Meri Benson's Blog, page 22

NaNoWriMo – Check In – Day 10

 Words. I had them more today than yesterday. I’m still not completely where I want to be, being that I’m still a bit behind. But I’m slowly working toward catching up. And I only plan to write more and more until I am caught up, and then maybe more so I’m surpassing my word count early. We’ll see, I don’t want to get too ahead of myself.

Tonight, I’m glad I got what I did done. I’m excited to continue. How is your writing going? Let me know in the comments!

Words Written Today: 1,688

Total: 14,100

First Sentence: 

Giving a soft sound, Katherine slumped her arms on the table some.

Last Sentence: 

“And I told Lani I’d be happy to take her under my wing, help her have a smashing time at this fest,” Colin added as he set the chairs down and motioned for Lani to take a seat.

NaNoWriMo – Check In – Day 9

I didn’t get as much writing done as I’d really hoped yesterday (day 9). My original plan had been to make it to the 15,000 mark and cheer and be happy, but that just didn’t work out for me. The morning started out with me in a car accident – I’m totally fine, the damage was all to the rear of the car and the car is drivable still – but it threw my entire day off. The shock of everything didn’t really die down until lunch, and by the time I made it home from work I was exhausted and ended up crashing about three hours earlier than my normal bed time.

So Day 10 is slotted for my catch up day. I’m hoping to get to 15,000, if not the full 16,666.

Wish me luck!

Words Written Today: 687

Total: 12,412

First Sentence: 

Samantha set the notebook down on the table, before she settled on the bench.

Last Sentence:

Because we also have Tonya with all the clothes that were pulled off hangers and put in a laundry pile behind her table.

NaNoWriMo – Check In – Day 8

 Today I didn’t do any writing. While it might seem like a not so great choice for some people, I just needed a me day. I went out and did some shopping for things I have been needing, and a couple things I wanted. And then I went out with a friend and we did a double feature movie night at the theater, seeing Crimson Peak and Paranormal Activity back to back.

So while I will have double the word count to do tomorrow, I think over all it’s worth it because it’s made me feel better as a whole. I was able to relax and do a couple fun things today. Something I needed.

Words Written Today: 0

Total: 11,725

NaNoWriMo – Check In – Day 7

Day 7. The first week is officially over. And I made it through. Not just crawled through, but made it through with a good pace. I’m even just a hair above my word count, though that’s more because I like to finish a thought where I am writing than just stop because I hit the word count. How goes it, my fellow NaNo’ers? How are you doing as we close this first week?

Words Written Today: 1,716

Total: 11,725

First Sentence: 

All of my jewelry was sitting in a corner.

Last Sentence:

And so you will is quite right, dear.

NaNoWriMo – Check In – Day 6

Today was a tough day to write for. And I’m not entirely sure why. Words seemed to take more to come, and my focus seemed at an all time low. But, I will succeed.

Words Written Today: 1,644

Total: 10,009

First Sentence: 

Katherine stretched with a soft groan, before she reached to settle her messenger bag on her shoulder.

Last Sentence:

Before we leave, you can definitely see it, and hear the story for it.

NaNoWriMo – Check In – Day 5

Seems like, so far, every day has been starting and ending with dialogue. My characters talk a lot in this novel. But, then again, I find it easier t know where I’m going if I pause in the dialogue verses trying to pause in narration. The narration ends up being a little chopping if I have to pause between it.

Words Written Today: 1,535

Total: 8,365

First Sentence:

I can’t try at least, and I’d be happy to work with him.

Last Sentence:

Take one and pass the rest and we’ll begin.

NaNoWriMo – Check In – Day 4

And the sun sets on Day 4. And I have caught my elusive word count. I’m back on track!

Words Written Today: 2,632

Total: 6,830

First Sentence:

“I have faith, if you can pick up the beat on a drum you should be able to do it with your body too.”

Last Sentence:

“But you’re nice for trying to give him the credit.”

NaNoWriMo – Check In – Day 3

So I thought it would be fun to keep track of my progress through November. I was a little behind the first couple days due to being sick, so I’m trying to catch up. Over all, I think I’ve gotten a good handle on catching up.

Stay tuned for one of these every day!

Words Written Today: 3,194

Total: 4,198

First sentence: 

We’ll get there soon, Dar.

Last sentence: 

Hopefully I’m a natural at dancing too.

New November, New Challenge

 It’s that time of year again. Where the world narrows down to one mug of caffeine of choice (coffee, tea, coke, all three mixed together?) and the words on a page, and how fast you can get them down for the next 30 days. Or, while I type this three days into the event, 27 days now.

That’s right. It’s NaNoWriMo. Or, for those that don’t know the lingo yet, National Novel Writing Month. 30 Days, 50,000 Words.

A challenge I have accepted for the last nine years.

And for the first seven of those years, I was a complete and total Pantser. Which, for me and my writing style, may be why those first seven years I really failed at finishing my 50,000 words.

What’s a Pantser you might ask? It’s someone that starts NaNo with little to no plan and just writes by the seat of their pants. Usually they have characters, maybe a semblance of an outline, but they let the characters drive the word count and just run with everything that happens. It’s a well used way of writing for some people out there.

I have found, through trial and serious error, that it’s really not my cup of tea for writing. If I don’t have a general outline to keep me on task, my characters will usually run themselves right into a brick wall, and I’ll spend the rest of my November trying to find a way to write them out of it. Which doesn’t do much for the actual word count itself because I find myself having to back track and edit in order to fix everything.

While I don’t like everything planned out to a T, I do need a serious outline in order to make sure I don’t end up at a dead end in the story. Something I can periodically check and look at in order to go yes, I am on the right track this morning. Or, no, I need to curve my kids to head toward where I need them now, because this section is taking far too long.

The last two years I was able not only complete NaNoWriMo with my 50,000 word count, but it also meant that I was able to finish a novel I had been working on for quite a long time. The novel went through two serious outline and plot revisions before it came out into a rough draft that’s currently on my editing desk.

This year I’m starting a new novel, and I’m really hoping that I can achieve both finishing NaNoWriMo and my novel at the same time.

So how about you, dear readers? Are you a Pantser, flying where the words take you? Or are you a Planner, keeping your kids on a loose leash to make sure you get where you need to go? Leave a comment and let me know!

Writing, ever Writing

Warning! Rambling Ahead – Kind of a stream of consciousness post.

Sometimes I’m just not sure how other authors do it. They just have book after book coming out, and I’m stuck with just a very small collection. Granted, life hasn’t been exactly kind to me recently in the letting me write department between my dad dying, and now my mom contracting a serious medical condition. It’s left my head nearly constantly in migraine land, and my will to do much at all almost nill.

But I’m not sure watching other self publishing authors come out with books every few months helps me either. How does that work? Did I just decide to get my self publishing-ness out there too soon because I only had two finished works and a notebook of ideas that are either on my ‘to start’ list or on my ‘started but not complete’ list? Or is it just that my pace, especially with life is just slower all together.

I know I should probably stop worrying about others and focus on what’s currently in front of me, which means writing and taking care of my mom. But, well, as nearly everyone knows, the internet is hard to stay off of sometimes, and once you’re online, it’s really easy to pick up bad habits like watching things.

This week I’ll be headed out to a campground, with some sketchy wifi that only works if you’re in the right spot in the camp barn, and nearly no cell service either. (gotta love nature, and just proves that if the cell companies promise you they’ll reach everywhere – they’re lying because this little campground barely gets anyone service provider wise)

Mom and are are trying to get away some, leave work behind, try and relax and breath in nature. The weather is even supposed to be dropping to the 70’s for us so it shouldn’t be too hot or humid.

I’m hoping to try and get some of those works in progress complete, or at least limping closer to completion. Maybe take a stroll through my ideas and either flush some out, or narrow some focus down so that I can work at a productive rate.

Focus has been my hard thing as of late. Too much noise, too much going on, too much emotion that I’m bottling up. Not enough outlet, and not enough energy to ignore the white noise. I have been told by friends, take one day at a time, which is great advice, but I think she was still too broad, and that I need to start working on taking an hour at a time to really try and get things moving. Maybe once I can get moving again, it’ll help my motivation in all things. Because it’s not just my writing that’s suffered, but my performance at work and the state of the house – and the fact that we never cook anymore. I LOVE to cook, and we’ve been doing take out nearly every day for lunch and dinner – and if not ordering fresh just re-heating the left overs.

I want to get back into cooking, get back into those delicious smells not coming from the front door, but from my kitchen. It’ll not only save on the wallet, but it’s healthier over all too. The biggest thing I need to hunt down are some easy recipes. Things that can be prepped and cooked in about 30-45 minutes, because after I get home from work I have little to no energy.

So once I’m hope from camping, that’s going to be one of my priorities – finding recipes that I can cook for us after work.

Have a recipe you think I should try? Leave it in the comments.

(Though note, anything shrimp is a no go because we both hate shrimp)