chronicled & illustrated

…IT’S DONE!!!

Or, at any rate, it’s over.

I’m happy I did it and more than ready to get on with so many things that I’ve neglected this month.

I’m not through with writing for the year, however. I’m deeply embroiled in the antics of two characters in the short story I started last week. Still trying to write it in as few words as possible. Quite a challenge for me and a different way of writing than the novel, but it seems to be progressing. I’m determined to get it into shape by December 7th in time to mail it out in the the world.
A Christmas present I’m giving myself.

Happy. Relief. Sense of Accomplishment.

Sighhhhhhhhh…

view from little tobago; taken by nancy

I didn’t have a plan for what I was going to write tonight so to play for time I went over to Under the Stars to see what my friend, Sherry blogged today. I didn’t even read it. She had a meme going on, so I decided to take it from her and see what I came up with.

The Five Most Impressive Sights of My Life

1) The Grand Tetons driving into Jackson Hole, Wyoming from the east. They took my breath away.

2) A thunderstorm forming in the distance while driving through New Mexico.

3) A pod of whales off the coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

taken by my friend Ed Warner; I was too busy being impressed to get any decent shots of them! The best part was the sound. The captain of the boat cut the engine and we would hear SPLOOSH! as they came up out of the water followed by a WOOSH! as the air came from their blow holes. Everything was perfectly silent except for these soft, remarkable sounds.

4) View of the water and the rain forests in Tobago (see above)

5) Sparkling snow shadows in my yard when there’s fresh snow fall and a full moon!

Bonus Answers:

• Any woman giving birth
• Driving past London landmarks like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and Westminster Abby while coming home from the theater in a cab
• Niagara Falls (an AMAZING amount of water goes over those falls!)
• Fall leaves in New England in any *good* year

Thanks for the mental trip down Impressive Memory Lane, Sherry.
NOW I’ll go read your answers.
Here’s Helen’s blog where Sherry got the meme

hearing
Originally uploaded by nuanc

Two days of November left.

I went to writing group tonight and was asked how it was going. I said, Oh pretty well, my word count’s good enough that I’ll be finished in two days time. Well. It’s true.

I’ve only had one other NaNoWriMo where I wasn’t way ahead of 50,000 at the end of the month. That was my second year and as many Wrimo’s have found out, there can be a definite “sophomore slump” especially if you had a fantastic first year as I did.

This year hasn’t been that bad. I’ve had a few down days here and there, but nothing prolonged. But I’m not thrilled with the way the writing’s turned out. I think, after a few weeks—or months—when I go back to read it, there will be parts that I like and parts I don’t. But my lack of planning time definitely came into play in this. About 3/4’s of the way through, I really began to suspect that I’d written the wrong story… that there was another one which interested me much more.

At least I know that now.

The fact that I’m ending on a relatively calm, up-beat note and more so, that I’m busily working on a new short story with a very tight deadline, shows that it’s been a month that has spurred me on rather than defeated me.

The photo is of my two dogs, Summer and Charly. They are patiently waiting for me to get finished!

Last week in the middle of the NaNoWriMo home stretch, when I was at around 38,000 words out of 50,000, I decided to write a short story. I have a December 7th deadline to enter a provincial writer’s federation contest. So, since last Saturday, I’m writing a novel and a short story with two imminent deadlines. It’s going pretty well and it’s teaching me some new things about writing.

In NaNoWriMo, the idea is to write full tilt for a month and sort out the details (and everything else) later. This short story is a completely different kind of writing. Instead of writing as many words as I can in a short period of time, I’m trying to finish a story in as few words as possible (in a short period of time). To say it’s a different mind set is to say the least!

Because I’ve never written a short story under 6,000 words (usually they’re more in the 8-9,000 word range), I found that I have to think of this more like poetry than prose. In poetry, especially, every word counts. It should be the same in a short story, but my tendency is to tell the story with all those lush details that flesh out characters and setting and back story and not worry to much about the word count. This is a good exercise and discipline for me.

The way I’m going at it so far, is to start over each day. After writing a novel this month, the idea of 3,000 words seems like nothing, but—here’s the rub—these have to be the exact right words in the right order!

At a certain point, I will know enough about the story to keep the draft from the day before and pick up from that point to the end, but right now, starting each day fresh is keeping the story lean, if not mean. Hopefully that will make it lean and seen (as in published) in the future! In the MEANtime, my mind is a slightly blown having these two writing techniques going at the same time, so if this blog post doesn’t make that much sense, you know why.

View of Little Tobago
Originally uploaded by nuanc

I started off this month with a feeling that I had enough NaNoWriMo experience that I might be able to offer other people tips on how to get through it. I actually have evidence that a couple of people did get a little encouragement or a helpful message at the right time from these tidbits, so that’s good. I like that. You don’t do something like this 5 times without learning something.

But now, the 26th of November, I’m bushed! I do not feel chipper anymore. I do not have the energy to make little graphics for the blog or to even think up anything helpful to say to anyone. If I had any energy, I’d go looking for tips just to help me get through the next few days. I don’t know if my age is showing or if blogging every day has added just that much extra work or if it’s that short story I masochistically decided to begin over the weekend, or the other dozen things I could name that have nothing to do with writing. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. November is almost over.

I’ll get through it and I’ll get my winner’s certificate for what it’s worth, but this experienced Wrimo will be positively plodding her way to the deadline!

Illustration: I took this shot of my older son and my stepson with their heads together while on a superb vacation in Tobago

I only took one photo this week that I liked.
Next week I hope to have a bushel basket of lovelies.
Then again, one that you’re proud of is good too.

rumplestiltskin

Originally uploaded by nuanc