NaNoWriMo 2019 is (almost) a wrap

On Tuesday, November 26th, I crossed the 50,000 words written in 30 days mark. It was my regular writing time with a friend. I posted here that I was nearing the finish line; and I continued to write.

With one minute to go before I had to leave our location to go to work, I did it! I had written 50,017 words. I didn't have time to update my count because I had to drive to work.

Yesterday I did write more, and today I wrote more. Because my secondary goal was to write every day in November and it looks like I will make that one, too. I have never made it all 30 days in NaNoWriMo and I wanted to give that a shot, too. My current word count is 52,312.

Two more days of NaNoWriMo 2019 and this one will be done, too.

My writing this year was - again - in the "rebel" category. I did start a novel and I like the novel I started. I like the ideas of the novel and I want to develop it more and see where it goes; it could become an actual book! Or at least a full length short story (although if I do that, there is an element of it I would need to simplify or eliminate one thread). The rest of my writing, probably one-third of it, was for the Personal Essay Intensive online workshop with Ariel Gore. That was a great workshop and I finished (maybe - we'll see what I think after I reread it again) an essay I want to submit to a specific place for publication.

Another successful NaNoWriMo!

Mid-October check in

It is now October 15th.

You know what that means, right? If you know me or have followed The Writing Vein for, well, since its inception, you know what comes after October, right? And I'm not talking just November.

It is NaNovember!

Yes. Halfway through October means that NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. I will, again, be participating in the writing marathon with the goal of writing (at least) 50,000 words beginning at midnight:01 AM on November 1st and submitting said 50k+ words by 11:59 PM on November 30th.

Up until a few days ago I had no idea what I was going to write about. But I wasn't fussed by that; I am a Pantser. Sometimes I go into NaNo with nada. Oftentimes I have a title. One year I went into it with a set of characters and a starting place. But every year I have a great time and I get a ton of writing done. A few days ago a photograph inspired me and while I was talking to someone, a thought occurred - That would be my NaNo start, and my NaNoBook cover.

This year, assuming I am a winner - which I do assume I will be - it will be consecutive win #10. Go, me!

I set myself a goal of getting the next memoir draft done, with everything revised/rewritten up to my current standards. That didn't happen and I new as we hit October that I wasn't going to make it, if I wanted to keep sleep and sanity and health intact Which I do. So I revised my goal and this I will make. I am not there yet, but I do have 16 days. *smile*

My new goal is to have all of the "gaps" written and have duplication weeded out of the draft. That I can do. It will be a bit of a push (the weeded out part), but it's just enough of a push to keep me going and not too much that I develop inertia.

I also accomplished a big personal task today and that feels really good. A task which needed to be done anyway, but I just realized it is also a critical one before NaNoWriMo hits. And I did it.

Now to sleep so I can get a little bit of writing in tomorrow before I go to work.

NaNoWriMo Day 5 - caught up, until tomorrow

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I had a job this morning. Then a break. Then a long piece of work.

I knew this going into the day so I took my laptop so I could write during that three hour gap. I managed to get caught up in my NaNoWriMo word count.

I did some thinking on the page.

And I let the character lead the way and just observed, writing as she went, and did not try to force her back into the little bubble I created as a frame for this year's novel. It went much better that way. I thought that this year I had a good idea. No, I had a good idea which was worth trying and I did, but I got a little stuck so I decided to move on and, again, let the characters take the lead.

This is my fun part. It gets messy, sure. But it's fine. I enjoy putting words on the page and/or screen. I love letting the language flow and letting it be whatever it will be and seeing where it goes. So I did. And it moved.

I believe I'm through the little stumbling place and will be back on track.

And I wrote a lot of words today and got caught up with the daily average word count target. Until midnight. Then it starts again and I have another chunk to go.

That, my friends and followers, is NaNoWriMo.

Go, go, go.


My ending word count for Day Five is 8,436.

To Be Continued

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Another NaNoWriMo has wandered through my life and out again. This time leaving me with over 51,000 more words than I had written 30 days ago.

These words are story - fictional in the beginning, an earlier draft of a novel I wrote on its way to being rewritten; then changed to life and energy and experience in search of something as yet unnamed.

The first story will be finished later. A novel. A kind of speculative fiction ghost story type of thing with a plot I like and a world which needs a little more world building for it to all work.

The second story is ongoing. Unfolding each day, refolding each day. Discovery and mystery. A story which is yet to be told and which may or may not have yet happened.

The second story is part of my writing toward the March Corporeal Writing workshop I will attend, and the longer May writing workshop in Methow Valley.

To keep writing. That is the goal. I've lowered my daily/weekly word goals because 1700 words per day is not realistic on an ongoing basis given everything else I have to do and want to do in my life. To keep writing is realistic and I have some good material here to work with.

Reflections: Final Sunset
NaNoWriMo 2015 writing retreat
Oceanside, OR

NaNo Day 5 : Wow oh Wow

I will let my stats speak for themselves. Wrapping up my first time with this writing group - which has been very lovely. And productive.

'Nuf said.

words written today = 6,345

total words written = 13,476

Countdown to NaNoWriMo

The day is very near. Another year of NaNoWriMo. Big changes ahead for me this year. Maybe. Unless my characters revolt.

More to come on my 2015 process.

But, first, I have a show to interpret (the Broadway-bound, home-grown musical, "Cuba Libre" - creatied and produced by Artists Repertory Theatre).

And a few more decisions to be made about my plan.

I will let you in on a few secrets. Later. Not now.

Soon.

Or maybe you'll have to catch them on the fly with me.

November is going to be a very busy month. With NaNoWriting and Theatre and ... It's all good. Living the creative life.

Roll Call

Tom Spanbauer talking at Portland's PWLive.
There were many great speakers, but his words
touched me deeply and profoundly.

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I think it was August when I registered for the local Poets & Writers Live (PWLive) event. I signed up early to take advantage of the 50% Early Bird registration fee. Which was awesome.

And that was where I spent most of my day. 

It started way too early for me - but that is only in my adapted personal time zone because I tend to work late at night. By work I mean my professional "day job" though I do it at night. Which all works out really well because I also do theatre (which I know you know if you've followed me here or on Facebook or know me in person). Most theatre happens in the evening or at night; not always, but most of it. So having a nighttime day job in combination with working in the theater is pretty cool. Right? Right! But sometimes, like today, an event starts at early-for-me 9:00 am, and I can do it when I don't work late the night before. But that doesn't mean that I necessarily go to be early. 

Again, early for me, yes. But calling going to bed at midnight:30 "early" is funny. Though true in my case. Then the alarm going off at 7:30 am is early. It's not the earliest I get up, but close to it. And not often.

PWLive was worth getting up early. It was short panels and speakers, editors and publishers, writers talking about writing and writers reading their writing, and some creative sharing at the end. 

I was inspired, as I hoped I would be.

I met up with two writers I know from other workshops. One from an in-person workshop with Ariel Gore as well as in Ariel's Literary Kitchen; the other from in-person workshops in Port Townsend with Lidia Yuknavitch and Pam Houston. 

The local writer introduced me to one of her writing friends and we spent some time talking at the reception after the presentations were done. They invited me to join their casual get-together and write group and will let me know when they have their November dates set (I will be interpreting a play out of town on the day of the next one). 

In other news, now that I've mentioned November. Yes, it is nearly that time, again. NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. I have my NaNoWriMo writer's shirt and my NaNoWriMo mug and my NaNoWriMo winner's shirt will be here in a few weeks. I always order the winner's shirt early; it's one more incentive to actually finish. It would be a waste if I didn't. 

So prepare for NaNoUpdates - not yet, but soon.

I am (so far) planning a different approach this year. I am a pantser. My stories come from pantsing not from outlines and well-formed ideas ahead of time. I was successful one year by going into it with a starting place, a setting, and a cast of characters; some of them were fairly well defined before I started and I had done online searches to find pictures to represent my characters. But, often, I open up the computer and write with not a clue where we're going or with a very rough idea of what the story might be about. 

Oh, and I usually start NaNo with a title for my novel. A working title, not the actual thing if it turns out to be a thing.

So back to this year. 

I have a novel which has been in revision for a while. I've researched and read, and read some more. I've made maps and colored and circled and I switched protagonists and the new main protagonist switched gender. All fine; taken care of. No problem.

Except the story still needs major rewriting. Things deleted and added, gaps filled in, the plot strengthened. And there are not any "darlings" except the concept, the plot. No gems of sentences to cling to and save and carry forward. No - the plot, the movement of events - yes. 

So. NaNoWriMo this year is to give this novel one more chance. I will use my research and my notes and my reading and my vision to rewrite the book. I now know what has to happen when and who has to be where for it all to work. There are areas which need to be expanded; areas to complete cut because they are trash and slow the story down and don't need to be there; there are things which need to change. But I am going into NaNo with the story and a blank Scrivener project and rewriting the novel from word one. 

The fresh rewrite is not as crazy as it sounds. Really. Thing about it. With a main protagonist change, I probably have to write more about her, right? Because she wasn't the main character, her scenes are shorter and limited in depth and details. The book didn't start with her - but now I see it should. And what I thought was the inciting incident wasn't. When I discovered the true inciting incident I also discovered that the thing which happens - which has to happen for all of this to make sense - the character I thought was the protagonist has to be there but as it is written, she can't be there.

While this book has a bit of the speculative feel about it, there is not time travel. There is - well, nevermind; I will hold that thought until November, until I get it a little more solid in my head and in my story. 

Roll Call :

Today I took a day off of interpreting, including theatrical interpreting preparation.

Today I went to PWLive, heard good advice and inspiring words, met up with writing connections.

Today I had a nice, leisurely dinner out, alone, quiet, contemplating the event.

Then, today, I went to a dance performance - the first of the new White Bird Uncaged series; more creative inflow.

Today. A good day.

Yes.

Another Brief Update

photo by Rooze - I love this one and I've used it before. And it's true.

Another update.

Not that I have anything really important to say. Not that I don't have anything important to say, either.

I mean - what constitutes importance? Right? No, now I'm blabbering in the page. In public. Not a good idea.

So the update I alluded to elsewhere (yes, it was on Facebook). I posted that I've been doing a lot of reposts and posting about interpreted performances, as well as some other things which touched me in some way. But mostly about theatre and interpreting. Which is all good.

Then it hit me that I wasn't posting much about what I'm doing personally. Or what I'm doing with my writing. So I posted something - about my kitchen witchery experiments with fermentation. Which are continuing and we're still alive to show that I haven't poisoned anyone yet! I have handed off one set of multiplied kefir grains to a friend (both water kefir grains and milk kefir grains) and I'm preparing to pass off another little bundle of milk kefir grains. That is all going great and it's fun and I really do feel like I'm brewing up some concoctions. And they taste good. Most of them. Like with my daily green smoothies. Mostly good but once in a while I hit a less than stellar combination and I make it through by thinking "healthy" as I drink it.

So. The writing.

I have already set up my 2015 NaNoWriMo page. Which is way, super early for me. Yes, I do have a title already. Which is also super early. And I have already done some preparation.

Whoa! Wait! Did I just say that? I am actually preparing to write this novel? I'm not being a pantser?

Yes, that is what I typed. I don't think I will have a full outline with backstories and graphs and plots and photos with circles and arrows and names on the back. But I have a plan.

See, what I'm planning for this year's NaNoNovel is to rewrite an earlier novel. It's one I liked at the time, but it had some major flaws, of course. A pre-draft of a novel and it was all over the place in terms of story and a mess. I've tried reworking and revising, I did some research, I workshopped parts of it. I did scene breakdowns and character breakdowns and on and one. It was the one I took with me to the Rockaway Beach Writing Workshop with Lori Lake last year. There I mapped out the entire story and had some helpful and amazing insights to the story. And the characters. And I did more revision and rewrites. And then ....

I realized the only way to save this story I really like is to rewrite it from the ground up. Well, not 100% because I do have a plot, I have some characters (though I need some changes). I have places and some scenes. Though many scenes will change, I believe. And big pieces need to be completely removed and replaced and reordered. What I feel like is that the novel I currently have is actually a narrative style outline (with extra material) for the novel.

So, in preparation, I read the book which has a central role in my novel. No, I'm not telling you any more about it than that. A few of my writing friends and partners know more, but that is all I'm going to write about here. So I did actually read the whole book, from start to finish. One translation of the book, anyway, and I have two more translations to read.

Yes, this book plays a major role and, yes, I had not previously read the entire book. I read about the book. I read excerpts from the book. I read criticisms of the book. But I had not read The Book Itself.

Now I have. Read the book.

What I found in my reading is that much of what I incorporated is not that far off from The Book's story. Some of the characters which reappear - sort of, no, I'm not telling more - in my novel were a good surface level match. In reading the actual book, I discovered that my premise for the inclusion of The Book and the inciting incident (which was one thing I discovered at Rockaway Beach last year) were very compatible. There are decisions I need to make and details to add to bring some things and people more to life, but at a basic level, I didn't do too badly.

There are also some things I need to figure out, such as about how some of this stuff works in the world of my novel. Those decisions and rules may not be overt, but for my story to hold together I need to make some policies and consistencies.

I also have some decisions to make about characters. The current characters and The Book characters and some other things which happen which I'm not telling you about right now.

No outline to follow. Except for the map from the workshop last October. The map basically lists who is in which group, the major events, and the order in which they happen. I will not have a written outline of who does what when and how and then fill in the words. But I will have a character list - with the expectation that someone new may show up! And I will have a few pieces of character development I need to include. And I have a few events which need to take place for congruency with The Book.

So I will be semi-pantsing? Or maybe not.

And, perhaps, this is all too early and when I open my laptop to write at the midnight transition from October 31st to November 1st, all of this could go on hold and a new set of characters with an entirely different story may show up to dance on the page. I will follow them, I think. I have learned that forcing my writing is almost never productive and it certainly isn't fun.

NaNo is coming and I'm ready. I think.
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Yes, I Am

I am doing this.

Yes.

I felt I needed a little prodding and what better way than a self-imposed deadline with no other consequences than the failure of meeting a goal. Camp NaNoWriMo makes it even easier to complete your project. Oh, wait, did I say NaNoWriMo is easy? No, that's not what I meant!

At Camp NaNoWriMo, you are allowed to write whatever you want. Yes, I know there are NaNoWriMo rebels who don't write a 50k novel, but write 50k of something else. But November NaNo is for novels. At Camp, people are doing revision, scripts, novels, short stories, essays, blogging, and I'm sure other things I haven't even seen yet. You also get to set your word count goal at Camp NaNo.

I opted for 25k and am (so far, anyway) writing a piece of a novel. I decided to not push for 50k because there is so much else to do in this much slower theatre time. I'm not sure how summer Camp NaNo will go - but the goal (besides writing 25k words) is to have fun and get those writing wheels greased and up and running. June was extremely busy in terms of theatre, leaving me no time to write or do much of anything else except work, eat, sleep, take some walks, and prepare for and interpret plays.

So, back to it. My silly story awaits! My protag has met up with some friends while waiting to see a new dance works performance. And has seen a few unexpected things and people, as well. There is a hint that the protag needs protection. But from whom or why has not been revealed. And, so far, my protag is genderless. And nameless. I suspect the name will be revealed fairly soon. Or maybe not!

Anyone else hanging around in Camp NaNo? You can find me there with user name "dot.". Yes, I am that creative. *wink*

Pushing Through the Yuck

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After I finished typing the title, I realized that there were several possible meanings. To "Yuck." Several of which apply in this case.

Meaning one could be "The Yuck" of cold that I was unable to escape. I successfully held it off for several weeks, but it made an attack which overwhelmed me three weeks ago and, for the first week, I was lying low. I was sleeping nine to ten hours a night, was cancelling everything except work, which included interpreting a play, so that I could stay home and rest. Get over The Yuck. It took a long time, nearly three weeks. I'm now at 90 - 95% over it and ready for it to be done. That Yuck impacted my writing because it took everything I had to get to work, prepare to interpret and interpret the play, and get myself to those places. Week one was only those activities; week two was a couple of other meetings; and the third week was my normal schedule, although I was exhausted at the end of the day.

Meaning two, I don't like what I'm writing. That is only partially true, fortunately. There are a couple of the pieces in the short story collection that I'm not happy with. I liked them previously, but right now they are on my Yuck list.

Meaning two, and what I originally intended when I wrote it, was the "this writing project is Yuck." Stuck and hopeless and overwhelming and it can't be saved. It's sad when I hit the wall with both currently active projects. But I did. Wondering where to go with them? Are they any good (oh, what dangerous words those are)? Should I just scrap them and start over? Do they make any sense? What's the point (more dangerous words)? And more.

One way I'm addressing The Yuck right now is by knitting. I know, it's not writing. But it is keeping my hands busy, it's creative (I'm knitting a sweater - the first in a long time; I've been knitting hats off and on but wanted a bigger challenge), and it keeps that fussy part of my brain occupied. It's funny that while I'm knitting, I've been thinking about those stories and the novel. I've worked out a couple of things in my head - though I haven't transferred them to the page, yet. I will. But I think that my chattering and figure-it-out brain has been satisfied with the knitting and my writing-brain has a bit of space to move.

We'll see how it goes. But once I get through the expectations and scrambled schedule of the holidays and another major project I'm consulting on gets a little more under way, I expect writing will return more regularly. I'm looking forward to that return.
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Announcing: Seven Consecutive NaNoWriMo Wins!

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Yes, I did.

At 11:56 pm I validated that I have written over 50k words. I had hoped to reach the goal before Thanksgiving. And I did. Barely. But I did.

It has been challenging and fun. For a while I thought I wouldn't make it. But I did.

Now back to working on the story! I reached 50k, but as I suspected, the plot is not complete. There are words to go to actually finish the novel and I will keep on writing to the end. Then return to the other novel while this one rests.

Woo hoo!!

And my winner t-shirt arrived today. How perfect was that timing?!

Colorful NaNoStats as of 11-22-14

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Another Character?! Now?!

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I will begin with my word count update, as of 10:30 am today: 36,834. The target by midnight tonight is 36.667, which means, all additional words written today are extra, are the padding which will help me complete this novel before the extra busy final days of NaNoWriMo.

Today I am writing in Salem. My partner is teaching an art workshop at the Art Department, Inc. and

I offered to be the chauffeur. Which also leaves me voluntarily stuck in Salem for six hours while she does her Wabi Sabi art magic, wandering the cyber-friendly cafes, writing. Yes, I planned it that way. The majority of this week has been focused on my writing, and today is no exception.

I'm starting off my writing day at The Beanery. So far, so good, as I have already written nearly 1,000 words. I'm not sure where I'll go from here, but there are several options, since I have my car parked in an all day free parking spot.

The new character I referenced in the title actually appeared a couple of days ago, for a few moments. No one important, just the new roommate of my MC's best friend. But now that she has flown out to Minneapolis - her best friend passed out for an unknown reason at a closing night party - and met the roommate, more has been revealed. The roommate is more than just that - I know, big surprise, right? Hah. The surprise is that the roommate-now-fiance has turned out to be the dramaturg! Yay. I was beginning to wonder how the dramaturg would ever fit into this story. It has taken him a long time to reveal himself and that's okay. Now he has a lot of importance to live up to, including show me why he has top billing in the title.

The story is progressing well. I have been finally able to re-immerse myself in this plot and I feel a flow. I'm going back to it now, because the creative river is most likely becoming rocky and shallow for a bit after today.

Thank you, dramaturg, for showing up. Thank you muse and creativity for carrying me along. Thank you to the powers that be for the story and the words and the ability to put them down into a relatively cohesive rough draft.

Enough! Back to it.

No dead bodies. No body parts. But there has been a fainting which may have been caused by a malcontent with revenge or cover-up on his/her mind.
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Time Out to Write

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This is the final night of my annual NaNoWriMo writing retreat. And I am so glad I started this tradition.

On Tuesday I arrived here with 21,668 words written. That was my ending word count at midnight on Monday, November 17th, I should have been at 28,334 if I'd been keeping up on the daily average word count. I had an appointment and a meeting on Tuesday before I headed over, which meant I started this retreat with a 6,666 word deficit. And remember that each day the goal is to write another 1.667 words in order to finish 50,000 words in 30 days.

The ending word count goal for today is 33,334. I just surpassed that number. Woo!

Tuesday I wrote 2,031 words. Yesterday I wrote 4,552 words.Today my ending word count is 33.627.

I made it! I am back on track. I hope to get in some extra writing in the next two days, because I have a few long days ahead when getting in the daily average will be tough. But I am confident I will pass the 50k mark on time. Yes, I will.
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NaNoWriMo Update from the Writing Retreat

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It was an interesting day. I was woken up early by several dogs singing nearby. I do mean singing. There was one dog with a very melodic voice. And several other dogs barking in reply. But it sounded like a singing dog with a backup bark chorus.

My muse then took that opportunity to appear with another piece of the novel. Either that or it was the whales playing straight out from where I'm staying calling me to watch them. As I started writing I looked out the windows and saw a spout. Then another spout, a few more. I saw them arch in the water as the waves hit the Twin Rocks and sprayed. When they quieted my attention turned back to the computer and I typed. And typed.

Until I hit the energy wall and had to go back to sleep. I'd only had about four and a half hours at that time. So I went back to bed and didn't get up again until about 12:30. The tide was heading back out, so I made brunch, ate, changed out of my pajamas into beach walking clothes.

I walked on the beach for an hour. I watched a seagull struggle with a live crab for a while, while a companion seagull kept potential seagull thieves away. It took a while, but the seagull won the war. The crab appeared to get in several good jabs and the seagull probably has scars. But the seagull won the battle. The tide came up and tried to steal the carcass away, but the bird grabbed it and dragged the heavy, now water laden body up onto the sand, not being able to get much height in its flight, but enough to save its meal.

I've been writing off and on throughout the rest of the day. Taking meal breaks, stretching breaks, and other bodily function breaks.

I did manage to get in a lot of words today. The story is making progress, though it's not surprising some of what is happening in the story. I still don't quite know exactly what the big mystery is, but it is getting closer. I have some significant hints, but a bunch of details are missing. Even the characters are wondering and they are doing their research to see who else is involved and why.

Today I wrote 4,552 words. I decreased my deficit in half, from 7000 words to 3,400.  My current word count is 28,251.

It also started raining tonight, after it got dark. They are predicting a lot of rain tomorrow, so I probably won't go for a long walk, giving me more time to write.

My goal for tomorrow is to be 100% caught up. And if luck and my muse are on my side, hopefully I will again be ahead in my word count. The words are coming a little slower than I'd like, but they came. And I am happy with what I wrote today.

One more full day of writing (Thursday), some writing time at home on Friday, and several hours of writing on Saturday.

I've got this.
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Retreat: Rest, Recovery, wRiting

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Quick NaNoWriMo update: My current word count is 23,699. By midnight on Tuesday, November 18th, I should have written 30,000 words to be on target. So I am only 6, 301 words behind the daily average goal.

Oh well.

I am here at the coast, in the upper level of a two story house. I have picture windows on nearly three-quarters of the walls, which give me a clear view to Twin Rocks, the beach grass, and patches of the beach itself. If it's sunny I have a front row seat and a short block walk to easy (and flat, for which my knee is grateful) beach access. For when the weather turns, which is expected on Thursday, I have a front row seat to the white caps and blowing wave crests, the wind blowing sand and the pounding rain. No matter the weather, this is perfect.

I have internet access and cable TV, a dvd player. I brought healthy food and tasty snacks, tea and coffee, wine and chocolate. I don't have to leave the house except for walks.

I will write. I have written since I've been here. A little over two thousand words tonight. My goal will be to get caught up and a bit ahead. After I return home on Friday I have a writers meeting that night, and more time to write. And on Saturday I will play chauffeur and then, while she teaches an art workshop, I will cafe and coffee shop hop and write.

I will reach 50k and beyond.

I will get into a flow soon. After some sleep. Tuesday was a long and intense day, all done on not quite enough sleep.

Right now I am going to try to get out a few more words and then go to bed. Tomorrow will be a new writing day and tomorrow I can sleep until I'm ready to wake up. No alarms. No appointments. Just me and my laptop and the ocean and a novel to continue writing.

I can do this.
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NaNoWriUh-Oh update

Oh boy. I missed a day of writing on Wednesday. Then interpreted a play on Thursday and had final preparation to do - on top of the non-SnoPocalypse which became a mild IcePocalypse. But my word count was very low on Thursday, too.

I just checked the stats and I think this is the farthest behind I have been in any NaNoWriMo to date. Yikes!

As of right now, just a little past midnight on November 14th, I am only at 17,484. I was just a little under 17k as of midnight, which means I was "only" about 4700 words behind. Yikes and yikes. And wow.

Tomorrow is a full and long work day. Tomorrow-now-today. I am contemplating whether to stay up and write more now, or get to bed and then get up earlier and write. There is no right or wrong answer to that question. For me, usually, staying up later works better. But I interpreted a play tonight and I'm tired - so sleep may be the better option.

I know I won't write enough on Friday to get caught up. But I will aim to close the gap a bit on Saturday. Saturday is the halfway mark and the goal is to have 25,000 words written by the end of the day. I don't know if I will make that, but I will give it my best shot.

And I do have the writing retreat next week. I will get caught up. I will finish. And now that this play is done, hopefully, I can get more back into the story I'm writing. The play was good, my team interpreter and I had a good time and I felt prepared, and we had a great turnout. But that story took a lot of focus and preparation and brain space. Now I need that space back for my novel writing!

I am not giving up. I am trying to let go of being 2 1/2 days worth of words behind; the frustration of that will only slow me down.

In the story - the beginnings of an inciting incident are there. It doesn't make sense to me yet - it doesn't seem "big enough" to warrant what is happening, but I anticipate more will be revealed. My MC has been ordered to go "walk it off" during which it seems that she is probably going to contact the friend in Minnesota.

No dead bodies, still. No body parts. Only two conflicting Masters degree transcripts and the threat of losing her job because her qualifications seem to have been faked. Or altered.

NaNo(Slug)Mo - Oh, It's Week Two

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Right up front: my current word count (through November 11th) is 15,779.

Which puts me at 2,555 words behind where I would be if I kept up with the daily average of 1,667.

Which is why I started off with a big push at the first midnight write-in and on November 1st. I knew things would get a little busy. I didn't know how busy my schedule would become, with unexpected (but not unwelcome) opportunities, and much "figuring out" to do.

Which is also why I have the writing retreat planned for next week. Just me and my laptop, and everything I need for the time I'm there so the only reason I have to leave is to walk on the beach or soak in the hot tub on the lower deck. Otherwise, it's writing, sleeping, eating + writing, drinking wine + writing, sleeping, eating, writing. You know.

So what. I'm a bit behind.

The story is still progressing. I have quite a full cast of characters and many directions are possible. The big kaboom is about to happen. My MC has a folder in her hand containing documents of .... I don't know yet. They're important but I had to get to work, so I don't know what the folder contains. Other than a civil rights action photograph from an old newspaper.

No dead bodies.

No body parts!
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NaNoWriMo Report Day 4 : Author or Alien?

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My ending word count for day 4 of "Cue the Damaturg" is 9.497! Thanks to my Tuesday writing buddy, I was there - not quite at the appointed time as I was running a little slow this morning - but I was there. And she was there. And we wrote. Both of us working on our NaNoWriMo projects.

She is a NaNoRebel and, well, she is writing and aiming for the same goals, just a different project. But still writing new content every day and aiming for 50k.

She wrote. I wrote. I got into a flow and another character appeared on Lisa June's walk. At first it seemed that this character was going to turn out to be an alien. With what had happened a few pages before, it was possible and things were leaning that way. I was screaming "no, no, no aliens" in my head but I just kept typing. I made a commitment to follow my characters anywhere and so I kept typing.

And hoping that this wasn't an alien.

As the two characters talked, this odd man became a little less odd. And my Main Character became less afraid and was talking to him more. Then he explained what he meant by "lost" and that the person he was chasing was his main character, that he was, in fact, an author!

I giggled as I typed. I was hoping for an author to show up. Because I am hoping to get in some work on the novel I'm editing, and if there is an author in this book, then those words can be a part of this authors book and part of the Cue the Dramaturg story! My author showed up today and I found it funny that he might be an alien. I like it when I chuckle at my own writing.

Still no body parts and no dead bodies. There is nothing wrong with mysteries and dead bodies in stories - I'd just like to try writing a different type of novel this year. As evidenced by being willing to accept an alien in my story, I will take dead bodies if they appear and it will turn into a mystery if it must. But I will be really smiling if things progress as they are and I have a full first draft that is not a mystery.
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NaNoWriMo Report Day 3 : It Had to Happen Sooner or Later

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I may as well get the low word count days done at the beginning, right? No, not right, but that's what happened yesterday. My word count at the end of the day was 6,675. That leaves me a little bit ahead of where I should be right now (5,000 words), but my flex zone is shrinking.

Losing track of time, traffic, other excuses and reasons. My Monday word count was low but I'm not beating myself up about it.

I did get to the pool and got in my laps. Which is great and my body will thank me. But it left me with less time than I'd hoped and then I forgot something and had to go by home, at which point I gave up the getting in my word count before work plan.

Letting it go. And moving ahead. Back to writing the novel and seeing what happens on Lisa June's walk. Especially given what happened before she headed out. I will aim for at least 1667 words as Lisa June aims to increase her pace.

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