NaNo wrap up

Congratulations to our NaNo Harem -- Karen, Chandra, Jon and me -- for all making our NaNo goals! I've been completely indulgent all weekend but will be back on track tomorrow (maybe even later tonight). I plan on doing a little NaNo look back to reflect on what the experience taught me. More later!

Ta-Daaaaaa!

Renee's Progress

I did it!

Destination reached

Renee's Progress

Tomorrow night I'll do a NaNo Harem Word Count Round Up and post everyone's progress here.

Well, the good news is that my characters have finally made it to Nicaragua. The bad news is that I had to skip writing the plane ride scene to get them there. I was getting hung up on it, because I'm not sure what they need to discuss. I know I probably need to use it for either an information drop (notice I didn't say dump, b/c no one likes those, but I do need to work in some more info about my world at some point) or to further their relationship. Or maybe lay some backstory for the characters they're going to meet in Nicaragua. See? Many options. So I decided to just put it aside for now and see what I need when the story's farther along.

One of the things I'm finding really challenging is what I'm referring to as transitional exposition. (Doesn't that sound important? Kind of like 'sanitation engineer'.) It's the act of getting my characters through the mundane activities that simply don't warrant any wordcount but need to happen in order to get them from the current scene into the next. My story is written in first person present tense, which means (for me, at least) I'm pretty much accounting for every minute that takes place from the moment the story opens to the moment the story ends. So how do I handle things like checking out of the hotel, riding uneventfully to the airport and getting on the plane in just a few sentences without resorting to "We check out of the hotel and take a transfer to the airport. After passing through security, we get on our plane." Bor-ing. I mean, I guess the first sentence would hold up all right, but then I feel like (as a reader) I'm looking for something more in the next one. No one wants to read a wooden play-by-play of events that have no actual bearing on the story. But I also can't simply start the next sentence with them on the plane when the previous sentence had them in the hotel.

Any pointers from you, my vast readership, would be appreciated. :)

Tomorrow it's back to work. Blech. I'm in good shape to meet my NaNo goal, though. Maybe even early! Now I need to start planning out my December goals. It's going to feel weird to fill up that progress bar and then just slap the old one back up there, back to only halfway done.

He put his what in her where???

Renee's Progress

My characters aren't in Nicaragua yet. Why, you ask? They decided to have sex before checking out of the hotel. Don't look at me! It wasn't in the plot I wrote.

It was interesting, writing the scene. At the Romantic Times convention in April, I listened to many authors discuss how easy or hard they felt sex scenes were to write. I sat in the audience thinking, "I won't have any trouble. I'm not embarassed to talk about sex and I know where it belongs in my books. No sweat!" Today I realized I may have been a little overconfident. For me, the challenge is terminology. Because let's face it, people. There just aren't any cool words for our genitalia. They're all either too clinical, too vulgar, or too bodice-ripper sounding.

I want a special sex scene thesaurus. Does this exist anywhere? If not, I call dibs on writing one. I think that's a money maker, right there.

Next stop: Nicaragua

Renee's Progress

So, as of tomorrow morning when I open up the laptop again, my main characters will be on a flight to Managua, Nicaragua, where the majority of the rest of my book will take place. Anyone know anyone who's been to Nicaragua? Because I haven't, but my story has been Very Insistent that this particular sequence of events take place there. I can certainly do the ole travel book/online research route, but I'd really like to find someone who has actually been to Managua or, eureka, *lives* in Managua. If anyone has suggestions of where I could hook up with such an individual, let me know. Until then, I'm looking forward to a lot of "research later" and "describe more" and "add details whenever the heck you figure them out" in the manuscript.

I'm taking the rest of the night off. "See" you tomorrow!

We have no bananas today

No writing today but I will have the plot issue worked out by the time I hit the pillow tonight. Hope everyone out there is having a productive evening!

P.S. It snowed here today!! (In Connecticut)

The finer points of a well plotted scene

Renee's Progress

I started work on a new scene today. It's a scene that introduces two new characters and establishes a new thread of conflict for the story. Sort of important, yeah?

Allow me to share with you the intricate details of my finely crafted plot for this scene: "The meeting doesn't go well. Threats are made. Simon and Hestia leave."

Mmmmyeeeeeaaaah.

That's sort of like when I 'prep' a page for scrapbooking by sticking a piece of paper in with the pictures that says "Use ribbon."**

Not a whole lot to go on there. I've found I don't even entirely understand the reason for the conflict. Oh, I understood it when I plotted it. I just, apparently, didn't feel it was important enough to write down.

I predict the need to give up word count tomorrow in lieu of plotting.

*sigh*

In other news Jon wrote just over 1,000 words this weekend, thereby appeasing the word hag. Go Jon!

I do have one other bit of silliness to share. I actually meant to post this the other day but forgot. I caught myself pairing the words 'unknown strangers' while writing the other night. Yeah. Unknown strangers. You know, as opposed to those, um, well known ones.

Nope. No chance of hubris here. ;)

**If you don't scrapbook, you may not understand this reference. Julie, however, is in hysterics right now.

Week Two Check In

Here are the Week Two totals:

Renee's Progress
Jon's Progress
Karen's Progress
Chandra's Progress

Okay, not really. Jon's total is a week old but can I help it if he never updates his blog? *poke, poke* I know he's written some this week and he'd promised me a thousand words this weekend (because I'm a word hag and never let him rest) so hopefully he'll have an exciting new tally tomorrow.

And Karen is past 30,000 but hell, it's just fun to post a completely full word meter. Here's her real tally:

Karen's Progress

The 60K isn't due by the end of the month (though secretly, I think she could do it). She's aiming to finish this draft by Christmas. Go, Karen, go!

And Chandra is away this weekend so she hasn't had a chance to post her progress.

But as you can see, we're all moving steadily along towards our goals. Lemme hear it: NaNo Harem ROCKS!

Progress Report

Renee's Progress

Still on track, though my cushion is shrinking. I'm hoping to change that with today's work. I want a niiiiiiice fat emergency savings bank of words to get me through this holiday week, when we'll be getting together with friends and family (and I'll be spending less time with my couch!).

Karen Mahoney Rocks!

Karen Mahoney has achieved 30,000 words!!!!! Please go congratulate her here.

As for me, I continue slogging along. Not much happened yesterday -- I think I managed 250 or so words before collapsing into bed. I'm at about 675 so far today, and although I was hoping to just count that towards yesterday's goal and push through a new thousand tonight, I don't feel like that's going to happen. I'm exhausted. I'm actually being tested for mono (which cracks me up, because part of me thinks it's just me pushing myself for NaNo--mono, NaNo, mono, NaNo). So we'll see how that turns out.

For now I'm going to close the internet browser and get to work on some words for as long as I can. We have no plans this weekend, so I'm aiming to log some major word count.

Okay. Off to slay the dragon.


Edit: I hit just over a thousand and I'm turning in for the night.

Still on track

Renee's Progress

I managed 275 words yesterday before work and during my lunch -- bonus! Today I hit my goal, ringing in with 1,027. I also worked on the new laptop tonight, which was exciting and a little weird. I'm a PC person and my new laptop is a Mac, so I'm trying to get to know my way around. But hey, the space bar works, so I really can't complain. ;)

As long as I meet my goal tomorrow, I'll still be about a thousand words ahead of schedule, a nice comfortable cushion. I'm hoping to log some serious count this weekend and I'll probably take a day off work at some point later in the month. I've got two more to use before the end of the year and what better reason to use one than to forge ahead with my NaNo count?

Well, I'm wiped. I'm going to turn in early. I've been at a leadership class for the past two days which has been a wonderful respite from the daily grind but means I'll return to 8 gorgonzillion emails and a world of chaos tomorrow. Definitely won't hurt to have an extra hour of sleep in my system.

Hope all of you are having a great night!

Check, please

Renee's Progress

Words written: 1,009
Glasses of wine consumed: 2
Something fun: I wrote about vomiting. Briefly. And tastefully. Okay, maybe 'tastefully' isn't the best word here, but I'm too tired to fix it.
Something irritating: I had to skip a section with the ole 'add blah blah in later' just to get through my word count for today.

Tomorrow I have an appointment and an errand to run so I'm planning on cashing in on my extra words and I probably won't post. Have a NaNo-YaNo-ful Tuesday everyone, and I'll catch up with you on Wednesday.

And now, the letter Z.

Fat and happy

My word count, that is. ;) I'm back from a weekend in NH with my family and am psyched to report I stayed right on track: a total of 3,004 words for the weekend, which means I met my goals and get to carry a little cushion into next week. Hooray!

I'm going to go celebrate by doing something that doesn't involve my laptop for a while.

Renee's Progress

One week in!

Week One Recap
Well, here we are on Day 8 of NaNo. It's been just over a week and here are everyone's totals:

Renee's Progress
Jon's Progress
Karen's Progress
Chandra's Progress

Just to recap, Karen's, Chandra's and my goals required us to be at 8,000 words by the end of the day today and Jon's goal required him to be at 2,000 words. We are all kicking major NaNo heiny!!! Special props to Karen for already making it past the halfway mark only a quarter of the way through the month.

Daily Recap

Yesterday...well, yesterday sucked. Having not met my goal Tuesday night, I decided to get up early and write for a while before work. Due to some logistical issues I won't bore you with here, it made the most sense for me to actually go to work early and write there rather than try to write here at home.

The plan was that I would write on the bus on the way to the office then find a quiet corner of the food court (I'd scoped one out the previous morning) where I wouldn't be noticed or disturbed and write for 45 minutes or so there before heading up to my actual desk.

The first place the plan went awry was the bus. Depending on my schedule for the day, I either take the 7:20 or the 7:45 bus in. The 7:20 is always full so I almost always have to share a seat with someone. Wednesday morning was no different. I was a little uneasy about working where someone could so easily look over and read what I was writing--this is a rough draft and while there are occasional moment of out-of-the-box brilliance, most of it is not yet meant for public consumption. I also tend to compose at the keyboard--literally. Type a sentence, delete most of it, retype it, erase a word or phrase, think for a minute, replace said word or phrase. Move onto the next sentence and repeat. That means that some of my first sentences are really, really crappy. I'm rambling here, but bottom line: I'm self conscious about someone reading over my shoulder while I'm writing. Add to that the fact that the particular scene I was in the middle of writing was of a...romantic...nature and forget it. Can you say 'awkward'?

So, here I am, trying to ignore the woman sitting beside me on the bus. Then I realize that she is actually ignoring me. Awesome! She appears to have no interest whatsoever in what I'm doing. I relax and get to work. A few minutes later while thinking about the wording of a phrase, I turn to look out the windows on the opposite side of the bus and catch the woman sitting in the seat across from me blatantly and shamelessly reading my screen. There endeth my progress for that bus ride.

I get to work, pissed off at the woman, at the lost time, at myself for not being able to just get over it and write anyway. I hustle my ass to my predetermined secret corner in the food court and whip my laptop back out of my bag. I don't even take off my coat because I don't want to waste the 20 seconds it will take. A couple of deep breaths, a quick re-read of the scene so far to get my head back in it and I'm back in the game. Happily type-type-typing away.

Until a few minutes later when two of my employees appear and decide they simply must sit at a table near mine to have breakfast.

I think I logged a total of six sentences through the entire experience. Much crankiness followed, along with a packed schedule and lots of work related stress.

I finally get home last night, start working and dinner arrives. After dinner, I sit down again--determined!! to get my words in--and I'm almost literally falling asleep at the keyboard.

637 words.

I was quite disheartened by the whole experience and the fact that yet another day had gone by without meeting my goals. I seem to be back on track today (1,006 words) so I'm trying to stay positive about the whole thing. As I mentioned previously, I have some family commitments this weekend which will severely cut into my writing time, so I'm a little anxious. I obviously can't count on weekdays to make up lost word count--at this point I'm not even convinced I can count on weekdays to simply maintain my word count!--so I'm nervous to be giving up a weekend, too.

Once I'm able to see where I stand after the weekend, I'm hoping I'll feel more positive about everything. Bottom line, I'm pushing my story forward at an excellent pace (for me). I'm definitely happy about that. I just hate it when I think I can be Superwoman and turn into someone all too ordinary.

Have a great weekend everyone, and I'll check in on Sunday!

A slow night

Renee's Progress

Today's progress: a mere 670 words courtesy of Internal Editor, a difficult scene and fatigue. I think the whole having-no-down-time thing is starting to catch up with me. So, I've decided to turn in a little early tonight. I made it 99% of the way through the difficult scene. Tomorrow I'll segue into the next scene and see how I do. The next several scenes are key to the plot and I've been looking forward to writing them for, well, the entire book now. But I think the dialogue of the next one may prove challenging given the number of characters involved and the logistics of the scene itself. Hopefully I can shut off IE tomorrow so that I make better time.

Made it

Renee's Progress

1,090 words today. Yeah! First time I've made my goal on a work day. I brought my laptop to work and wrote on the bus to and from work, though. Maybe that's the secret. I'll try it again tomorrow and see what happens.

Ok, I'm beat. Off to bed. I promise to post something more interesting tomorrow.

I am Writer, hear me roar

Renee's Progress

3,012 words. It took me 9 hours and 12 minutes to do it, but hell. It's still 3,000 words in a day. WHOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'd do a happy dance, but I think my ass is broken. Seriously. I love my couch, but it is not meant to be sat on for that long.

Today's work was closer to rough draft material than the last few days have been, but it wasn't crap so I'm happy.

I've decided to only post the collective Harem's word count meters once a week but I'll continue to check in with mine everyday. It keeps me honest. You can keep tabs on everyone else's progress at their Blogs and/or LiveJournals using the links to the left, though.

Someone who posted on Karen's blog today commented that she liked the extra information Karen's been posting everyday so I'll try that, too, starting tomorrow. Whatever keeps our public happy, you know. ;)

God, it's going to suck going to the day job tomorrow.

Progress report

I'm at 2,125 so far. I'd like to keep going but, frankly, I've been sitting on this couch for so damn long my ass is falling asleep. And I do have a house-chore to get done. So, this is a good time to take a break. I'm hoping to come back for more later, so I'm holding off on the progress bar for now.

Off to a good start...

I present to you my official word count as of three minutes into the day's first writing session:



That's right: negative one word.

I am *so* going to kick ass today.

*dies laughing*

This morning's funny brought to you courtesy of the innovative features of Liquid Storybinder.

A goal met, at last!

Renee's Progress

1,717 words today. Phew! I made up my words for the last two days including meeting my 1,000 word goal for today. Karen kicked serious word-heiny again today--visit her LJ here to read about her progress. Chandra is also doing well, although I don't know whether or not she hit her goal today. She has a nifty writing accessory, though, which you can read about here. I haven't heard from Jon today so I have no idea how he's doing.

I've realized that for the most part, I am not writing in rough draft form. I tend to edit as I go, which makes for a better first draft but also a slower first draft. I wish I could tell how many words I write then replace with other words. I bet I've actually been doubling my word count goals! ;) Part of me wishes I could turn off the internal editor so I can just push forward with getting the story out on paper (so to speak) but part of me is just so darned pleased with the quality of what I'm writing that I feel like I can't complain. *shrugs*

The space bar on my keyboard is going. And my laptop weighs 7.5 lbs., which has had me whining about how heavy it is for months now. I finally decided it was time for a new one since it's essentially taking the place of my husband and all my friends this month. Tonight I took a break at the 750 word mark and Ben and I went to look at a Mac Book. It only weighs 5 lbs.! Whoo-hoo! I'm very excited. He's ordering it for me online and I should have it by mid-week. Hopefully my space bar will hold out that long. I have a Dell laptop right now and have never used a Mac before so there will certainly be an adjustment period, but I'm looking forward to it.

One last note before I go. You may notice that despite my rockin' word count today, my overall word count for The Gatherer has actually gone *down*. This is because there are multiple places to view word count in Liquid Storybinder, the fabulous FABULOUS program I write in, and the one I had been previously using was incorporating the word counts of the notes I had in addition to the chapters I was writing. So I've found the real word count number now, which is just looking at the counts from the individual chapters, not the additional notes and references I've got going in the various documents.

Ok, I'm off to get some sleep. Tomorrow I have a house errand to do and then I'm hoping to write 1500-2000 words.

Sweet dreams everyone...