friday ramble

The weather has been damp and rainy for days. Getting tired of it now. I guess I don't enjoy the rain as much as I used to, now that it creeps into my bones, and makes me achy. Ah, age... such a joy. NOT.


The other day I babysat for Logan, along with my sister. He is such a little wonder to watch. When he says "hi Barbara" my heart just melts. I love watching him run to the trees when we're outside, and patting the tree. He likes when I pat it, too. Someday we've got to teach him to hug the tree. His spirit is so bright and in touch.

I sit here with nothing much to do or say, so I figured I'd say it in the blog. Awfully boring for you, I suppose! But of course you could just click the X is the upper right hand corner.

I just read two good books.... one was Water For Elephants, and the other was The Art of Racing in the Rain, which is told by a dog, and so so good. I recommend them both.

I'm working on my own book today, which isn't ending so soon, apparently. It's 400 pages on a Word document, so I imagine that's only about 200 real book pages, I don't know. I keep thinking I know where it's going, but these characters have a mind of their own, so you never know. Can't wait to finish it so I can read it beginning to end and start a second draft. This could take years, but at least I could say I did it.

I haven't continued my second novel, because it's just too crazy to be writing two at the same time. I just have the beginning part, which I blogged here. Maybe I will continue writing it in November, for the Nanowrimo (National November Writing Month). By then, maybe I'll know what it's about, hahaha.

Well, I'm just rambling, so I'll end here. Hope you are all having a fine day.

nano down the draino

On the day Nanowrimo started (Nov 1st), I had completely forgot about it. That night, I managed to eek out 747 words, not even enough for a minimum needed word count for a day, but it was something. Now it is the 8th day, and I haven't written a word more. My mind has been very preoccupied by the malady of the quotidian, so to speak, and writing hasn't been one of those preoccupations.


I haven't yet finished the first novel I started during the last Nanowrimo. I'm over 111K words, and I can feel the ending in my hands. It's hard to get started on a new novel, especially when it is somewhat of a sequel... But it should stand alone, it's just that this one's main characters were secondary characters in the first novel.

Thus my lack of updates on my Nano-progress. Not sure it'll get any better from here on out... it may just be bad timing right now.

nanowrimo winner

My total word count is 66,687.  Not sure I'm going to continue it from here, though.  I've about had it for now!

met my nano goal!

Woke up early this morning and wrote over 4,000 words. I have met my goal for the month, with a grand total of 50,131 words so far. The story isn't ended yet, so there will be more to come, but for now, I am going to take it slow, just glad that I reached the goal that I had set... 14 days ahead of time!


Yay me!

nano update

Been a couple or three days since my last NaNo update.  I'm up to 42,070/50,000, so I'm well on my way to finishing the month's desired goal.  I don't know if this thing reads like a novel or not, since I haven't reread anything, otherwise I'd get started with editing, and really hold myself back.  There's so much dialogue that I think it reads more like a stage play than a novel, but at least I am writing it.  I don't particularly think that the whole story can be wrapped up in another 8,000 words, but I'm trying for that.  I can fatten it up when I start doing the rewrites in the future. 

write on!

I amassed about 4,000 words between midnight and this morning, far exceeding my expected output. Different parts of the story were coming at me, so I wrote several different scenes. It'll all be worked out after November, when revisions are in order. Right now, every time I think I'm going to run out of words, some scene or dialogue comes to me. My total as of now is 22,707 words. I want to get to the halfway mark of 25K as soon as possible.

NaNoWriMo progress report

5479 words on Day 3.. I am ahead of my desired quota. 

NaNoWriMo begins

Nanowrimo has started (as of midnight), and I've decided to do 5 or 6 15 minute stints of writing at a time, unless I'm on a total roll. This would get me to my desired daily goal of approximately 1700 words. I started at midnight, doing my first 15 minutes, and wrote 347 words, which put me right on target. That's pretty much writing non stop, no redesigning a sentence or even having enough time to think of another one that's not as corny as the last. But I will not critique, I will not critique.

It's not easy going; I am pulling things out of my head from I don't know where. But it happens if you plow through, and basically throw caution to the wind, so to speak. This is writing by the seat of my pants kinda stuff.

I have the whole day (Sunday) to finish of my next 5 writing sessions, depending on how long I go on each of them. They have to be at least 15 minutes, that's my minimum. Not as easy as it sounds. There's also an extra hour to the day, so I can utilize that, as well.

Afternoon update:  I've written 1927 words, so I got my quota done for today. Yay! :)

isomnia

Another bout of insomnia. No big deal. I amuse myself by drinking red wine and perusing writings on the net. Camomile tea and soft music might be the better alternative here, but oh well.
Little Guy walks around my legs, tickling me with his fur. Morrison is on the couch arm, and decides to jump down and check the kitchen for food. I hear him crunching on the hard food, which I always leave down for them.

I've been pondering over this novel-in-a-month venture...Nanowrimo... trying to plot out my story, and get a feel for the main characters. It's nerve wracking, because when I think about it, no words come to mind, and I wonder if I will be totally blocked for this endeavor. There's no time to think about it once it comes, though, and quantity seems to be of the first order. Truthfully, if I ended up with 50K words of anything I'd be happy. Well, that's not true; I can do without thousands of words of crap.
I have an idea of the beginning of my story, and a scene I would like at the end. The middle I don't have mapped out fully, except for certain ideas of characters meeting, and a turn-around in the main characters life... that'll have to be okay, because I don't think I'll be working on this plotting stuff much more this month.

Seems some heat came up, as the radiators were hissing. Now it's a little too warm, so I opened a window. Surely it's not quite time for heat just yet. It's 41°F/5°C. I guess a little heat won't hurt. The wine is warming me too, I suppose.

Well, that's enough rambling for now. Hopefully sleep won't be far behind.

upcoming project

I must be crazy. I joined up to participate in this year's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). (see my personal user badge at the right, which will give you my word count, starting in November.) I don't know what possessed me to do such a thing, and I am daunted at the scope of it. The target is to write (mind you, quantity counts over quality in this case) 50 K words during the month of November, starting (anew, no old stuff) at the stroke of midnight on November 1st. That's something like 1700 words a day! And I am starting at zero these days. Some people are doing enormous pre-nano tasks, like writing a short story every day, just to get in the groove! Hahaha... if I have that much to write, surely I'll save it for my word count when it starts.
I have an old very-unfinished novel that I won't use words for in this new venture... since there is to be no old writing.. but I think my story will come from that one. I'm not sure, I have to see what happens when I start writing this thing from scratch. Sometimes, oft times, writing takes you where you'd least expect.
I'll try to keep my blog updated with my progress, and if I'm really writing that much.

I feel a nervous excitement about this. I think that's good.
Maybe I will spend the next month trying to flesh out a plot and some main characters. A little preplanning can't hurt. What a crazily ambitious venture. I have not known myself to be too ambitious these days, but it is a familiar feeling from days gone by.
This is a project that forces one to kick the critic off one's shoulder, and just muddle through, bringing out garbage and gems alike, as long as you bring it out and get it on the page. There may be many pages of non-cohesive writing; bits and pieces, as I've been known to do. But that will be okay (I have to keep reminding myself). When the muse doesn't move me, sheer perseverance must... maybe the muse will hop on board if given half the chance.