Monday, July 29, 2013

A mind of its own.

The kids got me a very cool hose.  When it's not in use it shrinks. 
 
In order to get it to grow you twist the valve closed, turn on the water and the hose expands.  Once it has expanded you open the valve.  Very cool.
 
However, I must of been a little slow getting to the point where I open the valve and there was a giant bubble that blew.  Dang it.
 
I cut the hose to see if I could fix it like you do a regular hose.  Not happening.  I decided to just soak the ground until I could purchase a new hose.  When I came out to switch the hose, this is what I found.
 
 
 
Well, alrighty then.  Works for me.  

Thursday, July 25, 2013

And the winner is...




Another Nano is under my belt. I do feel a bit like I cheated though.  I dropped my word count goal down to 30,000. 

I struggled with this one.  Hit a brick wall at one point and the word count suffered.  I took a step back and restructured what I wanted to do with my story and that got me going in the right direction again.

While I'm done with Nano I'm not done with my story.  I am really only at the Call to Adventure.  It was here I hit another wall.  So I pushed on through to get the 30,000 words, barely.   30,066.

As soon as I put paid to Nano my Muse said, "Hey, I've got an idea." 
Thank you Muse.  I now have a rough sketch of how I want my story to proceed. 

I had thought of diving in for the next few days and knocking out another 20K but I decided I would just rather go back to my normal routine.  So that's what I'm doing..




Saturday, July 20, 2013

Dad Gum It!!

I'd say something else but I'd like this blog to be as close to G rated as possible.

I was going to title it GOOGLE FAILED ME!!!!!!

I had a webinar that I was going to attend today.  2:00 Eastern.  Now, in my heart I knew it was noon but I doubted.  Do you ever do that?  You know something but doubt creeps in and you double check? 

Yep, that was me.

I googled to find the time conversion between mountain and eastern.  I was shocked.  The class I thought should have started at noon was starting at 4:00.  Well alrighty then.  I went to the market.  My mind kept telling me that something wasn't right.

When I finally puzzled it out using Mountain time vs Pacific time.  This one I know.  That's when I realized that google had failed me.  I was so dumbfounded that google failed me I went back to google to get a screen shot to prove this heinous error.

Oh dear.  I failed me.  We will call it Time Zone Dyslexia.  If you put in the correct information you will get the correct answer.  If you flip it backwards, sideways or turn it upside down.  Results may vary.

Good news is the people giving the webinar had a contingency plan in place for all of us Time Zone Challenged.  They will send me a copy of the webinar early next week.

I decided it was my Muse not wanting to awaken the internal editor.  The webinar was on showing not telling and during Camp Nano I am mostly telling.  I am also below the Red Bar of Doom.  I just barely got the stupid editor out of my life.  Words have been tough this month until Thursday when things began to click.  On Thursday I woke up and started knocking it out of the park.  

The editor scoffed at me and said, "You know that every sentence will have to be redone." 
"I know," I said. "It's Nano THAT'S what you do.  Now go away."
My Muse shooed him from the house and the words are flowing once again.

If I can have a 10,000 word weekend I will be above the Red Bar of Doom. 
This is the plan.  This is also an apology.  I had intended to stop by weekly not weakly.  I won't make any promises about making the blog rounds or even blogging until Camp is over.  I hope at that point to post a win.

I wonder if there is anyway I could use this blog for word count? 
Naw, didn't think so.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

IWSG

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG).
They meet the first Wednesday of every month to encourage each other, share doubts and insecurities.
You can go here to encourage other participants
 
 
Hi again all you insecure writers.  {{Waves}}
 
June was a good month for me.  I spent my time preparing for Camp Nano and the preparation is paying off.  At least I've hit the ground with my wheels spinning.
 
I realize it is only day three but I had something very strange happen to me.  I can't write in the mornings.  I've always been a morning writer.  Since camp started I get up to write and nothing. The crickets are chirping in time to my blinking cursor on the blank page.  If I get 200 words it's a good morning.  However, once I get home from work the words flow. 
 
It will be interesting to see if the trend continues.  Perhaps it's all the pondering in the morning that leads to great word count in the afternoon.
 
How 'bout you?  Is there a particular time of day when you do your best writing?