Ketchup!

I mean Catch up. That's what I'll be doing for the next few days. On writing. On cleaning. On laundry. This is what happens when a cold knocks you down and trods all over you for a day or two. I did manage to add some today. I'll keep trying before bed, but I also am taking a class from Earthly Charms which I need to catch up on. Meanwhile my characters have reached the muddle and I've got cards as a roadmap, but I'm thinking of making a left at Alberkerky instead of a right. After all it always worked for Bugs Bunny. I need to let them talk to me a little more. I think about them all the time, but they never lead me further down the rabbit hole. Currently I'm 2,297 off of my NaNo goal today. This includes the nothingness that was yesterday. I have a big pile of tissues but not 1,667 words. Sigh. Back to work. What really nasty thing can I do to my characters? Hmmm. A puppy? Not dark enough. A demonic puppy? Why is it that puppy stays cute?

Everytime

I get going writing and then I'll run into something I want to look up. This morning it was Harleys. See my heroine has one and I had to go to the Harley website because I didn't want to call it a hawg and get in all sorts of trouble. So I found a cool Sportster only to realize it has only one seat unless that thing on the back is the b*tch seat. I couldn't see my hero riding shotgun on a Sportster so I kept looking. I found a very cool motorcycle and described it in my story and then moved on. Stopped did some sorting of laundry, took a shower. Now I'm sitting back down to write. My hero and heroine are having coffee late at night. I think Hmmm, what's open in St. Louis late for coffee. So here I am back on the Internet looking for coffee shops and closing times. Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy with the exception of my arch nemesis, the washer/dryer.

Oh, can't forget had to go grocery shopping. There's an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back.

Plugging Away

Fallen is continuing to come along. I've made a "Kicking Butt and Taking Names" playlist on my iTunes and can effectively block out the family while listening to Three Days Grace and Black Eyed Peas. It's an ecclectic mix. Then if I need to focus on the emotions I have a "Fallen" playlist which includes the song that inspired Breann's character and the novel to begin with "Saving Grace (theme)" by Everlast. It also includes songs by Sarah McLachlan, Switchfoot, Coldplay, and Sting. There are more artists in each mix but I don't want to go on to much about it. I'm on card # 4 and about 1000 words less than I'd hoped for the cards. Hopefully in Revision I can take the short scene and expand it further. Some other scenes will (fingers crossed) go beyond the 2000 words. I'm loving this story right now we'll see how I feel about it in a few weeks. My stated goal is 2000 words a day. My personal goal is 5000 words Mon - Fri when the kids are in school. It should be a doable goal since I have 6 hours that the kids are gone and I can do housework once they are home. Good luck to everyone else that's Sweating with Sven, or doing NaNoWriMo, or being insane like me and doing both.

Day 1 NaNo

Exhilarated. I've been waiting so long to write this that the words are flowing. You know, in between painting a box for my daughter, helping my son build a wooden owl, going to lunch with the family to get my husband something he left at home, cleaning the kitchen for the repairman, and cleaning the dining room because it desparately needed it. I'm very pleased with the 2126 words I've accomplished today and hope to maintain the momentum. I can't wait to see what I can do next week when everyone leaves me alone.

36 Cards

Talk about sweating. I think I have my characters, research and plot ready for action in two days. These characters have been driving me crazy. I want to write them down. I know there's no prewriting allowed for NaNo, but when I plot I hear dialogue. So there's a bit of dialogue on my cards. I'd like to plot at least 10 more scenes, but have to think about what I can add. I'm thinking about going back and figuring out what I need each character to do to achieve their change. This is all a little hard with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse going on in the background along with two kids yelling at the screen or their toys. But I'll see what I can get accomplished.

Who Were You?

My new heroine began life very different from what she's become at the beginning of Fallen. So, I was working up her character history and when asked what her previous job was I had to stop and think. Then I thought heck with this and found a career quiz. The nice thing about this on-line quiz was that I had to work through her personality before the downfall. It made me really think about who she was and gave me a nice analysis of who she was. Of course, at the beginning of Fallen she's let most of these personality traits go. But some have remained. Now I have a list of careers she might have chosen given her personality. I just have to figure which one she would have chosen. It might help me rebuild her after the next change too.

Just goes to show thinking is highly overrated, computers rule. :)

Plodding Along

Research isn't the most glamorous part of the writing process, but sometimes it can be downright entertaining and aggravating. Especially when you are researching something as wide spread as angels or even vampires. Different accounts claim different things. So you have to apply your own theory and try not to tick anyone off. From what I understand that's what world building is all about. Creating your own mythology based on the available facts. If something doesn't fit, throw it out and make something else up. I'm trying to do my world building for Fallen. Of course, I'm trying to see what's out there before I make up the world on how my Angels interact with each other and how they interact with humans. I like the concept in Wings of Desire and City of Angels, how angels wander through the world but cannot feel the world around them or taste. But I don't know how much of that I will incorporate in my world. I'm thinking of disregarding it since none of my research has brought that up. Just another author's imagination?

One more day of research and then I'll move on to building my world. The backstory and plotting. I've slowly been character building as they whisper to me while I research. What was your favorite subject to research?