Originally published at Geek Guide to Life. Please leave any comments there.

• I haven't written for the past two days. Tomorrow I'm back on the hobby horse. #
• 1342 Words added to my novel today. #nanowrimo was just the beginning. #
• I win #nanowrimo with 50049 words. Still more to write in the novel. My arbitrary target is 110000. I like deep dish novels. #

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Originally published at Geek Guide to Life. Please leave any comments there.

• I haven't written for the past two days. Tomorrow I'm back on the hobby horse. #
• 1342 Words added to my novel today. #nanowrimo was just the beginning. #
• I win #nanowrimo with 50049 words. Still more to write in the novel. My arbitrary target is 110000. I like deep dish novels. #

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Originally published at Geek Guide to Life. Please leave any comments there.

I slid by 50K yesterday, so I am an official winner. The novel isn't done yet, though. I'm happy about that, because the novels I like to read are considerably longer, so I hope to write something along the same lines.

So, my next goal is to get to 90,000 words by the end of December.  That is a stretch goal.  My fallback is 80,000 words. Do understand that I mean total words, in addition to the 50,000 I wrote this month.  So I'm really aiming to write around 1333 words a day to reach that goal.  My minimum daily target is 1000 words.

You may have noticed, I am goal oriented, and I also like numbers in my goals.  It's just the geek in me, I suppose.

If you've been following this blog at all, you are familiar with this trend of setting numerical goals.  But the problem is, I have a hard time with the follow-through. But I worked at the writing for a month. So I figure I've got a habit established now, and rather than raise the bar to something unrealistic, as is my usual pattern, I'm lowering it a little.  I do have a day job, or rather an evening one.  So this should be doable.

I also have the best sweetie in the whole wide world, who views my fiction endeavors as a permanent lifestyle change.  Yay.

Now I just need to start exercising and eating right and meditating again.  But first, I gotta go write.

Originally published at Geek Guide to Life. Please leave any comments there.

• Starting day 29 of #nanowrimo and I plan to finish today! #
• I've fallen into my novel and i can't get out. #
• Updated my livejournal with thoughts of nanowrimo and impending doom for our kitty: http://janetwain.livejournal.com #

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Originally published at Geek Guide to Life. Please leave any comments there.

. . . and I don't want to climb out.

I feel like pieces of me are just sitting out there, waiting for me to get my butt back in the novelist's chair. Part of me holds pieces of scenes; dangling at the end of strings; stuck like floss in the folds of my brain; just waiting for me to reel them in again into the gray matter so I can squish them into shape and properly channel them through my fingertips as words.

My ability to be a retail store owner has plummeted. At this time of year, this is not a good thing.  I'm planning to cross the 50,000 word NaNoWriMo barrier on Sunday, my next day off from the day job.  Technically, I'm at work right now, but can't seem to convince my brain to come back online.  Instead, most of that silly organ sits ensconced at a breakfast discussion with three of my characters as they try to come to grips with events which have left one of them bruised both physically and emotionally, and quite possibly made him at least a little batty.  Part of it is looking for a character who's just plain gone missing, and another part is with another who has entered another realm, not unlike myself; and it's not too sure of the time-line, again, not unlike myself.

Oh, and I'm loving it.  I love every skein of the threads and every turn I see in the road ahead of each of my characters; I love the settings, and the sounds; love the struggles and the emotions; and most of all, I love the wonder that writing is at least as fun as reading, now. And I want to go back. I don't want to be sitting here, writing about it as a feeble attempt to extricate myself for a few hours to do something 'useful' and hopefully profitable. I'd so much rather dive all the way back into my novel and not climb out again until it's done.

Especially when, during the final week, your remaining feline companion has kidney shutdown. We are easing her passage tomorrow. We lost Merlin, in March. Now we say farewell to Amber, who was older, and quite a bit wiser.

I have a couple emotional scenes in the book, which I've been avoiding writing in public for fear I would get sappy at Bob's Java Hut. You are not supposed to cry at the Biker Coffee House. Maybe I can write them tomorrow, or maybe I won't be able to write at all.

I'm at 35033 words. Yay.

I will really miss Amber. She's sitting on the floor right behind this chair, lending me her support. She's not happy, barely able to eat and drink, weak, chilled . . . but we're together here for comfort, doing what we can to support each other. If the book is published in the end, when I actually finish it and revise it, etc., I'll dedicate it to her memory. She's been a fabulous kitty.

Normally I'd dedicate to my partner Thraicie who is unreasonably supportive of my writing. It's irrational, I tell you, when we have our own business to run. But she just says, Go, Jane, Go!

Or maybe I can fit Amber in as a character and immortalize her that way. It's what writers do.

Anyways, I should be going to bed, but the sooner I sleep, the sooner I wake up to a sad, sad morning.

I am grateful for the work though, for those 35K words. I am loving the journey, even when I think it would be easier to pull out my teeth with my fingers than to pull the words out to describe what I see in my head and feel in my gut.

Wax on, wax off. Philosophy. Duty. Practice. What better time than this? Grateful for the moments which teach us compassion and the value of companionship.

I'm up to 33,542 words on my NaNoWriMo novel. Seven days and 16,458 words to go.

Cool. The NaNoWriMo number of the day is 19,191. I didn't plan it, I swear. Well, I planned something in the vicinity, but I wasn't going for something so numerologically nummy. This universe tickles me so, sometimes.

I recently made the mistake of downloading and reading the new teenage mega blockbuster novel by James Patterson (coming out in December.) Actually, I did more than read it. I broke it up and analyzed it as a Novel Writing exercise. It made me feel SO much better about my writing because, A) I've written more words than are in that novel. and B) I couldn't write that bad if I tried. In fact, I know six-year-olds who can write better, I'm sure of it.

So, at the store, we have all these sample chapbooks and a lovely display and temporary tattoos that they sent us out of the blue. What to do, what to do?

Poll #1482295 Witch & Wizard Sample Chapbooks
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

What should we do with the remaining chapbooks?

Like so many budding writers, I spent years trying to write short stories so I could get published.  What was I thinking?  I read novels for fun, and only read short stories when they are by an author I love as a novelist, or for anthologies on a theme I really like.  Otherwise, it's like taking pills because they are good for you.

I am finding a bit of a rhythm in my writing, or at least I'd like to believe I am.  I'm over 7,000 words so far, and just getting into it.  It's clear to me, that the ideas I like so much are not short story idea.  I'd always been trying to squeeze them down.  No wonder I found it so frustrating.

It's also kind of weird learning to write a draft without going back an polishing. Now, since this is only day 5, this might be the beginners optimism.  I know there's a lot more writing to do before I get to 50,000 words, but I think it's more doable now. And I wonder why I didn't do this before.  It's just plain fun. At least today, it is.

Okay, so I'm up to 4557 official words so far.  Not only that, but I haven't started smoking yet.  I'm starting to get caught up.  It's good to know I can do at least 1667 words a day.  Today it was more like 1800.  I'm still a little behind, but not as much.

So, yeah. The weird part is the cigarette craving. I haven't smoked for years, and when I did most of my writing output a decade or so ago, I didn't smoke.  It was in-between when I went to music school that I smoked.  So what's up with the craving, anyway?

Yes, I've actually started writing.  I'm a little behind. I was shorted an hours writing today due to a late start. Tomorrow I'll just take the bus in so I don't have to wait for my lovely lady to make herself pretty. The widget doesn't seem to be working. I'm at 2782 words so far, so I'm a bit behind. Hopefully I can make up for it by getting an early enough start for the next couple of days.

So, I followed threads from my last post and ended up at a nifty site of tools for writers by a NaNoWriMo participant.  First off, he's got a form for tracking NaNoWriMo progress.   But that's not what really has me excited.  But the big cool thing is that he has a program for writing a Novel.  If you aren't in love with Word (like me) then this might be something to take a look at.  First off, it's free (though I'm sure you can donate money to the cause), and designed by someone who actually writes books. It breaks things up in chapters and scenes you can easily move around.  For someone who has ideas coming that jump in and out of any clear timeline, this is a very good thing.  It's called yWriter.  Has anyone else out there heard of it?  He has some testimonials on his site.

We just got a display for sample chapters for his next book. Well, at least the next book he's branded. It's called "Witch & Wizard" and has a really cool cover, and temporary tattoos in the display. There is a co-author, who I assume does all the writing, since this guy comes out with a ridiculous number of books with his name on it.  Not surprisingly, the guy comes from an advertising background.

http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/2007/09/07/breaking-news-james-patterson-quits-writing-to-focus-on-ideas/

So I'm wondering if we're going to carry the actual book.  Where do you draw the line?  It looks like mind candy, but the display really is cool, and we got free bags, etc. etc.  Typical way to manipulate us into carrying the thing . . . give a gift and we feel like we owe them something.

That's all I have to do. Just write 1667 words of fiction every day in November.  I'm not supposed to rewrite, just hurl myself headlong through writing a draft of a novel.  50,000 words or bust.  I need to create a t-shirt which has 50,000 WORDS strategically located.  That will be my official shirt for the challenge.  I should do it like they do body for life . . . take a before picture and an after picture of me as proof.  There's a widget tracker.  I don't know if I can put that up here on LJ except in occasional posts.  Does anyone know?

I need to change my header for LJ to reflect the 1667 words instead of 1500.

So, as some of you know, my livejournal is themed around writing.  I've been writing something just about every day for a couple of months now.  It's become a pretty solid habit.  But something is just mostly stream of consciousness crap and well, junk about my life.  Which is okay, at least my fingers get some exercise.

But now that I've given up caffeine, started exercising, and am writing something every day, it's time to go for the big leap.  Write a novel.  I've been dancing around this for oh, around two decades.  Well, I figure I've got that whole life-experiences thing figured out.  I've had tons.  I don't really know what I've been waiting for.  Excuses always abound.  So like thousands of others, I'm going to take the NaNoWriMo challenge.  That's the National Novel Writing Month challenge coming up in November.  You see, you write at least 50,000 words of a very rough draft and you win. 

So, starting November 1, I start writing a novel.  I can have plot outlines and character studies before-hand, but that's it. No pre-november prose.  The trick is not to write a best-selling novel.  Aim for a novel which won't make people blow chunks.  Go wild, go crazy, but go, go go.

This is where you come in

I'll be posting here on LJ to let you know about my progress, or lack thereof.  I need accountability, and y'all are invited to wheedle, cajole or berate me for my efforts or lack thereof.  Don't worry about being too harsh if I'm slipping.  If I want to be a novelist (and I do), then I need to be ready for that sort of abuse.

So, how about it? Will you be my cheering and jeering section?

I've listed my personal progress on Geek Guide to Life . . .

To that bit, I just need to note that although I am writing in my journal, I'm doing very little creative writing.  I theoretically have time set aside for that, but often end up going back to work in the evenings.  There's just so much to do, and as a business owner, it's my job to make sure it gets done.  We were also short one person for a little while.  Well, we've hired a new and magnificent person to fill that gap, and we'll be looking to add another person late next month.  But we want the one to get settled a bit first.

Anyways.  That's it for now.

. . . is really great.  I can't believe it's already been over a month since I had anything with serious amounts of caffeine.  The most caffeine I have is from decaf coffee and an occasional piece of chocolate. Combine that with eating something healthy every 2-4 hours, and I have an amazing amount of energy throughout the day, and no crashed feeling which makes me think I need a stimulant.   In fact, I find I am often just naturally bouncy. I think I sleep better at night, too.  But then, I've started exercising on a regular basis, as well.  How weird is that?  

My goal is to keep to the low/no caffeine lifestyle until at least the end of the year, and preferably, well for the rest of my life.  The only time it's hard is when I don't get enough sleep.  Giving up the caffeine habit was the first of a series of dominoes.  Instead of focusing on bad habits, I'm working at establishing new ones, and I'm starting to make some progress on those, too.  I just hope it all sticks, because I'm feeling better than I have in a long time.

I totally love it. But I need to do something about the double-chin.  But I'm working on that, too.

I just wanted to let y'all know I'm posting my personal transformation stuff over at Geek Guide to Life.  That's my general blog to do with life, the universe, and everything from a geek perspective, which is my basic general outlook.  Today I wrote about my first day at the gym.

This blog is supposed to be all about story and writing and suchlike. So I guess it's okay if I say that I wrote my gym story over there. 

Hopefully I'll be able to report on writing fiction or poetry soon.  I've got time set aside most days just to write, and I do so love diving into a different world and all those strange possibilities.