Monday Motivation: BELIEVE

November 26, 2012

Monday Motivation: BELIEVE

This one's for all my NaNoTude friends who need a little extra motivation today. It's November 26th and we've got five days to wrap this up.

I hit 50,000 words the night of Thanksgiving. November 22nd. That's a record for me, to hit the magical 50k in 22 days. The manuscript had a beginning, a middle, and an end, but I wasn't ready to stop writing. So I've kept at it. I'm up to 58,810 words, my manuscript has a ton of plot holes and a few sections marked as follows:

***more here***

I'm going to maintain my focused writing schedule this week, too, and fill in some of those plot holes. I know that many of my NaNo buddies have a long way to go, but it's only Monday. Friday -- the 30th, the last day of the month -- is a long way off.

You can do this.

BELIEVE you can and you will.

Get your butt in the chair and write. You can do it!

And congrats to those of you who have already met your goal for November, whether it's participating in NaNo or another project.

A snippet from BEAUTIFUL BIRD -- Addie has just returned from a rather unpleasant afternoon in 1979:

            I gasped when I looked in the mirror. A purplish-green bruise had appeared below my left eye. I covered my hand with my mouth and tried to calm my breathing. Nothing like this had happened before. I’d never brought a souvenir back with me, not even the first time in 1979, the time that Elliot had pushed me into the wall and I’d cracked my head.

            But this – this would be impossible to conceal.

            I was in my room, sitting on the bed, when Elliot came back in. He didn’t look surprised to see the bruise, so I had to assume that it had already been there when I first returned, when I recoiled from his touch. He reached out and traced the bruise with his finger.

            “I’m sorry,” he whispered. He sat down next to me on the bed.

            “It wasn’t you,” I said, my words hollow. “He's -- he's a different you.”

            “No, but I’m still sorry. Why did I do it?”

            I didn’t answer.

            “Oh,” he said, and let out a breath. “Not the first time, then?”

            I shook my head.

            He took my hand and squeezed it.

            “You know, I would never do that. Never. You know that, right?”

            I nodded. “I know. 1979 is just – really messed up. Everything about it is horrible. When I first got there and I saw how Hugo had married this awful woman who wanted me to call her Mom, and Hal was a drug addict, and your brother was messed up from the war – well, I thought that no matter what, I could handle any year as long as you were in it.”

            “But I turned out to be a complete shit, is that it?”

            I nodded. “I can’t go back there.”

            “But can you control it?” he asked.

            “No, I can’t control it. I thought I could try. I thought I could somehow direct myself back to 1914. I wouldn’t go back to 1979 if I could help it.”

            And what would have happened if somehow I’d managed to bring Elliot back with me? How would that have changed what happened?

            But I knew now that bringing Elliot with me was not a possibility.

            “So now what?” Elliot asked.

            Now what? Now I had a decision to make. I needed to decide if I would try again, try to make it back to 1914, or just walk away and live my life.

What else is going on, besides NaNo, you ask?

We enjoyed our long weekend, visiting with family both in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Hammer Guy and I went to see Skyfall on Saturday night. Daniel Craig is my favorite Bond, and while I thought it had a slow start (well, except that whole action sequence at the Grand Bazaar), this was my favorite of his three Bond movies.

Last week I submitted a fairly comprehensive package of materials to an agent who requested CLOUD 9, including the full manuscript. I'm hoping that I'll get a few more queries out this week and, as ever, fingers are crossed for C9.

I participated in the 2012 Sip Swap and received the most thoughtful mug from Jess at Reading on the F Train. She knows I love coffee, so she got me some Coffee Pu'erh tea and a fantastic mug from her favorite tea shop, David's Tea, which is now my favorite tea shop. That is some good tea. The birds on the mug are for my NaNo project. I love it! Big thanks to Jess (and #gobills).