Tag: NaNo

Writers’ Block

I’ve been suffering from writers’ block lately

I’m trying to finish Kel and Brother Coyote Save the Planet, but I’m dealing with serious writers’ block lately. I’ve been doing marketing stuff in the morning (even if the things I have down the pipeline are stalled) and sleeping in the afternoon. This may mean I’m depressed; I don’t know. But I do know I’ve been staring at that manuscript and coming up with nothing.

This is a job for Camp NaNo

NaNoWriMo, as I’ve mentioned in these pages, is a world-wide event where people attempt to write 50k words toward a novel in the month of November. Camp NaNo occurs in May and August, and it’s a smaller, less onerous event that I like to think of as training wheels for NaNo. You can pick your word count (as long as it’s over 10k) and feel free to work on something other than word count, such as editing. (Note: you can do that for NaNo as well, keeping in mind that 1 hour editing = 1000 words).

I’m going to put Kel and Brother Coyote as my Camp project (plus editing/plotting for another project) to see if it motivates me. Given that Camp (and NaNo) are a combination of gamification and camaraderie, I think I have a fighting chance.

I need a new project

Finishing up these old projects isn’t very motivating. In fact, I would really like to start something new. I just haven’t been inspired lately. I get motivated by relationship between people, and the short story list I have doesn’t seem to do that. (It’s very clever and science fiction-y, because my husband helped me with it.)

I want to write another novel. Real absorption into a world. But I need ideas for that as well.

Give me ideas

If you have any ideas for a romantic fantasy, let me know!

Plowing through everything



Saturday morning, and I am wondering what to do with my time. My husband is going to work, and I am done with the following: work for my class in improving my online class; the manuscript in both paperback and kindle; the cover to my book; several advertisements for the book; revamping my new blog; fixing some errors in the new blog …

Oh, yes, I remember now. I need to start plotting Kringle in the Night. Even though it’s still September and NaNo is a month and a half away.

Times like this I wonder if I’m on a hypomania binge because I’m SO productive. I still seem to be sleeping; in fact I slept in this morning.

If this is normal, I’ll take it.

The Author Jitters

I’ve been focusing too much on the novel. Ok, maybe not too much. I have the cover properly sized and titled and the like, I have copies both for hardback and e-book, I have formatted and proofread (again!) and I’m still worried about whether it’s good enough.

I’m dropping the novel November 1 (not November 15 as I said before). I am way ahead. Once I get my favorite beta reader’s notes in, I could finish the submission. All is good, but I’m still panicking.

I have other things to focus on (besides work, of course). I could start plotting for NaNo in November. I will be writing the sequel to The Kringle Conspiracy, known as Kringle in the Dark. NaNo has a prepping self-guided class that will get me into November in good shape. I just need to focus on them.

I have to be a bit less antsy with this writing thing. 

Meh.

I took a break from the blog yesterday because I’ve been working on my online presence for spring classes (all done; assignments are where they should be with due dates as they should be) and working on Whose Hearts are Mountains (which isn’t a total mess, but a frustrating problem with how to make more tension in the first half.)

I’m at 67k (67 hours) for NaNo, at least 50 of that going to the big edit of Gaia’s Hands. I’ve almost quit posting time because I’m so far over my time.

Today I am going to spend as much time as I can stand on Whose Hearts are Mountains, but I don’t know how much that will be because I’m feeling a bit underwhelmed. Not upset, not depressed, just underwhelmed with my writing. Meh.

Not doing that again.

I’m still done with NaNo. And my brain is fried. 

Five hours a day editing seemed really rational while I was doing it, but I feel like half the month has passed without me really noticing.  (It’s only one third of the month.) I’ve managed to get all my “work-work” done during that time period, strangely enough.

I’ve promised to continue doing NaNo, but only two hours a day. Maybe. If I can manage it. 

Now back to final read of Gaia’s Hands, which has turned out to be far, far better than it was on first writing.

50K!

I just made my 50k words for NaNoWriMo (actually 50 hours, as I was rebelling this year by editing) in 10 days. That’s 5 hours a day, which means I wasn’t doing much of anything else but writing in my spare time. 

It was insane. On the other hand, I think I have Gaia’s Hands to the point where, after a friend reads it, I could publish it. I think I learned a lot about editing. And focus. And feeling braindead at the end of a day.

I will finish a read-through on it, and then, I will probably start on Whose Hearts are Mountains. Only 2 hours a day, though. And it’s going to take a lot more work, because it has structural problems in the first third. 

Time to pass out now.

NaNo day 5

25 hours (25K words) on NaNo. I’m very lucky I have the time to do this (aided greatly by the fact that I don’t watch tv and I have an excellent attention span.) I wish I could find those excellent graphics that NaNo offered us!

The hard part comes ahead — so far the path to revision (including adding material) has been easy, with some of my best writing happening. Now I know things that are going to happen but not quite what to do there. Wish me luck!

It’s November First?!?

I’m sorry for not writing yesterday — I was pretty sick.

I’ve been fighting a cold or something over the past two weeks, but yesterday morning it went supernova — I ached so badly I couldn’t move, I coughed constantly, had a sore throat — so I stayed home and slept for 20 hours. 

Only to wake up on November 1st and realize — OMG, it’s NANO TIME!

So today, as promised, I have to spend at least two hours today editing*, something I have been avoiding up till now. Two hours. When am I going to do this? When?

Deep breath. I have time after 2 PM today, being that it’s a Friday and all and there won’t be any meetings today. And I have a place — the Board Game Cafe.

All I need now is the initiative.

Oh, by the way, I had a poem make Submittable’s Rejection Horror Stories 2019. (Mine is the poem).


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* I’m a rebel this year, doing some much needed editing instead of writing something new. On NaNoWriMo, I’m lleachie.

Rebel Rebel

I’ve decided to be a rebel for NaNoWriMo.

What that means is that the participant does anything but write a novel in those 30 days*. I have two books I’m editing, the problem child Gaia’s Hands (which may be a novella by the time I’m done with it) and Whose Hearts are Mountains when I get it back from my dev editor. 

It feels odd not writing a new novel, but it’s not the best use of my time. I need to get this backlog dealt with and ready for possibilities. When these are done, I will have five completed novels (or four and a novella): Whose Hearts are Mountains, Apocalypse, Voyageurs, Prodigies, Gaia’s Hands. (There’s one more novel, Reclaiming the Balance, but I despair over that particular one, and there’s Gods’ Seeds, the one I’m not finishing for NaNo.

It’s time for me to edit. It’s time for me to write shorter items and try to get those published (I have one short story and one flash item published so far, Flourish and Becky Home-Ecky.) It’s time for me to try something else for NaNo.

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* The way one counts progress when editing in NaNo is 1 hour = 1000 words. Which is about right, except when I get really stuck.