Tag: idle hands

Brent Sampson

You Won NaNoWriMo. (Now what?)

So, I won NaNoWriMo. I wrote over 50,000 words in less than 30 days. In fact, true to my word, I’m still writing, even though I crossed the 50,000 word “finish” line on Thanksgiving (and boy was I thankful!).  I’ve earned every Badge available on the NaNoWriMo website except for the last one, which doesn’t seem to be available to “earn” yet — and involves something having to do with revisions. Presumably, that will become available on December 1… I’ll keep you posted as I continue to write in the meantime.

won

The problem is, my novel, Idle Hands, is longer than 50,000 words. In fact, if you look at my outline below, you’ll see that I was supposed to write the major event (in the center) below, where Fen kills Jacob on the cruise ship, on November 15-18.

plot

 

But here it is, November 29th, and Fenderson has only JUST admitted to Brad that he killed Jacob, and even so, it’s not entirely clear whether or not he’s telling the truth.   So I’m just over 60% of the way done with my novel.  Will I have the fortitude to keep writing 2000 words a day until it’s done? Probably not. But will I have the fortitude to keep writing some amount of words every day until it’s done (as I suggested with Wednesday’s post)?  I certainly hope so.

At least writing my novel is going better than my OTHER 30-day goal of losing 20 pounds…

Here are my NaNoWriMo stats for November 28:

Average Per Day 1860
Words Written Today 1927
Target Word Count 50,000
Target ~ Words/Day 1,667
Total Words Written 52,085 WINNER
Words Remaining 1,455
Current Day 28
Days Remaining 3
At this rate, you’ll finish 27-Nov
Words/Day to finish on time 0
Brent Sampson

A weekend of writing

Taking the weekend off from blogging, but not from writing for NaNoWriMo.

My NaNoWriMoStats for November 21:

 

Average Per Day 1833
Words Written Today 1689
Target Word Count 50,000
Target ~ Words/Day 1,667
Total Words Written 38,513
Words Remaining 11,487
Current Day 21
Days Remaining 10
At this rate, you’ll finish November 28
Words/Day to finish on time 1,149

 

 

Brent Sampson, NaNoWriMo

Announcing IDLE HANDS to NaNoWriMo

The next “Badge” I received on NaNoWriMo was a Writing Badge, rewarded for announcing my novel on the site. I chose the Event date, which is November 2014. I provided the novel title: Idle Hands

Next it asked for the Novel Genre and provided 18 choices ranging from Adventure to Young Adult.  Idle Hands is a dark comedy-thriller, but that wasn’t a category, so I simply chose “thriller/suspense.”

coverNext it asked me to upload a cover .jpg for the book (see, I knew that would come in handy).

It asked for a short synopsis next.  I have a short three-page “treatment” that delves into the relationship between the three main characters, the two turning points, the two twists, and the climax, but that sounds too long to be defined as a “short synopsis” so I cut excerpts from it and arrived at this as a synopsis for Idle Hands:

“Brad is a Jewish entrepreneur who is approaching 40, unmarried, and lacking confidence in spite of his success with an internet matchmaking service he founded and programmed (initially to simply help with his own dating woes).  And before he knew it, it became successful and he became a millionaire. But it wasn’t enough. And on the cusp of a full-blown mid-life crisis, Brad meets Fenderson Quinn, a charismatic and unpredictable 27 year-old millionaire who sold his own company for $750 million dollars when he was 25.  Neither Brad nor Fender have to work, and with too much money and too much time on their hands, their devil-may-care attitude leads to a fast friendship punctuated by an ever-increasing sense of danger that culminates in murder, mayhem, and malevolence.”

Next it asked for a novel excerpt, which seemed odd since I haven’t written it  yet (aren’t we supposed to wait until November 1, NaNoWriMo?). So I left that blank and will fill it in later, after I’ve written my first word count (no reason to start early when it doesn’t officially count, right)?

Then I clicked “Save” and BOOM, collected my first Writing Badge: You’ve Got a Novel.

The next badges are Adding a Writing Buddy and Updating Your Word Count, and since it looks like that second one needs to wait until November also, I’ll be looking for a buddy.

Our Executive VP at Outskirts Press is participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo, too, so I’ll be adding Kelly to get my next badge.