Sheila and Sara

 After years of drafting, trunking, rebooting, and rewriting, my debut novel, Christophina's Wings , is out for public consumption. I know I've been intermittent about posting here about it, but I'll be back with progress reports and excuse note as I refine the sequel, Christophina's Garden. Anyway, if you want to check out the book, it's available at sarashay.com/books for your perusal. Whoo-hoo!

  This is the way it all ends This is the way it all ends Not with a bang But a PowerPoint presentation So, I just watched the YouTube video about The State of NaNoWriMo , narrated by Kilby Blades, which can be summed up as We don't know how to manage money and you didn't give us enough, so we're closing down. Oh, and some of you were mean to us on the internet, which has something to do with it for some reason.  She does at least acknowledge the grooming scandal, and she mentions how terribly, terribly misunderstood that AI piece was, while acting as if that wasn't practically the death blow for the organization, since everyone from individual donors to entire sponsors stopped giving them money. She talks briefly about the MLs, but doesn't say a word about the restrictive and, in some locations, illegal contract they were handed if they wanted to continue to volunteer. She certainly doesn't say anything about the fact that she effectively fired every single ML ...

 Dear NaNoWriMo.org-- I'd already planned to skip National Novel Writing Month this year, in part so I can devote my time to getting a novel (a novel rooted in my first NaNo win, in fact) formatted for EPUB and prepped for public release, but mostly because I don't have any ideas particularly burning to get out. My brain is focused on the Christophina saga, and I have no new volumes that I want to work on just yet. When you chucked several marginalized groups under a bus to keep people from criticizing you about your stance on generative AI, I decided that even if I did  do National Novel Writing Month, I would not do it on the official site--I would use TrackBear to graph my wordcount and find a Discord server where people were doing it unofficially. However, I did not delete my account, as many have, because I still hold out hope that the event can be recovered. What does recovery look like to me? Three things: 1. Get rid of Kilby Blades . This is non-negotiable. She has d...

 Well, well, the word got out, didn't it? The folks at NaNoWriMo HQ have edited the page where they called objections to AI ableist and classist, and posted a statement that comes down to "sorry if it came across that we were accusing AI critics of being ableist and classist, we didn't really mean it quite like that , and, no, we're not going to apologize to the people we used as human shields to justify our argument." Is this really the hill you want to die on, NaNoPeople? Because I think you're going to die on it. That said, there are some things I've been seeing that starting to nark at me and if I can rant about Oxford commas, I can rant about these things, too. 1. They're going to sell your novels to the AI people!  Nobody who declares this actually has evidence, of course, it's just "the sort of thing they would do." I see this a lot from people who don't seem to understand how NaNoWriMo works in the first place. For a while, y...

 Boy howdy, did you shit the bed. I know you lost a lot of people with the grooming scandal on the forums. I stood by you, NaNoWriMo, even then, because your board stepped in and promised real action. Which...hasn't really been done? Moderator X has been sacked, but the forums are still in limbo and we're closing in on a year since they were shut down. But that's not really what my problem is. You're under no legal obligation to even have  forums and I can just write it off as This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things. I only just now learned about the controversy over you plugging known vanity presses, so that's not really what my problem is, either. I'll just say...really? I don't even have a problem with your refusal to condemn the use of AI in novel-making. I work in AI; it pays my bills. If somebody wants a fast-food novel instead of writing one from scratch, I guess that's what works for them. I even understand why  you're refusing to take a s...

 I finished drafting Christophina's Moon  last week. Grabbed the epilogue from the zero draft, updated it to match the reboot, grafted it on (because it was Camp NaNoWriMo and I set my own rules), and hit the finish line. Yeah. Next step is to add a scene to Christophina's Garden  so I can submit it to my writers group and set things in motion to get that book gone over, whilst also doing a final grind and polish on Christophina's Wings . I'll be consulting my niece for some insights into ice skating. Things like that. I still don't seem to have a sense of completion, since I've gone from finishing one thing to revising another. I probably won't feel complete about this trilogy until I've shipped out that last one for publication,

 Now that I've brought Christophina's Garden  to a proper ending, it's time to complete the trilogy and get Christophina's Moon  finished. I looked over the outline, made some calculations, and set up a Camp NaNoWriMo goal for July. I'm shooting for 30,000 words. I think I can pull it off. Heck, I've got one more day to work with than in November. The rest of the month will be spent drafting a short story for a Tanith Lee tribute anthology. My hope is to get it done in time to run it past my writers group before the submission window opens. I've banged out an outline and I'll start writing it tomorrow. I have no idea how long it's going to be. Long enough to get all the ideas in. That's all I can be certain about.

I've decided the only way I'm going to get this trilogy finished is to issue myself some deadlines. They are as follows: I will finish Christophina's Garden  by June 30th. I will take advantage of Camp NaNoWriMo in July and bring Christophina's Moon  to narrative completion by July 31st. I think it's feasible. I'll find out, won't I?

 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: 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 orde...

 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: 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.