The Last Day

I started this month with grand ambitions. I didn't meet my goal. At this stage, I could offer up excuses to myself but I won't because of the most important thing I did this month was make progress. I completed 10 chapters of my novel that need very little editing.

This has been a very full month:

• The first week of the month I submitted a short story to an anthology.
• Last week I submitted a short story to a contest.
• I spent a week with my mom.
• We got our long-awaited building permit for the addition to our home (yes, we put the cart before the horse)
• and somewhere in there was all that family stuff, like homeschooling lessons, attending classes, Thanksgiving, etc.

My son turns 13 tomorrow. Wow. Allow me to just stop and think about that for a minute....

Yeah, I can't get my mind around that concept, so, moving on...

I'm disappointed that I didn't get to "win" NaNo and cross that 50K finish line, especially having started off with so many words. But I'm also happy that I don't have another 50K+ word story that needs serious editing. NaNo is fun. It's a rush. But I already know I can produce enough words that, fully assembled, resembles a novel. The question is, can I write a novel-length story that will sell? I think I can, and I'm working hard to make Falling Short the best it can be.

Mexico Slideshow

Long story, but I'll make it short. I made a beautiful slide show in Windows Movie Maker. It wouldn't work on Blogger. But Blogger of course has their own slideshow program, which I used to create the one below.

A note on the photos:
All of these were taken at Haciena Las Moras, about a 30 minute drive inland from Avenida Del Mar in Mazatlan - or Cameron Sabalo - both are roads that run parallel to the beach and most touristas know where they are so I use them for reference. Hacienda Las Moras is an old ranch in the hills, now used solely as a restaurant and hotel. It's far from the beautiful waves but worth the drive.

A few tips to help you navigate the video:

• If you would like to turn off the music, simply click on the little volume button.
• If you would like to see the pictures without the fade in, click on "View all pictures".
• If you would like to see Andrea Bocelli's music video (in Barcelona, I believe), you'll see a link right next to the little photo in the bottom left corner of my slideshow.
• If you'd like to buy me tickets, I will gladly go back and take more pictures.

Mexico

What? It's almost over?

It was so cold today. Boy was I wishing to be back in Mexico! The hubby and kids and I launched rockets today. Great day for launching except for the fact that it was 35 degrees. It was so cold my extremities were numb for an hour after we got in the nice warm car.

I'm finally hitting stride again on the writing and November is winding to a close.

You know, I was just thinking...

As we've labored over the addition to our home, we've watched a professional developer erect houses in the lot behind us quickly and (for the most part) with great efficiency. Every step of the way, those construction crews have run circles around us and made us feel like our progress was slow. But we have done it ourselves (and with the help of a truly wonderful neighbor). We know that each step of the way, we've built a good, solid house and we've learned a lot.

I think my progress on Falling Short v4 is like that - good, solid characters and plot - and during this past year of working on the story, I've learned a lot, too.

Despite the tendonitis, it feels good to be buried in my story again.

I'll post the slideshow tomorrow. I hope. I still don't know how to get it from my files to the blog...

Word count: 17,351 (I promise I'll try to turn off my inner editor tomorrow)
Conference fund: $189

Hola

A special note to Mom and her friends:



Thank you for making my week in Mazatlan so enjoyable!

Back home

After a week in Mexico, reality hit before the wheels of the jet touched down at SeaTac. My word count is depressingly low. In order to hit my initial goal of 80,000 words by November 30th, I need to write 6,400 words per day from here on out. (Insert hysterical laughter.)

I think it's time to redefine my goals.

I started the day wondering why I even thought I should write this novel in the first place. I ended it by recalling the fact that I am a writer and I love these characters.

So what if I didn't get any writing done in Mexico? So what if I'm behind on my NaNo word count? Tomorrow I'm going to dive right back in.

Tonight, my nine year old daughter is teaching me how to make a slideshow of my Mexico pics to post on my blog.

Middles

Conference Fund: $165

House: a total disaster. I struggled to keep up with homeschooling, errands, music lessons, writing...so the house suffers. My loving husband picked up dinner, bless his heart.

NaNo Word Count: 15,811

Not spectacular progress, but I worked on a short story submission today as well. It seemed to take me all day to write a dedication and a bio, and make a few small (we're talking one word here and there) changes to the short story. The story has been submitted. I'm done. Woohoo!

The slow progress on NaNo isn't bothering me too much. I like the structure of what I have so far, which cannot be said for previous years and the blustering cacophony of words that poured forth. I've been keeping a chapter outline as I write - about a paragraph describing each chapter. I think the next order of business will be reviewing that outline and deciding what needs to be set up next or if I've missed setting something up. It's important for me to weave in all the threads of the story within the first 20,000 words or so. That way I won't run into any of those, "oops, shoulda mentioned that sooner" kind of surprises in the busy, bulky middle.

I love and hate writing the middle chapters, so I approach this 4th rewrite with a small amount of trepidation. The middle is the best part of a novel (who doesn't love being in the middle of a thoroughly engrossing read?) and it can be so much fun to write, but it's also tricky and sometimes exasperating. In my first completed novel, Among Friends, the middle was confusing and muddled. In my second, not-completed novel, The Art of Deception, I seem to have lost a few threads along the way. I never got to the end because I simply got lost in the plot.

So this middle, which I have written three times so far, should be a piece of cake, right? What I noticed from my last version is that it's too easy for me, as a writer, to interfere and manipulate when I know what's coming next, but as a reader, I hate it when I notice the author manipulating the characters. It kills the momentum of the story. This time, I have to find balance: rising conflict, continuing story goal, and a reason for the reader to actually care what's going to happen.

I might spend a bit of time tomorrow reviewing character goals and story goals, too.

Can you tell I suddenly have mixed feelings? I started this post off saying I was feeling good about my progress, and now I'm thinking I should re-examine the entire concept of the story. Argh! I love writing. Really, I do.

I'm J Latta

Phantom Squirrel reminded me of this. In case anyone wants to find me on the NaNo site, my NaNo ID is J Latta.

Conference Fund: $160

Word count: 15,060

I've finished the short story I was working on. Did I mention it's titled "Devil's Breath"? Readers who live in Southern California will understand the reference in the title. I'm not shopping this one around because it's already spoken for. I will post publication specifics when I know them.

Day - what? Oh yeah. 6

The days and nights have lost distinction, one from the other. Sleep happens whenever I can't keep my eyes open. I put food in my mouth when my stomach growls. I think I took a shower yesterday. The dirty clothes are spilling out of the laundry hamper. And my family has to go to great measures to get my attention.

Yep, it's definitely NaNoWriMo.

I'm getting sick of keeping track of how many words I have for NaNo versus how many on my novel, so I'm just going to go with my overall number. Cheating? Only if winning NaNo is my goal, which it is not. Finishing the novel is my goal. And right now, I'm feeling good about the story. I had to drop the first person POV (one of my multiples) because it wasn't working with the rest. But that's okay. It led me to the multiple third, which is working very well. I left off yesterday in mid-action, which is one of the oldest tricks in the book to keep the writer motivated. Funny how those old tricks work so well. Why are there so many writing books that try to reinvent the wheel?

Though my word count is low, I am significantly pleased with the progress I've made so far. My words should begin piling up from this point, now that I have the pacing and structure I want.

Back to it. I'll post my word count at the end of the day.

Day Three

I finally surpassed the 10,000 word mark on the rewrite of Falling Short. 10,000 words isn't a big deal since I started NaNo with 8900 words, but the way my November has gone so far, it's a milestone worth noting.

My word count is now 11,234 making my NaNo tally 2,334. Lame, considering I should have over 7,000 by now, but at this point I'm happy to have forward progress.

And the story! I'm pleased to say that it's surprised me already. Remember the narrator idea? I changed it slightly. And it's working! Multiple POV isn't gimmicky, new, or trendy. (Multiple POV is where the author shows a different character viewpoint each chapter - the multiple referring to more than two character viewpoints - and so far I have 5.) It's been used a lot for a reason. Yes, I know it will drive some people batty, but it's brought the characters, and the story, to life.

I also made notes today on a few changes to the short story I recently finished, the one I titled "Devil's Breath."

Hoping to bring my word count close to 15,000 tomorrow.

Day One

In years past, I have produced some stellar first day word counts.

Not this year.


I spent 7 hours on the telephone with various IT support techs who helped me sort out why I had no internet signal (stupid IP addresses), why my wireless print router wouldn't communicate with the new modem/router (IP addresses that don't like other IP addresses), then why my laptop wouldn't communicate with the printer router, etc (let's all cheer for Windows Vista!). It was a nightmare, and the last thing I want to do tonight is sit at my computer and write.


My "zero" for NaNo is not the 10,000 as I had hoped before I dumped coffee on my laptop and lost 800 or so words. As of 12:01 am November 1st, I had 8900 words written on Falling Short v4. So that will be my zero. The NaNo norm is to try to write at least 1667 words per day. My personal goal is 80,000 by Nov 30th, so that means I need to write 2370 per day, and if I don't write that many today, I'll have more to do tomorrow.


I'm setting the timer for 30 minutes and I'm going to write like mad.


* * * * *

Well, that did not go well at all. My word count is 369 for the evening's work. Phooey.

I have a lot of words to write tomorrow!