Thank you! :) JK Rowling's stuff is really good--I am especially inspired by her ability to transcend age barriers. EVERYONE reads Harry Potter, from elementary schoolers to grandparents. Maybe she had an initial target audience of YA but it's become so much more than that. Do you happen to remember where you found her planning advice?

Huge props to you for having accomplished such a feat! I suppose it helps to think of stories in segments, doesn't it? Looking back on it, I guess a big reason why my stuff seems shorter is because I'm big into characterization and my pieces tend to only focus on one to two characters at a time and their interactions. There are plenty of books out there that only deal with a minimum cast and are still a good chunk of story, though...

- Stories with only one or two characters can be really good though. I write longer stuff because I like think about how every element works and fits into the story, and then I try to explain it all even though it's not that important. This is my second time trying to write this story, and I'm trying to cut back a lot on the history and how the magic works etc. and just focus on the characters and the story. I probably could stretch this story into something with a long overarching plot, but I don't think it would be very good. Unlike LoTR or HP or those types of multi-book series which have overarching plots, but also each segment has it's own little climax, I really only have one or two main events that can stand alone on their own as decent plot.

I'm not very worried about being behind. I've already managed to catch up to just having today's word count to do. Though I am going back into my story and adding other characters parts. I've decided that it's such a tangled web of deceit and everything else that it's probably best to go back and put some of the other characters parts in the until now only lived in my head. This also means that I don't know that I will actually end my story at the end of November, Which means I probably should do the same thing and end up breaking this book into parts. But I feel like I've written so much already and I just haven't gotten my characters to where they need to be. The conflict portion just hasn't really happened enough.

So much mess, not enough brain power to figure it out at the moment. I almost feel like my characters are driving me mad, and I want to step away from it but I can't because they aren't ready for me to leave them as they are just yet.

edit: I believe it was on pintrest but it was through another article. I'm sure if you google searched it you could probably find it fairly easy.

I'm a little behind with just under 20k words now, but I can type fast and a lot when I'm in the mood (up to 6k a day) so I'm not worried.

- Yeah, I know what you mean. Writing it all out is good, even if you cut it out later.

- just under 20k isn't that far behind. You should be able to catch up in no time, especially if you can get some good bursts going.

I managed to get just over 300 words yesterday. OTL Real life was partly to blame, but not completely. I let myself get distracted by YouTube at a time when I should have been writing. I don't know if today is going to be any better because today is usually the worst day of the week for me, writing wise, since it also usually the busiest.

There are so many plotting methods out there. I've watched different YouTube videos and read different articles. Now I working on building my own using the things that really clicked for me about each. In particular, I tend to use a 7-point system to start (Click for YouTube playlist featuring a talk Dan Wells gave about this method) and I usually repeat it for each of my characters to figure out their character arc, make notes using the stream of consciousness method, and then fill in a modified Beat Sheet. And really, that's the trick... Figuring out what works best for you, because you could be limiting yourself trying to stick to what worked for someone else.

Chuck Wendig has an interesting article about some of the different methods here: (Click for 25 Ways To Plot, Plan and Prep Your Story) Though I feel I ought to warn you... He likes to get kinda crude in his blog posts... He even has a disclaimer in his little blurb about himself: "Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. This is his blog. He talks a lot about writing. And food. And pop culture. And his kid. He uses lots of naughty language. NSFW. Probably NSFL. Be advised." (I really like to read his articles about writing tips... So... Yeah. LOL) JK Rowling's method is referenced there under Spreadsheets and provides a link to her barely legible hand-written spreadsheet. Anyway, the Spreadsheet method is typically used in conjunction with other plotting methods and is basically just a way to keep track of everything. I suggest taking a look at this pintrest as well: (Story Engineering) I think it is far less entertaining but it is probably far more helpful. :D

I've been working on coming up with a short summary for my first story of this series, and I'll probably try to do that for each of the stories and then the series. It has helped tremendously because I am having to take everything I know and pin-point the most important factors. Though I haven't actually finished the proper "official" summary yet I can actually sorta explain my story to people now because of the following:

A Summary Sentence [Character] wants [goal to be achieved] because [motivation for acting] but faces [conflict standing in the way].

And this beauty... "Plot is [external conflict] caused by [outer problem] and the solution is blocked by [internal conflict]. Character is [internal conflict] caused by [inner problem] and the assumed solution is blocked by [misguided goal] but the real solution is catalyzed by [external conflict]. Theme is [outer problem] leads to [internal conflict resolution] which leads to [external conflict resolution]. In other words, the combined solutions for inner and outer conflicts constitutes the theme. Plot + Character = Theme."

For another story series not associated with my current project, I used these method to get a handle on my series theme by switching out character for characters. Obviously, they are pretty basic. I am planning on referencing them and this article (About a Story's Premise) when I get around to actually writing my summary to help make sure I at least start with something concise.

- Ooo, I should probably do that. For each different part. I think 3 parts will work for my story, parts one and two are pretty solid (part one was pretty much completed from before, and two got about halfway done), it's part 3 that's a bit iffy in my mind.

: Just doing my little part to be a ray of sunshine and hope.

OK NaNos!! We are at the two weeks mark, let's keep going. I finally got some time today and cranked out 1600 words and I finally breeched the 25000 word mark. Now it's downhill all the way from here. Keep going, you all can do it!!

Here is a brief summary of my current book ( taken from my NaNoWriMo page )

Benji the Greaser: Savior of Glen Meadow (Part 2) Author: sparkywheezle ( that's my user name, I borrowed if from my cousin Sparky ) Genre: Children's Fiction

Synopsis:

Benjamin Redfern, a black-footed ferret, lives on the fringes of his society and makes his living as a costermonger and tinker. Despite his second-class status, Benji is quite successful at providing for his lovely mate Margo and their eight offspring. Benji's success comes from his gift of wheeling and dealing as he pulls his cart from village to village.

Benji is well liked by the citizens of Glen Meadow, but there is trouble brewing and Benji finds himself in trouble with the local magistrates who have started purging their villages of all lower-class citizens. It seems that there is a war brewing.

In the human town of Glen Meadow there is also in turmoil, the logging industry is at a crossroads, cheep timber is pouring in from South America and China, forcing the closure of the town's lumber mill. The local gold and silver mine is also in trouble, gold prices are at an all time low and the mine operators have decided to shut down the mine and smelter too. As people are laid off the town's economy collapses and the humans flee the dying town.

A gold heist, a war and a major forest fire collide in an event that forever splits time in two in the lives of the small creatures of Glen Meadow, BB and AB, Before Benji and After Benji.

Just updated my word count and I got 1,811 today... (It is still Sunday were I live. Barely.) So... I'm only under 5k words behind at this point. This weekend was awful, schedule wise. Saturday was my worst day yet. I only got 6 words in: "No chance to write today. Meh." I'm trying to prepare for writing extra for Monday's update so I'm literally just stopping by as I do my dailies before getting back at it.

- You can do it! I haven't written anything yet today, but I'm still hopeful to make it to the halfway before midnight here, off I go! just under 2000 words to get there.

Well I'm quite behind. I pretty much did nothing this weekend and I'm supposed to be quite a bit further than I am right now. Apparently my story is going to take a random Scientifiction turn...Not sure its a good plan but at the moment I feel like words are more important. Rough draft and what not.

- Ever book could use more science!

I'm starting to catch up word-count wise and so far all of my words are useful information... That said, I've decided that 90% of the narrative I've written so far isn't even going to be applicable to the first story of the series and is actually better suited to scenes in the following stories. It wasn't really showcasing my MC like I wanted anyway. I'm glad to be able to start fresh, since I've got a much better understanding of my characters and the sequence of events now.

- You can do it! Having stuff that doesn't end up in your current project is fine if it helps you sort things out! My plan for today is to be at 30k, then I can afford myself to work on other projects, like art and RPing that I've been putting off because of Nano.

sigh This happens EVERY year, we get to the halfway mark and everyone disappears, right when I need the most support to push through the last weeks. Guys, I fell behind again, almost 5000 words. I told myself I wouldn't let myself get that far behind again. Where are you guys? cries all alone

Hello my darling NaNoWriMo friends. Let me encourage you to keep writing, I know you can do it. Just remember a few thingies:

• Don't go back and revise, plod forward. Make a promise to yourself to revise in january and February, just not now, revision will only slow your progress down.
• set a goal to write a minimum number of words each day
• Plan to set aside time each day to write.
• Don't give up! You can do it!

Hey if this little weasel can so can you. I got a great bit of advice from my mate just the other day when I was so far behind. He just said, "Go back and flesh out that bit where the children go to school and tell what happened on the first day from each point of view. Just that little suggestion got me another 15,000 words.

Hey, if I can participate in the Wayward Squirrel and hammer out 31,000 words in a role play, I can certainly hammer out enough words ON MY STORY! ( hee hee )

Good Luck NaNos!

: ( hugs you ) You're not alone.

Sorry for disappearing... Between real life, trying to catch up/not fall behind on my word count, and doing a full availability check of the names on the Available Real Word Names topic, I've felt a little overwhelmed the past few days and now Thanksgiving is just two days away. (Holidays are always crazy.) I still haven't quite caught up but I've been staying pretty close to the line. I've still got time today to write some more so I'm gonna try to get at least 1000 more words which will put me only 1000 away from the line. It's stopped being stuff I think is particularly useful though. I feel like I am basically just repeating myself or typing nonsense. I've seriously considered not finishing out the month because it's all about the word count for me at this point, instead of the project. The project is basically done already. I don't think I can do much more with it until I don't have so many things going on at once... (i.e. January 2016) Except maybe organize everything in a more streamlined way and that does not help the word count. -sighs-

Honestly though, I feel like I've already won. In my own little NaNo Rebel way, I've done what I set out to do.

I feel like the primary goal is (or should be) to encourage progress on projects we put off otherwise, to make us prioritize writing. To do that, sometimes we have to give ourselves some creative freedom with our process, so we don't get burnt out. Write nonsense, re-write scenes from a different perspective, do what you need to get your word count and find a way to be happy with what you've accomplished this month. 50k in a month is great but the real winners are those who continue writing regularly once that month is over.

- lol it's ok. I've been bad about writing. Mostly I keep getting distracted by other things that are important, like helping my sister create advent calendars for our family members, and taking my cat to the vet. But at the end of the days when I usually set aside for writing, I've been wanting to do subeta things because it requires less thinking. An old friend of mine has started being active again, and was still interested in the pet that I have been thinking of adopting out because I mainly only adopted it cus she wanted me to, so that's one less thing to do. Tomorrow I have a write-in, so I hope I can do some serious catch-up. I've been getting about 1k words per day for the past 4 days, slowly falling further and further behind.

My project is more about the re-write than the words, but I would still like to get the words. Part one I estimate will be about 75k words, I'll start to re-write part 2 in the new year hopefully, and hopefully get to a place where I am satisfied enough to start writing part three.

- Thanks. I will try to 'weasel' my way out of my hole. I'm not likely to get any good writing done tonight (starting to get a migraine) hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I'm done. I went on a writing binge after Thanksgiving and just wrote stuff. It isn't pretty, but at least it is out of my head for now. I will keep writing because I want to get the writing for 30 consecutive days badge, but I printed my certificate and am going to frame it. This makes my eight year and my eight win, my total word count for the last eight years is 986,714, nearly a million words. Now I need to get something published.

- W00! Congrats! I'm still in a hole, but it's a manageable one. Hoping to get out of it, and maybe even win tomorrow :)

So, I've done it. 52,808 words in total. -collapses- I probably won't write during December, but that's only because I think I'll be too busy.

-looks at Writing Buddies on NaNoWriMo's site- Come on, ! You can do it! Not much further to go now. XD