It’s not the best work I’ve done, but the chapter is finished. I already know that the chapter might need (will need) major work done to it but for now it’s done and I can move on. This means there are only two chapters to go and I should be finished the entire manuscript no later than the 13th November (although I think it will be done well before then).

Once finished completely, I will read through it once on screen to find silly typos or misused words then I will print the entire manuscript out and will read it again in printed form. This will be when the holes will jump out at me, when the character inconsistencies will show up and the scenes which need additional work will become clear (like chapter 13).

At the same time that I read the work on paper, I will also submit the work to two critique groups and see what they have to say. Then…I’ll take my own notes and the comments of the critters and I’ll do a major edit, which is not my favourite pasttime.

The official word count at the end of chapter 13 is 27,140 words.

With all the pushing and shoving to get a WordPress.com account, it’s amazing we’re all still alive. I say this in jest, of course.

It you haven’t got an account, or even if you do and you want another blog (we can never have too many blogs, can we?), then maybe you’ll be interested in Webloog.com. As far as I can see, it offers the same deal as WordPress.com but you don’t need an invitation. I don’t actually have an account with them so I don’t know what the differences are so if anyone does have an account with Webloog, feel free to share your views and experiences – perhaps you can give us a review.

A deal’s a deal, and I kept my side of the bargain.

For those interested, I managed to write two whole pages this evening, which is a page more than I was determined to write (but when I set the goal, I knew I’d continue writing). In truth, I’d hoped it would be more than this but the scene is a difficult one and rushing it would not be a good idea. I feel confident that the chapter will be completed over the weekend though.

This doesn’t make sense, I know, but I’m procrastinating about writing the next chapter of my chapter book. There are only three more chapters to go, so this is terrible news.

However, I have been turning the scene over in my mind and I did discover that I’d been premature with the development of one of my characters, so I’ll have to go back and change that. So there’s a positive in there.

Hence…a public setting of a goal.

Tonight, I must write at least a page before I’m allowed to join the “chat” and/or before I’m allowed to “play” with the test blog. And…I must finish the chapter over the weekend. No excuses.

We’ve all heard about it and we’ve all done it. Some people are much better than other, of course, especially kids. Being a mother of two boys who enjoyed annoying each other from morning to night, I developed the skill some years ago. I could block them out completely when I really wanted to.

Today, I discovered I have another skill – selective reading. On the weekend I visited Melly’s site and left a comment to a post she made about jokes and her father. Today I returned to the thread and read the other comments made after I’d been there and found myself wondering what everyone was going on about.

Upon reading the original post again, I realised that I had stopped reading once I hit the joke, so not only did I not read the joke, I didn’t read the remainder of the post. Hence, the post I read was quite different to the post everyone else read.

Selective reading = laziness. Yes, I’m aware of that and I am the first to admit that I can be lazy. However, in this case, I wasn’t even aware that I’d done it which is a bit worrying. Now I’m left wondering how many other posts I haven’t read correctly, and how many other comments I’ve left that might sound rather spun out. Oh, it could be embarrassing to find out.

It was hard work, but today I wrote close to 1500 words. I sat at the computer at 10.30am and did half hour stints. The first paragraph took me an hour to write. Every single word was forced out. Then I wrote a page in then minutes. That’s what the day was like – struggling one minute, free flowing the next.

I found myself leaving the computer and doing other things between paragraphs – the washing, feeding the animals, eating lunch, making a cuppa, I even went for a walk around to the shops. But every time I returned to the computer I went straight back to the chapter and wrote whatever I could…even if it was only a sentence.

The hard work was worth it because chapter 12 is finished and the word count is officially 25,016 words. Yay!

Which means…I have three chapters to go.

Chapter 13 is going to be the hardest to write. It will be a short chapter but it’s action packed. Lots of fighting (which I hate writing) and fast paced (I hope). This one needs time to formulate in my mind before I can start writing. I have my diagram and I know where I’m heading, so now it’s just a matter of getting the words to come out in the right order. Easy!

My characters are in a cavern and although I know what has to be done, this afternoon, I found myself drawing a diagram of the area. I drew in the boulders, the entrances, the location of the torches and then I marked where each of my characters are standing at the beginning of the scene.

Surprisingly, my original plan of action immediately changed because I could see that the guard that was going to be put “out of action” was actually the wrong guard to attack first. Seeing it on paper, helped me realise that my hero was going to target the wrong person, so he was destined to fail because in reality he would have got himself caught. With this other guard out of the way, my main character will have a semi clear path for the return trip.

Works for me, although there will be a surprise. Isn’t there always?

This past week has been a bad week all round. I’ve been quite sick and as a result my daily writing went out the window. I only managed three pages on Wednesday – nothing more.

However, this afternoon I started feeling much better. I no longer need to walk around the house with a tissue box stuck under my arm. I can breath easily, and more importantly…I’ve regained my brain. I can think and concentrate. Yay!

This afternoon, I decided it was time to return to my writing and I’m glad I did. I managed to write a little over 1000 words, and I’m half way through the chapter – chapter 12. I could have written a bit more – I have time and I’m not feeling tired – but the next scene needs some thought. I need to let it roll around in my mind, try out a few things to ensure it works well in the imagination before I try to put it onto paper (or the screen).

This next scene will lead directly to the climax of the story. It has to be fast paced, edge of the seat stuff. That’s enough to make me start to tremble with fear, but I’ll be fine. Tomorrow, I’ll tackle this all important scene and then there will be only three chapter to go.

The countdown is on.

I’m seeing these letters spring up all over the internet, in the groups I belong to, and on message boards.

November is the month of NaNoWriMo. It’s a time when writers from around the world band together and offer encouragement and support whilst each of them aim for a 50,000 word count in 30 days.

Normally, you’ll read about what a buzz it is to participate in NaNo but not here, not today.

I did NaNo a couple of years ago. Yes, I was a “winner” (I reached the 50,000 words) but in doing so I exhausted myself to the extent that I couldn’t write for a long time afterwards. I’m talking in excess of six months. I suffered burn out. And to make matters worse, the manuscript I wrote during NaNo was utter trash and if I were to continue with that particular idea I would have to start again and rewrite the whole thing – every single word.

Some people thrive on deadlines, on pushing themselves to the limit but other people do themselves a lot of damage. If you fall into the latter category then the stress of forcing yourself to write over 1500 words every day could do you harm, and you should think about your decision to participate carefully.

Having said these things, I believe that every person is different and everyone should experience it themselves to know if NaNo is for them or not. It’s not for me. I will never do NaNoWriMo again but I appreciate the fact that thousands of writers get a kick out of it and look forward to November each year. To those people, I wish you the best of luck, high energy levels, and may the words flow freely.

This is NOT writing related, this is blog related.

I’ve often wondered what the fascination is about getting a high site metre reading. I know it means people are reading your posts and that’s fine but I’m not talking about normal site metre readings, I’m talking about things like Blog Explosion and other “services” like it.

Now, I might be completely wrong about this and if that’s the case then feel free to correct me but the way I see it, I don’t want a thousand people visiting this blog every day if only five of them are writers. What’s the point of that? It seems that the more blogs you visit, the more points (or whatever) you get in return. So out of those thousand visitors, how many actually read anything? I’d say very few. So, again, what’s the point?

I’m like everyone else. I want to know that people are visiting this blog and that they are reading my posts. I have submitted this blog to search engines, directories, and where ever else I can think of to get people to come here. However, the people I want to visit are writers, not just anyone who is looking to increase their own points so that they get more traffic.

What I’m saying is that I have a targeted audience and that I can’t see the point of trying to get the whole world to visit this blog when only a small percentage (of the entire world) is interested in writing.

The reason I’ve bought this up is because I notice more and more blogs are joining these “traffic increasing” schemes and it makes me want to ask…if you have joined, why? Why do you want uninterested readers visiting your website?