November 25, 2016

  Thanksgiving was a wonderful time.  We ate, talked and played games.  Spectacular.
  I even stayed until 8:30, which was two hours past what I had planned on.  It was all good.  I felt refreshed and renewed afterwards.  Good times, good times.
  We, as a family, talked to two of our children yesterday.  They're a good sixteen hour drive away so we don't see them often.  It was good to talk to them.  We're planning on Skyping with them both at some point this weekend.
  Yesterday was a light writing day.  I didn't quite get to 5k.  I sat down to write after we got home and I just didn't have it in me.  I'm thinking there's a week off coming next Thursday.  Or, a scaled down version of a writing work day.  I need to start editing Part 2.  At first I thought I'd go through one chapter a day--just comb through it slowly and catch all the errors that four re-throughs by myself and my editor didn't catch.  Be methodical.  Then I realized that would have me publishing sometime in September and that's too far out.  I settled on two chapters a day.  That's gets us back to the May-June time span.
  Last night and this morning, I've been thinking about Part 3.  It's a mess, they way I've started rewriting it.  A disaster.  Scenes are everywhere.  Bluh.  I'm playing with the idea of starting the rewrite over.  I don't know.  I don't like the sporadic-ness.
  Well, I should do something.  Maybe I'll get out the index cards and the markers.  I'm liking that idea.  I've already met my minimum and aim goals (150k and 175k).  Maybe a (partial) day of plotting will help the rest of the last week go better.
  And as I sit here thinking about it, my brain is screaming at me about my word count.  Lol..
  I'll talk to you tomorrow.

November 24, 2016

  Happy Thanksgiving.
  There, it's out.  Now, let's talk about writing.
  I worked on Daniel yesterday.  He's had a major event happen.  He, Brise and Peter have done big things together.  Everything I wrote yesterday was brand new stuff, which is exciting. It's nowhere near the finished product, but I wouldn't expect it to be yet.
  I got just over 10k in yesterday.  It was a really good day, but turns out to be the normal I've had for the last week or so.  Which is good!  I like getting these numbers.  I'm at just over 170k.  About 25k of that is brand new words.  Overall, about 12.5k of what I've written will never see the light of day again, but that's to be expected too.
  I pledged to do a 50k weekend, so 50k over three days, Thursday is not one of them.  I'm concerned I won't be able to pull that off.  I'd have to average around 17k per day and as I'm thinking about how my days go, I don't see that as possible.  We'll have to see.
  So, today, I'll be taking part of the afternoon/evening off to spend the holiday meal with friends and family.  It's going to be fun and a well-deserved break.  The kids are all still sleeping, so I'm going to get to work.  Have a wonderful day!

November 23, 2016

  I got another 10k yesterday.
  It feels weird to not be writing in sequence.  I'm writing by character storyline instead.  I have some good stuff and I'm looking forward to getting all organized after it's all done.  It's strange.  But there will be index cards, markers and table or bed space involved.  It'll be fun.
  I've written some new stuff.  A lot of which will be in the fourth book.  Today, I'm focusing on Daniel's timeline.  The majority of what I have written from the first draft is actually Dan's point of view.  Most of Daniel's story is in my head but not down anywhere.  New stuff.   Ooooo.
  Brise will need some new stuff too.  He's got a major storyline coming.
  Most of Norton's stuff is written, but not all.  But I don't want to focus on him today.
  My aim for today is another 10k.  That's been a pretty comfortable place to be.  I committed to a 50k weekend in one of the forums.  I don't know if I have the fortitude, though.  That almost a 17k three days in a row.  Whew.  I'm not sure my stamina is up there yet.  I'm getting kinda burned out too.  10k seems to be all I have in me right now.
  But then, I haven't done a bunch of new stuff yet.  I haven't felt that fire that burns and I HAVE to keep writing.  I'd like to feel that burn.  It's great.
  I'm off to work.  Have a good day.

November 22, 2016

    Okay, I'm solidly into Part 3.  I know why it feels thin.  I pulled enough stuff into Part 2 when I made that major move, that all that's left is the structure of a couple storylines.  And those lines aren't in the same place they are in Part 2 anymore, since I built them up in other ways after the move.
     So, what are my options?  I have to get more in there.  Whatever I built up in Part 2, I need to add to Part 3.  It's the side stories that are missing; the side stories that support--or flesh out--the main skeleton.
     The idea that came to me last night is to work on individual story lines to see what's still there.  I did that a little bit during the day yesterday, just for something to write.  I know there's at least 2400 words that WILL NOT go into the book.  But it fills in some stuff that I knew was there but didn't have details.  That brings out subtle feelings between the characters that I can pull into other interactions.
     I wrote 11k words yesterday, getting the last of them in at 11:55 last night.  The goal for today is the same, 10 - 12k, I just hope it's not at the last minute that I get those words done.  Going to bed at a decent hour is what I should be doing.
    But the wurds.  The wurds.  Wurds.
    I need to go to work.  See you tomorrow.

November 21, 2106

  This weekend wasn't as productive as I'd liked to have been.  Both Saturday and Sunday wound up being fairly lazy days word count wise.  However, I'm not too worried about it.
  Okay, so I say that with a caveat.  On Saturday, I still got over 10k in, however, I was hoping for more.  It felt like I was dragging because I was still trying to write at 10:30 at night and I just kept allowing myself to get distracted.  Finally, I gave in to the distractions and did that instead.  I could've gotten to 12k if I hadn't.  Maybe I needed to.
  On the other hand, on Saturday, I did get all the way through Part 2 and into Part 3.  YEAH!  Party dance.  The total count right now for Part 2 is 117k, which is about 40k more than Part 1.  It's hefty.  Today, I'm debating on whether one chapter needs to be pulled back out and stuck back into Part 3.  But that decision will have to wait.
  Yesterday, I got in about 5k, which is really good considering I should've really just taken the day off.  My hubby spent a couple hours with me figuring out a technical situation with me so that something that needs to happen can.  That was important and well worth the loss of word count.
  I printed out five copies of Part 2 yesterday, four for my alphas and 1 for me.  This will be December's project.  I love how 2 is shaping up.  It's solid.  3 feels thin to me right now.  I have to remember that it's only the second draft and that's why I rewrite things so many times.
  I'm dreaming about 12k days for the rest of the month.  I don't know if that will happen or not.  I'm not feeling it today, either.  I think it's because 3 feels so thin.  When I get deeper into the meat of the story, I should get back into it.  Or maybe, I need to take a nap.  It is after lunchtime.
  Or maybe I need to get out the headphones and the music, and reread my post about how bad I want this! GAH!
  See you tomorrow.

November 19, 2016

  So I didn't finish Part 2 yesterday.  I was so distracted by Facebook and the NaNo website and Facebook....  I still got 7k in, but I was disappointed in myself that I didn't get it all done.
  I got stuck on adding a new chapter.  It's not really a new chapter as it is a turn in the plot, which actually requires six new chapters to resolve.  I didn't know if the end of the book could handle the weight, if I even needed to add it, if I should add it, if  I should put it in Part 3 or completely forget it because the book really does have enough going on.
  I woke up this morning with the answer.  It will probably get added, but it'll be in Part 3.  I can go ahead and get the last three chapters done and call the sixth draft of Part 3 over!  Whoot!
  I want to have that done before I go to the write-in at 11.  I don't think it'll be a problem.  I also want to get 13k in today and make up for yesterday.  I have no idea how this next section is going to go.  I haven't been in the part of the book since April.  Now, I'm having some trepidation.  Get over it!!
  :)  See you on Monday!

November 18, 2016

    I got 9.5k written yesterday.  It was good.  I had been aiming for 10k, of course, but it took me until 11:45 to get where I got, so I wouldn't have gotten the rest.  It's okay.  I was over the 10k on Wednesday and I'm aiming to be over it again today.
    Part of the problem I had yesterday revolved around two chapters.  I'd written a particular scene between Daniel and a minor character, Chelsea.  When I went through Part 2 two times ago, I had decided I didn't want the scene in the book.  When I went through it again the last time, I thought that maybe it needed to be back in there, but I wasn't sure.  The events seemed so miniscule to me.
    I thought about this scene a lot yesterday.  By about seven o'clock, I realized that Daniel was going to HAVE to do this scene and it was going to require him to act in a way that's not him.  I didn't want to write it, because I didn't want Daniel to go there.
    Finally, at about ten o'clock, I decided that I'd write the chapters and if I didn't like them, I'd get rid of them.  So I did.  Wow.  I was hiding from the emotions that came out.  Holy cow.  It wound up being really good chapters.  They're going to need some adjusting because the emotion in it is so raw for me.
    This is why I write.  I love that these words can pull such an emotional response.  It's awesome.
    I'm shooting for 10k again today, but there's also a second goal.  I'm almost done getting through Part 2 and it's Friday, the 18th.  There's only twelve days left.  I need to get moving.  And, if I dot get through the rest today, I can give myself another duckie!  Part 3 tomorrow!  Woot!
    See you tomorrow.

November 16, 2016

   Tuesday was a good day.  I clocked in about 8000 words.  It wasn't the 14k from the day before, but I'm pleased with the number.  I was pretty brain dead yesterday.  Today, I've had a double grilled cheese sandwich with extra pepperoni and a huge glass of cardboard-tasting chocolate milk (ALL of the chocolate milk in California is 1% so it tastes like cardboard.  Partially solved this issue by adding more chocolate syrup, but that only helps, doesn't fix it.).  So, I've replaced some fats in my system so my brain will work better.  I had a good night's sleep and then I slept in this morning.  I feel good.
  Basically, I can still hit my 240k dream goal if I do 10k a day from now until the end of the month.  About three of those days, I'll have to do 11k and there are two Sundays and Thanksgiving in there.  That brings me down to 210k.  I don't know if I'm happy with that number.  And I'm not totally certain 240k will get me to where I want to be.  I'll have to think on what will make me happy and what I'm willing to live with.
  I'm about 85% done with Part 2 draft 6 now.  It's really close.  I don't think it'll happen tomorrow, however.  I'd need a REALLY good day today and tomorrow.  The day's already half over and I needed the rest so I don't see it.  Friday's good.  We'll go with that.
  Because of the resting, no walking or taking the dog to the dog park.  She's not okay with that but I am. :)  It's just the way a rest day goes.  Of course, this is Wednesday, so it's going to be busy.  Take the day as it comes, I suppose.
  See you tomorrow.

November 15, 2016

    Wow.  Today's halfway through November.  I'm a little sad.
    Yesterday was such a good day.  I clocked in 13,877 words to get my total up to 88,888.  Yes, I stopped in the middle of a sentence to get it.  It felt so good to get that accomplished.
    And today is a new day.  I'm not going to get as much done today.  I have a church activity tonight.  I normally look forward to them and I'm sure that this will be fun.  But, as with other things that pull me away from my computer, I don't want to stop writing.  But, I will.  Every time I do stop, it winds up being a good thing.  I do have a good base going and I'm on track to hit at least 180k.
    Today, I'm aiming for between 8 and 10k.  I'm getting a late start today.  I took a Benadryl last night so I had difficulty waking up this morning.  The sleep was a good thing, thought.  And I'm not feeling as mucky as I have been.  I'll probably have to take another one later this week to keep the allergies at bay.
    I'm about 80% of the way through the sixth draft of part 2.  I'm still looking at Thursday or Friday to complete it.  I had hoped the big word count yesterday would've knocked that down some, and overall, it did.  It still takes time, though.
    Okay, I'm off to work.  I'll see you tomorrow.

November 14, 2016

    Back to writing a diary about writing.

    I'm 2/3 of the way through this draft of Part 2.  I would like to be done by Thursday but I'm not sure I will be.  There'll be another duck on the mirror when I get it!  That's exciting.  Duckies are cool.
    I rewrote over 10,000 words on Saturday so it wound up being a good weekend.  I took yesterday off, except for a couple paragraphs so I could say I did SOMETHING for the day.
    With all the church goings-on this weekend, I feel like I had my tank refilled.  I'm excited about getting some work done today and stretching myself for those goals.  I've been working since 5:45 this morning.  My hubby (love that man) got the kids out the door today.  I couldn't do this without his support.  I'm so lucky to have him here, helping me.
    I'd like to get another 10k in today.  I'd be ecstatic if I could get 12k.  It all depends on how the day rolls out.  Hopefully this early start to the day will help.  The biggest key is staying off of Facebook.  I'm going to reward myself with 30 minutes after I get 5k in.  I'll let you know how that works.
    I'm off to writing.  Have a good day.

November 11, 2106

     Well, today is going to be a busy day.  I'm only practically calling for about 5k today, and hoping for close to 10k.  The 10k would be awesome.

    I wanted 12k yesterday and settled for 10.4k.  By the nine o'clock, I was brain fried.  But then, I felt pretty fired all day.  I unplugged the internet to help me out with my writing goals.  It worked until about lunchtime, when I wanted to update my word count.  Then it was downhill from there.  Facebook became a distraction a few times.  Once, it was over an hour.  That needs to stop.  It's hard, however, when your brain's on overload and you need a little dopamine boost.  It's quite convenient for that.
    So, I figured out what it would take to get through the end of Part 2 by next week.  If I average around 10k a day, with less than 1k on Sunday, I can be done by Thursday.  I'd rather be done by Tuesday, but I don't know how I'm going to pull that off.  I didn't pull the word counts the first week that I needed to in order to pull that off.
    So, I have to do it now.  Maybe if I buckled down today, I can get that 10k.  I'll have to really buckle down tomorrow, it's another jam-packed day.
    We'll take it a day at a time, I guess.

How Bad Do You Want It? November 10, 2016

  So, I got to 51k last night.  I posted my milestone on one of several NaNo Facebook pages.  Part of me felt like I was bragging, but I did it anyway.  I got a few thumbs up but one person was shocked and seemed like they took it very personally.  I felt bad. 
  I didn't want to be bragging.  I wanted to share my first hurdle.  Honestly, I'm only a little more than 20% of the way to my own dream goal of 240k.  But I know these NaNos are hard for this person.  They've only been able to complete one out of several.  So to them, I probably was bragging.
  I deleted my post.  I decided I didn't want to discourage anyone who was struggling.  I don't want some people to think they're not doing well because of my insane goals and my obsessive desire to accomplish those goals.
  I guess this is the realization that I've put myself into a different league.  I'm with the serious Nanoers.  Most people who do NaNo are there to see if they can do it.  They want to say they've written a novel.  They want to try and stretch their wings.
  I'm beyond that.  I already know I can stretch my wings and tromp that 50k goal, which is why I set higher goals for myself, why I've spent the last five months planning for November so when I got here, I'd be able to spend the majority of my time doing NaNo.  All so I can reach my goals.
  Maybe some others do that and they still struggle.  I get that.  50k is hard.  I remember how excited I was the first time I reached it.  It was something like 2 in the morning and I hit it, barely.  I sat there and cried as I stared at the congratulatory screen.  My husband felt like he needed to wake up and come give me a hug.  It was huge.
  It still is huge.  That's why I wanted to share it last night.  I was excited about it.  I'm doing really well this NaNo.  I'm still poised to hit 150k and a little more.
  I still have a long way to go.  I'd like to get to 240k, but I haven't figured out the discipline to hit those daily word counts.  It might take me a couple more NaNos before I get that under my belt.  As I wandered around the NaNo forums late last night, searching for something to soothe my guilt, I saw a post that really made sense.  It was on a thread called 'You know you're an overachiever when...."  One of the answers I saw was '...you set your goal for a quarter mill because you already do 50k every month of the year and if you didn't set your bar higher for November, then what's the point?'
  That's the whole gist of it right there.  If we're not challenging ourselves every month, week, day, then what's the point?
  I want this. I want to publish books.  I love writing (not so much editing).  But I love it so much, one 30 day stretch of pure creativity is enough to get me through the next three months until there's another NaNo.  I can almost taste how much I want to do this.  I can't even sleep to get away from these books because I dream about them.  And I love it.
  Anyone can do this, believe it or not.  Anyone.  How bad do you want it?

November 7, 2016

  This weekend was not a good weekend for word count.  I was sick both Saturday and Sunday.  I had hoped to get 14,500 words written over the course of the two days, intending on doing more on Saturday and only having to make up part of the difference on Sunday.
  Nope.  My stomach decided to catch a bug.  I spent most of Saturday dragging myself around, and Sunday was spent sleeping and dragging myself around my bedroom.  Not at all what I had hoped.  I got 3173 words written over the course of the two days.  Now, that's not bad and if you're looking at just getting 50,000 words written this month, I'm just over 30,000 so I'm doing really well.
  But we all know that's not my goal.  My base goal is 150k.  My dream goal is 240k to be honest.  I'm NO WHERE near that.
  And I'm dreaming about scenes that I need to add to my rough draft for Part 3.  I'm happy with what's being rewritten in Part 2.  I yearn to get into 3.  I have to.  My sanity depends on it.  So I HAVE to get more than the 150k base.  I HAVE TO.
  So, my stomach needs to cooperate.  My head needs to stop hurting and my body needs to quit telling me to go back to bed.  I have to get this done.
  My goal today is 7,500 words by midnight.  That will get me 1/4 of the way to the 150k goal.  Since today is the end of week 1, that's a solid goal.  It's also only 250 more that my daily minimum.
  But you know I want more than that.  You know I'm going to shoot for higher... if my body and mind will let me.
  See you tomorrow.  Hopefully, I won't be brain jelly.

October 15, 2016

  Today was a good day of work.
  All I did was read.  I got the correction reading I've been doing completed.  Now to get the corrections done and upload a cleaned up version.  Like I've been saying, I feel like all I need to do now is double-check the rough spots and call the rest good.  I have made a couple non-necessary changes and I'll double-check those too.  However, the unnecessary changes outweigh the necessary ones this time.  I don't think those will ever go away.  I could read this book every month for the next ten years and still find something to tweak.
  It'll never be perfect and it's time to make the fixes and step away. :/
  I also did some editing work on the early chapters of part 2.  I still have 6-10 chapters to rewrite, toward the end.  Maybe now that I'm done with part 1, I can focus on that again.  I want to have the rewrite of part 2 done before November so I can just jump into the rewrite of part 3.  I have sixteen more days.  I can do this.
  I'm off tomorrow.  I'll be posting chapter 3 on Monday.  I hoping to publish part one (the whole week) by the end of the week!
  See you Monday!

October 14, 2016

  I didn't post yesterday.  I was working on those freezer meals I told you about for November and it totally overwhelmed me and my day.  Thankfully, when my husband came home, he and the kids jumped in to save my behind.
  So, I didn't get any work done yesterday.  I did a lot of reading on Wednesday but no writing.  I'm still sitting at 8-10 chapters to finish up for part 2.
  I hope to get the reading done for part 1 today.  I want to upload it and pull off another proof copy tomorrow.  I'm down to the last of it, I can feel it.  As I'm reading it now, I feel like I can just check on what I'm correcting and call it.
  There's a cross country meet today in Fresno and the three boys are going to a campout tonight.  My hubby may be going to Colorado this weekend, so I don't know that I'll get much else accomplished today.
  I am posting chapter 2!
  Have a wonderful day.  I will check in tomorrow.

October 11, 2016

  So, I was productive yesterday, even though I didn't get everything done that I needed to.
  I need to slow it down a little, I've got way too much on my plate writing-wise.  So, I'm concentrating on getting the rest of Part 1 read so I can get it published!!  I can't read all day, however, so I'm also going to do a little rewriting in there, but not at the pace I had set for myself earlier.
  Today, however, will be spent doing some NaNo prep.  I'm going to the store and purchasing supplies to make 31 frozen crock-pot meals.  Then, I'll be spending the rest of the day putting them together.  No, it's not writing, but it is necessary if I want to have as much time in November for pure writing.
  And I really want that.
  I posted Chapter 1 in the pages of the blog.  Please go check it out.  Feel free to leave a comment, if you wish.  If you've read the preview on CreateSpace, it's the same material.  I'll be posting Chapter 2 on Friday.
  Thanks for everything!
  See you tomorrow.

October 3, 2016

  Hello.  I hope you had a wonderful weekend.
  I did.  I spent most of the weekend with my family, eating food and watching inspirational talks from our church leaders.  It was nice and relaxing.  We had some enjoyable conversations with my hubby's mom and some really good friends.  Couldn't have had a better weekend.
  That being said, I'm now behind on the schedule we talked about last Friday.  LOL.  Now, we kick it into gear and get things done!  I don't have any other plans for today and I've already started supper.  Just going to sit in the loft and check things off of my super long to-do list.
  Here's what's on it for today:  I have to catch up in my corrections--20 chapters, I have to read three more chapters, looking for corrections (not a catch-up, that's the work I did do this weekend), and rewriting/writing 12 chapters (three for four days).  Hahahahahahaha.  We'll see how this plays out this week.  Tomorrow is fairly clear of other obligations as well.  Maybe I'll get something done.
  I'm holding off on making a new "about" page this week.  Once the proofing is done, then we'll put that back under the focus.
  I signed up for NaNoWriMo this morning.  I'm planning on working on Part 3 drafts.  I'm giddy.
  Time to get to work.  I'll let you know how I did tomorrow!

October 1, 2016

  Happy October, everybody.
  Today has been a day spent watching inspiring talks by the leaders of my church.  I haven't gotten much done today and that's okay.  It's been a nice, relaxing day and I wouldn't trade it for all the work I could've gotten done.
  Yesterday, I got two chapters rewritten (well, one written and one rewritten).  I logged over 5000 words.  Pretty good.
  Then, my hubby and I took the kids to rodeo and later, the carnival at the fair.  We got home about 12:30.  It was a really good day.
  I didn't get the chapters read that I had scheduled.  I didn't get the chapters corrected that I had scheduled.  Goals in the trash bin yesterday and today.  Sigh.
  There's always next week.  Here's to meeting those goals this next week!  Have a wonderful Sunday!

September 30, 2016

  Happy last day of September.
  I talked yesterday about how I wanted to be done rewriting the fifth draft of Part 2 by today and that I was disappointed that I won't make it.  So, last night I sat down with my writing calendar for the next six months (yes, I have it planned out that far).  Based on the progress and hurdles Part 1 has presented, I set an approximate publish date for Part 2 and worked backwards.  Based on that, I have rewrites for Part 2 into Part 3 scheduled to end on October 12th.  I want to work into Part 3 so the book parts flow together.  However, I also sat down and counted approximately how many more chapters I'm going to need for Part 2.  Currently, I have twenty more.  I approximate I'll have to write five additional new chapters to round out what I've started.  That brings Part 2 to a really nice and natural cliffhanger. 
  Side note:  I was amazed as I wrote the first draft for part 2 that it just naturally came to this closing.  When I sat down with the second draft, I made some major changes and I had a completely different ending in mind.  Once again, it came naturally to the climax I had before.  Well, I can't fight that.  That's the ending.  The second ending I had in mind has now become the ending of Part 3 and it works nicely, actually.
  Anyway, that leaves me thirteen days to get Part 2 rewritten.  So, I need to get two chapters done a day.  That's do-able.  But, I'd like it if I got into Part 3 by then so, I'm aiming for three chapters a day.  That's still workable, I think.
  The corrections for Part 1 are going.  I sat down and took a hard look at what I'm correcting.  I've begun another edit is what I've done.  Last night, I finished repairing the corrections through chapter 10.  I counted 71 things I changed.  Going through it again, only 26 of those were grammatical or spelling type issues.  The majority of the issues that NEED fixing are hyphens vs em dashes.  Some of them didn't auto-correct in Word.  Well, there's a formatting reason for that.  In order to upload my manuscript for e-book, I have to have auto-correct off, which means I have to go through and paste in a symbol.  Not a big deal, just takes time.  I have caught a handful of spelling issues and once where I had two verbs and once where I had completely lost a word.
  But, I need to turn the editor in me off.  2/3 of the corrections I made last night weren't necessary.  The sentence was fine without the correction, I just thought it might sound better if I changed it.  It's not a totally offensive thing to do, but I need to let it go, especially if the sentence is just fine the way it is.
  So, I'm reading no more than three chapters a day to catch proofreading errors.  I don't want to do more than that because I'm afraid if I rush through it, I'll miss something.  That needs to be done by next Friday, October 7th.
  Whew.  Okay, we can do this.  I actually work better under a little pressure.  Three chapters a day to read and look for errors, five chapters a day to fix those errors (I'm reading at Chapter 28, fixing at Chapter 11 currently) and three chapters a day to write/rewrite.  No problem.
  Oh yeah, and walk the dog and fix supper and...  HAHAHAHAHA.  I love it!
  See you tomorrow!