In writing:
I hit 90K last night on IE. I only have 5-10K left and I'm DONE with the shitty first draft!! I've written between 3200 and 4200 words each day the last couple of days, and I hope to hit at least 3K again today. It's been slow because my last few chapters all have some stuff already written, which means when I go to finish each scene, I have to redo the old past tense, 3rd person voice since I'm not writing all new stuff in present tense, 1st person. I also added a whole new chapter that was over 3K words, so even though I love it and I feel accomplished, I don't feel any closer to my goal since it didn't cross anything off my to-do list.
My fMC (female main character) is suddenly a bit spunkier than before, thanks to my 30 day forray into a fantasy world where my fMC was a bad ass vaampyr. And me 2nd mMC (duh, male main character) has wisened up a bit and now they have spent the last 3 chapters fighting. The 1st mMC is doing his own thing, heating up my screen, and at this very moment all hell is breaking loose.
It's wonderful. ☺
In life:
I have a job interview for Tuesday! A company I interviewed for back in August just called me back. They want me to come in for another interview for a different position. Maybe I'll like it better than I liked the first position. They gave that one to someone else, so hopefully this one will be a better fit for me. It's just down the road from my house, so it's very convenient. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Christmas is coming up. Big duh. Shopping is not going well since we have no money. Maybe I'll get this job and get a paycheck right before Christmas? Yeah, that's pushing my luck. We'll see.
My neck has been killing me lately, giving me a really bad headache in one certain spot. So I'm sitting here with one of those ThermaCare heat wraps on it and Icy Hot (mmm my favorite smell!) on my jaw and every place in my neck that isn't covered by the wrap. It sucks and I can't turn my neck. Grrr.
That's about it for now. I was really just excited to share my word count.
While I'm here, I'll share my favorite line that I wrote last night. I literally punched the air and went "Bow!" (or something similar to that) after I typed it. It was just. That. Good.
Standing just outside the bathroom door with tears in his grey eyes is my husband. And it looks like he heard every word I didn’t say.
Now, out of context, it probably sounds weird. How can he hear what she doesn't say? ......
You'll just have to read it to find out ☺
Showing posts with label word count. Show all posts
Showing posts with label word count. Show all posts
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
NaNo's Over -- Now what??
Well, I did it. I wrote over 50,000 words in 30 short days. It was tough, but I loved it. But now I have this nagging question.... What do I do now?
I picked IE back up and made some drastic decisions about it. Instead of 3rd person, past tense, which has ALWAYS been my preferred writing style, I've decided to switch to 1st person, present tense. I feel like the whole thing flows more smoothly, and readers can connect with the MC much better this way. My opinion was backed up by my loyal reader, Mandy... and I *will* make her pay for the 80,000+ words I now have to revise!!!
So, here's my goal. I want to have IE finished by the new year, the rough draft that is. Then, I'm going to spend January revising her. And revising her. And revising still. And Mandy's going to help. And then I'll revise again.
THEN... my goal, as crazy as it sounds, is to have it revised to the point where I'm not ashamed to show it to people... and submit it on February 2, 2009, to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest, found here: http://www.amazon.com/abna . I know it's a really long shot that I'll have anything actually finished by then, and this contest was part of the reason I wanted the first draft done by Halloween. But it's at least a goal that will keep me moving towards finishing the first draft by 12/31. Even if she doesn't get polished enough to submit by 2/2/09, she'll still be pretty damn close. Case in point: Since NaNo ended, I've already written 5,038 words on IE and done some revision on the tenses that I mentioned earlier. That's pretty good, considering I took the first two days of the month off from writing.
So, there are my writing goals for the forseeable future. I'd love to including finishing Vaampyr in there, but I want to focus on IE first. I WILL work on Vaampyr whenever possible, like when I get burnt out on IE for the day. But IE is much closer to being done than Vaampyr, so it's my main concentration right now.
In the new year, I'd like to finish IE (totally), finish Vaampyr totally and give her a name, start my next novel (hopefully to be a series of novels), and complete at least one polished short story per month. Plus, shop those shorts around. Oh, and I'd like to revise the small stack of shorts I have ready right now, and shop them. AND, I'd like to get the rough drafts of my two Unfinisheds done.... it'll be a busy year, but I'm really getting into writing mojo lately so I think I can do it. Especially since I can't afford to be in school right now, so I have a lot more free time than I have in the last several years.
Nothing new besides all that. Still job-less, still school-less, still Lillie-less... and still pretty upset about all of that. But I'm writing, and that's really important to me right now.
I picked IE back up and made some drastic decisions about it. Instead of 3rd person, past tense, which has ALWAYS been my preferred writing style, I've decided to switch to 1st person, present tense. I feel like the whole thing flows more smoothly, and readers can connect with the MC much better this way. My opinion was backed up by my loyal reader, Mandy... and I *will* make her pay for the 80,000+ words I now have to revise!!!
So, here's my goal. I want to have IE finished by the new year, the rough draft that is. Then, I'm going to spend January revising her. And revising her. And revising still. And Mandy's going to help. And then I'll revise again.
THEN... my goal, as crazy as it sounds, is to have it revised to the point where I'm not ashamed to show it to people... and submit it on February 2, 2009, to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest, found here: http://www.amazon.com/abna . I know it's a really long shot that I'll have anything actually finished by then, and this contest was part of the reason I wanted the first draft done by Halloween. But it's at least a goal that will keep me moving towards finishing the first draft by 12/31. Even if she doesn't get polished enough to submit by 2/2/09, she'll still be pretty damn close. Case in point: Since NaNo ended, I've already written 5,038 words on IE and done some revision on the tenses that I mentioned earlier. That's pretty good, considering I took the first two days of the month off from writing.
So, there are my writing goals for the forseeable future. I'd love to including finishing Vaampyr in there, but I want to focus on IE first. I WILL work on Vaampyr whenever possible, like when I get burnt out on IE for the day. But IE is much closer to being done than Vaampyr, so it's my main concentration right now.
In the new year, I'd like to finish IE (totally), finish Vaampyr totally and give her a name, start my next novel (hopefully to be a series of novels), and complete at least one polished short story per month. Plus, shop those shorts around. Oh, and I'd like to revise the small stack of shorts I have ready right now, and shop them. AND, I'd like to get the rough drafts of my two Unfinisheds done.... it'll be a busy year, but I'm really getting into writing mojo lately so I think I can do it. Especially since I can't afford to be in school right now, so I have a lot more free time than I have in the last several years.
Nothing new besides all that. Still job-less, still school-less, still Lillie-less... and still pretty upset about all of that. But I'm writing, and that's really important to me right now.
Monday, December 1, 2008
So, Did I Win or Not???
Sunday was a day of great pain. I sat in front of the computer for hours. HOURS! Trying to write 4100 measly words. Words that, the day before, came SO easily. By Saturday's standards, this should have taken me less than 2 hours.
Sunday's job was to write the 2nd to last chapter, and try to squeeze in part or all of the last chapter, too. I managed to write about half, or less, of the penultimate chapter, and couldn't even think about the last one. I also filled in a few hundred words on a chapter in the middle that was blank. It felt good to add some meat to it, but I don't think it moved the story along very well.
Before I tell my final word count, how about an excerpt taken directly from the last day of NaNo.
Warning: Spoiler Alert!!!
**Gareth**
I blink, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness around me. Darkness is my home, so it doesn’t take long. There’s a heavy weight on my chest, and I shift my weight underneath it until I hear a moan.
I turn my head to the source of the moan. Aureylia's head is on my chest, blood from an open neck wound seeping into my fur. I groan as I realize we’ve laid here so long that I’ve gone through the change in my sleep. "How in Hades did I sleep through that?"
Her voice is soft and sleepy when she answers. "I was just wondering the same thing. We both did." She pushes herself to a sitting position and stares at me. I can’t read the expression on her face, but the blood dripping over her naked breasts glows in my green tinted vision. She stands, bringing a hand to her neck. "Does your bite hurt as much as mine?"
I frown as I get to my feet -- which, in this form, means standing like the animal I am, on all four paws. "Maybe that’s why I slept so much. I’ve never been bitten by a vampyrus before. And yes, it hurt. But it felt amazing." I wiggly my hairy eyebrows at her, and she chuckles.
"I know." She looks around the cave with a frown. "The sun will be up soon. We both slept through the rest of the day and the whole night. Hades! The ceremony’s tonight and I haven’t caught the killer." She looks down at me through narrowed eyes.
I can’t read her mind at the moment, but her expression says she’s not sure if that statement is correct or not. She still doesn’t trust me. Good; she shouldn’t. A hunger pain rips through my stomach and I growl, baring my teeth in surprise.
She jumps back with wide eyes.
I walk toward her hungrily, unable to stop myself. After being so satisfied last night, the animal in me wants more. And I want it from her. I tilt my head to the side and grin, which I'm sure looks pretty scary coming from an extra large wolf.
In a flash, Aureylia disappears. I sniff the air, only to catch her scent trailing off as she flies out of the cave.
**Aureylia**
I sneak into the vampyre compound invisibly, since all my clothes are ripped beyond the ability to wear them home. Thoughts and memories swirl in my head. Pinning Gareth to the ground, able but not willing to kill him right then. The feel of his hands squeezing my arms. His scent when I found him in the cave, which was a mixture of appetite and anger. He could have killed me, yet I succumbed to him like a helpless human -- if he is the killer, I can understand the power he has over his victims, and it's going to be tough to destroy him finally. The look of hunger in his eyes when I trapped him on the ceiling and his lips grazed my neck. I'm such a fool! How he tasted like salt, but so sweet at the same time. The sound of his heart pounding wildly while he was beneath me, or above me, or beside me; erratic and dangerously quick, yet strangely in rhythm with my own. Oh, Coven, what have I done?
Keep in mind, this IS a very rough first draft. As Anne Lamott says, in Bird by Bird, it's a "shitty first draft."
Anyhow, back to my main point. Yesterday was a painful, painful day. I wrote for hours, yelling at the screen, mapping out the chapter with no luck of writing it, and being all around in a really bad mood.
BUT... I managed to reach 50,302 words!!! I won NaNo 2008!!!
So, now the big question is.... what happens now??
My December writing plans entail:
Finish Isaac's Eyes (first draft)
Finish Vaampr (which is STILL what I'm calling my untitled NaNo novel)
That's it. I REALLY want to add a few more things in there so I can say I accomplished certain things from my 2008 writing goals, but I won't. I'll save them for 2009.
Speaking of 2008 goals, I have a month to do all the things I said I'd do but never did. I'll have to find my list and see what all those things are. It might be difficult to do them without a job... but I'll see what I can do!
I'm off now to reward myself for writing over 50,000 words in 30 days. Until next time...
Sunday's job was to write the 2nd to last chapter, and try to squeeze in part or all of the last chapter, too. I managed to write about half, or less, of the penultimate chapter, and couldn't even think about the last one. I also filled in a few hundred words on a chapter in the middle that was blank. It felt good to add some meat to it, but I don't think it moved the story along very well.
Before I tell my final word count, how about an excerpt taken directly from the last day of NaNo.
Warning: Spoiler Alert!!!
**Gareth**
I blink, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness around me. Darkness is my home, so it doesn’t take long. There’s a heavy weight on my chest, and I shift my weight underneath it until I hear a moan.
I turn my head to the source of the moan. Aureylia's head is on my chest, blood from an open neck wound seeping into my fur. I groan as I realize we’ve laid here so long that I’ve gone through the change in my sleep. "How in Hades did I sleep through that?"
Her voice is soft and sleepy when she answers. "I was just wondering the same thing. We both did." She pushes herself to a sitting position and stares at me. I can’t read the expression on her face, but the blood dripping over her naked breasts glows in my green tinted vision. She stands, bringing a hand to her neck. "Does your bite hurt as much as mine?"
I frown as I get to my feet -- which, in this form, means standing like the animal I am, on all four paws. "Maybe that’s why I slept so much. I’ve never been bitten by a vampyrus before. And yes, it hurt. But it felt amazing." I wiggly my hairy eyebrows at her, and she chuckles.
"I know." She looks around the cave with a frown. "The sun will be up soon. We both slept through the rest of the day and the whole night. Hades! The ceremony’s tonight and I haven’t caught the killer." She looks down at me through narrowed eyes.
I can’t read her mind at the moment, but her expression says she’s not sure if that statement is correct or not. She still doesn’t trust me. Good; she shouldn’t. A hunger pain rips through my stomach and I growl, baring my teeth in surprise.
She jumps back with wide eyes.
I walk toward her hungrily, unable to stop myself. After being so satisfied last night, the animal in me wants more. And I want it from her. I tilt my head to the side and grin, which I'm sure looks pretty scary coming from an extra large wolf.
In a flash, Aureylia disappears. I sniff the air, only to catch her scent trailing off as she flies out of the cave.
**Aureylia**
I sneak into the vampyre compound invisibly, since all my clothes are ripped beyond the ability to wear them home. Thoughts and memories swirl in my head. Pinning Gareth to the ground, able but not willing to kill him right then. The feel of his hands squeezing my arms. His scent when I found him in the cave, which was a mixture of appetite and anger. He could have killed me, yet I succumbed to him like a helpless human -- if he is the killer, I can understand the power he has over his victims, and it's going to be tough to destroy him finally. The look of hunger in his eyes when I trapped him on the ceiling and his lips grazed my neck. I'm such a fool! How he tasted like salt, but so sweet at the same time. The sound of his heart pounding wildly while he was beneath me, or above me, or beside me; erratic and dangerously quick, yet strangely in rhythm with my own. Oh, Coven, what have I done?
Keep in mind, this IS a very rough first draft. As Anne Lamott says, in Bird by Bird, it's a "shitty first draft."
Anyhow, back to my main point. Yesterday was a painful, painful day. I wrote for hours, yelling at the screen, mapping out the chapter with no luck of writing it, and being all around in a really bad mood.
BUT... I managed to reach 50,302 words!!! I won NaNo 2008!!!
So, now the big question is.... what happens now??
My December writing plans entail:
Finish Isaac's Eyes (first draft)
Finish Vaampr (which is STILL what I'm calling my untitled NaNo novel)
That's it. I REALLY want to add a few more things in there so I can say I accomplished certain things from my 2008 writing goals, but I won't. I'll save them for 2009.
Speaking of 2008 goals, I have a month to do all the things I said I'd do but never did. I'll have to find my list and see what all those things are. It might be difficult to do them without a job... but I'll see what I can do!
I'm off now to reward myself for writing over 50,000 words in 30 days. Until next time...
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Almost There!
I just need to toot my own horn a little here. I sat down today with exactly 8800 words left to write to beat NaNo 2008. In a mere 2 hours and 8 minutes, I've crossed 4704 of those words off.
My current total is 45,904 words. Even though being "on track" would have me at 48,343 words, considering that a week ago I still was barely over 30,000... I'm psyched! I've never written at the pace of 2300 words per hour before -- I thought Thanksgiving's 1700 words was amazing.
I wrote a pivotal, exciting chapter today, and while I know it's not perfect, it accomplished its purpose and I'm SO excited. I'm going to take a break to do some Christmas shopping, and hopefully get some more words in before I go to bed tonight, so that tomorrow I can not only meet, but exceed my goal.
I've found a new writing pattern that I think I will adhere to because, at least today, it has proved to be extremely fruitful. If you've ever had a word race with someone, you know that writing for a certain amount of time then stopping tends to help you. A prime example of this is the writer's aid website www.lab.drwicked.com/writeordie. Well, I noticed today that in the first 28 minutes of writing, I had crossed the 1100 threshold. I was, of course, ecstatic, but I had hit a momentary pause in action. So, I took a 3 or 4 minute break to get a drink, stretch, and put on a fan because the office where I write is very hot. Then, I sat down to write for another 30 minutes. I continued this pattern all day, writing only 30 minutes at a time then stopping for a few minute break. Each time I did this, I was able to write the entire 30 minutes practically without stopping, and generate ideas during my short breaks. This will be my new habit, at least until it fails me.
If you're a writer and you're reading this, I suggest you try a similar pattern. If 30 minutes seems to be too much, try 15 or 20. Give it a shot!
Another suggestion I have, and I know I'm not alone on this, is music. It distracts some people, but I like to make a playlist for each character and listen to those songs when I'm writing in that character's POV. For instance, my werewolf/murder suspect's playlist has a lot of Disturbed, Buckcherry, and select Nickleback songs (Thanks, Mandy!). Listening to songs in a certain genre or with a certain theme really helps me keep out *other* distractions like the sound of Guitar Hero being played in the next room, while focusing on the scene at hand.
In other news, I finished Austin's Christmas stocking! I'm almost done with Lillie's. Here's a picture of Austin's, that I sewed by hand after cutting out 89 pieces of felt with dull scissors, and threading teeny tiny needles with colored thread.
That's it for now. If I get more writing done, or anything exceptionall exciting happens later, I'll let you know!
My current total is 45,904 words. Even though being "on track" would have me at 48,343 words, considering that a week ago I still was barely over 30,000... I'm psyched! I've never written at the pace of 2300 words per hour before -- I thought Thanksgiving's 1700 words was amazing.
I wrote a pivotal, exciting chapter today, and while I know it's not perfect, it accomplished its purpose and I'm SO excited. I'm going to take a break to do some Christmas shopping, and hopefully get some more words in before I go to bed tonight, so that tomorrow I can not only meet, but exceed my goal.
I've found a new writing pattern that I think I will adhere to because, at least today, it has proved to be extremely fruitful. If you've ever had a word race with someone, you know that writing for a certain amount of time then stopping tends to help you. A prime example of this is the writer's aid website www.lab.drwicked.com/writeordie. Well, I noticed today that in the first 28 minutes of writing, I had crossed the 1100 threshold. I was, of course, ecstatic, but I had hit a momentary pause in action. So, I took a 3 or 4 minute break to get a drink, stretch, and put on a fan because the office where I write is very hot. Then, I sat down to write for another 30 minutes. I continued this pattern all day, writing only 30 minutes at a time then stopping for a few minute break. Each time I did this, I was able to write the entire 30 minutes practically without stopping, and generate ideas during my short breaks. This will be my new habit, at least until it fails me.
If you're a writer and you're reading this, I suggest you try a similar pattern. If 30 minutes seems to be too much, try 15 or 20. Give it a shot!
Another suggestion I have, and I know I'm not alone on this, is music. It distracts some people, but I like to make a playlist for each character and listen to those songs when I'm writing in that character's POV. For instance, my werewolf/murder suspect's playlist has a lot of Disturbed, Buckcherry, and select Nickleback songs (Thanks, Mandy!). Listening to songs in a certain genre or with a certain theme really helps me keep out *other* distractions like the sound of Guitar Hero being played in the next room, while focusing on the scene at hand.
In other news, I finished Austin's Christmas stocking! I'm almost done with Lillie's. Here's a picture of Austin's, that I sewed by hand after cutting out 89 pieces of felt with dull scissors, and threading teeny tiny needles with colored thread.
That's it for now. If I get more writing done, or anything exceptionall exciting happens later, I'll let you know!
Friday, November 28, 2008
NaNo: The Home Stretch
My current word count is 38,672. I have to hit 50,000 by 11:59pm EST on Sunday. That gives me 3 whole days to write 11,328 words. I had been on track til last week, and now I'm playing crazy catchup. But I wrote 4,000 words yesterday, so if i can keep that up, I'll be set.
Thanksgiving was good. We spent it at my sister-in-law's house, where the whole family gathered for the first time in forever. And we played Phase 10 until 11pm, which was amazingly fun. Then I came home, wrote 1700 words in an hour, and crashed. No Black Friday shopping for the poor!!
That's it for now. Not much to say. MUST WRITE!
... Excerpts coming, I promise. Hang in there, Mandy!!! ☺
Thanksgiving was good. We spent it at my sister-in-law's house, where the whole family gathered for the first time in forever. And we played Phase 10 until 11pm, which was amazingly fun. Then I came home, wrote 1700 words in an hour, and crashed. No Black Friday shopping for the poor!!
That's it for now. Not much to say. MUST WRITE!
... Excerpts coming, I promise. Hang in there, Mandy!!! ☺
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Stupid Computers!
So I just wrote a post to check in real quick... then there was an error and it wouldn't take. Now I have to write it all over again. In a nutshell, here it was:
There are 8 writing days left until the end of NaNo, and I'm 4 days behind schedule. Blame it on cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family, sans Lillie and her mom and dad, last night, and the two days of preparation for it. The dinner went well, although the stupid turkey took over 4 hours to cook when it usually only takes about 2-3, so it wasn't done til everything else was eaten. But I made a kick-ass pumpkin cheesecake. Mmmm....
As far as my book goes, it's coming along. I just haven't had time to sit and write cuz I've been cooking and cleaning and running errands. I've gotten about 50 words in the last couple days. But I've been jotting notes down like crazy, so when I sit down to write tonight and tomorrow I know I can get caught up.
I'm sad that I haven't seen Lillie in a week, and her parents are being idiots so I probably won't get to see her for a while. :( I still don't have a job, which makes the holidays really depressing. And I've had to dip into my money for school next semester/summer so now I don't know if I'll be able to go, since the money I had wasn't quite enough in the first place.... Yay, stress!!!
That's it for now. In the next couple days, Internet-willing, I'll post some more updates, including an excerpt or two! :)
There are 8 writing days left until the end of NaNo, and I'm 4 days behind schedule. Blame it on cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family, sans Lillie and her mom and dad, last night, and the two days of preparation for it. The dinner went well, although the stupid turkey took over 4 hours to cook when it usually only takes about 2-3, so it wasn't done til everything else was eaten. But I made a kick-ass pumpkin cheesecake. Mmmm....
As far as my book goes, it's coming along. I just haven't had time to sit and write cuz I've been cooking and cleaning and running errands. I've gotten about 50 words in the last couple days. But I've been jotting notes down like crazy, so when I sit down to write tonight and tomorrow I know I can get caught up.
I'm sad that I haven't seen Lillie in a week, and her parents are being idiots so I probably won't get to see her for a while. :( I still don't have a job, which makes the holidays really depressing. And I've had to dip into my money for school next semester/summer so now I don't know if I'll be able to go, since the money I had wasn't quite enough in the first place.... Yay, stress!!!
That's it for now. In the next couple days, Internet-willing, I'll post some more updates, including an excerpt or two! :)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Just Checking In...
Nano, Day 11.
Word Goal at the end of today, in order to stay on pace (1,667 per day) = 18,337.
My total Word Count (wc) as of right now = 16,895.
Somehow, I got behind. But that's OK. I wrote 3,867 today, which is a lot better than the 92 I wrote yesterday, or the 403 I wrote the day before that.
Life has been crazy the last few days. I've had my 6-month-old niece who I ADORE since October 29. She just went home last night :( And we've also babysat my 13-month-old nephew Keegan several of those days. So, 2 babies + a wc goal of 1,667/day... doesn't always happen.
I've been writing and playing online since 10am. It's now almost 6pm. I'm going to sign off for the day and hopefully write 3,106 words tomorrow so be on pace at 20,004. It's been a rough day so I don't have anything special to say, really. Maybe tomorrow...
Thanks for checking in!
Word Goal at the end of today, in order to stay on pace (1,667 per day) = 18,337.
My total Word Count (wc) as of right now = 16,895.
Somehow, I got behind. But that's OK. I wrote 3,867 today, which is a lot better than the 92 I wrote yesterday, or the 403 I wrote the day before that.
Life has been crazy the last few days. I've had my 6-month-old niece who I ADORE since October 29. She just went home last night :( And we've also babysat my 13-month-old nephew Keegan several of those days. So, 2 babies + a wc goal of 1,667/day... doesn't always happen.
I've been writing and playing online since 10am. It's now almost 6pm. I'm going to sign off for the day and hopefully write 3,106 words tomorrow so be on pace at 20,004. It's been a rough day so I don't have anything special to say, really. Maybe tomorrow...
Thanks for checking in!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Missing Lillie, Seeing Saw, and 8 Days Til NaNo
Due to a really bad Internet connection, I haven’t been able to post my progress on... well, anything, regularly. So, here’s the sitch:
IE is ALMOST DONE!!!! The first draft, anyhow, which Anne Lamott calls the “shitty first draft,” pardon my French. I’m at 76K words out of an estimated 90-95K. This is the longest I’ve ever stuck with a novel. I hope to finish it by Halloween, and some days I get a killer word count in. But others are pretty bland (91, anyone?!). So we’ll see. Either way, I’ll be really close to finished by the time November starts.
Speaking of November… 8 days til NaNo! (As if you didn’t already know that…) I’m PSYCHED!!! My good ole’ reading dummy and I have been going over the plot. It’s gonna be CrAzY! I keep getting tempted to start writing but I’m not a cheater. So, I think I’ll hatch a plan to take a long nap on Halloween so I can wake up and start writing at 12:01am. It sounds good in theory, anyhow. J
My region’s NaNo Kick-Off party is tomorrow evening. It sucks that I can’t go. But I have good reason – it’s my 3rd wedding anniversary!! I’d show you a wedding pic, but well, when you elope at the courthouse… you don’t really have any. I don’t think we have plans but it would still be pretty rude of me to go chill with strangers during the dinner hour.
In other news, my beautiful niece Lillie spent 6 days with us recently. We just took her home yesterday. I cried so hard when I was packing her stuff up to go, and again after we dropped her off. I’d keep her forever if I could. The way things are looking with her parents, maybe I have a chance… Anyhow, the point is, I miss her terribly. She lives a little over an hour away, and after dropped her off, hubby and I went and had some Mexican food. Then on the way home I wanted to stop in and see her again. But I figured that would make me even sadder, so we didn’t. BTW, Lillie’s 6 month’s old (on 11/5) and the best baby ever personality-wise. I love her to pieces. We took her to get her 6-month pics this week, and I can’t wait to get them back on the 6th. They’re SO adorable!! Lillie’s named after my grandma, who died a year and a half ago. Not a day goes by when I don’t miss her. I need at least one Lillie in my life!!
I saw Saw V last night... stayed up late (I’m getting old!) for the midnight showing. It was SO not worth it. Scott Patterson had a bad toupee, or real hair that looked like a bad toupee… the entire movie was flashbacks, and the ending that Myspace said I wouldn’t believe – it was cheap and not at all the “OMG!” ending I had hoped for. Everyone I went with felt the same way. Man, what a waste of prime sleeping time!!!
I guess that’s it for now. I’m really trying to write a pivotal scene in IE and I’m hitting brainfreeze like crazy. I’ve been avoiding this scene for that reason – it’s been ½ written for a while but I can’t seem to find a way to end it. I freakin’ hate that. Maybe I’ll let my reading dummy help….
Adios, Amigos! Until we meet again – which will hopefully be soon because NaNo starts in 8 days!!
Books I’m reading:
No Plot? No Problem! -- Chris Baty (the NaNo book, but it’s really inspring. Pick it up!)
Will Write for Shoes: How to Write a Chick Lit Novel – Cathy Yardley (IE isn’t exactly chick lit but it’s close enough that for $5 the book was worth it. There’s some valuable advice in there!)
Night Embrace – Sherrilyn Kenyon (just for shiggles!)
IE is ALMOST DONE!!!! The first draft, anyhow, which Anne Lamott calls the “shitty first draft,” pardon my French. I’m at 76K words out of an estimated 90-95K. This is the longest I’ve ever stuck with a novel. I hope to finish it by Halloween, and some days I get a killer word count in. But others are pretty bland (91, anyone?!). So we’ll see. Either way, I’ll be really close to finished by the time November starts.
Speaking of November… 8 days til NaNo! (As if you didn’t already know that…) I’m PSYCHED!!! My good ole’ reading dummy and I have been going over the plot. It’s gonna be CrAzY! I keep getting tempted to start writing but I’m not a cheater. So, I think I’ll hatch a plan to take a long nap on Halloween so I can wake up and start writing at 12:01am. It sounds good in theory, anyhow. J
My region’s NaNo Kick-Off party is tomorrow evening. It sucks that I can’t go. But I have good reason – it’s my 3rd wedding anniversary!! I’d show you a wedding pic, but well, when you elope at the courthouse… you don’t really have any. I don’t think we have plans but it would still be pretty rude of me to go chill with strangers during the dinner hour.
In other news, my beautiful niece Lillie spent 6 days with us recently. We just took her home yesterday. I cried so hard when I was packing her stuff up to go, and again after we dropped her off. I’d keep her forever if I could. The way things are looking with her parents, maybe I have a chance… Anyhow, the point is, I miss her terribly. She lives a little over an hour away, and after dropped her off, hubby and I went and had some Mexican food. Then on the way home I wanted to stop in and see her again. But I figured that would make me even sadder, so we didn’t. BTW, Lillie’s 6 month’s old (on 11/5) and the best baby ever personality-wise. I love her to pieces. We took her to get her 6-month pics this week, and I can’t wait to get them back on the 6th. They’re SO adorable!! Lillie’s named after my grandma, who died a year and a half ago. Not a day goes by when I don’t miss her. I need at least one Lillie in my life!!
I saw Saw V last night... stayed up late (I’m getting old!) for the midnight showing. It was SO not worth it. Scott Patterson had a bad toupee, or real hair that looked like a bad toupee… the entire movie was flashbacks, and the ending that Myspace said I wouldn’t believe – it was cheap and not at all the “OMG!” ending I had hoped for. Everyone I went with felt the same way. Man, what a waste of prime sleeping time!!!
I guess that’s it for now. I’m really trying to write a pivotal scene in IE and I’m hitting brainfreeze like crazy. I’ve been avoiding this scene for that reason – it’s been ½ written for a while but I can’t seem to find a way to end it. I freakin’ hate that. Maybe I’ll let my reading dummy help….
Adios, Amigos! Until we meet again – which will hopefully be soon because NaNo starts in 8 days!!
Books I’m reading:
No Plot? No Problem! -- Chris Baty (the NaNo book, but it’s really inspring. Pick it up!)
Will Write for Shoes: How to Write a Chick Lit Novel – Cathy Yardley (IE isn’t exactly chick lit but it’s close enough that for $5 the book was worth it. There’s some valuable advice in there!)
Night Embrace – Sherrilyn Kenyon (just for shiggles!)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Six Days into August and I'm Stressed Already
The title says it all.
I have this nifty Excel spreadsheet where I input the # of words I write and all the revisions I make, etc. every day. Last month, I hit record numbers on everything. This month? My poor little spreadsheet is bare.
Today I've managed to get 1,246 words written though. It's better than nothing, but I have to do more than that to get back on track to meet my goal of 15K words this month.
My non-writer friends don't understand this compulsion to meet a writing goal -- so I'm extremely grateful for my writer/author friends (because who knows what you're supposed to call them?) who completely understand me!
On the non-writing front, I'm going down to part-time at work when school starts so I can get my senior year finished and graduate next summer!! I'm really anxious about affording to, you know, LIVE this semester while I'm working less, but I'm just happy people are supportive and willing to help out. I'm so scared of the workload this semester, and I hope my writing doesn't suffer because of it! (OK, I know I said this was the non-writing front, but it's a big part of who I am so pretty much everything just ties back into it.)
Oh, and Hubby's out of town for the week, so I'm living it up, Single Style. It's pretty nice -- I could get used to this! Shhh, don't tell him though *wink wink*
Maybe I'd have a higher word count if I stopped playing on blogspot and actually started typing.... I'm off to give that new thought a try for a while.
I have this nifty Excel spreadsheet where I input the # of words I write and all the revisions I make, etc. every day. Last month, I hit record numbers on everything. This month? My poor little spreadsheet is bare.
Today I've managed to get 1,246 words written though. It's better than nothing, but I have to do more than that to get back on track to meet my goal of 15K words this month.
My non-writer friends don't understand this compulsion to meet a writing goal -- so I'm extremely grateful for my writer/author friends (because who knows what you're supposed to call them?) who completely understand me!
On the non-writing front, I'm going down to part-time at work when school starts so I can get my senior year finished and graduate next summer!! I'm really anxious about affording to, you know, LIVE this semester while I'm working less, but I'm just happy people are supportive and willing to help out. I'm so scared of the workload this semester, and I hope my writing doesn't suffer because of it! (OK, I know I said this was the non-writing front, but it's a big part of who I am so pretty much everything just ties back into it.)
Oh, and Hubby's out of town for the week, so I'm living it up, Single Style. It's pretty nice -- I could get used to this! Shhh, don't tell him though *wink wink*
Maybe I'd have a higher word count if I stopped playing on blogspot and actually started typing.... I'm off to give that new thought a try for a while.
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