Throwing in the Towel

Well, I'm throwing in the towel regarding NaNoWriMo. I started out with high hopes on November 1st that I'd finished, but that's also the day I started my new temp assignment.

Which requires me to not only go in earlier but to drive farther.

It's been a struggle to write in the mornings because I'd have to get up at 3:30 a.m. to get in a good writing bout and have enough time to get ready for work and get there in time. Sure, I get off ealier, but evenings are always touch and go for me, depending upon how crappy or stresseful the day has been.

That's why I liked writing in the mornings.

And, I should not have tried to do NaNo knowing I had a 30,000 word novella to revise in November for a submission deadline of 11/15.

So, I'm pulling out of NaNo. I've "won" it twice before so I know I can do 50,000 words in a month. And I did 0ver 50,000 words in October and, as a result of starting and participating in the 1,000 Words a Day Group, so far, since September 1st, I've written 117,252 words.

So I know I can do it. It's just that November has been something of a bust. And months, weeks or days where things just don't go as you planned do and will happen.

The important thing is not to let that become an excuse just to give up altogether.

Here's a link to a page that talks about setting and achieving goals. The idea is that when planes fly to their destination they are, apparently, some degrees off of course.

One Degree Difference

I've been more than one degree difference off course of my goals this month. That's for sure! But that's okay. I'm still going to keep flying.

And I'm mixing metaphors right and left in this blog post, aren't I? *grin*

Ciao!

Writing a Mystery

I'm writing a mystery for NaNoWriMo. Which means I probably won't win this time around. Getting my 50,000 words done by 11/30, that is.

That's okay. I've "won" twice before and both of those manuscripts are still sitting on my computer.

This time around I want a workable first draft.

And, since I've never written a mystery before, the learning curve is steep.

I've read mysteries, of course, but writing one is a whole 'nother matter.

But guess what? It's proving quite fun. I'm doing reserach on crime scenes, detective work, evidence collection, how to write red herrings, that sort of thing, and it's really fascinating stuff. And I'm having a lot of fun putting together my cast of sleuth, love interest, murderer, victim, supsects, etc.

Hmm, actually, my novel is not really a hard-core mystery. It's more a romantic mystery as the emphasis is on the heroine-sleuth and her love interest, but there are dead bodies, and innocent suspects and guilty suspects and sex and religion and politics and more sex and, well, I'm having a ball writing it!

CourtTV will start a new season of Murder by the Book on Monday. It's a show where top-selling mystery writers give their takes on true-life crimes.

I should say that I still love paranormals, fantasy and sci-fi and the ideas for my next two novels are along those lines. But I wanted to give a go at writing a mystery and, so far, it's been fun.

Ciao!

Write On!

It's November 1s. I got up at 5:00 this morning. Why? Because I want to get in a good session of writing before I go to work, and it's also the start of NaNoWriMo and it's my goal to have a 50,000 word, hopefully workable, bare-bones draft of a novel by the end of the month.

I'm also revising a novella and doing world-building for a 30,000 word novella I'm writing in December.

Can I do this?

Possibly.

I started writing every day on September 1st. In September I finished and submitted three stories. I wrote 38, 192 words, averaging 1,273 words a day.

In October, I wrote a total 54,343 words, with an average of 1,753 words a day. I finished a draft for a novella and prepped for my NaNo novel.

I was given a boost when two stories I had submitted earlier this year and last year were accepted for publication in two erotica anthologies published by Simon & Schuster that are coming out in 2008.

So, yeah, I'm gonna do this. One way or the other.

As for the pic of Shakespeare, he's just happens to be my chosen Muse of the Month.

Ciao!

Sweating with Sven

Still sweating along with Sven. So far, since the 70 Days of Sweat started nine days ago I've written 16,842 words, with an average of 1,684 words a day for those last nine days.

Yesterday I finished the draft of my 30,000 word novella. Now comes the hard, but fun, work.

Revision.

Personally, I love to revise. Drafting is what I can't stand. That's why I try to write my draft as fast as I can so that I can get to what, at least for me, is the real writing. Revising, rewriting, editing.

My daily word count will go down as a result, because, as I'm sure you know revision involves cutting. But, I tend to write what I call bare-bones drafts, which means I leave out a lot of the description, internal monologue, dialogue tags and such that give texture to a scene.

I layer that stuff in after my draft is done. So it's a process of both adding what needs to be added and cutting what's not needed.

Fun stuff. :)

No, really. It's really fun. Hard work, but fun.

So, that's what I'll be doing from now until November 1st. Revising the novella and continue my prepping for NaNoWriMo.

Ciao for now!

Thoth: The God of Writing

This is an image of Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing. He is credited with the invention of writing and the alphabet and was scribe to the Egyptian gods.

I'm invoking him today in order to report on my writing so far.

As of yesterday, for October I've written 38,734 words and I've written on average this month 1, 937 words a day. That's compared to my overall total for September which was 38,192 and an average of 1,539 words per day.

Yes, I'm obsessed with Excel! *grin*

Now, once I start revising many of those words will be thrown out onto the compost heap. But I've come to the realization that in order to get the words that will, with hope, stir the reader, I've got to write a lot of garbage. There's no getting around it. I've got to write and I've to write every day.

Others may not have to write every day, but I've learned it's pretty much a necessity for me now.

Someone said (can't remember who) that you've got to write a million words before you can even think you've really hit your stride as a writer. Don't know if that's true or not. But if it is I've got to write steadily for at least three years to have written a million words.

So, here I go. :)

I'm 50% done with the draft of my 30,000 word novella. Really need to pick up the pace on that in order to reach my goal of finishing the draft before NaNo starts. My prepping for my NaNo novel is proceeding apace. Again, need to get a move on that too since NaNo starts next week and don't want to be caught short.

Speaking of NaNoWriMo go to link below to see the lists of authors who will be inspiring us NaNoWrimers to write in November!

List of Authors - Pep Talks for NaNoWriMo

I'm reporting in at 70 Days of Sweat and am finding the daily posts by the sponsors to be very helpful and inspiring and reading the comments of those who are also trying to sweat along with Sven is also motivating.

The 1000 Words a Day list is still going strong and has also proved a great source of motivation for me. Thanks, guys!

Saw a new episode of Torchwood last night. (Well, new for me.) Love that show! And Captain Jack? Well, what can I say? He's hot! Was an interesting one about one of the characters having the ability to hear other people's thoughts and the implications of that.

Ciao for now.

NaNoWriMo

I'm going to be participating in NaNoWriMo, this year. That's National Novel Writing Month for those not familiar with it. It starts on November 1 and lasts until November 30th. In that time period you have to write 50,00o words or, 1,666, words a day and complete a novel. Or in my case the first draft of a novel.

I started participating in NaNo back in 2003. I didn't finish that year, but I did finish in 2004 and 2005. I didn't participate in 2006.

This year my plan is to get a draft of a 75,000 word novel done by doing the 50,000 word in a month challenge.

It's a lot of hard work but it's also fun. And if you do sign up, there's a forum where you can post and read messages from people all over the world who are participaiting.

Plus there are local chapters where you can meet and greet face to face. Some people have gone on to publish their NaNo novels. But for most people it's a chance to write like mad for 30 days in November.

As for my writing this month, it's going well. I do credit the 1,000 Words/Day list. It's really helped me to stay on focus. I can't say enough about it.

Speaking of, time for me to get back to my writing before I head to the salt mines.

Have a great Thursday!