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A Day In The Life of a Newbie NaNo’r – Day 5

The day started off at 8:05 this morning with a cold snuffle in my ear. My dog Sam wanted me up and about so he could have his morning constitution and his morning cookies. He lives for his cookies.

I hadn’t slept well last night for reasons I will refrain from boring you with. But I got up and let the dog out and then gave him his coveted cookies. Jumped in the shower for a quick wake up. Decided I would treat myself this morning with a large coffee, two creams from Timmy’s  (Tim Hortens Cafe here). I do love me some Timmy’s coffee. 🙂

By the time I got back home it was 9:15. Time to boot up the old computer. I’m all ready thinking of the NaNo book I’m working on. Trying to fit some pieces together in my head so I can get them down with some semblance of sense. Whether I manage that is debatable. ha!

9:30 and I’m on  WordPress checking out any comments I might have. Find a few and answer. I love comments too.  Who doesn’t. My ego gets stroked with every one. 😉

Finish with that for the moment and go into email. I swear with the election and Christmas coming I get more spam every darn day. Nothing much of interest in email. Oh, I might have won like 130 million if I answer the email today and send them all my information. Yeah right. Moving on.

10:00 am and I finally boot up the program with my NaNo  novel in it. Read the last few paragraphs and try not to cringe at the editing I must do at some much later date! All though I can’t help but do some tiny little editing things. Opps. But reading the last few paragraphs helps me set my  mind in what I was doing last on the book.

By 10:05 I’m typing my fingers to the quick. I  finally decide how I’m going to tie a couple of things together. Phew! I  type for about 45 minutes and stop to read over what I did. To see how it flows. It’s a habit I just can’t break, even for NaNo. That’s just the way I write. Doesn’t seem to really slow me down much as I type about 55 wpm. The past secretary coming out.

I have to stop writing about 11:30  because my head is getting foggy. A sure sign my blood sugars are getting low and I need to stop for lunch. Darn it. But I take this opportunity to read again what I have written. Not too bad. Make myself a chicken salad, grab a bottle of water (the coffee is long gone, should have gotten two cups!).  I take this lunch break to do a few research things for my book. I figure I need to eat, but doesn’t stop me from doing something else too. Yes, I admit. I am the dreaded ‘crumbs in my keyboard’ person. Hey it’s MY keyboard!

About 12:10 am writing on the novel again. It’s flowing a bit better now my head is clear. Finally finish chapter 3 and start on chapter 4. Finish what I wanted to today.

Unfortunately I have dirty dishes in the sink, my floors need vacuuming. The dog and cats need feeding and the laundry needs washing. Not to mention the dust! Okay, I won’t mention the dust! I need a maid for the month!!! Any volunteers??? The pay is non-existent,  but the benefits are good………..

Hey! Get your mind out of the gutter!! The benefits would be I feed ya! I am a cook after all. heheheh.  And since I have to cook for myself, as much as I don’t want to sometimes, cooking for one more is easy enough. You clean, I write. Sound great to me!

So my word count is now up to 9125 for the past 5 days. Today I did 1664. I’m happy with that. Hope you all had a good day too!

 

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NaNoWriMo ~ Day 4

I’m baaaackkkkk. I have had a great productive day today! Yeah me! It has been quiet, no phone ringing, no dog barking. Nothing but peace and quiet to write in. Blessed be! I managed to produce 2786 words today in a relatively short period of time. It just kept coming so fast out of my brain my fingers could hardly keep up! And I type fairly fast. It’s a good thing because yesterday I got a bit behind. Now I’m predicted to finish Nov. 28Th! Well, only if I keep up the pace.

I now have a total of 7461 words written in 4 days. Not bad.

I was doing some snooping around the NaNo site today after I punched in my word count and some people have 10 or 20 thousand words written all ready!!  20 thousand!! In four days. Me thinks they started writing way before November 1. ha! Of course if I would have been smart and not so lazy I could have done the same I suppose. But what is the challenge in that? Oh well.

 

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NaNoWriMo ~ Day 3

Well, I didn’t do as well  today as I would have liked. I did manage to finish  Chapter 2.  I only managed to get 1092 words done today. I now have a total of 4685 words.  But there is always tomorrow.

I just couldn’t seem to get my brain in gear. But I’m not worried. I’ll get it done.

Onward!!

 

Fiction · stories · writing

NaNoWriMo Update ~ Day 2

Well I didn’t think I would be able to do it today as I got off to a really late start. Shit happens. But I did it! Once I started writing it just flowed! Yea me! Wish every day was like that.  I got off 1810 more words today for a total of  3583!

I’m about half way through chapter two, but I’m afraid our Phillis has been left in a bit of a sticky situation. She also had a revelation about her family history. More on that later. I am going to post below the last 2 or 3 paragraphs as a teaser. It’s where I left off for today. I’m thinking I will finish chapter 2 tomorrow.

Now remember it’s in a really rough draft right now.  ha!

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As she looked around she thought she saw a small building in the woods off to her right. She started walking toward it as she didn’t think she could get back to the house before the clouds opened up and the rain came down. The winds grew even stronger, bending the trees till she thought they would break in half. The ground suddenly shook when thunder cracked right over head. She gave a jump and started running toward where she saw the log building. She needed to find protection from the storm quickly.

Running she caught brief glimpses through the trees of a small log cabin. She hoped the door was unlocked. She could all ready feel the slight ping of hail. If she didn’t reach shelter fast the hail could cut her to pieces. Gasping for breath she hit the door of the cabin just as the sky opened up with a vengeance. Hail the size of golf balls came pounding down with the high wind giving them extra force. She turned the small knob on the cabin door and gave a gasp as it gave way with a whoosh! She quickly stepped inside and slammed the door shut. Leaning her head against the door she gasped for breath. Her body was shaking with adrenaline. Thank goodness for this cabin!

Suddenly a sound caught her ears. And a smell of wet dirty fur. She held her breath as her heart pounded once again. She heard the growl behind her. Very slowly she turned her head. Phillis knew better than to make any sudden moves. If it was a wild animal a sudden move might make it attack. Slowly with held breath she turned her head and out of the corner of her eye she sees something in the dark corner move. Just as slowly she turns her whole body. Inch by slow inch. She didn’t dare go back outside as she heard the large hail hit the building with such force she hoped the old roof would hold up. Whatever was in the corner hadn’t attacked yet, so she took her chances with whatever it was. Wolf? Coyote?

Looking hard at the corner where the small growls were coming from, a lightening bolt that lit up the cabin showed her a brief glimpse of the animal. It looked to her like a dog. A big dog. A big wet smelly half-starved dog. A large broken window showed how the animal entered the cabin. Probably wanting a safe place to hole up for a while. Much like herself. Phillis almost smiled. She loved animals. Especially dogs. They seemed to love her also. Edith always said Phillis almost had an unearthly way with animals. A gift Edith told her. A true gift with animals. Well, Phillis hoped so, because she was going to need it if she was going to get out of this situation.

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Friday Fictioneers ~ Nov. 2, 2012

Every Friday authors from around the world gather  to share their 100-words and offer constructive crit and encouragement to each other. This creates a wonderful opportunity for free reading of very fresh fiction! Readers are encouraged to comment as well.

If you would like to read all the short stories please go to Rochelle’s blog here. Here is my contribution! Hope you enjoy.

Copyright-Ted Strutz

 

Gilda smiled at all the people gathered around the tent. She loved her life! Travelling to different places, meeting new people. It never grew old. Sure her feet hurt. But the smiling faces and friendliness of the people gathered made up for a little pain.

She remembered her ‘old’ life. The drinking, the beatings. She certainly didn’t miss that! Was anyone looking for her? Probably. But Gilda smiled, it’s amazing how a name change and a little makeup will  hide the scars. She sold another pair of sunglasses and hummed to herself.

Like the song said, “Earl had to die.”

 

 

 

 

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NaNoWriMo ~ Day 1

Well, I’m on my way with NaNo. Day one is just about over with and so far I have 1773 words! I’ve done chapter one and am into chapter 2. I have a clearer idea where I am taking Phillis and her key. I think you dear readers will be surprised at a few twists and turns that will be happening. At least I hope so!

Also, I have some ideas on new secondary characters that should be interesting. So I guess  even though I’m a pantser I can sort of plan ahead. ha!

The ones that have the last say so in all this is of course the characters. So we will see where this all takes me.

 

 

Now I think I will start some research into a post I want to do for American Indian Month. As in the words of Professor Hinkle in Frosty the Snowman!

“I’ve got to get busy writing – busy, busy, busy!”