the insanity continues moves forward.

The sun has started peeking into the hole I’ve buried myself in for the last few weeks. I’ve managed to get a handle on my position for the FRP, laying down the ground work so that my job each month is minimal.  I’ve made good progress on my NaNoWriMo novel, I’m up to 38k with nearly two weeks still left to go.

I’m working on planning and prepping for Thanksgiving, Looking forward to a great holiday with our family.

As we move into the home stretch (final days leading up to the holiday and end of the month) we will see if my sanity continues to hold.

It begins

Tomorrow is the start of NaNoWriMo, and the beginning of my November insanity. I’m the municipal liaison for my area, and we have two events scheduled most weeks. I still have two kids in sports, and I need to write a newsletter for the FRP. Added to all that we have Thanksgiving, have I mentioned that I host a family meal, generally serving 15-18?
So, tomorrow my trip to crazy begins, wish me luck.

Life and what’s new…

We’ve had a mostly laid back weekend… Watched a couple of movies, did a little shopping, got some writing done, lots of time with family.

I really need to find better movies to watch, the last two have been pretty bad, and I can’t even blame Hubster for them, because I chose one (though he chose the other) Luckily though Fast Five comes out on Tuesday, and yes, I’ve preordered, I can’t wait for it to arrive so I can have my Vin fix. Besides, I love this particular series. I’ve also heard rumors he’s going to be doing another xXx movie, and I’m eagerly awaiting that too.

In other news, I’ve managed 9 pages so far this weekend, and while 9 pages is not great for two days, when you consider it’s two days with the Hubster and 3 kids home, it’s outstanding.

I’ve contacted the local library events coordinator and I’m trying to figure out what I can do in the way of a opening party for NaNoWriMo. I’d love to be able to use library facilities, I think it’s the perfect local for a writing event, but I’m waiting to see what she has to say.

Squee, *Excitement*

Two bits of good news!
First is that I got the email last night, I’m the new municipal liaison  for NaNoWriMo for my area. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to the experience.
Second bit of news is that I got my new phone, its a DROID 3 and so far I’m totally in love with it.

Is my life not insane enough?

Let’s add the goal of writing 50k words in 30 days…

Oh… and I submitted an application to become the Municipal Liaison for my area too…

Have I mentioned that I’ve volunteered to become our FRP’s Secretary as well?

Now I have no idea yet if I’ll end up being the ML for my area for NaNoWriMo, the deadline for applications was today, and they’re supposed to get back to us after that. It’s something I look forward to, I think it will be fun.

I may not end up being the FRP’s Secretary either, it’s a Statutory position, meaning that you represent the unit commander, and as such he approves and appoints all statutory position holders. The unit commander wants to talk to all volunteers and make his decision, and I’m just waiting for him to call me.

Either way, whether I get one position, both or neither, I will be doing NaNoWriMo again this year. It will be my third year and yes, I’ve managed to ‘win’ for the last two years. I’m excited, I think I know what I will be working on, but that could change in the month between now and the start of the event.

In the mean time, I need to get my house livable, and try not to lose my mind with all the sports practice and games, the running hither and yon, day in and day out. I suspect my sanity will be hanging on by a thread if it survives the next two months.

General update.

Yes, I know, things on the blog have been slow, and kinda one subject for a while. But I have big news!! I’m still stuck in the NaNoWriMo hole!! Though a little differently. I hit 65k words the day before Thanksgiving (65,000 words, which equals about 260 pages, in only 24 days, who knew it could be done, much less that *I* could do it?) and I set it aside so I could concentrate on my holiday preparations. After we had finished with our celebration, on Saturday. I tried to go back to my novel on Sunday and I just couldn’t face it. I knew I had some changes that needed to be made, some missing scenes, and at least on scene that needs some major cuts. But I couldn’t force myself to concentrate long enough to get anything done. So I gave up. I stopped trying to force myself to work on this when it just wasn’t working and I took several days off.

On Tuesday when it had been almost a week since I had done anything on my story, I was feeling antsy and unable to concentrate on anything, not writing, not knitting or watching TV, I was a mess. I came to the conclusion that part of my problem was that I still had more story to tell. I had started this book with the vision of creating a series, and though I had most of the first story out, I still had lots of story floating around in my head. So I dug out a new composition book and started making notes and working on the plot for the next book. Several pages later I felt much better. I determined that I needed to go back to my notes from book 1 and check details on a specific character. (Yes, I have a spreadsheet with all the character details so I don’t get them mixed up. That is something that drives me nuts when I’m reading and I’m determined not to be guilty of it myself.) So I looked up what I needed and finished my notes for the time being.

Once I had all the book 2 plots and ideas out of my head and on to paper, I realized that I could now go back and work on editing book 1. That my thoughts on book 2 had been clogging things up and that now that I had them out, my mind could flow again. So that is what I have spent the last several days doing. In between loads of laundry, cooking dinner, filling cups, chasing kids, enforcing rules and smacking a husband who thinks up shit for me to do when he thinks I’m not busy enough, I read and edit a chapter at a time.

I am currently about 20% of the way through my first edit.  I still carry my composition book with me every where I go, so that I can take notes as things occur to me. When I finish this edit I will put book 1 away for a while and work on writing up book 2. I will edit book 1 at least once more, if not two or three times. But it will need to rest so I can look at it with a fresh perspective (plus, after book 2 is written it may give me more perspective into my characters or things that need to be changed.) I really want to have at least two books in the series done before I submit the first to publishers. We will see how that works out and how long it takes me.

NaNoWriMo Day 19…

Well, I hit an important milestone yesterday… 50,000 words!!!

No, this doesn’t mean I am done, my story is not yet finished. But I knew this going in, that the story  I had to tell most likely wouldn’t fit into the 50,000 words target and that I would have to go longer. I am ok with that. I still would like to finish the story in November. I’m getting closer. I know I have several scenes that are still missing to make the whole tale work, but they are things I am working on and I’m sue I can get them done. Hey, I still have 11 days to go, that’s more than 1/3 of the time allotted for this project.

NaNoWriMo, day 12…

The wait continues, and I begin to wonder if I’ll ever be rescued… oh.. wait, I’m not stuck on a desert island, I’m working on writing a book.  Sometimes I feel like I had been stranded on an island, or I wish I had been so that I can have a few minutes of peace and quiet to work. But instead, life goes on around me. Kids home from school, kids need to be sent to school, home work, packing lunches, making coffee, getting people bathed, and in bed, or out of bed as may be needed at the moment. All of these things must go on, even though at times, I would rather just sit down with a few minutes peace and work on my story. Especially after Veterans day, where I had all 3 kids and Hubster home. Hubster, who is National Guard, decided that he was going to free meal hop. We ended up taking my Father in Law (Who is a retired Marine) to Chili’s for lunch, where Hubster and Father in law both ate free, and then for dinner we hit Applebee’s, where again, they both ate free. They are still talking about going to Golden Corral for lunch on Monday because that is when they are offering military and vets free meals for Veterans’ day.

I am fairly certain that my story will take more than the November goal of 50k words to tell, and I’m totally ok with that, I accept that it may take more than about 200 pages to tell the story I feel the need to tell, in a complete and cohesive manner. My goal is to tell as much of it as I can, and at least 50k words, before November is over. How am I doing on that? Well, today, Nov 12, I Have 31k, actually slightly over. And I think I am doing well, I currently have about 24 chapters, with ideas/plans for several more, and some of my chapters are incomplete, I started a scene, and got partway through it before I lost momentum, or got interrupted and I just haven’t made it back to them yet.

I must say again how much I am loving working with Scrivener for Windows, it has made my tendency to jump from scene to scene working on bits here and there, and then rearranging them to work the way I have it planned worlds easier.

Now I am off again to continue my journey…

Major Milestone

Today.. on day 9 of NaNoWriMo.. I reached a major milestone.. I reached 25,000 words. For those of you unfamiliar, the goal for the month is 50,000 words, which means I am half way there!

PARTY!

yes, I am unexplainably excited about this..

Carry on.

NaNoWriMo day 7

I have been reminded over the last couple of days how much my writing drags over the weekends and why. Having three kids at home doesn’t just mean three times the interruptions but I swear it means ten times the interruptions. the bickering, the fighting, the asking permission. One would think that older kids could do more without your constant attention but no.

I am sure it hasn’t helped that the first weekend this month also happens to be my single parenting weekend, so I have no help intercepting any of the constant need for attention.

I have managed to get my minimum word count each day, despite the difficulties, and I am hoping that once we return to our normal schedule tomorrow that things will start moving more swiftly again. My fingers are crossed.