NaNoWriMo 2013 - day 16 update

Word count: 28,003

It's been a busy month, but I've surprised myself with how well I'm managing to keep up with the word count. Hopefully I'll reach the 50,000 goal before I have to leave to visit the in-laws for the American Thanksgiving.

The story is a lot of fun. THE UNDERDOGS is a NA urban fantasy. Geeks with magic. And one of them has a goat. Well, the goat was once a cat, but his owner's magic went awry and changed him into a goat.

There's a lot of talking and no romance. It feels weird to me on that level. Yet I did want this to be a buddy story. Except it's focusing on the two friends I didn't expect it would. But it works.

I have my local writers critique group today. So hopefully I'll get a chance to write tonight. I want to make 30,000 before the day is out.

For all those participating in NaNoWriMo, keep writing!

YOU CAN DO IT!

The end is near!

I'm at 47000 words. So close!

I lost two days because I was sick. Some weird Thanksgiving virus. The turkeys are striking back! I'm going to try to push myself today and make the goal. It might also be the end of the novel. Not a long one this year.

Okay. I'm taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

Write!

1301 tour, tabs, NaNo update, and reminders

Thank you to everyone who responded about the 13th Floor blog tours. You guys are awesome! I have the second, third, and fourth book tours filled, but I would love to have a few more for next month. If you have a day open between the 13th and 20th, please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it. I will also happily do a couple of stops on the same day if you're interested in helping with one of the tours next year.

You might have seen I learned how to create tabs on my blog. (Thank you, Stephen Tremp!) I have one specifically for The 13th Floor series. I have all the dates up there for all the cover reveals, release dates, and blog tours.

I'm doing well with NaNoWriMo. I'm over 45000 words, and I'm writing the final battle. I hope to complete the novel by the end of the weekend. For those of you who've hit 50000, congratulations! And for those who are still typing away, keep going. There's still one week left. You can do it!

Don't forget the Writers4Writers Group has their first monthly event on December 6th. It's a great way writers can help their fellow writers.

Next week, the marvelous Kyra Lennon starts her Blindsided Tour. She'll be stopping by here on Wednesday. Yay!

NaNoWriMo 2012 - day ten update

Word count as of last night: 18453

I just managed to get in my minimum word count yesterday. The boy is sick and barely napped. I might have a touch of what he has. I feel drained, exhausted on every level. Though it could be from the week I had.

I'm still having fun with the story. I'm working more on the romantic plot and the big villain is about to make an appearance.

My favorite bit from yesterday: "Me and Jagger? No. No, no, no." Not enough nos in the world to make that point clear. "We're only friends. What he meant, geez, I shouldn't be telling you this, but Irca likes you. A lot. And Jagger has always had a thing for her. So catching you and I together makes him mad because it would upset her. God, this sounds like some bad high school drama."

I finished my revisions of 1301 and sent it off to my CPs and betas. I did some serious changes at the beginning and added more to the end. The meat of the middle remained solid, but I always worry about beginnings and endings the most because they usually leave the biggest impressions.

I have no plans for the weekend except to nurse my poor sick boy and catch up on sleep. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

NaNoWriMo 2012 update - three days in

My current word count: 7142

I've had a good start. If my son naps for two hours, I can write about 2000 words in that time. I promised myself I wasn't going to pressure myself this time around. If I only make the minimum word count or not quite that much, it'll be okay. So far, so good. No NaNo stress.

I'm writing a superhero story called "Super Famous." A young superhero wants international fame, but when her desire for the spotlight clashes with doing what's right, she has to choose what sort of superhero she really wants to be. My protagonist is turning out to be a very strong character and sort of bossy. Okay, really, really bossy! Good thing she's about to be taken down several notches. BWUHAHAHAHA!

I'm also really happy that I've been able to write in the afternoons, because I've been revising at night. It's like I'm doing NaNoWriMo and NaNoRevMo at the same time! (Except I'm working with a novella instead of a full novel.) I'm revising 1301. I'm nearly halfway done. It's been rough. The first two pages took over an hour to edit. It's very different than the original. Hopefully in a good way. I think if I can get it done by the end of next week, I'll be able to make my tentative December 13th release date.

Busy, busy! The clocks turn back an hour tonight. I don't know if I'll get an extra hour for anything. If I'm real lucky, my son will sleep in and I can use that hour for sleeping!

All my fellow NaNomites, keep on going! So many of you have gotten great starts. And if you haven't, don't worry. There's still 27 more days to go!

NaNoWriMo 2011 Winner

Woo-hoo! I'm still doing a happy dance even after the NaNoWriMo word verification tool didn't match the word count my word processor - Open Office - told me. In fact, it was over 1100 word difference. I went to verify my win earlier tonight and it came up a few hundred words short. I have over 51300 words written. It was frustrating, but I wrote just over 200 words and it was enough. NaNo told me I wrote -1100 words today, but I still have my win.

I see a few other winners out there. Congratulations to you! The rest of you warriors, keep going. There's still a few days left of the month. Push yourself. You'll be surprised at what you can accomplish. I believe in you.

I hope to finish the novel in a few weeks. Before Christmas at the latest. Then I'll let it sit for a while. I have two other novels I want to go through more revisions and submit before I start any editing with my NaNo novel. Revise, revise, revise. That will be my motto for the next four or more months.

NaNoWriMo 2011 Victory (day 21)

Word count: 50436

I did it! I did it! I'm so happy, I'm sharing my stash of cookies with you all.

I wasn't a hundred percent certain I could do this at the beginning of the month. I don't know why I doubted myself. Self doubt is the enemy of every writer. Don't let it keep you away from your goals. It might look big and scary, but it's easy to squash once you take those first few steps.

And Alex, I did use the idea of an explosion. Weep for the winery that was burned to the ground.

I'm not done the novel. I've still a while to go. I haven't even had my big philosophical discussion yet. But the blocks are in place for the final battle. My protagonist has pushed past a big hurdle.

Keep writing, my fellow warriors. If I can do it with a cranky toddler, you can do it too!

NaNoWriMo 2011 - day 20

Word count: 47015

So close to the word count goal. Not very close to the end yet. One more big thing has to happen and I'm not sure what it is yet. Oh, the fun of being a pantser!

I'm going to push myself tomorrow and write the next 3000 words... IF I can come up with that next big thing.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - day 19

Word court: 43293

I haven't written anything yet today. The morning was busy and then I had my writers' meeting. I'm happy that everyone in the group liked chapter one of Sorrow Phage. (They agreed the title needs to be changed, but I was thinking the same thing when I started the book.) It's a difficult thing to please everyone in the group. They loved the action, the fast pace, the intrigue, and the world I set up. It reminded one of the members of Angel and Buffy. I felt a little giddy.

I killed off two more important characters. The cast is being whittled down. BWUHAHAHAHA!

I don't think I can kill any others off, though. Not until the final battle.

I'm also getting to a point where I'm about to head into a philosophical discussion about sorrow. I hope I don't rattle on too much.

I'm seeing some fantastic word counts out there. My fellow NaNo warriors are doing awesome! Keep writing. You can do it!

NaNoWriMo 2011 - day 17

Word count: 39480

It's not actually day 17 yet. I'm scheduling this post to appear tomorrow morning.

Things are going well. Another critical moment and a big reveal about the protagonist's past. Highly emotional. It's hard to find different words for sorrow. I'm thankful for my thesaurus. I also used the word "Brobdingnagian." Such an awesome word. If one word alone could make a great manuscript, that word would be it.

I'm getting ready to kill off more characters. I feel like Joss Whedon. If only I were that witty and clever!

I had intended this to be a paranormal romance, but I'm almost at 40000 words and there's only been a few kisses. It's more a dark urban fantasy with an element of romance. I'm not complaining, it just surprises me with the novels I've written in the past few years. Hey, it's a good thing to surprise yourself in such a way, right?

I'll be losing some writing time on Saturday with my monthly writers' group. I sent in the first chapter of Sorrow Phage for them to critique. I'm nervous about it. It hasn't been edited at all.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - day 14

Word count: 34012

I've been writing one very long scene these past few days. Once I'm done it, I'm at the point in my story where I know how it's going to climax, but I need a bit more meat before I get to it. This is where I have to hope I dream about it tonight or randomly find something that works.

We're nearly at the halfway point. Everyone keep writing. GO! GO! GO!

Sharing an award and NaNoWriMo 2011 - day 12

Huge thanks to the wonderfully talented Tania Walsh who gave me the Liebster Blog award.

The award comes with three short rules:
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top bloggers and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog. Check, see above.

I'm passing the award on to three awesome individuals:
1. Aubrie Dionne - She just posted pictures from her latest book signing. Go Aubrie! Her latest sci-fi romance is doing great and the next one is due out in January.
2. Joshua - His blog is called Vive le Nerd. We nerds have to stick together!
3. Gabby - A great friend and such a creative woman. She's doing NaBloPoMo this month as I'm pounding away at NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo update: My word count is 28725. If I pull myself away from Blogger, I might reach 30000 tonight. Thank you for your encouragement. You all have been so great. Keep plugging away. If you're stuck, go to a random plot generator and throw yourself a curve ball.

Potty training update: My son used it successfully again this morning. It wasn't a fluke yesterday! I won't be pushing the training yet as he's still young, but he'll be rewarded greatly for each time he does go. We bought him his own potty seat for the toilet. He was unimpressed. Thanks to those of you who shared your own potty training stories. I love hearing about them!

Excitement and Remembrance

Yesterday I pushed myself and managed to get over 4500 words written. What a rush! I came to a point in the story where I was happy to leave it for the night even though I was a few hundred words short of my 25000 goal. I had about three and a half hours to write yesterday. It helps that I killed a character. Always lots of meat to add to a story from a death.

Right now, I'm just over 25000 words. I hope to get another 1000 written today, but I'm a little behind on everything. Yet hopefully I can make up for it on the weekend.

Even though I was excited about reaching the halfway point with NaNoWriMo, it didn't top the big event with my son. He used the toilet successfully and I haven't even begun toilet training him yet! Woo-hoo! It was likely a fluke. He's only 18 months old, after all. Yet with how excited I was, I think that's great motivation for him. We'll be getting him his own training seat this weekend.

To celebrate, we made a big mess painting with paints I made from Kool-Aid. My fingers are still purple. Who knew Kool-Aid stains that much.

I hope all of you who are participating in NaNoWriMo are grooving right along. My buddies look to be doing amazingly! Keep writing. We're one-third of the way there.

Finally, for my Granddad. I miss him.

Lest we forget.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - day 9

Word count: 20303

I wanted to get a little further today, but I'm exhausted. I planned on reaching 25000 tomorrow, but that would take a big rush in the little time I have. I'll give it that old NaNo try! Even if I don't make it, I know I'm still doing well.

I had intended this to be a slow burning paranormal romance. Boy, is it slow. 20000 words and only a little cuddling going on. I want this to be more about the emotional journey, but, geez, this is slow for me. Yet I hope the story is still interesting to keep the reader reading.

One of my secondary characters has decided he wants to become more involved in the plot. He's campaigning to be another love interest. My protagonist isn't the type to just fall for someone she's only known for a few days. She's not that trusting. It makes more sense for her to fall for her friend and confidante. Yet then that totally messes up the main arc of my plot! I guess I'll see where the story takes me.

Oh! Maybe I can kill him off. BWUHAHAHAHA! I quite like that idea. Dammit and I liked him.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - day 7

Word count: 16161

Rough day all around. Yet I'm still managing to keep ahead. I need sleep.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - day 6

Word count: 14050

I'm ahead of schedule and having fun. It's been a busy weekend and I haven't gotten a chance to write as much as I wanted, but I did more than the minimum daily word count.

My story is growing into something darker and deeper than I imagined. It's going to be a long one too. I'm predicting 100,000 words. Though possibly 20,000 will be deleted in the editing process. As I said before, there's lots of dialogue.

I've seen a couple of people that have already made the 50,000 word mark. Wow. You guys are writing machines. And at least one of you is a parent! You're all amazing. For the rest of you, keep writing. You can do it!

I'm tired tonight. I didn't get an extra hour of sleep last night with the time change. We kept our son up an hour later, but he was still up at an early hour. I'm going to curl up on the couch with some ice cream and watch The Walking Dead. Have a good Sunday night!

Oh! And since I missed Snapshot Saturday yesterday, here's a picture of my backyard. The Japanese Maple is bright red and losing its leaves. I love all autumn colors even though I'll have to rake them up eventually.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - day 4

Word count: 10014

I'm surprising myself with how well it's going. Why did I find it so difficult last year when my son was an infant and sleeping more? I'm lucky he's been sleeping much at all this week because he's been sick. I was worried that I wouldn't write a lot any time again until he was in preschool, but yes! I can do it.

I've been writing a lot of dialogue. Kevin Smith length dialogue. My inner editor is trying to shake down her cell to delete those last four pages. They're staying. She can revise next year. I've always had a problem with my characters talking too much. Even the quiet ones chatter on too much. I wonder what would happen if I wrote a story where everyone was mute. There's an interesting challenge.

I've been looking at everyone's word counts. You're doing amazingly! And for the few of you who had a rough start, don't worry. It's only the fourth. You've got twenty-six more days. Go for it! You can do it!

First Day of NaNoWriMo 2011

Word count: 2107

I'm very happy with my word count. I want to write at least 2000 words a day. That will keep me ahead in case something happens. I'll also be missing four days at Thanksgiving when I visit my in-laws.

I've noticed that my inner editor has much more power than she did in previous years. It's hard to stop myself from editing as I go along. NaNo is about just letting the story flow. If I could have done that today, I would have written more.

Hope everyone else had a productive first day. Cheers for us all!