Showing posts with label day 10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label day 10. Show all posts

Saturday, November 10, 2012

NaNoWriMo Day 10 (& post card #2 & an injury & an excerpt!)

How am I supposed to write with an injured thumb?
I have to use that space button a lot, ya know?
And yes, that is an Iron Man bandaid :)
 Lots of fun things today! Went on a college visit all morning. I had two hours in the car and did absolutely no writing or school work. I know. I'm bad. But I enjoyed visiting with my dad :)

Sad thing happened while I was cleaning the kitchen, though. I cut my thumb with a Cutco knife. Those things are sharp!! I was bleeding all over the place. My thumb is in intense pain -- I can hardly push the space bar. Okay, okay, just kidding. But it is a minor set back =P

I made it to 16,705 words today! I am barely on track/ahead, but I haven't fallen behind yet! Will hopefully wake up early tomorrow and write so that I can work on school Sunday afternoon :)

Have a great weekend!

Oh, and one. More. Excerpt. Seriously, I am having way too much fun with these!


We loved our small frame house on Circle Way. It was a nice size, especially with the new add-on that Mom and Dad put in (an office and a small bathroom).
            There were disadvantages to living in that house, though. Basically every little critter you could ever think of lived in the attic or in the floor of that house.
            Opossums, rats, mice, raccoons… you name it! Probably the raccoons were the worst of them all. The other animals we could catch or poison. But not those pesky raccoons. They were much, much harder to get rid of.
Post card #2 from Williamsburg!
Sent by Monica. Thank you!!
            I think our first attempt at getting rid of the beasts was with some bait and a cage. The only problem with that was that those raccoons were smarter than we thought. They would either ignore the bait altogether or somehow get the bait and avoid getting captured by the cage.
            Our next attempt was music. We read or heard somewhere that if you play loud music all day so that they can’t sleep, the night-creatures will find a quieter, more peaceful place to live. But alas, that was also to no avail.
            Poor 7-year-old Kelsey couldn’t sleep sometimes because of the nasty critters living in our attic. They would roll around or fight just above her bed.
            She staggered into our parent’s bedroom one night, half sobbing as she said, “Daddy, the ca-coons are keeping me up again!”
            That was the final straw for Dad. He had tried to catch them in a humane way, to drive them off without even making contact, but they had to make this difficult, didn’t they?
            He jumped out of bed and headed for the closet where he kept his only weapon: a shot gun.
            “Lance,” Mom said, a bit panicky.
            He was already in the hallway, pulling the attic stares down from the ceiling with a loud squeak and a thump as they reached the floor. 
            “Lance!” Mom said again, a little louder, but to no avail. He was already halfway up the stairs by now, shot gun in hand.
            “Come on,” Mom told Kelsey. They grabbed Colleen and me and we sleepily made our way to the front porch. All four of us could fit on the green swing.
            “What’s Daddy doing?” I asked.
            “We’re just going to sit out here for a minute sweetie until—“
            Boom! Boom!
            Mom winced.
            I covered my ears.
            Colleen cried.
            Kelsey inhaled sharply.
            “What was that?”
            Before Mom could answer Dad was on the front porch.
            “Honey,” he said, serious and stern, “find us a new house.”
            35 days later, we called Daffodil our home. 


Monday, July 11, 2011

NaNoWriMo Days 8, 9, 10, & 11

I haven't blogged the past few days because... I'm still behind. I did pass the 15,000 word mark -- woot! -- but I still need to write another 1,400 words today to be at the bare minimum. I'm having trouble forcing myself to write. I think part of the reason is that I'm writing this novel "organically" (no outline) so I don't exactly know where I'm going. Since I don't know where I'm going, I don't want to get there. Does that make sense? I'm worried I'll make a mess on my journey. I'm hoping that my first draft of Neighborhood Watch won't be a totally crazy disaster. But it probably will. And if it does end up that way, it's only the first draft, right? I can always edit it later. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

I wrote my first "novel" (in retrospect, it's really just a long short story) almost two years ago. Neighborhood Watch will hopefully be my third 50,000-words-or-longer-novel. But, I have yet to even go through the second draft of a novel since I started writing novels. So, I keep telling myself that I can "edit later" but that's a lot easier to say than to follow through with. I told my family, though, that once I am done with Neighborhood Watch that I would not write another novel until I edit a novel. That should force me to get to work in editing because I want to do NaNoWriMo again next year plus I have tons (ok, maybe just a dozen) novel ideas I would love to work on.

How do you get yourself to edit something you've written?

Saturday, June 12, 2010

NaNoWriMo Days 8, 9, 10, 11, & 12


These past five days have not been easy. When I got to chapter four I went ahead and started on some of the events that were going to take place in chapter five. This got my out line off a bit. Just when I thought I would recover from that... I got behind in my word count when I missed almost all of day 10. Not. Good. So, yesterday, I managed to write about 3,000 words -- not to terrible to write but not exactly fun. But I am still over 1,000 words short today plus my word count for today. Ugh.

My grandma also wants to write a book. So, I am going to her house this afternoon and we are going to have a little write in together. I hope I can catch up a bit. I need to take some time and actually plan out a couple of chapters that are very empty right now and I have no plans for them. I outlined and wrote little one page synopsis for each of my chapters except two which are totally blank (other than the title). That won't be fun when I actually get to those chapters.

So, I'm behind in my word count and on out-lining. But this would be oh-so boring if I didn't get a little behind, right?!?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

NaNoWriMo Day 10

Well, it is mid-afternoon on Day 10 and I have reached 17,000 words which is above the daily quota :D Kelsey has helped me try to figure out some plot twists and things to throw in so that I can add words, make it more interesting, and of course not get to board with it.

I used Write or Die again today and wrote 830 words in about 20 minutes. I think Write or Die is a super helpful tool! I know I keep talking about it but it really works for me.

So, here is an excerpt and a synopsis of my novel taken from the first chapter with [brackets added] one time for clarification. This is the same excerpt that I have on my NaNoWriMo page.


Synopsis: Mermaid

Nerin is a mermaid with a horrible life. She has no father, a depressed mother, and an annoying/emotional older brother. After running away from her wedding to a merman named Merrick, her mother only gives her 2 years to find another husband. However, love doesn't come to Nerin right away. A year later, she is still single with no prospective husband in sight. Will she find love in the ocean? Or will she find true love somewhere else?

Excerpt: Mermaid

Merrick stood there, looking quite conceited. I thought he was supposed to look happy on his wedding day but his mouth formed a look of satisfaction for oneself. Oh his smugness. I can hardly stand it now. How can I stand to spend the next eighty-one years of my life with him?

The wedding coordinator started. “Merrick of Delta Marisol, do you take Nerin, also of Delta Marisol, to be your wife until you both depart this form and again become foam of the sea?”

“Yes,” Merrick said.

“And do you, Nerin of Delta Marisol, take Merrick, also of Delta Marisol, to be your husband until you both depart this form and again become foam of the sea?”

I stood there, and blinked. How could I? I was leaving one miserable home for yet another. I was leaving my crazy Mother and emotional brother for the smug Merrick. How could I do that?

“No,” I whispered.

“Speak up,” the wedding coordinator whispered to me. I must have said it softer than I had thought.

“No,” I said louder, much louder. “I will not take Merrick to be my husband,” I said to the coordinator. “I am sorry,” I turned to Merrick, “but I really do not think we are supposed to be together. I hope you find the one you are supposed to be with and that you live a happy life together,”

Merrick’s look of satisfaction for himself turned into shock. I left as fast as I could back down the aisle I had come from and went straight to my small dressing room, locking the door. I hadn’t even looked at my Mother’s face. I am sure it was a look of horror.

It wasn’t two seconds before my Mother came to the door. “Open up, Nerin!” she shouted, “You must marry him,” she insisted.

“Or what? Surely you will take me back into your home, Mother. I am sorry but I just can’t marry him,”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Surely you can see why. He’s so arrogant,” I said, the truth coming out.

“You are so ungrateful! You get out here, you are getting married,”

“Leave me alone, Mother,” I begged, “Just leave me alone.”

She began on another rampage, which I ignored. Meanwhile, Amaya [my best friend] came around the building and tapped on my window. I unlocked it and let her in. I put my finger up to my mouth, signaling her to be quite. She nodded and we sat down and I started softly crying into her chest. She patted my head and stroked my back as my Mother continued on her escapade.

“Fine,” my Mother at last began to wrap things up. “If you don’t want to marry him, then you will have to find another husband, and soon. I am giving you two years. And that’s being generous,” she said, as if she was doing me a favor, and then she left.



Please tell me what ya think! Thanks :)

Later edit in March 2010: I have edited this first chapter a lot since then so don't hold this terrible writing against me, lol. You have to write fast during NaNoWriMo if you want to survive! :)