Almost at the Finish...

Well, I didn't get ANY writing accomplished over the Thanksgiving holiday. I find it both disappointing, but cool, to see my progress this month in the sidebar to the right *waves in that general direction*.

Viewing that list, it's completely clear that unless I crank out a couple thousand words, I'm not going to make my 7500 word goal, and, dang it, I will be making some freebie art.

But on the other hand, writing has happened! I probably won't meet my goal this month, due to work, exhaustion, the holiday and a couple bouts with the common cold virus, but still, I wrote. I'm heading into the big scene in Chapter Three, and progress has been made.

Congrats to my Nano friends who are closing in on 50K (or who've reached it already, *cough-jealous-cough*)! No matter what happens between now and Nov. 30, I'm going to try and see this month as a victory.

k.

Nano - down to the wire

Well, unless I get serious over here about and crank out a few thousand words, I might just not meet my self imposed, unofficial Nano goals. Which would mean that I'd owe a certain writing friend some free art. Better get cracking!

I did have a good day yesterday though. Oh, I only eked out a couple hundred words, but I'd been sitting over here stuck at the beginning of chapter three for several days. I kept thinking that the scene I was about to write was ho hum, unnecessary, a snooze, but I felt I needed it. Then last night it hit me. The problem wasn't that the scene was no good. It was that it wasn't a scene at all! What I was actually writing was a SEQUEL.

If you don't know what a sequel is, sequels basically

• follow scenes
• allow the character to react to what just happened, then plan a new goal

Chapter two ended on a scene, and instinctively I'd followed up with sequel, but I wasn't recognizing it as such. I still haven't internalized this craft part of scene-sequel-scene-sequel yet. But once I did, everything fell into place. I was able to plot it out, and now hopefully I'll find some time today to flesh out the sequel and move on to the next scene, in which I introduce a subplot and sleazy badguy. :D

k.

Nano 2010 Mid Month Update

Well, it's the middle of the month and a pesky cold and some unexpected art deadlines really derailed my momentum. But I'm hoping to get my mojo back this week and make up some lost writing ground. My goal is to hit 7500 words by the end of the month.

Unofficial Nanowrimo: Day 2

Well, it's day two of Nanowrimo, and so far, I've managed to hit my word goals! Yay me! Yesterday I wrote 2+ pages worth of plot notes, scene notes and character notes (which I am counting, because I usually pre-draft my next scene before I write it). Today I wrote 413 words so far of actual draft, and finished scene 2 of chapter 2. I'm going to keep my running daily totals in a sidebar in this blog, just to keep track of my progress. I hope I can keep it going!

k

Nanowrimo 2010

In just a few short days, Nanowrimo 2010 will begin. (Never heard of Nano? Check them out here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/)

In previous years, I've been a Nano participant, but I've never "won" - ie, managed to stay on track and write the goal of 50,000 words in the month of November.

I won't be participating this year either. Firstly, I want to keep writing my current novel in progress, and the rules state you have to start from scratch. Secondly, I'm pretty sure there is no way in h-e-double-hockeysticks I'll be able to make the suggested daily word counts, and I don't feel like setting myself up for automatic failure.

I am feeling the excitement of the event, however, as I watch my internet writing buddies make mock up covers of their planned Nano books, and make blog posts about their planned Nano adventures.

So I'll try to harness some of that energy, and do my own mini Nano.

The rules? Write 250 words per day on my completed novel. No exceptions.

So Karyn's Nano goal would be:

250 x 30 = 7 500 words

A far cry from 50,000 but that is my minimum goal for the month. If I can write more, so much the better! Bab steps over here, people. Baby steps!


Happy writing to all the NANOWRIMO particpants. :D

k.