Progress Report

Ok, so I'm getting a better sense of what's going to happen with the story. It's starting with a seemingly average kid, named Liam, that feels somehow displaced in his world. He doesn't really feel like he fits quite right with things. After a bit, he gets some new neighbors who are very odd. He doesn't know it yet, but they're going to be there for him.

Each of them will have something magical about them, like one I think, might be a sphinx in disguise, one might be a werewolf or giant...something big, then of course there's the mermaid. The kid doesn't realize it at first, but he'll be...something, too. I dunno what yet. The neighbors have moved in cuz they know there's someone like them in the area, but they don't know for certain who it is at first. All the while, I think there may be a Collector of some sort trying to hunt these types & the neighbors have to find the kid, show him who he is & warm him about this collector before he gets found & taken.

I'm not sure how it ends tho'...does he go with them, leaving his family behind? Do they fight the collector so they can all be safe? Do the neighbors simply seek out these kids to warn them, then move on? *shrug* I'm not sure yet. I'm going to start actual work on it, rather than just trying to work out the ideas in my head, today.

In other news, I need to say another hello to the blog's newest follower. Hello! Thanks for stopping by.

A Pictoral Interlude

The evidence of our recent ice storm...
Treacherous, somewhat destructive, but oh so pretty & sparkly. Maybe I'll write something about an arctic world while the effect is still in full swing. Something with a glass forest could be pretty interesting.


The basement I talked about. Luckily it's in the empty house next door & not mine. And alas, all that junk & no mermaid. I think the basement pond in my story will have to be a fair bit cleaner.

Have You Ever Noticed...?

When you've been writing for a while, you start being able to more accurately predict things (& more quickly too) in what you read or watch? That happens for me a lot, most recently when I rented something only yesterday. On one hand, I like it; it's nice to be more able to identify structure & notice clues, (or in some cases, cliches) & character types, etc. But then, on the other hand, it's a little contrary to that whole suspension of disbelief thing to figure out where a movie's going after the first ten minutes.

And the Universe Provides

I know that 'where do you get your ideas?' is a constant question asked of writers & for me, it tends to be from odd places. My NaNo this year started from seeing a commercial for disposable razors, lol. And this morning, I had a new notion for a new project...courtesy of my flooded basement. Yep, I mean it.

Ya see, it's like this, a while back I'd mentioned my truly obnoxious neighbors & I'd mentioned having them in my NaNo. As it happens, they didn't make it in the book but one of you out there had suggested having them have radioactive stuff in amongst the junk in the yard. I liked that idea & think it has potential. Just recently, those neighbors got evicted & the cheers of a grateful neighborhood rang out around the street. I assumed, quite wrongly it seems, that with their hasty departure they'd no longer be a problem. Oh, what little I know.

I came home the other day & when it got to be time for supper, a brief foray was made to the basement to get something out of the freezer, only to find about 4 inches of standing water in my usually dry basement. Nothing appeared to be dripping, there wasn't any sounds of water anywhere. After a bit of looking around, I noticed there was water pouring down the outside of the neighbor's house, below their kitchen, where the house wall met the basement. The cops came out, because who else are you going to call when the legal owner is an out of town bank & it's late on a Saturday afternoon. He looked around & discovered that, on the side of the house opposite mine, one of the basement windows was missing & upon looking inside, saw about four feet of standing water.

Yeah... I was overjoyed.

On the plus side, the cop called in a couple of city guys who came out & shut the main off & may have even drained a bit (I'm not sure what all they did, as it was darkening by then & raining. Not ideal observation conditions really). So, you may be saying "wow...that does suck. But what's it got to do with your writing?" Well, I'll tell you, smartypants...It got me thinking, that's what. Like, were it clean & not full of dingy junk, were it sealed properly & not dripping down the side of the house to soak the surrounding ground so much as to make it leak into other houses & were it not, ya know...the middle of December in an underground room with an open window, for just a minute, that could be kinda fun. Imagine if you didn't have to worry about cleanup or wrecking things or drowning the circuit breaker or anything & could just walk down the stairs & jump in. That'd be kinda fun, on paper at least.

So that's got me thinking...what kind of people might intentionally have a basement full of water? And my first thought was, a family with a mermaid. And what kind of family would have a mermaid? An odd kind, I'd imagine, at least by outside appearances. So, for my next project, I think I'm going to write about a family with a strange secret swimming in their basement & see what other oddities I find.

Whatcha think?

In other news, I got to right an ST post for my game last night! Storyteller (ST) posts are far reaching, plot posts rather than individual char pieces as I usually do. I've done ST posts a couple times before, but not very often. This one is exciting, because it's an ST post for a little side plot I'm actually running. That's a new one. I've got a li'l adventure cooked up to keep people busy over Christmas that'll segue nicely into the main plot after Christmas. So, that should be fun.

And Now For Something Completely Different

So, it's done & I'm a little iffy on the idea. It seems both fabulous & very odd that it's done. The story i used this year is one that'd been kicking around in the back of my head for a couple of years now & to actually have it out & completed... is strange. It's been on my mind for so long & now it's gone, like a song that finally quits playing after being stuck in your head for ages. Good, but just a bit jarring when you notice it's absence.

CJ, it is fairly nice, yes. Both energizing & a little serene. But alas, no rest for the wicked. My ML talked me into doing NaNoFiMo & now that I've finished with this year's book, I'm dragging out an old one, my NaNo form '03. And I've gotta say... I'm a bit trepidatious about opening the thing. While I am rather interested to see what I can make of this year's during rewrites, I'm less sure about the old one. Yes, I know, it'll never get finished until I reread it & start writing, It's been ages since I read it & I'm afraid I'll open it & hate it or won't be able to get back into the mindset to finish.

I know, I know...nothing for it but to open the bloody thing & get started.

So, dear readers, have you ever had a project you had trouble starting or sticking to? Any favorite tricks when starting rewrites?

It's Done!

I just finished the epilogue this afternoon. I have an a actual, whole book that I wrote. How 'bout that? Sorry, I'd be more pithy, but it's 4:30 in the afternoon & I haven't been to bed yet, lol. Not related to finishing the book, just how it is. But still....

I wrote a whole book!

And come New Year's or thereabouts, comes rewrites.

The End is Nigh!

Wow.. could that be a creepier title?? I did some sprints this morning & got the final scene of my novel finished, and as I thought it might, it needs an epilogue. I thought I'd finish it this morning, but then once I started the epilogue, I realized part of my cast needed renamed & name hunting always takes a while, so it'll be tonight I think.

It's kind of an odd thing though...finishing my first novel. For one, it'll mean having an actual finished piece all my own, even if it is in crazy, sloppy, rough draft form. And another is the notion of 'my first novel', as if there'll be others. That's kind of a new mindset for me, but I like it. For now though, I must sleep.

I know 'you're going to bed in the middle of the day??' I work nights. Deal :-P.

And after the epilogue is complete tonight, I'm rereading my '03 NaNo so I can start 'FiMoing it tomorrow(yes Cheri, I'm doing it). I'm getting quite a little schedule of projects lined up....again, new & a bit odd, but I like it.

Goodnight Bloggerland, I might check in this evening.

Life After NaNo

So here it is a few days into the offseason & my rushed haze from November is finally starting to fade. Can you have a writing hangover, do you think? I still have to finish the last half of the final scene of my novel, it should only be a couple thousand words, but somehow I just can't get myself to do it. I'm not certain if it's just with the hullabaloo of NaNo officially over that I'll slide back into my usual slacker ways, or if it's that then it'll be officially, completely over.

Maybe it's because I've read a few books I really liked....until they totally fell on their face at the ending. I do not wanna be that book.

I'm looking for some after NaNo writing to do, besides shiny new game things obviously. I've gotten on request that I join up on NaNoFiMo (finishing month), which I've given some thought to. Their stipulations are putting 30k on an unfinished piece. And I was planning to reopen my first NaNo & try finishing it off as this newest one & I took a bit of a breather before rewrites. Maybe I'll try that there, rather than after Christmas as I'd originally thought. I've signed up on a couple writing forums as well & am considering joining a critique group.

Anyway, just a little something to let you know I'm still out there. Oh, welcomes go out to Cheri, my region's illustrious ML & Salambander, my newest blog followers. Salambander, you have a gorgeous blog, really. Very clever & clean with a cool background! *applauds*

Evolution

As I may have mentioned once, or about 15 times lol, I write on role playing games. Well, my longest running & favorite is an X-Men game, where I play 3 chars as well as Mod. I started writing in RPGs &, if you can find a good one, they're a great place to write. You can create an original char to play in a world you love, sometimes nab a canon char you've always liked reading & write them as their own or even start a communal writing experience in a world entirely your own. I like it because, unlike the solitary venture of novel writing, it's communal. There's back & forth that is not only fun & challenging, but can spark some really great ideas. What's more, a lot of games go on for quite some time so you get a chance to see your char(s) grow & evolve.

My game has just revamped & is about to start up a whole new chapter in the story. The plot is about to take a twist that'll take things in a new direction & now is a great time to step into the world. Yes kids, that's right, this is the obligatory Game Plug Post. So, without further ado, I give you Graymalkin:

Everything evolves; species, people, dreams. Professor Charles Xavier dreamed of a world where humans & mutants could peacefully coexist. But, the world had other intentions & Xavier's dream had to change. After the sudden revelation of the true nature of his school to the public Xavier & his X-Men had to evolve. They'd been thrust into the spotlight & life would never be the same.

Now the next era dawns with a new home in San Fransisco. The Graymalkin Foundation has become the new training ground of the X-Men. Scott Summers leads the Foundation in teaching a new generation of mutants about their powers, training a new crop of heroes & in furthering Xavier's dream of peaceful co-existence.

Come join us at the Graymalkin Foundation for new challenges & new adventures. Help us forge a new chapter in the X-Men mythos.


Rules | Available Characters | Blank Applications | Billboard

Thank God It's Over!

On on hand, NaNo is over, but on the other, I hope this is just the beginning. First a few stats:

In total, I wrote 50,086 words.
My highest word count day was right around 10k (the end flying up to meet you can be very motivating ;) )
And this blog (excluding this post, titles & my replies in comments) is 13454 words so far
My Region, Peoria, IL collectively wrote 1,560,129 words
119,301 people signed up for NaNoWriMo this year with an 18.2% win rate of 21683 authors!
And the combined total words of all NaNos was 1,519,501,005!

That is AWESOME! Everyone that wrote, whether they hit 50k or not should feel at least some sense of accomplishment. I know even in years I didn't win, I still met some great people, I brought better writing than I had the year before, I always learned new things & no matter my word count I'd want to come back next NaNo & try it all again. I hope you all feel likewise. Congrats all around! These are some truly staggering numbers & I hope that next year they just keep going up!

This year, I learned:
That sprinting is word count Miracle Grow!

For me, reading during NaNo is strictly verboten. I get too caught up either wanting to see the outcome of a new read or racing ahead to my favorite spots on old ones & neglect my own stories.

Posting to or reading the Forums, or other writing message boards may be helpful & interesting, but it WILL NOT add to your wordcount. Forums are a treat to be enjoyed either for brief portions before, or as you like AFTER you've hit the day's target.

Setting a target (daily/weekly/monthly...whatever) can be a major help. When I was at around 8k, I thought quite idly & pie in the sky that it'd be great to have at least 20k in the first week. When I said it originally, I never thought I'd mke it, but as I put more words behind me 20k seemed more attainable & it made me work harder to get there.

Having a cheering section is a great boon! Usually, I have one or two people interested in my NaNo, this year I had a crowd of friends online that followed, cajoled, cheered, threatened me with guilt monkeys & generally drug my sorry kiester towards that magic 50k, even on days I wouldn't have myself.

Similarly, shooting your mouth off to said crowd is a good thing. It makes it a lot harder to punk out once you've run your mouth about how great you're going to do, lol.

This year I learned I could finish a piece of my own work & it'd be worth reading, and possibly, after a few edits & some polishing, maybe even worth paying for. I knew my writing was fairly decent; I get compliments on my game posts frequently & have a lot of requests to write with my chars & have favorable things said about previous NaNos. But this was really the first full length work I've done that was wholly mine; not fanfic, game stuff or the like. And ya know what? It was still good. How 'bout that?

This year I really realized how much writing meant to me. I got how much I love doing it, figuring out the puzzles of it, getting a char to talk & to live. I really got how much I want to get better at it & noticed or the first time that I may want to do this for good - my work, out there, in the world, to be read (and hopefully enjoyed) by as an actual vocation.

This year I'd like to thank:
Chris Baty - without you, none of the rest of us would be throwing ourselves into this annual insanity & life would be poorer without it. Thank you for the weekly pep talks! I love them!! You had this hairbrained notion that gave us all permission to go out & suck & that is so liberating! Lol. Because once you know it's ok to not be perfect, it gives you so much room to be great, as counterintuitive as it may sound to someone that hasn't tried it. You gave everybody a great place to expand their skills & learn about the real guts of book writing; that nothing that ends up on the shelf starts out it's literary life looking like that. You helped us mess the fun & beauty & chance there is in being a mess, because amazing things that can be created from that mess! Thanks Chris!

Russell Uman - Not only is he the ever brilliant "Robot Whisperer" that keeps the virtual lights on so we all have a place to play every year, but Russ was my NaNo mentor my first year. He may not remember, it was a few years back & he's come across hundreds of NaNos since then, but I do. I still have parts of his letters from that first year in my 'cheering section', a file I keep of comments my writing's received. It's great to look over on days I'm having trouble. He encouraged me, read my stuff & told me 'you really write well and it would be a shame for that to go unfulfilled'.

I held onto that & all the other things he said & it was one of the reasons that I kept going, even in years I did badly (and wow...some years I did very badly!) So thanks Russ. I never would have made it here without you!

To all the authors that've taken time out to do pep talks - Thank you, they're amazing. It's wonderful knowing not only are we not exploring these strange new worlds alone, but you all have survived the trip & live to report back, and with great success in doing so. Beyond that, and maybe this is just me,. I find it somehow a little reassuring that pep talks from "real" authors show up in my inbox, complete with typos. I'm sorry, but that's great!

A special thank you goes to Piers Anthony. When I saw his name on this year's pep talk list, I must admit, I nearly squealed in transports of fangirlish joy. I love his stuff, I've got about eight of his books. I ran, figuratively, to my email every few days in anxious anticipation, only to have my little hopes dash time & again. On the night before NaNo ended, I was lamenting to a friend that there was no Piers post yet, only to have it arrive about five minutes later. It was well worth the wait.

Silke & Carolyn - ty, ty! It was great having two people from the game going through this two. And I'm so proud of you both for making it to 50k! You guys rock!

Cheri & Kelly - Peoria's illustrious current & former ML. You two are fabulous! Cheri, you set up real world events & online write ins & Kelly for setting up The Cafe for us to hang out in & both of you for staging all those sprints! Thank you, thank you for being such wonderfully helpful & encouraging forces in our little corner of NaNoworld!

Nehellenia - You made it & I'm so proud of you! I know you ha a couple hang up spots in the middle, but you did great.

Gypsy! Oh, Gypsy m'dear, you were my NaNo angel! Lol. You read along, clamoring for more, you were my constant sprinting companion & my staunchest cheerleader this year. Ty, ty, ty! I never would have made it without you.

And finally, you, gentle reader. Thanks for hanging in with me through this crazy time. Keep checking back, I'll keep posting. And thank you, thank you for all the comments. Keep'em comin'. It's great knowing I'm not just sitting here talking to myself.

Ok...I think that about covers it for the time being. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming in the next day or two.

Purple is the New Black

Ok...I'll have a bit more detailed breakdown of things once my head stops spinning, but....

I WON!

It was spectacular seeing that progress bar go from blue to green(50k+, unverified) to winning purple. Oh wow...I don't even have words for it, lol. I will, but tomorrow once I'm a little more sane again. I still have a couple thousand(at a guess) left to actually finish the story, but that's ok. I made it to fifty thousand words & beyond with a full story I actually like. Don't get me wrong, lol, there will be much editing thrown around in a couple months, but for now, I'm just enjoying the rush of beating something I thought may well be insurmountable.

To anyone reading out there who are still plugging along, DON'T GIVE UP! 50 is attainable! And for all of you that have reached, or even passed that magic mark, CONGRATULATIONS! I hope whichever camp you fall into, that you'll be back next November to go again. I know I will.

The Final Hurrah

Ok...I'm back, I'm refreshed & I woke up with my book on my mind, so I'm reasonably certain my brain has forgiven me for what I put it through yesterday. From when I started yesterday to when I passed out this morning I think I wrote almost ten thousand words. Yowzah! I'm currently at 43,396 & all i have left is the final scene. If for some reason that doesn't fill enough, though I'm fairly certain it will, I'm recycling part of my opener as an epilogue.

OK, and there'll be more on this later tonight or tomorrow when I write my post-NaNo post, but I just wanna say thanks to all of you that followed along with this blog. And thanks to all my cheerleaders. You guys really helped make this happen! Cuz, let's face it, it's a lot harder to pun out in front of a crowd, lol.

See ya when I have a book.

Brain Fried

I have less than four thousand words left! But, I'm heading to bed. I want to finish cuz it's just right there, but I'm exhausted & my brain is turning to goo & threatening to pour out my ears in protest of my extended abuse of it if I don't sleep.

Anyway between when I started yesterday & now I wrote almost 10k, so that's pretty exciting. All that's left is the final scene & maybe, depending on the count, an epilogue. I'd be more enthusiastic if I weren't so tired I had to keep going back & fixing things in this post. Hooray for spellcheck! This last chapter or so's gotta be looking real pretty, lol.

See ya when I get up.

On to the Summit!

I'm at just over 40k. Wow...That boggles my mind. I'm **this far from having a finished first novel! Ok...so maybe * *this far, but still... I'm nearly there!! I'm nearly finished with the first draft of my first novel & what's more, I have plans for when I rewrite it in a couple months! And more than that, I have plans for my writing between then & now, how cool is that!?!

By Sunday I'll be done & will spend most of my time giggling like a crazy person & sighing the relieved sigh of someone that never thought they'd be able to manage something really difficult, but did. After that I'm still not really done though. I'm going to hunt up a few beta readers to take a look at things. Plus, and this may wait until after Christmas, I'm pulling out my first NaNo, dusting it off & I'm going to reread it to see if I can pick it back up & finish it!

About the time I'm through with that, cuz though I don't plan to dawdle, I won't have the NaNo of Damocles hanging over my head, that should warrant enough time to distance my brain from this year's novel.Then starts the ever exciting world of rewrites. I'll go through this year's a time or two, and then if I get frustrated/bored/need space/whatever, I'll go through my first NaNo. By NaNo next year, it's possible that I ma have to, actual, full blown, finished novels that are worth reading & maybe even paying money for. That is exciting! But ya know...'saleable' or not, I just love the idea that they'll be finished for me. I'll have two completed pieces that are stories I like & find interesting.

That is awesome.

I figured out my ending this morning. All I have left is wrapping the scenes with J&Z and E&J & getting them back to the city so they can all meet back up, put the stuff together & get where they're going. Once there, it's the ending & them discovering all the whys & wherefores. On one hand, the prospect of nearly being done is great for a number or reasons, but on the other...I know some percentage of the group isn't going to make it & that's going to be tough.

Depending on how that scene feels once it's done, I may go back & recycle my first scene to show the world after that & how it may (or may not) be changed because of it. We'll see when I get a little closer. I've got a bunch of things that I want added or expanded come rewrite season. So much that was either tossed aside for the sake of 'there's really not time right now, I need to just keep going' that'd add detail to the world or chars. I'm anxious to see what it all looks like after it's totally finished, though I know a lot of people hate their NaNos, I've really enjoyed mine...for the most part.

Ok, I'll check back later. I have a book to finish.

I Think I May Be Stuc...Scratch That! I Think I Know How My Book Ends!!

Ok, whoever said writing got so much easier once you hit the 30k mark wasn't writing my book. Yes, alright, some things are simpler; not so much setup, actually getting down to downing things, etc, etc. But, on the other hand, now I'm trying to see the ending in the distant fog, its still hidden and so I'm bumbling along uncertain of how to get things tied together. I have three pairs of chars who've been off hunting for various items. Each item is a clue to the central problem: why are all the gods dying off.

One pair, Bram & Gus, got theirs easy & so they headed home before the others had even found theirs. For them I had someone rob the diner they'fd been waiting in, so the item, a map, could be stolen so they'd be forced to chase it down & thus kill a little tiime while the others were still looking.

The next pair, Jubes & Erin, found their item, a small carved box. I'm not sure yet what it's importance is. I'd thought of making it a puzzle box, but that really only delays my having to DECIDE exactly WHAT IT IS!!

*sigh* Sorry 'bout the yelling, that was for me, not you. Anyway, the third pair, Josh & Zhi, are still looking. They just found a something, but jumped to the next scene because i don't know what it is yet.

So here's what I'm thinking... the pieces are somehow cooperative. Like, maybe the box has a necklace (or some such) in it that fits into the whatever it is that J&Z just discovered & the map leas them to whatever it is that'll put all these things together to a useful (and hopefully interesting & wordcount heavy) purpose. The box was found in the base of a statue that had Jubes' name on it, I'm thinking the whatever that J&Z find'll had something similar, one of their names or a likeness. That'd leave me with putting something likewise on the map - not too hard a task, as they haven't gotten to sit around & look too long at it while undisturbed.

Some predetermined thing from way back, even before them, which leads to what's before them. i did a bit on that in the Josh/Zhi scene, they found some old temple to some precursor god, and I think whatever happened to him is what's happening to them & maybe all these items'll fit together to stop it...or at least lead them to someplace that'll explain it maybe. *ponders*

That could maybe be something...

Ok.....ok, I think I've got it.

LOL, thanks for listening to me prattle outloud. This was a lotta help.

Happy 50th Post!!

Wow, I know it may not seem like a big landmark in the blogging world where some have posted for years, but....wow. I don't think if you took all the logs, journals & diaries I've attempted to keep & rolled them all up together they wouldn't make 50 posts, lol.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it. I hope you all had wonderful dinners & some memorable moments with whoever you shared the day with.


Anyway, I have to get back to the book, time's running short. I'm writing till the words start to swim because my afternoon's going to get blown via my Grandparents' annual 'oh god...what're we gonna do with all this stuff?! Come help up eat some of these leftovers!' annual leftovover purge, lol. It's the sequel to a nice meal & a little extra time with everybody, which is great, but not real conducive to adding words. So today, take a little time, have a nice turkey sandwich, then go write.

Does a looming deadline, rushing up to meet you help or hinder your writing?

SHERPAAAA!!!

Oh, bugger....this is a steep ascent! *sobs* Where's the sherpa to carry all my stuff?!? Oh well, I just hit 33,514 & my brain is so fried as I pretty much didn't sleep today (yeah....that was a good move, right?) But, I AM NOT GOING TO BED 'TIL I HIT 35K! *ggrrr!* Sorry to holler, that was really more for my benefit than yours, lol.

On the plus side, I have a little NaNo monitor/predictor thing on my Firefox which had been ticking happily along, well in the green for about half the month. Of late it'd switched to the glaring 'what have you been doing?!?' red & just now I finally hauled it back into the 'c'mon, pick up the pace, you're nearly there!' brown again. Go me.

On one hand the book is getting kind of exciting; the chapters are filling out of their own accord, gone are the intro & just light running around days & now I'm into the more substantial complete the mission, use the clues, solve the puzzle stuff. It's fun & I like seeing how things shake out. The only drawback is, all that takes a bit more thought & planning & while the momentum is faster, the process itself is slowing up a bit with the new influx of more complex details.

Still...35 is just around the corner & from there 50 isn't far off...not really. So, I'm off to do another sprint or two...or five or however many it takes to drag my beleaguered brain over the 35k mark. See ya tomorrow.

Oh & a quick hello to my newest follower. Hello! *waves* Thanks for stopping by.

WOOHOO! 30k! Onto the summit!!

Just a quick note to say hey, 'Hey!' & let you know I just passed 30k a bit ago. Woohoo! I know that means I still have 20k left, which sounds undoable in the less than a week remaining, but, if you don't say 'I have to write a whole 'nother twenty thousand words!?!' & instead go 'huh, that's like 4 k a day, I'm averaging 7-800 per half hour sprint...yeah, that's not so bad. Couple sprints in the morning, one or two in the afternoon, a couple more to finish the day & I can knock that out, easy!'.

In other news, there's a few things I've noticed as this wears on: one, fights (as in arguments. Physical confrontations, in my experience, have an opposite effect) go by really, really fast! And two, the more I write on this, the longer each chapter gets, lol. When i started & broke the coterie into pairs, each revisiting of a pair was a chapter &, just as it worked out, each chapter was only a couple pages long. Now though, the scenes feel like they're just stretching farther & farther. I'm not complaining about the phenomena, lol, just noticing.

Ok, it's back to my saltmin-...eh....Novel.

I'm going, I'm going

Alright, it took a li'l it to get started, a bit more so than I'd planned even, but I'm writing again. Ya know, one of these days after I'm finished & have, at the very least run spellcheck, I'll post a few bits from the novel. For the time being, my friend Gypsy is the only one reading it. She also NaNos so she doesn't mind the mess quite so much. For her I'll just say this: that thing with the jukebox...? *nods* Based on an actual even. No, seriously. I was there when it happened. Lol, that should drive her sufficiently nuts for a bit as I'm still writing the scene in question & she won't see it 'til it's posted later today.

I'd also like to give a quick Hello! to my new 'followers'. Thanks for stopping by. Also, I haven't done Word of the Day for a few days because the friend that asked for one originally finished her novel the other day, wahoo! But, just for fun & in honor of her oldest boy, I'll give you one last. Today's word is: birthday!

Ok, back in a while, hopefully hauling a fatty wordcount behind me.

A 10k Weekend

On the NaNo site, one of the places I frequent in the Writers' Groups forum is the Cauldron Cafe. One of the other Cafers suggested having a 10k weekend & I'm gonna try for it. An extra 10k from where I am now would put me almost on schedule again. Anybody else interested?

What's the most you've been able to add to your novel in a single block? Mine's about 6k, I had a 6k day this year & felt both exhausted & at the same time, pretty spectacular afterwards, lol.

Oh! Also, I had an idea last night. One of the recent Pep Talks mentioned that if you're stuck you should do whatever will cause the most trouble for your chars & I'm taking that advice to heart. I've had a little sideline scene I've been trying to place & it hit me that now, I have a home for it. One of my pairs of characters are done with their leg of the quest while the other two are still only halfway through. I've been cycling through each pairing & was a complete loss as to what to do once I got back to Bram & Gus, as they're cooling their heels back at the diner again. This is where the twist I'd been holding on to comes in. I'd been planning to have an alligator tattooed guy heist the diner at some point, I just didn't know when. Well, I think now's the time. What's more, I think he's gonna snake the map Bram & Gus just brought back.

That should make things interesting as the map in question shows the location of all the gods left on Earth. And, with that map, Gus, Bram & all the rest were going to be able to suss out the next target for death/disappearance, but now they'll have to decide to go after the thief or wait around & see where the 'destroyer' hits next. Either road has some pretty decent potential.

A Bit of Progress

Well, I didn't hit 30k, but I did add to my count. Atm, I'm at 27069. I'll say more & more to the count after I get home & grab a bitta sleep.

Yep, still writing

Ok, I'm still going! Oh & cuz she just crossed the 50k threshold today, gotta give a shout out to Silke! *applauds* I knew you could do it!!

Just logged about 400 new words & I thought I pop in for a sec. I want to hit 30k tonight. Last night was fun & I was half tempted to keep running with the scene I was in, but it was time to check in on one of the other groups. Last night was also interesting because it's the closest in some ways to my actual life. In it we discover that Zhi & Josh have a long standing on again, off again thing. I have someone like that in my RL; a guy that's been anything from friend on, who there've been times I spent all my time with him & others I haven't spoken to him in years. There are days, tho' not nearly as many as there used to be, lol, that I wish things were different & we could be together, tho' I know that once the initial excitement wore off, I'd be miserable again, lol. And there are days when I just wanna smack the crap outta him, LOL. That's kinda where Zhi & Josh are. I'm not certain just yet where they'll end up on the spectrum. I'm so accustomed to writing superheroes & spacemen & things wholly removed from my life, it was interesting pulling something real.

Ok, I'm gonna stop for an hour to grab some supper & Survivor time. I know, lol, it's dumb, but it's fun. Anyway, I'll see you later after I'm done for the night. Happy noveling!

Have you ever pulled a direct real life sorce into your writing? Tell us about it.

Twenty Five Thousand!!

I just cleared my target for the night of 25k! I'm gonna try for 30k by tomorrow, wish me luck.

In other news, a pair of my chars, I'd thought were a little sweet on each other, but now I'm not sure that's right. I think maybe they're more on again, off again, we keep trying to be together & we keep getting in our own way, I love you to pieces when I'm not too busy hating your guts kinda thing. It should be fun, lol. Is it terrible of me that some of my favorite scene have been watching a couple of my chars sit & snipe at each other? One pair they just butt heads all the time because one of them thinks he knows everything & the other is disinclined to put up with the first one's attitude & now this pair teetering between kissing & killing each other, lol.

Now I just have to figure out what they find, lol. The two gentlemen that squabble & snark all the time found a map, the two former (maybe future?) lovebirds are wandering around an old, hidden temple & the last pair found a rare statue that's going to have an incribed clue or a secret compartment, I'm just not sure which yet. And then, lol, they get to go back outside & deal with the great hullabaloo that a pretty graphic display of godly powers is causing. LOL.

Yeah....I know

So, you may have notice, I kidna vanished for a bit there. Sorry. I slammed into the Week Two wall & just could not seem to pry myself off the bricks for a few days. I dunno what the problem was, I just couldn't construct a sentence or figure a direction or anything recently. I've just been completely walloped by this writing malaise & as much as I've hated it, I couldn't seem to get out from under it. Apologies to those couple of you that've been reading this consistantly, I promise I'll try harder to suck it up in the future.

But, on the plus side, as peculiar & nebulous as my gloom, the sun comes again! I dunno & I'm not gonna examine it too hard, lol, but tonight, I WANT to write!! So, pardon as I cut this short. I'm @ 22k & change atm, think I can hit 15k before the night's out??

Today's word is: clarion

Word of the Day

Today's word is: hope. I need some. At the end of week one, I was a couple days ahead & was so excited, but last week....yowzah. My brain/story/ambition just stalled out on me. I've spent a fair bit of time the last few days working on game stuff cuz a) it reeeeeaaally needs done & b) 'oh, well the writing's just my stuff & the game stuff a buncha people need finished.'

It's a lousy reason, I realize, but there it is. Here's hoping Week Three picks up, a lot

*snaps* I forgot

Yesterday's word was: revolution. Sorry 'bout the delay.

Ouch...

That dull thus you may have heard a few days back was me running directly into the dreaded Second Week slump. It's a delightful little combo platter of 'Ok...now what?!?' with my plot & my brain deciding 'what? We're not technically behind until Thursday!' Last week I was so gunning for 20k, and the closer I got, the more & faster I wrote. Since then I've done just over 1,000.

So, let that be a lesson to you; setting a big goal in NaNo is great. Reaching it feels AWESOME! But, once you climb that mountain, don't get complacent, there's another peak right behind it, so pick up you pack & move!


What's your best tip for unblocking/keeping momentum?

And the Question is....

Did anybody see Jeopardy yesterday? They're running their annual Teen Tournament atm. One of the kids does NaNo, how cool is that? Actually, I'm kinda surprised they don't get more people on there that do. Anyway, she was ahead most of the game, but got the final wrong. Still, as it's a tournament, there's still a chance for a Wild Card slot. So, Sarah, wherever you are, good show, kid. I hope you make it through the next round.

Today's word is: luminescent.

New Day, New Chapter

Yesterday was a bit of a mess, I realize. Sorry 'bout that. If you listen very, very closely when reading yesterday's last you'll realize that there's a clanging fading into the distance. That clang you hear is me deciding on something big & then running full tilt at the stretch of faultless adamantium that is the rest of reality.

I decided, I ran, I bounced off that wall hard enough to make even Wolverine's head spin for a moment or two. And, in that moment or two, dazed & spinning & half deaf from the fresh clanging reverberating in my ears...I went a li'l bats for a few. And then, I wrote about it. I promise, I shall endeavor to keep my meltdowns to a bare minimum, lol, unless they'd just make really good reading & then you may get them anyhow.

So, back to work. The last few days have made progress on the novel, though it's been slow. In the last three days I've written no more than 500 words a day on it. I'm not too upset as it's not a complete stall, but I'm not thrilled either. I'm trying to make a point of writing at least something every day. If it's 200 words instead of 2000, well at least it's 200 more than had been there before.

I think I'm also giving up my word counter. Lol, to allay all the 'no!, you can't do that!' I just heard from the room (along with a few snarky 'well, that'd be pretty stupid!') let me explain. I don't mean entirely, I just mean I'm taking it off the toolbar & leaving back where I have to actually go get it. That way, I hope, I won't be so tempted to hit it every other paragraph.

Word counting every other paragraph; rather that at the end of a session/the end of the day, may sound helpful, but to me it isn't. You type away & it feels like you've been going forever because this bit is just flying or that one drags so long. And then, all excited & knowing you've written acres of words, you check you count & find...yeah, not so much. Your mind (and sometimes your fingers) felt like you'd just put miles behind you until that little total popped up to burst your bubble. So, give
the count a rest for a bit. It'll be waiting for you at the end of the day.

Today's word is: sanguine.


Ever had a writing meltdown? What set yours off? Bad word count? RL messes? Chars that are screaming for a timeout? Conversely, any writing triumphs? Deciding to become a professional? Seeing your name in print? Just a really great bit of dialog? Let us know, we love stories here ;)

I'm a leaf on the Wind...

I was talking to a NaNo friend of mine the other day & the conversation went from comparative progress to a screeching halt.

‘Wait...’ she said, ‘you never finished before? I just thought it was the story running out before the word count got where it was supposed to go.’

Nope, I haven't. *hangs head, abashed* My name is Angela, and I was a four time NaNo loser.

In previous years, I had a pretty hefty familial commitment in Nov every year. I tried writing around it, but could never quite manage to push through the 'Omigawd, what am I doing?!? This sucks!!' phase to get to the good bits. I always figured 'eh, it's just as well, I’m tired from - & have - to do tomorrow & this isn't any good...'. I got frustrated & let my outside obligations give me an out.

I can't do that this year. Lol, for one, the 'obligation' in question is no longer a factor. And for another, this is an idea that's been rattling around my head for a few years now. I really think it's time.

And now, you all sit back & go 'Omg & -this- is the chick that's been giving -me- advice?!?!?'

I know. Sorry.

My sister was in the Army & she had been stationed in Germany, then was deployed to Iraq & later to Afghanistan. I only got to see her once a year & as she loves fall & Thanksgiving, she'd take leave in Nov. I adored seeing her (she is, afterall, my favorite person in the world) but between cleaning, shopping & phone calls before, then making dinners or going to other people's who made her dinner, usually having at least one party, having her friends all show up along with every relative in three counties, lol it was tough. Plus, occasionally, I liked trying to actually get her all to myself for five minutes. I loved having her home, but it ate up a lotta time & energy.

Now she's out. She got out last fall cuz she was pregnant with my niece, who was born this spring. She & the baby are currently waiting for my brother in law to get back from his latest deployment. Besides missing him & being a li'l far from home (she's in Kansas, most of our family's in Illinois) she's good.

Previously, all the things I felt I needed to do in November always took precedence to what I wanted to do, what was important to me. This is a terrible habit & I know *points to the audience* I am not the only one with this affliction. Everything always seemed more important because it was important to somebody else. My ‘stupid stuff’ could always wait, even if it was things I loved, because other people in my life didn’t attach any significance to them. ‘Oh, you’re just doing –‘, where – was ever so much less important than other things. I was just wasting my time anyway. I’d hear all of that & more from people around me & after long enough, from myself.

I really need to quit that. We all do.

We all need to quit letting the rest of the word dictate our priorities, our passions. Yes, of course there are certain practical matters for most people; gotta feed the kids, keep the lights on, etc. But, there has to be ways to serve both things. You shouldn’t have to lose yourself for the sake of practical expediency or other people’s opinions of what you ought to be doing instead. You shouldn’t, and I shouldn’t. I’ve known far too many people that’ve done just that & I’m tired of it. I’m tired of being so beholden to other people’s vision of where they think I should be that I do nothing but second guess where I want to be, if I think on it at all.

Last year, NaNo founder Chris Baty suggested an experiment, a dare of sorts. He proposed that we should have a Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together. The idea was to take something you’ve always wanted to do/try/finish but let fear hold you back from & just do it. It could be anything, learn a language, get a new job, finish school, remember to return emails….lol, whatever you wanted.

If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves. - Thomas Edison

I like this idea. It appeals to the gleaming, leonine part of me that yells ‘I AM AWESOME!’ but gets drowned out by all the things heaped up it that sneer & reply ‘you’re kidding, right?’ Well, that’s my Big, Scary Fun Thing; I’m gonna try like hell to ignore that voice from now on. I want to start listening to my own.

Leap, and the net will appear. – Geothe

‘What,’ you may ask, ‘does this have to do with the price of Jumja on Bajor?! Isn’t this supposed to be about writing?’ It is, yes. Therein lays the point. When I set harsh practicality & anyone else’s opinions aside & just listen to what draws me, I think it’s this. I’ve written more than 20,000 words on a single piece & while not Atlas Shrugged length prose by any means, I want to see how it ends.

I haven’t had it long, but this blog has had more frequent & longer posts than any other blog/journal or diary I’ve ever tried keeping…probably put together.

And while my conditioned, doubting responses wants to remind me that I’ve never finished a novel, I say ‘yes, but I keep coming back to try!’ Lack of completion doesn’t mean I haven’t learned things in the years I’ve failed. I keep getting asked advice on writing this year, I keep answering with some pretty solid ideas & I keep hearing how my suggestions have helped. I must be learning something!

The conditioned bit says “all” you write is “stupid game stuff”. Ok, I’ll grant you, most of my writing has been game related, but stupid? Not so much. Currently, I write for four characters out of two different universes with a minimum of around 2.000 words a week, & usually it’s more. Prior to that, I’ve been writing for close to six years now covering about 30 different main chars & a multitude of background chars on everything from modern day superheroes to far flung future covert op agents to mythic world princesses. I’ve written different jobs, social classes, religions, genders & species! I’ve been doing this initially at a couple posts a week to now it’s practically a nightly occurrence.

But, more to the point than the ‘what’ is ‘why’. Even when I fail, and some of them have been truly spectacular failures that barely even sucked in fresh oxygen before keeling, I keep going back. I keep throwing my mind against the vacant expanse of the page to see what sticks. I love when a char takes off enough on their own that they do things you never saw coming & I love writing something that makes me laugh or cry, or hearing that someone reading it laughed or cried. I love the challenge of trying to get inside this person’s head to see what makes them tick. I keep trying on new worlds & new people. Some fit, others don’t, but I keep going, keep plumbing the depths of my oldest char (she’s 3 ½ now) &looking for the next new thing to flex my literary muscles on & shouldn’t that say enough?

I’m by no means saying that I’ll be the next JK Rowling by next NaNo, but merely that I’ll be here next NaNo, and the next. And I’ll keep writing here & trying to write it better as long as I can muster up new ideas, new chars, new problems, new advice & new reads for you. And I’ll keep writing my novel, it’s still a long way to 50k & the book & I have a date with a red pen in December. Who knows, maybe some time I can post a link to where it’s published, or to a site where I’ve gotten printed. I’d like that, like to be able to point to a book in a store or an article somewhere & go “see that? That’s mine. I wrote that.”

So that’s my other Big, Fun, Scary Thing; to not give up & to keep getting better. So I’m currently unpublished & unpaid, so what?.

My name’s Angela & I am a writer.

"I'm a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar" - Wash, Serenity

Word of the Day

I watched 'Clone Wars' last night & due to a series of convoluted mental jumps between Star Wars references that I'll spare you, today's word is: republic

Time for a TIMEOUT

A few days ago, a NaNo friend of mine was struggling a bit & I mentioned it (see: An Interlude for Talking Pep & Tips). Well recently, she had a bit more trouble:

Me: How's things?
Her: Not so good...and then again, not so bad.
Me: ok, well not so bad is...well, not so bad. Lol. What about the not so good bit? What's up?
Her: You know the way they tell potential parents that bonding can sometimes take a while and often takes place the first time they see the baby?
Me: LOL, yeah?
Her: Well, I've seen my baby and it still feels like a strange being from another planet.
Me: Oh honey....give the kid some time. Creation takes some growing room & a li'l mental readjustment. LOL, sorry...I don't mean to make light, but that's a really great analogy.
Her: I guess the biggest prolem I have is that I keep comparing this brat to the others I had before. They were so well behaved. This one is a monster
Me: Well, everybody has that one kid that makes your parents snicker & go 'ha! Retribution is mine!!' ya know? lol. Try seeing the good side to the 'kid'. Headstrong? That just means they have a story to tell you. Dragging it's little feet? More time for deeper exposition on things. Etc, etc.
Her: That's what been keeping me going. Even for all the complaining I am doing I haven't quit yet so somethign IS going right. I've even managed to keep to my minimum daily word count of 2K. I'm not writing today.... I'm making a day of being at 18,124
Me: that's ok. Sometimes a little time off is necessary.

Sometimes, even a parent needs a time out. It gives you a moment to step away from your current frustrations & gain some much needed perspective. After that, you can come back refreshed & less inclined to throttle the little darling into submission. And take it easy, on both of you. There's nothing you can write that's so bad that it can't be worked out in rewrites, which can be just as cathartic & infinitely cheaper than family counseling.

Just remember, don't step away for too long. It's much easier to fall out of a writing routine than it is to get back into one. Besides, you wouldn't want the kid to go around destroying the furniture while you weren't looking, would you? So once in a while, take a day, refresh, gain perspective, rest. And then, get back to work. These kids don't raise themselves ;)

"The pride of men, of parents as well, makes us believe that anything we create we can control. Whether from clay or metal, it is in the nature of us to create our own monsters. Our children are alloys of our own imperfect flesh. We animate them with magic & never truly know what they'll do.'' - Sarah Connor, 'Queen's Gambit - Sarah Connor Chronicles'

Got a story about when your writing behaved like an unruly little brat? Tell us about it in the Comments Section. Any favorite literary 'parenting' techniques?

Word of the Day

Well, as a RL friend of mine has been telling me about how he thinks his house may be haunted, today's word is : spectral.

Word of the Day

Well, as I and the girl I pick these words for are both happy about things atm, today's word is: Fantastic.

YAAAAAAWP!

Twenty thousand, two hundred & eight, tyvm! HA!! That is AWESOME!!! When I originally thought of it the other day, I was at like 8k or something & it was an idle, 'hey, wouldn't it be cool to hit 20k in the first week?' never thinking i could actually do it, but guess what! I DID! I wrote twenty thousand words in less than a week, I'M KING OF THE WORLD, LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLLLLLLLE!!! Ok, so that last was a bit much, lol, but still :D This rocks.

And it occurred to me the other day (I know, totally obvious, but still) 20 isn't all that far off 25, not really anyway. And 25 is half way through omigawd!! Lol, whether the story will be through @ 50k remains to be seen, lol.

Oh, and in this last, I get the feeling two of my chars may be a li'l sweet on each other. How 'bout that? Anyway, I'm off get up from the 20k plateau & head for the 25k summit. Hope your novels are all going well. Oh, and if you don't get the title, go rent Dead Poet Society. It fits, honest, lol.

Almost There: Reprised

So after sprinting during the day, rather than sensibly sleeping, lol, & having dinner guest last night, I was beat & in bed before 10. It may not seem like much, but I assure you, that never happens to me, lol. My grandparents came over for supper last night, at which point they regaled me with tales of their little medical idiosyncrasies & anecdotes of various old people they knew over the years, including a charming side trip down 'who went to X's funeral'. Good times. All this while the TADIS was calling me from the next room....grr.....LOL. Still, I stayed, listened politely & reassured myself that this was what DVRs were for.

By the time they'd left & things got cleaned up, I was tired enough to get in about 20 minutes or so of Doctor Who before calling it night. Thus, my 17 & change hasn't cleared 20 as I'd planned for my post-supper evening, lol. But that's what today is for. So I was thinking the other day, back when 20k seemed totally pie-in-the-sky, 25 isn't that far from 20 really. And at 25, I'd be half way through! That seems astounding to me, that tonight or tomorrow, I could be halfway to 50k. My previous longest NaNo attempt was just shy of 14k & they've (I know, it sounds backwards, but it's true) gone DOWN in word count since. This is, as of some time yesterday, the longest single piece of fiction I've ever written, and that is pretty mind blowing to me.

The only aspect that gives me pause atm, is pacing. I know not everyone finishes exactly on 50 & the idea isn't to make a perfectly polished book in one go. Side trips to nonsequitors are in fact sometimes encouraged, but I'm afraid I'll run out of story before I hit my target. I've been told by a few people in the past, and most recently by someone that's been reading this year's NaNo, that I'm pretty good with description. And, generally speaking, I would agree. But I've been doing long, detailed descriptions of things in this year's & tho' it's been well recieved thus far, as i'm writing them they sometimes feel plodding & overworked. I'm not sure how to get past that feeling aside from lumping it in with the 'that was too literal' or 'that part was revealed too soon', etc things that I'm trying like hell to keep stuff in my 'You can always fix it later, but first you have to finish!!' file. Still, sometimes when I write the descriptive passages, I can't quite shake the voice going 'oh c'mon! Get to the point already!!' I guess I'll work on that.

I'll post more after today's session. Hope your novels are all going well.

Today's word is: undulate.

Nearly There~~

I just finished sprinting, cuz who doesn't wanna hunch over their computer & try'n string together coherent & entertaining sentences after they come home from working all night, right? lol/I'm currently at 17,139. I might be able to clear that 20k later tonight! Wht's more, one pair of chars found a clue, another did a pretty impressive piece of godly magic & the last just discovered a forgotten secret temple....after a brief, musical interlude of course, lol.

The Race for 20k

Ty for the support guys :) I appreciate it. So, last night I finished at just over 13k & today, it's more sprints. I'm starting to think 20 is pretty downright attainable, possibly by day's end even, but certainly before the week end is out.


Today's word is: Argyle.

Right on!

Apparently my writing groove comes in spurts, lol. I had a good first couple days, only wrote a few hundred, wrote tons in the write in, couldn't muster anything yesterday, now things are flowing again *knocks wood, throws salt & anything else she can think of to unjinx herself by saying that out loud*

I think I know where the story is going finally, have a vague notion of the far distant shores of an ending & my chars are finally off in the world doing things! This is exciting! I even updated my novel info & put up a teeny excerpt today, I've never done that before. I'm currently at just shy of 12.5k & I hope to be at 15 tonight. That way, tomorrow's sprints should knock out that 20k in no time.

Welcome to a brand new day

So yesterday was kind of a bust. I just felt very....meh all day. I didn't sleep a lot & that combined with the glut of words I dredged the day before combined to make me feel a li'l tapped out, I suppose. I know, I shoulda worked through it anyway. The ironic thing is, I spent a lotta time yesterday encouraging other people to put the time in & not give up on their novels. Anyway, this morning I got home from work, I had a li'l breakfast, a li'l Doctor Who & am on my second big thermos mug of coffee, so I should be getting down to work in a few here. Today feels better. Technically, I guess I could not write at all today & not be 'officially' behind, but ya know what? I think, if I can make it to 50 & am looking back on this NaNo later, the thing that'll stand out & really bug me most, won't be the quality(or lack of) work, it'll be the days I didn't work at all. Still, it's a long way to 20k if I'm going to make it by week's end. I'll post a new count later.

Today's word is: swindle.

Today's Word

Today's word is : groundbreaking

Thanks for all the stories

Recently one of my favorite authors, Michael Crichton, died. if you've never read his work, you're likely still familiar with it & have probably seen at least one of the movies his books were turned into. Jurassic Park, Sphere, Timeline, Andromeda Strain, Eaters of the Dead(which became 13th Warrior on the big screen), Congo, Rising Sun, Disclosure, just to name a few. He was also involved in the movie Twister & the tv show E.R.

I first heard of him several years ago when he was on the Today Show one morning. There sat this polite, intelligent, well spoken man discussing a book he'd written about someone trying to bring dinosaurs to life & how they'd just began work towards making it a movie. I thought it was an intriguing possibility, ressurecting an extinct species & I set out to find the book. Like a lot of people do when trying out an author for the first time, I grabbed it not necessarily expecting loads. Sure, the premise sounded cool, but that didn't mean his style would be to my liking. Boy, was I wrong!

Since then, I've owned at least seven of his books, read one or two others & seen the bulk of his movies. He is, to my mind, a giant in fiction. And, the thing I loved about the books of his that I read was their tangibility. I'm a big sci fi fan, but this wasn't space ships or crazy aliens or ray guns, this was possible & that was what made them so thrilling...and sometime, so frightening. His stories were modern day science, things going on in labs today & just taken a step & a half beyond. They were plausible. Disturbingly so in some cases. They were filled with sharp characters & exciting action sequences & provided that perfect blend of science that wasn't someone talking clean over your head, nor someone talking down to you. It provided a life like premise to each scenario that offered you, the reader, a chance to decide whether you thought this or that char was right or wrong, whether possibility trumped right. It gave you a crisp, clean set up an then gave it just enough twist to make it fantastic.

The world needs more books like that. Thanks for the great reads.

And at the end of the day

Ok, it was sprint-a-thon day. Word sprints are when you & a group of friends pick a set time frame, write like mad, then break briefly & compare counts, talk about twists, problems & anything else about your story & then, you go again. My group tends to do 35/10 sprints. Today, I did eight. I'd never done word sprints before this year, but wow, from now on, I'm gonna! Nearly all my writing has been in sprints this year & today I started around 6k & am finishing the day at 11,798. Cha-ching! I'm gonna try to hit 20k by week's end. Wish me luck.

Along the way, I split the chars up into separate scenes, one pairing is totally antagonistic with each other, one's very friendly & the other has fallen prey to my first real pitfall...literally. Poor Coyote crashed through the ground & is current stranded, lol. Plus, for Gypsy, at some point the diner which is my main setting, is getting robbed. And what's more, it's getting robbed by a guy with an alligator tattoo, lol. Orginially she suggested
having somebody just up & heave an alligator through the window, lol. I gave it some thought, but I just couldn't figure out were somebody would get a gator in the middle of a city, much less how they'd get the thing around to heave it through a window, lol. But then again....maybe when the time comes, I'll get inspired.

Hope your novels are going well.

Power Writing

Ugh....LOL. I just finished the 5th of FIVE sprints today. Anybody that says writing isn't physically taxing obviously hasn't done it for long enough, lol. Still, I started today @ 6k & change & now, my word count is...*drum roll* 9903! There's another 5 sprint session tonight. Maybe I can get to 15k tonight?

Yeah...I probably can make it. Lol, I am so going for 20k before week's end!

Oh, in other news, A new char wandered into my story, lol. I think it's Coyote! Lol, he should keep things nice & interesting. Happy noveling!

An interlude for talking pep & tips

I know, I was just here, lol. But, in another window, I'm talking to one of my NaNo buddies & she's struggling, so I figured I would impart on you, dear reader, what I'm telling her.

Ok, and I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT REREAD. It's bad. It creates doubt. No book you ever read & loved came out of first draft looking like it does on the shelf in the store. Some days will whiz by, others are plodding, you just have to keep putting one word in front of the other. Set the font to match the background or type with the monitor off. Just get things set up, click it off & go. Then, next session, read back, and I'm serious here, no more than 2 sentences. Get things set up, click off the monitor & go. Just write, don't worry about what's there, just write. Understand that this is just a first draft & can be changed later & just write.

Creating anything can be beautiful & exhilarating, but just as often it's slow, arduous & plagues with nagging self doubt. DON'T GIVE UP! I've done this four time before & haven't made it to 50k....yet. I haven't hit it, and still I come back every year & I try. This year I am determined to do it. I don't care if I end up collapsing on my keyboard & typing the last 10,000 words with my nose! I'm hitting that 50. I'm hitting it & you're coming with me!

There are millions of people that never make anything in their life, never bother, don't so much as read a book let alone write one. The attempt is a leap of faith & an act of commitment. Enjoy it! Forget the inner editor or what needs tending to or the rest of the world, for just a little while! This is the very first time you'll ever be able to meet these extraordinary people & explore this whole new world with fresh eyes, the world YOU create. You are the only person on Earth that can tell this story the way you will, with your voice, your ideas. So tell it! Embrace the chaos, for it's a great ride!

WOOT!

I did three sprints this morning & wrote more than 2k new words! HUZZAH! Lol. Also, I'm so excited about this, my chars are actually starting to talk in their own voices! Yes, the story is still choppy, meandering & weird, but...new words!! WOOT!

So, I'm thinking of setting myself a pretty big challenge. I think I might set a target word count of 20k by the end of the week. Is that a lot? Yeah. Am I sure I can manage it? Lol, not even a little bit! Does the idea of having a 20k first week seem awesome & Herculean? Absolutely!!

Oh, and Dana? Radioactive yard junk?? I LOVE it! Lol, that could be a novel in & of itself, thanks!

Retribution

I have really, really annoying neighbors. Rude, loud, sauced, sloppy, antagonistic pack of vulgarians. Over the last couple years, the cops have been called by various people around the neighborhood about...oh, maybe 8-10 times. I know at least two people called the Health Dept. on them & the Fire Dept. has been here 3 times. No...no, four times. I, by no means, live in the Biltmore estate or anything, but their yard looks like someone took the bastard child of a flea market & city dump, took said child to the most rinky-dink carnival it could find, loaded the child up on elephant ears & onion rings, put them on the Scrambler a good half a dozen times & then took them to this yard t throw up. It's not pretty.

they have, on more occasions than I care to count, held curse filled screaming matches on the front lawn in the middle of the night. They sit & karaoke, badly even by karaoke standards, off their front porch. They play the stereo ALL HOURS of the day & night to a volume that runs through my entire house. They've set their own porch on fire at least twice(because, not only should you not drink & drive, you should not drink & grill either.)
They are seemingly not at all equipped with even the most basic grasp of decorum, the rights of others, or indeed the kindergarten concept of 'the inside voice'. They are, in short, a menace.

You may ask why I bring this up. It's because, I decided today, as I had headphones on & could still hear them banging things & yelling all afternoon, that they are going in the book. I'm not sure how & I'm not sure where, but they' going in the book & I shall have some truly dreadful fate befall them. Any suggestions for a suitably terrible end would be welcomed.

I didn't hit my count goal for the day, but I did add about 500 words, which is better than none at all, I suppose.

Oh, and the word for tomorrow is 'mutation'.

A nickel's worth of free advie

Gather 'round children, Auntie Bristow has a very important lesson to impart. Hunting Blogger for NaNo participants, hitting the NaNo site repeatedly or IMing NaNo friends will -NOT- count towards your total word count. *rolls eyes*

Now then, if you'll excuse me, I need to go hide the phone cord till I hit my target count.

Wow, will this thing need editing!

Ok, so after a fairy promising first weekend 'm just barely managed to creep past 6k. The 'official' target today (going by the 50k/30 - 1667wpd) says I should hit 6668 today. I'm hoping to hit at least 8 before I conk out for the night. Wish me luck.

So, I've begun to notice a trend...this book is SO disjointed! I'm getting the (more or less) globby impressions of what I want done, but when I think on them all later, there's a lot of 'I should have put X before Y' kind of thinking. Once I'm finished,I'll have to read it all through & map things out on little cards or something, lol. There's supposed to be suspense to it & I'm just stepping all over it. Still, I'm not going back and fixing it, no matter how much of a trainwrecked mess it's coming out. One word in front of the other, just gotta remember that. Rewrites can wait. Rewrites kill your story before it has a chance to suck in fresh oxygen. I just need to keep going, no matter what comes spewing across the page. There's nothing so horrible it can' be edited later, but first, you need to have a finished book to edit.

And, with that in mind, I'm off to write. There are two 5 hour write ins tomorrow. I dunno that I'll be able to do both(anyone that says writing isn't physically taxing hasn't written enough!)m but I'll go through at least one. I'll post again once I have the night's final count.

Today's word

As she popped up and asked for her word just as I was finishing watching Iron Man, for about the 25th time lol, today's word is 'hero'.

Ugh....

Slow day today. I didn't start writing 'til late in the evening cuz I was pretty burned out from doing sprints in chat yesterday. They're a great way to get your count up; write like made for X amount of time, take a short break, repeat. We were doing 35-10 yesterday. Good for the word count, but tough on everything else. I did three sprints yesterday, I think & then a couple nearly hour ones the day before. My back was all knotted up, my brain was fried, my eyes were all dry....but i crossed 5k in the first 2 days, so that's ok. LOL.

Got some shiny new presents for the muses today - a new coffee maker & some dark chocolate cookies! Here's hoping that'll coax a few more words out. I was hoping to hit 7k today, but I'm not sure I'll make it. Atm, I'm @ 5819. I[m gonna get up & wander around for a few, see if I can't shake a few hundred more words out, otherwise I'll hit it first thing when I get up. Sorry the counter's not updated, the site's down for a bit while Russ puts in a new server.

Today's Word

And today's word is: 'Marcasite'. I know, it's getting to be a weird collection, isn't it? Anyway, enjoy. I'll post more after my next word count.

And on the second day...

Ok, this'll be quick, cuz my brain's gone all melty, lol. I named all my chars!! WOOHOO! Plus, I used one of the dares I picked up & I'm finishing the day @ over 5k! Ok, so I know a woman that's past 15k already (yeah, I know!) but still, I'm pretty excited.

So, good night everybody. And keep putting one word after another ;)

Welcome to Week One

So the first day of my '08 novel went, I think, fairly well. I finished out the day at 3032 words, nearly twice my daily minimum. Plus, I figured out a few things that might be helpful, like oh, say...the point of the story, lol. I don't wanna get too ahead of myself, but I think I figured out why these people are all coming together & what their goal will be before the end. I'm very excited! The short, short explanation is, they're going to notice a trend in their particular community & will have to decide whether to fall to it themselves or try to change things to stop it where it is. The one will make them all individually reassess their place in the world & what they think on how life is going, while the other will risk toppling their current lives, exposing their true nature & possibly failing anyway. It should be fun.

I'd like to end today above 5k somewhere. But, before I start, I have GOT to go hunting for names, lol. I'm into my second chapter & no one's been properly names yet. And, I can't go through the whole book calling people by pronouns & descriptions. True, there's only one 'the Asian girl' or 'the red haired woman' or 'the pompous guy', but that doesn't mean I want to refer to them as that 3,700 more times. I know who they are; that one's Zeus, this one's Clotho, etc, etc, I just can't go around calling them that in their modern, everyday life all the time. I thought about keeping them with names from their original regions, but that won't always work either. Hathor, for instance, is an Egyptian goddess. Most 'popular' Egyptian names are, in fact, other goddesses. Pass, ty. It wouldn't be too hard to come up with a Greek name for Zeus, but his char's on tv & something like....'Stavros Anatopolis' isn't a very 'tv friendly' name. I don't wanna just have them be 'John' & 'Mary' (which are perfectly fine names, just not ones I want an entire coterie of gods to be called) or what have you, so I have some digging to do today, so, wish my luck as I go name hunting.

Oh, the link to my anniversary pep talk anthology thing came today, so I've been reading that. It was one of the thank you gifts from my OLL donation & it was sooo worth the money. Lol, I really dig Chris(the NaNo founder), he's a riot & at the same time, really encouraging.

Ok, I'm off to find things to call people....Ya think 'Hey you!' #1-5 would be too much??
Oh, and to whom it may concern, today's word is 'accentuate'.

After my first night noveling...

I think it went pretty well last night. i hit my word goal, which is nice. I'm going to try for another 1667 or so later tonight too. It's always good to get the word counts flowing when you can, cuz some days it's going to be tough.

So, I was just starting the set up this morning & the story begins (and returns to, through out the novel) this diner. I was describing the waitresses that were there & as I went on about them, it hit me....Omg, that's the Fates!! Lol, I hadn't intended to have those lovely ladies of destiny spinning fame included, but it's nice they showed up all the same. Also, I didn't jump right into the hole pack of chars as, originally, I'd guessed I would. In fact, the way th scene's shaking out, I may stagger them in a chapter or two at a time. We'll see how things go. I'm still pretty hazy on details, but ya know...that doesn't really bother me. It just means I leave room for the story to follow its own path rather than trying to force something predetermined.

In other NaNo news, I got up this morning & sent a donation in to the office of Letters & Light. I'd been wanting to the last couple years, but as i got paid last night, lol, & it was kickoff day, it just seemed a really good time. To those of you that may happen through here & not know, the OLL is the administrative power behind NaNo, Script Frenzy & the Young Writers' Program. They manage all the programs & handle the funding for those, the servers, the staff, supplies, sort out that years merchandise, set the MLs up with live Write Ins goodies & all manner of other writely, non profit, faeirie godmothery type little miracles. So, if you happen to find yourself with an exrtra $10 or something around November, enhance your noveling karma & help sustain these great programs.

Ok, PSA time is over, tho' I do mean it. Oh, for those interested, I mentioned my friend wanting a word a day. Well, she asked for another practice word & I gave her 'aggregate & for her Kickoff word, she got 'holistic'. And yes, in case you're wondering, I do just kind of pick words out of the air, lol, more or less. She says it's helped her tho', maybe i should try using them. lol.'

Ok, I'm off to get some sleep. I know, I said that hours ago, but alas, that didn't go quite as smoothly as anticipated. So, I will post again today if I manage another session, if not, I'll see you all tomorrow. Happy noveling!

Day one online Write-In results

Ok...it's the end of my first session & I made it to 1690. WOOT! Now, I must sleep, before my brain melts out my ear, lol. But, I'll try'n hit the magic number again when I get up.
Oh & hey! I was about four sentences in & the most glaringly obvious char addition hit me, lol. I love when stuff like that happen, you never saw it coming then *BAM* & it all becomes totally clear. .

G'night all you out there in NaNo/Bloggerland.

TWO MINUTES! AAAAAHHHH!!!!

An Hour Away

Ok, it's nearly midnight....Yikes! I;m anxious & unfortunately really tired tonight. Most NaNos I'm about bouncing around the room near midnight. I hope I can kick some of that excitement up soon. I got about 3 hours sleep today, but I am NOT QUITTING till I hit my 1667! Bed can wait. I can sleep when I'm dead. Well, actually I can sleep in the morning when I go home cuz I have nothing that needs done tomorrow, woohoo! But, it's a long stretch of dark between then & now & in that time, I'm hitting that 16671 unless the cieling caves in on me or something.

Cross your fingers for me, cuz maybe once I get going, I'll just keep at it & forget the tired & it'll all jkust be story. That'd be nice....a big, fat, 5k Day One. Anyway, got a few things to take care of before kickoff. I'll post the results once I'm done for the night. And to my fellow NaNoers, may your word counts overflow! Good luck!!