Word count

Lorie’s List for 11/08/2013

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This week has really flown by! A freelance project I’ve waited on finally came along and with NaNoWriMo in full swing I’ve been eyeballs deep in my computer all week! (On a side note, I’m behind in my word count for NaNoWriMo, but I’m alright with that – thanks to carving out time and focusing I’m not too far off the pace.) I did manage to dig up a few  (probably) random, (rarely) newsworthy and on (nearly every) occasion strange or unique stories, Maybe you’ll find something to share with your aunt during sewing circle this weekend.

  • A German shepherd is a baby’s best friend. At least, it is for one baby in Great Britain. A man and his dog were walking in a park when the dog was attracted to something in a bush. The man was expecting to find some sort of small game, maybe some abandoned kittens. He wasn’t expecting a new-born!
  • They call it a prank. I call it awesome. See what happens when 3 guys get into their buddy’s pizza shop after hours as part of prank involving 30 pizzas and the homeless.  
  • The skinny on a new World’s Record. 805 people in Bal Harbour, Florida took off their clothes and took to the water to take their place in the Guiness Book of World’s Record to break the skinny-dipping record. Event officials are preparing the official paperwork as well “video footage and high-quality color photographs” for Guinness officials – video and photos have not been made available. (Considering that the people skinny-dipping are usually not the ones you want to see skinny-dipping, no one is complaining.)

I’d love to hear from any NaNoWriMo folks out there about how things are going. Leave a comment below and share how week one has treated you.

If you have any ideas or if you’d like to Guest Write The List, I would love to hear from you! Send me a note here and we’ll get you on the blog!

Have a great weekend everyone!

NaNoWriMo Results

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I realize I’ve been MIA, my apologies. I was using every spare moment to work on this years attempt for National Novel Writing Month. The final results? I ran head-on with real life in the middle of the month and was unable to write for more than a few minutes for days at a time. I fell short of the 50,000 word goal, but I did more than double the total words I wrote last year! I also like this year’s results 100 times more than what I wrote last year, which I think is even better.

I’m going to keep working on what I’ve written. I’ve really enjoyed having these sort of organized bursts of creativity. It’s so easy to get focus on the day-to-day creative things you need for telling stories for a living that you forget how important it is to stretch yourself. You forget how amazing it feels to push yourself and leave your comfort zone.

To me that’s the most important part of NaNoWritMo – to help people who want a chance to let their creative flag fly a reason and focus to push themselves. To give us a little push, motivation and support to attempt something we wouldn’t think of otherwise.

So what about you? How did your attempt go this year?

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National Novel Writing Month – Final Result

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I’ve truly procrastinated about putting the final results of for my NaNoWriMo efforts because, frankly, it didn’t end well. This was my first effort, and as I mention in my first and second posts on the subject, my goal was to write every day. I really did pretty well…until Thanksgiving. Things just went down hill after that.

My final total was far from NaNoWriMo’s goal of 50,000 words. I ended up with 11,621. That’s kind of sad. But, on the bright side, I learned a lot.

First I picked an idea that i had never really flushed out, and it showed. I had no real out line (except for one I hurriedly put together one night when I didn’t have much time to write and wanted to feel like I made some sort of attempt) so the story was loose and unfocused. I had no clear character definition or characteristics so what was supposed to be a strong female character comes across as fragile and whiny. Not at all what I was going for, and is probably part of the reason I had so much trouble finishing the month.

I did prove to myself that I could do it. I’ve also learned from my mistakes, which I’ll use to help me with other project this year. I’ll also be better prepared when I try again next year.

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National Novel Writing Month – Update 1

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I put off updating my status here because, to be honest, it’s not all that great. I was under the weather a couple of days last week and didn’t write one day (instead I worked on fleshing out my outline better). During a couple of days of recouping I only wrote a few hundred words. I’ve been really hard on myself about it, which is something I said I wasn’t going to do! So I’m going to say loud and proud that I’m doing my best and I’m up to 8,530 written words!

Like I said in my first post on NaNoWriMo, my goal isn’t really as much about writing a 50,000 word novel as it is about getting in the habit of writing creatively on a daily basis. So I really am succeeding at my goal. Of course I’d like to do better, and will keep pushing to write more, but every word is a step in the right direction.

I’m also realizing just how easy it is to start second guessing your choices when you’re working on something like this. Most of my writing over the last few years was short and or/work related. None of the actually writing has been fiction. Sure I tell those little fictional stories that are part of daily life (of course I remembered to make that call, I just haven’t heard back or I would love to help you move) but I haven’t taken the time to do much along the lines of real fictional writing.

I have to say, I’m still enjoying it. I know that there will come a point where it will seem like much more of a chore, but right now it’s much more of a gift. A chance to take time to do something for myself and to challenge myself in a different way.

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It’s National Novel Writing Month!

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November is National Novel Writing Month! I have to admit, I’m coming in a little late to the game. I’ve heard about it in the past but never really gave it much thought. This year something struck my fancy and I’ve decided to give it a try.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel by midnight on November 30th. The website is there to encourage you, provide advice and allow to meet-up with other members on-line and in real life. There are more than 500 chapters around the world, so there’s a pretty good chance that there’s one near you. At the end of the event you can upload your novel for word count verification to be added to the winners’ list an receive prizes (a lovely certificate to print out and frame and a web badge of honor). It looked like fun. It sounded like fun. So I decided late on the 1st of November to jump into the fray.

My goal is the full 50,000 words, but I’m being realistic. I’m a wife and mom and I work full-time, my real goal is to write every day. I want to develop the habit of making time to work on something fun and creative.  This is personal. This the kick in the backside I’ve been looking for to stop procrastinating and making excuses. Since this is personal, I’m going to keep my username and project title between me and NaNoWriMo for now. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you up to date on my progress. Right now I have 858 words written. Hey it’s a start, right? By the way, that’s all written long-hand between getting kids to bed and myself to bed. I think it’s a pretty for two days. Now if I could just find another hour in the day…

So what about you? Are you in? It’s not really about the 50,000 words. It’s about setting goals and being creative. It’s about getting you out of your comfort zone and getting started writing that story you’ve always wanted to tell. Who’s with me?

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