Ok so I started Nano on the 1st of Nov, as did everyone else, and we, in CT, kicked it off at an offical NaNoMeet at Mugg & Bean in the V&A Waterfront. I went with a buddy of mine, EvilBelgian (and later spent the evening with him at a very raucous party after getting horribly lost trying to get to Parklands hahaha! Sorry, EvilB!) and we arrived maybe 5-10 min late (possibly due to my walking in heels) and on arrival at Mugg & Bean we asked the waiters if there was a group of people with a lady in a bright yellow shirt and pink and purple hair (she is our ML -Municipal Liaison- for NaNo 09).
As a waiter went to scout the restaurant, I overheard two women leaving the restaurant, and the words “12:30 to 15:30″ caught my ear (the same time as our meet was scheduled).
I turned and said, “Excuse me……nano?” to which a confused woman replied, “What?”. I cringed a bit inside with embarressment and thought well thats just great, obviously I have the wrong people and I’m now going to have to explain myself, but instead I simply tried again with, “Um…. NaNoWriMo?” and breathed a huge sigh of relief as she then replied this “Oh! Yes!”.
So now there were four of us, and by that time the waiter returned and said he found people who were writing books and we were led to the rest of them. Or so we thought.
Just after we got settled and had introduced ourselves, someone came up and said there were more of us Wrimo’s around the corner. So we all got up and trooped over to join them. There were about 10 or 13 of us by then, aged roughly 18-50, but no woman in a yellow t-shirt or with pink and purple hair? We all ordered our drinks and chatted a bit and eventually a woman in a (more lime green than) yellow top arrived. Though her hair was more black than how I’d imagined the pink and purple.
We all introduced ourselves (again) and received a small goodie bag which consisted of some authentic NaNo stickers, a monthly roster for our word count goals, a funny “Caution: Novelist at Work” sign, anothr word count roster, a declaration of NaNo undertaking to be signed, some gold stars, a feather, and a faux butterfly. My feather blew away in the crazy wind and one of the waitresses managed to find a seagull feather to replace it. Its now stuck on my door with my rosters! Sadly, our ML left due to a heavy hangover, so we were left leaderless and looked to the ones who had done NaNo previously for inspiration and guidance. Various people left shortly after and one or two arrived late, and eventually EvilB and I left at around 2.30 (arriving in Parklands around 3! Gosh!).
NaNo itself has been interesting. I started my novel on Monday evening and boy did it chug! It was like dragging a dead horse through a swamp…with your teeth! I didnt have much inspiration but gradually I got more and more comfortable with writing and the writing became easier. I stopped at midnight with 1670 words, which still left me behind the daily quota of 3334. Tuesday saw me writing from work after I procrastinated and designed a book cover (the image you see at the top – click for larger version), and some more in the evening where I proudly stopped at 5000 words, which was finally where I was supposed to be according to the guide.
My writing has been in bursts. Sometimes its slow, and I want to throw in the bucket and kick the towel, but I keep pushing on. I try a little bit of mundane dialog, which seems to get my imagination flowing and also helps me get to know my characters a little more. I worry I little that I ramble too much, but then I remind myself that editing begins in Dec and that this is just a “rough draft”.
I find as I’m writing that my characters turn out slightly different to how I imagined them and that they seem to take on a life of their own, which is what I kept hearing would happen from other people. I’m terrible with names, so I’ve turned a lot to random name generators on the internet for help, as well as asking my bf for input (actually, I asked him for a last name of my MFC/Main Female Character, Zoey, and he didnt have any real suggestions, so I took his own last name and so Zoey Watson was born haha).
Currently, I’ve left my characters on a beach having a relaxing day. Considering the outline I have in mind, it all seems a little innocent still, which clashes with the harshness I have planned. Not sure how to blend the two but I’m sure it’ll come on its own. Actually, I have no idea if my plot will stay as I planned, or if it will veer off to the left and 4×4-it down a dirt road, which it’s hinting at doing, but whichever way it goes, I’m going to enjoy the ride! Now to get my word count to 6667!
PS: To support my fellow Nano Bloggers, since we all like blog-traffic and new readers, here’s a small list of blogs I managed to get at the Nano Meet:
Deirdre16
Deirdre16 Blog #2
Deirdre16 Blog #3
EvilBelgian
AfricanStardust
Just thought I’d pop in and let everyone know I’m still alive. Haha! NaNo is going well and I’ve almost reached today’s target of 21,271 (I’m on 21,251). My story is on a roll now, and things are just coming to me quite nicely. Every now and then I pause from a mind-blank, but within minutes I’m back up and running.
I decided to look for some backgrounds for my laptop (which is solely being used for NaNo Novelling at the moment) and found these:
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