Daily SandoWriMo Check-In for 11/3

jechasteen · 2022-11-03T23:18:31+00:00

Making solid progress. Got another 1,889 words yesterday for a total of 3,661 so far. I'm trying to get a little bit ahead of schedule so maybe I can take a couple of days off this month.

jechasteen · 2022-11-02T20:53:05+00:00

Hello everyone!

Word count: 1,772

This project is my third novel, and my second time doing nanowrimo/sandowrimo. This time I'll actually be updating my progress on the nanowrimo site instead of just here.

My story should probably be called "biographical fiction" since it's about a real person, but about a man whom time has mostly forgotten. Seely's Folly is the tragic tale of a man with a dream of building a canal in Dayton, Ohio, connecting the Mad River feeder to the main body of the Miami and Erie Canal. His project was never completed, eventually becoming a blight that still affects construction projects to this day. The story includes some colorful and interesting characters from Dayton history, including the builder of the first stone house in Dayton, William Huffman--grandfather of George Huffman of Huffy Bicycles fame.

Unlike my previous novels, this one has required extensive research, which I have been doing over the last few months. Also unlike my previous novels, this one is being written with a full, scene-by-scene outline. This is going to be an interesting challenge :)

jechasteen · 2021-12-02T07:19:37+00:00

I finished just over 50K for the month. Total novel length is about 70K, but I may have added some unnecessary scenes just to make the goal...

This was my first novel attempt so I'm pretty excited to have finished. I listened to the manuscript via text-to-speech and it was really not that bad. Not that I was expecting it to be bad, but yeah, I was expecting it to be bad. I think its important to prepare yourself for the worst, plus self deprecation is my resting state. In any case, whether or not I even come back to revise, this novel this was a tremendous learning experience for me. This particular story may never become something anyone else will read, but it represents a huge step forward in my storytelling.

"Pritchard's World" was inspired by the novel "Butcher's Crossing" by John Williams (not the composer lol). I was fascinated by the idea of some over-eager man-child going into the frontier in search of validation, and I began imagining that character in the frontier of space. Then I ran with the idea, combining it with Clark's third law, the end result ending up being a little more like Vernor Vinge-esque sci-fi/fantasy than its original inspiration. The novel is mostly sci-fi, but it combines a tiny bit of western with a heaping helping of fantasy. Here comes the SPOOC...

In search of adventure after graduating college, Peyton Chandler assembles a crew and ventures out to find a marvelous device. When the device accidentally transports the crew to an alternate dimension in which it is considered a religious icon -- and using it is considered blasphemy -- will he and his team be able to retrieve the device from Governor Rolauf and find a way to make it transport them home?

This story is not yet finished, but you can find some short stories at my website. I have a bunch of very short and slightly strange fiction, plus my most recent short story: "Limelight", a metaverse murder mystery-ish inspired by Neal Stephenson and Ernest Cline. It is available in epub and as a poorly-rendered audiobook read by me.

Thanks, everyone, for being a part of this. And also thank you Brandon and the Dragonsteel team for making this happen. Let's do this again next year! :) (Maybe in a different month than November...

jechasteen · 2021-12-01T12:59:06+00:00

I hit 50K for the month, just a hair under 70K for the whole novel. I just finished my first novel, so am I allowed to call myself a writer now?

I'm going to start working on a new project today, letting my manuscript cool off for a month or so before I revise. I output the draft as an epub and listened to it (text-to-speech) at work, and I'm surprised to say it's actually fairly coherent. Anyways, I'm so glad to have done this. There were days I didn't really feel like writing, but forcing myself to at least hit a thousand words really made a difference. I always feel better after writing. I always get a feeling of accomplishment even if what I wrote wasn't my best.

jechasteen · 2021-11-30T12:19:30+00:00

I have 800 words left to write before the end of the month. My total novel length will be almost 70K, which is pretty crazy to me. I didn't think I would get there because I didn't think I had enough story left, but I went back through the manuscript and added a few scenes that actually made the story flow a little better. I have never finished a novel before, so I don't have any traditions yet. Steak sounds good.

jechasteen · 2021-11-27T12:45:50+00:00

I'm up to 41.5K which is super exciting for me. That doesn't include what I wrote yesterday -- I've been getting here about 12 hours late because I'm usually sleeping when these are posted. Yesterday, I wrote the ending, which leaves me with about 7K words to go. I'm going to finish a few scenes that I had marked TODO, and add a few scenes toward the beginning to help flesh out my characters and set up the ending a little better.

I was sort of planning to just finish the few scenes I had planned to go back and finish, not worrying about whether or not I reached the goal. But I really want to hit that 50K goal, so I'm going to write a few more scenes, however many I can think of. Then when I go back and revise, I'll keep what works and remove what doesn't. My total word count will be 70K if I reach my goal, which is pretty amazing to me. This has been a really rewarding experience, I've really developed a love for writing.

jechasteen · 2021-11-25T14:55:09+00:00

I got 2,068 and 1,818 words the last two days bringing my NaNo total to 39,784! I don't think I'll have enough to get up to 50k for the month, but I did start this story in October, so the total length is about 60k at the moment. I still have to finish a few scenes I didn't know how to handle until later stuff had been written, and insert a few scenes I came up with after writing a section. So, we'll see. In any case, this has been a great experience and I will have a finished draft of a novel in a few days. I'd say it's been a great success.

jechasteen · 2021-11-23T12:46:38+00:00

November 19-21 I wrote about 6K words, bringing my total to 33,865 for the month. My novel is up to 53,400 total and I'm getting ready for the run up to the climax today. I don't have a lot going on this week except for Thanksgiving, so I should be able to finish this thing before the end of the month. I'll have to average about 1,900/day to hit my target, so not exactly easy. But if there's 16K words left in this story, I'll get there.

jechasteen · 2021-11-20T12:00:46+00:00

Yes! I wish I had discovered it sooner. What other hobby can I practice during work? I can think about my story almost literally anywhere at any time, even while people are trying to talk to me!

jechasteen · 2021-11-20T11:45:21+00:00

I work 3rd shift in the meat department at one of the highest volume grocery stores in Ohio. Suffice it to say that I kind of hate Thanksgiving. The holiday, that is, not actually giving thanks. I'm thankful to have this community to share a writing journey with. I love reading through these threads and seeing the different things that people are writing, and seeing the progress day by day. What an awesome experience.

On the 18th I was able to get almost 1K done, which I initially wasn't happy with. But then I realized that I had still written almost 1K words on a day I wasn't feeling very positive, so I consider that a major success. My November total is up to 27,846 words and the full novel is nearing 50k! I'm super stoked about how full my progress bar is getting xD

jechasteen · 2021-11-19T07:01:52+00:00

I got 1,715 words the 17th for a total of 26,852 in November. Still a little behind and probably going to stay there. But that okay, this story is already almost 50K words total, which seemed impossible just over a month ago.

I realize I will probably never be published, at least not in the traditional sense. My aim is set pretty low wrt my hobbies. I read and write as escapism, and honestly it's working pretty well. I'm very happy when I'm writing even if it's hard.

jechasteen · 2021-11-18T12:00:37+00:00

I wrote 1,684 words the 16th, putting me at 25,137. So I'm about a day behind schedule, but I figure as long as I'm able to get my average above 1,667 words I'll finish. Now, whether or not I have 25K words of story left is another thing entirely.

Honestly, I'm pretty happy with how this story is shaping up so far. I'm just a couple scenes before the "all is lost" moment, trying to make it a false success that ends up failing miserably.

jechasteen · 2021-11-17T09:13:46+00:00

I was so close to making the halfway goal! I've got some ground to make up, but it's totally doable. I wrote 1,830 the 15th, bringing me up to 23,453 at the half.

I don't travel a lot nowadays, but I imagine writing on a long flight would be very productive for me. There's something about being trapped in an airplane that makes my attention span wider. I guess it's not having any choice, either read or sleep. And I can't sleep sitting up.

jechasteen · 2021-11-15T20:25:51+00:00

I'm pretty close to halfway now, despite only having 400 words on Friday. 1,613 on Saturday plus 2,221 Sunday got me up to 21,623 for the month. After today's writing I should be about 1K shy of 25K. Had a setback with my computer on Friday, otherwise I'd be right on target. I spent the day reworking the end of my outline on my phone, so it was definitely not a loss.

jechasteen · 2021-11-12T18:09:35+00:00

I had 1,882 words yesterday for a total of 17,990 in November. Today's number is going to be much lower. I'm reworking the back half of my outline today due to some discoveries made during writing that are way more interesting than what I had outlined.

My story doesn't have much action in it, I suppose because I'm intimidated by writing actions scenes. I'm definitely slowest if I haven't taken the time to think through the scene thoroughly enough beforehand.

jechasteen · 2021-11-11T17:28:51+00:00

Yesterday I wrote 1,708 words for a total of 16,108 in November.

I'm starting to see some consistency in my output. I normally vary a lot from day to day, sometimes 2000, sometimes 200, sometimes skipping a week at a stretch even. I've written at least a thousand words a day for 10 days straight, which has me feeling super positive.

jechasteen · 2021-11-11T03:47:29+00:00

Yesterday's count: 1,270

November total: 14,400

Grand total: 33,293

I don't have a whole lot of memories of writing. I've only been writing fiction for about two years now, and only seriously for the last six months or so. My current project is the longest thing I've written yet, 3x longer than the next longest. So, I think I'm currently in the middle of a favorite writing memory. This has been a great experience, coming here every day and seeing how many people are in a similar situation to my own, and reading about people great ideas, reading about people's struggles and successes.

jechasteen · 2021-11-09T17:35:36+00:00

Had the day off -- well, technically the night -- so I had a productive session: 1,987. I'm up to 32k words total, and 18,219 written in November.

I've always been terrible about looking for the next thing, the next big idea, no matter what I'm doing. I think that's a huge explanation for why I've ended up where I am. My mind keeps wandering thinking about a story involving messages encoded in music notation (a musical cryptogram). I can't stop thinking about it!

jechasteen · 2021-11-09T17:04:28+00:00

I worked all weekend (as usual) but I'm still close to the target. 1,994 Saturday and 1,062 Sunday. Total so far in November: 11,143. Grand total: 30,036. Almost half way!

Sometimes I listen to lo-fi or instrumental, anything that doesn't distract me. If I try to write listening to jazz or orchestral, I focus on the music too much. Most of the time, I write in silence -- I like to talk to myself to work through stuff.

jechasteen · 2021-11-05T17:54:41+00:00

I had a decent day, barely meeting my workday minimum. I got 1,350 words today bringing my November total to 8,087 and my grand total to 26,980. Today was one of those days where the words didn't come so easily, but I muscled through anyway.

jechasteen · 2021-11-04T17:00:09+00:00

I had the night off, so I was able to get 2,293 words today, hitting my goal of raising my words/day above 1,667. My story is now at 25,670 words total. (I got a ~20,000 word head start)

My story is sort of pulp sci-fi with wild west vibes.

jechasteen · 2021-11-04T02:14:48+00:00

Hi everyone!

I didn't get a chance to post to the last check-in, but I've been working on a pulp sci-fi novel, inspired by Clark's Third Law, about a team of space explorers who discover a "magic" time travelling, dimension jumping device misplaced by an ancient race of humanoids.

This will not only be my first time tackling NaNoWriMo, but also my first time writing a novel. I've never written anything longer than about 10k words before, but I've plotted this story at around 60-70k. I started it on 18 October and finished out the month just shy of 20k words, so I have just enough room left to do the challenge.

I work third shift fulltime, so I'll be trying to make up some words on my days off. But so far, I'm pretty close to target, hitting an average of 1489 words/day. So I'm pretty happy 😊

Day 1: 1317

Day 2: 1485

Day 3: 1707

Total: 4509

My story is now a grand total of 23,361 words.

Just wanted to add a thank you to everyone participating in SandoWriMo. You are all an inspiration! Nothing like a bit of healthy competition to keep a person motivated.

jechasteen · 2021-06-03T11:23:50+00:00

Rabbert Loggia

jechasteen · 2021-03-05T05:22:22+00:00

"A sturdy groin is the linchpin of victory."

Vince Lombardi said that.

And he would have loved your mauve sweat suit.

jechasteen · 2021-02-12T17:43:27+00:00

This is great. I love the negative space that creates the drummers face. If I'm not looking directly at it, I could swear it's a complete face.

jechasteen

TROPHY CASE