Tom's Writing Adventure

Little Big C

2011-12-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

I've copied this off my professional writing site to be able to share it with family. I got a large number of comments and responses on the email chain where it was first introduced as well as on Twitter.

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I’m writing this for me. Usually when I write, it’s for you, but I need to get this out, somehow. Sorry.

I’ve been beating my brains out rewriting the book, and I was feeling good, so good I finally squeezed in my annual trip to the doctor and listened while she told me everything I was doing wrong, and a few things I was doing right. After she looked over my skin and zapped a few ugly little lumps off, she started to peer at my face, making me nervous. Now I’m sure everyone at some time or another has had the feeling that the little zit on your nose is about the size of the starship Enterprise, but this time she spent a while examining it.

“I don’t like the way that looks.”

Truth be told, I didn’t either, but wishing wasn’t doing much, and eating right didn’t seem to be helping either. Even cutting down on chocolate.

“I’ll send you to the dermatologist and let him decide.”

I view all these little skin bumps as the price of living in sunny California and I figured okay, how bad could it be? So I walked into his office a week or so later (never thinking about how quickly I got an appointment) and sat. He looked at me and smiled.

“I’ll be operating this morning to remove your cancer.”

Umm. Me? It took a while until I could breathe. Or swallow. All I could do was nod dumbly and try not to fall off that frumpy little half-bed.

Now I’m not so stupid that I don’t realize I don’t have one of the biggies. In the greater cosmic scheme of things it’s pretty small. In fact, it’s just barely big enough to rate the big C. An inordinate number of our friends have had far worse, and we’ve lost several, and we lost a dear older relative because he ignored skin cancer until it metastasized and took his life. I don’t care. It’s my body and I... just didn’t know, I guess. Or expect it. I always thought if something was wrong with me, I’d sense it. I was absolutely blindsided. I had no clue. All I knew was if the diagnosis contains those six letters, it was frightening no matter how tiny the spot is.

Somehow I pulled myself together without drama, and sat there while he competently wielded his scalpel – do you know how big the blade looks when it’s right in front of your eyes? Something a Highlander would swing… Anyway, after an amazingly short time we were through. He’d call me if it was anything serious. In the meantime keep a band aid the size of a horse blanket on your nose, change it often, put tribiotic ointment on it… Yes, nurse. Oh, and we want you back to look at every place on your body. We worry about other sites…

Soulmate was… well, matter of fact. It isn’t life-threatening. It isn’t serious, nothing to worry about. You’ll be fine. The love of my life cared, but what I needed was reassurance, not facts. Yes, even me, for those of you who know me in real life. Sometimes you need that no matter who you are.

I got another appointment in record time – by this time I’m getting smart enough to be suspicious. I did get a lovely letter letting me know the biopsy from my nose was fine, nothing to worry about, and I figured this would be just more of the same. The Physician’s Assistant was a really nice, personable guy (at least it wasn’t an all-up doctor), and he looked at every place either of us was the slightest bit concerned about. I do have this little thing on my ear – it just never seems to heal right, hasn’t for years, but it’s tiny, I always thought it was just a recurring zit, but now that you mention it…

It took one look before he was calling for the nurse and his scalpel – I never knew a PA could do that but I guess they can, and they can sure move pretty fast too. What I needed was removal and a biopsy. Same thing, nothing to worry about, I’ll call you if it needs further work, but it’s pretty unlikely, here are a couple of brochures…

He called yesterday. In a month or two I go in for outpatient surgery – they work through a microscope to make sure they get everything. It’s not malignant, it doesn’t grow very fast, it shouldn’t invade the rest of your body, but there isn’t a way in the world he could convince me it was good. It was a long time after I dropped the cell phone before I could do anything but stare at the wall. It’s an inch from my brain, if that. What if…

That way leads to madness. You don’t have a choice. Stop it. Don’t even think about it.

We all carry our experiences into our writing, and this one – being scared out of all proportion to reality – is something I’ll use sometime. It gives you tremendous respect for anyone who’s had to deal with little big C’s more threatening brothers and sisters. I needed to share with you all – if you haven’t had the experience I don’t recommend it, but then you may be able to see it coming.

I sure didn’t.

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They caught this early because I take care of myself and go in for regular check-ups. No matter how busy you are, make sure you do too.

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Included in the emails I got when I posted was the following link - just to back up my urging that you all get checked...

Skin Cancer

Please watch it. Thanks Kathy.

2011 NaNoWriMo

2011-11-11T18:44:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this year things haven't gone as well. I barely finished moving (Redwood City to Grass Valley to Marina Del Rey) before the first of November and the new day job is, well, pushing a little more than the last two times. I've had two days with nothing, zip, zilch, and two days with low (1000 more or less) word counts, although one of those the writing was tough - I was working on a tender sex scene that just needed to be right. Even so...

2009 - by November 10th I had 23, 749 - that book finished out at 77K by the 30th, I think.
2010 - by November 10th I had 37, 675 - around 65 K more or less...

Umm, by the end of yesterday (at 3:15 AM according to the timestamp) I had a grand total of...

12, 940 words... I'm 3,730 words behind the 1,667 words a day needed to finish. My current estimate of the book length is 62,800, but then this early it's pretty hard to tell. The other book in the series (this is part of a romantic erotica series I plan to indie-pub) is at 52K so this represents a little growth.

I'll be staying down here for the next two weekends. The lonely novelist, typing away in his garret. Or I guess that's artists.... we just toil away on our laptops.

Better get moving....

NaNo 2010 - the end

2010-11-29T21:49:00.000-08:00

OK - I always like to check in my stuff a day early, just in case something doesn't work. I got my winners badge - total was 65,555 according to the word count gadget. I have a lot to do to make a reasonable book out of it all - I like parts of it; it was, for me, a grand experiment to see if I could do something outside of my comfort zone - kind of a Steven King-ish, paranormal-fantasy effort. I like the way it worked out. It was fun.

Life has been somewhat chaotic the last few weeks - I had the 50K words on November 15th, and the story itself was done last week, but I was experimenting with adding a section of the heroine's journal after each chapter - it took a while, kind of like writing a mini-snopsis only in her own mindset/words. Also, Thanksgiving took its toll. All-in-all, though, I'm happy with what I did.

Good luck to you last minute scribblers - keep at it.

NaNo 2010 Day 19

2010-11-20T01:30:00.000-08:00

Well, the week kind of went to hell after the last post. On Tuesday a pipe burst where I work, and several days of chaos followed. Come in, dont come in, come in. Plus, due to NaNo and writing in general I had errands backed up for quite some time. I rarely get time off in the middle of the week like this, and even more rarely in blocks, so... NaNo had to take a back seat. Somehow, over a very chaotic Tuesday, Wednesday , and Thursday I added 2,354 words, getting to a total of 52,383. I'm not even sure what got added which day - like I say, it was chaos. Today, back in the saddle again, the discipline of a working environmemnt, etc, and I got things moving. At the end of today we added 5,407 words for a total of 57,790.

Today, though, I had to do some clever things with POV. I had plotted everything out, but the outline didn't make me realize that most of the last four chapters will be from a POV other than the heroine. So I had to reorganize it, select who got to tell the end of the story, and then start writing it that way. I have three chapters yet to go, so this NaNo may include some revising, although I do have some inserts to be added.

Keep going everybody. Almost there.

NaNo 2010 Day 15

2010-11-16T03:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, there are several days missing. When last we left our hero... oh wait, that belongs in the book. Well, we last posted on Thursday. Friday was scheduled to be a down-time day, both work and writing. Soulmate was down here for the weekend (most of it) and we had the chance to spend time together. Much of the time we are apart, so this was a real treat. So I planned not to write on Friday at all, and writing on Saturday would be a target of opportunity. Sunday I should be able to make up for everything. Went to bed early Saturday night, with nothing new in the book. Something woke me up in the middle of the night, and , after staring at the ceiling for an hour and a half I crept out to the computer room. Not my computer room, my hostess's. So I am working my way through the work and sipping on Rum and Cokes - I just didn't feel like any more wine (unlike tonight) I managed 1632 words - a little short of my minimum acceptable level. Finally got tired enough to sleep, and was awakened by soulmate who wanted me out of there so she could leave. So much for sleeping in.

On the way out we had a somewhat nasty discussion, leaving me in a foul mood. On top of that, when I become suddenly alone I get my Celtic depression on. So Sunday became a total loss, zero. An unplanned zero. Just lay curled up in a ball all day. My muse had long since departed. Mutter mutter...

Monday I kind of got everything together. I am a spoiled adult who can take his time getting his life together (sometmes) and finally late in the day everything started working again - work, food, and novel. Ah, novel. The muse decided to put in an appearance and I typed along. Not merrily, but still... forward. Onward, as my ex used to say. By the end of the day,. I had managed 6,611 words, several chapters, and a grand total of... 50, 039. Yes, I am a NaNo winner, again. But...

It really doesn't matter. I am on chapter 16 of 24 - more correctly I thnk I'm on 22 of 30 - I have a 1A and 1B and... I have another 22K or so to finish, and the spirit of NaNo is to finish the damn thing, so I must keep charging along, ignoring the 50K boundary. We shall overcome. Or something.

Good luck to you all. I wish you all happiness with what you've written. Thus far, although there are many areas I expect to rewrite, there are a few jewels I really like in mine. Do well, the rest of you.

NaNo 2010 Day 11

2010-11-11T23:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I don't know why I was so prolific today, but I managed to get through two chapters (most of, anyway), one of them pretty dramatic. I felt pretty good about what I wrote, although I had to stop towards the end and go do some research. Tomorrow and Saturday will be a just barely, I suspect. I'll be spending Friday evening and all day Saturday with soulmate.

Anyway, today we wrote 4,121 words, for a total of 41,796. Let me tell you, smashing across the 40K barrier did feel pretty good, until I thought about the fact that I've got to get another 30,000 words in place by the end of the month.

Keeep on truckin', everyone. That end is out there.

NaNo 2010 Day 10

2010-11-11T14:05:00.000-08:00

Really tired last night so I didn't post until morning (Real morning, not virtual morning).

Work in Marina Del Rey is mostly done on a windoze 7 laptop and, because it was new, I left it in auto-update mode and what a wonderful discovery. Sometime after I fell asleep and the end of Tueday's exercise it updated, causing a reboot, and surprise, surprise, I'd forgotten to save the last little spurt I typed. !@#$&! the evil empire, anyway.

But, pleasant surprise, Word offered to repair the file and I got back everything except sixty mysterious words which somehow evaporated. And it was in the middle - I know where they were because there is a jump from the middle of one sentance to another paragraph. Now if I could only resurrect those sixty words of deathless prose...

Also, in a fit of pique, the system removed all the inter-chapter page breaks - well, it might not be so bad, but there are at least sixteen of them. Mutter mutter. So, after typing and reaching my goal I finally brought up things to standard - switch the font to Times New Roman from whatever weird thing Word liked, real chapter breaks, double spacing, a header with page numbers (this was motivated because I gave soulmate a printed copy to look over and had to warn her not to drop it since there were no page numbers) and all that jazz. Not that it's ready for prime time - it isn't finished, for petes sake - but at least that's out of the way.

So - total for the day is 3,013 words, for a total of 37,675 words.

Keep on truckn'

NaNo 2010 Day 9

2010-11-10T00:44:00.000-08:00

Well, today I got to spend a few hours with soulmate. She is down to LA on the way to a funeral for her aunt, then another service for a friend on Saturday, which we'll do together. Anyway, I drove across Los Angeles at rush hour, the wrong time, starting from ElSegundo at six thirty and getting to LaCrescenta at almost eight. But at least we got to spend a few minutes holding each other and whispering sweet nothings. You'd think after twenty-six years we'd get bored with it, but I'm not anyway - don't think she is either. Why write romance if you don't have any?

BTW, saw an interesting quote on Twitter #nanowrimo. "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader" - Robert Frost. I found it to be... compelling. I often get moved by my characters and the situations I find them in. Much of my poetry and some of my writing is about loss - someone (thanks Ciera) pointed it out to me. Being a Celt, I think it comes with the bloodline. In the work I'm doing for NaNo this year, the heroine suffers a terrible loss. I have to admit, she is a composite of a number of women I've had the privilege to know, who have shared their pain with me. It is the thing of which tears are made - if you dont, you have no soul. And trying to translate that, to migrate that to words has been difficult. It has been moving. Hopefully, if Frost is right, it may be worth while.

Enough - I am trying to move my sleep pattern back a little this week - soulmate will be down here all week and we will have time to spend together. Wow. It's been a couple of weeks since we've been together. This is a great week :)

Words today: 2,415
Total: 34,662

Good luck to you all - keep going. Think of Hemingway sweating over a manual typewriter, throwing away much of what he wrote. At least we get to keep ours - until we start revising

NaNo 2010 Day 8

2010-11-09T00:44:00.000-08:00

Today I lucked out - was just doing repeated builds to verify something worked before I handed it out, so I got to sneak in writing while I was waiting. Also, still kept going when I got home. I think I can get some sleep and try to get back on a somewhat reasonable day - being on N.S.T.* gets wearing after a while. The tale is growing in the telling, I fear. At the moment my guess is the The End will have 71 thousand words or so preceding it. So, to get there by the end of November, considering I've got some non-Nano time required, will require around 2K a day average. Also, my outline is being stretched as well. I've discovered my heroine has a paranoid streak as well as going crazy, so it's been hard to write very much at a time. I have to keep pushing back and looking around. Sanity Check? Sanity check OK. It's her, not me.

Thought I'd put up an excerpt. Below is the first scene, completely raw and unedited. Just for giggles.

Enough - it's time to go get some sleep. The total for the day is 4,534, the total for the story is 32,247, according to Word. And would they lie?

*N.S.T. - Novelists' Standard Time - Like Musicians' Standard Time - requires a somewhat flexible view of what a normal schedule is. Doesn't work well if your day job involves asking if people want fries with that.

Chapter 1

Scene 1 ---------------------------
Shannon loved riding home late at night; correction, early in the morning. There was no one on Sand Hill Road as her legs pumped, muscles straining, pedaling up the slope to the main part of the campus; a sheen of perspiration covered her forehead, but it didn't matter – she loved the exercise and it cleared the cobwebs from her mind, a transition from work to home. She sniffed – Jasmine was in bloom. She loved it – it was as if the road wore perfume. Her slacks flapped – that and the sound of the chain walking its way around the sprockets were all that broke the night's quiet. An occasional late researcher headed off campus, or a Silicon Valley denizen making his shareholders rich were her sole company, their headlights dwarfing the LED flasher. After they flew by she rode by starlight – her night vision was excellent, more than enough to see her way. The lonely street lamps stretched over the blocks ahead, dropping the little pools of light her mental compass sought. The time beeped on her watch and she groaned. Two AM – hopefully Randy had fallen asleep or he would be really pissed. He hated it when she rode home alone at this hour. As if someone would find her attractive enough to ravage. Her attractiveness was her mind. Her beautiful mind, he called it. She hoped she wasn't as loopy as the cryptographer in the movie.

She wasn't paying attention to the ride except on the animal level that keeps humans surviving - she was lost reviewing tonight’s experiments. The accelerator was old, ancient by modern standards, but still capable of sustaining new work. She pretty much had it to herself – all the other young researchers had wangled a grant to work at CERN, not understanding the concepts she'd stumbled into – fundamental particles might not need all the energy in the world to isolate them if she was right. The proof would be in her research – if she could isolate the smallest particles in this small old machine anyone could do it. It would change the way particle physics research operated. The wind of her passage blew through her curly blond hair, its perpetual state of disarray flowing behind her. There had been some anomalous data points... A truck roared past her, one of those big pickups with noisy tires. A leering face poked out of the passenger's window as it passed, and she was glad when it kept going. She was plainly dressed, and bundled up in her bulky jacket, but a girl never knew. She pedaled faster, seeking civilization of some kind. One of these days she would simply have to learn how to drive. She'd never had to – she'd lived in Pala Alto since she was thirteen and she'd never driven a car. It was an ideal place for green concepts to play out. Except, Randy was fond of pointing out, when it wasn't. Like now. Driving a big truck would be comforting at the moment.

She could hear it coming again, and this time she didn't dally. She looked frantically for a place to go and there weren't any. She pedaled as fast as she could but she certainly couldn't outrun it. It slammed sideways in front of her and sat rocking on its springs. The passenger’s side door opened and terror took over her life. She prided herself on a totally logical mind but she couldn't free herself from the evolutionary forces that left women, no matter how brilliant, no matter how clever, prey for the more backwards members of the tribe who couldn't attract a mate of their own. She tried to get around him, twisting the bike around the front of the truck, only to find an even uglier, bigger male hand stopping her dead still by grabbing her handlebars. She slid forward off the seat, looked up at one, then the other. Both were unshaven, wore torn clothes, dirt stains spread across once-white tee-shirts, and both reeked of alcohol. She wasn't worldly-wise enough to know what kind, but she did know it wasn't good. She put her hand in her pocket and hoped she dialed 911 instead of #44.

“Now don't she look all proper there on her little bicycle.”

The other one stood right behind her.

“Don't she just, Henry? I bet she'd be fun. Want to play, little girl?”

She turned to look at him and he leered at her, yellow-stained teeth, the few he had left, in a big grin; stinking breath blown into her face scared her. Maybe he was so drunk he didn't care. Suddenly she remembered. She had a plan. She had a can of MACE.

“Well say somethin', don't just stand like a little dummy.” He reached his hand out and touched her hair. “My goodness, that hair is really sweet. Anyone ever tell you that? I bet the rest of you is just as sweet.”

The can of MACE was in her purse...

“Well, I'd sure like to see what's under that coat, wouldn't you, Henry?” He grabbed the zipper tab on the front of her jacket and pulled it down, a little at a time. “I'd take my time with you, just like that. A long time before I was done with you. And Henry can have sloppy seconds.”

She felt disgust. How could he talk to her like that? She wasn't some slut... Oh God, my purse is in my backpack.

“Well, I don't know – maybe we should just swap off – first me then you. Flip you for her.”

Their voices grated on her ears. If she weren't so scared she would have been mad. There was nothing she could do to stop them. Fear had paralyzed her and she had stood where they stopped her, unable to talk or run. She was shaking and she was afraid she was going to pee her pants and...

A truck roared along the road and suddenly the tires screeched to a halt. Oh please let it be someone who'll help me.

A familiar voice... “So what’ve you boys got there? Looks like fun.” Randy, but why was he talking like that?

“Well, I reckon there might be enough to share, but you're third.”

“Hell, she looks good enough for all three of us.” Randy walked up to the group and she was amazed to watch Henry drop to the ground. The other guy – she'd never heard a name, spoke very briefly.

“Now look, mister...” He too fell in a heap, moaning. Randy stood him up and twisted his hands behind his back. He started whining and Randy muttered “Oh for God's sake shut up.” He poked the man in the throat – at least that was what Shannon thought he did – and he slumped. Randy reached out and undid the little tie she wore. He busied himself for a minute, then there was a thump in the back of the truck as her tormentor landed, painfully she hoped.

“Give me your belt.”

“Why mine – can’t you use yours?” It was the first words she'd spoken and it was a complaint – she felt a little ashamed of herself.

“Mine's leather, dear.”

She undid it and handed to him – seconds later there was a matching thump. She could hear sirens approaching.

“Your handiwork?”

“I tried to call 911 but I wasn't sure I got it...” Shannon was still shaking.

Randy waved his arms, successfully getting the officers' attention. Two cars screeched to a stop; the beginning of her ordeal was replayed and she couldn't help herself, tears started down her face. She hated emotional women but she had no choice this time, Randy walked off with the older of the two officers from the lead car while his partner, a woman close to Shannon's age stood with her, consoling her first, then listening to facts and filling out several forms. Shannon could only hear fragments of conversation from Randy, but he and the policeman seemed like old friends. They walked back to the woman standing with Shannon, trying to calm her down.

“... glad to keep this quiet, Commander.”

“Thanks, chief.”

The female officer looked at them both. When the officer spoke his voice was very soft.

“His DD-214 matches mine, Lacy. Shannon here is kind of famous and he asked if we could keep this quiet. I figure we found a couple of drunks in the back of their pickup.”

Shannon was impressed – Lacy was a muscular woman who didn’t seem like the type to take anything from anybody. She ripped up the forms and nodded. “Probably have a little spill going down the stairs to the intake cells as well. I don't much like guys like them.”

The third officer strode over from his patrol car.

“Well, we might have lucked out. It seems these boys have done the same thing before only up the peninsula a little ways. They've got at least four cases that match.”

Randy's friend whistled. “Thanks, Commander. You got a couple of bad ones off the street all by yourself.”

Randy smiled. “Always glad to help. Especially when it's my wife they were trying to play patty cake with.” He lifted her bicycle into his truck and gently walked her around to her door. Shannon was quiet, subdued, and still shaking so bad she could hardly move. She had finally stopped the tears and she was so glad he was there. She hung on his arm as he opened the door for her, climbed in while he waited. As he opened his own door and climbed in the officers all waved to him. He looked over.

“You do understand, Shannon, you are now grounded forever on that damn bicycle.” She couldn't do much but nod her head. There was a chorus of laughter as he closed the door, and he waved back as they drove off. There was a lot about her husband that she didn't know, apparently. How many other things had he hidden from her?

NaNo 2010 day 7

2010-11-08T02:26:00.000-08:00

Had a hard time sticking to everything - a few football games drew my attention, not to mention had to pop into work to get caught up. Soul mate was on the road home and the Alaska kid wondered where the hell his mom was (answer - remodelling her niece's farmhouse out in the wilds, and I do mean wilds, of central California - far from a cell tower, if you can imagine that). Also, middlest daughter's birthday - got a chance to talk to her on the cell, plus texts with the oldest son.

Anyway, finished 3,162 words today for a total of 27,713. Feeling better at the moment. The patch I just worked through was hard to write - I've made a few decisions about where I'm going (mods to the plot) and I think we're on a gentler course for a bit. I'm on Chapter 6, but it really is the 11th chapter, because I have a 1A, 1B, etc.

It was a little funny - today mostly, but also last night (I spent a while at my club enjoying a party before coming home to write). Talk about watching your characters do something you didn't expect. Multiple endings to the story - bear in mind we're only a fifth of the way in - occurred to me and it was was eye-opening. I could see a couple of other books based on a similar premise. That was a lovely little burst of creativity I wasn't expecting. Always welcome. Thank you, Muse.

Anyway. luck to you all. Keep going, you can make it. I know you can, I have faith in you.

NaNo 2010 Day 6 (and 5)

2010-11-07T04:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I missed one. Last few days I've been trying to cope with sleep deprivation. No, not because of NaNoWriMo, I just haven't been able to sleep. Two nights in a row, I went to bed early, something woke me up after only an hour of sleep, and then... no sleep for another four or five hours. Unfortunately, I was drained both nights as far as creativity went, so the idea of writing all night just wouldn't fly.

So... At the end of Friday night I just barely made the minimum - 20, 489. And that required trying so damn hard... I wanted to give up. Don't know if that helps anybody else - there are times when, no matter what, I just barely can keep going. I insisted that I could somehow, some way, beat 1667 words. At least I wouldn't fall behind. It seems so mechanical. Probably the worst part is that I am trying to deal with emotion in the work, a lot of emotion, and words I have shared with others who've suffered loss. it doesn't seem fair, I guess - women have to bear the brunt of the burden, and that was the point of the exercise for this book... That and paranormality might just possibly work.

Today was different. I managed to get a decent night's sleep, even if my mysterious wake up call came and went. I just read, working through the books from my colleagues at LARA. I love the inscriptions, several of which imply I might join them on the bookstore shelves. From your mouth to God's ear... I worked all day, slowly, but continuously. Late in the day I had a party at a club I belong to. If you've read anything else I've written you'd understand what kind of club. Suffice to say, I got enough material for several more books, and found myself remembering techniques and tactics I'd long forgotten. Time to play again.

So, I managed a little over 4K words today - the total is 24,551. I'm proud of that. It was hard work. I'm guessing, if Lucky Lady is any example, that I'll be writing well over 50K words. 75K was last years product. Thus far, what I had plotted as 5 chapters is written as 10. So we shall see.

Anyway, tomorrow will hopefully be a good one. Other than a few hours at work to get caught up I should have the whole day for writing. I hope...

2010-11-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

Kept at it all day - snuck in some time at work, and then continued at home. I need to get a little ahead because this weekend is committed to something else, so I'll get very little done.

Today the total is 18,715. I'm trying to go back and pick up what what I missed, and still make progress at the end, so this is spread over several chapters. The biggest issue today is that much of the stuff I was writing during work is emotional - my heroine has just lost her husband for God's sake - and occasionally brings tears to your eyes. Well, it does to me and I'm writing it. I remember the same thing happened last year and I was very happy with the results when I was done. Still, it is a little disconcerting when this happens at work. I'm about through with the real (non-fantasy) part of things. Hopefully the rest wont get to me so much

Anyway, I feel good to be ahead of the game, at least a little...

NaNo 2010 Day 3

2010-11-04T01:02:00.000-07:00

Really tired - I have a problem with my shoulder and it is giving me no end of grief - all day.

Today I just barely made it through - I did some administrivia, merged everything. I waited too long last time. So...
Gained 2260 words, for a single file total of 13593 words.

Today was hard - my heroine is starting to go mad, and it is hard to spend your day in the mind of a mad woman. I managed (perhaps there's not all that difference between us). Anyway, I changed the format of a few things as well and I'm stgarting to like the way this is going.

Luck to all of you,

Tom

NaNo 2010 day 2

2010-11-03T02:05:00.000-07:00

All right - so we all went out to vote today, and we're trying to get our stuff together in the aftermath - regardless of your politics I hope you all voted.

Today will be brief - it's late and I'm tired.

Chapter 2 - 2909 words
Chapter 3 - 2780 words

Those follolwing closely at home will notice that I didn't finisih Chapter 1B - forgot my flash key (mutter, mutter)

Total for the day (including changes to the stuff already written) - 5725 words.

Giving a grand total (aint it grand , though) of 11306 words.

I'm pleased I've met my goals, although I have to say that my heroine is tugging at my heartstrings - but then isn't that what heroines are supposed to do? Unfortunatley my hero has... shall we say, passed away. Leaving me to deal with him entirely in the past tense. This should be a challenge.

But then, that's why we do NaNo isnt it?

NaNo 2010

2010-11-02T01:23:00.000-07:00

OK - so I'm doing this again. A lot has changed in the last year.

Last time I was trying to understand the whole writing thing - and looking around the corner from my twitter-based flash fiction to being a professional writer. Wow, I couldn't have imagined how differently I write now and how I look at writing as a profession.

After I finished last year's novel (~75K called Lucky Lady) I loved it - I thought it was good. The people I asked to read it liked it as well, (well, most - one didn't out of eight) and the women who read it all said they cried through the last few chapters... So I guess I got what I wanted out of NaNo. I thought it was good enough to publish, but I realized I didn't know that much about publishing, so I decided to get smart. The last year has been about becoming... becoming a professional writer, getting away from depending on just whatever raw talent I have and polishing the work. So...

I have had one romance short story rejected. not once, but twice. There are a lot of reasons, and I have a list of changes to make should I decide to do it again.

I have a BDSM-themed romantic erotica short story on submission. I got favorable comments from the publisher, and then from the acquisitions editor - I am waiting for her to decide. Talk about being on pins and needles.

I have a DD-themed Romantic Erotica novel (~83K words) ready to submit. I am doing the final polishing. I have come to understand how vital it is now. This had been my focus for the last six months. I've entered parts of it in two contests, and the feedback has made me a much better writer - the downside is I went back and revised/rewrote a lot. That is the essence of being good at this, I suspect.

I have three other projects - a SciFi novella, ready for the final polishing run and marketing decisions, a contemporary romance, almost finished (estimated 55K words when done) and a romantic suspense I've outlined and just started on. Not to mention this year's NaNo romance. So... I've been busy. I've entered four contests and received excellent feedback from them, including one in which I've forged a mentoring relationship with someone very good.

So - whence from here? I have to continue to grow as a writer. I am now working on my craft - learning the details of producing a professional level piece of work that is marketable. I am also working on the promotional elements. In a very real sense writing is no different from any other business. First, you must recognize it as a business, not purely as an art form. Then you might succeed...

So - I'll keep track of this year's effort on NaNo as well. I had an outline and a lot of supporting information - certainly more than last year. As I said, I write differently now.

FWIW, my totals are...

Chapter 1 - 2349 words

Chapter 1A - 2,966

Chapter 1b - 180

Journal - this will be fed into the story when I figure out how - 122 words

Total: 5617

Aa kind of an afterthought it is really interesting to look at my comments last year - at this point Lucky Lady is complete - waiting only for a marketing plan. Looking at last year when I was on the third chapter was really cool - it gives you (me anyway) a feeling of accomplishment. That I created something where it didn't exist before. Maybe that's why we write, I don't know...

15 December 09

2009-12-15T18:54:00.000-08:00

I have continued working on the novel. I now have (I think, anyway) all the major stuff in place, including tweaks to the story-line, several editing passes through everything, and now have the chapter headings like I want them for now. I have been putting in four or five hours most nights, usually ending at three or four in the morning. This last weekend I took off - we spent the whole time with old sailing friend,s one of whom was in town briefly.

And from that I had quite an experience. One of them is halfway through reading the book, the first person other than soul mate to see it. She started reading an older version that was laying on the desk - I wasn't asking anyone to start reading it yet. She said she couldn't put it down and had finished four chapters in a few hours. Thus far she is still enthused - I printed her out her own copy of the current version, and the deal we made was that she would call me when she was finished with it, regardless of the time. I'm looking forward to hearing, but still have that "walking on eggshells" feeling. Also I printed out the most vanilla of my poetry and short stories and it was a real upper to get approving reactions from them both as well. Also a first, the first time anyone outside of twitter has seen them as well.

I haven't rechecked the word count - it's high enough now that I think it will be taken seriously as a novel. I've been going through the post-nano stuff, and much of it is useful information as far as proceeding to the next step. This will be a long process.

9 December 09

2009-12-09T22:02:00.000-08:00

The work continues. There were a few days I was just mentally empty before I finally got started on finishing what I set out to do. This involved adding more in areas where I thought the storytelling was a little weak, going through for consistency and plot sequence (never thought I'd use those words together), wording and meaning and just generally being the best work I could possibly produce, and then some more mechanical stuff - renumbering chapters where I added stuff, and so forth. I am just about to do a huge edit - tonight I think - of everything marked up and added. This gets a lot like work sometimes. Programming is easier, but (unfortunately) habitual by this point in my life.

I think the total is somewhere above 75,000 words by now - I'll know better after I'm through merging. At least it's up at the level it needs to be to be taken seriously as a novel. All of my friends made it through the 50,000 word point. They seem to be as shell-shocked as I am, judging by the lack of Twitter traffic or writing adventures from any of them. About the most I can manage is some erotic poetry for MicroFantasyMonday - I couldn't deal with prose in another venue at the moment. This is it.

I'm linking into this from my Facebook page - just finishing getting that up. Ah, technology...

At some point I need to produce a longer synopsis. That will be difficult - I'll probably post it here.

Found a quote (actually a number of quotes) from Hemmingway I liked - "I write about one page of good stuff for every ninety-nine pages of shit. I try to leave the shit in the trashcan"

28 November 09

2009-11-28T16:31:00.000-08:00

Last night, or more correctly this morning at 1 AM I finished the novel. I feel empty- it has taken all day to just let everything drain out of me. Editing commas and apostrophe's all day and a little revision - not necessary for NaNoWriMo, but satisfying. Soul mate has been typing for me. This morning she asked me what I wanted where I had made an illegible note and I drew a complete blank. I said "I just cant do this right now." Took fifteen or twenty minutes to pull myself together and figure out what I meant. Sometime later tonight I'll run it through the word counter and pick up my win sticky - reminds me a lot of getting a finisher's pin in an enduro. It doesn't mean you did good, but it does mean you finished.

Some wag on the #nanowrimo twitter line posted something like "I used to have a life before nanowrimo. I just cant remember what it was" I am trying to get a list together of all the things I've let slide during November to get here. Starting with picking up the living room in my tiny LA apartment so I can walk across the floor without tripping. Clean dishes would be cool too. Getting the car smogged and licensed so I dont get a ticket. And maybe having an evening that isn't committed to 4 or 5 hours of writing, maybe get back to some TV. And having a weekend that isn't spoken for. Wow, I can imagine it.

The end result when I stopped typing was 64,383 words. Between now and the week of 6 December I'll be sending out copies to my review board. That's when I find out if its any good or not.

I wish the best of luck to my fellow competitors. Keep going, you've got a chance if you hustle.

24 November 09

2009-11-25T15:50:00.000-08:00

Wrote much of the night last night. Wanted to sleep but the words just kept coming. If it weren't for Thanksgiving coming up I might have done so, but I'm heading from LA to home, so I needed the time today.

I am excited because I can see the end now. I have less than two and a half chapters left, the outline and my thoughts are pretty well matched up, and I expect to finish on schedule on Friday some time. Then its time to take care of the mechanical details of submission for NaNoWriMo and then start the editing and polishing process. Wow. I am really stoked. This was a new experience for me, one I was expecting to approach gradually in a few years.

I've also lined up several people to serve as a review board - I need the input as to how it reads.

Ultimately I have to decide if this is good enough to pursue an agent and try for publication. That will be a tough call. I hope it's good enough - so far when I go back and re-read things I find things I want to change (I'd be worried if that weren't true) but I dont think its crap. I've heard that comment from others and I dont understand, I guess. "I've written X thousand words, but its all crap" Why write junk just for the sake of getting junk on paper?

I am most of the way through chapter 23, and my total is 58, 085 words. Looking back at my earliest posts I'm glad I stuck it out. It hasn't been easy.

20 November 09

2009-11-24T17:43:00.000-08:00

Posting this after the fact. Friday represented meeting my goal. Finished 50,645 words late Friday night, thus meeting the plan of 50K in 20 days. I really felt like I accomplished something. and I (like many others) put up an "I DIT IT" post on the twitter #nanowrimo topic. Finished Chapter 19 and well into chapter 20. I also can see the next 5 chapters to the end (finally) and the plot is falling into place. It looks like it will go a little over 60,000 words - the tale grows in the telling (Chaucer, isn't it? - I dont recall for sure. but it applies).

Anyway its interesting how the contents of #nanowrimo have changed in the last week. There seem to be fewer articles website references and more sticking to the job at hand. I'm guessing a mood change in the writers, but I dont know.

Anyway I'm happy. Luck to everyone.

19 November 09

2009-11-19T18:05:00.000-08:00

Continuing on in relaxed mode, completed another chapter. Total word count 46,459 for a daily total of 2426. Also did some research on synopses and discovered that I'm not the only one who finds them difficult. Finally found a very useful suggestion on here

http://www.writing-world.com/publish/leblanc.shtml.

So I gave it a shot and thought I'd share. Also discovered that the standard font is courier unless the agent specifies something different - that wasnews as well...

Any comments welcome...

Synopsis of: Lucky Lady Genre: Romance

Mara Hennessey deals with the loss of her parents and childhood sweetheart by withdrawing. As a favor to her best friend she accompanies her to a sailing gathering; there she meets Peter Miller, a younger skipper who invites her to join his crew for local sailing races. As their friendship deepens she learns of his dream to enter a dangerous solo Trans-Atlantic race. He takes her into his confidence and she becomes co-leader of the team building his race boat and supporting his run across the ocean. Their friendship turns to passionate love during a relaxing short vacation in the Caribbean, and she later earns his respect and gratitude when she rescues him after an injury at sea. She is surprised to make the friendship of a group of other women while they all wait for their partners to complete the dangerous ocean crossing. An intense storm destroys his boat and she fears she must once again find the strength to deal with loss. In the end, though, love triumphs over the sea in unexpected ways.

18 November 09

2009-11-18T15:06:00.000-08:00

Well, finally. Back to a normal plodding 2,500 word day (actually 2,800 and change). After yesterday I was kind of drained. I needed time to think and let the story evolve in my mind ( or maybe NOT think and let the story evolve). I had to leave it alone for a while even though I did have time during the day to work on it. Did a couple of mechanical things (chapter marker, page numbering, restructuring the outline). The last turned out to be useful. As the story changed the outline was useful, but it was time to tweak it. I also started doing something I should have done before, adding notes into the outline. I've been carrying this stuff in my head.

Anyway, today the total is 44,033. After all the stuff above plus the new chapter I could begin to see the end. That's a really good feeling. Now if Icould just sleep a little better...

17 November 09

2009-11-17T17:58:00.000-08:00

Finally had a truly productive day - everything fell into place for the latest 3 chapters (through 16) and I now have a total of 41,230 words. I wound up writing until nearly 4 AM.

I should meet my goal of completing 50K words by the 20th. On another weird note, I finished what I think is one of the most sensual scenes I've ever written... and I'm down here by myself. Murphy, I guess :)

Hope all is going well for you all.

16 november 09

2009-11-16T14:58:00.000-08:00

Finally - an end to a couple of hellish days. I went through a couple of days where my sleeping schedule was off and I only got a few hours, then got sick. It had nothing to do with nanowrimo - just one of those problems I occasionally have to deal with. Finally recovered Saturday, but for the first time since I started this project I am behind my own schedule, although still, according to nanowrimo, doing fine.

I am complete through the thiteeenth chapter, with a total of 33, 100+ words. That is the good news. the bad news is that I now have three chapters completed above the outline, with one more that I had already planned to add; if things continue to grow as they have thus far then this is closer to the half way point, which means that instead of having a week or more to edit and polish before the end I'll be going right up to the buzzer.

Hopefully I can get a little more output in the next few days and catch up...

10 November 09

2009-11-11T16:36:00.000-08:00

I thought I wouldn't have time last night - worked late, had to go shopping, and my tail was dragging. But somehow when I got in AIC mode the words started coming. I finished Chapter 9 and got well into Chapter 10. I'm beginning to wonder how long this will go - I'm thinking I'm outpacing the outline again, although I have hopes of compressing two chapters there. At the moment I could easily see this getting to 300 pages, something I didn't expect.

Totals:

Chapter 1 - 2517
Chapter 2 - 2543
Chapter 3 - 2573
Chapter 4 - 2581
Chapter 5 - 2518
Chapter 6 - 2546
Chapter 7 - 2573
Chapter 8 - 2570
Chapter 9 - 2516
Chapter 10 - 712 (In progress)

Total: 23749, a gain last night of 2591. I'll take what I can get...

Tonight I should hit the "official" half way point, although as noted previously I suspect I'll be going a little beyond that.

Good luck to all the rest of you...

09 November 09

2009-11-10T01:48:00.000-08:00

Wow what a rush today. I had an ususual chance today. The last few weeks at work have been overloaded with mental exercise, i.e busy thinking things out most of the time. Today though I've been working on something that takes a long time to build. So I had some time at work to sneak in a little NaNoWriMo. Unusual.

So todays values are:

Chapter 1 - 2517
Chapter 2 - 2543
Chapter 3 - 2573
Chapter 4 - 2681
Chapter 5 - 2518
Chapter 6 - 2546
Chapter 7 - 2573
Chapter 8 - 2570
Chapter 9 - 637 (in progress)

And the grand total (and this one, as they say in Texas Tea, is really grand) is

21158 Ahhhhhhh !

Today I managed 5164 words. A-f***ing-mazing. Well, to me anyway. Evenwith the weekend being dedicated to something else we are still 1K ahead of plan, a plan that ignores little things like commitments to something else. Wow. I'm a happy camper. Or a crappy hamper, as little Brian used to say.

And now, it's time for bed. It's tired out.

08 November 09

2009-11-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

OK - this will be an end of the weekend update. Saturday and much of Sunday was spoken for in another venue. (Ironically it was another contest which embodies human endurance as well ). I got no writing done at home, so the pieces were squeezed in on the plane. Sunday night I was ready to collapse, having had only 3 or 4 hours of broken sleep. but I sat down to try for a little more while I waited for the Chardonay to take effect. Somehow I found a little more creativity and endurance than I was expecting, and I picked up a little more. The totals through Sunday night thus are:

Chapter 1 - 2517
Chapter 2 - 2543
Chapter 3 - 2573
Chapter 4 - 2681
Chapter 5 - 2518
Chapter 6 - 2546
Chapter 7 - 616 (still in progress)

With an over the weekend total of 2934. So all in all it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Grand total: 15994

Also I found another area where I think a chapter will be added. Means the book is longer, but makes nanowrimo more difficult if I'm going to finsih everything in time.

Luck to us all...

5 November 09 - End of Day

2009-11-06T02:05:00.000-08:00

Actually it's 0200 the next morning. This is gonna be tough cause I gotta get up early tomorrow. Wow, was tonight productive.

Where we is now:

Chapter 1 - 2517
Chapter 2 - 2543
Chapter 3 - 2573
Chapter 4 - 2681
Chapter 5 - 2518
Chapter 6 - 246

Total: 13078 - I feel like I've really crossed into another level. Also, chapter 4 split into 2 and also chapter 21. Hopefully I can be over-productive and get them squeezed in over the same period.

Tonight: 481+2518+246 = 3245 - best yet - just got on a roll late tonight...

Tomorrow will be tough - maybe 45 minutes waiting for the plane and about the same on the plane. Hopefully I dont have to explain novel-writing to someone...

And this is a tough weekend, over-committed.

At least we're a little ahead of plan...

5 November AM

2009-11-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

Actually didn't feel good yesterday, and only got two hours in last night. Woke up early today and decided to skip the gym to get caught up. So - totals are:

Chapter 1 - 2517
Chapter 2 - 2543
Chapter 3 - 2573
Chapter 4 - 2200 (almost finished)

Total 9833 words - coming up on the magic 10k point!

This gives me a total for last night/this morning of 2814 words, best night yet I think. Tonight will be a contest of priorities since the 49rs have a Thursday night game.

Looks like I may insert another chapter, since sime of this is coming out longer than I thought it was going to. Much better than coming out short. I'm happy with where the story is going (even though I wonder if I'm fighting off the flu or something...

03 November 09

2009-11-04T01:57:00.000-08:00

This is getting to be a lot like grad school...

OK - this morning I had to blow off the gym because I had to do rent and prepare for shopping. After work I HAD to go shopping (I'm running out of food here - next nanowrimo I will stockpile food like a bear in hibernation. Logistics - big mistake. And I'm supposed to know better...)

So not only do I have that problem but being a small business (as I referred to before) I missed my date for submiting taxes. It's more a PainITA than anything else, but it takes awhile to get everythihng set up and out the door - due to the computer issues had to bring up the laptop, etc, etc... just lost too much time, but the necessary forms for the socialist in the whitehouse and the peoples republic of kalifornia are finsished, ready to be signed, and the appropriate (inappropriate?) checks are filled out, ready to go...

So - I have an external keyboard for the laptop, which eliminates the STUPID cases where the finger pad (or whatever they call it) catches my hands going by and drops a sentence in the middle of the work... frustrating. Damn Sony anyway. Now that doesn't happen. Also lets me use my new big monitor that hasn't been interfaced to anything else.

So I keep typing. I finished Chapter 2 (which I was beginning to despair on) and a good part of Chapter 3 - wow, I'm ahead of plan by 500 words. Good thing, because I need to fly back home on Friday and I'm going to be short of time. An hour (max) in the terminal, an hour on the plane (people next to you wondering why your little fingers keep dancing in the keys way faster than they can - I've been asked) Anyway trying to fit a schedule for the rest of the week which will be a b*tch.

Stats:

Ch 1: 2517
Ch 2: 2543
Ch 3: 1759 (incomplete)

Total: 6819 !!!

I probably could go further, but I am really getting tired. I can't do any creative stuff at work - I'm just too busy - but I may try to add a few words in the morning.

Anyway - love all you fellow nanowrimo's - have a good one

2 November 09

2009-11-03T00:36:00.000-08:00

Its 12:30 and I'm tired. OK, my totals are:

Chapter 1 - complete, 2517 words.
Chapter 2 - Half way - 1277 words

Total 3794 - whee! No where near the 8 to 10K that others have, but I like what I've written so far.

Got in 4 hours toight - I was hoping for 5, but between work and gym time I'm running a little ragged here.

I promised an excerpt, so here is the first paragraph

------------------------------

Mara opened her eyes slowly, focusing on the unreal splendor of the sun setting over the ocean. She was foggy, hazy almost - the stupor induced by the meds making it hard to remember anything. She sat up on the couch for a minute, closing her eyes to regain her composure. The meds. Oh yes, she was taking meds. She was taking them for…depression, that was it. She was depressed, but why? She had never needed them before. It all came back to her so fast she almost felt she’d been struck. Peter was lost. He was gone and he wasn’t ever going to come back, was he. He had been the light of her life, truly her soul mate. She had waited for him after she’d been cheated of the sweetheart who’d grown with her since childhood. She’d waited thinking that it could never happen again - one woman just doesn’t get two chances at fulfilling love like that, but she had. She had felt supremely lucky. And now she’d been cheated again. It just wasn’t fair…

Beginning - 1 November 09

2009-11-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

OK - its 2 November and I have started a new project. Thanks to my twitter friends @caseydamnmorgan, @asparkle, @nettagyrl, and @adelehaze who got me interested in National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo, as in www.nanowrimo.org) - I've been building up to this for the last six months, I guess - I just didn't realize it. Since it's been nearly 5 decades since I did any creative writing that 6 months has been great - I've been prolific, and the last project I was working on was a 10,000 word short story, so this was the right project at the right time. Also, racing season ended, leaving me some time to be reflective.

I have one advantage (other than old age triumphing over youthful exuberance and good looks) I've written many documents much, much longer than this, both alone and leading teams. So I've got the organization stuff down. However it is a little more difficult to write undying romantic prose than say to analyze the design of a guided missile.

But I digress - the goal here is 50,000 words by the end of the month. My schedule is simplicity itself - Sunday I laid out a story line that broke down into 20 chapters - at 2500 words apiece that gets us there. And it also means 2500 words a day for the next 20 days of the month, leaving me 10 days to polish the work, beg for reviews from my friends (or enemies) etc. Actually, I decided to split the last chapter into two, which is good since it holds the promise of a little extra in case there is a difference in word counting.

The hanger, of course, is that I have a perfectly nice consulting business, which means my time is spoken for during the day. Not to mention a soul mate, who deserves my attention, two partial weekend time commitments, thanksgiving, and maybe a sanity check here and there...It will be interesting, if nothing else. Given a plan, the rest is execution.

So here goes - at this point (actually early Monday afternoon) I am most of the way through the first chapter, along with additional organizing stuff out of the way. I'll try to post to this every day, probably at the end of the day when I'm dying to sleep...