Oil change, morning TV, and late-October musings…

Late October—very late! Halloween rolling in tomorrow. Weather changing. Patio and deck furniture hauled to the garage. Solar lights pulled from their places of importance around the yard and brought in for cleaning, battery removal, and storage.

One of the last mowings, trimming, and edging for the year before mower gets traded for snow thrower that’s been hiding out in son’s shed down the road a ways.

Car in for oil change this morning. Large TV blaring in waiting room in Service area. Screaming fans in the street and gushing hosts and hostesses on program annoying and headache inducing! I hate TV in the morning, especially GMA, but I can’t very well get up and turn it off. It’s not mine, after all! So I sit and wait. Try to read my Jeff Shaara book about the siege of Vicksburg, but Taylor Swift is rattling my concentration with her birdlike warbling.

Commercial break. Two to three minutes of political spots that paint opponents as the most evil and vile persons walking this planet! These do nothing but add to my distaste for having the damned TV turned on in the first place!

A lady beside me is bending the ear of an older gentleman two seats away—something about the tree that fell next to her house and the giant sinkhole that scared the bejabbers out of her neighborhood. He shakes his head as if to say that he is spellbound at all that she is telling him.

Some employee from the front comes in, apparently on some mission of importance, and re-stocks the styrofoam cups for the coffee machine, that is now woefully near empty!

Fortunately, oil change and tire rotation is done within forty-five minutes, so I’m free to escape and regain my equilibrium in the peace and quiet of my Equinox. Best part: maintenance service still under warranty and no charge, and everything checks out A-OK. Still like new!

On the way home, I pass many farms and fields. Harvest in full swing, and farmers working hard to beat the impending rain and big weather change that’s heading our way here in northern Illinois by tomorrow.

Nearby orchards and farm stands have closed for the season. Out of apples, pumpkins, and other autumn delights. Signs proclaim that another season has come and gone and “Thanks for your patronage…see you next spring!” Owners preparing to head south for the winter, I would think. Basking in the sun while we’ll be basking in the driving snow as it flies at us from our snow throwers on a regular basis.

The busy “writing season” is creeping in now. Important to take care of outside chores so when the frigid winds howl and the snow begins to fly and the furnace reports for duty once more, work on next novel and short stories can move along without so many interruptions. No NaNoWriMo for me this November. Have enough work to do on current WIPs. Maybe again next year.

Now, time to move along to next items on “To Do” list. Happy late-October, all…CortlandWriter 🙂

‘Tis the season for “ideal” writing conditions…

English: A cold day in December! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s cold, and it’s good to be inside! Sage words, I know, but winter has definitely crept in and it’s the perfect time to get that revising/editing completed on the novel before too many more days fly off the calendar.

NaNoWriMo has come and gone, and I’ve read a lot of summaries and testimonials by fellow writers this past week regarding the levels of success attained during that most hectic November. And, for the most part, no one seems to feel as though they failed, even though they may not have reached the 50,000 word target. Most felt that the process of building a draft, albeit short of the “winning” word count, was what really mattered.

I stopped at just over 52,000 words, yet the novel is not complete. As those other writers did, I found the experience of getting a novel that far along to be worth every minute and hour I invested during November. Like them, I now have a solid first draft that needs a conclusion. But that’s for later this winter and spring. Again, that is the true beauty that is NaNoWriMo.

Right now, though, it’s time to get serious once again and put this year’s NaNo creation away–let it sleep and mellow–and knock the cobwebs off The Bet, my next novel to be published. This novel is the one I knocked out in NaNoWriMo 2012 and worked on finishing up over the summer and early fall. Now, I’m in the revising/editing/polishing phase and eager to be finished with it and have it ready for publication before the end of the year. And, as I’ve written about previously, I really have no other excuses now since November with all of its “interruptions” has fled the scene.

December, with the advent of cold and inclement weather, is certainly one of my favorite times to get work done. My ideal time to write/revise/edit/polish is when it’s mean outside and quiet and comfy inside, with calm and pleasant beautiful music in my ear buds. Even though the sun is shining brightly on this Saturday morning, the temperature is not going to climb out of the ‘teens, so it’s one of those “ideal” times to be inspired to work on the novel that patiently awaits in my Scrivener projects folder.

Scrivener (software) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the many positives that came from the month-long grind of NaNoWriMo is that there was no time to think about The Bet. It was forced into that “sleeping and mellowing” stage, away from my eyes, where I might have been tempted to jump back in to tinker with the plot, characters, or setting and distract me from work on this year’s NaNoWriMo novel.

But now that NaNoWriMo is finished, I have re-awakened the story after a month’s hiatus, and much of what I was growing weary with has taken on a fresh, new look, and I have already seen ways to make the whole novel better. Thus, I’m finding the rewriting/revising to actually be kind of fun for a change!

Now, all we need are some gray skies, some swirling snow, and a wonderful sense of shelter inside where it’s warm and comfy. That would be truly ideal writing weather! Without a doubt, I don’t think I’ll have to wait too long for that weather to arrive if current forecasts are correct. Can’t wait!

Anyone else feel the same way? Happy revising, all…CortlandWriter

As word counts rise, the story emerges!

My “window to the world” and the trusty MacBook, fired-up and rarin’ to go for another writing session…

52,660 and counting…

After posting this, I’ll be heading directly back to my Novel-in-Progress, Sandbar’s Secret, to pound out another 1200-or so words, as the days which remain for NaNoWriMo 2013 go fleetingly.

It has been an interesting November so far, and I’m eagerly anticipating the months ahead when I can actually return to the story and fix the many “holes” in the plot, develop strong conflicts, and sort out the roles for each of the characters.

As of this writing, it’s been a pretty simple matter to pile up enough words to surpass the 50,000 NaNoWriMo target. But the story is far from finished!

In many of the posts and pep “talks” I’ve enjoyed reading these past few weeks, there has been a common theme that, as we write, we should turn off our “inner editor” and not concern ourselves with re-writes and revisions—just write! Harvest those words and get them stored away!

And then there is usually something that happens after this harvesting: We discover  better ways to develop our plot, our characters, and our conflicts. This has been the case for me this time around as I began with an idea for the major plot of the story to be one thing, and one of the main characters as the shady one, perceived to be a villain.

As the words have hit the MacBook’s screen, though, the “big” plot idea has changed greatly, and that vile, pushy bad guy has turned out to be pretty cool and on the main character’s side in trying to solve the “big” mystery that is the whole point of the story.

The point here? My idea for this story has been lurking around for many years, and I’ve always known the event around which the story is centered would be a certain way, at a certain place in time. It has taken only a couple of weeks, however, for much of that to change—mainly because of the concentrated writing during NaNoWriMo.

Having already reached my goal of over 50,000 words, I feel as though I’m only getting started in the business of getting this novel off the ground. As the word count continues to grow, so will everything else about Sandbar’s Secret….CortlandWriter

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Inspiration from the dental chair…

#nanowrimo fuel (Photo credit: Tojosan)

I’ve read quite a lot lately about writers’ writing routines, methods of getting ideas worked into some kind of novel for NaNoWriMo, and the various places or moments where those ideas “pop up.” Like every other writer, I’m not unique in coming up with ideas for plots, characters, conflicts, resolutions, and the “happily-ever-after” ending in  the most unexpected times and places.

But perhaps this morning’s experience just may be the ultimate example of where ideas for my current novel-in-progress for NaNoWriMo flashed into my mind.

I spent well over an hour-and-a-half reclined in a surgical chair having the second part of a root canal completed. Novocaine is good, and maybe it has some magical power other than to numb the nerves, because all during the procedure I actually did some brainstorming about what the next moves for my protagonist would be. I also pretty much decided several other actions to put into play as things wind toward the big finish.

Everything I thought about—as I lay there with mouth “blocked” open and some kind of latex cover over most of my mouth, the endodontist scraping and filling and speaking in technical lingo of which I had no knowledge—seemed logical and much different from the original stuff I’d planned to use.

Staring up into the bright light above me, while the doctor and assistant worked me over (gently!), I told myself that for the new ideas to work, major rewriting would be in order. But that’s the beauty of NaNoWriMo: Get the draft of at least 50,000 words completed by month’s end, and then the shaping, molding, fixing-up can begin after that. Kind of like what a root canal is supposed to do the affected tooth, I guess!

Happy writing, all. May your ideas arrive in any forms they may, even if it’s while you’re in a dental chair!…CortlandWriter

English: A diagram demonstrating endodontic therapy (colloquially known as a root canal) on unhealthy or injured tooth: first drilling and cleaning, then filing with an endofile, and finally adding the rubber filling and crown. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NaNoWriMo…Rolling Through Week #1

For the past week, I have been firmly ensconced in this year’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and in my last post I wrote about all of the trials and tribulations that the month of November offers, causing me to claw and scrape to reach my target of 50,000 words by month’s end.

I am happy to report that as of now, I have nearly 21,000 words in the hopper, and I’m having fun firing up the MacBook very early each morning and wondering exactly in which direction my story is going to go.

I love the freedom that NaNoWriMo provides in not having to be concerned with editing and revising. Since I’m a stickler for correcting and editing and revising whenever I see a need in my writing, ignoring the inclination to do so is probably the toughest aspect of the month’s writing challenge for me. But this year, I’m finding it much easier to do so.

I think, too, that this year’s effort is enhanced by that wonderful program known as Scrivener. Not only does it allow me to write in large chunks, and then break them up into smaller chunks as needed, but it is ideal for keeping track of the Word Count for each writing session and the overall count for the entire project. I love writing in Composition Mode, without any other distractions, and having the Project Target indicator showing at the lower left-hand corner of the screen. As I crank out those words, the progress bar grows slowly and steadily, and the word totals click off, higher and higher. It was never this easy or relaxing using Word.

So, unless I hit that proverbial “wall” and simply fail to pound out the rest of the story by the deadline, I am pretty sure that I’m on course to exceed the 50,000 words by the end of the month, even though I will be cramped for regular writing time the last couple of weeks. That’s why I’m making a concerted effort in these first weeks of November to harvest as many words as I can. And, of course, it helps when I have a pretty good idea where I want my story to end up–even though just how it will do so is every day’s adventure!…CortlandWriter

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Never the Easy Way!

October’s splendid colors on display at the cottage “up there” in Michigan…Helping to inspire the creative juices for NaNoWriMo in November

I never like to do things the easy way, it seems. My second “go” at NaNoWriMo is set to begin in less than two days, and I have managed to clutter my life with all sorts of things that need tending to—very soon!

Of course, I’m speaking about attempting to finish the revision of last year’s NaNoWriMo effort, The Bet, so that I won’t have that hanging over my head—forever on my mind—as the daily writing effort gears up all through a month that couldn’t be any worse for attempting such a challenge.

After all, I have had several months to be farther ahead with the revision/editing stuff, and having the thing ready to send off to Amazon for all of my eager readers to pounce upon and gobble up ravenously! Well…

Nevertheless, I’m close to having it to that stage and can putter and tinker and polish it some more at odd moments between now and the end of November, thus freeing my mind to focus on getting the next one going and developed through a month crammed with an annual weekend hunting trip to southern Illinois, our annual Thanksgiving family gathering here the week after, a dentist appointment, two book clubs and dinner, picking up the grandsons from school three days a week,  the older grandson’s basketball games every Saturday during the month, and the wife’s medical “procedure.”

Somewhere amidst all of these November items—plus the normal daily/weekly chores I tend to around here—I might be able to find time to crank out the minimum 50,000 words called for! Writing this now, I’m foreseeing many a late-night/early morning routine for the thirty days of November. Normally, I do my regular writing between 7 and 9 a.m. I have a feeling, though, that I’m in for many two-a-days in the month ahead.

The look of Scrivener–doing double duty in the month ahead!

I know that last year was equally as hectic and scheduled right to the brim, yet it didn’t seem so daunting. And then again, I wasn’t trying to finish a novel right up until the start of the new one. I guess I will get things worked out as things get going, and I hit my daily word count targets, but thinking about it all now seems a bit concerning.

But perhaps I will work best under cramped conditions and a calendar that is bursting at the seams. Yes, the more I think about it, the more I believe that it’s the perfect scenario for me to accomplish everything and succeed in this year’s NaNoWriMo. After all, I never do things the easy way…CortlandWriter

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Shifting my focus

The Victorinox Cybertool. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s that time once again—it happens every year—when my focus shifts from daily routines of tasks around the house and writing regularly each morning to getting ready for another summer at the cottage up in Michigan. And now that we’ve had an uninterrupted string of beautiful warm spring weather, I’m finding it very difficult to stay focused on my writing duties, as much as I need and want to. I have no doubt that I will be able to pick back up once things are settled at the cottage, the pier is in place, the pontoon securely moored, and that first  gray and rainy day comes along.

The winter just passed (finally!) was very productive in the writing skills development department, I must say. For example, February and March were devoted to learning Scrivener, that powerful Swiss Army Knife of writing tools created by the good folks at Literature & Latte! And it all came about rather unexpectedly.

 I had completed a 50,000+ novel in Word during November’s NaNoWriMo event, something I jumped into for the fun of it and to actually be “forced” to have some kind of rough draft of a novel on hand at the end of the month. That was a challenge, though, as the month unwound, with all of the many November “interruptions” (Thanksgiving, guests, travel, etc.). Through it all, though, I exceeded the required word count of 50,000 and was more than pleased with what I’d created. For better or worse, I had something to work with in the months ahead.

It was during the conclusion and word count verification process in NaNoWriMo when I first heard of Scrivener. I learned that, because I was a NaNoWriMo “winner,” I could get the program for half price, about $22, following a 30-day Free Trial period. Being an old guy who has always loved learning how to use technology (I even taught those various things for many years), and since it’s been a while since I’ve really gone beyond the “basics” of Word, I jumped at the opportunity to give Scrivener a try.

It wasn’t long before I had the Free Trial up and running, and I figured the Tutorial that comes with the program would clarify everything I needed to know about using Scrivener. And, I must say, it’s a very good Tutorial, but I wanted more, and that’s where Gwen Hernandez rode in on her white steed and really opened the floodgates to understanding the program.

It wasn’t hard to come upon ads for a book Gwen had written, titled Scrivener for Dummies. Having loved all previous “Dummies” books, I once again jumped—leaped, actually—at the chance to purchase the book that I knew would be a wonderful guide through Scrivener and all its various parts. After all, my just-completed NaNoWriMo novel was resting and waiting for me to take it to the next steps, and my plan was to do so in Scrivener. So there it was, my winter project, something I could look forward to and feel that my growth as a writer would be something to make it all worthwhile.

Right about this time, I also discovered that Gwen offered online classes in Scrivener for Mac, the next one to begin in late February. Perfect! I not only leaped but did a double-back flip at the opportunity to enroll and be part of a “live” class. I don’t have time or space at this writing to list all of the wonderful positives that came from my six weeks spent in working through Gwen’s class. I’m sure there’s a post or two down the road where I will really be able to devote the time and space to extolling the positives that came from the class, her book, and an immersion in Scrivener.

So by the time April rolled around, work continued (it still does) on my novel The Bet. Meanwhile, I jaunted off into the world of publishing to Amazon. A couple of short stories (“Pinewood Farm” and “Hobo Willie”) which have been stowing away with me for a long time, were thrown into Scrivener and made ready for formatting as .mobi eBooks for Kindle. It’s a process that is pretty straightforward and simple—thanks to Scrivener! Long story short, in less than an hour, I had them on Amazon, ready for public consumption. I’ve actually sold a number of copies of those two short stories, something I smile at—appreciatively,

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

that is!

So now, back to my need to step back for a short time. Those cold and gray winter mornings allowed me time and space to get lots accomplished—writing and learning—but now it will be time spent packing, doing outdoor stuff here as needed, and checking into the cottage Memorial Day Weekend. But that’s not cause for concern, since my first book—Black Wolf Lodge—was written over the course of several summers on the wonderful screened front porch of that cottage, an ancient lady who turns 100 this summer. And the beauty of it is, Scrivener will be right there along with me as we watch the lake go by and the summer days grab my focus….CortlandWriter

Getting past the tutorials…

Bookshelf2 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

During the past several weeks, since the turn of the new year, I have been exploring and attempting to learn a very comprehensive writing software program named Scrivener. I downloaded the Trial Version after I had qualified as a “winner” in the month-long NaNoWriMo writing effort—a minimum 50,000 word novel by the end of November.

One of the perks for doing this was a 50% discount on the purchase price of Scrivener, a program I’d never heard of previously. Not bad! I could get the thing for just $22 and learn to use it effectively.

 

So far, I have been pretty pleased with my progress as I work through its various features, many of which I’ll probably use very rarely—if ever. But I’m hoping to gain a vast and wide understanding of all that comprises the program. Call me a drudge, but I am tackling this as a quest, perhaps to eventually know it so well that I could teach others how it works and how they can put it to use.

 

I have even enrolled in a Scrivener online class that begins on February 19^th and have purchased the popular Scrivener for Dummies by Gwen Hernandez, who, as it happens, will be the instructor for the class! She and I have exchanged comments and e-mails regarding Scrivener, and I can see already that she will be a very helpful and congenial teacher and sounding board for the many questions and issues I’m sure to have during the six-week run of the course. My goal is to finally get past the tutorials and other explanatory examples and be able to put Scrivener successfully to work for my writing projects.

 

At this writing, my un-edited, un-revised NaNoWriMo novel sits cooling its heels in Word (in which it was created), and I’m becoming very eager to import it into Scrivener so that I can do the real work on it in chunks and sections and then compile it all for the next step to publication. As I’m learning—and will learn more in the weeks ahead—Scrivener is an excellent tool for accomplishing this!

 

The company, Literature & Latte, has a winner on its hands with Scrivener! I can say this despite having only a limited bit of experience and understanding of it. But what little I have at this point, I feel awfully good about its potential and what it has to offer me. In fact, I’m writing this in Scrivener and seeming to grow with each piece of text I create.

 

I’m wondering what anyone else thinks about writing programs they use. Please share here. In the meantime, I’m discovering that it’s truly great getting past the tutorials!.…CortlandWriter

 

Birthdays and Holiday Chaos…

 (Photo credit: Live And Basic)

 

It’s a gray day, but not quite that kind of gray day, when there’s no chance for the sun to break through at any minute or the temperatures to climb up to near 40°. It’s just another one of those days, in a long string of days, that seem to be “just there!” Perhaps if I were currently working on my novel, which is “resting” at the moment from the intense month of November and NaNoWriMo, I might find this day to be one worth lots of accomplished writing.

 

Instead, I’ve spent the majority of the day—my wife’s birthday—doing little chores and helping her get her iPhone settings configured and up and running. That done, I was pleased that I could get it all done without creating any other glitches or problems. I must say, these iPhone things are pretty snappy!

 

She’s out with friends for her birthday lunch and then to do some other odds-and-ends and also pay a visit to her aunt in an assisted living residence not too far from here. That’s the kind of person my wife is, one who’d rather spend her day making others (especially a favorite aunt, her dad’s sister) feel good and cared for. She is definitely an inspiring force, and I’m damned lucky to have her along for this ride.

 

Tonight, we’ll go down to our son’s house and have a nice birthday dinner and cake with him and his wife and our two wonderful grandsons. I always kid my wife about her birthday falling so close to Christmas and, because of that, I can’t buy her a gift. Of course, that always is met with venomous stares, which always convey the message: That’s tough! Get over it and make sure there’s a birthday gift awaiting. I don’t care how close Christmas is!

 

And so it goes. I love this time of the year, not because of the necessity to go shopping (I hate it for the most part!) but because the complete chaos that begins swirling as soon as my wife’s birthday edges ever closer, colliding with all of the Christmas hub-bub. It all just adds to the boiling cauldron of the season!

 

Tonight will be good. Our grandsons will enjoy singing the birthday song and showering Grandma with the best wishes and for many more to come. We’ll enjoy a wonderful meal, followed by delicious cake and candles, and become fully immersed in a night of laughs and good times.

 

Candles spell out the traditional English birthday greeting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

I have enjoyed a brief “pause” in the writing life, but I’m now ready to get back to that tale I pounded out in November. I’m still not sure about the title, but I’m still liking the “working” title: The Bet, and I believe that it could work in the final product. Time will tell, but stay tuned for updates on the progress of the novel as it goes into rewriting, revising, editing, polishing, scrubbing, beating…

 

Now, I need to begin to get ready for the birthday dinner and the celebration that is sure to happen….CortlandWriter