Tag: saga in progress

November 2: Still in the Game

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blog nov 2 trifecta b

I’m feeling a little crazier tonight than I did yesterday, but I’m keeping up for the moment. Here’s my report.

NaNoWriMo

The goal is 1667 words per day. I have a total of 4158 for the two days, so I am over goal. After writing a couple of hours at home, I attended my Emporia group’s kickoff party at the public library and wrote another 1,000 words.

Fiction MOOC

I’m barely hanging on here. My assignment is due tomorrow at 11:59 p.m. I need three characters who disagree about an event and place in which they were all present in the past, and I need to include a present setting, all in 800 to 1,000 words. The characters will be Hiram Pierce, the father, Ambrose Pierce, 14, and Lucy Pierce, 13. The current setting will be their new house. The previous setting will be the cabin they built and lived in when the first moved to Hidden Springs. The event is the death of Minerva Pierce, Hiram’s wife. Given the lateness of tonight’s hour, I will have to do some fast writing tomorrow. The good news is that the words will count for NaNoWriMo, too.

Blogging 201

Today, I checked out features and themes. When I chose the theme for this blog, I thought it was responsive. Now, I cannot find that word in any of the description of the features. I did see that it would work on mobile devices, so I’m hoping that is the same thing. I found information on how to make the menu the way I want it, but I didn’t have time to do that. There is tomorrow.

That’s it for today. I’m stumbling off to bed, probably to a night of wide-awake thoughts on one or all three of the above subjects.

November Trifecta

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piercenano 1

As if the fiction MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) I’m taking isn’t enough, I’ve signed up for the WordPress Blogging 201 course and NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). There’s so much to learn and so little time. However there is overlap. I told myself that when I got up this morning, stumbled to the computer, and delved into creating the Nano word count for the day.

I’m in the fifth week of the  MOOC through the University of Iowa and have been immersed in developing characters, point of view, and plot. I’m working on voice and setting this week. Through all the lessons, I have used my saga characters in my assignments. There is overlap one; the MOOC has been helpful in  preparing for NaNoWriMo.

Where is the Blogging 201 overlap? This blog is supposed to be all about keeping my fans updated on my saga in progress. It is pretty obvious when looking at this post that my blog needs help. I have not yet figured out how to use widgets and set up sidebars the way I want. In fact, I really need to add a fourth tool to November’s learning marathon: making graphics. I’ve noticed that when my blog post shows up on Facebook, there is a big blank space where a graphic should go. It’s an ugly blank space. I tried to make something in Photoshop Elements, but I still haven’t learned that program, so I tried Microsoft Publisher. As you can see, I managed a graphic, but if I had a day job, I wouldn’t dare quit it.

So here I am with 1700 words, a bad graphic, and this post. Come back tomorrow and find out if I am still committed—or being committed.

Preparing for NaNoWriMo: Mapping My Tasks

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Mapping my way to a rough draft
Mapping my way to a rough draft.

 

Between almost-finished and future books

Estimated arrival date for the proof copy of Book 1 of the Pierce Family Saga is September 2. In the meantime, I am getting a jumpstart on plotting Book 2, which has a working title of For Want of a Father. I plan to use NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to write the rough draft. I participated in NanoWriMo when writing the rough drafts of Possessing Sara and The Survivalist’s Daughter. While I didn’t reach the goal of 50,000 words in a month, I did go on to finish the books.

Overcoming Procrastination

I tend to procrastinate when it comes to any project not in front of my nose, so I taped a poster board to my office door and started putting up stick-on notes for areas in need of development. For years, I have avoided using the mapping/clustering method of prewriting because deciding where to put a circle on a board and what text to put in the circle makes me freeze. My current method allows me to change my mind about topics and their placements. I have chosen poster board from a dollar store and pads of various stick-on notes I have accumulated from conferences and fairs as the medium for my project map. If I don’t like the position of a topic, I can move it. If I change my mind about the topic, I can throw the note away and my basic poster in still usable.

The board so far

The year is 1859, four years after the end of Book 1. I originally thought the year would be 1858, but I decided Lucy should be a year older, so the first change I made was the year. The two main characters are Lucy, 13, and half-sister Cordelia, 17. Above each girl is a stick-on note about her father. Lucy’s father, Hiram Pierce, 48, is a blacksmith and city council member in the small town of Hidden Springs, Kansas Territory. Readers of the first book probably have strong opinions about Hiram. Cordelia’s father, Justin Quinn, 43, is something of a mystery. She has never met him, but knows he was a fur trapper when she was conceived. The first order of business is research. The blue notes down the side contain the various items I need to know more about. They range from the major events of 1859, including the Colorado gold rush, to everyday items like food, clothing, transportation, and occupations.

Justin Quinn: The backstory

I have chosen Justin Quinn as the first character to develop. I know least about him, and Cordelia’s story will hinge on the kind of man her father has become. He is probably not trapping since that trade diminished in the early 1840s at about the same time he met Cordelia’s mother. To get a better sense of mountain men and the life Justin might have led, I am reading Give Your Heart to the Hawks by Winfred Blevins. I’ll let you know what I learn from the book and reveal Justin’s backstory in future posts.

The mail just came!

The proof copies of Book 1 have arrived. Time to get to work.