Woohoo!

I did it!  50,00 words in one month (and still counting).  A month, mind you that contained a holiday, many house guests, a trip to Hawaii and a weekend trip to visit a friend.

Guess I've run out of excuses about not being able to find time to write.

I want to say thank you to Dan who encourages me every day, to parents who root for me, to Cindy who got me to face my fears, all the friends who allowed me to announce that I'm leaving the room to go write, and to all the teachers who've ever told me I could write.

And thanks to the Nano-crew for a wonderful enterprise.  Woohoo! 

As to the novel, it's about halfway done.  And I'll be tinkering with my plans but I think 1,000 words a day is a good minimum goal.  Guess I'm shooting to be done with the first draft by March 08.

Woohoo!

I had an interesting day of writing.  I got in about 680 words before Dan and I went to play golf at Aliso Viejo...a soon to be Country Club in the area.  We had a long, slow, hard day of play (I shot 116 and was happy to get out with that) but enjoyed ourselves tremendously--in particular because of our golfing partner, Bill.

Bill is originally from Scotland and has the most charming burr to his voice.  I could listen to him say "Well doon" all day long.  My drives were clicking but no other part of my game was particularly good.  Still I managed at least one good shot per hole, so that's about my par.

Came back and after a bit of procrastination I put my bum in the chair and cranked out another 1500 words for a grand total of 48,131 words so far.  If I don't miss my guess, I'll actually finish Nanowrimo (in terms of hitting the 50,000 words in one month) tomorrow.

Then I will begin the process of figuring out the implications of the experiment for my daily routine.  I think there's another 300 or so pages to this mini-War and Peace, so that's another two months of Nano-intensive writing.  Interesting implications to ponder.

Off to relax for a bit with the man!

We are nearing the end of Nanowrimo!  I clickety-clacked out 2,095 words today in somewhat less of a burst than yesterday.  I was feeling my way through a scene viewed through Lenn's eyes, a hard switch from Matsuko's viewpoint yesterday.

Not so much because they are radically different in viewpoint but because the technical details of presenting the information from one persons' viewpoint rather than another kept tangling me around the metaphorical ankles.  Still, it all worked out and I was able to cobble together a fairly hopeful chapter after the sale of the Shimoto family's household goods.  Here's a short excerpt:

The soup had long been consumed and their glasses empty when at last they stood up from the table.  Ichiro, uncharacteristically, gathered the dishes for washing.  He insisted that Mother and Father rest.  Uncle Akio helped by wiping their supply of dishes and stacking them in the cupboard.  Lenn put the remaining milk back in the icebox.  Next to the shed, the chicken coop was silent and the moon lit up the empty yard.  Through the backlit kitchen window, Lenn could see Uncle Akio’s animated face as he told some story or another.  Ichiro was laughing and, although he couldn’t see them, he heard Father’s low rumbling guffaw and Mother’s sweeter tinkle of amusement.

Lenn stood outside, letting the moment fill him, wash over him.  He felt a swelling pride in them, in all of them, for taking a day which had undoubtedly been one of the most difficult in each of their lives and ending it in such a way.  With a good meal.  With warm companionship.  With laughter.

So three more days to go and 4,145 words left.  That's a bit less than 1,400 per day.  Tomorrow's golf though and then we'll have company on Thursday and Friday, so it won't be a cake walk.  But one thing I've learned from this exercise (add it to yesterday's list) is that friends and family take me seriously when I say I'm going to disappear to write.  What a blessing it is to have others make room for my dreams.

 

For those of you keeping score at home, that means I blasted out 1621 words this morning in a session so effortless it almost felt like taking dictation.  The story, of course, went in a completely different direction than my notes did.  But it feels right in them thar bones.

So if I hit 1560 words per day for the next four days, I should be trotting across the nanowrimo finish line with ease. 

I've learned so much from this process.  I haven't collated all my thoughts yet but here are a few items.

1.  Deadlines help!  Yes, I've always been deadline driven...so having a goal like this has greatly helped the writing process.

2.  Daily writing is a good thing.  It keeps you really engaged in the story.

3.  Writing is work.  Sure, there are some days when it's like turning on a faucet and watching it flow onto the screen.  (Love those days!)  But there are also days when is comes out in gloppy, disgusting gobs.  Either way, putting one word after another works.

4.  Editing is editing.  Writing is writing.  When you're trying to write a novel.  Write.

So, off to do chores, meet with my trainer and dig through some office work.  I can't believe I'm done with my words for the day and it's not even 10 a.m!

ciao!

Had an amazing writing day today, working on some scenes that I've wanted to write for the longest time.  Once again, characters surprised me.  One showed up without notice.  Haven't done anything with him yet because that part of the story will be told from Lenn's perspective and I'm finishing up a chapter in Matsuko's head  (Matsuko is Lenn's Mom). 

The characters are at the place in the story where they're selling off all of their goods to get ready for the forced evacuation.  It's been a grueling day for Matsuko as she sells the bits and pieces of her life away to strangers and acquaintances.  I ended today's writing session after an unexpected moment of kindness from a bit-character named Aggie.

Here's how Matsuko put it:

As the screen shut softly behind Aggie, Matsuko felt tears gather in her throat at the unexpected measure of kindness.  She almost wished she had given the plates away to her--the stranger with the awful sister and eyes the color of mercy.

Needs a bit of editing that, but now is the time for writing.  Anyway, Aggie was a fun find.  Now I'm taking the rest of the day off.  Doing some post-holiday recuperating of my own.  Maybe I can even talk Dan into a movie!

Grand total so far is 42,139 words.  I've got five more days of writing at 1573 words per day...feeling pretty good since I logged in over 2400 today.  I may make it to the finish line!

Forgive the long hiatus in blogging, but I've been caught up in pre, post and Thanksgiving festivities (and then today had to catch up from the festivities by getting "write" back to Nanowrimo).

Thanksgiving was an amazing affair, from my point of view anyway!  The fun started on Wednesday night with 17 of us gathered for some festive mexican chicken soup and a delicious salad (prepared by Shari).  Our friends, Tom and Renee' joined us for the pre-Thanksgiving feast even though they were hosting their own Thanksgiving the next day at their house.  I wasn't cooking on Thursday and knew she was, so I thought she could use the break on Wednesday.  It was a great party.  (That Meredith makes a mean margarita!)

The only near disaster of the day was that Uncle Stretch got lost (I accidentally gave him the wrong address since the online mapping program doesn't show our house yet).  He took about 2 hours to get us tracked down but he got here and the party was more festive for it

We were the happy recipients of four (count em 4!) floral arrangements from Erik which made the house look so elegant.  There were tulips, lilies, irises and a basket of mixed flowers, all in different containers.  Thanks Dude!

Thursday was surreal in its effortlessness.  The chef and two servers arrived around 10:30 a.m. and we all were able to sit, circulate, and enjoy each other's company while sampling some delicious hors d' oeuvres.  Then a lucious Thanksgiving buffet was served at 2:00.  Dishes magically put themselves away and no guests had to spend hours at the sink.  I was so relaxed I could hardly stand it!

The highlight of the day for me (other than Lynne, Ken and Jessi joining us from Santa Clarita and Dean & Donna coming up to round out the family contingent) was sharing the strips of paper where everyone stated one thing for which they were grateful.  Sometimes hokey works.

Oh, and it was fun listening to Dad and Uncle Stretch describe their childhood home and finding out why he's called "Stretch."

By yesterday (day 2 off of Nanowrimo) the crowd had dwindled down to Dean, Donna, Erik, Bob, Dan and I.  We had a nice day and then prepared a burnt sacrifice to welcome Deanna and Tim to the house.  (Note to self: when it says not to have the bottom burners on at the same time as the rotisserie, take the advice to heart.)  We managed to salvage a great dinner out of the center of a roast and a chicken.  And we laughed a lot!

Today, it's cleaning and writing.  I got in my words by about 2:00 AND got the barbeque back as close to normal as it will ever be.  I'm at 39,750 words with 6 days to go.  That's just over 1700 words a day.  I can see the end in sight!

Thanks to all who made the trek North or South!  Good memories were made!

Well, I got my writing in this morning and now I'm going to rush about doing last minute clean up...but I did want to report that I broke a huge milestone.

Prior to Nano, I'd written 142 pages on my novel.  As of today, I have 143 additional pages, breaking the "sound barrier" of my prior efforts.

That noise you hear?  It's writer's block coming down in a crash.  (Sorry to mix metaphors, but I'm in nano mode, not editing mode.)

Thanks for all the encouragement, everyone!  Oh, and Todd...thanks for the great card!  I'm planning on using your unspent Nano words to finish up what's turning out to be the War and Peace of Japanese-American historical fiction.

Off to scrub!

Grand total for the exercise so far?  35,609 words.  Woohoo!

So why do I feel like a failure?  Ask my shrink.  <gg>  No, seriously, the writing did not flow as well as I had forseen today.  I spent a lot of time second guessing myself, wiped out about 80 words and started a section over, then finally hit my groove right around the time Dan got home. 

Welcome to writing as work.

There were some enjoyable parts of what I wrote.  Some nice surprises and a few twists.  And I keep reminding myself that this is the first draft, not the finished product, so it's okay that I have inconsistencies with the first half of the novel.

(I'm doing a Nano-nono in continuing an existing novel...shhhh....don't tell anyone.)

I also got off to a late start, so maybe there's some residual guilt about that.  Plus there are Thanksgiving plans being made, windows were being washed, laundry demanding to be loaded, washed, dried, folded.  It's been a bit more hectic than the nano-normal day.  Once again, I thank my lucky stars (and a gracious God) for a husband who said, "Why don't we cater Thanksgiving this year?"

Caterers confirmed.  Check.
Ham ordered. Check.
Wine, beer, margaritas, sodas, water on hand.  Check.
Grocery store run?  Well that happens now. 

I had a great morning of writing.  It started off a bit dodgy with dates and facts looming again, but I found a really cool website that helps me calculate the actual days that correspond with the dates in question and it helped a lot.

Today I wrote about Lenn and his friends reading the official posting announcing the dates and details about the evacuation of "all persons of Japanese ancestry" from the military zones.  They find out that they have six days to sell, store, and pack all their belongings.  Lenn's been feeling like everything's a bit surreal, so at first the announcement is a relief just because it's tangible.  But then he realizes the enormity of what they're facing.

The next few days should be fairly easy writing.  I've got two scenes in mind (they're part of the original outline) and I've been longing to write them for a few days now.

Other than that, we've just been prepping for Turkey Day festivities.  We'll have between 16 and 21 people here (I'm hoping for 21 myself) and 14 of those folks will also be here Wednesday night.  Since I'm not cooking the bird on Thursday, I am cooking on Wednesday evening.  Mexican chicken soup, salsa, chips, margaritas and I'm thinking two-bite brownies for dessert.  Yum!

We had a great two days visiting our friend in prison.  (Except for the prison part, obviously...the friend part and the visiting part were outstanding.)  I did manage to take a wrong colored shirt again, but was able to change easily as I now bring extras.  Ah well!

I managed to get in my quota of words on Friday before and after the visit and got in another 400 words yesterday.  But by the time we got home at 6:30 last night I was too pooped to do anymore.  So I had my first below quota day since I started the whole Nano process.  (Dr. Hamlin would be so proud!)

Today's session, however, generated 2016 words, an entirely unplanned for scene that came about while I was trying to write my way into another set of scenes.  Kind of fun, as I've shared, when that happens.

I spent the afternoon doing some cleaning and am on my way toward relaxation and recuperation.  Tomorrow I have a training appointment and some personal stuff to do...so I will be squeezing my writing in in the morning.  My daily quota, as a result of yesterday, is now at 1804 with 10 writing days left.  Should be well within the realm of accomplishment.

I was so sad to miss the annual Baldridge Thanksgiving this afternoon but with how tired I feel at this point, I am glad not to be on the road.  And with Nano still looming, I am so glad Thanksgiving will be a catered affair this year!