And I did it! Even went over my target word count by a couple hundred. Mind you, it was all backstory for my main character, but it's something I needed to do. (I am still annoyed with myself that I couldn't get it done before November 1st.) One more day and I should all the backstory stuff written down.

I also need to decide who the main villain will be, but they aren't really going to be present in the first few chapters anyway so I should be able to keep writing my story as I figure it out.

I'm writing a M/M romance. It occurs in a historically-inspired fictional time and place.

I have lots of plot bunnies too... Only I'm pretty sure my plot bunnies are not bunnies at all. I think they are actually little gremlins... And that they are in cahoots with my muse. Pretty sure they'll be staging a revolt after a week or two. I'm just hoping I can find a way to fend them off.

My mum is on a war path and frustratingly enough keeps distracting from Nano. And also I'm selfish for wanting to put it first. I wonder why the heck I keep doing this. Where's the point of Nano? It's not important blinks sadly and tries not to cry sorry for this rant

Fortunately, my mom is pretty supportive of my writing most of the time. Usually I do a better job at distracting myself anyhow. As for NaNo being important, I'm not sure that it is. However, writing because you want to write is very important. No matter your motivation... Getting published, practicing your writing skills, or just getting that nagging voice that keeps telling you to "tell my story" to shut up. (Personally I think my motivation is mostly the latter.) NaNo is just a good motivation to write regularly. Any kind of progress, even if it doesn't meet the goals they've built in on the site, is wonderful and you should be proud of yourself for keeping at it.

I was really enjoying it and now I just feel bummed out. And all my plot bunnies has escaped.

That happens. Most of the time I lose motivation and inspiration when I get stressed out by real life and, in my experience, forcing it doesn't help. As I said on a different topic back in May, frustration is the killer of creativity. (Click if you are interested in reading what else I wrote.) If you need to write something different than what you've started, I'd say go for it. Whatever it is, as long as it helps you, then it counts. It's still writing. I was totally a NaNo Rebel last year and worked on story building for multiple projects at once. It was important. It was necessary for me to make progress so I am glad I did it.

Thanks :) I started on a new story that is based in the same setting

- I also like to write fantasy, the problem with fantasy is I usually put way too much thought into the world building and less into the actual plot :(

- I tell myself I won't play catch up every year, and then I do anyway. GL sticking with it!

That's great!

Sadly, it has peaked my muse's interest because I already have other stories planned for the same story-world as the one I am working on right now. The little trouble-maker is trying to persuade me to work on one of them instead. Fortunately, my muse and I have already had this discussion before NaNo even began so I have an argument ready and I won't be so easily distracted. -moves train of thought back on track- XD

I also enjoy world-building too much... which is why the world in my current project is mostly realistic. I probably would have been working on a fantasy-based story if I hadn't ended up with such limited time to plan. As for plot... I listed the things I need, personalized a beat sheet, and I'm just playing fill-in-the-blank. It's giving me some direction at least.

- Yeah, I've been slowly working on some sort of plan/outline for my story, it has involved slowly going over the old story and picking out things that I liked that happened, and things that really didn't work and trying to figure out how to fix them. I just looked up my old map and realized that none of the city names are on it except like two :( So that's something I'll have to grab from the old story as well.

I've been doing something similar with my notes for this story, which I've been working on somewhat for at least 4 years. Fortunately, I don't have a whole lot of info to go through. It's never really been a main focus because I was having too much fun with my aliens and elves and vampires and... Well, you get the idea. It's kinda funny to me that after all that effort, the other concepts aren't quite there yet, so this first story of a "back burner" project may be the first one I actually complete. LOL

For anyone who might be interested:

Even though I like to write romance, the beat sheet I use is more focused on action, because I like to incorporate that into my stories as well.

I was writing about one of my fiction schools and already another one decided to sneak in and take the spotlight. Just how did I not notice this. And according to my story it's across the town from the school that I was writing about in the beginning. Well I guess this can help my word count. The Storm Oak community has interesting schools :)

I'm glad to see everyone making progress. ^.^ I didn't quite get my word count yesterday, RL got in the way plus I had to watch this week's The Walking Dead. XD (I am utterly obsessed with TWD, that plus my obsession with a character from something else tends to get in the way of my writing.) But I'm hoping on getting caught up today. crosses fingers

I usually work with more complex worlds than I am this year, I really want to see what I can do with a new idea and minimal prep. XD We'll see if I'm cursing myself in a couple weeks.

I feel your pain of having unsupportive people around you. My husband's attitude about it ranges from indifference to annoyance that it's taking up so much of my time. It's freaking frustrating and upsetting. >.< But I'll be damned if I'm gonna let that stop me.

I have played catch up for the last four years, I'm going to try really hard not to do it again!

- Well, I'm still a day behind because I only got my daily minimum yesterday, hopefully today will be better, and hopefully I can keep up this year, no intrusive trips to Florida (although, that was super fun)

- Your Beats thing is pretty neat, my story is already shaping up to follow it pretty well actually... the problem is, even though I'm trying to cut back this time around, it's still going to be much longer than 50k words.

I would totally take a trip to Florida over NaNo xD Good luck!

- It was pretty sweet. I barely got any writing done though, so I was about a week behind up until the last 4 days when I just power wrote. Hoping to not have to do that this year.

You got it done, that's all that matters... right? haha

- Yup! This is my 7th nano, and I haven't lost yet! (Though, I haven't really won either since I've yet to actually complete anything)

Morning Nano's : It's 5:15 AM here on the West Coast. How about a little Writing Challenge. Let's write for an hour before we have to go to work and post our word counts at 6:15. Ready Set Go!

[edit]

It's 6:15 Time's Up.

I got 842 words. What did you get?

- Congrats on that word count boost! I was not up that early, let alone would be capable of being able to write at that hour! Go you!

I only got 1500 words yesterday, which means I still need to write 3000+ words today to catch up.