Well, according to NaNoWriMo, I’m a “pantser” which means I write with little to no preparation, research, outlining, etc. This may work against me; when push comes to shove I don’t always know what to write next. It works for me in that I can take my story in whatever direction I choose without stressing over not following my outline. (Believe me, if I went through all the trouble of writing an outline, I would stress over not following it…
Yes, it’s less than two weeks until November 1st when the madness which is NaNoWriMo begins in earnest. My co-Municipal Liaison and I have all our ducks in a row as far as write-ins are concerned. The lounge is up and running with introductory threads and sign-up for the Kick-Off party on October 30th. Four branches of the county library system are working with us to provide write-in spaces and two are holding pre-NaNo plot parties next week. Lots to…
You’ve probably wondered where my updates for Camp NaNoWriMo have been. Well, I haven’t posted them because, frankly, I wasn’t writing. I dropped my word count goal to 12K late in the month and didn’t even make that paltry sum. (For someone who regularly writes 50K or more in November, yes, 12K is a paltry sum.) My final word count as of about 5 minutes ago was 8011, with over 2K of that written just today. Why couldn’t I make…
Over the past few weeks, as a gift to my lovely mother-in-law, I’ve been proofreading and gently editing some of her completed short stories. At first, it was supposed to be a surprise for her, but someone in the know inadvertently spilled the beans, so she knows all about it. Last night, I uploaded the seven stories I had to Blurb, where I have a gift certificate for $20. Turns out, I really didn’t need to use it. The softcover…
Well, I’m a hair over 45K in word count now. The story? I have no idea where it’s going. I have another murder, I killed another secondary character (brings the body count to three). Sherlock Holmes is a bad guy, so is Watson (unless he’s totally clueless in the Nigel Bruce fashion), Moriarty is at least Chaotic Neutral, and Henry Jekyll has yet to meet his Mr. Hyde. My main character’s boyfriend is having blood-tinged visions and the Door has…
Roughly 600 words to get to 30k, which is right on schedule. I had a bit of an epiphany about the characters in my story: this is not only a fictional world that my main character is visiting, it’s the mirror-verse of that world. So, the person she thinks is on the side of the angels–because that’s the way he’s portrayed in books–really isn’t. I’ve got to figure out why the Door gets stuck in this universe: I guess the…
So far, I’m keeping just above the daily word count goal. The story has developed a romantic turn, to an extent, and when this is through, I’m going to have a helluva lot of research to do! Right now, I’m just pantsing along as usual. We’ll see if it actually turns into something I want to publish, here or elsewhere. I did meet someone at our library write-in who is publishing his story to fictionpress as he writes it. Since…
I’ve been keeping up pretty well with the daily word count and am up to over 12K, which is higher than yesterday’s total. Today’s is 13,334, so I have a bit left to go to reach it. Mostly I’ve been reading and cooking and doing laundry while mulling over where the story is supposed to go next. I’ve already had a character do something unexpected. For those writers who are planners, this doesn’t happen. Even those who aren’t necessarily planners…
This is for use only at the NaNo site–I would commission a cover if/when this story ever sees print. I got a little input from the Girl about the background but the rest is all mine. I’m putting it under a cut because I think it’s kind of largish and I’m usually all about the neat when it comes to my site. ETA: I just realized that my statement “the rest is all mine” sounds like I took the pictures….
I’m ahead of the curve on word count and the story is beginning to shape up a bit, though a character did something inexplicable and sudden that I don’t understand yet. (Yes, characters can and have taken stories in different directions than originally thought–it’s the beauty of being a “pantser” during NaNo.) The chat room is hopping late at night and in less than two hours I got over 1700 words written. Not bad considering I spent the day either…