Thought Patterns

The world heaves a collective sigh. Writers across the globe close their laptops, turn off their computers, or put down their pencils.

NaNoWriMo 2006 has come to an end.

My count on OpenOffice.org was 50,235 but the Official Count Validater says I had 50,179. Where did the other 56 words go? Who knows. They probably collapsed at the last second and perished.

As usual, I did some chop and crop on the manuscript and it now sits at 40,560. I've got several huge scenes to paste in and some re-arranging to do but when I am done, it will probably still be just 50K or so. Not close to the 90K I need it to reach before I say "and they lived happily every after".

Just before NaNoWriMo ended, I went off on a tangent with one of the characters. I'm still debating about what to do about it. The book originally was supposed to be about twin sisters and the two people they fall in love with. But the love interest for one sister fell through (I hate her) so I dropped that part of the plot. Then I decided one night to try it again with another love interest. And oh what a lust, I mean love, interest it turned out to be! Holy sex-drive, Batman! Now I need to decide if 1, it will stay; 2, where/how will I integrate it; and 3, will it stay the same.

Decisions, decisions.

I talked it over with my consultant (Lorna). She loves the idea of there being two stories in one. She disliked how the two meet. We debated it for a while until she got a headache.

So will R still lust V? Will P and S really need another 40K to kiss and make-up? Tune in next time to As the Butch Swaggers.

Phew. Done it. Finished. Reached it. Done done it.

…was a classic example of why sometimes it just doesn't pay to chew through the ropes.

Even though I use a wheelchair, I do walk short distances when necessary, such as when feeding the dogs. It is chaotic enough without me and my big chair being in the middle of it. Saturday I went in to help Lorna with feeding the monsters their dinner. One of the "floaties" in my right knee decided to float over and get in the way of something else in there. This meant that every time I tried to put weight on the leg, it was like an ice pick jabbing me in the knee. Ouch. I flexed the knee and eventually the floatie moved enough so that I could get back to the living room. Ha. As I left the kitchen, one of the dogs made me swerve and I came down on the knee kinda sideways. Ouch. Made it to the living room, put some ice on it, put it up on a pillow, and that was that.

Sunday, the knee was not much better. I did get some writing done, though.

Today, the knee is much better but still painful to the touch. But by 11, I was smacked with a migraine. My lunch of PBJ threatened to revisit. I went to bed.

My headache is mostly gone now but I can't see very well and can't hold my head up for very long. This makes seeing the keyboard rather difficult. Duh.

So, no writing today. Not much of anything today.

is going fairly well. Slow, though. So far tonight I have 1952 new words.

BG4 was originally supposed to be two couples (two sisters and their new loves) in one book. It didn't seem as though either couple had enough of their own to carry their own book. Problem was, as I wrote it, it seemed far too complicated to keep track of four main characters. Then, one of the main characters just kinda fizzled out. I didn't like her. At all. So she was dropped as a love interest.

Now, I am wrapping up the relationship that is left and…the book is not even novella size. My NaNo currently is at 45011, but about 9500 or so is going to get lopped off. I have several scenes that stink and will be cut once NaNo is over. I have other scenes written in preparation that will be fit in, however. But it won't be anywhere near the minimum of 80K the book needs to be.

Back to plan A. There is a possibility for a love interest for the one sister. It is a stretch and will come in late in the book, unless I move things around. I'm thinking about doing it to see how it feels. Can't hurt and it counts toward the NaNoWriMo goal, right? Right.

Meanwhile, the MC's of BG2 and BG3 are kinda pissed. They want to know why their stories were so rudely set aside. Good question.I'm itching to get back to work on BG3 especially. December is going to be a busy month.

(Oh, and I saw Mobis today! He seems to be doing just fine. I figure if he's alive after 24hrs, he's going to make it. If you haven't a clue what I am talking about, scroll down to see the immediately preceding post or click here for it.)

Yesterday I didn't get much, only 1613 new words but ended still ahead.

Today I've gotten 1477 new words and the overall count is 42836. I feel as if I can wrap this up soon, although I'm not sure how. Maybe another misunderstanding needs to happen then they can get over it. Nah, misunderstandings and assumptions run rampant in BGCDA. I think I need to figure out the overall theme and go from there. Maybe.

Did y'all have a good Thanksgiving? We did. Football, food, and each other. What else would we want? Later in the day, after game 2 and before CSI, I started writing some. Then after Lorna went to bed, I put on my Zen and banged away on the keyboard.

I have 2996 new words and a grand total of 39746. Cool beans, eh?

So how is the plot going? Not too bad. As usual, the book is far too much dialogue and not enough whatever. I've been trying to not have the characters rattle on and on about something that does nothing to advance the book. Yawn. I know for sure that about 7K will be chopped off after NaNoWriMo is done. Some of it may go back in, though. Then I will let is simmer for a while as I finish Simple Sarah. Then Simple Sarah will simmer while I edit BG4. Sigh. Sounds like work, doesn't it?

larger version

Wowzers! I am caught up! Whoo Hoo!

I have done 3798 new words tonight for a total of 36750!

full screenshot

The above image is a section of the screenshot of my spreadsheet. What it says in the left column:
- what day into NaNo it is (Nov. 22nd)
- what goal to be reached each day (50K / 30 days of Nov.)
- what is the final goal (50K)
- what the count should be based on day multiplied by daily goal (22*1666.67)

The column on the right is:
- daily average [amount so far (36750) divided by where I should be (36666.67)]
- percent complete (amount so far divided by final goal)
- how far away from final goal (amount so far minus final goal)
- how far away from daily goal (amount so far minus where I should be)
- how much I need to do for the remain days (30-22) in order to reach final goal

I love numbers and statistics. Have you noticed?