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Archive for November, 2010

Nanowrimo’s Over!

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

 

Nanowrimo’s Last Day – November 30

 

Today is the last day of Nanowrimo. I haven’t been posting the past few days, but have continued to write. My novel currently has over 76,150 words, so I passed the 50,000 gate days ago. I’m still shooting for the novel to be about 85,000 words. Hopefully, it’ll be finished in about a week.

 

However life and some narrow minded “nons” (stands for non-handicapped) managed to ruin the ending for me.

 

I started a day early trying to validate my manuscript to be able to enter the “Winners Circle”. I still remember last year when I never got my novel validated. Again this year the validator wouldn’t accept my manuscript (due to my adaptive equipment? No one will tell me). I contacted a staff member (thank you NS), and also left a message at their message center.

 

NS got back to me and I sent her a copy of my manuscript to date. She validated it for me and I downloaded the winner’s certificate. But I wanted a downloadable image they also offered to the winners. Unfortunately, the images weren’t text labeled, so I was unable to locate them to download them. I sent another email to NS and I hope she’ll be able to help me once again.

 

As I mentioned, I was not surprised about the lack of accessibility on the Nanowrimo site, as I’ve experienced it before. It does seem to be getting worse rather than better, though. But the site is filling up with all sorts of things for the nons, while those of us using adaptive equipment still can’t get basic services. Can you say discrimination?

 

 

 

 

It’s Turkey Day tomorrow - Nanowrimo Day 24

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

 

Tomorrow’s Turkey Day here in the US. I spent most of today cooking, and though there are two pies, some vegies, and the stuffing to show for it, I didn’t get much writing done. And tomorrow may be more of the same. A fairly quiet Thanksgiving is anticipated here this year.

 

I have about 68,100 words. Part of the reason for the low word count is I had to move a large chunk of the outline from where it was to be put aside and maybe used later. The actions in it no longer fit in the story as they were. So, I had to redo the outline and then write the story. This is going to happen more often as I near the end. I know how it ends, but I want all the loose ends to be tied up (in a bow of course), and want the story to make sense. But I managed to add about 2,000 words today, so it wasn’t a waste.

 

To everyone, whether or not you celebrate Thanksgiving, have a safe ad pleasant day. And if you’re traveling, err on the side of caution. Lots of bad weather around for Thanksgiving this year. So, like the ending to Hill Street Blues – “Be careful out there.”

 

Nanowrimo Day 21

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

 

I’ve been having a problem trying to figure out how to have the male protagonist introduce the female protagonist to his family. Her father is a well-known wizard, and the name would be a dead giveaway. Not if she used her mother’s surname. But there had to be a reason for doing this. So, I made the male protagonist’s Shifter clan of bears a patriarchal community and the female protagonist’s panther clan a matricidal one. That way she could keep her mother’s surname as it would be within her clan’s normal routine. But since she’s a Golden Panther Shifter, and I have them coming from India, I needed to change her surname to an Indian one. After some research, I came up with Patel as her and her mother’s surname. Her father keeps the Holtz surname, and a possible calamity is averted.

 

So I had to go through the manuscript and change her last name every time it showed up. I know there’s a replace all command, but I have no idea where it is. I just started using Windows 7 and am still somewhere at the bottom of the learning curve. All good things take time. Yeah right.

 

I got past the 60,000 word mark tonight, and also finished part 2. So, I’m on the home stretch, and I may finish it by the end of the month. Except there’s this funky holiday coming up here in the U.S. called Thanksgiving. Thankfully, not many people are showing up this year, so I may still finish. And if I don’t, oh well                       , I got past 50,000.  

 

Nanowrimo Day 19 Over the top!

Friday, November 19th, 2010

 

Woohoo! I broke 50,000 words last night (Nove. 18). The computer started acting up, so I left well enough alone and quit for the night. And I’m still a bit short of my daily writing goals, but not by much. The novel still looks to be around 80,000 to 90,000 words so that at least is still on track.

 

But I spent this morning get notes down for another short story. It kept running around in my head, and I had to get it out to make room to work on the Nanowrimo novel. Gotta work on compartmentalizing more.

 

After getting through over half the novel, I’m finally getting the hang of getting into the POV character’s head and telling the story from each different viewpoint. But, I’ll have to go back and rewrite the earlier chapters so the reader can feel what the characters feel.

 

Got to go. Not sure if I’ll post again tonight, we’ll have to see. Woohoo!

 

 

 

 

Nanowrimo Day 17

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

 

I got to thinking about what I’ve written so far and came to the conclusion I’ll need to go through the manuscript and:

 

-          Find all the seem’s and appear’s and similar words and replace them or rewrite the sentences to make them stronger.

 

-          Find all the clichés I used and modify them so as not to be so, well, cliché. For instance, instead of writing she couldn’t trust him as far as she could throw him. I wrote, she couldn’t trust him farther than elephants could fly.

 

I took an editing course that covered this, so I can’t believe I put in so many of the over used clichés. (Sigh) It’ll give me something to do in December.

 

I got over 46,000 words today. Sometimes my mind runs ahead of my typing. (It doesn’t help me wearing this wrist splint either). And if I miss putting in something, which I did today, and have to go back and put in more info, it slows me down. And then I forget the other excellent idea I had to improve the story.

 

Years ago, I suggested to the powers that be to make 40 hour days and 10 day weeks. That way I could get everything done. Nobody listened. Oh well.

 

 

Nanowrimo Day 16

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

 

I got into sections pertaining to the relationship between the two protagonists. It went pretty well for the first draft. I ended tonight still in the scene where they both shift and are romping through the woods. The romp is a G rated romp, but it’ll get hot and heavy when they get back.

 

I’ve decided to add a scene where the male protagonist tells his father he wants to spend his life with the female protagonist. His father explodes, saying he has to think of keeping the family of Shifter bears going no matter what his personal feelings are. It will all work out, but I hope it’ll add some tension in the burgeoning relationship.

 

My total count is over 42,000 words. And while I still have times when I just sit and stare at the computer, they’re getting fewer and fewer.   

 

 

Nanowrimo Day 15

Monday, November 15th, 2010

 

The more I think about my story, the more details I either want to add or change. I’ve started putting * with comments after them to remind me what I want to do. If I finish before the end, I can start doing some of these.

 

So far I’ve decided to give Obsidian (that’s the name I gave the Disruptor bad guy) an assistant, which at first seems human. Whether or not he really is, I haven’t decided. I thought this would make the danger more immediate than to just have this bad guy in another dimension wanting to take over. Now some bad things can happen here without Obsidian being around.  

 

And I want to expand the scene where Gary is trapped in a magic laden room bound to a metal chair. I can put in other sensory items there and even give him a minor injury or two.

 

I went over 38,000 words today. I haven’t updated the Nanowrimo page yet, but did update some of my personal data.

 

I’ve also started writing down ideas for another novel and things to change for a rewrite of the first novel I wrote. I think the characters will stay the same, but some of the background will change. There’s a possibility it can become a UF (Urban Fantasy) novel. Time will tell.

 

 

 

Nanowrimo Day 13

Saturday, November 13th, 2010

 

I’m over 32,000 words. However thinking about the story has only led to more problems.

 

First I decided to add a human component to the bad guy’s side. I’m not sure if he’s totally human or something else, it hasn’t jelled yet. But I chose a character who’s already in the story. I’ll just have to increase his part. If I finish the story before the end of the month, I’ll start writing him into more sections early in the story. He’s already got an attitude against the police so that won’t change.

 

Parts of the story are getting easier to write and others have me sitting in front of the computer wondering how to get there from here. And some of the characters are telling me what they want to do or say, while others, you guessed it, just sit there and don’t say or do a thing. Why can’t everyone be on the same page?

 

I’m almost halfway through the outline, so I may finish the novel before the end of the month. But if I don’t it’s no biggie. I’ll put aside some time each day to finish it. What I am worried about though is I’d planned to submit a couple of short stories, and while I did submit one and have started another, I want to spend as much time on the first draft of this as it takes. I neglected last year’s Nanowrimo novel because the software then wouldn’t let me submit it. I use adaptive equipment to access the Internet – a screen reader. I got real frustrated and left the end of the story in outline form. That caused problems down the line, so I’ll finish the first draft this one no matter how long it takes.    

 

Ah, the writing life.

 

 

 

Nanowrimo Day 12

Friday, November 12th, 2010

 

I’d hoped to make it to 30,000 words by tonight, but fell a little over 1,000 short. There were two reasons for the shortfall.

 

First, I made a posting to the main blog. It had to do with something I’ve been reading and I wanted to get it down before it slid into the jumble of crap that’s wandering around in my head. Second, we had to pick up my daughter at college tonight and that cut my writing time short. But there’s a posting on the main blog called, Quality, Performance, and Pride. It’s a build-up for other articles I’ve got planned.

 

I’m getting into the back story scenes in the novel. I hope to handle them better than with the last novel. The earlier one is in the critique stage and has gone through many revisions, some major. And I still don’t like the ending, so it may change.

 

As for the ending for the current WIP, I still have to add some action scenes about the demise of the bad guys.  

 

Nanowrimo Day 10

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

 

I got a lot done today. I now have over 24,000 words on my Nanowrimo novel. The writing was pretty straight forward, no surprises and I only deviated slightly from the outline.  

 

And in addition, I submitted a short-short (or a long flash) for publication in “The Pedestal” mag. The submissions for the next issue are being judged by Bruce Boston and his wife, Marge Simons. I took a Spec Fic course from Bruce a while ago, which I enjoyed and I learned a lot.

 

I also started researching for another article on the main blog. This one too will be about safety and BP. Hopefully, it will be up by the end of the week.

 

I subscribe to several Health e-zines. One had an interesting article on fast food, which may decide to become another posting on the main blog. We’ll have to see – it still needs more research.