Day Eight - and so it begins, Week Two that is. I got more than my minimum words in today (1736 to be exact) and I'm still a little ahead of the game but it was such a struggle to get started. I bet I played more Spider Solitaire than ever today because I just couldn't find the words when I needed them. My story is so disjointed right now that I'm having a tough time ending the scenes that I have started. Tomorrow I'm having lunch with a good friend. I"m hoping if I try and explain this story to her it will help me to see what I have and what I need. I planl dedicate my writing time to putting together characters, short synopsis of scenes and hopefully an overall look at where this story is trying to go.
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Day Seven - What a day this has been. Thanks to the insistence of my cat, I've been working outside on my Netbook for at least half the word count today. It was a perfect day - 72 degrees and the clearest, bluest sky in the world. Too bad I'm trying to write something dark and gloomy and scary. A Fall day in Houston just doesn't lend it self well to gloom and doom. But I persevered and made 1706 words today. Now I can relax until tomorrow which is a very scary day. It's the beginning of WEEK TWO, historically the worst week ever in NaNoland. Day Six - BOO I didn't make my minimum goal for the first time this NaNo. I reached 1587 words before I hit the wall. I am still ahead for the six days by over 550 words so I don't feel completely devastated by it. The sad part is that I found myself using a lot of filler in the scene I worked on. That tells me I need to spend a good bit of time reading over what plotting I did do and try to pull out some of the basic themes I want to include in this novel. Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow. I'm only awarding this day One glass on the Duxbury Wine Scale. I exceeded my minimum number of words again (1764) but so much of my work today was confined to backstory and character analysis that it doesn't seem fair to reward myself for words that may never show up in my finished novel. Granted, I did do the work. It all does count toward 'winning' NaNoWriMo but somehow only having a One Glass day soothes my conscience. Day Four - WOO HOO! 1812 words today for a total of 7215. My best day yet even though the last 600 words were next to impossible. I would have sworn I was through until I checked my word count (yeah yeah for the twentieth time) and I still had 600 to go. I'm already finding myself using ten words when five would get my point across much more elegantly. Oh well, that is what post NaNoWriMo editing is for. Also, I have tried my best to turn off Facebook Sharing. I only meant to share at the beginning and end of each week. No matter what I do it keeps turning back on. Day three - I wrote 1733 words today for a total 5403 to date. I spent a lot of time adding content to yesterday's work plus a few paragraphs of the next scene I want to work on. It really helps to stop in the middle of a scene. It leaves you a starting point instead of a blank page the next day. Biggest problem today is that I've started checking my word count way too often. Just when I think I've typed a thousand words, I check the count and it is only a few hundred. So depressing!!! And because it is so depressing, I'm giving myself a three glass day! Hey, I deserve it don't I? Day Two - success again! I managed 1780 words today but boy was it hard. I knew where the scene was taking place and who was there but getting those people to talk to each other was not easy. My biggest problem with NaNo is not allowing myself to edit while I go along. Of course if I did edit I probably would never make my minimum word goal. It is a lot easier to write when you can let yourself leave nonsensical garbage on the page. Day one is over!! What a relief. I'm proclaiming this a two glass day because I hit 1890 words. That gives me a 223 word cushion so far. In the past, when I have actually been prepared for NaNo, the first day has always been the best day of the month. When I spend the weeks before November 1st plotting and planning my story and getting to know my characters, that first day is a breeze. Sadly, I've now discovered that when I spend the weeks before NaNo on vacation, followed by a screaming yellow zonker of a sinus headache, that first day becomes a whole lot harder. I'm glad I got it done but I'm really worried about what tomorrow will bring. I'm afraid I've written everything I know already! Stay tuned! Hey kids, what time is it? Right you are! November is almost here so it must be NaNo Time! National Novel Writing Month is bearing down on us at breakneck speed. This year I'm not going to keep my misery to myself, I plan to share all of my ups and downs. But, in the interest of fair play and so no one is forced to read depressing posts if they don't want to, I will mark each post with a clearly defined scale of joy or misery; success or failure; agony or ecstasy. See you on November 1st! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AND NOW, MAY I INTRODUCE THE DUXBURY WINE SCALE (patent pending): THREE WINE GLASSES: This is reserved for those days when not only have I exceeded the minimum word count but every word is a treasure. I am a genius! My prose is perfection and my story has no plot holes. Needless to say, there probably won't be many of these days but never say never. THE WHOLE DAMN BOTTLE: Agony or ecstasy, this one is a toss up. Could be I wrote half my novel in a day or I accidentally hit delete and lost the whole thing. You'll just have wait and see. Image courtesy of: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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