Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "nano"
Capris Capers
November is speeding by, at least it seems that way. My NaNo novel is limping along.
Capris has yet to appear but will soon, I hope. Only three and a half chapters so far. The format is challenging.
Chapter One ends with a robbery. Chapter Two ends with the bad guys breaking in and threatening Harriet Zeigenhirt (the heroine). Chapter Three ends with the bad guys cornering and threatening Arthur Carlson (the hero).
I think Chapter Four will end up with Harriet facing a snake.
This movie serial/melodrama format is rather fun.
Capris has yet to appear but will soon, I hope. Only three and a half chapters so far. The format is challenging.
Chapter One ends with a robbery. Chapter Two ends with the bad guys breaking in and threatening Harriet Zeigenhirt (the heroine). Chapter Three ends with the bad guys cornering and threatening Arthur Carlson (the hero).
I think Chapter Four will end up with Harriet facing a snake.
This movie serial/melodrama format is rather fun.
The Problem with Cliffhangers
Capris Capers, my NaNo novel, is going much more slowly than my usual novels. The cliffhangers are a big part of that.
Every chapter must end with a believeable cliffhanger. So every chapter must be written with the cliffhanger in mind.
Last Saturday my writers' group met for a write-in. I came up with a list of cliffhangers to use.
The very next chapter I wrote something entirely different so those will be on hold. But I ran into the sister problem with cliffhangers. There must be a believeable solution to the cliffhanger.
I wrote the chapter ending with the cliffhanger and started the next. I knew what I wanted to use for the next cliffhanger but had a problem: the boys are locked in a cabin with no way out. Oops. Dead stop.
Now I know how they get out. On to the next cliffhanger!
Every chapter must end with a believeable cliffhanger. So every chapter must be written with the cliffhanger in mind.
Last Saturday my writers' group met for a write-in. I came up with a list of cliffhangers to use.
The very next chapter I wrote something entirely different so those will be on hold. But I ran into the sister problem with cliffhangers. There must be a believeable solution to the cliffhanger.
I wrote the chapter ending with the cliffhanger and started the next. I knew what I wanted to use for the next cliffhanger but had a problem: the boys are locked in a cabin with no way out. Oops. Dead stop.
Now I know how they get out. On to the next cliffhanger!
Almost Disaster and Aftermath
November is over along with NaNo. I spent so much of the month getting ready for book signings, club meetings and chores my novel languished.
The last week began with me down 32,000 words. Failure was my daily companion.
The novel plot began to roll along. Ridge had his car and was driving toward trouble. The word count began to climb.
It is amazing how fast you can type in the throes of a breakneck novel scene.
It is amazing how fast exciting scenes play out, roaring through their climax driving toward their resolution 8,000 words short of the NaNo goal.
What on Earth can fill up those thousands of words with three days to go?
Back story for characters. Epilogues for the characters. Creative adjective and adverb and preposition filled prose mounts up.
Yes, I did manage to fill out 50,000 words, 15,000 of them in two days. The first draft is written. It is a writer's nightmare right now.
But the novel has possibilities. All it needs is some solid research, blending of the two main story lines and rewriting to become a real novel. At least the novel has started on the road to presentable.
The last week began with me down 32,000 words. Failure was my daily companion.
The novel plot began to roll along. Ridge had his car and was driving toward trouble. The word count began to climb.
It is amazing how fast you can type in the throes of a breakneck novel scene.
It is amazing how fast exciting scenes play out, roaring through their climax driving toward their resolution 8,000 words short of the NaNo goal.
What on Earth can fill up those thousands of words with three days to go?
Back story for characters. Epilogues for the characters. Creative adjective and adverb and preposition filled prose mounts up.
Yes, I did manage to fill out 50,000 words, 15,000 of them in two days. The first draft is written. It is a writer's nightmare right now.
But the novel has possibilities. All it needs is some solid research, blending of the two main story lines and rewriting to become a real novel. At least the novel has started on the road to presentable.
Misleading the Book Counter
Yes, it is November. I have a whole 179 words written so far and am already double thinking my novel. First person or third person? which would work the best?
Internal editor please go to sleep, shut up, take a vacation, something! Just leave me alone. Alone to write happily for the month.
In the meantime I have embarked on a new reading challenge: picture books. These are fun to read and don't get much attention here at GR. That seems strange since so many GR readers have children or grandchildren.
I have neither children nor grandchildren so I needed an excuse to browse through the picture book shelves at the library. (All right, I do have a few at home.)
What's a good excuse? I plan to write picture books. Every once in a while I do get ideas for picture books but I have no intention of abandoning my other books for them So much for that excuse.
Do I really need an excuse? Why does society make adults feel guilty if they read picture books? Some of these "simple" books are very thought provoking and informative.
No, I need no excuse. I only need to enjoy browsing through and admiring how an author can say so much in so few words. I can admire the art work which runs the gamut from modern to fine art.
I challenge some of the rest of you who have finished your "real" book challenge to explore the picture book shelves with me. You never know what hidden gems you will find.
Internal editor please go to sleep, shut up, take a vacation, something! Just leave me alone. Alone to write happily for the month.
In the meantime I have embarked on a new reading challenge: picture books. These are fun to read and don't get much attention here at GR. That seems strange since so many GR readers have children or grandchildren.
I have neither children nor grandchildren so I needed an excuse to browse through the picture book shelves at the library. (All right, I do have a few at home.)
What's a good excuse? I plan to write picture books. Every once in a while I do get ideas for picture books but I have no intention of abandoning my other books for them So much for that excuse.
Do I really need an excuse? Why does society make adults feel guilty if they read picture books? Some of these "simple" books are very thought provoking and informative.
No, I need no excuse. I only need to enjoy browsing through and admiring how an author can say so much in so few words. I can admire the art work which runs the gamut from modern to fine art.
I challenge some of the rest of you who have finished your "real" book challenge to explore the picture book shelves with me. You never know what hidden gems you will find.
Completing Word Counts
The end of November got closer. I was thousands of words away from my NaNo goal. Should I give up?
Giving up is appealing. The novel doesn't have to get written. The world will continue to exist if it does not get written.
Will I continue as a writer if I give up? I don't know. I do know I am good at starting projects of all kinds and terrible at seeing them through to completion. Would quitting become a habit?
I chose to not find out. I wasn't going to quit.
The problem was keeping myself motivated to sit and type 5,000 to 7,000 words a day.
Telling myself to sit still and type was not going to work. I needed incentives.
Each thousand words completed rated a break doing something fun for a short time.
Next was making sure I had scenes planned out in my head I had to get typed before they evaporated into thin air.
My goats loved this one. As my buck Augustus ensured I would be doing mostly feeding and not milking this winter, I spend time standing around watching and listening to oats disappear. This is found time for novel plotting. As I got glassy-eyed plotting, goats snuck in for a second bowl of oats.
Between the two I did reach the word goal. Now I need to finish the novel. It will wrap up in another few thousand words.
Then I get to start over again doing the rewrite.
Giving up is appealing. The novel doesn't have to get written. The world will continue to exist if it does not get written.
Will I continue as a writer if I give up? I don't know. I do know I am good at starting projects of all kinds and terrible at seeing them through to completion. Would quitting become a habit?
I chose to not find out. I wasn't going to quit.
The problem was keeping myself motivated to sit and type 5,000 to 7,000 words a day.
Telling myself to sit still and type was not going to work. I needed incentives.
Each thousand words completed rated a break doing something fun for a short time.
Next was making sure I had scenes planned out in my head I had to get typed before they evaporated into thin air.
My goats loved this one. As my buck Augustus ensured I would be doing mostly feeding and not milking this winter, I spend time standing around watching and listening to oats disappear. This is found time for novel plotting. As I got glassy-eyed plotting, goats snuck in for a second bowl of oats.
Between the two I did reach the word goal. Now I need to finish the novel. It will wrap up in another few thousand words.
Then I get to start over again doing the rewrite.
Time Slips Away
Three hours is so little time. That is the new limit at my library. I will try to get back to writing here weekly. I will have to write faster is all.
Already October is here. Less than a month remains before NaNo begins.
Book marketing is an important topic for me lately. My website has been seeing many changes along with the addition of two anthologies from my writers group.
This year NaNo will meld these two. How? They are so different!
I will create an open ended science fiction serial with every chapter ending with a cliff hanger.
First I need a setting. Since time is of the essence, it needs to be a familiar one. An Ozarks ravine in February should work.
How do I put a science fiction story in an Ozarks ravine? It wasn't that difficult.
Out of time so you will have to drop by again next week.
Serials can be fun.
Already October is here. Less than a month remains before NaNo begins.
Book marketing is an important topic for me lately. My website has been seeing many changes along with the addition of two anthologies from my writers group.
This year NaNo will meld these two. How? They are so different!
I will create an open ended science fiction serial with every chapter ending with a cliff hanger.
First I need a setting. Since time is of the essence, it needs to be a familiar one. An Ozarks ravine in February should work.
How do I put a science fiction story in an Ozarks ravine? It wasn't that difficult.
Out of time so you will have to drop by again next week.
Serials can be fun.
