I'll keep this short, as I need to get to bed, but wanted to update my readers.
I've worked on the novel three days in a row. Thanks to getting an extra hour Sunday morning, and starting around 12:30 am on writing, in 5.5 hours I wrote 2265 words.
This morning, less time. Started writing at 3 am, and ended 3 hours later at 6 am. Wrote 1447 words in that time.
I also decided I might as well do NaNo officially, though I don't know if I'll hit the 50K mark or not. I know there are commitments that will get in the way. Like tonight, I'll need to write a article for my Tuesday column at SpecFaith blog. That usually takes a good hunk of the night, so not sure if I'll get any writing done on the novel. If I do, it won't likely be enough to keep me caught up..
But at least at the moment I'm on track to make 50K. Since I type so slow now, I have to find around 5 hours a day on the novel, at least 4, to stay on track. We'll see how it goes. For now, a decent start and the novel is progressing along though I'm still not sure where it is all going. Or how they are going to get out of the mess I'm putting them all in.
I asked for prayers for Natalie last time. Now all four of them need it. Jeremy, Mickey, Bridget and Natalie if you want to pray by name. :)
Here's the summary:
---------------
Day 1: 444 words
Day 14: 456 words
Day 18: 687 words
Day 20: 1041 words
Day 33: 652 words
Day 56: 1162 words
Day 57: 2265 words
Day 58: 1447 words
----
Novel total: 9925 words
Showing posts with label Daily Novel Writing Log. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daily Novel Writing Log. Show all posts
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Friday, October 31, 2014
Reality Game - Day 56
Been a while since I've worked on the novel. Just so much going on. But I wanted to commemorate the first day of National Novel Writing Month. I'm not officially doing NaNo this year, but I'm still going to make an attempt to do as much as possible on this novel, amidst my other commitments. Maybe it will inspire me to get this done so I can point to one major accomplishment this year.
Anyhow, woke up this "morning" at 1:30 pm. Did morning routine, checked email, snail mail, couple of forums. Then helped my wife get Halloween decorations up in the yard. Then fixed dinner, as it was my night (stir fry pizza). Then sat with her handing out candy until after 9 pm. After hauling in the electrical decorations, I messed around for a while. Then she went to bed and I did a little bookkeeping on her business. Then around 2:30 am, I sat down with some candy to work on the novel.
Typed until a little before 5 am after getting my bearings on the story. During that 2.25 hours, got 1162 words written. So sat down to type this up. A little more progress. We'll see if the NaNo spirit will inspire me.
I'm writing more into the dark than usual on this one. Vague idea where it is going, but no idea where it will end up. Last scene I wrote, I've already got one of the characters into some hot water that I'm not sure how she'll get out of it. Pray for Natalie. No telling how this will turn out.
You know you're a writer when you ask people to pray for your characters. lol.
---------------
Day 1: 444 words
Day 14: 456 words
Day 18: 687 words
Day 20: 1041 words
Day 33: 652 words
Day 56: 1162 words
----
Novel total: 6213 words
Anyhow, woke up this "morning" at 1:30 pm. Did morning routine, checked email, snail mail, couple of forums. Then helped my wife get Halloween decorations up in the yard. Then fixed dinner, as it was my night (stir fry pizza). Then sat with her handing out candy until after 9 pm. After hauling in the electrical decorations, I messed around for a while. Then she went to bed and I did a little bookkeeping on her business. Then around 2:30 am, I sat down with some candy to work on the novel.
Typed until a little before 5 am after getting my bearings on the story. During that 2.25 hours, got 1162 words written. So sat down to type this up. A little more progress. We'll see if the NaNo spirit will inspire me.
I'm writing more into the dark than usual on this one. Vague idea where it is going, but no idea where it will end up. Last scene I wrote, I've already got one of the characters into some hot water that I'm not sure how she'll get out of it. Pray for Natalie. No telling how this will turn out.
You know you're a writer when you ask people to pray for your characters. lol.
---------------
Day 1: 444 words
Day 14: 456 words
Day 18: 687 words
Day 20: 1041 words
Day 33: 652 words
Day 56: 1162 words
----
Novel total: 6213 words
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Reality Game - Day 33
I've done some writing since the last post. I wrote a blog post for my infidelity blog, and one for SpecFaith (which went live yesterday). As most readers of this blog are aware, I finished writing and editing my short story for the anthology. Posted that on the blog Monday. Additionally, I rewrote the first devotional to my Christmas book. It was too esoteric for kids and most adults. So I took a different approach.
So despite lots of other things going on, have got a decent amount of writing done.
Tonight, I returned to the novel. Didn't get a lot of time in on it. Added another 652 words in almost one and a half hours. Decided I needed to get the bookkeeping done and get to bed. So I'm keeping this short. Hopefully have more to report in the days ahead.
---------------
Day 1: 444 words
Day 14: 456 words
Day 18: 687 words
Day 20: 1041 words
Day 33: 652 words
----
Novel total: 5051 words
So despite lots of other things going on, have got a decent amount of writing done.
Tonight, I returned to the novel. Didn't get a lot of time in on it. Added another 652 words in almost one and a half hours. Decided I needed to get the bookkeeping done and get to bed. So I'm keeping this short. Hopefully have more to report in the days ahead.
---------------
Day 1: 444 words
Day 14: 456 words
Day 18: 687 words
Day 20: 1041 words
Day 33: 652 words
----
Novel total: 5051 words
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Reality Game - Day 26
As I mentioned last week, I didn't expect to do much writing on the novel. On two different days I'd done some writing on a short story, and clocked in around 400 words on it. I found two words I threw together as a title, "Orion's Integration." Until today, I didn't know where I was going with this story, but the end revealed itself today.
I had awaken shortly after 1 pm. Had a "day off" from working with my wife, but had to run to the bank after taking care of bookkeeping another errand, and make dinner: fried fish, mac and cheese, and steamed broccoli. Still had some time to work on the short story this afternoon, and was able to add another 500 words in an hour and a half.
Spent the evening with the wife after cooking. Watched a movie, ordered some products she needed, she went to bed around 1 am. After I finished some bookkeeping, fixing the front door knob, I grabbed some snacks and sat back down to write.
From about 2 am until 6 am, I typed away. Finished the short story, adding another 1550 words during that time. The short story clocked in at almost 2500 words. Not a speed demon, but that makes my total word count for today around 2000. Not bad. If I could do that every night, I'd finish that novel within a month.
Orion's Integration I'm writing for our local writers' club anthology. But I'll probably post it here when I get it edited. More on that later.
Today was when I'd hoped I would have finished the Reality Game novel. As it is, I'm just under 5000 words on it. For October, I need to edit my Christmas devotional so it will be updated and ready for the Christmas season. I don't expect that to take all my time this month, so I hope to continue to plug away at the novel too. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Until next time.
I had awaken shortly after 1 pm. Had a "day off" from working with my wife, but had to run to the bank after taking care of bookkeeping another errand, and make dinner: fried fish, mac and cheese, and steamed broccoli. Still had some time to work on the short story this afternoon, and was able to add another 500 words in an hour and a half.
Spent the evening with the wife after cooking. Watched a movie, ordered some products she needed, she went to bed around 1 am. After I finished some bookkeeping, fixing the front door knob, I grabbed some snacks and sat back down to write.
From about 2 am until 6 am, I typed away. Finished the short story, adding another 1550 words during that time. The short story clocked in at almost 2500 words. Not a speed demon, but that makes my total word count for today around 2000. Not bad. If I could do that every night, I'd finish that novel within a month.
Orion's Integration I'm writing for our local writers' club anthology. But I'll probably post it here when I get it edited. More on that later.
Today was when I'd hoped I would have finished the Reality Game novel. As it is, I'm just under 5000 words on it. For October, I need to edit my Christmas devotional so it will be updated and ready for the Christmas season. I don't expect that to take all my time this month, so I hope to continue to plug away at the novel too. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Until next time.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Reality Game - Day 20
More progress on the novel, though I just remembered that I should have been working on a short story for our Writers' Club anthology. Deadline, October 1st. I planned on submitting an original short story, one or two previously published ones, and maybe a few poems. I pretty much have one week left to pull all that together.
This Tuesday was a little weird for me. Last night I wrote my blog article for Spec Faith. Started it later than planned, so was up until almost 8 am getting it done. I knew I'd at least need to sleep until 2 pm. When my alarm went off, I could tell my body wasn't ready to go. I had a critique group meeting starting at 2:30. Thought maybe I'd go after pulling myself together. Better late than none, but I just couldn't motivate myself.
I ate some breakfast and checked email. By the time I started to think about printing out a section to take to critique, it was getting to be 4:30. Since it ends at 5, not much point. So still feeling groggy, I spent some time on the infidelity forum. My body demanded more rest, so took an hour nap until 7 pm.
Wife came home after I pulled myself out of bed. We realized we never bought the fish for me to fry, so we ended up going to grab some BBQ at a local place called Holy Smokes. Very tender and delicious. A ton better than what I subjected Grace to in Dallas last year. We watched "Yesterday's Enterprise" while we ate, a popular episode o f ST TNG. We'd finished going through the Firefly series (boy, sure wish there were more, just enough to whet your appetite), so I picked back up on Extant, a science fiction series I've been picking at here and there.
Finished that. Had a Skype call with my daughter in Mississippi. Watched a few YouTube videos as I didn't feel like doing much of anything. Briefly considered just going to bed early and actually having a morning before work in the afternoon because I didn't feel in the mood to do anything.
But by the time I got my wife to bed and did the bookkeeping for her business (light today), it was nearing 12:30 am. I saw I could have a good night to get some writing done. So I took my meds, answered some more threads on the infidelity forum, then by 2 am I was sitting down at my computer with prunes, cashews, and a hot cup of peach tea.
Typed away for an hour and a half and got in 1000 words. Not too shabby, all things considered. Not as fast as I used to type, but faster than I've been of late. Better than the 600 in an hour and a half I did last time. That finished out Chapter 2. I have vague idea where this is going, but not sure yet how it will develop. These stories tend to have plenty of plot twists and turns in them, and I'm focusing on the relationship dynamics more too. Especially after what happened in the last book, Virtual Game. Spoilers!
So decided by the time I wrote this blog, I'd be ready for bed. Getting close to 4:30 now, so I'll get some decent sleep before the alarm wakes me at noon. So at least this strange day involved making more progress on the novel. But I'll probably have to take a break the next few days to get that short story written, compile my submissions, write part two of my infidelity blog post on trust, and try to take over the world. So getting words in on the novel may not happen until later this week. We'll see how it pans out. Wednesday, however, is more cleaning work. All afternoon and don't usually get back until around 8 to 9 pm.
---------------
Day 1: 444 words
Day 14: 456 words
Day 18: 687 words
Day 20: 1041 words
----
Novel total: 4399 words
This Tuesday was a little weird for me. Last night I wrote my blog article for Spec Faith. Started it later than planned, so was up until almost 8 am getting it done. I knew I'd at least need to sleep until 2 pm. When my alarm went off, I could tell my body wasn't ready to go. I had a critique group meeting starting at 2:30. Thought maybe I'd go after pulling myself together. Better late than none, but I just couldn't motivate myself.
I ate some breakfast and checked email. By the time I started to think about printing out a section to take to critique, it was getting to be 4:30. Since it ends at 5, not much point. So still feeling groggy, I spent some time on the infidelity forum. My body demanded more rest, so took an hour nap until 7 pm.
Wife came home after I pulled myself out of bed. We realized we never bought the fish for me to fry, so we ended up going to grab some BBQ at a local place called Holy Smokes. Very tender and delicious. A ton better than what I subjected Grace to in Dallas last year. We watched "Yesterday's Enterprise" while we ate, a popular episode o f ST TNG. We'd finished going through the Firefly series (boy, sure wish there were more, just enough to whet your appetite), so I picked back up on Extant, a science fiction series I've been picking at here and there.
Finished that. Had a Skype call with my daughter in Mississippi. Watched a few YouTube videos as I didn't feel like doing much of anything. Briefly considered just going to bed early and actually having a morning before work in the afternoon because I didn't feel in the mood to do anything.
But by the time I got my wife to bed and did the bookkeeping for her business (light today), it was nearing 12:30 am. I saw I could have a good night to get some writing done. So I took my meds, answered some more threads on the infidelity forum, then by 2 am I was sitting down at my computer with prunes, cashews, and a hot cup of peach tea.
Typed away for an hour and a half and got in 1000 words. Not too shabby, all things considered. Not as fast as I used to type, but faster than I've been of late. Better than the 600 in an hour and a half I did last time. That finished out Chapter 2. I have vague idea where this is going, but not sure yet how it will develop. These stories tend to have plenty of plot twists and turns in them, and I'm focusing on the relationship dynamics more too. Especially after what happened in the last book, Virtual Game. Spoilers!
So decided by the time I wrote this blog, I'd be ready for bed. Getting close to 4:30 now, so I'll get some decent sleep before the alarm wakes me at noon. So at least this strange day involved making more progress on the novel. But I'll probably have to take a break the next few days to get that short story written, compile my submissions, write part two of my infidelity blog post on trust, and try to take over the world. So getting words in on the novel may not happen until later this week. We'll see how it pans out. Wednesday, however, is more cleaning work. All afternoon and don't usually get back until around 8 to 9 pm.
---------------
Day 1: 444 words
Day 14: 456 words
Day 18: 687 words
Day 20: 1041 words
----
Novel total: 4399 words
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Reality Game - Day 18
Bottom line, I'm probably not going to make my original goal of finishing this novel by the end of the month. But I've not given up. Work, writer's club, my weekly SpecFaith blog, Infidelity blog and discussion participation, left me little time. Not to mention all the little "must get done" tasks like fixing a flat, special church services, getting the car registered, etc. You know the drill. Then there is simply a lack of energy issues at times too.
That said, I have made some progress. One positive is I saw my neurologist last Monday, and she upped my dose. That has made typing a little easier and speedier. Not as fast as I was before Parkinson's set in, but faster and with less mistakes than I have been of late.
Last week I put in another 456 words on the novel. Until tonight, that is all I'd done on it since 9/4. I was up late last night writing a blog post for my infidelity blog, around 1000 words. Realized the subject was too big, so labeled it part 1. Planning on part 2 this coming week.
So last night I hit the sack around 5:30 am, and woke up at 7 am. We headed off to church. Came home shortly after 2 pm. Then went back to sleep after checking email and responding to one message from my infidelity group. Woke up around 7 pm. Relaxed. Watched some videos on YouTube while my youngest son (20) finished up dinner. We ate while watching the latest Dr. Who episode and an episode of Star Trek TNG from season 3. Then my wife and I pulled it together, and went grocery shopping by 10:30 pm. Returned home shortly after midnight, then put groceries away, made sure trash was out, put her cleaning supplies back in the van (she gets up early on Mondays to clean a car dealership's office before it opens). Once we settled down, she went to bed around 1:30 or 1:45. Don't recall which.
That is all a pretty normal Sunday for me. Sometimes I get more sleep on Saturday night than an hour and a half, but rarely a whole lot. If I get in three hours, I'm doing good. I catch up during my extended Sunday afternoon nap.
So after checking on the infidelity forum and responding to a couple of people, I returned to the kitchen to clean the griddle and my smoothie cup. Stocked up on raw cashews and prunes, then retired to my computer to see if I could get in some writing while my meds were in full bloom.
Started on that around 3:30 and wrote until around 5 am. During that time, got in 687 words. Crazy. I remember getting in that many during a 30 minute timed writing challenge during Nano in previous years. Now it takes me three times as long. Even with the upped meds and making it easier to type, it isn't back to normal. I'll just keep writing anyway.
So now I'm taking time to write this blog, then I'll head off to bed to wake up around noon. Monday night I'll need to write my SpecFaith blog post, which usually takes most of the night as well. It usually ends up being close to 1000 words. I'll keep plugging away at this novel until it is done.
---------------
Day 1: 444 words
Day 14: 456 words
Day 18: 687 words
----
Novel total: 3358 words
That said, I have made some progress. One positive is I saw my neurologist last Monday, and she upped my dose. That has made typing a little easier and speedier. Not as fast as I was before Parkinson's set in, but faster and with less mistakes than I have been of late.
Last week I put in another 456 words on the novel. Until tonight, that is all I'd done on it since 9/4. I was up late last night writing a blog post for my infidelity blog, around 1000 words. Realized the subject was too big, so labeled it part 1. Planning on part 2 this coming week.
So last night I hit the sack around 5:30 am, and woke up at 7 am. We headed off to church. Came home shortly after 2 pm. Then went back to sleep after checking email and responding to one message from my infidelity group. Woke up around 7 pm. Relaxed. Watched some videos on YouTube while my youngest son (20) finished up dinner. We ate while watching the latest Dr. Who episode and an episode of Star Trek TNG from season 3. Then my wife and I pulled it together, and went grocery shopping by 10:30 pm. Returned home shortly after midnight, then put groceries away, made sure trash was out, put her cleaning supplies back in the van (she gets up early on Mondays to clean a car dealership's office before it opens). Once we settled down, she went to bed around 1:30 or 1:45. Don't recall which.
That is all a pretty normal Sunday for me. Sometimes I get more sleep on Saturday night than an hour and a half, but rarely a whole lot. If I get in three hours, I'm doing good. I catch up during my extended Sunday afternoon nap.
So after checking on the infidelity forum and responding to a couple of people, I returned to the kitchen to clean the griddle and my smoothie cup. Stocked up on raw cashews and prunes, then retired to my computer to see if I could get in some writing while my meds were in full bloom.
Started on that around 3:30 and wrote until around 5 am. During that time, got in 687 words. Crazy. I remember getting in that many during a 30 minute timed writing challenge during Nano in previous years. Now it takes me three times as long. Even with the upped meds and making it easier to type, it isn't back to normal. I'll just keep writing anyway.
So now I'm taking time to write this blog, then I'll head off to bed to wake up around noon. Monday night I'll need to write my SpecFaith blog post, which usually takes most of the night as well. It usually ends up being close to 1000 words. I'll keep plugging away at this novel until it is done.
---------------
Day 1: 444 words
Day 14: 456 words
Day 18: 687 words
----
Novel total: 3358 words
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Reality Game: Day 1
I've been slow to get started back on this book. Will take some doing to finish it by the end of the month. We'll see how it goes. Lots of stuff going on in my life right now. But figured I'd document the progress both for accountability and encouragement.
Didn't get to writing until around 3:15 am. Woke at noon, then started a vegetable and shrimp stew in the crock pot. Then it was off to clean a house and a business with my wife. Arrived back home around 9:30 pm. Ate dinner while watching an episode of Star Trek, TNG. Season 3, Episode 1. After a some task and getting my wife to sleep, I did the cleaning business bookkeeping. That brought me up to 3:15 when I opened up my manuscript and the database.
Spent a little time reacquainting myself with the story. Had written 1771 words on the first chapter last November before shifting gears to something else. In my outline, I don't have anything written for the climax. I recall the general direction I was taking this, but obviously there is much left to discover.
By way of reminder, I generally create an outline of the major plot points for a novel. It helps me to have a clue where I'm going, but I like to fill in the details as I write. So I don't do a scene by scene outline. That evolves as the story progresses. But I find having the major plot points and any sub-plots tying into it helpful so I'm not wandering in the novel wilderness much. But rarely has one of my outlined climaxes happened exactly as I had envisioned it.
The only exception to that are my episodic novels like Reality's Dawn. I had a general progression in my head, but didn't know what each story was going to be about until I sat down to write it, or how it would resolve. My science fiction novel, Revolution, is such a novel as well. I've written five chapters/episodes on that one. Hope to do more on it by next year.
For normal novels, I've only written one by the seat of my pants fully. My first novel which remains unpublished. I'm about 2/3rd of the way done on a rewrite of it. All the rest I had the major plot points mapped out before I dug in to writing it.
This time I decided to forgo finishing the outline and see where the story takes me. I know some of the direction I had intended to go and the main conflicts and plot twist I was going to throw into the mix. No idea how they'll get out of the hot water I'm going to put them into, though.
So around 3:30, after getting my bearings, I started writing. Getting back into the characters came easy enough. Spent one hour and ten minutes, until 4:40, to write 444 words. For my Parkinson's slowed hands, not too bad actually. As you can tell, this isn't going to be Mr. Speedy. I need to find more time to work on it if I'm going to finish it this month.
But it is past my bedtime, so I'm calling it a night, writing this blog, and heading to bed by 5:30. Ha. The funny thing is I've written more words on this blog post than I did on the story. But I finished chapter 1, got back into writing it, and it is great to be back at it. We'll see if I can make more progress in the days to come.
---------------
Day 1: 444 word
----
Novel total: 2215 words
Didn't get to writing until around 3:15 am. Woke at noon, then started a vegetable and shrimp stew in the crock pot. Then it was off to clean a house and a business with my wife. Arrived back home around 9:30 pm. Ate dinner while watching an episode of Star Trek, TNG. Season 3, Episode 1. After a some task and getting my wife to sleep, I did the cleaning business bookkeeping. That brought me up to 3:15 when I opened up my manuscript and the database.
Spent a little time reacquainting myself with the story. Had written 1771 words on the first chapter last November before shifting gears to something else. In my outline, I don't have anything written for the climax. I recall the general direction I was taking this, but obviously there is much left to discover.
By way of reminder, I generally create an outline of the major plot points for a novel. It helps me to have a clue where I'm going, but I like to fill in the details as I write. So I don't do a scene by scene outline. That evolves as the story progresses. But I find having the major plot points and any sub-plots tying into it helpful so I'm not wandering in the novel wilderness much. But rarely has one of my outlined climaxes happened exactly as I had envisioned it.
The only exception to that are my episodic novels like Reality's Dawn. I had a general progression in my head, but didn't know what each story was going to be about until I sat down to write it, or how it would resolve. My science fiction novel, Revolution, is such a novel as well. I've written five chapters/episodes on that one. Hope to do more on it by next year.
For normal novels, I've only written one by the seat of my pants fully. My first novel which remains unpublished. I'm about 2/3rd of the way done on a rewrite of it. All the rest I had the major plot points mapped out before I dug in to writing it.
This time I decided to forgo finishing the outline and see where the story takes me. I know some of the direction I had intended to go and the main conflicts and plot twist I was going to throw into the mix. No idea how they'll get out of the hot water I'm going to put them into, though.
So around 3:30, after getting my bearings, I started writing. Getting back into the characters came easy enough. Spent one hour and ten minutes, until 4:40, to write 444 words. For my Parkinson's slowed hands, not too bad actually. As you can tell, this isn't going to be Mr. Speedy. I need to find more time to work on it if I'm going to finish it this month.
But it is past my bedtime, so I'm calling it a night, writing this blog, and heading to bed by 5:30. Ha. The funny thing is I've written more words on this blog post than I did on the story. But I finished chapter 1, got back into writing it, and it is great to be back at it. We'll see if I can make more progress in the days to come.
---------------
Day 1: 444 word
----
Novel total: 2215 words
Sunday, November 3, 2013
NaNoWriMo: Day 3
Today ended up pointing the nose of this plane into a steeper dive. Luckily, in the next few days, I should have more time to work on the novel.
Arose at 7 am, we prepared for church and took our 45 minute trip there. Arrived back home around 2 pm. Not too much time had passed before diving into my afternoon nap. Woke up at 6:30 pm. After getting the sleep out of my eyes, helping wife get the shopping list together, and going out to eat, we filled a cart at our local grocery store. Returned home, took out the trash, helped put away groceries, and had a mini-meeting between wife and son #1.
By the time I returned to my computer, the clock read around 12:30 am. Made some deposits, and pulled up a blog post I'd written earlier for my new gig. Oh, did I mention it? I am going to be doing those weekly blog post I mentioned earlier. I'd say where, but not sure I should yet. You'll find out soon enough as my first post is scheduled to go live Tuesday morning.
Took a break editing and adding the blog post to the site to put my wife to bed a little after 2 am. She was up late. Continued to work on getting the blog post the way I wanted it as well as trying to make sure I did things the way they wanted. That took me up until 4 am.
I looked at the time and decided working on the novel isn't going to happen tonight. Sundays just don't have much extra time in them. But as stated, this coming week looks a little freer to focus on the novel. So we'll see if I can redeem the last few days over the coming week. Riveting, huh?
Reality Game totals:
Day 1: 961 words in 2.5 hours, for an average of 384 words/hour.
Day 2: 807 words in 1.5 hours, for an average of 538 words/hour.
Day 3: 0 words in 0 hours, for an average of 0 words/hour.
--------------------
Total: 1768 words in 4 hours for an average of 442 words/hour.
Arose at 7 am, we prepared for church and took our 45 minute trip there. Arrived back home around 2 pm. Not too much time had passed before diving into my afternoon nap. Woke up at 6:30 pm. After getting the sleep out of my eyes, helping wife get the shopping list together, and going out to eat, we filled a cart at our local grocery store. Returned home, took out the trash, helped put away groceries, and had a mini-meeting between wife and son #1.
By the time I returned to my computer, the clock read around 12:30 am. Made some deposits, and pulled up a blog post I'd written earlier for my new gig. Oh, did I mention it? I am going to be doing those weekly blog post I mentioned earlier. I'd say where, but not sure I should yet. You'll find out soon enough as my first post is scheduled to go live Tuesday morning.
Took a break editing and adding the blog post to the site to put my wife to bed a little after 2 am. She was up late. Continued to work on getting the blog post the way I wanted it as well as trying to make sure I did things the way they wanted. That took me up until 4 am.
I looked at the time and decided working on the novel isn't going to happen tonight. Sundays just don't have much extra time in them. But as stated, this coming week looks a little freer to focus on the novel. So we'll see if I can redeem the last few days over the coming week. Riveting, huh?
Reality Game totals:
Day 1: 961 words in 2.5 hours, for an average of 384 words/hour.
Day 2: 807 words in 1.5 hours, for an average of 538 words/hour.
Day 3: 0 words in 0 hours, for an average of 0 words/hour.
--------------------
Total: 1768 words in 4 hours for an average of 442 words/hour.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
NaNoWriMo: Day 2
Up from bed today by 11 am. Being I went to bed at 2:30 am, a good amount of catch up sleep. A little more of a relaxed day, though my weekends tend to be fuller. Spent time with wife, ate breakfast, checked email and blogs. Did a little support group writing, but kept it to one thread.
Then started getting ready for the evening church service. Put together my binder, cleaned up, and wife and I headed out the door by 5 pm. We returned to the city and stopped to eat at a local Mexican restaurant. Returned home shortly after 9:30 pm. Checked more email, responded to another support group thread, and a blog comment, then put my wife to bed around midnight.
Read a new blog post I follow that reminded me this ended Daylight savings time (Okay, how many of you arrived at church an hour early?). That caused me to try and change the time on my watch an hour back. It is an old digital watch I bought in 1982, a few months before my wife and I were married. The buttons on the side are hard to get to work. After a lot of struggling, I finally got the time changed. So I sat down at my computer at 1:30 to write, after getting some water.
I knew I wouldn't get much done, as I needed to get to bed early since I get up early for church. But I wanted to record something. So I dove in. Considering that I spent some time researching on Google Maps, and my Parkinson's doesn't allow me to type as fast as I used to, I did pretty good. When I stopped at 3 am, I'd written 807 more words in 1.5 hours. Then off to write this blog post and get to bed Should be snoozing before 4 am hits, and I'll get at least 3 hours of sleep. Don't worry, I have a planned afternoon nap to catch up. Standard Sunday routine.
Reality Game totals:
Day 1: 961 words in 2.5 hours, for an average of 384 words/hour.
Day 2: 807 words in 1.5 hours, for an average of 538 words/hour.
--------------------
Total: 1768 words in 4 hours for an average of 442 words/hour.
Then started getting ready for the evening church service. Put together my binder, cleaned up, and wife and I headed out the door by 5 pm. We returned to the city and stopped to eat at a local Mexican restaurant. Returned home shortly after 9:30 pm. Checked more email, responded to another support group thread, and a blog comment, then put my wife to bed around midnight.
Read a new blog post I follow that reminded me this ended Daylight savings time (Okay, how many of you arrived at church an hour early?). That caused me to try and change the time on my watch an hour back. It is an old digital watch I bought in 1982, a few months before my wife and I were married. The buttons on the side are hard to get to work. After a lot of struggling, I finally got the time changed. So I sat down at my computer at 1:30 to write, after getting some water.
I knew I wouldn't get much done, as I needed to get to bed early since I get up early for church. But I wanted to record something. So I dove in. Considering that I spent some time researching on Google Maps, and my Parkinson's doesn't allow me to type as fast as I used to, I did pretty good. When I stopped at 3 am, I'd written 807 more words in 1.5 hours. Then off to write this blog post and get to bed Should be snoozing before 4 am hits, and I'll get at least 3 hours of sleep. Don't worry, I have a planned afternoon nap to catch up. Standard Sunday routine.
Reality Game totals:
Day 1: 961 words in 2.5 hours, for an average of 384 words/hour.
Day 2: 807 words in 1.5 hours, for an average of 538 words/hour.
--------------------
Total: 1768 words in 4 hours for an average of 442 words/hour.
Friday, November 1, 2013
NaNoWriMo: Day 1
Woke up around 7:45 am, giving me just under 2 hours of sleep. Ate breakfast while checking email and FB. Prepared, and I was underway with wife and son #1 to Austin around 9:45. Arriving at 11, we all three start packing and loading up our Ford Focus. Son #2 is supposed to meet us at 12:30, but he overslept and missed his morning classes. So he arrives more at 1 pm. We load the rest of son #1's material goods into second car, a PT Cruiser. Wife gets hungry, so after dropping the key off at the school, we go get a bite to eat.
We leave with a little drama over how son #2 is going to pay for his new car. Finally they say they are okay with a personal check. But now we're pressed for time, because the DMV closes at 4:30. So we drive back from Austin and get to the DMV at 4:00 pm. They do the transaction and transfer the title over to son #2, who is now the proud owner of a 2002 Ford Taurus.
We head home, unload the two vehicles. Mom and son #2 go to pick up his car. Meanwhile, I get in some quick FB time before cooking dinner, shrimp stir fry. Sit down to eat sometime after 7 pm. I'm feeling the affects of running on minimal sleep, so I don't feel like doing much. So I end up watching YouTube videos until almost 11 pm. Wife is tired too, so I put her to bed.
11:30, I sit down at my computer to write, even though I'm not feeling much into it. But I want to at least get started on this novel. So I get "rolling" on it and type away, getting in 961 words by 2 am. I'm struggling, so decide it will be better to call it a night, get some sleep, and hope to get more time tomorrow.
Reality Game totals:
Day 1: 961 words in 2.5 hours, for an average of 384 words/hour.
--------------------
Total: 961 words in 2.5 hours for an average of 384 words/hour.
We leave with a little drama over how son #2 is going to pay for his new car. Finally they say they are okay with a personal check. But now we're pressed for time, because the DMV closes at 4:30. So we drive back from Austin and get to the DMV at 4:00 pm. They do the transaction and transfer the title over to son #2, who is now the proud owner of a 2002 Ford Taurus.
We head home, unload the two vehicles. Mom and son #2 go to pick up his car. Meanwhile, I get in some quick FB time before cooking dinner, shrimp stir fry. Sit down to eat sometime after 7 pm. I'm feeling the affects of running on minimal sleep, so I don't feel like doing much. So I end up watching YouTube videos until almost 11 pm. Wife is tired too, so I put her to bed.
11:30, I sit down at my computer to write, even though I'm not feeling much into it. But I want to at least get started on this novel. So I get "rolling" on it and type away, getting in 961 words by 2 am. I'm struggling, so decide it will be better to call it a night, get some sleep, and hope to get more time tomorrow.
Reality Game totals:
Day 1: 961 words in 2.5 hours, for an average of 384 words/hour.
--------------------
Total: 961 words in 2.5 hours for an average of 384 words/hour.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
NaNoWriMO: Day 0.5
I've decided, both to help me be accountable, and to give folks a glimpse into what I do for NaNo, to do a daily log of my progress much like I did for my attempt at a 10 day novel challenge a few weeks ago.
For those not familiar, NaNoWriMo, or simply NaNo, is short for "National Novel Writing Month." During the month of November, millions of people from all over the world sign into a central website to track their attempt to write at least 50,000 words of a novel, and compare/compete with friends and regions. While there are several versions of this concept around, this one has by far become the most popular and widely participated event of its kind.
I've done NaNo since 2006. This will make my eighth one. Only one year, 2011, did I write less than 50K words. Most of my novels have been written during November each year.
This year has some unique challenges. One, while my "work" schedule isn't as heavy as has been the case in years past, it seems I have several projects that I'll need to work on this month that will take time away from writing.
One, I'm working on finishing edits and getting ready to send to the printer my third novel in The Virtual Chronicles series, Virtual Game. I had hoped to have that done by this point, but I'm still working on edits. I'll have to juggle both tasks until I get that novel sent to the printer and ebooks uploaded. You'll be getting my progress on that here as well, and of course an announcement when it is available for Christmas orders.
Two, I'm president of our local writer's club, and early this month we'll be celebrating our 20th anniversary. So for the first few days, I'll be devoting some time and energy toward that.
Three, around Thanksgiving, my family and I are going on a trip from Texas to Mississippi to visit my daughter, son-in-law, his relatives, and of course, our two grandkids. One is a step, the other will be our biological granddaughter not even 1 year old yet. That will not likely be much writing time, and it is right at the end of the month this year. So the goal is to have this novel finished before we leave on this trip, as the month will be pretty much over by the time we get back.
Four, I have a regular weekly blog post I do at http://blog.healinginfidelity.com that I want to keep up with. So I'll need to devote time to preparing those, a task I've not had in years past. News flash, it is possible I'll be adding yet another weekly blog post to that schedule. I should know on that in a few days.
Five, as of this point, I'm getting the slowest start I've ever had for NaNo. I've been so busy with helping my wife clean houses (pretty much my job now, part time), dealing with our children's issues, while trying to get projects done, including chores around the house, and adequate time with my wife, that I've come to midnight, the start of NaNo, not having given a second thought to what I'm going to write. As a matter of fact, at midnight, I was still trying to help my son get insurance for a car he is buying tomorrow...or later today as it stands. So, that is a good lead into logging my day.
Got up from bed around noon (yes, I have a late schedule). Took care of some deposits, calling about my son Nathan's broken lease obligations (he dropped out of culinary school and is back home now...empty nest now officially over for the time being), checked email and blogs while eating oatmeal and drinking coffee. Then responded to a request at a support group I'm on. Spent some time responding to that. My wife is home before 3:00 pm, unusual for her, but the last client of the day cancelled at the last minute. We didn't complain too much as we've both felt worn out working over the last three days.
So we put signs on our car for the business, and when son at home was getting too frustrated with the mower, I had to take over and mow the front lawn so trick-o-treaters wouldn't have to be greeted by long grass. Meanwhile, wife starts working on cooking the pizza, but discovers we never bought any pizza sauce, nor do we have anything to make it with. Nathan and his friend have pizza and a movie, so wife and I decide we'll go out and stay out until most of the kids have gone through (our street is congested with people between 7 and 9. So around 6:45, wife and I get in the car, work our way out of the neighborhood through an already growing bevy of kids with parents in tow, and go eat pizza, visit WalMart and the new Specs (they sell roasted coffee from around the world!) We return home a little after 9 pm.
Well, you'd think now I could start preparing for my NaNo novel. Nope. My son, Jeremy, at UT, is meeting us at Nathan's old apartment to help us move him fully back home, then while here, buy a car and get the title changed before heading back to Austin. Since he's never had his own personal insurance, that means we needed to get him some, at the last minute, of course. So after going through three company quotes, we select one, get him processed, and by 1 am, he has insurance on his new car. Meanwhile, I know people all over the world are busy typing away on their novels.
Then I had to focus on getting wife to sleep. By the time I sat down with some hot blueberry tea and a bowl of prunes and cashews, it was well after 2 am. So now I for the first time start thinking about what I'm going to write about, what story I'm going to do. After thinking about it, since I'm editing the third book in the series and I'll need the fourth for next year, out of my options I decided to work on the next novel in that series, which I've tentatively titled Reality Game. So I opened up my writing database, copied over the list of characters from Virtual Game, modified them accordingly, then started thinking what the story should be about.
This was a little more difficult than it may seem. Without giving away any spoilers, the dynamic of things changes for the heroes at the end of Virtual Game. So the biggest issue I needed to deal with was what the bad guys are going to do now, based upon how events ended previously. After 1.5 hours of thinking and writing some preliminary plot thoughts down, I finally have enough rough draft plot outline, at least the start of it, to have an idea where to take things. Don't know how it will end, but I know how it will start and what the primary conflict is going to be about. Enough to start writing the story.
However, by the time I figured that much out, it was getting close to 4 am. Due to going to Austin to help move son #1 back home, I'm getting up at 7. So I figured I'd better write this blog post and get to bed. This will make the first NaNo I go to bed on day one without any word count in place. That puts me behind starting out at the gate.
Another obsticle is also doing these blog posts. They will not all be this long. To not take too much time away from writing, most of these will be bare bones "here's what happened". But this being an introductory post required a bit more work. Now that it is 5 am, and I'll get just under 2 hours of sleep, I'll sign out and give a full report on how day 1 went.
Stay tuned virtual fans. Same virtual blog. Same virtual URL.
Reality Game Progress: 0 words, but 1358 for this blog post. Does that count? Hum. I didn't think so.
For those not familiar, NaNoWriMo, or simply NaNo, is short for "National Novel Writing Month." During the month of November, millions of people from all over the world sign into a central website to track their attempt to write at least 50,000 words of a novel, and compare/compete with friends and regions. While there are several versions of this concept around, this one has by far become the most popular and widely participated event of its kind.
I've done NaNo since 2006. This will make my eighth one. Only one year, 2011, did I write less than 50K words. Most of my novels have been written during November each year.
This year has some unique challenges. One, while my "work" schedule isn't as heavy as has been the case in years past, it seems I have several projects that I'll need to work on this month that will take time away from writing.
One, I'm working on finishing edits and getting ready to send to the printer my third novel in The Virtual Chronicles series, Virtual Game. I had hoped to have that done by this point, but I'm still working on edits. I'll have to juggle both tasks until I get that novel sent to the printer and ebooks uploaded. You'll be getting my progress on that here as well, and of course an announcement when it is available for Christmas orders.
Two, I'm president of our local writer's club, and early this month we'll be celebrating our 20th anniversary. So for the first few days, I'll be devoting some time and energy toward that.
Three, around Thanksgiving, my family and I are going on a trip from Texas to Mississippi to visit my daughter, son-in-law, his relatives, and of course, our two grandkids. One is a step, the other will be our biological granddaughter not even 1 year old yet. That will not likely be much writing time, and it is right at the end of the month this year. So the goal is to have this novel finished before we leave on this trip, as the month will be pretty much over by the time we get back.
Four, I have a regular weekly blog post I do at http://blog.healinginfidelity.com that I want to keep up with. So I'll need to devote time to preparing those, a task I've not had in years past. News flash, it is possible I'll be adding yet another weekly blog post to that schedule. I should know on that in a few days.
Five, as of this point, I'm getting the slowest start I've ever had for NaNo. I've been so busy with helping my wife clean houses (pretty much my job now, part time), dealing with our children's issues, while trying to get projects done, including chores around the house, and adequate time with my wife, that I've come to midnight, the start of NaNo, not having given a second thought to what I'm going to write. As a matter of fact, at midnight, I was still trying to help my son get insurance for a car he is buying tomorrow...or later today as it stands. So, that is a good lead into logging my day.
Got up from bed around noon (yes, I have a late schedule). Took care of some deposits, calling about my son Nathan's broken lease obligations (he dropped out of culinary school and is back home now...empty nest now officially over for the time being), checked email and blogs while eating oatmeal and drinking coffee. Then responded to a request at a support group I'm on. Spent some time responding to that. My wife is home before 3:00 pm, unusual for her, but the last client of the day cancelled at the last minute. We didn't complain too much as we've both felt worn out working over the last three days.
So we put signs on our car for the business, and when son at home was getting too frustrated with the mower, I had to take over and mow the front lawn so trick-o-treaters wouldn't have to be greeted by long grass. Meanwhile, wife starts working on cooking the pizza, but discovers we never bought any pizza sauce, nor do we have anything to make it with. Nathan and his friend have pizza and a movie, so wife and I decide we'll go out and stay out until most of the kids have gone through (our street is congested with people between 7 and 9. So around 6:45, wife and I get in the car, work our way out of the neighborhood through an already growing bevy of kids with parents in tow, and go eat pizza, visit WalMart and the new Specs (they sell roasted coffee from around the world!) We return home a little after 9 pm.
Well, you'd think now I could start preparing for my NaNo novel. Nope. My son, Jeremy, at UT, is meeting us at Nathan's old apartment to help us move him fully back home, then while here, buy a car and get the title changed before heading back to Austin. Since he's never had his own personal insurance, that means we needed to get him some, at the last minute, of course. So after going through three company quotes, we select one, get him processed, and by 1 am, he has insurance on his new car. Meanwhile, I know people all over the world are busy typing away on their novels.
Then I had to focus on getting wife to sleep. By the time I sat down with some hot blueberry tea and a bowl of prunes and cashews, it was well after 2 am. So now I for the first time start thinking about what I'm going to write about, what story I'm going to do. After thinking about it, since I'm editing the third book in the series and I'll need the fourth for next year, out of my options I decided to work on the next novel in that series, which I've tentatively titled Reality Game. So I opened up my writing database, copied over the list of characters from Virtual Game, modified them accordingly, then started thinking what the story should be about.
This was a little more difficult than it may seem. Without giving away any spoilers, the dynamic of things changes for the heroes at the end of Virtual Game. So the biggest issue I needed to deal with was what the bad guys are going to do now, based upon how events ended previously. After 1.5 hours of thinking and writing some preliminary plot thoughts down, I finally have enough rough draft plot outline, at least the start of it, to have an idea where to take things. Don't know how it will end, but I know how it will start and what the primary conflict is going to be about. Enough to start writing the story.
However, by the time I figured that much out, it was getting close to 4 am. Due to going to Austin to help move son #1 back home, I'm getting up at 7. So I figured I'd better write this blog post and get to bed. This will make the first NaNo I go to bed on day one without any word count in place. That puts me behind starting out at the gate.
Another obsticle is also doing these blog posts. They will not all be this long. To not take too much time away from writing, most of these will be bare bones "here's what happened". But this being an introductory post required a bit more work. Now that it is 5 am, and I'll get just under 2 hours of sleep, I'll sign out and give a full report on how day 1 went.
Stay tuned virtual fans. Same virtual blog. Same virtual URL.
Reality Game Progress: 0 words, but 1358 for this blog post. Does that count? Hum. I didn't think so.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
10 Day Novel Challenge: Day 8, 9, 10
As I'm writing this, today would be the start of day 10. Day 8 was another long day with too much to do, and I couldn't even get to the writing of the novel. Our phones came in, so after waking up at 10, and spending from 12:30 pm to 7:30 pm helping wife clean houses, eating, I then spent the rest of the time until 5:30 am activating the three phones, setting up email and the like, getting data and contacts transferred, installing needed apps, etc. Needless to say I didn't have the energy to make a blog post about it.
So today I started thinking. Originally, I'd planned to keep going on the novel and finish it even though it would take longer than 10 days. However, reality set in. I have an edit that came in on a novel that needs to get done within a month. I also planned on doing final edits and publishing Virtual Game, the third novel in the Virtual Chronicles series, during October. I can't afford to take another 10-20 days to finish this novel, which is the pace I'm currently working at. Fine for a NaNo pace, but this isn't even going to be close to 10 days. So finishing this, doing the edits, and being ready for NaNo in November just isn't going to happen. Something's got to give. Since the edit is for my publisher, that comes before finishing this novel.
Bottom line: I took the 10 day challenge and lost. Primarily due to slower typing than I used to have, but even at my old typing speed, I still would have only reached 20 something thousand by this point. This past week turned out to be the worst week of the year to attempt this because I've had much less time than normal to devote to such a project. No way I could have known that going in, but it is what it is.
So my plan now is to put this story on the shelf and schedule another 10 day writing challenge to finish it when I can devote more time to it. For now, I'm done with this challenge. I'll get back to a regular blog posting schedule (I've an interesting short story I'll be posting here once I can get it edited), get my novel edit done in the next few days, edit and publish the third novel of the Virtual Chronicles series, plan my novel for NaNo and get that done in Nov. I've got so many projects in the oven right now, its crazy. On top of that, this week, I came up with another novel idea I want to explore in the near future.
I should adjust the above statement a little. I say I "lost," but not really. True, I did lose the challenge itself. Didn't even come close to reaching the goal. But the truth is I mainly won. First, I've got a 10K start to this novel I didn't have before. It is shaping up to be a fun adventure story, and is exciting to see the world and characters develop. I'm liking the story. My main challenge is going to be to make time for it in the near future to finish it, and not forget about it with everything else going on. But the challenge was fun, logging it was educational, and I had fun even if it was mixed with some disappointments and setbacks. I hope those of you following my logs enjoyed reading about my experiences. Some day, however, I will write a novel in 10 days. Now it is a challenge I intend to conquer. Just not at this time. I will live to fight another day.
So the final ending tally on my 10 day challenge is 10164 words in 17.8 hours of writing. Thanks for taking the journey with me.
So today I started thinking. Originally, I'd planned to keep going on the novel and finish it even though it would take longer than 10 days. However, reality set in. I have an edit that came in on a novel that needs to get done within a month. I also planned on doing final edits and publishing Virtual Game, the third novel in the Virtual Chronicles series, during October. I can't afford to take another 10-20 days to finish this novel, which is the pace I'm currently working at. Fine for a NaNo pace, but this isn't even going to be close to 10 days. So finishing this, doing the edits, and being ready for NaNo in November just isn't going to happen. Something's got to give. Since the edit is for my publisher, that comes before finishing this novel.
Bottom line: I took the 10 day challenge and lost. Primarily due to slower typing than I used to have, but even at my old typing speed, I still would have only reached 20 something thousand by this point. This past week turned out to be the worst week of the year to attempt this because I've had much less time than normal to devote to such a project. No way I could have known that going in, but it is what it is.
So my plan now is to put this story on the shelf and schedule another 10 day writing challenge to finish it when I can devote more time to it. For now, I'm done with this challenge. I'll get back to a regular blog posting schedule (I've an interesting short story I'll be posting here once I can get it edited), get my novel edit done in the next few days, edit and publish the third novel of the Virtual Chronicles series, plan my novel for NaNo and get that done in Nov. I've got so many projects in the oven right now, its crazy. On top of that, this week, I came up with another novel idea I want to explore in the near future.
I should adjust the above statement a little. I say I "lost," but not really. True, I did lose the challenge itself. Didn't even come close to reaching the goal. But the truth is I mainly won. First, I've got a 10K start to this novel I didn't have before. It is shaping up to be a fun adventure story, and is exciting to see the world and characters develop. I'm liking the story. My main challenge is going to be to make time for it in the near future to finish it, and not forget about it with everything else going on. But the challenge was fun, logging it was educational, and I had fun even if it was mixed with some disappointments and setbacks. I hope those of you following my logs enjoyed reading about my experiences. Some day, however, I will write a novel in 10 days. Now it is a challenge I intend to conquer. Just not at this time. I will live to fight another day.
So the final ending tally on my 10 day challenge is 10164 words in 17.8 hours of writing. Thanks for taking the journey with me.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
10 Day Novel Challenge: Day 7
Rose up from my slumber at noon. Received shortly the news from my son that he made a 92 on his final and a B for this latest block at Le Cordon Bleu. Very proud of him as he was struggling with it. Went through my morning routine and checked emails/blogs as I ate breakfast. Did the dishes, and found out wife would be coming early to pick me up. I proceeded to get ready.
She arrived about 2:40. We head off to clean a house. 3:40, I head out to pick son up from Austin. But we meet on the furthest reach of the bus route, so it is a one hour round trip, not a 2.5 hour round trip. Arrive back in town, stop by the AT&T store to get a sim card for switching phones between wife and son. I drop him off at home, and head off to meet wife at second job. Arrive there at 5 pm. We work and return home a little before 8.
Son studying to be a chef prepares us a lovely chicken and green bean dinner with some type of wine sauce. Delicious. I watch an episode of DS9 while I eat and catch up on emails.
By now, I'm thinking I should be going after the novel, but I'm feeling drowsy and having a hard time motivating myself. I also think wife may be going to bed soon. Instead, I get interested in the Michael J. Fox show. I would have liked to have watched it, but we don't get much in the way of TV. So I settle for watching a 40 minute interview with Michael done about a month ago. Being that the has Parkinson's and I likely do too, I'm very interested in what he is doing. He's had it for 20 years.
As a matter of fact, I have an idea that I will at some point, write a story where the protag has Parkinson's, and donate all proceeds to Micheal's foundation. A future project out there somewhere.
Anyway, I finally start to write at 12:30. Go till 1 am to add 287 words to it. Put wife to bed and get my cashews and prunes. Hot tea I made earlier while doing the dishes from dinner. I'm back at the computer at 2 am and type solid until 3:30, another 886 words. Decided to call it a night since wife expects me to be ready at 12:30 to go clean two more houses. Figures the week I pick to do a 10 day novel challenge ends up being one of the heaviest work load in the last year for me, leaving me limited energy and time for writing. And at my speed, that's a killer on the challenge. I usually have two to three days a week with no work. No days this week.
So my totals for today is 1173 words in 2 hours, averaging 587 words per hour.
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Day 3: 1494 words in 3 hours (498 w/h avg.)
Day 4: 2071 words in 3.45 hours (600 w/h avg.)
Day 5: 0 words in 0 hours (0 w/h avg)
Day 6: 1238 words in 2.6 hours (476 w/h avg)
Day 7: 1173 words in 2 hours (587 w/h avg)
---------------------------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 10164 words in 17.8 hours
Words per Hour: 571
Words per Day: 1452
She arrived about 2:40. We head off to clean a house. 3:40, I head out to pick son up from Austin. But we meet on the furthest reach of the bus route, so it is a one hour round trip, not a 2.5 hour round trip. Arrive back in town, stop by the AT&T store to get a sim card for switching phones between wife and son. I drop him off at home, and head off to meet wife at second job. Arrive there at 5 pm. We work and return home a little before 8.
Son studying to be a chef prepares us a lovely chicken and green bean dinner with some type of wine sauce. Delicious. I watch an episode of DS9 while I eat and catch up on emails.
By now, I'm thinking I should be going after the novel, but I'm feeling drowsy and having a hard time motivating myself. I also think wife may be going to bed soon. Instead, I get interested in the Michael J. Fox show. I would have liked to have watched it, but we don't get much in the way of TV. So I settle for watching a 40 minute interview with Michael done about a month ago. Being that the has Parkinson's and I likely do too, I'm very interested in what he is doing. He's had it for 20 years.
As a matter of fact, I have an idea that I will at some point, write a story where the protag has Parkinson's, and donate all proceeds to Micheal's foundation. A future project out there somewhere.
Anyway, I finally start to write at 12:30. Go till 1 am to add 287 words to it. Put wife to bed and get my cashews and prunes. Hot tea I made earlier while doing the dishes from dinner. I'm back at the computer at 2 am and type solid until 3:30, another 886 words. Decided to call it a night since wife expects me to be ready at 12:30 to go clean two more houses. Figures the week I pick to do a 10 day novel challenge ends up being one of the heaviest work load in the last year for me, leaving me limited energy and time for writing. And at my speed, that's a killer on the challenge. I usually have two to three days a week with no work. No days this week.
So my totals for today is 1173 words in 2 hours, averaging 587 words per hour.
10 Day Novel Challenge totals for Dragon City:
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Day 3: 1494 words in 3 hours (498 w/h avg.)
Day 4: 2071 words in 3.45 hours (600 w/h avg.)
Day 5: 0 words in 0 hours (0 w/h avg)
Day 6: 1238 words in 2.6 hours (476 w/h avg)
Day 7: 1173 words in 2 hours (587 w/h avg)
---------------------------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 10164 words in 17.8 hours
Words per Hour: 571
Words per Day: 1452
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
10 Day Novel Challenge: Day 6
Thought about titling today as day 5b. But decided to keep going with regular numbering.
Drug myself out of bed at noon. Good almost 9 hours sleep. Started pot of beans going in crock pot, fixed breakfast, and read emails/scanned blogs while eating. Discovered my package had arrived, but not time to check it out. Had to be ready to go at 1:30, so not much time. Wife showed up a bit late, so we rushed off about 1:40 pm to clean a big house and an office. Returned home a little after 8 pm. By 8:30, we're eating beans with mushrooms. I catch up on emails while eating.
About 9 pm, I open the Dragon Speak Naturally box up, and proceed to install it. That takes a while, then I go through setting up a profile, registering with support, activating it, and training it to my voice. Start doing some test runs in Libre Office Writer. First problem I had was it kept putting in multiple "well" and "him" mixed in with my words. Tried the help file, but it was no help. Googled it, and came across an article about it. Said it was related to nose and mouth breaths on the mic, and to reposition it.
About the time I tried that, it started giving me a hookerr_nonotifywindow error and stopped working. Another Google search turned up an incompatibility with Adobe Acrobat 10. Followed its instructions and got it working again. Another try, this time with the mic positioned well to the side, I had less insertions of those words, but still there. I'm beginning to think this mic is picking up too much background noise.
By this point, it is 11:30 pm. Wife is getting ready for bed and she needs some attention as she's depressed about the car situation. Not just the hassle of figuring out what we will do, but she really liked that car, so she's in some form of grieving over it being gone. So I spend some time with her until she heads off to dream land.
I move operations into the living room, since I can't talk while she's sleeping. I decide the headset I have is better than the one that came with the program, so I give that a try. No more stray words are inserted randomly, so I decide to attempt some novel writing with it.
I get started at 12:39 am. It is a little slow, because it keeps plugging in the wrong words, failing to put in spaces, capitalize sentences, and such. Plus, I've got to teach it my character's names, like Roth and Selene. It works, but obviously I've got to get used to it. But I seem to be making a lot of corrections in the text. I stop after 40 minutes of reading. I entered 190 words using that method. An average words per hour of 317. Nowhere near blazing. I can see it can be fast, but make take a little further training to get up to speed.
Meanwhile, I feel I've spent enough time tonight on the thing, and decide to go back to regular typing so I can hopefully get over 1000 words tonight. I move all my stuff back into my room, and start working on the novel at 2:20 am. I go at it solidly for a couple hours, stopping at 4:24 am. I put in an additional 1048 words.
That makes a total for the day of 1238 typed in 2.6 hours. Tomorrow I should have more time, but do have to help wife clean a house and pick up son from Austin to spend the weekend with us. But hope to have more time overall to work on the novel. I may spend some time with Dragon Speak, but unless it starts speeding me up, may not keep using it for this novel. Maybe in time it will work for me.
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Day 3: 1494 words in 3 hours (498 w/h avg.)
Day 4: 2071 words in 3.45 hours (600 w/h avg.)
Day 5: 0 words in 0 hours (0 w/h avg)
Day 6: 1238 words in 2.6 hours (476 w/h avg)
---------------------------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 8991 words in 15.8 hours
Words per Hour: 569
Words per Day: 1499
Drug myself out of bed at noon. Good almost 9 hours sleep. Started pot of beans going in crock pot, fixed breakfast, and read emails/scanned blogs while eating. Discovered my package had arrived, but not time to check it out. Had to be ready to go at 1:30, so not much time. Wife showed up a bit late, so we rushed off about 1:40 pm to clean a big house and an office. Returned home a little after 8 pm. By 8:30, we're eating beans with mushrooms. I catch up on emails while eating.
About 9 pm, I open the Dragon Speak Naturally box up, and proceed to install it. That takes a while, then I go through setting up a profile, registering with support, activating it, and training it to my voice. Start doing some test runs in Libre Office Writer. First problem I had was it kept putting in multiple "well" and "him" mixed in with my words. Tried the help file, but it was no help. Googled it, and came across an article about it. Said it was related to nose and mouth breaths on the mic, and to reposition it.
About the time I tried that, it started giving me a hookerr_nonotifywindow error and stopped working. Another Google search turned up an incompatibility with Adobe Acrobat 10. Followed its instructions and got it working again. Another try, this time with the mic positioned well to the side, I had less insertions of those words, but still there. I'm beginning to think this mic is picking up too much background noise.
By this point, it is 11:30 pm. Wife is getting ready for bed and she needs some attention as she's depressed about the car situation. Not just the hassle of figuring out what we will do, but she really liked that car, so she's in some form of grieving over it being gone. So I spend some time with her until she heads off to dream land.
I move operations into the living room, since I can't talk while she's sleeping. I decide the headset I have is better than the one that came with the program, so I give that a try. No more stray words are inserted randomly, so I decide to attempt some novel writing with it.
I get started at 12:39 am. It is a little slow, because it keeps plugging in the wrong words, failing to put in spaces, capitalize sentences, and such. Plus, I've got to teach it my character's names, like Roth and Selene. It works, but obviously I've got to get used to it. But I seem to be making a lot of corrections in the text. I stop after 40 minutes of reading. I entered 190 words using that method. An average words per hour of 317. Nowhere near blazing. I can see it can be fast, but make take a little further training to get up to speed.
Meanwhile, I feel I've spent enough time tonight on the thing, and decide to go back to regular typing so I can hopefully get over 1000 words tonight. I move all my stuff back into my room, and start working on the novel at 2:20 am. I go at it solidly for a couple hours, stopping at 4:24 am. I put in an additional 1048 words.
That makes a total for the day of 1238 typed in 2.6 hours. Tomorrow I should have more time, but do have to help wife clean a house and pick up son from Austin to spend the weekend with us. But hope to have more time overall to work on the novel. I may spend some time with Dragon Speak, but unless it starts speeding me up, may not keep using it for this novel. Maybe in time it will work for me.
10 Day Novel Challenge totals for Dragon City:
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Day 3: 1494 words in 3 hours (498 w/h avg.)
Day 4: 2071 words in 3.45 hours (600 w/h avg.)
Day 5: 0 words in 0 hours (0 w/h avg)
Day 6: 1238 words in 2.6 hours (476 w/h avg)
---------------------------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 8991 words in 15.8 hours
Words per Hour: 569
Words per Day: 1499
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
10 Day Novel Challenge: Day 5
I've decided I'm going to take a mulligan today. I feared this might happen. But subsisting on 3 hours of sleep and awake since 7 am this morning, my brain says to me, "What? You want to create something! Hahahahahahahaha!!"
Up at 7, despite the protest of my body, wife and I head out to clean two houses. One of them a small one-hour job. We're done by 11:30 am. We rush to make the 1:15 drive into Austin in 1:10, pick up son from Le Cordon Bleu, and zip down Lamar to arrive at the MHMR building 2 minutes after 1 pm. (Mental Health and Mental Retardation Dept.) Due to him exhibiting some signs of high-functioning autism, we wanted to have him tested, so if he was, he could get additional help. After 3.5 hours of discussions and testing, the psychiatrist determined that he fell in the "unlikely" category, which means essentially, yes, he does exhibit some signs, but not enough to diagnose him as autistic or having aspergers. So that done, we grabbed a bite, took him grocery shopping, dropped him off at his apartment, and took the 1:15 drive back home.
Needless to say, we were tired. But we did discuss the options with our car situation. The mechanic called on our way to Austin to tell us the engine is toast, as I feared. Won't go into all the details here, but it puts us in a pickle. We'll be one-carring it until we come up with a solution. Not likely the "ideal" will work, but maybe God will make a way. Sad thing is in the last three months we sunk a good bit of money into repairs and maintenance. My wife wants to go siphon out the gas as we'd just filled it up.
The other task was to call our cell phone company to ask a question, then go online to order phone upgrades. Doing this for son in Le Cordon Bleu. He will like this phone or else. There won't be any way to get another for a while.
That took me to around 11 pm. Wife went to bed early. I wanted to go to bed, but I take a pill at 4 am, and I don't want to take it too early. So I piddled around until 2. I thought maybe I'd jump in and get at least a few words in today, but as I said at the beginning, my brain says, "No writing for you!" So at 2 am I start writing this post, so I can hit the sack early and get in some serious sleep before I wake up to tackle cleaning another couple of buildings with wife tomorrow. Who knows, if I wake up early enough, I might get in some writing in the morning and make it a big number day.
Also to look forward too, Dragon Speak Naturally is coming in tomorrow. I'll probably get to try out that tomorrow and see if it improves my word count or not. So with that I'll sign off.
Totals for today: Nada
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Day 3: 1494 words in 3 hours (498 w/h avg.)
Day 4: 2071 words in 3.45 hours (600 w/h avg.)
Day 5: 0 words in 0 hours (0 w/h avg)
---------------------------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 7753 words in 13.2 hours
Words per Hour: 587
Words per Day: 1551
Up at 7, despite the protest of my body, wife and I head out to clean two houses. One of them a small one-hour job. We're done by 11:30 am. We rush to make the 1:15 drive into Austin in 1:10, pick up son from Le Cordon Bleu, and zip down Lamar to arrive at the MHMR building 2 minutes after 1 pm. (Mental Health and Mental Retardation Dept.) Due to him exhibiting some signs of high-functioning autism, we wanted to have him tested, so if he was, he could get additional help. After 3.5 hours of discussions and testing, the psychiatrist determined that he fell in the "unlikely" category, which means essentially, yes, he does exhibit some signs, but not enough to diagnose him as autistic or having aspergers. So that done, we grabbed a bite, took him grocery shopping, dropped him off at his apartment, and took the 1:15 drive back home.
Needless to say, we were tired. But we did discuss the options with our car situation. The mechanic called on our way to Austin to tell us the engine is toast, as I feared. Won't go into all the details here, but it puts us in a pickle. We'll be one-carring it until we come up with a solution. Not likely the "ideal" will work, but maybe God will make a way. Sad thing is in the last three months we sunk a good bit of money into repairs and maintenance. My wife wants to go siphon out the gas as we'd just filled it up.
The other task was to call our cell phone company to ask a question, then go online to order phone upgrades. Doing this for son in Le Cordon Bleu. He will like this phone or else. There won't be any way to get another for a while.
That took me to around 11 pm. Wife went to bed early. I wanted to go to bed, but I take a pill at 4 am, and I don't want to take it too early. So I piddled around until 2. I thought maybe I'd jump in and get at least a few words in today, but as I said at the beginning, my brain says, "No writing for you!" So at 2 am I start writing this post, so I can hit the sack early and get in some serious sleep before I wake up to tackle cleaning another couple of buildings with wife tomorrow. Who knows, if I wake up early enough, I might get in some writing in the morning and make it a big number day.
Also to look forward too, Dragon Speak Naturally is coming in tomorrow. I'll probably get to try out that tomorrow and see if it improves my word count or not. So with that I'll sign off.
Totals for today: Nada
10 Day Novel Challenge totals for Dragon City:
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Day 3: 1494 words in 3 hours (498 w/h avg.)
Day 4: 2071 words in 3.45 hours (600 w/h avg.)
Day 5: 0 words in 0 hours (0 w/h avg)
---------------------------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 7753 words in 13.2 hours
Words per Hour: 587
Words per Day: 1551
Monday, September 23, 2013
10 Day Novel Challenge: Day 4
This turned out to be a very weird day. What I expected was to get up, run some errands after morning routine, go help my wife clean a house for 2-3 hours, return home, eat dinner, and dive into the novel. But as life has it, it didn't want to operate according to my plans.
Woke up at noon. Wife almost immediately calls to deliver the news that her car died at the end of the street and wouldn't start. So she had to take my car. She'd called our two mechanics we use, and gave me the number of a towing company I could call after I check it out. So I walk to the end of the block and try starting it. The starter is turning, but not the engine. Not a good sign. Could be anything from a broken timing gears to a cracked shaft, or some other oddity. So I call the tow truck, make sure nothing is valuable in the car, and return home to eat breakfast, look at email, respond to blog post, check blogs, FB, etc.
With me stuck at home and wife not needing me to work, due to some space being freed in her schedule, I figured at least one good thing would come of this. I could spend more time writing. So at 3:30 pm I open up my writing database and Libre Office novel file, grab my smoothie, and start typing. 5 minutes later, my wife calls to remind me of the documents we need to gather for the meeting in Austin tomorrow. So I stop at 3:35, adding a whopping 35 words to the novel, and shift gears. (This is why I like writing at night. No such distractions.)
I spend the next 1.75 hours going through paperwork, making calls, on the phone with various people, filling a folder with needed papers. At 6:10 pm, I'm off to the races on the novel again. That takes me to 7:17, a little over an hour, throwing in another 652 words to the story.
Wife comes home, we lazily heat up TV dinners, eat, chat, I watch a few YouTube videos while I eat. At 7:17, I return to writing. Sort of, anyway. Not sure what came over me, but I was obsessing over where this character should come from instead of Bethany, Oklahoma, that would be close to some mountains within view. After viewing a few places on Google street view, settled on Fort Collins, Colorado. (The wonders of modern technology. It might have taken days of looking through books at the library to figure out what I did in 40 minutes at my desk.)
With that out of my way, I really returned to writing the novel at 10:20 and typed for another hour, clocking in another 573 words. I took a break to spend time with the wife and see her off to bed. Eat some ice cream. At 1:25 am I'm back to writing with my bowl of cashews and prunes. Didn't bother with the hot tea because I knew I wouldn't get far on it since it is going to be an early night. Stopped at 2:45 am, another 811 words fed into the hungry novel beast.
Spending one hour writing this blog, then I'm off to bed. I'm turning in early because I've got to be up at 7 am tomorrow, work with wife all morning, then all afternoon will be traveling to Austin to take care of personal needs of my son in Le Cordon Bleu there. Expect to return home late afternoon or early evening. So it will be a long day for me with a little over 3 hours of sleep again, but no nap. I don't know how long I'll be able to work tomorrow night. We'll see.
Today's totals is 2071 words in 3.45 hours, for an average of 600 w/h. Better, even though I didn't feel it was buzzing along. And so far I'm liking the story and characters. Fun to see these stories develop.
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Day 3: 1494 words in 3 hours (498 w/h avg.)
Day 4: 2071 words in 3.45 hours (600 w/h avg.)
---------------------------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 7753 words in 13.2 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Woke up at noon. Wife almost immediately calls to deliver the news that her car died at the end of the street and wouldn't start. So she had to take my car. She'd called our two mechanics we use, and gave me the number of a towing company I could call after I check it out. So I walk to the end of the block and try starting it. The starter is turning, but not the engine. Not a good sign. Could be anything from a broken timing gears to a cracked shaft, or some other oddity. So I call the tow truck, make sure nothing is valuable in the car, and return home to eat breakfast, look at email, respond to blog post, check blogs, FB, etc.
With me stuck at home and wife not needing me to work, due to some space being freed in her schedule, I figured at least one good thing would come of this. I could spend more time writing. So at 3:30 pm I open up my writing database and Libre Office novel file, grab my smoothie, and start typing. 5 minutes later, my wife calls to remind me of the documents we need to gather for the meeting in Austin tomorrow. So I stop at 3:35, adding a whopping 35 words to the novel, and shift gears. (This is why I like writing at night. No such distractions.)
I spend the next 1.75 hours going through paperwork, making calls, on the phone with various people, filling a folder with needed papers. At 6:10 pm, I'm off to the races on the novel again. That takes me to 7:17, a little over an hour, throwing in another 652 words to the story.
Wife comes home, we lazily heat up TV dinners, eat, chat, I watch a few YouTube videos while I eat. At 7:17, I return to writing. Sort of, anyway. Not sure what came over me, but I was obsessing over where this character should come from instead of Bethany, Oklahoma, that would be close to some mountains within view. After viewing a few places on Google street view, settled on Fort Collins, Colorado. (The wonders of modern technology. It might have taken days of looking through books at the library to figure out what I did in 40 minutes at my desk.)
With that out of my way, I really returned to writing the novel at 10:20 and typed for another hour, clocking in another 573 words. I took a break to spend time with the wife and see her off to bed. Eat some ice cream. At 1:25 am I'm back to writing with my bowl of cashews and prunes. Didn't bother with the hot tea because I knew I wouldn't get far on it since it is going to be an early night. Stopped at 2:45 am, another 811 words fed into the hungry novel beast.
Spending one hour writing this blog, then I'm off to bed. I'm turning in early because I've got to be up at 7 am tomorrow, work with wife all morning, then all afternoon will be traveling to Austin to take care of personal needs of my son in Le Cordon Bleu there. Expect to return home late afternoon or early evening. So it will be a long day for me with a little over 3 hours of sleep again, but no nap. I don't know how long I'll be able to work tomorrow night. We'll see.
Today's totals is 2071 words in 3.45 hours, for an average of 600 w/h. Better, even though I didn't feel it was buzzing along. And so far I'm liking the story and characters. Fun to see these stories develop.
10 Day Novel Challenge totals for Dragon City:
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Day 3: 1494 words in 3 hours (498 w/h avg.)
Day 4: 2071 words in 3.45 hours (600 w/h avg.)
---------------------------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 7753 words in 13.2 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Sunday, September 22, 2013
10 Day Novel Challenge: Day 3
Woke up today at 7 am with a little less than 3 hours of sleep under my belt. Hard to convince your body that, yes, you really do need to get up. But I did. I try to get closer to four hours on Sunday morning, but creating yesterday's blog post took longer than expected.
Went to church, coffee hour afterwards, then arrived home around 2:30 pm. Hit the sack until 6 pm. Talked with wife, went out to eat, then went grocery shopping. By a little after 12:30 am, had the groceries put away, the garbage taken out, and some hot gunpowder green tea brewed. Finally checked email and blogs for the first time today, responded to one email. While wife had her computer time and got ready for bed, I clocked in 45 minutes on the novel, from 1:15 to 2 am, putting in 429 words. Part of that time I spent getting an idea of where I was going next and rough idea of how it would happen. I'm now past the point I'd written to those many years ago. So it is all new, and though I have an idea of what will happen, it can often take turns into ideas or plots/subplots I'd not expected.
Took a break to send the wife off to sleepy land, get myself some cashews and prunes, and return to my writing. Began typing anew at 2:45 and went until 5 with only some bathroom breaks. Added another 1065 words in 2.25 hours.
Total for the day: 1494 words in 3 hours, for an average speed of 498 w/h. Not great, worst average yet. But my fingers don't seem to be very lose tonight. Plus the words were, for a while, coming in spurts instead of flowing. I actually was rolling better toward the end, but I need to get some sleep in. Though my wife only needs me for 2-2.5 hours of work tomorrow, I have several errands to take care of. I'm hoping I'll get an earlier start on the novel tomorrow evening.
So the novel now stands at 5682 words, about where I'd hoped to be close to the first day to be on track. We'll see if we can't at least put in more time tomorrow and make better progress.
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Day 3: 1494 words in 3 hours (498 w/h avg.)
---------------------------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 5682 words in 9.75 hours (583 w/h avg.)
Went to church, coffee hour afterwards, then arrived home around 2:30 pm. Hit the sack until 6 pm. Talked with wife, went out to eat, then went grocery shopping. By a little after 12:30 am, had the groceries put away, the garbage taken out, and some hot gunpowder green tea brewed. Finally checked email and blogs for the first time today, responded to one email. While wife had her computer time and got ready for bed, I clocked in 45 minutes on the novel, from 1:15 to 2 am, putting in 429 words. Part of that time I spent getting an idea of where I was going next and rough idea of how it would happen. I'm now past the point I'd written to those many years ago. So it is all new, and though I have an idea of what will happen, it can often take turns into ideas or plots/subplots I'd not expected.
Took a break to send the wife off to sleepy land, get myself some cashews and prunes, and return to my writing. Began typing anew at 2:45 and went until 5 with only some bathroom breaks. Added another 1065 words in 2.25 hours.
Total for the day: 1494 words in 3 hours, for an average speed of 498 w/h. Not great, worst average yet. But my fingers don't seem to be very lose tonight. Plus the words were, for a while, coming in spurts instead of flowing. I actually was rolling better toward the end, but I need to get some sleep in. Though my wife only needs me for 2-2.5 hours of work tomorrow, I have several errands to take care of. I'm hoping I'll get an earlier start on the novel tomorrow evening.
So the novel now stands at 5682 words, about where I'd hoped to be close to the first day to be on track. We'll see if we can't at least put in more time tomorrow and make better progress.
10 Day Novel Challenge totals for Dragon City:
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
Day 3: 1494 words in 3 hours (498 w/h avg.)
---------------------------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 5682 words in 9.75 hours (583 w/h avg.)
Saturday, September 21, 2013
10 Day Novel Challenge: Day 2
Today the alarm went off at noon so I could take my meds. Saturday mornings tend to be time for wife and I to eat breakfast together and talk, among other things. She'd already eaten, but we spent time together until around 2:30 pm when she ran off to take care of errands. I checked and responded to emails and scanned blogs.
However, I had to get ready for church. I'm Orthodox Christian, for those not aware. I do a bulk of the Byzantine chanting for Vespers on Saturday evenings and Matins Sunday morning. So I worked on getting that ready, which left me an hour and a half for a shower and preparing to leave by 5 pm. Made it there, had the service, we drove back to our city (45 minutes each way), and stopped at a local restaurant for dinner. Returned home around 8:30 pm.
After checking some more emails and responding to an entry on my blog, I finally started working back on the novel right at 10 pm. I made progress, but was broken up by several breaks due to wife and food distractions. One 45 minute block netted me 286 words. After a 10 minute break, I put in another whopping 10 minutes to add 184 words. We took an ice cream break of 30 minutes while talking. Then I typed for another 10 minutes to include 97 words. By this point, I feel like I'm going no where fast.
I took another break to see wife to bed, which took almost 30 minutes. Do we see an inverse pattern here? The breaks are getting bigger than the writing times. But by 12:15 am, with wife fast asleep, I could focus more fully on writing. I typed until 1:45 to increase the story by 900 words. That's better. About this time I realize I had a problem with topography. Mark for later correction. I wanted mountains. But not in the center of Oklahoma will I get them. lol.
Responded to another up-late writer's comment to my blog. Her comment got me to thinking. At this pace, I'm not going to come anywhere close to finishing this in 10 days. I'll be lucky to do it in 20. So I took my break time to research and purchase with money from my writing account, Dragon Speak Naturally. Should arrive Wednesday since I have Amazon Prime. Might take a little getting used to, but if it works as billed, could get my word count up to speed and stand a better chance of getting close to my target. Meanwhile, I'll have to muddle along with my fingers.
Returned to writing at 2:55, put in another 240 words by 3:31 before calling it a night. Since I've got church in the morning, I have to wake up at 7 am. Normal Sunday routine is to crash for a good 3 hour nap upon returning home, get up to check email, eat dinner and go grocery shopping with wife (a required activity). By then it will be around 10 to midnight before I get back to this.
For today, however, I spent 3.25 hours of writing time to crank out an additional 1907 words. That clocks in at 587 words an hour.
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
-------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 4188 words in 6.75 hours (620 w/h avg.)
However, I had to get ready for church. I'm Orthodox Christian, for those not aware. I do a bulk of the Byzantine chanting for Vespers on Saturday evenings and Matins Sunday morning. So I worked on getting that ready, which left me an hour and a half for a shower and preparing to leave by 5 pm. Made it there, had the service, we drove back to our city (45 minutes each way), and stopped at a local restaurant for dinner. Returned home around 8:30 pm.
After checking some more emails and responding to an entry on my blog, I finally started working back on the novel right at 10 pm. I made progress, but was broken up by several breaks due to wife and food distractions. One 45 minute block netted me 286 words. After a 10 minute break, I put in another whopping 10 minutes to add 184 words. We took an ice cream break of 30 minutes while talking. Then I typed for another 10 minutes to include 97 words. By this point, I feel like I'm going no where fast.
I took another break to see wife to bed, which took almost 30 minutes. Do we see an inverse pattern here? The breaks are getting bigger than the writing times. But by 12:15 am, with wife fast asleep, I could focus more fully on writing. I typed until 1:45 to increase the story by 900 words. That's better. About this time I realize I had a problem with topography. Mark for later correction. I wanted mountains. But not in the center of Oklahoma will I get them. lol.
Responded to another up-late writer's comment to my blog. Her comment got me to thinking. At this pace, I'm not going to come anywhere close to finishing this in 10 days. I'll be lucky to do it in 20. So I took my break time to research and purchase with money from my writing account, Dragon Speak Naturally. Should arrive Wednesday since I have Amazon Prime. Might take a little getting used to, but if it works as billed, could get my word count up to speed and stand a better chance of getting close to my target. Meanwhile, I'll have to muddle along with my fingers.
Returned to writing at 2:55, put in another 240 words by 3:31 before calling it a night. Since I've got church in the morning, I have to wake up at 7 am. Normal Sunday routine is to crash for a good 3 hour nap upon returning home, get up to check email, eat dinner and go grocery shopping with wife (a required activity). By then it will be around 10 to midnight before I get back to this.
For today, however, I spent 3.25 hours of writing time to crank out an additional 1907 words. That clocks in at 587 words an hour.
10 Day Novel Challenge totals for Dragon City:
Day 1: 2281 words in 3.5 hours (652 w/h avg.)
Day 2: 1907 words in 3.25 hours (587 w/h avg.)
-------------------------------------
Novel Progress: 4188 words in 6.75 hours (620 w/h avg.)
Friday, September 20, 2013
10 Day Novel Challenge: Day 1
On starting day of this challenge, awoke at 1 pm. Would have been a solid seven hours of sleep save a nurse call I was expecting woke me around 10 am. Had trouble getting back to sleep, so closer to six hours of sleep. Anyway, went through my morning routine. Grits for breakfast, went through email, started a pot of beans cooking in the slow cooker for dinner. Finished most of the emails but none of the blogs when 3 pm arrived. The time my wife was supposed to be picking me up to go clean a vacation house. But she was running behind which gave me an extra 30 minutes to finish up a reply to an email.
Wife picked me up around 3:40 in the rain. We had to stop at another house first to take care of a couple of items before taking the 20 minute drive to the house we were to clean. At least it was supposed to take 20 minutes, save for the two wrecks we had to snake our way around at 10 mph. But we got there around 4:45, and finished the job a little before 8. Returned home around 8:30.
We promptly partook of pinto beans and a salad while I recaught up on emails and scanned the blogs. Jumped on Facebook to respond to a couple of people and quickly scanned the feeds. Called my son after doing some phone research to find out what he wanted for a phone. We're on a family plan and he's not happy with his android phone. Oh well.
After some time with my wife, she fell asleep early, but she'd have to wake up to get ready for bed. I let her nap while I finally turned my attention to the novel at hand around 10:45 pm. First order of business was to review the outline to orient myself to the proposed plot and the characters. I spent about 30 minutes doing that, changing the names of my two MCs (used them in the novel I did instead of this one some years ago) that gave me opportunity to make them more interesting. Named the two counties where the story takes place, along with three cities I knew I'd need. More will come, but I'll come up with those as I go.
By 11:15, I started writing. I wrote most of the first 1022 words in 1.75 hours, stopping at 1 am. I actually at one point had started the book, and wrote the first two chapters some years ago. I recall most of what I did, but didn't go back and read them. I wanted what I wrote now to be as unencumbered with what I did before as possible. After all, I've hopefully learned a thing or two since then.
Took a break, woke my wife up. We got some ice cream and I made some hot blueberry tea. Returned to writing at 1:26 am. Wife went on Facebook in the meantime. Worked another half hour until 2:06, putting in another 479 words. Took another break to officially put my wife to bed, then grabbed a bowl of prunes and cashews and went back at it at 2:57. I wrote until 4:18, at which point I called it quits. That added another 780 words to the count.
Totals are 2281 words in 3.5 hours of writing, averaging out to 652 words an hour. Better than I did last night. Good NaNo day, but not going to make it in ten days at this pace.
I've mentioned my bad left hand. I suppose I should explain. Last October, and all through NaNo November, I noticed my left hand didn't want to work smoothly. My mind would tell a finger to press a key, and it would do one of three things: press the key once, twice, or not at all. Since then about half the words I'm either pausing to type, or backspacing to erase letters that aren't supposed to be there. It has cut my typing speed in about half of what it used to be, and takes a bit more work to do. I'm thinking I may need to try a voice recognition program. Anyway, finally went to the doctor this past June, and he believes it may be Parkinson's Disease. I've been referred to a neurologist that I'll see in December for a fuller diagnosis. Meanwhile, I am on meds to help control the tremors that developed earlier this year, but my speed has only marginally increased.
I don't say this to gain your pity, just to let you know why my word count per hour is so low to what most people's is. That said, as I've proved last November, have proved the last two days, and will undoubtedly prove again this coming Nov, I can still crank out a novel in a month. If I could put enough hours into it now, I could write one in ten days. But my wife has me on a heavy schedule next week with few, if any, days off. So this will really be a test if I can pull this off. So far, I'm behind. Will take some good writing days to make it. If not, I'll keep going until it is done, and take everyone here with me. Time to get to bed so I can tackle it tomorrow.
Day 1: 2281
----------------
Total: 2281
Wife picked me up around 3:40 in the rain. We had to stop at another house first to take care of a couple of items before taking the 20 minute drive to the house we were to clean. At least it was supposed to take 20 minutes, save for the two wrecks we had to snake our way around at 10 mph. But we got there around 4:45, and finished the job a little before 8. Returned home around 8:30.
We promptly partook of pinto beans and a salad while I recaught up on emails and scanned the blogs. Jumped on Facebook to respond to a couple of people and quickly scanned the feeds. Called my son after doing some phone research to find out what he wanted for a phone. We're on a family plan and he's not happy with his android phone. Oh well.
After some time with my wife, she fell asleep early, but she'd have to wake up to get ready for bed. I let her nap while I finally turned my attention to the novel at hand around 10:45 pm. First order of business was to review the outline to orient myself to the proposed plot and the characters. I spent about 30 minutes doing that, changing the names of my two MCs (used them in the novel I did instead of this one some years ago) that gave me opportunity to make them more interesting. Named the two counties where the story takes place, along with three cities I knew I'd need. More will come, but I'll come up with those as I go.
By 11:15, I started writing. I wrote most of the first 1022 words in 1.75 hours, stopping at 1 am. I actually at one point had started the book, and wrote the first two chapters some years ago. I recall most of what I did, but didn't go back and read them. I wanted what I wrote now to be as unencumbered with what I did before as possible. After all, I've hopefully learned a thing or two since then.
Took a break, woke my wife up. We got some ice cream and I made some hot blueberry tea. Returned to writing at 1:26 am. Wife went on Facebook in the meantime. Worked another half hour until 2:06, putting in another 479 words. Took another break to officially put my wife to bed, then grabbed a bowl of prunes and cashews and went back at it at 2:57. I wrote until 4:18, at which point I called it quits. That added another 780 words to the count.
Totals are 2281 words in 3.5 hours of writing, averaging out to 652 words an hour. Better than I did last night. Good NaNo day, but not going to make it in ten days at this pace.
I've mentioned my bad left hand. I suppose I should explain. Last October, and all through NaNo November, I noticed my left hand didn't want to work smoothly. My mind would tell a finger to press a key, and it would do one of three things: press the key once, twice, or not at all. Since then about half the words I'm either pausing to type, or backspacing to erase letters that aren't supposed to be there. It has cut my typing speed in about half of what it used to be, and takes a bit more work to do. I'm thinking I may need to try a voice recognition program. Anyway, finally went to the doctor this past June, and he believes it may be Parkinson's Disease. I've been referred to a neurologist that I'll see in December for a fuller diagnosis. Meanwhile, I am on meds to help control the tremors that developed earlier this year, but my speed has only marginally increased.
I don't say this to gain your pity, just to let you know why my word count per hour is so low to what most people's is. That said, as I've proved last November, have proved the last two days, and will undoubtedly prove again this coming Nov, I can still crank out a novel in a month. If I could put enough hours into it now, I could write one in ten days. But my wife has me on a heavy schedule next week with few, if any, days off. So this will really be a test if I can pull this off. So far, I'm behind. Will take some good writing days to make it. If not, I'll keep going until it is done, and take everyone here with me. Time to get to bed so I can tackle it tomorrow.
10 Day Novel Challenge Totals:
Day 1: 2281
----------------
Total: 2281
Thursday, September 19, 2013
10 Day Novel Challenge: Day 0
Thought I'd go ahead and get into the logging groove. I had a short story I'd been working on I wanted to finish before starting the novel.
Before I dig into my daily routine, allow me to warn those familiar with Dean's hours, that I'm not intentionally mimicking him. It just so happens we both keep similar hours. I suspected as much because I caught him up late a few times, but it wasn't until he started logging his day that I realized I'm not so strange after all...at least to him. But wanted to make it clear I'm not trying to copy-cat Dean. I've had this schedule for many years. Just when I worked a full time job, I didn't get much sleep. Now I have more like a part-time job helping my wife clean houses. Fun! But it does give me more time for writing, so I can't complain. As fate would have it, this next week while I'm doing this novel challenge is going to be busier than usual. Won't help me put in the 6 hours a day I'll need to get close, but we'll give it my best shot.
Today got out of bed around 12:30. Did my morning gig of eating and catching up on emails and blogs. I have to be careful on blogs. It is too easy for me to spend hours going down comment trails. But I also had a few comments to respond to on Facebook about my announcement, and emails. Combine that with some personal stuff, and it wasn't until 5:40 I sat down to write.
I'd started a short story for my blog earlier this week that I needed to finish. For the first time I tried Dean's trick. But I don't have a stash of half-titles like he does. So I went to Fox News website and looked at titles there. I landed on one title that was about some balloons, and another about an evacuation. I smashed them together into the title "Balloon Evacuation." I'd written about 1262 words on it before today. I do tend to write my short stories more "seat of the pants," so had developed a good idea where it was going, but still free wheeling it.
I didn't get very far before wife comes home from work, at about 5:55. In those 15 minutes, I logged another 264 words. Still far from done. So I stop to fix dinner, watch some DS9 while eating, then follow that up with some "Honest Trailers" on YouTube. Spent time with wife in there as well. She goes to bed around 11:45 pm. I go make my hot tea, do the dishes, get my cashews and prunes and head back to my computer to write around 12:30 am.
I take off writing the most exciting part of this story. A few stretch breaks but I write pretty solidly from 12:30 to 5:00 and get in an additional 2464 words before the story's done. Decide I'll save the editing and posting for later. Sleep is calling.
Today I wrote 2731 words of fiction (no, I'm not counting my emails and FB posts). Took me a total of about 4.75 hours. That comes out to an average words per hour of 575. Not too great, thanks to my bad left hand. At that rate, I'll need more than 6 hours a day to clock in around 6K a day. Maybe I can pick it up, but not looking real promising.
So I'm writing this blog, another 575 words in 30 minutes...better. Tomorrow starts the novel. Look for day 1 by Saturday.
Before I dig into my daily routine, allow me to warn those familiar with Dean's hours, that I'm not intentionally mimicking him. It just so happens we both keep similar hours. I suspected as much because I caught him up late a few times, but it wasn't until he started logging his day that I realized I'm not so strange after all...at least to him. But wanted to make it clear I'm not trying to copy-cat Dean. I've had this schedule for many years. Just when I worked a full time job, I didn't get much sleep. Now I have more like a part-time job helping my wife clean houses. Fun! But it does give me more time for writing, so I can't complain. As fate would have it, this next week while I'm doing this novel challenge is going to be busier than usual. Won't help me put in the 6 hours a day I'll need to get close, but we'll give it my best shot.
Today got out of bed around 12:30. Did my morning gig of eating and catching up on emails and blogs. I have to be careful on blogs. It is too easy for me to spend hours going down comment trails. But I also had a few comments to respond to on Facebook about my announcement, and emails. Combine that with some personal stuff, and it wasn't until 5:40 I sat down to write.
I'd started a short story for my blog earlier this week that I needed to finish. For the first time I tried Dean's trick. But I don't have a stash of half-titles like he does. So I went to Fox News website and looked at titles there. I landed on one title that was about some balloons, and another about an evacuation. I smashed them together into the title "Balloon Evacuation." I'd written about 1262 words on it before today. I do tend to write my short stories more "seat of the pants," so had developed a good idea where it was going, but still free wheeling it.
I didn't get very far before wife comes home from work, at about 5:55. In those 15 minutes, I logged another 264 words. Still far from done. So I stop to fix dinner, watch some DS9 while eating, then follow that up with some "Honest Trailers" on YouTube. Spent time with wife in there as well. She goes to bed around 11:45 pm. I go make my hot tea, do the dishes, get my cashews and prunes and head back to my computer to write around 12:30 am.
I take off writing the most exciting part of this story. A few stretch breaks but I write pretty solidly from 12:30 to 5:00 and get in an additional 2464 words before the story's done. Decide I'll save the editing and posting for later. Sleep is calling.
Today I wrote 2731 words of fiction (no, I'm not counting my emails and FB posts). Took me a total of about 4.75 hours. That comes out to an average words per hour of 575. Not too great, thanks to my bad left hand. At that rate, I'll need more than 6 hours a day to clock in around 6K a day. Maybe I can pick it up, but not looking real promising.
So I'm writing this blog, another 575 words in 30 minutes...better. Tomorrow starts the novel. Look for day 1 by Saturday.
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