Oneiric October - 500 words a day, all genres welcome!

Hugs, Ken, on the interview. Those are tough.

Liz, congrats on sending the MS to your agent!

Been a bit out of sorts with the ending of my WIP. I always slow way down and poke at it before I can make any good progress. I'm at 110k of around 130k and, well, I want to finish (preferably before the end of the month so I can have a rest before the revision) but apparently my muse disagrees.

1,254 today. Most I've written in a day lately.

:cheers everyone else:

Huh, October is almost halfway over and I haven't reported on my essentially non-existent progress at all.

I've decided to rewrite the WIP and move the plot to a different location. Hopefully that'll make it possible for me to tighten a few scenes. So far I've managed to rewrite the opening paragraph and cut a few words.

Saoirse said:

Hugs, Ken, on the interview. Those are tough.

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Thanks, I'm not just a little rusty, and the questions she asked kind of threw me. Keeping my fingers crossed that my unemployment gets approved or a job comes through this week. If not, I'll be out on the streets by the end of this month. Hell of a thing to happen. Don't know what I'll do if that happens.

No words yesterday, and only 216 so far today. Having trouble finding surnames for Angolans. Google is no help. Anyone know a good site to find them? I know that most of the indigenous peoples took the surnames, or variations of those names, of the ruling Portuguese, but can't find any definitive list of names. *sigh* I don't really want to keep using English names through the entire book, considering that my MC is a merc fighting in the Angolan civil war.

Thanks, OSG. I did find those entries, just not sure if I can mix and match. Not sure if they have set family names, unlike us, I believe they are tribal names, unique to each region.

Broke my streak. I was just too wiped out from work on Saturday to do much of anything, and then just straight flubbed yesterday.

1,091 today and closing in fast on the 10k mark. Going to aim for that tomorrow.

After a couple of nights of nothing, 349 tonight. It's not much, but it's the start of yet another rewrite of my problematic scene. I think it's the right start, though, at last!

Hugs, Ken. I know how scary that can be.

764 last night. Up to 111k.

1262. Screamingly imperfect, but possibly good enough, at last, to push forward.

294 today. I have a vague idea of where I want to go but this chapter is kind of an odd one. I have one main character but I'm also using other members of the group as viewpoints, particularly now that they've split into 3 groups. So now it's a matter of getting them all to where they need to be while doing some character development along the way. Also I have no idea where the dead jaguar came from.

Epp. Forgive me AW. It's been six days since I posted in this thread.

I hit 1275 on the 9th, but not more than 700 in the three writing days since then, and only 298 yesterday.

I've written myself into a bit of a corner, or at least a narrow ledge. Option A: Danny does something pretty stupid that risks him going to jail if he's caught, but it increases tension and word count.
Option B: Things happen off-screen but risk appearing as a deus ex machina.

Writing in first person can be harder than it seems.

More of the 0 for me yesterday and today. Doing a lot of research and adding notes. Not a lot of direct info on the Angolan Civil War, but tons on the Vietnam War. Hope for words tomorrow.

Good luck and good writing.

The 0 is mine. But I'm now thinking about it.

1024 tonight. Interstitial stuff that will need to be trimmed later, but for now it's good to have the detail - keeps my head on straight.

to those with zeroes. Zeroes come to us all, and then they flee again.

My 0 looks like a nice, fluffy pillow.

470 yesterday, all in my subsidiary outline wherein I figured out how to keep Danny from being Too Stupid To Live™.

712 words today. Not bad considering I'm so full of painkillers it's hard not to keep my face from landing on the keyboard!

Yikes, Zelenka, I hope the painkillers aren't for anything dire! Nice word count, though; I have one beer and I can't compose a thing.

cmhbob, you make me laugh. We do have to protect them from themselves sometimes, don't we?

Namatu, do you need the $40 challenge?

I wrote 1,676 tonight. Starting to remember how all of this is done.

Go, team!

Nice going, everyone.

Hope you feel better soon, Zelenka. Don't want you getting KBface. Having QWERTY imprinted on your cheek is no fun.

Well, not a lot of words today, more research. On a happy note, I emailed Dale Dye last night and got a reply today. I hosted one of his books a few years back for the Military Writers Society of America. I didn't think he would remember me, or at the very least, be too busy to reply, but he did. Got some great pointers and books to research.

:hugs everyone:

Ugh, I've been so busy I haven't been able to write for the past few days. Hubby's birthday is tomorrow, so I have to prep for that, and I've also been copyediting a writer friend's manuscript, which is due Nov. 1st. I hope to get some done this weekend...sometime.

Lizmonster - Thanks, just my shoulder and back playing up. Think it's the weather. Managed 645 so far today.

1786 yesterday. Think I solved the plotting problem I have, and may be able to reach short novel rather than long novella.

cmhbob said:

Epp. Forgive me AW. It's been six days since I posted in this thread.

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Bob that sounds like a confession, "Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It's been six days since my last confession." And it's been much, much longer since I posted here. Lost count of the days.

I have weaned myself off the med that was suppressing my creativity and suddenly am writing again. Must focus on short bits so I'm just committing to maybe 250 a day—but that's a big step for me. Today just 200 so far but I hope to catch up tonight.

I wrote a six-word memoir yesterday which is today's Daily Six on Smith. http://www.sixwordmemoirs.com/ I have to think quality,not quantity,but that one's a help to my confidence.

Wonder, it's so marvelous to hear you're writing again!

I'm glad it's "just" your shoulder, Zelenka, but I'm sorry it's bothering you. The worst I get with the weather is the odd knee ache.

Ken, it's great to have contacts. I hope he can give you some useful intel. (My spell checker always wants to capitalize "intel." It's very annoying. )

cmbob, fabulous word count! It always feels good to solve a problem.

Saoirse, it's not so bad having a happy reason to have no words. I hope your hubby has a fun birthday.

Me: 1,019 tonight. Warming up for NaNo like I'm training for a marathon.