Shameless Promotion

My writing friend Jeff has put up a story at wattpad:

J A Segal, Tanzania

Please take a look.  You can read (and it counts as a hit for him) even if you're not a member.  Have to join to leave a comment, though.  The cover art for the story is by our writing/artist friend Carol.

If you have comments and don't want to sign up over there, you could leave them here and I'll forward them to him.  :-)  Or go to his blog and leave them there!

(The links to both Jeff and Carol's blogs are on the right there, under friends.)

NaNo 2011, 50K day

I have made 50K in the wonderful craziness that is NaNoWriMo for the sixth time.

There is still a bit of my story to write to get to the actual ending.  I plan on doing that before the 30th, so I can add that milestone:  having an end to the story in November.  Never achieved that before, and this year is my best shot at it ever.  My characters have been very cooperative, even though there were many times I couldn't see farther ahead than the scene I was writing.  I'm at one of those spots now.  Although I know only one or two more scenes are needed, I can't see what they'll be. 

Best of luck to those of you still striving for the goal. 


Thanks for reading; comments welcome.

That NaNoWriMo Thing I'm Doing

I'm in the home stretch.  I've got less than 5K to go.  I just might finish before the 29th this year, which has been my finish date for the past four NaNo's. 

For the first time in my NaNo history, I may actually write to the end of the story!

Best of luck to everyone along for this crazy ride. 



Thanks for reading; comments welcome. 
>^.^< 

Here, have a BIG WAVE

This past week a new world record was set for the largest wave ever surfed (tow-surfing) - a 90 foot (27 meter) monster off the coast of Nazare, Portugal. 

The topography of the area is fascinating.  There is a deep (5000 meters) undersea canyon that runs close to the shore.  This canyon aids in the creation of unusually large rogue waves when swells from the right direction are heading to the coast.  On  Tuesday, November 8, there was an 8 meter swell running from that direction.  Three large waves of over 18 meters (60 feet) formed.  Garrett McNamara caught the largest.

That wave was about the height of a 9 story building.

I’ve experienced 10 meter seas (that’s not a story for today) and 8 meter swells are nothing to sneeze at.  But 90 feet??  The power of the ocean is mind-boggling.


Thanks for reading.  Comments welcome as always.

NaNo 2011, Day Five

I'm a bit behind, but not so much that I can't catch up before bedtime. I wrote a thousand words this morning and only need another 1300 or so to be on target.  I'm happy with the way my story is developing and haven't yet written through my beginning ideas.  The two main characters haven't even met yet!  I haven't had to resort to ramblings to get the word count.  (Around the middle of the month last year I wrote a committee meeting that went on for several days' worth of word count!  Haven't edited that yet, but it will be surprising if even 1/6 of it stays.)  The characters have provided some possible directions, and it will be fun finding out which the story follows. 

Now I'm heading out to enjoy the beautiful day! Best of luck to everyone!


Thanks for reading, and comments are always welcome. 

National Novel Writing Month

Only two days before November first and the start of this year's NaNoWriMo.  It will be my seventh time participating in this crazy endeavor. 

The first time I did it, in 2002, there were about 14,000 participants.  That number, 14K, was about my word count as well!

In 2003 I managed to get 50K.  I remember I was in the middle of a sentence, not sure which way to take it.  I already had the habit of running a word count whenever I paused to think, and that particular word count came out slightly above 50,000.  My brain shut off!  I couldn't finish the sentence!  Job done!  I think it took me more than two months before I wrote fiction again.  Brain empty.

I took a few years off; came back in 2007 with a new screen name (my current one).  It only took me a month to write again after getting my 50K; 2008 was about the same.

In 2009, the number of participants was around 119,000.  No, my word count did not keep up!  51,667 was my word count that year.  I didn't STOP writing until around the end of April, 2010, though!

In November 2010, I had a grand time writing my first dragon.  Opinionated and stubborn (one afternoon he refused to cooperate and told me to go take a nap!), he remains one of the most fun characters I’ve written.


This year, like always, I have no outline.  I'm a 'pantser' = write by the seat of my pants, letting the characters tell me the story.  I do have my main characters, a couple of auxillary ones, and ideas that I hope will carry me through at least the first three days.  I know that once the writing starts, options for the story line will pop into my head.  They'll go into a file to draw on when the story isn't flowing well.  Somehow it works. 

Practice is good.  NaNoWriMo is a marathon of a writing practice.  Every year my writing has improved from October to December.  I feel that every writer should try it at least once.  You push the boundaries of what you view as possible.  Prior to NaNo I wrote short stories.  I had no idea that I could write 5000 words in one day.  (My personal best is 6K; necessity and all that.)  In November, I usually write 4K each Saturday and Sunday.  I would never have learned that without NaNo.

No matter what the word count on that first morning of December, you’ll have a story that didn’t exist on Halloween and the thrill of writing along with so many others.  I think they are expecting over 200,000 people to participate this year, from all over the world.

Many of the people who read my blog are WriMo veterans.  If you're one of the folks who isn't and have considered writing a novel "some day," perhaps this is the year you try. Come join us!


Thanks for reading; comments always welcome.