Lynne Collier || Books – Page 7

NaNoWriMo Day 12

What a tragic day this has been. For my fellow NaNoWriMo novelists in Paris – My prayers are with you today. I can’t imagine what you’re going through. I can only pray for your comfort today.

I will give just a quick update for those of you who are following my NaNoWriMo blog:

Day 10 was a very busy day with personal commitments, so I only wrote a few hundred words.

Day 11 was Remembrance Day so we went to a service at the local cenotaph. This year my husband visited Belgium with his brother to see the grave of their grandfather who died in battle, so the day was especially memorable for him. Again I only managed a few paragraphs.

Day 12 I wrote quite a bit and reached 13,304. My story was coming together nicely as I approached the ‘muddle in the middle’. A particular scene was very rewarding, and I was pleased with my work. But before I could update my word count we had a four hour power outage.

Today I worked feverishly all day to try and get my middle going well. I was pleased with it again today, although I felt like I needed to change a few bits and pieces. So I did as instructed by the mentors and wrote a reminder into my novel to change those sections later if I have time and just press on to the goal. However, we had another power outage. I hope this isn’t going to be a continuous thing. I’m below the daily average needed, but I’m hopeful I can catch up and still take Sundays off.

Word count to date: 17,197.

Till next time – Lynne

NaNoWriMo Day 9

Day 9 I’m soooo tired tonight/this morning. I got on a roll with my main protagonist realizing she’s not who she thought she was, and I took off with it. I was supposed to be winding down and giving my buggy eyes a break by now (1.30am)! Today was a good day for writing, though. I didn’t have to do any errands today so I spent most of my time at my computer. I may not have written a lot of words, but I spent a lot of time going over my rearranged outline and I like where my story is heading and the development of the characters. But my goodness, this is hard work the first time around. When people tell me now that they want to write a book, I smile and wonder if they really mean it. I’ve coached a few people at the start of that journey and I know now that many don’t follow through and I understand why. I’m very fortunate right now in my life to have the time, physical and mental ability, and no small children vying for my attention while I write. I swear I couldn’t have done this when I was younger, raising three children, and too broke to not work part-time at least. I have a deep respect for people who are challenged with their time and spreading themselves so thin, and still do NaNoWriMo. Wishing everyone, writers and readers alike, a very good night’s sleep.

Lynne

Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon

I’m very proud to have my short story Dancing On The Bus as part of the new Hot Apple Cider book, Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon! The book contains 67 true stories, short fiction, and poems from 61 writers from across Canada.

The men, women, and children in these stories experienced love in ways they’d never have thought of, from people they might not normally have noticed, and in surprising places…

My story comes from a time in mid-century England, where I grew up before coming to Canada. Each story and poem is just long enough to enjoy with a cup of hot apple cider 🙂

Purchase ‘Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon’

NaNoWriMo Day 7

Dogs have masters - Cats have staff — Dogs have masters – Cats have staff

Day 7 This is Saturday – I got off to a late start. We had errands to run and housework to do. As I got to typing late this afternoon, I realized that the flow of my story was way off track. I didn’t know how to fix it, or ask for NaNo help in the forum – how do you describe something that’s not yet complete because you need help completing it? (my ‘?’ still works!) I decided to ask an expert who lives nearby – my son, the fantasy/sci-fi author. We hashed it out for about an hour and I do believe I’ve finally got the hang of it. I took notes, so I hope tomorrow I still understand what I wrote. The plot has a definite outline now and it seems to make sense. (In order to keep my cat from messing up my keyboard again, I’m presently typing with one hand and holding her in the other. Dogs have masters – Cats have staff). I think I’m almost at the end of Act II, depending on which plotting strategy you’re using, if any. I’m enjoying watching my hero come to life and seeing what she’ll do in the next scene because, although I now have a defined outline that flows, I still don’t know all the details until I start typing. Do you write your novels that way? My word count is way down below where I wanted it to be by now – 8735. Tomorrow I’ll be taking the day off to go to church and spend time with family. We’re going to a craft show to fundraise for our local – wait for it ….. cat rescue shelter! My Smokey is a rescue cat. My brother found her at the side of their very busy road but couldn’t keep her because my sister-in-law and nephew are severely allergic to cats. So guess who got the phone call to go pick her up. NightNight and enjoy your Sunday.

*Now that I’m one week into this NaNoWriMo month I’d like to be able to share with you what you’d like to know instead of me just rambling on at 2am. So what can I tell you that would be helpful or informative? I’ll try to answer any suggestions in upcoming posts.

Lynne

NaNoWriMo Day 6

Day 6 Greetings! Day 6 and I’m surviving. I’m drinking a lot of green tea and herbal tea. (I only drink coffee when I go out somewhere). That means I’m reminded every hour or so that I need to get up and stretch my legs. I’ve gone back over some of my earlier chapters and added descriptions to fit better with how the story’s evolving, but I’ve realized that means my word count slows down. I think I have a better idea of who’s who now, though, and why they do the things they do. I think that, although I’m basically a pantser, I need more plotter qualities to start out with. My character personalities weren’t as defined as I need them to be, and I’m not as in touch with their quirks as I will need to be in the next couple of chapters. I’m learning so much from doing this exercise in such a short amount of time. I’m so glad I signed up for it. I’m enjoying writing fiction more than I thought I would. (I’ve been a non-fiction writer to this point). But I guess it all comes down to the finished product, right? Now, for those of you who’ve been following the saga of the missing question mark – it came back this morning! How, you ask? I don’t have a logical explanation; therefore I’m going with divine intervention. God knows my limits 🙂 I hope you have a good night’s sleep and happy dreams. Word count up to 8,000. Till tomorrow…

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