[Writing] NaNoWriMo Week 4 Update

Well, it's over.

I know, I know, there are still another six days in the month of November, whose end also marks the deadline of the NaNoWriMo challenge as well. As I've already mentioned in my personal blog, the combination of events that happened this month including my partner's first time to visit Boracay (with me of course), the discovery of OCTGN and joys of being able to play Magic: the Gathering again and my loss of Google Docs access at work, my progress in finishing ground to a halt.

It's okay - at least I tried. I knew my chances were slim this year because of the big Boracay trip plus the fact that wasn't overly excited about my story concept. As simple as it was, it wasn't all that compelling. Plus juggling five storylines at once was a bit too taxing. Still, I might revisit that particular story some time and get around to finishing it.

I might squeeze in a bit more writing just to have a somewhat decent finish. No promises though.

[Writing] NaNoWriMo Week 3 Update

Well, we're significantly past the halfway point in terms of this year's NaNoWriMo challenge, and as you can see I'm well below even just the halfway target of 25,000 words. My word count has been largely frozen ever since we fully got into our preparations for our big Boracay trip together with my boyfriend. I thought I might be able to squeeze in some writing time during the trip, but of course that didn't happen.

So as you can see by looking at the colored calendar to your right. I have a lot of red boxes starting right before the weekend. Not something I'm proud of, but I can proudly declare that at least my partner and I had a heck of a lot of fun at Boracay and it was worth every non-writing minute of it.

But yeah, I have a heck of a lot of writing to make up for.

[Writing] NaNoWriMo 2010 Week 2 Update

Well, we're well into the second week of this year's NaNoWriMo challenge and I'm finally pretty much at par for the course. That's a bit of an achievement in itself, but at least I'm keeping at it. I keep saying that this year's attempt is not an overly serious one and it doesn't matter to me if I don't reach the goal, but there's something about seeing that darn graph NaNoWriMo provides. It just keeps goading me on to push harder and harder.

As you can see by the cute little graphic there on the side, I've been in the red for most of the month. There's just so much other stuff to juggle alongside my pseudo novel writing. It certainly helps that the story is pretty simple and mostly involved concepts borrowed from other stories and franchises. It does have that ripoff quality to things, but then as we keep saying, it's about the quantity this time and not the quality.

For the curious, my still untitled novel is based around the Magic: the Gathering archetype. So that means five wizards, five worlds but of course one big problem that has appeared in five different forms. Each world has started to lose in their fight against the invaders or whatever they end up calling them and they decide to seek the aid of their colleagues in the hopes that a better solution might be determined.

Yeah, nothing to write home about but it works for me.

Wish me luck fellow geeks!

[GeekyScrawl] My 2010 NaNoWriMo Attempt

I know, I know, it's already the third of November and it's only now that I'm starting to write about NaNoWriMo. So sue me - I had some killer work deadlines this week.

For the ignorant, November is not just the month before December but it's also National Novel Writing Month, although the National part probably isn't as accurate a descriptor as it used to be. The basic challenge is to write what could be termed to be a novel of at least 50,000 words within 30 days. Last year I managed to hit the 50,000 word count mark with my novel of sorts, The Interrogation, although I never officially finished the book as a whole. Boo on me, I know. I'll get around to it in time.

So despite the fact that I know I'm ridiculously busy this month with my workload, my first-ever trip to Boracay together with my partner and a bunch of other fun stuff, I'm still going to put in an attempt at writing a novel.

Last year I did a mixed genre piece that was predominantly science fiction in nature. This year I'm trying my hand at more of a fantasy piece with sort of a Magic: the Gathering feel to it. Sticking to familiar archetypes and pre-established universes does help speed the writing process along. I doubt it's going to be any good, but it's a fun exercise and I don't mind tossing my hat into the ring just for the hell of it. And who knows, I just might make the target, right?

So for the curious, you can follow my NaNoWriMo attempt this year at the creative section of the Geeky Guide, The Gossamer Tower, same as what I did last year. I kind of don't have a title for it just yet since I'm just starting, but that'll come along soon enough.

Or better yet, why don't you join in the fun, too?

[NaNoWriMo] 2009 WINNER!

I did it, I did it, I did it! **SQUEEE**

Yes my fellow geeks, I am happy to report that your Geeky Guide not only survived NaNoWriMo but did in fact manage to write more than 50,000 for a new novel which I'm currently calling The Interrogation. Of course given the nature of NaNoWriMo, the novel as it stands now is probably a bunch of crap and is not really worth reading just yet. But given a bit more spit and polish, I think I should get it halfway decent before the year ends. I'll continue tweaking the story during the month of December so I can close this particular chapter of my life at the end of the year.

I'm really happy with what I really accomplished here - this was me kick-starting my creative writing again and proving to myself that I haven't really lost the craft over the years. While it doesn't mean that I'm going to quite my call center job and start writing novels for a living, at the very least it indicates that I'll be putting a bit of my time back into such creative endeavors.

Of course for you geeky readers, what really matters is that I'll be able to get back to more regular posting capacity with the loss of the burden of trying to write nearly 2,000 words a day so expect the Geeky Guide to be back on track starting this month.

Thanks for all your support!

[NaNoWriMo] Week 4 Update

Oh My God...it's the last week of NaNoWriMo! It's the home stretch people and I'm barely at 35,000 words! I have about 6 days left to come up with the amazing 15,000 words and hopefully some sense of resolution to this entire story.

Do you think I can make it? Am I geeky enough? Can I skip enough of my work-related tasks to get around to writing instead? Perhaps I can feign sickness on Thanksgiving Day or something?

Oh woe is me. Decisions, decisions.

Such is the wonderful madness that is NaNoWriMo. Write on! =D

[NaNoWriMo] Week 3 Update

Good grief, we're past the half way mark and it's already the start of the third week for NaNoWriMo. Just today I officially crept over the half way mark in terms of my word count with 26,726 words despite things like Facebook, geeky network TV, a new writing gig at the New Worlds Alliance website and of course real life concerns like work and enjoying time with my partner. Oh yes, so many things seem to want to stand in the way of my NaNoWriMo efforts to no avail - I shall keep writing!

My science fiction story is coming along decently enough. I know it's not exactly going to be the "next big thing" or anything like that. It's just a novel that will have at least 50,000 words but more importantly it will be my silly science fiction novel. So there!

As always, you can read the continued updates to my story at my Google Site dedicated to more creative efforts - The Gossamer Tower

Enough of this - back to writing!

[NaNoWriMo] Week 2 Update

The second week of my first-ever NaNoWriMo is well on it's way and I'm happy to report to you all that I'm happily at 14,001 words.

Sure, based on my daily quota I really should be at around 16,667 words, but that doesn't mean my current word count is not cause to celebrate. Admittedly, I never thought that I would have gotten this far a month ago and so I'm going to keep pushing on in the hopes that I get somewhere with my writing. It'll be even better if I actually get to finish the darned thing!

My apologies for the lack of Geeky content on the site - a "problem" that will probably get worse as we get closer to the end deadline of NaNoWriMo. In case you're bored or looking for something geeky to waste time on, then feel free to check out my novel-in-progress over at my geeky literary site, The Gossamer Tower. I have to admit I'm playing a bit of a long game in terms of revealing to the reader what exactly is going on, but hopefully smarter folks will get it sooner rather than later.

Oh well, it's back to writing for me!

[Writing] NaNoWriMo 2009

I've always had a passion for writing, and this everyone can probably determine based on the volume of entries that I post here and on my personal blog, Beyond Dinobot Island. However a lot of my writing has become very work-focused or has been largely limited to blogging. There's nothing wrong with blogging, mind you, I guess I just miss my fiction writing.

So this year my partner encouraged me to attempt NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - as an effort to get some fiction writing done and largely feel that sense of accomplishment if I do manage to manage to write a piece of fiction at least 50,000 or 175 pages long. It's a daunting goal, but we'll keep pushing!

For regular readers of this blog, this may lead to a decrease in terms of my posting frequency, although at the very least I will try to have at least 3 entries a week posted on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

For those interesting in seeing what I come up with, I've linked the active Google Document to the Google Site that I use to store all my writing - the Gossamer Tower. This year's NaNoWriMo page can be found HERE.

Wish me luck fellow geeks!

[Web] NaNoWriMo

November heralds one of the stranger online celebrations of the modern web, which is National Novel Writing Month, which is also known as NaNoWriMo for short. It's a somewhat madcap competition that challenges writers to create a 175-page (50,000 word) novel in the span of exactly 30 days starting November 1 and ending on November 30, 2007.

It's not about writing the next great novel in the span of 30 days but just to write one and to get past your inhibitions as a writer. It's about forcing writers to take risks and pushing the limits of your imagination and your writing ability. The competition has come a long way from its humble beginnings in San Francisco back in 1999 and this year marks the ninth celebration of this writing event.

I'm still on the fence if I want to even attempt a novel in this time frame, but it certainly is a fun idea. Don't get worried about the "National" aspect of the title since this has already evolved into an international competition given how cyberspace recognizes no political or geographic limitations, really.

Should I? I still haven't figured out an ending for that time travel short story I was writing about. =P