Words/Time: Almost 2 hours inserting chapters into “Pithea,” in Scrivener, after finishing breaking it into scenes. I’m 3/4 of the way through the story, so I’ll be done soon, and then I can finally proceed with reading through it again. This weekend, my family has enough Christmas-related plans that I may not get much done. And I won’t stress over making sure to do some work every day, if I’m tired in the evening or something. Though I’ll probably finish this chapter thing before I go to bed tonight.
amwriting
Daily Writing Check-in: December 10, 2015
Words/Time: 1 hour transferring “Pithea,” one scene at a time, into Scrivener. I’m not sure why it took me an hour to only get 2/3 of it done, but it did. I guess there’s more to it than that, as I did a few other things at the same time, like figure out how many words part 1 is, and how many chapters it would be if I averaged 5000 words per chapter.
Either later tonight or tomorrow night, I will finish this and divide the chapters. Then I’ll bug a few people to read it while I also start into reading it again.
Or maybe I’ll go give “The Triangle” another read-through. That’s one I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned on this blog. It’s a novelette-length story, which I hope to self-publish soon. More on that later, maybe.
Daily Writing Check-in: December 9, 2015
Words/Time: 30 minutes revising “Pithea.” I put the finishing touches on the draft that I did declare done a few days ago, but I neglected to remember the few more edits I needed to make. Tonight I call it done. And now I have remembered that I haven’t finished laying out the scenes in order to find the best chapter breaks. I was using Scrivener for that, which was the free trial at the time. I can use my code for winning NaNo to purchase the full version, but I don’t know if I want the Mac or PC version. (My husband just acquired a MacBook, which is our household’s first Mac. And since Scrivener was originally made for the Mac, it has features on that version that it doesn’t on the PC.)
Tomorrow I’ll see about downloading the trial version on the MacBook and work on the chapters there, while also trying to decide which full version I want to buy. I am almost ready to share my novel with some close friends and relatives who I know are wanting, or at least willing, to read it before it’s finalized and/or published, but I feel like chapters would be good first.
Daily Writing Check-in: December 8, 2015
Words/Time: 25 minutes revising “Pithea.” I had a few areas of text I needed to fix after the marathon meeting on Saturday. Minor things that just needed updating based on decision we made, but I didn’t want to take the time to do during the meeting, so we could move on to other areas. Of the 4 notes I made to fix later, I checked off 2 of them today.
I did nothing yesterday or Sunday, hence not posting those days. After a full month of pressured writing, apparently I needed more of a break than I’d expected. Sunday I was actually gone all evening, but yesterday my husband convinced me to just relax and enjoy the evening. I almost skipped today too, but decided to at least get a little work done.
Daily Writing Check-in: December 5, 2015
Words/Time: 11 hours revising “Pithea” with my sisters, for the 61st and final meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book. It was our 5th marathon meeting, and we spent all day (minus some other chatter, and breaks for lunch and supper) working out all of the questions, issues, and last-minute changes to my very first novel.
This means that draft 4 is officially finished! My plan now is to read through it one more time at a more even pace, since draft 4 was done in a somewhat disjointed way by 3 people who didn’t always agree, over the course of a year. I’ll read through it, not looking to line edit or rewrite, but just to enjoy it and to watch for disrupted flow or something that just doesn’t sound right.
After that…I might just be able to declare it ready.
Daily Writing Check-in: December 3, 2015
Words/Time: 45 minutes revising “Pithea.” I started with writing the letter that will probably be the last text of the book. I’m not sure about it, because it was really hard to write, being a bit out of character for the person writing it, and I’m not so good with emotional stuff. I’ll let my sisters tell me what they think at our editing session on Saturday. The rest of the time was spent putting in some details about a character’s nervous habit that I didn’t bother including until we were near the end of the draft. I found a few places to sprinkle it elsewhere in the story.
My list of things I need to do before Saturday is really shortened. I may take tomorrow off of any writing work, so I can rest from NaNo. I don’t feel like I’ve gotten much chance to do that yet. And Saturday I’ll be doing writing work for probably 12 hours, so I think that should more than make up for a day off.
Daily Writing Check-in: December 2, 2015
Words/Time: 35 minutes revising “Pithea.” One character isn’t from Pithea, and he’s meant to have a slight accent. While that’s difficult to write in text, especially when the accent is vague, my sisters and I decided that we should at least make sure he chooses words differently than what seems normal for the rest of the characters. (It’s also not meant to be a particularly strong accent.) Every time he appeared in part 4, we neglected to go over his dialog in this way, so I was going through and finding some possible changes to make.
I’m putting off what I really need to do, which is to write an emotional letter that will probably be the very end of the book. I need to have it ready for Saturday, when we’re going to go over some final notes and fixes for the story. Maybe I’ll write it tomorrow… it won’t even be very long, it’s just…emotional.
December 1, 2015
NaNoWriMo is over, but I just have a few more things to say. This year was different than past NaNo experiences for me in multiple ways. It was full of a lot of highs and lows. My first write-ins, my first word crawls, a new writing buddy, and the 25k on day 1 all made this a November to remember. I also wrote a full novel and probably 2/3 of another, which was new for me. One thing I learned is that I’m better not pushing for a huge word count in a single day. If it happens, then I’m probably in the right mood for it, and great! Otherwise, I risk burning out, and I really did teeter on the edge of that during the rest of the first week.
I just have to say a huge thank you to my husband who gave me everything I needed this month–time and encouragement to work, but also a reminder that I don’t have to overachieve if it’s just not feeling right. Oh, and lots of fun and relaxation right when I needed it. And to my sister who came to the write-in with me, even though it was so far from where she lives. It was so much fun doing that, and we were even in the paper!
I keep saying that the community and mutual encouragement of the community is what makes NaNo so amazing, and it really is true! I felt a lot of that when I was having issues this month, from fellow bloggers, people in my region, and just from finding new ways to be inspired on the NaNo forums. I will always love this event and the people who are involved!
One last time for 2015, make sure to check out the final NaNoToons – 2015 December 1st
And since I apparently forgot to post any more episodes of the musical, here is episode 5. There’s one more after it, and I think it’s linked at the end of this one. I wanted to get to episode 5 specifically, because it contains my favorite out of all the songs.
Now onto the non-NaNo part of the post, today’s daily writing check-in:
Words/Time: 25 minutes organizing notes for “Pithea” in anticipation of the next (and probably last for a very long time) marathon meeting of the TCSTB. We’ve left a lot of things to work on later through the 100,000ish words of this novel, so I went through and found all of the issues, questions, or whatever, and made a list of what we needed to work on.
NaNoWriMo Day 30
The Words: 7999 written today. So though I had decided not to push for 100,000 words, once I started writing today, I really started feeling it again and just kept wanting to come back to it. Then I had to stop for a while for normal family life, and started to get antsy to get back to it. I crossed the 100k mark around 11:10 pm! And I finished the climax, and spent some time brainstorming what else should happen. And I think I have a decent idea for the rest of the story, whether I work on that after NaNo or leave it for a long time. The brainstorming being in text, and not just in my mind, will help a lot if I do put it aside for now.
One of the more important things for me, this year, was this:
I wanted to make sure that I wrote some words every day of the month, no matter how many or how few. I’m not sure I’ve ever done that during NaNo before.
This weekend my sisters and I are having what we hope will be one final, day-long editing session for “Pithea,” so no matter what I do with the novel I didn’t quite finish for NaNo, I have to work on getting ready for that this week.
For those of you who came to my blog during November, I will continue to post nearly every day. I make it a goal to write or revise a certain amount every day, which I don’t adhere to quite as strictly as I do during NaNo, but it still keeps me from falling into huge lazy gaps. This blog was originally started as a place to keep myself accountable for that, and it continues to be such.
The Story: Missy and her husband happen upon Jonathan and his unanticipated nemesis squaring off. A sudden fight breaks out, and who is left on the other side, and how, is completely unexpected. Of course I can’t really say more due to spoilers, but it should be a neat twist! And in my revision someday, I’ll have to make the whole thing much more grand than it turned out.
I think I’ve straightened out my heroes and villains, and even know what’s going to eventually happen between the middle area I last left off at and the climax that I finished today.
Total word count: 100,383
Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 30th And check back tomorrow, because there’s usually one more comic for Dec. 1st!
NaNoWriMo Day 29
The Words: 854 words written today. I realized this evening that I was only writing because I felt like I had to. I had set myself a goal for 100,000 words by the end of the month, and I felt like a failure if I couldn’t reach it. I’m still not thrilled about the idea of letting that goal go, and I may drive myself crazy tomorrow telling myself I should be writing. Maybe I’ll really push for it tomorrow, but I had to make the decision today that I’d only do that if I felt like it, not because I thought I had to. It’s an arbitrary goal, and I’ve already won NaNo whether I make that or not. But it’s been making me feel stressed because things have been more hectic than usual lately with special activities to do, holidays (though that was planned for in advance at least) and a sick kid. So I’m giving myself permission to fall short.
My main goal is to try to get the climax written completely, so I don’t leave that hanging at least (and yes, I jumped to the climax, though I wasn’t actually there in my writing yet).
The Story: Jonathan is confronting the person who is behind everything that’s been going on. He’s starting to realize how much this person has pulled strings for years now. He doesn’t know why yet. (I have no idea how Jonathan got out of jail, but I know he needs to.)
Total word count: 92,385
Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 29th
A Journey of Words 