Welcome to the first post-NaNo tipsday of 2020! Because I don’t watch YouTube during November, I have a lot of videos to catch up on. Expect a fair number of videos in the next two or three weeks 🙂
Black and Indigenous lives matter.
Wear your masks, maintain physical distance, wash your hands, and get your flu shot as soon as they’re available. I say this last because our local pharmacies ran out of flu vaccine almost as soon as they were stocked. We’re hoping to make our appointments, soonish, now that we’ve heard they have more in.
December. The final month of the year (and, oh, what a year it’s been). The onset of winter. The month in which thoughts turn to hibernation and planning for the future.
But before we get there, let’s look back at November 🙂
Black and Indigenous lives matter. All lives cannot matter until Black and Indigenous lives matter.
I’m so grateful that Trump did not get re-elected.
Now is the time to heal and to focus on defeating covid.
Pandemic life
Even in Canada, we’re seeing huge numbers of daily infections in three of our ten provinces. The good news is that vaccines are in the process of being approved by various national health organizations and that the initial roll-out of vaccines to long-term care facilities and front-line/essential workers should begin soonish. Exact timeframes are dependent upon approval, as they should.
In Sudbury, we have only five active cases right now. This is not to say that we should ease restrictions. We’ve only done as well as we have because, for the most part, we’ve adhered to public health guidelines. Let’s keep it up!
I’m still happily working from home, though in a new position. I can honestly say that Instructional Designer has been my goal for over ten years now. I’m only one week into the position, but so far, so fabulous 🙂
Wear your masks, maintain physical distance, wash your hands, and get your flu shots as soon as you can.
Mom is doing well. Yesterday, we started letting Torvi visit again. Mom’s missed T and T’s missed Gammie. Phil also made pancakes with blueberry sauce. Things are slowly getting back to normal, though we have made the decision not to get together with the rest of the family for Christmas. It’ll just be the three of us, well four with the dog.
The month in writing
I’ll redirect you to my weekly posts for the specifics: NaNoWriMo 2020 week 1, week 2, week 3, and week 4.
As a summary/reminder, I participated in NaNoWriMo as a NaNo rebel this year, revising the latest draft of Reality Bomb. I hit 50k words revised on Nov 20th and my personal goal of 60K words revised three days later. Though I finished the month off with 79,819 words revised (133% of goal), I didn’t quite finish the draft. Three more days and I crossed the ultimate finish line.
I promised to let you know the overall word count reduction. The draft started out as a sprawling 120,090-word … sprawl. My goal was to cut 30k words off the draft for a lean 90-ish k. That didn’t happen. I only cut 14,225 words, but I have since reviewed where all the plot points fell and have identified where the bulk of the remaining cutting needs to focus. Between the mid-point and the third plot point. We’ll see if I can’t cut the remaining 15,775 this month. Ambitious? Yes. Possible? Again, yes. I’ll settle for 100k, though. No pressure 😉
I only managed 2,932 words of my 5,000-word blogging goal, or 59%, but considering how well I did with RB, I’m good with that.
Filling the well
Despite hitting peak zoom capacity in October at SiWC online, I had already signed up for a number of events and courses in November. It was a rather full month. Again.
On Thursday nights, except for the 26th, I had the ongoing series of lectures from Free Expressions including one by Christopher Vogler on archetypes. I had also registered for a Writing the Other workshop on diverse narrative structures with Henry Lien, which I enjoyed quite a bit. That was for four weeks starting on Nov 4th.
Wordstock Sudbury 2020 followed the trend of conferences moving online and was from the 5th to the 7th. I attended four sessions, including one by Robert J. Sawyer.
While I did attend an online event for Candas Jane Dorsey and her new book, The Adventures of Isabel, and attended another workshop sponsored by Jane Friedman by Tiffany Yates Martin, I registered for but failed to attend three other events. I just did not have the spoons. Plus, I had the Canadian Authors Association AGM to attend which was a conflict.
Other than walking the dog (and taking pictures), visiting Mom in the hospital, and then taking care of her once she was home, there have been no family get togethers, and I only left the house for appointments.
breathless anticipation
What I’ve been watching and reading
In the viewing category, I only have three entries this month.
Phil and I watched the second season of The End of the Fucking World. It wasn’t quite as wackadoo as the first. James, the nascent psychopath, was shot at the end of the first season and is initially paralyzed. He has a long road to recovery and, in the middle of it, Alyssa’s mother shows up and asks James to write Alyssa a dear Jane letter.
Alyssa decides she has nothing better to do except marry a nice chap to get away from her crazy family. Enter Bonnie, who was obsessed with Clive (the actual serial killer that James kills to save Alyssa in season one) to the point that she committed vehicular homicide for him. Upon her release from prison, Bonnie decides to hunt down and kill James and Alyssa for killing her beloved Clive. Hijinx ensue.
We also watch the first season of Truth Seekers. Nick Frost is mild-mannered broadband installer Gus by day, and paranormal investigator by night. Simon Pegg is his slightly weird boss. Malcolm McDowell is his dad (again, slightly weird). It was fun. I recommend.
And then, I watch Trickster, the CBC series based on Eden Robinson’s novel Son of a Trickster. Awesome. There were several deviations from the novel, but adaptation often works like that. All Indigenous cast and crew. They did an amazing job. Because I want you to both read the book and watch the series, I’ll say no more. You can find it on CBC’s streaming service, Gem.
I read four books in November.
The first is S.A. Chakraborty’s The Empire of Gold. A fitting end to the trilogy. Everyone gets their fitting ending, though often, not in they way they envisioned. Loved.
Then I read Your Brain is a Time Machine by Dean Buonomano. It’s about psychology and neuroscience and how our brains perceive time. It does touch on physics, but only peripherally. I think it was a recommendation from Lisa Cron. Interesting, informative, and good research.
Next up was Gail Carriger’s The Heroine’s Journey. Loved. I think Carriger’s take is my favourite so far. It’s helped me understand that what I gravitate toward is a heroine’s journey, which does not entail big heroics and final battles. I think it’s going to help me embrace the stories I want to tell, although I’m not telling them in genres strong in the feminine vibe. It may be problematic, but we’ll see what I make out of it.
Finally, I read Roshani Chokshi’s The Silvered Serpents, the follow up to The Gilded Wolves. It’s another heist novel, but the entire team is dealing with the fallout from Tristan’s death. Though I really enjoyed it, the novel was clearly part of a series and there were a lot of loose ends that weren’t tied up. I don’t mind this, but I do want a sense of some resolution. Some mysteries were answered, but a whole new batch of questions arose, and I was left a little dissatisfied. Still a Chokshi fan, though.
And that was the month in this writer’s life.
Until tisday, be well and stay safe, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories.
Holy cow! The last week of November was another week of weeks 🙂 It took me a couple of days to recover. Hope you don’t mind.
I reported last week that I’d revised my 50k to “win” on Nov 20th. On the 23rd, I met my personal goal of revising 60k. As of the 30th, I’d revised 79,819 words, though I was not quite at the end of the draft.
I’m still not at the absolute end of it, but I’m withing a couple of pages. At this point, I’ve only cut a little over 14k. I’ll give you the definitive number in this weekend’s next chapter update.
My crazy NaNo graphs.
Mom’s doing better every day and transitioning from soft foods to a normal diet. She’s gotten her proper walker and the loaner should be returned. A friend gave her a lovely bouquet of roses and she’s been chatting on the phone and taking the occasional, physically distanced visitor.
On Thursday last week, I received THE LETTER OF OFFER for a new position at my employer. It’s what I’ve been working toward for the last ten years or so. Two days in, and I’m feeling welcomed and optimistic and all kinds of good. It’s an acting position, but everyone’s hoping that everything works out.
On that note, I shall leave you with a squeeeeeee!
Curation will resume next week.
In the meantime, be well and stay safe, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories.
Just a quick update this week, though it has been a momentous week.
Mom was released Monday evening. Though we were a bit surprised, we figured the hospital didn’t want her staying longer than necessary, because covid. Phil and I have been taking care of her (mostly Phil as I’m still working during the week) and Mom has graduated to soft foods. All is going well.
As of November 20th, right on schedule (according to the NaNo site), I “won” NaNoWriMo. That is, I edited just over 50k words. I’ve now cut 12,627 words from the draft. I have eight chapters left and don’t think I’ll meet the goal of cutting 30k this time around. Maybe I’ll make 20k, but not 30k.
I’ve revised 58,244 words in November. I had revised 24,714 words at the end of October. I’ll keep going until I’m finished with the draft.
Fortunately, I have until Dec 25 (yeah, yeah—I’ll be giving my critique group a Christmas gift) to give the draft another sweep and cut those extra words. I think I’ve got the story structure in good shape, though. I’ll have to parse the draft at the end of the month to say for sure (are the plot points coming at the right percentages of the draft?).
So that’s my progress this week.
Until next week, be well and stay safe, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
Last Monday afternoon, my mom got sick. On Wednesday, she asked Phil to take her into emergency. Neither of us could accompany her because covid. That evening, we finally heard from the hospital. Mom was in recovery. Unfortunately, she wasn’t settled in a room until after visiting hours were over.
I didn’t find out the details about her surgery until the following day when I was screened in as her “health partner” or designated caregiver. Thank goodness my employer offers family-related leave.
Mom was discharged yesterday evening. It felt like it was a little early, but they didn’t want to keep her longer than necessary, again, because covid. Phil went to pick her up and we got her home and settled, changed her bed and got her into it, and then Phil ran around to get her prescriptions filled and the clear fluids she’ll be on for the next week or so.
Understandably, I didn’t have time to put this update together until today.
I continued to edit Reality Bomb though there were a couple low-count days (right around when Mom was admitted to the hospital, wouldn’t you know), but I kept at it, as was able.
As of yesterday, I have revised 36,746 words and I’ve taken the original draft of 120,071 words down to 110,753. So far, I’ve cut 9,318 words off the draft. NaNoWriMo predicts that I will reach my goal of 50,000 words edited by November 22. I’m at chapter 24 of 38.
I’m thinking that I might manage another four or five thousand words cut by the time I reach the last chapter. I’ll take another run at it in the time I have remaining in the month and see what additional damage I can do.
And that was my eventful week!
Until next week, be well and stay safe, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
Here we are, my writerly friends. It’s November 8th, week one of NaNoWriMo is over, and Joe Biden is the president-elect. Kamala Harris is the first woman of colour to be elected vice president. The world breathes a sigh of relief … and then one of exasperation as the big, orange baby continues to insist that he “won by a lot.” In the words of the late, great Stan Lee, ‘nuff said.
Week one was a good one for me. I’ve cut almost 4,000 words off my draft, rewritten significant portions of text, but it still feels like I’m cheating when I put the word count of the chapter I’ve just revised into my spreadsheet and into the NaNo site.
I’ve declared myself a rebel. I’m not drafting this year. I’m editing. The point is to get some work done. And work is getting done. I’ve edited 19, 851 words this week. By NaNo stats reckoning, I’ll be done by November 20th. I’ll probably loop around again, though, just to make sure I’ve got the draft as “right” as I can make it at this point.
And then it’s off to the critique group for review and I move on to another project. 2020 has been so messed up, I’m not sure what that will be at this point. I had wanted to go back and rewrite/revise Marushka this year, but the Ascension series is always sitting at the back of my mind. And MageBlood. And Gerod and the Lions. And the half a dozen other ideas that have sprouted up over the years. Projects aren’t the problem. It’s the choosing that’s hard.
I just have to figure out where my energy is best used and go there.
I hope you’re all experiencing success, however you’ve chosen to define it. Every word’s a victory.
Until next week, be well and stay safe, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories.
Always Looking Up 