Archive for the ‘Progress’ Category
I just checked my delivery confirmation via the U.S. Postal Service and nearly had a heart attack: No record of that number on file.
It turned out, I incorrectly entered the tracking number from my receipt. When I typed in the correct number, the computer told me my GH entry was received. Woo-hoo! That’s a load off my mind.
We had a great, inspirational NARWA meeting Saturday — and for once I didn’t have to come home and go to work. I was off all weekend, so I got to come home from the meeting all inspired to write … and actually do it! I wish that’d happen more often.
With the GH entry off my plate, I devoted the weekend to catching up on the NaNo. I didn’t succeed, but I did write about 6,000 words on Saturday and Sunday, bringing my NaNo count up to 20,000+.
Pathetic compared to most people’s, I’m sure … but it’s still 20,000 more words than I had at the end of October. And I realized I don’t have quite as far to go to finish as I thought … Only about 16,500 to get my MS to 90,000 words.
So … I finally let Kari and Damien get busy. Figured they needed a couple of happy sex scenes before I break them apart and get them back together.
I was sick last night, so the word count didn’t grow much Monday. And today it was back to work. I’m going to try to do a little writing when I get home from work, but I’m still pretty wiped out from my bout with the 36-hour bug. About the time I finish this blog and my other one, I’ll probably be ready for bed.
Post office says it's been delivered!
That’s how much my Golden Heart entry weighs. It’s 36 pages of 6-page synopsis and 210 pages of the first 42 pages of my MS.
How do I know how much it weighs? Easy — I put it on my trusty kitchen scale. (I knew there had to be a use for it besides weighing food!)
I have decided it’s time to let my entry go. I can’t read through it one more time without going absolutely bonkers. Besides, If I hang onto it much longer, I’ll be paying extra for express shipping — and since the Boyfriend is fronting me the money to pay for the mailing, he’d appreciate it if I didn’t have to do that.
I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment after printing out those six copies. I called one of my NARWA friends and told her that it was done. She’s still working on her entry (in a different category).
As an aside, my Brother laser printer works great. I bought it a couple of years ago, fairly cheap. At the time, I had an iMac still running on OS9, and it was one of the few printers that was OS9 compatible. I’m glad, because my pages look beautiful — much better than they would on an inkjet printer.
I plan to head to the Post Office either Thursday or Friday, depending on when the Boyfriend gets me that money. My next NARWA meeting is Saturday, and I have the weekend off.
Now, instead of devoting it to finishing the GH entry, I can concentrate on upping my NaNo word count. I managed to break 14.5K today, but that’s still low compared to everyone else.
That’s what my blog is doing … I haven’t been giving it as much attention as I should, I guess.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been giving the NaNo the attention it needs, either. After a great write-in with friends Wednesday morning (at which the MS topped 10,400 words), I was woefully lazy on Thursday and Friday. This morning, I managed to write another couple hundred words …
The good news is I realized this morning (as I lamented my lack of progress over the last few days) that I have 55 more pages of Blind Date Bride than I did before I started the NaNo on Nov. 1.
So I might not be where I should be word-count wise, but I’m much better off than I’d be had I not signed up for NaNo.
As for the GH entry, I spent some time last night making the edits from my last read-through. It looks like I’m going to be shipping off 500+ pages, though (6 copies of the 45-page entry, 6 copies of a 6-page synopsis and a 216-page full MS).
Wow! That’s a lot of pages. Wonder how much that’ll cost me?
I've signed up, for better or worse.
… But I did decide to go ahead and sign up for the NaNoWriMo. I figured that, if nothing else, it’d spur me to finish the last 40,000 words I need to write on “Blind Date Bride” so I can enter it in next year’s GH.
Now it’s Day 3, and I’ve still only written about 2,000 words. That already puts me hopelessly behind.
Even worse, now that I’ve let Kari and Damien out to play, I’m having trouble shutting them up long enough to go back and put the finishing touches on this year’s GH entry featuring Erin and the not-nearly-as-boring anymore Brad. (He’s come a long way in the last few months!)
I got some very good — and much appreciated — feedback on those pages from Anne Marie, one of the GH winners from 09. Needless to say, I’m taking her advice because she knows what she’s doing! 😀
To finish 50,000 words in 30 days, I need to write 1,667 a day. Since I only need about 40,000 words, I don’t have to write quite that much … it works out to 1,333 a day.
At 1,994 after Day 2, I’m not as far behind as I could be. I may even catch up later, when I get off work.
Hope springs eternal! 😀
P.S. If any of my blog readers (of which I’m sure there are a few) are doing the NaNo and want to add me as a buddy, my username is arlenemarie. Novel title: Blind Date Bride.
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