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!
I can accept the issues I have with weird eyes. But it makes me sad when someone has to clean up after me.
No, I don’t mean housework. I mean, well, let me tell you what happened.
Last night I was trying to update my NaNoWriMo word count. Earlier, I had reported 2,613 here and at the NaNo site. But before I went to bed, I had achieved 3,505 words. I put that in. But when I looked at the top of the bar I thought it had remained the same. I saw 2k something. I thought the internet, my computer, or something on the site itself was messed up. I refreshed the site and reentered the 3505. Nope, nothing changed. Oh, look, there’s another place to put the numbers in below the bar. So I did. I tried and refreshed multiple times.
Then I wrote to the Help Center about the issue. Then I went back to the page. I scrolled around. I think that fixed my eyes somewhat. I looked at the fraction on the bottom of the bar. It said 16k/50k I had award notices all lined up. OMG! It was working! Now, how do I fix my problem?
I went back and apologized profusely and told them that the 2k number I had misread was actually 2021. Duh! So embarrassing!
So if they can’t get around to or can’t fix my mistake, I will have to keep track here and on paper until middle of the month when I catch up with the number.
Right now, with a couple hours left to write, I have 4380. I just didn’t want to wait to blog.
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!
Because NaNo starts tomorrow night at midnight I thought I better get this out right away.
Two writing friends discuss how they prepare for a month of writing. In this video, we mentioned several resources. The first is NaNoWriMo which stands for National Novel Writing Month. It is now international but still goes by that name. It was started by Chris Baty who wrote the book, No Plot No Problem. It’s a quick read and helps us all learn to write more freely. The website is NaNoWriMo.org. Another book that Yve and I have found quite helpful at the beginning of NaNo is Building Better Characters by Marc McCutcheon To find Writer here is that website: http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter7.html Simon Hayes keeps this program free but accepts donations. It is my favorite place to write. Michele uses WriteItNow4. That is an exceptional program too, and for me, it is where I find character names that work for me. that website is https://www.ravensheadservices.com/download4.html I just noticed there is a new version, 6. I may have to update my version. Yve uses OpenOffice a free office package that is almost as good as Microsoft’s version. You can find that here: https://www.openoffice.org/ The writing timer I was thinking of that helps you concentrate on writing is here: https://writeordie.com/ When using the character-building book above Yve uses a Randon dice throw app, and I use a Random Number Generator. Just type those in your Google and you’ll find a number of random generating apps. I do hope all of this helps those who would love to see if they have a novel burning to get out.
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 “boo.” Find a word with the letters “boo” in it or use “boo” 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!
Sometimes I love the results so much it is hard to resist keeping the item. But this one is headed for the charity. This yarn is so soft.
Flexee Fine-gauge, 80 pegs. Fold-up brim, flat-knit. 4×6 purl, knit basketweave. The bind-off is the Kristen GoodKnitKisses decrease then remove excess pegs to redo the decreases. I’ve used this method in my previous hats. I’d make a clickable URL but I’m writing this on my phone. It is acting up. 😥
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.
Books, games, music, and life — 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.
Darswords 
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