NaNo or Go Home

It's that time of year again. National November Novel Writing Month, affectionately known as NaNoWriMo.

I have attempted to complete a novel during NaNo. I've also finished some projects during the November writing marathons. And I've completely ignored NaNo knowing I didn't have the time to do the job well. If at all.

This year I have been struggling to connect with my next story. I've started a few, attempted to plot another and nothing is grabbing my attention. Until last month when I was journaling and suddenly I was writing this scene about a woman who died and is being brought back to life by a man who should be dead. Very supernatural. Very dark. And it wouldn't let me go.

I rushed the scene off to a friend this week asking her if she thought there was anything there. I don't know who the narrator is. I don't know anything more than that scene and the sense it wasn't time for her to die, but other forces wanted her out of the way. Desperately.

Oh, color me intrigued! And a little disappointed. I was hoping to get back into contemporary romance mode. I have nothing against paranormal romance or urban fantasy. I love the stuff! But I have been wanting to write a contemp romance for a long time. Have a few roughly etched out. I love a good relationship story and long to tell one. My muse has other ideas.

I'm getting over my disappointment. It will only kill the kernel of the story I do have. And I'm reminded that character and relationship is story in genre fiction. Yeah, I can do this and tell a relationship story. It may not be that contemporary romance I was longing for, but it will be the story that has me by the throat. And in the end, isn't that better?

So watch out NaNo, I'm coming at you with nothing more than a scene and a desire to see what happens next.  It's time to throw caution to the wind and write!

Final NaNo Update & Other News

Well, NaNo ended, gosh, two weeks ago. I topped out at 40,000 words. I'm still working on the story, though.

What I learned:

I learned that when life is going my way, I can write a damned fast first draft. A first draft full of plot holes and character inconsistencies, but a fast rough draft nonetheless. When life isn't going my way, I can still write a fast first draft. And I can write nearly daily without pooping out.

I also learned that when I let the story flow, the story goes a long way. I just have to get out of it's way while it's forming.

That a rough draft in a month is not impossible. Challenging, yes, but not impossible

What's Next:

I have to recover and get ready for Christmas. The MIL is visiting. Arriving next week in fact. Which means I need to have 5 months of the cheque book reconciled, the guest room cleaned out, the bathroom and kitchen scrubbed, and somehow inject myself with a good attitude.

Why a good attitude? Because we've been sick for two weeks, work is scary busy with no end in sight, and my poor car was hit. Totally the other person's fault. It's drivable and it's old enough we aren't as worried about the body damage as we are any damage to the suspension. *sigh* It always seems to pour at our house. Especially when I really really want to get into the story.

Eh, what doesn't kill us is fodder for our writing, right?

NaNo update

I had 5 uninterrupted days to write. And I did write. But when I went back and looked at my word count, my total was just shy of 5,000 words. Which totally bites.

I want to say I suck and that I'm just throwing in the towel. But I promised myself I would get to 50 thousand words. I would finish. I wouldn't just walk away, no matter how bad the story was or how things turned out.

So, I'm plugging forward. I may not make my goal by midnight on Friday, but I will make it. And you never know, I may get a huge boost of inspiration and hit 50,000 words by midnight on Friday. Anything is possible.

A Paranormal Inspirational What?

I was talking to author Patti O'Shea a few months ago and as I was asking her questions about paranormal romance, I blurted out that this story is an inspirational paranormal. She didn't bat an eye but it made me pause and think for a moment. Can paranormal stories and inspirational stories share real-estate in the same book? The answer may surprise you.

According to www.dictionary.com, paranormal means:

of or pertaining to the claimed occurrence of an event or perception without scientific explanation, as psychokinesis, extrasensory perception, or other purportedly supernatural phenomena.

Supernatural phenomena. Without scientific explanation. Interesting, is it not? Most people attribute paranormal story lines with ghosts, psychics, shapeshifters (were-creatures), vampires, witches, and the like. But if I take the definition of paranormal at face value, it includes anything that can't be explained scientifically. Which means, when  my heroine senses things about characters around her through the spiritual gift of discernment, that makes my inspirational type novel have paranormal overtones. Right?

Well, not if you talk to anyone in the inspirational markets. You don't want to go there. However, I can talk about my book being an inspirational with strong supernatural elements.

It's all in how you present the story. The story itself doesn't change if I call it a paranormal romance or an inspirational romance with supernatural elements. It's still the same story. But how it's presented will cause people to think of the story in a certain way. And depending on the slice of the market I'm after will depend on how I want editors, agents, even readers to think of it.

I'm not ready to go after anyone with the story yet, so once NaNo is over, I'm going to jump back into this story and finish it. But as I write, it's not a bad idea to be thinking about who might be attracted to such a story. Be it a paranormal with spiritual elements or an inspirational with supernatural elements. *grin*

NaNo...Losing Track

I have no clue how far into NaNo I am. I lost count of days a while ago. I do know that I'm halfway through the word count. And I'm losing steam. I have no desire to write. Some of that may be because I'm all alone for Thanksgiving (the family went to Colorado to visit the boy's sister). Could also be because my dog has cancer and almost debilitating arthritis and there's not much we can do but keep him comfy until he tells us his time is over. Could be because I have written long and hard for over two weeks and my head is numb.

No matter what the reason, I have decided to take a few days off. I haven't written a word since Sunday. Tomorrow I'm going to pick it up again and plug along. I want to make my goal. I want to hit 50,000 words. Since I'm off until next Monday, I have given myself only three things to accomplish - aside from basic home maintenance. *grin*

I am going to update and balance the cheque book.

I am going to clean the home office.

I am going to write every day and hope to get at least 10,000 words in. Minimum.

Think I can do it? Let me know. I need all the support I can get. LOL!

NaNo Day 8

Today was hard. The story didn't flow. The characters weren't as vivid and alive as they have been all week. And I really didn't like the direction the story was heading. It feels contrived.

I reminded myself that this is a rough first draft and once it's completed I get to slice it and dice it any way I want to make the story really work and be truly mine. So if the characters are going off in a direction that I'm not happy with, that's okay. Let them get it it out of their system. And who knows. Maybe they know something I don't.

My total word count for today was 1,657. Which brings my 8 day total to 13,467.

I wrote for about an hour. Damn, I'm getting fast! LOL

Happy writing!

NaNo Day 7 Update!

I'm done for the day and I manged to write 3,274 words today. Phew! I don't know if I can keep this pace for long, but it's nice to be able to get so much in!

My total word count so far is 11,810.

NaNo Day 7

Well, yesterday was a bust. I was sick, so no writing. I feel like I'm in a constant state of catch up. I'm still sick today, but feeling like I can concentrate so I'm going to write some at some point. First, I really want a DQ Blizzard. Popular opinion is that you save the treats for after the writing as a reward. That's never really worked for me. The reward for writing is seeing the words on the page and the story form so I can believe that I'm getting that much closer to actually having a book that I can query the hell out of, lol! I'm still dreaming of that day when I can quit the day job and make my living from writing and perhaps teaching/coaching writing. Or other things.

I was reminded this last month that I'm a damn fine teacher/trainer and that I love getting up and helping people improve some facet of their lives. I'm good at it. I enjoy it. I really should get off my butt and look for jobs in this area. I've had some ideas floating around for a while. I need to shake off the fear and just see what happens when I submit my proposals.

How this relates to NaNoWriMo or writing in general? It's easier to write when life is in a positive place. When something in your life isn't positive, you owe it to yourself to understand why and then figure out what to do about it. November isn't just going to be my novel writing month, it's going to be my "Figure out what to do with your career" month. Or, at the very least, the start of it.

Happy writing!

NaNo Day 5

So far, so good. I didn't write this weekend. I know, I know. What was I thinking? I was thinking that it was really nice to enjoy the last warm days of the season and that it was really wet giving the dog a bath.

Not to worry. Today I was on a role and able to write about 20 pages. Yes, 20 lovely pages, each containing roughly 250 words. Which brings my page count to 8020 words in the last 5 days! And it didn't take me forever. I wrote for about 3 hours. Well, I instant messaged, did some online research and wrote for 3 hours.

This means I can write faster than I think I can. Which is amazing! If I can write for an hour a day and make 5 pages consistently, I could potentially write more than one book a year. Whoop!

Of course, I'm trying to not get ahead of myself and to just keep writing this book. No clear plot yet, but I'm really enjoying the two main characters. We'll see where the month takes me.

Happy writing!

ETA: Well, I got caught up in the story and am now up to a 5 day total of 8535 words! The last 500 words written in the last 30 minutes. Phew!

NaNoWriMo - 2007 Style

There is this phenomenon that strikes writers - from the novice to the published - that strikes every November. This phenomenon is called National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. And to do so with a story idea that you haven't plotted or outlined or researched to death.

I've done this in past years and have always become side tracked with life. In other words, I wasn't really committed and didn't truly believe that this great idea would work for me. It was a nice thought, but more fantasy than reality.

Well, this year is different. On November 1st I picked a story idea out of my "ideas" folder, sat down at the computer for about 90 minutes and the result was 1800 words. I wrote for another 90 minutes yesterday which equaled just over 1600 words. Not too shabby.

My goal - to write every day a word count of about 1600 words. Or about 6 -1/2 pages. I'm going to try to blog daily this month as well. If nothing else, it will be to publicly declare where I'm at with the NaNoWriMo challenge. Wish me luck!