I made myself a new Val's Writing Life on LJ. Mostly, I switched because LJ supports RSS feeds better and Evolution has a fun feed for just updated journals on the front page. Plus, LJ also has the regularly updated Friends page and most of my writing buddies are on LJ, so ::shrug:: random I know. Oh, well my primary blog isn't going anywhere.

NaNoWriMo Approacheth. Counting like the Romans, there are 49 days left until October 31st. I want to do NaNoWriMo this year which means my plate needs to be cleared of the other things I'm working on. This means that I should have No Use Wind done by then...I don't know if I can do it though. Yes, I'm completely capable of writing at high speeds and writing well at high speeds, but I haven't done it in so long...I want No Use Wind done though and I want to break this cloud that's been hanging over my writing. Looks like I've talked myself into it. I'm gonna give it a go, but, right now, I need to finish getting ready for work. I'll calculate what my daily word count needs to be when I get home.

Getting It Together. Didn't do the 3-Day marathon- school was starting that week, and I totally forgot how much work that was going to be getting myself ready. I've finally got some form of schedule worked out and I'm thinking about writing for fun again. My advanced comp class is cool--I had to read this essay called "A Writer's Habits" and I've been really thinking about it, especially the "Habit of Completion". I need to finish what I start.

No Use Wind, Update. Opened up the document, re-read it, then stared at it for almost an hour, without writing a new word. Opened up a new document, copied and pasted the third scene to be the first scene (I don't want to delete anything in case I want to use it later). I love this scene: it's Tangier and Reese, but starts off with Tangier remembering the night Paul saw her scars. It starts right off with conflict and sucks you in the story rather than dancing around it. Of course, now the novel starts off in Tangier's P.O.V. rather than in Reese's but I don't think it will be an issue...still haven't written anything really new, but I can feel my brain turning things over...

Overslept. I had to deal with some school stuff, so didn't get to take a nap. Went to bed just before midnight, intending to get up in a couple of hours and start writing. Slept until after eight o'clock this morning. :-( Oh well, between all the stuff I've had to do this morning, I've written a little over 400 words (total writing time was about a half-hour). And it was without the reward/bribe of a quarter to push me ahead. :-) I've got to get ready to go now, but I'll write more when I get home. I want to make this first scene a lot more vivid; it's pretty bland right now.

This explains what I write. I was sharing an issue I've been having about people being shocked that I don't write Christian fiction and Robert says "So, people are pissed that you, a devout Christian, tackle issues of sin and forgiveness in deeply Christian themed literature, without getting preachy." I love how that statement snapped me back into the reality of who I am and what I write.

I've been blocked lately. Robert rewards himself with a quarter each time he makes word count. I started doing it, it's worked a couple nights in a row so far. And this weekend is 3-Day Novel Marathon Weekend. I'm not shooting for the 40k goal. I don't actually have one of the goals in mind, just a lot of words. I have an idea for a story, a girl I trained with grew up travelling with the state fair and it totally sparked something in me. I'm going to try 1st person pov because I want to get comfortable writing in that voice and I'm writing with a way different tone than usual. It will be fun. There is a reason for the experiment though, I have an idea for a novel to market to Red Dress Ink and similar publications and I want to see how comfortable I am with the voice that would need.

I'm totally incoherent right now. I think I'll take a nap, so I'm refreshed before midnight. I think once it hits midnight, I'm gonna try for an all-nighter...I'm going to the races with my cousin tomorrow, so that will cut into some of my day writing time...I want to get a good start now.

I'll be sure to post my progress.

Uncomfortable Realizations. Noticing that some of the themes in No Use Wind parallel my life. I suppose that has to be true in order for a work of fiction to be powerful, you have to mine it from something deep inside of yourself. However, not sure if I wanted to realize that I was struggling with these particular questions. What if when he finds out how damaged I am, he doesn't love me anymore? I've been living under this mask for so long, what if I've forgotten who I really am? What does it really mean to love and am I capable of it? Does my past determine who I am now and who I will be? Thinking about this stuff makes my spine feel like it wants to crawl out of my body. It makes for good writing though...that's one good thing.

Looking Back. I just re-read my archives. I've skipped through a couple different sets of projects since last year. I'm going to stick with No Use Wind until it's done, then go back to Hush Little Baby. Not sure what I'm doing about Four More Exits yet.

Fits and Starts. My knee problems prevent me from sitting in a chair for a long period of time (and by long, I mean, 30 minutes), so the writing has been 100 words here, a 100 words there. And the pain (which the pain pills are NOT decreasing) has shot my concentration all to pieces, so I'm mildly screwed. I'm trying though, every bit counts. I scrapped my original (3/4 of the way done) beginning scene for Chapter Two and I'm about halfway through the re-written one. It was pretty stupid--I'm writing the same thing with the same characters, but I came at it from a different angle, so it actually works now. I'll see what I can get done today.