Welcome to the March 2010 Novel Push Initiative!

(It’s actually 11 days in but shhh….)

Very interesting outcome for the first 10 days. A lot of the veterans aren’t doing so hot while the newcomers are carving us a new one. There’s some serious writing going on here. People are hitting personal milestones left and right. In fact, I think we might have a lot of records set by the end of this month. We shall see!

• The break-down:

1. A “Knock-out” is 0-249 words. (After the Days of Reprieve are exhausted)
2. An “Update” is 250-999 words.
3. A  “Session” is 1,000-1,667 words.  (And earns you an extra Day of Reprieve)
4. A “Tougher-than-NaNo” is anything greater than 1,667.
5. A “THE END!” is when you’ve completed a WIP and type ‘THE END’.

  Read the rest of this entry »

I believe this is everybody in the Novel Push Initiative so far:

Janette Dalgliesh (Janette Dalgliesh)

Eliza (ExploringEliza)

Merrilee Faber (Not Enough Words)

Cassie (J.C. Hart)

Francesca (Making It Up)

L (The Book Bark!)

Ryan G. Sanders (Ryan G. Sanders)

Little Scribbler (Little Scribbler)

Anna Harte (quillsandzebras)

Julie K (Ramblings of an aspiring writer)

Megs (ODDS AND ENDS AND SCATTERED BITS)

Nick Enlowe

ONE MORE DAY LEFT TO JOIN!!!

Some of you were ‘maybe’s. So if you’re on the list and want out, let me know or forever hold your peace. ;)

Welcome back to the Novel Push Initiative!

This time around, there’s a very good incentive to writing more than 250 words per day, and there’s still that accountability we all know and love.

If this is your first time participating, welcome! I hope you’ll find support and encouragement (and your writing) will flow like water this March.

THE BASICS: Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the finish line—You’ve made it!

Without further ado, the final statistics:

1.

Joseph Lewis:

Read the rest of this entry »

Ahoy thar, mateys. Ye be crossin’ the gangplank to yet another tally fer the Novel-Push Initiative. And this one be massive, includin’ average wordcounts and goin’ from the 15th all the way to the 24th. I’ll spare ye the exposition and let the numbers speak fer themselves.

NPI, says I. Yarr. 

1.

Joseph Lewis:

Tally:

Previous Total WC: 14,479. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay! Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve crossed the finish line! The checkered flags have been waved, we’re less moody, our wives are happier, we’ve officially got all the word-counts, and boy, does it feel great~!

Now for the fun part: Taking a day off (And seeing how many words we’ve  produced).  Read the rest of this entry »

WC: 512.

It’s been a wonderful, fruitful month… I’m soo much closer to the End of the Book now—The story is so much clearer on the page and in my mind than it has ever been before—And I’m much, much closer to finally scaling that un-scalable mountain I’ve been blogging about ever since my very first post.

I bet if I hadn’t had the gall to run this event and the stubborn-ness to stick with it to the end of March, I’d still be at least 10,000 words ago. I bet if I hadn’t had the audacity to start blogging about writing, I’d still be stuck way back on a rudimentary version of chapter 5. Cirellio would probably still be stuck in the middle of the Shiirati Desert, wondering what the heck to do next. Now … it all seems like so long ago. I bet if I didn’t have the support of all the great people that visit this site, I wouldn’t be feeling too good about my writing; I might’ve called it quits by now. This whole experience has been magical for me, so thank you!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow marks the final day of the Novel Push Initiative. And the final word count. Get that wine ready!

;)

Welcome to March 20th. Here we are, surprised it’s already this far into the month. I think the next eleven days should be the easiest.  Once you get past a certain point, there’s a momentum that you achieve, making it much harder to quit.

1.

packsister:

Packsister decided to go about continuing her werewolf novel in her own way. She willingly took a knock-out on the fifteenth, which—as RG so eloquently put it—anybody would’ve done the same if they felt like an event was compromising the quality of their work. 

Tally: Read the rest of this entry »

Here we are at March 15th already. Great job!

This is the moment of truth. Can we continue to write each day beyond the two-week point? It gets tougher and tougher from here on out. … Can we go the full thirty-one days?

I know that if I can write my quota today, I’ll have broken my own personal record.

With that in mind, today is that special day—the threshold which must be broken!

1.
packsister:

Packsister is still in it, plugging away at her werewolf novel. In fact, she’s broken the 10k mark! Let’s see how she’s doing:

Tally: Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to March 10th! Glad you’re still here :)

The past five days have definitely had their share of highs and lows for us all.

1.
packsister:

Still coming in strong at first place, packsister has been an inspiration. Last time we checked in, she’d written 3,316 words in a mere four days for her werewolf novel. Let’s see how she’s doing now:

Tally:

Previous Total WC: 3,316.
March… Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to March 5th! Everyone’s still hanging in there. And today it sounds like RG and packsister mean business.

I think the greatest thing about this is we’ve all been supportive, encouraging each other to continue.

(thanks to RG Sanders for the graphic)

To reinforce the notion of friendly competition, I’m posting the tallies in the order of total WC.

1.
packsister:

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the first day of the Novel Push Initiative!

I’ll be working on Five Rings.

packsister will be working on her currently unnamed werewolf novel.

And RG Sanders will be working on And the Stars Ran Red.

The goal is to write at least 250 words per day during the entire month of March, and post our word counts in our blogs before midnight.

I’ll periodically be reporting our total progress throughout the month.

If we make it all the way through the month, the least number of words we’ll end up with is a respectable 7,750 words.

Good luck to everyone and have fun!

(Hopefully, I’ll be posting my first word count post later today. … )

Just a quick check-in to let you know that 5-Rings.com has been updated. As a result, there’s some new links at the top of this page. And yes, I really am thinking about releasing a sample chapter. :P

There’s still time if any of you would like to join us in the Novel Push Initiative.

The Novel Push Initiative:

NPI is a mere four days away.

Packsister and I are going to push our novels’ word counts forward from March 1st through March 31st.

The goal is to write at least 250 words (or half a page) per day. If we miss reporting our progress via our blogs even a single day, we’re knocked out of the event.

If I can’t handle this, I guess I have no business entering NaNoWriMo.

So this is a test for me.

And I’m excited.

And nervous.

The Writing Contest: Read the rest of this entry »

I think I found a great way to smoke out those unsightly plot-holes and other plot uncertainties.

((This is obviously just another way to keep track of plot-threads, but I thought I’d share this technique in case it works for you better than the more traditional plot-thread management techniques (colored index cards, spreadsheets, etc).)) Read the rest of this entry »

During the month of March, I want to push Five Rings‘ word-count through the roof.

But, sadly, maintaining a steady word-count on my own for a period longer than two weeks is too lofty a goal for me.

So I’m asking for your help.

I’ve decided to host a virtual event; one that came to me after reading Chris Baty’s wonderful No Plot? No Problem!. I’m christening this event “The Novel Push Initiative”, an easier-than-NaNoWriMo event.

But it still encourages writing every day.

THE RULES:

-NO PROJECT-JUMPING! (Please focus on only one project.)

-NaNoWriMo famously averages out to 1,667 words a day. SO…
Here’s the Break-down:

a ”KNOCK-OUT” is 0-249 words OR no post with a tally for that day. (No, I won’t sweep you under the rug like a king’s love-child.)
a ”CHECK-IN” is 250-749 words. (for those days something terrible happens, we’re sick, or we’re just not feeling it.)
an “UPDATE” is 750-1,667 words (about 1,000 words per day. Hopefully, this will be the most common one.)
a ”TOUGHER-THAN-NANO” is anything above 1,667 words. (are you nuts?!?)
a ”COMPLETE” is if you get finished with your book and type THE END. (*jealous* I suppose you can project-jump if and only if you complete a project.)

((So, at minimum, you need to CHECK-IN every day to avoid the big game-over.))

-First off, you’ll need a novel or novelette-sized WIP (work-in-progress). Whether you’re middling, have already done your research and are starting a first draft, or just want to dust off an old project you’ve been meaning to finish, you should be able to participate. (If you’re getting out those red pens to do a revision, tough luck!) :)

-Second, you’ll need a web log of some kind. Even a Twitter account will do.

-And thirdly, you’ll need to reply to this post (or any of my later posts this month) with:
A) a link to your blog, and
B) what project you’d like to work on.

-Each day We, united in writerly cause, will promise to add actual words to our WIP—every single day.
We are required to post WCs (word-counts) in our respective blogs Each and Every Day from March 1st to March 31st. 
If we miss a single day AT ALL—FOR WHATEVER REASON—we’re KNOCKED OUT OF THE EVENT. (Of course, I’m wondering how long I’ll last at this point ;D.)

-To actively participate, a simple Tweet can look like this:

CHECK-IN: 250 words.
11:59 PM Mar 1st from web

((But, of course, it’s your blog: You’re welcome to post snippets, musings, and whatever else you’d like. You don’t even have to label whether your WC is an UPDATE if you don’t feel like it. All I’m asking for is a visible word-count.))

WHAT I PROMISE:

I will periodically link to each of your sites and post your word-tallies up to a KNOCK-OUT.

IMPORTANT: I will be using whatever dates your posts are time-stamped with as a guide, so be sure your local settings are updated.

At the end of the month, we’ll see how many total words we’ve harvested.

If you stay with this until the end, just think: at the very minimum, you’ll have added 7,750 words to your WIPs.

So, still with me? Then I advise you take no prisoners as we march our plots ever-forward, all the way to March 31st! Good luck. I know I’ll need it…