November = NaNoWriMo

It's NaNoWriMo time again! 30 days of writing until my eyelids feel like sandpaper, my butt goes numb, my fingers cramp up, my back and neck ache, and my family wears dirty underwear. (I swear, no amount of laundry piled in the halls will compel any member of this household besides myself to run a load. They'd as soon wear stinky clothes than wash and fold.)

Of course, I'm going into National Novel Writing Month with a backlog of work to be done on a handful of short stories. What else is new? I have this insane optimism that I'll be able to fire off my NaNo daily word quota and then spend the rest of the day polishing my short stories. Please don't burst my bubble. I'm a professional writer, after all. I work best when I'm up against a deadline.

Quit laughing, Mel.

Okay, so now that Happy, Too and I are acquainted, I have had a quarrel with my ISP. I am going public with my rant. VERIZON DSL SUCKS! How's that for eloquence in writing? The basic problem is that my Internet access is spotty. My husband has threatened to go broadband and I've been encouraging him to follow through on his threat. Really, Verizon has done nothing to help. They refuse to send out a technician to check the service, although my IT-wise friend said that is the problem. Verizon says I don't have a Verizon-approved modem/router and therefore they swear it isn't configured properly. I don't know enough about IT to argue properly, but it would seem to me that if the modem/router combo was at fault, it wouldn't work at all, would it? They claim it doesn't have the right setting in order to communicate with Verizon. So why does it communicate sometimes and not others?

And these machines are supposed to make our lives easier!

On the positive, compared to computer problems, writing a story is easy.

Oops

This morning I tossed a cup of coffee onto my new laptop. It immediately shut down and no amount of CPR from the Geek Squad would bring it back to life. It happened so quickly, but there was a moment that, in retropsect, seemed suspended in mid-motion, like a stop-action television commercial: The telephone rings, my hand reaches for it, the coffee tips. If only I could have that moment back! Thankfully, I invested in a protection plan which, evidently, guards against stupidity. I have a new laptop just like the old. My daughter and I christened (sorry, yes, the pun was intended) the ruined laptop as he went off to the computer graveyard. His name was Happy. I am writing to you now from Happy Too.

Besides Happy and my pride, I lost all my emails and the writing I did on Wednesday. The rest of my documents are scattered about on thumb drives. If I had saved Wednesdays work.... Ah, well, no use crying over spilt coffee.

Word count, narrators, NaNo, friends

Final word count of the day: 9314

I think my last word count was around 8500. So it wasn't a great day, but not a bad day, either. To be writing at all felt like a major accomplishment, but once I got rolling, it was easy and fun. I'm still toying with the narrator and the tone and pacing of the opening chapters. By NaNo in November, I should have at least 10,000 words. Assuming the 10,000, my NaNo goal would then become 60,000 in order to make the 50,000 word minimum. However, I hope to have 80,000 words by the end of November, the last two being The End.

Haven't worked on The Painting in a while and I'm okay with that. I'm letting the feedback settle in around me, digesting it, deciding what I want to do with the story. I respect the feedback I receive and like to give it the deliberation it deserves, even if I don't always use it.

I had one of those long talks last night with a friend I've known practically my entire life. We haven't actually seen each other in years, but lately we've had reason to talk on the phone a few times a month. Our spirits are connected (seriously - I'm not kidding) so we can chat comfortably any time at all, even if it's been months since we last talked. But I'd really like to make the time to see her soon. Ellie helps me see myself. I don't know why, but she does. Sometimes I miss my horse days because we were together often - riding, sharing tack, having a beer after a hot day at the stables. Funny thing is, our relationship has been seasoned by experiences, both mutual and individual, and yet here we are, still connecting through it all.

Just thought I'd share that.

A modern writer's lifeline

A bit of an absence there. Sorry.

Remember the troubles I'd had on my laptop? They got worse. I got the blue screen of death - more than once - and my confidence in its ability to retain what I'd written was shaken. Modern writers depend upon computers. And thumbdrives. And notebooks filled with random thoughts. But it was simply unforgiveable for my laptop to let me down that way.

After the breakup with my Dell, I found new love with this zippy little HP. We're getting better acquainted (read: Vista is a new experience) and I must say that all my files look so sparklingly new here! It's rather inspiring.

I haven't written one word on my novel in almost two weeks and now I'm eager to get back to it. I actually had a dream about my characters last night. Get this: they were in my house! Dogsitting of all things! It was a clear sign that I need to get back to writing. Or that I need to arrange for care for my old Sadie-dog while I'm away to see my mother in November.

Scattergories

SCATTERGORIES... it's harder than it looks!
*Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...
*They have to be real places, names, things, nothing made up!
*Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial.
*You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question

What is your name? Jane
4 letter word: Joke
Vehicle: Jaguar
City: Jacksonville
Boy name: John
Girl Name: Jennifer
Alcoholic drink: Julip
Occupation: Job Cost Analyzer
Something you wear : Jeans
Celebrity: J-Lo
Food: Jelly beans
Reason for Being Late: Just being me :) Okay, okay...jack-knifed
Cartoon Character: Jerry (of Tom and)

Narrators and characters

Yesterday, I played with the idea of adding a narrator to my story. Actually, the voice and the words came to me late the night before last. I jotted them down in the notebook I keep beside the bed and now the narrator won't shut up. This narrator, by the way, is talking to another character about the story. So if you ask me a question and I don't answer right away, it's probably because I'm trying to listen to three people at once.

Here's what I found out through my "play" time:

1. I didn't know enough about this secondary character who wants to do the narrating.
2. I'm distanced from this character for personal reasons and there's just no room for that in novel writing.
3. The narrator wants the reader to discover his/her identity. In other words, I'm not supposed to say who it is. Wants you to believe it's for modesty's sake, but it isn't. This character can be dramatic and self-centered.
4. Making a seamless transition from narrator to story isn't as easy as you'd think, especially when said character is in the story and doesn't want to say "I" in the scenes pertaining to him/her.
5. The narrator sets the tone of the entire novel.
6. I don't like fiction gimmicks, so where did this one come from?

My official word count remains the same since these words are not on the manuscript yet. I haven't determined if the narrator stays or if I'm just using an unconventional method to find out more about the character.

Beyond the narrator thing, I had some fun: I cut out pictures from catalogues and magazines that reminded me of my characters. So far, I have Heidi, Dave, Scott, Lynette, and Kirsten. I have a *maybe* on Sophie and a tiny picture of Cortanie. I'd still like pictures for Brady and Bill, Grandpa, Cecelia, Claudia, John and Suze, and some of the minor characters like Sunflower and Rich. Unfortunately, catalogues and magazines aren't ideal places to find your characters' faces. I don't envision models when I'm writing a story.

I also read through a good bit of the last manuscript and while there are some entertaining and well-written scenes, it reads like a warm-up to the story I'm writing now. It's like I have this 300 page outline, much of which is background information and side notes.

A Good Day

Final word count of the day: 8528

I just had an awesome, productive writing day. I copied parts of several of Dave's scenes from the previous draft and had a blast making the changes and turning them into one chapter. It wasn't a lot of writing, but it took some creativity and I snuck in some writing when I got the characters to open up a bit more. I really like writing Dave's POV. Plus, I went back (yes, again) and made some changes to a few scenes with Heidi.

I also went for a good, long walk today, enough to be feeling it now. Homeschooling lessons with my daughter were rather fun. My son was selected as one of the 10 students in his school to be on the Lego Robotics team - something he really wanted to do. I tried a new recipe. Had dinner on the table earlier than usual. AND the family gobbled it up, evidence that it was pretty good.

All in all, a pretty darn good day. That I got one load of laundry done on top of all that other great stuff was just icing on the cake.

Word Count v4

New word count at the end of today:

4557

I've dubbed this version of Falling Short "v4" until I make a decision on the title.

A productive detour

I worked on the 500-word version of "The Painting" yesterday. What I found the most challenging was retaining the story, keeping the descriptive element, and providing tension, all within the 500 word constriction. I hope I've told a story beyond the words on the page. We'll see. Now it has to sit for a while before I do anything else with it, plus I'm awaiting feedback from my WIP group.

Goal for today since I spent yesterday working on a short story: 1500 words. I'll come back later to report my progress.

***

I did not meet my goal. I actually slid further behind because I edited the first three chapters. I rearranged a bit, deleted a paragraph or two, and wow! Did that make a difference. Now I'm ready to move on with confidence.

So I came up with a fantasy writing routine:

• 3-4 days novel writing
• 1-2 days short story writing/review/revision
• 1 day novel review and revise (previous 3-4 days' worth)
• 3-4 days novel writing
• 1-2 days short story writing/review/revision
• 1 day novel review and revise, etc.

That sounds like a perfect schedule to me. I wonder if I can make that work, even if only for a little while.