The Time is Now Midnight!

I did it today, I accomplished writing more than ten thousand words in two days flat. That's really impressive once you consider I normally spend a week writing that many words for my story. Then again, I've felt really involved with this chapter and I've been really proud of the artwork it has become. That's right, I said artwork.

This chapter has changed so much from my original idea that if I read it to myself from ten days back, I'd have hardly known it was the same thing. The basic principle I had so many days ago is still very much present in the chapter, but what happens has become something much more grand than I could have imagined. And maybe this is all because of the process of writing, I really can't be sure, but I am pleased to say that this is by far one of the best chapters I have ever written.

The best part, the scenery is actually really simple and easy for anyone to imagine. It was what I did with the surrounding atmosphere that makes it so sophisticated. I could have written this chapter a thousand different ways, but I'm not sure I would have been as proud as I am. Not only that, but to my readers (to which has now become three people...) I hope they see all the symbolism and symbols I gone to lengths to throw into each place. I think this one might also send a few shivers up their spines.

So am I done now that ten thousand words have passed, the normal average length of my chapters. I think not and I might actually be far from it. I'm not certain that I will need another ten K to do the job, but for sure I will need a few thousand more just to finish the explanations I have ended up in. And yes, I thought about breaking this part up into two separate chapters, but the problem is that the whole thing lies in such perfect unity with itself that I thought breaking the pieces apart would only ruin and not strengthen the value anyone will find by reading it.

To tomorrow I will write more, the ideas are still flowing vibrantly through my head and I have probably enough to keep writing peacefully onward for some time. I wish I would have known how much joy I'm getting out of writing this a few days ago, but then again I probably would not have developed the ideas I have. It's that strange state where I wish I had done so sooner while at the same time it would not have been as great had it been performed before the best time. There has to be a word to describe that, someone out there probably knows it.

And for now, have a wonderful night!

Words for the Month: 12,445 / 40,000
Total Words: 92,504

That Makes Two Months!

For the second month in a row (out of two total so far) I have met and surpassed my goal! That's right, I procrastinated all day long, but before the clock struck midnight based on my local area's time I was able to finish off the total words for the month. To my friends that are reading the story, I bet you all are happy that I started writing a blog about this since it has now gotten me over a hundred pages of words and double the length of my previous longest story.

On a slightly less related note, there are so many things in the next chapter that I like that I can't wait to give it to my readers. I think they will find all of the different things maybe moving a bit slower than expected, but there are really a lot of rich details in there as well. Also, I've got the next chapter planned out.

Edit: The new poll for the month is now available. It would be nice if people voted, but whatever. Last month's poll ended with a tie between let jack read it and no... which means I'm just gonna be lazy and not send it to more friends...

Words for the Month: 40,016 / 40,000
Total Words: 80,059
Months Successful: 2 / 2

An Important Achievement

So I know that this should be where I post something about how wonderfully I've achieved 80,000 words in a single story right here, I mean it is the very last day of the month and that is where I should be. However, this blog post is to actually celebrate the achievement of making 100 pages of story.

Why do I find this to be so damn important? Because I write single-spaced and with one inch margins (where words normally keeps the margins at one and a quarter on each side, so I gain half an inch). I also don't go onto the next page unless I'm at the next chapter. Well, I've filled 100 pages with words that somehow come together to make a tale of about a man's journey. That's amazing.

Let me put this into perspective. A ten page paper written for school would have been double spaced and with a title page. Now, on a double-spaced page you can normally fit about 350-450 words with a 400 word average if you don't space the top margins too much. This means for a single-spaced page my average number of words per page is 700-900 words with an average of about 800 (though I found I'm about 820). That means I've written about 200 pages worth of paper space in comparison to any of my academic friends currently writing thesis papers. And that doesn't include a title page. Make sense why I see it as an achievement now?

To my friends that are reading the book, this means that I've actually given them a somewhat decent in length read. I mean, let me be fair when I say it sucks when you book ends at about page 20 and then the damn author doesn't continue. Also, it means if they were putting all of this together in a word document (which if they were smart they could just ask me to send them the full document, though that is turning out to be a much large file with each time I'd have to send it), they would have something that causes my computer to keep saying "OVERHEAT" and then explode. Thank God the save button works so damn well... and it auto saves like every minute. (Note to readers: actual computer has never overheated and then exploded... except when playing the video game Starcraft 2).

Just one last thing, it will be at least another 2 months of dedicated writing like I have been doing for these past 2 months just to get another 100 page achievement marker. If I was doing this by pages, I'd be done for the night because I would probably go every 50 pages. My friends should be thanking me I'm doing it by words and not by pages (and also, that makes me fell more inclined to make the paragraphs longer... where as if done by pages I would chop them up to make more pages faster).

Now back to working for my other achievement, which is just over 3,000 words away. For those that don't remember me posting this a few days ago, that is somewhere between 2 hours and 4 hours of work based on how many words per minute I can write. I'm going to write just a bit more for tonight (because yes, 1 in the morning is still just getting to sleep time for me) and then I'll finish it up in the morning.

Words for the Month: 36,834 / 40,000
Total Words: 76,877

A Good Day

Today was a good day to write. I actually did really well too, I mean considering that recently I've either written a lot of stuff in a single run or absolutely nothing all day. Best part yet is that I'm just barely under the halfway point for the month. Okay, I know saying that with 7 days left (including this one) is not exactly the best of things. I'm just trying to stay positive is all.

If you want to know the math but don't want to do the math, I technically have to write approximately 3,000 words a day to finish this month. In actuality I think it is a little bit below that, but who keeps track of that. Anyway, writing that much in a single day is not that bad and especially considering that about 24 hour ago I was down 5,000 words from where I am now. I don't know... maybe if I can make another 5,000 tomorrow I'll shoot for this month too. It is definitely exciting to see this coming together.

As far as the story goes, things are starting to go further into where I really wanted to take my readers when I first came up with this idea. By this I really mean that although I have a plot to tell (one that is currently very loose and nondescript in my head), I had a major theme that I wanted to hit. This chapter really starts to open it up into that place and show off what I was heading for. Hopefully I can keep this idea going, I'm really happy with how this story is coming out.

Also, I thought I'd just say to one of my friends that I am going to finish this story and not because I have to but because I want to prove to her that she is wrong. Sure, I've started at least ten ideas since I first started sending her stories and, sure, she won't pick up this one and read it unless she knows that there is going to be an ending. Well, almost double the length of my previous longest story and still going fairly strong. Lets see who wins in my own personal writing contest. Me or shut the hell up, me. And for the record, I know that didn't make any sense.

To my other friends that are reading this, any comments?

 Words for the Month: 19,526 / 40,000
Total Words: 59,569

Chapter Five is AMAZING!

I don't like to gloat except when I think certain friends are annoying me (hint hint hint friend who wants this chapter so badly), but oh my GOD this is probably one of the best chapters I've written yet. I mean, chapter one and two were really about setting up characters and dragging my readers into the story (as I am so damn good at doing). Chapter three and four are all about moving forward with the plot, getting the main character to actually go places and do stuff that hasn't been done before and really setting things forwards. Chapter five is really the first chapter where I start to really dive in and play with the world I've now created. I mean, for the most part the reader has been given sort of a weird place and a lot of separate mysteries. Chapter five kind of stays away from making more mysteries and dives into really adding to previous ones we've already seen.

I guess what I'm saying is I really get to do some awesome stuff (artistically and literally) with the wording and really show that I have fun when I come up with things. Now I'm not saying everyone is going to love chapter five, I'm just saying that I think in comparison to what I have written already it starts to really build on everything I'm working on setting up.

I guess I'll know if I succeeded when one of my readers gives me feedback. Which this might be a hint to my readers...

Regarding other things, I will now have a monthly poll on my blog for everyone to go and click buttons on. I think this will help me with maybe directing my book a little bit more since I am creating a person and not a robot. I hate it when books make robot people who do amazing things. Also, I'm getting back into my groove of writing and so we might actually get to see 2/2 successful months for me to be proud of all I've accomplished with writing. Then September comes and we'll see what happens.

I'm not done writing yet for the night (I mean, when you are having as much fun as I am writing this out... you don't quit), but my computer is bugging me to update it. So I'm going to take a small break, get some more delicious fake coffee, maybe unload the dishwasher, and then get back to work. But even so, look how much I've written already!

Words for the Month: 9,212 / 40,000
Total Words: 49,255

Damn, almost 10,000 words in the seconds month! Cheer my friends, cheer hard.

And the New Month Begins!

So here I start on month 2 of the big idea of how I can write a book. It feels weird looking at the work I've done and thinking that I've made it so far only to have to try and do it again, but on the other side it feels great. I really know I can do it now, where as in the past I kind of flaunted around with trying to write this many words. At least I have some ideas where the story is going to go, I know what is going to at least happen all the way to the end of the chapter, and it sounds like so far my readers are enjoying the conflicts that are arising in the main character.

On other news, I've discovered that I'm really messed up as far as sleep now. For the past few weeks, to get into the writing spirit I've had to wait until 10PM or later because there was too much noise in the house. Well, I stayed up later by taking naps from 7 to 9 and now I can't seem to sleep a whole night anymore. On the bright side, I'm going to have a lot of time for writing. On the bad side, I can't sleep at night and that leaves me feeling a little messed up inside. Its like taking depression pills and I don't know why.

Other than that, I strangely felt weird not writing also. Its like somewhere in my head I want to just start talking about stuff and typing and telling stories, but I took the day off and didn't have an outlet. I didn't expect that to happen... Also, I wrote like three paragraphs or so just to feel like I had officially started this new month. Zero just sounded bad...

Words for the Month: 268 / 40,000
Total Words: 40,311

First Month Completed!

And so I somehow was able to make approximately the last 10,000 words appear on the final two days of writing. I'm really proud with myself that I actually completed this goal and doing this once honestly gives me a lot of faith that I can make it again next month. Just to remind everyone, I also made my goal this month with about one week taken out but with a little bit of a head start on the story (I didn't start this month at 0 words because I started writing the book at the beginning, so I thought they counted. That and I wanted to be fair to myself in giving myself a month, head start for the words.). And if anyone is really curious, the words that put me at 40,000 was "on." I know, I thought it was going to be more exciting too but sometimes these things happen.

As far as the next chapter goes, the last time I checked it was already 7,000 words. Honestly I'm really surprised because I didn't think I had written that much already. I have approximately 3 more things I want to write into the chapter (and on average a "thing" ranges from 1,000 to 3,000 more words) so for my faithful friends who are hopefully enjoying the story, this chapter is going to take a little longer. Also, just for their information, I kind of want a little bit of a break for now so that I can recoup my thoughts. Writing 10,000 words in two nights is wonderful for making headway into the story, but it doesn't give me a whole lot of time to think about all the things I want to say. Sure I get some as I go along, but the stuff people will remember this story for always seems to come when I've had time to think a little bit ahead.

Also, I'm going to get a poll for my blog to figure out what else I'd like to add. When that will happen, to be announced at a later time. Trying to come up with a wonderful first question first.

Words for the Month: 40,043 / 40,000
Total Words: 40,043
Months Successful: 1 / 1