I realize November still has two more days til it's over, but as far as my little NaNo deadline of hitting 40,000 words by the end of the month goes, it was pretty much over last night. Too much running around to do tonight (it IS Thursday afer all, and we all know that means TVD night) and tomorrow I'll be Christmas shopping all day long with my mom and then heading to dinner with my eastside girls in the evening, which means I won't get home til late and I will be physically and mentally exhausted. Which means the next time I'll get to write will be Saturday or Sunday, and then it's already December. Agh.
Anyway, yes, I know my original goal was 41,000 words, which meant I had to write 25,000 words, but somewhere along the way I changed it to an even 40k. Just had a better ring to it. Nevermind that I was cutting 1000 words. Nevermind that at all. Ahem.
Did I hit that goal? Welllllll...ok, no. No I did not.
But I'm okay with that. The reason being is my total is now just under 37,000 words, so in just a little over three weeks I wrote a good 20,000 words! I mean, that's actually pretty amazing when you take into consideration that I was only writing about 3-4 days a week, for about an hour or two each time I sat down with my laptop. And at 37,000 words, my story is now officially at least half over. I'll be very happy if I end up with 70,000 words with this one.
Clearly, I work better under deadlines. Even self-imposed ones.
So let's see, if I managed 20,000 words in about 3 weeks, I should be about to write 25,000 in 4 weeks. That means if I stick with this pace, I should be done with the first draft by mid-January. Since things are going to get a little crazy with the holidays coming up, my goal to finish the book for real will be February.
For now, off to my readers it goes. I'm dying for some feedback!!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Progress!
Oh hey, how are you? I know, it's been a couple weeks since I've been here. Sorry. I've been busy, you know, kicking some major ass on the WIP instead.
No, really! After I realized I'd need to write at least 1000 words every day in order to reach 40k by the end of November, it sort of kicked me in the head and got me going. While I'm still not certain I'll be able to truly reach my goal, I can proudly say I'm giving it pretty much everything I've got. I'm happy to report that I'm already close to 27,000 words, which means I've only got about 13,000 more to go in 12 days. I'm pretty sure that means I've cranked out at least 10,000 words since I set this goal for myself. Yay, me.
Writing 1000 words takes me about an hour, give or take. Now, some days I don't have an hour to crack open the laptop and write, and therein lies the dilemma. So, I'm trying to write even more than 1000 words when I do have time to sit down and write. It's actually been somewhat easy to do that. I'm not sure if the way I'm writing this one is making it easier; I mentioned before that I'm not following a strict timeline, just writing snippets of certain times in the characters' lives and then going back to the present. I think I might end up putting the snippets all together so it's a consecutive story, instead of all the back and forth stuff, but I'll first throw it out to my readers as is and see what they think.
So that's helping, but what's also helping is the fact that I just sort of love this story. It's spooky, it's sappy, it's fun, and it's also sorta heartwarming. What would you do to bring the love of your life back to you?
I've also been considering looking into some freelance writing jobs. I could use the extra cash, and I might as well get it by doing something I love. I just have no idea where to begin looking or how to get started, so research will be involved. Sigh.
Anyway, Black Friday for me will be spent not getting trampled in stores, but holed up in my house with my laptop on my couch. I declare it Writing Day and I hope to bust out like 5000 words that day. We shall see!
No, really! After I realized I'd need to write at least 1000 words every day in order to reach 40k by the end of November, it sort of kicked me in the head and got me going. While I'm still not certain I'll be able to truly reach my goal, I can proudly say I'm giving it pretty much everything I've got. I'm happy to report that I'm already close to 27,000 words, which means I've only got about 13,000 more to go in 12 days. I'm pretty sure that means I've cranked out at least 10,000 words since I set this goal for myself. Yay, me.
Writing 1000 words takes me about an hour, give or take. Now, some days I don't have an hour to crack open the laptop and write, and therein lies the dilemma. So, I'm trying to write even more than 1000 words when I do have time to sit down and write. It's actually been somewhat easy to do that. I'm not sure if the way I'm writing this one is making it easier; I mentioned before that I'm not following a strict timeline, just writing snippets of certain times in the characters' lives and then going back to the present. I think I might end up putting the snippets all together so it's a consecutive story, instead of all the back and forth stuff, but I'll first throw it out to my readers as is and see what they think.
So that's helping, but what's also helping is the fact that I just sort of love this story. It's spooky, it's sappy, it's fun, and it's also sorta heartwarming. What would you do to bring the love of your life back to you?
I've also been considering looking into some freelance writing jobs. I could use the extra cash, and I might as well get it by doing something I love. I just have no idea where to begin looking or how to get started, so research will be involved. Sigh.
Anyway, Black Friday for me will be spent not getting trampled in stores, but holed up in my house with my laptop on my couch. I declare it Writing Day and I hope to bust out like 5000 words that day. We shall see!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Up All Night
Cuz we're all right
We're up all night
To see the sun come up again now...
Dan and I went to see one of our favorite bands at the Grog Shop last night- Unwritten Law, and my ears are still ringing, eight hours later. We actually danced our first dance at our wedding to one of their songs- a pretty, slowed-down piano version of "The Rest of My Life". They did not play that song last night, but then, I wasn't really expecting them to.
The show reminded me of my old days of going to see bands play, sometimes a couple times a month. I used to LOVE going to the old Grog Shop back in the days before it moved- even though the bathrooms there were thoroughly disgusting and the doll heads hanging from the ceiling always freaked me out. There's just nothing like seeing a band you admire up close and personal in a small club. And UL totally rocked it last night, regardless of the fact that I'm pretty certain they were all wa-hay-sted by the time they took the stage (which was around 9:30).
Is it totally sad that I was almost weeping with joy when we found out they were playing 3rd and not 4th out of 4 bands? The fact that I was SO HAPPY that I'd be home before one am on a school night might be just a little depressing. But hey, I'm not 21 anymore. I cannot stay up all night when I have to be at work at 7:30. Just the way it is. Meh.
I'll leave you with a few pretty lyrics from our wedding song, even though they did not play it last night. It was still a great show.
I know, I'm so slow
But I'm tryin'
And I'm still dyin' to know
Say you won't leave for the rest of my life
We're up all night
To see the sun come up again now...
Dan and I went to see one of our favorite bands at the Grog Shop last night- Unwritten Law, and my ears are still ringing, eight hours later. We actually danced our first dance at our wedding to one of their songs- a pretty, slowed-down piano version of "The Rest of My Life". They did not play that song last night, but then, I wasn't really expecting them to.
The show reminded me of my old days of going to see bands play, sometimes a couple times a month. I used to LOVE going to the old Grog Shop back in the days before it moved- even though the bathrooms there were thoroughly disgusting and the doll heads hanging from the ceiling always freaked me out. There's just nothing like seeing a band you admire up close and personal in a small club. And UL totally rocked it last night, regardless of the fact that I'm pretty certain they were all wa-hay-sted by the time they took the stage (which was around 9:30).
Is it totally sad that I was almost weeping with joy when we found out they were playing 3rd and not 4th out of 4 bands? The fact that I was SO HAPPY that I'd be home before one am on a school night might be just a little depressing. But hey, I'm not 21 anymore. I cannot stay up all night when I have to be at work at 7:30. Just the way it is. Meh.
I'll leave you with a few pretty lyrics from our wedding song, even though they did not play it last night. It was still a great show.
I know, I'm so slow
But I'm tryin'
And I'm still dyin' to know
Say you won't leave for the rest of my life
(photo by Dan)
Friday, November 2, 2012
NaNoWriMo...uh oh
Ok, wait a minute...it's November already? I blinked and October was over! I think I say this every year, but 2012 seriously has been the fastest year EVER. Geez.
Anyway, so it's November, and November means it's NaNoWriMo time! NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, kids. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th, and you can't cheat by using any of your previous work- it has to be a fresh, new novel. Which means I can't enter using my current WIP, which is over 16,000 words now. And it'd really be cheating, considering I've been working on it for several months now.
Several months, and I'm only at 16k. Ugh. The progress I feel I've been making lately suddenly seems much, much less impressive. Sad face.
Part of me wants to try NaNo one of these days. 50,000 words in 30 days? Pssshh. No big deal.
Right.
The main problem is every time November rolls around (ok, well, these past three years when I've been really trying to write something worthwhile) I'm engrossed in something I already started. I don't think it would make much sense for me to stop working on the WIP, just to try to create some super crappy first draft of another book.
That said, I WILL use November as a month to be super motivated about writing. Maybe I can get 50,000 words down in the WIP- which would make it almost finished. My goal is usually around 70k for a completed story.
Ok though, let's be honest here. 50k ain't happening. I just don't have it in me to write so quickly. I will be a bit more realistic and set my goal at 25k. That sounds much more reasonable. So, by November 30th, I need to have a total of around 41,000 words written in the WIP.
I can totally do it.
To anyone out there participating in NaNoWriMo this month, good luck, and happy writing!!
Anyway, so it's November, and November means it's NaNoWriMo time! NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, kids. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th, and you can't cheat by using any of your previous work- it has to be a fresh, new novel. Which means I can't enter using my current WIP, which is over 16,000 words now. And it'd really be cheating, considering I've been working on it for several months now.
Several months, and I'm only at 16k. Ugh. The progress I feel I've been making lately suddenly seems much, much less impressive. Sad face.
Part of me wants to try NaNo one of these days. 50,000 words in 30 days? Pssshh. No big deal.
Right.
The main problem is every time November rolls around (ok, well, these past three years when I've been really trying to write something worthwhile) I'm engrossed in something I already started. I don't think it would make much sense for me to stop working on the WIP, just to try to create some super crappy first draft of another book.
That said, I WILL use November as a month to be super motivated about writing. Maybe I can get 50,000 words down in the WIP- which would make it almost finished. My goal is usually around 70k for a completed story.
Ok though, let's be honest here. 50k ain't happening. I just don't have it in me to write so quickly. I will be a bit more realistic and set my goal at 25k. That sounds much more reasonable. So, by November 30th, I need to have a total of around 41,000 words written in the WIP.
I can totally do it.
To anyone out there participating in NaNoWriMo this month, good luck, and happy writing!!
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