NaNoWriMo - Progress report for yesterday, November 9, 2007
My words written so far: 16,378 total. I am back on track with my Super Goal of finishing two days early.
Impressions: Dogs barking at each other freak me out. I say this because I am in a "dog-friendly" coffee shop right now and there are a lot of dogs here. They keep having little tiffs and it is freaking me out. I don't have a dog so I think they are going to hurt each other. It is a little unsettling.
Back to my impressions of NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo...I got back on track writing last night. I was so tired I didn't think it was going to happen but it did. I actually got into a really nice groove and felt good enough about the story to post an excerpt on my NaNoWriMo page. Check it out and tell me if you don't just hate the characters! (You are supposed to!)
So I feel good; even in this dog heavy coffee shop. And I am just getting ready to start Chapter 6. Last night I was able to weave the story back around and now I am going to do more of that. I am going to visit back with some of my original characters. The question is, if an Augmentor dies, does the part that split off from him or her, the spirit part, die, too? If you have a thought, let me know. I think it is one of those crucial pivots to the story that I just don't have an instinct for.
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100%. Can you tell I got a decent night's sleep?
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: 100%.
Now, back to writing. If you are reading this, let me know!!!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
Day 8: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)
You may be wondering why I am writing about Day 8 on what is technically Day 9. Well, last night I was thinking that I would get to bed a little earlier and post this today. But the day has gone by and now I am needed to actually work on my book and I have this hanging over my head. Hmmm...not sure what is a better way to do things. I guess I will have to wait to see how I feel tonight.
Day 8 words written: 13,767 total. This is above my normal day's goal but below my super goal. I am leaving it black.
Impressions: I figured a way out of my dilemma of characters who couldn't speak to each other. That was fun. Now I need to work on pulling all the parts of the story together. Because I created an outline before I started writing, and I have been writing to the outline, I have more like a series of short stories right now. They are all vaguely related but I need to tie them all together.
Writing is hard work and at the same time it is easy. I want to go back and edit but I know now is not the time for that. As I read over what I have written, I see so much room for improvement. And yet, I like what I am writing. I guess my question is...how bad does a story need to be to abandon it? Or how good does a story need to be to pursue it?
It is easy because once you turn it on, it just flows out (on a good day). I never know what is going to happen!
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 0% unless I can get healthy. Otherwise I may not have the energy.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: ditto.
Day 8 words written: 13,767 total. This is above my normal day's goal but below my super goal. I am leaving it black.
Impressions: I figured a way out of my dilemma of characters who couldn't speak to each other. That was fun. Now I need to work on pulling all the parts of the story together. Because I created an outline before I started writing, and I have been writing to the outline, I have more like a series of short stories right now. They are all vaguely related but I need to tie them all together.
Writing is hard work and at the same time it is easy. I want to go back and edit but I know now is not the time for that. As I read over what I have written, I see so much room for improvement. And yet, I like what I am writing. I guess my question is...how bad does a story need to be to abandon it? Or how good does a story need to be to pursue it?
It is easy because once you turn it on, it just flows out (on a good day). I never know what is going to happen!
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 0% unless I can get healthy. Otherwise I may not have the energy.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: ditto.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Taking Challenges Seriously
While I realize that NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo are voluntary challenges, I still had to make a commitment to fulfilling the challenges. I take these challenges very seriously. NaNoWriMo is more forgiving than NaBloPoMo. If I miss a day, I just have to make it up another day as long as at the end of 30 days, I have written 50,000 words. NaBloPoMo is a different sort of challenge. It challenges you to write a blog post every day. I fear that I won't be able to meet this challenge. I fear I will fall asleep with my sick son and miss posting. I fear I will fall prey to Blogger's silly pre-post dating. I fear that I won't fulfill the challenge.
What I don't understand, is why I can't take other challenges as seriously. For example, I have an excellent reason to lose some weight right now. I am going to be filmed in 10 days. Why am I not pulling out all the stops to a) not eat and b) exercise more? I don't know. That challenge is much harder than NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo combined. How weird is that?
My throat is hurting and I am tired. I am not sure I will write for NaNoWriMo tonight. But that is OK because I am still ahead. I will definitely not post my progress tonight. I will give myself a break and do that tomorrow.
What I don't understand, is why I can't take other challenges as seriously. For example, I have an excellent reason to lose some weight right now. I am going to be filmed in 10 days. Why am I not pulling out all the stops to a) not eat and b) exercise more? I don't know. That challenge is much harder than NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo combined. How weird is that?
My throat is hurting and I am tired. I am not sure I will write for NaNoWriMo tonight. But that is OK because I am still ahead. I will definitely not post my progress tonight. I will give myself a break and do that tomorrow.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Day 7: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)
Nanowrimo
Total words written: 12,691 total words
Impressions: Another day of strange writing. Today I was writing a scene in which the two main characters couldn't hear each other. They had to make lots of gestures and try to read each other's lips. How do I write myself into these crazy corners? The story is still flowing but I am less optimistic about it than I was the first few days. I keep trying to convince myself that it will get better with editing (which I don't have time to do). Having never written a published book before, I am curious about the process. I mean, how good does your first draft have to be? My novel from Nanowrimo 2004 was crap with a few interesting ideas in it. It was not worth any editing (even though I did attempt it). This story seems to be worthy. I guess we shall see if I can tie everything up in the end. I am introducing characters like crazy which is making me nervous. I had to create a "character descriptions" file to keep track of everyone! I am happy that I just popped over the 12,500 word bar. Yay!
Likelihood of finishing Nanowrimo: 100%. I am still motivated.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: 100%. Although I may change the way I post about Nanowrimo and leave those posts till mornings (thus allowing me to go to sleep earlier).
Super goal: End up with a decent first draft that is worth all the work of editing.
Total words written: 12,691 total words
Impressions: Another day of strange writing. Today I was writing a scene in which the two main characters couldn't hear each other. They had to make lots of gestures and try to read each other's lips. How do I write myself into these crazy corners? The story is still flowing but I am less optimistic about it than I was the first few days. I keep trying to convince myself that it will get better with editing (which I don't have time to do). Having never written a published book before, I am curious about the process. I mean, how good does your first draft have to be? My novel from Nanowrimo 2004 was crap with a few interesting ideas in it. It was not worth any editing (even though I did attempt it). This story seems to be worthy. I guess we shall see if I can tie everything up in the end. I am introducing characters like crazy which is making me nervous. I had to create a "character descriptions" file to keep track of everyone! I am happy that I just popped over the 12,500 word bar. Yay!
Likelihood of finishing Nanowrimo: 100%. I am still motivated.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: 100%. Although I may change the way I post about Nanowrimo and leave those posts till mornings (thus allowing me to go to sleep earlier).
Super goal: End up with a decent first draft that is worth all the work of editing.
Kids Yoga Game
Today I thought up a game to play with my man and kids. Our kids already know a few yoga poses. Wouldn't it be fun to teach them so more and then when someone shouted out the name of a pose, everyone would have to do it? It would help me do more yoga and it probably be good for the kids to be "in control" some of the time. I am sure there would be limits like "no yoga during meals". I am looking forward to trying it.
p.s. You could also do this using yoga cards. Each person could just pull a card and then everyone would have to do the pose on the card.
p.s. You could also do this using yoga cards. Each person could just pull a card and then everyone would have to do the pose on the card.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Day 6: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)
NaNoWriMo
Because I have a day job, a cool man and 3 small kids, the only time I can work on this is when the kids are all asleep at night. The problem with that that I am always leaving the writing until late at night. I remember reading an interview with Charles de Lint and he was talking about writing and said he had a page goal every day and couldn't go to sleep until he finished it. He talked about if he wrote in the morning, he would be done! I'd like to do that but so far it hasn't happened yet.
Last night on the website I saw that Chris Baty had done a writing exercize which looked cool. Here is what he wrote: "Borrowing a question from one of Tavia's Young Writers Program exercises. Namely: What do each of my characters want more than anything else in the world?" I thought about this question during the day and couldn't come up with a single thing my main character wanted. I realized I didn't know her very well!
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100% because I am still on track.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: and going...
Is anyone out there reading this??? Please let me know. I have never blogged this much in my life and I feel like I am blogging into a black hole!
Today's goal / alternative "finish early" goal: 10,000 / 10,714
My total words written: 10, 847 words total.
Because I have a day job, a cool man and 3 small kids, the only time I can work on this is when the kids are all asleep at night. The problem with that that I am always leaving the writing until late at night. I remember reading an interview with Charles de Lint and he was talking about writing and said he had a page goal every day and couldn't go to sleep until he finished it. He talked about if he wrote in the morning, he would be done! I'd like to do that but so far it hasn't happened yet.
Last night on the website I saw that Chris Baty had done a writing exercize which looked cool. Here is what he wrote: "Borrowing a question from one of Tavia's Young Writers Program exercises. Namely: What do each of my characters want more than anything else in the world?" I thought about this question during the day and couldn't come up with a single thing my main character wanted. I realized I didn't know her very well!
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100% because I am still on track.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: and going...
Is anyone out there reading this??? Please let me know. I have never blogged this much in my life and I feel like I am blogging into a black hole!
Monday, November 5, 2007
Day 5: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)
Nanowrimo
Daily goal / alternative "finish early" goal: 1,667 / 1,786 words
Today's goal / alternate "finish early" goal: 8,333 / 8,929 words total
My total words written: 9,812 words total (I so wanted to get to 10K tonight but I am just too dang tired.)
Impressions: What a difficult writing day! I was on fire yesterday. Today, not so much. I didn't like where the story headed today. I am hoping that I will be able to pull it out of it's current direction tomorrow.
You may have noticed that I have an "alternative "finish early" goal". This is how many words I have to write if I want to finish in 28 days instead of 30. I figure it is a little bit of insurance against a day when I might want to skip writing.
I also have a spreadsheet that I have created to chart my progress. What can I say? I have an engineering degree!
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100% only because I am still on track but honestly
I am too tired to think about it right now.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: Still going...
Super Goal: Same as yesterday...help our whole family get healthy.
Daily goal / alternative "finish early" goal: 1,667 / 1,786 words
Today's goal / alternate "finish early" goal: 8,333 / 8,929 words total
My total words written: 9,812 words total (I so wanted to get to 10K tonight but I am just too dang tired.)
Impressions: What a difficult writing day! I was on fire yesterday. Today, not so much. I didn't like where the story headed today. I am hoping that I will be able to pull it out of it's current direction tomorrow.
You may have noticed that I have an "alternative "finish early" goal". This is how many words I have to write if I want to finish in 28 days instead of 30. I figure it is a little bit of insurance against a day when I might want to skip writing.
I also have a spreadsheet that I have created to chart my progress. What can I say? I have an engineering degree!
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100% only because I am still on track but honestly
I am too tired to think about it right now.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: Still going...
Super Goal: Same as yesterday...help our whole family get healthy.
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