5 posts tagged “nanowrimo”

Well, it's the day after Thanksgiving and I have so much to say and so much to be thankful for.

On Tuesday, November 25th,  my husband returned home from an overseas deployment in Some Places Where There is War.  We got to meet him in the airport terminal and Brenna & Mickey hugged on him and would not let go.  We have special spaghetti dinner with garlic bread and home made coffee cake.  

Wednesday, we packed up the car to drive home to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving.  During the nine hour drive from Norfolk to the farm, I polished off the last 2,700+ words to get over 50,000 words on my NaNowriMo novel.  This is the first year in all years I have done NaNoWriMo, that I have actually won. 

Nano_08_winner_large

My family keeps asking me "what did you win?" and I think they expected the prize to something substantial like money or having novel published when it was finished.  They seem really disappointed when I tell them "nothing"  or  "the satisfaction of knowing I did it."

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I got to meet my brother's new woman, Robin.  I am not sure how I really feel about her.  It seems weird to have a strange woman calling my parents 'mom' and 'dad' (and she seriously sucks up to  my dad, so that is even more weird).  

Tonight, Steve and I are leaving the kids with Mom and Dad so we can have an "adult night" all to ourselves.  We almost ever do anything like this, but I think that after this past 11 months, we more than deserve one.  We are going out to dinner and maybe a movie and then spending the night in a hotel.  

Hope every one had a great Thanksgiving!

I've been using my Twitter more than anything else right now.  It's easier than stopping to make a whole post, and while I am busy with NaNoWriMo, that is a good thing.

http://twitter.com/debc

Well, on a whim, I was looking at my horoscope this morning and it's very hopeful, I think.

From Yahoo's Shine: Astrology:

Your eagerness to get a new project going is a good sign that you'll have success.

And the Chinese Horoscope (which I don't tend to follow, but it's equally in the same frame of mind today):

This will be a good day if you're in the food business. An especially strong creative muse will revive artists as ideas could come from every direction. Your creative senses are heightened in every aspect of your life, so take advantage of this by going to a play or museum.

Creatively speaking, I was working on my outline for my NaNoWriMo novel last night and had some MAJOR revelations about my characters.  I am eager for this, and it does seem like my creative muse has been revived. 

Maybe this means I'll finish this year?

I haven't even posted my NaNo progress here on Vox yet.  Ooops!

Day 1  -- 2052 words
Day 2 -- 3823 words
Day 3 -- 4088 words
Day 4  --  
Day 5 --
Day 6 --
Day 7 --
Day 8 --
Day 9 -- 6511

Um… yeah, well, yeah… says a lot, doesn't it?  But I'm on a roll now. 

Okay, well, it's that time of year, isn't it?  Time to do the whole NaNo Thing…

Here's the post I sent to one of my mailing lists (copy & pasted because I'm that lazy)

Well, I finally decided what I was going to do.  I think I'm going to put off the whole "Debbie Write A Mystery" for a while because all of my brainstorming leads to no such mystery plots, let alone lovable main characters.  I also kicked around doing a romantic novel about a thirty-something who inherits her grandmother's farmhouse and rediscovers love in the form of a guy she'd had a crush on as a preteen.  This one, I think I'm going to hold off on as well and develop it for next year, as I've chosen to set it in my favorite season (Autumn) and have some good ideas, but not enough of them to get something solid.

What I decided on for good was the revamping of my 2003 NaNo attempt, "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep."    It was my first NaNo, and I simply jumped in with 3 character names, no outline and only a general idea of a plot.  I made it just over 5000 words when I realized I hated how the whole thing going and wanted to start over entirely.  One of my characters didn't even have a last name.  Re-reading now, I still feel like I want to start over from a different place and build from there.

I'm keeping the characters, setting and plot (which I've built on in brainstorming) but not the 5000+ words I wrote back in 2003.  There's only one scene in that whole jumble of words worth salvaging anyway, so it doesn't matter.

Today, I've been brainstorming extra characters and plan to start outlining by this weekend.

My main characters are Maureen Edgerton and her preschool age son, Andy.  Maureen met Andy's father (Andrew) in college.  They dated, moved in together, and eventually married.  Andrew's mother (Agatha) is the snobby "queen" of a small town, his family being the wealthiest in town, and she openly disapproved of Andrew's choice of wife.  When they married, she disowned Andrew and after his death, their family has had nothing to do with Maureen or Andy.   After raising Andy alone, Maureen decides to move to Wellsfield (Andrew's home town) and get her in-laws to acknowledge them.  She's not interested in their money, merely wants Andy to know his father's heritage.  She re-angers Agatha (inadvertently) by purchasing an old farmhouse which Agatha had designs on tearing down, and Agatha retaliates by trying to take Andy away from her.  In the meantime, Andy is making 'friends' with the spirits who dwell inside the old farmhouse, and they want him as well... to become one of them.  The spirits (ghosts, whatever) feed off the the life energy of the children living in the house, causing them to become tired, listless, pale versions of themselves until they eventually lapse into a coma and die.  When they die, they become a part of the house, lying in wait for other children.

I have not begun to 'cast' them yet, but I should start doing that, huh?

This year's NaNo blog is here: http://www.meadow-bee.com/nanowrimo/

As I go, I'll be posting character bio info, the 'casting' pictures and eventually, chapters of the rough draft.  The chapters will be pass protected, with a new password each time.  I will be handing out the password as I go along.

Since Vox doesn't have this level of filtering… anyone who wants it can send me a private message and I'll reply with the password.   

Wish me luck, people!