year-old girl named Kimi (and all of her issues) and I’ve decided to continue the story, but pick up with friend number two. So the next book will begin from Trina’s perspective, and start where Kimi left off. And the third book, well, that’s going to cover the final friend, and pick up where Trina leaves off. Very neat, right? Yeah, I’m going to be kinda busy. But this time I’m not going to stress about finishing it in 30 days, and I’ll probably start on the second book in January. After the current one is edited, it’s heading to my literary agent so we can figure out what to do/where to send it.

I thought it might be fun to recap the month. In addition to hard work, dedication, perseverance, headaches and overall anxiety, this is what it took to get my NaNo Novel completed:

9 pieces of chocolate
9 pieces of chocolate/peanut butter fudge
7 pieces of Halloween candy:
6 bowls of ice cream
3 pieces of Chocolate cake
3 Dr. Pepper floats
1 Orangeade
1 Brownie
. . . and a partridge in a pear tree

Oh, and one celebratory Dr. Pepper float today . . .

So, as of this moment I’m *officially* on vacation. I’m going to work on editing my two latest books in December (but not stress out about them), watch a lot of Christmas movies, and eat more chocolate. This page won’t be updated for a while (I might try something new for the spring—just before the book comes out, but we’ll see). In the meantime, I’ll still be a frequent flyer to myspace ( http://www.myspace.com/leighbrescia ), and updating my blog there, (just not every day).

And, as if being a writer in November wasn’t crazy enough, I should mention that I’ve always wanted to write a screenplay. Guess what I found? http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/

One Screenplay - 30 days - April 1, 2008

See you there!

NaNoWriMo Day 29

So I did a “test send” of my NaNo novel to the site, just to make sure everything works so that *hopefully* I can get everything written and turned in before midnight tomorrow. It worked, yes, but it also miscounted my words by like, 500! Which means to *win* I have to write at least 50,500 words.

(sigh) I can’t believe it’s coming down to this—I’m cutting this way too close—I swear I am. I should’ve been finished by now. My luck? I’ll finish this just in the nick of time, and then I’ll try to submit it to the site and it will be overloaded, and won’t work or something, and I’ll miss the deadline.

That would bite!

So, nothing inspirational today, either. I want *good news* to report tomorrow. And I haven’t forgotten: I will mention what I plan to do with this book once it’s polished. December 1st, maybe, and then I’m taking my *much needed* break (to edit, yeah, not much of a break, but still—at least I won’t be writing against a deadline).

Time: 2:55pm

1: number of bowls of ice cream coming up!

47,102: NaNo words written
2,898: words to go…but not really because I have to write 500 extra. Ouch!

NaNoWriMo Day 28

So, I had this amazing revelation last night. I *really* want to finish this book early, but I’m having all sorts of motivational issues and just *barely* making my quota this week. The problem is (and I should have seen this coming): No Fighting!

There are no more fights! Everyone is making up! I’ve only got like, 5,000 words left to write! There’s no more conflict. If people were still arguing and yelling and calling each other stupid, I’d so be finished by now. Instead everyone is nice and happy and things are working out. I should’ve known, really. This whole NaNo experiment has totally revealed to me that I *live* for fighting. Anytime a character can throw something, it’s a good thing.

I’m addicted to drama. It’s that simple. I thrive on it. I live for it. And it’s completely obvious that when there’s no drama in my own life—I take it out on innocent characters. The sadistic thing is that it makes me So Happy.

Time: 3:30pm

1: bowl of ice cream consumed (but I’m thinking about number two)
0: pieces of chocolate because there is none in the house—anywhere

No wonder I can’t finish this thing! No chocolate and No fighting!

45,393: NaNo words written
4607: words to go

NaNoWriMo Day 27

I’m doing so well with these late entries this week, aren’t I? The bad news is I’m still feeling pretty pathetic. The good news is I *think* today is the last day of it, which means tomorrow should be better, right? I hope so.

Our schedules have been crazy because of sickness and crankiness, so I didn’t get to write as much last night as I wanted, so I ended up a few hundred words short of yesterday’s quota. The good news is, I was able to do a little “padding” earlier today, and managed to catch back up. I have about 1300 words to write tonight.

I really need to write about double that, because I’d *like* to turn this thing in early, and not have to scramble around at midnight on Friday trying to get it submitted. I’ll have to remember that for next year.

So, yeah, sorry about another *un-inspiring* entry. I guess the moral of the story is um, stick with it and good things will happen? Yeah, that sounds great!

Time: 4:35pm

2: bowls of ice-cream consumed
2: loads of laundry done
3: really cranky people in the house

43,677: NaNo words written
6323: words to go

*You’d think since I was this close to finishing I could pull something amazing and get it all done tonight, right? I know. Not happening

NaNoWriMo Day 26

Okay, so I’m still sick all right? Who knew that a basic cold could keep you so miserable for so long? But the masses have spoken (um, Derek), and so here is my daily entry! Late, yes, but better late than never.

I actually started an entry earlier, but it was so un-inspirational I deleted it and gave up. I’m not really feeling inspirational now, but I can’t leave all of my adoring fans hanging, right? (cough cough.) No, really, I’m so grateful for Derek and *Keaner*, my two most faithful readers, who (for some reason) keep coming back for more, even when I’m sick and writing a bunch of jibberish (i.e. right now).

So, our Christmas tree went up Saturday. Manheim Steamroller is playing every night, because really, what’s Christmas without them, right? I thought you’d agree. I’m slowly getting through my entire Christmas movie list: Elf (um, 8 times? Thanks to darling child), Home Alone, and Christmas with the Kranks. Tonight the fun begins at 6:00 (Christmas with the Kranks) and then at 8:00 (The Santa Claus). I’m really obsessed with movies this year because last year I didn’t get to watch them all, and it just kind of upset me—like I didn’t do things right or something. So this year—not making that mistake!

At some point I really should think about writing, but everything is so foggy I think it would be a wasted effort. Why couldn’t I have gotten sick earlier in the month, when word counts didn’t really matter? I can’t afford a night off! There’s no other weekend to catch up! (sigh.)

And is it just me or does PBS do at least a hundred “winterfest’s” a year?

That’s it, sorry for the complete randomness of this entire entry. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll return alive, inspired, and not sneezing every five seconds….

41,843: NaNo words written
8,157: words to go