Non NaNo 2011, Week One

Photo of a Computer Keyboard
Computers. Can’t live with ‘em. Can’t live without ‘em. (Actually you can live without ‘em, but that’s another post.)

Tuesday was the first day of my November challenge and it started out as a pretty good working day. I worked on Saving Grace – Second Draft and SG 2 and thought I made pretty good progress on both.

But I noticed problems with program load time and the system protested every time I did something simple like saving documents. Not the usual software beep, either, but a system signal. Not normal.

The moment I mentioned the problem to my husband/IT guy, I lost the use of the computer. Scans he started Tuesday evening lasted almost 24-hours. Scans found several problems, including one worm, and all the problems were successfully managed.

Tuesday evening wasn’t that big a deal. I’d already spent a good part of the day writing and used the time for pleasure reading and longhand note taking.

Wednesday was a hardship, but my work-around was using Neal’s G4 to write brand new scenes. Without existing documents to work from, most of the work was random.

But it was productive and I was surprised to get to the end of the day with 1,184 words. Way below what the daily average needs to be to meet goal, but a lot more than I expected.

The rest of the week passed playing catch up. My goal each day was to end the day with a higher average daily word count than what I started the day with. As of the end of the day Friday, I accomplished that goal.

The bad news is that I’m still way below the daily average required to make 75,000 words this month.

Goals

  • Finish the second draft of Saving Grace
  • Finish the first draft of SG 2
  • Word Count Goal for the Month (Fiction Only): 75,000 words

Results

  • 9,233 words written this week
  • 9,233 words written this month

I take heart from the realization that the first week in November is short. Only five days.

Another encouraging reminder is that the totals above represent only four days of work. I have one more day left of the week and although Saturdays are usually tricky for finding writing time, there is still hope of improving my totals for the first week of November.

Here’s to a good writing Saturday!

Carrie

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I've been an avid looker-at of books since I was old enough to sit on Mom's lap and listen to the stories she read. Once I learned to read and discovered the school library, I read every horse story I could find. I must have read Walter Farley's Black Stallion series a dozen times during grade school. I still enjoy reading the adventures of the Black Stallion and Flame and all the rest. But Marguerite Henry, C. W. Anderson, Thomas Hinkle and anyone else who wrote a story about a horse was also on my to-read list. I couldn't get enough of them. Then I found Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and discovered another world; the world of mysteries! More recently Dick Francis has combined my love of horse stories with my love of mysteries with his series of books. Frank E. Peretti, Joel C. Rosenberg and other writers now fire my writing and story telling imagination. I am, as yet, unpublished. I write every day, maintain painting and writing blogs, painting journals, writing journals and a number of other writing endeavors. Along with other members of my church family, I've written devotions for Advent and Lenten devotional booklets. For a time, I wrote a monthly column for the Newton Kansan newspaper. I still enjoy a good horse story but I also enjoy a good mystery or cozy mystery, suspense and a little bit of action here and there, as well as literary works. I hope, Lord willing, to try my hand at each of those genres, but if you pressed me to tell you what my stories are about, I'm most likely to tell you they're usually a mix of political thriller and Old Testament prophecy. The Old Testament prophets had a lot to say to the people of their day. They have a lot to say to us, too. It's impossible to follow the news and read Old Testament prophecies and not make connections. Once a connection is made, a story is likely to take shape. The never ending wellspring of ideas is often delightful, frequently overwhelming and sometimes frightening. After all, I know what followed the prophecies of the Old Testament prophecies. Can we be far behind...?

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