NaNo day 25... I DID IT!

As you can see by the badge posted to the right and by the certificate in this post, I successfully completed the 50,000 word challenge for NaNo today! Yay me! Now comes the hard part, though... I need to finish this thing up and get it edited. Eek! I'm pretty excited :). It's something to be proud of, and a creative story line. I hope to be able to share it with you soon!

Now I'm going to go relax for a bit and decorate my house for the holidays.

Yay!

NaNo Day #24... Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)

It's Thanksgiving Day, 24 November. I'm sitting pretty at 46,726 words on my novel. Yep folks. Today's benchmark is 40,000 and I'm well ahead. I have 3,274 words left to write to reach the 50,000 word mark and "win" NaNo. That doesn't mean too much in the grand scheme of things... and yet, it DOES because I have a novel written! Or I will have in just a couple more days... I mean, even 50,000 words does not make a novel... I will likely write more and cut more and edit plenty before it's in any sort of drafty stage to send to a publishing agency... but that's the goal... after reaching 50,000... dress it up and send it out to party :)

I'm pretty excited. At one point I wasn't even sure I could stretch it this far. Yay!

I've really enjoyed this process. I think I have found my stride, which is a good thing to feel. I discovered "Write or Die" which will help me with writing daily in the future (manageable bites are key). I've also learned the need for balance. I've spent the last month jamming on the creativity frequency. I need to have input, too, though... as well as output. I'm looking forward to getting back to reading more regularly and not feeling this crazed pressure for a while. At least until I come up with another grand idea... or until next year's NaNo :)

So... in other news, I volunteer at Blackbird Yoga now, down the street from my house. It's a nice way to get out a couple times a week and I get free yoga for helping out over there. Pretty cool! I try to walk there at least once a week (and drive the other day I go)... mostly for the getting outside. Our street is not the safest to walk down. People like to go careening down the hill and slam into the speed bump in front of our house (that includes snow plows in the middle of the night... right outside my bedroom window... good times...). I don't let Tag in our yard without his 30 foot lead on for that reason. I can't bear the thought of him getting hit. That said, I don't see to many animals (other than squirrels and chipmunks) that get hit on our road. And we have plenty of critters... heron, beaver, muskrat, deer, raccoon, and then I found this guy on the side of the road, a clear hit and run... who knew we had bobcats too? Sad that I had to discover it this way...

NaNo day 21 - Moving along

It's day 21. I made excellent headway at the end of last week and wrote the usual quota of words on Saturday, too, so only writing 600 yesterday didn't really hurt me. I didn't get ahead that much, though, by only writing 600 words. So today's goal is to write to 40,000 words (a little over a 2,500 word count for the day). It's completely do-able since I wrote 5,000 the other day... in 2 and a half hours... This new app is fantastic for making my writing time manageable and productive. I love it.

This image is taken from

 http://a-faerietale-of-inspiration.blogspot.com/

In other news, the recent events at UC Davis have shocked and saddened me more than I can say. Especially when you expect that the police should be there to protect people and uphold their rights... which I do. Maybe everyone does not expect that. I know there is a lot of contention surrounding the purpose of the protesting going on across the country at this time... nevertheless, people have the right to make their thoughts and concerns known through peaceful assembly... and this kind of display of force in direct opposition to those rights chills me.

I never really considered my position of non-violence until now. I think I always assumed that I knew my own mind. And I have a hard time wrapping my brain around exactly how my ideals, my beliefs would work in an ideal world, especially given that this world is less than ideal... but I'm going to put it out there... to wish... to imagine what my world would be like... so bear with me, and converse with me. I hope you will...

In my perfect world, the police would use force only when absolutely necessary... because their lives or the lives of others are in imminent danger.

In my perfect world, people would have safe, open forums to talk about their wants and needs, their hopes and dreams, and to find support and fulfillment from others who have and are willing to share.

In my perfect world, disagreeing with someone would not be a cause for hate or war or violence, but a time for learning, if nothing else, how to respect a different viewpoint and allow that person to be and believe differently from you.

In my perfect world...

There are so many other ways to end that thought that I think I'm going to have to start a series, just to tease this idea out, to dream

I hope that you will play along with me. What do things look like in YOUR perfect world?
I reserve the right to delete any comments that are combative or out of sync with the spirit of this "perfect world".

NaNo day 18... 35,000 by the end of the day **UPDATED**

I'm gonna get there :) Ambitious goal for the day, but I'm already over 31,000, so I think I can do it.

In the meantime, listen to this song... theme song for the novel... (lyrics below)

**UPDATED** just in case you wondered... I hit 35,095 today... and created a new character. She adds so much depth to the story! And she's just a minor thing...

Swim Until You Can't See Land - by Frightened Rabbit

We salute at the threshold of the North Sea

in my mind

And a nod to the boredom that drove me here

to face the tide and swim

(Whoaaaa) I swim (Whoaaa) oh swim (Whoaaa)

Dip the toe in the ocean. Oh how it hardens and it numbs.

And the rest of me is a version of man

built to collapse into crumbs

And if I hadn’t come down

To the coast to disappear

I may have died in a land-slide

Of the rocks, the hopes and fears.

So swim until you can’t see land.

Swim until you can’t see land.

Swim until you can’t see land

Are you a man or are you a bag of sand?

Swim until you can’t see land

Swim until you can’t see land

Swim until you can’t see land

Are you a man or are you a bag of sand?

Up to my knees now, do I wait? Do I dive?

The sea has seen my like before though it’s my first

And perhaps last time.

Let’s call me a baptist, call this the drowning of the past

She’s there on the shoreline

Throwing stones at my back

So swim until you can’t see land

Swim until you can’t see land

Swim until you can’t see land

Are you a man or are you a bag of sand?

Swim until you can’t see land

Swim until you can’t see land

Swim until you can’t see land

Are you a man or are you a bag of sand?

Now the water’s taller than me

And the land is a marker line

All I am is a body adrift in water, salt and sky

So swim until you can’t see land

Swim until you can’t see land

Swim until you can’t see land

Are you a man or are you a bag of sand?

Swim until you can’t see land

Swim until you can’t see land

Swim until you can’t see land

Are you a man or are you a bag of sand?

It's the 16th and I'm at 28,389 words written

I just found this fantastic app on-line called Write or Die by Dr. Wicked. It is a customizable app that lets you pick a word count, a time limit, and consequences for missing your goals and then encourages you to type like the wind and meet those goals. I wrote 4500 words today! First in 500 words in 15 minute chunks, and then 800 words in 20 minutes... I surpassed even my own expectations and now I'm a day ahead of the word count. The scenes are all out of sync and there are still large holes in the plot, but everything fits together pretty well and, thanks to another fun piece of software called Scrivener (please refrain from the Melville references here), rearranging scenes and getting things to flow more naturally will be much easier when editing time comes.

I'm super excited and hoping to get even MORE ahead tomorrow.

How are the rest of you doing?

picture from http://forestofthefaie.ning.com/group/selkies

NaNo Day 13 was yesterday... 21,670

"Gus shook his head, like a man waking up from a dream, and headed toward the light, full of joy at discovering that the world was such a wide place and he got to share in it."

 

NaNo day 10... **UPDATED**

*Updated at the end*

I'm posting this early... by this evening I will have reached 16,666+ words. I will! I only have 266 words left to write today to get there... and that's after having already written 2,374 words to get to this point. I'm impressed with myself at least, even if no one else really cares :)

Yay NaNo and Yay motivation!

image borrowed from

http://www.cheesebikini.com/2003/08/11/mermaid-wave/

**Update!**
I am up to 16,731 words :) And it feels good baby ;)