Tag Archives: nanowrimo

The First Weeks of Nanowrimo 2019 (and what else I’ve been up to)

16 Nov

I know, I know, it’s been quite a while since I shared a post on here! I’ve thought about it – many times.  I’ve wished I could just sit down and give you all an update on how I’m doing, what I’ve been reading and share oodles of puppy pictures with you. And I know what you’re going to say –

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

If turnips were watches, I’d wear one by my side.

If “if’s” and “and’s” were pots and pans,

There’d be no work for tinkers’ hands.”

That’s not what you were going to say? Oh.

Well.

This is awkward now.

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And, moving on-  suffice it to say, I’ve been busy, life can knock you down while at the same time bring you a cute rambunctious fluffy puppy to snuggle.

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In case you haven’t met her yet, this is Rory. We picked her up October 2nd and she’s been – mostly- a little doll since. She sleeps through the night -!! – and absolutely adores Abby. She gets sad when Dad leaves for work and has gone from crawling up on to just jumping onto the ‘dog couch’.

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Aside from that, I’ve struggling with some health set backs that have been frustrating. But I’m going to be talking with my doctor soon to start a new protocol.

And now, for the last bit of news – National Novel Writing Month started on the first of November and I have actually been doing really well! There’s only been a few days where I didn’t meet my minimum word count goal of 1,667 (and only one day that I didn’t write at all). I am editing my novel – again – so I decided to just make i easy on myself and chose to aim for 50k words. As you’ll see, my current draft word count is over that mark, as of last night! I’m excited about this as it means I’ve been able to add in the other POV’s that the story needed, as well as some desperately needed changes in the overall plot.

*POV is  point of view*

My goal is to get as much edited as I can before the month is over. And then to just keep at it until it’s ready to send to beta readers!

Total word count so far: 33,580

Current Draft word count: 52,012

 

I will do my best to come back and update you as the month progresses on how I’m doing with Nano and my health but I’m not going to push myself on it. Those are my main two goals this month (as well as taking care of the puppies of course) and I’m trying to not add any more pressure about anything else.

If you’re doing Nano, how is it going for you? 

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How I did on Nanowrimo 2018

7 Dec

I wanted to share with you all just how I did during last month’s National Novel Writing Month – aka Nanowrimo. This was my fifth…sixth? year doing it and I’m eagerly looking forward to Camp Nano that comes in April and July.

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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

By the 20th of November, I’d hit a whopping 4k odd words. Not the number I was hoping for but I’m trying to only be proud of it and not be disappointed. It’s a lot more words than I started this month with. I did get distracted and wrote 1k on a completely separate story so it’s been hard to pull myself away from that and back into the world of my novel.

The 25th- I’ve gotten 804 words down! It’s so unexpected because we drove home yesterday and I’m normally just so wiped out that my brain is mush.  Total word count now is 6,792!

The word count total on the 28th is 7845 – another 1,053 words down.

And that’s it folks, Nano ended without me reaching 25k, which was my goal instead of the normal 50k. I am planning on continuing with tracking my word count as it seems to really help me want to sit down and write. My struggle still seems to be balancing getting what needs done around the house and writing – in those times that I have physical energy and mental clarity. But that’s a long rabbit trail of a comment.

I am pleased that in the words I DID get written, I have managed to gain a slightly better understanding of the relationship between my MC and her aunt (it’s changing from how it was in the first draft), my MC’s changed goals/immediate dreams as well as who some of the side characters are at the outset of the story. Quite a lot of info gleamed from just 8k words.

~Laura

Did you do nanowrimo? I’d love to hear about it!

 

 

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Nanowrimo Prep

17 Oct

For those of you who are scratching your head about what in the world nanowrimo is. I’ll explain. It’s National Novel Writing Month, every November. It’s when people – all over the world- commit to writing a novel in one month. The minimum goal is 50k words.

I’ve done this for four years now and as much as I want to work on my second book and get a bunch of it written next month, I’m sticking to my original plan – which is working on my first book. Last year I went through and edited my first draft of the same book. Not wanting to do the exact same thing, I decided I’d write out the new scenes that I know need written. Right now the manuscript is about 70k (? possibly 80k).

So, last week I printed out the entire manuscript!!!! And now I’m reading through it, editing as I go – on the page and the computer – as well as putting tabs where I’m going to add scenes. Hopefully this will make it easy next month to work through, adding bits in! I’m glad I have a few more weeks left because I’m moving pretty slowly through it.

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The other benefit of doing this is that it’s helping me get the timeline of events straight in my head. Plus, it makes it feel more real that I’ve written a book! (cue freak-out session.)

Are you doing nano as well? Are you pantsing or prepping? 

~Laura

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Nanowrimo Completion and What’s Next!

7 Dec

I just wanted to share real quick about how I did on Nanowrimo this year, and what my next goals are for this novel!

Now, for those of you who don’t know what nanowrimo is – it’s “National Novel Writing Month”, in which, for the month of November, people all around the world sign up to write a novel that’s 50,000 words. Pretty intense, eh? I started doing it back in 2012, I believe, but this was the first year that I won! Granted, if you’ve been following me here on SGL, you’ll know that I didn’t start out from scratch but rather took the month to go through and edit my novel that I’ve been working on for three years.

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In the first few weeks, I did a quick edit and then went back again and filled in more holes and answered my own questions that I had. Looking back, I wish I would have gone through it a little slower but I was so excited!

In order to count my words in a fair way, I did a bit of research, and learned that 1 hour of editing = 1,000 words, so I stuck to that until after I’d done the bulk of editing. Once the actual writing began again, the word count moved so slow! But, I hit 50,000 on the 18th, then decided to set a goal of 60,000 for the rest of the month. And guess what, I did it! I just squeaked by on the evening of the 30th and was so relieved that I didn’t work on it again for a few days. But, now I’m trying to get back in the groove of writing every day.

I signed up for a Plotting Workshop by Shaunta Grimes (she’s the lead of the encouraging/positive/helpful writing group I’m in on Facebook, Ninja Writers) and because it’s so FUN, I started plotting my second book the end of last week! I’m so very excited for it – I already know some of the elements that I’m going to carry over from my first one. *giggle*.  It’s going to be a bit off of the first one (the one I’m currently editing), the main character being a side character in the first one. Hopefully that made sense…

But, before I get too carried away with plotting, I’m making sure I edit beforehand. I’ve given myself a goal of having it ready to send out to a few beta readers come the new year. Which means, I’ve really got to get crackin!

I’m off to write my little heart out but come back on Friday for a Short Story Sharing post!

Laura

Did you do Nanowrimo? I’d love to hear how you did!

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Writing Short- Refusal

22 Nov

Hello lovely readers! I’m here at my parents on vacation AND am still trying to write sufficiently enough for nanowrimo! But before the real craziness begins, I wanted to share a writing prompt that I did the other day, when my brain refused to work on my novel. (yes, that’s a normal problem for us writers!!)

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“I want the part of you that you refuse to give”

I don’t understand why you’ve held back from me, after all this time and all we’ve been through, you hold yourself apart, as if that side of you isn’t there. you laugh and you live and yet, behind your eyes, i see that it’s all an echo. Deep within, there is a part of you that you’ve hidden.  But you can never forget it, and I know it’s there. I try to draw you out; show you that you can trust me with that part of you; but you refuse to see. you refuse to let it out. Will i be able to live with the part that you’re willing to give? or will the knowledge that you’re holding something back – something that is so important to who you are, ruin what we have? 

OR

So long ago we met. So long ago we told each other the stories of our lives. I told you about my adventures and you told me yours. but when i added them up, yours were short. I brought them to you one day and asked you, what happened to those years, those years you left out of the telling? you turned away and said they didn’t matter- they didn’t happen. I didn’t press, but when you cried the whole night through, i held you close. Our lives are everything we dreamed of now, we’ve come so far from that ramshackle apartment but still, every year, you dissolve in tears. and i hold you close.  it’s coming once again, i can see it building in your eyes – the pain, disbelief, denial and despair. You turn from me, fleeing to your sanctuary. Every other time, I let you leave. but now, I ask you why? why every year do we go through this?  I need to understand.  

 

OR

fine. if you won’t give it to me – i’ll take it. 

 

~ I just couldn’t help myself, I had to keep writing until the words stopped! I really wanted one to turn out happy, but well, I think they got progressively worse (/creepy)!

Hope you have a fantastic day,

~Laura

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Halfway through Nanowrimo

15 Nov

How I have now started counting for my ‘nano words’ as I call them, is the formula I found on Camp Nano (link). One hour of editing equals 1,000 words. So, according to that, on Nano, I have a total of 21,118 words! I need to write 1,669 words a day to finish on time. My goal is actually 2,000 a day.

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For the sake of everything, in my word docs total, I’ve edited/written 52,481. Which makes me feel a whole lot better. There were days when I was just BUSTING out the editing, yay for writing that didn’t need much filler or correction (at least this go-round) but now I’ve come to the parts that need quite a bit of filler. And then I decided that something bad needed to happen to my MC (main character), so that was a lot of debating, questioning, wondering and calling my mom to bounce ideas off her (thanks mom!). In other words, the going is a lot slower right now.

Oh, yeah, this has been going on in our house too:

 

Of course, there were 2 more kids (and their parents!!) here – we had such a fun, full house! Then, Abby got fixed last monday…that’s been ‘fun’. And then last weekend, our friends came and stayed with us. So much fun = so little writing getting done!

A friend of mine is doing Nano as well, and we’ve been messaging each other each day, talking writing and nonsense, and sending songs! i’m creating a playlist on youtube as we go, I’ll share it at the end of the month. But having her as a writing buddy has helped me SO much.

Are you doing Nano? 

~Laura

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The First Week of Nanowrimo – 2016

4 Nov

I sat down this morning to get to work on my novel, but of course, one has to check all the mandatory sites first – Facebook, Goodreads, Pinterest, when it  hit me – Today’s post hasn’t been written! In other words, this is going to be short and sweet.

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making some goat milk in the background, got the diffuser going, peppermint mocha and pain pills – yep it’s time to write!

I started Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month)  on the first of November. For a super short explanation, it’s when a bunch of writers (and wanna-be’s) dedicate themselves to writing 50,000 words in one month, ending up with a novel at the end of it.

This is my fourth year doing it- although I am doing it a bit differently. Since I finished my novel in September (yaaay!), I am using this year to help me edit the thing! For me this means – filling in holes, fixing plot issues, straight-up editing, etc. Which, makes doing a word count a little challenging.  So, I am doing a rough- track of the words I write and edit.

In week one,

Edited: 7,413

Wrote: 1,257

I’m feeling pretty good about those numbers since it’s really only been three days since Nano started! In total, I’ve edited over 2k words, when I started the beginning of October. So I’m doing a little happy dance before I get back to work.

I am going to be doing weekly updates this month, but don’t worry! I’ve got a few book reviews coming up as well!

Until next week,

Laura

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Nanowrimo 2015

12 Nov

It’s that time of year again friends! NANOWRIMO! for those of you who are sure that I’ve finally gone completely insane, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. (as for the insane part…well….)  People all over the world make a crazy declaration to write 50,000 words in one month (which just happens to be the beginning of the holiday season month, so technically it’s one of the worst months to do it in, but all well). You update your word count each day, see your stats, talk to fellow writers and tons of other things if you feel so inclined to get involved. The past two years I’ve just used it as a motivation to get back into the habit of writing and haven’t gotten too involved with the community, maybe one of these years I will!

In case you’re curious, to get the 50k down in one month, you’ve got to write 1,667 words a day.

Instead of starting a new story as is suggested, I decided to try and finish the first draft of my novel. On the 1st, I opened a new document and started typing. Got 1,666 words down. Woohoo! The 2nd, almost 600. The 3rd, 400. And then the 4th-9th? Nothing. Nada. Zip.

I had good reason though, family came to visit and we had a blast. Kids and puppies and yummy crock pot food (thanks sis!) and coffee. We can’t wait for them to come back (hint,hint, wink, wink)

Since then I’ve written almost 800. Soooo, I’m certainly behind but I’m trying to get back into the swing of things! I have to time my writing with Abby the puppy’s naps and when my brain actually works (which is something it’s been struggling to do this week).  But i’m going to keep plugging away at it and even if I don’t finish this novel this month I’ll have made good headway! So, fellow nanos, keep writing! For the rest of you, enjoy the upcoming weekend and come back next week!

Here’s some cuteness before you go =)

~Laura

pssst, this is mug is the greatest!

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Writing Blockage and a house big enough to move in

12 Nov

writingblock

Well it’s week two of nanowrimo and I’ve hit a writing block that won’t budge.

Sadly, it hit with the short story i’m writing for a completely different project too..

Let me explain, I am working on a novel set in the 1890s for nanowrimo. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s the reason so many people are chugging coffee and other caffeine stimulants and typing until their fingers are permanently curved. For the month of November, the goal is to write a novel (50,000 words) – the website breaks it down for you to see your stats along the way and you can connect with other writers around the world. This is the second year I have done it and am hoping to do better this year than last!

Along with that, I have joined a creative group online with some friends – old and new –  that requires having a project to put up every two weeks. I am doing a series of short stories, each on the same event but from different perspectives. What’s been fun about that is that my dad wrote a short story a while back and shared it with me, asking if i wanted to add to it. Well, I have decided to take off his story and work from that. It’s more of a futuristic story – the complete opposite of my novel! – and I’ve never done anything futurisic.

Did I mention that we just moved too? Getting settled has been a bit crazy and fun…..well, sort of. ‘Most every day you can hear one of us (excluding the dog of course) say something about how big the house is. Or how nice it is. Or how quiet the neighborhood is. Gives you an idea of how ‘great’ it was at our old place, doesn’t it? Of course, we also moved about three hours away, so we are looking forward to going back and visiting everyone in a few weeks. I will take photos as soon as the house looks nice enough to… which should be soon, really because it’s pretty bare and when stuff is still in boxes how messy can it get, really?

….. and I just found my dog getting into the garbage. Argh. Went over to take a cute photo of her begging to come in and…well, if you have a dog, you can picture it.

anyway, continuing on – I am wanting to get back into the swing of things here on SGL, but with so much writing needing doing in the next few weeks, it might be a bit sporadic, so bear with me – i do have great post ideas though! Even a gift-giving guide formulating in my slightly-functioning-brain.

If you have anything you want me to blog about or advice for getting over this writer’s block, I’d love to hear it!

~Laura

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Boundaries in Marriage tidbits

6 Aug

i am back! did ya miss me? hehe. i had a great time on my trip – and then turned and re-packed my bag the next day to join my hubby for the week. I decided that seeing him for one day out of about two weeks wasn’t all right with me! 

As I said, I had a wonderful time visiting my friend and her little girl (if you follow me on facebook, you’ve seen a loooot of photos of the little one!). While I was out, I stayed mostly off ‘social media’ as I had planned. I even refrained from approving and replying to comments here on my blog! that part was rather hard, I will admit. But because of being off everything, and traveling, I stopped writing the last week of nanowrimo. I am bummed that i only made it to 5,000 odd words, but I learned a lot and plan on picking up the proverbial pen again soon and getting back into my story! 

I also cut about six inches off my hair a few weeks ago. Yikes. It was fun and something I didn’t plan on doing but while I am glad I did it, I have decided it is too short for me. I love long hair. long – as in halfway (or more) down my back. Part of the reasoning for cutting it though, was that my OH and I are planning on moving to Portland, OR in the near future and I knew it would be easier to manage the transition from dry desert air to humid valley air. 

I am enjoying being a part of the Meaningful Marriage Study – Amberly over at Life with Amberly and Joe started the group. I love love love her blog – marriage is a passion of hers and she shares and spreads that through her blog (and now the marriage study!) I feel that if we were in the same town and were able to meet up over tea (or coffee hehe), i would come away feeling so uplifted and inspired! Check her blog out, I know you will love it.  

We are reading Boundaries in Marriage by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. Here are some of the notes that I’ve taken through my reading so far. (just to whet your appetite)

Boundary – ownership where one person ends and the other begins.  – — to me, this means that just because you are married, you are still you and they are still them. You know, how in high school, you’d hear about a couple that did everything together and seemed to become as if they were one person instead of ,well, two? yeah. unhealthy, that. 

“Boundaries help us determine who is responsible for what .If we can see that the problem is our problem and that we are responsible for it, then we are in the drivers seat of change.”  — if we are willing to let go of our pride and see that our actions/attitude/whatnot are part of the problem, then we are able to work to fix it. we are not left sitting and waiting and wondering why nothing is changing.

“Responsibility takes action. ” —- ditto to what i said above. 

“Marriage is based on a love relationship deeply rooted in freedom” — i love the last four words ‘deeply rooted in freedom’ . you must feel free in the relationship, free to state your opinion, your wants, your desires. Love exists only where there is freedom.

photo courtesy of unsplash

photo courtesy of unsplash

“The Triangle of boundaries — Freedom – Responsibility – Love” – — each must be free to not react to each other, each must take responsibility of their own problems/issues/stuff and they love the other person no matter what. once again, love exists only where there is freedom.

Some quick examples of boundaries: 

  • Words
  • Truth (Eph. 4:25)
  • Consequences
  • Emotional Distance (Prov. 4:23 -only with a pure heart)
  • Physical Distance (Prov. 27:12)
  • Other People

I hope you have picked up a few things to mull over through these notes. I do have more but don’t want to overwhelm you… =) I am a big note taker (but let me know if you would like more highlights of the book and I’d be glad to share them!) I highly recommend this book and look forward to finishing reading it. 

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