Day 4: NaNoWriMo, PiBoIdMo & a chickadee

Today was not a great writing day, although I did manage to squeak out 1275 words, putting my word count up to 7338 before midnight. I didn’t write a thing during the day but I did a lot of thinking, musing, about the possibilities of how my story could go. It seems that evenings may be more my writing time instead of daytime hours. But then this evening I was on the phone for an hour with a friend who is going through a very difficult time and needed to talk, so that took priority for me.

Another thing I have discovered with this story is that I seem to have two very chatty characters. They are doing a lot of talking so that I don’t have to. 🙂 Tonight, though, there was more scene narration which I found slowed me down. Even so, once I put in my word count my widget showed that I have written 15% of the of 50,000 words challenge. Yay!

I also wrote down one idea for PiBoIdMo but I don’t know how good of one it is. It counts, though, and I maybe can do something with it in a picture book.

Oh, while I was baking today (turned out a blueberry pie and a blueberry apple coffee cake) I heard a thunk against the window in our back door. I knew immediately what it was, and sure enough .. there was a helpless, little chickadee lying on the deck. I went out and gently scooped him up and checked him carefully. He didn’t appear to be injured – just very stunned by the head-on collision with our door, so then I loosely wrapped the little fella in an old t-shirt and set him on a chair on the deck. This has happened before and they just need time to get their wits about them again. It wasn’t until my husband arrived home from work, maybe a half hour later, that little chickadee perked up and flew away – just as my husband was coming up the steps. I don’t know yet how to transfer images from my phone to my computer or I would insert a picture here.

Do you ever have to rescue little birds?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings. 🙂

Day 3 of NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo

Okay, so I said I wouldn’t be blogging every day about NaNo, and I probably won’t, but tonight I just want to say .. I am actually having fun with this! Who’da thunk? 🙂

As of today’s writing, 13% of my projected goal has been completed, so says my widget. I must admit, I was a little exasperated with myself today, though, when after writing over 1000 words I realized that in so doing I had included a scene/time frame from yesterday’s writing. That isn’t so bad in itself, but I had written the same thing but in an entirely different way and didn’t even realize until one of my characters was about to explain something. Then I go … “huh? oh nooooo!” (haha) So, I just kept on going. In the editing when this is all said and done, one of those has to be cut. But for now the words all count because we are not allowed to go back and edit anything. When you can’t read over what you did earlier, except maybe the last line or two for your starting point the next time, it pays to have a good memory. 🙂 Double the challenge for me!

I know that I accidentally changed (misspelled) my main character’s name in a few places, but that’s okay and easily remedied … later. That’s no worse than calling a young girl by the wrong name on Sunday. Called her Veronica when her name is Victoria. She looked a little puzzled but was polite about it. 🙂

So, having said all that, aren’t you just so eager to read my story when it’s done? (having a good laugh at myself here!) 🙂

Now, another thing I want to share is that for today I made note of an idea for PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) from a personal experience. Then later I was watching tweets of persons I follow on Twitter (and making occasional comments) when someone said the funniest and cutest thing. I immediately told my husband and then said, there’s a story in that! So, there are two ideas for PiBoIdMo today. Gotta love that!

By the way: the website, should you be interested in checking out the PiBoIdMo challenge just to see what it’s all about, is: Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) — http://taralazar.wordpress.com/

Are you having fun these days?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Day 2 of NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo

I will not be blogging every day through NaNoWriMo, that would get old pretty quickly, I think – boring for you. But my story is coming along, a little spooky, a little mysterious, a little jumbled up. 🙂 I’m hoping it all gets sorted out eventually. So far I’m in the first part where the character shaping is happening and the story is gradually unfolding. Usually, I don’t even know ahead what’s happening until I start writing it down. The ideas are coming and I hope they keep doing so all through November.

I am writing longhand for this, too – not doing it on computer – so at the end I will have to move it all over in order to submit it to the NaNo website for verification of having met the goal of 50,000 words. (And I plan to make it!) Apparently there is a program or site that helps do that. It must work okay because I’m not the only one using the ‘old fashioned’ way to meet the challenge – you know, pen and paper. 🙂

Tonight, with a friend’s instructions, I loaded two widgets –>there on the right side of the page. These will keep a count of my words for NaNo, and I will make note on the special page I set up for that, as well.

I also came up with a second a picture book idea for the Picture Book Idea Month challenge. So I am doing okay so far. Only 28 days to go! 🙂

So, no blog posts such as this every day, but a daily count and maybe a few thoughts on the NaNoWriMo Updates (2010) page.

Thanks for your interest.

How is your Autumn shaping up? Any creative musings going on?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Day 1 of NaNoWriMo & another challenge

Shortly after midnight, not long into November, I began writing. NaNoWriMo has begun! As it was already late and I was tired, I only wrote 120 words and then turned in for the night. At least I got it started.

I had very vague ideas for a story, so when I started writing it was a surprise to me just what might come together, particularly when it is hard to write when you haven’t much to say. My beginning is sort of strange, but that doesn’t bother me. I think it is something that is going to be explained somewhere later in the story. Now two main characters are shaping up and more ideas are unfolding in my mind as I go. There is already a mystery person and my main characters are about to introduce someone else into the mesh.

I’ve read what others have had to say about their experience with NaNoWriMo, and many complain of ‘hitting a wall’ after so many thousand words, or after the first two or three weeks of writing. That is on my mind, and since this is only day one of the 30 day challenge, I somehow have to dismiss that thought. What I don’t need is a barrier in my way from the very beginning, a negative expectation that will put up a block so that I cannot complete this novel challenge.

Well, to add to all this, I learned of another challenge that started today. It is called PiBoIdMo, which stands for Picture Book Idea Month. The challenge is to come up with 30 picture book ideas in 30 days! You don’t have to write full manuscripts for them, you just write something down for in a picture book. It could be a story plot, a character name, a title for your story. Today I thought of an idea – the name of the main character which will likely be the title too, and I made a few notes for the storyline. There is no great pressure for this challenge, which is nice since I am doing NaNoWriMo at the same time. This one is more delightful.

Then I discovered there are great prizes that can be won for PiBoIdMo, but for me just getting down 30 ideas that I can use in a picture book is the reward to myself. Don’t get me wrong .. winning a signed book or having an author critique my story would be fantastic! But, I’m doing this for the inspiration that is already being generated. Woo Hoo! 🙂

So, I’m going to stop writing here and move back to my NaN o writing. Later tonight I will publish my final word count for today, day one. (It is currently over 1000.) And if I can get a word count widget for here from NaNo, then that will make it even easier to keep you posted on my progress. I’m not very good at moving and installing widgets, but I’ll try. 🙂

So, what are you doing to challenge yourself? If you are a writer do you have any goals you are working toward right now?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

NaNoWriMo is almost here! Am I ready?

November 1 is approaching far too quickly for my liking. NaNoWriMo will soon be starting and thousands of us will be lurching out of the starting gate. I for one am excited and nervous about it.

I am looking at this writing challenge as a way of motivating me, of propelling me into ‘real’ writing – meaning committed writing. I know it is not going to happen without work, but it could be a sound beginning for me, a departure from short children’s stories and articles for Valley Sunshine publication.

My problem, as I see it, is that I have nothing to start with, no characters, no plot, no scenes, no genre, no plan. As I said, nothing. Well, okay .. so I have a few ideas floating around in my head but they are just that .. floating, not attached to anything in particular. And I have had a couple of dreams, just strange ones so that I wonder … is that a NaNo clue? I don’t know!

I do know that most people who apply themselves to NaNoWriMo do so with a plan in mind or outlined on paper (or computer). They have an idea of where they are headed. There are some others who don’t, and – like me – are going to be sitting down to write whatever comes to them once they begin.

Thus far, on my NaNo page I have three ‘buddies‘, one is also a first timer. I think for each of us this is going to be a major undertaking because of other time-consuming things, but we are going to make the effort. I’ve signed up for the daily tips and encouragements, hoping that will spur me on and keep me going.

Well, if nothing else, I’m sure to learn a lot about taking on something like this, and about myself. I hope I like what I find out!

I will try to keep an update going on here of my word count and experience as I go along. It might not be pretty, so I apologize now. 🙂

Do you have any tips for me? Any plans for doing NaNo this year yourself? Or have you done the challenge in the past and have a story to tell me about your experience? I would love to hear about it! Please!

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Just write, keep moving forward. Also titled:I joined NaNoWriMo!

Last night I did it! I joined NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month challenge that is scheduled for the whole month of November annually. Then I discovered that there are over 500 people in Nova Scotia who have signed on, a few are in my area.

As I mentioned in my post of August 19 ’10, the challenge is to write 50,000 words, with NO editing until December 1 at the earliest. Just write. Keep writing … 1667 words a day will make it just over the goal.

I don’t know what I am going to write about in November. Already I have been praying that God will bring something to mind by November 1 that will fit the bill. If He doesn’t it could be quite nonsensical, which is totally acceptable as long as I’m writing .. something .. anything. Just write, keep moving forward.

That sounds like the challenge of life, doesn’t it? It is coming into the time of year when my body reacts to not enough sunshine, and depression threatens. Keep moving forward. Don’t let it stop you! That is what I have had to take hold of and walk out. It is a frame of mind, and when the mind is affected by not enough sunshine it just gets to feeling blah, which affects the body, and everything becomes harder to accomplish. I need challenges, not overwhelming ones, but things that stimulate my mind and help me to keep going. Depression is a horrible thing, I’ve lived through some miserably dark times in that state over the years. The past two years have been much better than many before them, and I am determined to stay on top of it this winter too. NaNoWriMo may prove to be one way to keep me going.

Do you plan to join NaNoWriMo this year?
Do you or someone you know suffer from depression?
Perhaps the writing challenge can make this winter’s dark hours more easily handled by getting you started on a novel. Or … to help you just write and/or keep moving forward.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂