Nanowrimo update

I’m behind but I haven’t admitted defeat yet, I’ve clocked in a little over 33k, so if I keep plodding along and put in a bit extra on the weekend I think I can do it.

My story is awful, there’s no getting around that, BUT I don’t hate it, I can see now what it can be and my goal for this november is to get a FINISHED rough draft done, so I can go back and make it pretty.

Caught up!

Finally! I’m ahead in my word count (just slightly) but ahead. I passed 14000 today which means I met my husbands expectations anyway – very good of him to mind the baby ALL weekend.

So…the question is, have I built up enough momentum to manage 1500 odd words a day for the rest of November? The chances of another writing weekend are rather slim so I won’t be able to do a catch up.

Thoughts on my novel so far…I feel like I’m skimming the surface a lot and haven’t really got into the depth of emotion I need from my characters, however I am getting the basic narrative arc down. I hope to be able to go back and flesh out after that. I’ve hit one or two points where I’m not sure how I want the story to go and the characters are doing their own thing which is a thing I’m not sure I want them to do. I don’t know if I’m stomping down on potentially interesting developments or creating too neat reasons why x won’t do such and such. On the other hand I have had one or two moments of good dialogue (just one or two mind).  I don’t HATE my story but it’s not GOOD in any shape or form – it’s like the basic blocks of colour for a painting, there’s much to add before it’s even close to looking like a picture.

Day 7 continued…

Word count: 6971, written today: 5288. So if I do as well tomorrow I will meet my husband’s quota at least, although I had hoped to do more.

Doing a story outline and nutting out the scenes has been great and has lead to a change in focus for my nanoing this year. Normally I’d be trying to get as many words as possible in every scene. This year I’m focusing on getting as far as possible into the narrative. Hopefully this will mean that at the end I will have a completed draft, beginning to end instead of what I normally have which is 50 000 word third of a novel. So, I write what needs to be written to make a scene make sense (I’ve been finding that I’m combining scenes or including enough information to cut out a separate scene) and then moving on. And if I get to the end of the novel and still don’t have 50k, then I can go back and flesh out characters or descriptions.

That’s the plan.

Nanowrimo – writing weekend

My lovely husband is minding the baby ALL weekend so that I can get into my nano novel. Since I have no chance of not being interrupted at home I’ve scarpered for the day to the state library where there is free wireless internet, comfy lounges, power for laptops and decent coffee. *hearts*

So far I’ve written 1063 words today, an improvement in pace of 28% according to my trusy nanowrimo stats sheet.

Yesterday in preparation for a writing blitz this weekend I went through my snowflake document (such as it is) and broke most of it down into scenes and put those into my document as chapter headings. At first I found the planning a little stifling when it came down to writing since I felt as if I had to ‘get through’ the first scene, but I’ve revisited my snowflake plan and this step has been helpful in that now it gives me a helpful idea of what to write when I get to each chapter.

Back to it, husband has given me a quota of at least 10 000 words to fulfil this weekend. I’m hoping for more actually – one of the people on the nano forums I read got 50k in 16 hours. I have 16 hours this weekend working 2 8 hour days, so maybe I can do it too!

(just have to stop blogging and checking facebook *shakes fist at tempting free wireless access*)

Days 3 & 4

I’m taking this weekend as a writing weekend, which means that my husband will be looking after the bambino 100%. nice! However last night he threatened to impose a word quota before I was allowed to have my weekend! (I won’t tell him that that might actually spur me on…)

1611 words…am hoping to write a few more tonight.

Nanowrimo day 1 & 2

er…901 words so far… no writing today as yet…

ok onwards and upwards

Halloween

(or what I’ve been doing instead of planning my nano novel)

In honour of having a reason to decorate this year I ‘did’ Halloween – not a really Australian thing but hey, I’ve always wanted to carve a pumpkin.

Here he is, Mr Jack O’Lantern

And in situ with the candelabras we inherited from my in-laws

And the view from outside, suitably spooky

 

I made a little wizard’s costume for my bubba for playgroup this week. Unfortunately we were both to sick to go, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t dress up in costume for a visit from Sailor Moon this afternoon.

   

I had wanted a simple costume that a toddler could without getting tangled up that didn’t cost too much. Since I had  piece of black cardboard and star shaped rubber stamp in my craft box and a piece of dark blue fabric, elastic and ribbon in my sewing box all it cost was about twenty minutes of my time.

Sadly we didn’t have an trick or treaters even though this year I was prepared. Oh well…my little man enjoyed the candle display so that’s all that matters.

A short post to say…

That even if our refrigerator is broken and I haven’t done all the housework I should, and I ought to be changing the sheets right now…I love a proper rainy day (especially when it hasn’t rained for a very long time).

Planning

I’m really enjoying following the steps of the snowflake method for this year’s nano novel.  It’s given me a way of getting the ideas down without having to actually write the story or worry about sentence structure or dialogue. It’s also at that point where, if I’m interrupted by my bubba, it’s ok, I can walk away and keep thinking about the story. In fact, when I reach the end of a step, I feel like taking a break and that I’ve achieved something.  I guess it’s really breaking novel writing down into manageable steps.

I’m up to step 5 now – writing a one page description of each major character. This will be interesting since I haven’t really even described the characters appearances yet. I think I’ll have to devote a bubba-nap to each of my main protagonists so I can focus on them individually.

epiphany

The one thing I miss about being a SAHM is the joy of a long weekend off - that thrill of having two or three days entirely free to fill as you like, guilt-free, a blank slate that’s yours to draw on. Now there is no job to escape from, and although I am ‘off’ work every day, there are duties and responsibilities that will be there on Saturday and Sunday and every day in between. And…a little person who needs, wants and who I love beyond words and therefore cannot forget about for even a little while.

sometimes I do get a morning off though…a small bit of time to do as I please