HUZZAH

50,000th word: 'can't'
Song listened to when reached 50K: Radiohead - "In Limbo"
Song listened to when 'finished' with novel: Radiohead - "Sit Down Stand Up"
Word Count in .txt Mode: 50,223
Word Count in .doc Mode: 50,236
Now Listening To: Rufus Wainwright's "Hallelujah"

Wow... I don't know what to say. The page they take you to when you win is downright adorable. I'm going to print out my winner's certificate like the dork that I am. I'll probably be ruminating over this for a while so it's not goodbye to this blog yet.

For starters, this monster I wrote is going to need a hell of a lot of editing. A lot of the writing is cringeworthy like you wouldn't believe. For example, check out these gems:

"AUGH!!! BITCHES!!!" yells Ace, crumbling to the floor.

He wanted onions, mayo, tomato, cheese, everything on it. Pickles too.

Oh, there's MUCH more where that came from. Maybe I'll post some more when I actually re-read the thing. Editing will involve actually inserting town names and real highways and paranormal jargon and replacing words like Girl1 or Son2. Also, I completely forgot about chapters until the last couple of hundred words. So the whole thing is in 3 chapters for now. Pfft.

I'll be at the forums reading about how everyone else is doing. I'm pretty proud of myself. The last time I wrote anything was in a writing workshop class. It was one of my fave classes from college and it was totally unrelated to my major! I wrote short stories that had some kind of substance to them though, not this Ghost Hunting Idiot kind of thing. I think my next novel might be in the first person. I work better that way. I'm trying to stay away from the whole literary fiction genre novel-wise though. I could see myself getting annoying very quickly. Okay, that's enough writing for now.

Last sentence for the time being:
Ashes settle around them as they walk away from the chapel.

Thanks to everyone who's given me even the slightest bit of encouragement! It was much appreciated and a major factor in reaching 50K. NaNoEdYe, here I come! =)

CHUG CHUG CHUG

Word Count: 45,060
Snacks: Many Uh-oh's

I'm doing okay now so I hope I don't freak out in a couple of hours. The whole thing is farce. It's a horrible mix of Real World and Saw. Bad bad bad! Okay, enough writing here. I need to go back to my .doc.

Last Sentence Written:
“Do you mind getting a nice clean glass for me, dear?”

I Can Do This

Word Count: 42,129
Medication: Robitussin and Multiple fake herbal pills

I have to write 50K by midnight on Wednesday. This is doable, however the novel won't be finished by that day. I have a lot of superfluous stuff going on here. Something tells me NaNoEdMo will stretch out into an EdYe for me. The story is turning into something of an art caper. That is not good. I'm getting ideas for future stories though. My next piece of writing will be a short story.

Last sentence written:
Seatbelts do nothing to keep the other passengers stable.

NOOOOOOO!!!

"My empire of shit is collapsing in on me!!! Someone get the Febreze!"

Those are actual sentences from my 'novel'. It's degenerated into a mess of random words and curses. I can't think right now. I'm stuffed full of turkey and other assorted Thanksgiving foods. I've got two flans waiting for me downstairs and still I torture myself with this hideous novel. I'm looking through the Nano-Forums for dares. I'm turning the whole thing into farce. But first this, from a thread there:

On a scale of one through ten, rate the following things of your novel.
1 means barely at all, 10 means a LOT. Also, if you want to, list the strongest example of the following.

-How sexual is your novel? (includes even basic things like romantic kissing and caressing, and sexual innuendo)

I give it a 1. I was considering some necrophilia but that's because I read my personal Savior C.P.'s "Lullaby" recently. There are some couples in here but they're not the main focus of the novel. I have one guy who hits on anything in a skirt. There's a tiny amount of kissing, nothing more.

-How violent is your novel?
Overall it's not that violent yet. But the last couple of chapters should garner about an 8.

-How much swearing is in your novel?
Maybe a 5? Phil is the curser, he's like a bouncer. I can't bother to look up an example. Right now the author is doing all the cursing.

-How much substance use? (drinking/smoking/drugs)
5 or 6. Not much. The teenagers do a lot of drinking (duh), I've got one character who smokes a lot and there is some mention of drug-use.

Okay, off to take dares.

7 Questions on Your Novel

Thanks, Sya!

1) How are you feeling right now about your novel?
It's confusing me. I haven't begun to wrap up all the loose ends and I'm veering on strange tangents with insignificant characters. There are too many mentions of fast food. I STILL DON'T KNOW WHO THE KILLER IS.

2) Are you satisfied with your word count?
No. I thought I would always be ahead like when I started out. Now I'm withering away.

3) Do you want to get your novel published?
NO. Any publisher who would want my pile of garbage would have to be out of their mind!

4) Which week was the worst for you?
It might be this week. Too distracted.

5) How much time do you spend writing your novel?
I have no idea how to figure this out. One night I barfed up 3K, I think?

6) What do you think of writing two 50000-word novels at a time?
That's the definition of insanity.

7) True or False, you think your novel is worth reading.
Not really. It's kind of lost all direction. It's definitely not a Dave Eggers-type literary fiction piece. Not amazing or profound or out to change your whole perspective on life. Just your standard Horror/Paranormal/Comedy. Hopefully, it'll offer a laugh or two.

So burned out I can't think of a decent title

Word Count: 31,212
Progress: Insignificant
Ate: Too much chocolate cake
Drank: Not enough coke
Sanity: 14%

"Punctured bicycle
On a hillside desolate
Will nature make a man of me yet?
When in this charming car
This charming man..."

And that's why I don't listen to the Smiths when I'm working on my story. I would just write the lyrics over and over again. Screw my novel. I love those first two lines, it's like my mantra: Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate, Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate. Now here's something really bad for contrast. Last line written:
“I guess not.”

Only 10 days left

Word Count: 30,730

I've been forcing myself to write. The output is shameful. But I find myself getting ideas for other stories or 'novels' I may want to write about in the future. It's alright for me to admit this one is kind of a throwaway. I mean, horror/comedy? Who does that?

Something tells me the random number generator of the music program I'm listening to is not completely random. It keeps choosing the same 10 songs on shuffle out of a possible 229 songs. And even when it does work okay, it seems like there's too much variety. For example, I heard 'Lola' by the Kinks followed by 'Hate It or Love It' by the Game. I'm not sure that this is good for writing.

Last line written (it sounds more serious than it actually is):
He had to eliminate the summoner.

Things Are Getting Ugly

Word Count: 24,200
Progress: Bad
Soundtrack: The Strokes "Juicebox" on a continuous loop for the past hour. Trying hard not to rename MC from Adrian to Julian.
Mistakes: Many
Language: Butchered
Sanity: 23%

We're supposed to be up to 30,004 by the end of today?? Great. I see in the genre-count index that Horror has risen from when we were starting off. It's the detailed descriptions of dismemberment and assorted organs falling out. I'm trying to look for anything amusing I can post from my novel but it's all incredibly boring. I'm starting to write really padded, redundant sentences to up my word count. It's strange. It makes everyone sound like they just started learning English:

"Come with me to the library. I need to get a book."

This is bad. REALLY bad.

Last lines written:
Wrek wanted to play a prank on a friend he didn't like very much. The first step involved killing a small defenseless animal.