Tag: Challenge

NaNoWriMo Supplementary Day One

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It’s past five o’clock in the afternoon and I haven’t had a look at working on the last few chapters.

I looked at it last night, made the changes I thought I needed to continue working the next day.

But…

The day started with the Maple Leafs playing the Buffalo Sabres. It was at Scotiabank stadium, our home ground, so the odds were in our favour to win.

Of course, the day before we lost.  It was disappointing, and if anyone has been following the trials of living with Chester, my cantankerous cat, you would know he was happy they did.

And still getting his least favourite food.

He knows the deal. Barrack for the Maple Leafs or there will be consequences.

Today we won in overtime. Good, we’ve been winning since we changed coaches, and the loss yesterday was an aberration.

The game ended in the early afternoon, our time.

Then we switched over to test cricket, and this will run till about ten tonight which means not much work will get done.

I have been forsaking the cricket to finish the NaNoWriMo project. Now that pressure is off I have a few things to catch up on.

At least the next hockey game is not till Wednesday.

The cricket may be over in a day or so.

In the meantime, when there is a lull in sport, I will get back to work.

NANOWRIMO The rewards

 

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Finally reached the end of the month and came out a winner

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With my winning certificate, the third in three years.

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And the chart with the number of words written for the 30 days.

There will be more when the novel is finished in the next day or so.

NaNoWriMo Day Twenty Nine

I’m in the middle of writing a new chapter, one that goes back a little in time, but helps set up events that occur later towards the end.

And true to form, it’s going a little off track.

There is scope for it to be a pivotal point in the story but it’s not quite working out that way.

I’m doing this while I’m waiting for my usual Friday grandchild collection from school. Here I have to get here a half hour before puck up time to get a favourable position in the queue.

So it’s a good time to do some writing.

And it’s where I work on one of my stories matched to a photo as inspiration.

Not today.

There are pressures in getting the NaNoWriMo project finished and it’s getting away from me.

This part is not as easy as I hoped, so back to the job. Hopefully there will be better news tomorrow

NaNoWriMo Day Twenty Eight

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I never thought I would get to this point, where there’s almost a complete novel.

It is quite remarkable that it is possible if you decide to focus, to get a novel out in a month.

What it does tell you is that proper planning is really a necessity if you want to succeed.

But…

It’s not the be-all to end all.

I’m not going to stop flying by the seat of my pants, but it’s given me another insight into the writing process.

I’m up to the business end of the story, and it requires concentration, and, it will not be the first time I have written a page or two, gone back to reread it and make an adjustment.

I have to be careful not to be overly critical. After all, it is only the first draft and I’m not looking for, nor should I be expecting perfection.

It won’t be, but I can always hope.

NaNoWriMo Day Twenty Seven

It’s interesting that no matter how much you outline and plan a chapter, when it comes to actually putting words on paper it doesn’t quite run the way it should.

Last night I toiled over the chapter that has the first of the plot twists.

It’s been writing itself in my head, and I’ve been making notes to supplement the plan and take those notes into consideration.

But…

When I wrote it, the first time around, it didn’t seem right. You know what that’s like. It’s not the second guessing thing, it’s not the being over critical thing, you write it, walk away, get a coffee, or in my case a large Scotch and soda water, and go back.

You either tell yourself it’s utterly brilliant, or at the other end of the scale, complete rubbish.

I was somewhere in between, and the cat, who was skulking nearby suddenly found himself a captive critic.

I read it out loud, he made weird faces, and, yes, I could see what was bothering me.

Three hours later, past two in the morning, it was in better shape than I was.

NaNoWriMo Day Twenty Six

Today went well, the book is now almost writing itself, such is the benefit of outlining.

I’m almost sold on the planning idea, but that will sort itself out next time.

It gave me time to go back into the NaNoWriMo website and see how it works now after so-called improvements.

Apparently there are post 50,000 word goodies, and l finally figure out where they are.

Interesting…

I’ve already got Scrivener, actually when I completed the task last year I took up the offer. There’s others, like Novlr, and Babble, and another for those into fantasy writing.

Seeing it makes me think it might help with a TA story I’m three quarters of the way through.

Enough revelling in printing out my certificate to go with the other two.

It’s time to get back to the current project and finish it.

Conversations with my cat – 68

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This is Chester.  We’re both a little tired this morning.

I spent a little too much time on the next few chapters of my NaNoWriMo project and lost track of time.  It was going so well, I thought it best not to interrupt the flow of words.

But…

This morning, after getting to bed about 2:30 am, I found it hard to get out of bed.

Fortunately, as usual, I had the cat alarm clock wake me out of deep sleep to be informed that it was breakfast.

I looked at the clock and saw it was 6:30 am.

I mean to say, Chester was with me at 2:30 when I was writing, and he didn’t tell me that it was time to go to bed, much earlier than I did.

I think he enjoys torturing me like this.

So…

I get up, get him breakfast, some smelly fish food that even he turns his nose up at, and go out to the writing room with the intention of getting on with the story.

Next thing I know, there’s a gentle tapping on my forehead,

I wake up and it’s Chester.

What? I ask.  You can’t possibly want more food.

No.  I thought you were dead.

That’s amusing, he sees me asleep in bed and doesn’t think I’m dead.

How could you think that?

There are only two reasons why people become inanimate in their chair, they have suffered a heart attack or stroke, or they’re dead.

What about simply falling asleep because they’re too tired, and their faithful assistant didn’t tell them to go to bed earlier?

Look, let’s not make a beak deal out of this.  I was concerned.  Perhaps I won’t be next time.  A final glare and he jumps down off the keyboard, which left a page of endless d’s on the page I had been working on.

Perhaps he’s getting old and forgetful, or, suddenly he realises I mean more to him than just giving him food and cleaning the litter.  No, stop deluding yourself.  You’re his friend, he’s not your friend.

Oh, well, for a moment there…

NaNoWriMo Day Twenty Five

Having reached the milestone of writing 50,000 words plus, it’s not the time to hang up the pen and think the job’s done.

It isn’t.

I still have a few more chapters to write, to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.

That I’m still not quite sure about, but I have one conclusion I’ll write and then later if I think of something better I’ll substitute it.

That isn’t to say the end won’t change when it’s time to make a second pass at the manuscript.

Other than that things are going according to plan. This means, I guess, that writing to a plan can work even for someone who doesn’t usually use that method

I will be considering this to plan the sequels for the two series I’m writing at the moment.

But, not to get ahead of myself, I have this project to finish.

NANOWRIMO – The target is reached

That’s right, 50,000 words, well, 50,496 to be precise.

And the novel isn’t finished yet, so I’ll continuing, and updating the word count until the end of the month.

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And, that, of course then shows the certificate which I will have to downland and fill out.

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NANOWRIMO Day Twenty Four

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I was writing Chapter 29 and suddenly I had a bad feeling.  You know the sort of feeling you get, you’ve forgotten something, or there wasn’t a lead into an event which will feel like it came from nowhere…

I’m having one of those moments.

Damn.

I’ve forgotten something.

So, I stop writing and bring up the last eight chapters and start reading.

No, nothing I’ve forgotten.  But there is something.

No point going on.  This has to run around in my mind for a bit while doing something completely different, like painting a ceiling.

True, I’m in the middle of painting the dining room ceiling and put it off to get on with the project.  The project has hit a speed hump, so it’s back to the painting.

Halfway through the roof, it comes to me.

A basic error, of not making sure all of the points are covered in the story otherwise the reader will say, ok, you said that back in Chapter 18 and now, why haven’t you realised that something’s going to happen because of your negligence.

I know what it is.

And it will require another chapter.

But first, I have to finish the painting.