Saturday, November 26, 2011

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

I actually did it. I completed writing 50,000 words in a novel with 5 days to spare. Here's the deal: The NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) website graphs your progress after you register and as you update your word count. I was behind the count needed to finish on time throughout the majority of the month, only getting ahead on days 7 and 24 and the few days following.

Last week I was feeling defeated because I knew the 4-day holiday weekend was coming up and I figured I would get nothing written. However, the opposite happened. I wrote thousands of words over Thanksgiving and jumped way ahead on the graph, allowing me to surpass 50,000 words today. I have to give my husband a lot of credit, because he kept himself busy over the weekends and holiday and didn't try to pull me away from my hermitage in the bedroom where I was under the covers and typing away on my laptop.

Thanksgiving was the easiest we've ever had. Since it was just my husband and I, he baked some chicken breasts in the oven, because we didn't want to have to hassle with turkey leftovers, and right about the time they were done baking, I spent maybe 15 minutes preparing the other portions of our meal, we ate while chatting with our daughter over speaker phone, my husband did the dishes, and we were done for the day. It think it took up a grand total of two hours of our time, which allowed me to spend most of the day writing.

This does not mean that my novel is done, obviously.  There is still much more to write and many revisions and proof readings before I can even consider publishing it as an ebook.  Did you hear that?  Yes, I said "proof readings."  I'm getting really tired of downloading free ebooks only to find multiple typos on each page.  Authors who publish without checking their work are making a bad name for ebooks and making themselves look unprofessional.

It feels so good to be back in the swing of writing daily after having my schedule hijacked for the majority of the year.  I want to thank my writing buddies for their knowledge and encouragement:  Katharine Swan and achieve1dream.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

NaNoWriMo

This is my first year attempting NaNoWriMo. The sun has almost set on the first day of November and I still need to get that first word written. Hey, I can't quit my day job, but hopefully my participation in this 50,000 word challenge will pressure... er, uh, inspire me enough to make more progress in the writing side of my life.