NaNo Day 8 Progress Report

Today is the 9th of November and I've been at NaNoWriMo for a week. I finally took a day off on Sat to attend the the Saskatchewan Romance Writers monthly meeting which was being held in Davidson instead of Saskatoon so I didn't have to drive so far. I left at 9 am and got back home at 9 pm.

Fired up from all the coffee I drank enroute, I started writing at 10 pm Sat night and kept at it until 0430 in the morning, then continued yesterday when I awoke.

So, here's my NaNoWriMo Progress Report up to and including Day 8:

Project: Revising & Adding to Emma’s Outlaw

Goal: Need 65,000 words to finish (90,000 Total)

Nano Words so far: 11,834 (38,624 Total)

Nano Goal: 18% complete (43% Overall)

I seem to be revising more that I imagined. However, I thought it would be passive writing which was a fault of mine when I wrote the first draft, but I'm also adding sensory details and filling out my characters.

I really like the way the book is coming together. And the feedback from the excerpt I posted on Prairie Chicks Write Romance last Wed was a good boost to my morale.

The week coming up is a busy one:

Wed Nov 11:

Inkwell Inspirations - posting about my alter ego Annie Oakley

Thurs Nov 12:

-Prairie Chicks Write Romance - posting about NaNo

-Inkwell Inspirations - hosting Loree Lough, author

Sat Nov 14:

- Prairie Chicks Write Romance - hosting Loree Lough

Emma's Outlaw Excerpt at Prairie Chicks

Even though I'm heavily involved in NaNoWriMo, I still had to prepare a post for today at Prairie Chicks Write Romance. I planned to talk more about Nano but forgot the Chicks are starting a new monthly feature: Writing Exercises. Wheeee!

Janet posted this exercise on Sunday: Choose one of your main characters (male or female) from any of your WIPs and from his/her POV write about one of the most difficult decision he/she had to make.

Since I’m working on Emma’s Outlaw for my Nano project, I used my hero, Dan for this exercise and then I used the word count for Nano.

The excerpt I posted is a defining moment in the book but I haven't given away the ending. For the record, you are free to guess what comes next but I'm not confirming anything.

Okay, I'm off to see if I need to respond to any comments over at Prairie Chicks and then I'm buckling down to Emma's Outlaw. When I left off on Tues, Dan had just come back from town and he brought Emma a surprise . . .

Day 3 NaNoWriMo Progress Report

Here's my Day 3 NaNoWriMo Progress Report:

Project: Revising & Adding to Emma’s Outlaw

Goal: Need 65000 words to finish (90K total)

Today's word count: 2458 quality words

First word: For

Last word: eggs.

Favorite line: It was one thing to be forced to sleep in a room with a strange man even if they were in separate beds but it would be a definite breach of propriety to speak to him.

Total Nano Words: 5837

Nano Goal: 9% done (should be at 10% today)

Treat: Dancing With the Stars Results Show

Overall, it's going good. However, I'm working at a much slower pace revising than I ever did drafting a novel during Nano. Will have to pick up the pace.

Revved up and Rarin' to Go

Am I really here? My internet service hasn't been working all week and did I ever miss it! The tech adivsed us it may go down again however because our modem needs to be updated. Terrific.

Since Thursday was my day to post at Prairie Chicks Write Romance, I went into the local library Wed afternoon and used their computer to submit my post.

It's the last day of October which means National Novel Writing Month starts tomorrow. In the coming month, you'll see me refer to it as NaNoWriMo or even NaNo.

I've signed up as a Nano participant at eHarlequin so I'll be reporting my progress there as well as here. Plus, I've been invited to report my progress on Michelle Levigne's blog Living Proof.

So, my Thurs Prairie Chick post was Nanowrimo Tips and it's all those things I've found and used for getting the most writing out of Nanowrimo.

I've spent October working on Emma's Outlaw and it will be my Nano project this year. My goal is to have Emma's Outlaw complete and submissions started to my critique partners by the end of Nov.

My writing cave is still in the converted garage we call the rec centre. After I switch the furnace on in the morning, it only takes 15 mins and the whole room is heated nicely. It's so peaceful out there, with my Wyoming maps pinned to the drywall beside me, and it's fired me up. I've made so much progress on Emma's story and am excited that it's my Nano project this year.

I thought I was over the lung infection which burdened me for the last month but I'm stuffed up with a sore throat again. I bought some licorice herbal tea when Nelson and I went shopping in the city last week so I'll be sipping that today. Licorice is an excellent expectorant. I do not want to get sick again. It's such a waste of time!

In case you're wondering, there has been NO progress on my living room/bathroom wall. *sigh. I don't want to start nagging the contractor because at least we still have the bathtub and toilet which they'd originally wanted to take out. And since the insurance company will have to dish out over $7,000 for our new 'makeover' I'm willing to wait. Oh no, just had a thought...what if they want to come in Nov while I'm doing Nano? Yikes!

Over at Inkwell Inspirations this month we'll be talking about our alter egos or personas. These are females, either real or fictional, which we feel an affinity toward or can really relate. Mine is Annie Oakley and I'll be posting about her in a couple weeks. Check out the Inkwell for the fascinating variety of personas from both the Inkies and guest authors.

And what have you been up to this month?

Prairie Chick and Trade-Offs

Today I'm blogging at Prairie Chicks Write Romance about negotiating with your family to give you more time to write during what Prairie Chick Helena calls 'writing binges'.

For me, these writing binges come in the form of Book in a Week (BIAW) and National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) which is only 3 wks away.

I find I write best when I'm accountable for my writing and that's what these 'binges' give me - accountability. Instead of just talking about it, I'm forced to actually do it. I say yay! to writing binges.

Who will care for your family while you're ignoring them? That's where the trade-offs come in.

The questions I've asked the Prairie Chicks today are these:
- Do you use trade-offs during intensive writing periods?
- Are there any trade-offs you’ve thought up but haven’t tried and why not?
- What's stopping you?