Day 11: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo & Remembrance Day

Day 11 (Thursday) of NaNoWriMo I was able to eke out 1415 words, which took my total up to 14131. Because my word count has been low each day this week, I am behind by 4206 words. Since I am writing this post after midnight (now into Friday) my stats tell me “At this rate you will finish on Dec 12.” Judging by that, I have a lot of writing to do to catch up. The first three days of this writing challenge I was ahead but that didn’t last long. I’m up to 29% completion, though, which is encouraging.

I’m still finding that my characters are very chatty, especially my MC (main character) and her best friend. Yes they are girls, but girls are usually more expressive and use more words, are more creative in thought. So, I get girls as my main characters and much of my story is dialogue. I say “I get” because I didn’t choose them, they chose me.

Any writers out there relating to this?

For Day 11 of PiBoIdMo three ideas came to me. As picture books, one would make a child think, one would be comforting, one would be funny. I am so inspired by these challenges and finding them to be quite fun. 🙂

Today (Thursday) was Remembrance Day. Here in Nova Scotia we give honour to our war Veterans, but that same respect is not practiced in every province. That is sad and unfortunate. If our Canadian soldiers in World War II had not put forth the effort and sacrifice that they did, this world would be a lot different now as Hitler was winning the war. But, I won’t get on a tirade about that now. 😉 I’m just proud of my dad and very touched by what he and thousands of others chose to do for this country’s freedom.

Have you really thought about how different a world we could be living in?

And my question for you writers is .. do you create your characters or do they choose you?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Day 10: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo

I could get discouraged if I looked only at how little I have been writing of my word challenge each day this week . But, in general I am writing more than ever before, so that is where I have to focus — write something every day and reach the goal. 🙂

For Day 10 (Wednesday) of NaNoWriMo I wrote 645 words. My characters are leading the story, I’m just writing it out. Interesting how that is happening. I’m about 4000 words behind where I should be, though, not counting Thursday when this update will actually be posted. But I’m not stressing over it, just sayin’.

The ideas were flowing for PiBoIdMo today, though. I got four ideas, one in particular I really like and which was inspired by Remembrance Day and my dad – a WWII Veteran.

It was a very cool and windy day, not a day that encouraged me to leave my warm house, but tonight I went to the Alzheimer’s support group meeting that is held once a month. This is the second one I attended for the time of sharing and listening to others facing that dread disease in someone they love.

I am very thankful to the Lord for His strength and encouragement.

Anything you are facing that is relieved by writing?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Day 9: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo

Another slow NaNo writing day. I got less than 400 words written before midnight today. At midnight the new report is logged into the site and anything written after 12:00 goes onto the next day’s total. Makes sense, right? But if I keep writing and add my totals in, it changes the numbers in my widgets here on my blog, and therefore they don’t line up with the numbers I’ve told you. Usually, I like to add my number of words per page as I go, but if “the Muse” is on a roll, I keep going and add ’em up later.

I’m not proud of my small efforts today but this is all part of it, so even if I should write nothing I will still report here. Hopefully, I will always write something through this challenge.

My widget said I have 24% done, but now it is at 25% because I wrote a little more after midnight. My stats report tells me that at this rate I will finish Dec 10. 🙂 I hope to improve my words per day to finish on time.

Soon after I woke this morning, an idea came to me for PiBoIdMo challenge. I wrote it down and this afternoon I had the idea ”fleshed out’ so that I have a story planned from it. So that’s 13 ideas so far, and also I have added a little here and there to some of the first 12.

It’s been nearly a week of rain, rain, rain, with some families in Nova Scotia having to be evacuated because of serious flooding. Wednesday the rain will stop and the sun will reappear. I’m so busy that I even forgot to get depressed due to lack of sunshine! 🙂

Have you had trouble with too much water, especially along the eastern seaboard?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Day 8: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo

I am falling behind. Today (Monday) I didn’t get much written for NaNoWriMo so I’m not up to where I should be by this time. I did write over 1000 words tonight but that’s not enough yet. I have a lot of catching up to do with Tuesday’s goal in the challenge being a total of 15,000 words. But the fun thing is that my widget says I have completed 24% now.

What’s interesting is that what I wrote tonight is a departure from the main story. My characters are taking me on a detour, and yet it feels as if there is a connection to the heart of the story. It is all still vague in my mind right now but I think it’s going to come together okay somehow. I will just keep writing and see what happens.

The really good news is that this morning I had two ideas for PiBoIdMo. In fact, one of them is built onto the idea I had for Day 2. It seems that now I have a full story roughed out for a picture book. Cool, huh? Well, I think so.

I’m having fun with all this writing.

When you write, do you find that your characters lead you?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Day 7: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo

I’m writing this post after midnight so it will show up as Monday, but it’s intended as Sunday’s.

It has not been a day of much creative writing, with other things I was involved in taking priority. Then, too, I had a nap this afternoon, which helped keep me going for the rest of the day, but now I am ready to crash for the night. The time change will mix me up a bit for a few days.

I had to think harder today to pull out an idea for PiBoIdMo, but I got one, bringing my total to 10 ideas by day 7. I’m pleased with that.

NaNoWriMo is a different ‘story’ – forgive the pun. 🙂 I only got slightly over 400 words written, a far cry from the 1667 suggested daily word count and pushing my completion to 22%. But, that’s okay. I just have to make up the deficit somewhere along the way. (Check my NaNoWriMo updates page for actual count.) The funny thing is that yesterday my word count was such that my NaNo stats report told me “At This Rate You Will Finish On November 30”, which is great! But tonight, after I had added my meagre total into the count, it now says “At This Rate You Will Finish On Dec 05.” 🙂 I’ll have to work on that.

As you may have noticed, I also got the PiBoIdMo badge loaded onto my home page.

I enjoy blogging! And I hope you enjoy reading what I have to offer.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Day 6: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo & time change

Day 6 of National Novel Writing Month has come and gone and I just made it over the 10,000 words mark before midnight. The suggested goal by day 6 is 10002 words.

Did I mention in an earlier post that I’m finding my best writing seems to be happening in the evenings? I have written some of this 50,000 words challenge in the daytime but most of it has been nearer the end of the day and into the night. When we were talking about this, I commented to my husband that I’m a night owl and he said, “You always have been.” He on the other hand is the early bird and needs his sleep so that he can get up and get going in the mornings. Ever hear the Ziggy quote? or was it Charlie Brown? “I love mornings, they just start too early!” Yep! Me too. I do love early mornings and sunrises, and watching and listening to the world wake up, but all that is harder to see and fully enjoy when I have been up really late the night before – because that’s when my energy flows. 🙂 It’s not always that way, but more often true than not.

So, as I was saying, I couldn’t even squeeze many words out of my brain until late tonight. Then they just started happening so that I ended at midnight with my total being 10230 words. I am 21% of the way there, by what my widget shows.

I hope that some time tomorrow I can add the Picture Book Ideas Month badge to my blog’s side bar, maybe right under the NaNoWriMo ones.

Speaking of PiBoIdMo, this morning before I was even fully awake, I was listening to the wind and rain and an idea came to me for a picture book. Cool, huh? I love this! 🙂 The next challenge when this is all over, will be to actually DO something with my list of ideas.

Sunday will be very busy – fellowship (church), followed by dinner with my husband and grandson and anyone else who meets us for that meal, followed by Alpha, and then in the evening a private meeting. So, I don’t know how much NaNo writing I will get done, but I will be reporting either that night or on Monday night with day 7’s update.

Did you remember to set your clock back? Or did you get caught showing up at the wrong time? Any tales to tell? 🙂

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings. 🙂

Day 5: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo

Wow! It’s the end of day 5 already in these challenges. Today I only got around 13oo words written for NaNoWriMo, less than the 1667 I was supposed to write, but I was ahead so didn’t really lose anything. As it adds up, I’m 300 words into the next day. The weekends are going to be much harder to find writing time, I think, and I’m not sure how to keep this story going so that it makes sense, but aside from that .. it’s all good! 🙂

When only two days into the NaNoWriMo challenge, I started to talk to my husband about something that evening, then stopped, thought a moment, and said, “Oh, never mind, that isn’t here, that’s in my story!” 🙂

Even though I am already thinking in terms of my story much of the time, I also am aware of the little things going on around me. There are picture book ideas everywhere. Today I captured three for PiBoIdMo. Of course, some of those will never go anywhere, but this is all part of the brainstorming that has to happen in writing. It’s fun.

This evening I took a pause from writing to do some reading. I am still working my way through the Bible, but I also read another little book today and added it to My “have read” book list page.

It has been a very windy and rainy day here in Nova Scotia, but we are having warm days and warm nights after a cold spell. Our beautiful leaves have finally reached the end of their colourful display, I’m afraid. The wind has been plucking most off their trees and is now blowing them helter- skelter. It makes the trees bare of colour but adds variety to lawns and fields.

Don’t forget to check my new page: NaNoWriMo Updates (2010).

What do you like about Autumn/Fall?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂