Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts

Friday, November 18, 2011

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?

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

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

Monday, November 14, 2011

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."
 

Thursday, November 10, 2011

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

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Nano Day 8... and... Hey, Blogger Friends!

I know I know, we're on day 9 now, but I tried to post this last night and the photos wouldn't load... so... I'm posting it now. And I'm not revising it. You'll just have to deal with it.

So it's day 8. Yep that's right... only 8 days in. :) 22 more to go! By this point in the process, if you are keeping a steady pace, you should have 13,333 words written for NaNoWriMo. And I DOOooo! I have 13,370 to be precise. I'm keeping pretty close to the daily amount of 1,667... not over taxing myself, making sure to rest. Well, except for yesterday. Yesterday I wrote 2,800+ words in a crazed effort to catch up from Sunday. "What happened Sunday?" you ask?

Well, I went to the City. What's that? Oh, what did I do there? I saw Quidditch practice taking place while walking through Central Park, for one thing.

No really.

See??? Brooms and hoops and everything!!!
 Then I went to the New York City Marathon with none other than the FABULOUS Julie Maughon, over at rosewood pencil box. She was in town because her husband is a super marathon runner and was competing in the race. We got a good spot by the route around mile 24 and waited for Josh to run by.




If all these runners look like they are in extreme pain, that's because they have already run 24 MILES and still have 2 left to finish. We never did see Josh, although apparently he passed right by us. At a few instances large packs of people walked/ran past us and we can only assume he was lost in the mix.

Yay Josh for finishing a marathon!

Here's Julie at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park
 After the marathon, we met BESS from It's the world, dear. Did you expect it to be small? (Ha ha... is that really the title of your blog Bess? Or is it just bessweatherby.com?) Either way, it was great meeting Bess. And kind of fortuitous, actually. Julie and I had both won a contest on her blog recently, so Bess brought us our prizes (copies of The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson).

Here are a few pictures of us from the end of the day. They're dark because darned if that time change doesn't just sneak up on you!
Julie is laughing like that because Bess and I had to crouch
to be the same height as her :) Yay short people!



It was a fun day! And now I'm back to work again. Headed to the City tonight to see my aunt and uncle play their music! So I have a lot of work to do before then!

taken from http://fisticuffsinthedark.tumblr.com/

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Weekend writer blues and Lori is back, Yay!

It's really not so bad, I guess... but weekend writing can be the pits! Everyone is hanging around and waiting to do something fun... and I have to make my quota. Don't get me wrong, I did it... but boy I was unhappy about it today. I wanted to do ANYTHING else... I even contemplated cleaning the bathroom to get out of writing! Eh... but...

8,374 down and 41,626 to go! I am sure I can do this... I mean... I know I can :)

Here are some Halloween pictures to make you laugh :) The ones of me and Lori are from today. Since the power was out last week and Noah worked late that day, we dressed up today.

Tag was a Shark this year! Scary!!!!


For me, Halloween is just a reason to wear
face paint and a ridiculous turquoise ball
gown. Lori is actually wearing a cute costume :)
And one last picture from the internets...


Thursday, November 3, 2011

NaNo day 3, whoopee!

I'm happy to say I'm 5000+ words down and going strong. I love "pantsing" this novel, because I'm getting so much more out of it than I thought I would... already! I KNOW! Characters are cropping up and plots that I hadn't counted on... now if I can manage to keep up this very steady pace I'll be pretty pleased. Who knows where we'll end up?

Also, I wrote a scene today that really stretched me. I won't go into detail, suffice it to say it was horror-esque... and I danced around it and didn't really commit. I'm not satisfied with it yet, but... that's what the editing process is for!

Ok... it's very late, and I've spent far too long playing Plants vs. Zombies again (my reward for making my count).

Go go NaNo buddies Go! You can do this!

"Slowly swimming out to sea, Sirenetta felt that there on
the beach she had left behind something she could never
bring herself to forget." 
The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen,
painting by Eduard DuLac

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

NaNoWriMo and a snow storm

Ok, so those cool pictures I posted in the snow? Yeah... We got slammed! There were 8 inches on the ground of wet, heavy snow... and in the trees... and on the wires... The power went out for the second time this year. It was NOT a piece of cake... I mean, we were better prepared for how to handle it than last time, but... (and this is for you California folks who don't know about snow) it's COLD when it snows! So we were without power/heat/water for a total of 36 hours... 3 nights... I was bundled in so many layers I couldn't bend my knees! And never took my hat off... even when I was sleeping.

So here I am once again singing the praises of electricity... running water and central heat never felt so good!

Now on to NaNo. It's day one! The excitement is a-crackle in the air... and I've made my quota of words for the day (hence the blog posting). I think this one has potential... at least in the way of me finishing it and being happy with it, not struggling with it and beating it to death like the last one. Yay!

A big shout out to all my writing buddies who are furiously scribbling away. May the writing fairies be with you.

He must have died if the little mermaid had not come to his rescue -
The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen 
Painting by Edmund Dulac

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

NaNoWriMo cometh!

Next week, I and others like me will begin scribbling furiously to meet the 30 day deadline of 50,000 words that is NaNoWriMo. For me, this will be one of the most productive months out of the year. I work o, so well with a deadline... something to aspire to...

In preparation for that literary frenzy, what am I doing now? Outlining? Pre-planning? Plot-mapping? Oh no! I'm stockpiling books to read... which is somewhat helpful... because they will give me inspiration by either being lovely and enjoyable or hideous and horrible (something to aspire to... or to aspire to be better than...) (for a complete reading list, just ask me). I'm also trying to a)start and complete creative projects that may distract me next month otherwise... and b) refrain from starting and NOT completing creative projects that will MOST DEFINITELY distract me next month. I'm convincing myself to hold off on beginning the quilt I just bought fabric and a pattern for... but I AM working on a new painting inspired by Hawaii and my love for dolphins (oh, did you not know that about me yet?). It's definitely a work in progress:

I'm also planning to go to the NaNoWriMo kick-off party for my region. This is somewhat intimidating on a number of levels... 1. I'm decidedly introverted now... and worried that they won't like me or I won't be able to connect to them at all (they being those writers that are also attending this party). 2. The "You're not a REAL writer" monster has been roaring rather loudly every time I consider mentioning that I'm a writer... and he scares me! 3. (suspect this is a byproduct of the aforementioned monster) What if I meet them and we're all geared up to write 50,000 words and then I completely fail and don't meet the goal? Or worse... what if I DO meet the goal and the whole thing sucks??

Ugh.

If anybody has a muzzle for my monster, would you please send it to me ASAP? Thanks.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Inklings

I'm getting ready for NaNoWriMo. The month of November has been reserved for the writing of 50,000 words of a story that I'm not even sure is that long. I'd like to think it is... I just re-read the tiny bit that I wrote when I had the idea... and it could be good. The characters are distinct, strong... and the basic story line is healthy...

Photo credit: Noah Kauffman
It's the implementation that I'm worried about. Last year I did 30,000 words to finish out a novel idea I have had since high school... and now that it's done, I'm not sure what it is... but at least it's done. I read somewhere in the comments of the "blogiverse" that "the writing is in the editing"... so maybe when I start editing that one it will find its shape better.

For this one... I dunno, this one is special, and I'd like to see it turn into something I can show people... that I can be proud of.

I worry too much... as evidenced by the fact that it's after 2 a.m. and I'm still awake.

So as the month of October draws to a close, as my blood tries to thicken against the cold New England winter that approaches... my characters will be seeking shelter from the harsh North Sea... and all the dread power that she wields.