Word Cloud: Day 2

 

And here we have the word cloud for Novel #2. Currently untitled. I’m really bad with titles. Writing the novel is always far more easy than coming up with a title for me.

I thought this font was really appropriate for this novel, as some of the characters are rather old. As you can tell by the names that appear, it’s about a bunch of Russians. Again, I use the word like way too much. It’s huge… I’m confused why the world ball shows up on here though, as I don’t remember ever using the word, let alone more than once. I like how family and other titles show up all over it, because family is a huge part of this novel. Family and family loyalty.

Okay, sharing time is over. I couldn’t resist doing these Word Clouds because I love my tag cloud and things like this so much.

Word Cloud Day 1

Novel #1

 

 

Make a word cloud here.

So, I found Wordle.net and decided I had to make a word cloud for both the novels I’ve written/started writing this NaNo. Here’s the first one that belongs to my finished novel, Trophy. You might recognize some of the names on there from all those character questionares I filled out and posted earlier in the month. I’ve also discovered that I use the word like a ridiculous amount, as it shows up on both my word clouds, and in big font. This is something I need to work on, as I don’t think people in Pennsylvania are Valley Girls like me. It’s a little bit more appropriate for my characters in Trophy, as it takes place in Seattle, which is closer to California. That’s my logic.

Maybe this word cloud gives you a little taste of what Trophy is about. The word cloud for Novel #2, which is untitled and in progress will show up tomorrow!

50,000 Then What?

This year I finished NaNoWriMo astoundingly early. By astoundingly I mean November 18th. This left me with 12 whole days of… nothingness. Also, by the 18th I considered the first draft of my novel to be done. There really wasn’t much else I could add to it for the sake of word count without making it a heinous crime against nature.

Fortunately, I am plagued by ideas, ideas, and more ideas. Way too many ideas. Sometime in October I had a dream that I really wanted to write out. It was just a scene, but it got my brain going. However, I had already made up my mind on my NaNo novel for this year, and had done extensive planning. I wouldn’t allow myself to change my whole story at the last minute. I wanted to write my original novel, and damn it, that novel was going to get written.

So, I put this second novel on the back burner and tried to fend off the plot ideas that popped into my head in order to focus on my actual NaNo novel. However, early in November it became apparent that I was going to finish ahead of schedule, well before the 28th like I had the year before. It also become clear that reaching 50,000 words with my first novel was going to be a challenge, and that there was no way I was going to take it much further than that.

I knew this meant that I would be able to write this second novel. I scrambled through that first novel, writing over 8,000 words each on two days.

After finishing on the 18th I took a couple days off, and a couple for brainstorming the new novel. The second one involved creating more of a world than the first did. I spent my time brainstorming the world, rather than the people that lived in it like my first novel.

Originally I thought maybe I’d even be able to reach 100,000 words this November, but I took more time to rest and brainstorm than I had planned on, so that doesn’t seem to be in the cards anymore. I’d look to shoot for 75,000. We’ll see if that will end up actually happening.

It’s Done: 2010

As of around 3:23, I am at 50,269 words.

I’ve got that green winner bar.

Refresher Course

I know I’ve gotten some new readers lately through NaNo, NaBlo, etc. Rather than make you dig around trying to figure things out, here’s a quick list of acronyms and secret agent code names you might encounter.

Best Friend

This one should be obvious. If you can’t figure this out, I’m not sure how you’re capable of using the internet. Best Friend is my best friend. Simple, right?

The Boy

Now an ex-boyfriend, he earned the title because he was the first male discussed on this blog. January-June.

BBF

Better BoyFriend. So named because he is not socially inept like someone else (see above). Current gentleman caller. June-Present Day. *cough*wassinglefortendays*cough*

Boy

Another person so dubbed because of their earlier involvement. An ex-boyfriend of Best Friend. November 2009-February?

Elf

Boy’s successor, and also now an ex of Best Friend. He looks like an elf. Seriously. Only now he thinks he’s Jesus. But he was an elf first. May-September/October?

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month. I write 50,000 words each November, because I’m crazy. I’m shooting for 100,000 this year.

NaBloPoMo

National Blog Posting Month. Also in November, making me even crazier. Yes, that means I write 50,000 words of a novel, and 30 blog posts in a month. Hurts so good.

 

30 Questions- Day 11

Alright everyone, thanks for putting up with all my brainstorming for NaNoWriMo! This is the last of these 30 Question Character Surveys.

 

Your siblings, in great detail.

Marc

Tanner’s not too bad for a big brother. He can be a dick at times, but I’ve got to be grateful since he saved me from the parents. Plus, he’s pretty chill. He lets me do my own thing. I get to live in his garage so I feel like I’ve got some amount of independence. He cares but he’s not breathing down my neck all the time. More about him? He’s twenty five. He’s trying to get into security type stuff, so he’s a night guard right now. He used to work the day shift but his boss switched him a couple months ago. I think he majored in Poli Sci in college, probably because you can do anything with that. He’s got good taste in music.

Lizzie

N/A- Only child.

Sadie

Julie in great detail? Not possible. She’s not that interesting. She’s as close to a cookie cutter Asian as you can get without speaking Engrish and being an awful driver. She refuses to drive.

I guess we were kind of close when we were little. And when I say little I mean when I was a baby pretty much. Julie is around 6 years older than me. By the time she was 9 she was tired of me. She was too busy being the dazzling star child. We just don’t get along. I’m the “rebel” I guess, because I’m not into science and math. We’re too different and we never bothered to try and understand each other.

Wordcount Woes

As you can see, I’m totally owning with my NaNo word count this year. On Friday I took part in a 24 hour word war and wrote over 8,000 words in one day. That’s about 4 of my average daily quotas, in one day. Not only am I going to finish on time at this rate, but I’ll end up finishing halfway through the month.
Sounds great, right?
My only problem is that I’m already reaching the end of my novel. I haven’t written many, or really any filler scenes. Everything that’s in there is important, and is part of the action. I’m going to have to start writing fillers in though, or there’s no way I can stretch this novel out over 50,000 words. I also think my scenes are more concise than they were in my novel last year. Things don’t drag on. The dialog is quick and to the point. It’s great and all, but this is really going to create a problem when it comes to reaching that final word goal. The writing is coming easy.
Even if I do reach 50,000 with this novel, there’s no way it’s going to take me all month. I think I might end up writing two novels this year. I’d prefer to just write 75,000 of one, but that doesn’t seem like a possibility right now.
My word count conundrum is getting me all worked up though, because I do really love my story this year, and my characters. I want to write it the right way, and I’m happy with what I’ve got so far. It’s just going so fast…

Bite by the NaNo Bug

It’s happened again. Along with NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo comes another annual event. The NaNo bug. For the past two years, when November rolls around, a cold sneaks in with all those words I’m writing. Last year it waited a bit longer before rearing its ugly head, but this year it wasted no time. In fact, it didn’t even wait for November to start. Halfway through my government test on October 29th, I started to feel the cold creeping on. By the end of the day I just wanted to go home. Unfortunately last weekend was pretty busy for me so I didn’t get to relax much.
This year was a congested head, runny nose, and a scratchy throat but not much of a cough. I thought I had shaken it off by the 4th or 5th. Not so lucky. Saturday I got the second leg of the cold, thanks to my lovely father who passed it on to me. This is the upset stomach part. All Saturday I had this nauseous feeling I couldn’t shake off. I could go into detail about the feeling but I’ll save you.

30 Questions- Day Eight

A moment, in great detail.

Marc

I’ve been told that I’m supposed to open up more in this stupid thing. Too much sarcasm for you? I happen to be a teenager. It’s part of my nature.

A moment? How about the moment when my parents told me that they were getting a divorce?

It was New Years Day. I’d spent the whole winter break listening to Albert and Miranda arguing. Really, hearing that they were getting a divorce was nice. It meant I didn’t have to worry about them killing each other before I headed back to school. No whacking the other one over the head with a champagne bottle. The arguing was tiring.

I opted to just write Mark’s response to this question. 90 paragraph size answers is a lot, okay? I’m allowed to.

30 Questions- Day Seven

Your best friend, in great detail.

Marc

I’m not really one of those best friend kind of guys. I have friends, but I’m never that close to them. There’s not one person I tell everything to like a girl. I’m kind of a lone wolf. I don’t feel like I need people around in order to be happy. It’s okay if I don’t interact with people that often. Really, I’m fine on my own.

Lizzie

Okay, so Sadie and I met in kindergarten. We’ve been best friends ever since. She went to a different middle school from me, cause her parents put her in a private. They try and push her to be smart. I mean, she is totally smart. But she’s good at writing and history, and they’d rather have her be a math and science person like them and her big sister Julie. So it’s not like she isn’t smart, she just isn’t the kind of smart that they want her to be.

I feel bad for Sadie since her parents aren’t supportive like mine are. I know I’m really lucky. My parents would support me no matter what I decided to do, and her parents… They’re really not like that. She hangs out at my house a lot, probably because her parents aren’t around much. I’d hate being in my house by myself all the time. My parents are more like her parents than hers are. She calls them Uncle and Aunt.

In some ways we’re totally different from each other, but I think we balance each other out, you know? We do have things in common too. We’re just really comfortable with each other, which I think is one of the reasons why our friendship has lasted for so long. I know a ton of people say that you don’t stay friends with your friends from high school, but that totally won’t be true in our case. We’ve been friends for too long to stop.

Sadie

Lizzie’s the peppy one. Let’s start there. I don’t think the world could handle two of me. She’s the friendly, in your face one. More people at school know her. I’m not antisocial or resentful, I’m just stating the facts. She’s completely fine with being the spokesperson for the two of us, while I like being in the background more. I think that goes along with our arts interests perfectly. She’s the one out on the stage, and in the spotlight, while I’m the one behind the scenes making things run. We’ve been best friends forever. Now, I’m not saying that she doesn’t do things that drive me crazy sometimes. She says totally way too much. I really do not get her obsession with water bottles. She’s always dancing, and sometimes I just want to grab her by the shoulders and try to hold her in place.

But in the end, we love each other. I’m sure she has problems with some of my habits, but she puts up with them just like how I put up with her habits. I know at the end of the day she’ll always be there for me.