NaNoWriMo2009

NaNoWriMo is Just the Beginning

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.

NaNoWriMo2009

I’ve Fallen Into My Novel

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.

NaNoWriMo2009

NaNoWriMo is Challenging

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.
NaNoWriMo2009

Toot! Toot!

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.
NaNoWriMo2009

Worst and Worster

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?

View Answers
Have a party and burn them
0(0.0%)
Have a party and shred them
0(0.0%)
Put them in recycling and have a party anyway
5(100.0%)
NaNoWriMo2009

I Like Novels - the Writing, not just the Reading

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.