Month: November 2007

Stepping Back for a While

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Life is throwing too many curve balls at me at the moment. I’m not coping particularly well with it and have decided to step back from the unnecessary things and give myself time to recover as my health has been affected by what’s going on.

I wrote through the first week of the trouble and managed to be a “winner” for NaNoWriMo, but I don’t feel like a “winner” in life right now.

My writing has abruptly stopped and I won’t be pushing myself to return to it unless I’m ready and willing. This website is no longer important to me, so for the time being I will take some time out and see what happens. It might be a few days before I return or it might be longer. I honestly don’t know.

I won’t be spending much time at the message board or email writing group either. I might drop in from time to time, but I will make no promises as to how much I’ll participate in discussions.

I will, however, try to meet my obligations with the anthology. So if you are an accepted author, at this stage the anthology will go ahead as normal. Too many people are involved in this project for me to step away from that too, so it will be the only online commitment that I will continue to deal with for the time being.

I will drop in to read the blogs of my regular haunts – you know who you are – yet I can’t promise that I’ll leave comments on your posts. Please know that you are the people I often find inspiration from and that’s something I need right now – inspiration, happy thoughts, love. Find it in your lives and write about it, because I need to know the world is not all dark and miserable.

I’ll be back when I feel able to fit more into my life. Right now, I must take care of me.

50,000 Words Complete

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nano-winner-07I proudly announce that I reached the 50,000 words I needed to become a “winner” over at NaNoWriMo. I must admit that when you are writing a story that means something to you, the words come easily. I had no problem this month with writing about 2,000 words a day (generally)…although I had a lot of other problems to contend with.

Although I’ve completed the 50,000 words, I haven’t finished the first draft. I’m hoping to have the first draft of the manuscript 100% complete by the end of next weekend. However, I won’t give myself an undercut if I don’t make that deadline. There are other priorities that I have to attend to – such as Christmas, the anthology, and personal things – so I’m going to be kind to myself if I don’t reach this goal.

I hope all the other NaNo participants are working hard and nearing their goal. Good luck.

My NaNo Progess:

Mirror Image – 100% Complete

52,174 / 50,000

NaNo Quick Update

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I’ve had a busy and bad week (which has had nothing to do with writing). I have written every day, but my word counts have been a lot lower than the rest of the month. I’m well ahead, so it doesn’t matter.

The public goal I’m going to set for this weekend – and I hope I can reach it this time – is to go over the 50,000 words required for NaNoWriMo. An extension of this goal is to have the entire first draft of the novel completed by the end of the following weekend, which will be 2 December 2007.

[ Personal Content Removed ]

My NaNo Progess:

Mirror Image – 94% Complete

47,490 / 50,000

Leisure

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What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

By Wm. Henry Davies.

My mother and I used to recite this poem when I was young. Every now and again, one of us would say something that reminded us of it and we’d say the words together. It’s the only poem I ever really knew. Having said that, we never knew the entire poem.

Today, I found myself saying the poem aloud as I rushed about…as I really don’t have time to stand and stare. And I don’t have time to write posts. Especially when every word I type should be towards my manuscript and has been lately.

My NaNo Progess:

Today’s Word Count: 2,011

Mirror Image – 83% Complete

41,798 / 50,000

Didn’t Get There

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Not only did I not reach the personal goal I set myself this weekend, I didn’t even reach 40,000 words. True, I only had another 220 words to write, but sometimes you just have to stop and let go of a goal and that’s what I did.

Saturday, as I mentioned in my previous post, was extremely busy for me. I expected to be home, after a full day out and about, by 5pm, but in reality we didn’t walk through the door until 6.30pm. Not only was that an hour and a half more taken out of my writing plan, I also had another migraine. I could have pushed through it, but decided not to bother. The words just don’t feel important when your head weighs 100 tonne and the pain is more torturous than childbirth (for me anyway).

After a grand total of zero words for Saturday, which I might add is the only day this month I didn’t write a single word, I knew the goal was out of reach. I decided to change my goal for Sunday. I’d write no less than 3,500 words. That goal I did manage to reach, but only just.

My NaNo Progess:

Yesterday’s Word Count: 0
Today’s Word Count: 3,635

Mirror Image – 79% Complete

39,787 / 50,000

My Weekend Goal

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It’s the weekend and it’s always good to stretch yourself on the weekend. I’m going to make a public goal. This one is to write 5,000 words over Saturday and Sunday. This will ensure I am over the 40K mark by Monday morning, which will be excellent incentive to reach the overall 50K goal well before time. I have no doubt that I’ll complete the NaNo challenge. I do wonder where I’ll be in the story though by the time I stop writing on 30 November.

Having set this goal, I do admit that I have a slight problem which may stop me from reaching it. Tomorrow will be an extremely busy day for me. I won’t be able to start writing until after 5pm and usually by then I’ve already got most of my words written. Whatever I don’t write on Saturday will have to be written on Sunday, so that will be my incentive to do as much as possible on Saturday night.

Mirror Image is told from several view points and explores several emotional angles. The sub-plot, although planned, has taken on a new twist which is exciting for me to write about. I’ve had to leave myself notes in the manuscripts because I’ve changed direction at a certain point and I will need to go back and edit the beginning to suit.

My NaNo Progess:

Today’s Word Count: 1,946

Mirror Image – 72% Complete

36,152 / 50,000

Day 15 – The Half Way Mark

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I’m writing the words, but don’t have time for this blog. I hope you understand. The story is developing really well, and has grown in ways I didn’t anticipate. Who said a writer must feel stifled when they plan? I might write a proper post over the weekend. But…I might not, it will depend on how much time I have. More birthdays are coming up.

My NaNo Progess:

Yesterday’s Word Count: 2,387
Today’s Word Count: 2,344

Mirror Image – 68% Complete

34,206 / 50,000

Day 13 of NaNo

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I’m not a superstitious person. If I walk under a ladder, I don’t consider it to be bad luck. I don’t worry if a black cat runs across my path. And Friday the 13th is just another day. When I knock on wood, I do it as a joke. And what’s the go with throwing salt over your left shoulder (or is it your right)?

Today, however, is the 13th and everything I looked at or touched went wrong. The phone at work just never stopped ringing and I could have easily thrown it out the window. Many of the callers were just stupid idiots that should never have been shown how to use a phone in the first place. My computer froze several times, so that could have found a nice spot next to the discarded phone. It was quite hot and humid and the air conditioner wasn’t working. I felt drained of energy, but (due to being at work) was unable to have a nap. I generally felt in a cranky mood and couldn’t have been bothered about any of the things I had to do all day.

And the words I wrote today felt silted and waffling. I will have to edit a great deal of them out later. I really did have the “I don’t want to” woes. But I push myself and pushed myself and eventually I hit the minimum word count and allowed myself to stop writing.

I hate writing when I really don’t feel like writing. And I had one of those days. What was your day like?

My NaNo Progess:

Today’s Word Count: 1,670

Mirror Image – 59% Complete

29,475 / 50,000