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[Sappho]

@Sappho

Keep the faith, I know you can pull through. One word after the other, same as the rest, eh? I've found hot showers help clear my head and get me back on track. Have you considered letting the ghosts interact with grandpa directly and spending some time seeing how he copes with it? You could have Princess be in the room so he can't just blame it on her, then have them both try to cope with it together.

* * *

And... I hate when people do this but I need to brag. I'm at 19,700 words right now, pushing strong now that the action in my story is picking up and I've got more characters in play being pushed out of their comfort zones. At the rate I'm going I'll end up with something like 80,000 words' worth of novel at the end and it's going so much better than last year, plus everyone I've showed is pretty enthusiastic with it.

You deserve to brag! Brag away! Well done! : D

As for my story, I really wanted to have only her ever be able to see the ghosts. I have... reasons.

I'm thinking maybe I'll just leave the story where it is, and backtrack a ways to tell other stories from earlier in her life. Then pick up this thread when I'm further into the story. Have two parallel timelines going on, half the story where it is now, half earlier. It would be better if I had a real plan for where I wanted it to go and could do something useful with it, but I don't even really have time to write without a plan, let alone to make a plan first.

I can take a look if you want. Is that the thingy in your sig?

It is indeed. Any and all feedback is appreciated.

[Caz]

2k finally done. Was a real grind today. Headache won't go away for anything and I swear I've sneezed about 50 times in the last hour. Colds do suck, you're right Sappho.


Now I gotta go out, though really I just want to /pass/ out. Joys of life. Keep writing guys. Unless you're dead, there's just excuses.

[inEQUALITY]

@Sappho: Get to feeling better soon! We've got faith in you to pull through and finish NaNo strong.

And... I hate when people do this but I need to brag. I'm at 19,700 words right now, pushing strong now that the action in my story is picking up and I've got more characters in play being pushed out of their comfort zones. At the rate I'm going I'll end up with something like 80,000 words' worth of novel at the end and it's going so much better than last year, plus everyone I've showed is pretty enthusiastic with it.

Awesome! It's nice to see people get ahead of the curve and stay enthused about their novel! It's getting close to Week Three, the time when it really starts to slog down, so keep that up!

And so long as we're bragging a bit... I pumped out another 3480 words today, bring my total to 26440! I'm just short of closing out the fifth chapter and I've finally gotten things heating up a bit for it to all go to hell in the next so many chapters.

There will be lots of blood, character death, politics, drama, and even a wee bit of treachery! A civil war, at least one barbarian invasion, attempted monopolies by foreign merchants, tyranny of the Guild of Magi, and a minimum of two succession crises. These things won't exactly be resolved at the end of this book - not even close, really - even if the individual events that lead to/spawn from these will be, for the most part. This is most definitely the first of a trilogy, if not a longer series than that.

I've learned at least one thing about myself this NaNo: I much, much prefer to write short fiction. Even though a novel grants more breathing room and depth, I find that I prefer exploring ideas at a short depth rather than really diving into everything headfirst for a full 100,000+ words. I think I'm definitely more of a short fiction writer at heart than I would have ever thought.

Had someone told me that a year ago, I would have said short fiction was just a stepping stone for me to be published, network, and then be on my way to writing novels; now I think novels are just going to be something I do from time to time, when I run out ideas for smaller work or want to explore something in-depth. It's funny how that works.

[Sappho]

I guess I'm going to bed not having written anything. I hate this feeling. I know that I'm utterly overwhelmed with my jobs and my lack of free time and various other stresses in my life that I won't get into on here, and now I'm sick on top of it. I'm perfectly justified in skipping these two days while I try to recover, and I know that I'll make it up in the end. On the other hand, I know that if I beat the hell out of myself and made myself even sicker, I could still get my writing done tonight. Sounds like nonsense written out like that, to feel like I should make myself worse just for some self-imposed contest, given the current state of me. But I also know that I won't be able to sleep well tonight knowing I failed. And, of course, every extra added bit of stress only makes things worse. And being aware of that adds even more stress.

I wish they had Nyquil in this country. That would probably solve all of my problems in one go.

I want to promise I'll write double word count tomorrow, but tomorrow I'm not likely to be any healthier, and I have to teach first and second grade as well. Two batches of screaming kids who don't speak English. I suppose my only goal should be to write anything at all.

Sorry to rant, friends. I will shut up now. Find a way to force myself to get some sleep so for once I can be reasonably awake tomorrow.

[Sirus]

Is Nyquil illegal, or do they just not sell it there?

* Sirus ponders sending a bulk package of the stuff to Sappho

[TD1]

Now, that would make a good story.

The random internet trucker turning up at your house with a cargo of drugs...

Bestselling material!

[Sirus]

GAD FUGGIN HECK

I might have misplaced my flash drive, which contains my entire novel so far. Thankfully I do have a back-up of the file, but if I can't find the drive I've just lost about a thousand words.

[Sappho]

Is Nyquil illegal, or do they just not sell it there?

* Sirus ponders sending a bulk package of the stuff to Sappho

It just doesn't exist here. They have other kinds of cold/flu medicine, but they're just not the same. On the other hand, I remember they changed it quite a bit over the years because of nonsensical drug laws in the US, so maybe the Nyquil I'm thinking of doesn't even exist anymore. It certainly didn't work as well the last time I tried it, years ago...

Anyway, sorry for all the negativity last night. I was feverish and overwhelmed. I'm still feverish and overwhelmed, but at least I've had a bit of sleep. Enough to think logically: stress will make me sicker. Trying to force myself to write when I'm blocked is stressful, and is pretty much guaranteed to fail. Better to just write what I can, not worry about word count, and focus on getting well. Once I'm healthy again, I can write more and catch back up.

Pushing through when you're not feeling well and just getting it done without excuses is all well and good, if you're capable of that. But factor in two stressful jobs that involve an incredible amount of responsibility (from which you can't stay home sick), losing a weekend to do the most stressful part of the job for 10 hours straight and having no time to recover, as well as issues with anxiety and bipolar disorder, and there comes a point where you have to put your physical and mental wellbeing first. Push too hard, and you'll just break down -- and you won't be writing anything at all then.

There's value in telling everyone "just do it, no excuses," because it can be easy to find excuses during this event. But it's just as important to know the difference between and excuse and a genuine need to take it easy and look after yourself. Know the difference, everyone, and take care of yourselves first.

[Darkmere]

I don't think anymore meant write yourself sick(er). It is, after all, a voluntary thing.

[Caz]

There will be lots of blood, character death, politics, drama, and even a wee bit of treachery! A civil war, at least one barbarian invasion, attempted monopolies by foreign merchants,...

Are... are we writing the same book? O_o That's seriously the three main events happening in my novel right now.

[Sappho]

I don't think anymore meant write yourself sick(er). It is, after all, a voluntary thing.

Well, at least one person did say that unless you're dead, you're just making excuses if you don't write, but in any case, I wasn't responding to any pressure from you guys. The pressure was coming from myself. I had it in my head that I absolutely had to get this done, and to not do so was to fail, and that said failure would be my own fault and I deserved to feel bad about it. That sort of thing can happen easily during NaNo, the whole point of which is to force yourself to write even when you don't feel like it. So the last post I wrote was more me saying "hey, guys, I just realized that this attitude, while mostly productive and positive, can also be dangerous if you don't watch out for your own health and know your limits. So this is me, realizing I was pushing myself too hard, and advising everyone to be careful you don't push yourself so hard you make yourself sick."

I did actually manage to write about 500 words yesterday. I'm still not happy with how the story is going, but I think I'll stick with it and just finish out the month as planned anyway. Maybe it'll force me to get more creative and think of possibilities I that never otherwise would have occurred to me. I took a lot of medicine to get through today and it hasn't completely worn off yet, so I'm going to try to get something done before I crash. On the other hand, I also need to wash a lot of dishes and clean all the moldy stuff out of the fridge so my mild flu doesn't turn into the plague, so I'll have to balance that with the writing.

[Caz]

Well, at least one person did say that unless you're dead, you're just making excuses if you don't write, but in any case, I wasn't responding to any pressure from you guys.

Could be good excuses, though. At any rate, don't take my tendency to hyperbolise seriously. It was just intended as the writer ass-kicking-motivational boot. Mostly for myself.

[Sappho]

I just wrote 2057 words! It took me hours and I didn't have time to do any of the other things I was supposed to do, but at least I'm starting to catch up on the two days I missed. I also wrote another entry on my NaNo blog about the process of deciding to continue with this story regardless of how it goes, and to finish out NaNo without caring if I create a publishable novel or not, and it immediately got 6 likes, which is a pretty good feeling.

[inEQUALITY]

Are... are we writing the same book? O_o That's seriously the three main events happening in my novel right now.

To be fair, 3/5 of the major plot threads match your book AND a different 3/5 match the A Song of Ice and Fire series, so... I'd wager not. Great minds think alike though!

I actually resorted to making a spreadsheet to keep track of who was present for, a key player in, or not-present-but-still-involved-with each major event - on or off screen - and each chapter. It's getting really complex and interconnected, and it's only going to get worse by the end of the book.

I just wrote 2057 words! It took me hours and I didn't have time to do any of the other things I was supposed to do, but at least I'm starting to catch up on the two days I missed. I also wrote another entry on my NaNo blog about the process of deciding to continue with this story regardless of how it goes, and to finish out NaNo without caring if I create a publishable novel or not, and it immediately got 6 likes, which is a pretty good feeling.

Good to hear it! I hope you're getting to feeling better!

On my end, I only wrote 1713 words to bump my total up to 28153. Had to do some painting on a storehouse today, and will again tomorrow, so I'm splitting a single of my day's worth word count across two days. Still getting it over the minimum daily goal for NaNo and I really don't have any concrete goal to hit by the end of the month anymore, so I'm still feeling good about this. No matter what, I'm finishing this first draft even though it will doubtless mean writing on into next month.

[Malt_Hitman]

Honestly, bad logic is still bad even if you can work a good excuse out of it.

*All the stuff.*

It's good to see that you're getting better and are getting some writing done.  Just remember that you don't need to write to live and you can catch up later if need be.   

I actually resorted to making a spreadsheet to keep track of who was present for, a key player in, or not-present-but-still-involved-with each major event - on or off screen - and each chapter. It's getting really complex and interconnected, and it's only going to get worse by the end of the book.

I was too afraid of having my story spiral out of control with characters and events so I figured it would be better to keep my character list small and pretty much lock everyone up in a research facility.  Then again you're going for 2x word count and an epic story from what I read so best of luck keeping those details in check!

I managed to break 20k tonight so that has me on track for 50k I think.  If I could push past 25k tomorrow or the next day then that should strike my sunk-cost line and tossing away 50.1% would be worse then just not getting to 1/2 way.  So here's hoping that will be acceptable motivation!