Challenges

NaNoWriMo is currently underway and not going too badly, although if I don't pick the pace up I won't be making 50K by the end of November. But, Sweating With Sven is almost ready to kick off once more and that is a more genteel race to word count greatness. If I don't achieve one, I will more likely achieve the other.

I know, for NaNo that you're supposed to turn off your internal editor, but mine's just told me that chapter four should be chapter six and so now I have to discover what happens in chapters four and five, so that will be something to go over this evening, after m'nevvy's birthday party (he is, he proudly told me, five now. He's been 'almost five' since he turned three!) His dad made him a giant jaffa cake, cake for yesterday and today he's having cake in the shape of a train, so he and his sibs will be pinging off the walls on a sugar high.

It's cold, but I'm putting off lighting the fire until it actually gets dark. 14:00hrs is a little early yet for getting the coal in so it'll be on with another layer (and you see, this is where being a werewolf would come in really handy. On the one hand you'd have a higher metabolism so you'd be warmer anyway; and if it got really cold you could half-shift (so you could still type, naturally) and be all furry and whatnot while still being bipedal and opposedly thumbed. I think evolution missed a trick on that one.)

Anyway, anyone doing NaNo? Doing well?

Anyone about to start Sven?

Sven Update

Okay. 24 days to go so quick update on progress overall.

Sven total is skewed because now that I'm typing up draft one and editing as I go I'm adding new words but I won't be able to work out the difference until it's finished. But it's going well even if I can't quantify it.

Contraband has been started three times now and I hope that this time the story's going where it should. The irritating thing is that I now know where it should start, which means ditching the first 800 words or so. But, it will make it a better story so I won't complain about that.

A third piece has been planned and a basic outline has been done. Chapter outline to follow and then I'll get started on that (and this time I will be typing direct!) Lesson learned there.

Mood: Tired. Took the dogs on a long walk yesterday round a dam. Flat surface (i.e. not really rough terrain) and my hips were aching this morning so I must have been plodding hard at one point. Obviously I need to work on the incredible lightness of footsteps!

Progress XXX

Up to 31% typed up on 3's Company! I'll do more this evening and try to get it up to 40% at least. As far as wordcount overall & Sweating with Sven goes, then it's not looking good. Although, if I can get this typed up and start on the shifter novella then I may get closer to 60K by the end of Sven than I thought I would a week ago.
What I don't want is to fall into the trap of writing it out longhand and having to go through this whole typing it up malarkey again. Which will mean sitting at my desk during lunch to write and coping with interruptions. ::sigh::


Mood: Good
Music: Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

Progress XXIV

Not much progress made yesterday - short break so I didn't have much time to get up a head of steam. Came across a bit of a plot problem, but with the help of a brainstorming session with a friend I think I've got it sorted. I'll see how it works out on paper.

3's Company

New words: 463
Total words: 25,207 (max 0f 30k)
Total pages: 100.828 (max of 120)
Lucy: Really getting her mad on
Sam & Jared: Angry for Lucy, waiting to see what she wants to do.
Random sample of text: "Darling Lucy. With us, you spread a lot more than your wings," Sam retaliated.
"Bastard," she said, affectionately. "See if I stroke your tattoo now."

Contraband's paused while I finish 3's Company. I'll go back to it next week. I'm away for three days, but I should have a chance to complete Contraband before I get back, and decide whether I want it in 1st person POV or not. Jury's still out on that one.

Progress XXIII

Reached the minimum wordcount on 3's Company. It's not finished yet, I need to wrap the story up, bearing in mind that the wordcount will fluctuate anyway as I type it up and edit as I go along. I'm aiming to actually get the storyline finished by the end of the weekend. Then I'll concentrate on the type-up and first draft edit, leave it for a week and then go through it again.

3's Company
New words: 1,087
Total words: 24,744
Total pages: 98.976 / 96 (min.)
Lucy: Angry, now that she's over her shock
Sam: Being strong and, mostly, silent
Jared: Wants to know what the hell is going on
Random sample of text: "Robson basically said that my...being with you - having a threesome - makes me a security risk. I would, apparently, be easy to blackmail," she finished, dryly.

Mood: More productive than yesterday!

Progress XXII

Writing is still going well at lunchtimes, although weekends are full of procrastination and excuses for some reason (more time, less motivation?).
I've nearly reached the minimum wordcount for 3's Company (24k) so I will be going over, but that's okay as there will be some additions/ subtractions in the edits. As long as I'm not woefully under or over then I'm not too bothered at this stage.

Contraband is paused temporarily. I've been writing it in 1st pov and I'm not sure it should be. It's not flowing as it should/ could so it may be that I'm (a) writing the wrong story or, (b) that the pov is wrong and throwing the whole thing off. I'm only aiming for a maximum of 3k, so I could write it both ways - but I'm not sure I want to! We'll see. I had originally planned to have a max. of 1k - maybe I should return to that. It may not be working becaue I'm trying to get too much in? ::ponders::

3's Company
New words: 1,214
Total words: 23,652
Total pages: 94.608 / 96
Lucy: Feeling happy, until her boss corners her in the lift
Sam: Haranguing security to get the lift started again
Jared: Swearing at the security camera
Freaky moments: One. Lucy's boss acts scarily out of character
Random sample of text: Lucy crowded back in a corner, unnerved by his reaction and loss of control. The emergency phone had been ringing for some time, the rings shrill in the close confines of the lift. She looked at it with longing, not quite daring to cross into his personal space to answer it.

Mood: Not really a mood, but I'm cold. Chilly hands.

Music: I don't think now is the best time from Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Progress XXI

No new words this weekend, I did some reading around the craft instead and got some good ideas for dealing with a couple of areas that I wasn't that happy with in 3's Company. So, it was time well spent as I can incorporate the new ideas into the first edit and they will, hopefully, make it a better story.

Progress XX

Not bad, not bad at all. Only 440 words behind what my total to date should be, so as long as I can keep this up, all will be well. (And all manner of things will be well. [apologies to Voltaire])

3's Company
New words: 890
Total words: 22,438
Total pages: 89.752 / 96
Lucy: Feeling very daring
Sam: Feeling put upon
Jared: Voting for the cardigan
Kisses: None, but there's lots of scowling
Random sample of text: Jared threw his hands in the air in the universal sign of defeat, and marched to the door, Lucy on his heels. Sam brought up the rear, a gusty sigh on the back of her neck his sign of displeasure.

Edited to add: Typed up 793 words of 3's Company, editing-as-I-go.

Mood: Productive.

Progress XIX

No new words on 3's Company yesterday, although I did get some down for Contraband. Most progress was made on the backstory/ outline for a piece for Cobblestone's Octoberfest call. Four other pieces to be planned, although two of them aren't due until Oct/Dec this year, so I can wait on those two for a bit unless I get a brilliant idea!

Contraband
New words: 160
Total words: 677
Total pages: 2.708 / 12
Narrator: Seems a bit weird
Shem & Cain: Don't know what's coming
Random sample of text: 'Anyone who gets caught breaking the rules gets two warnings. The third time, though, they get recycled.'

Octoberfest outline/ notes: 1,113 words

Total new words for Thursday: 1,273

Mood: Chipper

Progress XVIII

No new words yesterday, but I've been typing up the longhand I did for 3's Company. It needs to be done, so that's progress of a sort.

Sven total since Saturday
New words: 2852
Not good, as I'm behind now, but I'll be doing more during my lunchbreak so that will rack things up again. I will also try to do more typing up tonight before Ashes to Ashes.

Mood: Tired. The coffee hasn't started working yet.

Progress XVII

Rollin'. rollin', rollin'...

Things are going well, progress is being made, although I am slowing down somewhat on 3's Company but hopefully that's a blip rather than a trend, as I'm actually quite close to the end!

3's Company
New words: 977
Total words: 21,548
Total pages: 86.192 / 96
Lucy: Discovers that Sam & Jared can get into her room quicker than she can. Without a key.
Sam: Just getting out of the shower.
Jared: Charming extra towels out of the chambermaid.
Kisses: 1
Random sample of text: "How did you get here before me? I took the elevator. Wait a minute, how did you get in?" She demanded.
"Well, we are security specialists," he said.

Contraband
New words: 117
Total words: 526
Total pages: 2.104 / 12
Narrator: Leaving the agri-compund for the first time
Shem: Driving the lorry
Cain: Riding shotgun
Checkpoints: 12 - with guns.
Random sample of text: The giant solar panels of Nott'ham glittered in the distance like the silver, multi-faceted eyes of a carniverous insect, waiting to devour us.

Mood: Productive, cherie.
Music: Nothing, but the sound of a fan on high power, pushing back the heat.

Progress XVI

Sven started on Saturday, and I got off to an okay start. I managed to type up just over 350 words of Three's Company. It's slightly different from what I'd originally written, so technically it's new words but I'm not counting it as such as it occurred as part of the typing up process. Now that I've altered the beginning, the rest of the type up should move along more quickly. Which is good, as I'll be doing the typing in the evening after having written new words during my lunchbreak.

I also started a new short story on Sunday, called Contraband. It will be a short-short I think. Possibly under 3K. Bizarrely enough, the story came to me when I was wandering back from my mother's house with a bag of peppercorns, that I'd raided from her supply. Strange how these things can come about.

3's Company
New words: 1,358
Total words: 20,571
Total pages: 82.284
Lucy: Feeling her inner vixen ascend
Sam: Relieved that she hasn't left yet
Jared: Thinks a trip to the Botanic Gardens will do the trick
Kisses: 3 little smooches
Random sample of text: "I'm in room seven-oh-six. Come and get me." She blew them a quick kiss, shutting the door before they were even half-way across the room.

Mood: I am productive.

Widgets

Many thanks to Portia for the widget on the right, which is doing a countdown to the end of Sven. I know. Sven doesn't officially start for me until tonight at 00:00:01, but what can I say? I'm keen! (And, with it being Friday and me not having to do the Day Job on Saturday (this week anyway) I could actually stay up and get started early!

Or I could go to bed with my cocoa like a little old lady (no offense intended to any little old ladies who regularly stay up until 3am boogie-ing away in nightclubs! I'm referring to the ones who start nodding off over their supper at 8pm) and then I could get up early (cue Merry falling off her chair laughing like a maniac at that).

Sven: The Return!

Oh, yes! Sven is back and he's ready to crack that whip!

Sweating with Sven: round three starts on the 1st of March (St. David's Day - don't forget the daffodils on your desk as a pick-me-up) and goes on until the 16th of May. The goal is 60K - 100k words and we've got an extra week built in so there are 77 days to reach our goal(s).
Click here to go to the Sweating with Sven website and sign up/ leave a comment!

Join in the fun!

NaNo Countdown

Well. NaNo ends tonight, for another year, at 23:59...and I won't be a winner. :phhhbbbbbt:

But, I'm moving on with the novel(la?) so I won't complain; I'll just admire those who have done really well and broken through the 5ok mark.

On a sideways note, Sven is going well - and I'm on target for him! Yay!

However. I have noticed that, despite the outline, I am now on Chapter 5. I say despite, because according to the outline I should still be on Chapter 3. More has gone on than I'd planned out initially. Does that happen to a lot of people? You plan one thing (x will happen in chapter 2 and then y in chapter 3) and then find that a, b, c, d, and z also took place in chapter 3 and lo! chapter 5 has arrived? It was planned as a novella, but at the moment I'm at just over 14K and I've only just started ch.5 of the 12 I was aiming for. :sigh: I won't think about it now. I'll sort it out in the editing process.

It is interesting though, because I had thought that an outline would make the writing easier in the sense that I wouldn't deviate as much but I seem to have had aha! moments along the way, just the same. (Aha! they could do that, here, and then this could happen - which means this will happen and...what does it say in the outline again?)

It's nearly the weekend! Woo-Hoo! I am so tired. I need a holiday, I think. Well, only another 20 days, or so and then it's off to Londres for some exhibition viewing. Sort of relaxing!

Rain, progress and tangents

First, the rain.
It is wazzing it down. And I was trying (unsuccessfully) to change out a bust headlight bulb in the rain. Left-hand side of the car? No problem. Right-hand side? There's a hose thing in the way, and I can't get a grip on the retaining clips for the bulb with it there. But, I'm worried that if I undo it, I won't remember where to re-connect it when I'm done. So I'll be having a wail at my little man as soon as (or at anyone who does know what goes where and can put it back again without having a case of OCD all over Henry's innards).

Progress.
I have managed to do 11,727 words on NaNo (16,874 with Sven - woot!)

Tangent
I went for a coffee break, thinking I'd write a few more notes on KK or plan a short story due in December, and instead ended up starting a sideways take on Rapunzel. It's partly because I'd been thinking of doing something for Eternal Press' Twisted Fayrie Tales theme. Which was due today. But with doing NaNo, I didn't get the idea formulated. I had a vague notion of the 'twist', but it wasn't until today that I had that fleshed out, and knew how it started. I may work on this tomorrow. Don't know, at the moment, where it could go when done. But, I like the idea so we'll see how it goes.

I'm at a spa with mater and two chums tomorrow (mater's birthday) and although I will take a book, I know that if I don't take any paper/ writing implements I shall be climbing the walls before we get to the three-course lunch, and forget most of the good things I think of. (Eden Hall Day Spa, Nottinghamshire. Chum #1 says it's very nice & she's not very girly in the way of spas and titivation, so high kudos from her. Will let you know if I feel relaxed when I get back!)

Progress is being achieved

It is 23:59 as I write this and I have just topped 10K which for me is pretty good! I am feeeling chuffed (although I will soon be going to bed as I am also feeling knackered - very busy two weeks at work with one thing and another).

Sven is going better for me than NaNo, but at the heart of it NaNo is fun and any progress achieved is a good thing, even if I don't hit or top 50K. (And hey, there're two weeks to go and miracles can happen, so who knows?) (Edited to add: not meaning to say that Sven is not fun, it's just that Sven is going on until January, so there's less personal time-management trauma for me!)

So:
NaNo = 10,123

Sven = 15,270

In other news, we may have snow tomorrow (if the weather decides we are high enough). Certainly, on the map, it looks as though we will get it; luckily we have plenty of coal. Even so, one of my tasks tomorrow will be to go into the woods and gather sticks for kindling, just to help get the fire started. This is the third night in a row we've had the fire lit, so I think this is it for the winter and it will be in now until about March.

Luckily, we don't need to light one during the day. It gets banked at night and as it burns down the ash covers the embers so that when we come to light the fire again at 17:00/ 18:00hrs the following night, we've still got glowing embers to work with, and the house is still warm as well. (Although with that, it helps that we now have people living on both sides as that keeps the house warmer).


Well, after that boring update, I'm for a quick Blogroll then off to bed.

And, before I forget (again!) Amanda - the whole album Black Parade is great! Very dark in tone, but melodies are mostly upbeat. My favourites are: The Sharpest Lives, Sleep, and Famous Last Words.

Downhill slide to the weekend

Wednesday has been and gone, and now it's a relatively slow slide to the weekend and - hopefully - a more prolonged writing period. I'm up to 7,303 words for NaNo, which, in comparison to others is quite modest. It's also lagging behind the projected word-count for the 15/11, but I'm not worried. It's going up; I'm building on the outline I've written, and the way it's going it may be a novel rather than 2 novellas, so I may have to make a decision later as to whether it works as a novel or whether I need to split it.

I haven't outlined Phelan's book yet, but most of chapter 2 was devoted to him and Alexei. With it meant to be Kieran & Tamsyn's book this time, it may be that I've devoted too much to A&P. I'll keep going for the moment and see if it's better divided later, or kept as is.

Progress Update

Update for Sven/ NaNo

I have written 3,505 words of Kieran's Kiss. As far as NaNo is concerned, I'm about 7,000 words behind where I should be. As far as I, personally, am concerned...yeah, baby!

She are flowing like rivers of hunny. Me liek hunny. Srsly.

No, really. It's going well, and I'm enjoying it. I'd spent so long planning that damn thing that I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get into the writing, but so far so good. I've just been hindered by work and an inability to get up an hour earlier or go to bed an hour later (if I try, it's not a pretty sight!)

So, forward motion is being achieved! (And congratulations to Zette, who has already sailed past the 50K mark)

NaNo Has Begun!

Okay, to be a bit more accurate it 'officially' started 9 hours and 3 minutes ago, but I was in bed because I was to tired to stay up. In my defence, if I was travelling down to London just by train today, then I'd have given it a bash. But I've got to drive most of the way and then get the Thameslink (curse you! Striking Midland Mainline! Grrrrr - :shakes fist:). I will be parking at the house of the grandmother of the chum, and I can crash there on the way back if I'm late...just thought I'd better pack a bag as well then. Nuts McGee, I'm a bit disorganised this morning.


So, NaNo wordcount will be updated on Friday (once I've typed up all of the handwritten notes from today; and then hopefully most, if not all, of the rest will be typed directly onto the pc.

How are you doing? If you're not doing NaNo, how much is Sven making you sweat?