The NaNoWriMo Dare Squad: Week Three – Questions, Questions, Questions. . .

Happy Tuesday, Cyberspace!

Today is the 21st of November, which means that we only have another 9 days left to write.

. . .

Okay, so I honestly had not realized just how deep into November we were until this very moment, so please give me about 0.2 minutes to inwardly melt into a pile of burning terror.

. . . 0.2 Minutes Later . . .

And we’re back.

Now, since I’ve actually been keeping relatively up-to-date on all of your lovely comments in the past week, I’ve noticed a few little trends in the threads of progress when it comes to your NaNoWriMo stories:

Some of you, being the writing masters that you are, have already smashed and conquered your NaNoWriMo Goals.

Some of you haven’t quite hit your goals, but are right on track with where you need to be to fling yourself face-first into that finish line on November 30th.

And a handful of you — like me — are currently smiling through your tears whilst failing miserably.

But no matter which boat you happen to be paddling in — whether it is safely docked on the shoreline, or slowly sinking to the depths because of the thousands of holes you’ve accidentally punctured into the wooden beams — you are doing fantastically, my friend.

You’ve written words this month. You’ve developed characters, created worlds, and have begun the journey that most people have only dreamed of beginning.

You took your idea, and you made it a reality.

Sure, this newfound reality of yours might be a tiny bit sloppy and shredded at the moment, but it is yours. And that, dear beans, is all that matters.

Now, as some of you might recall, this past Sunday was the day when I swung back the golden curtains and revealed all of the deliciously terrifying dares that you — the NaNoWriMo Dare Squad — created. And despite every single fantasy I had of everyone screaming in terror and fleeing into the darkness. . .you guys actually liked them.

Like really, really liked them.

In fact, it got to the point where those who have already won NaNoWriMo were suddenly saddened by the thought that they would not be able to do a dare at the end of the month.

And to that I must say–

Hahahaha…haha…hahahahahahaha…

You obviously do not know which blog you are currently reading, sir.

Ah, yes, my dear friends. The fun is far from over, for I — the Great and Powerful Kenzie — sense a foul wind a-blowing from the East, bringing with it yet another delightful night-beastie known as. . .the Kenzie-Twist. . .

. . . a twist so foul, so deadly, so garish that it just might actually be fun.

“And what could this twist possibly be?” you might ask, nibbling on your stubbly fingernails in fear.

Well, now. What would be the fun in telling you that, sir? I would much rather sit here in devious silence and watch you squirm and squeal and question everything you’ve ever known whilst debating what possible travesties could potentially await you on November 30th.

And thus, I am wisely keeping my lips sealed on the matter.

However, as I am not entirely a ruthless villain, I can tell you one tiny piece of information regarding this glorious Kenzie-Twist:

. . . only those who have failed are safe . . .

And with that delightful bit of info rattling around in your ears, let us switch gears entirely and jump straight into the pep-talk that I know you’ve all been waiting for!!

So without any further ado, welcome one and all to yet another episode of —



Kenzie’s Weekly Pep-Talk!

If you ever feel like a failure, just remember this. . .

. . .

. . .you’ve probably failed at something.

. . .

. . .

. . .

This has been . . .

Kenzie’s Weekly Pep-Talk!



Now, I know you’ve all been dying to figure out which terrifyingly fun dare was sent in by each participant, but I think I might hold onto that information for just a teensy, tiny little bit longer.

if, of course, I don’t get trampled by an angry mob beforehand.

Honestly, I just feel like announcing who gave out which dare two days after revealing the anonymous list is just too soon.

It ruins the mystery, see?

And y’all know how much I love a good mystery.

or, you know. . .being the only one who knows the answers to said mystery.

So all of that information shalt be revealed next week, when NaNoWriMo comes to a victorious (and possibly rather bitter) end.

feel free to punch me in the face for being so cryptic.

But before you potentially knock out all of my teeth, allow me to personally assure you that each and every one of your questions will be answered in nine days’ time. In nine days, I shall name names and throw dice and reveal the terrible twist that is coming by the Easterly Wind.

In nine days, our NaNoWriMo journey shall be over.

In nine days, our fingers will stop typing and our pencils will stop writing.

In nine days, we shall meet The End.



 

talk to me, peasants!

Yes, yes, I am aware that this post literally did nothing to alleviate the mass confusion that has swarmed around your confuzzled brains, and has instead added even more confusion to the mix.

HOWEVER! You are excited, yes? The mystery and intrigue is much too great to ignore. Exciting things are happening, and no one — not even the victors — are safe.

But enough of that for now. How has Week Three of NaNo been treating you? Are you still alive, or did you lose your brain somewhere off in Week Two? sidenote: if you happen to find my brain flopping around along the beaten-down path of Week Two, I’d really appreciate it if you could send it back. possibly with a package of cookies. thanks. Have the words been coming like magic to your numb fingertips, or have you been stuffing your face with candy whilst hoping for the inspiration bunny to strike? Whatever your week has been like, let us discuss ALL OF THE THINGS down in the comments below!

As for me, I’m currently writing this blog post instead of writing my story, so please forgive me if this smudge is a little bit slapped together. I’m at an extremely fun part in the outline, and I am SUPER excited to get back to writing it.

So yeah. That’s all I’ve got to say. Here’s hoping to a beautiful and productive Week Four!

As always —

*flings cookies in the air and disappears*

90 thoughts on “The NaNoWriMo Dare Squad: Week Three – Questions, Questions, Questions. . .

  1. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! ONLY 9 DAYS???!!! I NEED TO WORK HARDER ON MY STORY!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
    *Keeps thoroughly panicking*

    I’m looking forward to this Kenzie-twist, even though it may be rather nerve-wracking. Eeee!

    What a pep talk. *Claps*

    I’m currently trying to force myself to get through the main outline so I can get a sizeable portion of this story done before Nano is out and not be distracted by all the details and sideplots and ugh. My momentum has slowed, but hopefully I can bring back more power now that there are only NINE DAYS LEFT!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAA!!!

    Liked by 3 people

    • I KNOW! BUT DON’T PANIC. DEFINITELY DON’T PANIC. *flings self headfirst over the pit of terror*

      Saaaaame! I’m still figuring out the specifics of it, but I think it’s gonna be awesome!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

      Thank you. Thank you. *bows*

      My own progress has sort of slowed, as well, but I’m actually okay with that. I knew I wasn’t going to finish this draft when I started, and I have since gotten over the disappointment of having been correct in that assumption. 😂😂😂 But with that said, I, too, am still writing and trying to boost my speed in these final days of NaNo!! THE END OF NANO IS UPON US!!! LET US WRITE LIKE THE WIND!!!! *runs off to begin pounding out words* (ALSO SIDEPLOTS ARE THE WORST I AM SORRY)

      Liked by 1 person

      • *Gazes upon Kenzie’s shrinking form as she vanishes into the pit of terror* Alas…

        *Waits in anticipation for the Twist*
        *Gets carried away by a tornado and complains furiously*

        If I can just get Sheyla out of the worst part of her beginning, I think the story will be on track to finish in a way that doesn’t get so bogged down. SHE IS GOING THROUGH SUCH A HARD TIME AND JUST BARELY MISSED GETTING RESCUED! TSK! But it will be epic later. ^.^

        Liked by 1 person

        • “Alas.” These are the words that I would like you to say at my funeral. 😂😂😂

          I’M PRETTY SURE THIS IS A VERY ACCURATE ASSUMPTION OF WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TOMORROW… XD

          Oh my word, that poor child!!! 😂😂😂 She has such a tortured life, poor thing!! XD YES! Write ALL of the epicness!!!

          Liked by 1 person

          • I shall say it. Simple and straight to the point. And Very, very short…xD
            (Then I will add that we must watch the Heavens for any falling cookies because Kenzie will surely still be flinging cookies at our faces!)

            Excellent.

            AAAARRRGGGHHH! I have epic ideas, but like, the cool villains keep being TOO USEFUL FOR THE POOR UNFORTUNATE KALDOANS with the current plan I have!!!! :o

            Liked by 1 person

            • Thank you so much. I can now go to my grave in peace. (THAT PART ABOUT THE COOKIES IS ABSOLUTE PERFECTION, THANK YOU. XD)

              Oh no!!!! I’m really bad at constructing villains… XD #FAIL But at least your villains are COOL, right??? My villains are always lame. XD

              Liked by 1 person

                • *catches the cookies in my corpse-like grip*

                  Those viscous villains definitely sound amazing…

                  I think my problem with them is that they are too dramatic. They’re voices are way to “evil”, to the point where it’s unbelievable. XD I want to create villains who send terror into the hearts of my readers like the vile writer that I am. XD

                  Liked by 1 person

                  • xD

                    Maybe I know what you mean? I recently reread the Harry Potter series and in the last book or two I found myself entirely bored of Voldemort because he simply went on and on monologuing, and any time characters talked about him, it was all about how inhuman and innately evil he was, and it was totally boring because he was actually human, so it felt unbelievable. Now, if there was a monster that is innately evil and inhuman, it would be cool…
                    So, keep their gloating and evil plans short?

                    Liked by 1 person

                    • Yes!!! Kind of like that! I think the while Voldemort’s drama-queen personality is part of the reason why Umbridge was SOOOO much better than Voldy!!! She was an epic villain, because her DEEDS spoke louder than her WORDS.

                      Yeah… That might be a good fix!!! XD

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • YES! I DESPISE AND LOATHE UMBRIDGE SO MUCH SHE WAS SUCH A POWERFUL VILLAIN! Whereas Voldemort would just kill random people, who cares. And I guess the problem with Voldy is he couldn’t just KILL off the main characters, there would be no story. But Umbridge? Oh, Umbridge could hurt anyone she wanted to because she wasn’t out to kill them. Just out to control and ruin their lives. Far more terrifying.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • YES!!!! Exactly!!!!!! Not to mention how we basically just HEARD of Voldemort’s evil deeds, rather than see them on the page. Umbridge was a much closer threat than him, because she had infiltrated the one place in the whole Harry Potter Universe that we had thought was safe from evil.

                      Liked by 1 person

  2. We can do it guys! I’m sure all of you are doing better than I am. This isn’t even like a “I’m so disappointed in myself so I’m going to make everyone feel better by saying how disappointed I am.” No. I am literally failing Nanowrimo (can one fail, or win? Who even came up with this???) Anyways. My graph that shows my word count literally looks like a straight line for about TWO WEEKS IN A ROW. But I have a ton of confidence right now, because it is Thanksgiving Break, which means I will have a glorious thing called TIME and I am determined to finish my novel! Whether or not that editing thing is going to happen, who knows, and I will probably have to roll the dice in about 9 days, but I am so close to finishing! Good luck everyone! Keep pushing! (Also, I’m really excited to see what dares everyone unfortunately may receive and what dares everyone wrote, and what’s the twist I wonder?).

    Liked by 3 people

    • Actually, it sounds like you are doing a LOT better than I am, Kirsten!! 😂😂😂😂 I haven’t even gotten halfway through my goal, but I’m actually okay with that. This story just needs more time, is all. BUT OH MY WORD!!!! Thanksgiving break sounds like it’s going to be AWESOME!!! WRITE!!! WRITE ALL OF THE WORDS!!! FINISH THAT STORY!!!

      At least the dares are going to be fun lest we fail, right??? (I feel like fail is too strong a word… I wouldn’t say we’re failures. We still write SOMETHING, so that should make us winners, yes???)

      THE TWIST IS GONNA BE EPIC, JUST YOU WAIT, MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

      Like

      • Oh yeah! You’re totally right, we’re all winners as long as we write something. :) It’s just hard to see that when there’s a looming deadline and you still have more than 10 hours of editing to do…

        Liked by 1 person

        • Yes!!! Exactly!!!! *high fives* But yeah, that is definitely true… But even if you DON’T hit those 10 hours, look at all of the WORDS you’ve written!!! Those are words you didn’t even have before this month started, and now you have them!!! And that, sir, is amazing. *gives you cookies*

          Like

  3. Meep! New twists… :3 Also, I don’t have to worry about it… probably. But you know, even if I don’t make my goal, I am having fun and making words. So I’d say that’s still a win. I just love this group. First, y’all are hilarious. Also super awesome in general. So, yay squad! Let’s finish strong!

    Liked by 3 people

    • The new twist is gonna be EPIC. (Hopefully. XD ) YES!!! You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that!!!! Having fun and making words is PRECISELY what NaNo is all about!!!

      Oh my word, AWWWWWW! I am SO happy you decided to participate, Gail!!! You are such an amazing person, and it’s been an honor doing this NaNo with you!

      YESSS!! LET’S WIN THIS NANO! (Or…you know…weakly cross the finish line, as I am probably going to do… 😂 )

      Liked by 1 person

  4. OWPEFOHSOJDJIJI!!!! After commenting and reading this post, I found myself inspired, and I went and finished my novel. OH MY GOODNESS I FINISHED A NOVEL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I AM NOT A FAILURE! (I mean, I still kind of am because you know, the book is horrible) BUT TODAY I AM NOT A FAILURE! (I also may have just killed off a character, but that doesn’t matter because it is a time for…) CELEBRATION! WOOOH. Kenzie, I think your pep talks have been working! Thanks everyone for the inspiration! :)

    Liked by 4 people

    • *GASP* OH MY WORD!!!! Kirsten, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! *flings cookies in your face* *flings confetti in your face* *flings golden medal in your face* I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU ASDFGHJKL!!!! You are DEFINITELY not a failure!! First drafts are usually terrible, but all of that can be fixed later!!!!

      YES!! KILL THE CHARACTERS!!! (perhaps this is the secret to victory??? I haven’t killed any characters recently…)

      YESSSSS! My pep talks have TOTALLY been helping. Obviously. I bet it was the one about the slug that really boosted your productivity…

      EEK!!! CONGRATULATIONS, KIRSTEN!!! You deserve ALL of the cookies!!!

      Like

  5. Guys, I’m kind of worried… I’M NEVER GOING TO BE ABLE TO REACH 50K, EEK! I’m trying to figure out if that will be a good thing, or a bad thing, but right now I’m kind of leaning towards bad… So here’s the problem: even after I passed 25K, the half-way mark, I was MILES ahead of the half-way point in my story. And… ich kenne nicht. I mean, I’d like to finish my story before November, because I will guarantee you I will never be able to finish it otherwise, but if I’m ever going to be able to make this a two-book series thing, it’d be really weird if both ‘books’ were smol little beanchildren. And I really don’t want to combine the two into one huge book…

    Haha, I’m actually dreading when I get to the end of this story… wut is happening…

    GUYS. WE ONLY HAVE NINE DAYS LEFT. how shall I live!!

    Liked by 2 people

    • I mean… smol beanchildren books are still books so… why not? My story is probably going to be a strange beanchild length also. *shrugs* Who says a novel has to be 50k? We are writers! Making up our own rules is kinda our job, right? Hehehehe…..

      ALSO I KNOW! I AM DED. But nonetheless we shall keep fighting the NaNo Beast until we can no longer. Forth and fear no Nov. 30ths! *panics*

      Liked by 2 people

    • Oh dear… That doesn’t sound good… I’ve personally never had this problem, as I tend to use a LOT of words (which probably fluffs my count) but I know that this tends to happen to writers!! I think my best advice would be to just go ahead and finish the book, without worrying about how many words you have in it. It’s not quantity that matters, anyway, but QUALITY, and I think that’s something that people tend to forget during NaNo. (me included.) Besides, you can always add to it and beef it up when you go through the second draft, right??? So even if it is a smol beanchild right NOW, it won’t be later, yes???

      WE HAVE LIKE FOUR DAYS LEFT I’M DEAD HALP.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Haha, yeah you always seem to have a lot of words at your fingertips, so I can’t imagine you running into that problem! I wish I was able to write as much as you, frankly! XD

        Yeah, ok! Eeek, thankfully it worked out all right, because I managed to pass 50K AND finish my book!!!! Eeek, I’m so excited!! I’m really glad it worked out!! XD Thanks for the help though!! :) <3

        Liked by 1 person

        • Honestly, I WISH I could run into this! I have the exact OPPOSITE dilemma, where I’m constantly making my stories too LARGE. 😂😂😂 Aww, no. Trust me, it is more a curse than a blessing. XD

          OH MY WORD!!! That is wonderful!!! Congratulations, Anna!!! I am so happy it all turned out all right!!!! *flings cookies and confetti at your face*

          Liked by 1 person

          • Nooo!! Kenzie, you certainly aren’t missing out on much, that’s for sure! And how can your stories possibly be too much? That…that’s an impossibility, sir.

            Thank you!! It feels nice to have a winning streak of Nanos so far, not to mention another finished story, haha! I only hope I can keep the streak up, lol!

            Liked by 1 person

            • Awwwww!!!! You are much too kind, Anna dear! *hugs* I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut back a lot of fluff in the third draft, though, so I’m just trying to get through the second draft and make it as close to the final storyline as I possibly can right now.

              Awww! That sounds wonderful! I lost my winning streak, but I’m okay with that, I think. I SHALL EARN IT BACK IN 2018!!!! MWAHAHAHAHA!

              Liked by 1 person

              • Haha, well I’m sure everybody gets fluff after Nano. After all, when you have only thirty days to complete a whole story, there’s obviously going to be some stuff you’re gonna look back on and say, “you know what, I don’t even need this in here.”

                Haha!! NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS, HERE WE COME!!! XD

                Like

  6. A Kenzie-Twist… scary… Except I’m pretty sure I’m failing, so that could be good??

    “If you feel like a failure, I’M PRETTY SURE YOU ARE” < Your candid speeches are surprisingly motivational. xD

    I have no updates on the writing front except to say that, same as last time I commented, writing has STALLED. *writhes* *cries* *procrastinates instead of fixing the problem*
    Jem Jones

    Liked by 1 person

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