I did it!

Wow. It was a good feeling to watch that bar turn red as I passed the 50,000 mark. I'm still writing, and will keep updating my word count until the 30th, but I think tomorrow is for taking it easy.

There are some non-writing related posts I'd like to make, so I'll try to maybe catch those up tomorrow as well. (Okay, actually it's already tomorrow - Wednesday - but I haven't been to bed yet, so it's not tomorrow for me.)

Happy Wednesday!

Hit the Wall

Yep. I think my brain is boggled at the sheer amount of writing I've done today. It hasn't had a workout like that in a very long time. It's now 10 o'clock. And I'm just over 45k. That means I have two hours to do 5000 words. Can I do it? I don't know, but I'm going to try. A break to go buy some doggie treats helped clear my head, so we'll see what happens.

Writing Whirlwind

Apparently I hit my stride last Monday with that 5K day. Whew that was a rush. And it felt so good.

So, here I am at the 43K mark. Midnight tonight is when you can start validating your word counts for the win on NaNoWriMo and I'm going to go for it. I've already written 6000 words today, so what's 7000 more. Of course, this is only if I don't kill me kids because they're tired, bouncy, noisy and generally draining of one's energy. *grin* Seeing as how I'm rather attached to them, having created them out of the stuff of my own body and all, I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that.

So, off to write. If you're actually reading this soon after posting, just keep an eye on the little widget over to the right and watch my word count grow.

Oh, and this won't finish the novel, but I think I've managed to accomplish the goals I set for myself back when I started. This is good. It means the novel WILL get finished and hopefully I'll be able to do something with it. My good friend Kate has been helping keep me on track, as she's been reading my weekly output. And then she hands it back asking for more.

Right now my wish for all of you is that you find the courage to go after something you want in your life. I've been wanting to write for a very long time. And I've done short stuff. I've even been paid for my stuff. But this, this was hard, folks. I had to dig deep to start it, and even then it was baby steps all the way. Until this month, when it's just taken off. I can't wait to finish and see what happens.

Big Day

Holy keyboards, I just had a 5000 word day! And I'm at the halfway point for a NaNo win. I'm all giddy with excitement....or maybe a lack of sleep. So, I'm off to bed, where the story will no doubt continue to insinuate itself into my dreams.

Oh, and sorry about any typos. My fingers are starting to wrap themselves in knots, they're trying to move so fast on the keyboard.

Ah, just look at that little word count widget over on the right. Ain't it a beautiful thing?

Night all!
Mel

Just a Quickie

Just a quick update on my progress. I'm almost caught up to where I should be in order to stay on target. Only a little over 1000 words to go. It's rather exciting to look down (or look over on the widget) and see my word count climbing. Kate is snuggled in upstairs reading what is a very rough draft - some of it for the second time. Talk about a best friend!

Tomorrow I'm off to my first writer's conference. It's a small affair in Zanesville that I'm really looking forward to.

Words produced today: about 3000 so far. I'll manage more if I don't manage to sleep. 6 am comes early to this night owl.

Happy weekend, folks. Hope it's a good one for all of you.

Melinda

Writing Update

Well, it's midnight. Time to get some sleep for the new day tomorrow. As you can see from the widget-thingie, I passed the 5000 mark today. Actually, I passed it at 10-something tonight. For a reward, Kate and I ran down to the gas station where I presented myself an ice cream sundae cone, with brownie bits, and a bottle of Diet Pepsi Max. Since I only drank half of it, I'll have something to look forward to in the morning.

Total word count for today: a little over 4000.

I might just manage this after all.

Night!

The Election

I voted yesterday, with my daughters in tow, certain that this year my vote would count. The last couple of Presidental elections have left me feeling like it really was a waste of my time. This year was so different. At the same time, I held my breath waiting to see who the other side would try to steal the outcome from us once again. It didn't happen.

Summing up how yesterday's election made me feel has been impossible. However, author Cherie Priest did a marvelous job in this post on her blog, so I'm just going to link to it and get back to working on my novel. It might be a lame excuse, but there it is.

Catching Up

I need a break from the computer for a little bit. Both girls were home from school today with a tummy bug. Poor Monkey Girl looks absolutely angelic asleep on our bed. The Drama Queen even took a two hour nap, which is how I know she really wasn't feeling well. She's playing Harvest Moon on the Wii right now. When I've actually sat down to write today it's gone really well. I'm almost done with this scene. But first a break.

Behind, As Usual

Well, there was no start Friday night at midnight. I was just too fried. I tried taking a nap, but when the alarm went off, I just rolled over and went back to sleep. The Drama Queen's birthday party on Saturday was lots of fun though. The Kate and Monkey Girl went together and bought her an mp3 player. Mr. Incredible and I gave her a wolf statue and a Jonas Brothers cd. My sister provided a Vanessa Hudguns cd. She was a very happy girl. She got some other stuff as well, although those were the biggies. And my mom and paternal grandmother made it as well. :) None of her classmates came, which is annoying, but she still had a good time. Corvus, the ML for our region of NaNo, came with his family. Their three-year old son had the best time just running around the back yard.

However, there was no writing until a little after midnight that night. I got a whopping 188 words started. Yeah me! I broke the thousand word mark yesterday, but it was such tough going that I'm probably going to scrap it all and pretty much completely re-write what I've got for that scene. I can handle some bad stuff - it's a rough draft after all - but this was truly, truly awful. When you have to force the writing that hard, it's time to take a step back, look at the scene again, and figure out how you need to change what you're doing to make the writing happen. I think I'm there, so when I get to the scene either later today or tomorrow, I'll be able to get it down in type. I've got a little over 1700 so far today and it's been flowing really well. What I wound up doing was just jumping ahead to the next scene. What I was writing yesterday is going to come after this bit. It'll be better. Oh, and I went back and wrote what I'd started writing in the spring, at least the stuff for this chapter. It really helped me find Lilly's voice again. (When I get a chance, I'll post a character work-up for her on here.)

Right now, I'm taking a break, grabbing a bath while thinking over what comes next, and then getting my kids from school. They've both decided to do the Young Writers challenge on NaNo ad we're going to start typing what they've got written up so far. It'll be fun