All About Writing

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Posted on January 1, 2010 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Happy New Year to All My Bloggy Friends!

I hope your 2010 is the best year yet. Keep smiling and have faith and hope that your New Year will be better, and I promise the positive attitude will deliver.

Here’s to 2010!

Posted on November 11, 2009 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Recorded TV During NaNo

I had to seriously give up television for the most part during November, or I feared I would never make my word count goals. I didn’t have a DVR during November of last year, because we were switching companies and we shut the first one off too early, and it took two weeks for them to come out and hook up the new one.

It’s kind of a luxury for me now, as I really don’t watch as much TV as it looks like I do. Lots of times I wind up having shows stay on my DVR for months before I get back to see them again. I was blog hopping this morning and came across a post someone had made during a month they gave up television. I thought it was kind of funny, because they just recorded all their shows during the month and watched them afterward. hehe That would be me if I gave up tv for a month – such as I am.

She made a list of the recordings waiting for her. Her post wasn’t really a meme but I thought I’d borrow her idea and l list the shows that are already accumulated on my DVR. Many of these are guilty pleasures or shows I watch with the kids because we all like them. So here is what is already recorded for me to watch in December. I am only listing the shows that were recorded during the month of November so far. (Good thing its so cold in December and that I will need a break from noveling for a bit).

Castle
Children of the Grave
Ghost Adventures
Ghost Hunters
Ghost Hunters Academy
Ghost Stories
Ghost Whisperer
Haunted History (uhm…I’m sensing a theme here! haha)
House
Glee
Greek
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Paranormal State
Pick-A-Flick (lifetime movies that you vote on)
Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal
Snapped
The Cake Boss
The Hills
The 43rd Annual CMA Awards
90210

Okay, after looking at this list, I’m sad. I miss my shows. haha And yes, I have a thing with the Paranormal. If you hadn’t noticed

Posted on October 25, 2009 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

My Last Hurrah Before NaNoWriMo

My best friend Amy’s husband is in a popular local band, Whiskey Dixon and I go to most of the gigs. I traveled with the band to Decatur, Illinois one last time this weekend, before entering into NaNoWriMo mode. They don’t get what I’m doing, but they know I won’t be around for a few weeks. But it was kinda sad, because its a stress-reliever hanging out with them. I know I can still do it in November, but two gigs a weekend, every weekend in November, really isn’t the best idea. So I’m skipping the next few, and will be enjoying them again about mid-month provided I am on task.

We had a blast, the guys sounded great and the hotel we got put up in was really nice. Plus, I had the room to myself, so I had some time away which gave me a little bit of NaNo planning time too. Very relaxing.

So do you do anything that relaxes you before #nano? Do you give anything up?

Posted on October 2, 2009 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

NaNoWriMo Forums Are Up and Running

Man, you would have thought I’d lost my best friend last night. I was lost without the forums, as the team took them down to clean them and revamp the site. It looks great now, but I was miserable last night. LOL

I’m so excited for NaNoWriMo ’09 and so ready for it to be November already. Of course, I write all year round, but there is just something fun about participating with a bunch of crazy people who plan to write a whole novel in a month.

Are you participating this year?

Find me on the forums: simplywriting

Posted on September 24, 2009 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Just for Fun – Write or Die

I decided to play around with Write or Die this morning. I have been meaning to actually “use” it rather than just play with it, for some time. So I decided to write 1667 words, as if it was a typical November day. Well, I did it!!

See!

	1668
27
lab.drwicked.com

I only paused once, and I’m pretty proud of myself.

Here is what I wound up writing (and yes it is rambling and I am positive there are errors LOL)

It isn’t that I have to write, it’s that I want to write. I want to learn to manage my time better and quiet my internal editor and she seems to come out a lot when I am just in need of getting further with word count.
I blog about how you need to be disciplined with yourself to accomplish your 1667 words during National Novel Writing Month. How can I blog about something, if I don’t follow it myself? Right? I teach others to just sit and write, pretend there is no editor. I even tell others to shrink down the size of their font, so they cannot READ what they have written. You can always go back later and correct spelling, grammar, run-on sentences and other faux pas.

Each year for National Novel Writing Month, I start out with gumption. I go full force for a few days, and I write and write whenever the mood strikes. I can usually churn out several thousand words in just a couple of days. However, hit about the two week point during the month, and that is when the problems begin to arise. Sometimes my stories start taking alternative directions. Sometimes they create scenes and situations that just don’t work with where we were heading originally. That is when my internal editor shows her face. I have gone back before and re-written an entire chapter during NaNoWriMo. Really, is that necessary? I don’t think so. I can do that later. I can just keep writing in the same way the story is going, even if it changes the back story. That can be corrected much later during December or beyond, when I go back to work with editing.

My internal editor hates to be quiet. I tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my writing and my story telling. I need the story to flow, the words to make sense and be clear, and I have a huge problem when there are spelling errors and other grammar mistakes that I can see clearly, but keep trying to tell myself that I must ignore.

So what is the point of typing this way? What is the reason I sit and type these words. To show myself that it is clearly possible to type and type and continue to type without stopping for more than a moment to compose my thoughts. I do not have to go back and re-read what I have written, as long as I stay focused on what I am writing – it might not make a lot of sense, but it can be corrected later. If I hush the internal editor, and I write like this, I am much more likely to push forward and write until I cannot write anymore.

At this stage in my writing, as I type this final word, my word count is at exactly 487. Wow. I’ve only been typing for about three minutes, and while I am certainly not that close to my 1667 words that I originally typed into the box of wanting to write right now, I am further than I thought I would be at this point.

Last year by this point, I already had developed a story, a plot and characters. I was working on character development, and learning about my main character, what she liked, what she didn’t like and all the other quirky things about her. I actually loved that process. This year however, while I have a story line chosen, and a tiny bit of plot worked out, I don’t have a main character that I know very well. In fact, I don’t know her at all. I know nothing other than she has blond hair and grew up on a farm. Gee, that is certainly a lot of information to go in with eh? Good thing that it is only September 24 and that I still have over a month to come up with more. This year, I am also going to have a male main character who will be the focus for part of the story. I have never written quite this way before, so I am eager to see how it goes. Now, I fear with my change in “style” that I might have issues with the editor in me. I know I am going to want to go back and change things and work with them a little. I will find myself with a need to change certain details. Last year, my mc had her name changed four times before the end of National Novel Writing Month. Pretty sad? Yes. I don’t even like her name now.

Another challenge I am facing this year, is that the book will take place both in Ireland and America. That should be fairly interesting to see how I can pull that off. Because the male MC is Irish, I have chosen the name Declan for him. I have never even heard the name until recently, but apparently it is a common name in Ireland. He is going to have very deep seeded roots to Ireland, so it is important for me that he have a very Irish sounding name. No idea the last name yet, but I believe that will come at some point. I have played around with a lot of Irish last names but I really don’t like any of them with Declan, so I will continue to keep my eyes open for the perfect one. The female MC does not have a name yet, but I want it to be a fairly unique name. It doesn’t have to be different necessarily, I just need it to be less common or not as used as other names. The problem is, that when I sit and think about it – she keeps saying her name is Elizabeth. Could we seriously get any more common than that? And it isn’t even a name I’m drawn to, but she seems to really like it and want it. It’s been in my mind for over a month and that’s probably why I have not come up with another name yet. Because she wants to be called Elizabeth. I really hate it when I want something but they want something else. Does that make sense?

So the other thing I am still ironing out the details of for my story, are where in America in particular Elizabeth will be living. She has grown up there. I know that it is a very small farming town. Everybody knows everybody type of thing. She lives and works on her family farm, but beyond that, I have no idea where that farm is located, what city/state, etc. I need to do some more thought on that. Sometimes it just pops into my head and I have somewhere to go with it, but this year it isn’t, so i might need to do a little research.

On the other hand, Declan is from County Donegal in Ireland. Also from a farming family, their lifestyles will mirror each other a little bit. I don’t believe they will be introduced in a casual setting until about the middle of the story, though they might have an opportunity to meet before then, but it will be a very brief meeting with no significance until later. I also need to figure out why Declan would be in a tiny town in America, and the only thing that keeps coming to mind, is that perhaps he was visiting family. However, it makes little sense that he would be visiting during the busiest farming time – which is going to tie them together eventually. I feel like I am complicating the story a little, but I am sure it will work itself out in the end. It is completely different than anything else I have ever written before, and I am really excited to get started on it. I am trying desperately to get to know these characters better. I know and understand Declan a little bit better than I understand our totally name less female main character, possibly Elizabeth.

Wow, I am really impressed. I paused this thing once, and then just started typing again and right now I am at 1381 words. I am not too far off from my 1667 word goal, and I am very excited about that. I am still wondering how well this will work for me when I am actually writing during November, but I am a little excited to see. I love the idea of having something continue to push you to write. Seeing the pink or red appear is not pleasant, but the noise is worse. I am strongly considering trying this out on days when the writing isn’t coming quite as easily. I need to push myself harder this year, so that not only do I win, but I have a successful rough draft at the end of the month of November. Giving me December, January and February (the cold winter months) to work on editing and polishing and by Spring, hopefully have something meaty and juicy to start working with. I really want to go back and do some editing on a few of my past stories, but I don’t do well with that when I do it right before NaNoWriMo. That is when all my ideas get jumbled and plot bunnies come out of the wood work. So I am probably not going to be doing any of that right now. I will wait until Winter to work through the editing and other stuff that needs to be done. Well, judging by the word count which is currently 1619 I have almost hit my word count goal for today and I don’t think I spent more than about 20 minutes on this. I am extremely happy and satisfied that I go so much writing done. And with this, when I type the final word, I am done.