No? Then forget this! I’m outta here!

Kidding! Ok, if you’re like me and let the World Series, National Authors Day, Halloween, and the Earth turning distract you from research, then you’re scrambling right now. Like me. I have no sparkling wine, I ate all the Whopper candies (there weren’t a lot left), and we’re out of paper plates and coffee. I’m two days behind and need to go grocery shopping.

Sounds normal, right? Usually, it is, but not for NaNo. I’m usually a lot more proactive when it comes to November. What happened this year? The same thing that happens when you’re in a romantic relationship and Valentine’s Day rolls around. Or, you live with and care for your mom when it’s time for Mother’s Day. I write all. The. Time. NaNo is a normal month. The little kid part of me is thrilled about that, too. 😀

But really, I write nearly every day. The days I don’t? I’m researching new books, reading current releases, or learning how to improve my writing. Even when I’m goofing off? I’m doing something that helps my later work.

What makes NaNo special is the accountability. It makes my daily word count public instead of private. A shame, really, because I had some 5K days a week ago.

Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo this year? What did you forget? What did you remember? Bonus points if you work from home AND showered today!

I totally missed Monday and Tuesday was taken up by a migraine and housecleaning.  Throw holidays and crowded everywhere into the mix and it’s all yikes!

So anyway to the writing news…Chapter three of Undesirable is finally done.  In all seriousness, giving birth took less time and was less painful.  Saying there’s no way four could be as difficult to write would be inviting trouble for a visit.

I have all sorts of theories as to why three was a problem child.  My main theory is my converting the prior work to enhanced work.  The first draft of Undesirable covered the first third of the Oregon Trail, something Undeniable already did.  Not wanting Undeniable to be 900 pages long, I ended the story after the first third, letting Nick and Beth having their implied happily ever after (HEA).  Then, Undesirable could be Sam and Marie’s story, taking place over the middle third of the Trail. What did this mean?  I had to go in and take out their meeting, make sure key scenes happened at the landmarks they needed to happen at, and tell the reader the characters’ backstories without sounding goofy, as in:

Sam: Hi, Marie.  I see you brought that saloon gal’s dress you bought in New Orleans where you used to live.

Marie: Hi, Sam.  I sure did.  You’ve not seen it before because I kept it in my wagon until now from Independence, MO to here at Fort Laramie.  I suppose you could have seen it at Fort Kearny, but I had reasons to not wait to interest my husband, who is older than me, in, um, me.

It’s called exposition and I really try not to use it a lot.  I also tend to laugh when other writers use it, not in a bad way, just in a “Ooh, Chulo, you did a cop out right there!” Sometimes, there’s just no other way to get the info in there so the reader isn’t wondering what the heck???  I can’t think of anything I’ve read in the past couple of years that stood out as excessive, so everyone is doing good. 🙂

In case anyone is curious, Uncivilized finishes up the trail with Ellen and Del’s story.  Although Del is delicious, I’m not sure I want to keep that as his name.  We’ll see.  It’s too close to Dag, and I think we’re all disappointed with where he ended up so far.  No spoilers, you’ll have to read Undeniable for yourself.

I love questions!  I checked my email via the ipod way too late last night and found Nina’s comment with questions.  How tough was it to not hop out of bed to answer?  Very!  So now I get to finally answer, now that animals are fed and the laundry is drying!

As an overall answer, oop.  This sort of thing is what happens when a writer knows everything about the characters.  It’s also why I’ve hired a fantastic editor from now on to catch the “I know YOU know, but how are we to know?” things.

1) David was so honest, why didn’t he tell Jane of Susan’s visits? Or her texts and e-mails? Did he cheat on Jane that’s why he didn’t tell her?

This one gave me something to think about in the telling people for their own good department.  Susan’s behavior was predictable and ineffective despite her best efforts to seduce him.  Ew, right?  Outright telling Jane would have hurt her for no reason, and he really should have come clean, because when asked, he couldn’t just lie to her.

2) Why does her mom and sister hate her so much?

There is a clue in the dinner conversation and a deeper meaning I probably could have explored.  Susan and Jane were twins, as you know, and at Easter we learn the twin part was very unexpected.  Maybe their mom was thrilled with both girls, but the work of twins wore her down and she blamed Jane for everything.  She made a handy scapegoat.  Plus, with Jane trying to prove herself all her life gave them the idea that Jane thinks she’d better than us and the resentment turned to hate.  It’s a funny thing, and the deeper meaning is when you like someone, you tend to think they can do no wrong.  When you dislike someone, you tend to think they can do no right.

3) Why the heck was David with Susan at the coffee shop? Seems like they were too chummy to me. Didn’t he hate her???? She’s scum, married to his best friend and Pregnant! Hello!

Alan has a way of pushing off his responsibilities, and Susan is one of them.  If I didn’t already have a story for The Very Worst Man, I’d totally use his behavior as the plot device.   At any rate, Dave is a bit of a pushover at times, which Alan knows and uses to his own advantage.  In the coffee shop scene, Dave had a “Fine.  Let’s get this over with,” attitude on helping Susan, grabbing some coffee, and just being done.  The problem is it’s in Jane’s point of view, so we can’t know his thoughts until later and by then he’s preoccupied with why Jane isn’t at the baby shower.  That makes it handy for conflict, but doesn’t answer the question of “What the heck were you thinking!?” earlier.

Does that help? Fingers crossed that it does and by all means, ask me more questions if you have any! 😀 

Maybe it’s really one of THOSE days.  The one where you keep holding out hope that things will be ok.  That after every downturn, you’ll ratchet up the ‘it’ll be ok’ in your heart and believe it.  Until the next downturn.  Still, you try again, thinking maybe this new solution will do the trick.

We lost a pet today.  Not the worst thing to ever happen to someone, no.  I’ve endured worse.  And yet, this one was tough.  The little guy had a good ten years left in him.  The one time he isn’t keen on his food, the boy loved his dinner, and I knew something was very wrong with him.  I didn’t sleep well last night.

At the vet’s first thing in the morning, not so bad, let’s see.  Back at the vet, it’s not good, maybe surgery.  During surgery, we could either try to fix him or let him go.  The fix wasn’t recommended.  So, we three said goodbye to a cat that was a friend during a scary and sad time for me.  Unconditional love from a cat?  He gave it and got it, too.

I have others I should have told before any blog readers.  It’d be the right thing to do, I suppose.  My ache is still too fresh in the heart to give the news and hear “Why didn’t you…?”, “You should of…,” and other sentences that tell me I didn’t do enough for the animal to save his life.  I’m not in the mood for it now, and don’t know if I ever will be.

I had serious plans for today of serious work on Undesirable.  I wanted to write glorious scenes set in the vast, dry plains of Wyoming along the Sweetwater river.  Instead, I’ll wait until tomorrow to zone out and give way to the movies/stories in my head.

Something fun for Monday Tuesday.  My husband has been taking Monday’s off to use up the vacation he’ll lose otherwise.  So I’m having three day weekends from now until the end of the year, which sounds fun, and mostly is.  I’m easily distracted by him, and it’s not his fault.

In writerly news, I’m having my two released books edited by someone who isn’t me.  I have a lot of readers who are reading for fun and catching the character, plot, and continuity errors.  What I’ve needed is someone to find the things that slip through, like missing words you assume are there, things corrected that have messed up other words, and the ever popular missing quotes.  As in, He said, “I don’t think you should break up these sentences.” They work better together.”

Plus, since I have a bit of a migraine, I’m totally NOT working today.  With one of these, everything wrong looks right and I’ll have to spend most of tomorrow fixing what I broke today.  Thus, it’s all no-brainer stuff on my agenda.  I can spend all day tomorrow writing, reading, and doing other brain stuff.