In the interest of not burning myself out before NaNo even begins, I have elected to take off the next 2 days. I'm not 100% finished with my plot points, but I'm far enough along that I can get a fair distance before I need to worry about it. Besides, those last few major points that need covered might finish fleshing themselves out on their own. I'll be sure to record them if they come to me in the meantime, of course. I'm just refusing to stress out over them.

Strangely enough, what might trip me up right at the beginning, is my lack of a decision over a lodge description. I'll figure it out as I write it. I'm notorious for doing things like that. A hazy image is forming in my mind as I think about it now. I don't think that there's a single picture out there that will match what I'm thinking it looks like. So it's time to toss those all out and just move on with life.

This evening, we're going to head on out and get some shopping done. We haven't even purchased our Halloween candy yet. LOL We love candy in our house, so I figured it would be better to wait until the last minute to buy any. Otherwise, we'd probably end up having to buy candy twice. LOL

Tomorrow will be fun as we get ready for our Kick-Off party downtown. The kids will go trick-or-treating tomorrow night with all the other kids who are allowed to do such things. Well, 2 of them will probably get to go. The third's attitude needs some serious work. Depending on how he behaves for the rest of the day will decide if he gets to go or not. Since he's 10 and all that jazz, it might be touch and go for awhile.

With that, I think I'll meander forth. I'm sure I should be doing some extra housecleaning or something. Does that sound boring or what? LOL However, since I don't work outside of the home, there's really no excuse for me putting it off.
 

So, here's the deal. I need a "lodge" built up in the mountains sometime around 1900. So off I go, using Google Images to do a quick search and see what I can find.

I have since discovered that most true "lodges" that were opened up for commercial use during the 1900s were rather large and fancy. And I also discovered that almost all of them had "freak" accidents right around the 1930s and burnt down. There's a conspiracy here, I just know it! LOL I'm serious, by the way. Two lodges that I've managed to locate pictures for were built around the same time in two different states, but burned down at around the same time. What I find interesting is that the lodges didn't necessarily have pictures taken of them for their own sakes. It was almost always for something else and the lodge was just "captured" on accident. Makes it hard to find those online since it does require someone to scan in an old photograph and upload it.

You might wonder why the "large" and "fancy" are getting to me. Well, darn it. This is supposed to be an older, run down lodge. Mine, of course, has escaped all fires that happened in the 1930s. LOL However, I'm not sure how much detail I can come up with for a 2-3 story lodge with wraparound porches with gables and fancy stuff all over the place. Oh, well. I'll do my best. I want to try and stay true to the era that it would have been built. If I find it too difficult, I'm swapping it out for a lodge that was built recently but will work well enough. LOL

With that, I guess I'm off to gather some insight into 2 more of my characters. Only 2 days until NaNo begins and I'm already feeling like I'm behind. Not a good feeling. At least I now have my lodge... sort of. It will make the start of NaNo more exciting as I'll need to describe it. LOL

Well, happy writing!
 

While my children might be thrilled that it's almost Halloween, Mom is thrilled for a different reason. My husband and I are going to a Kick Off party here in town Saturday afternoon. Then we'll take the kids Trick-Or-Treating. Well, actually hubby is going to do that and I'll stay home to hand out candy. Then, I'll stay up and watch that clock tick down to Midnight. As soon as it's November 1, I'm all over this!

Last night, I managed to finish up my plot points up through chapter 7. Do you have any idea how exciting that is? I never once thought I'd even have enough ideas or points to get that far in any book I'd write. To know, on top of that, that I only have to come up with the nitty-gritty details is even better! That's my favorite part. The "hard" part of coming up with "what comes next" is already done! I'm filling it in as I think about it. How lucky for me that most of my ideas come to me in the evenings. I'm more awake then. Weird, huh? No matter how tired I am around 10:30 pm, I almost always wake up after that and I'm good to go until at least 2 am. Well, unless I've done too much and neglected my sleep for too long. Usually, once a week, I have to sleep about 10-11 hours and then I'm good for the rest of the week. It's really handy, actually.

Anyway, it's almost time to pull my plot points back out again and see where I'm at. I need to add in at least another chapter or two of points this evening.

I can't wait for NaNo to start!!!


 

I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but I figured out how to get yWriter 5 to work for me for Nano. I'm sort of excited. Though I do need to see if I can't get it to print out a "report" that removes a bunch of the 'junk' in it and just gives me the seamless story. (break to go fiddle) I think I can. Shew! Though it does look like it will throw in lame asterisks between the scenes. Oh, well. Those are easy enough to remove if it's copied into a normal word processor. Just set up a macro that says to go through it and remove all asterisks. I think it's in there for editing purposes right now.

I'm happy to say that I've set up all the scenes up through chapter 4. I have also picked out most of my characters' names, I'm only missing one. Not too bad. Oh, wait. No. I'm missing 2 more after that. Darn. Oh, well. I'll pull them out of a hat tomorrow. LOL I found the Social Security Name database by decade. Makes it handy for me since I needed names by specific decades. Then again, they didn't change a whole lot over the years. Well, minus the fact that girls slowly took over the boy names.

I also have a "bet" going on Facebook. Well, I'm attempting to run a bet. If I can actually get through NaNo with 50K words or more, I'm trying to convince my family to send money. LOL Though I'm almost positive my book will run over that. I want a full novel, not just a part of one. I'm aiming for around 75K words. We'll see if I can pull it off. With my plot points, I think I will be able to. Anyway, the reason behind the money is this. If I can make it through this book, then I know I can make it through others. I have 2 waiting in the wings for me to figure this out. Not to mention the possibility of a sequel to one of them. So, I'd LOVE to have a Netbook. If I win NaNo, and can get enough money from family, my mom has already agreed to some money, then voila! New Netbook. To top it off, yWriter is a lightweight program that can easily run on one. I might turn into a writing demon. How cool is that?!

Well, I guess I'd better get ready for bed. I need my sleep. By the way, did you know that daylight savings time ends this weekend? NaNoers get another hour on the very first day. Way cool! Okay, I am going to bed now. Good night!
 

You know, as much as I've blogged about my NaNo, you'd think that I could just copy all of it into a separate document and it will hit 50K words. LOL Just kidding. I wouldn't do that.

Anyway! I'm having issues with my "items." I'm selecting one item from each era I want to "talk" about. For some weird reason, I've decided that each item has to be a piece of jewelry. I have no idea why. I tried to "break the mold" and go with something else, like a lace glove. Easy enough to leave behind, right? However, my mind balked and NO, it has to be an earring. Great, fine. It's an earring. Moving on... To the 1960s. What?! LOL Now it's time for another fashion review, see what they were wearing and go with it. Though I'm telling you, it would be easy to do an earring from this era, but I want each of them to be different. Great, thanks. The ring goes with the 1980s. I'm running out of jewelry options.

Brooch/pendant, bracelet, earring, something, and a ring.

Maybe I could use a watch, but that's similar to a bracelet.

Ooh. I know! Early 1960s, avoid the social unrest and massive change in styles. I so wanted to use a strand of pearls. Now I can. Whoo hoo!

Okay, off to plot some more. I hate coming up with character names. Why in the world does this book need so many?!
 

I've been playing with this recently and you know, I think I like it. It's just taking me some time to see how it can be adapted to my particular writing style. Considering I'm using more of an organized approach to my NaNo novel than I've ever used before, it's working quite well. I'm hunting down the "jewelry" that I'm using in my story, and pulling images from the internet for inspiration. When I find what I want to base my item on, I'm grabbing the image. yWriter has an area where you can input an item along with its information. AND, I can tell it to place a picture with the file as well. That is SO cool.

Mind you, I'm still looking at how it will work for me, but I'm enjoying playing with it so far. Perhaps I'm putting too much of my limited time into messing with it, but it sure is helping me get a clear idea on a few items. For that, I'm grateful.

Reminder: yWriter 5 is a free download from download.com. Also, I use Windows Vista and haven't had a single problem with it.
 

If you're participating in NaNo '09, I highly recommend looking around and seeing if you have an active group in your area. We have one where we live and it's going to be a blast! We have a Kick-Off party planned for Saturday with 3-4 write-ins scheduled every week. I hope to get to at least 1 of them and then maybe let hubby have the other one since he's decided to participate as well. I have a lot more time to write. He has a job to work around, I "only" have the kids all day. LOL Otherwise, I don't work. It's amazing how much work I can get done when they're distracted. I barely need to change my schedule at all to fit in the amount of writing needed for NaNo. Well, that is if I'm just aiming for 50,000 words. However, my "true" goal is to FINISH my novel, no matter how many words that leads to. I also hope to have a good working 1st draft when I'm finished that's worth editing. So, I will write when I can write and for however long that takes me.

I have a 'novel' floating around on my hard drive (and in print), that's sitting at 3 whole chapters and 10,000 words. So, I see no problems in going past 50K words to finish this novel I'm getting ready to begin. So, I'm heading back into my prep work. I'm having so much fun watching the story line grow and where it's headed. Sometimes, I have no idea until I sit down to sketch it in. However, past the 5th 'story' in this book, I'm clueless on where it's going. See? It's still fun. I just want to be careful and not "plan" myself right out of the book. But I also want to know exactly where it's headed so I don't have to stop and think about it while I'm writing. I think that was actually the downfall of my other 'novels.' I'd get stopped by the question of, "What next?"

Well, wish me luck! I'm heading off to locate my next piece of "jewelry."
 

I've had this urge the past 2 days to really write. However, with NaNo coming up, I'm not sure what to do about it. If I dive into another project to "warm up," I might not want to release it when NaNo hits. Or, it might be at the perfect stopping point to drop it for awhile and work on the new idea. Considering I do that quite frequently, it might work. I also don't want to burn myself out before Nano begins.

Strangely enough, this has been leading to my making a complex "plot point" thing. Not sure what to call it. Basically I'm creating steps that I can just glance at to see where I'm headed and be able to fill in the details and keep moving. It might work or it might blow up in my face. You never know until you try it. However, I find that it's helping me quite a bit. It's not an "outline," which I detest just because I do. LOL

Of course, the unofficial "rule" of Nano is to take the complex things and toss them out the window about 5 minutes before it starts to go with a new idea you just thought of. LOL Considering attempting something with structure is a new concept to me, I think NaNo is a perfect time to try it. If it works well enough to get me from beginning to end in such a quick time, then hey! I might want to actually consider putting more structure into my writing. What a novel concept. I might still write by the seat of my pants for my short stories, but I do have 2 major book ideas in my mind that I can't seem to get to come out quite right. I tend to get "stuck" waiting for that next inspiration to hit. Not only that, but I could sketch out several books and then "fly" through them and return to edit a little ways down the road.

Anyway! As usual, I'm just rambling. I'm excited for Nano to start and I should probably lay off the writing and the typing until my stupid hand heals. True to form, I messed up my hand again today. Completely ripped both cuts right back open again. My husband wasn't amused, but he's getting used to my doing that. I can't seem to just "chill out" and let stuff heal. My hand is hurting again and I'm not 'allowed' to take anything more for the pain for awhile. Definitely time for a break. Heal, hand, heal! I need it for NaNo! LOL
 

In playing with several different writing software programs, I have decided that they don't fit my writing style. Then again, considering I tend to write by the seat of my pants, that makes sense. They require so much pre-planning that I just can't relate. I think I prefer my minor preparations. I can keep track of random files I create in a folder easier than I can figure out how to make those darn programs work. LOL Though I will admit that yWriter 5 looks the easiest to master. Considering you still use a separate word processing program, I'm not so sure how well it relates. Maybe it would work great for those people who need that kind of organization. For me? Pages in a notebook seem to work better. Then again, I've always preferred to write by hand. I don't even know if I'll type my novel or write it out by hand. I know that I type a lot faster than I can write by hand, but there's just something about holding a pen in my hand that soothes me. (Note: yWriter 5 is a free download from download.com)

Maybe I could compromise. Write it by hand at night when I'm planning on "creating" my novel, and then type it in during the day for current word counts. However, that screams editing, doesn't it? LOL Knowing me, I'd edit as I put it into the computer. There's really no reason to "stress out" over which way I decide to write it. I happen to know, from experience, that I work much better if I write by hand. So that's the way I should go. The last time I tried to write on the computer, it was a total fail. I'd sit there, looking at the screen, and my brain would switch off. It was so weird! However, if I pulled out my pen and paper and turned off the computer, everything would start clicking again. I'll play the "wait and see" game. I did stumble across a simple program called Q10 that shows promise. It is also free. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of most word processing programs and it covers the entire screen so you're not distracted by your own computer. If I type my book, that's probably what I'll use.

For right now, I'm going to give my fingers a rest. I did something really stupid today. You'd think that after being alive for 33 years, I'd know that the edges of soup cans were sharp. I got myself good tonight while I was making dinner. It was such a stupid accident. I knew I shouldn't do it and I did it anyway. It boils down to our recycle program and clean cans. Anyway, it didn't work out. LOL My finger doesn't hurt, per se. It throbs a little bit, but nothing major. I was just thinking of how long it took us to get it to stop bleeding. So I should probably stop typing now and let it rest for the evening.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that "weird" has been my word of the week? LOL
 

I'm such a dork. I sort of "cheated" today (okay it wasn't sort of, I did cheat), and started working on the first part of my NaNo novel to see how quickly I could type it out. I used Dr. Wicked's Write or Die site to test it out. I didn't do all that badly, however, it was absolutely painful to write! It just refused to flow. Mind you, it was the beginning and that's the part I've thought the least about. LOL

Recently, an idea I had years ago has started to surface again. It was a dream-type sequence with a black cat as the "guide". Sort of odd trying to explain it. LOL I'm never going to sell anything I write just because I can't explain it for the life of me. Then again, my mind refuses to move past the opening of that one. How weird is that?

Perhaps I'm a dork for even thinking of switching right now. Though it's better to think of it now than after NaNo starts, right?

You know, after rambling my way through this, I think I'll stick with my original idea. Though, I think I want a new keyboard. The keys on this one are "stiff" and fatigue my hands faster than another one I have. Unfortunately, the other keyboard and my computer seem to have serious issues. Periodically, it will stop talking to the computer. It's so weird. Great. Another problem to solve. Sheesh!

Apparently, I love making my life more difficult.