50,000 Words Down... and the journey continues!

Day 27
Word Count: 50,522
Mood: Ohhh yeeeeaaaaa, baby! Hear Me Roar!! [In the Lannister slogan way, not the Katy Perry way, just to be clear!]

 "A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." Wise Words, Tyrion.

I did it! 50,000 big ones written down (50,522 to be exact!). It feels great. My novel has really taken shape and developed into something that I am proud of. That being said, I still have a lot more to write to complete it. I have it planned to be around 80 chapters and I'm only around chapter 40 (crazy, I know), which means I'm only halfway there.

Just in case you are worried, my chapters are not that long, so it won't be some huge tome of a book that is never-ending. It has an ending... at least... for now... until the sequel! ;)

After validating my novel, I was greeted by this!

I am steadfast in my dedication to this book, so I plan on continuing my writing through December and until I finish this book. One of the NaNoWriMo Pep-talkers gave advice that was beautifully simple: "Write. And Just Write."

It's that simple.

So, I shall. I shall write, ye naysayers! Wait, don't exit my blog. Keep reading!

I plan on sharing more information about my novel and spotlighting my POV characters in the future. I want my many* blog readers to get to know them!

Until next time, thanks for following my NaNoWriMo dreams! Success, chyaa!

Check out this video for NaNo winners!

- ben josé

*by many, I mean maybe 2 or 3. 

Catching Wriiiiter!

Day 25
Word Count: 47,627 (which means only 2,373 words left)
Mood: Tired, but excited! I'm Tirecited!

Only 2,373 words left! A-yo, a-yo! This is the word count I reached on Friday afternoon. And that is where I am now, on Monday afternoon. I didn't write any words over the weekend and once again my reasons are: a) still in the process of moving and it rocks. November should be called Movember and not for the no-shaving thing, but for my unending process of moving all month, b) Catching Fiyyyyah!, and c) turkey on ma mind.

Johanna. Best part of C.Fiyaaah!

This weekend I spent two nights out at cool bars near my new house. Tis very difficult to have fun in a bar while sober, but I surprisingly managed to sober-dance my way to a great time. When in doubt, just start sober-dancing, it'll fix everything. I've mastered some great moves, such as the "Arm-Crutch" dance and the "White-Man Jumping" dance. Maybe I'll post a video of my moves soon.

I can't believe it is already November 25th! I feel like I barely got to explain more of my book! But, maybe I'll continue this blog after November and include some excerpts from my book or go into more detail about the world and characters. If you don't know what Steampunk is, get on it because the world of my book is all about that Steam & those punks!

Oh, here's a short synopsis of my book that is on my NaNoWriMo page:

In the once grand city of Annonay, a divide has grown between the rich and the poor. The rich prosper and party with reckless abandon up on the hills. The poor struggle to survive the harsh rule of the military police in the dilapidated streets below.

When the sinister Dr. Yann Bel Geddes brings in a naive young scientist to complete the final steps of his powerful new gravitational technology, the city will be forever changed. The sky will be ripped apart and all will float and all will fall. Only those in specialized thermal air balloons will be able to survive the horror that follows...

Adventure, Romance, Mystery, Horror, Tragedy, Hot Air Balloons.

Yeaaaah?? Thoughts?? Side note: I really like hot air balloons.

Oh, look! Ballooooons!

Five days to go!

- ben josé

Day 19 - Donkey Kong that Novel

Day 19
Word Count: 32,028
Mood: First Name Panic, Last Name Attack

Day 19! How is this possible? Time sure does fly when you are having fun (aka stressin' out & movin' & shakin'). As you can see, I only wrote about one thousand-something words since Friday. Yikes! But my excuses are real. I was moving this weekend. And you probably know that moving is not just a walk in the park. It takes a lot out of you (it took out some of the skin on my knee!).

Here are some moving pictures just in case you thought I was lying:

What is this nonsense? A backyard!

New Digs! Chyeah!

Clearly, I was helpful in driving the truck.

U better call Uhaul!

I only moved my big stuff to the new house, so am now occupying two spaces. We have our old apartment until December 3rd, so we are going to gradually move out to the house in the next eleven days because who doesn't want to drag something out until the last possible moment. (Sound familiar, NaNoWrimo?)

Oh, so, my novel. Yeah, it is coming along. I don't think I will be officially done with it when I hit 50,000 words, so lets hope I just keep up the enthusiasm past the end of November and into December so that I can actually finish it.

I've gotten a lot of advice and pep talks from friends and NaNo Coaches, so I'm feeling confident.

Hey, Wine & Beer, y'all don't scare me! No matter how sweet your smoky nectar smells, I will not drink thee!

Unrelated sidenote: I am going to call Day 19, Donkey Kong Day (the day I listened over and over to the soundtrack of Donkey Kong Country). The soundtrack is damn good and upbeat and makes me want to do my thang! DK and Diddy are my bros 4 life! My personal faves include Ice Cave Chant, Vulture Culture, and Aquatic Ambience.

Hate those damn Zingers (cool term for da bees)

Oh, also at one point this weekend, I tried to live-tweet, Mulan 2. I don't know why I shared that information. Eddie Murphy didn't even voice Mushu. Not over it.

It's official: I'm just the coolest. Ok, I should probably stop writing this blog and start writing my novel. BYE.

- ben josé

Halfway There & Losing My Mind

Day 15
Word Count: 30,918
Mood: I don't know if my mood can be defined at the moment.

Wow, what a stressful and crazy week it has been. I haven't had time to update this blog because I've been stressing out majorly as I prepare to move into a house in Hollywood. With 5 other people. And a dog. And a cat. Not joking. If you think I'm a crazy, insane person, you would be correct. Follow my antics on Twitter. Shameless selfish plug. Sorry. (No, I'm Not!).

Okay, but you might be looking at my word count (30,918 big ones) and thinking, "Hey, it's going well! 30K words is not too shabby! Good on ya, Ben José! You get yours!" Think again, intrepid blog reader. The past 15,000 words that I wrote have been hard-fought and tough. I wrote the longest chapter of my novel so-far (a whopping 11 pages) where I had to catch up the reader on the past five days of one of my characters. I decided to write it in the present day, with flashbacks to each former day, throughout.

So, basically, when someone decides to read my book and gets to this chapter, this is where they will decide to stop reading my book because it makes absolutely no sense. I haven't bothered with editing anything I've written so far because I'm afraid I will be consumed in the throes of revision and self-mutilation.

Wow, I sound so confident right now. Please, come read my book. You'll love it!

HAHHHH.

Well, on a good note, I still haven't had a drop of alcohol in the past 15 days. Go me! It's been nice. I haven't been hungover. I haven't drunkenly offended anyone. This life ain't too bad. I'm definitely going to need a drink when December 1st comes. So, pray for me then.

I guess this is all I have to say right now. BAH. I feel confident about getting to 50,000 words in 15 days. Only 20,000 to go. Halfway point! Woo. Yay. Can I get an "Ohhh yeahhh!?"

Okay. Bye. Ugh.

- ben josé

Day 8

Day 8
Word Count: 15,459
Mood: Stressed/Weird. I just used a neti pot on myself because I'm been sick. It works, but leaves the weirdest sensations in my nose.

I've been fighting a cold/cough/sore throat thingy for the past week, which is perfect. I love being sick. On top of that, I have been stressed because I am in the beginning stages of moving into a new place. I am moving into a house in Hollywood with 5 other people, 1 cat, and 1 dog. Now, there is a sentence I'd never thought I'd say in life!

So, I'm sort of using those two things as excuses as to why I have been procrastinating all week. Ughhhh... this week! As I sit down to write, I distract myself so easily: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, the damn INTERNETS are so distracting. Somehow I managed to get 15,000 words though. Which is about um.. more than 1/4th of the way through I think? I used to be good at math. Le Sigh.

Luckily, I've been getting great advice from some awesome NaNoWriMo Pep Talkers. The wise words of authors, James Patterson, Malinda Lo, Catherynne M. Valente, and Pat Rothfuss, saved me from writing destitution. Follow them on Twitter because thanks to them I didn't have a mental breakdown and throw my computer across my office in frustration!

(Side note: things and feelings are happening with my nose. Seriously, try a neti pot! I swear I'm not trying to sell them or something!)

Neti Pots: The Nasal Saviors

As for my novel, things are developing quite nicely. Some exciting things were written in the past week for two of my characters. I don't want to reveal too much about the story and plot twists, but one of my characters is very different and could be considered controversial for a fantasy novel. But, I hope whenever people ever get a chance to read this (ha!), that they see what I was going for in the grander scheme of things.

Coming up, I am about to write a chapter on a character named, Theo. He is a young, naive scientist new to town and he is about to learn some dark things about his employer and his special, secret work. Ooooh.

I have no idea if I am making sense right now. Still sober.

Tomorrow is the official NaNoWriMo Marathon! I plan on donating some moolah and reaching 30,000 words, which may be stretching it, but its good to hope! So, get ready for the NaNoThon! Follow up on Twitter! 

Thanks for reading!

- ben josé

Day 5!

Day 5
Word Count: 9,777
Mood: Wooooohoo, I need a drink. Oh, wait...

I spent a majority of my day today writing and it felt damn good. I got a good chunk of my story in and lots of things developed, including some new things. I wrote over 4,000 words today and caught up with the pace that NaNoWriMo sets for you to write each day (1,667). So, that's nice!

However, once I had written all those words today, my first thought after closing my computer was: I'm going to head next door to the Farmer's Market for a happy hour beer. Yum, yum, beer in ma belly! But, I can't. No alcohol. Damn. It's been less than a week since I stopped and, despite this urge, I feel great about it. I don't need no happy hour beer, y'all!

You can check out my progress below or here or go to Nanowrimo.org to see how everyone is doing. Los Angeles is doing pretty damn good this year.

Onwards and Upwards: Hell yeah graph!

On Monday, I didn't write much because I was finishing fleshing out my story's timeline. I charted out each character's main actions each day and night to make sure everything lined up in the end. I discovered that this novel takes place over only 10 days. Something I didn't know before. Hm. So, good to figure that out. Here's a little snippet of that chart with some of the characters:

Wow, this chart is super complicated and mysterious.

As I mentioned before, "A Song of Ice and Fire" aka "Game of Thrones" is one of the biggest influences on my writing. Like "GOT," each chapter in my book is from the point of view of a different character. In this first book, I have eight point-of-view characters with wildly different experiences and beliefs. It is fun writing for these completely different characters and really getting into the heads of each of the characters. For each character, I listen to a different station on Pandora. It's pretty fun. Maybe a little later on in the month I will go into more depth about each character and their story.

I am the hardest critic on myself, so I have to learn to let go and just accept my writing for what it is. This is only a first draft, so I don't have to be completely nitpicky (that is until I reread everything when I'm done. Then I will nitpick it up! Is nitpick a real word? The answer is yes!).

Well, the sun has set on another day and only 25 days remain. I have about 41,000 words to go. Thanks for checking in, folks.

Side note: The soundtrack to "Amelie" is beyond beautiful. Ah, to be quirky in Paris...

- ben josé

Day 3

Three days in. Well technically, two days in. It is still in the very early hours of day three. I've been up since 8:30am. Why you ask? Because of this cat.

Dany Bitch: Yes, she has her own Tumblr.

She's very cute, but very annoying. But, I guess I can thank her because now I have a head start on Day 3 of NaNoWriMo. So far my word count is: 3,325. Woo! That is pretty good, I must say. The majority of those words I wrote on Friday. The weekend is not my friend when it comes to productivity. I had two simultaneous birthday parties to go to on opposite sides of LA (Venice and Echo Park). And I resisted the temptation to drink in two party settings. It's really hard not to drink when at Bootie LA. That place almost requires drinking to get by.

Also, my phone suspiciously died/broke on me on Friday, so I had to journey to the seventh layer of hell: The Grove Apple Store, to get it fixed. Luckily, they were able to give me a new phone for free. Woo! This is about the 5th or 6th iPhone I've had replaced in the last year. I am very unlucky with phones. 

Some other crazy things happened this weekend, but I will talk about them later this week. This blog post ain't ready for that jazz this early in the morn.

Despite the drama and busy weekend plans, I still managed to somehow get in 3,325 words. I have also been simultaneously charting out each character's day-to-day activities so as I don't lose track in my story's timeline. Fun stuff! In order to finish 50,000 words by December 1st, I am supposed to type 1,667 words per day. Right now, I am above that word count. Let's hope I can stay that way. 

I guess I shall stop writing this blog and start writing my novel. 27.5 days to go!

- ben josé