This is my fourth consecutive win. It sort of feels a little less-satisfying that the others. For one thing, I’m writing something that’s intensely personal, so I kind of felt pretty drained by it. Also, there was a lot of research involved because it’s historical fiction, so even when I wasn’t writing, the topic was
Read on »Posts Tagged: NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo 2014 Book Cover and Current Word Count
The working cover I made for my 2014 NaNoWriMo novel. (Spoiler alert: some words might not actually be true.) Also, a handy graphic that updates with my word count so you can see what I’ve got going. I’m at 8670 words, above word count for day 4, and I have a pretty good idea what’s
Read on »The Boston Electric Protective Association
From Boston: Its Commerce, Finance and Literature (with Illustrations) 1892 A bit of research I’m doing for this year’s NaNoWriMo
Read on »Winner Winner, Turkey Dinner – 2013 NaNoWriMo Finish
50,119 Words, validated, means that I “win” National Novel Writing Month. I’m very grateful to Stephanie, who has been really supportive of me doing this, even though she’s had a lot of difficulties going on right now. We’re adjusting to her lengthy commute to her new job and a family illness, so it’s been a
Read on »NaNoWriMo 2013 Wordcount, day 19
I’m three fifths of the way through National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and still on track for word count. I wouldn’t say the last few days are works of genius or anything. Or even spelled correctly. But they are word strung together on a page in some sort of semi-coherent fashion. So there’s that. Week
Read on »NaNoWriMo 2013
I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month again this year. I’ve undertaken this challenge in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012, and I “won” twice – in 2011 and 2012 by writing 50,000 words each year. That novel is pretty close to being complete, but needs some major revisions and finishing work, and I’m pretty
Read on »NaNoWriMo 2013 Preparation
I decided to get serious about plot, rather than just pantsing-it completely. I transferred the handy chart I got at GenCon to my bulletin board. And noted the troublesome spot where my plots commonly end up. The chart is from the “Fiction Fundamentals Part 1: Plotting and Planning” led by Lawrence Connolly & William Horner
Read on »Camp NaNoWriMo 2013 Participant
Yep, so I’m going to do Camp NaNoWriMo 2013 for April. My project for this writing commitment is to finish the novel I worked on (and “won” with) in 2011 and 2012. Prior to today’s additions, it was at 78,391 words. (I wrote 50,000+ words for it in November 2011, threw out over half of
Read on »Some other NaNoWriMo Thoughts
Trying to write 50,000 words in a month felt like holding my breath under water – everything else was suspended while I worked on writing. I basically ate, slept, went to work and wrote. I cut out television, most socializing and practically all other stuff that invades my day. Trying to keep the house clean,
Read on »NaNoWriMo 2012 – Validated
So.. I won NaNoWriMo again this year. I finished three days early – with 50,058 words written this year added to what I wrote last year. Now I need to write the actual final chapters and not just scenes from the climactic ending, but hey – I’m a lot closer to a complete work than
Read on »NaNoWriMo 2012 – Day 9
8. 13,336 – 2750 (14497, +1161) Those are my notations for Day 8 of National Novel Writing Month. 13,336 – that’s “par for the course” or the least word count for day 8 to stay on track to “win.” 2750 – the number of words I wrote yesterday. 14497 – total word count for November
Read on »NaNoWriMo 2012
Yup, I’m going to do this again. I’m basically going to add 50,000 words to my novel from last year in hopes of finishing it. Wish me luck. I did it once; I can do it again. Of course last time I took a week off work to do it, and this time I’ve already
Read on »Indiana Romance Writers of America: Golden Opportunities Contest
From the Indiana chapter of Romance Writers of AmericaIndiana Golden Opportunity Contest. We welcome you to help us celebrate the 22nd anniversary of Indiana’s Golden Opportunity (IGO), one of the Midwest’s premier contests. The Indiana chapter of Romance Writers of America® (IRWA) has a well-deserved reputation for offering detailed, encouraging comments to our contest entrants
Read on »NaNoWriMo 2011: Validated.
I’m validated at 50163 words. Technically I’m “done” writing my National Novel Writing Month project. Except that I still need to write chapters 12-15 and chapters 2 and 5. But 50163 words makes it “finished” for the purposes of the contest. I’m a winner. I’ve written more than Slaughterhouse Five and The Great Gatsby. Not
Read on »NaNoWriMo 2011: Still chugging along.
I’m at 43,506 words. That’s 6,494 words away from “winning.” And I have 4 days. I think it’s a safe bet that I’ll get there, especially since I have all day tomorrow to work on it. I didn’t write at all on Thanksgiving Day, but I wrote in the car both to and from Iowa
Read on »Men are bad at sex (writing)
The Literary Review’s “Bad Sex in Fiction” award is dominated year after year by men. (heh. See what I just did there?) I do find the thought that men can’t write sex well very funny. And there are some prominent male authors on the list, too, which is odd, because what’s so interesting about their
Read on »NaNoWriMo Road Trip setup
Writing in car, now with inverter to ensure iPad stays charged. Also, monkey plays critical role in keeping iPad from falling over. Trial and error involved in this set-up.
Read on »NaNoWriMo Update: Still on target
My word count is now 35,521 words. Not quite beating out Ole Yeller on the “famous books word count list.” I’m under par by 1,153 words, but I should have time to get caught up (and hopefully ahead) tomorrow on the road to Iowa for the family Thanksgiving. Stephanie is driving, and I’m planning on
Read on »Word Count for Famous Novels (organized)
Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Based on this list compiled by Nicole Humphrey Cook. (Thanks Nicole, and sorry for stealing; I wanted to see the list in order.) For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Also, here’s another list I may swipe and add
Read on »Nanowrimo 2011: Still in the game
I’m at 28,932 words – above par for the first time since the first week. (Par for day 17 is 28,339.) Around 115 pages. Parts of this story are poor, parts of it make me really happy and there are large chunks that need to be better researched. I know what the end will be
Read on »NaNoWriMo2011 – Still Cautiously Optimistic
It is NaNoWriMo 2011 Day 13, par for yesterday’s work (Day 12) should have been 20,004 words/80 pages. Mine was 17,234 words – about 68 pages. I’m 2770 words behind par, which isn’t too bad. This is definitely more than I have ever written before in a single sustained effort on any single subject, so
Read on »Personal Truth
I’ve posted this quote before, but it came up in conversation recently, and I was struck again by how very beautiful it is. May Sarton, from Journal of a Solitude: “My own belief is that one regards oneself, if one is a serious writer, as an instrument for experiencing. Life–all of it–flows through this instrument
Read on »NaNoWriMo 2011: very tentative outline
I spent some time yesterday trying to work out how my story is going to go, and came up with some potential chapter titles. Which, looking at them now seem completely over the top and fraught with the possibility of failure, but what the hell. I may as well look stupid. It wouldn’t be the
Read on »NaNoWriMo2011 – Outlook: Cautiously Optimistic.
I didn’t say anything about joining National Novel Writing Month this year because I haven’t gotten very far with this in the past, and I’ve learned talking about stuff tends to kill projects before they get off the ground. I’m doing much better this year, though, and I’ve managed to keep my word count up
Read on »December? Oh my.
Wow – time to wrap up the year, and I’m utterly at loose ends with various projects. I’ve been working steadily on knitting projects, and organizing the house, two areas where we’ve made some pretty big gains. We’re steadily getting through the mounds of papers that need to be filed or thrown out, with the
Read on »November is National Novel Writing Month
This year, for National Novel Writing Month – I have a plan! I’m going to do something really innovative — I’m going to spend the month of November… … building a website for my friend Chi. Yes! I know, it’s not a novel. However… I actually know how to build websites (unlike novels, which I
Read on »NaNoWRiMo Update
I’m hopelessly behind and have no reasonable expectation of ever catching up by the end of November deadline. I know what the general story is, but when it comes to writing scenes that make any sort of sense, I’m completely stalled. And the stress of being so far behind is really interfering with my actually
Read on »Nanowrimo: Day 3
Okay, I really, really have the plot all worked out and I’m very excited by my idea, which I think is fun, entertaining, and a Big Idea, also. But I have to do some more research, in the form of purchasing the Historic Plan for our neighborhood, at a cost of $5, from the Indianapolis
Read on »Nanowrimo: Day 1
My word count for day 1: 1281 words. That sucks! I spent most of the day trying to figure out the plot, which I should have had outline in October. It didn’t help that I had my teeth cleaning appointment and the chimney sweeping appointment. Also, the dog barked all day along. Apparently Cthulhu is
Read on »Veronica Mars & Fall TV Schedule 2006
“Here it is… first day of college. What do you say Veronica? New school, fresh start, how about you try not to piss anyone off this time around.” Heh. Barely made it home to watch the season premiere after water aerobics last night — which I must repeat, I am really enjoying. We managed to
Read on »National Novel Writing Month 2006
National Novel Writing Month is November 1st, and the sign-up for it begins this Friday October 1st (I managed to skip the entire month of September in my head). One of my friends participated in the past and is going to again this year. Here’s the scoop: National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants
Read on »