So...now I have NANONECK!

Yes folks, leave it to my body to find a new excuse to avoid writing. I've invented a new disorder. I'm lovingly calling it Nano-neck.

As you know, I'm trying to do the nanowrimo 50,000 words in thirty days challenge. Which, normally, for me would be a breeze. And I was rolling along fine, I really was. But layering nanowrimo on top of my Writer's Gone Wild group, my final edits for Heart's Storm, and my Seventy Days of Sweat Challenge turned out to be a bit more than my poor body can handle.

Yes, last week, I woke up with so much neck pain that I thought my head might well fall off my shoulders. And it persisted. No amount of stretching, hot showers, back rubs or motrin was going to help. So, in the end, I had no other choice. It was either spend the rest of my month in a cervical collar....or.......take two days off from writing.

Which I did. So now my nano word count is hanging on by a thread, but you know what? I'm not really concerned. I'm more concerned with having my Brava Contest entry polished to a glossy sheen should it final in the contest. So, I'm turning my attentions to that.

BTW, if you entered the Brava contest, and are waiting for the results, there's news of how the winning entries news will trickle out on the Brava novella contest board. The boards are lighting up, and its a fun time over there right now. Lots of antsy writers waiting for news...or no news...whichever the case may be.

So, if I manage my nano count, well, that's great. But if I don't? I'm writing every single day, and my average (usable) word count has grown tremendously.

If I look at it that way? I've already won.

So I'm going to relax. And continue to write every day for the sheer love of it. The things we love aren't supposed to make us sick.

No, really. It's true!

The Eyes Have It

You know, I'm glad there are so many talented people who are editors. I'm a pretty decent writer, but I don't have an over inflated opinion of my precious prose, either. In fact, I flirt with writing purple. OK, forget flirting. My first drafts are so purple I could squeeze grape juice from them.

And my lovely Red Sage editor has done an amazing job of preventing me from making a fool of myself. :D

O.K. more then once, if the entire truth is to be told. Which is one of the many reasons why I adore her.

S. has this thing about eyes, and as a romance writer, I have a tendency to dwell on the same. The eyes, after all, are the windows to the soul....and in turn, the heart. So natch, they tend to occupy a good amount of space in my writing.

But after spending an evening on the phone with my editor recently, I went back and re-read some of my work with a "literal"...well...eye....toward what I was truly saying (or writing, to be specific.)

By page 100 I was cracking up. My character's eyes had dropped, shot out, plunged, raked (no, not leaves), caressed (you know, hugs from eye jelly don't do it for me) and danced (they do a mean mambo.) Hell, they all but washed windows!

Those are some talented eyes.

Since I still consider myself a lucky beginner, that's my one and only piece of writing advice. Read your work with a literal eye, and make sure before you submit it that your character's eyes don't take on a life of their own.

Now, back to the dual writing challenges...Seventy Days of Sweat and Nanowrimo.

(No, Virginia, blogging does *not* apply to your daily word count)

Help, Send Bifocals!

Oh sheesh.

You know, its never the known evils that bring you down. I expected word-count induced panic attacks. I anticipated carpal tunnel attackes. I planned for the inevitable 25000 word case of writer's block. I plotted. I diagrammed. I interviewed and researched--all of this before November. (I know, you're asking me how much research could possibly go into a book about a woman who thinks she's Barbie. Well let me tell you. That bitch gets around!)

So it's not the word count that's killing me. THAT I'm on schedule for in spite of the fact that I got run over by the cold from Hell on Day one of Nanowrimo. But hey, I reasoned, what better excuse for staying in bed with the old laptop than an utter inability to breathe. Turning those lemons into lemonade....oh yeah. Got out of cooking, too. That was good for an extra thousane nano-words.

But today, after four-thousand plus words have ticked by on this old screen--I am realizing that I need an arm extension. Or, according to my husband, I need bifocals. Word to the wise. Do not rob the cradle. Just as chidlren grow up too soon, those cute little embroyo boys that looked so cute and cut when we dragged them home from the bar--turn into full-grown man types. With opinions of their own.

How dare that man suggest that....old age might be creeping up on me? Pish posh. Of course not!
So, next year--Dear God, did i just say NEXT year?--I'll get the old eyes checked in October. Stock up on Visine. Do a lot of arm yoga. Or, in a real pinch, get magnifying screen aka bifocals for my monitor.

Because lets face it. Bifocals make everything look bigger.

That goes for toy boys and word counts.

Its Nanovember At Trashionista

Ah, Day 3 of Nanowrimo, and I'm still on schedule to make goal by Thanksgiving. But, the newness wears off, doesn't it? In spite of months of plotting, planning, developing storylines....nothing, absolutely nothing, is going to put those words to the page for me. Every word that flies off my keyboard for the next three days is going to put me that much closer to....SAGGING MIDDLE SYNDROME!

No, I'm not talking about my gut. I'm talking about that writerly affliction when the newness of the rosy beginning wears off, and we're left with the reality that we have to carry these characters and their problems all the way to the finish line. EEK! Scary....

If you're anything like me, you probably have to stop writing now and again to crack your knuckles and bolster your muse up with a word or two of inspiration. Check out Nanovember at
Trashionista

Authors who have managed to see their Nano entries published are speaking out. One of them even saw her nano-book produced into a movie by Goldie Hawn.

You'll also hear from other writers who have set sail into that vast, unknowable realm that will lead some of us to 50 K in 30 days.

Or not! But how wild the ride on this merry voyage of insanity! :)