Friday – Linda Nelson

Friday !

Who can’t wait for Friday to get here?

If you are thinking it is just the beginning of the weekend, then you must not be a writer. This Friday is November 1st. The first of November marks the beginning of none other than Na No Wri Mo. That is National Novel Writing Month. It is the challenge where you are to write a novel of 50,000 in a month. That is 1654 words a day or something to that extent to meet the challenge.

No cheating now!

What will I work on? Hmmm…

At first I thought of working on the next Orgarlan book for this challenge, but I have changed my mind. I’m in the mood for writing crap. Maybe a crap storyline that I have no investment in so I can beat it up or make it as sloppy as I can make it without worry of the outcome.

I did this once before, and nothing ever came of the story line except it remains half done and in my slush pile. That was Wish Away. My genie story. Maybe someday I will open that manuscript up and give it another shot.

This time I think I want to try shutting off my internal editor and filter. If it turns out to be something worth keeping in the end, I would probably publish it under a different name since I have a feeling that it will be an adult story.

I have an idea too. Nope, I’m not going to divulge at this time. You will have to wait and see what I’m toying with. Hint: some kind of fantasy and a stand-alone.

Dog Update:

Julie is doing better. A week ago she was getting terribly lame. So lame that she barely could stand and move about. We feared the worst for our family pooch of 13+ years.

Last Thursday we pulled ideas out of the air as of what to do for her. After giving her three doses of Benadryl in a 24 hour period, she began to show improvement. My thought was to try and lower the swelling around some of her lumps. This seemed to help.

Then on Saturday we went out and bought her some Glucosamine for her hips and joints. We got her the good stuff in the red bottle, but it is only stage two. We wanted stage three, but apparently a lot of dogs are having this problem, now that the cold has hit the New Hampshire region. Regardless she has been getting three tablets a day and her improvement is remarkable. She had been in such a state that was so grim seven days ago, her recovery now, is so incredible. Now she is running, climbing up stairs, skipping and some jumping. This stuff is truly remarkable. Thank God she appears to be doing so much better.

ROW80 update:

I have not done any more work on the next Orgarlan book from last Saturday. I also missed my Sunday post update. I posted, but it wasn’t an update announcement. The thought was there. Trust me.

I do believe I will switch from the Orgarlan novel I was working on to work on to the NaNo Novel. This plot is kind of taking over me brainstorming. Why fight it? Who knows how it will turn out?

NaNoWriMo 2013: Want to Write a Novel? (elisajosephine.wordpress.com)
NaNoWriMo is Almost Here! (messagesfrommylife.wordpress.com)
NaNoWriMo 2013: Want to Write a Novel? (firstnightdesign.wordpress.com)

After digging out of nearly 2 feet of snow on Friday, today was our NHRWA monthly meeting, and they had a treat for us. Our speaker was Hank Phillippi Ryan, she is an investigative reporter for the NBC News station out of Boston, an Emmy award winner several times over along with Edward R Morrow Awards for journalism. She is also an Agatha Christie Award Winner, a Mary Higgins Clark Award Winner, and a Macavity Award Winner for her Mystery/Crime Novels.

She was great.

She compared journalism to writing fiction and showed how the technique for writing an investigative report for the news could be applied to writing any genre.

In working in the Journalism world, there is no such thing as Writers Block – so true. If you don’t make your deadline then you’re fired, plain and simple.

If you ever have the chance to hear her speak – do it! You will be so glad you did.

First Ever – I had a first. I stepped out of my comfort zone today and brought the first chapter of Along Came Neil to my writers group of for a critique. I’m so glad I did. It was like having your own personal editors. I loved the feedback that they gave me and I do plan on figuring out how I can make their suggestions work. I just won’t tackle the revision just yet. I will save their comments and suggestions for when I do the first edit. For now, I will continue writing the rest of the story and bring them one chapter at a time.

ROW80 Update:

This week I think I added over 10k words to Along Came Neil. Tomorrow I will try to hit the halfway mark at 25k words.

You know what? I’m not going to try. I’m going to do it – Goal + Deadline=Progress.

I’m not going to fire myself. Right now I want quantity and not quality. Quality comes later and will be saved for the critique.

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