Day 30 Final day 11/29/2010
 
Finally the nightmare is over!  No, seriously it wasn’t that bad.  I completely underestimated how much time and effort it would take, which means that I ended up completely neglecting this blog.   So while we have had a challenging month it has also been extremely enjoyable. Even the kids that HATE to write have made their monthly goal with no problems this year and we fully intending to compete next year as well. Although next year we will know what to expect and be far more prepared than we have been this year.  Lack of planning and illness have both made this year’s challenge far more difficult that it would have otherwise have been, and has meant that over the last couple of weeks everything else has been neglected.  It was something that had to be done just so that we could keep on track and while at this very moment the house is a complete mess and I have a clothesline full of wet clothes, I fully and wholeheartedly that it is all worth it in the name of our accomplishments.

So what are our total Winning word counts?

F  50 words

L 512 words

T 5,572 words and counting

Mum 50,457 words and counting

So My Advice is next year for the month of November pull out our pen and pad, or dust off your keyboards and let your creative juices run!  It truly is worth the effort !

 http://www.nanowrimo.org/

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Day 12 11/11/2010
 
I am so proud of T, she has had a very successful couple of weeks! The challenge isn’t even half way over and she has already reached and surpassed her word goal of 5,000 words for the month. Way to go T  5,028  words and counting toward your first novel!

 

As for myself I’m having a bit of a struggle at the minute reconciling my characters, only gotten just over 1,000 words out today and hoping by some miracle that I can find another 1,000 before I retire tonight.

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Day 11 11/11/2010
 
I haven’t done too badly today I completed just under 3,000 words and I’m just hoping to stay on the roll I’m currently on.  There was some very interesting writing completed yesterday, some of it I would never have imagined that I could passably write but it seems to be at home amongst the twist and turns of the current plot.

Current stats

21,206 Current Word Count, 50,00 word goal,  Day 11 with  19 days remaining.

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I have been slack the last few days with blogging!  Last week I had come down with a 24hr bug that wiped out any chance of me staying on track  for my 50,000  word goal by the 30th of November so I have been spending the last couple of days attempting to catch up so to speak.   When we had signed up for this challenge I had known that it wasn’t going to be easy, well that was an understatement.

 

Coming into this thing I had planned my characters and had had a loose outline of what my plot would be. It was going to be a vampire novel, one about an abused Romanian teen whom was going to die in the first chapter to come back as a vampire on a vengeance mission. It had sounded like a good idea at the time, what with me being completely clueless about writing novels and such I had naively thought that you chose how you wanted your plot to run and that’s what happened.  Boy was I in for a rude shock!  Now I will freely admit to having been one of those people whom had taken the idea of a character having a mind of its own as some kind a twisted joke on the part of every writer whom has ever suggested the possibility. Well to all those writers I wish to apologise for ever questioning your sanity. 

 

As my first day or writing progressed my main character had taken over, and now rather than a story that unfolds in Romania I now have a plot that resembles none of my previous imaginings of a plot... That in its self would not be an issue if I had any clue to what is going to happen or at least the direction it was taking. Well all I can say is that I have had moments where I can almost taste what to write it becomes so clear, as if some invisible movie is running around me and I scramble to get it all to paper before I lose it and then there have been other times that I have sat there for hours trying to write just one lousy sentence but to no avail.  The maddening part is that I seem to have a complete absence of my inner muse until late at night, sitting up until often three of four in the morning writing only to have to get up early in the morning to homeschool the kids.  As I write this entry I am very nearly literally dropping from exhaustion. 

 

Well as of late last night I had reached 13,776 words with 36,220 left to write and only just over 21 days to reach my word goal and to type it up on the computer so I can validate my word count.  I’s seriously questioning the sanity of having ever signed up for such a out there challenge, and I defiantly don’t know what I was thinking of when I decided I would be able to manage to blog about my journey. Well back to the madness that is my life at the minute, I’ll write again as soon as I can in my mad timetable.

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Day 3 11/03/2010
 
Another very short blob, I haven’t had much time to write today.  I had to spend what time I usually have set aside for my novel on writing my son’s homeschool report for the local authorities L  At this minute in time I’m just over 600 words behind my daily goal and I can’t help but think of the 3,000 + words I just wrote for the Government (a complete waste because they still haven’t read my daughters report from May, but unfortunately they don’t give extensions so it had to be done!). 

I haven’t had time to see how well T is going today, BUT the Littlies have done GREAT!  They have written over 100 words today, great going guys!

Well I have to go and try to catch up as I will not have the time to write tomorrow, I just hope I don’t fall too far behind!

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Day 2 11/02/2010
 
Just a quick not to let you know that we had worked on our writing today but that we had to make a quick dash to the library to return some books. And while I was there I picked up some books on Ireland so I can do some quick research on some of its geography.  It can be a real pain when your plot takes an unexpected turn; well I had better get back to the grindstone.   

Oh yeah before I forget  here are our stats.

Mum     Goal 50 000 words, daily goal 1 667 words, to date 4 017 words written, words left 45 983, Total days 30, days left 28.

T              Goal 5000 words, daily goal 167 words, to date 522 words written, words left 4 478, Total days 30, days left 28.

Littlies   Goal 2000 words, daily goal  67 words, to date 108 words written, words left 1 892, Total days 30, days left 28.
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Well our Day got off to a very hot start, both figuratively and literally! We all got up bright and early this morning mostly rearing to go.  I started the day by writing in bed until the kids got up and then set them on their writing projects and converted my paper copy to a digital copy.  I must admit at this point to doing some minor editing while typing my novel into word, and even though I said the object of the game so to speak was to write and to leave all those little evil editing urges until December I found myself unable to stop.  My piece of writing was sitting at about 920 words this morning after my early morning writing session, after my in script editing session though the same piece of writing is sitting at over 2 000 words and counting. I only hope that I don’t have early burn out and hit the wall before tins thing is over.  So 2 000 words down and 48 000 move to go

T has had a similar success to myself and wrote about 350 words with her target being 167 a day for the month to reach her target of 5 000 words.

As for the younger kids they are not as keen to write I have set them a joint word count of 2 000 words, at the minute they are just above their goal for the day of 67 words but It was like extracting teeth! They see no point in writing a story and especially for something like this... I’m hoping that by the end of this they have a different view of things.

Tally so far

Mum      Goal 50 000 words, daily goal 1 667 words, to date 2 000 words written, words left 48 000, Total days 30, days left 29.

T             Goal 5000 words, daily goal 167 words, to date 350 words written, words left 4 650, Total days 30, days left 29.

Littlies    Goal 2000 words, daily goal 67 words, to date 83 words written, words left 1917, Total days 30, days left 29.

 

              Well that’s it for today and I hope you are all having fun, and good luck with your writing!

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Today we have been setting up our account on the NANO Young writers program website, They run a free program/event over the month of November During National Novel Writing Month.  The idea is that you sign up and then over the course of November you attempt to write a Full novel, the great part being the idea that you just write without worry about anything but getting your ideas down on paper (grammar and polishing are for December or later).  Another great thing is that everyone who reaches their goal word count wins!   

 The goal word count for an adult is 50 000 words, BUT for kids they can set their own goal.  Another thing that is great about the program is that if you teach small children you can have a group goal, making it that much easier to reach that word count.  When I stumbled upon this I was delighted with the idea of teaching the kids that your writing doesn’t have to be perfect the first time, it’s the joy of writing that matters.  So It is my goal to write regular posts over the following month about our journey to writing our books.  So strap yourselves in and get ready for one wild ride!


Check out their website for more information http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/whatis.


If you decide to join us on this literary adventure and bolg about it drop me a line at mum@leapingintolearning.com and I will link to you!

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