Early this morning I wrote The End at 153,797 words. Today I am adding in two scenes -- one for each section of the book to cover some details that I want to add, and as long as I have the time today, I might as well do it and add to my word count total before the end of NaNo.

Tomorrow it's back to life in the real world. (grin)

Today is Kid's day, by the way. He's 14. We will celebrate with roast beef from Arby's, I think.

It's kind of odd to be done today. November is such an interesting, intense month. I'd be happier at the idea of December if I didn't have this fear that I'm going to have a lot of work there, too. (grin)

So... off to do some writing. And relaxing for a few hours, I think.


But... did it! And did it well, and now I have a couple first drafts to work with, both of which I really like!

I have finally reached 150,000. I still have two pieces remaining to write. I have three hours till midnight local time. As long as I write the last bits after midnight, I will have fulfilled my goal.

So, back to work!

Odd day. I can't seem to get moving on the story again. part of that is because of distractions that took my attention away first thing. It's hard to turn back to the work now. I want to get to 150,000 today. That's less than 2000 words, and so far I've been lucky to get 100 at a shot -- and I've written less than 500. I've been up for four hours. I haven't really done much of anything else.

Grrrrr....

I really want to have this novel done tomorrow. I don't care if tomorrow means a few minutes after midnight -- but if I don't get a push now I won't be able to do it.

So... write....

Current count: 148,682

Run, you fool! Run!

Oh yes, it's that day. We had a nice quiet day. Never left the house. Probably should have gone to see my parents, but both of us have been totally worn out and just needed some quiet time. I slept late. We still had a nice traditional dinner, and watched a show, and we're both playing with our computers at opposite ends of the house.

I'm working on the novel, of course. Running out of time here -- I suppose I'll have to kick the work back in again to get done on the last day. It might be that I'll spend all of Sunday getting caught up and done... but I think it won't be that bad.

I'm less than 20,000 words from one million, as well. I didn't expect it to go that easily this year. I didn't expect it to go at all, to be honest.

I'm working at new goals next year, mostly to do with editing and submitting novels, which I am woefully behind on.

And having more fun. (grin)

Hope everyone is having a good day. I'm off to commit more words...

Must... slow... down... writing....

Yeah, it sounds odd. But if I want this novel to last to the end of the month, I need to just slow down a bit. So today I did other things. Cleaned up the dining room, did a little holiday decorating. It might be the only decorating I do this year -- it's all I did for last year, after all. But we'll see.

Of course, with three new kittens in the house, I might not like what happens if I put much more out!

Russ should be home soon, I hope.

Right now... well, I'll go to work on the novel for a bit...

I'm just inching up to 140,000 on the novel. I'm also about 22,000 from a million words this year. It's all looking good.

But, not surprisingly, I'm tired. Really worn down.

Oh, and I think I've found the cause of much unhappiness, headaches and unexpected rashes. Turns out the handsoap we are using has sunflower seed oil in it. Ack.

Anyway, I'm working my way up to 140,000. I don't know how much farther the story is going to go, especially since I just hit a sort of detour piece. I just need to get focused on it and write today. Hasn't happened yet, though.

Wonder when Russ will be home...

I'm waiting for the snow to start. It looks like it should be soon. We're having a little bit of freezing drizzle now.

And I am up to about 129,000 words. I was going well this afternoon, and then sort of died off for some reason. I'm not sure if it's lack of food or just lack of concentration right now.

But I am growing closer to the end of this story...

I'm having one of those 'non-focus' nights. I can write about 100 or so words at a shot, and then... I find myself doing something else. Like blogging. The story isn't a problem. I'm at a good spot, in fact, and kind of expected to do better here. But instead I just don't want to sit still... and I think that's maybe the real answer right there. I don't want to sit here. I hope that sometime in the next few days I can get out of the house again for a while (we went on a nice ride the other night), and just take a break from the computer and even the cats.

But speaking of cats -- one of the strays I hadn't seen in quite a while came to the window tonight. He looks very good! He's obviously found a nice home, because no stray has that kind of coat and fat. It's GB for those who remember him -- nice big gray and white cat. Really sweet guy, too. He let me pet him and feed him two whole cans of food -- like he needed that food!

Well, my people are in the city in the middle of a riot, and trying to get to a secret funeral, so I better get them moving again. I've less than 1000 words to go to 125,000 and that was my goal for tonight.

I can do that much!

A bit over 122,000 words at the moment.

And now you know why I haven't been updating this little spot. (grin)

It's going pretty well again. I had a hellish week there with that horrible cold/flu stuff and really lost my concentration and the feel of the story. I did a few thousand words each day, though, and worked my way through it. And now I'm coming closer to the end. I think I can get done in time.

I'm about to get to the point of my story where my MC's life goes to hell for a second time. He just thought he had it bad before this. It shoudl be interesting to write.

And I'm going to go get some sleep now, though, for a few hours. And then back to work.

We're going to go down to the De Soto Wildlife Refuge sometime in the next four or five days -- depends mostly on how Russ's work falls out. But I'm working hard to make sure that doesn't screw up my ending the novel in time. I don't think it will be a problem, but if I had a low count day, I need ot make sure I have made up for it ahead of time.

Almost there!

Well, no, it will not be another 10,000 word day. LOL. I ended up doing all kinds of things, like watching a movie with Russ and working up some items for FM next year. I'm just working up to 2000 words right now.

I did get a rejection on the S&S stuff, but I appear to be in very good company. Nice to have made it to the final cut, and as much as I would have liked to have gone the final step... oh well. That's part of writing life. I keep getting closer, at least.

And Yard Dog Press has made the official announcement about Honor Bound, so that kind of makes up for a lot of stuff. (grin)

Okay, back to writing. Need some words before midnight...

105,084 for a 10,000 word day. This is much better.

I'm going to take a break now...

The penguins of plot have finally gotten their little heads together.

I just topped 100,000.

Obviously after my head exploded yesterday I lost all ability to work. Today I'm picking my way through something that needs to be done now and getting it ready to go back to writing. I want to write again, and not just the little 2 and 3 thousand words I've been getting.

Glares at computer. That doesn't help, of course.

I am at 94,000 words. Time to get back to work...

Site is back. Will consider writing for a few minutes...

Okay, site appears to have gone down.

Head has exploded.

Okay, I admit that I tried to talk Holly into taking a one year sabatical and then seeing how she felt about everything. I'll even admit that I've told her in the past that she needs to back away from the site and the problems it's caused her so that she can get on with her life and her work. So this is not exactly a real shock.

Just bad timing. I'm very ill. I'm barely writing and it's NaNo. I'm going to have to start considering how much of Forward Motion I can even really afford to keep going. The donations link is down right now because I need to do something that goes to me.

I need to find out when we pay for things and how much.

And I need some articles for Vision!

(Head comes closer to exploding...)

(And I've had to edit this four times already. Not a good sign...)

I'm sorry that Holly and Sheila have both shut down their blogs... but you know, you can get tired of having people constantly sniping at you for what you believe, or what you write there, as if it is those peoples' right and duty, just because you said something in your own site. Sometimes the wiser choice is to tell the little bastards to go find somewhere else to play for a while, and you'll get on with the business of having a real career and publishing real books. (grin) I know that they are both going to miss the interaction with the fun people, but -- as has happened in the past -- the bad ones have finally taken their toll.

It's nice to see that many of the people respect that the two of them have the right to get on with their work and do what pleases them -- including dropping blogs that have become time drains and annoyances because of the bastards that they have to keep watch over and edit out or answer and get annoyed at. Holly pointed one important thing out to me today -- of all the writers with serious careers, she is the only one who has this much personal activity on line, from blogs to Forward Motion and her own site. She just does not have the time to do it and keep her career going with all the new contracts she has, nor does she have the energy to waste on the impolite children any more. It would be nice, of course, if we could all guarantee that people would respect her right to say and believe what she wants on her own sites... but we all know that's not going to happen. There have been too many years of proving it differently.

As people grow up and grow older, their priorities, needs, and even what they enjoy sometimes change. People who do not grow up don't understand this, and are likely to be the most problem. They're still playing schoolyard games, and I've noticed a few of them being quite shocked to see the schoolyard closed so that they no longer have that big public forum in which to be impolite and draw attention.

Holly and Sheila have real careers, real families, and real lives -- and having those things is taking priority again.

So, for those of you who will miss seeing what life is like for writers who make a living with the written word, it is a real loss. We're not only not going to be there to cheer on the ending of a book, we aren't going to see the moments of inspiration and change.

A shame there were so many jealous, impolite little children in the world (no matter what their age), but that's part of life as well.

No No NaNo...

This is just not going to go well. Between being horribly ill, having problems with neighbors, and having three different site problems, I've found that I'm just too worn down to even care if I get more on the novel. And I can't find the damn aspirin.

There appears to be a little calm in the storm right now. I have taken a long, warm bath and there are actual words in my head again. Whether I can transfer them to NaNo novel seems unlikely.

I have come to pretty much despise this year as a whole, even though I have had some very nice little bits here and there. November, despite having started out well, looks like it's going to go down hill very fast. I really don't know if I can pull it back out. At this point I'm not sure if it's worth the effort.

82180

I don't think I'm going to get much farther. I had to go lie down again. I think I'm going to have to again, but this time I'm taking the Visor with me.

Bad NaNo day. I hope that I'm feeling better tomorrow.

I have had a lousy few days. Illness has kept me awake through most of the nights, and this doesn't help me write. I'm trying to get a few thousand words done tonight., but I can't seem to move forward on the story. The outline is there. The characters and the plot are moving fine. My brain is not engaged.

Gack.

I'm at 81374. I'll see if I can make it to 82,000...

Crazy couple of days. Whatever flu/cold stuff I've had, it's been an a lousy way to spend NaNo days. I hope that it really is clearing up this time.

I wrote 5040 words today. It's my lowest count so far, but still not too bad. I had planned from the start that 5000 words would be my goal, but I had so much fun the first week that I went way over. Back to earth now, I think. Back to work on a number of other things that really do need to get done!

And what else? I'm testing out an evaluation copy of Office 2003. Just got part of it loaded in today. I'm looking forward to getting the rest of it up and going. The only thing that I'm sorry to see is that they've dropped the Office Shortcut bar. I used that a lot, but I can get used ot using the start button -- just means that extra click that drives me nuts right now.

My journal keeps going down, which is why the pictures don't show. Sigh. I wish I still had my old server. Too be honest, I'm too tired right now (at 4:38am) to go find out what pictures I might have on my sff.net site. So no picture for the moment. Maybe I'll edit one in later, after I sleep. I like having pictures.

The writing is going very well. This is the 7th day, an I hope to be able to keep the 10,000 word average, even though I dropped way off the last two days. Today (ummm... yesterday for those who really live by those clock things) I was very ill and did a good amount of my writing on my Visor, curled up in blankets in bed. But I wrote, and I'm getting to the crux part of the novel. It's going pretty well.

I need to go crawl back into bed, though. I'm still not feeling totally great.

Over 60,000 words and the #1 spot again, though. Hey, if you are going to be crazy and write like this, it might as well count for something. (grin)

I am, for the moment, at the top spot in NaNo.

I don't know how long I'll be there. There are a lot of very strong and dedicated writers this year, and far less of the general bickering than I'd seen in the previous two runs.

All is fun. I'm over 50,000 words.

I'm also dead tired right at the moment.

Thunk...

Wind and Nazir

Ah...

45,844. I'll have 46,000 before too long. I don't know if I'll go much more than that tonight. I'm not that ambitious, I think. Though it would be fun to do that last 4,000, wouldn't it...

Nah. Tomorrow is soon enough.

And after Wednesday, I will be going back to work on the rest of my life. I have a novel that I have to finish making some changes to and get back to the copyeditor. I think I'm going to have to do a 'carrot' sort of thing -- I have to make X number of page changes before I'm allowed to work on my NaNo novel for a while. LOL. Bribing myself.

Oh! New review! This one is on an anthology I'm in -- From the Mist. Read the review here. Yes, she did spell my name a little wrong, but I've seen worse.

The weather here is cold. We might get snow tonight. I've been watching the radar and it is coming closer, but it might, at the last moment, skirt us on the trek northward.

Okay. Forgot to post this. I'm well over 46,000 now. I think it's time to go to bed. LOL.

...

31150 at the moment.

Very much enjoying the novel, but I am taking a little bit of a break here. Russ should be home soon, and we'll be considering food and such.

Only a bit over 5000 today. Need to bring that up a bit, I think. (grin)

I love November. I love the freedom to fly.

Today should be less frenetic, at least as far as writing goes. I've got a couple thousand words on the day so far, but I've stopped to do some house work, rest my back after the housework, talk to Russ and pet cats.

I'm up to 27,459. It's very early in the day. I have other things to get done, but I figure a few hundred words at a shot now and then... I'll have a nice count by the end of the day.

That's if I can stay awake... (yawn.)

Willow and Pip

Okay, day two ended at 25,374

Good count. Good second day. I've finally gotten really into the story, and I like how it's going. IN fact, I am having trouble stopping tonight.

We're having an intresting ice storm right now. Lots of clicks against the window, and a bit of wind now and then. The babies are just entranced by the noise.

Oh, and Wind attacked to teddy bears today. I think he sees them as rivals in cuteness. He kept knocking them off the desk. This is ogin to be a problem, because I plan to bring another bear out each day of NaNo. I don't know why. It just sounded like one of those odd, fun things to do.

So, I'm off to do more writing, and listen to the storm, and enjoy things.

Tomorrow I'll be doing 'real' work again. Not that you'll really notice much difference. LOL.

Trying an experiment...

I've written about 4,000 words since midnight last night. I don't know if the pace will pick up or not -- not that it really matters much, since that puts me up at 18,000 already. Russ will be getting home soon, we'll think about dinner... and then I'll get back to some late night writing and see where I am by midnight.

I like the story. I like the charaters. It all needs more depth, and some of the logic is a bit 'bouncy' at the moment -- things that should be in earlier turning up in sentences as justifications for things. I'll work that around in the rewrite.

But Mirrors is moving along fine so far.

I'm going to go get my MC into more trouble now...

Okay, good first day. I hit 14,017 at midnight. Then I went and had pizza with Russ, took a nice long bath, and I'm about 2000 words into day two. This is going to be a far less word count day. I did far better in day one than I expected and had a lot of fun doing it, but I'm really only looking for about 5,000 a day this year, if even that much!

Still, I can't complain. I've gotten a feel for my three MCs now. I suspect this one is going to be lucky to make it to 70,000 in the first draft, but after NaNo I shouldn't have too much trouble reworking it and adding to it.

But this is, of course, providing that I survive NaNo. It's fun... but it's insane. (grin)

First half of first day total for NaNo: 5016

I am having plot problems, though. My outline scenes are coming in far too short. Well, as long as I make about 50,000 in the first draft, I won't care much. But I may need to sit down and think out another set of scenes and incidents.

Still, not too bad. I can work with this.

I'm just... tired now!