Tag: Authors

NaNoWriMo Day 14 – Almost Half Way!

Next Year
Next Year!

Day 14 Today was a writing/gardening day. I was supposed to have my gardens all finished so I would only need to help with the raking of leaves in November. Well, that didn’t happen. So today my son helped me with tidying the garden shed and I put away most of the toys. Then we started on the leaves. We still need to upturn some pots so they don’t crack in the winter, but Monday will be a good day for finishing that and doing some more raking because we’re expecting a high of 13! I probably won’t catch up with my word count until Tuesday. I think I’m about 5,000 words behind at present. Ughhh. I am enjoying the experience, though. I’ve learned a lot about plotting (not my forte as a Pantser) and flow. There’s a great deal of figuring out to do to make scenes flow. I have a greater respect for fiction writers now I’m aspiring to be one. It is not easy. NaNoWriMo is an amazing place to test and hone your writing skills. I’m so glad I decided to do this. I think next year I’ll start by purchasing a few stacks of sticky notes and posting them all over my office wall so I can rearrange them when I realize the protagonist shouldn’t be revealing her super powers till the next scene. Two weeks to go – will I make it? Yes, I will! (Well now I have to, don’t I?)

Have a good sleep everyone. I’ll be away from writing tomorrow so I can go to church and visit my daughter and her family (not necessarily my son-in-law, he’ll be glued to the football game).

– Lynne

NaNoWriMo Day 12

Praying for France

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

Good Night/Morning
Good Night/Morning

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

Finding Love In Unexpected Places
Finding Love In Unexpected Places

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