NaNoWriMo Home Stretch

And by Home Stretch, I mean HOLY COW! This is the first year I haven’t been DONE by the last day! I’m CLOSE. I really am. And if I don’t finish by tonight will accept no social invitations and will plow through it. But I am ALWAYS done by now. Usually 4 or 5 days ago.

But see HERE are the problems I’ve run into:

DONE That

See… I actually finished the book last Sunday, I think. The STORY anyway. Because my WriMo strategy has always been if you hit a rough patch, write a sentence or two about what KIND of thing goes there… [scene that does XYZ] and skip to the next place that flows.

And this is a BRILLIANT strategy… when your end goal is somewhere above 70,000 words… I just go in later, after a rest and a think, and fill in the holes.

But THIS BOOK will be done to the brim at about 52K… so I considered myself LUCKY that I was at 47K when I reached the end (only 5000 words to fill in, yeah?) But filling in is SO MUCH SLOWER than original writing. (like 200 words a day slow…)

Computer Fiasco

I lost almost a whole weekend because my desktop died. Now I have a couple other computers around here, but NONE of them have Open Office on them (the program ALL my stuff is in). And the computer I’ve been WORKING ON (a nice older Mac a friend lent me) doesn’t have enough memory to access my external harddrive from my old laptop (where all my stuff is saved), so there was a comedy of errors emailing myself stuff at work (where the newer version of word can read Open Office and I can save it all as word docs and then email them BACK to myself).

I also have a desktop from my aunt that I think is newer than the other stuff, but I am locked out by unknown password (anybody know what her other cats name was? Her clue was ‘cats’ and I have Sweetie, but not the other one), so I lost a good deal of time trying to save password breaker software, but none of the other computers is powerful enough to download the version I need of freeware (which is interestingly called Ophcrack *cough*). GAH! I can’t wait until the next leg of my advance comes and I can get an ALL MINE NEW laptop.

Near Death Experience

Not me. HWMNBMOTI… the hospitalization with all sorts of complications… one of which was a seizure, so he’s not allowed to drive, which means ME, the full time worker, full time writer, part time mom, also has to do the shopping (a task I’d never do AGAIN if I could opt out—I HATE it)—so I had a week of serious worry and adding FULL TIME mom to the other full time jobs, then part time worrier since then.


So today we are throwing a TRIUMP OVER ADVERSITY PARTY!

Swim in the champagne pool, eat from the chocolate fountain, rub a cabana boy for luck…

And have faith I will get there. I hope all of you who joined also make it!


Oh... and happy 21st anniversary to my sweet baboo... hopefully this next year will be LOTS healthier.

Pity Party

I know it's supposed to be Fiesta Friday, but I'm just not in the mood. It's my party and I'll cry if I want to. I suppose to be consistent, I would need to call this a Fiesta Triste---though that is 'sad party' not 'pity party' and I'm not sad so much as whiny.

You see, the last of my submitted manuscripts was rejected yesterday. (that makes 8)


Amy was really nice about it. She asked if I wanted to keep going or revise. I was hesitant on revising since I have two books to revise before I can get to it... which means even if everything goes smoothly, I won't get to START that revision until April. But she pointed out that if we go straight in, if it NEEDS revising, we have knocked that many more off our list.  So we are revising. Which is to say I am revising.

I hate waiting.

I hate revising.

I hate the fact I can't get it closer to right the first seven times. Or thirteen. Whatever the draft.



So what was wrong with it?

All a little vague. 'Didn't fall in love with it.' Will nobody love me?

I think, though, my problem is Helen. Helen is TIMID. And she is timid for good reason. She hasn't spoken to anyone in 60 years, what, with being dead and living in an abandoned building and all. And she was kept in medically unethical circumstances BEFORE she died. Abandoned by her father to 'the experts' such as they were. Sympathetic, yes. Helen is sympathetic in spades. But... I think she may be missing her spark.

In most of my books my MCs are feisty or snarky or sarcastic. There is humor to them which never felt appropriate for Helen. Her circumstances would not go with wit. She is scared.

But I think I normally rely on that humor—my voice has humor and if I can't fall on humor, I think I am a little short in my repertoire. I need to find Helen's spark. Which may or may not have any humor, but it certainly needs more than it has.

So there is a puzzle to solve. What IS Helen's spark. I think it rests in her back story... a little more history, trickled slowly so the reader gets a more horrible image of what her life was like. But also a... PRE story... something she HAD that she LOST (and so committed suicide) and through the story finds again. A sense of self she was robbed of through being institutionalized. In fact... maybe if I work it right, I can reveal the back story backward and the front story forward so Helen's sense of self is equal throughout, and building.

Now THAT sounds like a compelling read, yes? But I have my work cut out for me. So I am having a pity party.

I am ALSO setting page goals so I really can GET to this by April Fools. I have 500 pages to edit in 45 days. Though maybe that isn't right. I have 200 pages to rearrange then another pass reading to perfect THIS month. GADS! And then in March I will revise Chrysanthemum Campaign for betas.

Oh. And I got pass pages for Azalea Assault. *dies *

I have been assured though, that professionals are on that, too—independent editors. So I intend to do it more as a content read—make sure nothing changes meaning or something. This SHOULD afterall, be a typesetting read—we did the final edit in the fall.

Is publishing really this many steps? What have I got myself into? Remember me? Meh, close enough. THAT is me. But I don't want lower quality—one of my primary reasons for publishing traditionally—I just don't quite HAVE that attention to detail...

Okay, so I've rambled. You may feel sorry for me now.

Or not. Anybody else wanna throw in a whine?  Or some wine. I'm not picky.