Byproducts of Writing: Honey or Crap

So today is the final day of NaNoWriMo. A good many people who's blogs I visit have participated. I am aware of two who have announced they achieved their goal: fairyhedgehog did; and so did T.Anne. Congratulations to both of them.

There are others who, for this reason and for that, weren't able to get the time. I know how that goes. Sometimes it's there and sometimes it isn't. And just because one has the time it doesn't mean they know what to write.

I, of course, was not officially part of NaNoWriMo. I was part of a blog started by Writtenwyrdd which was like NaNo, but I bailed on that a couple of weeks ago. The idea of having to write was too distressing. That constraint made me want to do anything but write. So I bailed and finished up my word count in short order.

My November word count was a little on the low side. I attribute this to the holiday, which resulted in less alone time. But I got a lot done.

Overall, I wrote more then 64,000-words. I tallied this up by using the Word Count on the eight things I wrote in November. The biggie was Summer Shade. That's over 50,000-words, but I only wrote 45,000+ in November. Summer Shade was begun in October. White Wolves was begun in September, and I added another 5,700+-words to it, before setting it aside in favor of Summer Shade. I began a new novel, Hexagon, but soon set that aside, too, so I could rewrite Swords of Fire. That will probably pick up the pace in early December, only to stall for the Christmas holiday. And I wrote some short pieces, including one of the more erotic things I've ever put to pen or computer. That was a sudden inspiration.

In all, I worked on eight November projects, finishing five. This makes three months in a row that I have finished a novel. I am not writing as many words as I have ever written in a short burst (that was 30,000-words in a single day), but I seem to be writing more consistently. It's a pity the stories aren't being shared. Nobody except me has read Shadow People or The Sweet Girl. Part of Summer Shade was read by others, but not the whole story.

It's funny, storywriting. Some of the things I am writing now I thought about forty years ago but never got around to writing. Back then I wasn't able to. There are things a ten-year-old just doesn't understand. But the stories were there. They never go away. They just continue to cook.

Anyway, if you participated in NaNoWriMo I hope you achieved your goal. If you haven't then I hope you are within range. You have the rest of today. If not, I hope you don't become so discouraged as to give up. Perhaps these kinds of deadline things don't work for you. They don't for me. If you never seem to be able to make NaNo, then why not try this?

EVERY month is a kind of NaNo month. But there are different rules. Write what you want. When you can. As much as you can. There are no word limits or requirements. Write when you can. That's all there is to it. Just write. Oh, and don't give a damn about whether anything is well written, or even makes sense. Just write. Tell the story. Get it out there. Once you've done that you can always change it. If you feel like it.

Good luck.

When You Got It, Flaunt It - When You Don't, Dont

My work on the Swords of Fire rewrite is a leisurely effort. To put it simply.

Actually, it's quite the understatement. I've written less than 5,000-words.

But it isn't my fault. Son is on holiday break and it's impossible to write with him vying for computer time. So I dabble at this and that and wait until such time that comes when I can actually write.

Did most of my writing in the middle of the night. Actually, that's always when I seem to find the alone time I need. Spouse has been working evenings, which means I am not alone during the day. Son is at school during the day which means I am not alone evenings. That leaves the middle of the night. Assuming I wake up in time for it. I often do.

Some people are able to schedule time every day to write. It's the same time, too. I never know when I'm going to have the time. And energy. Just because it is the middle of the night and everyone else is sleeping that's no guarantee I will be awake. Of course if Spouse is snoring it's a safe bet. And if my legs hurt especially bad. But there is no guarantee.

I'm not worried, though. Guess I'm accepting more and more that what I write, and want to write, doesn't mean jack sh*t. I'll keep working at improving my technique, but I have no reason to believe anymore that any of that work will ever amount to anything other than an exercise in futility. My choices are to either write cr*p with contentment, or write cr*p without it.

Do you ever feel that way?

I do. All the time now.

All. The. Frikkin'. Time.

Same Story Different Eyes

Stories are amazing things. Emphasize this and you have a love story. Emphasize that and you're making a political statement. Quests, personal growth, action, adventure. All of these things are part of the same story. We, the storytellers, simply decide which elements will be emphasized and which will be minimized - or even ignored.

I have always known this, but it is with Swords of Fire that it is really brought home to me. Particularly this time. All of my previous story-shattering rewrites involved making major changes to the story, the time line, and a host of other things. Not this time.

This time I am telling the same story as last, but I have changed the angle at which I look at it. And now it seems to be a completely different story. It's the ten blind men and the elephant thing.

By concentrating on aspects I had kept in the background, and pushing to the background things I had focused on, I now have a new story. And yet it's the same. Hopefully, I will be happy with what I wind up with. Writing it, I feel a greater sense of intensity, urgency, and danger than I did in the previous version. In the previous version those things built slowly over time until they reached the climax. Now, beginning the story about a week later than Traitor, it feels like a different animal. And so I have given it a new name: Fire Mountain. It is appropriate, because the new focus is on the mountain and not the treason. The Mountain, and its surrounding lands and waters, contain the prize. It is the prize. The stakes are high and the risks are higher.

The rewrite is also going to bring forward characters who otherwise were not even mentioned. Now they will play a role. Some significantly. Of course, this means other characters are going to have to fade into the background.

Something else to come out of this is an epiphany of how I can create a database table containing an instant list of who is descends from who, instead of having to search and do time consuming calculations. Creating the table will take time, too, but not more than a few hours. But it really is useful. Trying to figure out if Bordan is descended from Bolar is a bit of a pain in the a*s. And then I will have the data henceforth.

I like The Great Sea. I guess if I could go anywhere it would be there. But I suppose that only makes sense. After all, I'm the one who created it. Kind of.

It Never Goes Away

Well, it turns out yesterday was more than a strange chance. Today I began an earnest rewrite of Swords of Fire, Book I.

I have rewritten the story literally dozens of times, but only a few have been of the nature to change the story's basic flow. This is one of those times.

For the first time in more than ten years I am not just rewriting the story, I am changing nearly everything. Ultimately, the start and ending will be the same, as well as certain key milestones between. But the actual road map has changed.

Maintaining the travel analogy, instead of traveling from Minneapolis to Los Angeles by means of heading south to Texas and then west to California, I am going to cut through the mountains and take the Denver route. Both routes allow me to visit Kansas City and Las Vegas, but each also presents its own places of interests.

And so it will be with this new version of Swords of Fire. The title will change.

Of all the stories which pass through my head this is the one which matters most. I will keep working on it until I find a presentation which works for an audience.

I have to. There's no other way.

A Long Story is Made of Short Scenes

Just finished doing something I haven't done in a long while: wrote something new for Swords of Fire.

The entire Saga has been put on hold while I explored a new realm of creativity with Apprentice, Ekundayo, The Sweet Girl, Panthera, and Sassy. But I think about Swords of Fire every day, even if I do not actually write on it.

Now I have only completed the first two books - and neither of those is ready for prime time. (Probably never will be.) I've started Book III, but I'm no where near the climactic battle. So why I should be concentrating on something that occurs in Book V or VI I don't know. But it's something I have been thinking on for more than a year. Nearly two years now.

I guess when a thing's ripe you harvest it. Whatever.

Typically, I do not like writing scenes from the future. I've done it. Many times. But nearly so often as smart writing says I should. You see, I like writing to a milestone marker, and these scenes in my head become those milestone markers. They're my inspiration to keep writing when a thing is going slowly. Without the milestone marker I lose interest and fade away.

Generally, the markers have to be close enough in the future to realistically be reached in a few days. This gives me my childish immediate gratification. And to write them early often results in the equivalent of eating one's dessert before the main course.

But today I just had to write. It didn't come out exactly as I wanted, but I was kind of rushing it, I think.

I have to laugh. Everything I've ever read about writing tells me that whenever I come up with one of these scenes I should write them down. Get them out of my head. I have so many on Swords of Fire alone I suspect I could easily produce a 100,000-word volume just on vignettes alone. Anyway, this little scene took a couple thousand words, and I was rushing it. Left out some things because I am short of time and I wanted to finish it before I had to leave. I could have written more. I still have ten minutes.

Oh, well.

I wish I could go back in time and make up for all the wasted years in which I wrote, but failed to learn my craft. At my current rate of decay I often wonder if there's enough time left to get it done.

So maybe I'll add these vignettes to my legacy. Maybe after I'm gone somebody who actually has the skills can put things together and fix them up into something for the world.

Until then, I write.

When Writing Fails

So remember how I posted about starting a new story - Hexagon? Telling people what I'm going to do seems to be the kiss of death.

After two forced days absence from writing in order to visit with some professional people who didn't have a lot of good things to tell me I have had three days in a row in which I had three straight hours to write. I haven't finished the first chapter.

I'm reasonably close, but the inspiration has faded and I find playing computer games to be far more inspiring than doing anything creative. So either I find new inspiration or I forget about this book and start another.

Ever do that? Start a story and find you don't care anymore? My archives are filled with stories ranging from several chapters to mere titles. That's one problem with having a lot of ideas. There always seems to be a new idea ready to push out current ideas.

Maybe I'll keep writing it. It's actually a good story. Perhaps the problem is so many days where I just could not write. I did wake up early this morning, around four, but I wasted my time playing games instead of writing. Since seven this morning I have not been able to write. That's the way it goes sometimes. Isn't it?

Something Fun to Do

Writtenwyrdd has new story idea. You can find details here. In essence, it's a progressive story, in which one person comes up with the first sentence or two, then another continues the story. I'm not clear if she actually intends to do this or if it's just an idea she's tossing about.

We used to do something like that when I was young. We would sit around in the living room and someone would begin a story. They would talk for up to two minutes. Then they would create some sort of cliff hanger, or decisive moment, and pass the story to their right. Eventually, the story would return to the originator who would have to find a way to tie up all the loose ends and end it.

Some times it was quite fun(ny). Some times it didn't work.

We did a lot of stuff like that. Mother would also write stories and remove several nouns and replace them with blank lines. She had made up a stack of small cards with names of nouns on them. These would be shuffled and dealt out to whoever was home that evening. Mother, or Gayanne, would then read the story out loud. Whenever a blank was reached the reader would pause and let the next person in the circle flip over their card and read the noun.

The first time we played it we had no idea what the nouns were, so the game was hilarious. Especially when we got to Mother's favorite joke noun: Sour Owl Sh*t. Mother had no trouble with being earthy.

Don't know how many readers this blog has, but if you enjoy things like that you might want to give Writtenwyrdd's blog a few visits. See if it's something she plans to actually do.

A New Story

So, Summer Shade is done. What to do now?

Well, yesterday I was inspired and now I am at the beginning of another new novel. I'm tentatively calling it Hexagon. It's a fantasy story, of course. But I'm taking a different approach than my normal method. It's following the format of Swords of Fire: Book III (Bonds of Love), in which I follow more than one character. I don't normally like to write that way (or read that way either). But some stories lend themselves to it. Bonds of Love does because I have important events happening simultaneously on three separate worlds. (I need to get back to my epic series soon.)

Hexagon will be kind of like that, except all of the characters are going to be reasonably close. But I'm going to experiment with POV. Probably not a good idea as I have often been criticized for accidentally shifting POV. So to do it on purpose may be a mistake.

But it seems like a cute story. Got interesting characters anyway. And it's a survival story. Five teams struggle to overcome the Temple Master, a powerful Enchanter who has devised a maze filled with dangerous obstacles to be overcome. The teams will be pitted against not only the obstacles, but each other - whenever they encounter each other. Only one team can survive, and not everyone on the winning team is guaranteed to make it. In fact, it's been a long time since any team did.

I'm only a thousand words in, but I think I've got extra writing time on Thursday and Friday, so I may just make a good-sized dent in this thing before the weekend. Hope so.

Anyway, if all goes according to plan I should have another novel drafted before the end of November. That would be cool.

Summer's End

Well, I did it. I finished the first draft of Summer Shade this morning. Or was it early afternoon? Whichever. It's done.

I did it by writing over 30,000-words in the last six days, including more than 9,600-words in the last two.

Even with leaving out a whole lot of pieces I forgot to include early on it came in at 50,800-words. That's a bit light for what I had wanted, but I let myself get distracted by the NaNo thing and lost a lot of focus. That's how I wound up leaving out so much. Ultimately I just wanted to get it done. But once I quit Nano the words began to flow and I did over twenty thousand words in four days.

Of course the story is crap. That's the way first drafts are, you see. And this one is particularly crap because of all I left out. But it's done. For now. Some day I may return to it and add in the things I forgot. I may smooth out the rough edges and better explain why certain things had to be the way they were. Ultimately, I need to find a way to make it interesting to readers.

Unfortunately, I do not have the power for the last. I can only write what I like, and that does not seem to conform to the modern reader. Ceste la vie.

I will continue creating my legacy. I have now completed three novels in three months. I wonder if I can write another one before Christmas. Well, that's easy to answer. Of course I can. I wonder if I will. That is an entirely different question.

Oh, and I just checked. Between Summer Shade and White Wolves of Dawn I have written 58,491-words in sixteen days. A pity I quit NaNo. I would have made it.

Summer's Nearly Over

Well, I have come close, but the cigar will go to someone else. Summer Shade is nearly finished, but not quite. The pivotal fight scene has concluded and I have but to wrap up the loose ends. To have finished today would have mean finishing it with the month only half done. Oh, well. I will finish it soon.

However, thanks to my abortive effort with NaNo I have actually left out several important scenes which explain the ending. Wasn't that brilliant of me? I can't think that I have ever done that before.

The completion of Summer Shade means I will have written three novels of 50,000-words or more in three successive months. I haven't ever done that before either.

In fact, except for a brief time in the 1980s when I was especially inspired with creative ideas (few of which were actually started, much less finished), this has been my most prolific year ever in my life.

I am creating a nice legacy to leave my son. Maybe he will be able to earn some money from it. It doesn't look like I ever will.

The Process

I had a post written and all ready to go, but I deleted it. What the hell. Right?

Been writing on Summer Shade. More then I thought I would. On Thursday I was still in Chapter Nine. Now I'm in Chapter Twelve and building fast to the climactic fight scene.

Not all of my stories have a climactic fight scene. The Sweet Girl didn't. Neither did Shadow People. But they had their climactic moments. There just wasn't a fight to mark it.

Summer Shade did not go as well as Shadow People, or The Sweet Girl. I attribute that to getting involved with word counts. Word counts are important, but they should be left to the editing process. That's when they matter. When writing a draft what difference does it make if you use 1,000; 10,000; or even 100,000 words? The story's the thing. Even established Authors agree that getting the draft out is the most important first step. But some required (and actually enjoy) the pressure of word counts during the drafting process.

For me, it's all about storytelling. I come up with an idea. I suppose you could call it a "What If" scenario thing. That's how Shadow People and The Sweet Girl came into being. It's how virtually all of my stories come to exist.

Sometimes the idea is nothing more than a character or two. That's how Summer Shade came to exist. I spent several days thinking about the two people and wondering what they were like. What was their conflict. Having decided that, I wondered what they would do about it, and how it would ultimately be resolved. This gave me my "Ending". I knew how the story was going to end.

Now my problem was - how did it begin?

The problem I have with beginnings is that stories don't begin at the place where the teller begins. They begin in the background. The history. It's history that influences, or even dictates, the present and the future. So finding the beginning is virtually impossible. But that's not the challenge anyway. The challenge is where to begin telling the story. (Yes, I know you're supposed to show the story, but you know what I mean.)

How much of that history and background needs to be revealed up front? Can some things be shown later? Can some things be left out entirely?

Determining where to start the tale (not the story) gives me a beginning and ending. Now I begin the journey. I start writing.

Sometimes I have milestones between the beginning and ending I wish to reach. It's like taking a trip from Minneapolis to Duluth. I can take the freeway and be there in four hours or less. There isn't a whole lot to see which is interesting driving up Freeway 35, but if I'm in a hurry it works.

But perhaps the goal is more than just arriving. Perhaps I am hoping to enjoy the trip as much as the destination. In this case I take the so-called back roads. These are the roads which expose the details of the land and communities which span the space between my beginning city and my destination city.

Of course, in a story, there has to be a purpose in these back roads. Yes, Forest Lake and Pine City are nice cities, but why are we there? What makes stopping at Hinckley necessary to get to Duluth? Well, for one thing, it's about halfway and that's where we refuel.

What I find in writing stories, is that if I give the characters enough freedom they will show me the reason why the story must go to this place or that. Why does this event have to happen? And if I finish a draft and never do find a reason then I dump that scene.

Story writing is fun. I'm never wholly sure about what is going to happen. The ending I had originally planned for Summer Shade has been changed by the addition of a character I hadn't known was going to show up. Two characters, actually. That's what makes it so fun. It's as much a surprise to me as to the Reader.

But that's what a draft is for. It's the honeymoon process. Editing comes later.

NaNo Ends Early For Me

So it's been a slow week for writing. I've completely set White Wolves aside and have no plans to continue it until after I finish the other story, which I'm calling Summer Shade right now.

White Wolves, which was started in September, is in Chapter Eight and at 23,920-words. Just over half of those words have been written in November.

Summer Shade was started in October. It is in Chapter Nine now and sitting at 28,593-words. Nearly all of those words have been written in November.

This is the third time White Wolves is being set aside so I can write something else. The first time was when I wrote Shadow People. I was greatly inspired and wrote the whole thing in less than two weeks.

Shadow People was followed by The Sweet Girl, another spur of the moment inspiration. I began it in the last week of September and finished it in about two weeks. Then I worked on a rewrite for Apprentice. I've got another rewrite scheduled, but I'm waiting on the chance one of my readers will send a critique after NaNoWriMo.

FollowingApprentice I started a novel I'm still calling My Life as Charise. Only got a few hundred words into it, though, before I was struck with a new inspiration: Summer Shade.

Before Charise I had already committed myself to finishing White Wolves of Dawn in November as part of the NaNo blog thing. But I have run into something I knew was a very real possibility: I hate the commitment thing and regret agreeing to it. In fact, I hate it so much that I have consciously decided NOT to finish White Wolves of Dawn in November.

I guess it's my non-conformist, childish rebellion, streak surfacing.

Since November has begun all I have thought about is word counts. The result is that I have not enjoyed writing White Wolves of Dawn or Summer Shade. A very good friend of mine suggested I just bail on the whole NaNo thing. And so I kind of have.

White Wolves of Dawn is set aside. I intend to push forward with Summer Shade and finish that. Assuming I can recapture the inspiration I can be finished quickly - also assuming I can consistently get time to write. I haven't been. This week has been horrible. I have not had a single morning to myself. Morning has become my writing time. But I know if I could just get four or five days in a row I could finish Summer Shade. And once Summer Shade is finished I just might return to White Wolves of Dawn. But I won't be giving any word count updates after today until Summer Shade is finished. Then I'll give you the final first draft word count.

But I am counter-inspired by the "write so many words in a day/week/month" pressure. It makes me NOT want to write. For me, writing is 100% inspiration. Word counts are NOT inspiring. Not to me.

In a way I feel like I'm letting down other writers who are feeling the pressure of word counts and trying to achieve the 50,000-words in November goal. But I don't need that kind of encouragment/pressure. I wrote two 60,000-word novels in just over four weeks. So I have no real need - or motivation - to participate in things like this. I joined because I wanted to belong to a group of people I greatly respect. Only I still don't feel like I belong with them. The truth is, they're better writers, better educated, better read, and generally better people. So I'm bailing. It's the only way I can write and enjoy it.

Sorry.

Off Day

No writing today. Pity.

I'm thinking of putting White Wolves on hold again while I concentrate on The Other Story. I have this sense that - if I could just be given the time to write it - I could finish it within a week. Getting time to write can be a nuisance when people are home with me.

NaNo Blog Day 9

Got lucky today. Wasn't able to sleep in the middle of the night and put in a couple of thousand words. So when I got two more hours this afternoon I was able to up my total word count for the day to 5,733. It's my biggest daily output this month.

Unfortunately (or otherwise, I don't know), NONE of the words are for White Wolves of Dawn. I wrote everything for The Other Story. Maybe tomorrow I will change that. We'll see.

But I took the weekend off. Too many distractions anyway.

White Wolves of Dawn: is at 23,920 words total.
The Other Story: 20,039 words total.

Today's totals are as follows:

White Wolves of Dawn: 0 words
The Other Story: 5,733 words

Total words for the day: 5,733 words

Monthly totals are as follows:

White Wolves of Dawn: 13,225 words
The Other Story: 14,505 words

Total words for the Month: 27,730 words

So, it looks like I'm putting more effort in on my second story than my first. It goes that way sometimes.

No Progress

Didn't write at all today, although I did have a couple of hours early when I could have. But I had a nasty headache. And I just wasn't into it today. Even bad writers need a day off now and then. Well, perhaps bad is too strong a word. Sloppy. Yeah. That sounds better.

Did some reading and researching. Lots of ideas floating about, but nothing sticking right now. Just as well. I've got two stories I should finish.

While it's possible I could (should) finish both White Wolves and the other story in November, I'm not so sure I will. But if I don't I should finish them both in December.

Wonder what I'll write next. Maybe I'll try resurrecting The Animal Kingdom. Tried writing that several times. Each time I get a bit further. But I struggle with inspiration now. Not sure why.

Right now I have 26 novels in various states of completion. Four are done. When I complete these two that will make six. So, if I wish to complete something I started earlier, I can choose from up to twenty different stories. The oldest is Legions of Encarrah.

Legions of Encarrah is a quest story. As I remember, Encarrah was a large land on a mountain. It was walled off from the surrounding low lands by a high wall with only two or three access gates. At one time Encarrah had been the fortress where the Guardians lived. There were three Guardians, and each had his/her own legion of warriors. For generations the Legions of Encarrah would come forth to protect the surrounding kingdoms from invasion. But something went wrong and Encarrah went silent. The gates were closed and no one was allowed to enter.

Now an army marches against one of the kingdoms and a young man determines to seek the protection of Encarrah.

I only wrote a little more than 2,000-words, so clearly this was a one-day inspiration. But it might make a nice story to finish. Who knows?

Anyway, I may take Sunday off, too. Don't know.

NaNo Blog Day 6

So, for a day in which I expected to get nothing written, did all right. It meant waking up early, and taking advantage of Spouse's library trip. But I had a decent day's writing.

White Wolves of Dawn: is at 23,920 words total.
The Other Story: 14,306 words total.

Today's totals are as follows:

White Wolves of Dawn: 2,479 words
The Other Story: 3,003 words

Total words for the day: 5,482 words

Monthly totals are as follows:

White Wolves of Dawn: 13,225 words
The Other Story: 8,772 words

Total words for the Month: 21,997 words

Got some interesting things going on, but neither story is even halfway yet.

NaNo Blog Day 5

Woke up early and wrote before the rest got up. Here are the new totals.

White Wolves of Dawn: is at 21,441 words total.
The Other Story: 11,303 words total.

Today's totals are as follows:

White Wolves of Dawn: 2,116 words
The Other Story: 1,383 words

Total words for the day: 3,499 words

Monthly totals are as follows:

White Wolves of Dawn: 10,746 words
The Other Story: 5,769 words

Total words for the Month: 16,515 words

The stories are coming along.

NaNo Blog Day 4

Did okay today. Didn't have as much time as I hoped, but enough to gain on my goal a little. I made a mistake on my Excel document so my numbers might be a bit off. What I know is this:

White Wolves of Dawn: is at 19,325 words total.
The Other Story: 9,920 words total.

Today's totals are as follows:

White Wolves of Dawn: 3,005 words
The Other Story: 2,121 words

Total words for the day: 5,126 words

Monthly totals are as follows:

White Wolves of Dawn: 8,630 words
The Other Story: 4,386 words

Total words for the Month: 13,016 words

I may actually write some more tonight. Not sure. Not likely.

NaNo Blog Day 3

Well, considering I hadn't expected to get any words written today it was a good day. I got more written on White Wolves, but less on The Other Story. The trade-off was that I was about as productive today as yesterday.

White Wolves of Dawn: 2,710 words
The Other Story: 654 words

Total words for the day: 3,364 words

The good news is that I have mostly caught up on my projected word count. I'm just 253 words short.

The bad news is that I'm over 7,000-words behind on my goal. Maybe I can make some progress on that tomorrow.

Monthly totals are as follows:

White Wolves of Dawn: 5,625 words
The Other Story: 2,285 words

Total words for the Month: 7,910 words

To make the monthly goal of 50,000-words I need to be at 3,333-words.

NaNo Blog Day 2

Hello. Just my daily NaNo Blog update.

Had some time to myself today, but the inspiration wasn't flowing as well as I would like.

White Wolves of Dawn: 2,144 words
The Other Story: 1,156 words

Total words for the day: 3,300 words

That's more than my daily average but only about half of what I was hoping.

Monthly totals are as follows:

White Wolves of Dawn: 2,915 words
The Other Story: 1,631 words

Total words for the Month: 4,546 words

To make the monthly goal of 50,000-words I need to be at 3,333-words. According to my daily average I should be at 5,442. And according to my personal goal when in the middle of writing a novel I should be at 10,000.

So I'm slightly ahead of the NaNo schedule, slightly behind my daily average, and less than half-way to my personal goal.

Ceste la vie.

NaNo Blog Day 1

I woke early and thought I might get a couple of hours without interruption so I could write for the NaNo blog. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. Spouse was up right behind me and Son soon after that. The entire day has been one interruption followed by another.

I am working on two stories simultaneously. Later, I may add a short story or two.

In any case, this all I managed to accomplish today.

White Wolves of Dawn: 771 words
The Other Story: 475 words

Total words for the day: 1,246 words

That's less than half my normal daily average. Maybe tomorrow will be better. It's unlikely I will write anymore today.

Oh, and Writtenwyrdd's Halloween Contest is ready for judging. Follow this link to read the entries and register your vote.