NaNoWriMo Week #4 – 2023 edition

First, hope all those who celebrate Thanksgiving had a great day, whether gathered with family or found family, or just enjoying the day.

Well, we’re less than a week away from the end of November, and the end of this year’s NaNo. On the bright side, I cleared 10k words. So far. Will I hit 20k? Probably not, but if I can manage that, woo-hoo! Did I finish drafting my short story? Well, maybe. I’ve still got a couple days left of the weekend. I do have a final project to do for my class this last week of November as well. Sigh. At least once I finish that, it’ll be over, at least until spring semester starts. One more class, then I’m finished with my Tech Comm certificate!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s the mad dash to Christmas, less than a month away. Time to put up the lights and tree–tabletop version. My favorite part of this time of year is the lights. Now, though, with the kittens, I’m wondering how we’ll keep them from pulling the lights down. Or the tree. Hmm. I’ll have to make sure the spray bottle has plenty of water.

Short post this week, since it is a holiday week and all. Enjoy it! Take advantage of it. And if you’re lucky enough to not have to fly anywhere along with the however many hundreds of thousands of other people flying somewhere, consider all the travel stress you are missing 🙂

Happy Writing!

Hope you are enjoying your time on the other side, Socks. Still miss ya!

NaNoWriMo Week #3 – 2023 edition #nanowrimo

And here we are, at about week #3 of NaNo, and I haven’t even cleared 10k words. Sigh. I’m kinda stuck on my short story, but I finally got part of my homework project done–the most time-consuming part. Ugh.

Last weekend was kind of a bust writing-wise because a) I was trying to learn a new tool we had to use to create our homework project, b) family funeral, so that eats up some time, and c) spent some time with my aunt who lives in OH but came home for the family funeral. It was nice to spend time with her, and we’ve got tentative plans for a trip to Ireland in 2025. Yay! One more country off my bucket list 🙂

Other things happened this week, including a 60+ degree day–in MN–in November. Of course, the balmy temps were accompanied by a wind advisory–30+ mph. So, what could have been a super-awesome day was actually not so awesome with that kind of wind. On the bright side, no wind chill!

I’ve mentioned that with Book 2 I didn’t want to stay with the same publisher as Murder in Plane Sight. They had the right of first refusal on Book 2, and they did refuse. Part of me was really bummed they didn’t offer me a contract for it, because then I wonder, “is it any good?” But due to a myriad of circumstances, my first book didn’t do well (does any? I mean, realistically, unless you go all out with marketing stuff?), so I imagine that had a big effect on their refusal. But that also means I can get my rights back for it. So, as of the end of the year, I get my rights back for my first book.

However, that also means the book will be officially out of print, and I won’t be able to use the cover anymore. Sigh. Hoping they’ll at least let me keep the cover on my website. Not sure how that will all work, especially since my agent won’t start shopping Book 2 until after the holidays. And it shouldn’t affect the audiobook, because that’s a different publisher.

Anyway, going to try to get the short story drafted and another one drafted by the end of the month. Since I’m halfway done with my homework project (the other half shouldn’t take as long), I’ll have a little more time to focus on what I need to focus on–writing (and giving lap time to kitties 😀 )

Happy Writing!

Throwback kitties: Tibbers and Nyx

NaNoWriMo Week #2 2023 edition #nano2023

This is my task list …

Okay, blew it again. I normally post on Saturday mornings, but I totally forgot.

I am nowhere near my word goal. There. I said it. I did, however, get my homework done. And I’ve got another assignment to do this week. And there’s always the real life stuff. I have, however, been trying to write a little bit every day. Nothing like the 2k words per day I aim for during NaNo, but more than zero 🙂

Anyway, short and, well, short post today. I’ve got chores and writing to do. Oh, and kittens to cuddle 🙂 And WordPress is being dog-ass slow and dumb, so there’s that …

May you have a more fruitful writing week than I’ve had.

Throwback kittens–when they both still fit on my lap

NaNoWriMo next week?! #nanowrimo23

I CANNOT believe we’re almost to November already. Then again, the temperature outside is a hint–all the way up to the mid- to upper thirties. Yep, went from fall to winter in a matter of hours.

Welcome to Minnesota! At least the snow is supposed to hold off for us here in the southern part of the state. So glad I don’t live in Duluth!

I’m a fully-remote worker; my teammates live in Texas, Missouri, New York (I think), and Maine. The most we get to meet each other is on video chats. Until this week. The circumstances are sucky, meaning my coworker has had some medical challenges that necessitated a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (MN), but I did have the opportunity to meet her in person this week!

Back in the “old days”, before COVID, I had a 45-minute commute, but I also got to talk to people I worked with in person. There’s something about that connection. In fact, we still try to get together about once a year to keep up with each other, even though everyone from that office is either fully remote now or moved on to different jobs.

With my current job, there was never “office time.” I love the fact my “commute” is the amount of time it takes to walk down the stairs and into my pseudo-office. No driving, no gas, no traffic, no driving in icky weather, and no deer! I’m good with that. But getting an opportunity to meet one of my coworkers in person for the first time was great!

I met her and her husband for lunch. They drove up from Missouri to the Twin Cities for an appointment before heading down to Rochester, so we met in one of the southern Twin Cities suburbs. Man, what a great time we had! We talked for a couple hours. Really enjoyed the time with them. If we weren’t so scattered, it’d be great for all of my teammates to get together in person even once.

Now it’s time to gear up for NaNo. I finished my homework and turned it in, then looked at the next assignment. Uff-da. My husband asked me if I was going to do NaNo this year, with all the time I’ve had to spend on my homework. I told him yes, I intended to. Heck, it’s the only way I can get stuff written sometimes. I have a short story to write (at least drafted by the end of the week) and Book 3 to draft, now that I have an outline of sorts (no, I don’t outline, I mostly write a timeline).

As I think about it, though, considering my homework in the mix, I’ll use NaNo to help me write my stuff, but I’ll have to be okay with not hitting 50k words this year, just because of all the other stuff I have to spend time on. ON the bright side, I only have one more class to finish my Tech Comm certificate, and one of the classes offered in spring is my last elective. Woo-hoo!

I’m off to start next week’s homework. Keep on writing!

Office helpers sleeping on the job 🙂

NaNoWriMo 2022 Week 3 Recap #nano2022

Well, I made it this far. Week 3 of NaNo. I’m keeping up, but not afraid to claim I’m keeping up by copying in scenes from a previous version so I have them at the ready when I massage the scenes to fit the new plot and POV. I wrote the original in third POV, but for this new re-vision of the story, I chose to switch to first POV. Of course, with dual timelines, I have the opportunity to hang onto third POV for the historical timeline, which is new to the story.

How does copying original scenes into my working project help, you ask (besides the obvious word count)? I use Scrivener as my writing tool of choice. One reason is I can see two separate scenes (files) side by side. It’s great for keeping the original scene readily available for reference without having to switch to a different window.

The other thing these copied scenes offer me is a reminder of what the story was before. Granted, half the story is original, because the original didn’t have dual timelines, and the plot has changed enough that those original scenes may not work with the new story, but I’m thinking at least a couple of the scenes will live well within the re-visioned story.

More importantly, though, I’m re-establishing the habit of writing every day. I’m also reminded why my personal writing retreats at the Shire are so awesome–no distractions! At home, there are always distractions, but I hide in my bedroom to escape (yes, I know you’re only supposed to sleep in a bedroom, but when one has no other area away from distractions, you use it).

By this point, though, I haven’t made as much progress on the actual story as I’d hoped, or as I think I would have if I’d spent a few weeks actually working on the plot. Which I normally do, but this year I was deep into revisions of Book 2, which I set aside to dive into NaNo. Don’t tell my agent …

I’ve been working through the story using stream-of-consciousness writing, trying to cobble together the plot as I go. Not that I have anything against pantsing, but I typically think about a story for quite a while before I ever write a word. The original version of this story didn’t even have an unexplained death in it! I like to know, or at least have a pretty good idea, of where the story goes before I dive in. I know how it ends, sort of. I know who the antagonist is, or at least one of them. There’s another character who was the antagonist in the original, but since the story changed, that character’s role has, too. Sort of. I’m just not sure if he’s in cahoots with the antagonist, or if he has his own agenda.

Man, I’d almost head to the Shire for another retreat, except it’s winter. In MN. And I’m not all that fond of driving in weather, and given how wonky the weather has gotten, I’m not willing to take the chance I’d get halfway there and hit a snowstorm, or halfway through my stay and get snowed in.

I love being a remote worker–no commutes through weather!

In any case, two weeks or so to go, with a short week coming up in the sense that it’s a holiday week. And since I hate shopping, and I hate crowds, I won’t be going anywhere on Black Friday–for years I’ve done all my Black Friday shopping (Christmas shopping, you know) online. Now that the kids are on their own–sort of (my son is adulting just fine, my daughter is a boomerang and is still trying to figure all the adulting responsibilities out)–my Christmas shopping consists mostly of picking a theme and getting token gifts for my nieces and nephews who haven’t entered the world of adults yet. This year’s theme, I think, will be puzzles.

Ugh, Christmas already? It will be an excuse to hang Christmas lights!

Keep on writing!