Day 4

Up early, typing madly.

Morning’s a good time for me to write. I feel fresh and alert. All those alpha brain waves alpha-ing. This morning was a good time for more worldbuilding (and yes, I’m adding that to my word count, bite me), working on descriptions of the various Colonies and mapping a timeline for Lure and Stars (something I should have done long ago).

The word count’s building slowly. I think I’ll feel a major sense of accomplishment when I hit 5k and know I’m 1/10 of the way through. Of course, the NaNo site is down again so I can’t update my word count or the widget, but I’m at 4,059 (that actually doesn’t include the worldbuilding — the timeline alone is 991 words, woot!).

I can definitely do this.

Day 3

Taking a moment from typing madly to check the final US election polls. I’m not sure what I’m more anxious about — the fact that it’s only Day 3 and I’m already behind in my word count or that McCain seems to be gaining ground in the final hours of the campaign.

End of Day 2

2,928. The darn NaNo site seems to be down, so I can’t update my word count. Close enough. I’m going to bed.

Day 2

Despite a promising start, Day 1 sucked. I did okay for an hour and a bit, then got massively distracted by RL and dragged off to a theme park (GAH) and, upon returning, fell asleep on the couch at 7:30. Although I managed about an hour in the car to and from the theme park, I got maybe 2 1/2 hours of writing all told. Just over 700 words.

Not a good NaNo day, all in all.

Today’s been better. Getting rid of The Child for 4 hours at another child’s birthday party has helped a hell of a lot. 2,142 words and counting. It doesn’t quite make up for the disaster of yesterday, but it’s better than n’owt, as they say in this part of the world. If I can get another solid 2 hours tonight after The Child’s in bed, I have some hope of 3,000 words for the weekend, which puts me more or less on target.

I can (still) do this.

Hour 2

8 am. 240 words. 1 cup of coffee. 1 10 minute interruption by He Who Thinks Its Funny to Interrupt Me Now But If He Does It Again in the Next 30 Days I’ll Have to Kill Him.

I can do this.

Day 1

NaNo, day 1. 7 am. Butt in chair. Fingers on keyboard. Getting ready to madly type away. I can do this.

Panic

Nano hasn’t started yet and I’m already hitting panic mode. I was up in the middle of the night tonight worrying about work and then I started thinking, “maybe I should get up and write a little bit in Lure because I know where I’m going next in the scene I’m working on and I might as well get it roughed out as long as I’m awake.”

And then I thought, “no, save it for Saturday morning when The Child has dance class so that I can count it in the Nano word count ’cause I’m really not sure if I can make the 50k.”

Pathetic. I’m up at 3 am strategizing word count. Just pathetic. How could I possibly be this tragically competitive with myself?

I’m going back to sleep.

Drawing Demons II

Pen and inks crept back out this weekend after working some more on the scene in Hell in Neon Blue.

Ash Hill

The scan made the lines a little choppy, but it still captures the central image of Ash Hill.

Terrorist Technology

Surfing the iTunes store this morning for podcasts, I discovered that I don’t need to petition the Discovery channel. Courtesy of National Geographic’s Digital Shorts, my iPod can terrorize me anytime I hit the wrong spot on the wheel. Oh, excellent.

Plot Week

My shark phobia is no secret, and so it shouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that I live in terror of the Discovery channel’s annual “Shark Week,” the advertising alone for which gives my subconscious fodder for 51 subsequent weeks of nightmares.

So the TV is strictly off-limits for me at the moment. Even being in the living room with the TV on is living dangerously. So I’ve retreated into the dining room where there’s a computer but no television, and discovered my answer to Shark Week.

Plot Week.

I’ve gotten no new word count done on anything I’ve got going at the moment — Neon Blue, Blood Yellow, Lure of Space, Stars Avail. But plot ideas are spilling out of me like blood after a Mako attack. Last week I finally broke through on the long-stalled main plot arc for Blood Yellow. Then my subconscious, spurred on by the sounds of breaching South African Great Whites from the other room, spewed out a central plot and four subplots for another story to follow Blood Yellow, which I’ve tentatively titled Burning Bone. And then, having not even thought about a long-shelved project called The Snake Keepers for over a year, suddenly I found myself revamping the central mystery plot for that story and sketching out a sequel that I don’t even have a title for.

Whew! Plot Week. I’m loving it. Maybe I should petition the Discovery Channel to run Shark Week more often . . .