NaNo Novels by: ddBoone

Yeah, Images, and Names

2008-10-26T19:13:00.000-06:00

I have designed the image for my NaNo. It is looking good, too.

I have the names of the characters as well as the name of the church. I am excited about the image and characters. I am starting to get excited about NaNo this year.

Still More Thoughts

2008-10-17T19:12:00.000-06:00

I am still thinking about my NaNo Novel. I haven't done any work on it, but I have some ideas about the characters. I haven't written anything down. I am thinking about using the last name of Nixon or Dixon for the girls. I haven't come up with anything for the preacher yet.

I will keep thinking on this. It's slow, but it's coming along.

Thoughts And Things

2008-10-14T19:11:00.000-06:00

I had some thoughts about my NaNo Novel. I haven't really sat down to do any work on it, but I have been thinking about it.

I haven't done a bit of work. It has been hard this year, but it seems as if November snuck up on me. This year has flown by.

An Idea

2008-10-10T19:10:00.000-06:00

I finally got an idea for NaNo. I am so excited.

The working title is THAT SINGLE PREACHER. I really want to call it DAT SANGLE PREACHA, but that is incorrect. Anyway.

Here is a brief synopsis...
One mother, four sisters, one preacher. The mother tries to get one of her single daughters married off the the guest preacher at the revival at their church. Three of the girls actively chase the preacher. One sister doesn't seem to care. The preacher just wants to preach and go home.

As I think about it, the idea gets more exciting.

It's That Time Again

2008-10-06T19:08:00.000-06:00

It's that time again; time for NaNoWriMo 2008. NaNoWriMo has been going on for ten years. That's mad crazy. This year is my fifth year. I think that is so cool.

Here we go again, 30 crazy days of novel writing! One of these days, I am going to have a friend join me for this endeavor.

Start of NaNo

2007-11-01T18:24:00.000-06:00

Well, I have started NaNo. I hand wrote some of my novel during the kid's center time. I had to stop just when I had got going well. I hate trying to write at school. I couldn't help myself though. I really wanted to write. I ended up hand-writing approximately 250 words. They are napping now. I may try writing so more now.

NaNo Icons Are Finished

2007-10-30T19:30:00.000-06:00

I finished my NaNo Icons. I feel good because I was able to finish them. They look great, too. But I am partial to my own work. I am thinking about doing some word count icons for people writing 80,000 words and 100,000 words. I don't know if I will do that or not.

I haven't done my images for the characters or places yet. I gotta do that.

Outline Is Done!

2007-10-29T19:25:00.000-06:00

I finished my outline for the story. It isn't detailed or anything, just the basic flow of the story. I am getting excited. I just sat down and went to doing the outline, which was good. I had put it off long enough.

I am ready for NaNo. I am excited, but calm. I have been excited in the past for weeks in advance, but each year, I have gotten excited closer to November 1st. I think I am going to wake up on Thursday and be crazy with excitement.

The last thing that I am going to do is post the pictures for my characters and places into my Resurrection Sunday Blog. Then I will be ready for Thursday, November 11, 2007.

This Week...

2007-10-28T15:40:00.000-06:00

I didn't finish my goals for last week again. I am going to have to stop doing that.

Here are my goals for next week...

Work on my outline. By 10/29.
Finish my NaNo Icons for this year. By 10/30.
Put NaNo Images for characters and places on the blog. By 10/30.
Take the candy to the church for the Fall Festival. By 10/31.
Begin NaNoWriMo. On 11/01/07.
Write between 5,100 and 10,500 words this week. By 11/03.

Yes, It's Done

2007-10-27T19:23:00.000-06:00

I finished my NaNo Blog for Resurrection Sunday. I posted it tonight. It looks good. I think the font will be complained about because it is small, but I like the way it looks. I am just happy to have it done.

NaNo Novel

2007-10-26T19:21:00.000-06:00

I didn't get to work on my NaNo Novel last night. I was up at the school. I am planning on working on my blog for it tonight. Then I will work on the outline. I am devoting Saturday to the rest of my NaNo Icons. I think I have 20 more to do. People are enjoying my icons. Cool! I need to put a post up on the NaNoWriMo site about the icons.

For My NaNo Babies

2007-10-25T19:19:00.000-06:00

Greetings one last time today. This email will be brief. Just some quick questions so that I can get to know you…
What does your login name mean?
Do you have a Yahoo ID, AIM ID, or MSN ID?
Do you have a website for your NaNo? What is it?
How long have you been writing?
What do you normally write?
What is your NaNo about?
I will leave you alone now. Keep prepping your NaNo novel. November will be here before tomorrow.

Letter to My NaNo Babies

2007-10-25T19:16:00.000-06:00

Greetings to you. I am writing to say hello, let you know a little about me, and to give you some words of wisdom.

This email may be a bit long, but it is worth the read.

My first name is Deartra (pronounced dear-tra). You can call me Mrs. Boone, if that works better or Mama if you feel the need.

I am a writer by choice. I have been writing since I was 9 years old. I have had an essay and a poem published. I am hoping to have a book published by 2010. I write poetry, essays, short stories, novellas, and novels. I have written song lyrics also.

I have been doing NaNo since 2004. I have completed it one time. The other 3 times, life got in the way. I am not sure of what my word count was for last year. I hand-wrote most of the novel and did not have an official count, unofficially; my count was over 37,000 words.

I am married with no children. I work at a pre-school, so I am always around children.

Here are my words of advice.
1. Set a daily goal for yourself. To get 50,000 words in 30 days, you should aim for 1,700 (rounded) a day.If that seems too hard for you, make it something more obtainable.
2. Set other goals for yourself that have nothing to do with your word count.For example, write for 15 minutes everyday on NaNo.
3. Set-up a reward system for yourself when you accomplish your word count goal and your other goal. I use stickers. Each day that I reach my word target, I get a sticker. I have a sticker calendar that I carry around with me that have all of my stickers in it.
4. Set a weekly goal for yourself and reward yourself for it.For example, write 8,500 words for the week get a catfish dinner or write for at least 2 hours this week, get a new pair of shoes.
4. Don't get discouraged if you don't make your word count every now and then. That may happen. Life gets in the way of life. :)
5. Don't be discouraged if you don't "win" NaNo. It is better to look at this first time as a small step versus a giant task to complete. Winning isn't everything. Sometimes, being brave enough to enter the contest is the best accomplishment.
6. Find out about word wars. Those are great for word count and friendship.
7. Find out about events, write-ins, or get togethers in your area. Look and see if there is a Region near you by looking in the Region section of NaNo. If they don't have any going on, try to set one up. Let everyone know that you will be at the library @ 6:00 on Tuesday. Maybe some one will join you.
8. Lastly, have fun.
I hope these words of wisdom help you. Email me with any questions that you may have. I will try to answer them.

Here's one more piece of advice… if your novel has come to a halt and you are having a hard time writing, have two of your characters have a discussion about underwear as an elderly "church" lady walks in the room. That will cause you to have some fun. :) It worked for me one NaNo.

My NaNo Babies

2007-10-25T16:19:00.000-06:00

Here are my NaNo Babies for 2007...

I am so excited about my children this year. I am working on a letter to send to them to encourage and support them.

NaNo Icons

2007-10-24T16:16:00.000-06:00

I posted my NaNo Icon Site. It is not complete, but I have a lot of icons on the site.

Setting Sketches Are Done

2007-10-24T16:15:00.000-06:00

I have finished my setting sketches. I can mark off one more thing from my to do list. Yea! I had to add an extra setting, a beauty shop. This is where the girls get their hair and nails done. I want to talk about what happens at the beauty shop in my novel.

Character Sketches Are Done

2007-10-23T15:52:00.000-06:00

Yippee! I finally finished my character sketches. It was after 11:00 PM when I finished them last night, but they are finally finished. I feel so good about it, too.

I can cross off one item off my to-do list today.

I am pleased with all but one of my characters. Boyd isn't who I want him to be at the moment. Well, his change of heart doesn't happen in an ideal way. One of my other characters who is going through something similar gives Boyd some sage wisdom and advice. Oddly enough, she doesn't seem to listen to her own advice.

On the one hand, it is good that it happened this way because that is usually how things happen with us humans, we can dispense advice about a situation, but we can't seem to take the same advice when we are in a similar situation. On the other hand, I just don't like. I think it will grow on my though.

On to the setting sketches.

NaNo Novel Work

2007-10-22T15:47:00.000-06:00

I got my images for my NaNo Novel; the people and places. I was trying to use clip art, but I couldn't find any men that looked the way I needed them to look. I ended up using photos. I will post them later.

I printed some character sketch worksheets so that I could do my character sketches. I have been trying to use the snowflake method, but it isn't working for me. I am going to finish with the snowflake method this time, but I will not use it again in the future.

This Week...

2007-10-21T15:05:00.000-06:00

I didn't finish my goals for this past week, so they are my goals for this week.

Here are my plans for the week...

Create and finish my NaNo Icons for this year. By 10/28.
Create and finish my NaNo 2007 blog. By 10/24.
Work on my character sketches. By 10/26.
Work on my setting sketches. By 10/26.
Work on my outline. By 10/26.
Submit all of my Milk-to-Meat assignments. By 10/28.

I have got to get on this stuff this week. I put due dates on each item, so I will have to do them. I may have to go into seclusion to get all of this work done, but I have to get it done. I want to focus on other things for the last three days before NaNo starts. I still have to do the sketches for my places and I have to find images to represent my people and places. This is going to be a full week.

Lord, help me to stay on task this week. Help me to accomplish all of the goals that I have stated above. I need to finish all of the things listed on my list. When I get tired or discouraged, give me strength and courage to go on. With Your help, I know I will complete the tasks before me. Thank You, Lord for Your help. Amen.

Character Sketches

2007-10-19T15:40:00.001-06:00

I didn't do my character sketches this week. I gotta get on the ball.

NaNo Icons

2007-10-19T15:40:00.000-06:00

I created some more NaNo Icons. I created over 30 today. I created icons for each day of NaNo with day on it and the word count number on it. I like those icons. They are cute. I have got to get my icon site up and running so I can tell people about my icons. I hope to have the site up by 10/28. That is the day that I have to have it up or else I will not be putting it up.

NaNo Icons

2007-10-17T20:17:00.000-06:00

I created some NaNo icons. They are looking good. I have a lot more to do. This thing is getting crazy. So far, I have created 50 of them. I will have to up them on my website before too long.

NaNo Novel Work

2007-10-16T20:10:00.000-06:00

I have been so wrapped up in Prewriting that I haven't done much work on my novel. Plus, I have been suffering with allergies, most of the time I just come home and try to relax. I haven't had much time to concentrate on my stuff with everything that is going on around me. I have got to get myself together before the 28th. That is when I want to be finalizing my pre-NaNo activities.

I do have character names:
Main Characters:
Precious Devereux - This is the Coquette in the story. She is the one trying to get the pastor.
Pastor Brock Van Duren - This is the pastor of the church.
Alexia Trudeau - This is Precious' aunt.
Boyd Lee Allen - This is Brock's best friend.

I have the places settled on:
Church - New Tabernacle of Praise Baptist Church. My brother had suggested New Tabernacle Baptist Church, but I searched the church name on Google and there quite a few churches with that name. I searched New Tabernacle of Praise Baptist Church and there weren't any churches with that name, so that is the name I will be using.

City - Jouette. Of course I am using the name of a city from the state of Maddocha.

Mall - Orchard Park Mall - I am still looking for a name for the mall. I want something more than just Jouette Mall or Mall of Jouette.

Beauty Salon - Lovely Ladies Salon - This is where Precious & Alexa get their hair and nails done.

I have a timeline of events for the story. The story starts on Thursday afternoon and ends on Sunday afternoon. I have what events should happen on what day.

I guess I haven't been goofing off as much as I thought I had.

Excitement Abounds

2007-10-16T20:07:00.000-06:00

I am so excited. I finally found a picture that I liked for my NaNo Novel.

It is so amazing. I am so excited. It is cool, too because the lady is the correct skin tone and ethnicity. The church in the picture is like mad crazy. I love it like crazy. The preacher in the picture is cool, too. I have to create my blog for the NaNo now.

PreWriting

2007-10-15T20:01:00.000-06:00

I found a clip art picture that I liked, finally. I have created my cover. It looks great.