D'oh

Last night as I was lying in bed, I realized I painted myself into a corner with the words I wrote over the weekend.  As such, I committed the cardinal sin of NaNoWriMo and went back through the first few chapters, fixing a sticky point and giving myself a new path to walk down.

I'm back on track now.  Unfortunately, it's been so long since I wrote new words, I'm reaching about an hour's worth before my hands go numb.  Bleh.  I'll be in fighting form as soon as I get used to writing again.  I'm still behind, but after checking last year's numbers, I'm not worried.

November 2009 - 45000 words, half of which were written in the last ten days.  I guess I just work well as a crammer.  Lord knows that's how I passed half my college classes.  LOL

How are things going in your world?  Are you a crammer or do you prefer to be prepared throughout the process?

NaNo Update, Excuses, and Exciting Stuff

As you can see from the word meter over there, I'm at just over 8700 words since 11/1 - which means I'm behind.  Bleh.  At the end of the 6th day of NaNo, I should be rounding 10K - so roughly 1300 behind with another 1667 added in for today.  My NaNo buddies are doing great with Julie, Michelle and Elana all over 10K and Melissa in the lead at 31K.  WOW, you go girls.  You are all rockstar writing machines.   

Of course, with the words the other gals are churning out, I should probably be freaking out about now, but I'm not going to.  I still have the majority of the month left, and as long as nothing trips me up, I'll be fine.  Which leads me to this week's excuses:

Excuse #1 - I've been fighting this lingering chest/sinus thing.
Excuse #2 - I got Diana Peterfreund's Ascendant in from the library and you can't really just put that book down - even if it's to write your own.
Excuse #3 - the Illinios @ Michigan game went into 3 overtimes. (Go Blue!)

Yeah, lame excuses.  I know.  I'll do better this week.  I promise...  Except...

Today's excuses in advance:

- I have to create Daughter's homeschool transcript for sending along to the college she's applying to. (ETA: DONE)

AND

(wait for it)

- I got a partial request last night and this agent is very specific in what she wants from me.  So, even though I thought I had the right materials already created, like a 3pg synopsis and a 1pg synopsis, I now have to write a 2pg synopsis.  :shrug:  It'll probably take me the better part of today to get that just right.  (ETA: DONE and SENT)

But that doesn't matter because I got a partial request!!  :snoopy dance:

How are things in your world?  What are your excuses this week, or did you not need any?

Holy Sheet

Nathan Bransford quit.  Talk about unexpected news first thing on a Saturday morning.  It almost makes me wonder if we somehow got transported to April 1st.  We didn't.  It looks legit. 

Sorry to see you go, Mr. Bransford.  Good luck in your future endeavors.

And as cavalier as it sounds, I'm so glad he didn't bite on that partial I sent last year.  My heart and hopes go out to all his clients.

The Element of Surprise

So, here I was thinking about the lame way I stopped my storyline yesterday and trying to figure out where to take the plot from here.  Then I remembered:  When in doubt, throw in the Element of Surprise.  Find a plot twist your readers won't be expecting and chuck it in there.  Put your MC into a quandary.  Hurt someone she loves.  Hurt her.  Betrayal works well, too.  Whatever works to save you from having to delete and gets you back on track.  You can fix the lame stuff later.  What you need to do now - if you're in NaNo, or even if you're just stuck and your writing style allows for pantsing - is get words onto the page, and this is an excellent way to get past lameness to real words again.  

Anyway, I found my twist.  Now I just have to find the best way to write it.  Wish me luck.

And good luck to all of you.

 *All images deleted to avoid any chance of copyright infringement*

All I Have Left Right Now is Someone Else's Cute

I'm writing this Tuesday night, but I'm posting it now because I...  Well, I have some kind of stupid sinus thingy and all I have left in me at the moment is the above cartoon someone else created.  My muse is currently slogging through a layer of crud under a layer of Robitussin.

I should've listened to Husband and passed candy out from inside...  Or maybe sitting in the cold for almost two hours is just a coincidence and I just have a touch of what's going around.  (Yeah, that's it.  I have what the neighbor kids have.  It's not a result of my own stupidity.)

Anyway, I woke in the middle of the night Monday coughing my damn fool head off.  After a couple hours of that, like a total moron (i.e. desperate sleep-deprived person), I chugged some cough syrup.  Umm, cough syrup should not be taken internally.  Seriously.  That shit is not only nasty, it takes me longer than the average non-brain challenged person to get over.

Ya know something?  It's really hard to write when you have a case of medicine head.  This is the most human I felt all day and I just typed out 511 of the lamest words ever.  Oh, and this post - which is also lame.  (I hope you enjoyed the cartoon.  Really.)

Anyway, by the time you read this, I should be semi-human again.  One hopes.

How's things in your chunk of the world?

PS.  I have no idea where I got the cartoon, so if whoever I copied it from wants it taken down, let me know.  I meant to give them credit, but my brain is pudding.  *All images deleted to avoid any chance of copyright infringement*

First Day of NaNo 2010

Well, I did it.  I carved an hour out yesterday morning, another hour in the afternoon, and I wrote for 90+ minutes last night - despite the fact that the Colts were on Monday night football and it was game 5 of the World Series.  (Giants won the series, btw.)

I did end up saving 60 words from my original attempt, which explains the difference in my two totals.  I'm loving this new path the story's taking.  I might still use some of the old path, but if I do, I promise not to add it into my NaNo totals.

Anyway, yesterday was a win.  I'm trying to get ahead in the game so if I end up taking a day off, I won't fall behind.  Last night's words netted me an extra day if I need it, or more words to squeeze into the month if I can.  So far, so good.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

And btw, was anyone else having fits with the NaNoWriMo site?  Must have been a ton of people on it for the first day.  Since I've never done this before, I'm going to assume this was a regular first day occurrence and it'll pass as people drop out.

If I read the stats correctly, last year 165K started, but only 30K finished.  Of those, I wonder how many actually finished the book they wrote.  I know when I checked out the people in my 'home' territory - which is hours away, btw - the introductory post showed several people who reached 50K and then never did anything else with the book.  Seems like a waste, but to each his own.  Lord knows I've finished the first draft on a few books I never edited to completion, so who am I to talk?  (Of course, I feel guilty about those forgotten novels every time I think about them.  Poor lonely unfinished babies.)

Ever written a first draft only to never finish the book?  If you're participating in NaNo, do you plan to be querying it eventually or will it lounge on your hard drive never to be seen by anyone else's eyes?  No judgments here one way or the other.  Hell, every single thing we write serves a purpose - even if that purpose is only experience so we can write a better book next time.

A Marathon of Sprints

NaNo starts... NOW.

NaNoWriMo has been likened to a writing marathon.  I think it's more a series of sprints that are part of a much larger marathon.  And really, isn't all writing the same?

For me, the business of writing isn't done by sitting down and typing straight through to THE END.  I sprint for as long as the words are pouring out, then I take a break before the next sprint.  Sometimes the next sprint is later the same day, and other times it's days or, heaven-forbid, weeks later. When the book is finished, you can add up all the sprints and consider it a good show at doing a marathon.

Except it's not over there, and whole different set of exercises begin.  But that's an analogy for another day.  Maybe in December when we're all recovering from NaNo.

Speaking of NaNo and sticking with the analogy, when you're doing your November thing, your sprints have to be every day or nearly every day.  Run as fast as you can for however long you have.  Do it again the next day until you've hit your 50K goal or December 1st - whichever comes first. 

I suspect it's the same way with deadlines.  (Any published writers out there will have to let me know in comments.)  You have to race to get your product to the publisher in the time set forth in the contract. 

Zoom. 

It would be great if we could sit down to write and not get up again until we hit the end, but we aren't built that way.  No one is.  Even marathon runners can't run for a month straight.  We need sleep.  We require sustenance.  Writers especially need to recharge, so our brains don't short out. 

So, as you approach NaNo - or any other writing project - don't think of this as a marathon, but as a series of sprints.  And don't feel guilty when you need to take a break.  You're human.  If you never needed a break, you'd be a robot and robots don't write good books.  ;o)

On your mark.  Get set.  Go!