Done

The book stinks. The characters are boring. The plot is juvenile (and not in a good way!).

But it's 50K words. I might add a few more before I officially verify the count tonight or tomorrow, but I'm done for another year. Yeah!

The only things that has come out of this year:

• A few kernels of ideas for actual good books
• The realization that I can force myself to write 50K words on total crap
• Something closely resembling a habit (but really November is all about not getting proper sleep and that's not really a good habit ... even if I am writing). I need to develop a healthy habitual writing schedule.
• Even with two medical procedures, a whole house carpet and duct-work cleaning (try typing when your living room sofa is jammed in your ribs!), two sons trying to memorize their lines for their upcoming play (I think I know it better than they do!), my wife who was rabidly trying to sort through boxes of memorobilia dating back to her birth to make way for the major cleaning, and all the hundreds of other things that normally keep me from writing, I still got 50K.

Woo-hoo! Now, I'm going to sleep.

Tastelessly funny

I'm going to hell for linking to this...

In other news

There's a bunch of talk about the Baseball Hall of Fame now.

Three guys Tony Gwynn. Cal Ripken, Jr. and Mark McGwire.

Gwynn and Ripken are no-brainers. Gwynn is one of my all-time favs. I won a signed picture/plaque of his at the Baseball Breakfast of Champions a few years ago and it hangs proudly on my wall. (This year's BoC features Nolan Ryan!!!). I heard a stat somewhere that Gwynn could have struck out 2,000 times and his career batting average still would have been over .300. That's incredible.

Ripken is just awesome. I will never forget watching him on the day he broke Gehrig's streak. The guy was class and a pro.

Both Gwynn and Ripken were great players. And shoo-ins. The only question is if either one will get 100 percent of the vote. (Nobody ever has ... not Mantle ... not Mays ... not Ruth). And they deserve it. But let's face it, they were boring. Gwynn was never a home run guy or an RBI guy. He just got hits. A lot of them. But usually they were a slap into the opposite field. Pretty boring. Ripken's greatest achievement was for basically never calling in sick. He played every day. And, yes, that's incredible, but it's also kinda boring. (Please remember I love both of these guys and I'm not saying they shouldn't be first ballot...)

So, that leaves us with McGwire. I'll admit I am biased. I remember his rookie season with Oakland. A season when people were talking about him breaking Maris' record at the All-Star break. He fell short that year, but he was always exciting to watch. He lit up the scoreboard. With his Bash Brother, Jose Canseco, they scared the pee-water out of opposing pitchers. And there are very few people who would disagree that when McGwire and Sosa broke Maris' record in that incredible summer, they brought droves of people back to the game -- people who swore to never return after the strikes. He helped save the game.

Of course everyone talks about the steroids. Possible steroids. Did he take 'em? Probably. Can anyone EVER prove it? NO! So, get over it. What if alcohol became a banned substance? Would we have to wipe out Ruth's records? Of course not. Could Mantle have been dosing on illegal pain killers to help him play? Maybe. Doesn't mean we ban him from the Hall. Plus, WE CAN'T PROVE IT!

So, obviously I think McGwire should be eligible for the hall. I also think he should get in. His impact on the game is larger than any other person in the 90s. However, looking at his stats, I don't think he's a first round guy. That's hard for me to say because I loved watching him play. But he didn't get to 2,000 hits and he didn't play for as long or as well as Gwynn and Ripken. They should go in together and then next year we could have McGwire and FINALLY Goose Gossage.

I still think I can...

Guy coming to the house today to clean our vents and our carpets. Whole house in disarray. Still got a decent word count. Hopefully cross 50K tomorrow. Normally I keep writing until the story is done, but I hate this one so much I will probably just sleep in on Thursday morning. YEAH!

I think I can ... etc.

Almost there. Finish line in sight. Hate every single word I write. Hate NaNo (not really, but sorta). Hate my characters. Hate my plot. Hate my dialogue.

This is the hardest NaNo ever and vow to NEVER try to rewrite something I started in college. It's just bad. I mean stinky. Really bad.

But almost done!

Limping

This weekend, as expected, kicked my hiney! Now I'm a little below pace. But I am taking off early from work today, so I hope that will put me back.

Gotta go to the doc for a test tomorrow and I'm expecting to return looped-up pretty good, so maybe that will help also.

Pushing

OK, this morning was tough.

My characters didn't really want to do anything and it was the wrong point in the novel to kill any of them (bummer). So, I muddled through.

Still slightly (even slightly-er than in the past) ahead of pace. Still waiting for that 30K slide. I need it badly. This could be an ugly weekend.

Half

OK, so I'm halfway there.
It's been a little slow and a little tough the last couple days. I'm hoping this is last big hurdle before hitting the magical 30,000 word mark which traditionally has been my mark for when things really start to cruise.
<>

Almost there

I was running late for work this morning or I would have added a couple hundred more words to get me officially over the half-way mark. But I'll be there easily by tomorrow.

24,700 not bad.

Today's writing was fun because, for no apparent reason, I started a flashback part for my main character on how he became an FBI dude. It's actually working well with the rest of the book and may come into play for the ending.

No matter. It's just fun. That's the best part about NaNo. I can create a character I truly love and then just forget about him because he bores me later. Or, better yet, kill him!

Busy weekend

Poker Friday (Got creamed)
Stayed up way too late.
Woke up way too late (thanks, Tracy, for letting me!)
Wrote a bit
Took the kids to the Greeley Airport for aviation exhibit (fun!)
Took boys to "Open Season" (at least I got a nap!)
Boys and I went bowling (I stunk!)
Wrote.
Slept.
Woke up early.
Wrote.
Worked with boys to clean their activity room (9 full bags of trash!)
Saw "Stranger than Fiction" (very funny and even saw some fellow NaNo people)
Saw "Borat" (Oh my! I haven't laughed that hard in years. Thought I was going to lose consciousness!)
Wrote
Slept.
Word count: 23,211. Still a bit above pace, but now I'm writing past where I have written in this book before so it will be interesting to see if it goes quicker or slower. I'm hoping quicker.

Fake words, real ones

When you are trying to write 50,000 words in a month, the good part is that those words don't have to be any good.
But then when you have to write 650 words for a bi-weekly column for the local papers, you would think it would be easy. But the problem is that those 650 words might actually get read. So, it's really hard to get out of the mode of writing long crap to writing short decent stuff.
Oh, well.
Anyway, zooming away on track now. I'm still a bit more than 1,000 words over pace. But here comes another weekend!!!

Something different

OK, my NaNo stuff is probably boring the two people who actually read this blog (but I'm still slightly ahead of pace!), so thought I'd bring up something else.

Lost. The TV show. Last season, I was so hooked on this show, I swear they figured out a way to send crack through the airwaves! But this year, I'm bored. Lots of wacky stuff going on. Big smokey monsters. Carnivorous polar bears. A couple deaths. But really just boring. Last night was the final episode before the hiatus until February and I was hoping this whole boring season was leading to something, but it didn't happen last night.

Fortunately, there are some new shows, namely "Heroes" (overtaken Lost for the best show on TV ... especially now that Deadwood is off the air!), "Studio 60" and "The Nine" are all fantastic shows.

So, how do I work, write and stay up on current TV shows? A VCR and LOTS of caffeine.

Fun stuff

One of the interesting things about working on a book that I first started in 1989 (and later worked on in 1993 a bit) is that there is a lot of updating to do (as well as extensive re-writes because I really, really, really liked adjectives and adverbs back then).

E-mail was a brand new thing and I didn't know how it worked so I faked it (not too bad). But now I'm changing it all to IM.

CDs were cutting edge.

Dahmer was the big scary guy (now it's either Bush or Trump, you choose).

Anyway, I'm still spitting out words and I'm a little over pace (yeah!).

Cruisin'

Survived the first weekend ... still on pace (not kicking pace's butt, however definitely on top!)

Yesterday, I had to go in for a medical thing at the hospital, but I hit my count before I left and again this morning, so I'm still golden.

My buddy, Eric, is completely killing right now and that's so cool. Also, our Greeley contingent is doing very well up against our arch-nemisis in Fort Collins. We're having a challenge to see which area will have the higher percentage of completers.

The other good news for the day is that it's Election Day. This is not good because we are once again proving democracy works or because I have a particular favorite candidate I'm pulling for (actually more likely, a candidate I want to lose!). No, my excitement comes from the fact that we won't be getting any more calls, seeing more ads or getting annoying people knocking on our door.

1/10th of the way there

After two painful days, I finally had a good one.

I woke up at 4 a.m. (didn't get out of bed until 4:15) even though my alarm was set for 5 (actually I haven't needed my alarm all week. Strange, huh?)

And then I started writing. It just flew. Characters were fleshed out. An old woman was killed. My cop got wasted. It was really fun.

I think the key for me is dialogue. It takes me a bit to get the feel for a character and how he or she would talk. But once I do, it just goes. Their conversations ramble through tangents and silly stuff and funny stuff and finally get around to advancing the plot while defining the characters to a T (or a P or even a Q).

So, I'm slightly above pace (not as far above as my friend Eric, you can read his update in the Edge of Nowhere link on the right side of the page).

Weekends tend to be tough, but the boys have theater school in the morning, so after I drop them off, I can come home and write for a couple hours so that should help.

Day 2

OK, this morning ...
Woke at 4:45 a.m.
Still earlier than the alarm
But I laid in bed until the alarm went off.
Turned on the computer.
Decided to read the whole next chapter of old book.
That helped because I knew where it was going.
Abandoned where old book was going.
Wrote all new stuff
Much more fun
May have accidentily found out one of my characters is gay who wasn't the first time.
Wrote.
Checked clock.
Checked word count.
Wrote.
Kids wake up and bug me about breakfast.
Writing's done for this morning.
3,104. A little below pace, but not bad.

Simple pleasures

So, one of the candy items are stole from my kids (actually they didn't want it!) was a Tootsie Roll Lollipop. I've always loved those. But now they have a watermelon flavored one. Gotta tell you, it's pretty much heaven on a stick!

A painful start...

Set alarm for 5 a.m.
Get up at 4:15 a.m. because I really want to start writing.
Pull out old novel of which I am revising heavily and FINALLY finishing.
Read first page.
Realize it's total crap.
Freak out.
Start writing anyway.
Each paragraph is worse than the one before it.
Uggghhhh! Why the hell am I doing this again?!?!
Hit "Word Count" about 700 times to see if I passed 1,667 yet!
Not yet.
Keep writing.
It's just so crappy!!!!
Keep writing.
"Word Count"
1,700.
Yeah!
Can't wait for Day 2.