You'll Be a Song I'll Sing

Happy Thanksgiving! If you're not celebrating then I hope you have a good day!

I'm going to update the maps on the Garmin and get some writing done before I head out for the Thanksgiving feast. Total word count as of midnight is 25664.

I am still plugging away at my NaNo Project.  At 24,020 words, my Excel spreadsheet estimates I will be done on December 11th.  I will keep writing one word at a time to get to the finish line.  My goal is still 50 thousand words before December 1st.

Because I spent very little time getting to know my characters beforehand, I do get surprised by my characters or the plot.  Tonight my main character revealed something personal about himself.  Apparently he was an aspiring Olympian in his younger years.  He never made the US Olympic archery team and quit practicing after college.  I should have known a nickname like “Dead Eye” might have something to do with his aim.

At 48% of the project done, I am almost finished with the uphill climb.  Soon I’ll be on the downward slope.  Before I know it, my worry will not be “where will I find all these words” but how to tie up the story before I reach 50k.

Mirrored from Amber Stults - Book Reviewer and Author.

It was the first day to pick up my meat CSA and it didn't go as planned. I did get to get my hair and eyebrows done like I had planned. My shampooer was a man and I can now understand why some women find a man washing their hair sexy. However, all I could think about was how he was massaging my scalp using the same techniques (and some of the same places) as I massage Sammy to calm him down.

470 words today brings me to the precipice of 20k. My total word count at the end of today is 19917. Only 30083 more to go! :)

Yesterday was an all around odd day.

I woke up at 4am to the sound of Sammy getting sick. I cleaned it up and he wanted to cuddle. Surprisingly, he was still sleepy. I became a sandwich - Sammy on the left and husband on the right. For an hour I was wide awake. I went downstairs to write and spent about a half hour on the novel. At that point I got sleepy and I could hear Sammy getting restless. I went back to bed and woke up in just enough time to get ready for work. I nearly called in sick because when I was walking Sammy I had that sleep deprived almost drunk feeling.

However, I went to work which wasn't so bad. After work I came home and cleaned. We had someone clean half of the house in September right before my mother's surprise party. Starting today we're having the same cleaning done once a month. I honestly never understood it in high school when my friend would have to clean the house before the cleaning lady came. Now I do - if the surface to be cleaned is covered with papers or books then it can't get cleaned, can it?

I'm using Dr. Wicked's Write or Die (online version) to get larger chunks of words written at a time. Today I wrote 1344 words (smaller than my new daily goal of 2k to "win" by the 30th). My total word count is at 18088.

My rewards system this year has kind of gone by the wayside. I've been stuck on unique rewards. It's good to have a little something to look forward to which is why I am only half heartedly still doing them. Any other month and I would not be rewarding myself for writing. One thought I had was to buy a laptop this year when I reach 50k but I'm probably going to buy one anyway in the next six months. It's more difficult all the time to get the old (as in 8 years old at this point) one to run on AC power.

Last night I made chili and corn bread for dinner. There were a lot of leftovers. I'll bring some for lunch tomorrow.

Words written today - 1452. Total Word Count (according to Word) is 16744. I went over 15k this weekend like I had hoped I would. But I was secretly hoping to get to at least 20k. I had ample opportunity and time but I am just not feeling this particular novel this year.

Wonderful day so far. Slept in, saw a good movie (Lorna's Silence), had lunch at Katzinger's Deli and then stopped at Pistacia Vera for some goodies to take home.

Wrote just over the minimum yesterday so I'm starting at over 13k. I want to be to at least 15K before the weekend is over. If I get more than that I will be really happy.

It's a pretty fall day today. The sun is out and only a light jacket is required. We have the french doors and some of the windows open. Now I'm off to write - no more procrastinating.

Edited to update my total word count is now 15292!

Had a few hours to write but just couldn't produce. Total word count 11419. Still not out of it this year.

Yesterday I flew through my daily word count and closed the gap a little.

Today I let the gap widen.  Total Word Count is 10804.  Still not out of it!

Sammy got a Peanut Butter flavored Frosty Paws today.  He loved it.  In fact, he loved it so much, he wanted to eat the paper cup it came in.  Instead, husband and I crumpled it up and played Keep Away with Sammy.  It was a solid 15 - 20 minutes of play.  I think we all loved it.  Sammy would run back and forth between us and while he would try to grab the cup in the air or on the ground, he was very well behaved.  No biting and no getting ouf of control.

Saw Where the Wild Things Are this afternoon.  Had fish and chips at Old Bag of Nails.  Dinner was from Smackie's Traveling Smoker stand.  They ran out of brisket so we had a pulled chicken and a pulled pork sandwich.  Yummy.

Wrote 1074 words today.  Total Word Count is 8293.

Yesterday I did no writing on my NaNo.  After work I went to husband's work where I saw some short films by Robert Beavers.  Interesting stuff.

Today was Sammy's Gotcha Day.  We didn't really do anything to celebrate it but he let us sleep in until 11:30am and he rewarded with a long walk.  As usual, Sammy did climb into bed at 6:45am looking for cuddle time and some belly rubs.

I am still behind on my tv watching but am making progress in getting caught up from watching shows while my husband and I were out of town last month. 

And today I had my best writing day for the month to date.  3188 words.  This still leaves me behind but I am catching up to where I should be.  My total word count is 7219.  I knew I wasn't out of this yet.

For dinner tonight I made a sausage/bean risotto which was yummy.  Very perfect for a cool day in fall.

Watched some of the World Series of Poker (down to about 19 people, I think) and then got to writing.

Wrote 1251 words for a total of 4031.  I am still behind but am starting to build some steam to catch up over the weekend.

2780 Words total. 

I figured out something about writing in my office.  I can't do it.  Sammy gives me the sweet Corgi eyes to let him up on the chair.  Then I can't get completely comfortable since I have a Corgi at my back.  If I don't let him up, I'm still not comfortable and I often have a cruising Corgi who comes by for pets and belly rubs.

So I wrote in the bedroom last night before I got sleepy.  Went to bed at 10:30pm which is early for me.  But I still wrote!

Total Word Count: 2333

So why I didn't follow my plan to pick something with action and start writing from there I don't know.

My supervisor at work knows I'm doing this so he checks on me every few days to find out how I'm doing.  :)  For some reason, I feel like the month should be almost over.

Part of the problem with writing from nothing is that I've spent most of this time getting to know my character.  Kinda boring.  I think I'm going to get straight to some action tomorrow.

2168 words total.  Still behind.

1372 words down.  Not the minimum I should be doing but a decent start to NaNoWriMo.

Happy November 1st!

Since my vacation on North Carolina I've had this lady in my head who finds herself living in a beach house. Not sure if this is where she ends up or if she wants to leave it.

And then part of me thinks it's time to do a Halloweekend/Summer Camp novel but it seems like it should really be a large plot point and not the main focus.

So I have no idea what I'll be writing on November 1st at this point.

Every writer has a different method for getting the words down for the story that needs to be told.

Which do you think should come first – the market or the story? 

I used to write what I wanted and then tried to find a market for it.  I would spend a lot of time revising the piece so it would fit the market.  This was a bit of a waste of time and didn’t do much service to the story. 

Now I do a little bit of both.  I write what I want with an eye towards the market or the theme.  If it fits, then I submit it.  If it doesn’t fit, I save it until I find something that seems like a good fit.

Mirrored from Amber Stults - Book Reviewer and Author.

Usually when I leave work early I catch a matinee movie.  Today I think I shall gather items at North Market for yummy goodness and work on my blog and writing this afternoon.