After you've written your word count for the day, come to this thread and share a brief blurb about what has happened in your novel. If you can, note its importance in the greater story arc or in terms of character development.

Thanks!

--Tim

My characters talked a lot. The main character's senior partner gave him an expose on the goings-on of demons. It's not particularly exciting, to be honest.

strange noises in an old house...is it settling pipes or...teh spoopy? Also, my character has an anxiety attack (not to be confused with a panic attack...which often comes with NO trigger...whereas an anxiety attack COMES with one)...the anxiety scene is really powerful to me...because i suffer with anxiety attacks and i can write the scene exactly how i go through my own...and reading it back made me cry...

and they say...if the writer cries...so will the reader

My characters waited for the first reader to come to the book so they could write for them, and ended up killing time by playing Scrabble, which they had to recreate using these devices that can create things based on their thoughts, and the one guy remembered it all wrong, with the wrong distribution of letters, the wrong point values, and the wrong score placements on the board, so they were playing with all the wrong stuff.

And then the reader finally opened the book, and one guy tried to write a story for the first time, and he's awful at it, so story about some perfect dude that's also a spy is very badly written. With extremely short sentences, and changing his mind about where they're at and what they're doing in the middle of the story.

Not nearly enough. I'm so slacking.

They went out to dinner, out dancing at a club and the MFC made out with the MMC which kinda pissed me off. She isn't supposed to do that. This scene takes place at the end of the novel and is the night before the FMC leaves her study abroad trip to go home.

I would like to report that many things happened in my novel today, but I will be honest: not much happened at all. I rewrote something that I had written yesterday. I know, spank me! Spank me! Spank me! Spank me! But there's always tomorrow, and, unlike some years, I really intend on not giving in to those middle-of-the-month temptations to just give it up, if only for a day, or week, or two, and then I have to write like crazy because I have been so, well, Bad!

Maya (prime) on Earth Prime walked home with Ryan, who raised the possibility that Maya might have visited an alternate reality. She discounted that idea, but the seed has been planted.

Maya (alpha) learns from her Mom that her Mom has been offered a job at one of the village libraries but there was some tension since Maya's Mom hasn't talked about this offer yet with Maya's stepdad and Maya is still angry about having to the east coast and leave all her friends behind. Now Maya has made it to the weekend of her first week in school and out with her Aunt Judy, ostensibly for a visit but really for some character development and backstory ;-)

This is really different from my usual fantasy novels where magic would have occurred by now and at least one scene of action :-/

I keep telling myself that there is a pay-off down the road (my outline tells me so)...

I love hearing about what others are writing.

--Tim

My MC came back to the inn where she's been staying to discover that the owner has raided her room and taken her stash of stolen paintings as collateral because she's late on her dues (and because the po-po came looking for her, and having an officer of the law invade his establishment is bad for business). So now she has to find somewhere else to stash anewly-stolen jewel until she finds someone to sell it to.

I keep rewriting things too. It's terrible! But I can't make myself continue with the plot when I know what comes before doesn't work. I haven't deleted anything, but I haven't gotten very far in my plot at all! I've written various iterations of 4 scenes, and only one of them could work as is. It's going to take forever to finish writing this thing at this rate! But at least I'm discovering whatdoesn't work, so I guess I'm still being productive. :P

A fighting instructor picked a fight with my main character, Quessa, andstrategically helped Quessa begin to overcome her fear of someone attacking her. And she got a job.

I had to skip breakfast to ensure this came to pass, but it was worth it.

One of my MCs got hit by a SUV. (She's 24 weeks pregnant.)

KatherineWriting wrote:One of my MCs got hit by a SUV. (She's 24 weeks pregnant.)

:-O

Lead male character comes out of coma after being shot in the chest by his wife. Fun times.

Protagonist just found the hidden diaries of her murdered ancestress. Ghosts soon to follow!

MC's almost-ex-husband visits her in the hospital after she was hit by a SUV.

You look well. Is everything all right?

So far, she said. Something could still happen to the baby, though.

He picked up the flowers, then set them down again. It might be for the best.

Ice traveled along her veins, freezing her heart. He couldnt mean What did you say?

I reversed my vasectomy yesterday. The doctor said Id know in three weeks if Im fertile again. We could have our own child, children.

Im pregnant.

I meant if the worst happens.

Dont you mean the best? You want me to lose this baby.

What happened is... pixies. Pixies are awesome. They did a pretty good job of cheering up the prince, and they agreed to perform at his birthday balls. Then the prince went to sleep. And then life happened and he got all nervous about the balls again, only to realize his little brother is even more nervous than he is.

But mostly, what happened is pixies. And I found out (but the reader didn't) that one of the pixies is pregnant, and she's hiding in the prince's room. The prince has no idea. It will be fun.

TogetherAgain wrote:And I found out (but the reader didn't) that one of the pixies is pregnant, and she's hiding in the prince's room.

Let's see, if we merged our plots, what would be the pixie equivalent of an SUV?

A fly swatter?

my MC got so sick from her flu...that her cocky, stubborn nature...allowed her to try and make it from the hallway to the couch (short distance) despite feeling light headed, and dizzy.

It got so bad, when she thought she could take her first unaided step (with out hugging the wall)...that she passed out and hit her head o the end table. blood, tipped lamp. frantic mother...and one 911 call later, she's taking a nice ambulance ride to the hospital!

Anobi wrote:A fly swatter?

i was gunna say "buffalo??"

My other MC, Miriam, visited the Jewish section of Paris. (Estelle is still in the hospital after being hit by a SUV.)

Research happened outside of my book to support the editing that had to happeninside. There may or may not have been an hour of procrastination before I got started, but when I finished I had a family member of a supporting character stuck in a forbidden forest and now we know what each character looks like.

Quite a lot happened in my novel today, actually! The MC & crew encountered their first demon general, Grendel, and while the rest of the crew was occupied with demons, the MC chased down Grendel, who was trying to run away. Just as the MC caught up with Grendel, a mysterious figure killed the demon, then ran off. The MC is cocky, though, and took all the credit. He's going to regret that...

Maya (alpha) went to Earth zeta (home of the goth Maya) and, later, to Earth beta (home of the volleyball athlete Maya). In Earth beta, she came close to messing up Maya-beta's try-out for the Newton North HS volleyball team. Also, when Maya-alpha went to Earth zeta, she later discovered that Maya-prime came to Earth alpha (so poor Maya-prime since Maya-zeta probably messed up Maya-prime's homework (if she even tried to do it) while Maya-prime did a great job with Maya-alpha's homework).

And I look at this story and think--wow, this is so inconsequential vs. getting hit by an SUV (or a buffalo flyswatter). ;-)

I am drawing close to where I need to amp up the risk, even as Maya-alpha and her fellow analogs think they are beginning to get a working theory of what is happening...

Buffalo Flyswatter is my new password. Or, would be, if I didn't tell it to all of you just now. Drat. It would also make an awesome band name.

Win!

NewMexicoKid wrote:

Funny, when I mentally pictured a buffalo swatter, I thought it would like a pattern on the swatter, not something to swat buffalos with. I especially like the size dimensions in this.

Yes! That made my day.

Today in the novel:

Quessa and her team rescued one of the team member's relatives from the forbidden forest and a creature attacked them...and they have to find a way to kill it before it leaves the forest and decides to head to the city.

Yay progress!

Too bad I didn't see this sooner!

Today my characters are trying to out-sail a patrolling ship near a line of truce between two nations. Their alternate routetook them a little too close to the shallow shore drop ofvolcanic islands, and the ship is taking on a bit of water from scrapingagainstthe rough rocks. Little do they know it only gets worse from here. (~_^)

I'm mostlyworking on updating my outline and writing up scene summaries for the 2nd 1/3 of the book. All of which I'm counting as word count, of course! Still need to come up with Indiana Jones-type traps for them to face when they eventually find the cave where Darrow's Doom awaits...

~Kiela

We need "like" buttons for things like this... (~_^)

Wow! Last night I realized I'm filling my novel with nano! My MC has a slew of nano drones as well as nano bots. When I get a breather (after I've finished 50k words) I'll check to see how many nano's I've included. Such a surprised I'm filling my book with tributes to the organization which has nurtured my novel writing.

I really like this thread - it's like a way to keep myself accountable.

Today in the life of Dream of Tinda, the novel:

I did a lot more editing, planning, and researching and hopefully on Saturday I'll be able to sit down and write away instead of feeling like I need to keep changing things around.

I lopped off the head of one of my characters. He got better, though, and had a good laugh at everyone's reaction.

One of my characters overheard the captain and first mateplotting to get rid of them and go after the treasureon their own(leave them stranded? Kill them? Amounts to the same thing...). They subsequently started preparations to sneak away in plain sight under everyone's noses, and even had some of the ship's crewmen help them do it without realizing the end game. Sneaky, sneaky! (^_^)

Moral of today's writing: Don't cheat me, or I'll work faster and cheat you first! (~_^)

~Kiela

The team dove into a nest of fire demons and got separated. I wanted to use this time for a little character development but my characters seem to have minds of their own and are just refusing to talk about the important stuff.

After I set the scene in a prison, I realized just how little I knew about prison construction and layout. :\ If anyone has advice feel free to NaNo mail me. Right now, the most useful tool I've found is a wiki for a computer game aptly titled "Prison Architect."

In my novel today, Quessa researched the history of the city's prophecies, and the enemy made their attack and kidnapped a scholar - a key ingredient to keep the city running. During the attack, Quessa saw a man that resembled her father, but no one believed her since she had been knocked out during the fight and they were all taught the enemy was a band of monsters.

Try this on for size. I've always been fascinated by Stateville Prison's layout. As far as I know it's a one of a kind, but I haven't researched it that deeply. I've always wanted to find a place for that layout in one of my stories - maybe you'll beat me to it! (^_^)

Good luck!

~Kiela

I noticed that circles were a recurring theme IRL (not so much so in the Prison Architect game since it's grid based.) I've tried to incorporate some of that into the story without spending too much time on description. In the end I think I just made it square. I also don't want to base it on a specific prison, because in my story demons slaughter most all of the people there.

Angelo just revealed to Sam, his and Main Char Nick's mentor, that his wife left him, and the two had a touching heart-to-heart talk! On Thanksgiving day, no less!

Today my characters feasted in honor of the crown prince's birthday, and his younger brother used the wrong fork for the pheasant. (No one noticed.) Then they danced. The annoying step-sister got the first dance, but Cinderella got the second, third, fourth, and fifth. And despite what she says, my characters have determined that Cinderella is definitely NOT from the next kingdom over. Also, she's a terrible liar, but nobody's calling her out on it.

Scarlett realized she loves Brucato, even though she's been treating their betrothal as a mere formality and avoiding their union for the better part of a millennium.

Trouble is brewing in the Air Realm. And the Fire Realm. And the Shadow Realm.

Rinxon is losing his powers.

And someone from the distant past is back.

I took a break from my novel to write on another project I'm hoping to get started.

Alva finally convinces Crystal, her boss and BFF, (that's best female friend,) to join Spiderweb, and shows her how to add lines, broadcast, and bug people. When Ramos, another crew member on board Crystal's spaceship, joins Crystal's web, he is perplexed to find not only a dearth of lines in her web, but also that one of her connections is someone no one on the ship has ever heard of. He and Alva muse over who this man could possibly be; An old flame, perhaps? A teacher? A family member? The intrigue rages as none on board has the courage to ask Crystal directly.