I think it was Monday. But all things went weird. I was supposed to be at a Zoom meeting at 6 but on my calendar, it was set for 7. So I got there as everyone was getting ready to leave. Then I talked to my FridayFriend and that screwed up my brain even more.
I wanted to get this in before midnight to get counted in the right place but at least today I did the Fiery Cross review so I was able to get in on the count. I think I may have blogged every day for a year but all that shows up is 140 days as I did it so often after midnight. Grrr! No, that is tomorrow’s letter.
And so my FineFeathered or Furry or Frustrated human Friends, the Count of CampNaNo is still a day or two behind, at 7,828 words. I should be at 10,002. Maybe I’ll catch up tomorrow. And I’ll try to summarize for you the crazy antics my characters are up to.
Okay, time to get the URLs fixed on the page so credit goes where credit is due,
This #AtoZChallenge is brought to you by the letter F. Which I hardly used due to late-night Fuzzy head! Hope you are all safe and staying healthy!
It is 10 PM and I still have to finish 2,000 words for #CampNaNo and blog my #A-Z/#WDIIA. Okay, I will have to do this fast. At least I finished most of my languages on Duolingo. Well, I did German and Español. But not français or Esperanto. I usually spend a good half hour on the languages.
What Day Is It Anyway? Well, we started the day with Sunday Morning and then an e-service on Zoom. So looking at the lower corner of my computer informs me that it is the fifth of April. How confusing has your day been? Sometimes the people in your house seem like enemies instead of loved ones. Then we realize we are all scared and the one thing we don’t want is to lose these people. I would guess the tighter the budget right now the harder it is to keep it together.
So that leads me to the 50,000-word challenge of CampNaNo. So up until now, I have amassed 4,735 words. I should be at 8,335. So if you will
I better get over to yWriter and write. I’ll try to give a bit of a summary tomorrow. My fingers and imagination need to fly! Ah, but that is a letter for tomorrow!
I hope you are doing well, staying safe and figuring out how to get along in all of this epidemic.
Well, here we are on the fourth day of the #A2Z challenge.
SO:
Dragons! Yes, today is the fourth day of #CampNano. And I am two days behind. I need to be at 6,668 words written. But somehow, as with everything else like blog reading, housework, journal keeping, I’m way behind. So far I only have 3,006. This is why I like to set up characters and some sort of outline ahead of the month of writing to get started running.
By the way, yes, my favorite dragon, Enelrad (if you reverse the letters you get Darlene), bounded in yesterday, surprising my three main characters as they were practicing their archery. As Liz took aim and let loose, Enelrad telepathed to her ‘Ouch!’ Well, dragons have a sense of humor. She materialized as her natural self, a huge, jewel-toned dragon in all her beauty of purple and turquoise. Then she changed to her go-to human form, Susan, so they could communicate better. Now dragon and dames are getting acquainted. There is a mission. It has to do with the virus going around. One of the young women is a biology/microbiology major. whose mother is a doctor. The mothers heard the fear in their daughters and left their homes driving to the campsite. These gals got game! I can’t wait to see what they all get up to.
As for my paper journal I am four days behind. What Day Is It Anyway? What Time Is It Anyway? And what is the purpose of saying I’m sorry that I haven’t written in the last few days as all the future archeologists will see is a new day and continued writing. They missed nothing. They were lucky I didn’t write as I did as a child, DearDiary, today I breathed in and out. Your friend, Dar.
So, the prompt for #SoCS is “deep” staying with the AtoZ flow. Thank you Linda G. Hill for your many prompts!
In the forest, Susan led the women deep into a cave system. Darkness had surprised them as they talked and they knew, at this point going home to stay would be useless. Following a stream, as it meandered around rocks and small hills, the saw a mass of ivy climbing a hill. Susan spread the plants. There was a door. She tapped on it, and someone inside opened it. “This is my friend, Dusty. She’s here to help you fight this disease in a way you might not even have thought about. But step inside. It is getting cold and damp out here and I know how much you girls hate the way it makes your hair frizz. Mine, too!
Well, there is the start of my Chapter two! I am not there yet. But it is like watching a coming attraction. I can’t wait to see how we get there! Welcome to Pandemapolypse. That is the name of my newest Haven novel. I am getting excited to get back to the actual typing.
Yikes! I still haven’t done my languages of the day at Duolingo!
Danke schön for reading. Stay at home. Wash your hands. Dance!
I thought I would have an excellent report on how many words I got done today. But alas and yahoo, it was a chat day. So the first thing I want to say is how I loved talking for a long time with my daughter today. I actually had to get off that phone call to start a Zoom session with my friends. It has become our Friday thing. And there is my #WDIIA indication. So I was chattingconstantly for over 7 hours of love! Who could as for more? It is always a wonderful thing to talk with loved ones.
I certainly don’t feel guilty for not catching up with the wordage I needed today. Which is supposed to be 5,001. My total so far today is 2,132. My intentions were strong. The first scene I started writing I titled: Curiouser and Curiouser. I knew where I was heading with that part of the story. Still do. And that is all I’m giving as it is time to go work on my CampNaNoChapter 1 Scene 6. I/ve titled Pandemapolypse. There are only a few more minutes to get a few more words to the story before midnight. More, tomorrow. How was your day?
That’s easy. The trash is out for tomorrow’s pick up. I’m watching Grey’s Anatomy. Oh, yeah. this is Netflix. I decided I needed something to play in the background while I write. Hence rerunning from Season 1 on. I am now at Season 2 Episode 2: Deny, Deny, Deny.
I know. Why do I, with all this medical stuff going on, choose to watch medical shows, or disaster shows. If there is a psychiatrist out there, I hope they answer. Meanwhile, the most angst I get is how poor Meredith has to deal with her mother and how I relate. Differently, yet. I get it. ‘Ah, denial isn’t a river in Egypt,’ as Meredith says, ‘it’s an ocean.’. Seriously?!
We need yet another hashtag: #What Time Is It Anyway? I can’t believe that I was up since 7 (I usually don’t get up until 9:30 or 10. But as opposed to staying awake until 3 in the morning. Last night I didn’t read. But I hadn’t napped. So crash time happened at midnight last night. Ugh! Anyone else having weird hours? Geez! No wonder my brain is weirding me out if I leave it alone to its own devices.
So I thought about doing CampNaNo. But by the time sleep overcame me I had no idea what I was going to do. I couldn’t believe I was going to let one slide, but I assumed I’d deal with it. Below is a synopsis of what I’ve written so far. I think the story is actually better than what I tried here. But objectivity isn’t a quality I have during pandemics
I woke up hearing BBBB or 4B. Yeah, brain, shut up I want to sleep. I heard my new characters laughing in my head. I saw a pile of curly chocolate licorice. I didn’t understand why that was so funny. Then I saw my main character, Lizzy, whose nickname is exactly BBBB or 4B. Then I heard why. Lizzy and her friends had known each other since babies. Her friend April learned at a young age how to fix Lizzy’s hair from Lizzy’s mom. April’s first do was two ponytails. Lizzy’s mom gushed with, “Big, Beautiful, Black, Buns!” The girls had been so proud. And that is how Lizzy got that nickname. As teens, the guys found out and the nickname and teased Lizzy. But she cupped her ponytails and walked away with pride.
The pile of candy? What was so funny? Well, in the middle of a pandemic, when one sneezes on the candy that looks so much like those buns, and your best friend sneezes and you see the same thing, AND you almost pick up a piece of that candy anyway but the look on your best friend’s face reflects the same thing, you laugh. It’s what you do.
So now I have 1,579 words on my new NaNo I’ve titled ‘Pandemapolypse’. Who needs fiction when real life gives such crazy scenarios to start with? I need 3,334 words beforebed. I’m a little less than halfway there. So I best go get done!
And there my Sesame Street friends is #CampNaNo/#A-to-Z representation. Brought to you by:
When I started the #What Day Is It Anyway blogging I thought it would be a good way to keep track of days and feelings as this Covid19 grows. A friend from my old writing group sent me a note about how in the old days, other plagues, journals were found to guide us in the future. Awkward sentence. I hope you understood it. I have to get this done in a hurry as I still have a lot to do before bed.
She also talked about having written a lot in MySpace and her son wrote a blog and couldn’t get back in. How many computers have you been through that crashed with all the information you loved and wanted to save?
SO… as of yesterday, I started a handwritten journal. In it, I am keeping track of my feelings and the progress of the disease. So far as we know, we are still three degrees of infected. But if the charts are right it will hit closer to home. I want to keep track of everything. Much I can share here. But those hypochondriac thoughts or which shoes are best for walking may not need to be here. Too scary or boring, ya know?
I wondered how to start. I thought, what if a person were to find this in the future. Say an archeologist. It could be a time when science isn’t what it is today. And then the question came to me, what if the internet doesn’t exist? What if they have no computers?
Have you ever tried to explain the internet or blogging to someone who might have never heard of it? Well, there were three pages that included encyclopedias and the use thereof.
I have multiple colored pens and I change as the subject changes drastically, or a mood hits. Then as I rambled along I thought, what if they can’t read cursive? I have the ugliest print. I think my cursive is okay. So I did a chart showing the alphabet in cursive and print so they might figure it all out.
It’s been fun, in a way. I’ve written about 700 words. My hands only cramped up once. So I will continue.
One the physical side it was ‘witch on the bicycle’ windy so I didn’t get to take a walk. I could handle rain or snow or sun, but the wind is the worst. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance tomorrow. I did love being out there yesterday and the day before.
We caught up on The Good Doctor after lots of news. Now I am watching Contagion on Netflix. I’m on the third episode. This one scares me more than the others. I don’t know why. So here’s the YouTube trailer. Use your own discretion to decide if it is for you.
Wash your hands, keep your distance. Love one another. Take a walk if you can. Be creative in whatever way the muses hit you. Hang in there!
***
Per Linda:
Why I’m writing this post:
Because if you’re like me and stuck at home already, or if you’re going to be like me soon, the days of the week are going to be hell to keep track of. We have a wonderful community here on WordPress and all over the Internet as well, and I’m sure many people are feeling nervous and/or isolated. I want to make sure every one of us has somewhere to congregate and someone to talk to.
I want everyone to know that you can start discussions with each other in the comments, and if you’d like to write your own “What Day is it Anyway?” post, you can link to this one. Hashtag #WDIIA.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ect.” Find a word with the letters “ect” in it, and base your post on that word. (Not to be confused with “et cetera,” which is “etc.”) Enjoy!
Perfect! The object of this blog prompt is words that have ‘ect’ in them. And me with a bit of dyslexia have to sort the words that seem to imply “and so on”. Meanwhile the subject on my mind is how Chrome keeps slowing the whole job down. I might type one word but then it all hangs up with “Chrome is not responding.”
No sense in worrying about it. I pick up my knitting and wait. Then I get distracted by Doc Martin. Appendectory here, expectorant there. How about an injection? I’ll never get this blog done. But the affects of computer problems is my own irritation. The effectiveness of getting the writing done, null.
Well, then, if nothing is going to happen here, I guess I’ll go get my yarn connection. The affection I have for soft yarn is purrfect! Oh, that was Teddy putting in his interjection.
Per Linda: Your prompt for JusJoJan January 7th, 2020, is “mix.” Use the word “mix” any way you’d like. Enjoy!
Yes, knitting is my life. Sorry. I looked all over the Pixabay for a good picture to inspire me to write about the prompt, mix. This sock is what came to mind. And it is for my daughter who is celebrating her birthday. Wow, my offspring are getting old! I’m almost to the heel stage. I do love this magical self-striping yarn. It really mixes it up, don’t you think?
I’m just streaming even though it is not Saturday.
Hey, how many of you are food purists? What I mean is when you get a plate of food do you mix all your food together or try very hard to keep it all separated? I tend to be a purist. All my life. I remember when I was a candy striper and I had this nice guy I took care of. He was a paraplegic. He could paint with the brush between his teeth. He was amazing. When it came time for me to feed him I was shocked.
“Mix it all up!” he said to me with passion.
I was repulsed. I mixed a little together for each bite but he nearly yelled at me. He was happy when I was more violent with my mixing. Now I remember his name, Frank. He was the bright spot of my candy striping days.
One day, I walked into his ward and saw his room empty. I asked, “Where’s Frank?” I was ready to take him on his daily walk.
“We’re sorry…”
“He went home?” I asked in the naive sixteen-year-old voice.
The nurse shook her head sadly and told me he died. He was the first person I had lost to death. Now that I am 70 I think I know more people gone than here. That death made me see I wouldn’t be able to handle being a nurse or doctor. I wish I would have had this philosophy back then. I think that medicine would have been in my future.
Aw, but all that standing! Never mind. Pipe-dreams. They do tend to send my head into a big mixed-up mess.
This was quite informative and not only ways to help write a novel more efficiently, but also great hints on how to use yWriter better.
It is fun to hear Simon Hayes’s voice. After reading a lot of his Hal Spacejock stories and enjoying them to the max, it is fun to hear the rhythm of how he speaks matches the cadence of his fiction.
I have written quite a few novels myself, mostly for NaNoWriMo (17?) so I highly recommend Simon’s methods to write. I am learning some things from this book, that I wish I could have had in my writing wheelhouse all along. It is a very helpful book.
I plan to buy the Kindle and perhaps paper version too so I can refer back to the books often. I highly recommend this book!
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ght.” Find a word that contains the letters “ght” in that order, and use it any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use three or more different words containing those letters. Have fun!
Night is the time I get creative. There is no right and wrong of when, where, or how to do NaNoWriMo. It is a process I have bought into, hook, line, and sinker, except I don’t fish, except for words. I haven’t started writing for today but the latest count is 13,349. Hopefully, by the end of today, I will have at least the requisite 15,003. Try as I might I can’t seem to get into it. For once it is easier to write here on the blog than any other place.
The light is good. Wish it were more bright. No, it is the thought process that is broken. I will need to fight for this day’s words. The biggest fright for me is to get behind in the wordage. Other people seem to do a ton of words and can catch up easily. Not me. I could run a marathon more than makeup words. The height of my days in November is when I post my tally and no I am ahead of the goal. Even better, to be caught up in the blight of my characters’ dilemma and the words don’t quit. The sight of a page filled with story that was fun to write is the best feeling ever!
Okay, time is getting tight.
Happy Nano! Happy Stream of Consciousness Saturday!
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.
Where ancient wisdom meets modern technology. Stories that illuminate the wonders of science, culture, and life — crafted with human creativity and a touch of AI magic.
Darswords 
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