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TGIO, or Thank God It's Over, happened twice for me this year. The first, a bittersweet moment when I penned the words "The End" onto the last signature of my writing journal. That's the hardest moment, the time when I've got to say goodbye to the world I've created.

I spent 17 days, living in the world of Autumn Chase. A world where magic lives and good triumphs over evil with nothing more than the power of intellect. I loved writing about the lives of my characters, their journey of uncovering information, and exposing the darker side of what could exist in our world. After spending all that time in this world, it's hard to let it go. This year, once I shut the book, it made the transition from that world back to my world, more real. When I went to bed, that night, I cried a bit. I wasn't ready to let go. Is any writer really ready for that moment?

Today I experienced the second TGIO moment. This one, of more excitement, happens when I plug in the full draft of my manuscript into the "Official NaNoWriMo Validator." This is the moment of truth, when I hold my breath, and watch as the website puts the words "WINNER" in big purple letters across my Green bar. My smile widens and then I hurriedly download both my winner's badge and certificate. It's also the moment that I proudly tell anyone and everyone that I AM A WINNER and a novelist for another year.

So, there you have it folks. I'm a NaNoWriMo 2008 winner! I've completed my 7th full first draft of a novel and can proudly say (and bear the writer's bump to prove it) that I did it all by my own hands.

Posted by innowen at 25 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Now that I'm finished with my NaNoWriMo novel this year, I've been itching for a change in pace; a small project to get me back into short form writing. So, I spent 4 hours today writing another pagan essay.

When "Pop Culture Grimoire" came out and I saw my name in print there, I wanted more opportunities to write for the pagan community. I dream that one day I'll have a whole book on tarot out in the stores. A few months ago, my friend Lupa put out a call for submissions on totem essays. It's for an anthology Megalithica Press plans on releasing sometime next year. I briefly considered the idea but figured that I didn't know much about what she wanted. She had read my tale (and excitement) about having been published and prompted me to go ahead and contribute something.

At first, I had no idea what to write about. Sure, I've worked a little bit with totems and have my own personal beliefs about who mine are and what lessons I need to learn. But writing about totems felt like a completely different thing. I thought about the idea, and fretted a lot, I even made an appointment to see if she and I could generate some ideas. And then the idea came to me. Ember came over a few weekends ago and asked me to help her create a portable totem alter.

That's when the light came on in my head and I got VERY EXCITED. I pitched the idea to Lupa, and she green light it. And with NaNoWriMo season complete, and some time on my hands. I figured I'd put my creativity and talent to use and sit down to finish the essay.

I had some troubles researching exactly when pocket shrine art first came to be popular. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of info online about pocket shrine history; although there are tons of photo galleries out there. So I wrote the draft with what I knew and what research I have. Three thousand words later I have, I think, a pretty good first draft. It's now in her inbox for review. I do have a few more things to add and a bio to complete but I hope it'll be accepted for the anthology. With luck, next year will see a second article offering some new ways to work with totems.

Posted by innowen at 23 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 2975 for a total of 50766!

YAAAAAY! I did it... I'm done. I finished my 7th first draft of a novel... and this TIME I DID IT ALL BY HAND. And boy was it sore tonight. Not sure if it was the excitement of being almost done or the slim signature I made that hurt it. But I did it. Autumn Chase defeated the daemon with the help of the power of creation from the lifebox. She then buried it (shhh, it's a SEKRIT! She won't tell you) and went back to the Order and told them it was destroyed. I then gave her a vacation with Chad, somewhere warm.. where she wanted.

I'm relieved that I am done. For a brief moment tonight, I was afraid I wasn't going to have enough words to finish with. And amazingly I did. We tried to go out to dinner for fish to celebrate but no one was open at 9pm. Oh well, maybe some other time.

Now I wait to submit a manuscript of words to the NaNoWriMo site (which validates my authenticity as a winner) and then get my certificate, and winner's badge. Then I'll try and relax for the next month and give my hand a break from any hardcore writing. I'm planning on vegging out with lots of good books for the next month and a half.

(And write essays. I have been looking forward to writing a few new essays. Besides, my mind needs a break from the whole novel writing routine for a spell.)

Posted by innowen at 17 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 3421 for a total of 47791

Today's points didn't go as planned. Actually it was all quite messy and I wish I could take them back but I can't. I don't think I planned these points out well at all. For some reason I planned to have Inca and Autumn chat about life, the universe, and everything for 3000 words that would lead up to the big climax.

That sort of was boring and didn't happen. That and the two opposing viewpoints (god is machine and does not exist versus god does exist because I came from there!) just didn't come out of me because I really do not see either point in myself. *shrug* oh well. I did get them talking for a little bit, however. Mostly because I needed to buy Autumn some more time to read the scroll and figure out what to say. She finally figured it out though, good girl.

Then I had her sing and breathe the intonations to unlock the box. And it opened, filling her head with all the memories and things that the owner of the box put inside... in this case... God. I now have 2500 words left. I am sitting on a cliffhanger that involves another energy ball from Inca and what Autumn will do.

I finished my journal today as well. Had I written smaller in the first 5 days I think I would have had enough room to get all 50k words in there. Tonight I'll make another 10 page signature. That way I can finish up the novel in that and slip it into the back of the book so it all will be self contained. I am going to be done a day sooner than I anticipated. Which makes me glad because I am so ready to move on with this.

Posted by innowen at 16 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 3365 for a total of 44370

Getting down to the wire, I'm almost finished! Today I wrote the first confrontation between Autumn and Inca. I originally planned that it was going to be some sort of physical duel, with them barely escaping. Instead things got a bit mental and metaphysical. They dueled in Autumn's head, which gave me a some space to get them talking... show a bit of attraction, etc. and let Inca know he meant business.

Then I got the three out of there and on a plane back to Portland. Everyone has now been caught up and the plan is to keep Autumn on the run, shuffled off to various safe-houses, as she works on deciphering the scroll. Basically this catches the storyline up to the "present". It also sets me up to make the final transition back to the final duel between Autumn and Inca on the streets of Portland. I'm not very good at transitions between scenes and time but I managed it. Tomorrow we return to the story's present as I work to set up the big climax and battle.

Posted by innowen at 15 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 3261 for a total of 41005

I'm still on track with the story. I quickly got them over to the Pyramid and instead of having them travel in some labyrinth maze, my mind decided to put the information in easily accessible rooms on the outside. I put glyphs on the walls and had them figure out which room the scroll was hidden in and would NOT destroy the ruins. My mind got tricky on me and decided that instead of one room, two of the rooms contained valuable information. One on the lockbox and another with the scroll. Finished the section off with them getting the scroll they came for but... hearing sounds of combat off in the distance.

Overall today was fun to write. It felt like the words flowed and I could see what was going on, like I was on my computer. Things slowed down when I had to quickly figure out what the "puzzle" portion of the plot but in the end was pleased at making the goal.

(Note to revision-self: When you come to editing this part, do some research with regards to Cairo and where the pyramids are located. Does it really take 3 hours to get to the first of the nearest pyramids? Maybe get a guidebook to Egypt.)

Posted by innowen at 14 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 3600 for a total of 37744

Yay! Go me! I'm past 35K and still going. Still writing this blasted thing by hand even. I've got Autumn, Chad, and Andrews up in a plane now. They're en route to Cairo. I figure it's the safest place for them to be with the daemons after them. *gryn* Tomorrow I plan on getting them into a pyramid and trying to come up with some magic lock picking method to get what they need from the ruins.

Being less than 15k away from the 50k finish line, I took a look at the plot outline. When I started, I figured that 17 plot points was barely enough to get me to 50k. Of course, I think that EVERY year and tend to squish things down in the last 15K because I have like 10 or more things to cover before I consider the book done. In reality, I pad a lot when I write, hoping that every word will help count towards the ultimate goal. I do this because I think a part of me is afraid that if I don't extend the word count and throw in as many words a day as I possibly can, before my mind explodes, that those words may cost me-- it may be the year where I run out of plot and things to write about before hitting 50k. And then I'd have to go back and add more in, something I don't like doing because I feel it's cheating and allows my internal censor and editor out to rip apart the fragile draft before it's done.

If I keep going at the nightly rate of 3000+ words, I think I'll have a 70k novel on my hands. And maybe a dead left hand. I don't want either of those to happen. I'm already tired of writing by hand and really want to stop, but I am determined not to let that negativity get the best of me. So, I'm going to condense a bit (not by much tho) and plan on finishing the book in 5 days and about 52,000 words. If I stick to this new goal, this handwritten book will be my longest NaNo book I've done to date.

Oh and for those of you reading this (hi btw!), and want to see what I wrote this year, I DO plan on uploading it to it the stories section of this domain. I may put it under the category of "Pandora's Lifebox". However, I don't plan on transcribing it until January at the earliest. I totally want to veg in December and read my brains out! But yes, I plan on digitizing it for posterity and later editing, if I so choose that route for the story.

Posted by innowen at 13 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 3604 for a total of 34144

I had to check my math twice tonight. It seems rather odd that those 3604 words jumped me that far up the chain. I had planned on writing another meeting and then maybe the boring beginnings of a trip to Europe. Instead I decided to write my own personal rendition of Pandora's Box, a story that heavily influences the novel's idea and also catapults Chat and Autumn into unraveling the mystery of the necklace. I then ended it with Chad reading Autumn a bedtime story and Graham walking into the library with some news and offers of coffee. Tomorrow I'll have the gang get back together, figure out what it is and then go to Europe or something to search for another piece of how the whole thing works.

I must say that I have been enjoying writing the side tangents of the novel more than writing the main storyline. The daemon's voice, the myth-telling have been far more fun for me so far. I wonder that means?

Posted by innowen at 12 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 3336 for a total of 30540

The words blur together. I start out really strong and end less than strong. At least that is what writing by hand after ten days feels like to me. I moved the story on a bit tonight, got Chad and Autumn cozier too. Gave them their first kiss. Still need to figure out how they figure out the lifebox-- I did give them a hint with a story of Pandora's box. So, I am thinking that I'll have them in some sort of additional meeting to fill in some news and then maybe a ROAD TRIP to Egypt or someplace exotic to find the cypher scroll and our big bad.

I'm already very tired this week. Between work and NaNo, I feel like I don't have time to recover. Tomorrow is going to be even harder... I have my writing group meeting, as well as 4 hours of writing ahead. And work. I may take a half-day tomorrow and go write somewhere before leaving for the group meeting. That way I can get some words in before 2 hours of meetings. Here's hoping tomorrow goes smoothly.

Posted by innowen at 11 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been taking a "Publishing and Marketing Your Book" class, put on by my friend Taylor Ellwood. I've been learning quite a bit; many of the tips... so simple yet were nothing I thought about applying to my own marketing. (Like using this journal more.)

One of the things Taylor's had us all do, is write a query letter, bio, and chapter-by-chapter synopsis of the work we're trying to publish. I'm using the rough draft of my novel, Touched (Working Title), for this class. I've never written a query letter for anything, let along a novel, and have been getting good, solid feedback from Taylor on what things I've included.

Today I got the official, "thumbs up," on my latest effort. He thinks I may be at the point where I can start using the package to start farming out the novel. Yay! Go me. I'm excited. Now if only I had a manuscript worthy of my query letter.

Posted by innowen at 11 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 3534 for a total of 27204

I have no idea how I managed to write that many words. I'm still doing 10 pages (front and back) a day. But somehow, I'm able to squeeze more and more words. It's definitely either a counting error or I'm... that good? :) Adding to today's hecticness, I started working on a new manual project at kender's company AND had a teleconference class. I was hoping that I'd be able to just hit 25k today but instead I blew past it. Who knows, maybe I'll hit 30k tomorrow? Guess we'll just hafta wait and find out.

In any case I set Chad and Autumn alone for a bit today and helped their relationship bloom a bit. They're chatting, drinking sake, and eating sushi in a fictitious bar on twenty-third avenue. I'm almost certain now that my slim outline will get me to 50k successfully but I have noticed that the story almost meanders a lot more than I want it too. That and I'm not going into as much sensory description this year as I normally do. I wonder if this is a symptom of writing longhand versus the ability to use a computer and close my eyes to really see and describe what goes on in my world.

Posted by innowen at 10 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Day Nine
Word Count: 2990 for a total of 23670
Today picked up a bit. I switched gears and went back to our ranty daemon antagonist, Inca. Sort of told the story about how he got knocked down to our plane of existence, what happened when he arrived and what his motivations are. This was a heck of a lot more fun to write than exposition (even though it had quite a lot of narrative involved) and I can actually say that today I am proud of some of the passages I've written. We'll see what tomorrow holds as I cross the 25000 line.

Day Eight
Word Count: 3000 for a total of 20680
Today didn't quite have our heroine tearing apart Vault 102 to get to the necklace. I did have her meander and find it in the back, though. We get to learn a bit more about the Order of the Sacred Word in this section and I got Autumn safely home to her hungry cat and a warm bed. Despite the fact that today gave me the BIGGEST word count of the year, I was not at all happy with doing this by hand. Four hours a day is a lot to devote to draft writing. Part of me wishes I could put that into my already completed manuscript and get it shaped up for publication somewhere.

Posted by innowen at 9 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 2862 for a total of 17680

I planned on introducing the lifebox today. And I did do that today in a roundabout way. I didn't get to the part where she finds it but I did sort of discuss the internals and how it sorta works (minus the part about using human body impulses to act as the battery for power.) Tomorrow, I will have them open the vault that holds the lifebox, tear it apart to find the source of the music and then... we'll see where we go from there.

Posted by innowen at 7 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 2945 for a total of 14818

Whee...writing meetings are just as fun as being in one. So, this monthly meeting turned out to be a bit more. Like the introduction to the schematics scroll that makes the lifebox. And while I wasn't going to have Chad here, I decided at the last minute to put him in. Yay for continuity mistake number one. In any case, they're going to try and spend the afternoon figuring out what this thing does. And that's when Autumn starts to hear it call out to her. Which is what tomorrow's writing is for.

Hand still crampy. It now cramps up about 3 pages into writing. I've taken the advice of a friend who suggests to shake it out more often and put some good hand creme or lotion on it when I am done writing. Starting today, that's what I'll be doing. While I love NaNo, I sorta can't help but wait for this year to be over. I want to go back to writing by computer.

Posted by innowen at 6 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 2426 total of 11872.

Today marks the first day of going back in the story's timeline to the beginning of when it all started. I intended to start this section out by showing readers a day in the typical life of Autumn Chase. Which is how I started it but then it sorta took a twist into the day that they found out about the scroll of lifebox schematics. She's currently sitting in the boardroom and I need to decide whether or not to continue the scene and try and fill it up with good geekery bits or just cut to the next bit where she and Andrews find the necklace. Ah, decisions decisions.

On the other hand, (haha, hand get it!?!?) my hand is killing me. I had to take an hour break during the four hour sprint today. I still think I'm crazy for doing this and I am not really having much fun. Part of me feels like it's more of a pain than an inspiration to my writing. Next year, I'm going back to my beloved mac. But, I am dedicated to getting this novel done by hand this year and I will do it that way... even if I don't get it done by Thanksgiving.

Posted by innowen at 5 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count 2682 for a total of 9446 -- just SHY of 10k. I'd push it but my hand is shaking from the writing and I really don't want to hurt myself this year.

Today's writing session went lots better. Started off really slow and sluggish tho. Trying to get Autumn Chase talking to Inca (the antagonist) was a bit of a pain. It felt like a really bad marriage therapy session where you can tell they have a a lot to say to one another (and some attraction) but are acting stubborn and do not want to talk at all. But as soon as I switched gears a bit and got into Inca's head, all ranting about how he hated that The Father loves humans best, the word count went up a lot and fast.

I am still curious how I am able to fit 2600 plus words into 10 pages when the first day or two saw me only fitting 2000 or so. I started writing today around 10am and finished around 2pm. So yeah, 4 hours at this. Time to rest. I'll push over the 10k line tomorrow, on day five instead of day four.

In other news, my fountain pen is fixed. I had kender take a look at it when he got home. Turns out that the nib itself can be screwed in and it had loosened itself from the base that holds the pen casing and nib together. Once we got it tightened up, it made a great seal around the converter and the ink flowed once more. I also googled the proper use of the converter last night and found out that I was "doing it wrong." So now I also know how to refill the converter the proper way too. Yipee.

Posted by innowen at 4 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Word Count: 2598 for total of 6764
Today's plan was to get Autumn Chase talking to the daemon antagonist. However, I seem to be writing a day behind. Which is okay, seeing that I only have 17 plot points and need to accomplish 50,000 words within those plot points. Things have been moving along slowly and I'm not real proud of the writing but I'm sure it'll come out and give me my 7th win.

Today was crap tho. Started my period (sorry for the TMI, but it does figure into my writing life), my $60 Levenger fountain pen (the new one, the one i was just really beginning to like writing with) decided to break-- it stopped making a tight seal between the nib and the cartridge container so no pen gets thru the nib; and I spent most of today in meetings with a client regarding new work.

Tomorrow, I hope will be better. Tomorrow I get to show the tension between the big bad and our heroine and toss some sexual tension into it all. Whee.

Posted by innowen at 3 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So, I'm back at it again this November with NaNoWriMo.org. This is my 7th attempt at writing a complete first draft of a novel from scratch. And this year, I'm doing it 100% by hand. Yeah, I'm a bit nuts. My friend Jenn, in her blog, has decided to start keeping a daily log of her progress. (An idea she stole from this fellow, Jamie Grove, off his blog.)

In an attempt to explore my own writing life (the original purpose of this journal, right?) I think I will try and do the same. So here's some quick reflections of my first two days into NaNoWriMo 2008.

Day One
Word Count: 2034
I started out just as I intended the story to begin, sort of at the end. I've got Autumn Chase in the Order safe-house, looking for the clue that will help her unlock the power of the lifebox that she has around her neck. I'm a bit worried that the plot moves faster than I am trying to write it but we'll see how well this all works out in the future days. As far as writing with a fountain pen goes, I'm able to hold steady for 2000 words. I'm also able to do all those words with a single full cartridge of ink. So far, so good!

Day Two
Word Count: 2132 for a total of 4166
Today's scene was all about some confrontation between Autumn and her new love interest, Chad Utah who materializes into the apartment somehow. I managed to write a lot of dialog and while not pushing the story forward so much but giving some background and chattery between the two. I still feel like my writing is bland but I hope things get more fun sooner.

I'm finding that writing a story longhand, is a bit tough. Two things make it tough. First, is the time it takes to get the words out. I'm able to write pretty quickly but it does take me two to three hours to write 2000 words or so down on paper. This is two or three times longer than what I can hammer out on Smudge, the Macbook. I'm able to get about 2000 words out in my word processor in about an hour and a half.

The other issue is with the word count. I'm counting in sets of 50 because my mind can't handle it otherwise. And sometimes I have to double or triple back on the counting because I lose my place. I'm not sure if this is because I suck at numbers and counting or if it's the unlined journal I'm writing in that is making it hard to get accurate and complete counts. I may either need to have kender start counting my work or start typing the story into my software to get an accurate account. Which was something I wanted to avoid doing this month.

Posted by innowen at 2 November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)