I've quit  working on Book Two.  I was having too much trouble getting it to go anywhere, primarily because the plot hijackers (er, characters) were giving me way too much background info that belonged in Book One, so I'm working on that.  No sense editing what I'm just going to have to go back and make wholesale changes in. 

And, man, are there ever major changes!  Including a whole new slew of characters that probably won't show up in Book Two, but which will at least need to be mentioned there and more so in Book Three.

Lastly, I should probably post more often.  I'm  a horrible blogger. 

Actually, I should probably turn this into more than just a blog about nameless numbered novels... But I still probably wouldn't post any more often.

So... here I am, working on Book Two of the trilogy (since the NaNo Novel Without a Name) turned out to be Book Three.  And while I'm at it I'm still poking at editing the NaNo Novel. 

And the characters are still hijacking my plot.  In fact, now they are hijacking the plot of the previous story!  And not only are they hijacking it, they're adding another character to it.  Well, maybe... she actually belongs in the 1st book of the trilogy, unless I can avoid her ever making an appearance "on screen" which is probably not possible.

I really wouldn't mind so much if they'd just make all the changes at once instead of in bits and pieces so I have to go back and change everything.  So far...

a minor character turned into a major one and changed alignment....

a dead wife and child now no longer exist but a dead former apprentice does -- supposedly she committed suicide but was actually murdered by above-mentioned alignment-changing supposedly minor character...

and the character who was supposed to get killed part way through the completed book? He's alive and well, because.... well, I like him way too much to kill him.  At least I did until he revealed the dead former apprentice, who I now have to work into background stuff. 

And, oh, yeah, he took on a much bigger role than intended too... which is ok because he really became my favorite member of the group


So, I'm not working too seriously on editing the one that's already done as I know I'll just have to go back and re-edit it again before I'm done, as they continue to change things.

Do professional writers have this problem?

I'm an LPN, in school for my BSN, but this semester, though, I've been seriously rethinking things. 

I love to write.  I have always loved to write. And teach.  My original plan, many years ago, was to be an English teacher; unfortunately, when I started college there was a glut of teachers and everyone said "You'll never find a job."  And, being young and impressionable and (at that time) compliant, I majored in something else that proved to be even more worthless.

Anyhow, this is my second Bachelor's degree, I'm older now (much!) and not so compliant.  And I'm having a real battle with what I'm doing. 

I love my College Writing class.  It's my second class with this professor -- the first was Humanities Literature -- and he is responsible for this "crisis of faith" or "midlife crisis" (who says they're limited to men?).  See, he got me back into writing.  Poetry at first, and now essays. (Which indirectly helped me decide to tackle NaNo.)

I have talked to him about picking up English as a second major, and also about a Masters in English Education, so he is aware of how I feel about it.

Tonight in class we were discussing the essays that we'd had to read for the quiz, and there is always a brief bio of the writers.  One  had first graduated with a BS in something unrelated, then got a Master's in English and a MFA in Creative Writing.  As Dr. S. was reading this to us he commented that the author had "seen the light" about doing something that would give him joy in life, and he was looking at me as he said it.  

And the bio of another writer in the book, one who started as an English Major, prompted the comment "Another who saw the light about English" -- again, looking at  me.

I'm wondering if he's trying to tell me something?

And why does this situation make me cry?  Because I'm not following my heart?

Novel writing is good for the budget.  Now that I'm done writing, my mind has turned to other things -- like counted cross stitch.  Just spent way too much money on charts (and it's not like I don't have any!)  And the worst of it is that most of them are BAPs.  I just have to live to be 300 in order to finish them all... or maybe 500.  And that's if I quit buying more...

51,176 words, story finished, uploaded to NanoWriMo site... feeling ... I don't know.  Not elated or jubilant or even let down.  Maybe it just hasn't sunk in yet.  But it's done!

The ending is a bit weak and I skipped big sections and marked them things like [insert history here] because there's no sense doing the history before I write books 2 and 1 since the Plot Hijackers formerly known as my Main Characters seem to give it to me in bits and pieces as we go.

And there could easily be a book 4 to this, seeing as the church was taking over the entire government of the country and they just killed the leader of the church.

But I don't want to think about a sequel, not with two prequels staring me in the face.  Maybe I can get away with an Epilogue when all is said and done.

Oh, and the book still doesn't have a name.

Only 10k left to write. Never thought I'd make it this far. Or that I'd enjoy it so much.  I kind of don't want to finish, don't want the story to end.  (Never mind the two prequels waiting to be written.) 

And what will I do with myself when it does end?  I've spent pretty much all my free time every day this month working on this thing in one way or another... I know it will need some heavy duty editing, but it needs to sit for a while first. 

New rule:
Email latest update to myself every night.  Laptop rebooted itself last night and now it refuses to read from the cd. Everything I did yesterday is lost.  Fortunately, it's only about 900 words (hooray for sleeping characters and stalled plot line!) and won't be that hard to recover.  But still.  *sigh*

So, for anyone keeping track:
Rule #1: Never end with characters sleeping; they are wicked bad to wake up
Rule #2: Email backup at end of every writing session.

(Why am I starting to feel like Jethro Gibbs from NCIS?}

Note to self:  Never leave off writing with the characters sleeping.  They are wicked bad to try to wake up again.

On a brighter note, I think I have some more plot.  Some of it is rather tenuous, and I'm not quite sure how they get there yet -- I guess it depends on how they react to the information that they are about to receive, but at least it's more plot!

Unfortunately, it requires me to do a big NaNo NoNo and go back and edit something I've already written.  It will give me more words, though, and the rest of the plot won't work unless I do.  And since the story has been essentially languishing since last night, any progress is good progress.

I'm at 31,029 words and I'm running out of pre-planned plot.  Of course, it doesn't help that they changed the plan in mid-stream (twice, at least now).  But they've rescued D'Laron and are making their escape, and then what? 

I'm getting tired of writing it and I have no idea where it's going.  Can I write a 19,000 word celebration orgy?  (Is it too late to change my genre from fantasy to erotica? *L*)  Actually, I probably could (write the 19k celebration orgy) but I don't think my characters would cooperate.  At the moment they're all sleeping in a nice warm little pile like a bunch of puppies -- four people who love each other unconditionally -- and totally platonicly. 

Okay, not totally platonicly.  I could easily see Katheri with any of the 3 guys as a partner.  Or all three of them.  No jealousies amongst them.  But it's just not going to happen.  Not given her past.

So, there goes my nice little 19k word celebration orgy.  Guess I need to beat a plot out of them.

Tell me again how writing is supposed to be fun?  I feel like I am wringing blood out of my brain today.  I know what I want to say and  most of the time I can say it, but getting it actually typed out is a major chore today.  I actually considered setting it aside in favor of chemistry homework a while ago.  But since chemistry gives me more pain than today's writing session, well....

Maybe I've just been pushing too hard.  I've been doing some pretty intensive writing these past few days.  Maybe it will get easier on Monday when I haven't been able to write as much over the weekend.

Meanwhile, back at it.  I want to get through this explanatory scene so I can get on with the plot.  (I would skip this explanatory scene, but a) it's words and b) it will be necessary knowledge for the reader to have later on.)

I wrote about 600 words during/between classes yesterday. I don't think my English prof would care but I had probably better not share that information with my chemistry prof.

I really do write better with pen and paper.  It's faster and more fluent; somehow it's just easier to get words out that way.  Maybe because I'm 47. I'm used to writing long hand, not on a computer.

But I'd rather think it's because there is just something magickal about writing with pen and paper -- making words appear on a blank sheet of paper, watching them flow from the tip of the pen.  It's amazing to me that I'm creating words.  It always has been.  Whatever that something magickal is, though, it doesn't seem to translate to the computer, at least not for me. 

Anyhow, I finished Chapter One last night, 7223 words.  I'm hoping to reach 12k words today.

Well, between a couple hundred words after work Friday and Saturday night, and good planning to have Sunday afternoon totally free at work to write, I now have 2200 words in my Novel Without a Name.  Can't quite figure out how to upload that to Nano so my status bar moves, though.

I wanted to get to 3k last night, but was literally falling asleep in my chair, and since I wanted to be able to read what I typed I figured I'd better call it a night instead.

Now I'm just doing my early morning wake up routine and getting ready to write until I have to get ready for class.  I'll probably write during/between classes too, and type it when I get home. I had thought about taking my laptop, but decided it would be easier to leave it here and just type it when I get home.  I'm kind of old-fashioned, I guess.  I can write better/more fluently on paper.

I have to get up at 5:30 to go to work, and I never sleep well when I have to get up that early.  Yet I am staying up until midnight so I can start writing.  Granted, this may entail nothing more than opening a new word document, typing "Chapter One," saving it, and going to bed, but at least it will be started... right?

On the way home tonight I got a serious case of cold feet.  I was suddenly afraid that I'm not going to be able to write anything other than the bare bones of my outline, that I won't be able to flesh it out at all.  

Well, this is it. The madness starts at midnight.  Sadly, at midnight I'll be getting home from work and ready for bed so that I can get up at 5:30 and go to work and get home at midnight and up at 5:30... 

Ah, well, I'll be writing at work on Sunday and typing on Monday -- or maybe when I get home Sunday night. 

I can't wait!

The main characters all have names.  I have a code for things that need names added later (school name, name of magical order, etc), back stories are written and plot hooks duly noted for future abuse...

I can't wait!

So far I have a plot that I can't seem to write a synopsis for, and a main character who insists that she's the younger version of a character who's been in my head for quite a while (which is going to lead to some sort of sequel, I think.  Unless I reach end of story before I reach 50k words, in which case the story picks up again a few years down the road.)  I have supporting characters. What I don't have is a name for the secondary main character. 

Primarily, the story is about the church (not Christian, but some sort of established religion) trying to wipe out mages.  At the outset, magic isn't illegal, but the practitioners do stay fairly well hidden.  (Not sure how it got to that point -- may need a prequel!  Ooooooh!  I like that idea!  The two supporting characters would be the MCs of it...)

Anyhow, FMC goes looking for her missing mentor who has been taken by the church (and the government, which was supposed to be neutral, is now firmly allied w/ the church).  Her apprentice (you know, the guy who has 4 days left to give me his name) comes after her.  He is supposed to be somewhere safe; unfortunately, the safe place she left him was with her mentor's best friend who just can't sit idly by...

The four of them end up on the run from church and state.  I don't have an actual ending, though.  I don't know how it all resolves without cutting ahead several years.

Only one week until NaNoWriMo.  This will be my first year doing it and I can't wait to get started.  Sadly, I work weekeends (I work 3 to 11 on Friday evenings and then double 7a to 11p on Saturdays and Sundays) so won't get any real typing done until Monday.  At least my chemistry prof is cooperating.  We have a test this Monday, then no more tests until the beginning of December.