Yikes! I Have a Blog??

Sorry little gal, I kind of forgot you were here.

Major life development: I've stepped back from teaching for now. It's been a stressful decision, but I think the right one. But, this isn't a blog about teaching.

What it means though is that I now have time to focus on my writing again. All my projects have been getting cold on back burners that ran out of gas.

My goal is to finish writing Water, Water, Never There. I've done editing in bits and pieces over the past two years, but little more than that. It still sits at a bit over 51k. So now, I'm off to fill in plot holes, flesh out the battle scene, and get a better handle on the Long Day.

*cracks knuckles*

Now it begins!

Made It!

*Brushes off hands*

Another NaNo done and I achieved my goal. My story now is at 51,213 total words, or about 28k written in November. I do feel a bit guitly about going rogue, but I accomplished what I wanted to--for now. After all, fifty thousand does not a book make.

Thank you NaNo for giving me the encouraging place and a deadline.

I'm still not quite sure what The Long Day is, but I've put some ideas on paper. Now to go back and properly flush them out.

Kick in the Pants

Man, I don't know how the rest of you who have full time jobs find the energy to write. After a day of teaching I have no creative juice left. Granted, I work with emotionally, and physically challenging students with behavior issues. Still, I'm sure many of you out there have stressful jobs too.

*shakes out limbs*

Okay, now that I have that out of my system...

I've decided to cheat.
I'm going to be a November NaNo rebel.

One of the biggy rules for NaNoWriMo is that you are supposed to work on something new: no writing before Nov 1, except plotting. But, I'm going to come clean here, I'm going to use NaNo this year to see if I can push Water, Water, Never There over the 50k mark. The point of NaNo is to get the writer to commit time and to focus on a goal. I'll be doing that.

Mea Culpa.

The end, that isn't an ending

Camp NaNo is over and much to my surprise I ended the month with 23,000 words! I'm feeling kind of jazzed to keep on.

I came upon an exciting scene where my MC meets up with her mother, a woman with an ax to grind -- well, who can blame her? M'miri killed two of her other mothers.

If you want to know how it played out you'll have to read my manuscript!

You know how some scenes just sing? This was one of them. It was a fun scene to write, and I'll admit I'm rather proud of it.

Still not 100% sure I have a novel length book, but the odds are feeling a lot better.

Update: Water, Water, Never There

Well I must say I'm feeling pretty excited. I just upped my word goal to 20,000! Three weeks ago I didn't think I'd hit 15,000. I still don't see a full lenght book, but you know, it might not be impossible.

So far I've discovered there are culling squads in some towns and villages. People are so full of hatred towards Elementari for things that happened in the past that they are rounding them up and killing them, like rats carrying the Bubonic Plague.

Also, there is this stranger who can pull the moisture out of M'miri. At least, I think that's what he does. He's still a bit mysterious to me. I suspect we'll learn more about him.

Then, kind of against her will, M'miri has picked up companions.

And get this, her mothers drown people and eat them! No wonder she hit the road. A lot can happen in 17,000 words!

Camp NaNoWriMo - Water, Water, Never There

Well, I've decided to see what I can coerce out of my WordSpring story which I've decided to title: Water, Water, Never There.

I've registered for Camp NaNoWriMo and set myself a very modest, though currently overwhelming, goal of 18,000 words.

That's the advantage of Camp, you get to set your own word count goals--and for the first 2+ weeks you can revise it up or down. Since I've no idea what I'm going to write, this seems like a safe challenge.

I've got that fear of failure lurking over my shoulder, but I'm going to banish my 'inner editor', as NaNo's YWP calls it, and try to remain positive!