GOALS (a 2012 summary) and a Blog of the Year

With the end of the year so close, it's time for me to reflect on what I achieved/did not achieve in 2012. After 2011's goal blitz, I was feeling pumped this year, but I didn't quite live up to 2011's high standards. Don't get me wrong, though - I'm perfectly fine with it! I just didn't get a perfect score this year. ;) Anyway, let's break it down, referring to my 2012 Goals page and also my 52 weeks of tasks page:

Failures:

• NaNoEdMo - I was travelling for a bit of this month, but still, I failed!
• Writing one book review each month - I missed November
• Attending one yoga/body balance class per week
• Doing a beach walks on Saturdays/Sundays - failed this particularly as the year came to an end.

Successes:

• Read 43+ books in 2012 - my goal was at least 43
• Read The Catrina Chronicles stories up to date (though as of now I am behind again)
• Wrote and recorded 52 songs for 2012's Chrysalis Experiment
• Finished both 2011's NaNo novels, DANNA and VICTORIOUS
• Hit 50k in BuNoWriMo 2012 with IVY NIGHT - though the draft is not finished
• Won NaNoWriMo 2012, rewriting DAPHNE
• Posted one Globetrotter post per month
• Did a preliminary read-through/edit of FIRE (had no recollection of this till coming to write this post. ha)
• Sorted the equivalent of 100 photos a week
• Wrote the equivalent of 1k of new material each week, not counting BuNo and NaNo projects (worked on DANNA and SUNDOWN II for this)
• Reviewed all 52 Chrysalis stories, except 2 that were DANNA excerpts

"Somewhere in between"s:

• I did read 9 eBooks from my writer friends, but not always the books I had on the original list. I kept swapping really long books for short novella-length stories (with no e-reader, it's not easy reading eBooks!)
• Complete edit of DAPHNE - I do count this as an achievement, but it was actually more of a total rewrite, and I didn't do what I originally wanted and put more of Daphne's mother's history into the plot
• As of this post, I will have written the equivalent of at least one post a week this year. But I'm pretty sure I went more than 7 days between posts at least once this year.

Extra achievements:

• Finished my rewrite of SUNDOWN, which was not on my goals list anywhere, but which I made use of in the 1k of new material per week goal on my "52 tasks" chart.

Aaaand that's a wrap, folks! But what about next year? Yeah, I've got plans, and I'll talk about 2013 goals in a few days... :)

In other news, the lovely Deniz Bevan received the Blog of the Year Award, and chose to pass it onto me and Laurel Garver. I feel very honoured to have received this award, so thank you Deniz! The official rules of this award are:

1. Select the blog(s) you think deserve the Blog of the Year 2012 Award
2. Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there's no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and present them with their award
3. Please include a link back to this page Blog of the Year 2012 Award and include these rules in your post (please don't alter the rules or the badges!)
4. Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the rules with them
5. You can now also join our Facebook group – click like on this page Blog of the Year 2012 Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience
6. As a winner of the award please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar... and start collecting stars...

The people I'm going to pass this onto are:

• Hart Johnson at Confessions of a Watery Tart, whose posts are often entertaining but also tackle the tough issues many people are too scared to mention.
• Jordan McCollum, who doesn't tend to get a huge amount of comments on her blog but who still gives a whole lot to the writer blogger community with her very helpful posts.
• Michael Atkinson at Hypothetically Writing, whose little snippets of fiction shared throughout the year have brought delight to many. Michael's creative wit is, in my opinion, unparalleled, and he also makes a great bloggy friend!

Next year's goals - a new "Chrysalis" challenge

Floral lady.

Although this year is definitely not over yet, I'm already starting to look to next year's creative goals. This is probably very foolish of me since I'm still quite behind with a lot of this year's goals. But for some odd reason I'm not panicking there yet. Instead, I'm looking forward to the usual fresh start a new year gives us. I've seen other bloggers talk about this, specifically Brooke R. Busse (who is hosting a cool book giveaway, by the way - go check it out!).

Sapphos.

Anyway...one of the things I intend to do next year, perhaps for another "Chrysalis"-style challenge, is create a new piece of art each week. Fine art is the major area of my creative life that has suffered, basically ever since I finished high school. Doing the university entrance level Art class in school was like doing three subjects in one - it was that much work. It burned me out well and truly and I've never really recovered. Don't get me wrong, though, I've created new art since then. Just not a lot of it.

Rock star dudes.

Next year, I want that to change. So I'll be attempting to create one new piece of art each week. It can be any kind of art, though the likelihood of it being sculpture is low because of all the materials required for that. I do tend to work in all sorts of media, sort of like how I tend to write in all sorts of genres. So there's very few limits on what I might create. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Book Review: CATRINA IN SPACE

I first met Princess Catrina back when she was called Princess Caitlin, and appeared in a Chrysalis Experiment story in 2011. Little did I know where Caitl-rina's journey would take her - across 53 episodes of the Catrina Chronicles and one complete Catrina novel, the one I'm talking about here! I haven't read all the episodes yet, but I'm up to episode #48 and slowly but surely getting all caught up!

It took me a while to get around to reading CATRINA IN SPACE, but now that I have, I can say I was not disappointed. There are so many things to love about this story - the kick-arse heroine Catrina herself, the space hamsters and occasional mentions of the hamster rock band Gerballica (classic!). Undeniable heroics with a towel, and the fact that there's a woodmouse with a Southern accent called Becky-Jane. As always, the evilness of Susan and how it was eclipsed by the evilness of Murphy. The almost teaming up of Catrina and Susan (I thought the universe really was going to break at that point). And the Pen of Creation? Genius. I also appreciated that the author had ultimate control (even if he can't necessarily control his characters' sassy backtalk. haha). I guess it reassures me as a writer myself that my characters do NOT have the final say...or at least I like to think so.

I also confess that I love that I got an acknowledgement as a loyal Catriniac in the back of the book. Thanks Michael, but the pleasure really has been all mine. ;)

What I really want to do now is go through the novel again and add some of my favourite quotes (of which there are way too many to count) to GoodReads, so that you guys can get a taste of Michael Atkinson's genius comedy.

---

Buy Catrina in Space from Amazon.com.

Permission to fail

In 2011, I set myself some rather hefty goals. I achieved every single one of them. It was a hard push towards the end of the year to get everything done, but I did it! And it felt good. This year, I decided that if I could do all that stuff in 2011, I could sure do a similar amount in 2012. But this year I've found that, all too often, life has got in the way.

I'm still achieving some things, I suppose, but I'm behind in most of my goals, and it's going to take quite some effort to catch up. I know I can do it, but I've also realised this year that if I fail at some things, it's not the end of the world. I suppose I've given myself permission to fail, here and there. I have failed, here and there - like with NaNoEdMo, dismail failure there. I don't really want to take that too far, though...'cause who wants to feel okay with becoming a slacker?

Perhaps instead of working on my goals,
I'll just stare at this photo for a while...
Ahhh, Australian winter!

So far in 2012, I've accomplished the following:

• Preliminary read through/edit of FIRE
• Write 50k for BuNoWriMo 2012
• Finish off NaNo 2011 novel #1 (DANNA)

But I still have to do the following:

• Finish off NaNo 2011 novel #2 (VICTORIOUS)
• Win NaNo 2012
• Rewrite DAPHNE from scratch (I am thinking I'll probably use November to do this one)
• Revise all Chrysalis stories (I'm only up to #11...yikes!)

Amongst other miscellaneous things (photo sorting, blog posting, song writing, etc.).

But what am I doing instead? Working on my rewrite of SUNDOWN. It's fun, it's exhilarating, I love it. I guess I should give myself permission to do what I love, instead of what I said at the end of 2011 I would do. Right? But I'm one of those weirdos who really wants to do what she said she'd do, even if it's a little bit akin to watching grass grow.

How's this year shaping up for you so far?

Ivy and Jasmine and BuNo '12

At present, Ivy and Jasmine are my main characters. But I will probably have to rethink the name "Jasmine", because that is a little too Disney if you get what I'm saying. haha.

Ivy Night
is 16% complete

8433 / 50000 words written

I've wound up writing at a slow and steady pace, doing the minimum amount of words each day. Usually I'd be spewing out 5k a day or more, but I've opted for the slower run. I'm really enjoying the story. A few days back, I was not only writing my day's word count but also going back through the story and injecting more "magic" and more "Disney" into it. Enter the cute, furry animals. None of them talk, except psychically. Not yet. I'm not sure they should. But if it's going to be real Disney-like, then they should talk out loud. Still, I don't have to make it that Disney.

Anyway, my slow writing pace for BuNo means that I can also keep working on other projects during June. That's how I got my revisions of FIRE done a few days ago. I made the occasional report of how my word count was getting whittled down, but the final results are in. I went from 146k (though way back when, I stated that my word count had originally been 148k!) to the current figure of 106,923. The ultimate goal is to get it to 95k, but for now I'm putting it aside and moving onto something else.

What, I don't know. I have a lot of catching up to do on my Chrysalis story revisions, so I could focus on that. However, another goal I set myself is to revise DAPHNE this year. Yikes! That is quite a big one. But I did set the goal, so I have to take a stab at it. It's just that it's not so much revision as a total rewrite. I'm not used to those yet. ;) I also have yet to finish off VICTORIOUS, my second novel from last year's NaNoWriMo. I've been working haphazardly on that, but it'd be good to get it done and dusted pretty quickly. Maybe even within the next week. Probably wishful thinking, but it can't hurt to make it a tentative goal.

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well with your current projects, and enjoying your Junes!

2012 goals so far

I've got a huge playing card collection...this is one of my packs!

(I collect them while travelling, you see)

This year, I've got my usual Goals page, but I also did up this chart (inspired by Ruthie at Live, Love, Laugh, Write! and her spreadsheet) that helps me keep track of my weekly goals. They're not all writing goals, but here's a rundown on them anyway:

• WIP chapter review - I'm working on FIRE, and I've edited two chapters which have merged into one. I've cut out a few words, but I'm already thinking of the next round of revisions where I may chop off many thousands of words from the start (as happened with SUNDOWN revisions). FIRE sure as heck needs some slash 'n burn. This round though, I'm taking it easy, to refamiliarise myself with the story.
• Chrysalis story review - I've revised two so far. One of them I'm shelving, but I'll keep working on the other in the hopes of someday submitting it somewhere. The latter started out at about 3.7k, and is now over 5k.
• Read Catrina story - Catrina is a character of Michael's creation (Michael was a participant in Chrysalis last year). He wrote many instalments of the Catrina (formerly Caitlin) saga, and somewhere along the way, I fell behind and stopped reading them. So far this year I've read two!
• Yoga classes - I skipped the first one solely due to not having any cash at all and being totally broke. Too much sharing? *Blush* But I went to yoga this week and got stretched to within an inch of my life. haha. Pigeon Pose was quite an eye-opener...
• Beach walks - I do these on the weekends. They're 4km walks followed by a glorious swim in the beautiful ocean. Got to love my home town for its beaches!
• Write song - So far I've written one, but haven't got to this week's yet. However, I have the entire weekend to work on it so I'm not worried. My goal this time is to write a rockin' song instead of yet another melancholy one (I've written a lot of melancholy stuff in the last few years).
• WIP 1000 words - Generally I've written about 1.5k per week. I'm working on DANNA, one of last year's NaNo novels). I'm mostly happy with my progress so far, but I also know that part of the story is weak, so I'll have to look at improving that later.
• Sort 100 photos - I'm well on top of this, having sorted way more than 100 photos. But the hard part of this really hasn't begun yet, scared to say!
• Monthly goals (Travel post, Book review) - I have not done either of these yet. Better get cracking!

In other news, I got some awards - THANKS people! - and will address those at some point soon. But also, check out my Blogfests, Etc. page for some cool upcoming activities!

How's 2012 going for you guys so far?

I feel the need to get organised

Yes, I said organised. Maybe I achieved a lot last year, but this year I want to achieve some of the things I pretty much neglected last year. They weren't necessarily writing goals (I did just fine with those), but other goals that will help me get my life in order! For instance, editing and culling (and etc.) the thousands of photos I have on my laptop, or digitising all my "personal papers" so I can get rid of the paper itself.

I could do these things randomly, whenever the mood takes me. But what if the mood never takes me? That would leave me with these things still not done. So I'm thinking of putting my life on a schedule. Not really my blog, 'cause I can't stand to be all regimented like that, at least not for too long at a time (one month's worth of it in April for the A-Z challenge is fine by me, but after things like that I totally need a break from routine!):

So here's a rough outline for how I could potentially organise my life, around my writing goals and everything else:

• Monday nights: Revise a Chrysalis Experiment story
• Tuesday nights: Yoga class, then edit/transfer into iPhoto at least 100 photos
• Wednesday nights: Edit a chapter of any given novel that's being worked on
• Thursday nights: Write at least 1000 words on one of the unfinished novels you're trying to finish
• Friday nights: Write a song!
• Saturdays: Work on any of the above that isn't yet done, or repeat any of the above, or be a couch potato watching DVDs all day...until arvo/evening when you go for a 4km walk on the beach followed by a swim (sans shark attack)
• Sundays: (repeat of Saturday's activities) and write a blog post (if one hasn't already been written)

This leaves the latter part of Fridays and Saturdays for whatever partying activities I may be required to get up to, and also allows for my full time job and my need to procrastinate and waste at least some of my time on fruitless activities like vegetating on the couch.

It doesn't, however, account for the monthly activities I will be aiming to get up to, such as posting at least one Globetrotter post here per month. I think another was attempting to write at least one book review per month. Yes, only one per month. Like I said, being too regimented has never worked well for me.

Do you guys have plans for how to spend your free (a.k.a. writing-related) time?

An update

Hi everyone! I'm just popping in to post briefly (or that's the plan...sometimes my plans go awry and I post non-briefly!) so that I can still say I've written one blog post per week for 2011. Yep, one of my writing-related goals this year was to post at least once a week in this blog. I have other goals, but I'm not yet ready to do an assessment of all of them, because I haven't yet achieved all of them.

The Chrysalis Experiment, for example. We have our final prompt (#52) up, and I have yet to write that story. Won't take me long, but I have other stuff I'm concentrating on first and foremost. Namely the fact that I have to revise 4.5 chapters of NAUSICAA, then all 5 appendices (yes, the novel has appendices), in 2.5 days. I've been a real slacker on this so far, but I'm getting there in these last few days of the month. I will achieve my goals, but it will be another case of staggering over the finish line, as I did with this year's NaNoWriMo.

So yes, it will be a busy few days to end off the month for me. And then I'll be in 2012, and will have a bunch of new goals to start working on! I think I will have to do my "2011 wrap-up" on December 31st, or possibly in the new year. Meanwhile, I hope you all had a great Christmas, and that your New Year's Eves are lots of fun! I'm going to be hanging out on a friend's couch in the beautiful Perth hills instead of braving the evil drunken hoards out on the town. I'm way too old for that crap!

Unless I post sooner, see you in 2012!!!

Keeping up with the bloggers I lurve

So, lately (say, in the last few months? Possibly longer?) I've given up on Reader. That is, Google Reader, which for a while there I used to keep track of all the blogs I'd followed (hundreds of blogs, let me tell you). I kept having to mark everyone as read 'cause I'd get in there and there'd be 500 unread posts, or 700, or the dread 1000+ (I don't WANT to know how many there really are). So I've given up. And now I'm relying on my blog roll to keep me in touch with the blogs I like to read. As well as reciprocating for comments I get on my blog.

But I keep stumbling across writers I've lost track of, and haven't yet got around to adding to my blogroll. If I used to comment on your blog a fair bit, then dropped off the face of the earth, only to recently resurface, now you know why. If I still haven't resurfaced, it's 'cause I haven't added your blog to my roll yet. That sounds funny..."your blog to my roll." Anyway, if I've forgotten you, please let me know. Oh, and a note to anyone who's followed my blog but doesn't have a link to theirs in their Blogger profile...maybe add a link so I can find you? AND I still hate the word 'blog'. For such a hater, I've used it a lot in this post!

Now, since I'm here, I might as well do a really quick rundown on my writing/revising status: 1) NAUSICAA revision started, but progressing slowly; 2) this week's Chrysalis story not yet started; 3) I can't remember the third thing I'm meant to be doing. Oh wait, I think I'm doing it right now - writing in this blog.

How do you keep up with the blogs you love to read?

2012 - the year of revision

I'm thinking that next year I will be mostly focused on revision. One of my goals will be (I think) to look at one Chrysalis 2011 story per week and either finish revising it, or at least think about how I want to revise it. Some of them still need to be completed. Some may even become novels. But the aim will be not necessarily to finish revision, but to just think about how I want to revise them. I have a huge list of novels I could choose to work on, but I think I know which I will be starting with.

I will be writing new stuff in 2012, of course. There's NaNoWriMo and BuNoWriMo and another year of Chrysalis. I may use BuNo to work on finishing existing novels. I'm not even thinking about NaNo right now, but for Chrysalis my tentative plan is to try to write and record one new song per week. I've also got NaNo novels to finish (BuNo?). But there will also be NaNoEdMo, which will involve more editing.

So I'm thinking that 2012 will be more focused on revision for me than 2011 was. I've also got to work around 3.5 weeks overseas in March/April, but that's a story for another day.

What are your writing plans for 2012?

49 short stories

I caught up on those Chrysalis stories! Now I'm just three short stories away from having written 52 short stories in a year (one per week), and from truly earning that sparkly button! Last time I did a Chrysalis stats update, I had written 40 stories. Now I've written 49. Some are finished, some are not. Some are utter crap, and some are not. They're certainly all rough drafts, to go with all the other 'rough draft' material I've written this year. And you know what that means, right? Editing in my future. But not yet. Ohhhh no, not yet.

To be honest, I'm looking forward to Chrysalis being over. I know my fellow participants will understand wholeheartedly. My co-hosts Jenn, Winter and I haven't actually finalised any plans for next year yet, but I do have something planned myself, regardless of what others will be doing. I do hope to have some fellow participants, but I know firsthand what a huge commitment it is, so I won't blame my fellows if they're desperate for a rest.

Here I am, talking like we're finished. We aren't. But we're not far off. Only three weeks, three prompts, and three stories to go. Craaaazy! Just for the record, Scrivener tells me I've written 106,360 words so far. But I'll leave the in-depth reflection on stats and so on for once we're actually done.

My to-do list

Technically, this is my to-do list right now (without counting this year's goals which are still being worked on):

Rough Drafts

1. Complete rough draft of DANNA
2. Complete rough draft of VICTORIOUS
3. Complete rough draft of CARNIVAL
4. Complete rough draft of TURKEY BOURKE
5. Complete rough draft of JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE OFFICE
6. Complete rough draft of RAGEWATER book 1
7. Complete rough draft of SOMANA

Second Drafts

1. Complete Draft #2 of FIRE
2. Complete Draft #2 of DAPHNE, weaving in more of Carly's story
3. Complete Draft #2 of SQUEAKY
4. Complete Draft #2 of EXCISION (oh my. This one is a huuuuge undertaking. Will basically need a rewrite)

Other

1. Finish any unfinished stories from The Chrysalis Experiment 2011 (which would be the majority of them)
2. Get all caught up on reading the Catrina Chronicles
3. Read all the eBooks by my blogging friends that I have waiting for me (and the print books by them too).
4. Read any Chrysalis stories by my fellow organisers that I have not yet read!

I think that's all?! Except for all the other stories/novels I'm not mentioning in the list above, and "all that other stuff", like NaNo 2012, BuNoWriMo, writing in the blog, reading books in general and writing music (which will more than likely relate to Chrysalis 2012 for me next year). And whatever else I'm forgetting.

In the immortal words of Bill and Ted, "The clock's tickin', dude."

Jenni Merritt's debut novel...PRISON NATION!

My blogger friend Jenni Merritt has just released her debut novel, PRISON NATION. You can read all about it here. I haven't bought my copy yet, 'cause I'm waiting for information on autographed copies. heh heh. I've been following Jenni's blog for a while now, and I'm so excited for her about this release! And just look at that cover...which is a DIY cover, by the way! Special, huh? Anyway, congratulations Jenni and I can't wait to get my hands on a print copy! Yes, I like my books physical, what can I say? ;)

I will finish this post by mentioning that I did actually do some...revision... gasp! Not last night, but the night before. And now we have all our prompts up to date for Chrysalis, so I have no excuse for further procrastination there! I better get a move on with December's goals!

Soooooo unmotivated (and belated blogiversary)

I think for December I shall skip trying to find a photo or artwork or whatever to put in my blog entries. Perhaps I will go back on that decision after this horrible crappy day is over and I start a new and way less crappy day. Or perhaps not. I guess the best advice is to be prepared for boring bare-bones entries from me, entries that are just words. But we like words, right? So it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Anyway, since this blog is meant to be about writing and so on, I may as well give a writing update. I haven't done anything since writing that last Chrysalis story. I haven't even opened the file for NAUSICAA, and at this particular moment I'm not too bothered. I did start reading the Grimm fairytales, and I keep laughing out loud in amazement at the gruesome things that happen. I find it hard to believe a wolf, even a lazy one full of food, wouldn't notice his belly being cut open and then sewn back up. Stayed asleep the whole time! Anyway, so far most of the tales have had happy endings (of sorts), but one or two perhaps have ended not so prettily for the main characters. All in all, I'm enjoying myself so far.

I hope everyone is enjoying their December!

P.S. I missed my blogiversary. It was on December 1 (my first post was here). Boo. Oh well, I've been here a year, folks! Yay for me! (and of course for you who get to listen to me ramble the hell on)

December goals

I've really enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to write anything for NaNo yesterday. Nor do I have to write anything today...or this month. Well, for NaNo at least. I also don't have to write in this blog every day, or every other day. I do, however, still have some goals to achieve by the end of the year.

8. Write 52 short stories, one per week, for the Chrysalis Experiment

9. Write at least once a week in writing blog

12. Complete a preliminary read-through/edit of NAUSICAA (NaNo '10 novel) - as of March 6, opening chapter has been worked on/critiqued

Of those, writing in this blog is definitely the easiest. As for the others...I have fallen slightly behind in Chrysalis, partly because we are missing prompt #46, and partly because I haven't written this week's story. But I'm not too concerned about achieving this one. Writing 1k a week seems like absolute peanuts after what I just went through with NaNo. Even writing 1k a day would be comparative peanuts.

As for the read-through of NAUSICAA...I think I can do it. I don't need to actually do any serious editing. It's just a read-through and some note-taking on what will need editing later. That's how I'm choosing to interpret my own words up there, anyway. I have to say, though, that while 2011 is not yet over, I've been thinking about my to-do list for 2012 for a long while now. The Goals page is under construction. I shall unveil it probably on Dec 31st, or January 1, or somewhere around then.

But let's forget next year... What are your goals for December?

And a 40,106 for Day 12

That's the book I'm reading right now. It's one of those I bought from a book sale at the university where I work. I must've got it on sale for $5 or something. For the record, it's a tiny book, as in small format and compact and cute. Which is why it makes me SO MAD that it's officially for sale from its publisher's site at $27.95!!! Books are so ridiculously expensive in this country that it makes me utterly boiling mad.

But let's talk about NaNo. I feel the need to take this NaNo thing one day at a time! When I think about the fact that I'm not even halfway through, that I have an entire new story to start (one that I am going to love, though, so I'm not complaining) I feel a little bewildered. I also haven't done this week's Chrysalis story yet. But to be honest, I'm trying to ignore that!

33,700 or something

Oh my! I forgot to post yesterday. I have failed NoJoMo! But at least it wasn't an official goal. ;) My word count in Scrivener is something like 33,700. Over the count I had to get to, anyway. In Word it's 33,533. I think that is still over the required count. Right now, my writing sessions feel like pretty hard slogs. This weekend is kind of full too, so I'm going to have a hard time getting any momentum. But I'll do what I can, even if it's the bare minimum, and be happy with that.

I didn't mention this yet, but I decided to add Mack's point of view to the story. So there are sections from his point of view, as well as from Danna's. It's kind of cool. His sections tend to be much shorter than hers, which in my experience can be quite typical of boys vs. girls. I think it fits.

Anyway...hope everyone's going well with NaNo and other assorted projects! I have yet to write this week's Chrysalis story. Yikes. Oh, and P.S. That picture above is another from the Fremantle Monument. I shared some pics from there a while back in this post, on another stormy day.

Day 8

I shall not fail in the posting every day-ing-ness! That's why I'm here with my eyeballs about to fall out of my head with tiredness! Just for fun, I thought I would share a relatively short extract from my NaNo work so far. It's unpolished, it's a rough draft...it's NaNo. I know I don't need to explain to any of you! But with all the above in mind, here it is:

My mouth has fallen open.

“Careful, don’t wanna catch flies,” Mack tells me as he settles in the seat diagonally opposite me.

“You.”

“Me.”

“Melinda’s meat.”

He’s still wearing his sunglasses, so I can’t see the look in his eyes. I can imagine it, though. Especially with the sudden furrow I see appear on his brow. It smoothes quickly and I see his eyebrows quirk upward. I get the distinct impression he just rolled his eyes.

“That her name?” he asks idly.

We stare at each other, or at least I stare at him. I can’t tell what he’s staring at. “You do know the sun’s gone down, right?”

“Cheers for the tip.”

That’s all he says before turning to stare out the window on his side. I watch him a moment more, dying to comment on the baseball cap. Then I resume my own survey of the urban countryside.

My word count is 28,276. Tonight I didn't get much done, probably 1500 words? I suck at maths, but basically if you took last night's word count away from this night's, you'd get the difference. And on that note, I need to go and sleep or something terrible may happen (I might fall asleep while typing, for e.g.).

Hope you are all great!! And thanks for all the blog visits!!

P.S. New Chrysalis prompt today...new story must be written. Oh gawd!

NaNo-Chrysalis crossover

So, Day 5 of NaNoWriMo draws to a close and I've got a word count of 18,038. The number I needed to reach today was 16,666.6 recurring until it gets to 7. As in, 16,666.6666666666667. I think. Or maybe I put one too many 6s in there. Either way, it was something like that, at least according to my Mac's in-built calculator. I've decided to go with that!

I also wrote about 1200 words for the Chrysalis Experiment today, hence the inclusion of the icon above. I wrote it using my novel's characters, and I may be able to use it towards my NaNo word count eventually. For now, it's set aside as a little 'vignette'.

In other news, I enjoyed a post-Halloween Halloween party this evening with some great friends. Haven't had that much fun on Halloween in a long time!

Anyway...may all your Day 5s end on positive notes as mine did, and may each of you glimpse a fluffy bunny or two ('cause man they're cute!).

National Novel Writing Month...day 1

Day 1 of NaNoWriMo is done for me and I've written 2,148 words. Not what I was aiming for, but not too bad either. My actual aim is to write double the usual required amount, since, you know, I'm writing 2 novels this time. Last year I was averaging 5k a day for the first 6 days or something. I can do it...I think I'm just taking more care this time than I did last time.

I have been guilty already of deleting sentences, paragraphs, etc., so I can rewrite them. My usual style is to just write, consequences be damned (consequences being "oh my gosh that sentence SUUUCCCKKKED!"). But I've suffered a fair bit of trouble in revisions lately because of that WTF-ever attitude, and so maybe I'm trying to reduce what pain I must suffer with these novels in future revisions. I can't let it hamper my chances of achieving my NaNo goal, though! That is the bottom line.

NoJoMo also starts today: November Journalling Month. And while this isn't a journal, per se, I've opted to do NoJoMo here anyway. Just for the heck of it. Why not make things even more crazy 'round here?! And speaking of crazy, I have another Chrysalis story to write. Prompt forty-four, folks!! We're so near the end I can taste it! But what a busy month this will be.

P.S. This month we will see 11/11/11, and at 11:11am (and pm for that matter) we will see 11:11 on 11/11/11. What can I say, I get a kick out of this stuff!