A nice realization

I've always respected the fact that stuff must be cut in the editing process. Even if you fell in love with it when you were writing it--and especially if you didn't--some things just must go. They don't add to the story. They actually detract from the story. They just don't fit in the story as well as they should.

And, no matter how painful it is, you must cut.

I haven't done a lot of this, despite the fact that I know it is a fact of a writer's life.

But I am editing my 2007 piece now, and I am cutting a lot. Some of it I don't like, so it's easy. Some of it I do like, and it's harder. But it doesn't fit.

I feel more like a "real" writer now.

Another NaNo comes to an end...

So, here I am, surrounded by Wrimos from the Michigan::Flint and Michigan::Tri-Cities at our joint Final Fandango Write-In. I finished my novel with 14 minutes to spare. I *would* have been done a lot sooner, but the first hour or so was spent with me and two of the guys from the Tri-Cities Region (the Flintstones weren't scheduled to show up until two hours after us Tridgies began, so it was just our region) decided that it was more fun to use YouTube to watch every funny commercial we could ever remember seeing. Which of course led to comedy routines on YouTube. I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face, but not a lot of words got written during that time. *g*

I also wrote *precisely* 5,000 words today (well, technically yesterday since it is after midnight). Which I think is cool. To end on such a round number. We just called Chris Baty and expressed our appreciation for this wonderful experience. And there was some silliness expressed, too. ;)

And, as I finished the novel, I finished earning my tenth and last badge. It is the Random Ending Badge, which is earned by writing a "gleefully left-field or completely nonsensical ending." And I went for the gusto. My gleefulness is on steroids. I am so thrilled with how far out of left field this ending came. Heh. Oh, and it also completed a Municipal Liaison dare AND our regional bagel dare. And I plundered more real live events. All-in-all (I can use hyphens again--the month is over!), it was a most delicious and gratifying epilogue.

All in all, despite the lack of motivation for the first two weeks, the second half of NaNo treated me well, and I am very excited about that.

Thanks for another wild ride, Chris Baty.

Two Badges Earned Along the Way

So, I actually earned both of these badges a while ago, and just never updated over here. Oops!

The first is the Creative Nonfiction Badge, which is earned by either plundering overheard dialogue and real-life events for novel material or placing barely disguised friends and family members into your novel as characters. Last Sunday or Monday (I think Monday), I needed Honey to open a fortune cookie and receive a fortune that was prophetic. I made it up. Then, not 30 minutes later, I opened a bottle of Jones Soda that had a little saying in the cap. And that phrase was perfectly perfect for the fortune I needed! So, I went back and changed the fortune I had created to the one I had just opened on the inside of the Jones Soda cap! I was so thrilled!

The other is the Eureka Moment Badge, which is earned by experiencing that "aha!" moment when a major plot issue is resolved, and your story comes together. Actually, I've had three of these moments during the last week and a half, as thoughts come to me that really help tie this story together! It's been very exciting. And two of them center around Dan and have inspired the idea for the next story in the Gethsemane universe--which will be about Dan. I am pretty freakin' excited!

Just one more badge to go, and I know exactly how I am going to earn it. I will be earning it tonight at the Final Fandango Write-In that the [Michigan::Flint] and [Michigan::Tri-Cities] regions are holding together tonight at the Flint ML's house. can't wait! Mwa ha ha!

Coming from behind...

I was behind all month, but the last couple of days I finally got to write the crux of the story where really starts to unfold after all of the descriptions of the feelings that have led up to this point. And it has flowed! I still have three more pivotal scenes to write and a little bit of a conclusion, but as of 2.5 hours ago, I hit my fifth NaNo win. *sighs with relief and pleasure*

There were times I doubted I was going to get to this point, but once I laid the groundwork for the story, it got easier. Not for the characters, but for me. :)

And in so doing, I won the NaNoWriMo Victory Badge by "writing a 50,000-word novel, from scratch, in thirty days."

Love those word wars!

So, I decided to blow NaNo off today. It's November. I am depressed. I am always depressed in November (I hate fall!), but there's been a lot of other things going on this year that I have not had to deal with in other years that are making me more depressed lately.

So, I decided that I was allowed to blow off NaNo and play a video game. And I am not a video game kind of person! Well, I turned on the computer to turn off my brain (video games do that to me), and decided that I just couldn't not write.

So, I headed to the NaNo forums and went to the 15 minute word war thread in the Word Wars, Sprints & Prompts forum.

And now, less than an hour later, I have written 2030 words for the day and am more than two days ahead of the minimum word count goal. Yay!

Without the word wars, I write at a pace of about 1000 words an hour. I get distracted. I research things. I use a thesaurus. Basically, my inner editor does NOT stop working.

My average number of words in a 15-minute word war is about 830 or so (I may go find all of my posts and do an average). I usually do end the 15 minutes with between 830-860 words, my low being somewhere in the upper 600s (I can't remember) and my high word count for 15 minutes was 975. That's basically my usual word count for an hour done in 15 minutes! That happened yesterday at a write-in (there were witnesses, lol!) while I was writing a pivotal scene between Dan and Honey. It was one of two pivotal scenes I have been working up to since Word One.

Anyway, the only reason I am where I am right now is because of the word wards, and I am sooooo grateful to them. It's the only way that I can turn off my inner editor and just Write, with a capital W.