35,001/ 50000 words. 70% done!

Yours For Eternity   

25,038/ 50000 words. 50% done! *Posted Saturday 6:30 PM

It's Saturday night around 6:30 PM. As of right now I'm 9,962 words in the hole. By tomorrow evening I'll be close to 11,629 down. I really do not want to go into Thanksgiving week behind in my count. So it is Do or Die. I'm diving in, with or without my life jacket. If I am going to have a chance at finishing NaNoWriMo I HAVE to get caught up before I hit the sack Sunday night. I know it is possible. It's more than possible, but will I do it? 

I'll update before I go to bed tonight and through out the day tomorrow.

*Update 11:18 PM


28,386/ 50000 words. 56.8% done!

I don't think I'm done for the night. Knowing I have only 1614 words left before I reach 30k is going to nag me until I get it written. We'll see.

*Updated Sunday night

32,016/ 50000 words. 64% done!





By the way, I think I'm on the healing side. Although I still get the aches and pains, they aren't as often, and they aren't as severe.

Writing has become such an intricate part of my life that it no longer poses a problem for me, at least not usually. I've been working on my NaNoWriMo piece slowly over the last several days. Like, 500 words a day slowly. To me it was a disappointing pace, but necessary. Hey, I was getting words on the page, and I hope 80% of those words include a good amount of quality.

Last night, I was able to write 2,298 words. I'm surprised that my OCD didn't kick in and find a place to add two more words.

And I very well could have. I am sure there are several places where don't could be exchanged for do not. I know this is a trick many die hard NaNoers use. I did it myself the first year I played at NaNo, but this time through I guess I see that I'm shooting for a bit more quality than quantity. Of course, I didn't set off on this journey with that in mind. I wanted the word count and I wanted it fast. If y'all remember correctly, when November 1st came around I was going to finish not just one 50k, but two. I knew that I would have two stories close to completion.

But then something happened; I began to care. It all started with a scripture given during a Sunday morning sermon. A sermon that had been the first I had attended in almost three years. Then I started doing a bit of spot research. Then came the character sketches. Somewhere along the way life was breathed into them. They became real, the mountainous desert terrain became real, their story became real.

With all this reality I should have known that my writing plans would take a different direction, but the stubborn competitive sort I am picked up my original premise (the other 50k piece), and I began renewing my research efforts with it, since it was a different era, approximately 3,000 years, and a continent and an ocean away.

This second piece was just as real if not more so than the first. I was born and raised in the area. It is highly probable that at least one of my ancestors lived the life that I plotted. It breathed a life of its own. A life that took root and grew into something far more than I ever thought possible (and I haven't even written the story yet).

So there I was with two stories that were more real to me than preparing tacos on a Monday night ( I know it doesn't make sense, but Monday is taco night here). My stubbornness refused to let one go, and then one of my finished pieces was a finalist in a contest, so I made the decision to put one of them down, in order to make sure all was in order with the entry. Nothing more came from that contest, I didn't move on to the next round (I am totally okay with that, the competition was stiff and I'm very proud of the winner, Eliza Knight). And my stubbornness quickly decided that I could go back to working on both stories. I knew doing so that I would sacrifice quality. It bothered me more than I wanted to admit, but I was determined.

That is when the pinched nerve hit, or I should say fouled up everything along my back, my shoulder, my right hand, and into my right leg. Sitting at the computer for even five minutes was excruciating. I sat in hubs recliner, but my fingers would only function for so long. I moved to the couch, again the fingers would only function as long as they would. I pushed them to at least 100 words, and then I would realize how close I was to 500 and I'd push them, even if it meant getting up and walking around every few minutes. Where it would normally take 20 minutes to pound out 800 words, I was lucky to get 500 words in an hour.

All of this may seem like a bad thing, but it's not. I was writing the story in my head faster than I could type. It irritated me to know end that I had perfect scenes, but couldn't type them. So I would scrawl little notes here and there, most of them aren't legible, but they are jotted down.

In only being able to write 500 words at a time, my internal editor was totally on. I began to care about placement of words. I began to care about quality. That doesn't mean I won't continue pressing onward. I still would like to catch up and beat NaNo this year, if only because Princess stuck a NaNo sticker to my computer. But I also know that when I go back to do revisions, they won't be as extensive as they would have been had I just written whatever came to mind.

I'm glad I have not locked up my internal editor completely, which is much easier said than done.

Well, I did it. I reached the 1/4 mark. Yeah, I'm behind but who cares. That 1/4 mark is a milestone for me.


For those of you who've been watching So You Think You Can Dance, you'll recognize this song. If not, I hope you enjoy it. It kind of set the mood for my writing.

Be Be Your Love~Rachael Yamagata



And I have to share this one, too. I didn't pay attention to the video, since I was multi-tasking, but I love the lyrics. Ooops, just caught a bit of buff, just giving you fair warning.

Meet Me By The Water~Rachael Yamagata

This is difficult. It really is, or I should say it was. My wonderful friend, Laurie has made me feel so much better about my decision. As has my loving hubs.

Unless some absolute wonderful miracle happens, there is no way I'm going to make it to 50,000 by the end of November. I'm truly blessed to be able to pound out 500 words a day on Priest, at this rate I won't reach 50k for another 78 days.

I'm okay with that.

And thankfully, I was okay with that last night before I went to bed since I woke up this morning with absolutely no feeling, other than the intense tingling in my nerve endings.

I know I could just push through and deal with it. But I also know doing that could cause more harm than good.

For now, I'll do what I can when I can, hopefully at least 500 words a day.

I've also slipped into Chapter Two revisions on Bewitching the Highlander. And today's goal, take Cherish Me out of it's organized chaos and move it into some sort of order.

Happy, blessed writing!

I finally broke the 10,000 word mark. Yeah, that means I'm behind. Quite a bit behind. I had planned on catching up over the weekend, but my my plans went awry.

On Sunday morning I woke feeling great, other than the fact that my right wrist bothered me a little. I had scenes in my head that I needed to get out, but knew they'd have to wait until after church. During church, which I had completely forgotten about until this morning, my left shoulder began to ache, the ache turned into a deep throb, and then spasms of sharp pain up my neck. I told hubs that I needed to ice (it's a muscle rub) it when we got home. By the time we got home, it felt much better and I didn't need it. But my wrist was five times worse. So, I braced it. Yes, I've had issues in the past, but they quickly resolve themselves, usually. At least I don't have the God awful tingling and numbness (I have no idea why we call it that since it hurts like hell).

As much as I was tempted not to, I slept with the brace on, such an annoying little thing. They're hot and scratchy. I woke to my shoulder in it's achy state.

It's very frustrating. And I know it has nothing to do with sitting at the computer and typing. I do this all the time, so the extra pressure of NaNo has nothing at all to do with it.


Happy writing week. I leave you with a bit o' me music.



Although, I think I prefer this version better. What do you think?

Wild Heart, a book written by Lori Brighton, is up for vote at Long and Short Reviews.

Go read the reviews and vote. I've linked to her bookshelf for you to read an excerpt. She's getting great reviews all over the place.