Deb Ng posted today about her goals for 2008. In her post, she mentioned that she met her goal of increasing her income by $10,000 in 2007.

Unfortunately, I haven't been as successful in my goals for 2007. Here they were:

1. To revise my NaNoWriMo novel and get it ready for submitting

2. To submit my NaNoWriMo novel to at least one publisher during 2007

3. To start work on my next novel

4. To double my freelance income in 2007

The only one of these goals that I have achieved is number 3, starting work on my next novel — if you consider a detailed outline to be "starting work."

Although I didn't double my income in 2007, by the end of the year I estimate I will have succeeded in increasing it by 50 percent. I am disappointed that I can't say "I did it!" — but I guess it's not a bad achievement, particularly for my second year of full-time freelancing.

However, I also somewhat achieved this goal in another way. In my post, I commented that part of the reason for this goal was so that I could afford to stable my horse in town. While I didn't manage to double my income, I did still manage to bring Panama out here!

I haven't yet decided on all of my goals for 2008, so those will come in a later post.

Labels: editing, freelancing, goals, holidays, my horse Panama, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, plain ol' fun, publishing

Signups for NaNoWriMo 2007 start Monday, October 1st!

For those of you who don't know yet, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write a novel, or at least 50,000 words of one, all in one month: November. Unfortunately, you can't start on the novel until November 1st.

You can, however, outline, write character sketches, etc. Also, you can use an old project, just as long as you throw out -- and don't reference -- everything you'd written previously. The idea is to write 50,000 words (or more) in a single month, so no cheating!

I participated in NaNoWriMo in 2006. You can see all of last year's posts here. (Note: This link is different than it was, as I decided to differentiate in my labels between "NaNoWriMo 2006" and "NaNoWriMo 2007.")

I intend to participate in NaNo again this year. The only trick is that this year I have added obligations: Last year, I only had to maintain my regular freelance workload, but this year I also have the daily obligation of visiting and working with my horse. Since writing freelance and fiction monopolized my time last year, I'm not sure how it's going to work to throw another variable into the equation. However, I'm very excited about this year's novel, so I'm sure I'll make it work somehow!

Labels: freelancing, my horse Panama, NaNoWriMo 2006, NaNoWriMo 2007, novel writing

When I participated in NaNoWriMo last year, I loved the word meter that was provided. It was linked to my NaNo word count page, so it always showed what I was currently at. I put the word meter in the sidebar of my blogs, and set it up so that it linked to my NaNo progress report. (Knowing HTML is a bonus if you do a lot of blogging and other online writing.)

I had thought that it would be pretty cool if I could find a word meter to use on projects other than NaNoWriMo, but until just the other day I had not found one. A day or two ago, though, I ran across another writer's website (albeit one that was apparently abandoned). Her website had a Zokutou word meter on it.

The Zokutou word meter is pretty simple, but it does what you need it to do. There are eight different color choices and a handful of different meter styles. The meter uses a colored bar to show how close you are to your goal, and posts exact word counts underneath.

These guys have also written what they call the "Zokutou clause" to NaNoWriMo. This is for previous NaNo winners who no longer need to prove that they can write 50,000 words of fiction in a month. If you would much rather finish a prior NaNo novel than start a new one from scratch, Zokutou supports your goal -- and they even give you buttons to display on your blog or website, just like NaNoWriMo does!

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, NaNoWriMo 2007, novel writing, word count

I spent several hours this morning and afternoon pruning the lilac bushes that surround our yard. They create a really great privacy screen, especially on the south border of our yard, where the fence is just a low picket fence. However, the bushes on that side are probably thirty years old (at least), and have rarely been pruned, if ever. The result is a tangled mass of overgrown lilacs -- pretty in summer, because they leaf out so thickly, but quite ugly for the rest of the year.

I meant to prune the lilacs last year, but I didn't get around to it early on, except for one lone bush. Naturally, that bush looks the prettiest and bore the most flowers this year. So I'm trying to be a good little gardener this year and take care of our pretty lilacs. The trick is to prune them around the right time -- lilacs need to be pruned right after the flowers bloom, because the plant starts making next years blooms almost right away. Our lilacs finished blooming only a week or two ago, so it's now or never.

As I was pruning (with gusto, I might add -- I was never big on working in the yard, but oddly enough, I enjoyed this), I started thinking about my work. I've been really dragging lately, and it seems I have more ideas for books (fiction and nonfiction) than ever. Since I started freelancing, I've been saying to myself, "When I have more time I'll work on my stories," or other promises along those lines. Of course, I never seem to have enough time, and except for NaNoWriMo last November, I haven't made time, either.

The last couple of days, I've been kind of toying with the idea of cutting back some of my freelance work and devoting more time to writing stories, novels, and nonfiction books. And of course, as an avid reader and writer who thinks in metaphors (don't we all?), I started thinking about how pruning the lilacs was kind of like what I want to do with my business. I'd like to move on to higher-paying work, so that I can spend less time doing it and devote the extra time to other types of writing. I have a few regular clients that I'm not going to give up at this point, even though they pay me at "last year's rates," but I'm not going to take on any more at those levels.

I've also thought about how to work a little fiction- or book-writing into my regular work day. The usual idea -- making myself do the paying work first, and doing the fun stuff if I have time at the end of the day -- isn't going to work for me, because it's just likely to make me start staying up later and later every night. Instead, I think I'm going to give myself a certain block of time every morning to work on my current story or book project. The reason I think this will work better is because I tend to diddle around for an hour or two, blogging or checking up on my favorite blogs to "warm up" before I get to work. My idea is to replace that time with writing the stuff that really gets my fingers flying -- it should be a more effective way to warm up, anyway.

Of course, I don't feel I'm quite ready to start that schedule. Right now I have a few projects that I need to get out pronto -- I've had a hard time being productive since we got back from the honeymoon, and a few things have piled up. Besides, the very first thing I want to do is to revise my NaNo novel, and I want to take Stephen King's advice and read over it all in one day.

Once I get going with the new schedule, I have a few projects in mind. One is an ebook, another a chick lit type of novel, not to mention a handful or so of other ideas in the works. I'll announce my little projects as I start on each.

Wish me luck with my "pruning" and rejuvenation!

Labels: burnout, business, clients, ebooks, freelancing, goals, home sweet home, miscellaneous, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

I haven't written about it before now because I've been so caught up with my workload and email problems, but I'm participating in Kristen King's 2007 Inkthinker Query Challenge. The goal is to send off 120 queries or submissions in 2007 - 10 each month, basically. For a full-time freelancer that shouldn't be a problem, but it's more of a challenge than you would think - I don't consider responses to job ads to be queries, unless the "ad" is a call for submissions, and responses to job ads are the vast majority of what I send out.

So far this year, I have sent off five queries. The first one was a query to Write-From-Home.com, offering a reprint of my Writers Weekly article - and I'm happy to say that the query was successful. The next three queries were snail-mailed short story submissions, and the last one was a query for a real estate story. The last one didn't work out, as the publisher didn't want to guarantee anything and I'm too busy right now to write a very custom story and chance not getting paid for it, but hopefully at least one of my short stories will see publication this year.

I encourage everyone to sign up for the query challenge. It should be interesting, trying to come up with 115 more queries. Here are some of my ideas:

* More of my short stories: I have about half a dozen completed short stories that I would like to see published.

* My NaNoWriMo novel: Once I finish revising and editing my novel, I'll start making the rounds with it.

* Ebooks: I have ideas for several ebooks, and a couple of publishers in mind who might be interested in them.

* Articles: I have a whole favorites folder full of submission guidelines pages. My goal is to start going through that and querying for article assignments, in addition to all of the jobs ads I respond to on a daily basis.

This week's edition of Writers Weekly published an article on getting writing assignments that I think might be helpful for other interested in accepting the 2007 Inkthinker Query Challenge. The author has also published an ebook for writers who want to increase their business, which I just might buy.

Good luck to those of you who accept the challenge!

Labels: freelancing, goals, Inkthinker Query Challenge, job search, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, other writers, queries, shameless plugs

Happy New Year's to everyone!

It seems a good occasion to reminisce about the past year. I am happy to report that I achieved both of my New Year's resolutions for 2006: to publish a piece of fiction, and to start work on a novel. In fact, I went beyond the original resolutions: I published two short stories, and wrote a whole novel.

Encouraged by my luck with 2006's resolutions, I have formed a few more for 2007. They are:

1. To revise my NaNoWriMo novel and get it ready for submitting,

2. To submit my NaNoWriMo novel to at least one publisher during 2007,

3. To start work on my next novel,

and

4. To double my freelance income in 2007.

The first two resolutions I am hoping to fulfill during the early months of 2007, followed soon after by the third. In fact, I am hoping to write two novels in 2007 - one by November and another during November, when I do NaNoWriMo again.

As for my income - my main goal is to start making enough extra a month that I can afford (among other things) to bring Panama out here in the spring or early summer. Stabling a horse in the Denver Metro area is expensive, and although I could find less expensive stables by putting him a 45-60 minute drive away from me, I want Panama close enough so that I can visit him and work with him daily. He'll be almost two years old by then, and I will need to work with him a great deal in order to make up for the lack of attention and training he has had so far. I don't want to have to worry about just barely squeaking by each month, either, which is why I want to double my income rather than simply making enough more each month to pay the stabling bills.

Well, there you have it - my goals for the New Year. If you would like to share yours, feel free to comment to this post. Best of luck to all my readers in 2007!

Labels: editing, freelancing, goals, holidays, my horse Panama, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, plain ol' fun, publishing

I meant to blog again sooner, but lately Blogger has not been showing the usual compose screen: the compose screen is HTML only, no one-click fancy formatting. I was waiting to see if the problems would get fixed, but so far they haven't, so I guess I'm blogging without the conveniences. All I can say is, it's a good thing I know HTML.

With NaNoWriMo finished (and won), on Friday I went back to freelancing full-time again. It took longer than I'd like to complete the work I did on Friday; it's hard to get back in nonfiction mode after writing about 8,000 words of fiction. I'll be working a little this weekend, as a result. Still, there's something nice about writing articles again.

As for my novel... After a short break, I plan to start the editing and revising process. The break is to let my brain rest after writing the whole first draft in just a month, because I intend to make several major revisions. Several of them, I knew I would want to make shortly after writing the sections, but in the spirit of NaNoWriMo (and for the sake of maintaining my word count) I just kept going!

Labels: editing, freelancing, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

Well, everyone - I did it! Despite how behind I'd gotten on my novel, I was able to reach 50,000 this afternoon.

Now I have a bunch of cool little icons and other such, which I will install on my blogs - and possibly even my website - shortly. Hooray!

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to meet it, but earlier this evening I set a goal for myself: to reach 46,000 words tonight. And I did!

That means that I have just under 4,000 words to write tomorrow in order to reach 50,000. Since I don't have anything else that I simply must do before evening, I should be able to resume work on my novel right away when I wake up, hopefully allowing me to finish before I have to leave to babysit.

I had feared for a little while there that I wouldn't be able to finish NaNoWriMo this year - but it appears I might be able to, after all! Hoorah!!!

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

As Michael says, I am smoking today! I have nearly 44,000 words. I think my goal for tonight will be to reach 46,000 words. That should leave a doable amount for tomorrow.

Of course, I still haven't finished my freelancing article, which I need to do sometime tonight as well...

After writing for so long, I think I need a little break.

Labels: freelancing, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

Here I am, trooping steadily along! I added to my word count for the day (since last night's technically went on today's), making the total for the day (so far) 5,064. That puts me at 41,781 total words. I've made excellent progress today, but unfortunately, it may not be enough - I have just over 8,000 words to write by tomorrow at midnight! And unfortunately, thanks to babysitting plans for tomorrow evening, I'm not sure I can trust to be home before midnight... Which means I need to try to reach 50,000 words before I go.

I'll still write a little more tonight, but I also have a freelance article to finish first.

Labels: freelancing, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

I wasn't able to write the phenomenal amount of words on my novel that I wanted to accomplish today, thanks to a combination of freelance work and getting something in my eye this evening. I have more freelance work to do tomorrow, unfortunately, but I'm hoping to be able to spend a little more time on my novel. The good news is that I wrote 2,044 words this evening; the bad news is that I have more than 11,000 words left to write with less than two days to do it in.

Labels: freelancing, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

I was able to get a little more writing done tonight. I am currently up to 36,717 total words - a far cry from the 45,000 I was hoping to reach by the time we got back from our vacation. However, I feel that I made good progress today. Hopefully I will be able to devote a good deal of time to my novel over the next few days.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

I thought I'd easily be able to work over the holiday because I love writing fiction so much... but it turned out to be harder than I thought. We visited Michael's family, and I'm not sorry to say that I ended up visiting with my horse a lot more than I worked on my novel.

Michael's brother recently got a new horse - a colt named Sundance. Although Sundance is only 7 months old - a good 6 months younger than Panama - he's already bigger than Panama. He is a mix of draft horse and some type of show horse; the show horse blood is quite evident, especially when Sundance trots, picking his legs high up in the front. He's a beautiful horse, and very sweet-tempered - but I prefer my fiery Panama.



Panama is still a little bit on the wild side, but I think I was able to connect with him a lot better this time than last time. The first couple of days I was there, he didn't have a halter on - they had had to take it off because it was getting too small on him. It was difficult, because I had no way to keep him with me once he decided to leave, but I was able to give him a little bit of attention here and there.



On Saturday, with four of us helping, we managed to corner Panama and put a halter on him. It took some work, but once we got it on him he was like a different horse - much gentler and tamer, though still slightly skittish. He just doesn't get enough attention, poor guy - but the more he gets of it, the more he wants. By the time we left this morning, he came right up to me when I stood at the fence to say goodbye.



Panama has gotten rather plump, which is good to see - he had been so underfed when we first saw him in May, and it took a long time for him to gain enough weight to cover his ribs. He is now almost 13 1/2 hands tall (a hand is four inches, and a horse's height is measured at the shoulders). He's tall enough so that I can lean my forehead against his neck and smell his horsey smell.

I don't regret for the moment all the time I was able to spend with Panama. It seemed to do him a lot of good. I was able to write a little, reaching a measely 35,080 total words. With only three full days left of NaNoWriMo, I'm hoping I'll be able to devote some time in the next few days to working on my novel. I want to make sure I "win" (i.e. reach 50,000 words) my first go round!

Labels: family, Michael, my horse Panama, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

I've written another 2,308 words. Although I reported them after midnight, so they technically go on tomorrow's count, in actuality I wrote a total of 4,699 words today.

I doubt I'll get that many done tomorrow, but I hope to get at least 2,000 done. My goal is to reach where I should be by the end of the weekend - about 45,000 words. If I can do that, it should be an easy sprint to the finish line.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

After just over a week of not working on my novel, I was able to devote more than two hours to it today. As a result, I added 2,391 words to my total word count - and I'm hoping to write some more before the night is over.

As a NaNoWriMo side note - last night the South Denver NaNoWriMo group met to go see Stranger Than Fiction. Amusingly, the plot line of the movie reminded us all of a NaNo novel... But it was a lot of fun. I really enjoy visiting with the other writers that I've met, and I'm really disappointed that there's only one more meeting left. :o( With any luck, though, we'll be able to keep in touch - and we'll see each other again next November!

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, networking, novel writing, word count

One of my NaNoWriMo buddies directed me to this NaNo forum thread about the scams publishers run after NaNoWriMo ends. This is a very good thing for all NaNoWriMo-ers to be aware of! Writers - particularly novice writers, who don't yet know the way the business works - always need to be wary of scams, as there are countless people out there who would love to steal your work, your money, or both.

Be careful, everyone - there's nothing like a publisher's scam to ruin your NaNoWriMo experience for you!!!

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, publishing, scams, writers beware

I knew it would eventually happen: my freelancing work would eventually supercede my NaNoWriMo goals in a major way. It's been several days now since I have been able to work on my novel, but tonight freelancing had to take precedence once again, as my most important goal is paying my bills.

However, I have a plan for catching up on my novel writing. I'm going to get all of my work done before Thanksgiving - hopefully by Tuesday, actually - and then use all the down time I can muster to work on the novel around the holiday. I think I can get quite a bit out of the long weekend if I am really determined.

Labels: freelancing, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

I won't be writing again tonight. Unfortunately, I need to get up very early tomorrow - probably about 6:45, which is extremely early for me - in order to take Michael to work so I can borrow his car. (Mine has not been running for a few weeks now, as I haven't had the time to fix it.)

I also have a very busy day ahead of me tomorrow. I am interviewing a subject for an article tomorrow morning; I have a doctor's appointment in the afternoon; and I babysit in the evening. Somewhere in there I'd also like to squeeze in getting a haircut, picking up a couple of books on hold for me at the library, and getting some writing work done.

Unfortunately, this pace may continue through the weekend. Saturday there is a doll sale I've been waiting to go to; Sunday and Monday we are celebrating Michael's birthday; and Tuesday all of the local NaNoWriMo-ers are going to see the movie Stranger Than Fiction. And then with Thanksgiving coming up soon after that... Well, finding time to write may be a struggle in the next few days.

Labels: freelancing, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

I was able to write tonight, although admittedly I neglected some freelancing work to do so. I decided I can do it as well tomorrow.

I only wrote 1,757 words tonight, but that puts me up to 27,623, almost a full thousand over where I should be at by day 16. It's not as comfortable as a lead as I had before last night, but it'll do.

I also attended a local NaNoWriMo meeting tonight. I really like all of the people that come to them - there was seven of us last time, eight of us this time - and I'm hoping to stay in touch with them after NaNoWriMo ends. Admittedly, I am considerably older than some of them - the second oldest in the entire group - but noveling must be a very strong connection between all of us, because I don't often notice the age difference at all.

I think it's always a good thing for a writer to have other writers as friends. They understand things that non-writing friends just don't, no matter how supportive or appreciative they are.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, networking, novel writing, word count

Well, I didn't make it back to my novel tonight. I didn't have the evening to work tonight, and as a result I didn't get as much done as I had wanted - so NaNoWriMo had to take a back burner until I got caught up on the paying work. I'm still slightly ahead of schedule on my word count, so as long as I get a chance to write tomorrow night I'll be fine.

The plus side is that I will have the money I need to take Michael out for his birthday. Hooray!

Labels: freelancing, Michael, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

Tonight I wrote 1,926 words, bumping my total word count up to 25,866. Although I ran out of steam early (i.e. just shy of my goal of 2,000), I'm quite pleased with the progress of the novel. Although I hadn't outlined more than a handful of chapters (and those very roughly), the story is beginning to take on a definite shape now - I know not only how it will end, but much more of how it will get there. And I'll only have to go back and make one major plot change when the writing stage is all over.

I'm already somewhat dreading the editing stage. Although I wrote three novels in high school, my reluctance to edit (combined with the fact that I didn't have much encouragement to pursue it as a career) is partly to blame for the fact that I never published any of those. Although I have gotten much better at editing my own work in recent years, the thought of editing an entire novel is still a bit unnerving. Still, though, I hope to push my way through it, much the way I have pushed my way through NaNoWriMo, so that I can work on publishing my novel.

At which point I will have to deal with a whole new set of tasks that I dread...

Labels: editing, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, publishing, word count

I'm very pleased to say that I'm moving along at a fantastic pace. With somewhere around 2,100 words for today (counting what I wrote before and after midnight), I've reached 23,940 total words.
I've decided to almost completely cut an earlier scene when I go back and edit, but since I wrote it during NaNoWriMo, the words count... Therefore the scene stays in until I actually do the edits.

I have a comfortable 2,300-word lead, so as long as I maintain a decent pace of between 1,500 and 2,000 words each day, I should finish the 50,000 words by the end of the month. The novel plot is going strong, too, as I successfully saved it from fizzling out and ending early. (The reason for deciding to delete the earlier scene.)

According to my progress report, I am now 47.88% finished.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

I thought last night that what I had was just an allergy attack, but now it's quite clearly more than that. I'm pretty sure that I caught a cold from the sick baby I babysat last Saturday night.

I feel pathetic. I got some decent freelancing work done today, but I'm wiped out from the effort - even though all I did was sit on the couch all day, all bundled up in blankets. So, I'm crying off of NaNoWriMo tonight.

Here's my plan: tomorrow I am going to get all of my freelance work out of the way (which shouldn't be hard, since I don't have any really serious deadlines looming over my head right now). Then I'll be free to catch up on my novel over the weekend. In order to get totally caught up, I'll basically need to write about 8,000 words by the time I go to bed Sunday evening. I think I can do that, though, with all my freelance work out of the way.

In any case, I'm heading to bed now to get another good 10 hours or so of sleep. It helped quite a bit last night, so I'm hoping that another night of it will completely kick this cold.

Labels: freelancing, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, under the weather

I had another unproductive night - my second in a row. This time it was because I started not feeling well, and ended up going to bed early. I think it was an allergy attack, and not a cold coming on, but I'm still a little congested this morning, so it may be too early to tell. In any case, I have a feeling the 10 hours of sleep that I got last night probably helped speed my recovery - even if it also helped me fall behind on both freelance work and NaNoWriMo.

The situation is this: I have 13,721 words of my novel, but as of today I should be up to 15,003...and by the end of tonight (I usually work after midnight) I should be up to 16,670. In other words, in order to get back on track I have 2,949 words to write tonight.

Unfortunately, since I'm also behind on my freelance work, I'm not sure it'll happen tonight. However, I'm hoping to get all my freelancing work done before the weekend, so that I can spend Saturday and Sunday catching up on my novel (kind of like I did last weekend).

On that note, I guess I had better get to work!

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

It seems I am working on my novel in fits and starts now. I was a little behind on my freelancing work this evening, so that had to take precedence over NaNoWriMo. I was still going to work on my novel anyway, but just a few minutes ago I gave my eyes a good long rub, and realized I was tired. So I am going to bed, but I am hoping to write enough tomorrow night to maintain my lead.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

In my least productive night yet (not counting the night when I didn't write at all), I wrote only 1,810 words tonight. However, that puts me at 13,721 total words, which is still about 2,000 words more than the goal for the seventh day of NaNoWriMo.

I'm quite pleased with my progress. I've noticed that writing is getting easier as I go along - I'm writing faster and better, and one by one the pieces of the plot are falling into place.

I woke up as Michael was getting ready for work this morning, and he asked how many words I was up to. Amazingly, even though I was half asleep, I remembered and was able to tell him. And although I didn't remember this until later in the day when he told me again, he said he was really proud of me for my progress. I can't begin to describe how good that made me feel.

This truly is a major accomplishment for me. Although I wrote three novels in high school - and was halfway through my fourth when I stopped writing - the most fiction I've written since then is a few short stories, and a few half-hearted attempts to start a novel here or there. I'm hoping that I will continue devoting time to writing fiction, even after NaNoWriMo ends on November 30th - perhaps becoming a published novelist isn't as far away as I'd thought it was.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

Today was a wildly successful day. I wrote about 800 words during the afternoon, which were counted as Sunday's words along with what I wrote late last night. Then, later this evening, I wrote 2,404 words. If you count the afternoon's 800, too (which I do), that makes the day's total word count around 3,200. Not bad for a day's work - I'm quite pleased.

I also finally decided to post an excerpt on my NaNoWriMo profile. My exerpt choice might change later on, or I might remove it altogether... There's no telling. I am typically very reluctant to let anyone read my works-in-progress, so you should assume this is a rare treat and enjoy it while you can. The next time you read any part of this novel might not be until it is (with any luck) published.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

I've caught up to where I "should" be in my NaNoWriMo novel. Day 5 should see me at around 8,335 words (I think it was). I got to 8,739, which means I've officially made up for my lost day.

Writing gets harder as I get further in, closer to the parts of the plot that I'm uncertain about. I'm trying to plan the plot as I go, but as I mentioned last night, oftentimes it takes on something of a life of its own. The bad part of that comes when my inspiration suddenly tapers off, and I don't have an outline to keep me plodding onward. So far that hasn't happened, but I know what it's like. I'm hoping it won't come to it.

If I can keep up with this pace, though, I should be ahead by a decent amount again before too long, which will allow me the luxury of time to use on outlining.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

I did a decent job of catching up tonight, although last night's break still cost me. I reached 6,407 words on my novel, which means I wrote almost 2,200 tonight. I'm only about 250 words shy of where I should be if I were writing a steady 1,667 words a day, but I decided to go ahead and stop for the night.

Of course, I have a lot of other freelance work to do over the weekend, but I still intend to spend as much time as possible working on my novel. I would like to get ahead of the game again (in case of other nights like last night).

Interestingly, although I had started a rough outline, little events in the novel are already resequencing themselves. It's funny how as you write, the story just kind of takes on its own life, and suddenly you realize, "Oh, that's how it's supposed to go." Sometimes I feel like I'm nothing more than an outlet for a story that already exists.
In any case, fairly soon I'll have to do some more outlining, because unless I keep coming up with ideas as I write, there's only so much longer before I get to the end of what I've already outlined. (Not that the outline counts for much, evidently.)

In other notes, I'm planning on going to the South Denver nanowrimo meeting next week. It'll be interesting to meet other nanos (as we are called) in the area.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

Another successful night of nanowrimo-ing! I wrote 2,210 words tonight (up from last night's 2,010). Interesting that I ended on something-10 both nights. I suppose I could add a few words so as not to, but I don't feel like it. I'm tired.

Anyway, my story is moving along nicely. According to my nanowrimo progress report, I have now completed 8.44% of my goal. I'm ahead of schedule for both days (hence the sea green-colored cells), and my total word count is ahead of schedule by almost 1,000 words.

Before I get too cocky about my current rate of progress, I should also note that I ready today somewhere on the nanowrimo site that the first week, you should aim higher than the normal 1,666 words a day. About 2,000 words or more a day is what the article (which I can't find now) advised. If you can maintain that pace throughout the entire first week, you'll not only be that much further into your novel, you'll also be much more likely to reach your 50,000-word goal by the end of the month. It makes sense. So, sure, that's what I'm doing. ;o)

Actually, I'm highly competitive, even when it's against myself. When I got to about 3,670 words - the basic goal for the day, yesterday's plus 1,666 - I put my word count in and checked my progress report. The cumulative word count cell was green, indicating that I'm ahead, but the daily word count cell was still pink. No!!! We can't have that!!! I have to live up to the standard I set the day before!!! So I wrote for a little while longer, and ultimately added almost another 500 words to my count.

Well. I'm sleepy and I should probably get some sleep so that I can do my other work during the day (before getting back to my novel). Good night, all.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

The NaNoWriMo has gotten slower and slower throughout the day. An article on the site states that it should get better in a couple of days, once everyone gets past their initial posting frenzy. The article also comments that the site is much better during off peak hours (which I'd already noted in my blog post this morning).

We'll see how the site runs later tonight. If it's still really bad, I may not update my word count for a few days - on the NaNoWriMo site, that is. I'll continue to write updates on my blogs.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

This morning I had an email inbox full of congratulations and well-wishes. Thank you, everyone! :o)

Although I plan to get my other work for the day done before I work on my novel, I still attribute the fact that I was able to get up easily after only 7 hours of sleep on my excitement over Nanwrimo. The last time I was able to do that without a struggle was over the summer, when I was swamped with work and knew it.

Will Write For Chocolate has had a few really good Nanowrimo comics lately. You can see her latest here. The first frame is how I felt (and probably looked - ear-to-ear grin) last night. Debbie Ridpath Ohi is also supposed to be doing daily comics on the Nanowrimo site, but the first one is not up yet.

I have also made an observation about the Nanowrimo site. If any other Nanowrimo-ers are reading this, take note - the site sucks during the day, but it runs fine late at night. I was able to access my profile page and everything last night, no problems, but today my profile won't load, and all the other pages load very slowly. I'm surprised so many writers are going at this during the day, because I thought writers were nocturnal creatures, but I guess this arrangement works better for those of us who are nocturnals, anyway!

If you are doing Nanowrimo, be sure to visit my profile! I need some buddies!!! :o)

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

My first day (night?) of NaNoWriMo was quite a success! I already have 2,010 words to my novel - well over the daily goal of 1,666. I've averaged at a little more than 1,000 words an hour. I could probably keep going all night, but my head hurts because I'm tired and I've been ignoring it for the past hour and a half.

I'm going to go to bed now. After all, I do have other work to do in the morning before I work more on my novel. If it weren't for my freelance work, I think I could probably write this novel in a week!

I've noticed that the meter on my blogs hasn't updated yet, but the one on my myspace pages has. Still, if you click on the meter itself you'll be taken to my "progress report," and that should be updated.

In any case, I'd better get some sleep!

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

Six minutes until NaNoWriMo begins! I'm so excited!!!!

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

Please check out my sidebar changes! I've added a link to my NaNoWriMo page, as well as a meter that will keep track of my total words written throughout November. Should make it easier for you to check up on me! :o)

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, website updates

This is it - the last day of calm before the storm. The test of my dedication is about to begin. Am I up for it?

I guess I should mention that I've come up with a title for my novel: "What Dreams May Come." I've always felt that that should be the title, as the Shakespearian passage it comes from suits the novel so perfectly, but I really struggled with the fact that there are already books and movies out there with that name. However, I've decided I don't really care, as right now I am doing this for me. I can always change the title later (or an editor can, I suppose) if my working title doesn't suit.

I need to polish up my outline before tomorrow. Thinking about it in bed last night, I decided I needed a little more "oomph" in places. I hope to work on it later tonight, but right now I have a lot else that needs doing.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

I'm not actually reconsidering my commitment to NaNoWriMo, but Will Write For Chocolate had an amusing comic about the pressures of making time for an average of 1,666 words of fiction a day. (Actually, 1,667, since you should round up.) It sounds rather like my take on it, except for me it's reading and watching movies with Michael that I'm not willing to give up. Everything else can go, but...

I have a feeling Eliza is in for a rocky month. It'll be fun to see how it goes for her...and for me!

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, word count

A year ago today, I was just starting my career as a full-time freelance writer. My last day at my technical writing job was October 21, 2005.

A lot has happened in one year of freelancing. I believe I've come a long way. A year ago, I had never:

* earned more than about $25 for an article
* published any fiction
* been published in a magazine or a newspaper
* interviewed anyone for an article
* written a press release
* written test questions
* ghostwritten anything
* kept a personal blog
* introduced myself as a freelance writer

Now, I can proudly say that I have done all those things! I've achieved more in the past year than I had dreamed I would - I thought it would take longer to find any degree of success, let alone a steady income. In fact, I may have already found my way back to my original writing dream - to be a novelist - depending on how NaNoWriMo pans out.

Thinking back on the past year, I'm very, very, pleased. To all those people who thought I couldn't do this - I've proved otherwise.

Labels: freelancing, goals, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

I just signed up for NaNoWriMo! Please feel free to view my profile and check up on my progress periodically throughout November. I intend to not only keep my NaNoWriMo page updated, but blog abot my progress on both Swan's Blog and my MySpace Blog. (Is there such a thing as too many blogs?)

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

I'm still thinking about participating in NaNoWriMo. I was thinking about writing a young adult novel from a short story I wrote back in high school, but I already wrote the prologue to it a couple of years ago, and I'd want to keep that. Since that's against the rules, I think I'll do a different novel.

The novel I'm thinking of writing is also young adult. Again, I came up with the story idea several years ago, and even wrote a few pages. However, if I don't reference them at all it's not breaking the rules. I think that's what I'll do. I didn't even get very far on the outline way-back-then, so I'm going to flesh that out while I decide if that's what I want to do.

I'm getting really excited about this NaNoWriMo thing. I'll have to register on the site once I make up my mind for sure.

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

Honestly, who knew there was a National Novel Writing Month? But there is, as I found out from yesterday's post on Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Will Write For Chocolate. (Be sure to check out the comic, too!)

Basically, it's a challenge to write a novel in one month. It only has to be 50,000 words (which is pretty short, as novels go), and you can do research and outline the novel before November 1st, but all the writing has to be done between the 1st and the 30th.

I'm tempted to try it, although I'm not sure how I'll be able to juggle novel-writing with all my regular paying gigs. However, I think it just might be what I need to jump-start my writing again - although I've picked up some speed, I still feel I'm working slower than I did before my burn-out during the summer. Also, at the end of the month I'll have a novel to start sending around to the publishing houses, which isn't a bad thing.

In any case, if I decide to take the challenge, I'll be sure to blog about it regularly. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to check it out for themselves - November is almost here!

Labels: NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing