The Home Stretch!

[kangaroo11]

I passed 40k today! Anyone else want to report their progress?

[anastasia517]

I'm over 42k today. I have a work Christmas party tonight so I should get going on today's writing. I'm reaching the climax of my story and both excited and sad to write what comes next.

[scoot]

I'm almost at 45k, which I'm really excited about . I'm only about half to two-thirds of the way through the story though, so I think I'll be writing into December so that I have a complete 'zero-draft' that I'll then have to decide what to do with.

[Gato]

I'm the straggler here at 38K, but I hope to pass 40K tonight. I am just filling in back story, though, since I needed a break from the plotline, which is stressing me out.

[anastasia517]

I usually work M-Th but work T-F this week instead. I'm going to try to get to tomorrow's word count today so I can potentially hit 50k tomorrow. I've done those counts before for the entire month (I did 101k in 27 days one year) so I hope I can pull it off.

I have to kill off one of my characters soon. I have killed off characters before many times, but this feels worse. It is just as necessary as it was for my political revolution and Titanic novels but it makes me sad this year.

[anastasia517]

Nov 27, 2016 16:04:33 GMT -5 incogneato said:

Nov 27, 2016 15:50:23 GMT -5 anastasia517 said:

I usually work M-Th but work T-F this week instead. I'm going to try to get to tomorrow's word count today so I can potentially hit 50k tomorrow. I've done those counts before for the entire month (I did 101k in 27 days one year) so I hope I can pull it off.

I have to kill off one of my characters soon. I have killed off characters before many times, but this feels worse. It is just as necessary as it was for my political revolution and Titanic novels but it makes me sad this year.

Good luck! I feel like I need to kill someone off but I'm completely stuck about who to kill. I know I need to be brutal and raise the stakes here, but ugh! I don't wanna!

Thanks!  It is rough.  The character I'm killing was created with the knowledge that they would die.  In fact, that was their initial purpose because it is the first domino falling in the series arc, more or less.  It was easier when they were created than it is now, with a family and a backstory and everything.

Is there a character whose death would give one of your protagonists a push on their journey or force them into a corner they have to climb out of?

[kangaroo11]

I am finally caught up! I hit 45k today. I have enough plot to wrap this thing up, which is great.

I killed someone today too. It wasn't a big loss, but I got kinda sad because I didn't flesh him out well before he died. Oh well.

[anastasia517]

Nov 27, 2016 22:17:41 GMT -5 kangaroo11 said:

I am finally caught up! I hit 45k today. I have enough plot to wrap this thing up, which is great.

I killed someone today too. It wasn't a big loss, but I got kinda sad because I didn't flesh him out well before he died. Oh well.

Congrats on catching up!  It seems like a lot of us are killing characters around the same point this year.

I'm at 47,007 now and am halfway through a chapter.  After this I'll only have 3, maybe 4 chapters left.  Suddenly, finishing the draft in a couple weeks doesn't seem impossible.  The fact that I might actually get this draft finished in a reasonable amount of time shocks nobody more than me.  It's only happened one time in the past for a novel-length project.

ETA: I have just over 1200 words to go now.  I wrote 6k in less than 12 hours.  I'm shocked that it has started to flow now after I've struggled nearly every ay the last 4 weeks!

[anastasia517]

incogneato that is definitely true. Even though I knew all along this character would die, I still got attached. (To be fair, I have a soft spot for my antagonist so maybe I'm not the best judge for this.) Hopefully that means it will hit readers hard.

I hit 50k earlier today. I'm going to see if I can finish this chapter tonight to get some extra words in though.

[Deleted]

I know I haven't checked in in a while, but I finally crossed the finish line last night! I wasn't sure it was ever going to happen, because I struggled something fierce with this novel this year.

[Gato]

Yes! I passed 50K today! This, after thinking I might quit when I got way behind after the election.

I'm glad I stuck it out, because the writing starts to flow better once it becomes a daily habit. I don't know if I'll do anything more with this novel, but I do know I will keep writing every day if I can.

[kangaroo11]

I finished at 50,214. I'm pretty happy with it. congrats to the winners!

[anastasia517]

@writererin, incogneato, Gato, scoot, anastasia517, kangaroo11

How is everybody doing post-NaNo this year? Have you eagerly abandoned your novel, powered through to the end, or somewhere in between?

I'm slowwwwly finishing mine. I've only written about 2k this month, but I finished the interrogation scene I was working on and am now on my second-last chapter from my outline. It is a depressing one, so while I knew it was all building to this and am excited for the final scene I'm sad about what I have now. One of my characters was killed off and I'm more upset than I thought I'd be.

[kangaroo11]

Dec 6, 2016 21:58:29 GMT -5 anastasia517 said:

@writererin, incogneato, Gato, scoot, anastasia517, kangaroo11

How is everybody doing post-NaNo this year? Have you eagerly abandoned your novel, powered through to the end, or somewhere in between?

I'm slowwwwly finishing mine. I've only written about 2k this month, but I finished the interrogation scene I was working on and am now on my second-last chapter from my outline. It is a depressing one, so while I knew it was all building to this and am excited for the final scene I'm sad about what I have now. One of my characters was killed off and I'm more upset than I thought I'd be.

My novel was completed on Nov 30. I revised my original one to fix inconsistencies between the two and will work on this one again soon. I've got an idea for my next sequel and might begin that one early. Lol

[Gato]

That's awesome that you're still working in December, anastasia517.

I haven't written a word since the 30th. I "finished" my novel, but there will be quite a bit to revise starting in January. It needs a huge amount of overhaul. But basically December is for catching up on everything else in my life that I didn't do in November.

[scoot]

Dec 6, 2016 21:58:29 GMT -5 anastasia517 said:

@writererin , incogneato , Gato , scoot , anastasia517 , kangaroo11

How is everybody doing post-NaNo this year? Have you eagerly abandoned your novel, powered through to the end, or somewhere in between?

I'm slowwwwly finishing mine. I've only written about 2k this month, but I finished the interrogation scene I was working on and am now on my second-last chapter from my outline. It is a depressing one, so while I knew it was all building to this and am excited for the final scene I'm sad about what I have now. One of my characters was killed off and I'm more upset than I thought I'd be.

I'm slowly trying to finish mine too. I've only written a couple times since November and I'm starting to miss my characters. The problem I'm stuck with now is I don't know exactly how it's going to end. I suppose once I start writing more I'll figure it out!

[Deleted]

Dec 6, 2016 21:58:29 GMT -5 anastasia517 said:

@writererin , incogneato , Gato , scoot , anastasia517 , kangaroo11

How is everybody doing post-NaNo this year? Have you eagerly abandoned your novel, powered through to the end, or somewhere in between?

I'm slowwwwly finishing mine. I've only written about 2k this month, but I finished the interrogation scene I was working on and am now on my second-last chapter from my outline. It is a depressing one, so while I knew it was all building to this and am excited for the final scene I'm sad about what I have now. One of my characters was killed off and I'm more upset than I thought I'd be.

Oh, I abandoned my novel so fast, it probably has whiplash.  I hated how it turned out, and writing most of it was like pulling teeth for me.

I haven't been writing since NaNo ended, although I felt the bug again, so I might pick back up the revisions I should have been working on in the few months leading up to November.  We'll see -- it might have to wait until after the holidays, because at this point, I don't even know when I'm going to get all my Christmas shopping and cookie baking done!

[anastasia517]

Finished draft one!! It is as bad as expected, but it is something to work with. I'm starting draft 2 next month, so this month will be for reading and figuring out how to fix what went wrong. Any writing I do between now and the new year will be low-pressure.