We're in a mess for a while

I’m taking a break in November so I can participate in NaNoWriMo.  In NaNoWriMo you agree to write 50,000 words in the month of November.  You can write about anything.  It doesn’t have to be stellar writing, but to win, you have to write the total number of words in those 30 days.

This gets squished for me because of Thanksgiving.  Still, I’m going to try it.  I’ll stop and give a word count both here and on Maxie Books, but there won’t be any posts until I either finish or give up.

To learn more about NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month, click this link.

See you in December.

Marilynne

November 2, 4800 words and counting.  It’s tougher writing today than it was yesterday.  I think it’s because I had in mind what I wanted to say today.  Now I’m winging it.  Still, words are words.

November 3, 9000 words and counting.  It was a bit easier today, but I did it in pieces.  I didn’t work straight through.

November 5, 11,500 words and counting.  Uh! Oh!  I’ve put a friend in the plot.  We’ll have to see how it works.

November 5 (late), 13,100 words and shivering.  (I was writing about things that go bump in the night.)

November 7, 16,300 words. It’s starting to be fun.

November 8, 18,450 words, some came hard and some were easy, but I kept writing.

November 14, 28,000 words, the plot is thickening.

November 15, 30,350 words and the characters and plot have taken over without my permission.

November 18, it’s more than words.  Writing for NaNoWriMo challenges me to do what I’ve always meant to do.  Write a novel.  One comment I read says the goal is to “Write 50,000 beautifully flawed words.”  When you write that many words, you have the basis of a small novel.  It’s considered a first draft.  When I’ve written all those words, I hope to have a body of work that’s worth refining into a book you might want to read.

It’s also improving how I write.  I’ve been working on this chapter and that for a long time, believing that in the end, I could glue them all together.  With this “plow on through it and keep writing” technique, I’ll have a lot less revisions to do.  I also see places where I need to add more of this or that.  When I’m done I hope it’ll be good.

People have asked to read the draft when I’m done.  Some I’ll share it with and some I won’t.  I’ll ask for a critique if they read it.  Critiques can be annoying, but they can also open your eyes to possibilities.  The better a book is when you send it out to the publisher, the better your chance is that someone will read it.

So, that’s how it’s going.  I like the story.  These final chapters are hard, but well worth doing.  Wish me luck.

I’ve written 37,000 words so far.  My fingers hurt.

Marilynne

November 22, 40,200 words and going strong.

November 25, 45,000 words and almost there.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

November 27, 46,000 words, problems arise.  I’ve written another thousand words, but now it’s a little harder.  I’m out of time and I want the climax of the book to be good.  So far, I’ve been able to sublimate that feeling.  Now I really care about the book.  There’s not enough time left to do anything but write the last 4,000 words.

• We had a big Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and I’m exhausted.  I planned not to write yesterday, but now I’m also tired.
• We still have company:  Our grandson and a friend, who are Marines are visiting.  My daughter is visiting and her daughter is coming in and out visiting her.  I  guess I’m saying I’m still in holiday mode.
• I wrote the last 1,000 last night at 2 AM because I couldn’t sleep.  They aren’t good words.  I know they need to be edited, but I was awake because I was thinking about that plot point.  I need to be in draft mode, not in fixit mode.

So, it will all work out, but I have a little anxiety.  Maybe today I can get in some word count.

Marilynne

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Sedona is  red rocks, automobiles, art galleries, and people – lots of people.   It’s very beautiful and a very interesting place.  We were there only overnight, so these pictures are not as good as I would like.

These are the red rock walls of Sedona. The town is where the creeks and streams and other green things grow. It makes a beautiful contrast.

This is the view from our motel.

Roy walked over to Bell Rock with the intention of a morning climb while I ate breakfast. It was higher and further away than he thought, but he did climb it a little.

The Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest.  The words sound like places in a child’s adventure book.  Like most attractions we’ve seen, these are dry desert places, which, because the land is dry and barren make them special places.  Let’s begin with the painted desert.

Many rocks and mesas have a cap of hard rock on top of a softer rock. This gives them a look of wearing a cap.

These hills and mountains are formed by many different layers of soil, each layer having a different color. It's beautiful, isn't it?

Here are more photos of hills, these having a whitish top layer

This is part of a tree that once lay in a swamp. Over time silica replaced the wood, leaving a beautiful agate that still retains the character of the wood.

Sometimes crystals formed inside of the wood. It's hard to see but there are sparkly white crystals running with the grain of the wood.

This petrified log lay in the way of a stream bed. For a while it spanned the stream. Later a concrete support was placed below it.

When our children lived with us, they delighted in creating Smith National Landmarks, which were three or more rocks stacked on top of each other. It looks like someone else likes to do that too.

Canyon de Chelly is the most beautiful canyon I’ve seen.  I love the smooth rock, golden yellows and roses in some places grey in others.  I love looking down to the bottom of the canyon and seeing a flat bottom, farmland, a river running through.  It’s a stark contrast to the desert landscape  where I stand looking in.  Photos, of course.

First the massive straight walls, then the flat farmland below.

The bit of yellow is a string of trees in fall foliage.

An Indian woman retreats to a shady place to make the beaded jewelry she sells to tourists. When I asked if I could take her picture, she giggled. "I'm just doing beads." she told me.

The wind carves out strange holes in the rocks and stripes the walls of the canyon.

Window Rock is the native headquarters. You can see this hole in the rock for miles and miles. I asked a woman selling bead jewelry to tell me something about the place. She told me that a long, long time ago, when the sea covered this valley, the rock became soft. When the sea receded, a snake climbed through the rock leaving a hole. The hole was then the subject of wind driven sand and rain, and more wind until it became very large. I like the story. If you look carefully, you can see a small tree inside the hole. That tree is about the size of a man.

Window Rock. You can see how it got its name.

There is also a memorial wall for all the Indian men and women who died in the service of their country. Included are the names of the Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the enemy in WWII, by sending messages in the Navajo language.

A memorial for fallen service people.