NANOWRIMO 2011

Keep Me Accountable – A Celebration!!

/ christylashea / 5 Comments
I’ve written just over the 21,000 word count mark on my manuscript. some of my writing buddies – a shout out to S.L. Morgan and Ciara Knight are kicking some major booty on their manuscripts!  They’re helping to keep me accountable as I chase after the same goal.

In other news, I’m thrilled to announce my BFF / crtique partner – Dianna Shuford – has finaled in the Finally A Bride Contest.  And the same week, learned she had a full manuscript request from another contest she entered. Woo-Hoo!!!  Congratulations, Di!!!!!

Keep Me Accountable – A Dozen Days/NaNoWriMo

/ christylashea / 2 Comments
photo courtesy of http://www.bearcreekacres.com/blog/eggs

This is day 12 in one dozen days of Nanowrimo and I am at a little over 18,000 words.  Would you believe, I’m finding the “writing” part to be the hardest?  Am I not a writer? Isn’t this what we live for?

I suppose, but I found plotting the story to be much easier.

This is tough. I’m trying to tell myself that nothing worth having is ever easy. I’m reminding myself that this is what published authors face… Deadlines. Writing from a proposal. Adhering to the main idea/premise.

I’m telling myself that one day I will have a contract and a “real” deadline will be looming for me and I will have to produce.

As always, this experience forces me to learn new things about myself and my processes.

For instance, I’m realizing I should have nailed the Goal-Motivation-Conflict for each character better before I started the draft. I am using Christopher Vogler’s The Hero’s Journey as a guide and it has helped me see the story’s arc, but, I’m needing to revisit the whys and hows of my characters. It would be much easier to stop and do a GMC chart, but I’m forcing myself to write, write, write and worry about charts and graphs in the revision process that will start in December.

So, this has been all about me… how are you doing? What challenges have you faced this week?

Keep Me Accountable – One Week Down

/ christylashea / 12 Comments
It’s been a busy week of writing as much as possible, keeping the story fresh on my mind and chatting with friends to keep me accountable. All in all, it’s been a good week of progress! I’ve added a prologue this weekend, that may or may not see the light of day in the final draft… Nevertheless, the internal editor is OFF and the writing is commencing.

While Lindi advises her first draft is full of dialogue, I’m finding I have to “tell” the scene first. Unless the scene is already vivid in my mind, I cannot get the dialogue on paper until the characters actions are clear in my head. This is a good example of how each of us works differently.

A very long time ago, I finished a rough draft in 3 weeks. Another time, it took 6 weeks. I’m hoping to repeat the past this month and have at least 50K down by the end of November.

My current word count is 10,911. That’s a great advance since I last posted!

Now it’s your turn to check in!

Keep Me Accountable – Magic Writing

/ christylashea / 17 Comments
photo from http://www.kids-pages.com/folders/colpages/Fairy-Tales/page8.htm

Hey, all!  It’s Day 3 for Nanowrimo and I’m going strong – as strong as can be squeaking by with about two hours writing time per day. My total word count is 3,550!  I already had Chapter 1 written, however when nano started, I started at Chapter 2. It’s going great.

It is hard to turn off the internal editor. I’ll admit, there’s a lot of “telling” going on. I’m forcing myself to “tell” the scene if I’m not seeing it clearly in my head. I just need to get it down to get on to the next scene and multiply those words.

However, in turning off that internal editor, I’m finding the process has organic qualities. Even though, I used plotter methods and am following my scene cards, what is produced in those scenes, is like magic. When I began Chapter 2, I needed my hero and heroine to meet. It ended up another character I hadn’t planned on appearing this early, made her debut and added a lot of fun to the scene.

And, more fun for me as the writer.

I’ll look forward to hearing from you and your progress! Any magic happening?

Keep Me Accountable: NANOWRIMO!!!

/ christylashea / 15 Comments
Today is November 1st and the first day of Nanowrimo. I will officially begin my push to write 50,000 words this month in just a couple of hours. If you are participating in this challenge, make me your writing buddy – I’m listed as christylashea.

I think I’m ready for this challenge. I’ve got a skeleton of scenes written to guide me through. If you’ve done Nano before and have any suggestions, please share!  We’re all about helping each other reach our goals around here!

Now, I couldn’t help share a couple of pictures from the last couple of weeks. Here, my daughter(6years) and son(22 months) share a nice treat during our recent trip to Jaemor Farms in Alto, Georgia. It’s just beautiful up there.

Here, I’m trying to get a picture of their beautiful gardens and these apple trees. I bought a half a peck of the Red Delicious. They were huge and very sweet!