NaNoWriMo is only

7 days and counting

I did it. I finally signed up for National Novel Writing Month, am I scared? terrified? thinking I might poop my pants?

Yes, all of the above.

But, I'm also really excited to do it. I've heard about NaNoWriMo for years, and always envied those people doing it, but never thought it would be me, but now I have my 1st novel drafted and Mara is ready to sit for a little bit, do some digesting, and get some new eyes in December. Meanwhile, I'm going to attempt the amazing feat of writing 50,000 words in 1 month. Not only that, but I'm also giving birth to baby number 4 (due Nov. 3) so I'm setting some lofty goals for myself. Hoping I can figure out a way to sling my little guy so I can have lots of hands free baby holding at the computer.

4 of the ladies in my writing group are doing NaNoWriMo and one of my local writer friends as well, so I'm excited to keep up with people I actually know! Hopefully we'll buoy each other up and make this a really good experience.

So, for those of you mathematically challenged, November has 30 days.
50,000 words/ 30 days =1666 words per day

With Mara I made myself write 1000 words per day minimum and often 2000 and I discovered it was possible for me to write that much, but, no Sunday writing and I'm sure to not be writing on baby day and probably not the day after either, so that's 6 days minimum I won't be writing so:

50,000 words/24 days =2083 words per day

Can I do it? We're about to find out . . .

Wish me luck! And let me know if you're doing NaNoWriMo too.

A Day Late and A Pedicure Short

I tried, I really did, to finish my book yesterday. I wrote 5,300 words,  my biggest day since I started the Month to Complete challenge, but I hadn't realized how big endings needed to be and that glossing over some of it, just to get to THE END would be cheating myself and cheating my book.
But tackle her again I did, and my first rough draft of my first book is complete. I can now say . . .

wait for it . . .

I have written an entire novel!

I know, I know, revisions are awful and long and hard, but today I don't want to think about them, today I'm celebrating my success. Tomorrow or the day after, or the day after that, I'll deal with the R word.

I finished my first ever novel!
It's a journey that started Jan of 2010 with lots of revisions at the beginning, tons of changes, then a WIFYR conf. big plot change that forced me to write almost my entire book over, throwing out over 40,000 lovingly crafted words. I don't regret it, I'm glad for the experience, and I can tell you now that writing quick and dirty and getting to the end feels pretty dang incredible. If I were a drinker I'd be popping that champaine cork right about now, but instead I'm putting some sparkling apple cider in the fridge for tonight.

The honey and I are going to celebrate! I might even convince him to eat a little chicken-he's paranoid with all that estrogen they shove into them these days. So, party tonight at the Hall House.

A day late and a pedicure short, and although my toes may be regretting it, me and my book, we're very happy:)

Bad, Robin, Bad

This morning I did the unthinkable and slept in. Yes, my body didn't wake me up like it's supposed to and I awoke when my husband's alarm went off. Oh no, I thought, I should be writing. And then I listened to my house. Caramel, our wiener dog, outside excited that Stan was up, jumping on the sliding glass door to our bedroom, and from the girls room-chattering already. How come I needed extra sleep and they needed less? Okay, maybe it had to do with the seven errands I ran with my three children here and in the town 30 minutes away yesterday and the stress of forcing my five-year-old to have her blood drawn so that she could go to school. Feeling the dislike of the technician, "We don't force children here." and my unacceptable response, "but she can't go to school without this". I was lowered to those awful moms that bribe their kids and then when that still doesn't work help hold them in place. Trust me, I hated myself too, but that phlebotomist, her disgust in me ran deeper. Let's just hope she's not the one when I go in for my glucose test.

Also. Why is the tooth fairy so fickle? Last night she forgot to come to sweet Eliza's room and Eliza was in tears this morning. "How could she forget me? She never forgets Israel (her older brother)." What could I say to this tear stained face? Well what I did say was that she must have been a novice and I'd have a talk with her. I also traded the tooth for 4 quarters and told her I'd put her tooth under my pillow tonight. Stan explained that the tooth fairy is a lot like Tinkerbell being naughty and not doing what Peter asks of her. Eliza, a Peter Pan lover, totally related to this explanation. I asked Stan later which one of us was Tinkerbell. He laughed and refused to say, meaning of course ME. 

So, not only did I not wake up early and fail to perform my tooth fairy duties. Instead, I lay in bed, finishing Sarah Dessen's Along for the Ride and waiting for my girls to make their way to my bed for snuggles. And after that, I stayed in bed, coming out only to pour milk, and go pee of course, I am 6 mo pg after all. I read page after page, tearing up as I neared the finish. Loving the vibrancy of Dessen's characters, her ability to write full-circle, and just feeling so many of the emotions of Audin, her MC. These feelings I have reading Dessen, I want to have with my own book, with my MC. I chose reading over writing, compelled to finish Audin's tale instead of finish mine. What does this tell me about my own writing? The depth that I've taken my MC? How much further I need to go? I want my readers to feel this same longing, and understanding of Mara's life (my MC) as I did with Audin. I want their hearts to respond as mine did this morning. Here's to hoping that I can get there.

And thank you Dessen for the wonderful example of getting it done right.

This is my fifth Dessen read in two months and my favorite. This North Carolina author, professor, and mom blows me away. If you haven't read Dessen yet, add her to your list.

Now to figure out where in my day I'll be able to fit in my 1000 words . . .as one of my critique partners would say of my morning, "BAD ROBIN, BAD." Capitals included.

Week Two Report

Goal Achieved! I can't believe I did it. It feels really amazing to have written this much. I know for some writers they can churn this out in a day, but I already have a day job, and a night job, so this goal has challenged me and let me know that I can write more, and focused. I do have to admit my eyes drift constantly to that word count tally at the bottom of the page. It's such a rush to watch the numbers climb.

10,625 words last week.  Biggest day: 3303 words
I haven't rewarded myself yet via kindle purchase, but I'm carefully looking over my options.

My current goal spans until Aug 24th-finish my rough draft. Write every day, 1000 words minimum as usual. I think I'll need 12000 to finish it, so I'd better get back to writing.

Planned Reward: Pedicure
And I usually only get one a year for Mother's Day. I finally clued my husband in that I didn't want vacuums or double strollers for Mother's Day, I wanted pampering, so each year he gets me a massage and a pedicure.

Happy Writing!

Writing Goal Week One

Daily Goal: write every day but Sunday-1000 word minimun. Can slip up 1 day/week
I wrote every day this week, but on Thursday failed to reach my goal. I eeked out 634 words before utter brainless failure.
Goal achieved.

Weekly Goal: 5000 word minimum
7,843 total.
Goal achieved.

Next Week's Goal: the same with a bonus treat (my first non-free kindle book purchase) if I can write 10,000 words

I should be sleeping . . .

But I woke up in the night at 3 am:
1. having to pee-that's what pregnancy will doing for you
2. having to eat-also what pregnancy will do to you

3. unable to stop thinking about Louise Plummer's thriller Finding Daddy that I started at 7:30 the night before.

So finally, I crawled out of bed trying not to wake my husband (success), grabbed my cell phone and Louise's book, and headed for my favorite reading chair in our living room.

I won't tell you about the book, except to say that if I'd read one more chapter last night I would have had to read it to the end before I could fall asleep. What can I say, as a totally unbiased student of Louise-she is AMAZING. It also freaked me out a little that it was written for her granddaughter that died at 4 months so I have to admit I looked up her obituary to make sure it wasn't from the causes written in the book (it's not).

Then I got online, because, well, it was 4:30 and I usually get up around 5:30 in the morning to start writing. No alarm guys, my crazy body just wakes up and I use this precious quiet time to get in my mandatory 1000 words a day. I shoot for another 1000 or so as the day progresses, but this morning time, well it's sacred. And since I was early, I had to read Taryn's Post because it's about our critique group. The best thing I took from WIFYR was an incredible critique group. There are 5 of us girls and Taryn, the most experienced, youngest one of all wrote about us on her blog last night.

Here I am with Tayrn. I shamelessly took pics on the last day with our entire class so that one day, when they're all famous I can prove that I know them- and that just maybe I helped them be a better writer:)

This is my longtime friend AND the one who got me started writing my book: Kathyrn Purdie

 Emily with Kathryn. Emily was everyone's new best friend and has an awesome reading voice to boot. She lives in sunny CA too, but in Northern CA, so she's just as far as my Utah writing friends (boo). And I had to add the link to her kindle post. I've just gotten a kindle (finally with my b-day money from Jan.) I kept dreaming about one, but then fighting them because I love holding the thick books, turning real pages, enjoying their crispness or their library use, imagining all the people who had read the copy before. And in the back of my mind always was Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Honestly, did this book hold back any other kindle interested people? Here's her post: Ahem. Public Apology #1.

 Ilima (with me) Isn't she gorgeous? and her book-well I just got to read the entire manuscript (on my new kindle) and I'm so excited for her. She's already working on the sequel. AND she homeschools. I am in awe, complete and utter awe.

Well, that's my group. Thank you girls for your inspiration, your knowledge, and your ability to tell me when my writing is awful and when I'm getting it right.

Finding My Inspiration

I've dreamed of writing a novel, of holding a book in my hands that has my name on the cover, some form or children's or young adult fantasy, with strong female leads, and difficult choices to make to save the world. Even so, I didn't know what to write. I needed my pearl, my grand idea. Would I dream of it like some authors do, or be inspired by a song, or something I watched? I looked for ideas and kept myself writing away- essays on my life, motherhood, short stories we tell our children about the fat, fat king, pages and pages of book ideas and themes I'd spend between a day to weeks exploring only to decide they weren't my book. Where was my book hiding?

I have a son who demands stories often- the second we get in the car (why did I sell the portable dvd player?), at walks, and of course bedtime. To keep my demanding son satisfied my husband and I would make up wild characters and tell about their outlandish adventures. Our son would often make us backup-we weren't telling the story the right way-and inform us what should be happening. I suppose you could say he is my first true editor.

Well one night I'd been thinking about my favorite fairytale-beauty and the beast- and I told Israel a story I didn't know I had inside of me. It was a story of a three year old girl and an experience she has on All-Summer's Eve. Israel was mesmerized, he wanted more, and so did I. I wanted to know what would happen to this character, what time she lived in, her family situation, her town and it's laws, well, just everything. So I began writing page after page, throwing out some, embracing others, and feeling the story, her story, come to life. A good friend told me of her own journey into writing a novel and so we began a pact, a plan to write and support each other on our journeys to first completed and published novels.

My First Writing Conference

I signed up for my first ever writing conference!
The Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers (or WIFY for short) in Sandy, Utah this upcoming June. I'm excited and terrified at the same time. I will get to rub shoulders with some big names-Holly Black, Ally Condy, Carol Lynch Williams (did you read her amazing book The Chosen One?), Brandon Mull to name a few. My teacher is Louise Plummer. I hadn't heard of her before looking into the conference, but once I read up on all her amazing experience and read reviews from people who have taken her classes, I honestly can't wait. I just hope that she can tell me more than "you have beautiful hazeleyes" although I really do:) Read quote below to understand:
Louise, what can students expect to learn from your class?

"Students are expected to bring a finished or partially finished novel, of which I will read 20 pages during the week. Class members will read sections of each other's novels and critique these in class. We will also write in class, play around with verbs and adjectives, gossip about other living writers, and eat as much junk food as we can. I will either be funny, look funny, or both."

Would you describe your strengths as a teacher?

"I will grab you by the throat and say, "You can do this! You can!" Or I will say, "You need a year of apprenticeship before you send this to a publisher," or I will say, "Gosh, you have beautiful hazel eyes."

Do you think she knows I have hazel eyes? I take comfort in the fact that she answered these questions before I signed up.  Doesn't she sound like fun?

And the best part is that I'm taking this class with my very best friend, by writing buddy Kathyrn Purdie. We both write YA Character-Driven Fantasy, so we may have fit better in Holly Black's class, but it was already full.  Still, I think we're going to learn a ton in this class.

Here's to days filled with writing, and confidence in my 30 page submission required for the class. I'll keep you posted how the preparation and conference goes.