NaNo Nano. . . oh, wait. . .

No, not Mork and Mindy.  This is something else.  Another day when I don't have a book review ready to go so I'm faking it.  No, no--this is more than that (though I also don't have a book review for you)!  After thinking about it and sneering at it and duly noting that the schedule won't really work for me, I'm going to join friends like Gus Sanchez (language occasionally unsuited to children) in NaNoing my own way (That means participating, sort of, in National Novel Writing Month, a.k.a. NaNoWriMo).  Here's the plan:

1.  Just finish the danged edits.  You have time, just need e a little longer attention span!
2.  Get the last major bits of the outline in place for the Orcaville PTA #2 (I really need a title.  Death By Trombone, perhaps, especially since #1 is looking like  Death By Ice Cream.  Sets up a nice pattern in titles).
2A.  Write the one-page synopsis.  That and what outline I've got should be a pretty good roadmap.
3.  Start writing, at least by Nov. 6 (post-election.  The election-night results party at my house should be a great warm-up for writing about corpses. . . ).
4.  Have a wheee of a time and write every day.  My big goal is to do it even during Thanksgiving break, meaning I take time to sneak away by myself and write--a great way to improve my sanity, as there will be (counts on fingers) 8 of us in my in-laws rather modest house.  Nine for lots of meals.
5.  Since my actual goal is more like 80,000 words, I won't be stopping with the end of November.
6.  I will ignore the rules (there are way too many) and pick and choose what will be helpful to me.
7.  I will try to continue to publish flash fiction and reviews on here, though some weeks I may cheat and share bits from my WIP (more likely the one that's nearly done; I really prefer not to share my rough drafts with anyone).  

NaNo is first and foremost meant to encourage people who have long thought or talked about writing a novel to actually do it.  I'm not putting myself in that category.  But hey--writing is a lonely process (which is just fine most of the time), and joining a community might make it easier.  Who knows?  In a way, it's already working--I've been working much harder at finishing the current revise of Death By Ice Cream in order to clear my plate to start the fun of generating all-new prose.

So any of you out there who are going to be NaNers, buddy up with me--you'll find me at Rebecca Douglass (yeah, not so original!  But I'm working hard to get some name recognition, so seems like hiding behind funny usernames is counter-productive!).

And here's my inspiration for keeping on going:

Monday Meanderings

Monday rolls around again, and I've no book review to share.  I did finally finish one--the October Terry Pratchett from my Humor Club read. But I've reviewed so many of his books, and I'm not sure I'm up for another--though The Hogfather seems to have called out some disgruntlement among other devoted fans.  The fact that I didn't have any problem with it suggests to me that I either wasn't paying enough attention or I'm easily satisfied.  Though I'm not sure I could make a coherent narration of the plot, that doesn't mean much with Pratchett.  So I'll digest that one a bit more before I decide if I want to attempt something of a review.

Meanwhile, what have I been spending my time on?  Editing, when I'm not campaigning (that's a different story and one I'll be happy to put behind me in 9 days).  And contemplating how to make the schedule work to join in the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) madness.  I had hoped to have the first Orcaville PTA mystery tucked away and the second fully outlined by the start of the month.  It is gradually dawning on me that it's simply not going to happen.  I'm thinking that I might start NaNo a week late, and let it run until I finish the draft, which is really the point anyway. 

Though all that might conflict with my plan to sleep for a week when the election is over.  Preferably on a beach in Tahiti.  Probably not happening anyway. 

See you Wednesday--I hope to have something worth sharing by then. 

Sometimes the work is watching you too closely.

And sometimes you have to look twice to find it at all.