Hello NaNo ~ Day 6

Well, it's day six of NaNoWriMo and I'm only at 8,851. Not too bad but not up to NaNo par. If we divided the 50,000 words by 30 days it's something like; 1,666?
So if we divide 6 by my count of 8,851 we get 1,475...

I've been slacking for reasons beyond my control. Okay, okay, maybe I could have controlled it but I didn't want to.

I like my story (3rd of the trilogy) and the premise came to me in a flash. (notes right beside my laptop, but getting from where I am in the story to where I want to be at the end, isn't exactly crystal clear. And I keep looking backward at part one of the trilogy sitting in editing hell on my desk. I was going so good on that one before the NaNo hit me, I didn't want to stop.

My daughter, some friends, and I do NaNo every year so I kind of felt like a wimp turning it down.

So, in the spirit of NaNoWriMo I'll be showing up here around early every morning for the rest of November. Should be easy because I have two 12 year old dogs who love to run around the house barking at 3 a.m.. I don't think they can tell time.

Right now I think I'll go take a little nap.

Dear NaNoWriMo ~ I Lost My Outline

I'm working on a trilogy. First book done and in rewrites, second book mostly written, third book was just an outline. 

I took a class at the local college and the professor was late. While sitting there the plot for book three started to germinate  in my mind. So I flipped to the back of the notebook I was using and started to outline the story. As I wrote a kind of excitement started to grow inside me. I knew where this was going and I knew the best way to end the trilogy. Any writer knows that feeling of when it all comes together and you know, you just know, you're nailing it. 

Euphoria. 

The professor never showed up that day, the other students started drifting out, but I stayed and I wrote one heck of an outline. 

So, now I'm challenged to do NaNoWriMo; National Novel Writing Month. 50,000 words in the month of November. I didn't really want to take part in it because I have this massive rewrite on the first book in trilogy and I really want to get this finished. So after going around and around with my challenger...I conceded, if I could use NaNoWriMo to write that last book. It's not started, just a scribbled outline in the back of a notebook.  We came to a deal and it's on! 

And I can't find the outline....

I'm digging through boxes and drawers trying to find out where I put it. I know it's here...somewhere. I've got three days to find it. 

Slow Go for NANOWRIMO?

I get depressed when I look at my NANO word count. Then I visit the NANOWRIMO facebook page and see I'm not the only slow poke. Lots are faster/further than I and lots are with me or behind me.

Hey! At least I got something down on paper. Now if I only had more hours in the day.

Usually, when i write something I kind of have an idea where the story is going. Maybe I don't know everything, but I know most. Sometimes I get the ending before the beginning.

This NANO I took one sentence that I scribbled down a few months ago and decided that would be my start. I tucked that little piece of paper under the arm of my Edgar Allen Poe action figure and refused to look at it until November 1st. When I finally looked....nothing came to me. However, in the spirit of NANO I forged ahead and just started writing. Now, 6000 words in I still don't know what to do with this story. Edgar has been no help. ;)

I spent an hour last night changing the main characters names. Then changing them again. Googling names by country and by popularity and basically wasted the night. I think that was my sub-conscience's goal. Waste time and hope to write SOMETHING.

When I get stuck I usually stop and think; How can I torture my main character?
A strange phone call in the night? Meet a creepy neighbor? Discover something bizarre and off the main point of the story. (What if you were investigating a murder and in the process discovered something really weird about someone you thought you knew?)  Would I want to keep that in the story later? Who knows! But I'm going for a word count here, baby! 50,000 by November 30th! That's 18 more panic filled days of writing.

It's after nine and I have to work in the morning...that real-life-gotta-eat-job that so interrupts my writing time. Come on! Let's NANO!

So??? How's that NANOWRITMO gig treating you? What's your word count?

National Novel Writing Month? Do You?

Here comes November! In writer's circles this is known as National Novel Writing Month where you pump out 50,000 words to make a book.  I've done it before and, although November can be a busy month as it starts the holiday season, it's possible.

The NANOWRIMO site lets you sign up and find fellow NANO-ers to write with and support each other. I've never used that site, but I see some regions where a lot of people signed up. They go to coffee houses and gather in groups to pump out their 50,000 words. Sounds like fun?

My daughter, a food blogger, likes to write in coffee houses. I'm not sure. I've always written better in a cave. A desk in the corner with the door shut. I find coffee houses noisy and distracting.

Then we have the virtual facebook NANOWRIMO which is part of the regular NANO but maybe less organized with  more easy online access. (Others have set up pages too. NANO world on facebook. )

I'm in the middle of a major edit for my latest WIP and really want to get it done. Would I be a NANO cheater if I just finished that work for NANO? It's a lot longer than 50,000 so it's still a lot of work. A fellow writer isn't sure that qualifies. Now I sit on the edge of writing something totally new or finishing the WIP and I'm not sure which way to go.

So, do you NANO? Are you ready for the challenge?