& the word count is...

2009-11-04T05:32:00.000-08:00

current word count: 7667

As you can see, things are still going great! I'm above today's daily goal (huzzah! much hard work, on my part) and I feel like I might still be able to push out some more words. I'm having a blast writing and I can't wait to get to the end. I hope everyone else participating is having as good a time. I don't want to post another excerpt just yet -- maybe in a couple more chapters -- but they will come. Anyway, back to stalking my favorite websites and maybe getting a little more writing done. Keep those fingers typing!

Going Well

2009-11-02T18:32:00.000-08:00

current word count: 5216

I just wanted to post a little update, now that I've overcome the writing goal I set for myself today. The writing is going really well -- fabulous actually. When I woke up this morning and took out my laptop to write, nothing was really flowing. I was stuck trying to figure out how to overcome an obstacle in order to get to my plot point. After reading and reading, visiting the NaNo website various times, and browsing the forums, I was struck with a new idea. It required me to cut off about a thousand of the words that I'd already written, but since I was stuck anyway, I figured -- what the heck? I saved the original document and copied and pasted my work-in-progress into a new Word document. Then I took out the parts I didn't want anymore and started fresh.

Once I overcame that obstacle, I didn't want to stop writing. I managed to surpass the goal I'd set for myself and the best part is: I still want to write! If things keeping going this way, I'll reach that 50,000 mark well before November 30th and you do not know how proud that would make me. Now, I promised some excerpts from the story, so here's a short one. Keep in mind that this is literally the first draft and my first novel ever. Constructive criticism is welcome. Any comments that are blatantly bashing my work, however, will not be. So here it is:

"You existed," There was no hint of laughter in my voice there. Jamie always went through my stuff and always ratted me out to Mom when I did even the slightest thing wrong, yet he never took the blame for anything he did -- no, of course not: that always got pinned on me. "And don't call me Al. It makes me sound like a boy." He was still fighting to catch up to me when a car pulled up beside us. I sighed gratefully and turned toward it, noticing immediately that it wasn’t our mom. My heart stopped when the tinted window rolled down and I saw who it was behind the wheel. “Oh my God,” I whispered before I could stop myself. It was Micah Williams, definitely the hottest guy in school – maybe the world – seriously, he was that attractive. We had a study hall class together, fifth period, and I could never take my eyes off of him. Oh my God, I thought, what if he’s stopping to tell me to stop being a creeper? How embarrassing would that be?

You can imagine the relief I felt when he smiled at me – the most adorable smile I’d ever seen – and nodded his head at me
“Hey, Alexzandra Smith, right?” I’m pretty sure now that I probably looked like a complete idiot. My jaw dropped the minute he said my name – and got it correct, I might add.
“Yeah,” I said, smiling and trying to keep myself from doing anything potentially embarrassing.
“I’m Mike. I recognize you from study hall. Do you need a ride somewhere?” That was just about when I thought I would die. He recognized me? He knew I existed and he wanted to give me a ride home from school? I must have been dreaming. Seriously, at that point I was expecting to wake up at any minute – for my dream to be crushed in an instant.
“Al, Mom says never to ride home with strangers.” I’d forgotten that my little brother was standing mere feet away from me. My face reddened from embarrassment and I forced a polite smile in Mike’s direction.
“Excuse me for a minute.” I started to walk out of hearing range of the car, before grabbing Jamie’s backpack and dragging him along with me.
“What the Hell are you thinking, Jamie?” I demanded. “Do you know who that is?” These weren’t exactly the right words to choose. I should have counted my blessings that my annoying little brother didn’t know that this was the guy I had a crush on. He grinned at me in a way that let me know that trouble was definitely brewing.
“Oh. I see,” he said, exaggerating each syllable and nodding his head. “I’m so, sorry, Al – er – Alexzandra – I’ll just be on my way.”

There you have it. Hope you enjoy and keep on reading.

Good luck to those of you who are still working to meet your daily goal!

I hope that things go as well for you as they've been going for me.

If not, feel free to post here with questions. I'd be happy to help in any way that I can. =)

NaNoWriMo

2009-11-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

current word count: 3549

Given the title of this post, I'm sure you can figure out what my first entry is going to be about: NaNoWriMo. For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is an event that takes place every November where all writers are given the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. An easy challenge for some, but a difficult task for us beginners.

This is my first year, but I'm really excited to see where my story goes. I'll be updating every so often with my word count and maybe some passages. I'll also provide some nifty links at the bottom, for those of you who are interested in NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo | FAQ | My NaNoWriMo

stars & stripes , maps & movies

& the word count is...

Going Well

NaNoWriMo