Nanowrimo Day 25: I have no idea what I'm doing.

Hi folks,

I have absolutely no idea what my word count is right now. I have no idea what is going on with my
manuscript. I've been writing almost everyday but it has been very hard to do so. I didn't write yesterday or on turkey day. It has been exhausting and I feel rather defeated. I suspect this is going to be like Glass House or The Red Chair, a manuscript I don't finish until at least a year later.

I have five days to cram in as much writing as I can. I don't think I'm going to get much done because I have a busy day tomorrow minding the wee heathens and appointments to deal with at least on Monday. Not to mention, I have housework to catch up on and stuff for Yule to finish. I am feeling disappointed with myself because I am just not putting up the word count goals I had set for myself. I tried to be modest in my expectations.

I am not sure how to feel about NaNoWriMo right now. I've been trying. I've been sick a lot this year. I also have had things just get busy. I find myself wondering if NaNoWriMo is just harder for me because I'm having an off couple of years or because I'm just losing my taste for it. It could also be the fact that this is the second year in a row that I attempted to do a manuscript by hand. You know, a literal manuscript. Perhaps I will attempt that at another time when I am not dealing with the stress of the holidays, school conferences, and cold/flu season.

I am also of the mind to say that my next hand written manuscript attempt is going to be generated from the most detailed plot map and researched set of notes that I an accomplish. This spending a few weeks to prepare was a bad decision for this project. And that I am going to probably not try to work on two separate novels by hand at the same time for the actual writing of the novel.

TL:DR - No idea what my word count is or what I'm doing. I'm contemplating running up the black flag on NaNoWriMo '17 but will likely go down with the ship.

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Random nerd note: white flag was for parley, black flag was surrender on the medieval battle field for a good percentage of Europe prior to influence from others.

Nanowrimo Day 14: Prompts for EVERYONE!

Hi there, everybody.

At first, I had this wild idea that I was going to post the number of prompts corresponding to the number for the date. And then I fell behind. I sat here trying to decide how to approach the prompts thing and it struck me that I could just post a list of prompts and not do 14! prompts. Exponential numbers of prompts only works if you do it daily and don't fall behind. So, here is a list of 10 prompts that work for just about any genre you're writing, fiction or non-fiction. (If you're writing about a character, obviously approach these from the character's point of view. Or not, whatever works for you.)

1. What is the hardest challenge you has had to face thus far?

2. What is the biggest dream that you  wish to accomplish this year? Have you done it? If so, how did you do it? If not, what stopped you?

3. Where is your 'happy place'? Is this a place you can go in real life? Is this a place you envision when you are stressed out and can't visit when life gets challenging? What makes this such a special place?

4. Who is your biggest supporter? What has been their largest contribution to your success? How have you thanked them?

5. Where is the best place to eat? What kind of food do they serve there? What is your favorite dish?

6. Why are you working on this project? What do you want to accomplish and how do you envision doing it?

7. Who do you love and what do you love about them? 

8. How do you start your day? Do you have a favorite part to your morning routine? Why is it your favorite?

9. What subject confuses you? Do you wish to learn more about it? If so, why? If not, why?

10. What is best in your life? Why is it the best and how does it effect the rest of your life?

Nanowrimo day 13: Actual post content ahead!

Hi there,

I've been sick for a week and a half now. Still sick. I have an appointment with the family doctor on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure that the string of cold, norovirus, and flu has given me an ear infection and a sinus infection. It's made getting pretty much anything done hard. Sleep doesn't work that great when you're coughing and in pain. The body aches is worse than my arthritis, and that's saying something given how the weather has been just perfect for arthritis pain.

Writing wise, I'm well behind where I wanted to be by now. For obvious reasons, naps do make it hard to write. I'm still writing by hand. I finished Glass House last week on the 8th. It will be getting sent to the recipient Wednesday. Because I'll be out of the house doing stuff. Final total word count on that project was just shy of 40K. It was the novel I started last year and had to stop because I was so sick.

My still untitled manuscript for this year is a rambling mess. I'm presently at 7.5K on that. But my working on two manuscripts at the same time slowed me down. And I've been sick. On my good days, between both projects, my average word count has been around 3.5K. On my bad days, I've been much lower. I haven't calculated what my total word count between both projects would be for this week.

If I can, I will try to get that number up tomorrow. First week of the month, my total word count was 12.3K. I know that the total for the second week of the month is going to be much lower. (Thanks, flu.) And yes, I am writing this out by hand. My writing session is two hours long, broken up into two one hour units or where ever I can catch the time to write. I am writing this year's project in a composition book. I'm using a Pilot G-2 (07) ball point gel pen. Black ink, if anyone's curious. I can't tell you off the top of my head what my average number of words per page is except that it is higher than 200. I think it is 250, but I'm not sure.

Glass House was written up in a A5 sized notebook with a canary yellow color. I used a Pilot G-2 (05) with black ink. The average number of words per page was 240. I didn't bother numbering any of the pages for either project so I have no idea how many pages that I've written. But here's the status update I was planning to do for the last week.

Nanowrimo day 3: Prompt 3

Hi folks,

I'm taking a break from writing by hand to type this up. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have killer writer's cramp by the end of the day. But I WILL get caught up on word count. (I'm presently a day behind plus today's count.) Today's prompts go with the 'dark' mood of today's weather.

Prompt 3.1 - The biggest lie I ever told was ...

Prompt 3.2 - What is the worst thing you have ever done?

Prompt 3.3 - The worst mistake in my life was ...

(Murder cat because murder cat is adorable.)

NaNoRHINO day 2: Prompt 2

Hi folks,

Yesterday was not an awesome writing day due to a migraine. I hate those things. I think the weather has settled a little bit so I may be able to get a better start going. Today's prompt is two for the price of one. (I'm debating doing an increasing number of prompts for each day. I haven't decided yet.)

Prompt 2.1 - What scares you?

Prompt 2.2 - Pretend your Batman for a minute. Do you have a plan?

(Why Batman? Because you can be you, but Batman ALWAYS has a plan.)

And, obviously, Batman is property of DC Comics and I'm NOT taking ANY credit for ANYTHING of theirs. NOPE, NOT TODAY, SATAN!

NaNoWriMo Day 1: Prompt 1

Hi folks,

I'm going to try to post everyday here. Because I don't want to spam you with numbers and stuff, I'm going to post writing prompts. Consider it my encouragement and good will.

Prompt 1: Complete the letter following this sentence- Dear [Name], It weighs on me that I never told you ...


I'm still working on Glass House. Yesterday, in my prep for my writing today, I worked on Glass House at all stolen moments and in place of my morning pages. As a result, I wrote 3.5 k. That was by hand. Maybe I can get this thing done at the same time as I am working on my official project for this year. Both are to be done by hand. Wish me luck.

Hail Caesar, we who are about to die salute you!