More than halfway there

by with No Comment Uncategorized

At the beginning of November, I set a personal NaNoWriMo goal of writing the 40,000 words that it would take to finish “Blind Date Bride.”

Well, it’s now the end of the month, and I haven’t written 40K words. I haven’t even written 30K.

However, I’m still considering it a victory. I have more than 25,000 words that I did not have at the beginning of the month, and I’m now just that much closer to having the first draft of “Blind Date Bride” finished.

In fact, I just did the math, and I have just 11,500 words left to get my 90K to make it contemporary single title length. Woo-hoo!

I don’t know how you all write, but my first drafts are mostly pretty good. Some things change, but the bulk of the first draft — from conversations to the action — remains intact. So once I hit that 90K mark, I’m practically golden!

They got it!

by with No Comment NaNoWriMo 09Progress

I just checked my delivery confirmation via the U.S. Postal Service and nearly had a heart attack: No record of that number on file.

It turned out, I incorrectly entered the tracking number from my receipt. When I typed in the correct number, the computer told me my GH entry was received. Woo-hoo! That’s a load off my mind.

We had a great, inspirational NARWA meeting Saturday — and for once I didn’t have to come home and go to work. I was off all weekend, so I got to come home from the meeting all inspired to write … and actually do it! I wish that’d happen more often.

With the GH entry off my plate, I devoted the weekend to catching up on the NaNo. I didn’t succeed, but I did write about 6,000 words on Saturday and Sunday, bringing my NaNo count up to 20,000+.

Pathetic compared to most people’s, I’m sure … but it’s still 20,000 more words than I had at the end of October. And I realized I don’t have quite as far to go to finish as I thought … Only about 16,500 to get my MS to 90,000 words.

So … I finally let Kari and Damien get busy. Figured they needed a couple of happy sex scenes before I break them apart and get them back together.

I was sick last night, so the word count didn’t grow much Monday. And today it was back to work. I’m going to try to do a little writing when I get home from work, but I’m still pretty wiped out from my bout with the 36-hour bug. About the time I finish this blog and my other one, I’ll probably be ready for bed.

Post office says it's been delivered!

8,755

by with No Comment NaNoWriMo 09

That’s the total number of words I’ve written since Nov. 1. I was very proud of that total — more than 1,000 a day — until I realized that I’m still WAY behind. My NaNo buddies already have upwards of 20,000. Hmm … Guess I’m still ahead of where I was last week at this time.

And I’m averaging more than 1,000 words a day. That in itself is pretty impressive considering I’ve been out of the writing habit. If nothing else, doing the NaNo should get me back in the habit.

I do have a question, though. Why can it take several hours to craft what amounts to a 5-minute thrill for my characters? I’ve been writing about the day Damien meets Kari’s family all week long! How does that happen?

DoingNaNo.png

I might be nuts …

by with 2 Comments NaNoWriMo 09Progress
DoingNaNo.png
I've signed up, for better or worse.

… But I did decide to go ahead and sign up for the NaNoWriMo. I figured that, if nothing else, it’d spur me to finish the last 40,000 words I need to write on “Blind Date Bride” so I can enter it in next year’s GH.

Now it’s Day 3, and I’ve still only written about 2,000 words. That already puts me hopelessly behind.

Even worse, now that I’ve let Kari and Damien out to play, I’m having trouble shutting them up long enough to go back and put the finishing touches on this year’s GH entry featuring Erin and the not-nearly-as-boring anymore Brad. (He’s come a long way in the last few months!)

I got some very good — and much appreciated — feedback on those pages from Anne Marie, one of the GH winners from 09. Needless to say, I’m taking her advice because she knows what she’s doing! 😀

To finish 50,000 words in 30 days, I need to write 1,667 a day. Since I only need about 40,000 words, I don’t have to write quite that much … it works out to 1,333 a day.

At 1,994 after Day 2, I’m not as far behind as I could be. I may even catch up later, when I get off work.

Hope springs eternal! 😀

P.S. If any of my blog readers (of which I’m sure there are a few) are doing the NaNo and want to add me as a buddy, my username is arlenemarie. Novel title: Blind Date Bride.

More work than I thought

by with One Comment ContestsProgress

Whipping my first manuscript into shape for the Golden Heart contest is turning out to be more work than I thought it’d be.

I thought it’d be easier to do a little editing on Brad and Erin’s story than it would to write another 40,000 words to finish my current WIP.

Ha! Was I wrong. Between Harlequin changing its length requirement (resulting in a 10,000+ word trim) and my unwelcome discovery that my hero is boring, I’m doing as much — if not more — than I’d have had to do to finish the other one.

In fact, my other characters are calling me back to them. Kari and Damien’s story wants to be finished … and soon.

Well, it’s just going to have to wait. I’m going to finish fixing my first baby up for the contest, and then I’ll get back to work on Kari and Damien’s story.