Sheila Rambles

 I made it! That's really the overall feeling that comes out of this year's effort--I made it. How did I manage this with a full-time job? I know I've done it, repeatedly. But this year it was harder than it's been in a while. I lost a couple of evenings doing things that were not writing, and that days that I did write were under 1,000 words for a long stretch. One day, I only wrote 93 words. But I persisted, had a couple of high-volume days, and hit 50,000 a few days before the 30th.  The story is nowhere near complete--my outline is 26 chapters, plus epilogue, and I left off at the start of chapter 19. My master plan is to return to Christophina's Garden , create a new outline for what's been written and what has yet to be written, and then finish the thing!  After that, I'll finish up Christophina's Moon  and then work on revising all three books simultaneously to sift out the continuity errors. If I'm clever enough, I may be able to come up with

 Wordcount (final): 52,176 First line of the day:  She’s asking so she can cash in on the hype while it’s still hyping. Last line of the day:  I look at the texture I’m working on, put Lenny in my pocket and go to the guest house. Bad summary: Young woman has phone conversation with art dealer. Makes sense in context:  I feel stupid the moment I ask that question.

 Word count: 51,307 (reached 50,000 on Monday) This year, I did a chapter-by-chapter outline to guide me. There are twenty-six chapters, plus an epilogue, in the outline. I am currently on chapter eighteen. No, I don't expect to finish the narrative by Thursday. There is much said in the realms of novel-writing advice about the "mushy middle", the part when you are convinced that you suck as a writer and see no way forward. The trick is to persist, persist, persist until you get closer to the end and reach firmer ground. I seem to have reached the finish line in NaNoWriMo right in the midst of the mushy middle. Everything is awful and boring and I don't know if I'll ever be able to fix it. But, I do know the cure. Which is to keep writing and worry about the mess later. I plan to keep at it all the way to the 30th for a victory lap. Maybe I'll make it to chapter nineteen. First line of the day: Lost, because I didn't post here yesterday. Last line of the d

Word count: 48,389 I devoted the entire day, even skipping Sunday dinner with the family. Wrote all day, with ten-minute breaks each hour, and pauses for lunch and dinner. Hit 4,382 words at 10:00 PM and called it a night. I didn't get to the finish line, but I can probably cross it by tomorrow evening. My stats will be a little abbreviated accordingly. First line of the day: I have no idea. I didn't post my stats last night, so I don't know where I left off. Last line of the day:  I arranged for a meeting with Nina Saison, the producer for Hollywood and Beyond , the show that they’ll be showing the wedding footage on. Bad summary: Dude, I wrote over 4,000 words and I don't know where I started. Makes sense in context:  They’re old-fashioned-looking name tags with the words “HELLO! MY NAME WAS” on them.

 Word count: 42,585 I've worked on Black Friday for nearly a decade; why should I stop because I'm working at home? This meant my wordcount was a little limited, but I'm ahead of par and I'm hitting a fun bit where our young lovers go back to the place they met. First line of the day:  “I’ve only been in here to put up merchandise in the shops.” Last line of the day:  They harmonize quite well. Bad summary: Young woman wanders virtual world a few hours before it closes. Young man comes to join her but is thwarted by software updates. Makes sense in context:  “Wow. I didn’t really like it, but it’s cool that you made it.”

 Word count: 41,054 Didn't pull as far ahead as I hoped, even taking the day off from AI work for Thanksgiving. There were certain distractions that nipped at my heels all day. Plus, I do have to spend time with my family eating turkey and things. Almost his 2,000 words for the day, though, so not bad. First line of the day:  “Think you can do it on the flatpage. That’s how I bought the land to begin with. Think you can do in in 3-D space as well. I’ll have a look after dinner.” Last line of the day:  “Craaaaazy busy,” I reply. Bad summary: Young man gives parcel of soon-to-be-worthless virtual land to young woman. Young woman's niece asks for help shutting up people who don't think young woman is really her aunt. Young woman crafts evidence and places it in virtual installation. Young woman visits virtual world on the last day of its existence. Makes sense in context:  “That’s so many double-negatives, I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult.”

 Word court: 39,064 First line of the day:  It probably doesn’t help that we got under the covers, because we were cold on account of being nude. Last line of the day:  “Speaking of landmarks, would you be willing to incarnate as Xenix long enough to sell the Green Man Gallery plot to me? I want to set up a link to Turris Solis there.” Bad summary: Newlywed couple hosts reception for wedding party. Everybody gets along quite well. Young lady contacts charity, plays in virtual worlds, and makes dinner from the leftover reception food. Makes sense in context:  The Johnson-Reeds arrive just in time to hear Uncle Robbie laughing hysterically and emerging from the dining room waving a chicken nugget around.

 Word count: 37,244 First line of the day:  “They’re quite light,” he remarks. Last line of the day:  We don’t set an alarm, so our nap goes on for quite a while. Bad summary: Newlywed couple consummate their marriage. Makes sense in context: "You can see it if you look up close—it’s like a sponge with tiny, tiny holes."

 Word count: 36,109 Two bits of weirdness today. One was having my designated writing time interrupted by an online meeting for my job. There's a new project coming up. That's all I can say. I tried to make up for lost time by having dinner at my desk. Not sure how many words I got in, but I did make progress. The other weirdness was when I updated my word count on the NaNoWriMo website at a notch over 36,000 words, I got a burst of confetti and congratulations for hitting 50,000. The word counter on the site is a little glitchy at times, so I wasn't all that surprised. I just reloaded the page and saw that my word count was as it should be. I added a bit more and called it a night. First line of the day:  “That might not be so bad,” I admit. “I just worry what would happen if Fortis Media places the high bid.” Last line of the day:  Ethan gets behind me and holds them, then gently pulls them away. Bad summary: Newlywed couple shoo relatives out of home, make grocery order

 Word count: 34,661 I had all Sunday, but my wordcount increase wasn't as great as last week's because I was writing a pretty crucial scene and got jammed on it. Out comes the notebook, and two-and-a-half pages of longhand later, I've figured out what happened in what order. It flowed pretty well from there. Then I got to the end of it and realized I'd missed a particularly important plot point and had to poke in some seeding on it in the parts I'd already written. (Hey, it's more words.) Thanksgiving will be my next big grind, and the Sunday that follows, and the rest of the days I'll make time around work and other obligations. I think I can pull it off. First line of the day:  “So, Bill,” he says. “I’ve never known a Bill before. That should make it easy to remember. What do you do?” Last line of the day:  “What if we did it for charity?” Ethan suggests. “Put the rights up for auction—within certain limitations, of course—and give the money for, I don’t

 Word count: 31,023 Pulling ahead of par gave me room to breathe a little and take care of other things with less pressure. I cleaned my place, waited patiently for someone to come and finally  install the ice maker in my shiny new fridge, picked up a Temu shipment of clothes and gloves, got groceries to put in my shiny new fridge, and took in a vigil Mass so my Sunday obligations will be taken care of. And on top of that, I cranked out 2,004 words. Tomorrow, I absolutely have nowhere to be. Mass is covered, my usual Sunday dinner with the folks has been cancelled, and I've already taken care of the grocery shopping. Muahahahahahahahaha! First line of the day: Karyn looks at me and gives me a weary sort of expression. Last line of the day:  Uncle Robbie doesn’t so much break the ice as smashes it to pieces.  Bad summary: Young couple prepares for their wedding. Makes sense in context: "I guess I was the best man he could find on short notice."

 Word count: 29,019 Finally. One of the features of the NaNoWriMo website is the chance to see where you are compared to where you should be when you update your wordcount. There is a nice, clean, diagonal line (the par line) that rises from Day 1 up to Day 30 with marks every 1,667 words or so. When your wordcount gets updated, a darker line that shows your own progress appears. If you're on schedule, your line is alongside the par line. If you're doing well, it's above the par line. And if it's not going well... I was above par for the first day of NaNoWriMo and then fell behind for days on end. One day I only got in 93 words. It took many intensive mornings and evenings before and after work to pull ahead and catch up. But I have managed. I feel I can breathe a little now. First line of the day:  I agree with the concept, though I do feel a little deprived because I desperately need the stress release. Last line of the day:  Julie tromps back to where her bag is (a r

 Word count: 26,420 (should be 26,667 by today) First line of the day:  The copyright transfer paperwork arrives in my email the next day. Last line of the day:  He wants to build some kind of anticipation between now and our wedding night. Bad summary: Young woman signs paperwork to transfer copyrights to herself. Paperwork is leaked, revealing her identity. Young woman records a video statement for the public and posts it for everyone to see. Makes sense in context:  She’s very nice for someone living a life I can’t understand.

 Word count: 23,752 First line of the day:  “Things were already starting to fall apart,” Mookie says.  Last line of the day:  "I would have offered to pay for it, but I know from experience that you would have turned me down, and our finances are going to get all conmingled anyway, so it’s fine.” Bad summary: Virtual dragon tells young woman about upcoming social events. Young woman tells young man about same social events. Young woman discovers that someone has been selling merch based on her virtual art installation, threatens lawsuit. Young couple receives their respective wedding garments. Young woman meets with law firm. Makes sense in context:  “ I do. I know more people than I know that I know. What sort of person were you looking for?”

  Word count: 20,721 First line of the day:   I’ m feeling quite languid by now, so it takes a little effort to change positions. I rest my cheek on the pillow and sigh. Last line of the day:  “ I mean, from what I could tell, they were trying to get more sponsors to sign up, but is charging people a thousand bucks a head to hear a sales pitch really the best way to go about it?” Bad description:   Young couple finish carnal activities. Young woman discovers that the place they met is about to be obliterated. Make sense in context;  There’s not much time left to see and be seen, but, by God, we can be fabulous doing it.

 Word count: 19,077 The NaNoWriMo forums are not a requirement to do NaNoWriMo. But they are awfully helpful. Not only are they ways to interact with other human beings when you're hunkered down in the trenches of noveling, but they are human beings who get  that strange obsession you're in the midst of. I use it a lot for motivation. Each month, someone dutifully sets up a thread for people to post their goals, whether they're daily, weekly, or monthly, and then at the end of the day post about how well they did. I also start each day posting my first line of the day in a thread for it, and at the end of the day post the last line of the day. There was also a thread called something like Badly Describe What Happened In Your Story Today!  in which one posted a brief summary of the day's words in a way that didn't convey the information very well. And my favorite thread was probably I Swear This Makes Sense in Context!  which is likely self-explanatory. I found out t

 Word count: 7,430 Made good progress today. Over 2,000 words typed, and many more written. I guess I should explain that one. When I get myself into a stuck place when I'm writing, I take a step away from the keyboard, pull out the designated composition book for the project, and start free writing. I'm not writing the story; I'm writing about  the story, whether it's sketching out the sequence of events, or figuring out details like what kind of liquor is in a certain liquor cabinet. Doing it this way makes it easier to back out of things and take a different route if it doesn't quite work, or try on different ideas for size.  Once I get to a stopping point, I sit down and start typing. Suddenly, everything moves much faster, because all the staring-off-into-space-figuring-out-what-happens-next time has been taken care of, and is in writing to be referred to. When I get to typing, the result is a little off to the side of what I wrote by hand, but that's fine.

 Word count: 5,275 Friday, as predicted, wasn't great for wordcount. Today wasn't that much better. A lot of the day went to necessary things like getting my hair done, getting groceries, and cleaning my condo. When I finally had the time spread out to write, it was slow going, and ground to a halt when I got my characters into a house by the sea and didn't have a clear enough picture in my head as to what that house looked like. So I'm going to sleep on it and see about putting that extra hour to use in the morning.

 Word count: 3,357 I'm staying at par, but it's taking a lot out of me. Tomorrow, I work my final shift at my evening job, so I don't anticipate having a lot of time to write that day. We'll see what I can do.

 Word count: 1,681 I came in just above the suggested 1,667, but it was hard going. I have a massive and complicated new project in my job that is taking up a lot of mental energy, and today I had a Holy Day of Obligation to contend with (All Saint's Day). I did manage to find the time to bang out the necessary word count; I just worry that I won't have that time always available to me. I may have to relax my standards a bit and use my soon-to-be-freed weekends as a way to pull ahead. We shall see. Selected line:  He kind of stares at me for a moment and then blurts “You want to get married in the dining room? ” For now? Bedtime.

 I missed all the candy beggars because I had to work at my evening job. Got home and found that all my Slack channels at my primary job had gone splody. But, even with those distractions, I did manage to finish the chapter-by-chapter outline for Christophina's Moon  before bed. It's the first time I've broken things down by chapters, a strategy I picked up from a ghostwriting gig, in the case of my own work. I think it should be quite helpful for keeping me from spending too much time staring at the screen with my head in my hands, muttering " now  what?" It remains to be seen if I'll be able to stick to it, or whether some pantsing will start to creep in. But, in brief, I'm ready for NaNoWriMo. I think. We'll see. Wish me luck?

     One more week until that scary time of year...     ALL NANO'S EVE!     Yup, November fast approaches, and thus National Novel Writing Month. I plan to draft a reboot of the third volume of the Christophina trilogy, Christophina's Moon . I still haven't brought the second volume, Christophina's Garden , to its intended conclusion (and it's been nearly a year!) Volume one, Christophina's Wings  (remember that?), has been run past my writers group and is sliced up in Scrivener, awaiting revision. I'm going to be neck-deep in this thing for a while.      I've decided to dust off this wee blog and use it to chart my progress as I go. I'll at least post my wordcount by day and by total, and may go a little into the process and maybe even detail what happened within the story. Still deciding.     tl:dr - Hi! I'm back! I'm doing NaNoWriMo again! I'll write about it here! See you soon!