Well, this seems to be how NaNo is working for me. I have it open all day. 1,667 seems a lot of words! EVERYDAY! But I still type away and get there before midnight. I just don’t want to put off blogging until midnight. So the score is 7,961. I’m supposed to be at 8,335. So close and yet so far!!!!! Sometimes 410 words are the hardest to get. But I will. I know it! My main character just landed on a planet. That should be worth some words right there, don’t you think? I hope you are all doing well, NaNo or No. Good luck with your writing! (Oh, and I am still doing knitting, so…)
Latest Entries »
Per Linda G. Hill:ย Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is โnuts.โ Use it any way youโd like. Enjoy!
Nuts! I still haven’t reached my writing goal for today. I’m only at 2,345. That’s nuts, the total I mean. What are the odds that a person would have that total? But that is what yWriter is telling me.
I don’t know why I do NaNo every year. That is nuts! I know. But it is my favorite thing to do. Even though I still haven’t one book of the series ready for publication. I like the writing part. I like the story the muses tell me. It is a far better entertainment for my mind than any others out there. Most stories I can predict what is happening, or there is too much angst or romantic silliness, or murder. Most stories center around young people or males who get all the adventures. My stories have more old or diverse characters. They aren’t beautiful people or even skinny minnies. They are just people. Many aren’t even human. And there are the occasional dragons or cats called Hombres that walk upright and can talk, well, they are not really cats, are they?
Many of my stories start with a game of finding random names and characteristics. Then maybe a random word or phrase and off I go. This year started a couple months ago when the word of the day per Dictionary.com was Balter. A writer friend noticed it and said it would be a great NaNo story. I agreed, thinking she wanted to write it. But she backed out. No, I didn’t point a gun to her head! But once I read the definition, to dance or tread clumsily, the name Walter Balter’s Dance Studio came into my mind. Yep, that’s the name of my story!
After a time I got bored with the word and title. I don’t like to write about males. I’m not one and I don’t understand them as well as I feel I might know the female character. And it didn’t sound like it had enough to it to make 50K words. But suddenly the planet Crim came to mind, where Dusty has the Love Lair, a beauty salon/saloon. I think that was the third book I wrote, around 2003 (?). Then the Balter story grew in my mind and even a small outline emerged. I’m not sticking to it but it is there in case I get lost in all the Imagineering.
Okay, putting off the real writing doesn’t make writing happen even if I am over here playing, nor does the story proceed while playing on FaceBook or playing that new wooden puzzle game that is like Tetris but not as stressful. So I must bid you all a good Saturday. Now I will be me again, NUTS!
So I didn’t finish any of my knitting projects. But we did finally get caught up on Blacklist. It is so good we didn’t watch anything else so now we are catching up on all our other shows. Again here is the YouTube trailer.
And a quickie about NaNoWriMo, yes, I’m on that again! Word count 1,766. If you are writing come be friends. I’m Dars Haven. And this year a different planet in Haven’s universe! Balter’s Dance Studio.

When is a novel not a novel? On Halloween Eve, and Halloween also known as NaNo Eve.
EDIT:ย Oops. I forgot to pingback. One-liner Wednesdays are a product of Linda G. Hill. Come join the fun! This the easiest prompt out there!
Anyone else getting ready for NaNoWriMo?ย Yeah. Me, too! There have been very few years since I heard about it that I haven’t tried. And most of the ones I attempted I finished (won) I believe what has helped me most is the Sprints/Sprompts that you find on Twitter or Facebook, and the numerous Virtual Write-Ins on YouTube. The first one for this year will be October 30, 2019, for a prep.
I love the excitement of writing a story. Even when it feels like crap. I love the thrill of the 1,666 word-goal a day. Even when you think you don’t have one lying around in your head.
What I don’t like is facing NaNo with a computer that has a screen that seems to go all white unless I fix the lid just so, and finally, I might get a couple of minutes.
My husband is the best! Hands down! He knew how frustrated I was about all this, so he got on the phone and made sure that by Thursday, I will have a working laptop! And I don’t have to relinquish this piece ofย @#$@#!@. I can face midnight on Halloween with courage and a bit of an idea what the story is about and a way to move it all slowly to the newer machine. I’ll write more about that as it becomes a reality.
So I played with my characters a bit and now have a few. Even a semi-working title Balter’s Dance Studio. And it does seem to be in Haven’s universe on Crim. Where we learned about Dusty’s Love Lair. Yeah, not exactly what you might think. Mostly sci-fi with fantasy and lots of imagination. Sorry I haven’t brought that novel onto the website. Yikes! I haven’t even finished uploading the first book. Dusty’s is about five novels since that one.
I always start prep with WriteItNow. I like its prep-ability. Character development works well in that program. Especially when I use:
The Writer’s Digest Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon
I play random numbers on the characteristic to build the physical and then the personality of each character. My writers’ group back in Reno and I would call out numbers and then write down the results. Now without them, near I have numbered the items on each page then use the random number generator to select the characteristic. So now I have Walter Balter nearly standing in front of me. I know a lot about his mental health just from the physical. I will continue making him live and then work on the rest of the family. Hopefully, the characters and a minor outline will be ready for Midnight Thursday.
How do you prepare? What are your methods of writing NaNo or other novels?
The 100 by Kass Morgan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
What a disappointment! I couldn’t afford to buy the Kindle and Audible versions of this book, so I looked it up in the e-library. I’m glad I didn’t spend money on this book.
What I wish is that those who took this book and made the fantastic series on Netflix would take a look at my on writing.
The thing I usually like about reading a book over watching a show is the depth of character you can enjoy. Instead, blathering emotional teen angst.
Oh, and I checked out the audio version thinking that real voices would help my reading experience. NOT! Justin Torres (Narrator), Phoebe Strole (Narrator). For some reason, the main character, Clarke, who is supposed to be the medical team leader of sorts, sounds like a five-year-old. Instead of having a space adventure or a new Earth adventure, we tripped about in romantic lunacy. Yes, the show did take more of a Lord of the Flies take on the loosed teens on Earth, but that was preferable. I wish more time would have been spent exploring and learning. I don’t think most teens are that immature as the book or the show portrays.
Anyway, after I gave up on the narrators and went with my text-to-speech. So much better. I can’t wait to see more of the 100 on Netflix, but I am not at all interested in reading more. That makes me sad!






















You must be logged in to post a comment.