Nanowrimo day . . . Whatever

And the hits just keep on coming. I've gotten nothing done in the last 2 days because of drama and I have no idea when it's all going to stop. I'm getting migraines and having trouble sitting still because of an overwhelming urge to hit things.
I'm updating this from my phone. Never done that before so we'll see how it works. Now, to bed, hopefully to be more productive tomorrow.

Nanowrimo Day 13

Today, the stress of the last few days caught up with me. I have been laid out with a cold. I did manage to get a little bit of writing done but not nearly as much as I'd hoped to.

Words written today: 1015
Total words written: 17126

Yes, I'm still way behind. I have plans to get caught up tomorrow. I'm hoping some good sleep will help me feel better.

Nanowrimo Day 12

Today has been better. I'm in no way ready to be social (though that's not as unusual as it may seem) but I think I've gotten past the worst of the grieving. I still get a gut-punch feeling when I think about the fact that I lost my favorite uncle this summer, and I still end up crying, and I expect that to go on with the people I've lost in the last few days. I'm still processing the fact that people I loved aren't at the other end of a phone anymore. I know they're in a much better place and away from the pain they were in these last few years.

Everybody processes grief differently and I'm not still if I'm sure I've gotten the whole grieving thing down. I've been told, when you start to do it often enough, you get used to it. Well, no thank you, I don't want to get used to this yet.

I do know that my uncle was very proud of me and he would think what I'm doing now was very cool. He was always the person who thought I was cool, even when I didn't. My grandfather would approve of me going my own way, I think, and I like to think of him watching me while I write. He might not have gotten what I'm writing but he would have been proud of me for doing it.

So, writing! Did I do it today?

Yes, I did! I know, I'm proud of me, too.

I started the day needing 6000 words to catch up to where I should be to complete Nanowrimo on time. I did not write enough to be "caught up" to my goal but dang it, I'm a lot closer than I was yesterday.

Words written today: 2875
Total words written: 16111

I will likely do a bit more writing before I go to bed but it's very nearly midnight so any additional words will count towards tomorrow.

Nanowrimo Day 11

Sometimes, things just happen that knock you on your ass. I've had a series of events over the last couple of days that, while I could have taken each of them ok if it had been just that one thing, the combination has just done a number on me. Quite frankly, I've spent most of today crying and I expect that to continue through tomorrow, as well.

That kid? That's me. The asshole dog? That's life. See? It's like it's a metaphor

If writing was a day job, I'd be taking time off for this. Now, I don't plan to take all that much time off and I'm looking forward to immersing myself in the worlds I've created and spending time tormenting my characters. However, sometimes, we just need to grieve and that's the point I'm at.

Words written today stands at 0 and I am officially way behind on Nanowrimo. I have plans to catch up but it's going to be a long, hard slog for a while.

This just makes me laugh.

Nanowrimo Days 9 & 10

Trying desperately to accomplish something for the last couple of days has been like pulling teeth. I can't focus on anything. So, I finally sat down today and got some editing done. I did 2 read-thru's, a light edit and now I'm going in line by line to clean up punctuation and tenses. It looks like I bled on it. Actually, it would probably have looked better if I'd just opened a vein on it. But its a great story! And one that I will be very proud of once it's finished... and it's not even mine!

So what does that mean for my Nano word count? Um, well, it means that I've put up 0 words for today and yesterday. Supposedly, I'll have all day tomorrow to finish editing and to get caught up on my words but we'll see what happens. I think I need to eat more bacon.



Oh! I also hit 100,000 page views! Woot!

Nanowrimo Day 8

I was productive today!  No, seriously, that's not sarcasm. I was ready to smack myself today before my productivity began and, when I think about it, I still kinda want to smack past me for being a moron.

I'm supposed to take vitamins every day. Most women should, but mine are very, very important. I'm anemic so I take an iron supplement every day and a couple other vitamins that make functioning like a regular human adult possible. I got really sick for a few days this summer and forgot to take my vitamins. And then I continued forgetting until I got out of the habit and I couldn't figure out why I was so tired. Uh, duh! Anemic who doesn't take their iron supplements is the definition of tired . . . and stupid.

So, I got 10 hours of sleep tonight and took my vitamins and wow, I can function again! Seriously, night and day difference.

On to the writing recap!

Last night, I added more to the story I'm doing for Nanowrimo. When I woke up this morning, I hated it. Absolutely hated it. It was a victim puke and emotion dump for me. It had no place in my story so, I did something most Nano veterans tell you not to do. I deleted it. 900 words went bye bye because I just couldn't stand to have them in my story. With those 900 words, I would have been beyond what I needed to be at today to make my goal of 50,000 words by November 30. Oh well, such is life and it was a conscious decision to put myself behind to be a little happier with my writing.

The words below are going to be the official count from the Nano website and won't reflect the 900 words that I wrote and deleted. I could do another 97 words tonight but, quite frankly, I'm exhausted and just want to go to bed at this point. So, I'll catch up the rest of the way tomorrow.

Today's words: 2306
Total words written: 13236

Nanowrimo Day 7

Today . . . today was better. I have to admit to being very, very overwhelmed lately and it all hit me in the last 24 hours. I did get some writing done but it was like pulling teeth. I kept crying. And, no, it wasn't because of the election. Well, not entirely because of the election. The recession has hit us pretty hard, to the point that we're not sure when/if we're going to be homeless before the end of the year.  I think we're going to be ok but the stress has been killer and I don't see an end in sight.

I haven't gotten as much done as I've wanted to for a while. I may try to write a bit more before I go to bed but, to be honest, I'm exhausted. I just want to curl up with a pillow and go to sleep.

Today's words: 919
Total word count: 10930

Steampunk Midweek Motivation

I've posted this one before but it's still a good one.

Nanowrimo Day 6

Right now, I hate everything and everyone. I might change my mind tomorrow.

Today's words: 78
Total words written: 10,012

Nanowrimo Day 5

I know I did stuff today. I really, really did. It just doesn't feel like it.

I finished typing in the stuff I did this weekend. I added a tab to the top of the blog that has the books I've written and where they're currently offered for sale. I tracked down my final drafts of everything so I can re-format them and get them up for Kobo.

What didn't I do? I didn't write anything new today. I didn't get the family drama handled to my satisfaction. I didn't work out the way I wanted to.

I think it's time for some lavender tea and a bath. Maybe I'll feel better and in less of a funk. And maybe I can get some more of the story written before bed.

Words written today: 7892
Total words written: 9934

NaNoWriMo Days 2,3 and 4

Ya know, as my kids get older, the busier they get which means I get turned into a taxi service on the weekends. I've spent the last 3 days driving around like a mad person from church events to school events to appointments for head shots (my son is acting) to football parties. We actually were able to stay home for long enough to make some homemade mozzarella cheese. My writing was done in notebooks with a pen this weekend and I'm actually in the middle of transcribing the notebooks onto the computer. Alas, it's almost 3am and I'm having difficulty reading what I've written.

So, it's time to call it a night and get some work done tomorrow. Provided, that is, that I don't get a call back from my "day job" and get sent out to New York to help our clients recover from Hurricane Sandy. And sometime this week, I have to get the spices so I can make pumpkin pie cheesecake.

Today's word count (typed): 972
Total word count (typed) 2042

Nanowrimo: Day 1

I have to say, it's harder getting started this year than it was last year. I can't say exactly why, just that I'm not feeling the enthusiasm I was last year. Of course, last year, I was coming off a very successful writing convention and doing it with my best friend. I missed the convention this year and my best friend is currently shivering on Long Island, hoping they get her power back on soon.

So, I don't know, getting back into the swing of writing regularly (which I got out of over the summer) is going to take some time.


Words written today: 1,070
Total words written: 1,070

Nanowrimo - The Beginning

Boy, have I been busy! I have 4 blog posts half-written about what's been going on in my life but I haven't had much of a chance to work on them recently.

However, I am making time for something that was awesome and fun that I did last year; NaNoWriMo.

At one point in the last month, as I was jotting down ideas for what I wanted to do for NaNo this year, I was informed that serious writers don't do NaNoWriMo. Well, excuse me, but I think they do. In fact, some of the more serious authors I've met do NaNoWriMo every month. In November, they're just doing it with everybody else.

So, what's my plan for this years NaNoWriMo? I'm doing a collection of short stories based on different fairy tales. The first one is based on Sleeping Beauty and is called The Dreaming Tower. This is, in fact, a sequel to Stained Glass Forest (which is currently available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble in ebook format).

I plan to update my blog as close to daily on my progress and share snippets of the really good stuff.