I’m at 16,795 words on La Cause. So catching up and making the 50K target might be a bit of a job, but I’m not despairing yet. I’m still really pleased with how things are going.

In the grand tradition of Being Me, I started the novel too far into the story.  I do love to in medias res things up, but this happened in early drafts of SanClare Black, too, where I started so far into the story, I would have ended up having to do  a lot of klunky flash-backing to get certain scenes to make any sense at all and then they make no sense because you’re flashing-back every few sentences to explain things.  Awkward.  So what do I do while working on La Cause? The same damn thing. So yesterday and today’s wordage was all about going back and putting a new beginning on the story. 

It all starts with a game of hide ‘n’ seek in the woods–a sort of mutant version that bears much more of a resemblance to the game “ghost in the graveyard” my brothers and friends and I used to play when we were little which was sort of hide ‘n’ seek meets tag but played at night. There were other rules, too…

Childhood used to be so much fun. I feel sorry for modern kids who don’t seem to get (or even want) to roam the neighborhood, playing all kinds of crazy, made-up games and only coming home when their dad’s shout or whistle called them in for supper.

I am behind.  Simple math says I should be at 18350 words, but I’m only at 12750.  No biggie.  I’m very happy with my progress on La Cause, and I can should be able to catch up for the NaNo goal if all goes well.  I’m just pleased that it’s moving along so well when it was being such a fussbudget in earlier draftings. 

This is instead the, “Yes, I’m doing NaNoWriMo!” and ”Yes, I will post a Con Report soon!” post.

I’m averaging about 1000 words a day so far for my Nano book; not on target for the Recommended Daily Average, but as I was a bit busy during those first few days, I’m doing pretty well.

WFC was so much fun, but to do a proper report takes energy, and I’m still very tired-out.  All energy regained was used up with errand-running and catching-up-from-weekend today.  So maybe tomorrow. 

First readers still approve!  I’m into chapter four now after some minor, improving edits suggested by said first readers and just wrestled through another of those transition scenes that always bog me down.  When I was first writing, I had the habit of just ending scenes abruptly and moving to the next important moment or scene, skipping over the Very Irksome Transitions.  Of course, this made things very choppy, so I cannot recommend it.  These days, I prefer to deal with the VITs as I go rather than doing a full “smooth crappy transitions” revision run-through later.

 But yay.

Also, Nano looks like a go, so I need to review my notes for La Cause and make sure I’m read to Do This Thing!  I tried in 2005 and didn’t have a good enough grasp of my idea so gave up.  I used 2006’s Nano month to work on major revisions to SanClare Black (didn’t quite make my personal target but came very close; didn’t count for “real” Nano in any case), but this year, I’m going to try to do it correctly and stick to it.  Just ’cause I think it might be a fun and liberating way to get a really bloody awful first draft of La Cause done.  I’m already telling myself to just write whatever including “this part sucks; fix later” and then DO the VITs and move on, always aiming for the final 50k target.

That’s my idea, at least.  We shall see.

I just finished chapter three of SanClare Scarlet (2.0), and I still really like the new direction, but it’s off to the first readers again for a gut-check.  As I said when I started this draft, I give up on word counters, but I’m just shy of 12K which, considering SanClare Black clocks in at about 125K, puts me at about 10%.  So.  That’s good.

Nanowrimo starts in a couple of weeks, and I think I’ll put making major progress on the book my Nano project.  Either that, or I’ll do La Cause as my Nano project–and idea I like rather better since it needs the jump-start more.  Hrm… Well, we’ll see how I feel closer to time.

Of course, it doesn’t help that I’ll be out of town the first few days of November at World Fantasy about which I am EXTREMELY excited.  But I’ve never been before, so–any advice anyone?  Stuff I should know? Stuff I should do? Stuff I should pack?

If I don't finish this by the end of the month, I'll fail my own personal NaNoWriMo. Though the word count hasn't gone speeding along, there are a lot of little tweaks that have finally set up the ending properly. I know I keep saying, "from here on out," but, seriously, from here on out... Once more, I finish the weekend wishing I had just one more day of it... Worlds enough and time, indeed.

Back to having forward momentum! This is what I'm doing for NaNoWriMo -- trying to FINISH the revisions!

62,327 / 90,000 (69.3%)

I think I'm going to quit for this year and get all prepped for next year. The story I'm trying to write hasn't gelled as much as I thought it had -- certainly not enough to be quickly write-able right now. I'm struggling along at almost the halfway point of the month, and I'm not even to 4000 words. *sigh* Plus, it's keeping me from working on my OTHER novel which I'm quite close to finishing... so, I'm resigning from this. Good to know about it, though. Next year, I'll be READY!

I have a message board (plug!) over at my site (plug!!!) canarynoir.com, and I was doing some tidying and spiffing up on it tonight when I SHOULD have been NaNoWriMo'ing. But I am still cooking the story in my backbrain. I know where I'm going; I'm just unsure of the voice, so that needs to burble on low for a bit. I'm hoping Saturday to be able to make some real progress. At this rate, I may not "win" but I do hope to have a nice chunk of story by the end of the month.

All the promised project stuff that's been looming at work for AGES broke loose this week, and we'll be busy-busy-busy through the end of the year now... That's so much better than waiting for it to show up. I hate not being busy at work.

Never read any Diana Wynne Jones until Howl's Moving Castle which I read a couple of years ago after I heard Miyazaki was basing his next movie on it. Then I didn't read any MORE of her work until I was brow-beaten (*ahem*), I mean, URGED to read the Chronicles of Chrestomanci by two friends. And they ARE good. Really enjoying the second book, Lives of Christopher Chant right now. Will eventually read all Diana Wynne Jones, I think. I like her style.

Made tiny bit of progress, finalized notes, and am getting idea all gelled in my brain. This is good practice if slightly stressful

It'll be a miracle if I catch up, but I'm not too worried about it. Problem was I headed off down the road with my initial plan ... I'm not sure if others have this problem, but I do. I have more characters than I have stories, so sometimes existing characters get attached to new ideas... This is what happened in First Attempt until I realized Existing Character Ophelia was the wrong fit for the story, so I drafted Existing Character Darcy and NOW we're off and running. However, we're off and running on the outline so technically my word count is back to zero. I am, however, going to just leave the tiny word count on my NaNoWriMo page as-is and catch up to it ASAP next week now that I have the outline worked out.

I did get Chapter Two of fanfic written as well, so good writing weekend all around. Must go prep for Grey's Anatomy now and hope it isn't a full-on sobfest like last week.

I just joined this. I'm behind already but I think I can catch up this weekend. Here's my sad little page which, I hope, will become less sad very soon.

Thanks, Lisa, for the heads-up!