Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

It was a lot harder this year. I’m told that this is quite normal for a second year. There was something inside me holding back–perhaps because I do so much other writing now. November has been a bit crowded with the three blogs and getting back into Markeroni and a magazine article and, actually, taking on a guest post spot on a different blog (you’ll see). But still…I did it. (more…)

I did it! I just submitted my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel and it came back with a verified 50009 words. ;)

It was much harder this year. I’ll write more about it later. But given that I’ve written quite a lot tonight, I think I’ll take a break now.

Don is cooking me triumphal hamburgers. :: grin ::

No, I haven’t given up. I have felt the urge to cheat outrageously, mind you, but that’s what I’m led to believe NaNo is for: letting go of control and playing outside the limitations of normal rule sets. At least, that’s if Chris Baty is to be believed. :) (more…)

My 2007 NaNoWriMo novel has not exactly flowed. I made the very bad mistake of not scheduling a daily hour of writing, and then one day I was seven thousand words behind with nowhere for the plot to go and no enthusiasm for it, either. Somehow I was expecting the story to just come pouring out wonderfully like all the rest. It was not to be, and since I am stubborn about this project and determined to win, I have needed to resort to some outrageous cheating techniques.

With less than ten days to go, you may need them too.

1. Have a character be a blogger and write a Thursday Thirteen meme about cheating at NaNoWriMo.

2. Have a character participate in NaNoWriMo and frequently refer to it as National Novel Writing Month (four words). They can even quote excerpts of their own novel so you can make forays into different genres if you get bored.

3. Remove all (letter-replacing) apostrophes, with search and replace if necessary. I’m = I am; they’re = they are, etc.

4. Have a character be an avid fan of your blog, and quote your own blog posts at great length. “Hey, look what Linda Raven Moore just wrote! Let me read it to you…”

5. Describe someone at ridiculous length, from top to toe, down to the last button and bit of fluff on the collar.

6. Make excessive use of adjectives: the wonderful tasty glorious splendiferous flavor of pistachio ice cream.

7. Give a character a liking for singing; quote entire songs complete with choruses. O Bla Di, O Bla Da is a good one. Do not attempt to publish or self publish your novel with the lyrics still in.

8. Give all characters double names like Mary Anne.

9. If desperate, give all characters double-barrelled surnames, too, and don’t do not hyphenate. Example: Mary Anne Fossington Gore. Always refer to the character by all available names. (Fantasy novels are particularly good for this; too bad I’m not writing one about Conanna the Lady of All She Surveys Including The Little White Rabbit or She Who Must Not Be Named Except Maybe on the Third Sunday in March.)

10. Make sure that all hyphens, em dashes and ellipses are surrounded by a sea of spaces not…like…this but … like … this. You get extra words like that … see?

11. Write angst-laden notes to yourself about how horrid your novel is and include them in your word count.

12. Include plot notes as part of your word count.

13. Write out all numbers in words. Especially sneaky is to write a daily summary of words written, words due and words to go. Example:

    Day one goal: One thousand six hundred and sixty seven words
    Words already written: three hundred and forty six words
    Words to go: one thousand three hundred and twenty one words minus a few that I just wrote
    

So, what are your favorite word count bolstering techniques?

JR is okay. The vet chuckled and said “he’s not a happy boy.” I’m sure he’s filling his time with his best hisses rather than his furry kisses. The poor chap has a UTI and couldn’t pee well for several days. He has therefore received a catheter and can now relieve himself at great length (no doubt with much grumbling. He grumbles well.) (more…)

The usual mid-second-week blues came and went. I’m about a thousand words behind from yesterday and still have today’s quota to do. On the other hand, the plot has coalesced and the first little twist has popped out of the woodwork. I am therefore quite content with the way this is playing out. (more…)

I’m always a day behind and a dollar short with NaNoWriMo, it seems. This morning I’m a day plus a thousand words behind, so it’s getting worse. When I do show up at the page, the words and even bits of plot seem to follow, but it’s the sitting down at the page part which is hardest. I might get more done because we are leaving the campground soon and might not be online again tonight.

I also seem to be struggling with the paid posts. I’m curious to see what IZEA (formerly PayPerPost) has got up its sleeve with its new offerings on Monday, but I find the process of getting posts to do a bit frustrating right now and I really want to ease up the volume. Right now, though, it’s a good source of income: I just don’t feel that my blog is particuarly balanced at this time.

I seem to be constantly missing the well-paying opps, and I can’t figure out when they are being released. Waiting for them to be released is also an exercise in frustration because they seem to be snapped up the minute they come out. And I just had a post rejected this morning because while there were three posts between the two paid posts, the one immediately following the paid post was “only” a photograph. It seems that the post immediately following has to be a written one. I find that unnecessarily controlling of my blog–I can see the need to have non-sponsored content between posts, but to insist that the one immediately following is text makes no sense to me.

So I’m having one of those existential writerly crises of confidence and “where am I going with this” and “why the heck am I writing a novel, three blogs, upty ump paid posts AND a magazine article all at the same time” mornings this morning. It’s probably because it’s raining, and my Alexa score dropped 15k.

I caught up as far as yesterday today, so technically speaking I could still write my bout of words for today and catch up. I’m not too sure that’s going to happen, though.

I have the twinklings of an ending, and it may not be the happy one I first envisaged. But it’s nice to have the approximate ending. Now I have to think of umpty-ump thousand words to describe what this character gets up to. (more…)

I didn’t do any writing yesterday–well, not on the novel. ;) I think I’m probably writing three or four thousand words a day all told…it makes me very happy.

So today I just got done with my first session, and am now a little over the level I should be for day six. I have to write another 1500 or so words to catch up. I’ve flipped over onto the story writes itself thing. For example, my vampire’s companion wanted to go to Santa Cruz on the way to Monterey, so they hang out on the boardwalk and I have an opportunity to give a node to The Lost Boys, which is one of my favorite movies. Then she finds out that he’d been caught by a vampire hunter, so now she’s a fugitive. And ends up overnighting in Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world. It makes her sneeze.

I might have an amusing novella out of this at the end, with copious editing. I’ll have to put it out there as a serial or something, or an e-book. Which would you prefer? (more…)

Day four was hard: a real struggle. When I get stuck, I start talking to myself: asking myself in the novel what I think the character’s motivation is. But it really went slowly and with a fight. She ended up under a bridge with a bunch of newspaper clippings, but I still hadn’t figured out what the clippings said.

Day five was easier. The solution: introduce a new character. You can spend several hundred words describing what they look like and where they are from and how they found you in the first place. (more…)