Elizabeth's Blog

Okay I must admit, nanowrimo was a lot harder than I anticipated. I finished not quite at 28,000 words… a little over half the goal. Yikes! I’m sure it didn’t help that they chose November (the only choice that would have been worse is December), as it’s so busy for me - seriously some days I barely have time to go to the bathroom. That’s what I get for having a largely seasonal business.

Ah well, all is not lost. I really enjoyed the challenge and now I have a pretty good start to a really solid piece of work that I actually like (a rarity in and of itself). I will definitely be finishing this puppy before too long, and what the hell - may even submit it to a few publishers. Not like I have anything to lose except my pride, which I already lost many years ago.

The challenge was great fun and I can’t wait to participate again next year. Maybe I’ll “train” for it a bit before jumping into it head first next time. Maybe I’ll do a couple of practice nanowrimo’s on my own. January looks good, and at least it will be much quieter at the workplace then.

Thanks for the memories, Nanowrimo!

So I’ve now broken the 10,000 word mark with Nanowrimo, and it’s been quite a tricky feat. November and December are traditionally our busiest months with the store, and this year has been no exception. While I’m glad business is picking up from a somewhat slow October, I also know that from next week on, my life will be one ginormous workload.

It bothers me that I’m only up to 10,700 words during the lightest part of an uber busy month. I don’t know how I’ll find the time to finish, but at this point, it’s become a Personal Challenge to finish. I won’t get glory, fame, or fortune, but I’ve never backed down from a Personal Challenge and I’m not about to start now. (I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s like once something clicks in my brain, I’m driven to finish it no matter what… it’s getting it to click in the first place that’s the tricky part).

I had some difficulties with writers block earlier today, but one of the best pieces of advice from the nanowrimo staff was to just write something. So I flipped over to a blank page, and just wrote a little bit about my characters. I was finding it hard to keep track of them all anyway, and character development is not my strong suit. As I wrote about them, I could picture each one clearly in my mind, and it really helped sort it all out in my brain. I also started writing a brief synopsis of the plot, then realized I didn’t necessarily want to know. That’s been my goal this time around - to not have things neatly planned out, but to let them unfold naturally. So instead of hashing out the rest of the plot, I returned to my work in progress, refreshed and excited to see what happens next. I also went back in and filled in some character holes to give my people a little more depth now that I had a better idea of who they are.

I am fully aware that this whole thing is not about the end result (I have a feeling that at the end, I will have another steaming pile of crap to add to my collection) but completely about the process. I feel like it’s not only making me a better writer, it’s giving me the discipline to sit down and write every single day, even if it’s just for 15 minutes. It’s making me excited about writing again, when the thought of putting fiction down on paper quite frankly made me want to vomit. It’s giving me hope that someday I might do this full time. Okay, I’d still like to continue to eat, so maybe not so much that last one… but it definitely has given me my creativity back.

One other thing that I think is cool (and that I hadn’t really counted on) is the effect it’s having on my daughter. She has been writing and illustrating stories since she was 4 years old, some of which are hilarious and surprisingly insightful. She would see me writing, and start writing her own stuff… but she would also pick up 2 bad habits of mine; 1) my lack of dedication to finish my stories, and 2) my own harsh self-criticism and perfectionistic nature. It really bothers me when I ask to read something she’s written and she reluctantly hands it over and says “well, it’s not very good. I don’t like it very much.” or “I’m not a very good writer, why do you want to read this?” So Nanowrimo has taught me to finish what you start, and quit worrying about how good it is. If it’s crappy, it’s crappy, but at least it was worth the ride. I hope I can instill that in her before it’s too late and she decides otherwise.

1/5 of the way done and looking forward to the future. If anyone is still up for the challenge, I don’t think it’s too late to get started, as long as you’ll have some time in the foreseeable future to get caught up. If you do pick it up - good luck to you!

So it’s the first day of NaNoWriMo, and after about an hour total, I’m up to 1072 words. At 1000 words per hour, this will take me roughly 50 hours to complete, thus averaging out to about 1 1/2 hours per day to complete. I think this is a low estimate, so either I just have a lot to say, or I’m optimistic about how long I can keep up that pace.

I almost started writing last night at midnight just because I’d really been looking for the excuse to write… but alas I couldn’t stay up that long and conked out at about 11:30. I was able though to get up a little early and get some writing in before anyone else got up. Made me tired as heck this afternoon, but the peace and quiet was glorious.

I’ve been using Google Docs since I’m usually pretty mobile and can switch to up to 4 different computers during the day, depending on who’s around me and if they need the computer I’m currently working on. Since I didn’t have much luck with the USB thing (overwriting info FTL!), and apparently I have never learned my lesson with regard to backups, Google Docs made perfect sense. It basically does everything Open Office and Word does, and even throws in a few extra bonus items. Not only can you share your doc with others (of course) it gives me info I need such as word count, and of course keeps track of revisions so I can roll back if I completely F something up.

One thing I didn’t know about Google Docs, which turned out to be pretty cool is the info they give you on the Flesch- Kincaid Readability Tests (Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level) and the Automated Readability Index . Basically these indicators tell you how easy it is for someone to understand your writing. Right now I’m at a level of 67.5, which is just about at the “Reader’s Digest” level… 8th & 9th graders can easily understand my writing. I haven’t decided yet if that’s a good thing.

At any rate, the first day was/is exciting and even though I have no idea what my novel is about or where it’s going (something I’ve never actually done before- I usually have it all neatly planned out beforehand), I find it refreshing to see how it all pans out. I think I’ll be just as surprised as my reader.

I don’t have a title yet, or a plot, but it’s set in the future and the main character is a space age undertaker who’s job it is to transport and ship dead bodies out into space (since the earth has become so overcrowded, cemeteries on any habitable tract of land have been gobbled up by eminent domain). Wonder what’s going to happen.

Some of you may know I’ve been working on writing a novel for a long time. I had recently gotten the urge to pick it back up again and had been diligently working on it the last week or so, when lo and behold today happened. Today was one of those days you’d really just like to forget about… a few things happened which I won’t go in to, but the icing on the cake was when I pulled out my current work only to find the file had completely been corrupted (and although I usually keep a backup on a flash drive, I’d inadvertently overwritten that with another project). Basically months of work were lost in one fell swoop. *sigh*

I’m a firm believer in the “everything happens for a reason” mantra, and goofy as it sounds, there are times when things just work out. In a completely unrelated event yesterday, I was reconnected out of the blue with an old writing buddy from the now defunct Cincinnati Writers Project. A few hours ago, he sent his Facebook contacts a message about this NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Although I was sick to death to know I’d just lost all my work, I clicked on the link just for the hell of it.

This NaNoWriMo is basically a marathon for writers - the challenge is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. The goal is not to have a completely perfect piece of literature at the end, but to get your mind going and your fingers typing and see what comes out. At the very least, you have a first draft of something you can shape and mold later on. I have been re-inspired by this challenge, and have come to realize that my previous efforts were all a big steaming pile of crap anyway so it’s probably just as well. I feel refreshed and ready to try again from scratch with some other ideas that had been floating around my head… and that I had unsuccessfully been trying to incorporate in my current piece. Apparently I was being pretty stubborn in my current approach and I really just needed a kick in the ass to get me back on track.

So if there are any other writers out there (aspiring or otherwise) - I highly encourage you to sign up for NaNoWriMo and let’s share the pain together.