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Today is the 9th of November and I've been at NaNoWriMo for a week. I finally took a day off on Sat to attend the the Saskatchewan Romance Writers monthly meeting which was being held in Davidson instead of Saskatoon so I didn't have to drive so far. I left at 9 am and got back home at 9 pm. Fired up from all the coffee I drank enroute, I started writing at 10 pm Sat night and kept at it until 0430 in the morning, then continued yesterday when I awoke. So, here's my NaNoWriMo Progress Report up to and including Day 8: Project: Revising & Adding to Emma’s Outlaw Goal: Need 65,000 words to finish (90,000 Total) Nano Words so far: 11,834 (38,624 Total) Nano Goal: 18% complete (43% Overall) I seem to be revising more that I imagined. However, I thought it would be passive writing which was a fault of mine when I wrote the first draft, but I'm also adding sensory details and filling out my characters. I really like the way the book is coming together. And the feedback...

Even though I'm heavily involved in NaNoWriMo, I still had to prepare a post for today at Prairie Chicks Write Romance . I planned to talk more about Nano but forgot the Chicks are starting a new monthly feature: Writing Exercises. Wheeee! Janet posted this exercise on Sunday: Choose one of your main characters (male or female) from any of your WIPs and from his/her POV write about one of the most difficult decision he/she had to make. Since I’m working on Emma’s Outlaw for my Nano project, I used my hero, Dan for this exercise and then I used the word count for Nano. The excerpt I posted is a defining moment in the book but I haven't given away the ending. For the record, you are free to guess what comes next but I'm not confirming anything. Okay, I'm off to see if I need to respond to any comments over at Prairie Chicks and then I'm buckling down to Emma's Outlaw . When I left off on Tues, Dan had just come back from town and he brought Emma a surprise . . .

Here's my Day 3 NaNoWriMo Progress Report: Project: Revising & Adding to Emma’s Outlaw Goal: Need 65000 words to finish (90K total) Today's word count: 2458 quality words First word: For Last word: eggs. Favorite line: It was one thing to be forced to sleep in a room with a strange man even if they were in separate beds but it would be a definite breach of propriety to speak to him. Total Nano Words: 5837 Nano Goal: 9% done (should be at 10% today) Treat: Dancing With the Stars Results Show Overall, it's going good. However, I'm working at a much slower pace revising than I ever did drafting a novel during Nano. Will have to pick up the pace.

Am I really here? My internet service hasn't been working all week and did I ever miss it! The tech adivsed us it may go down again however because our modem needs to be updated. Terrific. Since Thursday was my day to post at Prairie Chicks Write Romance, I went into the local library Wed afternoon and used their computer to submit my post. It's the last day of October which means National Novel Writing Month starts tomorrow. In the coming month, you'll see me refer to it as NaNoWriMo or even NaNo. I've signed up as a Nano participant at eHarlequin so I'll be reporting my progress there as well as here. Plus, I've been invited to report my progress on Michelle Levigne's blog Living Proof . So, my Thurs Prairie Chick post was Nanowrimo Tips and it's all those things I've found and used for getting the most writing out of Nanowrimo. I've spent October working on Emma's Outlaw and it will be my Nano project this year. My goal is to have Emma...

Today I'm blogging at Prairie Chicks Write Romance about negotiating with your family to give you more time to write during what Prairie Chick Helena calls 'writing binges'. For me, these writing binges come in the form of Book in a Week (BIAW) and National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) which is only 3 wks away. I find I write best when I'm accountable for my writing and that's what these 'binges' give me - accountability. Instead of just talking about it, I'm forced to actually do it. I say yay! to writing binges. Who will care for your family while you're ignoring them? That's where the trade-offs come in. The questions I've asked the Prairie Chicks today are these: - Do you use trade-offs during intensive writing periods? - Are there any trade-offs you’ve thought up but haven’t tried and why not? - What's stopping you?

Last November, I attempted to write a novel during National Novel Writing Month but had to pull out because of prior writing commitments that just wouldn't go away. Well, next week is Book in a Week (BIAW) with my local group, the Saskatchewan Romance Writers (SRW). It starts this Friday at midnight and it's only a week long. Basically, you write like mad for a week and try to accomplish your goal. My 2009 BIAW goal will be to complete Translucent Trust - the inspirational suspense novel I started last Nov. This novel has been on my mind since last Sept and it just won't go away so I might as well write it. In a day or so I'll put my word counter up and then you'll all be able to watch my progress. The only thing I ask is that you don't get ticked off at me next week if I don't answer your emails, etc. I'm hoping to do a bit of email and blog checking with my morning coffee, but otherwise, I'll be writing. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that i...

So, are you wondering with the blue insignia is on the right? That’s what I’m spending this month doing. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The briefest way to explain it is – you type as fast as your little fingers can go and punch out a complete 50,000 word novel in a month. Wow. Who can write that fast, right? Well, it’s not supposed to be perfect. In fact, you should shut off your internal editor for this month. “ November is for writing. December is for editing .” I’ve heard that often in reference to NaNoWriMo. That means, that even if you change your mind and decide not to use the last 3 pages of a scene – don’t delete it. You might change your mind later on and then wish you still had it. Some writers cut and paste it onto another document. I do when I’m not doing NaNo. I call it my ‘deleted lines’ document. During NaNo, however, I just put a box around it so it’ll still register in the daily word count. Because, after you’ve spent a couple hours writing a scene...

" If it means anything, I would've requested a full manuscript based on these chapters and would expect you to deliver on it, ..." Oh wow! They're talking about my writing. They like it! They really like it! Sally Fields, I finally know how you feel because those words were written by a judge (a freelance editor and acquisitions reader),who liked Charley's Saint - my last Nov NaNo project. Let me tell you the story: Last Nov I decided to sign up for National Novel Writing Month on the eharl site. It entailed the attempt to write a complete 55,000 word novel in 30 days. That's approx 1833 words per day. I wrote Charley's Saint during this month. I finished on Nov 28th with 57,238 words and 256 pages. Mission accomplished, right? But that was only the beginning. The dreadful...uh...fun part was next...the revisions and the tweaking. I found a critique partner and sent the chapters to her and revised it and tweaked it somemore. And then I put it away for a ...

I'm done! I'm done! On Nov 28th, a full 2 days early, I finished the first draft on my NaNovel, Charley's Saint. The final tally is a word count of 57,238 and a total of 256 pages. Now the fun of editing begins. Not! Even as I sat back, twiddling my thumbs over my tummy, relishing the fact that the first draft was done, the idea of an epilogue germinated. On another happy note, my husband and I would like to send out a big Happy Birthday to the first of our love children. This one was born 29 years ago today. Crystal - Happy Birthday!

…and in local news today, reports have been coming in from all over the city that Anita Mae has been spotted scouring local used book stores. Word on the street is that she’s heavily involved in NaNoWriMo although that rumor has yet to be confirmed. Evidence to the contrary yesterday has spiked allegations of time mismanagement. Last week we reported that Ms Mae was found typing furiously in a frozen vehicle behind the set of renegadepress.com, allegedly while waiting for her children to finish work. If her actions yesterday are to be believed, Ms Mae will have have to step up production if she wants to reach 2007 NaNo goal. Only time will tell. This is your local news reporter, signing off from Regina, Saskatchewan.

Yesterday was the halfway point in National Novel Writing Month. I started writing my NaNovel Charley's Saint on Nov 1st. I need to avg 1,833 words per day to have it written by the end of November. As of the 15th, I have 30,773 out of the 55,000 words needed. That's 56% complete! This is my 1st year attempting the NaNoWriMo challenge. Good luck with yours!