NaNoWriMo Coming to a Close This Friday...

Yes, Friday is the last day of NaNo. I've been so busy with holiday stuff and household chores that since the 13th, I haven't been able to wrap my mind around my novel to finish it. Seems my brain went on vacation as soon as I hit 50K. LOL

Oh, I think about writing or working on it everyday. I couldn't count how many times I stare at the screen and think...just open the file and get back into the story. What were Wes and Melody up to when you last saw them?

Last night as I went to bed, I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, there's a reason. Maybe it's because I feel that if I work on it now, I'll have a boring, letdown of an ending. Of course, this is the first draft, so it shouldn't matter. I'll be going back to it later to revise and change things up anyway and maybe later I will think of a much more exciting ending, or if not exciting...at least a more gratifying ending.

It's not that I'm not happy with what I've written so far. I'm sure it could be better, but for the most part, I am satisified. Maybe though this year the distraction of holiday decorating and gathering has gotten the better of my writerly side.

I'm all wrapped in up ribbons and bows and sparkling paper and twinkling lights and Christmas cards.

Today though, I need to try my best to put my brain back to work. So I'm off and gone-

Have a good Hump Day!

I'm a winner

My novel isn't done...been just too many things going on the past couple of weeks to work on it since I hit 50K. I'm hoping tomorrow through Friday will give me the opportunity to finish it before the month is over.

Dead on My Feet~

I've been sidetracked from my writing a lot since I hit 50K last week. Saturday I got most of the inside of the house decorated...got the tree up and some of the decorations set out. Wrapped the grandparents and great grandmothers presents, etc.

Saturday we discovered that my fiber optic waterfall village and train piece was messed up beyond repair, so Sunday we got up early and went to Wal-Mart to get another piece for the village to replace it. Dave wanted a firehouse, but we went to both the Walmart in Franklin and the one in Bowling Green and neither had one.

So, I suggested we just get the Bayside Inn or the Victorian House, but no...Dave saw a Lighthouse that was on display, but there were no boxes of them. He went and talked to the lady in the Christmas department and she checked and they had no more of them in boxes, just the display but it was missing adapter was missing and the lady said they threw the box away when they set it out, so it probably got thrown away.

We went and found an adapter for it in Electronics and so they gave us a 10% discount off the Lighthouse. We got home and it wouldn't work, so Dave was finally about ready to take it back when I discovered there was a switch on the huge plug and we just didn't have it set to the right voltages. So now it's working fine, and it looks pretty, but I was getting rather frustrated over the entire fuss he made over getting the thing.

Our skating pond is also starting to mess up and shut itself off already...just got that one this year. If it's on for very long it just kicks itself off...I told Dave that from now on when we pick out a piece for the village, we should just go with the ones that you put C7 lights in because the pond is motorized and already screwed up the first year we've had it and I'm not sure if we can replace the lighthouse light once it burns out or not.

After all the fuss over the lighthouse when we got home, I went out and strung the lights outside and got that done. By Sunday evening my feet were throbbing and felt like they were going to cramp up and my back had this huge burning sensation in the middle that ached so bad...being on my feet too long for a couple of days in a row.

Monday I straightened Chris's room and got his miniature tree up in his room and did some decluttering of his toy box and toy dressers. I put up Koty's mini tree that evening when Dave and Chris were gone to the Cub Scouts Pack Meeting.

I've also been getting caught up on laundry and dishes and straightening the house. Yesterday I spent straightening Koty's "Disaster Zone" of a room. She is the child who doesn't mind chaos and it drives me insane! LOL I still need to go through her toybox and do some decluttering there too. Bed sheets need changing sometime soon, but today my goal is to finish up the laundry and then make my homemade apple pie to take up to my parents tomorrow and then I'm going to get up early tomorrow and fix the mac and cheese so that it will travel hot and may only need to be warmed a little once we get there.

I do intend to get my stamps soon for greeting cards and hopefully add some more to my novel before this month is over...hopefully finish the story by the 30th, especially since things around the house should calm down after Thursday.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and fills up on good food and good company with loved ones.

Here are some pics over on MySpace of my decorations~
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=62433615&albumId=1436465

Have a great day!

NaNo's still going and so is my story...

This novel I did for NaNo this year may well be the shortest of my novels. I feel the end of the story looming closer than I did with the others. It's like that impending feeling you get when you're wrapped up in a movie and don't realize it's almost the end, until it is the end.

My other novels all ran somewhere around 70-80K. This one feels like another 10K could finish it off at 60K. Not sure yet. I know this is just first draft, so it's not like revisions, editing, dumping some things and adding others couldn't bump the word count though. I'm sure when I go back and start reading it I'll find empty spots and realize-

Oops! I meant to mention this or include this scene...

Or it needs beefing up here or toning down there....

The argument didn't last long enough...

But then neither did the love scene....

LOL

Plot holes.

They're kind of like potholes. You HAVE to fill them in with good concrete or asphalt, or the story is going to be like a bumpy ride down a neglected highway. The reader isn't going to want to travel that road again (or any other road you've fashioned) if you don't make sure they have a smooth ride, enjoy the scenery and come to the end of the road and look back and say- "You know what...I'd like to travel that road again someday."

When I love a book, it's because I enjoyed the journey, didn't crash my car into any "plot"holes or find myself grimacing or grabbing at the dash to steady myself during the trip. And a good book will take you smoothly from start to finish. You'll say "That's a keeper" and you'll put that book on a shelf so that you can drive that road again in the future.

It's a beautiful thing.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday! We're over the hump!

50,008K/50,000

Smack it up, Flip it, Rub it down!

Hit 50,000 a few minutes ago!!!

Can't validate it on NaNo's site till the 25th to be declared a winner, but I already feel victorious! 2nd year in a row!

Now to just finish writing my novel!

2,554 Tuesday!!!

That's all I have left to make the 50K mark. Not sure how long this one is going to end up being, but yesterday was a milestone.

I wrote 9,561 yesterday. Oh, yeah, I almost made up the difference of the couple of days I wrote little or nothing at all and I just have to make that 2,554 today to hit the goal! Yay!

Of course I'll still work on it after that and attempt to "put a finish on it" before the month's out.

I don't think I've written that much since back in July/August when I wrote my 3rd novel. I hit 10K in a single day...but boy did my wrists pay for it the next day! LOL

Off to check email and blogs and then get to work.

47,446K/50,000K

Fresh Start Monday

I didn't do any writing over the weekend. My family came down Saturday and then yesterday I thought about my novel, but I just couldn't bring myself to get on the computer and write. Maybe I needed to give myself a couple of days of down time after my puny word count Friday(380).

Hopefully today will be more productive than the weekend past.

Well, now I can't say that...it was a productive weekend. My husband and my dad got the side door of our house changed out. We had a very drafty old door there, but we've now got a very nice steel door with windows and NO draft. My dad also cut a board to keep my hubby from falling in the hole in the couch and my daughter had a blast getting to see her grandparents and aunt. It was a nice day.

One thing I thought was cool was that my dad and husband couldn't figure out how to get this Qwikset deadbolt off the new door so they could put a new matching deadbolt and knob on the new door. They took out the screws, but it wouldn't come off the door. I knew my husband was struggling with it for a while because he couldn't figure it out. Just out of curiosity, I went to look at it. I broke the cover off the edge of the door, which didn't make a bit of difference really, but then I got to messing with the deadbolt facings and the cap fell off that goes around the keyhole on the inside.

Wah-La! behind the cap was two OTHER inset screws that the exterior screws had been screwed into. I pointed it out to my dad and my husband and asked, "Could this be something?"

My dad was like "Yep, another set of screws hidden."

Once I removed it I got the deadbolt off with NO problem. My husband said something about how he couldn't believe I figured that out, I smiled at him, then my dad and said, "Well, hey, I'm the daughter of a carpenter. I should be able to figure this stuff out." LOL Or something to that affect.

So anyway- I best post this booger and get my butt in gear and start writing!

37,885K/50,000K

Bad Taryn!

Yesterday all I managed was 380 words on my novel. There was distraction all around me. I had to get the grocery list and next week's menu planned out, but then I got distracted by other things~ Talking to my mom, surfing the net, doing the dishes. Watching Men In Trees- though I would've been watching that anyway.

I've not even reached 40K yet! LOL I had been going along so well. I was hoping to hit 50K by the 12th like I did last year. I might work on it some this morning before my husband and daughter get up. My parents and sister are coming down today to visit though too, so I'm tickled about that and don't really mind giving up some NaNo time for them since they live so far from me. Besides, it's not like I don't have plenty of time left in November.

My sinuses are giving me fits too and my eyes are weepy, watery and itchy. It's been pretty bad since yesterday, but more so after I bought a couple of those new Glade Wisps Flameless Candles. I had gone to their website and printed out the Buy One Get One Free coupon. Dang things cost $9.99 at the grocery. I didn't really want to spend that, but hubby was like, well, go on and get it because all you'll have to buy later is the refills.

After I turned them on, they started making the house smell good- supposed to be clean linen scented, but since then, I've been having the watery eyes and my face feels like it could cave in and my ears are hurting. I just wonder if I'm allergic to the scent. Maybe it's too much for my sinuses/allergies to handle.

The weepy eyes were why I didn't write much last night after Men In Trees went off. I was sitting here and my left eye got to twitchin' n' itchin.' It was watering so bad that I finally told my husband that I knew my word count was bad for the day, but I couldn't sit here typing cause I couldn't see what I was doing anyway through my itching blurry eye.

I'm still feeling a bit odd this morning in that department. I might have to take the batteries out of those air fresheners to see if that's what's causing me so much head trouble.

So, here's to my worst word count day so far!

37,885K/50,000K

How Could I Do It?!?!?

Again, I didn't write as much yesterday as I planned to- I got my total up to 37,505 yesterday, writing just over 4K instead of surpassing my goal for the day. I was just too tired to wrap my mind around it until yesterday evening.

I only have about 12-13K left to go before I hit 50K. I feel like I'm floundering a bit, faltering and a little weary that the story will end before I hit 50K. I suppose if that happens, I can go back and add more detail and description to the story in places I might've overlooked it before during my crazed writing woman typing.

But then last night, I started crying after a significantly poignant scene that ended one of the chapters. I started bawling when I realized what had happened. I had only "sort of" seen it coming and after it happened all I could think was "How could I do it?!?!?!"

I got my MC shot- as it turns out, only a flesh wound, but dang...I scared myself and gave rise to fear and sadness in my own heart once I was finished with that scene. It felt vivid enough to me that I could see it in my mind's eye.

I almost think my novel has turned somewhat into more than just a romance...it was romantic suspense there for a bit, while this last part played out. In some ways I feel like this should be almost over, but at the same time, I'm still waiting- There has to be more to the story. Besides the fact that after I got through what I DID have loosely plotted, I ended up giving my characters the reins and they took it in a very different direction than I had thought it would go. I have a scene that was part of my plotting process, though it was going to come later in the story. Now it appears that it probably won't happen. I'm actually surprised at that revelation. It's no longer pertinent to the story, nor would it be that I can see. Maybe I can work it in, in a round about way, but it would only be the remnants of that idea rather than the one I had originally thought of.

I'm also still unsure of how things will pan out in the end, but that's ok. Sometimes it's better to let my characters lead the way, to let them tell me their story.

Hope everyone has a lovely Friday. I'm off to write on and keep going...

37,505K/50,000K

Falling, Zoning and Memories

I was so tired yesterday and distracted-I reached 33,484 total, but I was about 1800 short of 5K yesterday.

Last night I was listening to my cd of The Ben Taylor Band, James Taylor's son's band- which is WICKED AWESOME- he sounds so much like his father...Love the song Island, but the entire cd is great. The music was so soothing I found myself typing with my eyes closed, almost as if I was drifting off to sleep and yet...I was aware of what I was doing, but I was zoning.

Does that mean maybe I should take a break from writing...It was almost like going into a trance or feeling drugged by heavy medication. And yet my fingers were still moving, even without me thinking about it. It was almost like automatic writing, only I was typing. It's any wonder I didn't type the words of someone from the great beyond! LOL

I don't know if I can accomplish it, but I'm hoping to surpass my 5k today, just to make up that 1800. I went to bed exhausted and a bit aggravated, knowing I fell short after so many days of achieving more than I planned to.

As an after thought- I really need to invest in some of James Taylor's cds. I didn't like his music at all when I was a kid- My dad loved his music...Daddy was the reason I even grew to like JT's music- all because of my dad trying to reach me when I was going through my angsty teen years, he made me listen to Like Everyone She Knows. It has a beautiful guitar solo intro before the lyrics-

Like everyone she knows
She's holding out for true love
Waiting on an answer
Ready for a change
And everywhere she goes
She's just a little bit on the lookout
A day might mean tomorrow
Questions still remain
It's not that she's so sad
She always was a happy soul
But lately she gets to wonder to herself
What's the good of going on anymore

I see her in her room
Sitting at the window
Wondering if she's pretty
Feeling just a little small tonight
She thinks of going home
Giving up on the city
Maybe moving back down to Mobile
It's not that far to fall
I know she won't see me
But I might just say anyhow
If I could be right there right now
As I myself was told

Hold tight to your heart's desire
Never ever let it go
Let nobody fool you into giving it up too soon
Tend your own fire
Lay low and be strong
Wait awhile
Wait it out
Wait it on out
Wait it out
It'll come along

I know she won't see me
But I might just say anyhow
If I could be right there right now
As I myself was told

Hold tight to your heart's desire
Never ever let it go
Let nobody fool you into giving it up too soon
Tend your own fire
Lay low and be strong
Wait it out
Wait it out
Wait it on out
Wait it out
Let it come along
Oh, wait awhile
Wait awhile

In a way that song has always made me feel closer to my dad because he found something to connect with me, through music, which is one of my favorite forms of expression besides writing. My dad thought I was giving up on life, on finding love, on persuing my writing at the time, and this song speaks VOLUMES to me about his belief in me.

Ok, now that I've made myself cry this morning(blubbering mess at the keyboard), I'm going to go- get some of this writing done today.

Have a great day!

33,484K/50,000K

Chugga Chugga Chugga

It's Day 7 of NaNo and I'm well ahead of the average word count.

I reached the 30K mark last night, which is technically the ideal word count for Day 18.

I'm feeling rough from a fall I took yesterday. Twisted my ankle and banged myself up- joints and muscles mostly. Stepped in a hole in the yard trying to chase off the neighbor's dog when she was trying to get in our trash(can was tipped).

Guess that's what I get for getting so much pleasure from my main male character's fall in my novel the other day! LOL

But anyway..I'm still chugging along and enjoying the flow I've got going now. Have a happy Hump Day and Write on!

30,277K/50,000K

I'm HALFWAY THERE (HALFWAY THERE, HALFWAY THERE)

There's no school today because of Election Day, so I have both kids at home and hubby took off work too, but he's still in bed asleep.

My new Word Count Total I'm proud to say---- 25,260!!!

It's a great feeling to know I'm 1/2 way to the total, though I know I'm not really done, but just getting to 50K again this year will be an amazing feeling. It will also be wonderful to know I have 4 novels written, ready for revisions and polishing. 4 novels in just a little over a year.

Well, finishing my first novel was big enough as it was, after having worked on it off and on for over ten years, but since then it's been a wild ride getting my others written. Albeit they're first drafts that need LOTS of revisions and so forth, but I can't say I'm disappointed that I've accomplished more in the past year or so than I had in all the 20 some odd years I've wanted to be a writer.

end of September 2006- Finally finished 1st novel after working on it for 10+ years
November 2006- Wrote my 2nd novel during my 1st NaNoWriMo
Feb-July 2007- had explosion of new novel ideas- did editing, rework on 1st novel
Mid July- Mid August 2007- Wrote my 3rd novel during my personal 30 day writing attempt.
October 2007- did some editing and rework on 2nd novel
November 2007- Writing 4th novel for my 2nd NaNoWriMo

It's been a year full of surprises, ups and downs, personal accomplishments and private problems, major overhauls- dental issues, having to replace a dead dryer, getting water lines hooked up, having the harddrive crash and burn. I don't think I've ever experienced a year that had SO much going on all at once.

It seemed for all the bad, there was equal amounts of good. My teeth were killing me, but I got inspiration for numerous novel ideas. We got the water hooked up, but the dryer died. I wrote my 3rd novel, but almost lost all my writing thanks to a virus on our old computer that crashed it so hard we almost weren't able to recover ANY of my writing. Thank heavens for that computer guy! I could never thank him enough. When he got my writing and family photos off the old computer I literally BAWLED like a baby. I found a lot of wonderfully talented writers online and won a bunch of autographed books, bookmarks, bookplates, trinkets and bobbles.
It's been astounding and I can only hope that maybe in the next year it will be even better, though hopefully without so many downsides! LOL

So anyhoo- I'm rambling on this morning. I hope everyone has a great day! Off to get myself even closer to 50K.

25,260K/50,000K

Crazy Weekend- Amazing Word Count!

The weekend was "odd" to say the least. Everytime I was on the phone someone would beep in and it seemed our phone was ringing off the hook all weekend, which is rare, but something came up that had to be resolved and I'd be just as well off to keep my mouth zipped about. It's not really my business, so I will leave well enough alone.

In other news~ My new word count is amazing me.

Here's a rundown-
1st- 5,738~ 2nd- 3,296~ 3rd-5,978~ 4th- 5,256

Grand Total- 20,258! I'm well ahead of my total word count from last year already- Last year on the 4th I didn't write anything and I was sitting around 10K and change. Must have been busy that day or something because I had a goose egg for my WC that day.

I'm also getting further into the story, with an unexpected confrontation with someone Melody knew from her past. It hadn't crossed my mind she might run into this person before, but now it kind of fits and makes sense with the skeleton that's going to fall out of her closet and reveal that secret she's carried around for sixteen years. The secret that may very well destroy Wes's "undying" love for her.

So today's goal is to hit the 1/2 mark for NaNo, which would be 25K of the 50K. I still think my novel will go over the general count though. Just not sure how much farther over. Last year I went about 30K over, so we'll see.

If things continue to go as well as they are, I'll hit 50K before the 12th, which was last year's amazing day of accomplishment for me. I didn't stop though. I kept writing till I put a finish on it.

This year my main problem is that I keep wanting to type Royce(last year's nano MC) instead of Wes (this year's male MC). My fingers want to do it but I have to keep pausing myself and saying, "No, wait...Royce's story was last year.)

Well, I'm off and gone- going to replay this on my other blogs, just to cut the time I'm away from my novel.

20,258K/50,000K

NaNo Day 4- Reporting Day 3

I hit 15,002 last night before heading off to bed but NaNo's site was down so I had to wait till this morning to put in my new word count total. But all in all I feel good about where I am. Plus, I'm starting to get more into the story better.

Since I started writing on the 1st, I had felt set apart from my characters, until Wes fell over the tree stump last night and hit his head on the porch steps in the dark at Melody's grandmother's. LOL Yes, I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed his spill and the gash on his head and him getting knocked unconscious. Yes, I enjoyed it because it was unexpected. I was flying by the seat of my pants on that one. I have a plot, but not all my scenes figured out, so I just went with it last night to see where it would go. It was the perfect opportunity for Melody to HAVE to interact with Wes- especially since she's been running from him for years, avoiding him. Then she had to care for him.

It was a perfect surprise to me, that's for sure. And since having written 3 other novels, I've come to expect that after a certain point, my characters will take the lead, show me what they want to happen, what should happen and lead me toward the end we "all" know will come. I love when they come to "life" for me, point me in the right direction, surprise me with good twists and turns in the story.

Last year my main character Royce did that and often. There were several turns in the story that came out that I never planned, never intended, but once it was written I realized just what a difference it made to feel as though he was standing over my shoulder, telling me his story, whispering in my ear...In some ways it's reminiscent of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

I love that movie- The ghost of a sea captain, telling this woman his story she she can write it and have it published. It's wonderfully fanciful. In the process, she falls in love with him and eventually he leaves her and she lives the rest of her life believing he'd only been a dream, until the final scene where she dies...and the captain comes back to get her.

In some ways it quite the same when I'm writing, though my characters are the ones telling me their story and yes, I do fall in love with them, though for me, they are like my children, growing and living through me onto the written page.

Well, that would be it for me for today. I need to pull that file up and get my booty in gear for another day of NaNo'ing. Have a great Sunday and WRITE ON!

15,002K/50,000K

NaNo- Day 3, Reporting on Day 2

The past few days I've felt like I've got too much going on to get my head in my novel. I've been writing, but I feel like I'm standing to the back, just watching. I want to be in my story, really I do. But with outside influences (housework and daughter) things just seem hectic inside and out.

Movement and energy seems to race through my veins, making it almost impossible for me to think straight enough to throw myself into my work.

Yesterday I didn't write nearly as much as I did the first day- 3,296 words, but it still brought me up and is keeping me ahead. Off to finish checking in on blogs and such and then sticking my nose in that file and trying to mesh myself with the characters. Have a great Saturday!

Word Count from Day 2- 9,024K/50,000K

Exhausted NaNoer Here- Day One

I'm exhausted but it's more from running all over last night taking the kids trick or treating. We live in the country, so we have to drive to all the houses we know, rather than hitting a neighborhood. By the time we got home, I was wore out. We watched Kid Nation and put the kids to bed and then watched the first 3 hours of Ghost Hunters Live! filmed here in Kentucky at Waverly Hills Sanitorium last night.

We went to bed at 11PM, but I was up at 5am to get my stepson off to school. Checked in on email and my favorite blogs and then started on my adventure into my 2nd NaNoWriMo. I have somewhere around 4,900 words already. I don't think I'm done though for today. I'm going to work on it some more until 7. After that I'll be watching Ugly Betty, Supernatural and the last three hours of Ghost Hunters that I recorded last night.

Feeling pretty good right now about NaNo. I've proven to myself I can write a novel in a month twice before- Last NaNo and back in mid-July/beginning of August of this year I did my own personal NaNo and wrote the other. I'm confident I can do this, so right now there's no stress. I'm just waiting for my characters to throw something crazy at me. LOL

Ok, so as of right now, here's how I'm standing- 4,936K/50,000K