camp nanowrimo

Daily Writing Check-in: April 1, 2019

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Words/Time:  35 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

I continued my conversation with Jonathan about the events of this story, and read over my brainstorming from when I wrote the first draft. I think I might just have a more solid grasp on this story now. In any event, I’m ready to start laying out the plot points and see what it looks like.

Camp NaNoWriMo started today. I set my goal at 30 hours for the month, which I’m already behind on. But I am okay with that. I take Camp NaNo seriously, but not quite as seriously as NaNo proper. It will help me push myself, and that’s all that matters.

Daily Writing Check-in: March 31, 2019

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Words/Time:  20 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

I continued my conversation with Jonathan about the events of this story, which I had not finished at the point that I took an unplanned break. The conversation is still proving very insightful, though I think its usefulness is coming to an end. Not because I have the events figured out, but because I’ve run up against the big, empty 2nd half of act 2 & beginning of act 3. The same late mid-section that I left empty in the first draft of this book. I just feel like there’s something missing, but I haven’t hit on what it is yet.

I don’t know if this means I’ll need to do some more broad brainstorming, or if I need to pick a different character to interview, or if I just need to let it sit for a while. Or even if I need to go ahead and write the outline I have so far, and even draft it from that, and see if more plot points come up during the actual writing (it happens a lot for me). It will be difficult to even decide where to go next.

It has not been the most stellar month of writing for me, but I’m really glad I had enough self-motivation to get even 20 minutes in today. Since I officially quit my job 2 weeks ago, but agreed to stay on to help finish a huge project and train other people, things have actually gotten worse at my job. I have taken refuge in the game Stardew Valley most evenings as a coping mechanism. As much as I’d rather say I use my writing, story world, characters, etc. as a coping mechanism…this is just too much to cope with.

Camp NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, and I hope to be able to push past my emotional and mental issues caused by work, and be able work on my writing every day this month, with an ultimate goal of an average of an hour a day. I know that might be unrealistic at this time, but if I don’t set my goal higher than what I do outside of Camp, then it’s almost pointless to participate. I’m also well aware that I might end up crashing and burning in this attempt, but it’s worth trying.

Daily Writing Check-in: March 4, 2019

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Words/Time:  53 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

For now, this work entails reading the first draft of the book that was written during NaNoWriMo in 2015. So far, I’m not particularly enjoying it, which is sad, but not surprising. In fact, of all of the 7 books I have planned, all of which have at least some version of a draft written, this is my least favorite. Not the story idea itself, but what has been written for it.

I think the main reason for this is that I wasn’t as prepared in advance of writing this as I prefer to be, so it’s very disjointed. (I’ve said this before and will say it again–I am not a pantser.) But as I’m reading, I’m realizing something else–my long-time two favorite characters, who play a secondary role in this book, are just…annoying. She keeps whining and he’s not really helping much either.

I am now 100% certain this book needs a complete rewrite, rather than a revision, and I fully expect to come out way ahead after doing that. I have literally just this moment decided that I am definitely going to write the new draft for this for Camp NaNoWriMo that starts in April. As long as the outline is done and I feel confident in the mystery set-up. So maybe this. This or “Unexpectedly.” Maybe. Or maybe I’ll just use Camp NaNo to push the amount of the same writing work that I do in a day. Wow, I just talked myself out of writing the first draft of this book over the course of writing this paragraph.

Daily Writing Check-in: February 28, 2019

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Words/Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes doing preliminary work for the outline of “Unexpectedly.”

Most of this time was spent continuing the character interview that I started yesterday, and the rest was spent reading through most of the original, unfinished version of “Unexpectedly.” This particular conversation has reached its conclusion, and I am ready to proceed with the outline.

goal tracker 19-2-28
My writing-time goal in February was to average 30 minutes per day. I surpassed, even making up for several days here and there of not writing at all. I probably won’t set my daily goal higher for March, but with April comes Camp NaNoWriMo, so I may push myself more then. It’ll depend on what’s going on at work by then.

DailyTime-30min-DebbieOhi-200

Daily Writing Check-in: February 10, 2019

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Words/Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes working on the outline for “Outcast.”

There are 2 distinctly different, yet related story lines in “Outcast.” When I wrote the first version of this story, I wrote the story lines separately, and then intertwined them. The method worked perfectly, so that’s what I plan to do again. As such, I have outlined just 1 story line so far (which I just finished today). Tomorrow, I’ll start on outlining the 2nd.

I’ve come across an interesting conundrum that I will have to seriously consider. At one time, I thought I could just revise the fanfiction version of “Outcast” to fit into my current story world. It would be heavy revision, sure, but a lot of the story isn’t dependent on the setting or mechanics of the story world. But later, I realized I wouldn’t be able to do that, because it would just be too much change. And why would I want to, when I’ve grown so much as a writer since I wrote it?

However, in writing this outline, I noticed just how much really is the same from before. And while I have grown as a writer in the 10 years since I wrote it, it was also what I would consider a turning point in my writing ability when I wrote it. It was the best writing I’d done up to that point. So to save some time, and frankly to avoid making the writing process super hard by trying to re-write it without either consciously or sub-consciously trying to state things the same way, it still might be better to revise, but with heavy focus on re-writing any sections that are weak, not as well written as I feel it could be, or of course needs to change because of the different story world. There are definitely sections of the outline that are just completely different because the game mechanics that just don’t translate to the more real-world setting I’ve created.

In the end, it might just be laziness. I see a lot of writers talking about re-drafting stories, sometimes more than once, but I don’t like the idea of writing something, then writing it again (from scratch) unless the original just did not work at all. So after I finish the outline, I will set it aside, because my current long-term writing goals don’t include re-drafting or revising “Outcast” yet, but when that time comes (which might be before the long-term goals are finished, if I decide to work on this for Camp NaNoWriMo), I will most likely start with revising, and see how it goes.

This was a long explanation, I know. I often overthink things.

Write Every Day: Writer’s Retreat

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dream plan write

I haven’t posted a daily progress update in over a week. My family took a 5-day trip to Toronto starting last Thursday, and returning Monday. I have spent the rest of this week recovering, and also purposely avoiding my writing. When we got back, I was tired and unfocused and gave into the laziness.

I think I may have needed a little rest after Camp NaNo, though I know that’s not in the spirit of writing every day at all.  Still, I knew my chance to dive back in would be coming soon.

My in-laws have a trailer set up at a local campground, which they’ve visited now and then throughout the summer. Several weeks ago, while thinking about our family spending a weekend out there, I realized something. That could be a great place for a quiet weekend away from all of the distractions of home. The initial idea wasn’t necessarily for it to be full of writing, rather simply time alone, after a chaotic summer.

School is about to start, and I homeschool my kids. I have a son who is starting 8th grade and a daughter who is about to start a more structured daily routine for kindergarten. And this summer hasn’t really been the most relaxing “time off” any kind of teacher might hope to get. Hence the weekend getaway. My husband is the one who mentioned the idea of making it a writing weekend.

So I am leaving this evening, with food that won’t need much preparation, my laptop, every notebook I think I may need, printouts of two different stories, and no real chance at having internet (the wi-fi is terrible there, I’m told). I am bringing some DVDs to watch for a break now and then and plan to get out and take a walk when I need to stretch my legs. I’ll likely stay up until I’m too tired to think, sleep until (most likely) noises from neighbors wake me up, and keep going.

Come Sunday evening, I may have a very different post to share about the realities of my writer’s retreat, but for now, I have grand plans to get all sorts of work done, and to recharge before school starts up again.

Have any of you out there ever had a sort of writer’s retreat? A day, weekend, or even more away from normal life, during which you focused on writing?

Daily Challenge Check-in: July 28, 2015

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Words/Time: 3560 words revising “Pithea” with two of my sisters over Skype. Also known as the 49th meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book. We got through almost 12 pages of double-spaced text. There were some issues raised tonight that made me very defensive of my words, but they were all resolved peacefully. I did wander off to the kitchen to scrub a dirty dish while we talked about one though (I use a wireless headset during these meetings), because I can’t sit still when these kinds of issues arise. That was something I only realized I did tonight.

Camp-Participant-2015-Web-BannerIt’s the end of week 4 of Camp NaNo, and there are now only 3 days left. I am about an hour away from my goal of working for an average of an hour per day all month. We’re leaving on Thursday for a 5-day trip to Toronto, so I most likely won’t have time to work on Thurs or Fri. Tomorrow, my kids and I will be spending a lot of the day packing and otherwise getting ready. I had anticipated being done with Camp NaNo tonight, so I wouldn’t have to work on it tomorrow, but I had to skip Sunday, so now I have another day’s work to do. I will do my best to make time tomorrow. It’s just an hour. If that fails, I will figure out some way I can do some work either in the car (though I tend to get carsick if I’m looking at a book, mobile screen, or anything like that, while the car is moving) or in the hotel between Thurs and Fri, during any down time. I’ll fit it in, even if I have to get up before the rest of the family on Friday.

Daily Challenge Check-in: July 27, 2015

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Words/Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes, adding revisions for “Pithea” that were made on paper into the computer. Not working on anything yesterday has put a crimp in my plans to win Camp NaNo tomorrow. And that’s a shame, because I’m leaving on Thursday for 5 days in Toronto. Wednesday will be mostly spent packing and getting otherwise ready, with an early bedtime. I don’t see having time, or focus, to work for the last hour I’ll be needing. Maybe I’ll have to find some sort of writing work I can do on the 8-hour drive. Or in the hotel on Friday afternoon, which for now is slated to be our only downtime all weekend.

Daily Challenge Check-in: July 26, 2015

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Words/Time: None. For the first time all month, I did not a single bit of writing work today. Not on my story, not for Camp NaNo, not even for this blog (besides right now, but this doesn’t count). Normally I just don’t post if I do nothing, but today wasn’t a lazy day, it was a full day. Up very early, nap in the afternoon, then a 90-minute drive for a concert with my family. To be honest, I’m mostly just posting because I was so close to posting every day in July that I didn’t want a day with no chance to work to ruin it. And to share this picture:

fK&C Elkhart 056

for KING & COUNTRY in Elkhart, IN