Heather Foeh

YES!!! I did it! I am a NaNoWriMo winner. 50,129 words in 29 days. Man is that a wonderful feeling.

No, my manuscript isn’t complete, but it’s darn close. Probably another 7000 words to go. Then revisions, revisions, revisions.

It’s been quite an adventure, full of twists and turns. Some interesting plot changes along the way that I hadn’t foreseen, but I like them. Two secondary characters popped up and I really love them both — Peter and Martha. They’re a great foil for my hero and heroine, Jack and Laurel. The bad guy turned out much creepier than I had envisioned - he kind of scares me actually.

I think I’m going to go drink a glass of wine and celebrate! Many thanks to all of you who cheered me on along the way.

The current magic number is 42,815. That’s my word count for NaNo! I’m closing in on 50,000 and man will I be thrilled when I cross that finish line.  I’m at the stage of writing where the ideas are flowing fast and furious twenty-four hours a day. My friend Kate Williams described it as “a hamster on crack running around in my head.” Well said. That’s exactly the way I feel…a bit manic, a bit crazed.

Our NaNo Pep Talk a few days ago was from Deanna Raybourn and I really liked this passage:

“When you write every day, you are always in the story. There is never a period of reconnecting with your characters, of trying to remember what mood you were attempting to create the last time you worked. And by working every day, you engage your subconscious in a way that simply isn’t possible when you keep a more whimsical schedule. There is no need to summon the muse because there is no time for the fickle little strumpet to go anywhere. I become so immersed in my story that I seldom write more than an hour a day, but I am typing the entire time, with no breaks to think or to wonder where the story is headed. I write flat out because the other 23 hours I have been thinking about the book while going about the rest of my life. (That includes the time I’m asleep. I seldom wake up without thinking of the scene I’m preparing to write. When I sit down to work, I’m essentially taking dictation from myself.)”

“Taking dictation from myself.” I love that. That perfectly describes my writing experiences of the last week or so.

Home stretch here I come!

It seems that almost every year someone in our family is sick or under the weather on Thanksgiving. This year it was my turn. I don’t have a fever, but I’ve been achy like the flu. My throat is sore and swollen and I have zero energy. Yesterday (Turkey Day) I barely moved from the couch. I covered up with a quilt I’d tossed in the dryer for a few minutes (ahhhh) and propped myself on a couple of pillows and read on and off all day, took a four-hour nap, and watched “The Lake House.” Nothing like a little Keanu to make a girl feel better.

Today I’m on the road to recovery and plan to get back to working on my NaNo manuscript. Only one week left — eeeeeek! But I may have a nap first…

My friend Lexi blogged yesterday about the things she is thankful for and that prompted me to do the same:

• My family: my wonderful, supportive husband, our two talented and funny teenagers, and our big ol’ Collie.
• My original family: my Mom and Dad (who served a homemade Thanksgiving meal to 25 soldiers in Kuwait - bravo!) and my little sister who is four inches taller than I am
• My friends: too many to name - how lucky am I?!
• Freedom: to express ourselves without censorship, to walk freely on the streets without curfew, to pursue the American dream

I have a good life. Slowing down and being stuck on the couch gave me plenty of time to think about how truly great it is. Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone!

Well, my goal was to be at 30,000 words at this point, but I didn’t quite make it. I’m at 25,152 - which means that I wrote 10,156 words today. That’s 47 manuscript pages, in case you’re wondering. My brain has turned to mush, my fingers are going numb and my rear is very tired of this chair. Whew!

One good tidbit, I now have a title! My new manuscript is called “A Woman in Red.” I’ll have to post about it one of these days and explain the meaning, but I’m too tired to do it justice right now.

I would like to mention my fantastic new writing pants. Some people have riding pants, right? Well, I have writing pants. And they rock. I bought them yesterday at Target in the men’s department. They’re made out of sweatsuit material, have a drawstring waist and the legs are wide and don’t taper down to elastic at the ankles. Super comfy and wonderful! They made it through over 10,000 words on their opening day. A very respectable start to their writing career.

For all three of my regular readers, you’ll notice that I haven’t been posting very often lately. That’s because I’m in the throes of NaNoWriMo. I could also phrase that as “throws”…as in “throw myself off a balcony.” Eeek, I’m behind. Yesterday was the halfway point, which means that I should theoretically be at 25,000 words. Um, yeah. Okay. Not quite there.

However, by Sunday night I will be at 30,000 words. I may not sleep, but heck, sleep can be over-rated, right? (Sadly, I don’t really believe that. I LOVE sleep.) I’ll post again on Sunday night and let you know my status - and my level of sleep deprivation.

All of the email pep talks that we receive from the NaNo fearless leaders keep reiterating, “Editing is for December.” I have to keep reminding myself of that. Boy, it’s hard to turn off that inner voice!

Okay, back to the story, which by the way is currently called “Laurel’s Story.” Compelling, isn’t it?

Alrighty - it’s time for a rant. Recently in my Gmail one of the ads on the right side of my email said this:

Teething Bling
Stylish jewelry for Mom that’s also fun for baby. Free bangle offer!
www.smartmomjewelry.com

Wha? Please!! If you’re tired of your baby grabbing your jewelry, the solution should not be to buy baby-friendly jewelry and let them keep chewing on it. It’s been a heck of a long time since I’ve had babies at that grabbing stage, but I do remember it. Glasses, earrings, nothing was sacred. But my goal was to teach them not to do that. It was not to encourage them to grab it and then put it in their mouth.

Okay. I’m done.

It’s here! The clock is ticking…I have the next 30 days to write 50,000 words.

One of the joys of NaNoWriMo is that the good folks there do a wonderful job of encouraging you along the way. And not with vapid little comments like, “You can do it.” Nope, they really know the insanity and so their pep talks truly do pep you up. For the kick-off today we received a pep talk email from Tom Robbins. I won’t quote the entire thing here (that might be against the rules?) but I will repeat of few of the things that really stood out to me:

You need not have your ending in mind before you commence. Indeed, you need not be certain of exactly what’s going to transpire on page 2. If you know the whole story in advance, your novel is probably dead before you begin it. Give it some room to breathe, to change direction, to surprise you. Writing a novel is not so much a project as a journey, a voyage, an adventure.

And I love this bit about the rapids:

…you simply pack your imagination, your sense of humor, a character or two, and your personal world view into a little canoe, push it out onto the vast dark river, and see where the currents take you. And should you ever think you hear the sound of dangerous rapids around the next bend, hey, hang on, tighten your focus, and keep paddling—because now you’re really writing, baby! This is the best part.

So, here we go. I’m packing my canoe today and getting started.