The actual word count for my NaNoWriMo project, Crystal is 7,040. I will be writing more as soon as I’ve done some recorder playing. I’m trying to stay a day or so ahead while the story is calling to me as it will get harder and I will lose medical days so.. Yay! Me!
Just a note for future reference, the weather wants to be rainy but is windy instead. Yuck! We need the rain or even snow!
I’m almost caught up in the Doctor Who marathon. I’m finally up to Jodie Whittaker and the Rosa episode. I love this one!
Yes, knitting still happens during NaNoWriMo. Especially while I wait for the computer to warm up or while thinking through a plot issue. Here’s the hat that I totally frogged and began again.
This is a combination of the blue and pink of the last two hats. It seems to come out a bit of grey this way. It feels as soft as the other two hats, and I think it will be warm for ears with the double layer brim.
I still have two pairs of red Christmas socks in the making, but the hat is taking the hands hostage. Who knows why some projects win for the day, and others have to sit and wait? They’ll all get done.
Crystal has moved from my #Inktober project to my NaNoWriMo project. I had a little story that I am rewriting as I am adding to my yWriter. Though this may be a rebel month if Crystal proves to be a short story rather than a full-blown novel, I have other projects to get my wordage to grow in. But after today, I am beginning to think this may have possibilities. I managed 2,613 words today. A lot of that was character development. The more I develop her, the more she becomes real, even if her stressful ability is one I’ve never heard of before, so I have no idea how it works. I still feel more that I want to write, so I think I’ll get back to it.
Just a word of guilt. Except for the slightest tootle yesterday, I haven’t touched my recorders in four or five days. I wrote up a schedule, but the world and I disagreed with how it was written. Obviously not in stone! And, once again, I missed my Easy Writers Zoom Meeting. I set an alarm, but that was for the exact time or within five minutes. But you know ADD means if I am into another activity, I can’t just walk away. Next week I’ll set the alarm for 5:30 to give me the time to get out of whatever project and sit and tootle some while waiting. Which may be the way to creep the music back in. I hope to do a toot or two tonight to break up the extra writing.
You see, I want to get a few days ahead. I know that the second Friday of this month is my eye consultation, and that same day I get a COVID test in prep for an upper GI to see why I am a constant heart burner. My doctor thinks it is a hiatal hernia. I guess we’ll see soon. Anyway, there are two days I might not get the chance to write. And though it hasn’t stopped me any other year, there is Thanksgiving. Heck, I’ve sat on the floor at my daughter’s house with my laptop, and while we all visited, I typed away. I tried to stay focused on my loved ones while the story flowed through my hands. I can’t promise it was well done, but it was words in the story!
So without further ado, lots to do before I sleep!
This being October 30, I had only two days to prepare for NaNoWriMo and writing another book.
Making my second podcast/vlog I two days. I tossed yesterday’s because I didn’t understand how to share my screen. Thanks to helpful friends I think I get that now.
Our Zoom session lasted about an hour. Moving it to YouTube is my new problem. I don’t know that I’m up to background music and graphics, you know the whole kit and caboodle. I will learn as I go. No need to get fancy. Besides, I’m constantly being booted off because I haven’t saved correctly or some other techish nonsense.
When I finally get it posted somewhere, I will share. It is a writing group meet of sorts. We covered a lot of websites, programs and books. As soon as the upload finishes, I need to figure out how to add those.
Just think maybe someday our novels will don your bookshelves.
If I can get past the slow upload. BOO! To slow computers!
Per Linda:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is โboo.โ Find a word with the letters โbooโ in it or use โbooโ as is and base your post on it. Enjoy!
After frogging yesterday’s hat, I nearly have a brim finished on the new one. Within a row or two, I will put that first row in the middle onto the pegs, knit the first and the last row together, and then start the main part of the hat.
And after ‘frogging’ yesterday’s podcast attempt, I spent the morning learning about starting a new project. I used Wondershare, the free version, to try and work on what might be salvageable from yesterday. I have only gone through the first couple of steps and feel confident I can do something to help others. Here’s their first YouTube.
So my attempt for tomorrow is to show how to set up for NaNoWriMo and hopefully show how my friends start theirs in other programs. I will even walk through setting up a new project on NaNoWriMo. Though I finished (Pandamapocalypse) and won last year’s, That book isn’t finished. I got halfway through another during the first CampNaNo with Marina’s Mission. And suddenly, I had another story, Meeps creep in, but I haven’t posted word count to NaNo yet. And now, because of #Inktober, I suddenly have Crystal. Which I set up in yWriter yesterday thinking I had screen sharing going on Zoom. Nope, it was just me talking, and all you could see was my glasses as I had to get really close to the screen to see. The nice thing about NaNo now, as opposed to how it used to be, is you can divide your wordage between projects or even aim for pages edited or other types of goals. So I plan to share that tomorrow also. So the mistakes of yarns yesterday become new projects today.
This day! Yikes! It started with a sad situation for my son.
Our internet has been so sketchy today.
I attempted to do my first Podcast. I did the recording on Zoom. I thought I was capturing the set-up of my yWriter project for this November. What I got is a recording of my glasses and my voice yammering on and on. Then I could go no further because of a bad internet connection.
So to soothe my soul, I pulled out the hat I was knitting. It was supposed to be a fast one as I was e-wrapping. But 5 inches in, I found it was too large. So I had to frog-it, rippit. Now it is only an inch long and that’s part of the fold up brim.
Tomorrow is another day. I’m hoping for insight. Anyone know how to share screen on Zoom on the laptop?
On the plus side one of my NaNoWriMo project is ready for wordage!
With NaNoWriMo coming up fast, I’ve decided to forgo the rest of #Inktober. The story the first ones of the month prompted will be rewritten possibly as the main NaNo 50K or as part of a threesome I need to finish from before. I will use the prompts in the story and make drawings or sketches.
There is only one week to prepare for the three projects.
What made me decide this? I haven’t played my recorders for days. Having too much to do only makes me feel guilt. Guilt makes me unproductive. So I need to figure out my time better to keep it free and fun.
I got more of the story written to go with #inktober, but I haven’t finished the pictures. If I get the time I’ll start adding the pictures. Just a bit of a review Crystal was leading the pickle flavored guard, William, and her new friend Cindy to her trailer.
Crystal led the trio to her trailer. It was a cozy RV. “William, take these and hit the shower.” Crystal tossed him a towel and a sweatsuit “It’s a little too big for me so it’ll probably fit you. At least until your uniform is clean and dry. Toss them out before you shower and I’ll wash the clothes.”
After his shower, William sat in his temporary sweat clothes beneath the clock. The ticking was louder than the rain on the roof.
Cindy started laughing.
“What?” William asked as he finger combed his mop on top. “There wasn’t a good gel to contain this mess!”
Even with the dryer balls bouncing in rotation the tick tock grew louder.
“Hey!” Cindy jumped up and pointed to a stream of water leaking from the ceiling.
Crystal grabbed a pot to capture the flow. It filled quickly. “Oh, boy! That’s a big one!” Crystal was getting stressed. William saw the crystals in her eyes. He knew what that meant. He looked around and noticed the football helmet. He looked under the sink and found the stuff for stopping leaks. He donned the helmet. “It’ll keep my hair out of my eyes”
William went straight out into the rain and climbed up the ladder on the back of the RV. He found the hole on the roof and plugged it.
Back inside soaking wet again, William looked at Crystal. “I don’t suppose you have another sweatsuit?”
“No, but there’s a robe hanging in the bathroom.”
They tossed the sweats in the dryer.
William felt silly in the satiny robe but it was far better than another hallucinating session.
Everyone sat near the fireplace. It wasn’t real. But it did warm them physically and calm their souls like a real fireplace.
“How did you come by your name, Crystal?” Cindy asked.
There that’s the story so far now I have to get busy on the drawings and continue the story later hope you enjoyed it.
Well, the story has taken some weird turns today. Wish I knew where it is going. Without further ado here’s today’s installment.
As Crystal stood in the fresh air behind the theater, she felt it happen. She knew what to expect. Time to choose. “I pick you.” She pointed to the fan who had assisted her in getting out.
The fan knew it meant she should protect Crystal at all cost. She stood proudly. There was no greater honor.
Finally, the pressure gave way in an explosion of sorts. The crowd of people surrounding them were instantly transformed into animals. Some the fan recognized, some were beings no one had ever seen before.
Crystal became small, a tiny lizard. The fan scooped up Crystal and held her carefully in her hands.
The animals wandered away. Most were hungry so they headed for the nearby woods.
Now isolated Crystal began to grow. Soon her protector couldn’t contain her. The fan wrapped her ward in her sweatshirt . Soon even that wasn’t enough. “Crystal what can I do?”
The lizard grew large enough to hold the fan on her back. Then she ran toward the candy-striped guard shack. Maybe her friend the watchman could help them.
Crystal nearly dropped her fan as the scene that awaited them was a pool of blood with a pick axe leaning against the shack wall. Where was her friend?
The fan pointed toward another building where the bloody footprints led.
“We need to find a safe place for you. Let’s try the warehouse over there until we feel safe.”
Crystal was now nearly as large as the guard shack. The warehouse would be best.
Though the door was locked, Crystal used her front legs as arms and broke the lock. They went in and found a corner to rest in.
~~~
Now for the #Inktober2021 ink.
Some scary stuff but at least a hero is safe for the moment.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is โlid.โย Use it in the literal sense, use it in the metaphorical sense, use it any way youโd like. Have fun!
I decided to combine #SOCS’s ‘lid’ with #Intober2021 where the prompt of the day is ‘pressure’.
Here’s the story’s continuation:
Trying to keep the lid on seemed to increase the pressure. The watchman clicked on his watch and scrolled to Crystal’s name and hit send. When her face came on the screen it was full of understanding. Her crystals were growing nearly taking over her irises. It made her look blind, but he knew it was the opposite. He warned her to get out while she could.
Crystal looked around at her fans. She felt the one who had whispered before, tugging at her arm. She whispered again, “Let’s get out of here, this way!”
Crystal let herself be pulled while bowing and thanking the enclosing crowd.
~~~
Shoot! Another cliffhanger! What is going to happen? I wish I knew! Anyway, here’s the #Intober2021 ink.
First of all, I like drawing with a pencil. I’m not doing well with the finality of ink when I am not at all versed in how. So sorry, not sorry. Besides, this is to encourage my writing. Having multiple words yesterday in trying to catch up was easier to pull out the story. But this is going more slowly. First the pic and then the bit I’ve written.
Maybe I should use markers to color in. I can’t seem to leave the sketch in black and white. And that bit at the upper left is the watch on the guard’s arm, not a pill bottle. Okay, the story installment:
The watchman looked at his watch. Panic set in his bones. He noticed the crowd closing in on Crystal.
How was he to rescue her while obeying her command to let her enjoy her fans? But midnight approaches, and he now what that means!
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
Hi! my name is Sebastian (You can call me Seb!) ...welcome to my Blog. I'm a photographer from Worcester, Worcestershire, England. Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoy my work.
Books, games, music, and life โ filtered through the mind of a writer, drummer, and philosopher who thinks too deeply about all of it. If it moves something in your chest, I'm interested.
You must be logged in to post a comment.