Another short writing day today, folks. The majority of my day has been spent preparing for an excursion down to the Carolina Renaissance Festival this weekend. This is part of an annual pilgrimage to visit with friends from all over the country at CRF in an event known as the CRF invasion. Today was spent packing everything up, so I didn’t get to writing until very late in the day. As such, I didn’t get much more than 1000 words written.
What did surprise me was the reaction to my political essay from yesterday. Overnight this has become my most popular post ever, and has set a new high water mark for this blog. What’s more, so far I’ve only received positive feedback from the post. Now, that may mean that it has only been seen by like-minded folks, or that those who disagree have just written me off as an idiot who isn’t worth their time. We’ll see. Still, it is nice to see that people are reading something I’ve written. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Novels,
The Bright Lands,
WIP,
Writing
Another short post today, folks. It seems like I got most of my words out in my earlier political essay. It hasn’t been an easy day. I woke up sick this morning, suffering from some overnight post-nasal drip. Bleah. I called in to work and went back to sleep and stayed there for quite a long time. When I got up, I had a bit of difficulty getting myself up and functioning. Then, when I did get my brain going, I ended up writing something else.
After dinner, I finally got around to working on my Novel. I only got in 883 words today, which means I’m falling behind a bit. I wrote approximately half of what I should have. Unfortunately, I”m running out of steam and need to get some rest.
Tomorrow, I’m taking off from work to get ready for a trip down to Charlotte this weekend. We need to get everything packed and ready so we can hit the road early on Friday morning. For now, I’m calling it a day. See you all tomorrow, folks.
Tagged as:
Novels,
The Bright Lands,
WIP,
Writing
This is going to be a short one today, folks. I didn’t get a lot of words in today. They all came in a very grudging manner. But I did write today, and I did get enough words in that I am (slightly) ahead of the curve for NaNoWriMo. So, while I don’t have much of a lead, I am still on schedule to hit 50,000 words by the end of November.
Skipping down to the numbers, I got 1,036 words written, which puts me at 10,123 words so far. Here’s today’s progress bar:
Not much to say about today’s writing. I started late, and had tough going. I’ve started bridging to the beginning of the action arc, but I’ve still got some establishing work to do yet. Honestly, right now I’m very tired, so I’m just going to head off to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be full of much better writing. See you then.
Tagged as:
Novels,
The Bright Lands,
WIP,
Writing
Before I get into talking about my daily NaNoWriMo experience, I’d like to take a few moments to ask you, the reader, to lend me, and the Office of Letters and Light, your support. The Office of Letters and Light is the organization that sponsors NaNoWriMo and a bunch of other creative writing programs. While these programs are free to the participants, they do cost money. In order to help offset some of these expenses, I’m trying to raise funds to benefit these programs. I’m trying to raise $250 this year and I could use your donation. Your donation will not only help promote creative writing programs, it will also demonstrate your support for my writing, and your encouragement for me to complete this year’s novel. Please give what you can, and help to spread this message to your friends and family.
So, let’s go to the word count next. I’ve exceeded my target word count the last few days, so I’m ahead of the standard curve. Today, I took some time to catch up on some overdue correspondence, including a couple of voice projects that are waiting in the wings. This was necessary, but it cut into my writing time for today. (As did the nap I took after I got home from work, but that is another story.) As a result, I only got 1393 words written today, but my total word count is 9087, which still puts me over 700 words ahead of the standard curve. I’m still getting in daily writing, even if I’m not hitting my preferred 2000 words a day.
So here is today’s progress bar:
About today’s writing…
[click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Novels,
The Bright Lands,
WIP,
Writing
Another excellent day of NaNoWriMo! I still have no idea where this story is going in the short term, but once I get started with a scene, I seem to just get onto a roll. This book seems to be a lot more dialog and less action than I was expecting. That may change as I get into things more, but once my characters start talking, the dialog just seems to flow. Well, except for Peggy, but she’s a bit of a chatterbox, and I figure that I’ll flesh out some of her blatherings in the next draft.
But let’s start off with the good news. I had a great word count today, racking up 2465 words today. That put me over my personal word count and help me catch up a chunk of words that I missed on the 2nd. I’m now ahead of the curve for the whole 50,000 and just about 300 words shy of where I would be writing 2000 words a day. I could have pressed on for it, but I don’t want to burn out early. I’m good with making some regular progress.
So here’s today’s progress bar:
Now on to some details about today’s writing…
[click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Novels,
The Bright Lands,
WIP,
Writing
Yesterday was a slow day on the NaNoWriMo front, but I made up for it today. I slept in late today, despite the best efforts of telemarketers and campaigning officials. I’m sure that any moment I’m going to hit the limit of how many phone numbers I can block on my home phone system. I am so sick of the constant interruptions of automated phone calls from strangers for whom I am a demographic rather than a person. After this election is over, I’m going to start campaigning my state and federal representatives to introduce legislation to outlaw all telemarketing. This is insane. On the phone you can’t tell the criminals from the legit companies, and now all of them ignore the Do Not Call list. The only way to stop this is to make it illegal, close down all the telemarketers and force the phone companies to pull the numbers these assholes are using to intrude into the lives of honest citizens.
I’ll be honest. I would rather legalize prostitution and marijuana and fire all the people working at telemarketer call centers. I think a lot of people would agree with me, too. But this post isn’t supposed to be about politics, but about NaNoWriMo… [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Novels,
The Bright Lands,
WIP,
Writing
Not a lot of excitement in today’s NaNoWriMo writing. It was my turn to drive the car pool to work today, although that came as a surprise when I got to the commuter lock. I didn’t mind having to drive, I just wish I had been given more notice. Needless to say, that meant that I didn’t get a chance to write on the way into or coming back from work.
After work, I decided to go to the county early voting center and see about casting my vote early. The irony here is that the whole purpose of going to vote early is to avoid long lines at polling places next Tuesday for election day. What makes it ironic is the fact that I spent an hour standing in line before I got my chance to cast my vote.
[click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Novels,
The Bright Lands,
WIP,
Writing
D’oh! I completely forgot to work on my NaNoWriMo diary entry last night. I’ve been planning to do the diary again this year, but last night after I got finished with my writing, I was so focused on what I need to write next, I completely forgot about doing the diary entry. So… I’m starting this year’s diary off a little late… but I had a good day of NaNo yesterday!
[click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Novels,
The Bright Lands,
WIP,
Writing
The time has come, dear friends, when NaNoWriMo lurks on the horizon. This means you can look forward to posts about my new NaNoWriMo project, and the flurry of posts tracking my progress through the month of November. But I need your help, first. National Novel Writing Month is a great program that is made free to its participants each year, but there are costs associated with the program, and the money has to come from somewhere. I know the economy is hard right now. My wife lost her job 3 1/2 years ago when the economy tanked and we’ve been struggling along since then. That is why I’m asking you to help. I’m trying to raise $250 to help support NaNoWriMo, and I’m asking for you to sponsor my novel by donating whatever you can to the fund. I’ve set up a fundraising page over at Stayclassy.org, so please visit it and donate if you can.
And if you’d like to find out a little more about the kind of book you’ll be supporting, keep reading. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Novels,
Sneak Peek,
The Bright Lands,
WIP,
Writing
Today, I finally completed my first draft of my first novel. This is a big milestone, but the work is far from over. The draft clocked in at 77,759 words, but I have to admit that there are a few notes stuck in there for things to be fleshed out, and a few sections I’m pretty sure that I’m going to cut. And given that I’m at least two editing passes from a submittable draft, the final version could be considerably longer or shorter.
Still, I think it is pretty respectable for my first time out of the blocks.
Of course, this is no time to sit backup upon my laurels. This is still a lot of work to be done, and I’m already planning out the next steps. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Crackle & Bang,
Novels,
Steampunk,
Swimming Cat Studios,
The Perils of Prauge,
WIP,
Writing
