3 Day Novel

So the three day novel contest has arrived. Kick off is tomorrow at midnight.

And I won't be partaking in the fun this year... not as a contestant anyway.

I will be locking myself in a room for three days. I will be writing feverishly. I will probably go insane by the end of it (just like last year). But I will be working on my novel, not a new project that I will submit to the contest.

For those of you partaking, I'm right there with you. Feeling your pain, rubbing the same blood shot, exhausted eyes.

For those of you not partaking, why they heck not? Ok, fine. I realize not everyone is up to the challenge of writing a novel in three days.

My goal is not really a word count goal. My goal is to get as much done as humanly possible in three days. Last year I wrote 20,000 words, so I know that amount is humanly possible... maybe more is too.

I'll give you all a word count update tomorrow on the words I've done up until Friday at midnight. Then we'll know what I'm going into the weekend with.

I wish all participants the best of luck... please wish me luck too.

Tina

A Writers Mind

On the long 16 hour drive home from Victoria to Edmonton, I noticed a u-haul trailer left on the side of the road. Now to most people, this would be something to note and then forget, but I will take this example to explain the difference between normal people and writers.

I saw the trailer and immediately asked myself, why would someone leave a trailer on the side of the highway? I saw that the blinking hazard lights were on, and wondering why someone wouldn't be worried about the batteries dying? They must be coming back right away. But why would they leave?

I looked around. The trailer was left at the bottom of a dip in the road. Ahead and behind were hills and a large truck pulling a trailer may have trouble climbing with any speed. So the person probably needed to leave in a hurry. In steps my imagination.

I closed my eyes for a moment and saw a man trying to run from someone and ditched the trailer to get away, but that didn't work with my theory on leaving the lights on, so I scraped it. I then saw a couple, the wife a pregnant woman who had gone into labour early. Yes that worked.

You see in my mind I saw that the man and woman were traveling away from Kamloops, north. They were about twenty minutes away when she went into labour. The man pulled over to the side of the road, and when they realized it would make the best sense to turn around and go back to a Kamloops hospital, the man had lost any momentum needed to climb the hill they just came down. If he wanted to get his wife to the hospital quickly, they would have to ditch the trailer. But my mind wouldn't let it be so easy.

The trailer had to have something important in it. Perhaps they were moving? No, it is was too small of a trailer. Maybe he was selling something? Vegetables? No you would need something with ventilation. It would have to be something stacked. Woodwork? Yes. The man was a master wood carver and inside the trailer was his finest pieces. He was going north to try and sell them. Would he be traveling far north? Yes, perhaps all the way to Jasper where he would have the most luck selling his work for top dollar. His wife was only 8 months pregnant and so they should have been fine for a week in Jasper.

So he must leave his master carvings on the side of the road and travel back to the Kamloops to ensure his wife has a safe delivery. He speeds like a mad man. Half because he wants his wife to be safe within the hospital walls, and half because he wants to get back to the trailer.

They reached the hospital within 20 minutes, and the doctors said that the baby boy was on his way. It would be a fast delivery. Now the man had to make another choice. Go back and get the trailer, or stay and watch the birth of his first born....

D broke into my thoughts and asked me how far away the next town was. I took out the map and told him as if I hadn't just create an impossible story in my mind over the last few minutes. Sometimes I wonder how accurate I am (or not) when I create stories like this.

Sometimes I wonder if writers are sane at all....

May Flowers

It's been exactly a month. April 21 to May 21.

I haven't done much of anything in it. Done some writing, some unpacking.

Started my weekly Wednesday Library days again. Last Wednesday I wrote 203 words, today I wrote 833. Not bad for getting back into the swing of things.

D and I bought a new car to go with the new house, and I applied for a new job but I don't think I want it any more. I think I've had enough of change and I just want to get back to one thing... writing.

I hope to find more time to write (here and otherwise) soon!

Tina

Hard at Work?

Hello all,

This past week we got the keys to our house and proceeded to rip apart the bathroom in renovation. It's about 5 days away from completion now, so we plan on moving in this weekend.

Who knew renovations (even when you aren't the one doing them) could be so stressful? I guess it's mostly the fact that we have so much to do before we can move into the house on Saturday.

On a side note, no writing this week. I feel the itch to write starting to get under my skin so I know it won't be long now before packing, painting, and moving will just have to take the back seat for an hour or two so I can write. I'll be SOOOOOO happy when we are in the house and I can start focusing on the things I want to.

I don't have too much else in the way of an update, so I'll end this here. Hope you are having a fantastic week.

PS: For anyone who lives in Alberta... WHAT HAPPENED TO SPRING? I had to bring out my big winter boots and trudge to work this morning in over a foot of snow. I really hope it warms up by this weekend. I don't want to move in a blizzard.

Tina

Being Distracted

It's been two weeks. I'm so bad at keeping you all updated.

I've written all of... Wait for it... 50 words in the last two weeks.

I've been distracted. Thinking about doing some freelance writing on the side. Thinking of doing a lot of things on the side.

In the end I did none of it, mostly because D asked me why I felt the need to spread myself so thin that nothing would get finished. And the answer to that is, I have no idea.

Maybe it's a subconscious thing. Maybe I don't want to finish anything. Or maybe I have such a curious mind I latch on to new ideas and delve as deep as I can into them given a short amount of time. What ever the reason, I come up with crazy schemes or ideas a lot.

So what now? Well, I get the keys to my very first home in exactly 7 days, 3 hours, and 45 minutes, so I'm not thinking about anything else for a while. We have to renovate the bathroom before we can move in so that will be stressful. And when I do have some down time, I will work on my No-Plot Project and that's it. I really should stop getting so distracted, it makes life very complicated.

Anyway, that's the last two weeks of my life. I hope you are having a simpler time.

Cheers,

Tina

House Update

So the house I mentioned in the last post.... It was not meant to be.

Counter offers and Counter-Counter Offers flew back and forth throughout the day, but in the end we couldn't get it for what we wanted to pay. So, we walked away.

I'm fine with it. Really :)

There are a ton of homes on the market right now, so we are sure to find a house we want to buy and for the price we want to pay.

I haven't written at all this week. I was so stressed out from putting an offer in, that I couldn't even remember what my story was supposed to be about. That's pretty bad.

Any way, things should calm down soon. We're looking at houses today and Saturday. I'll let you know if anything interesting happens.

Tina

Buying a House

Remember how last week I said that D and I were looking at houses again? Well we found one... and we are putting an offer on it tonight.

We spent the majority of the last week looking at homes. Thursday we met with a realtor to help us see inside the homes we've been interested in. Saturday we viewed 5 homes and on Sunday we drove by some more homes on our own. Monday (Family Day in Alberta) we viewed 2 more homes and found the one we're putting an offer on.

Seems a bit fast, even for me, but I think it's the right thing to do. It has everything we wanted in it (except that it's not a semi-bungalow but that wasn't really on the list... it was more my secret wish). It has a huge backyard which will be great for dogs, and it has an unfinished basement that we can develop into more living space. It also has a small room I can turn into an actual writing office, which is awesome. After looking for a couple months last year during peak times and almost a month this year, D and I have seen well over 30 properties. While it still needs some work, this is the best home we've seen.

Now that I've let you all know what's new in my world I will give you the pathetic word count for the week (remember, I was looking for a home):

Word Count (Feb 11th - Feb 18th)

Wednesday - 760 words on Ice Debt

Hope you all have a fantastic writing day. I will keep you posted as things develop.

Cheers,

Tina

J K Rowling and What People Want

On Monday the Passionate Eye aired a documentary called "A Year in the Life of J K Rowling".

Of course, I watched it. What writer doesn't wish for the success that she has had? However, she said something during the show that kind of shocked me. When asked about being famous and if she enjoyed it (or something to that effect) she mentioned that old school friends of her were contacted and offered money to tell stories about her when she was young.

Is the media that desperate for material? Or have we reached an age where people want writers to expand the pool of Hollywood stars, to have new faces with a completely different flavour?

Do people want to know writers today on the in-depth yet superficial media level, or is J K Rowling the exception?

If the answer to the last one is 'Yes they do', it changes the game for a writer quite a bit. We'd have to learn to have more "Ta Da" personalities, and how to deal with the public scrutiny of our private lives.

Writers becoming celebrities? Is it possible?

Tina

Week One

*NOTICE: I've changed my 30 day novel into a 40 day novel. This is because doing a chapter every three days sounded nicer to me than one every 2 and half days. I came up with this on Friday morning so I'm not trying to soften the pain of the word counts you will see below.*

I wanted to do weekly updates on my novel progress, but Tuesday's are such good days for me to blog, I think I'll cheat this week and update you on only 5 days of work (Thursday to Monday). I'll let you know right now, my word count is not were I want it to be.

Goal word count on Monday - 12,500 words

Actual words on Monday - 2,634 words (ouch)

To be fair, that is a lot of words to write in 5 days. Here is the word count break down:
Thursday - 1,001
Friday - 0
Saturday - 497 (and edited the 1,001 words from Thursday)
Sunday - 0
Monday - 1,136

You can tell which day's I freaked out. Doubts filled my head and would not leave. I sat down in front of the computer on both of those 0 word count days, but my brain was so frozen in fear of what I was trying to do that nothing coherent come out.

Even Saturday was a lost day. I tried to write, but all I could think of was how awful that first paragraph sounded. And, you know how it is. Once you go back to edit one paragraph the next one could use just a little bit of tweaking too.

I'm no where near my goal.... but I'm almost done my first chapter and that is something to be proud of. And it's something to keep me going. I can't keep freaking out because I'm trying something new, so I've told myself that I'm just going to try. There will be no consequence if I don't finish on time, because this is just an experiment.

Surprise, surprise. Once my subconscious believed me, I was able to write out over a thousand words in less than two hours yesterday. I'm slowly getting back up to my 1000 words an hour, and that is also something that will make this 40 day novel adventure worth it.

"Put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking across the floor". One week down, five weeks to go.

C

A 30 day novel?

I have exactly 30 days... from today until the October conference, Pure-SPEC.

What am I going to do with those 30 days? Well, I'm going to try and write my novel.

I'm sure you've heard of NaNoWriMo (you write a novel during the month of November), and several of my writing friends are thinking of signing up for it. I really wanted to, but I wasn't sure if I should wait until then to start the novel I'm working on now, or start now and work on something else for November.

(Side note: I finished my outline for LLR last night, and I'm ready to go.)

So, I've decided to give writing a novel in a month a try... right now. While NaNoWriMo has you aim for only 50,000 words, I'm aiming for 100,000. Is it possible? Of course it is. Will it be hard? You bet. If I don't finish in exactly 30 days its not that big of a deal, but getting 90% of it done is where I'd like to be as a minimum.

I just feel the need to finish something big. Yes, I've done short stories, and even a novella for the 3-day novel contest... but I want to say, "I've written a Novel." I'll worry about it getting published later, right now I just want to have something I could even submit.

So here I go. I wrote the first 50 words last night, just to get a feel for it, and now I'm jumping in. Day One, Chapter One, let's start this word count going.

C

3-Day Done

I did it!!!

This weekend was intense. I wrote for long hours, had minimal food and sleep, but somehow I completed a 75 page novella that's not that bad. The weekend went something like this:

Saturday - Got up at 8:30 ready to go, but the writing came hard and slow. It started picking up in the afternoon and evening, but my new-old laptop (new for me but actually old) decided to break... yeah, Ok, I broke it accidentally. I finished off the day around 8pm.

Sunday - most of the day was spent looking for, buying, and setting up a new laptop. I didn't get started until around 4:30 in the afternoon. (yikes) So I pushed my sleeping limits and wrote right into the wee hours of the morning.

Monday - Starting writing around 9:30am. By this time my body was sore from sitting, so I tried writing standing up with my laptop on a bookshelf, kneeling on the ground, even on my stomach (which I won't recommend). I wrote for 15 hours in total and came in just under the wire (meaning I wrote right until midnight).

My novella (because it's a bit too short to be called a novel) is called "Beloved Child", and has 6 chapters, a prologue and an epilogue (it's sitting at 19,108 words). And unfortunately, I'm submitting this is unedited, because I pushed the midnight deadline just to finish. I did go through as I was writing to make sure things were spelt correctly and such (and it's very possible I missed some), but I did nothing of real editing.

I read through it last night before bed (yes, between midnight and 3am). There are a couple of choppy bits, some bits that don't seem to make sense, but over all it's not half bad. It's really fast paced, more than I'm used to, but hey... it was written in three days, so of course it's going to be fast paced. I also wrote a little blurb after "THE END" that goes over what I've learnt from this. This truly was an experiment in trying to write an entire story from the bad guy's point of view, and I did that. I also manage to write my very first (and second) fight scene, and I don't think I did too badly.

I must have needed the sleep today though. Yes, I went to bed at 3am, but I slept until 2:30pm this afternoon. I haven't done that since I was 15 years old.

I'm glad it's over. It surprisingly painful to write for that long every day, but at the same time, it was very rewarding. Because this was an experiment for me, I pushed my limits. I got really depressed at one point because writing from the bad guy's point of view doesn't give you a lot of hope. Yet overall, I found a way to push passed it. I think the end result turned out pretty good. (oh, I also found out that I love short sentences right now, and I think I used them a bit too much. Oops)

If you get a chance to do it next year, I would recommend it. I might even join you.... Hmmm, do I really want to do this more than once? Probably :)

Have a good one,

C

3-Day Check List

My preparation check list for the 3-Day Novel Contest:

√ Finished my outline for "Beloved Child"
√ Got a desk for the spare bedroom
√ Got a laptop for the spare bedroom
_ Need to set up the spare bedroom with my new desk and laptop
_ Need to buy healthy snacks for the weekend
_ Need to figure out what D is doing for the weekend (so I know if I'll be home alone or not)
_ Need to clean the apartment so I'm not tempted to do it over the weekend

I should have all of this done by the end of the week. It is only Tuesday.

I hope to update you on my word counts throughout the contest, but I won't guarantee it. I will be working in a room with no Internet (because I get distracted easy), so my online time will be limited to an hour or so a day. I'll try and let you know how I'm doing, but it may just be after the fact.

If you are doing the 3-day novel contest, good luck. If not, please be cheerleaders for those of us risking our sanity to participate. Have a good one.

C

PS: I received my USA stamps, finally, so "Pain and Blood"(my 2nd short story) is now on it's way to Analog Magazine. Cross your fingers for me.

An Update...

Well I certainly let this slip a bit didn't I? Thanks Capt'n for the nudge.

A month has gone by. WOW. Well, what have I done...

I moved, that one should be obvious. We haven't finished unpacking yet but it's starting to feel like home.

I finished 2 short stories. The 1st one, a fantasy, was sent out to a magazine. I should hear back from them in a week or two (they are in New Jersey). The second one is out to my readers, and once I have it back I'll send this one out too. Time to get my name out there.

I've been working on my novel edits as well, but not enough to send chapter 2 to my tutor. Sigh, I'll get on that.

I've also been working on my novella. I'm going to rework the angle a bit and send it to the Writers of the Future contest. Should be interesting. The first place winners (and some times 2nd and 3rd place depending on size) get published in an anthology and all finalists win money. Can't go wrong.

Last, I became a board member for the newly formed Edmonton Writers Centre. I won't write too much about this on here since this is supposed to be about my writing, but I'll direct you the Centre's website once it's up and running.

I think that's all I've done over the last month, writing related. I did go to two weddings, and enjoyed a pig roast weekend with the small community at my step-dad's cabin on the lake, but that's about it.

This month I'm going to the Calgary science fiction and fantasy convention "Con-Version 23". My first Con. I'm very excited. It's only a little over a week away. I'm going to be surrounded by science fiction geeks, H. Potter lovers, fantasy obsessors, and costumed fans. It's going to be great.

I'm also taking part in the 3 day novel contest. It's a crazy event that starts at midnight on August 31st (September 1st really) and lasts until midnight on Monday. The whole labor day long weekend is spent writing a novel. Granted it's a short novel (novella), but it's should be a really neat experience. I already have an idea in place.

Things are really heating up. I get my "Author" picture taken soon, and I'll post it on my website as soon as I have it. I just can't believe how productive I was this past while, even with the stresses of moving. Things are looking up.

I hope you are having a fantastic day.

C

What's new crazy lady?

So you're probably wondering what's new? New year, new approach?

Did I come up with a great idea to add even more suspense to my already magnificent novel?…. (yeah I'm a little low on the self-esteem today, gimme a break)

In truth, I've done a lot of planning. I re-organized the last half of my novel to reflect the personalities that have grown while I was actually writing. It's funny, when you plan out your novel you think your characters will do certain things at certain points and that’s the end of it… but after you've written about them for a while, and their personalities are more etched in your mind, you realize that they wouldn't do A or B, they would do C. And that just messes things up for a while.

Anyone who writes is reading this going, "Yeah that’s a nice way of putting it, but where's the crazy?." Ok, I'll be honest. My characters revolted. They didn't want to do what I was telling them to do, and I've just recently finished my negotiations with them. They won on most points, and as a result I've had to change where I wanted them to go.... "There's the crazy!"

Besides the craziness of your characters coming to life, it helps a lot if you follow their lead. In the end you have a better story, one people can connect to. It's ok that I had to change the scene where they are: 'sneaking into the palace, stealing stuff to help them get away and are seen' into, 'sneaking past the palace to get away, trying not to be seen but are'. The end result is the same, they are seen and thus starts the chase portion of my story. (stupid picky characters)

Once I finish tightening my plot, I can get into writing it again. (please let that be soon)

I've also been working on the novel writing course I start last year. I stopped when I got into my story more, but since the negotiations, I've need a little break.

Well that is pretty much all I've got that's new. I'll keep you posted once I get back into the writing of the story.

Dust