The Caffeinated Writings

Finally!

2008-11-30T20:28:00.005+08:00

Yes. Yes. YES!!!

This is my fourth year of joining NaNoWriMo, and this is the only year that I've won! Wooooo! I am over the roof! I am over the top! I DID IT!!!

Needless to say, I couldn't have done it alone without the help of the PinoyWrimos and the useful tips I picked up from the wonderful people there. My thanks to you all! Winning this year is definitely the best there is!

Prior to the word count validation, I encountered what seemed to be the biggest, most stupid mistake ever. Right when I was combining all the chapters into one master documents, I realized that there were some parts of the novel that went missing. Then I realized that I must've left some of the documents at my PC at work, which means that the flash drive that I've always considered to be the master container for the entire novel was actually incomplete. And that means that the word count that I validated up the the NaNo website is not the complete word count at all. *headdesk*

It's a good thing that some of the parts still make up for the 50k mark, so I was still able to get that purple bar, and that shiny web banner badge. And yes, I am still in shock.

On another note, my novel is still incomplete. When I hit the 50k cut, I was still in the middle of writing the conflict part of the story (which is turning blah every time I check up on it), and I still have to finish the resolution/ending part. So in essence, I'm still not done with the writing. I feel as if my work is half baked. Hahaha!

I think I'm going to give myself the time off my novel for next week. I want to look at the storyl with new eyes the next time I open MS Word. By then, I hope I already have a good ending for it.

I'm just glad it's over. Time to get back to real life and responsibilities. Hehehe.

P.S.: If ever I'm joining next year, I swear to God I'm writing a different genre and I'm really going to prepare for it.

Almost there...

2008-11-25T00:05:00.002+08:00

With only 3k words or so left...I haven't even gotten to write the conflict portion, barely finished on the resolution, and zero on the ending.

Hahahahaha. I'm probably going to bore my readers if I were to let this novel out on the loose. XD

Major, major update finally!

2008-11-22T00:00:00.004+08:00

Shizzz...I haven't been writing here that much, now haven't I?

I've been really, really busy with my NaNo piece ever since Week 2, and it's still a big struggle for me to get out of the ugly scenes. Right now I'm trying to work myself towards the conflict part of the story, so it's going to take me a huge effort to stay awake long enough for me to write decently.

And yeah, I know this post should be something on what my story is all about, but I'm taking this rare opportunity in the middle of a super hectic Week 3 to answer this for Kat's Moleskine contest.

What is your favorite month of the year, and what makes it so special?

Most people would probably answer December because it's everybody's favorite time of the year when everybody else is nice and you get to have an extended vacation. But in my case, I happen to love October, my birth month.

Obviously that's one of the main reasons, but aside from that, I find it rather amazing that there are a lot of Octoberians out there! I sort of noticed that since I usually listen to RX 93.1's Chico and Delamar and there's this deluge of birthday greetings for the month of October alone.

But really, I just love October, especially on my birthday (haha!). I can't believe I'm actually happy about turning older, but I just feel extra special on that day. It's like there's this virtual spotlight shining down on me. That, and because I happen to share the same birth date with Viggo Mortensen. Bohahaha! Kababawan daw?

Oh yeah, and McArthur came back to the Philippines on that same day. Not the same year though, but you get my drift.

And like any other birthdays, I call the shots. Best feeling in the world.

Warring with friends

2008-11-03T23:06:00.005+08:00

This'll just be a quick entry.

I managed to get productive today, thanks to my friend, JC, who was game enough to engage on a one-on-one Word War just to get us both the needed word count boost (told ya I was addicted to this XD).

The result? I was at around 2k+ words again! Wooohoooo! My fingers hurt like crap, as usual, and going beyond the minimum daily quota is such a field day for me. Hehehe.

Soon to post: Things about Live Journal, my NaNoWriMo piece (and about time, don't you think? :D)

P.S.: Speaking of which, I forgot to mention that I managed to win the 2nd PinoyWrimo Word Wars last night. Haha. Lucky break, I guess. ^^

NaNo OSTs

2008-11-02T10:25:00.006+08:00

Good morning world!

Hahaha. I'm up early today (as early as 6am). I barely slept, and my back hurts like crap, but still, I'm miraculously awake! I'm half contemplating on getting an early start on writing today and catching up on sleep again, but for some reason, I don't want to do those two just yet. I'd prefer to play online games right now, but my PC at home is not built for such things, so I'm just surfing the Net for the meantime and racking up my brains for a good intro on the next chapter.

Wow. I can't believe I'm starting Chapter 2 of my novel now. It's finally coming together.

I'm still waiting for Idge, my trust iPod Nano, to charge up her batteries so I can get started on writing. Apart from the 2 consecutive days of Word Wars with the PinoyWrimos, listening to loud music helps me push the daily word count limits. I really prefer to have the music blasting on my ears so as to drown out my Inner Editor, and the urge to re-read what I've written. Trust me, it's a lot easier to sprint your way to your daily word quotas without that critical voice telling you to go back and rewrite.

And speaking of music, I ought to revamp my music list to more writing conducive tracks (read: loud and fast music). Here's what I've been currently playing on repeat on my iPod:

Britney Spears - Womanizer (helped me A LOT on those 2 days of Word Wars!)
Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
Jordin Sparks - One Step at a Time
Git Fresh - Booty Music
Pink - So What
David Archuleta - Crush
The Script - The Man Who Can't Be Moved

I'm going to add a bit more to that by tomorrow and hopefully, I'd be more inspired to write and hit those daily quotas!

[edit]

This just in...

Another Word War rampage tonight!

*does a quick back flip*

Wooohooo!!! Thanks, Tina! ^_^

Daily Word Wars?

2008-11-01T23:28:00.004+08:00

I'm beginning to think that I'll be needing daily doses of Word Wars.

I just joined yet another Word War with my fellow PinoyWrimos. It's unofficial by the way, but I've got to admit that the pressure is doing good for me to go beyond the usyal 1,667 daily word quotas. If it weren't for the Word Wars, I'd probably be stuck on page 2 with less than a thousand words by now.

I can always wage personal word wars by myself, but I guess the thrill of competing pushes me beyond my limits (that and constant repeats of Britney Spear's Womanizer single on my iPod). Blame it on the fact that it's a weekend too and I have a lot of time to work on my novel. It kinda makes me wonder if I can still carry on once work begins again next week.

For now, I'm thrilled that my word count's easing up. 4,252 words FTW!

First word count wooot!

2008-11-01T01:26:00.001+08:00

1,762 words.

Not bad for my first attempt in joining the Word Wars, eh? ^^

But Mitch, one of the Wrimos, keyed in around 2k+ for the 1 hour word sprint! Insane, I say. Definitely insane (in a good way :P).

I'm just happy that I'm already seeing my characters take shape! Wooot!

Okay, I'm hitting the sack now. Got another batch of words to type later today. *cracks fingers*

Waiting for 10:30PM

2008-10-31T20:54:00.000+08:00

Never have I felt so anxious in my entire life just by looking at the clock. In a few hours or so, the official PinoyWrimo Chat and Word Wars will commence, and I'm going to pieces just by thinking about the pressure of chasing after the word count thingamajig. I really don't have any plans of winning tonight's person-with-the-most-number-of-word-counts award. I just want to give this novel a steady jump start, that's what.

Hmm..so what do I have here? I got my notes: character sketches, chapter outlines, quotable quotes and a chick lit book I've been recently reading (the story sucks, btw). I was supposed to buy an energy drink to keep me from falling asleep, but to my excitement in buying chips & sweets at the grocery a while ago, I forgot to include those drinks. So here I am with a tall glass of water to keep me awake (I just hope I stay that way).

A few of my close friends will be joining the chat tonight (I hope they won't forget!), so it's going to be a good experience for me. God, I'm just about ready to pee in my pants now, but I do hope I make good on my word count tonight! *crosses fingers*

T-minus 4 days

2008-10-28T22:35:00.000+08:00

Ugh. I've got only 4 days left before the dreaded D-Day and I have a couple of dilemmas:

Supporting character names and background
Chapter outlines

I've been trying to squeeze in these little brainstorming activities in between work, and so far I was only able to come up with sketches for the female main character (FMC), 3 supporting characters and one of the male main characters (MMC). I know it's not enough to keep the story afloat until at least a quarter of the word count quota, and in case if no one hasn't noticed yet, yes I'm panicking!

I took a leave at work because I had to stay in the house to take care of my sick mom, and also to give myself some ample time to review for the teaching demo I have tomorrow (still got no topic to teach, gah! >_<). If you're thinking I've got a lot of time to make a mad rush before Saturday, hell no. But I'm giving it a shot.

I also downloaded a very useful noveling software, the Writer's Cafe. I'm still learning the ropes on how to navigate and make use of the different features, but it's already growing on me. Blame it on the fact that it's so compatible to the Asus eeePC. Good thing I had installed the software in Gavin (my baby eeePC) and I have a feeling it's going to be so useful around.

Anyway, I gotta end here for now. I still have a demo to think about, on top of flailing over my NaNo woes.

Toodles!

PinoyWrimo EB/Kick-off meeting

2008-10-26T00:34:00.000+08:00

Wow. It's really on its way. November is just looming beyond the horizon and I shudder to think what would become of me soon after.

I finally got to meet some of the PinoyWrimos who attended the Kick-off Meeting at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Robinson's Galleria. Well, I was a tad bit late so when I got there, the guys and gals were already doing the very simple, yet useful task or helping each other out in providing insights for our novels. Too bad I didn't get to meet them all and acquaint on a personal level, since everyone was deep in thought with the activity (serious people are serious XD).

Blurry photos are burry >_<

It was a bit surprising on my end when I wrote the short synopsis for my story. It looked to me like I can use the short, albeit magulo synopsis, for something like the summary of the novel! Oh. Em. Gee. Never in my wildest dreams did I think to give a compliment to myself to write a sensible synopsis under time pressure. It still needs a bit of work, but the idea was there.

And speaking of ideas, I'm really excited to write my novel with all the useful ideas the guys contributed to make my story more believable (well, for me at least XD). There were a few thoughts that were so interesting to include in the novel. For once, I feel as if this novel is really going to materialize! Wooot!

I wasn't able to hang out after the activity because I had this mondo huge headache, not to mention the fact that I had to attend another EB, our online game guild's anniversary, over at TriNoma.

But then again, I'm really grateful to all the PinoyWrimos and to Tina for organizing this super fun get-together! Here's to hoping I make it through the deadline, and to more interesting ideas!

Random ramblings

2008-10-25T00:08:00.000+08:00

Woooo! Yet another blog for me! Sometimes, I dunno if I'm just coming up with random ramblings instead of something useful. Well I do hope this latest addition to my growing number of blogs will serve its purpose, now that I've signed up yet again for the NaNoWriMo 2008.

I'm planning to get this blog going to talk about the experiences of writing a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. Quite a tall order, notwithstanding the daily word count quotas that I plan to work on so I won't be too overwhelmed with the screaming 50k cut.

What am I talking about? Blogging when you have this huge, ambitious deadline hanging over you like dull knives?

Sometimes, I dunno what's wrong with me to further incriminate myself to more work, stress and shit. I really don't know. I guess what matters most to me is reaching that damned 50k cut.

And I think this year's the time to win this thingamajig. Hopefully.