Lauralynn Elliott's Blog, page 73

A Round of Words in 80 Days

A Round of Words in 80 Days is a writing challenge that came from the brilliant mind of Kait Nolan. The idea is for a group of writers to get together and inspire and encourage each other. This is not the frenzy that NaNoWriMo is, but a challenge that's much more doable for those who don't feel comfortable trying to write 1,667 words a day. Think of this as a kinder, gentler NaNo.

Interested? Then here's the link for A Round of Words in 80 Days Sign up!

Just Say No!

Saturday is going to be MY time. If someone wants me to do something, this time I'm just going to say no. I've had various things I've had to do on Saturdays, and I promise, I really didn't mind. Most of them were fun things, things I could do to help someone else. But this Saturday is mine. I have to:

1. Write a decent amount for my NaNo novel so I won't get any farther behind. In fact, I hope I'll catch up by Saturday.

2. Finish Guardian Vampire, a novella that only lacked a chapter or two being finished before NaNo started.

3. Do a lot of editing on Jonathan Eli's novel since he wants to get it out by Christmas.

4. Then maybe do some editing on Guardian Vampire, which also needs to be done by Christmas.

If I get those four things done, I'll feel like I've accomplished a lot. And maybe I'll reward myself by playing a computer game or watching Buffy. Or maybe taking a nap if I've gotten up early that morning. Saturday is mine!

The Gardener by Michelle DePaepe

Everyone check out the debut novel of this author. I really loved it. It was kind of spooky, which I really like. Support our indie authors!

My Novel is Speeding Toward the End!

Things are happening too fast in my NaNo novel! I have to write 50,000 words. I'm at almost 21,000 and the events are hurtling toward the end at a faster speed than I want. The way it's going, I could be finished at about 35,000 words. I need to figure out a way to flesh it out a little. Grrrrrr.

Things

This post may be mostly rambling about assorted things.

My inner editor finds it very hard to just write crap during NaNo. Every single chapter I write, I go back over it and check for typos, misspelled words, wrong word usage, plot contradictions, etc. I can't help myself. I've always done it that way. The good thing about that is that it has to go through fewer edits afterwards.

I often wonder who's right when people critique something I've written. I can remember when I wrote my first novel and was sending it out chapter by chapter to a couple of people to crit. One of them said I had too much description, the other one said I didn't have enough description. So what do you do then? One of my biggest weaknesses is that I sometimes have too many thoughtlogues. I know you're supposed to show instead of tell. I'm trying to get better at it. But there are just sometimes, when the MC is alone, that you can't really show exactly what they are thinking. And I realized something yesterday. I'm reading a book by the well known author, Mary Higgins Clark. She uses more thoughtlogues than I do! So if her editors let her get by with it, why can't I do it? LOL

I got two good ratings yesterday, one of See Me and one of Club Blood, on goodreads.com. It still amazes me how people can have such differing opinions. Good, bad, good, bad, it goes on and on. The bad ones don't bother me like they used to. Especially when I have a 2 star review and that same reviewer gave J.R. Ward's books a 2 star, too. Hahahahaha.

Okay, I'm done now.

Day 10

Well, I let myself get behind on my word count. I'm not a whole day behind, but now I'm going to have to write more to catch up. Last night I just didn't want to do it. It was all I could do to make myself write. I was only able to make myself write about 2/3 of what I needed to write. And tonight? Well, I just finished the chapter I started last night. Which was, basically, the other 1/3 of what I should have written last night. Grrrr. I didn't want to write.

I think part of the problem is that I've been getting really sleepy. I need to start earlier in the evening. Or maybe I should try to get more sleep, so I'll be more alert. Also, my story is kicking my butt right now. I'm much better at writing novellas than I am at writing novels, even though I've written two. Sometimes I just want everything to hurry up and happen in a story. I hope I have 50,000 words in me for this novel. We'll see.

Day 7

After stressing about having to spend the night at a lock in for the teenagers at church, and not being able to write that day, I actually caught up to my word count goal. It only took me two days to get back to where I'm supposed to be. Whew, that's a load off my back. Now if I can only make sure I write every day from here on out. Since I've been writing more per day than I absolutely have to, maybe it will take some pressure off when we get to the end of NaNo. I hope I can stay ahead, just in case life gets in the way again. Anyway, I'm happy so far, both with word count and story. But there's 23 more days to go….

NaNo – Day 4

It's almost midnight on day 4 of NaNoWriMo. According to my calculations, I'm 523 words ahead of schedule. I'll have to take off tomorrow night because I have to stay overnight at the lock-in we're having at church. I was really hoping to be farther ahead than this, so that skipping that one day wouldn't put me so far behind. But at least I'm a little ahead. I'm really, really sleepy, but my reward for meeting my word count goal each night is to watch an episode of Buffy. I'll probably fall asleep while watching it. So sleepy….

Day One of NaNo

Day one of NaNoWriMo is over. One of the drawbacks of working full time is that you can't work on your writing until the day is over. So you always feel like you're just a little bit behind. I got my daily word count goal in last night, but it was a struggle. I was writing a scene that happened four months before the rest of the book happened. I couldn't decide whether to call it Chapter One or Prologue. I read somewhere recently that you shouldn't do prologues, so it's chapter one for right now.

So what do we do when we have other obligations (or a desire to do something else)? I mean it's all I can do to get my word counts in. But this week I have a party to go to on Thursday night, and then I have to spend the night at a lock in for the teenage girls at church Friday night. I can make an early night of it Thursday, I think, and get my word count in. But Friday is going to be totally shot unless I do my writing at work during lunch. I have no idea how long I'll be there on Saturday. Then, Tuesday of the next week, I have a Pampered Chef party to go to. Grrrrr. But I made my choices. I could have said no.

So what are your obligations or things that keep you from getting your word counts done?

NaNo Widgets

Okay, am I just a bloomin' idiot? NaNo has these great widgets to embed on your site or blog and I can't seem to figure out how. I just want the thing on my sidebar. I can put widgets that are already on WordPress on there, but I don't have a clue how to do the NaNo ones. This is making me very sad. Because I'm smart. But I can't do this. I wasted way too much time last night trying to figure it out. I kept expecting this light bulb to come on over my head, but alas, the electricity must have been off.