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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Grand Staircase – Escalante and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on November 4, 2011| 4 Comments »

 

Hogsback Ridge between Escalante and Boulder on Utah's Highway 12, often called America's most scenic road. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

My Favorite Places

 

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument landscape -- Photo by Pat Bean

“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.” – Richard Wright

NaNoWriMo Update .. 8,326 words

Sitting down in front of the computer for five straight hours today wasn’t going to happen. I was stiff from two hours of physical therapy yesterday to make my old broad body unstiff, particularly my neck and shoulders.

So I did my writing in bits and spurts. I got up to 2,000 new words by 4 p.m., after starting at 6 a.m. Did I mention I was still in my pajamas?

My main character is going to have a dog, and if there’s anything I know it’s a relationship one can have with a beloved pet. So today I wrote a lot about that, along with planting a first clue for my mystery. I’ve always hated it when you read a mystery and there are either no clues – or no red herrings.

Thankfully today, I had nowhere to go and my daughter’s big house al to myself, well except for three dogs, one cat that needs insulin shots twice and day and three aquariums full of fish.

. It also showed me, however, that I tend to get more done on the days I have to do more. I’m finding this challenge very interesting.

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Scarborough Marsh and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on November 3, 2011| 5 Comments »

 

I just spent one morning in Maine's Scarborough Marsh, but it was long enough for me to fall in love with its landscape. -- Photo by Pat Bean

My Favorite Places

It was fall when I discovered the Maine marsh -- Photo by Pat Bean

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

NaNoWriMo Update – 6,268 words

I’m trying not to go back and edit as I go, but old habits are hard to overcome. The red-line that my writing program puts under misspelled words mostly takes care of spelling mishaps and typos, but what I’m finding I’m doing most is skipping words. I see them in my head as I want to write them and the fingers often assume they are already on the page. I’ve always done this, but usually catch the mistake before I move on. You don’t get 1,500-2,500 words written quickly enough this way, however.

My writing is also all over the place with verb tenses. I switch them way too often, and making them all agree is another thing I do while editing as I go. Writing so fast is really getting on my nerves, I must say.

Today was the day the dead body appeared in my story, and a new character suddenly introduced himself. I now think I need a character chart to keep all the names and descriptions of them straight. I found I had to go back to discover the name of the husband of one of the characters. I sometimes have problems keeping names straight when I’m reading the books of other authors. I didn’t know I would suffer the same thing with my own book.

Like yesterday, it took me five hours, with a couple of short breaks, to write 2,500 words.

 

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Chincoteague Island and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on November 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

  

An ideal spot at the RV park where I stayed for gazing out over the water and watching birds on Chincoteague Island. -- Photo by Pat Bean

One of the Assateague horses, a rare black and white, which I saw from a boat. Dogs weren't allowed on Assateague Island. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

My Favorite Places

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.” John Donne

 

NaNoWriMo Update – 3,736 words.

I was at the computer at 6 a.m. this morning and got right at it. No checking e-mail, no stalling until I had just about 2,500 words written. It was 11 a.m. when the goal was met.

I always write better and faster in the mornings. In order to overcome my need to check out every fact I adopted the procedure of highlighting anything that needed to be verified or researched (like actually how to you clean a fish you’ve caught) for checking later, perhaps even after the story has been told.

I’m trying to keep the story moving, and already I’m surprised what I’m learning about my characters. Now I need to go stretch my neck and back. Ouch!

How’s everyone else coming along?

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New Hampshire and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Writing, tagged , , , , on November 1, 2011| 4 Comments »

 

New Hampshire's Franconia Notch Flume Gorge -- Photo by Pat Bean

 My Favorite Places: Franconia Notch

Waterfall at the top of the gorge -- Photo by Pat Bean

“How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you – you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences – like rags and shreds of your very life.” ~Katherine Mansfield

NaNoWriMo Update

Things didn’t quite go as planned today. I didn’t get home from my doctor’s appointment until 11 a.m. And at 1 p.m. I went to physical therapy, which the doctor prescribed for the neck pain I’ve been having. It was almost 4 p.m. before I got home from that.

But, despite not having as much time as I wanted in which to write on this first NaNo day, I got 1,307 words written. Nothing is on my schedule for tomorrow so I plan on doing better.

Meanwhile, I’m hoping my night-time thoughts and dreams will be filling in a few more blanks in my holey story. How’s everybody else out there doing?

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Royal Gorge, Colorado, and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 31, 2011| 6 Comments »

 

I took this photo of the train I was riding on as it went about a bend on the journey through Royal Gorge. -- Photo by Pat Bean

My Favorite Places:  Royal Gorge

Looking up at the span across the gorge from river level. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

“I feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I have looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life. – Leni Riefenstahl

NaNoWriMo Update

Still thinking, with trepidation, about the novel I will start tomorrow. My night-time thoughts solved one problem that’s been worrying me. I came up with a motive for one of the characters to approach my main character.

Looking down on the Arkansas River from the top of Royal Gorge -- Wikipedia photo

It’s a little thing, but it’s part of the opening scene that still exists only in my head. And at least I now feel more confident about that first blank page.

I’m worried, however, because mornings are my best time for writing and I have a doctor’s appointment at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow. The visit has been planned for a month, and since I only have a short time before I’m off on the road again, I have to keep it.

In the past, I’ve let other plans like this keep me from even starting the challenge. So I’m almost glad that I will be facing this simple one on the very first day. It should help me know I can overcome interruptions – just like solving the first travel difficulty in my RV gave me confidence that I could handle anything the road threw at me.

Is this bravado speaking. Yup! But I’m depending on it to help pull me through the next 30 days and 50,000 words.

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Palo Duro Canyon and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 30, 2011| 1 Comment »

Palo Duro Canyon, located south of Amarillo, Texas, is awesome, but travelers don't have a clue until they get to the rim and look down. -- Photo by Pat Bean

My Favorite Places

A landscape carved by water and wind. -- Photo by Pat bean

“Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

NaNoWriMo Update

One Day, 14 hours, 20 minutes – and counting down

In a comment I made on a blog this morning – Galen Leeds Photography http://tinyurl.com/3bakmuv – I meant to tell the author to keep crossing “roads” to take pictures. Instead I wrote, and posted before I proofed – keep crossing “words.”

I guess I have NaNoWriMo on the brain. Hopefully that’s a good sign.

I read a quote this morning that inspired me for the coming challenge: “Having a dream to chase is what makes life worth living.” I’m not sure who said it, but it spoke to me. As does Helen Reddy when she tells me I “can do anything.”

What inspires you?

 

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South Dakota’s Badlands

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 27, 2011| 3 Comments »

Now why would anyone want to call this landscape the badlands. Awesome lands is what I would call this view located in the Badlands National Park.

 
 

The area in the center of this photo, taken in Badlands National Park, was once a jungle. -- Photo by Pat Bean

My Favorite Places

For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment, but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life – the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.” – Claude Monet

 

NaNoWri Mo Update

I’ve decided that I will start each November novel writing day with what’s long been my favorite song. It’s an oldie, but goodie that first topped the Billboard Chart back in 1972. It got me through many a tough day of working and raising children at the same time. The lyrics tell me “I can do anything.”

  I hope that includes writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

 I am Woman, Hear Me Roar 

“I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an’ pretend
’cause I’ve heard it all before
And I’ve been down there on the floor
No one’s ever gonna keep me down again

You can bend but never break me
’cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
’cause you’ve deepened the conviction in my soul

I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin’ arms across the land
But I’m still an embryo
With a long long way to go
Until I make my brother understand

Oh yes I am wise
But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to I can do anything
I am strong
I am invincible
I am woman”

— Helen Reddy and Ray Burton

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Gearing Up for NaNoWriMo

Posted in Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , on October 26, 2011| 9 Comments »

“Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – M. Scott Peck

The best way to start any day is with an awesome sunrise, such as this one that I took in Harker Heights, Texas -- Photo by Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie

Most mornings I start my day the exact same way. I awake with the sun, get up, fix coffee, catch up on my e-mail, savor my cream-laced coffee, look at the landscape outside my RV window and write my daily blog. At some point during this process, I take a break and walk my canine traveling companion, Maggie.

Many days, since unlike me Maggie likes to sleep in, I’ve already finished my blog before we go for our walk. My binoculars are usually around my neck and my camera is in my pocket for it’s usually on such walks that I get inspiration for my blogs.

This is the look Maggie gives me when she finally wakes up and has decided it's time for me to take her for a walk. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Then it’s back to my RV for some more writing – or procrastinating to write, which is just as likely.

Still, it’s fair to say that most of my day is spent in front of my computer – and that’s going to be even fairer to say in November since I’ve signed up to for NaNoWriMo. This is the abbreviated way of saying National Novel Writing Month, which has been held every year since 1999. It started with 21 participants and last year had over 200,000.

The goal is to write a novel in one month. Actually it’s to write a terrible novel of 50,000 words between Nov. 1 and Nov 30. The exercise is supposed to help increase productivity and halt a writer’s obsession with spending hours on making sure every sentence is perfect before going on to the next, to which I plead guilty.

I’ve signed up for the event quite a few times, but that procrastination addiction of mine won the month. I’ve signed up again this year – but this year I intend to win. My advantage is that this year I’m telling everyone what I’m doing in hopes that my pride will not let me down.

My goal is to write 2,500 words a day for six days a week, and then excuse myself from even signing on to my computer for one day a week. I figure I’ll need that one day to keep my sanity. I’ve been thinking I needed that even before I committed to NaNoWriMo. 

To give myself a few days of extra time to think about characters, setting and plot for the AWFUL mystery I plan to write, beginning tomorrow I’m simply going to post photos of some of  the best places I’ve visited over the past seven years of my travels with Maggie. I mean I’ve come too far meeting the daily blogging challenge to not make it to the end.

Hopefully my commitment to the NaNoWriMo challenge will also make it to the end. I’ll keep you up to date with its progress on my blog. Wish me luck.

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