There are actually still more than seven and a half hours left to NaNoWriMo 2007 here in the Netherlands, but I’ve decided that I’m done. 65056, my current score, will be my official total for the year. I had been thinking of sprinting for 75k today, but I’ve decided not to.

There are two reasons for this. First of all 65056 happened spontaneously, and it’s a nice looking number to finish on. And secondly, I had meant to do something for Knights Of The NaNo Table this year, and I haven’t yet. So I’ll try to do at least a few thousand words for that tonight.

Switching over to Knights also gives me some pure fun writing. While I don’t currently have to wrestle too hard with my NaNo, at 65k words in it is turning into something of a chore to keep all the plotlines straight.

In fact, though I don’t like to edit during a first draft, I should probably go back and read most of it before I start writing again. And at 65k words, that would probably take a couple of hours of my time.  And with a lot to do, and the TGIO taking up a lot of time tomorrow (though well worth it) there are better ways for me to spend my time tonight.

As my last post about the purple bar predicted I have indeed done an unofficial version of the NaNoWriMo winner icon for this year. Here’s a side by side comparison for you:

That’s the old one on the left, and the new one on the right. Now this may just be my opinion, but the one of the right looks much better to me. And it certainly fits a lot better in my blue sidebar!

Now I just have to find time to write the 10k I still want today and tomorrow…

I claimed my purple bar last night. I’d passed the 50k mark on the 20th, and last night noticed the validation had gone live. I passed, though OpenOffice still proved to be slightly more generous than the validator – 65,056 in OpenOffice, 65,015 in the NaNoWriMo validator (17 words of it explained by the headers and footers I have in OO).

I still plan to write more this month, indeed I hope to reach 75k by Friday, but whether I make it or not (and given how busy recent weeks have been, I may not) I now have the all important purple bar. And the PDF certificate, and the the winner icon rather than the participant icon on the front page of this site.

That winner icon, unfortunately, offers little improvement over the participant icon. I don’t mind any of the text, or quaint antique typing device, but the putrid yellow colour – no doubt meant to, and failing to, simulate gold – just doesn’t work with any of my screen settings. In fact, looking at my own front page now makes me feel uncomfortably like one item in my sidebar has been puked onto it.

The icon may still grow on me. But if it doesn’t I guess I’ll have to pull it apart in the GIMP and do an unofficial, but better looking, version. It shouldn’t be too hard to replace the yellow with the one of the shades of blue that featured in the last three icons, or even the deep red/purple from the 2003 icon.

I was looking at some stuff from last year’s NaNoWriMo. Specifically the fact that I reached 50k on day 7. A little voice in the back of my brain suddenly suggested that it might be a nice idea to shoot for 50k on day 6 this year. I probably won’t  actually try it, but it certainly shows I still have a long way to go if I’m to prepare myself to write less this year.

I’ve begun the process of trying to prepare myself mentally for a lower wordcount than last year. Mind you I wouldn’t mind writing 120k or more again, but I think I may be too busy with other things this November to aim for that.

I was talking about that to a friend last night when I realised that I didn’t write all that much last year, leaving out the three best days (good for over 40k between them) the total dropped to a mere 80k. Then I realised I’d said “not that much” and “80k” together. From which I concluded I probably have some more preparing for lower wordcounts to do.

Of course on the other hand if I get a couple of those days again, who knows what could happen…

And no, the wet weather we’re having here isn’t the only reason I’m thinking of November. Late August is the time I start thinking about NaNoWriMo. Today the mood suddenly caught me, possibly because of the November like weather.

I was cycling, in the rain, when suddenly a project I’ve had on the back-burner for a while popped into my mind. The Pride of the Smiths, which might well be book one in a series about the Huroan Guild Wars, suddenly floated to the top with an “I could do that this year” feeling.

It’s a fantasy project, which also fits pretty well into my alternating SciFi or Fantasy for NaNoWriMo. Tech Runners, last year, was SciFi; Flame Dancer, 2005, was Fantasy; an Lightning, 2004, was SciFi.

Of course alternating SciFi and Fantasy isn’t a hard an fast rule, since inspiration is the most important thing for NaNo, but it’s nice to keep that tradition going.