Read-through of NaNoWriMo 2011 novel complete! Huzzah! (Too bad that's the "easy" part...)

Thanks to a fantastic program called Scrivener, I have finished the read-through of my 2011 novel. (Yes, you and I both would have preferred the words: I have finished my novel. But novels take time.)

I am, first of all, very excited about the Scrivener writing program (and the fact that I got 50% off for being a NaNoWriMo 2011 winner certainly doesn't hurt!) With this last novel I wrote, especially, my thoughts and ideas are a bit helter-skelter. And the added fact that I have a flashback story that is interspersed throughout the novel makes organizing it a bit of a nightmare. Until Scrivener. Now I can isolate just the flashback story and read through it sans rest of novel, and then I can insert the various portions in their correct locations in a neat and orderly fashion!

As for the story itself, there are definitely some great scenes and some terrible scenes: those I wrote in fervent excitement, those I dragged from the depths of the deepest mud (and which need to return). There are brilliant character revelations as well as some flat character moments that need to be polished until the diamond in the rough can actually be "scene". (Bwahahaha.)

Overall, I like that I gave myself freedom to write whatever popped into my mind, but I think I prefer having a pre-outlined story like in NaNo 2010. If only because with this 2011 novel I will be having to finagle the chunks quite a bit to make the story completely cohesive.

While I definitely have work to do, I am pleased to see that I have some worthwhile material to mold. And, in a way, I'm equally glad that some scenes I can just throw out without shedding a tear.

Throughout all the revisions and edits, I will be learning and utilizing the various tips and tricks and organizational material provided in the Scrivener program. (It has a virtual corkboard! With different colored virtual push pins! And virtual 3 x 5 colored notecards!)

Whatever gets me through the dreaded revision stage, right? ;)

NaNoWriMo 2011 Re-read and Outline to Commence!

Last year at this time, I'd completely re-read and re-outlined my novel from NaNoWriMo 2010. This year, that stage has gone spectacularly well: I confirmed that my writing laptop has a beautiful sheen of dust.

Good thing I found my duster today!

I guess I've been slightly busy after all:  teaching, clarinetting, thinking about writing. Oh, and going on an African safari!

Yes, those are lions!

But vacation is over now, and it's time to buckle down and kick out the heel-dragger in me. After all, re-reading my first draft has to be better than The Professors' Wives' Club. (I suppose some Goodwill items were meant to stay un-purchased...)  I guess when I spend most of the time contemplating how much better I could write a particular book than actually reading it that it's time for me to get back to my own writing!

NaNoWriMo 2011 Complete!

FINISHED!!! 50,236 according to Word and 50,040 according to NaNoWriMo.

Now to sit on my butt and play Zelda without guilt and eat delicious barbecued pizza made by my handsome husband! Huzzah!

Tomorrow begins the week of house clean-up, holiday decorating, and Nutcracker practicing, rehearsals, and performances!

At some point I will write a wrap-up of NaNoWriMo 2011, but I'm sure you all can appreciate the fact that I'm tired of writing at the moment. But the first draft of the novel is complete, for better or worse. And there's quite a bit of the latter, my inner editor says. But that's okay because for now:

I'VE FINISHED! Ta Da!

NaNoWriMo 2011. It's gonna happen.

November snuck up on me. I was minding my own business when all of a sudden it leapt up and screamed, NOVEMBER 1st! on my calendar. I shouldn't be surprised, really. My dear husband's birthday is on that very day of NaNoWriMo beginnings. And that is perhaps why it didn't so much as sneak up on me as trailed me around for the latter half of October saying, "I'm coming! You can't stop it. November 1st is one day closer!"

I had a big surprise day planned for my husband's birthday this year, so it was with eager trepidation that I awaited the changing of the month: Super-stoked for the big surprise I had for him (flight museum, among other fun activities), yet lacking the time I needed to blast ahead with my word count just out of the gate.

Come November 2nd I already felt exhausted and behind. I guess NaNoWriMo is kicking me in the pants early this year. Does this mean it will be easier at the end? Is this a reverse year? Ha! I think I have to accept the fact that this isn't meant to be a walk in the park. Well, maybe Central Park.

Last year, I received inspiration from the Writerly Muses weeks before. Okay, it was probably only two weeks prior, but an entire story outline came screaming out of nowhere and smacked me in the forehead. It was pretty cool. Not gonna lie. That story left an imprint in my brain. I had plot. I had a main character. I had some conflict ready to battle it out on the paper. I had a story. And with a fervent desire to finish my goal, I had a finished first-draft of a novel by the end of November.

This year it's a bit different. Maybe it's because I'd recently found the time to start revising last year's story and would rather focus on that than a new, un-plotted, un-mapped, un-outlined story. Maybe I'm just feeling overwhelmed in general (car accident, husband working on his master's, the struggle to keep the joy in my musical playing). That's just life though, I suppose.

So I don't have an outline this year. So I really only started with some characters in some very poignant scenes that have been poking me for years to get out on paper. So I am a few hundred words off the target daily goal. This year it's just a new and different approach to NaNoWriMo. Perhaps simply because I don't have an outline I will be able to write more freely? In the past few days, I've already been astonished at things my characters have said and done. One of them chose an occupation I had never anticipated. It's amazing what comes out of nothing, isn't it?

I suppose each day of this month I will approach with some semblance of eager trepidation. If every NaNoWriMo were exactly the same, I'd be bored. This is to get me writing, no matter how I end up doing it.

The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of the November. The means is entirely up to me.

Novel Re-Outlining Complete

It has taken me quite a few months, but I have finally finished re-outlining my NaNoWriMo 2010 novel to see what I actually wrote. Overall, I have to say, I'm pretty pleased. It is amazing to me, first of all, that I even wrote an entire novel in a month. Even more amazing is that fact that it's actually pretty darn coherent.

Now, that's not to say that I don't have lots of editing ahead of me...but it is a pleasant feeling to know that I actually have a decent story with which to work. :)

NaNo 2010 novel finished

Just a very quick blog post to say that I did it. I have, sitting next to me at this very moment, a fully completed draft of my very first novel! Well...the very first novel I actually completed as of this date...I would actually classify a different one as first...but it's only half-way done since I had to put it on hold to do NaNoWriMo 2010...maybe I'll get back to that one now?

In any case, for those curious, the last line (at least for this draft), which is said by my protagonist:

"I think today is your lucky day."

I think so too, main character, I think so too. :D

NaNoWriMo 2010 Complete!

Well, I did it. I persevered through the month. It was a challenge at times with birthday parties and traveling and many almost sleepless nights in a row. It was a journey well worth it though. I haven't quite finished the novel completely. It still needs another few chapters to tie up the end but I will finish that before the end of the week. I just might not write *quite* so many words per day.

My official Microsoft Word count is actually 50,440. For some reason, when I scrambled  my work and submitted it to the counting gods on the NaNo website, it only counted it at 50,089. My personal count, less the "Day XX" headings to keep track, is actually 50,387. No matter which way you count it though, I made it! Huzzah! Hip, hip, horray!

And to celebrate, I ate a piece of pumpkin pie. Yum. :)

I will eat another celebratory piece and perhaps do a dance as well when I finish the first draft of this novel completely. Then, I'll take a day off.

Meanwhile, it's Nutcracker week, Ellie's surgery week, and apparently...my first clarinet student for lessons week! Because as we all know, it's Murphy's Law that I would end up with a bazillion things to do on top of the quadrabazillion I already have to do this week.

However, most importantly...

I'M A WINNER!!!!!!!! 2010 NaNoWriMo, I am proud to have accepted and completed the challenge.

Phew. Now to bed I go.

New Furry Family Member! :D

For those of you who don't know, I have wanted a bunny-rabbit since I was a young child. I have waited until I was both old enough and stable enough (strange as it sounds) to make the commitment to a rabbit.

And now, after twenty years of wanting one, I finally have my very own rabbit! :D I adopted him from the humane society (same one where we got Ellie, our chocolate lab, two and a half years ago). He was only $5! Can you believe that? He came with a cage and a litter box (yeah, for all my non-rabbit friends and because I myself had no idea, rabbits can be litter box trained just like cats!) I probably won't let him hop around everywhere though, cuz from what I've read...and seen...rabbits are chewers. Plus as much as Ellie wants to play with him, I just don't see that being a good idea. I'll still let him out of his cage for some bunny-exercise though.

He was named "Jumper" (probably just some stock name they threw at him). I've renamed him "Koben". He was found hopping around somebody's backyard and they managed to catch him and take him to the humane society.

Hurrah for our newest furry member! I am very excited. David saw me lying on the floor, my nosed pressed up against the bunny's and he said that I'm just like a little girl whose dream just came true! And that's exactly it! Yay!

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As for my writing, I am *almost* to 30,000. I will be after tonight. I decided last night that I need a health and wellness respite so I actually went to bed at a normal time. David got some type of the "blah" bug...which means that after he felt like blah all last week...my week was sure to come. I just hope I can kick it because the next four weeks are going to be brutal anyway. I can't add the yuckies to it!

Meanwhile, I've hit the mid-month sluff. I still am excited about writing and I actually know about where I want to go with my novel, but having the "blah" bug is making it difficult to actually sit down and write. Just have to keep plowing through. Now that it's more of a downhill count, it's a bit more exciting!

NaNoWriMo Week One Complete

It has been a different sort of week. My writing schedule, from about 11pm until 3:30am, has actually been quite productive. David and I would brush our teeth together, then he'd go to work and I'd head to bed! The only time the schedule didn't really work was when I had to be at school to teach clarinet masterclasses at 7:20am. Whew. That was one rough morning and day!

At some point last week, I managed to write almost 4,000 words in one sitting. I just got on a roll and really wanted to finish a certain section--to get my main character through a town and back to the woods. It actually consisted of three or four scenes. I didn't realize I'd written quite that much until I sat down to type it. And I kept typing and typing, turning the pages and wondering when it ended (in a good way). I thought to myself, "I know I've gone over my daily quota. I've probably written about 2500 words." I was shocked when the word count said 3939. I actually thought I'd accidentally selected everything I'd written (it was only day three after all) so I reselected my work and it still came up as almost 4,000! That certainly put me on a high for a day...

...at least until I tried to write again the following night and realized that I didn't really want to write the next section. Nonetheless, I persevered and have been above my daily word quota each time. At this point, my history and projection report on the NaNoWriMo page says I'll reach 50,000 words three days early! Yeeha!

At this point, I am only just over 3000 words away from 20,000. (That was an awkwardly-worded sentence.) I only have one or two more major scenes to write and Part I of my novel will be finished until the editing stage; and I will get to move onto Part II. This is very exciting for me! I know none of you have any idea what my story is even about, nor that I even had a Part I or Part II. And sorry, I don't intend to share more than vague details anyway. The creative types out there, and those who know me well, can understand, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, from here on, the writing schedule will be a tad trickier. Towards the end of week two I will be forced to write in places other than my quiet office where I sit in my papasan chair and have a nice system established. Week three I will be heavily involved with the symphony as it is concert week for both the adult and youth, which translates to lots of rehearsals and a concert both Saturday and Sunday. Then it's Thanksgiving week followed by Nutcracker rehearsals on the final days of NaNo! Thank goodness I have written myself ahead of schedule.

That's the update on my writing mumbo-jumbo at the moment. I am pleased with certain sections and know that other parts will be discarded immediately when I get to the editing stage. However, I think that NaNoWriMo is exactly what I needed to get my butt in gear. And when I finish my 50,000+ words and have a full first-draft of a completed novel in my hands (and I will because I am determined to finish and 'win'), it will prove to myself that I really can complete my novels!

Thanks to everyone who's keeping me on track and focused. I really appreciate all the positive energy and comments and encouragement.

Come December, my inner editor is going to be THRILLED when she's unleashed and allowed the freedom to tear into my writing. I can't wait.

Until the next chance I get to write a blog posting:

Cheers!

(And don't forget that you can now subscribe via e-mail to receive alerts when there are new postings!)

NaNoWriMo (Day Two Complete)

This will be short, as I am tired.

Today I learned these things about my writing:

1. I cannot write in the daytime. I tried at 1:40pm. It was a lot of: "This isn't anything that I want or where I want my novel to go. What is this anyway? I guess I'll start over. Wait, this isn't right either. Guess I'll practice my clarinet instead."

Lesson learned: I need to write in the evening and late at night when I'm creative.

2. Thesaurus is my friend. As is my mom. Both are very useful tools as far as finding just the right word.

Lesson learned: get an even better thesaurus at some point; keep Mom-->she's the best!

3. I have a new schedule, or should I say, the same schedule that I am now going to say is more permanent: stay up until about 3:30 (say good morning to David as he gets up for work). Read in bed. Sleep until 11am or noon. Practice and do chores during the day. WRITE AT NIGHT (because as we learned from #1, I don't write well during the daytime hours).

Lesson learned: don't feel guilty about having a strange schedule; as a writer and a musician, you work the night shift.

4. I wrote better quality stuff today (after I attempted the afternoon writing, that is).

Lesson learned: write from the outline because it's a guide, after all; then you can divert into other scenes.

Word count for the day: 1893. (Although I did have to go back and add more as my first count was only just over 1300.)

NaNoWriMo (Day One Complete)

Well, I have started the journey of NaNoWriMo 2010. While I wanted to start last night at midnight (the first moments of November), the jam-packed weekend forced me to get some much-needed sleep instead.

However, I did make up for it slightly by writing 1862 words for the first day! (Remember, the goal is at least 1667.) That means I am actually slightly ahead.

I started at the very beginning of my story, which I may regret. I'm not sure. I didn't actually have the beginning much in mind so it hasn't quite started how I wanted it. However, perhaps it's better because I've at least started my characters now and I can always scrap the beginning later in the editing phase. Tomorrow I think I'll actually work on what I'd had outlined.

Since it was the very first day, though, I'm not disappointed at all. In fact, I now know just how many pages I have to write (both handwritten and typed) so that I can gauge how far along I am during the daily writing process.

Meanwhile, I don't know how frequently I will be able to update via blogging, but on the top-left is my running update of words written so you can always know where I stand!

Only 48,138 to go!

NaNoWriMo (Introduction)

To whom it may concern:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has officially begun. This means for the next 30 days I will be sequestered in my office or the library or a coffee shop writing, at minimum, 1667 words per day in order to hit the 50,000 mark before the end of the month, thereby effectively writing and finishing my very first full-length novel! (In rough draft form anyway...)

This means that my phone will be turned on silent; I won't be (theoretically) sucked into Facebook; returning e-mails won't be a priority, and hopefully I'll have magical cooking and cleaning fairies!

Feel free to send me encouraging notes, however, via phone, e-mail, snail mail, Facebook, blog comments, et cetera. Just don't expect a reply!

So, until December or when I need a break from my novel and manage to write another blog entry...