Rachel Sparling

As it stands, I haven’t updated in three months. Perhaps a bit longer, perhaps a bit shorter, either way it’s been about three months since I posted.

I started a new job shortly after finishing Nanowrimo and admittedly it has taken over so much of my time and energy that I haven’t been able to write. I have been missing writing so much and it’s been taking it’s toll on me emotionally; I’ve been relatively sad without being able to write. While the job and the income is good for me in some areas of my life, it doesn’t help others; i.e. my writing and general ability to express myself creatively. Instead, it keeps that so far deep down within myself, that I never get an actual chance to access it.

So, with that in mind, I was FINALLY able to sit down at my laptop and write. I have missed this so dam much. I could write endlessly but instead I wrote one short chapter over 2000 words and I’ll accept it as my first step back into writing. I am hoping to keep up some form of a routine as I’ve missed this so much. Being back at my computer once again, pulling up Scrivener and being able to see progress done once more on the rough draft, has cheered me up. I am going to work at fitting it into my schedule weekly because without one day of writing, I think a part of me dies a bit as it’s smothered with stress and repetitive action.

Apologies to everyone I haven’t been reading and have been failing at being present online. I am hoping this will change but this job, in all of it’s unbelievable pull, drains me in an entirely new way that I never once thought possible.

Okay so I actually wrote just over 50,000 words, but either way I reached the 50,000 word goal! I finished a few days early too!

I still have a substantial amount left of the rough draft of the novel to write, so I’m going to continue working on it despite already reaching the 50,000 word goal. I probably won’t add it to the word total on my National Novel Writing Month account since I already reached the target. I will try to actually update a bit more and keep things going on this though.

Things will change a bit though since I’ve just been employed full time and my hours will apparently change every few weeks. It will be hard to work out a routine or really anything at all, but I am still going to try to stick to my daily habit of either writing or editing every day. It will take a bit of adjusting though. It could make it harder to update on here but I’m still going to try, and I’m still going to try to get caught up with people and their blogs.

In regards to the rough draft, I’m only about half way through. Well, just over half way through. So I’m probably looking at at least another 40,000 words. There are some longer chapters and scenes coming up so that will definitely up the word count from the second book. The nice thing about the second book is that there is a lot more to it. I’ve laid out the base work in book one, and I’ve built on it a lot in book two. I hope that if I get published, my readers will see that too.

Which reminds me I need to get my ass in gear and get those short stories done and out to be published. I’m really struggling with that. I’ve been in such an editing/novel writing mindset that I can’t seem to switch it off and write a short story.

Anyway, I hope everyone else is doing great! If you haven’t reached the 50,000 words, I know you will soon! Keep going! You’ve got this!

So I’m still managing to write at least the minimum each night. Which is a good thing because since Sunday I’ve been fighting off a rather non-wonderful virus. So non-wonderful that when I went to see my doctor he full on said “I’m not going to touch you because I don’t want to get it”. I have to laugh at that. At least it’s not air born.

Anyway, because of this my brain has been less than quick with the writing. I’ve still been able to write, but these short chapters/scenes will probably require the most editing since I’m not 100%. That’s to be expected though. I’m pretty sure I’ve used the same descriptive word one too many times in one of the paragraphs I wrote tonight. At least when I get to editing it, I should be able to think of something better and more clever.

On another note, the editing of my final draft of book 1 has been put on hold until the challenge is complete. I’ll get back to it in December and hopefully have it completed within a couple of months. I have a friend who is also looking at it at the same time so that can sometimes tie things up. For those of you who don’t know, or may not remember (which is completely fair considering my inconsistent updating), I have printed out the copy of my manuscript and I am writing all over it. So once I’m done all that, and my friend is done all that, I will still have to make all the corrections to the digital copy as well, which will take time.

Anyway, I should call it a night soon. It’s been a long day and while I think I’m starting to recover, the virus is taking it’s toll on me physically.

Good luck to everyone still writing! I know you can do it!

And I continue on typing, typing, typing.

I haven’t found a solid time frame yet to get the writing done, and currently I am spending my time at night typing away for this second book. I would prefer being able to do it during the day, but my days have grown rather compact and busy and it’s becoming a bit arduous to fit the time in for writing. I have time at night at least, so I’m trying to make the most of it.

As it stands, I’m meeting at least the minimum word count. I’m trying to get my totals in before midnight each night, and then adding anything I write after midnight when I’m done. At times it says I’ll finish early, and others it says later, because of the numbers and what it says I’m writing per day. Luckily, I’m getting most of my writing in before midnight so that’s helping a bit…but I’d rather have better consistency like last year.

The story itself is coming along. Since I wrote a few scenes through out the second book for the challenge last year, I have been copying and pasting everything I’m writing into a separate file so that the two bits don’t get mixed up. I could never cheat that way and I’d like to meet the 50,000 words honestly instead of using some from last year. It just wouldn’t sit right with me.

Anyway, I hope everyone else is having a great time in general and with the challenge!

Here we go again! Another year, another month, another 50,000 words to write!

I know I have been away from updating for a while now and I’ve fallen behind on peoples posts. I apologize for that. Things got busier than I could have imagined and I had to put my writing and editing aside until I could properly take the time to do it. As it stands, things have been rearranged so I’m able to make the time to do the National Novel Writing Month challenge! I am excited to be starting on the rough draft of book 2. I still need to complete the final edit of book 1, but it’s coming along.

Admittedly I have a lot to go through and a lot ahead of me. I still need to fix those short stories I had started during Camp NaNoWriMo (I still can’t get used to the short form of it) and get them available and ready to be published. Up here, it’s harder to get a novel published if you don’t have something else already officially published (I wonder if it’s possible to put “published” in to those two sentences more than I have). So I should really get those done and see where I get with them. I think my novels will be worth publishing, but when and how that happens, I’m not really sure. I had goals set for the end of the year for the short stories (which I still have time to do so I’m still going to try to reach that goal), but more pressing things have occupied my mind recently. I’m still hoping to reach that goal but as it stands, I’m going to focus on book 2 and getting the rough draft done.

Otherwise, I hope everyone who is taking part in National Novel Writing Month is up for the challenge and does great! I believe in all of you, and good luck!