Day 21: Working late

I'm still at it; I ran some errands during the day and started my writing at about 4pm. K is at gaming night, so it's just me and The Rogli here while I work.

I'm at a point in the story where a lot of the activity is going to be taking place on the overnight shift on the oncology ward at a hospital. Here's where research fails me; I can't seem to discover if it is quiet, noisy, busy, eerily inactive? I plan to visit an oncology ward once someone gives me permission to, but I don't imagine I'll be allowed to come on over at 2am.


I'm also trying to balance a blooming infatuation between two characters while one is seriously ill. I have some experience with this (not with cancer, but with major illness), and I can say, it would have taken ONE HECK of a guy to distract me from how craptacular I felt. I'm trying to work that fact in to the situation of the ill character, but it's hard when I need the plot to go this way.

Four chapters went out to K, Sue, Nicole and Nate...I'll be interested to see what they have to say. I'm on page 133 right now, two and a half pages into Chapter 6.

Days 19 and 20: A bit behind in blogging...

Friday got too crazy for me to post here; too much to do! These next few weeks are full of weddings, family plans, and a nice vacation to Cape Cod, all of which I've been looking forward to.

I hit page 130 today, and about 37K words. Chapter 5 has been a bit lumbering; I finished it today, and I made a bunch of notes for the start of Chapter 6. I expect all of this week's writing to be interrupted by errands to prepare for all of the good stuff coming up, but I'm going to try to stick at least to my original goal of 3.75 pages if not my new goal of 1500 words.

Beautiful day! The pup and I took a nice, long walk, and I tried not to get her too dirty since she just had a bath!

Day 18: A little late tonight...

Writing here a bit later than usual...I got caught up in some things that needed to get done this afternoon when I finished writing, including taking The Pup to my parents' house because I have to grade placement exams all day tomorrow (again). It was good to talk to N. on the phone tonight; she will be an important reader in all of this.

I wrote about four pages today (about 1200 words), and I finally incorporated all of the material leftover from the earlier draft. I actually printed out the first four chapters, and am now deciding whether or not I'm ready to send it to friends for their feedback. It's *definitely* a first draft, and flipping through it in actual print, I definitely see some parts that need to change (too contrived, too dramatic, etc.). But, knowing that, do I go back and edit the hell out of it before I send it to friends, or should I get their baseline opinions first? I'll decide tomorrow.

I'll be back on Friday with more from the novel zone.

Day 17: Derailed by Digestion

So, I didn't get as much done today as I'd have liked because my digestive system was not cooperating. I still feel oogy right now, actually, so this will be short. I wrote a bit over 3 pages (900ish words), and then tackled a bunch of errands that had been hanging over my head (prescriptions, the bank, the post office, etc., etc.).

I *did* get to eat my first nectarine of the summer, and I will continue my tradition from last year of eating a nectarine every single day until they go out of season; they are my favorite fruit, and one of the only ones I'm actually allowed to eat raw. I don't know if having eaten one is going to help or hurt my stomach; I can't tell if I'm hungry or queasy! I'm going to go watch my husband make a fake meatball sub and find out if it looks appetizing or not.

Day 16: Getting Down To Business

I wrote about seven pages today, or around 1800 words. I realized that in order to reach my summer's goal of around 120K words, I needed to step things up a bit in terms of productivity. So, I finished a little later, and got a lot more done. I wrote a 'turning point' scene today, one in which we figure out the way that the main characters are going to interact. The major problem of the novel has been put forth. It happens, novel-wise, about 80 pages in; I'll have to rely on my pre-readers to tell me if it happens too late. Not that there isn't interesting stuff before, it's just that a lot of questions begin to get answered at this point, rather than earlier on.

From now on, nothing in the novel is innocent; everyone's motivations have been exposed, and everything is going to continue to spiral toward the climax of the story. It's getting exciting, which is why I think it's getting easier to write more in one sitting. That and the new chair. Man is this thing comfortable.

Day 15: 100 Pages!

Today I reached 100 pages, which is a goal I had set for the middle of the month. It certainly feels good to be this productive, though I continue to hope that what I'm producing is actually good.
From now one, in terms of completion goals, I'm going to focus more on the number of words than on page numbers; my eventual goal for the whole novel is around 120K. I have about 30K right now.

I finished up a 'connective tissue' scene that actually needed to be longer than I originally thought. I also began what will turn out to be a fairly big, important scene, and will be the second-to-last thing that happens in Chapter 4.

Writing went a bit slower today; I think grading the placement tests threw me off my game a bit, but then I have to wonder if all Fridays are a little sluggish, even if you're doing work for yourself! I have a very sweet schnauzer here, who rests comfortably on the futon, looking out the window, and letting me write all day. I feel very lucky to have her.

Now, off to take care of a week's worth of dishes so that my husband and I can actually eat dinner tonight on plates.

Day 14: Light, if Disorganized

I wrote a 'connective tissue' scene today which serves as a buildup to a very important scene. It was easier than I thought to write, and I had my 3.75 pages done very quickly. I think the frequency of my writing is making the ideas come faster. I went back and read yesterday's sex scene, and it's still good, I think; it portrays how manipulative one of the characters is, and how putty-like the other one is.

I took some time yesterday and today to plan and order books for a couple of the classes I'm teaching this fall; I need to not totally forget that, while I *am* on vacation, I'm still being paid to have my sh*t together for next semester. Tonight I need to get a manuscript copy of my book of poems (unpublished) so I can send it out to a couple of free contests this month. I'm done paying for contests; I'm done paying for a lot of stuff since my husband and I are basically broke. Tomorrow I'll be taking a break from the novel to go into school and grade placement tests; it's only one day a week, and it's a little extra cash, which we could really use. So, my next post will be on Friday; I'm actually really excited to get back to writing on Friday, since I'll be working on a major turning-point scene; the one where we find out What Is Going To Happen.

I have a number of folks (including my husband, Nicole, Sue, Nate and Dillon) who I've said I want to send sections of the novel to, and I do, but I need to get over one more hump first; I still have some floating material from an earlier draft that I'll be placing in this chapter (Chapter 4), and I want to do that before I send it out. By then, it'll be about a hundred pages worth (I hit 95 today), and I'll happily send however much they want (I know Kevin and Nate only want one chapter at a time, but I'd be willing to bet Nicole and Sue, who are monster speed readers, will probably just want the whole thing). It'll be interesting to have people read it, since the only person who has continues to be a literary agent, which is so backwards as to be almost absurd. Anyway, happy Thursday tomorrow, and I'll be back Friday.

Day 13: One Month

It's been a month since my agent meeting on May 5th, when I received words of encouragement on 20 of the 35 pages I had written at the time. Since then, I've written 55 pages, and I'm now about a quarter of the way through page 90.

My second sex scene, which I wrote today, went much better; I'll need maybe to go back and reevaluate that first one. I think this one worked because it's pretty weird (a couple having sex in an empty house that they're thinking of buying). The first one was sort of more garden-variety.

The saga of my apartment complex continues. Out my window today, I watched a group of what I suspect were seventh graders, three boys and two girls, wandering around carrying aluminum baseball bats. One of the girls had a lacrosse stick instead, and the second girl had neither; she was walking a dog, a black cocker spaniel whose poor dark fur was absorbing all of the hot sun and who really needed to go inside for some water. The inevitable began, and the boys started hitting each other with the bats, to figure out, as far as I could tell from their yelling, who was "the shit." I don't think anyone was seriously hurt; they gave it up after a while. At least it's not boring around here.

Day 12: Huge Turtles, My New Chair, and 85 pages

Wrote just about five pages today; I credit my new office chair, which my husband put together for me yesterday, for the extra productivity. The chair is very comfortable and grounding; I wriggle around less than I did on that awful folding chair. A lot of what I wrote was dialogue between one of my main characters and a crazy new-age hospital chaplain (who I think I need to make a little bit crazier), which takes up more space in terms of lines. Some of it is decent, I think, though it will need fine tuning.

It rained here all day, sometimes very heavily. My husband left for work at eight this morning, and called me on his way to the train to tell me that he'd seen a really big turtle right outside of our building. I put on my kickass Target rainboots and went out to see the turtle, and it was indeed enormous. It looked just like this, except you have to imagine it wet. I suspect it was a female, on her way to lay a nest somewhere a bit away from the small pond at our apartment complex where I think she lives. I hope she made it ok.

Whenever it storms really hard, I look at Perogi, and I think about how glad I am that a sweet dog like her has a warm, dry place to live and lots of soft things to nap on. It's a feeling of being pleased that I can offer her a good life, the kind that she deserves. When I was little, my parents felt this way too, I think. They would always say things like "isn't it nice to have a warm home to live in when it's nasty outside," and I would never really understand what they meant; I loved to play in the rain and snow, and had no idea what it was like to not be able to be warm and safe. To use an awful cliche, I think you have to *be* out in the rain to know how nice it is to "come out of the rain." How will I teach my own children about this luxury that they have?

Day 11: 80 Pages and Babies

I got to 80 pages today.

I had to do a lot of research today, though I'm not sure how much of it I want to recollect here. I needed to research miscarriages, and, unfortunately, while in the process of looking for pictures of what a thirteen-week fetus looks like in utero, I encountered a number of pictures of aborted fetuses. These pictures were among the most horrible things I've seen, and I won't soon forget them. I'm pro-choice, and I always will be, but that doesn't mean I'm immune to the sight of a fetus out of the womb before its time.

Seeing the pictures and researching the emotional responses of women who have had miscarriages affected me more than I thought it would; I had to take a break after a while and research something totally unrelated (I job-hunted for my husband). I got my 3.75 pages done, but I have to wonder if what I'm putting this character through is just too much, if it isn't believable. I'm itching to have someone read what I've written so far (other than a literary agent who read 20 pages), but I'm also nervous. I've invested a quarter of my vacation in it so far, so it would be hard for me to hear that it's terrible. I wrote 41 pages in May.

The woman who is pregnant in the building across from me is having a boy in August who they're naming Cory. I stopped short of telling her that I now follow her routine of coming and going every day from my home-office window. I'd say have a good weekend, but I'm fairly certain no one is reading this, so I'll have a good weekend instead, and be back on Monday.

Day 10: 75 Pages and Stacy's Pita Chips

I got to 75 pages today (actually, to the middle of 76, and if you count imported but unplaced material, 78), which had been my goal by the end of May. My goal by the middle of June is to reach a hundred pages, and here I agree with my friend Dillon that having a hundred pages will be psychologically significant.

Got up at the crack this morning to take Perogi to the vet; she's fine, thank you, and finally, if a bit underweight. I was tired enough that I took a nap for about an hour and a half, which I worried would kill my productivity, but I recovered.

I can get my three pages done, but for that last .75, I need a salty snack, and I've discovered that the perfect one is Stacy's Pita Chips, the kind with just sea salt. They raise my blood pressure *just enough* to finish up. I even wrote four whole pages today as a result of their great salt and crunchiness.

Outside, the trees have leaves and I'm not chilly in a t-shirt. How can I make this last?

Day 9: 70 Pages and Domestic Disputes

After a nice long weekend in which I ate too many toasted marshmallows, I returned to writing today and wrote four full pages. I'm up to page 71 now, 73 if you count the pages I imported from an earlier draft but have not yet placed. I think the sex scene is somewhat improved, and I was pleased to move on to the more conflict-ridden moments (like when she discovers she's pregnant), which I'm much better at writing for some reason. Every guy I know likes the 90s girl band Garbage: I know how to be happy, but I guess I write better about rain.

The habits of my neighbors become more intelligible the longer I sit in one place every day; domestic scuffles, daycare arrangements, single parents in conflict with their exes...it all goes on in the raging emotional maw of Building Six, across from the calm-but-loud Building Four, where we live. The same people walk the same dogs at the same time. The same kids tote the same backpacks into their doors at 2:30. The pregnant woman looks more pregnant every day, though her sick dog appears to have died, since during a fire alarm in that building, she came out with only one. In the dog's last days, it refused to eat anything but Wendy's hamburgers, which she faithfully went out and bought every day. I'm a vegetarian and even I like that story.

Meanwhile, at some point in the last eleven years, a paper wasp (or several) started making a nest in the way-back of my car; I noticed it this weekend when we were unloading groceries. It's unfinished, but what a surprise it must have been for those wasps to come back to where they thought their nest was and discover it gone, or moved several feet, or gone one day and back the next. No sign of the actual insects, but how very strange.

Off to put on my goggles and wetsuit so I can give the dog a bath. It takes a while for a schnauzer to stink, but here it is.

Day 8: 65 Pages and the Lack of Snacks

We have *no* chocolate in the house, which means I just ate a granola bar and I now feel like I swallowed plaster chunks. My kingdom for a cupcake. I'm going to lobby for a trip to Dairy Queen tonight.

Hit page 65 today, though the last two days have been slow going. I still think my sex scene changes the subject too quickly, and today's work involved some ornithology research (the bird science, not the Charlie Parker album). I'm also worried that I may be delving into too much backstory in this one section (more than seven pages worth now); I need to hurry up and get back to the 'dramatic tension.'

Perogi's hard at work on the Nylabone that I need to take away from her because it's too chewed up. We went for a short walk today because it was 90 degrees; I was so worried about her panting that I actually gave up a precious air-conditioning-free hour and turned it on for her. Now it's on for my furnace of a husband, and I'm chilly.

Have a good Memorial Day; I'll be back Wednesday with more from the novelicious front. Hmm, that might be a good name for a band...

Day 7: More Editing, Less New Stuff, and Plenty of Rednecks

I spent a lot of time editing an important section today -- I'm trying to make a somewhat emotional conversation between two men not seem girly. I'm a girl, so that's been kind of a challenge so far.

I wrote about two pages of new stuff, but I also discovered that I am right Puritannical when it comes to writing about sex, and I have no idea why. There was way too much "pan over to the bedside lamp" in the scene I wrote today, and I know I'll go back tomorrow and be annoyed.

There was also a considerable scuffle in our parking lot today between a clearly early-Gen-X man with a mullet and a black '68 convertible and a dude in khakis and a white button-down. The argument seemed to be about who could yell "I don't give a shit" louder. I could almost hear the dueling banjos...

Day Six: Sixty Pages, Sunny, Heartburn

Hit sixty pages today, which is close to 18K words. It was beautiful outside, and I took Perogi for a nice long walk, avoiding the area of our small world where I saw a giant tick jump onto her leg yesterday (and had to wrestle her to the ground to get it off; she doesn't like to be picked at). She's been very good today, letting me work, which I did, from about 11am until just now, 5pm.

After spending the last couple of days writing what is mostly connective tissue, I started a really important section today, and that involved some notetaking, thinking, snacking, and staring into space. It also involved research, mostly on miscarriages (which is creepy and a little strange since one of my friends appears to have had one this week) and on what sheep eat. I also needed to know what sorts of names were popularly given to baby boys in New Hampshire around 1979 or so (the Social Security Administration has a cool website for info like this). But, despite all of the outside work, I got my 3.75 pages done, and am now about a quarter of the way through page 61.

Tonight, my husband is going to set up my new office chair and show me how to use my new jumpdrive. In exchange, I will leave now to go make some dinner!

Days 4 and 5: Baguettes, Lilacs, and 50 Pages

On Monday (Day 4), I put the Pup in the car and headed to my mom's house for lunch. We went to the wonderful french bakery for sandwiches. It's good that I don't live in my hometown anymore, because I would definitely be a baguette-a-day consumer. Also, while we're discussing hedonism, if I could tie a lilac bush to my face and just snort them all day long, I would. I came home, ate more French pastry, and wrote 3.75 pages as usual, which has become a comfortable amount.

Today, Tuesday (Day 5), I got up early and wrote from 10 until about 3:30 (with some breaks in between for lunch, schnauzer walks, and other interruptions, especially peeing; I seem to drink a lot of my classic juice/water combo when I write). I was happy to reach the 50 page mark, and even happier to import several pages from an earlier draft and call it a day at 57 pages. I went out after to get some film developed, and to be the very last person on earth to finally buy a jump drive; my computer already takes 25 minutes to start up, so it's just a matter of time before it quits completely, and I'd rather not lose those 57 pages of which I just spoke. The drive is lime green, which pleases me.

Day 3: Finished Early So I Could Scrapbook

Yes, I do have this really uncharacteristically girly hobby. I wrote about 3.75 pages (still in the hospital! I need to get them out of the hospital...) and then headed to the small town where I grew up to scrapbook with my friend Sue. I brought Perogi, our schnauzer, to play with Sue's four dogs.
We scrapbooked until 5:30, and then went over to the dairy farm where Sue works to visit Seven, a cow who was about to calf (really, any minute; she looked like she would burst). I also patted newborn calves and let them lick my hands (consider my nearly twelve years of vegetarianism reinforced). We picked lilacs and then I grabbed my pup and went home. Productive, creative day.

Day 2: Dr. Novel and Mrs. Reality TV

Walked the dog early because of rainstorms on the way. Thought hard about what kind of a person I'd be if I broke off a branch from one of the lovely flowering trees around our apartment complex, went to a local gardening store and bought rooting hormone, and planted the anointed branch in a big pot to see what happens. Wrote seven pages, a number greatly inflated by cutting-and-pasting from an earlier draft, all of which is a scene in the hospital. I now have about 38 pages, or almost 12K words. I also, cannily enough, worked on a poem. Which makes sense in some ways, since I have a graduate degree in writing poetry.

Broke at six to make fake meatball sandwiches, and to think hard about finding a easy-threading sewing machine, because I think I'd like to make another t-shirt quilt, though I'm not sure how I'll do it without my Sewing Guru, Liz. Also ordered a small scrapbook from creativememories.com to hold pictures of my husband and I on our various adventures.

Wore a sunny yellow t-shirt today, of the sort which is tight enough and long enough, and that you can only get from old navy's website. I won't lie: I also watched America's Next Top Model (go Jaslene), and American Idol (go Blake). I'm not a junkie: we don't even have cable, but lawd if we did, there probably wouldn't even be a novel...just episodes of Designed to Sell and reruns of the movie Phenomenon over and over again...

One Last Reckless Experiment

I'm Sam. I live in a small town in southeastern Massachusetts, and I'm turning 30 in September. I've taken the next four months off to write a novel before thirty-something, productive-age inertia gobbles me up -- it's like a sandstorm, and I can see it coming.

My wonderful husband and small schnauzer support me in this endeavor even though it means turning down extra money that might help get us out of our, in total, ninth apartment in seven years. In case nothing comes of it, or, hell, even if something does, I'll keep a record here.

Day 1: Went to the dentist. Used H&M giftcard at the mall. Walked the dog. Ate too much. Wrote one page where we meet the main character's mother. Watched House, M.D. Rearranged dishes in the sink to a more pleasing configuration. Started a blog.

It's going to be a short summer...