Technicalities

November 01, 2007

NaNoWriMo Started Today

And I have yet to put a single word on a document. I think I should at least get the first scene down. Tommy has the first bit of his story done and posted. (no I won't post mine, I'm not half the writer he is!)

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 08:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 49 words, total size 1 kb.

October 21, 2007

Time to Gear Up for NaNoWriMo

Yes people, if you haven't heard, November is National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo in popular parlance). I just got the email tonight and went to sign in.

I haven't got the least idea if I will have enough time to "write" (and yes I use the term VERY loosely) this year... but if I don't sign up I'll never know.

If you've thought about writing a novel, yet never took the plunge - head over and check them out. Oh what the hell... go check it out anyway. It's lots of fun and you may be surprised at what you can accomplish when you try.

Keyboards at the ready....

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 11:39 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 116 words, total size 1 kb.

1 It just hit me... I didn't finish reading your novel from last year! *blush*

Who the heck is wonderduck and why is it every time I come here Minx thinks that I am it and that I'm logged in?

Posted by: pam at October 22, 2007 08:34 AM (l6NIn)

2 Oh that's really strange!!! wonderduck is a munuvian - does it do that to you on other munu-minx blogs? Hit up Pixy's site and see if it still thinks you're wonderduck over there. *grin* You could shoot an email to Pixy and see what he says.

OTOH you could just log out when you hit here and it shouldn't be a problem. There's a link at the top of the page to log out (or there should be...)

As for last year's "novel"... why would anyone want to read it? It was really bad. LOL

Posted by: Teresa at October 22, 2007 10:04 AM (rVIv9)

I really admire anyone who could write a novel, or part of a novel, or whatever it is youse do, only because I completely lack the attention span to be able to focus on writing anything longer than a blogpost…and sometimes that’s a colossal effort.

So many bloggers I meet or have met are all like, “I’m working on ‘The Novel’,” or “I’m trying to finish ‘The Novel’,” or will tell other peeps, “You gotta finish ‘The Novel’,” and I’m just like, hey, God bless. It truly is a remarkable accomplishment, one that I doubt I will ever be able to savor the sweet flavor of, because it’s too committal for me.

If you write a novel, though, I will definitely read it.

Posted by: Erica at October 23, 2007 06:07 PM (QvlE2)

4 I guess at 50,000 words, it's considered a "novelette". Basically, many people sit down and just start typing. No revising, no editing, just type and let the story flow.

Well, that's the way it's supposed to be... hehehehehe. Riiiiight.

I did it last year so I could see "if" I could do it and also to meet some of the people when they have get togethers. It was fun, but lots of work. I had no plan and heaven knows it's difficult to write a story without a plan of some sort - at least for me.

Right now, I have an opening scene in my head - but that's it. I haven't even thought about the rest of it. LOL.

Posted by: Teresa at October 23, 2007 07:24 PM (rVIv9)

Who the heck is wonderduck and why is it every time I come here Minx thinks that I am it and that I'm logged in?

Um. That really shouldn't be happening. I'll find that and get it fixed.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 30, 2007 12:03 AM (PiXy!)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

December 05, 2006

Done...

Or as done as I will ever be. Last night I finished the story I started on November 1st. My Nanowrimo experience is finished for this year. I have sent it out to a few people who requested it, I might have missed someone, so if you asked and it hasn't come your way - let me know. If you really want to read it, let me know and I'll send you a copy... (there will already be heads exploding around the country)

The good thing is that now I'll have time to go read the excerpt that Kate has on her Nano page and Tommy's story which he is posting in parts at his place.

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 08:11 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 117 words, total size 1 kb.

December 04, 2006

This and That

No I haven't forgotten the "book" such as it is. I've been trying to write an ending to a story I started unplanned. It's hard to tie together all the weird happenings and make it sound even half way coherent. I have to have reasons for various strange scenarios I came up with and so I have had to think a lot more about the ending than I did about any of the rest of the story. It's nearly there. I was hoping to finish it over the weekend - but without a clock staring me in the face (so to speak) it's much harder to sit down and write.

And now for something completely different...

May I say that Sunday Night and Monday Night Football both suck pond water. Not because of the teams that are playing, but because of the actual coverage of the game itself. Apparently they believe we are only interested in listening to the windbags talk.

Sunday Night games will have us watching old footage and/or listening to John Madden or one of the sideline babes, blathering on - then they miss the beginning of plays. Once they didn't even show a point after! That's what I call sucky coverage. I am tuning in to watch a game not a bunch of graphics, or high school or college footage of the designated player of the day. If they want to show us that crap they have about 45 minutes before the game starts.

Monday Night has turned into "Interview the Celeb". Who cares! So far Jimmy Kimmel has been the only one who actually watched the game while up there and insisted those guys do their job and call the game! Although I will admit to leaving the room and not even watching Stallone's appearance tonight. And once again - the sideline babe blathers on and on about what some player told her "earlier this week" and half the play is over before they get back to it.

One of these days they'll just show us the announcer dudes up in the booth sitting there talking for 3 hours and we'll get the "highlights" later. Because, hey who needs to watch the game when you have big shot announcers and spiffy graphics. ARG!

Oh, you want something of substance? Go read this apparently it's okay when Senators are the ones using the strong-arm tactics in a politically correct way.

Posted by: Teresa in Sports at 05:29 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 407 words, total size 2 kb.

November 29, 2006

I Won! I Won!

It's official, I've gone over the 50,000 word mark. Current word count direct from Nanowrimo is 50,116.

Of course I still need to finish the story. I've left my hero and heroine hanging about talking to a man who has come knocking late at night. Who is he? What does he want? This I don't know yet, so I better get writing and find out.

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 03:59 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 69 words, total size 1 kb.

November 28, 2006

Almost There

My word count is now at 48,101. Less than 2000 words to go. I'm hoping to go over the 50K mark tomorrow night. I'd do it tonight, but I can't type anymore. How it will end, I don't know. But right now, I'm off to bed.

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 07:27 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 48 words, total size 1 kb.

November 27, 2006

Closer...

I'm up to 45,122 words... less than 5,000 to go, but also only a few days. I have to be over 50,000 words before midnight of November 30th.

I may not get much blogging done. I'm so far behind in my blog reading it's not even funny. But I'm very close to getting this done and why get this far without finishing.

Then of course, I'll have to finish the story for those who have volunteered to be brave enough to read it. But that will be a little more flexible. The 50K time is inflexible. So I will have to keep writing.

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 07:22 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 104 words, total size 1 kb.

November 25, 2006

Wordy Wordy...

I'm just over 40K words. Actually I'm having to stop and think for a few minutes so I decided I'd post rather than sit and stew about a sticking point in the story. Seemed like a good thing to do. There was a NaNoWriMo meeting today where I was able to blather yet another 1000 words. Not very well because we kept getting distracted with talking. But it's still fun to hear about other stories and see how they're doing things.

I can't read any other stories until I finish mine or I'll veer off and start following someone else's story line and I don't want to do that.

In the meantime, we watched 3 different football games tonight. Flipping the channel between ND-USC, Wake Forest-Maryland, James Madison-Youngstown. I have to say the last game was really outstanding to watch. They each played hard and Youngstown won out at the very end 35-31. WF-MD was a good game too. Sadly the ND-USC game just seemed out of hand from the beginning. I know that ND started to come back at one point, but it never seemed like a winning effort. Ah football, that's why they play the games.

Tomorrow we may go to see the new James Bond movie, this one sounds pretty good.

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 07:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 216 words, total size 1 kb.

November 21, 2006

Holy Typewriters Batman!

I managed to get to 35,078 words tonight! I could have written a few thousand more, as I was on a roll and I have this great idea waiting to hit the pixels... but my hands are tired and I need to give them a break. Wow! Wow! Wow!

Now let's hope I don't forget what I was going to say by tomorrow.

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 07:41 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 66 words, total size 1 kb.

November 19, 2006

And I'm Over...

The 30K word mark that is... finally. That would have been 2 days ago at other times. Anyhow, the official word count is 30,429. And I got there before 1am. I think that's a good thing.

OTOH - almost forgot to add. I didn't get to do too much blog reading tonight. Maybe I can catch up tomorrow. It's always something...

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 07:58 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 64 words, total size 1 kb.

November 16, 2006

Just a Couple of Things

Young son has made a side trip to visit one of his friends who lives fairly near by.

Since he's gone for the night, I was able to get in some writing and my word count is now at 28,293. Not too bad. I could be farther except 2000 words or so is about all I can write in a day before my hands start protesting. I hit one snag where I had to stop and think for a few minutes. This will come back to haunt me later, I just know it. Oh well.

The other thing was that T1G noted a minor sports item about the New England Patriots yesterday. Yep, they picked up Vinnie Testaverde yesterday as their 3rd string QB. I listened to the sports chatter today. No one here is applying any significance at all to this. At least from what I heard. It's not being ignored, but it's not being given any legs either. And we all know how sports talk can certainly acquire lots of hot air to keep it going.

We'll have to watch and see what happens.

Posted by: Teresa in Sports at 07:06 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 191 words, total size 1 kb.

November 14, 2006

Half Way There

I passed the 25K mark tonight on the book! Yay! Official word count: 25,098.

My hands are tired of typing. And I've been working very late the last few nights since young son has been home. But I'm getting there.

Unfortunately it cuts into blogging time... Sorry about that. More later. Right now I'm off to bed.

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 08:33 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 60 words, total size 1 kb.

November 03, 2006

It's the Weekend

I got my word count up to 7252 tonight. Yay me.
*** word count update: I'm at 10,256 as of Saturday afternoon.
*** next word count update: Now up to 13,392 as of Sunday night.

But since I'm going to be writing like crazy to see how far I can get with this novel thing, I probably won't be posting much unless something big happens.

So since you don't have anything to do.... why don't you donate a little something to Project Valor-IT...

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 08:24 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 86 words, total size 1 kb.

Tonight's Word Count...

I am now at 4,750 words... man I can just blather on without end.

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 07:17 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.

November 01, 2006

Writing a Book

Thus endeth the first 24 hours of National Novel Writing Month and I have written a little over 2500 words in about 3 hours. I'm even impressed with myself. I did do the one thing I was warned against - I deleted an entire passage. I just couldn't leave it in the book. So I lost words, but I like the story better. Oh what the hell am I thinking - the story will suck - but at least I won't gag while writing it.

Of course my hands hurt now and I'm off to bed... it's late.

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 07:50 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 101 words, total size 1 kb.

October 28, 2006

Getting Ready

Wednesday is the big start day for National Novel Writing Month. After signing up for this project and checking out the message boards, I found there are local groups all around the country. Some people are even in areas with access to multiple groups. Apparently there are several groups I could join for this, but I don't have enough time, especially if I ever want to get anything written.

The groups give the writers encouragement, help the newbies, brain storm ideas for those who are stuck, that sort of thing. It's a fun idea and naturally, meeting the people involved in my area is always a bonus for me.

Today our local group had it's first get-together. A pre-writing kick off. It was excellent fun.

There were about 10 people at this first meeting. A couple of us were new, one guy had already participated for the last 4 years and managed to win each year, I find that amazing! I got a number of tips, but the biggest one seemed to be... just flat out write! Don't edit, don't worry about sticking to a certain point of view, deviate from the main point, add extra detail, don't worry about pretty - pour out a story.

I think this will be the most difficult part for me. I tend to like things neat and tidy. And even though I know that no one will be reading my story (unless I happen to share it with them), being sloppy may be enough to slow me down. It doesn't look like it most times, but I reread each blog post about a dozen times before posting... and I STILL have errors or things I state badly, which I find later.

My only aim here is to write a story. Just to do it once. I want to see if I can. There are a couple of excellent points in favor of doing it this way - I'm not writing for an audience and I have a deadline - both of which make this easier for me. How easy? We'll see.

Posted by: Teresa in NaNoWriMo at 08:00 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 350 words, total size 2 kb.