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 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 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! 🙂

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! 🙂