Why You Need A Writing Progress Bar

You all know I'm not doing NaNo, but I am writing.  And a couple of days ago I put a word count progress bar on my blog.  Why you ask?

1.  I am a visual person.  I like actually seeing progress toward my goal and the progress bar moving up motivates me to put every little word on there to push it just a little more.

2.  It makes me accountable.  Everyone can see what I have or haven't done.

3.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment.  Even on the days when my word count is low I can see how far I've come.

If you have a blog, this website has some free Writing Progress Bars you can use.

If you have an android phone, this app can track your progress.

Try it for a little while and just see if it doesn't help motivate you a little more.  I know it worked for me!

We're Sprinting!

Okay fellow writers and friends!  We are sprinting!

You know the drill.  Everyone comes back to the blog at 8:15, 8:30. 8:45 and 9:00 and reports their word count in the comment section.

Let's do this!  Ready, set, go!!!

Word Count Wednesday

First of all, I came across this awesome site for matching readers with books.  If you love to read, check out The Fussy Librarian. You choose from 30 genres, select content preferences and then she sends you daily ebook recommendations.  Worth looking into!

Well, my novella is starting to take shape.  It only has 976 words, but it's a good start! I'm hoping to write some more today and of course, I WILL be here at 8 PM for the word sprint.  I promise this time!  (Sorry again Debra.)

How is your word count doing? If you're doing NaNo, are you on track to reach your goals?

Castle Review: Rick and Alexis' Road Trip

This was a really interesting case with a ton of twists and turns.  I really enjoyed this one because while it was "Castle-centric" it also had the team.

Alexis is working with the Innocence Project (I thought she was a science major, though, so that surprised me a bit) and the guy that's on death row has his last appeal denied.  Alexis goes to her father to help her even though she's still mad and they go up to Pennsylvania to dissect the case.  (That was the only detriment to the whole show was how bratty and immature Alexis came across to me.  Thankfully it got a bit better by the end.)

Castle goes to meet with the death row inmate, Frank and Frank's fiancee Maggie.  Everyone at the table is looking at Castle like some sort of savior and it freaks him out.  He calls Beckett and I like how calming she is for him.  Alexis and Castle are looking at crime scene photos, running down leads of fingerprints on doorknobs and old boyfriends.  The team back in New York is running support by doing background checks, running trace evidence, interviewing suspects, and looking through bank records.  Castle is actually really good at seeing things that are overlooked, like the dolphin charm (a guy wore that? Really?) and charming the school lady out of telling who the chemistry book belonged to.  (Did you see Castle's face when she said to make it out to cash? Haha!)

The show did bring forward an issue I've been wondering about, however, and that is why Alexis isn't really including Kate.  Her father is about to marry Kate and yet when the family goes to see Alexis' new apartment, Kate wasn't there.  She didn't go to Kate for help with the death row case and one does wonder how she's feeling about the whole stepmother thing.  I like that Kate is thinking about it and talking it over with Lainey.

The case had some twists and turns, but I was proud of myself for calling the killer when we first saw him. A nice ending with the exoneration of Frank and his brother, and Frank and Maggie hugging.  Also nice with Alexis and Kate hugging and Castle looking on.  Definitely one of the better episodes of the seasons in my opinion.

Did you watch? What did you think?  

Book Review: Emma: A Latter-day Tale

I wasn't sure what to expect when I read Emma: A Latter-Day Tale by Rebecca Jamison.  I love Jane Austen and have found very few modern retellings of her stories that I've liked.  This one is a retelling of her story, Emma, and it has an LDS angle to it, which was fun.  

We meet Emma who wants to be a life coach, but until she's certified, she just works on a new girl that's moved into the neighborhood to be a nanny.  Harriet has lost weight and moved to a new place and needs friends and help overcoming her insecurity.  Emma tries to "help" her get a makeover and make a love connection, but that goes badly.  Her sister's brother-in-law Justin is the voice of reason, even though Emma doesn't appreciate it at times.  I think Justin was my favorite character out of all of them.  There's one scene where they are decorating a Christmas tree together with the little girl that Harriet is the nanny to, and Justin was so sweet with her I could totally envision it and sighed at how awesome it was.  

Of course the story was predictable because it follows Jane Austen's storyline quite well.  At times the characters came across a bit flat, but that could be because it wasn't an original story per se.  The LDS angle did provide some flair in the activities and plot and I was entertained.  This was a light-hearted afternoon read.

Here's the back copy:

Emma's her name and matchmaking is her game! Quirky life coach Emma wants to help her first-ever client, a lonely nanny named Harriet. But all of her attempts at matchmaking result only in embarrassing miscues and blunders, leaving the pair disheartened and confused. This modern take on the Jane Austen classic shows that sometimes the greatest match is the one we make for ourselves.

Review of the Hawaii Five-O Halloween Episode

We started off this episode with cute Max and his girlfriend Sabrina.  They have such a great vibe about them---so innocent and sweet.  They're at a beach screening Halloween party and sort of dancing awkwardly together, when a guy comes out of nowhere and starts attacking people, including Max.  Poor guy.  I think his little scene by the ambulance when he faints after thinking he was bitten by a "zombie" was one of my favorites.  And him with Sabrina in the hospital was adorable.  Awww. I hope we see more of them in the future.

The case was appropriately creepy---someone doing brain experiments on humans.  There were so many twists and turns.  Finding the spy cameras, the unexplained kidnappings, the brain cysts, to the homeless guy in the tunnel.  I was a teeny bit surprised that Danny was claustrophobic and very surprised that he would let Steve go into that situation without backup.  That was a creepy tunnel! Although Danny did save the day in the end by catching the guy as he ran out of said creepy tunnel and he redeemed himself by going into the tunnel in the doctor's house.  I was completely grossed out by the "beheading" part and the explanation of injecting parasites into people, so that went right along with the Halloween theme.  I liked the way the case went to the motives of a doctor trying to rehabilitate criminals with this "brain therapy" and how his theories had escalated to the experiments and failed.  I was surprised at Corbin Bernsen's role in bankrolling the doctor's experiments, and he played the desperate dad to perfection. Good to see him on my TV again. (Yeah, I watched L.A. Law once upon a time.)  The bloody scene at the end with the doctor's death was a little much for me, though, and I was glad they didn't really dwell on that.  A solid case this week, anyway.

Danny's yard being TP'd and his obsession with it was funny. "It's a gateway crime, first TPing then armed robbery." Haha!  Of course he got the "really?" look from Steve which made it that much more funny.  And the look on Danny's face when he realized who'd done it was awesome.  Poor Grace. Dared by her friends, but not wanting to be mean and do it to someone else, so she TPs Danny's house. The last line between them was hilarious. "Call me next time and I'll take you over to Uncle Steve's." Love it!  And Danny asked Steve the one question fans have asked for a while now, "Why don't we take your truck?"  "The car gets better gas mileage."  Uh huh.  Sure that's the reason, Steve.

Another part I really liked was the continuity with Catherine.  She's still suffering from the guilt over Billy's death and the kitchen scene with her and Steve felt raw and real.  He's been where she is, she has to forgive herself.  Her emotional answer of "I want to" was right on point.  She needs to find something else to focus on.  So, of course, she goes to trying to help Kono come home and find out who is laundering money for Sato.  She shows her research to Chin and then follows the lead with an awesome disguise and great undercover work. (And she got to dress up for the Halloween episode! Girl looked good, too!)  I love the angle they're taking Catherine.  I also love that she's not dependent on Steve, but a person/investigator in her own right.  The look on Steve's face when Chin told him where he'd gotten the lead was great and the ending scene of him bringing dinner, looking at her research, and asking her "what's the plan?" was perfect.  I'm looking forward to seeing where they'll take that story next.

And the previews for next week?  Three men and a baby.  That little baby girl was adorable! The guys' reaction should be must-see TV for sure.  Can't wait!

My Five NaNo Writing Tips

Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo and while I'm not participating this year, I thought I'd share some of the things that have helped me in the past.

The one thing that always ups my word count is to have an idea of where I'm going.  This is how I do it.

Tip #1 Know Where You're Going

I do a one sentence chapter outline.  Like this one I did for Ashes Ashes

 It's very basic as you can see, just one sentence about the main event that's going to happen in that chapter.

Then, I flesh it out a bit more and write a paragraph about what else is going to happen in that chapter, like this one I did for Ribbon of Darkness.

Once I have those things in place, I can sit down at the computer and flesh it out.  I know the main event, I know the supporting incidents and players, and that's what keeps the words flowing onto the page for me. It's a loose and flexible outline, that inevitably changes as I write, but it gives me direction and that's the important thing.

Tip #2  Suppress your inner editor

This is a hard one for me because I itch to go back and edit things and tell myself I'll just smooth it over really quick.  But it's like quicksand.  If I "smooth over" one thing, then I need to fix another and then I get caught up in editing and don't add to my word count.  Don't fall into the trap! You'll have all of December, January, February, however long it takes to edit.  Just get the story out right now.

#3 Do word sprints

Word sprints are so motivating to me, that's why I do them on Wednesday nights here on the blog.  I block out that one hour to just sit and write, write, write.  Checking in every fifteen minutes with my friends pushes me harder and by the end of the hour I have 1000 new words to work with!  It's always worth my time to do a word sprint. (And I will be doing them every Wednesday on the blog throughout the month of November.)

#4 Set aside time every day

Even if you can only do half an hour in the morning and half an hour at night, set aside time every day for writing and guard it.  Don't let other things take precedence over it and be able to say no to any extra stuff at least for this month.  You need that precious writing time and while NaNo takes some planning, you'll be glad you did in the end.

#5 Go take a bath 

Take a bath or a long shower, go swimming, or sit by a lake or other body of water.  It sounds silly I know, but I read a study once that said whenever you are near water your creative part of the brain is more alert and I believe that's true. (And it might not be, who really knows?) But I get a lot of great ideas for my books while I'm near/in water.  Plus, it's relaxing and what writer doesn't need a little relaxation once in a while? (Maybe that's why the creative brain is more alert, because we're relaxed and able to tune in, you know?)

NaNo is always so exciting and stressful, but I know you can do it.  If you have any writing tips you'd like to share for NaNo please let me know in the comment trail.  I'm sure we can use all the help we can get.  

I hope you have a great writing run this month.  Go get 'em!