Sunday Update - Week 46

Hello again.  It's been a week.  For the most part, a good one, but a little bumpy here and there.

In writing news, I wrote 6587 words.  Would've done more, but I took Thursday and Friday off due to things.  Last night, before I wrote, I sat down and kind of roughed out the next several scenes. Then I got words out before things and then Live PD hit.

Marketing for the OUAD sale kind of fell apart.  The ad's supposed to go live today, though, so I have hope.  Not a lot of hope, but it's there.

Reading went well.  I finished three books, which is cool.  I do love reading so.

Yesterday was a baking extravaganza.  Okay, it was only two things, but after making granola bars and then oatmeal cookies, I was kind of shot for more baking.  I did, however, do a pot roast.  Yummers.  The day before I made a vat of chili.  Before that, I did pork chops and scalloped potatoes.  Today?  Maybe apple cranberry bread or apple cake, if I'm up to peeling and paring apples.  And leftovers.  Lots and lots of leftovers.

After baking, we went into the woods and played for a while.  Fun fun.  I love playing in the woods.  Maybe I'll do more of that today. 

The guy building his house next door got a survey done.  Now we know exactly where our NW pin is - three pins down and from that we can approximate where the 4th one is.  Yay.  We've been guessing for 6 years.  (Yeah, we thought we had a surveyor coming out.  He never showed.  We called again and he said next time he was out this way, he'd do it.  He never showed.  Then in the height of summer, he wanted to do the survey.  Umm, no.)

The leaves are nearly off the trees now and that means raking can begin.  I did the small south yard.  And then I paid for it on Thursday and Friday (and a little on Saturday).  It does look nice afterwards, though.  I love our trees, but cleaning up after them is a pain in the back.

Hunting season started here yesterday.  Keep a positive thought for our deer.

And I think that's about it.  Or at least, that's as much it as I can think of right now.  How was your week?

Sunday Update - Week 45

Only 7 weeks left to 2019.  Whoa.

I am hip deep in NaNoWriMo.  Wrote every day this month - even though the NaNo site thinks I missed a day.  I forgot to update on one of those days and it won't let me go back and change it.  One day, due to a thunderstorm, I only got 133 words out, but I wrote that day, so it counts.  The counter thing here shows the truth of it.  As of last night, I'm at 11446 words for the month, 9341 of those this past week.  The book itself is at 67322 words.  Anyway, I'm really excited about this.  And as long as I can keep away from people online saying things like 'is your fantasy just a regurgitation of other fantasies?' (a general post, not someone speaking specifically to me) which makes me doubt what the hell I'm doing, I'll be fine.

I didn't do much marketing for the dystopian sale.  With FB not showing my posts to many people, it was almost like 'what's the point?'  I have another sale starting Wednesday and running through to the following Tuesday night - the Once Upon a Djinn books are all 99c/99p.  There'll be paid advertising for that one.

Also, not much reading last week.  I blame NaNo.

In baking news, I made another Romanian apple cake.  This time, I remembered that I had a secret ingredient - hot apple cider drink mix.  Add one teaspoon when you put in the cinnamon.  It elevates it to a whole 'nother taste level.  I also made meatball subs.  OMG, so good.  And BBQ pork chops.

It wasn't the best week for activity.  A lot of fishing at the beginning of the week, but few actual calorie burning things.  I did weigh myself earlier in the week - 179.6 - so that's something.  I can't seem to bounce past that number.  Maybe if I stopped making such yummy food.  ;o)

The fishing right now stinks.  Apparently, I missed the 'fall fishing' thing again this year.  It must've been like a week long or something.  I had people tell me they caught loads of bass, but I didn't catch doodley-squat for fish.  And now it's too cold and all the fish have gone deep again.  Bugger it all.

Speaking of cold, we're supposed to maybe have snow tonight.  I could care less if we ever got snow, but since we didn't want to move farther south than we are now, we have to put up with it when it comes.  Oh well. 

And that's about that for me today.  How was your Week 45?

NaNo Day Four - Paused for Research

Okay, so I'm writing a fantasy and there are beasties, of course.  But my memory of all things beastie is failing me.  Thus far, I've been leaving myself notes - :insert minor monster here: - when I can't think of the name of something and want to keep writing rather than stop and research.  Last night, however, I hit a spot where just leaving myself a note wasn't possible. 

You see, there's a spot where the intrepid band of good guys gets ambushed by something and there's a battle scene and in order to have a battle scene, you kind of have to know what your characters are up against. 

So, last night, I paused writing to do research.  I got one good scene out before I reached the point where I had to start this scene.  Then I stepped away, grabbed my big book of magical creatures, and got busy scanning through the pages to see if I could find the one that would fit this particular scene.  And I made a list for later of things that could potentially be used for all those notes I left myself. 

By the time I was finished, it was almost time for the season premier of Holiday Baking Championship, so I didn't get back to the book.  But that's okay.  I'm totally not kicking myself for being behind.  I wrote close to 800 words and that ain't bad, considering how many days this year I wrote zero words.

I'll have to do some more research before tonight's writing session.  I have a list but I'm still not certain what would fit.  Something smaller than a human but larger than a dog and semi-intelligent but totally vicious - made more vicious by being shut up in the mists for a thousand years - that hasn't been done to death in other fantasy novels.  And it can't fly.  I already have flying beasties elsewhere.  A dragon (naturally) and some wyverns.  Plus, flying critters would change the battle I'm envisioning.  And nothing too out of the ordinary.  If the average fantasy reader ain't never heard of it, I better have a really really good reason for introducing them to it.

Anyway, I'm having fun with the whole process. 

I know, doing research after the first of November is a no-no.  Maybe if I'd known for sure I was going to dive back into this, I would've done some research in October, but I didn't, so there I am.  And I think as long as you don't fall down the rabbit-hole of research, you can still accomplish your goals.

Right now, I'm about 2K words behind.  And that's okay.

So, how are things with you? 

Thursday This n That

I spent most of yesterday doing spreadsheets, so I was kind of a toad.  I stopped for a while to take a walk.  Then I stopped for lunch and a nap.  Then I took a break to watch some of The Chase and do dinner.  I finished up after dinner.  It's days like that that show me what I could do writing-wise if I put my mind to it.  Of course, spreadsheets use an entirely different part of the brain, but it's the endurance I need to work on overall.

Yesterday, I was thinking about NaNo again.  I even went to the site and logged in a book called No Freakin' Clue.  LOL.  And then I looked at the last time I did NaNo.  It was kind of shocking. More about that tomorrow.

There's a dog at the animal rescue I really want.  His name is Theo and he looks like a super cool dog.  But right now, I've got all I can handle with Geriatric Cat.  I'll just settle for rooting for Theo to find a nice home.  It's what I do.

For some reason, the fish aren't biting.  The local reports are that fishing is slow.  Some dudes we talked to out at the lake said fishing was slow.  At least it's not just me.

The World Series is going on right now.  I predicted the Astros in 5, but since the Nationals took the first game, I'm glad I didn't actually put any money on that prediction.  As of typing this post so its ready for you now, the second game was tied 2-2.  Maybe the Nationals just want it more.  Since the Yankees aren't in it, I don't really care who wins.  (Update: The Nats won game 2, too.  Whomped 'em.  So much for me predicting the future.  Of course, if I could do that, I'd be rich.)

Still no eagle sightings.

Okay, time to get your day started.  Go have some coffee or something.  I know I will.  And leave a little this n that on your way.  ;o)

Thursday This n That

I keep having to remind myself that today is not Friday. 

No, I am not doing NaNoWriMo.  I have this editing thing that has to get done.  No time for writing with wild abandon.  Maybe when I'm finished.  Then again, maybe not.

I picked up an adult coloring book for $3 at the dollar store.  No, not that kind of 'adult' book.  It's birds.  All birds with these intricate designs.  Should be fun.

The other day I threw together a bean dip of sorts.  It's totally crack.  One cup fat-free refried beans, one cup mild chunky salsa, one cup shredded Mex cheese.  Stir together and nuke until the cheese is melty.  Good on tortilla chips, of course, but also good on pita chips.  I'm thinking I might try smearing it on a burger, too.  Crack, I'm tellin' ya.  And it was even better the next day.  Yum.

I posted the above recipe to FB.  My oldest brother always comments when I post such recipes, usually with a =oO face.  Anything with beans or peanuts, etc. He's got a legume allergy.  Good thing he's not likely to come over because we are a total legume household.  Loads of beans and peanuts and peanut butter here.

Growing up around a brother with a peanut allergy wasn't so bad.  We just knew not to eat certain stuff around him.  But we still had the stuff in the house.  I don't know what kind of person I'd be if I had to grow up sans peanut butter.  The no-beans thing would've been fine by me.  I hated beans.  But no peanuts?  :shudder:

The only nod I gave to Halloween this year was watching The Simpsons' 'Treehouse of Horror' marathon.  Those episodes kill me.  My middle sister is totally into the Halloween thing, though.  Spooky movies, dressing up, candy for the kids, decorating.  Not my thing, but more power to her.

Hubs and I took a photo-op walk the other day, to catch the fall colors.  I snapped 116 pictures.  Here's what I think is one of the best ones:

Also these:

And here's a cow:

What's up in your world?  How are the colors where you're at?  Has Fall fallen at your place?

Sunday Update - Week 41

Hidey-ho.  It's Sunday again.  And I'm like where did the week go?

It sure as hell didn't go to much writing.  Early Grave is stalled again - this time at 56237.  I just can't seem to get this ball rolling again.  And then yesterday a little voice in my head said, "You should've written this from Lynn's POV, not Ned's".  And I ran screaming.  After I came back, I had a mental debate with myself and considered the idea from various angles.  The decision?  It's in Ned's POV and it's staying there.  I mean, I'll put more Lynn in and everything, but the main POV in this has to be Ned's or if doesn't work.  Plus, rewriting this whole damn book would take a NaNoWriMo level of effort and I'd really like to conserve those for new books.

Speaking of NaNo... I don't know if I'm going to do anything for it this year.  I have other things I should be concentrating on next month.

Reading... I've been reading one book and I'm not done yet.  Maybe today.  It's a 400+ page SF and it's taking time.

I didn't do a fishing report yesterday because there really wasn't much to talk about.  Caught some little panfish, but nothing to blow your skirt up.

In other work, I got the direction I needed to do those spreadsheets right.  (At least I hope I got them right.  The big boss will tell me if I didn't.)  It's not hard, just a little laborious.  It'll all go faster once I get some of this stuff automatized in my head.

I'm getting the genealogy bug again.  I did a little googling, but I'm not ready to commit to a month of it (which is what I have to do once I pay for Ancestry.com).  I did find the actual name for my mom's great aunt's twin sister who died at birth, so that's something.  And where first cousin twice removed Fred is buried.  I wish I could read German, so I could access all those records to complete Dad's side of the tree.  Bleh.

I've been picking up acorns for the deer.  So many acorns this year.  Oberon - the fairy oak in my front yard - is dumping them by the bucketful all over the yard.  I predict dozens of seedlings in my gardens next spring.  Ugh.  Anyway, it's good exercise.  Or something.  I guess.

Okay, that's it for me.  Not sure what this week will hold.  What's up with you?

NaNoWriMo 2016

Today is the first day of National Novel Writing Month.  This is the month we celebrate writing and one way we do that is by cranking out at least 50,000 words in 30 days.  It's a madcap race filled with daily sprints to reach the marathon end.  I've done this off and on plenty of times over the years.  Sometimes I did it officially at the website created by the NaNoWriMo people.  Sometimes I did it unofficially because I was already in the middle of a book and just wanted to use the month to get a boatload of words out.

That last thing is me this year.  I'll be doing daily sprints to get this book I'm working on finished by the end of November.  If that means another 50K words, then it does.  If it means 40K or 60K, well it is what it is.  As long as the first draft is done by 12/1/16, I'll be happy.

I was sitting here this morning trying to figure out which of my books was a NaNo novel.  Officially, the only one y'all would be familiar with is Fertile Ground.  Unofficially, I'm fairly certain that Wish in One Hand in its first incarnation was a NaNo novel.  (It's original incarnation is a totally different book, btw.)  I wrote In Deep Wish in what I called HoHoWriMo, because I was jammed in November, so I pushed the 50K in 30 days to December. 

If you've never done it, I totally recommend it.  It's a freeing kind of thing.  In order to accomplish that many words in that short a time, you have to just write.  No editing.  No overthinking.  Put the words down on paper.  You can always edit them when you're finished.  But, like I've said before, you can't edit what you haven't written, so get writing.  LOL

If you're not a writer, I still recommend it.  Open a file and start typing.  Don't worry about structure.  Don't worry about plot.  Hell, don't even worry too much about getting all the bits right.  Just write.  You might surprise yourself.

Or to paraphrase a bit from The Carpenters... "Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to read.  Just write.  Write a book."

And on that note, I'll leave you with this starting point for my current work in progress.  I am sitting at 26772 as of this moment.  A finished first draft for me is usually 60-75K.  We'll see how many words it takes to do this story justice and whether I'll be sitting here on December 1st with a completed novel.  :fingers crossed:

Are you doing NaNo this year? If so, good luck!  You can do it!  Have you ever done NaNo?  Would you consider it if you were in the right place for it?

NaNoWriMo is Over. What now?

I've been seeing a lot of posts around the interwebs yesterday and this morning talking about the end of Nano and what to do now.  Most of them talk about this time as though the people who participated in NaNo actually have a novel from 'Once upon a time...' to 'THE END'.  They talk about the editing that's ahead, and taking time away to gain perspective, and stuff like that. 

For me, that's not a NOW thing.  That might be a January thing - depending on whether I have a cohesive 50K words to actually finish in December (sometimes yes, sometimes no).

I've been doing the NaNo thing formally and informally since 2006, and I don't think that even once, I've had a complete novel in 50K words.  Even at a bare-bones minimum, my first drafts end up around 65-70K.  (Well, except for that first novel that topped the scales at 147K, but that took me 9 months to write.  Never again.)*

Nope.  My problem right now isn't editing or waiting or synopsizing or anything of the after-book things.  It's how to finish the book I spent the last 30 days typing away at.  And you know what?  I have no freakin' clue.  Not a one.  Oh, sure, it'll end like all good suspense novels - with the bad guy getting what's coming to him and the good guys winning.  But the details of that are lost to me right now.

So, what's a gal to do?

Part of me wants to set this aside because I have edits I need to be doing.  Another part of me knows that's how this project got derailed in the past - because I set it aside.  The second part and the first part spent yesterday waging war against each other while I sat and read a book I never should've ordered until after I was done with my chores.  (Yes, I ate my dessert before I finished dinner.)

I don't know what the decision is on this manuscript.  I do know that I can't spend another day sitting around waiting for a clear winner in the battle.  I have too much work to do.  So, the plan is to edit today, and then tonight, see how the writing is feeling. 


*Wouldn't you know it.  I talked about the damn first novel and one way to fix it into something people might actually want to read popped into my head.  I do not have time to play with that right now.  Arrgghh.  (Make the hero the MC instead of the heroine, and tighten the perspective all the way around.  :cue shining light from above and inspiring music:)

NaNo Brain vs Pregnancy Brain

This time of year certain writers are stricken with a malady known as NaNo Brain.  It comes from trying to write 50,000 words in the span of 30 days.

It's kinda like Pregnancy Brain.  If you've ever been pregnant or been around someone who's pregnant, then you're familiar with the signs: shoddy memory, craptastic attention span, fluctuating tempers. 


If it any wonder writers liken their books to babies?  You spend a set amount of time producing something you hope will turn out wonderful, and an unknown amount of time trying to make sure said product actually does turn out wonderful.  (Yeah, yeah, babies are products... work with me here.)  And sooner or later, you send it out into the world hoping it will be good and awesome and make a difference one way or another.

Of course, there are differences. 

At the end of nine months, Pregnancy Brain goes away and the afflicted have a bouncy bundle of joy to show for their efforts.

With NaNo Brain, you compress all that into 30 days and at the end you have... part of a book. 

During Pregnancy Brain, you're supposed to eat right, get lots of rest, exercise, and cut out your nasty habits.

During NaNo Brain, eating right is hit or miss, rest is laughable, exercise amounts to getting up to use the bathroom, caffeine flows, and - probably more my habit than yours - many ashtrays are filled to overflowing. 

And of course, shoving 50K words out your fingertips is way less physically painful than... Well, you know.  

With both, the end of your affliction isn't really the end.   (Even when you send the former off to college and the latter off to be published.)

But what do I know?  I have NaNo Brain.  And I will well into December*.

*My fault for committing to finishing this by 12/15.

Sunday Update - Week 46

It was a busy week here at Sandersonville.  And I still don't feel like I got anything done.

Only rewrote 11303 words this week.  Call it the mid-NaNo slump.  Call it the blahs.  I'm still ahead of the curve for reaching 50K this month, but I'm a little behind the curve of my personal goal of 60K this month - or a 2K a day average.  But I have written at least some words every day for 15 days straight, so I'm not complaining.  (Not too much.)

I finished reading 4 more books this past week and as of last night, I'm caught up with the goal of 100 this year. 

In other writerly news, the kick off of my revamped business blog - B.E.'s Writerly Space - went kinda okay.  I'd still like to see some new followers enjoy the fun, though, so the contest is still open and ready for you to follow along (and get entries).  Tell ya what, bring a friend and I'll give you an extra entry - just have them email me after they follow and tell me that you sent them, and I'll give you both an extra entry.  Just cuz.

In life news, we raked leaves.  Oh, they're still out there in a big long pile stretching thru the middle third of my yard, but they're on their way into the woods.  If it hadn't been sleeting, we probably could've gotten more done yesterday.  But it was, and sleet stings, so we stopped for the day.  We'll resume Monday or something after the snow they're predicting for today melts.

Also this week, we had a minor veterinary thing.  Max started developing an abscess under his chin, so off he went to the vet for a day, where they fixed his booboo, gave him steroids, and gave me a bottle of oral antibiotics to administer to Mr. Max for 7 days.  Max is cool with it - except when he tries to push me away with his claws.  Only one small scratch so far, so I'm chalking this in the win column so far.

Other than that, it's freakin' cold in SW MO, but probably less so than a lot of you have to deal with, so I'll save my whining for my southern friends.  (You know who you are.)  ;o)

How are things in your world lately?

Talking about NaNo

Since it's NaNo, I thought about resurrecting my pitfall posts, but I'm kinda past that.  If you're interested, go over to my frozen-in-place blog The Unpublished Writers' Guide to Survival - they're all there in links on the left hand side. 

This will be my unofficial 6th or so year doing NaNo.  It's unofficial because I spent time over here doing it on my own before I actually joined the site, and I've also done the 50K in 30 days thing during other months when my November has been busy.

What I've learned is that NaNo isn't for everyone.  I get that.  Sustained sprint writing takes a certain kind of masochistic mindset.  I put down just over 3K on the first night, and my hands were cramping so bad at the end there I wanted an Aspercreme bath afterwards.  But the book is worth it. 

Additionally, if you haven't been following The Writing Spectacle in the past years, I've got a severe case of NaNo brain.  (It's like pregnant brain without the cravings.)  All my creative juices are being diverted to this book, so I'm kinda lame elsewhere.  This too shall pass.

I've also learned that you can participate even if you don't have new words to put down.  This year, I'm rewriting the beginning of a novel so I can finish writing it.  Which means right now, I'm throwing down the words like I'm feeding chickens.  (You know, if words were chicken feed.)  When I reach the end of the words I already have, I expect I'll slow down a bit. Especially if I haven't figured out the last half of this book before I get there.  That'll totally suck.

Anyway, if you're in this, you have my empathy.  If not, I need your understanding for the next month or so.  I might not be here.  I might be here but not HERE, if you catch my drift.  And some of the things that come out of my fingers might be totally off the wall.  (Okay, maybe that last part isn't so unusual.)

Thanks for your support.  Have an awesome day.

Post NaNo Roundup

You may have noticed from my widgety thing over on the left, that I 'won' NaNo.  I hit the 50K mark yesterday afternoon, and then for the site verification, I just did the whole book - including the 1541 I wrote before November first. 

Frankly, it was anti-climactic.  In the past, I've dawdled and dragged my feet.  I've had days and days where I was behind, always struggling to catch up, until finally in the last few days I typed like a madwoman to reach the goal.  This year, I did have a few days off, but for the most part I was the tortoise.  "Slow and steady wins the race."

:yawn:

Sure, it's good practice to get you where you're meeting a goal of writing every day.  And it's a lot less stressful.  But stress is what makes life interesting.  Will I make it?  Will I fail?  OMGOMGOMG

I'd rather be the rabbit and get the excitement... but still win like the tortoise.  :shrug:

Anyway, I figure this book still has anywhere from 30-50K left to write on it before it's a first draft, so tomorrow I'll be starting HoHoWriMo - with the goal of having this sucker all the way to THE END by the end of the year.  Shouldn't be a problem.  I just need to maintain my motivation.

What about you?  Did you accomplish your goals for November?  If not, will you still be trying to complete them this month instead? 

The Loves and Hates of Writing Fantasy for the First Time

Yes, I am writing a fantasy novel for the first time in my life (if you don't count that SF/F thing I did in high school).  And as I'm about 35K words in, I've learned some things...

I love the fact that when I'm feeling like the book is dragging, all I have to do is insert a mythical beast and mayhem ensues.

I hate that I have to make up every single freakin' name.  It's not like I can have Susans and Bobs and Larrys and Lauras running around.  And they each have to be unique.  And every single person they meet has a goddamn name.

I love that I have to make up pretty much everything else.

I hate that I'm going to have to go back and research all the little things - like what the hell they'd be wearing in what is basically medieval-ish times. 

I love that I can let my imagination free.

I hate that I can't let it totally free or no one would understand what the hell I'm writing about.  You say 'dragon' and people know what you're talking about.  You make some beast up totally from your imagination and call it say 'a hurchess'*, and people would be all like 'WTF?'

I love that I spent my formative years reading fantasy and playing D&D**.

I hate that I can't remember everything I read in the Monster Manual, and I gave my copy to my nephew years ago, so now I have to resort to more research.

I love research - just not when I'm trying to sprint to 50K words.

Sure, some of this stuff I encountered when I was writing urban fantasy.  And some of these problems can crop up in dystopian - especially if there's been a nuclear holocaust in the past.  But this still feels like I'm learning how to write all over again.

Heh.  It's kinda awesome.

Ever step totally out of your comfortable box and try a new-to-you genre?  How'd that work out?

* There's no such thing as a hurchess - even in this book.  I just threw a made-up word out there. 

** A great many D&D monsters come from various well-known mythologies, so I'm not writing a D&D fan fiction novel here.  I'm just wishing I could access my old Monster Manual as a reference.  The book I have - The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures - is jam packed with every critter every conceived and it's a bitch to wade through.  And since this is set kinda in a mythical Scotland, I can't use creatures from Indian, Native American, Japanese, etc. mythos.  That would be too weird.

Why I Didn't Write Last Night

Yesterday, Hubs and I looked at each other and decided to go rake leaves.  Now, we have an acre and a quarter of land - about a third of which is yard.  This land is what the realtors call a 'treed lot'.  I figured it out and there are 28 trees in the yard - oaks, walnuts, hickory, sycamore and the cedars (which are my favorites right now because they don't drop leaves).  Lots of trees = lots of leaves. 

We started about 1pm with the idea that we would take it leisurely.  We'd spread the raking over the course of 3-4 days.  Yeah, like that was going to work.  We're not the kind of people who do jobs as half-measures.  Soooo, we got slammin' and jammin'. 

Early on it was decided that we wouldn't make piles here and there to cart with the wheelbarrow.  No, we were going to rake the piles down toward the back.   You know, to make it easier... heh.

By 3:15 we could rake no more.  Here's the result:

(Taken from our back sunroom, looking down at the piles.  From this vantage, they actually look kinda small, but trust me, they aren't.)

We're maybe half done.  Still have to do the south side and the back, plus cart all those leaves into the woods.  

Needless to say, I was bushed.  I did nothing for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Dinner was slapped together grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  The only thing I did after the raking was read. 

Today?  Well, the rest of the leaves aren't going to rake themselves.  But I'll try to take it easier because this book ain't gonna write itself either. 

Did you write yesterday?  If not, what's your excuse?

NaNo Update #1

Okay, so despite my grousing and the occasional comment that I may be insane, this year's NaNoWriMo is actually going well.  Here's how the first week broke down:

11/1 - 2735
11/2 - 2556
11/3 - 1183
11/4 - 1491
11/5 - 1014
11/6 - 2515
11/7 - 2136

Which left me at 13360 for the first week with an average of 1947 a day.  Since I needed to be at 11669 and average 1667 a day, I'm pretty pleased.  Getting ahead early really takes the pressure off.  And I'm proving to myself how committed I am to this project by not sitting back on my ass when I'm ahead.  Not that I haven't wanted to.  Thursday I felt like warmed-over, leftover goat excrement for most of the day. 

As an added bonus, I'm getting a lot done around the house because I'm trying to make myself stick to the schedule of writing at night.  So when I feel the urge to write in the morning, I go do chores.  Sure, I could be farther ahead.  I could also be burned to a crisp right now and dreading the weeks ahead.  Slow and steady wins the race.  You won't catch me so far ahead I'm napping under a tree while the tortoise crosses the finish line.  No sirree bob.

With yesterday's additional 2222 words (totally didn't plan to hit the all 2s, but hey, cool), I'm sitting at 15852 NaNo words for this project.  That puts me 2516 words ahead. 

Not sure what the weekend will bring.  I might write during the day on weekends... or not.  We'll see how it goes.  I do know as soon as it warms up, I'm going outside to rake leaves.  I love our new big, treed yard, but having it means a lot of leaves on the ground right now.  ;o)

How's the writing going for you?  Are you participating in NaNo (and if so, are we friends on there)?  If you're not, that's cool, too.  NaNo's not for everyone.  Hell, I haven't officially done it since 2010.  If you're not writing, how's life in general? 

Day 6: Wherein I Lose My Grip

:cackles:

I sat down to write my 1667+ yesterday evening.  I was being so good.  I cooked chili in the crock pot so I wouldn't be bothered with dinner. We even ate early so I could get right to work after Jeopardy.  (Cuz I gots to flex the brain muscles, donchaknow.)  Problem was when I sat down and tried to pick up the thread of the story, it occurred to me that I couldn't remember some of the characters I'd already dropped into the story.

So I went back over the text, scanning for people names, in order to make a character sheet.  Easy enough. 

It was at that point that a little lightbulb went off over my head.  It's possible I have taken a way larger bite than I could possibly chew. You know, since I picked the hardest possible genre to write quickly - especially when you consider I didn't do any pre-planning.  I mean, seriously... fantasy?  With all its inherent world-building?  "Are you freakin' nuts?" I said to myself.  "Of course," I replied.

I can't even keep the freakin' names straight and I'm supposed to keep a whole new system of magic, within a whole different world, all up in my head???  WTF was I thinking??

But I am forging ahead.  Oh, there are definite flaws.  Like getting one character mixed up with another character and giving girl #2 the traits meant for girl #1 while totally forgetting I even named girl #1 several chapters earlier.  And what the hell did I mean when I said X back in chapter 2 only to have it be completely weird by chapter 5?

But I am forging ahead.  Even though I have no firm idea where any of this is headed.

Sure, as I was laying down for a nap, I had a great idea pop into my head for a whole new beginning which would make the goals and motivations so much clearer.  When I woke up a little later, it occurred to me that no matter how I write my 'great idea', it's going to look like a total ripoff of part of Terry Brooks' Elfstones of Shannara.  Good thing I caught that before I wrote several thousand words toward down that path.  Sheesh.

But I'm forging ahead.  Not sure how firm my grip on sanity is at this moment. 

Heh.  That's NaNo, I guess. 

:wanders away to pick flowers off the wallpaper:

Oh God, It's Coming!

Yes, folks, it's that time of year again.  In just over a week, NaNoWriMo will be here again.  For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - is thirty days of finger twisting, type your brains out, super fun free for all.  Or rather it the time when the goal is to write 50K words (one book) in a month.

To save y'all the math, that equates to roughly 1667 words a day.

I won't get into the fact that books from Chapter One to THE END are rarely 50K words.  Getting a book finished in November isn't the point.  The point is supposed to be proving that you are capable of finishing a whole damn book - even if it's only proving something to yourself.

I haven't participated in a while.  I can't remember what I was doing last year, but the year before I was in the middle of editing, so I shift my book writing to December and called it HoHoWriMo.  Some years I was in the middle of writing something else, so I didn't officially participate - I just tried to write 50K words and get the book finished.

The point of NaNoWriMo, I think, is to dedicate your November to the job of writing a novel - whether it be the actual act of writing new words or those most fun endeavors: editing or revising.  (Which is why some people take November and call it NaNoEdMo.  Hell, not everyone is in a place where they can WRITE in November.)

Me?  This year I've been trying not to think about NaNo.  Back at the beginning of September, I got all jazzed and told myself I was going to finish editing this book and jump into writing a new one come 11/1.  Let's just say that did not work the way I planned.  I also promised someone that I would work on writing the 3rd Djinn novel in November.  That ain't looking so good neither.

As Hubs pointed out yesterday when I was discussing (dreading, whining, belaboring...) NaNo with him: "It's hard to get excited about writing a new book when you can't get anyone interested in the old books." 

So, with a little over a week to go, the jury's still out on whether I'll be writing next month.  And if so, exactly what I'll be writing.  Maybe I'll forgo the djinn and work on that  MG fantasy I was playing with last year...

How about you?  Do you NaNo?  Dreading it or looking forward to it?  If you don't do the NaNo thing, would you ever consider it? 

NaNoWriMo Pitfall #9

And we arrive at the last of my NaNo Pitfall posts... I hope you enjoyed them all.

:cue tightrope music:

With tomorrow fast approaching - a little too fast, if you ask me - we come to the ninth and final pitfall of the year...

NaNo Pitfall #9 - The Fine Line

Sure, you've written loads of words.  Hopefully they've worked together and made a somewhat cogent story with coherent characters.  All this time you've been creating, though, you've been walking a fine line between needing to get x-number of words on paper and making those words work as a logical story.

Maybe you plotted the story out ahead of time.  If you did, you probably don't need to read this post.  Your word count and your storyline are probably running parallel.  Congratulations. 

Me?  I rarely plot out anything.  Therefore, the fine line I walk sometimes isn't any thicker than frog's hair.  I'm sure when I look back over those scenes, I'll be asking myself "What the hell were you thinking here?"   Sometimes I'll be able to figure it out.  Other times I'll read a scene and never be able to discern what I was going for.  (Here's hoping this book has more of the former than the latter, eh?)

Why is this a pitfall?  Because as we reach the final words for NaNo and thus the final scenes for our books, we need to be able to remember all those threads we created over the past month and weave them to their natural conclusion. And that, my friends, can totally stop you in your tracks.

Hence, the Pitfall.  See?  I knew I'd wrap it together somehow...

As I was laying in bed last night, once again battling my subconsious for some snooze-time, my brain was racing through all the threads.  With only a few thousand words left, am I absolutely sure I wrapped up the thread about Nigel?  Am I bringing the whole thing with the dog to a logical conclusion?  Is the dastardly killer getting what he deserves or should I insert another twist that will carry through to the subsequent books in the series?  And what about that weirdo being who crept into the fight scene?  Did I really introduce a hint of romance, and what the hell am I going to do about THAT?

Needless to say, my brain was on overdrive and I woke up this morning not knowing what the hell to do with the next few scenes.  I could wrap it all up with a pretty bow for now and fix it later.  On the other hand, I could write a dozen more scenes to explain...  Bleh, I hate reading pages of things the writer should've already explained.  Or, I could stop what I'm doing and go back - rereading and editing until I can finish the end.

See?  This could conceivably stop me in my tracks inches from the finish line.  Will it?  Nah.  I'm just using myself as an example.  If this is happening to you, though, you might not be able to get past this Pitfall without a litte nudge.  Here's what I'm going to do.

Take the bit in my teeth and run like hell.

Probably not the advice you were expecting.  Definitely not the best advice for writing the end of your story any other time of the year.  This is NaNo, though.  Right now, thinking about loose ends is only going to stall your progress.

Am I advocating writing 5000 words of nonsense??  Certainly not.  I mean, it's still going to be part of your story.  What I'm saying is, get the words out and worry about tying it all up later.  That's what editing is for.  So what if I introduced some threads five chapters ago that I now realized I never fully finished?  I'll catch them all when I sit down to edit. 

Sorry if this wasn't the post you were expecting.  I didn't edit this any more than I'm editing my work right now.  Plus, my brain is the equivalent of pumpkin puree.  Maybe soon I'll write a post on the mush my brain turns into after writing so many words in one month. 

Have a great day, everyone.  Tune in tomorrow for what I hope will be a less meandering post.

NaNoWriMo Pitfall #8

We're starting the home stretch toward December 1st.  (Where did the year go?)  Time for another installment of my 2009 NaNoWriMo Pitfalls posts. 

NaNo Pitfall #8- The Physical Wear and Tear of Writing

Today's Pitfall is less mental and more physical...

NaNo Pitfall #8 or "Something so good shouldn't hurt so much"

Yesterday I banged out over 4K words.  Yay!  The only problem with that is this morning my hands are lumps of meat with ten tubes of overstuffed sausage attached.  Not that I'm complaining.  Hurting hands mean I got some real work done, but...

Unfortunately, my brain is still on a roll and my hands don't want to cooperate. Type two words... ouch ouch ouch...  If typing this post is killing me, what's my manuscript going to do?

Hang on a sec, I have to slather myself in Aspercreme™.

Okay, that's better.  I guess what I'm trying to say, especially since this week marks the home stretch of NaNo is: The more you write the higher the probability that something somewhere in your body is going to protest.  Maybe your ass becomes flat and numb.  Maybe your back becomes a tangle of tension. Perhaps you're like me and your fingers balloon up to Mickey Mouse proportions.

Take a pain reliever.  Rub on some creme.  Break out the heating pad or the ice pack.  Promise yourself a long, hot bath after your writing session is over.  Whatever you choose do, though, don't let the pain in your body stifle the story in your head.

And now that the Aspercreme is kicking in, I'm off to write.  Have a great day, everyone.  =o)

(Cross-posted to The Unpublished Writers' Guide to Survival)

NaNoWriMo Pitfall #7

Good morning, Everyone!  Today repost of old Pitfalls seems particularly poignant - even if you're not participating in the sprint to 50K.  Procrastination (aka lollygagging) can crop up anywhere.  Don't want to face the mound of dishes filling your sink?  Procrastinate.  Unsure of where your story is going?  Procrastinate.  I know I'm a master procrastinator from way back.  If it can be put off, I've put it off.  Hell, I'm probably doing it now...

And on that note, here's a link to the old 2009 post (if you want to read the comments) and here's the real thing:

NaNo Pitfall #7- PROCRASTINATION!

As I may have said, Darling Daughter is also doing NaNo.  These posts are as much for her as for anyone.  Like any writer, she has her stumbling blocks, and like anyone new at anything, she thinks she's the only one.  After reading my Pitfall #6 post, we talked about the various things that can make a writer stumble during this race to finish a novel - or during any writing time - and she was dumbfounded to discover these Pitfalls aren't just things I thought might happen to someone else.  These Pitfalls have happened to me - this month even.  So, as you're reading this series of posts remember: You're not alone.

Now onward to NaNo Pitfall #7 - aka "Wow, I just remembered that I have to :insert procrastinatory item here:!"

We're writers.  We also have a million other things we have to do as human beings.  Laundry needs to get done.  We need to cook meals.  We have shopping and errands.  Some people have day jobs and others, like me, have internet businesses to maintain.  Add in homeschooling or kids' events or homework (either to do if you're still in school or to assist with if you're a parent), and the list of non-writing things requiring our attention can be staggering.

This month is no different.  Except when you're using those things to put off writing.

For instance, I had some stuff I legitimately had to do for my Amazon store.  True, it was stuff I'd put off and I should've done it sooner, especially since the deadline fell in November.  That was last weekend's blip in my writing schedule.  This weekend was another story.  You see, doing all that stuff made me realize that I had a bunch of other stuff I needed to do to make my store easier to work with - for me, not my customers.  Yesterday, I spent a good portion of my day screwing around with that.  It needed to be done...  Just not right this moment.  Certainly none of it was so crucial it couldn't wait until NaNo was over.

As I lay in bed last night lamenting my lack of words, it came to me.  This was yet another pitfall - not only in NaNo but for any writing we're trying to accomplish.  There's always something you can find to take the place of writing.  There are so many, in fact, I used to have a link to a site that listed all the things one can do instead of working on one's book.

Thinking about it now, I'm wondering if I should've made this a corollary to the other Pitfalls.  You see, the reason this push to do something else came up is because my brain is currently scrolling through the other Pitfalls.  Right now, I'm bouncing between "OMG, This Sucks!" and "Ack! I'm Lost!"

Enter "Wow!  I have something else I really should be doing!"

So, I've slapped myself around.  Today I will not being mucking around in the store, cleaning the house, doing yardwork, alphabetizing my socks, sorting my recipes, baking cookies, organizing my bookmarks...

Or sitting here thinking of other things to add to that growing list.

Today, I will write.  It may be several thousand crappy words and I may only succeed in getting myself more lost, but I will accomplish something writerly if it kills me.

Writerly?  Hmmm.... I never did sort through those last submissions and enter them into the database...

What's got you procrastinating today?  And what are you doing during this time of procrastination?