3K in Three Days

Ha, child's play-- writing three thousand words over the next three days. BECAUSE once NanoWrimo begins you need to write 5K every three days for a month to stay on track. Okay, let's back up. Why do I need to write 3K in three days now, when Nano doesn't start until November 1st?

I decided to flex my writing muscle in advance of Nano this year.  I'm kind of out of practice and like any skill, it's a "use it or lose it" thing with writing. So back on October 10 I set a goal of writing 500 words a day.  That got me back in a daily routine. By 10.20.2012 I had five thousand fresh words in a file. yay!  What kind of words, you wonder. No, not a bunch of curse words, nonsense, random tweets, or emails stuffed into a file. ;) This is semi-coherent writing practice.

Lama Dorjee of Dallas and me @KTC

Then I took off a few days (bad for writing routine, but good for karma) to retreat with my KTC Buddhist gang for some Bardo teachings.  Lama "DD" is one of my favorites. He calls himself the Jolly Lama because he laughs a lot. He even got off a few jokes and giggles during the Bardo (Book of the Dead) teachings!

I wrote a bit those days, mostly journaling, not part of my PreNano file.  As of today the file has 7061 words. This is where I get the 3K in three days concept. I also vowed to write at least ten thousand words in October as Nano prep. 

I'm not worried. I better be able to whip out a "K a Day" if there's any hope of writing 1667 a day every day in November. Yeah, I've heard of those people who claim to write the whole 50K in a few frenzied days, but those are rare birds. My experience is once you fall behind, it's a steep climb to write 3300 or 5,000 words in a day to catch up. It's rough writing 5K every three days for a month, but I intend to do it for my Ninth Nano cycle. GADZ! Wish me luck! BTW, this is 450 words, just for reference.

8th year...

Well, here I go again... my eighth turn of the Nano wheel. Sorry, that's an inside joke for Buddhists (turn of the Dharma wheel.) I'll be combining those two endeavors this time. Spinning the wheel, praying for words. I call this project "Disparate Pieces", a mish-mash of some final work on the GodForce Guidebook, my Vision book and a health booklet. yeah, all are non-fiction. Wanna fight about it? I'm a proud Nano Rebel and I'll do as I please this cycle (every cycle, actually.)

It's not too late to join: National Novel Writing Month or as I call mine -- National Write Whatever You Want Month (NWWYWM) ;)

Nano 2010

Day One is done. 1828 words posted, coherent ones, too! Actually plan to devote each day's quota to a memorable event for my Warrior's Album. No idea what I'm referring to? Doesn't really matter. The only people I know who read this know, or have some idea. If you don't and care to, then YOU let ME know. Otherwise, I'll expend my energy this month on Zero Draft new NanoWrimo writing and promoting my novel which was written during past nano cycles and edited during EdMo. National Novel Editing Month. That's in March. First we write in November, then we edit (well hopefully in January and February) but have lots of company in March. Will this be my pattern every year from now until ?? Maybe. I'm one of 150,000 other wrimos this year. I'm also deeply into my Kagyu "Klan" Buddhist practice with local and online Sangha. Some of my nano stories will explain that. So, that's what I'm doing for the next 30 days... See ya on Facebook and Twitter, and as always www.AKSbook.com

The Finish Line

I'm not done, but I'm the closest I've ever been to publishing my novel. I met with my editor Friday and he was pleased with my progress. He really feels we can publish by the Summer Solstice.
(I have a thing about the Precession of the Equinoxes, it's an important part of my story.) I've already logged 35 of the 50 hours I pledged to edit for National Novel Editing Month-- that's 70% of my goal. I've been averaging three hours a day. So, if any of you Nanoers find your way here, please post a quick comment -- even if just to say "HI, I stopped by!" Thanks!

Here's the Log again for the 300+ of us editing this month.

Mid Nano Update

I'm moving my November NanoWrimo Update section here. No other blogging this month... just updates on novel writing. See Word Count Widget: (look right and down)

Week One goal 12K DONE
Week Two goal 25K (Sunday, Nov 15)DONE!
Week Three - 35K (Sunday, Nov 22) 35076 DONE!!!
Week Four - 48K (Sunday, Nov 29) barely at 44K (i'm melting...) Major 24 HR push!
Nano Final - 50K (Monday, Nov 30) I WON! 50,054

To Finish the novel, editing will continue into December! (and FOR SURE into 2010!)
The goal is a Spring 2010 release! Watch for A Kindred Spirit!

Rebel with a Cause!

I just love this! I'm a Wrimo Rebel! No idea what I'm talking about? Just head on over to the NaNoWriMo dot ORG. I've been a Wrimo Rebel since my first year when I joined late and helped forge the Cheetah Club. hee hee. Still too cryptic? (like a Dan Brown novel?)

OK, here's what it means. Honest, rule-abiding participants pledge to write a novel -- 50,000 fresh fictional words during the month of NOvember. Thus, NaNoWriMo -- National Novel Writing Month, AKA "30 days (and nights) of literary abandon!" (if you really want to know why someone would write so much so fast, then you'll have to go on over to the link and snoop around. Chris Baty, the founder, has been trying to explain that for years ;)

Back to the rebel concept. I loved the idea of thousands of (now over 100 thousand)folks all feverishly writing away at the same time, challenging each other to write more and commiserating with each other over the ecstasy and agony of creative writing. But I was already working on a novel. Why should I have to stop my project and start a new fresh novel just to join in the fun? Muahaha haha (evil laughter) I didn't. I found others, like me, that were "cheating" and we founded the NanoWrimo Cheetah's Club. We aren't without morals, us Cheetahs. No sir, Mr. Baty. We have principles. We still had to write new words and hopefully 50K of them. We just didn't start from scratch.

Anyway, this year I discovered a new NaNo segment -- the Rebels. There are poets, folks who want to journal 50K, write non-fiction (gasp!), create 'zines, and like me "the Finishers" who insist we must complete a work-in-progress. I like this crowd of pirates and artists -- I fit with the misfits. And best of all, one of the Rebels (Pax) made a badge just for us! digg it!

Another November, another 50,000 words, another NaNo done! TgIo for sure! But, first one must bask briefly in the feeling of accomplishment, regardless of how one got across the finish line (and some of us had to resort to very strange practices to make it), but in the end, WHO CARES! We've got our banners and purple bars to console us!

Come to mama, little AKS book....

And, may I never work on the damn thing during another NaNo... ever! I'm sure I've said this before, but if I don't Copyright this friggin' thing and move on (.org) then PLEASE just shoot me.

I will copyright on the Solstice (yes, of 2008) and at least have that dickian date on my novel for once and forever. yay! And, as our favorite gal, Scarlett said, "Oh Fiddle Dee -- I'll just think about that tomorrow." I will think about final pre-publication editing next year (when I'm retired.)

Today, I must log off, and go outside -- I've been tied to this keyboard too damn long!!

NaNo Time!

Forget the election, forget the stock market crash, forget that I'm about to retire and have a million things to do so I can LEAVE the office. It's November and that means...
National Novel Writing Month!

Yes, more powerful than a locomotive, able to outrun a speeding bullet, I will leap the high government buildings in a single bound and finish that novel! No plot? No problem -- I am a Chris Baty disciple. We just write! 50,000 words in a month, five thousand every three days -- child's play. Ha!! Carpel tunnel here I come!

Shhhh... I'm Noveling Now

Yep, I'm doing it!
Every year I swear I can't possibly do NaNoWriMo again. Yet, here I go again. Why? Why would anyone in their "write" mind even consider writing 50,000 words in a month? Why would anyone run a marathon? or climb Mt Everest? For the Challenge. To proclaim oneself successful, and like a marathon... just to cross the Finish Line.

But, I want to post this for ALL to see. I really only "have" to make 30K words, because I'm really trying to write a new middle section for my novel. Going all out for the 50K (which I did last year), means messy, stupid writing. And, that's wonderful -- actually a great way to write first draft stuff. Last year we would write anything during "all nighters" on weekend "write nights" to pump up the word count. It was a blast and some really creative stuff emerged. But, I can't do that this year. I'm on a deadline to finish this one, and I simply can't create another word pile. (but notice how many words I'm wasting on blog entries, updating the AKS site, and private Nanograms within the Nano site.) STOP the madness -- close the blog and start novel writing. NOW!

C ountdown to NANO (October 25)

November is National Novel Writing Month (hence the acronym.) How can I not do it, especially this year when I'm on a Mission to finish AKS. One of the few NaNo rules is to start a new project each time. Ha! this will be the third time I've violated that and worse, admitted it on the forums. Here is this year's early confession. I posted in the Roswell section to be funny and sneaky.

So, I have tonight, five more days and Halloween, which for me is NaNo Eve, to edit my existing material. Because the one thing that is important about NaNo is it's writing time -- NOT editing. Those are two entirely different activities that use different parts of the brain. And, since my brain is very bad these days, I can't possibly confuse it further mixing those modes. No Way!

And, for now, the most important thing is to get back to editing. YIKES! The clock is ticking.