November 30, 2016 Why is success scary?

    I didn't write anything today either.  I'm totally okay with the 176,000 I manged to get over the course of the first 24 days of the month.  Totally.
    My burnout is wearing off.  Today, I was spontaneously thinking about my characters and some things.  I had a few small revelations, but I didn't get them down.  If they're supposed to be there, they'll come back.
    I did get some plot work done.  It's not all of the story line, I'm missing a bit, especially towards the end.  Some of it might need to get moved around.  I do have enough to get through most of the book and plug things in as I go.  That's major.
    Tonight, I'll get Part 3 mapped into my overall plot line Excel sheet.  It's a handy thing.  On the left, I have the days of the week listed.  Across the top, is each of the two main and several major characters.  The events are then plotted out so they lace together.
    Tomorrow, I'm going to do a little bit of painting in the living room.  Then, I'm going to read and grammar-ize two chapters in Part 2.  If I have some time left over, I'm going to come back around to the beginning of Part 3 and start the third draft with the new timeline.  There's no sense in finishing the second draft.  I've changed enough of Part 2 that only the skeleton of the last half of Part 3 remains.
    I also met with one of my alpha readers today and gave her a copy of Part 2.  The last one will go out tomorrow.  That's exciting.  I'm moving along. 
    The lady I met with today, her husband has worked for one of the local magazines.  He gave me contact information to get a hold of someone there to see if they'd like to do a local piece on me.  He also told me to contact the local t.v. stations.  It's kind of intimidating.
    I talked with my husband about it tonight.  He told me that if I want this to do really well, I need to jump in and swim in the deep end.  Why is success scary?  It's not even success at this point.  It's potential success.  And it frightens me.
    I still haven't locked down a book signing with the local Barnes and Noble.  That's been out there since August.  I also had an offer from a local librarian to do a reading.  I told both of them I'd have to think about it.  Why didn't I jump at them?
    My hubby has a good point.  I can continue to be a stay-at-home mom who paints her house and writes/publishes OR I can be an author who paints sometimes... and still stays at home.
    I'm sitting here crying because it scares me to death.
    I'll let you know what happens.

November 8, 2014

     Yesterday wound up being a good day.  About halfway through the day, I started feeling better.  At that point, I think I was about 3000 words in.  By the end of the day, at 11:45 p.m., I was over 10k for the day.  I was buzzing.  It was a good day.

     I'm looking forward to trying for that number again today.  I'll be bouncing around town.  Since I went and exercised my right to vote as an INFORMED voter, I'm treating myself to Chipotle for lunch.  I'll probably spend a couple hours there, writing.  Before I go there, however, I'm headed to one of the libraries in town so I can donate a copy of my book and write there for a while.  After lunch, I'll head to the library near my house where there's going to be a write-in this afternoon.  That'll be done at 7.  Depending on what I still need to get done, I'll either continue writing or take the evening up.  But I know me--I'll probably continue writing.

    Tomorrow is Wednesday… notorious for being uber-busy.  Having a head start going into the day would be a good thing.

    We're done with week 1.  Looking at my foundation goal, 150k, at the end of week 1 I should be at 37,500.  When I went to bed, I was at 40,241!  Woot!  For my dream goal, 240k, I needed to be at 60k.  I'm a little off.  But there's still time.

    For week 2, I'm setting my goal at 75k, half of 150k.  However, I want to be all the way through Part 2, which is between 107-115k.  I've added one chapter and I know of at least two, maybe three more that I need to do.  When I was done with the 5th draft, the manuscript sat right around 107k.  I figure three or four chapters will add at least 3k.  If I want to get through Part 3 by the end of the month, that's where I need to be next Monday.  Or at least there on next Tuesday, the 15th.  Just doubling what I did this week isn't going to work.
    So, I better get to work.  I have about 80k words to write this week.  Yikes.
    It's a good thing, though.  I'm dreaming about scenes in Part 3.  That means I need to write them.

November 2, 2016

  Yesterday was such a good day.  I felt comfortable all day with my writing.  I didn't feel pressed until the evening, but I'll explain that in a minute.
  Things flowed well.  I'm through the prologue and chapters one and two.  That, along with the blog and the journal, added up to 8199 words for the day.  Awesome!  I love days like that.  And, I could've done more, had my activities allowed that.
  I went to the write-in at the library at 4:30.  I donated a copy of Part 1 to the library and set to work.  There were at least ten people there, if not twelve.  It was an awesome turnout.  At one point, a few of us started talking and that went on for almost an hour.  I got behind then, but that was okay.  Socializing with other writers is good stuff.
  I then went to the kickoff party.  I took my laptop, not knowing what to expect.  Well, I didn’t need to take it.  We talked and ate and talked some more.  I love meeting new people and these people were writers too!  It was great!
  But when I got home at 9:00, I still needed 1500 words to meet my 7250 word count goal.  I prayed with the kids and got them headed to bed and then got back to work.  My husband, who was out of town for the night, called in the middle.  He let me finish and called back 35 minutes later.  I had just reached 7250.  When we got off the phone, I finished the chapter I was on, which got me to my 8199.
  It was a really good day.
  Today, I'm going to work on David's journal.  The last page from that is the prologue for Part 1.  Chapter 3 delves into the journal a bit.  I want to have it all mapped out before deciding what pieces I'm sticking in there.
   My goal for the day is another 7250.  I'm volunteering at the Family History Center today from 2 to 5, but most of the time, I can write while I'm there.  The kids have church activities tonight.  They'll require me to be an attentive parent, so I need to have things done before seven this evening. 
   Whoo!  Here we go!  See you tomorrow.

November 1, 2016

  HOWDY FROM NANOWRIMO!
  I'm so stoked.  I've been waiting for this month since June, when I decided I wasn't going to be able to the NaNo in July.  And what am I doing?  BLOGGING!
  No worries, it counts.  It's words in the month of November, even if it isn't part of the book itself.  It does revolve around the book.  I'm counting it.
  So, today, I've already checked my emails and FB (not necessary except it's about the only socialization I get during the month.)  The FB does have a daily time restriction on it and I'm already past my allotment.  I won't be able to go back today.  I've gone to the NaNo website and read the inspirational threads that I'm following and the one I started.  I made some comments and I checked my chart to see how I'm doing on word count (It sits at zero currently... nothing like a blank page to inspire all the things you could possibly do this month!)  I've written in my writing journal (where I talk about plot and plans--sorry, I can't share that here....) and yes, I'm counting those words as well.  NaNo word count isn't an exact science.
  I have my document set up.  After I'm done here, I'm going to build my running outline.  As I get scenes written, the spot on the outline gets removed.  That way, I can always see what's next.  As I get an idea, I add it to the running outline.
  I also have my music up and running (I need a hero, I'm holding out for a hero).  Later on today (after I take a break and walk the dog at 9:00), I'll switch the background noise to a movie.  After lunch, I'll move up into my loft and write there all afternoon to some different tunes.
  Today, there's a NaNo write-in at the library late in the afternoon.  I'll head over there about 4.  A write-in is where other NaNos get together with whatever they're using to write (usually a laptop but I've seen paper and pencil) and we sit around a table and write.  Occasionally, there's conversation, but not much.  This evening, the area is having a kickoff/writing party at a local restaurant.  I'll be there as well!
  This is so cool.  I love November.
  I'll check in with you tomorrow!!