Friday, November 30, 2007

What was up with Blogger this last 24 hours? I couldn't get in to post. So here's yesterday's stats:

Yesterday's word count: 1781

Total word count: 40,149

Today's outline: finish :)

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Today's word count: 1695

Total word count: 38,368

Tomorrow's outline: I'm saving the last chapter for the last day and using part of today's word count and tomorrow's to write important scenes that have come into it as I've been going along
Yes, I wrote yesterday--but the internet went down and I couldn't post my results. So here they are:

Yesterday's word count: 1625

Total word count: 36,673

Today's outline: return to Rooks End and beginning of wrap-up

I so want to reach at least 40,000 by Friday night. Let's see, that means I need to write 3327 words in three days. I'll pass that if I hit 1500 each day. All right, there's my goal for this final push--4500 words or bust!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Today's word count: 1518

Total word count: 35,048

Tomorrow's outline: end of confrontation with Hugh

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Today's word count: 650

Total word count: 33,530

Tomorrow's outline: not even making a prediction anymore--it's sure to be thrown out the window by the time I wake up in the morning!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Today's word count: 76 (Yes, I typed them just so I wouldn't have to face the humiliation of putting up a big fat zero! I'm not going to feel guilty. I'm not. I had a good day with my family and that has to count for something--I'm hoping it counts for at least 1424 words.)

Total word count: 32,880

Tomorrow's outline: we'll see

Friday, November 23, 2007

Today's word count: 344

Total word count: 32,804

Tomorrow's outline: Annest returns to Haven for confrontation

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Today's word count: 1107

Total word count: 32,460

Tomorrow's outline: Annest confronts Hugh

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Today's word count: 1819

Total word count: 31,353

Tomorrow's outline: Annest says goodbye to Rhys, returns to Haven

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Today's word count: 1787

Total word count: 29,534

Tomorrow's outline: turkey, ham, pies, rolls . . . Oh wait, wrong list :) Rescue, Rhys

Monday, November 19, 2007

Today's word count: 1772

Total word count: 27,747

Tomorrow's outline: Annest and Joanna fence, explanations and revelations

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Today's word count: 914

Total word count: 25,975

Tomorrow's outline: trapping Einon, reading his mind

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Today's word count: 872

Total word count: 25,061

Tomorrow's outline: meeting with all concerned

Friday, November 16, 2007

Today's word count: 1342

Total word count: 24,189

Tomorrow's outline: finish confrontation with Owain, meeting with all concerned (no more lies)

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Today's word count: 1892

Total word count: 22,847

Tomorrow's outline: confronts Owain, begins to piece together the truth


Woo-hoo! Halfway through November and I'm right where I need to be to reach 45,000 words by the 30th. That is, if I don't finisht the story before then--I only have four chapters to go!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Today's word count: 1694

Total word count: 20,955

Tomorrow's outline: confrontation/reconciliation with Ivo, finding father's killer with Owain

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Today's word count: 2247

Total word count: 19,261

Tomorrow's outline: Geoffrey and Ivo's arrival, Rhiannon's whereabouts, Geoffrey's decision

Monday, November 12, 2007

Today's word count: 397

Total word count: 17,014

Tomorrow's outline: Okay, here's the deal. My 397 words today were the general outline for my remaining chapters. As it stands at this (very tentative) moment, there will be 23 chapters. I'm just starting chapter 18. That's 6 chapters to write. In a nice twist, that's how many chapters I've written so far in November. So I stand a good shot of finishing this book by midnight November 30.

Given that I don't continue to write only a few hundred words a day. But I'm not going to feel guilty. I'm not. Or at least I'm going to use guilt as a motivator--believe me, I wouldn't have typed 100 words yesterday if I didn't know I had to post it in my room.

Stay tuned . . .

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Today's word count: 100

Total word count: yesterday's total plus 100

Tomorrow's outline: don't know


I showed up. It's just been one of those days . . .

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Today's word count: 2057

Total word count: 16, 517

Tomorrow's outline: haven't a clue yet . . .

Friday, November 09, 2007

Today's word count: 1608

Total word count: 14,460

Tomorrow's outline: private meeting with Owain Gwynedd, agreeing to aid him, meeting the court

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Today's word count: 1510 (let's hear it for adverbs!)

Total word count: 12,852

Tomorrow's outline: meeting Owain Gwynedd

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

One Week In

So how am I doing one week into my November challenge?

Let's do the numbers.

According to my daily goal of 1500 words, I should be at 10,500 words after seven days. Check--and a little more :)

Although I'm not doing NaNoWriMo, I wanted to know how close I am to keeping up with their daily goal of 1657 words. At that rate, the total after seven days is 11,599. Awfully close.

Which means, as long as I keep it up, I'll have between 45,000 and 50,000 words by midnight on November 30.

Lots of those words are, frankly, rotten. But hey! I can't fix them until I actually write them. (A friend told me that was very profound, so I thought I'd share.) And at least I'm not stuck in the same place like I was for months.

Overall, there's one day in particular I'm proud of in this last week. Yesterday.

Why, you may ask? After all, it was my lowest word count day by far, less than 1200 words.

But yesterday was also my hardest day of the week, both physically and mentally. I only had 426 words written by 8:00 last night. I figured I wouldn't worry about it, but then I went ahead, sat down, and wrote a good 700 more words.

That's what I'm proud of--that I didn't quit when I wanted to. That I showed up.

On Sports Night, a great comedic show by Aaron Sorkin, Casey is in love with Dana, who has just broken off her engagement. All his friends want to know what Casey's plan is to win her.

"I show up," he says. "And then I see what happens."

That's it? they want to know. That's not a plan. But at the end of the episode, he'd gotten where he wanted. How?

"I showed up," he said.

So that's my plan.

I'll show up.

And I'll see what happens.
Today's word count: 1677

Total word count: 11,340

Tomorrow's outline: current political situation in Wales, Bronwyn's stories

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Today's word count: 1162

Total word count: 9663

Tomorrow's outline: first meeting with Cynan, first meeting with Rhys (yes, I know I said that yesterday--it just took me longer to write her arrival in Wales)

Monday, November 05, 2007

Today's word count: 1926

Total word count: 8497

Tomorrow's outline: meeting Cynan again, and Rhys

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Today's word count: 1402

Total word count: 6571

Tomorrow's outline: Hugh's plan, Annest leaves Dalmore and England

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Today's word count: 1583

Total word count: 5162

Tomorrow's outline: write a different version of Rhiannon's escape ('cause I don't know which way I want to do it yet!)

Friday, November 02, 2007

Finished for the day, so I'll go ahead and post now.

Words today: 1542

Total word count: 3579

Tomorrow's outline: plans for Rhiannon's escape
Words yesterday: 1952

Total word count: 1952

Outline for today: Rhiannon's birth, Geoffrey's reaction to his half-sister, plans to get Rhiannon away from Hugh

Thursday, November 01, 2007

OCTOBER READS

Trying something new, an easier way to indicate how I felt about a book. I'll give each book a letter grade. (Hey, I said it was new, I didn't claim it was original!)

DARK STAR SAFARI/Paul Theroux/B+: The writer, who taught in Africa during the 60s, makes a trip from Cairo to the South African Cape, almost entirely by land. He took buses and taxis and hitched rides in trucks. He was shot at by bandits in northern Kenya, went part of the way by river with a drug runner in Malawi, and visited the places he'd lived and worked. Only one thing kept this book from being an A for me--his superior attitude to the angels of mercy and charity groups that abound in Africa. I think he makes valid points about their usefulness or lack thereof, but he doesn't offer any alternatives so I tended to roll my eyes when he went off on that tangent.

THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE/Laurie R. King/A: A book club book that I recommended. The first in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. 14-year-old Mary literally stumbles over the great (and retired) detective while walking the Sussex downs one day. She ends up Holmes' student, then assistant, then partner. There are several cases in the book that weave together into an overall story of revenge and trust. Obviously I love it or I'd never have suggested it to my friends.

HEART-SHAPED BOX/Joe Hill/B: Hill is actually the son of Stephen King and, in his father's footsteps, his first novel is supernatural horror (though the horror is mostly psychological in nature.) The book opens when an aging rock star buys a haunted suit on the internet. But it seems he was targeted for this particular ghost. It took me a good 50 or 60 pages to get into it, but then it moves right along and I was surprised and pleased by the character development. A good vacation read.

THE GOOD HUSBAND OF ZEBRA DRIVE/Andrew Taylor/B: Another Mma Ramotse book, about the traditionally-built African woman with her own detective agency in Botswana. I read these books for the pleasure of a quiet hour--not a lot happens, but it's always fun to spend a little time with the characters.

THE MEANING OF NIGHT/Michael Cox/C+: I wanted to like this book. It's set in Victorian England, it's got secret births and mistaken identities and true love and betrayal. Unfortunately, the structure and style made it hard to read. It opens with a murder, goes along chronologically for a few chapters, and then the bulk of the book is one long series of what happened in the past to bring this about. But I finished it, so that's something.

E=MC2/David Bodanis/A-: Our couples' book club book, "a biography of the world's most famous equation". The best review I can give this book is simple: it helped me understand what the equation means. That's no mean feat for a science idiot like me. Bodanis is a great writer of science for the masses--I especially liked the stories of people he included.

DARK ASSASSIN/Anne Perry/B: Although I once bought everything Anne Perry wrote, in recent years I've confined myself to borrowing them from the library. In this latest in the Monk series, William Monk is back in the police force as part of the River Police. His first serious case involves tunnels being dug for the new London sewers and a young woman who may or may not have jumped to her death. Perry is great at Victorian atmosphere, but her plots and characters have seemed to stagnate a little.

THE DANTE CLUB/Matthew Pearl/C-: Another book that had a great story buried somewhere beneath the layers of too many words and too much self-consciousness. The Dante Club is a group of Boston poets and publishers who are committed to the first American translation of Dante's The Inferno. But the publication is imperiled when a series of gruesome killings begin in Boston, mirroring the torments of Dante's Hell. The club rushes to discover the killer before Dante is completely corrupted. The author is a Dante scholar, and I think that ruined the book. Too much information, too little pacing, too slow moving.

NOCTURNES/John Connolly/A-: A book of short stories from a new-to-me author. I picked it up because it was October and the stories were spooky. I loved the variety of his settings and characters, from witches in an English village after WWI to a contemporary serial killer. I loved his style, I loved his subjects and the way he wrote about them, and I will definitely pick up his novels.

NOBODY DON'T LOVE NOBODY/Stacey Bess/B: Book club for tonight. Bess taught for 7 years at the School With No Name in Salt Lake City, a school for children in the Family Shelter. Her book talks about the children and their experiences. Moving, makes you think, didn't quite go all the way for me. Bess tended to repeat herself too often and I felt like saying, "I'll be more inclined to serve if you quit telling me that I should!"
Words Yesterday: It wasn't November yesterday, so I'm off the hook

Total word count: see above for Not November yet

Today's outline: Annest's confrontation with Hugh--doubts about Ivo--Hugh warns her of danger--does she want someone else to die in her place again--Hugh knows what she can do