Monthly Highlights - November

This month was crazy, crazy, crazy insane, but it's finally coming to an end. NaNo was the best and worst decision of my life. *collapses tiredly* xD 

(I've been collapsing a lot this month. It'll get better in December. I promise. :P) 

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T h e    H i g h l i g h ts 

Well, I mean NaNo was pretty much the biggest thing of the month. A highlight, but it lost its fun pretty quickly. xD 

I went with my family to see the play Phantom of the Opera! *starts singing dramatically* We don't see plays very often, so it was fun and a really good play. :D 

I started the TV show, LOST. *insert dramatic music for absolutely no reason* I just finished the first season and it has already made me cry, scream, laugh, and sob. Ugly sob. It's pretty amazing. xD

We (my family) don't get too crazy over Black Friday shopping, but we usually go to one store Thursday night. This year we went to Best Buy and got Inside Out because it was cheap and its an amazing movie we've been wanting to own for a while. We stood in line for an hour and a half for that one movie, but... Ah well. :P

Christmas decorations! We don't do much for decorating, but we have our Christmas tree and stockings and it just generally feels nice. :)

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B o o k   T h i n g s

Since NaNo has been taking up ALL OF MY TIME, I've only read ONE book this month. *sigh* It was A Time to Speak by Nadine Brandes. Amazingly epic and I read it it one day. xD I deserted NaNo but I don't care.

BUT, after NaNo ends, I'm going to turn December into a reading month (despite the tons of editing I'll be doing... -.^). The books I'll be reading: 

- Cinder

- Scarlet 

- Cress

- Winter 

     [all by Marissa Meyer]

- A Monster Calls 

     [Patrick Ness]

- Illuminae 

     [Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff]

- Walk on Earth a Stranger 

     [Rae Carson]

- Six of Crows 

     [Leigh Bardugo]

I'm totally going to read more than the list above, but these are the books I want to read for sure. So if any of you have some epic recommendations for me to read... *cough cough* *coughs very loudly* 

I bought five books this month (picture before) and in turn used up the rest of my Amazon giftcard. *sniff* Buuuut, Christmas approaches eventually... And I WON'T buy anymore books until then, so if you see me doing so, yell at me or something. xD

// A Monster Calls + Cinder + A Time to Speak + Dreams of Caladria + Illuminae //

A Monster Calls is actually going to be made into a movie, so before I see it (even though it's not coming out until later 2016, I think) I want to read it. It's made people cry and I've heard super good things about it. (Plus I always love books that make me cry...) 

Here's the trailer:

Definitely a teaser trailer since it doesn't tell you much, but I like it already.

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T h e   W o r l d   o f   W r i t i n g

AHAHAHAHA. 

Writing. 

Haha. 

Ha. 

No. 

I'M ALMOST DONE WITH MY NOVEL AND YESTERDAY (29th) I GOT TO THIS CRAZY WORD COUNT: 

This is the first time I've written a novel longer than 100,000 words. o.O 

So now I'm just typing furiously today so I can finish my novel by midnight. (!!) I'M SO EXCITED. 

This month was awesome, though. NaNoWriMo brings all these writers together to shoot for a crazy insane goal, and I got to "hang" out warring with my lovely online writing buddies ALL month. I had such a blast. 

So, a special thank you to all my Word War buddies! I didn't realize there were so many people I warred/sprinted with throughout this month until I started writing down all the names. (yes, some of them are duplicate names, and yes, that was purposeful because they just have the same name. xD) I don't think I actually really wrote this month without warring someone... o.O 

nadine // anna // faith // hannah // athelas // anna // petra // sierra // aimee // emily // emily // krissy // adrianna // rachael // patience // sierra // bethany // erika

*exhausted sigh* I have done so much writing this month, that I am just done. xD *collapses* I am ready to go into hibernation mode and just read and sleep and eat pizza and generally do nothing for all of December. 

BUT, I will resist. December will be used outlining my new plot development, letting The Sand Dragon's Song rest in it's word document, and start continuing the edits of Song of the Desert. (Though I will also try to read an insane amount of books so I will have some fun. :D) 

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  R a m b l i n g s   o f   t h e   M o n t h

So, remember at the end of last month I said that I was going to also do a Blogspot Blogger Design post sometime in November? 

Well, that didn't happen. So, I'm going to do it in December. Don't fear -- it'll come! 

My four posts about NaNo: 

NaNo Week #1 - Lots of Words, No Sleep, + I Think I Lost My Plot.

NaNo Week #2 - More Words, Less Sleep, + Less Motivation.

NaNo Week #3 - I Watched Six Movies, Became A NaNo Winner, + Wrote 10k In One Day.

NaNo Week #4 - New Books, Thanksgiving, + Plot Despair.

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O t h e r   A w e s o m e   P o s t s

So I was basically a horrible blogger friend this month. With NaNo, I couldn't comment on all the blogs and keep track of all the posts, but I did read/stalk my Bloglovin' feed throughout the month, so I'm caught up! I'm looking forward to being around the blogosphere more in December again. Buuut, there are some posts that stuck out to me that I remembered to link to. (It's actually more of a blog shout out this month, but oh well.)

My awesome friend and loyal commenter, Anna Holden, is starting a blog! *dances around* It's called The Everstorm Comes (epic name, yes?) Her first post will be next Saturday, SO GO FOLLOW IT NOW SO YOU CAN READ IT! *will reward you with cookies if you follow* *go ahead* *go follow it* *thank you* ;)

Rachelle has returned to the blogosphere with a reading and writing themed GIVEAWAY! 

Now I'm double the happy, because Ana has returned to the blogging world as well! I've missed her bookish and writing posts. :)

Cait's post on "what writer's are really trying to say" was so fabulous. It made me laugh and I can related to everything.

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T h i n g s   t o   C o m e!

In December: (WAHT. IT'S DECEMBER TOMORROW. LIKE, HOW?! *tries to calm self*) 

   - Definitely a blogspot blogger design post, again. Last time people seemed interested in sidebars, so I'll share my thoughts on that. 

   - The year in review. My year in books, writing, blogging, life... Just kind of a GIANT wrap up post with some cool stats because stats are awesome. xD 

       - Also, maybe a survey to see what you guys are most interested in for the new year and such? *shrug*

(That's all the posts I have planned out for now, but there will be more.) 

If you don't remember what my posting schedule is, it's EVERY Saturday. If I have an extra post to write in the month, it will be on Tuesday. Otherwise the Monthly Highlights post will be up on the last day of the month no matter what day it is. :) 

- - -

- Katie Grace

Any books I HAVE to read over Christmas break? I'd love recommendations!

What are you looking forward to in December? (Anything besides Christmas? ;)

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                                                            CONNECT WITH ME!

     

NaNo Week #4 - New Books, Thanksgiving, And Plot Despair.

NaNo was tough this week. 

Just... words. words. words. 

But, I did have the week off of school for Thanksgiving break which was THE BEST. (yay for homeschooling! And great moms. ;) So I was able to have lots of writing time that kept my word count up despite the plot struggles. -.- 

Despite writing behind hard, the week was awesome. I watched lots of LOST, set up Christmas decorations, had family over for Thanksgiving, and got new books! (!!) 

So begins the post: NaNo Week #4.

day twenty one // 5,037

(hey look it's my favorite number, twenty-one.)

So my original goal for today was 7,000, but by the big 5,000 written above I'm pretty sure it's obvious that I didn't make it. :P I woke up super late (like, eleven. Ooooops.), and unexpected plans came up in the afternoon. Still, I'm happy that I got in as much as I did and I can always make up for it another day.

Yay for Sarah for making it to 50k! *confetti*

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day twenty two // 3,754

LOOK AT WHAT I GOT IN THE MAIL TODAY! Illuminaeeeee. :D

it looks like the most genius book ever.

It is officially the prettiest and most interesting book ever and I have heard nothing but good things. It will be my reward for finishing my novel at the end of the month. It's also super long -- 600 pages, written entirely in IMs, notes, interviews, and all that sort. And a long, good book makes me happy. xD

Writing was a pretty average day today. I am getting so close to the climax. Just a couple more thousand words and I'll there. I'm freaking out really excited. 

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day twenty three // 2,838

HELP I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I'M DOING WITH MY STORY. 

You know how people get a "mental breakdown" and such? I'm having a plot breakdown. Or a writer breakdown. Something.

I was writing along around eleven at night, when my character said something. She said something that sparked a whole new plot idea for the story, but would in turn cause me to rewrite. A lot. Like, some of the first book and most of the 75,000 words I've already written. *headdesks repeatedly* 

Now, who knows -- this might not be as complicated as I think. I'll have to do some brainstorming, but after I first thought it through and decided to make the change, I just sat at the computer screen despairing for a good half hour. :P 

So, this means that beta-ing will not happen in January. *cries* Hopefully late February/March. But I truly think that this will make the book better. Fear not -- your time will come eventually. *rages and screams: writing is so haaaaaard* 

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day twenty four // 5,369

Today started off pretty horribly. I only had about a thousand, maybe less before dinner. (I'm not really exactly sure. My memory is horrid.) But basically, things were not going well. I was feeling discouraged about the new plot stuff and the words weren't coming.

But once night came and my night owl awoke, that's when the real writing came. I couldn't stop writing. I set up three twenty minute sprints. I turned on the "deep focus" playlist on Spotify, and just wrote. 

Which ended up in over 3,000 words in an hour. 

Before you think that I'm bragging, I have nooooo idea how this happened. My fingers have never moved so fast in my life and afterwards my wrists were really sore. :P And my eyes were drooping because it was well after midnight oops.

And who knows how those words actually turned out. But now I'm SO CLOSE TO THE CLIMAX. *jumps around excitedly flailing* 

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day twenty five // 4,023

So right now at the end of day twenty-five I'm at 85,000. I think there's roughly 20k or so left, which means I have to consistently write 5k a day or so. 

*collapses at all the writing* 

I'M SO CLOSE BUT YET SO FAR SOMEONE HELP MY BRAIN IS DEAD. 

*ahem*  It's so hard just to put 100 words on the document right now, and it's not helping that the only time the words actually come is later than ten at night. (Maybe someone could tell my brain that I need to sleep sometime?)

So right now my main concern is that I won't be able to write enough words to finish the novel in time. *deep breath* We'll see how this goes.

Also Aimee finished 50k today and I am just screaming with excitement for her. xD

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day twenty six // 2,469

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! (It's not Thanksgiving anymore, buuuuut, pretend like it is?) 

I'm SUPER thankful for... 

- friends, family, and God. (you knew that was coming, but I am SO thankful for all three.)

- pizza. (you also knew that was coming, yes?)

- books and authors who write the wonderful books. (BECAUSE WITHOUT AUTHORS THERE WOULD BE NO BOOKS. I screamed that because it is important. Thank an author, okay?) 

- my online writing buddy friends. (I cannot explain how much I appreciate all of you. You guys know who you are. *hugs*) 

- music. (specifically: Twenty One Pilots and Switchfoot. My two favoritesss.) 

- computers. (makes writing a whole lot easier.)

- hot cocoa. (hot cocoa has been my writing fuel for this month. As well as chocolate.)

- NaNoWriMo. (I also kind of hate it but I'm more thankful for the website than not.)

I'm especially thankful for ALL OF YOU. I mean, how cool is it to have people read what I ramble about online and then comment on it? I've met tons of new friends, learned a lot about deadlines (ha... ha...), and just a bunch of fun. It's been great learning more about all of you and having conversations in the comments. *GIANT HUG*

Oh, and yes, I did write today, but Thanksgiving seemed more important to talk about. :P And this made me laugh: 

NaNoToons are my favorite.

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day twenty seven // 3,309

I. Am. So. Exhausted. Of. Writing. 

I FINALLY HIT 90k! It feels so good. But I'm also dreading the end of this month because that means I'll have to ediiiiit. *dies* 

(I really, really don't like editing. And right now, I don't like writing over 3k a day consistently. Writing is so hard.)

Our family put up our Christmas tree today which was fun, and we also started -- *gasp* -- listening to Christmas. Speaking of which... Any recommendations of Christmas albums? 

Also, I would've kept writing today, but if I wrote another three sentences, I would've killed a character. 

...

So obviously I'm procrastinating on it. The good thing? I know what I'm writing next. :P 

A huge congratulations to Athelas for finishing NaNo! EDIT: Congrats to Mikayla for finishing NaNo as well!

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days I went to bed before midnight: 0/7. (Heh... heh... Oops. Once NaNo ends, perhaps I'll actually get decent amounts of sleep. xD)

highest word count in a day: 5,369.

lowest word count in a day: 2,469. (I can live with this. And I love that both the numbers end in '69.' :P)

snippet: 

*cough* *ahem* I mean, I don't have a snippet for you this week. :P

obstacle of the week: Ugh. Man. Just. No. Figuring out all new plot stuff and all the editing I'm going to have to do and realizing that I'm going to be editing until the end of summer next year. *dies*

best part of the week: RECEIVING ILLUMINAE IN THE MAIL. I'm seriously so excited for this book. xD Also Thanksgiving festivities are always fun with the family. 

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WE'RE ALMOST TO THE END, GUYS. WE CAN CONQUER. WE CAN DO THIS. WRITE. WRITE LIKE YOUR LIVES DEPEND ON THIS AND WE WILL WIN NANOWRIMO TOGETHER. *cheers you on and throws chocolate for everyone*

You totally got this. Three. Days. Left. 

*starts to freak out because I didn't realize there were only THREE DAYS AHH*

// Katie Grace 

TELL ME ABOUT NANO! AND YOUR THANKSGIVING! (Please. xD)

And just for fun, what's the first sentence of your novel? (you can read my first paragraphs here in my first NaNo post.)

NaNo Week #3 - I Watched Six Movies, Became A NaNo Winner, And Wrote 10k In One Day.

Week three of NaNo is just about to end, which means we're moving into our LAST WEEK OF NANOWRIMO! 

I'm kind of shocked. This month has simultaneously gone by so fast and so slow that it seems like I'm living in some sort of alternate time universe. 

But so far NaNo has been a blast. I've been tired all month and roughly pantsing, but the words are coming. One by one. :P (Certainly sounds like a blast, yeah? Freaking out about words and acting like a zombie? Only writers would understand...)

Throughout these next posts as my writing friends make 50k, I'll be briefly mentioning/congratulating them. Their names lead to their blogs or their NaNo profile if they don't have a blog. :)

day fourteen // 10,007

10,000 word day = SUCCESS! I wrote all morning (and even woke up early for it. On a Saturday. Ohhh, the horror and dedication.), all afternoon, and all evening up to midnight.

AND ALSO: 

I like how it says "so far" like they're challenging me to write more.

*celebrates* 

It's a teensy bit discouraging when I think about that I could only be halfway done. Maybe even less if my novel turns out to be more than 100,000. (I don't think so, but I'm a horrible estimator and who knows where my plot will take me.) So, I won't really count myself as a winner until I complete my novel, but 50k is still an awesome milestone to reach. :D 

*hugs to all you encouraging people*

Huuuuuuge thank you to Aimee for warring with me all day, and congratulations to her for succeeding in 10k as well! We're kinda insane and will probably never do it again. Kidding. We never learn from our mistakes. Next NaNo we'll do it again. :P

I was very tempted to do this for the last hundred words of the 10k day. xD 

Congrats to Anna Holden for making it to 50k! And for succeeding in a 10k day, too.

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day fifteen // 141

141 words.

Oops. *blushes*

I needed to recover from the crazy insane 10k day. So, obviously I did very, very productive things instead. Like watching The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and starting the TV show Lost. (!!) All in one day. Yeah, I needed the break. :P My mind was quite satisfied to watch stories instead of creating stories. 

Especially amazing stories that get me all inspired to write something epic. 

But.. NaNo... is officially... half-way... done... *freaks out*

Yay for Christine for completing the 50k!

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day sixteen // 2,338

I'm still recovering from the 10k. Just... 

*collapses* 

Words. Why do words give me so much trouble? *shakes head*

My mom and I  watched Pride and Prejudice this evening. I'm reading the book this year for school and wanted to watch the movie before the book because I'm a rebel like that. Ha. :P 

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day seventeen // 4,774

I REACHED 60k!!! 

I need all the chocolate and pizza, now, because my brain is slowly dyinggg. Maybe that's the secret plot of the creators of NaNoWriMo. Slowly kill the minds of all the creative "geniuses." Then we don't have the strength to plan world domination. 

No? 

Oh. 

Told you my brain's dying. Or maybe it's the fact that I went to bed after midnight again. Or both. Yeah, both. *nods*

Eeep! Hannah, one of my awesome word war buddies, made it to 50k today!

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day eighteen // 1,086

Something very, very bad happened today. 

*whisper* I lost my plot again. 

It's like trying to catch a minnow in the water of a bar of soap in the shower. Just -- poof! It suddenly disappeared. So now I'm sitting here at the computer, shaking, unable to type, watching my cursor blink. 

(speaking of blinking cursors, why do they blink? To get our attention? To annoy us? Remind us that we're supposed to be writing? Hypnotize us?)

I'm counting on tomorrow going better. *nods*

Super proud of my aunt Heather completing NaNo for the first time!

this is my fuzzy blanket that keeps me warm in the colddd mornings. 

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day nineteen // 3,014

So, my plot's not completely back. I think I found an intern plot. Or an intern plot line for the moment. I half-know what I'm doing and am half-throwing words on the page hoping that they'll come out coherent. :P

I watched Mockinjay Part One today! (I know I'm behind on the movie watching trends. But after watching it I'm glad I waited, because that cliffhanger! O.O I'm not quite sure how to react to it. My heart definitely hurts.)

Back to writing:

I think I'm starting to notice a trend. Every other day is a good/bad day. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? I'm going to defeat that trend. Tomorrow's going to be an epic day of writing.

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day twenty // 0

Ahahah. 

"I'm going to defeat that trend. Tomorrow's going to be an epic day of writing." 

Or not. 

Do you see that word count? It's a big, fat zero. Looks ugly, yeah? *sigh* I'll make up for it by writing 7k tomorrow on my weekly writing marathon day. :P

(Okay, and here's a technical problem. Technically I didn't write any words today, but I did verify my novel on NaNo and it gave me an extra 600 words. So it LOOKS like I wrote 611 words today, but... lies. So... Just ignore it?)

So what did I do instead of writing today? (Aww, I'm so glad you were wondering.) 

I continued my movie watching/Hunger Games week by seeing Mockingjay Part Two with awesome friends in the theater, (much sadness and feels and epicness and despairing that the series ended) and then going over to my grandparents to watch part one again. 

Now it's after midnight and I'm working on this blog post because I was a bad blogger and put off writing days in advance this week. Procrastinator is my middle name. 

(actually it isn't my middle name. It'd be horrible to have procrastinator as your middle name, wouldn't it?)

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days I went to bed before midnight: 4/7. 

highest word count in a day: 10,007. (AHHHHH.)

lowest word count in a day: 0. (MORE AHHHH.)

snippet: *shoves snippet (kindly) in your face*

obstacle of the week: Watching six movies and a gazillion episodes of LOST. I mean, that sure sucked away a lot of my writing time. But do I regret it? 

No. xD

best part of the week: Aaack, there were so many good parts of this week! 10k in one day, receiving super encouraging emails/messages from my writing buddies (you know who you are), reading a surprise chapter from a writing friend, watching lots of movies... xD

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*whisper* Accurate besides the fact that I did not write 611 words today. :P

Whether you have 10,000 words or 100,000, you are doing awesome at NaNo. You signed up. You wrote words. You STARTED A NOVEL. Seriously. Be proud of yourself. :D 

And there's still over a week left! Get those words in while you can. I'm always open for wars or if you need a pep-talk I can do that, too. Though I'll probably get distracted and end up talking about pizza. But, you know. I'll try.

- Katie Grace

my NaNo profile

EIGHT DAYS LEFT! Seems like just yesterday I was counting down for it to begin... 

How is NaNoWriMo going? Did you see Mockingjay Part Two? Have you had a day where you wrote zero words? :P (You're not alone...)

NaNo Week #2 - More Words, More Sleep, + Less Motivation.

NaNoWriMo so far has looked like this:

week one: WORDS! SUCCESS! I LOVE NANOWRIMO! I AM SO HAPPY I SIGNED UP!

week two: Words. Exhausted success. Remind my why I signed up for this, thought it'd be "fun," and go for double the word goal? *headdesk*

(Missed week one of my NaNoWriMo blogging series? Read it here!)

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day seven // 5,297

insane writing marathon day goal achieved.

THE FIRST WRITING SATURDAY OF NOVEMBER! *throws confetti*

Saturdays are the days when I wake up late, and then proceed to write crazy amounts of words. This Saturday's goal? 5,000. (And I did it. Yess.)

I'm still confused about my plot and I think my plot's scared of me for some reason, but it's working. Slowly. I kinda know what I'm doing. Kinda.

Honestly I don't think any of us NaNoers know what we're doing to be honest.

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day eight // 3,970

I ate pizza, went to bed early, and solved a murder mystery.

I credit pizza to all my success for today because that's what I ate for lunch.

But actually I really didn't want to write today. At. All. It was one of those days that I got really rather confused at why I wanted to do NaNoWriMo in the first place because it's SO HARD.

I sat and whined at the computer and glared at my document. Then a friend messaged me, and we proceeded to solve a murder mystery. This got me almost 4,000 words and I'm endlessly thankful.

Also, I went to bed before midnight the first time in nine days. Look at me being all responsible.

(AND I HIT 30K!)

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day nine //  2,176
all my motivation got stolen by a writing beast. *sniff*

I got attacked today. It was a horrid beast, covered with slime and motivation-sucking tentacles. I sat there, hunched at my computer, ready to write, when--

--IT STRUCK! Out of nowhere the beast latched itself onto my head. Everything around me blurred. My eyes closed. 

When I opened them, the beast was gone... and so was my motivation. So this was me the whole day: 

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day ten // 4,102

In which I stay up late and spill pizza everywhere. *sigh*

Today was a pretty awesome writing day. I wrote lots of words, and I also feel pretty good about the words I wrote. 

I also reached a new record on the number of words typed in ten minutes. 619 words in ten minutes. I'm not quite sure how it happened and I think most of them are filled with nonsense, but, hey! It works. xD

And since I love pizza, I had this fantastic idea one night to randomly bake a frozen pizza at ten. (thank you, dad, for agreeing to this. :P) So I baked it. I carried it into the living room so we could all feast together.

Then the cutting board tipped. 

And all the pizza landed face first on the carpet. The new carpet we had bought two months ago. *headdesk* (Thankfully it came out well. And the pizza still tasted good.) 

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day eleven // 4,160

wow, two good days in a row can this really be possible + I HIT 40k!

Another successful day! *dances around* (I'm just waiting to hit my slump, now. It's going to come any day. :P *braces self*) 

Nothing special happened today. besides the fact that I went to bed before midnight for the second time this month AND I HIT 40k! Just a normal writer's routine:

write twenty words.

check Twitter.

and Facebook. 

update NaNoWriMo word count. 

ask for a Word War.

answer some emails. 

see if my word count has grown since the last time I updated. 

nope.

write some more. 

repeat until I somehow get to an insane amount of words.

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 day twelve // 1,710

I FINALLY HIT A SLUMP OF SORT AND ASKDJF;ALSD WORDSS.

Gah. 

Words.

Help.

Why.

Did.

I. 

Sign.

Up.

For.

This.

Insanity. 

*collapses*

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day thirteen // 672

more writing slumps + I'm scared of tomorrow.

"Why is Katie scared of tomorrow?" you may ask. 

"Why?" I say. "Because this is why." *points below*

AIMEE AND I ARE TRYING TO WRITE 10,000 WORDS TOMORROW SO BASICALLY WE'RE INSANE AND I THINK I'M GOING TO DIE.

I'm doing this with Aimee from To the Barricade, and I'm kinda sorta a lot freaking out. I've had two not so good days in a row, and I've never written 10,000 new words in a day. I've done rewrites and some edits, but ON A CLEAN DRAFT? Hahaha, no. I'm nervous. Really nervous. And excited. But mostly nervous. xD 

So if I don't answer comments until Sunday, that is why. You can find me hunched over my computer, fingers flying and typing nonsense.

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days I went to bed before midnight: 2/7 (HEY LOOK BETTER THAN LAST WEEK.)

highest word count in a day: 4,160. 

lowest word count in a day: 672.

snippet: (I'm really bad at remembering to save snippets for blog posts so I just had to through together a passage quickly. Also I really don't like sharing snippets because I'm an insecure writer.)

obstacle of the week: Not wanting to write. At all. Especially Thursday and Friday. Just... CAN I IGNORE THE WORDS? My word count will somehow increase anyways, right? Right?!

best part of the week: Hitting 40k! Because that's a lot of words to write in eleven days and I'm proud of it.

NaNoWriMo blog posts: Aimee talked about painful WEEK ONE NaNoWriMo realities. They're all true. *hugs post*

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NaNo is insanely hard and difficult and creativity-draining, but I'm still kinda glad that I signed up. By the end of the month I'll have a novel (a messy one but editing comes later). A whole novel! So that's a pretty good reward. 

If you're behind, don't stress. Well maybe stress if you're trying to catch up. But, no. Life is crazy. (I'm very blessed to be homeschooled and fast and writing and just generally having lots of time.) Try to write something each day, even if it's a couple paragraphs. You got this. *hugs and pizza* *because pizza is always appropriate for every situation* 

YAY FOR WRITING AND NANOWRIMO. 

- Katie Grace
| my NaNo profile |

How's NaNo going? How's your story going? I want to hear about everything! (Really, I do.)

NaNo Week #1 // Lots of Words, No Sleep, + I Think I Lost My Plot.

I started NaNoWriMo off with five hours of sleep two nights in a row, so there's nothing like getting in to the half-awake bandwagon of insanity.  

I've got hot chocolate, popcorn, clean word document, and my novel's playlist. I'M READY FOR YOU, #NaNoWriMo. BRING IT ON.

— Katie Grace (@KatieGraceWrite) November 1, 2015

BUT IT HAS BEGUN. Like you haven't noticed from the overflow of Facebook and Twitter posts about it. But I'm going to say it again in big, bold letters because I'm that excited. 

NANOWRIMO HAS BEGUN.

((Also, if you want to track my progress, you can do that on my NaNo profile or with the widget in the footer of this blog.))

day one. // 6,070

i stayed up until 2:30 a.m but since it was daylight saving's time it was actually 1:30 a.m but then i didn't fall asleep until 2:00 a.m in the new daylight saving's time which felt like 3:00 in the "old" time but it actually wasn't. 

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That above didn't make sense, but it's NaNo so nothing I do makes sense anymore. I haven't put the milk in the cupboard yet like I did one time for Camp NaNo, though.

Sleep was minimal for day one. I woke up early for Church, went to bed "early," and yet I somehow wrote 6k? Maybe my secret is that I have to be tired in order to write. Or maybe it's just because I stay up super late. Yeah, that's probably it.

But after our Halloween harvest festival thingamajigy at Church (which went super awesome if you were wondering), my cousin came over and we had a fantastic time writing, drinking hot cocoa, eating candy, listening to Twenty One Pilots, and eating popcorn. And writing lots of words, of course.

We took this pic at 1:45 in the morning. How're we're actually functioning, I don't know. We were on the floor laughing over nothing at this point. xD (at least I was. :P)

Our writing set up with *cough* candy in the middle. (my computer is one the left and LOOK AT THE CUTE MOUSE THAT I GOT awhile back.)

So day one was a super-duper success.

day two // 1,060

i got a book I was insanely excited about in the mail and screamed when I saw it in the mailbox and alerted my whole neighborhood of my excitement so writing wasn't great.

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Well, er, yes. I did dance around in the street and scream and squeal. The above statement is entirely accurate because I got A TIME TO SPEAK IN THE MAIL!

I'm excited. Really, really excited.

Before I started the book, I forced myself to write 1,000 words. It was painfully hard, but I think it was the fastest 1k I have ever written. I did it in around twenty minutes. :P

So it was an okay day, I guess? Writing wise. Reading wise it was epic. 

day three // 5,592

i went a little crazy to the point where I basically killed my wrists and stayed up really late.

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I actually feel REALLY good about today. I went a tad insane and wrote non-stop for 45 minutes which resulted in 2,300 words. My fingers and wrists got very sore so there was little writing for the rest of the day, but I stayed up late (*cough* 12:30. surprise, Mom. *cough*) and got another 3,000 done, so it was very successful. *nods*

Also, word crawls are insanely helpful if you can't find anyone to war you for motivation. There are a bunch of other challenges and prompts to work on in this thread.

day four // 3,168

i'm really starting to regret this "pantsing" thing because my plot ran away and I really have no idea what's happening with my story anymore.

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Today was a slow start. School took forever so it wasn't until three where I finally started writing, and even then, I only wrote 1,000 words in the afternoon because I HAVE NO PLOT SOMEONE SEND HELP.

I have a beginning and an end in my story... but that's basically it. I have no idea what I'm even doing or what order to put events in. The amount of editing that will have to go into this novel is seriously INSANE. So I'm stressing out while trying to remind myself just to write. Because that's what NaNoWriMo is about, just writing a rough (very rough, ha.) draft.

So this is me right now:

Also Cait got 50k on day FOUR and so I'm sitting over here like this:

(But, no. I'm really happy for you. *showers you in confetti*)

So in the evening I started writing this rabbit trail in my story and now I'm writing everything out of order and IT'S SUCH A MESS. *deep breath*

To those who are feeling like I did today, you are definitely not alone. *group hug*

day five // 2,656

two more of my writing buddies made the 50k (WHAT EVEN.) and my plot is still hiding from me. (how rude.)

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I greeted day five bright and early at twelve in the morning. I wrote another 243 words to get started for the day, and then I collapsed in bed. :P

It's only five DAYS into #NaNoWriMo and it feels like it's been five YEARS.

— Katie Grace (@KatieGraceWrite) November 6, 2015

TWO more of my writing friends made their goal. A super big congratulations to Imogen and Raychel! So proud of all the writing you've done. <3

Also, I think I should stop staying up so late because I try to write "choking noises" and instead I wrote "choking noses." Oops.

So I didn't get as much writing done as I hoped for today, but honestly I was so exhausted and if I were to write any other words they'd be totally incoherent. Like all the other thousands of words I've already wrote this month, haha. day six // 2,281.
i spent most of the day finishing this blog post because I PROCRASTINATED and also thank goodness the weekend is coming. -

I went into the day with high hopes. I told myself that I'd write 4,000 words, get ahead, and just feel generally accomplished with myself. 

Hahahah things did not work out that way but I'M STAYING OPTIMISTIC.

I ended up with 2,281. School took awhile, I had forgotten about this poor blog post, and in the evening my family went to see a play of Phantom of the Opera. (Which was super amazing and cooool. o.o) 

So tomorrow since it's a Saturday and I have nothing going on I'm going to write lots.

- - -

number of days I went to bed before midnight: 0/6. (ooops.)

highest word count in a day: 6,070.

lowest word count in a day: 1,060.

snippet: SO HERE'S THE BEGINNING OF MY NOVEL: *hides*

biggest distraction: Um. Well, of course Twitter, and probably just talking about NaNo to all my lovely writer friends? I sometimes forget about the *writing* part of NaNo. Wait, I can't just talk about how awesome and stressful NaNo is to everyone? I actually have to write? *gasp*
obstacle of the week: Losing my plot. *tries not to freak out*  best part of the week: STARTING NANO! And getting excited about all of the things to come in my story. So many feels. And also things to add in for my first book. *flails because excitement and writing*  interesting NaNo related blog posts: Imogen's NaNoWriMo update blog post was super inspiring, and she also had a really neat way of tracking her word count that I'm totally stealing. - - - - Katie Grace Enough about me! HOW'S NANOWRIMO GOING FOR YOU!? Word count? Did you go to bed before midnight at all? xD  And if you aren't doing NaNo -- how are you spending your time this month?