Catch up

Last night my friend Misty came over to the house so that we could work on outlines and other story ideas and stuff. We spent the majority of the time making and eating dinner (bacon & cheddar quiche with dark chocolate brownies), but we also got a bit done on the books. She works nights and had only had a few hours of sleep. I was exhausted because of stress at work. By 10:00, we called it quits, and I took her home.

Two of the kids worked while we did, and while Misty and I struggled to come up with bits and pieces, they flew through creating some neat things for their novels. I had to keep reminding Misty that their inner critics weren't fully developed yet, and it wasn't our fault. Neither of us felt better for that, though. *laughs*

The story. Well, it changes every time I try to figure out the whys and wherefores. Last night I came up with three major conflicts that take place as the story moves forward, and none of them are what I initially thought they'd be. The good news is that I think I've finally come up with the initial conflict that sends Piper away from the village. It's a bit of a cliche, but that can be tweaked later. In the end, none of it may be what I think it is now, but at least I have ideas to work with.

I've also done a good bit of research on caves and caverns so I won't be completely lost on what it looks like inside one. Given how claustrophobic I am, I can't imagine doing personal research, but luckily, I don't have to. Thank you, Google.com!! :D

At one point this week, I set up an Excel spreadsheet to chart the number of words that I want to write per day, how many I have written per day, and what I need to write to catch up. According to the schedule, the novel will actually be 75k words at the end of the month, based on what I think I will have time to write each day. I'm going to keep that schedule for now because I may need that 50% padding come mid-November. I don't think so - I'm really pretty sure I can do this - but just in case life gets in the way....

Oh, and I'm also working on making a few items for my NaNo care-package partner. I'm kind of excited at the stuff that I'm going to send to her. She's out of the country until Friday, so I have time still, and I think I'm going to take it to make sure that her box is filled to the brim with fun goodies and treats. It's just such a fun idea that I want to make sure that my box lives up to the hype. :)

Okay, off to shower so that I can go to Panera to write for a bit. Misty may meet me there if she's awake yet, but if not, I still plan to get a few character sketches done. Ta-ta for now!

Word Wars!

So I did my first word war today. How, you might wonder, could I possibly do that when it's not even November 1st yet! Well, I wanted to see how many words I could write in 30 minutes, so I wrote up a prologue for my NaNo novel. I wanted something on Medwina.

I managed to type up a very well-written (I think) 1,002 word prologue for her. Yay! Even I'M intrigued by her!! And I think that in typing up the prologue I've come up with my ending, too. I'm not 100% positive about that, but it's certainly possible.

Anyway, if I can keep up that pace, that means that for only an hour a day, I should be able to easily do 50k words this coming month. The hard part is that I wrote a beginning, middle and end in 1000 words. What if I do that every day? Does that mean that there won't be any ongoing story to follow? I don't know. Or am I overthinking things again? Nah.. couldn't be! Not me!

This is really going to be fun, though I think my kids are going to kill me before it's all over. To do just that 30-minute stunt I yelled at them to just be quiet so I could get something done. It worked - they shut up - but will it every night for a month? Maybe once they start writing, too. I guess we'll find out then, won't we?

I have a plot! And a name for the witch!

After talking it over with the hubby, I came up with a pretty good plotline that will carry me well into 50k words. And the witch's name is *drumroll* Medwina. She has no last name; simply Medwina, or Medwina the Wise. It suits her, I think. :)

I'll post the plot stuff tomorrow. For now, I'm headed to bed.

Thank you, hubby, for your help today!!! *big wet sloppy kisses*

Wow, was that a wasted week!

No, I didn't answer any of the questions I'd set out for myself. No, I didn't update this blog (obviously). No, I do NOT know what my plot will be anymore because now I'm second-guessing everything I initially came up with (except for the main character and the witch). Gah! THIS is why I never finish a stupid novel!!

I did sit down and come up with a map for Piper's world. That actually bothered me a lot; not knowing where she was from or anything about the world she lived in. Now, I have the name of her town (Penny Hill) as well as a basic map of her known world. It's about the size of Scotland, Wales, and Britain combined, though in a different shape. And while that's all we know so far, there are other lands beyond the mountain range to the north and to the east past the Plains. Piper's people know about the ones to the east, even if they have very little to do with them. Those to the north, however, will be a surprise. Not that that will happen in this particular novel, but it's nice to know these things regardless of whether or not you use them.

Anyway, I'm now seriously waffling on what I want the plot to be. Should she run off on her own after screwing up? Or should she go on an adventure with all of her friends from Penny Hill which results in a major screw-up? The kind of person she is sort of dictates that she run off on her own after a major cock-up created by her own poor choice. While out on her own, she stumbles on the witch in the cave. (Who needs a name, I've suddenly remembered.) From there, who the hell knows what happens? I sure don't. Of course, before this moment, I wasn't even sure THAT would happen!

Do I let it go on its own? Or do I try to create an agenda and force Piper to adhere to it? OR should I just continue to build up the area she'll be traveling in and allow the story to unfold based on the choices that she continues to make? I kind of like that idea. Sort of a "choose your own adventure" with the MC doing the choosing. I know her well enough to guess what she'd do (probably the opposite of what I'd do, but then, she's not me).

I think this blog is helpful for more than just charting my success and failure. It's a good place to throw out all of the crap in my head and figure out where to go with it. The more I let it fester in my mind, the worse it all sounds, but when I put it on paper (or screen) it seems to make more sense.

Now... to name that witch.

Didn't happen

None of the things I wanted to accomplish for NaNo took place today. I, of course, overbooked myself. Plus, I started the new job this afternoon, though admittedly that's not why I didn't get stuff done.

Tomorrow morning, starting at 9:30am, the kids and I will sit down and really look at our plots. A friend was supposed to come work on this, too, but she won't be able to. But I refuse to let this go another day. I WILL be working on this tomorrow. Damn it.

Outlines, Deadlines, and Ideas, OH MY!

I promised myself that tomorrow I would sit down and figure out my outline, what I want my character to learn, etc. Of course, that was before I applied for - and got - my second job. Now, that's going to have to wait until Sunday.

Don't panic! My NaNoWriMo novel is relatively safe. Even with the second job, I'll still have all day Sundays and several nights a week to work on it. It does mean that pulling in 2k words a day is going to be harder, though. And more than likely, I'll have to do 3k or more every time I sit down to the computer, since there will be days that I won't have time to write much. I plan to make Sunday's my "catch-up" days.

Even as I type this I see many many flaws in my plan.... well.. I can only try.

NaNo will be rough

If I can't even keep this blog up-to-date, I can't imagine how I'll be able to keep going on a novel. I suppose it's because the story is important to me... writing out my thoughts on it not so much.

I'm already starting to second-guess my story line. What started out as a simple enough story now seems dull. I'm rethinking what I want Piper to do, how I want her to get there. Rather than just writing what I had in mind, the story is now changing and evolving, and I'm not sure that I know what exactly I'm going to write now. That's what ends up happening to all of my stories. They change before I can get them on paper, and then I get frustrated and just.. quit.

My plan is to sit down this weekend and create an outline. I want to work out the specifics on a few things to give my story meat. I want to figure out what will be the major conflict, how it will be resolved, how it will affect Piper as a person, and what all of this will do to her village and friends.

*sighs* So much to do in so little time! Saturday.... I'll work on it Saturday and get my plan into place. I have to; there's only a few weeks left before November 1!

Thought I forgot you?

While it looks like I've forgotten about this blog, I have not. In fact, I've been ridiculously busy. The family and I went out of town to an SCA event this past weekend, so the week prior to it kept all of us taking care of things around the house. I'm still thinking about the book, but to be honest, I've come up with no major ideas/changes/whatever.

Right now, I'm struggling to stay awake. I'll write more tomorrow.