NaNo reflection post

Here are my NaNo 2016 results, in a series of images.

I iz a winner!

My final word tally for 2016.
This 50k consisted of approximately 33,000 for my novella,
then bits & pieces of other novels to bump up the
word count to 50k.

My Author Bio on the NaNo site.
In attempting to reach 50k, I managed to finish two of my other
unfinished novels, THE PHOTOGRAPH and TURKEY BOURKE,
so all in all I am very happy with this year's NaNo effort.
I also wrote some more on two of my RAGEWATER novels,
which I have not done in quite a few years. Yay for that!

So that's that for another year. Now my list of "finished novels that are definitely not ready for publication" is even longer. :)

I should probably use every NaNo month from here on out to actually edit novels, not write new ones. It's good to get WIPs finished though. Less loose ends hanging around waving in the wind.

7 days of NaNo to go

Since my last update when I reported that I'd finished my novella for this year's NaNo, I've also finished another of my unfinished novels - THE PHOTOGRAPH. I then worked on IVY NIGHT for a while, before the slog got a bit too difficult, so I moved to working on TURKEY BOURKE.

My wordcount is currently 41,255, though I haven't written any of today's words yet, as you can see from the chart. I'll continue to work on TURKEY until I feel that familiar "argggghhh" feeling. Hopefully that won't be until I'm finished the novel! It would be great to finish three works this time around. :) I'd also have liked to finish IVY NIGHT, but that one has quite a bit of writing still to do, so it's a longer-term project.

Once November's over, I need to get cracking on the last three songs for our next album. Billy has posted an update saying there is a new WAG album (ours), and a new Rotting Apples album (his) coming out next year. Eek! No pressure or anything! Sometimes he gets me to do some of his vocals for him, but I'm not sure what his plan is for the next RA album.

So that's my update for now! I hope you are all doing really well. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends.

NaNo 2016 update - so many stories

It's sort of midway through November, so I thought I'd do a quick update on how I'm doing.

1. I've finished my "novel", DIE BEACHSIDE, which turned out to be a novella at just on 30k. It's fairly basic, more a sketch I guess, and will need fleshing out, so it will get longer. I don't know how much longer - it may still be a novella when I'm done with it, someday.
2. I'm now working on finishing off a previous NaNo novel I wrote named THE PHOTOGRAPH,  to help with the journey to 50k.
3. Once I'm finished with this novel, which I only have one chapter left to finish for, I will move onto working on another of my unfinished novels, IVY NIGHT, and see how much I can finish off that. That one has a lot more writing that needs to be done, so it should get me to 50k.
4. On the off chance that it doesn't, I also have the second novel in the SQUEAKY-verse, which has been gathering dust for years now.

So I should end up with at least two finished works, if not three. I doubt I will finish all four, but you never know. :)

My NaNo playlist for DIE BEACHSIDE features some post hardcore / screamo bands like Story of the Year (Page Avenue) and Young Guns (All Our Kings Are Dead and Bones), as well as Blink-182 (Dude Ranch and Enema of the State mostly) and Kings of Leon (Come Around Sundown). It also has a few other songs here and there that are sprinkled in from Seam, Lacuna Coil, and others.

And that's my update for now! I hope those of you doing NaNo are doing well. :) I will report in later in the month, I hope, for the Coffee House and Goals post.

NaNo update

See my little NaNo calender widget thing? That red square on the Thursday is a bald-faced lie! I did update on that day, but I forgot to update until it was already midnight. I honestly think that must have been Friday, because who stays up till midnight on a "school night"? Not me!

(except I did last night, but that's because I'm reading a rather gripping book...which I may well talk about during the Cephalopod Book Club next week... stay tuned)

So anyway, this where I'm at with NaNo 2015. Let's just say I'm keeping up a relatively new tradition of struggling through November. There used to be a time when I would smash out 50k easily in the first 6 - 12 days, and relax the rest of the time, all the while trying to complete a novel by November's end. That isn't my reality any longer. But at least I'm writing. And at least I'm working on getting back into all my creative interests.

I hope I don't struggle to get writing done tonight, since I have a few after-work appointments to get through before I can start.

I hope you're all having a great November.

IWSG #16 - Enduring the usual NaNo-dialogue

It's NaNoWriMo time again, and I have had a difficult start so far - only because I have been really busy with "family stuff" and therefore have only been able to cram writing into the last hour (or two...when I stay up too late) of each day. Still, I am exceeding the daily target, so that's what matters.

In terms of insecurity this month, ummm, well I have the usual feeling I always get during NaNoWriMo:

"Wow, I am writing a bunch of crap here.
I'm not going to stop writing this bunch of crap.
Geez, I'm really rambling here!
I'll have to cut out huge chunks of this scene during revisions.
I may have to rewrite this entire scene, actually.
What's the point of writing this if it's all going to disappear during revisions?
You know ... I'm going to keep writing, because at least I'll have something to edit later!
It's only Day 4?!!"

So yeah, I guess that's the constant internal dialogue I have while doing NaNo, at least it has been for the last few years. I'm still quite happy with most of the novels I've ended up with, though, even if I still need to edit them a great deal - during some future very productive editing phase of my life!

Anyway ... I love my story even if I think what I've written so far has quite a few ups and downs in terms of mediocrity of writing quality.

Here is my little word count widget, provided by the NaNo people!

 

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year?

[OCT UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : October Edition ~

I've been meaning to read this book for ages, and have only just got around to it.

It was a pleasure to read a book that was well written, as well as witty and entertaining. Jordan sure can write.

I am not religious at all, and the heroine in this book is Mormon, but the story doesn't preach to the reader about religion or anything - her being Mormon is just another aspect of her character (albeit one that does effect her decisions and sometimes complicates her job as a spy) that you get to know.

The book is mostly taken up with spine-tingling action, and that's the way I like it to be! There's also a little bit of romantic sweetness, in case you were wondering. :)

Thanks for the fun read, Jordan McCollum!

~ Do You Have Goals? : October Edition ~

During October, I've continued to do some work on SUNDOWN III. It's slowed down a bit though, I'll admit. But I have done some rearranging of chapters, merging some short ones, and have continued on my quest to convert the story to third person. I know there will be some gaps in chapters to come, that I'll need to fill in. I've already filled in one significant gap. But of course November is coming up, so I won't be doing much work on this novel revision during that month.

So, speaking of November, my goal is the usual one - to get a new novel written. The title is THE PHOTOGRAPH and the story is what you'd call a drama, I guess. But it'll also be a romance, I think ... though at the moment it's not feeling very romantic to me! So I guess we'll see how it goes.

I hope to update regularly during November... for a change. My poor blog is a little dusty of late!