1am – 4,092 new words, 45,908 to go. Notes: off to a flying start – wheeew!
2am – 3,921 new words, 8,013 total. 41,987 to go!
3am- 4,335 new words, 12,348 total. 37,652 to go. Note: since I’m ~5k ahead of target, I’m rewarding myself with an hour or two break.
6am- 3,542 new words, 15,890 total. 34110. Note: had a quick nap and am back on my feet!
7am- 2,984 new words, 18,874 total. 31,126 to go! Note: approaching the 20k mark, but can feel myself slowing down. Require coffee!
8am – 2,988 new words, 21,862 total. 28,138 to go. Note: relocated to bed for warmth.
9am – 3,451 new words, 25,313 total. 24,687 to go. Note: Half way there! Gonna power through for 6-10 more hours and then CRASH!
10am – 4,954 new words, 29,641 total. 20,359 to go. Note: fastest hour yet!
11am – 3,281 new words, 32,922 total. 17,078 to go.
Midday! 2,505 new words, 35,427 total. 14,753 to go. Note: slowest hour yet :<
2pm – 3,267 new words, 38,694 total. 11,306 to go. Note: Had an hour off. Getting close now! Gonna try for a three hour finish.
3pm – 4,251 new words, 42,945 total.
7pm – 2,841 new words. 45,786 total. 4,214 to go! Note: Had a bumpy arvo but back on it now.
8pm – 4,400 new words! 50,186! Good night!

I was the first persosn to 50,000 words this year! So stoked I'm not sure what my overall goal is for NaNo, but it won't be as high as last year's. I don't think I'll really write much more for this NaNo, but I'm happy with my wordcount!

xxBella

I didn’t make it to the regional kick-off this year because of anxiety, but I’m still hoping to get to a few write-ins and such during the month (aswell as the two I’m hosting here). My anxiety’s really been arking up lately, so I’m not sure how much of NaNo I’ll be able to do this year/if I’ll keep writing the whole month, but we’ll see how it goes.

xxBella

I’m hosting two write-ins this year, on the 13th and 28th, in Geelong. I’ll also be going up to Melbourne stuff whenever possible. It’s probably the last year I’ll have that I can spend all of November writing instead of studying, so I wanna make the most of it.

Here’s to another crazy 30 days coming up!

I had quite a productive year in 2009 – much more productive than I was expecting. My goal was 250k for the year, and I thought that’d be a struggle. As the year finished, I ran some quick statistics from my word count diary (I write down my daily word count, monthly total, and yearly running total).

584,844 words total (330,033 of those during November, mind you). 48,737 words a month (year long NaNo nearly!), 11,247 words a week, 1,602 words a day.

I was ecstatic when I figured out I was only 65 words a day off having a 12 month long NaNo-esque streak. From memory, April was my second most productive month with roughly 80k being written during Script Frenzy.

Now, onwards to the next 12 months! I still haven’t figured out what I’m aiming for this year. I’m going to be focusing more on re-writing and editing, opposed to first drafts like what I was mainly working on during 2009. Firstly, I need to get a new diary. I’ve scouted calender shops since November, but still haven’t found anything that’s just perfect for me. I found a few quirky ‘procrastinators’ diaries, but nothing I really loved. After some Googling around today, I decided which one to buy.

A Working Writer’s Daily Planner 2010

I saw this and fell in love immediately. It seems so perfect! And only $9.95! Woo hoo! Sadly, that also means $12 for international shipping, then the exchange rate from USD to AUD. So I’m going to have to wait until next pay to get it, meaning that I’ll be nearly a whole month without a diary (possibly longer depending on how long it takes to get here)! In the meantime, though, I’m going to jot my word counts down on a sheet of paper, keep it in my old diary, and copy it in once I buy a new one.

But, for now, I’ve found my first goal.


Amazon Breakthrough Novelist Award

I remember hearing about it last year, but I didn’t really have anything that I wanted to enter. I haven’t made any submissions anywhere for close to a year now, so it’s about time I got back on the horse. I’m going to spend the next couple of weeks editing and polishing Revenge and seeing how that goes. I don’t really expect to win, but I do lack to rack up the rejection slips (I must take photos of my office wall one day…). I need to get some new deadlines going, and this is the only one so far until Script Frenzy comes up in April. If anyone has any ideas of competitions or challenges that are coming up this year (smaller ones that aren’t listed on the NaNo site), please, let me know!

For now, I’m off to procrastinate the night away between the NaNo forums and World of Warcraft

xxBella

I ended up with 330,033, which I’m pretty happy with. But now, I have a headache and aching hands. So I’ll post a proper update once my mind’s working properly again.

Woo hoo!

xxBella

Well, where has the month gone?! It’s already the end of the 27th, and time has just flown by. I just reached 300k a few hours ago (my goal for the month), and am now at 303k. I only got to verify my wordcount today (due to the AFK-ness this week). What can I say. I’m extremely tired. I’ve been up since 4AM or so, and it’s just a few minutes short of midnight. I’m really only posting to let everyone know I haven’t completely crashed since Saturday

I’m going to head to bed, and see how many words I can churn out tomorrow!

xxBella

Instead of posting an actual bloggy thing about it, I’m just gonna update you all on my (mostly) hourly progress.

• 1AM: 3,155 words down. 46,845 to go.
• 2AM: 3,083 new words. 6,238 total. 43,762 to go. Notes: Hand are starting to ache. Taking a quick smoke break before next hour starts.
• 3AM: 2,777 new words. 9,015 total. 40,985 to go. Notes: A little lower this hour, but got distracted. Had my first No Doz for the day.
• 3AM: 2,217 new words. 11,232 total. 38,768 to go. Notes: A lot down this hour. Only got 30 minutes of it to write. Gonna make a coffee.
• 5AM: 3,020 new words. 14,252 total. 35,748 to go. Notes: Holy shit. I might actually pull this off.
• 6AM: 3,802 new words. 18,054 total. 31,946 to go. Notes: Getting a little grumpy and restless.
• 7AM: 3,685 new words. 21,739 total. 28,261 to go. Notes: Holy shit. I’m nearly half way there already!
• 8AM: Went to sleep after an hour of not writing – compeltely exhausted.
• 10AM: Woke up to my mother making cheesymite rolls for the write-in.
• 11AM: 3,267 new words. 25,006 total. 24,994 to go. Notes: Woo! Half way! Will write until 12, and then get ready for the write-in.
• Midday: 3,245 new words. 28,251 total. 21,749 to go. Notes: Getting ready for write-in, yay!
• 1PM: 2,002 new words. 30,253 total. 19,747 to go. Notes: People are here!
• 2PM: 2,322 new words. 32,575 total. 17,425 to go. Notes: Falling behind a little bit per hour, but am still ahead in total.
• 3PM: 3,179 new words. 35,654 total. 14,246 to go. Notes: My brain is dead.
• 4PM: 1,960 new wrods. 37,714 total. 12,286 to go. Notes: Where has the time gone/will it ever end?!
• 6PM: took a 2 hour break due to horrible leg pain and then finishing up the write-in. Will be back and writing in a couple of minutes.
• 7PM: 3,204 new words. 40,918 total. 9,082 to go. Notes: Holy shit, let’s do this thing!
• 8PM: 2,550 new words. 43,468 total. 6,532 to go. Notes: Exhausted. I want a bubble bath and sleep.
• 9PM: 3,054 new words. 46,522 total. 3,478 to go. Notes: Gonna have a smoke and then come back to finish (will be done at 10ish).
• 10PM: Made it to 50,210! Will update blog later.

So I made to to 50k shortly before 10PM, which I’m so happy about. I couldn’t have done it without the other Melbourne NaNoers cheering me on.

Long story short: It’s 1AM Sunday morning. On Friday night, I got about 4-5 hours sleep. I got two hours sleep 8-10AM Saturday morning. I’m completely buggered. I should be up in 9 hours and getting ready to go to Scarlett Archer’s write-in, but I dunno when/if I’ll get there. My leg has been playing up a bit, and I’m tired. Once I crash, I think I’ll sleep until sometime in the afternoon.

xxBella

• Hour 1: 3,155 words down. 46,845 to go.
• Hour 2: 3,083 new words. 6,238 total. 43,762 to go. Notes: Hand are starting to ache. Taking a quick smoke break before next hour starts.
• Hour 3: 2,777 new words. 9,015 total. 40,985 to go. Notes: A little lower this hour, but got distracted. Had my first No Doz for the day.
• Hour 4: 2,217 new words. 11,232 total. 38,768 to go. Notes: A lot down this hour. Only got 30 minutes of it to write. Gonna make a coffee.
• Hour 5: 3,020 new words. 14,252 total. 35,748 to go. Notes: Holy shit. I might actually pull this off.
• Hour 6: 3,802 new words. 18,054 total. 31,946 to go. Notes: Getting a little grumpy and restless.
• Hour 7: 3,685 new words. 21,739 total. 28,261 to go. Notes: Holy shit. I’m nearly half way there already!

My originally plan was to nap before midnight, that didn’t happen. Then to write 2,500 an hour all day, except for four hours sleep (6AM-10AM). It’s now 7AM, and I’m not tired. If I don’t get to sleep in the next hour (doubt it), I’ll be up until at least 6 or 7PM, when the write-in finishes. I was only thinking I’d get 15k before bed, but I’m nearly at 25! I’ve been average 3k an hour for the past 7 hours, and if I keep it up, I’ll be finished around 5PM – whoo! But I think I will have to take a nap before the write-in starts, or at least have an hour or two to lie down.

What else to say… I’m well ahead of where I thought I’d be, and it looks like I’m actually going to make it! I’m not tired, and my typing/spellings skills are mostly intact. Sometimes my hands freeze up and kinda go “Wtf am I supposed to do?”, but they go back to typing a few seconds later. I’m not having too much pain in my hands (the first three hours was painful though), and my goal is in reach.

I’ll update again once I reach the 50k mark, or whenever I get bored.

xxBella

I’m hoping to get today’s word count achieved before midday (probably only a few k today to get me to the 200k mark), because then I need to head in to town and do some crap (my piercings have been the biggest time-killer the past week or so), so that’ll knock a few hours off my day. I’m hoping to re-arrange the furniture in the lounge room once I get back (to make it more open for the write-in, and to drag the kitchen table in since that got used heaps last time), so I’m not in a mad flurry in the morning. I also want to get all the food for the write-in all in one place (just so I know where it is).

After that, dinner and sleep. I want to get in at least a few hours of sleep before I start tonight, because I’m planning to stay up until 6AM writing, sleep for four hours, then write for the rest of the day. It’s gonna be a mad dash in the morning until the write-in starts to make up for time I won’t be able to write (answering the door, greeting people, being social, etc.). All in all, I’m hoping to be at the 25k mark before the write-in starts (1PM).

Chances are I won’t get much chance to post tomorrow, but feel free to check out my Twitter or Facebook (both are linked at the right hand side) and follow my updates there throughout the day. I’ll try to do a proper post after midnight/when I reach 50k/give up (whichever comes first), but that’ll depend on how exhausted I am.

xxBella

I didn’t spend much time writing today, about two hours in the morning and a couple of hours this evening. I was pretty lazy today, mostly caused by stress about Centrelink and their ‘system errors’. My eyebrow piercing has also puffed up and turned sore and red today (for the second time in a month), so no doubt next week will involve doctor’s visits and seeing my piercer and antibiotics and such.

I’m gonna aim for a little over 200k tomorrow (I’m now at 197k), spend a few hours plotting, and get some sleep before the midnight start. I’m out for a few hours in the afternoon, and want to get an early start on re-arranging couches and stuff for a more write-in friendly layout, so that in the morning I can relax and write until people turn up. I’m not too fussed if I don’t make 10k tomorrow, because I should make up for it on Saturday, and it would be better to spend more time plotting so I’m prepared, rather than running myself dry.

That’s about all for today.

xxBella