Yay, brain’s more on-line today and I’m closing in on the mid-point of the book and the middle of Act II, whereupon Matthias and Danäe wind up getting one hell of a surprise in re: Matthias’s missing son Lukas, something that could very well change the game for everyone. Also, Danäe gets introduced to the marvelous tipple that is hard cider (and I sneak in a Pratchett in-joke) and discovers its side effects the next day, and Matthias gains an insight into his new wife.

Today’s stats:

Started With: 33,226 words
Wrote: 2,952 words
Total word count: 36,178 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Cat chores, laundry, shower, met up with the usual suspects for our Monday writing session at Starbucks, attended my biweekly writers group meeting and critiqued a couple of novel chapters, broke up at least three cat fights.

Writing Tips: If you can use humor well, don’t be afraid to add a light scene or two to your WIP. If you can use humor well, that is. Not everyone can, and humor is notoriously difficult to pull off well. If it seems forced or just isn’t working, yank it. The last thing you want is to club your readers over the head with “funny.”

Still dealing with the migraine — it’s making me irritable as all get out (I should mention that these are atypical migraines, not nearly as horrible as the regular kind but still rather debilitating because my sensory system goes straight to hell) but I managed to nail my ass to the chair and get in my word count. Now I’m only three days behind. Whee. I would pound my head on the keyboard, but that would just make things hurt more.

Today’s stats:

Started With: 30,222 words
Wrote: 3,004 words
Total word count: 33,226 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Cat chores, laundry, and we threw caution to the wind and went to go see The Martian and have dinner at IHoP afterwards because that’s just how we roll.

Writing Tips: If you know you need to fix something but don’t have the time (or need to do research, or your brain is malfunctioning and you can’t remember the words you need), highlight it in some way, either by a genuine highlight or a comment or even adding XXXX in the spot. Later on when you’re editing, you can come back and fix the issue. Just remember to, you know, actually go back and look for this stuff. I’ve known writers who will put SEX SCENE HERE if they’re not up to writing something hot and sexy at the moment. Whatever works for you.

This is short because my brain has decided to throw a weather-triggered migraine at me. Stupid brain.

Day Twelve’s stats:

Started With: 27,100 words
Wrote: 3,122 words
Total word count: 30,222 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Cat chores, laundry, copyediting, and then Ramón and I went to see a really awesome burlesque show.

Day Thirteen’s stats:

Started With: 30,222 words
Wrote: 897 words
Total word count: 31,119 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: I have no idea. I did something. Head hurts. Can’t remember.

Writing Tips: If you have a migraine, it’s okay to kick the writing in the head and go lie down. You have my permission.

Didn’t make word count today, mainly because I was busy doing promo for Evernight Publishing’s 5th birthday bash and blog tour (go check it out — I’m giving away a $25 Amazon gift certificate as my personal prize), working on another editing project, and copyediting a friend’s novel (it’s a pay job — I’ve got a cruise coming up and I need all the shekels I can earn right now). Not making word quota is annoying but as I said earlier, it happens. I’m currently about 7K behind where I should be, which is still makeupable (is that a word? It is now), especially with a couple of weekends ahead of me. If I can get a good head of steam up this weekend I should be able to whittle that down to 2K or so, the gods willing and the crick don’t rise.

I won’t be working tomorrow night, though, because I have ringside tickets for an awesome burlesque show and I’m bringing Ramón, my buddy Stretch and her husband. I may be behind at the moment but I’m also a hair under 1/3 of the way through the book, and that deserves a reward.

Today’s stats:

Started With: 26,064 words
Wrote: 1,036 words
Total word count: 27,100 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Cat chores, did knee PT workout, promo for Evernight’s 5th birthday blog tour, started copyediting a friend’s book, more editing on the video project, a touch of food shopping, made a big ol’ batch of tarragon chicken salad so that Ramón can continue to eat as low carb as possible while I’m working, and laundry.

Writing Tips: There’s a reason why the carrot and stick analogy works so well. Don’t be afraid to hold out rewards for various things — making word quota, reaching certain milestones in the book, and most definitely when you finish the book. Want to watch an episode of The Vampire Diaries? Finish a chapter. Want to play Solitaire? Finish a chapter. Etcetera. I always buy myself some jewelry when I finish a book, and I’m already on the lookout for what I want as my carrot on October 18th.

Goodbye September, hello October (and hopefully cooler temperatures if the local weathermen aren’t making it up as they go again). Today was a day of pulling out words by the roots. Sometimes they flow. Sometimes you have to tease them out, and sometimes you have to go in after those suckers with a pickaxe and C-4 and tell yourself that you’ll clean everything up in the edit. Foo.

Today’s stats:

Started With: 23,021 words
Wrote: 3,043 words
Total word count: 26,064 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Cat chores, cleaned up all kinds of cat vomit (what the heck is going on with them, I do not know), did knee PT workout, hit every poster on the Mid Week Tease and left comments on their teases, left answers for comments on my own tease, did promo blog posts for Deep Water in various groups on Facebook cooked lunch for Ramón and myself, made a skull necklace and bracelet, mailed out jewelry purchases and a new check for a bill because I’d forgotten to sign the first one, made dinner for Ramón and myself, and took a shower.

Writing Tips: Give yourself permission to write crap. Not every word that you write in the first draft will be gold. In fact, they’re going to be pretty shitty, with little glittering bits here and there that show promise. Think of it as digging clay out of a riverbank and slapping it into the general form of a person — the second/third/yadda yadda drafts are when you start carving everything into shape, adding stuff here and deleting stuff there. Sometimes deleting a lot of stuff there. Right now you’re not concerned with precision, or the perfect turn of phrase (although if you can manage those little glittering bits, please do so), or a gripping scene. You want shitty words that convey the general plotline of the story, and you want enough of them so that you make your word count. Do whatever you have to do to get them there — write a general outline that you’ll fill in later, skip ahead in the story, write something absolutely ridiculous that you know you’ll have to delete later but amuses you now. This is the time to get mud all over everything and build that castle.

Yep, not a damned word on the book today. No choice, as I had to work on a video project that is due later this week and sucked up the bulk of my day. Seriously, clones are looking better and better all the time.

Today’s stats:

Started With: 23,021 words
Wrote: 0 words
Total word count: 23,021 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Cat chores, knee PT workout, recorded a podcast episode, and participated in the world’s longest video editing session. Seriously, I can’t even feel my butt anymore,

Writing Tips: Don’t beat yourself up if Real Life™ gets in the way and stops you from making your word quota, or from writing whatsoever. It happens sometimes. Just chalk it up to a day that need to be spent on other things and get back to work on your WIP tomorrow. I promise, the Muse won’t hold it against you.

Okay, that’s a little better. As it stands I’m now a little under one thousand words behind, which I should make up fairly easily this week, in between finishing a short story for a waiting anthology and delivering a video project to some friends who are waiting for it. Oh, and I edited a Sherlock Holmes pastiche I did a while ago and sent it off to an online magazine because members of my writer’s group were prodding me to send off non-erotic romance short stories again. Because it’s not like I’m doing anything else at the moment.

I’m starting to think that Ramón is right and I am making rods for my own backs. Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to our cruise in November? Like, I’m dreaming about it? Seven days on a ship out in the Bahamas, where I don’t have to clean up after cats, make dinner, or do anything but relax and let other people entertain me.

And work on my NaNoWriMo book, of course. I mean, it’s not as if writing stops just because I’m on vacay. That’s just silly talk.

Huh. I just realized I started this a week ago today and I already have a tad over 23,000 words done. Not bad, not bad at all.

Today’s stats:

Started With: 19,388 words
Wrote: 3,633 words
Total word count: 23,021 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Cat chores, knee PT workout, did laundry, ran errands (mainly to pick up necessary meds), and got slammed by this really heinous sinus headache around 10 PM so I went to bed kinda early.

Writing Tips: There are two things you can do if you start getting sleepy while writing (it happens). One is to get up and do something–go for a walk, work out, do some housework, whatever. Research has shown that getting up every hour or so and getting the blood moving is not only good for your health, it helps your productivity. And whatever helps your productivity is something you should be doing. Unless that means eating a pound bag of peanut M&Ms every day. Don’t do that. Although a couple wouldn’t go amiss. Sorry, I’m in the middle of my Special Lady Time and man, I want chocolate.

The other is to take a nap. Sometimes it’s not that you’re getting sleepy because you’ve been sitting in one place for too long, it’s because you’re just generally sleepy. In which case lying down with your eyes closed for 40 minutes can work wonders.

Falling a tad bit more behind, yes, I know. But today I woke up feeling absolutely splendid after a night free of pain, had a very nice final day at the con, and came home with an urge to sit in our hot tub for a bit and soak my knees. After I got out, I almost fell asleep in my chair, so a nap was necessary before I could get my wits together enough to churn out any wordage. No problem, I can make it up over the next few days.

Today’s stats:

Started With: 18,170 words
Wrote: 1,218 words
Total word count: 19,388 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Drove to the con hotel, sold a copy of Storm Season and HIS, also sold a set of skull and rose earrings, did a panel and an autographing, drove home, discovered to my delight that our pool/spa heater still worked after three years of non-use, sat my happy ass in some bubbling water, took a delightful nap, and now I’m heading back to bed because it’s 1:39 AM and that’s late enough for me.

Writing Tips: “But Nicola,” I hear you say, “you have 5,000 words to make up, and you’re already supposed to write 3K a day. How in the world can you make up that backlog?”

Simple — I write 500 to 1,000 additional words a day. I tend to go a bit over the 3K mark anyway, so adding on a few more paragraphs usually isn’t that big of a deal. And if I’m stuck on a scene, I can always jump around a little bit in the story and find a scene I do I want to write and add in some wordage there. It may well be edited or even deleted when I get to hooking that scene up to the rest of the story, but at least the words are there. This, by the way, is why it’s useful to have an outline either on paper or in your head. If you’re stuck on one scene, it allows you to jump around and keep working until you can figure out what’s holding you up (or you get in the mood to write a smexy scene).

Due to my knee acting like a complete bitch this morning from messing it up on Wednesday at the gym and hobbling all around the damned hotel yesterday, I missed my reading at the con AND my other morning panel, and was basically miserable until about 2 PM. By the time I got back to the con I was tired, cranky, and ready to be swept up in some fun, so I pretty much took today off (I actually wrote more than 61 words, but I deleted about 270 so, yeah, that happened). Meh, it happens. I’ll play catchup over the next few days.

Also, if you have knees that feel like they’re full of ground glass due to injury, arthritis, whatever, go check out this knee brace (it’s called Kneed-It). My friend Selina saw me hobbling into the hotel, said, “I’m going to lend you my other brace,” and gave it to me. I swear to God, if this brace was human I would marry it and have its babies, I love it so much. NO PAIN. AWESOME.

Today’s stats:

Started With: 18,109 words
Wrote: 61 words
Total word count: 18,170 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Drank hard cider, ate a lot of candy, discussed the beauty of Michael Fassbender with a large table of people, 75% of whom were straight males, showed off my Sherlock plushies at a fencraft panel, and had a shitload of fun.

Writing Tips: An outline is a good thing, but you do not have to follow it slavishly. It should be a general road map to the story, but you will quite often run into all kinds of interesting detours, side trips, U turns and out and out dead ends that you didn’t expect but wind up informing your story (and often making it better). Frex: Empress has been laid out in three acts — Act I is where Matthias and Danäe start out on the bumpy road of their marriage and find out surprising things about each other and the people around them. Act II is the trip back to Hellas for the second marriage there — I knew I had to have some complications added there as well as a mid-point bump, but didn’t really know what that was going to be. Holding a cheerful two-year-old on my lap while we colored and played with crayons gave me an insight into two people who really need heirs for their kingdoms, and BAM I had my mid-point bump. So be open to things around you and use them as inspiration for your writing — you’d be surprised how helpful it can be.