A small portion of that was an addition to a previous scene. The rest was an entirely new one. I haven’t done an entirely new scene in a while. Most of these counts are additions to something I’d already begun.
I know I’m totally cheating using this thing to finish a book rather than start from scratch. Since I’m not formally signed up for NaNo, I feel fine about bending the rules. If I can finish this stupid thing, it will be worth it.
For tonight, I bid you adieu. If you aren’t sleepy yet, please enjoy this compilation video of Internet sensation Maru.
Word count- negligible. Just a few notes here and there. Sometimes when you have to change something, it means you have to regroup. I’m not worried about it.
I had a job interview today, and for some insane reason, I’m super tired. It’s quite possible I didn’t sleep very well. I had a hard time waking up. You know, one of those mornings where you keep almost doing it, and your dream goes on and on and on? Like that.
This weekend, I plan to hit it pretty hard, with a break to watch my friend Gracie Gold skate at the ISU Grand Prix Cup of Russia. The ladies and men’s long programs will air on NBC Sunday. She was first after the short program (!!!!) so she has an excellent chance to medal. Go Gracie! You can do it!
Since it’s already tomorrow there, I’ll have to stay off Twitter for a while so I can be surprised. Someone will undoubtedly tweet the winner before I can watch. Rawr.
Too tired to continue. I wrote two articles for a guest post gig today, took a hard walk, and looked for jobs on the internet. Tomorrow I have an interview.
During tonight’s session, I ran into a common conundrum in Writer Land, that of the Mysterious Changing Plot Device. I had something already written for a pivotal event, but now I have to scrap it. With the changes I’ve made, it just doesn’t make sense.
I was kind of bummed, but it happens. I usually keep a file for cuts so I can pick their bones later for useful bits. There is some good stuff in there I can salvage, so it’s not a total loss.
The good part is that I was able to sit down and force myself to write, even though I’m really tired and I didn’t feel like it. That’s the mark of a real writer. I may end up being one yet.
Time to stop now because I can’t see the page anymore. Good night.
I finished a new scene, a pivot point before the third act. Not only that, but there are things that were vaguely contradictory that are now beginning to work themselves out.
In a book where there are speculative elements, your world rules have to be very clear in order to allow suspension of disbelief. You must set them up in the beginning, and not deviate from them. It doesn’t matter how outlandish the world rules are. If you present them as truth, and keep to them, the reader will be able to accept what happens in the story in the context of those rules.
You’re just dying to know what this story is about, aren’t you? I don’t dare divulge it at this point. Maybe once it’s finished and I start querying it.
Since I started NaNo, and it actually seems to be working, I have come up with a plan. If I can finish this book by the end of the month, and hoping like hell that even worse things don’t happen in my life (pleez no moar!), then I can get the first edit done by February. If all goes well, I can quite possibly have it ready to query by the time spring rolls around.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PROMISE ME YOU WILL NOT QUERY A NANO BOOK WITHOUT EDITING!
Sorry, but so many agency screeners get hit by crappy first drafts, and in January, New Year’s resolutions (“I’m gonna dust off that old thing and send it in this year!”), or so I’m told. You really should be presenting no less than your best, polished work.
Time to go watch X-Files reruns for the evening. Later.
Someone on a website I like to read posted that she was far less productive when she was put into a cube off by herself and didn’t see or talk to anyone all day. I’m like that. If I stay home and don’t talk to anyone, I find my attention lagging, and distractions are soooo much more enticing.
If I have something to ignore, I can concentrate better. Music is fine, but it has to be instrumental. The second people start singing, I have to hear what they’re saying and I’m out. That’s why I don’t like the TV on when I’m studying or writing. Sometimes I can turn it on with the sound off, but even that is a problem sometimes.
Trying to find a job, figure out if I want to go back to school, deal with personal crap and everything else has made me wonder if I should have tried to do NaNo at all. But I’ll keep plugging away. I think eventually I’ll hit a point where it takes off. It’s all there. I just have to excavate it.
I also had a long talk with a friend about something that’s been upsetting me, and a revelation I had today. It was good to hear her voice. We haven’t talked in a long time (other than on Facebook). There’s no substitute for actually hearing the voices of your loved ones.
976 words today. And every one of them was a struggle. Every. Damn. One.
I did get the sticky plot point explained. But for some reason, this book is nowhere near as much fun to write as the last one. It’s ridiculous. The story has so much more going on. I know how it ends (I usually do). I have one awesome scene I’m saving until I’m almost done, because writing that one is going to have me giggling like a little kid.
I don’t have a soundtrack for it, I don’t love my protagonist, and I don’t care about the larger social issues the book addresses. I thought now would be a good time to get this done, since I’m not working, but all I can think about is that I’m not working. Among other, more upsetting things.
Hopefully 2013 will be much, much better than 2012. Of course, that’s what I said last time.
I don’t know what my word count is today; I’m not done yet. It’s been a suck of a day. I woke up this morning feeling like dog crap. So I drank my coffee and decided to do my work under the blanket today. Just as I got going, there was an explosion, and the power went out.
Apparently a squirrel had committed suicide on a transformer in my neighborhood. There was nothing I could do. By now I was hungry, so I got dressed and went to my favorite diner and had some lovely French toast and more coffee.
If he’d had French toast to look forward to, perhaps he would not have despaired.
I then went to the library where I farted around on the internet for about an hour. My neighbor called and said the power was back on. So I went home and farted around some more, answered some emails and watched Judge Judy.
Yes, writers have days like this. If I were working, I would have been at work. I might have gotten more done at lunchtime, but then again maybe not.
I’m working now, but just doing some maintenance on a few scenes. Altogether, I’ve probably hit around 500-600 words for today. Hopefully I’ll get more done before I knock off. I’m still feeling pretty punk, so I may just hit The X-Files and the bed a little early tonight.
Am I disappointed in myself? Yes, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes. There’s no reason to freak out about it, like someone who fell off a diet. I can make up my word count tomorrow.
That’s counting some notes I took, since I need to do some further research for this scene. So technically, I guess it probably worked out to around 2,150 words all together.
A 50,000-word novel written over a month works out to around 1700 words a day, roughly. To do that, you just have to turn off that inner editor and write. Part of the thing is that you don’t stop to look stuff up, a bad habit I have.
Well, okay, I stopped one time to go in my chat room and make a light saber noise when “Main Title” of Return of the Jedi came on.
Nerd and proud of it.
Photograph by Elizabeth West
And I stopped again when my phone rang. It was a recruiter for a job I applied for in April. Better late than never, I guess.
I wanted to put a NaNoWriMo banner or something on my posts, but for some insane reason, I can’t even sign up on the site. So screw them.
I hope everyone who signed up is doing well. See you tomorrow!
Graphomaniac - A. Elizabeth West 
