Failed Word Counts

So my attempt to keep myself at a constant word count of 3k-5k was an epic failure. I have yet to reopen my story since before last Monday and much less typed anything of value. I wish I could say that I had any desire to continue my story but the sad truth is that without a deadline I have no real drive to push on. Not to mention that the Christmas season is always a hard one for me to write in. With all of the family parties etc. It's no real excuse but I think I'm momentarily dumb when it comes to writing my novel. If I don't begin writing again I'll just have to make it a New Year's resolution!

In other notes: I have been introduced to a wonderful new writing software. Okay, well it's new to me. My brother-in-law came across this little bit of open source writing software in a search and passed it along to me. Storybook is the name of the software and it's fantastic. It has separate databases for locations and characters, allows you to specify multiple locations and characters for each scene and will graph who is where and when. This nifty software also lets you track project ideas and you can assign a tag to it for future reference. You can tag it done, work in progress etc. The character database entry fields are very generic and so you can add your own questions, descriptions etc. This software also allows you to follow multiple story strands as well and rearrange scenes as you need. Overall I think that this software is keeping up with the paid versions that do similar things. The best part about this one though is that the source code is open to all. You never know who's going to come out with that addition you need!

50K and Counting!

NaNoWri Mo is officially over! I am very proud to say that for the first time in three years I have completed the month successfully. It is a little ironic considering that I have a seven month old to care for and didn't think that I was going to get anywhere near the goal. I am so excited! Of course the story itself is not nearly done. I have just reached the exciting part and I have come to realize that this will be best told from multiple points of view. The result is that I will have to go back and add in the additional points of view that are only hinted at at the moment. All in all I am very satisfied with the story so far though it will definitely need cleaning up when all is said and done.

In other news a few of the local Wrimos and I have decided to put together a low key writing group beginning in January. I am looking forward to that as well. I'm hoping that we'll do word sprints, critiques and maybe some writing prompts. Mostly I just want to get together with other writers for a couple of hours a week to keep on writing. More of an accountability group I guess. Well for now I'm going to try and keep my writing goal for about 3-5k a week. A lesser pace than the 11,700 per week of NaNoWriMo. I figure that will be enough to keep the creative juices flowing but not so much that I'll feel pressured and stress about it.