You know what blows? Being sleepy at 9:12 pm…just under three hours away from NaNoWriMo 2007 officially starting. Ah. The tribulations of getting older. lol. I’m only 33. But some days…some days!

Before this recent bout of sleepiness, I had planned on staying up and writing at 12:01 am. I guess I’ll just try to get up early tomorrow and start then. C’est la vie. I am excited to say that I’ve ordered an old version of Alphasmart on Ebay. I have a trip to Atlanta this weekend and I’m trying to convince the seller to send it to me by Friday so that I’m on my way to typing up a great story (instead of handwriting it and then typing it up). Hopefully, I can get it sometime soon!

Wish me well!

I attended the Jacksonville kick-off party for NaNo and met a group of people with some interesting story ideas! It was nice to put faces to the user names. I’m looking forward to seeing how we do as a group.

Can you believe it? I *still* don’t have a name for my novella. DH read it on Saturday and said he spotted some holes in the plot that I need to plug. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I expected that. I didn’t expect to have such a hard time with a title. If you go to Lulu, they have a “scientific” method for determining whether your title will help make the book a best seller. It’s funny. The names I kind of like have a low chance of success (around 22%), whereas the ones I’m just fooling around with end up pretty good (44%). Go figure.

The drive to work can be so helpful. Although I had an idea for NaNo, I’m onto a - at least, I think - better one. What say you to this:

Professor/writer’s boyfriend kills for pleasure. He’s planning to kill her on their first trip together. On her way down to meet him, she runs into (literally) a former student (with a huge crush on her) who finds out about the boyfriend’s plot. (I haven’t figured out how yet!) They end up on the run. (and that’s as far as I’ve gotten with the “details”.)

And my 25K challenge needs a title. I’ve had two people read it so far and the only comments were reading level a little high (e.g. “fastidious”) and more sex! lol. The latter comment from a single woman. I think I’ll leave it as is though.

DONE!!!!!!! 86 pages; 25,070 words at 10:55pm EST on 10/24/2007.

Darned good story if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, now that I’m reading the story from start to finish, I recognize how stiff the conversations are in chapter one. Fortunately, as the novella progresses, the writing gets better. I’m going to modify and tweak a little and then have a few friends read for input. In the meanwhile I’ll start outlining for NaNo!

I’m so proud of me!

82 pages & 23,775 words down. I have just my last chapter to go!! I anticipate another 7 pages of text - at least, 1750 words - in the next two days. I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it. Yeah. Cheesy, I know. Face it, though. I’m about five days ahead of schedule! Wow. Actually saw this one through.

As for NaNo, I saw today that people are getting themselves goal presents. I think that at 50K words, I’m going to get myself an iPod Nano! (get it?) One of the other prizes will be a NaNo mug and possibly a NaNo 2007 tshirt. Any other suggestions?

Eureka! I’m almost done!! As of this moment, I have 21,490 words. Wow. I’m down to the last two chapters.

Writing this has made me realized how difficult NaNo is going to be. I mean Really. Difficult. I’m not usually one to fluff up my words, but I’m going to have to pull out every trick to make it to 50K words next month.

Along those lines, I came up with a storyline on the way to work Saturday. Steve - dear hubby - helped me with some of the plot twists later that same day over dinner. With my current novel - the one with no name yet - about to wrap up, I can spend some time developing my new story.

Can’t hardly wait!!

My main characters are finally gonna do the deed! Writing the scene made me wonder if writers ever feel like they’re repeating themselves when they write about sex. I’ve seen some very creative ways to change it up, but man, after a while you have to run out of words! Ha! I guess that is what distinguishes a good writer from a great one, huh? (Or would that be a good sex life from a great one?! ha ha!)

As of this moment, the word count is…15,924

As of this very moment, I have 11,937 words typed in my personal October challenge. That’s almost halfway to my goal of 25,000 words by October 31. I’m right on target. Here’s a small excerpt - note: up to this point, the hero doesn’t know the heroine’s real name:

She stopped short when he came into sight and let out a low whistle. “Anna you said he was gorgeous, but damn!”

His hand went under his chin and his head tilted to the side. “Anna? You said I was gorgeous?” he mocked.

“You can never keep your mouth shut. I told you he thought my name was Lisa.” Anna turned colors of pink previously undiscovered and Lucy hooted with laughter, holding her waist with both hands. The sound was beautiful and Nicholas chuckled in response.

***

If that isn’t insane enough for you, I decided to not only do NaNoWriMo, I’m signing up for 70 Days of Sweat. Today is day #1 of that challenge. Wish me well!

I’ve decided to start this blog today to keep me accountable. Let’s see how well it works.

The other day while cleaning out the garage, I came across at least a dozen stories I had started years ago - even pre-undergrad days - and never finished. Let’s not forget the novel that is about two chapters away from being finished that I haven’t touched in years. Pathetic, isn’t it?

Well, for the month of October I have challenged myself to write three pages a day. This is in preparation for NaNoWriMo where I’ll have to write about 7 pages a day for the month of November to make their 50,000 word challenge. So far, so good on the October challenge. I’ll post my progress on it here.

Look for me on NaNo ID blkdawn.