Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 08

7629 / 50000 words. 15% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 57,152
New Words: 462
Total words for the first draft: 57,614
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 7629
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: I got Peg and Ghost Peggy talking.
Fave line: “It’s a good story and it’s old. That’s how you get your father to accept things. Make them antiques.”
What Else I Accomplished Today: Finished researching the ballot so I can early vote. Had no errands today to run so came straight home and took out trash and chipped away at the kitchen reset. I have one side of the sink free to use.
What I'm looking forward to: Finishing up the scene with these characters and going back to pick up another set.
What I'm not looking forward to: Trying to balance writing with the house chores.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 07

6803 / 50000 words. 14% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 56,724
New Words: 428
Total words for the first draft: 57,152
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 6803
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: I managed that many words with so much exhausted brain! I didn’t end up in bed on time and then Binx woke me up starting at some point after 1 a.m. constantly. So when I say exhausted brain, I mean it. I didn’t write this metrics post on the day of because I got home, changed clothes, took meds, crawled into bed, and had the lights out by 7 p.m.
Fave line: “Don’t beat yourself up.”
What Else I Accomplished Today: I tried on the new pants I found at Sam’s Club, and holy shit, what was labeled as size 12s FIT! So I did manage after work to swing back to the store and return the ones that are too large. That could’ve gone better because I didn’t bring the card that is saved in the app, I got a gift card of the funds. Which I will spend on gas but I was counting on it going back into the checking account it came out of. And I made it home with exhausted brain without wrecking the car.
What I'm looking forward to: Today’s writing sessions with a working brain!
What I'm not looking forward to: Cleaning the house.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 06

6375 / 50000 words. 13% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 56,169
New Words: 555
Total words for the first draft: 56,724
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 6375
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Not to terrible much. I started a new scene of Peg and Jane bringing Robert home and then the logistics of getting him out of the garage and to his bedroom took over and then I realized I needed to pin down the garage for me. And then I found out that the collection of Stan Hywet Hall photos I have in the Scrivener Project was too large to link together so they needed better organization, so I started that. And then I got curious about the bathroom layout between Jane and Peg’s rooms, but that search while eating led me to another set of floor plans that showed how the service driveway connected to a laundry yard/service area connects to the service areas of Stan Hywet! Saved those floor plans, and I need to find the ones I have written on to update and scan again. Long way around to say, that when Peg and Robert got married seventeen years prior to this novel, she didn’t want to hike to the carriage house for her car. So Robert had a garage built in the cleared space that was that service yard and changed its door into the house, which was probably a task area for cooking or cleaning in the olden days, into a mudroom transition space. So tomorrow when Robert gets out of the car, it won’t be an arduous trek up a lot of steps into the house as well.
Fave line: She clenched her teeth hard on a scream. A bad guy knew more about her family than she did!
What Else I Accomplished Today: I went to Sam’s Club for cat treats and found potential new work pants. I still have to try on and see if they fit.
What I'm looking forward to: Getting the description stuff finished so I can move onto ghost-mom and daughter bonding time. Or what the police do when they arrive late at the scene of the fight. Or who Alexander runs into next.
What I'm not looking forward to: Finishing the organization I started.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 05

5445 / 50000 words. 11% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 55,490
New Words: 679
Total words for the first draft: 56,169
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 5445
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Peg got Jane to help her rescue Strix from Alexander. Haven’t found the transition yet.
Fave line: “Stay down, asshole!” She raised the bazooka over her head and smashed it on his armored head.
What Else I Accomplished Today: I cooked two Greek recipes that need a lot of tweaking to not be soupy messes. I don’t know why they’re so soupy. I did manage to get the bedroom rest and vacuumed, and reset the bathroom.
What I'm looking forward to: Hopefully getting the house mostly clean so I don’t have to bounce so hard between chores and writing. Because I want to make more words now!
What I'm not looking forward to: The hours the kitchen reset will take me all week long. It’s so bad. So very bad.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 04

4608 / 50000 words. 9% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 53,885
New Words: 1605
Total words for the first draft: 55,490
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 4608
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today:
Fave line: “Your abilities?” Peg took another step back and bumped into the desk with her butt and took a hard look at the ghost in front of her.
What Else I Accomplished Today: Today I divided up into a two hour chucks: 45 minutes for writing, 15 minutes game break, 30 minutes for chores, 30 minutes game break. The writing sprints were excellent. I almost got all the laundry done and tried to clean my window AC unit. There is still water on the inside coils and it shouldn’t be there, so I’m unsure of how to fix it.
What I'm looking forward to: The end of Daylight Savings Time!
What I'm not looking forward to: The biggest problem is my list of chores needing to be done is longer than the time I have to work on them, even without NaNo. Sunday I might need to give myself two 30 minute chore sessions.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 03

2820 / 50000 words. 6% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 53,375
New Words: 510
Total words for the first draft: 53,885
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 2820
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: I finished up the confrontation between Robert and Sagara, then returned back to what has turned into the Strix and Alexander fight scene. The Fave Line for this set of words took a long time to come up with.
Fave line: You parasitic antediluvian! What Else I Accomplished Today: So I didn’t start off the day with a writing sprint, which I missed later on in the day when the words were fighting me. Then I started the errands to solve Harris County flagging me for toll road usage. First stop was the DMV, which did confirm that the license plate flagged had been the one on the Dodge Stratus and I canceled it when I traded it on October 31, 2018. But they couldn’t print anything off to prove that. And since I had no paperwork that I can find, they sent me to Supreme Toyota.

I was a wee bit before 9am and when the finance department arrived, who would have the paperwork I needed. “Go sit in the waiting area and I’ll come get you when one comes in.” I very promptly got distracted by the mobile game and didn’t surface for air until after 10am. The finance department could at least give me the trade-in sales page, but I don’t know if that will work. I at least have the Dodge’s VIN so I can possibly get it from the DMV if the toll people don’t like that one.

Then Walmart didn’t have all the litter I bought curbside and that was an ordeal. Then the car decided I didn’t need neutral when I was in the car wash and that almost wrecked the system. And then I lost my shit that I had held onto with all the other setbacks. I went to lunch and then picked up recipe ingredients at Rouses.

Made it home and tried to work on words and chores with limited success on both. I did manage to rotate the mattress and make the bed in clean sheets and now getting all the words into NaNo tracking so tomorrow is a new day. What I'm looking forward to: Rachael says we have to word vomit. Stop trying to make a full coherent draft, that will come later. Make the words now. Looking forward to trying that out tomorrow.
What I'm not looking forward to: All the bleeding chores that must get done tomorrow along with words. And the void babies distracting my writing time.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 02

1867 / 50000 words. 4% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 52,427
New Words: 948
Total words for the first draft: 53,375
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 1867
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Had a bit of a muse brainwave in the car commuting to work this morning, so jumped back to Robert meeting Sagara. It is rough, but coming together nicely.
Fave line: “Charming image. Has anyone introduced you to bullets? Hurts like hell for us, but they can kill drujis. Have you calculated for that?”
What Else I Accomplished Today: Brain.FM focus music helped keep me on the novel. My not leaving it unless a paying job task needed doing until I reached 1667 words was less successful. I didn’t reach the daily goal despite 3.30 hours writing. I also arrived home too late to join Rachel Herron’s Zoom writing sprint meetup thing, but I got my massage and adjustment and necessary groceries at Sprouts.
What I'm looking forward to: Next Thursday’s Zoom, timing should be better on my end.
What I'm not looking forward to: Going to the DMV first thing tomorrow.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 01

740 / 50000 words. 1% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 51,890
New Words: 537
Total words for the first draft: 52,427
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 740
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Broke the blank page with Strix stopping a mugging and have second guessed every word or idea coming out of my head.
Fave line: A drunk patron, a man old enough to know better and did when sober, stumbled out of one bar’s side door into a littered alley.
What Else I Accomplished Today: Remember I am counting the words in the scenes I removed last year and metric posts in my daily words for NaNo.

Also what contributed to a low score today even with 2.5 hours of measured writing time:

• AC at work turned to heat and wouldn’t shut off. We were melting badly.
• I kept getting distracted by YouTube or other tabs instead of writing. Using writing then break wasn’t enough to stop this.

What I'm looking forward to: Changing up the writing routine again. I will use Brain.FM’s focus music and write until I get 1667 words or an hour before taking a break. What I'm not looking forward to: Trying to get all my words before leaving for my chiropractic appointment.