Strings & Yarn

I’m done! I did it! I didn’t finish my book, but I finished the 50,000 words. Here’s the final counts.

Final Word Count; 50,231 words.

I still have to finish up the ending, but I’m going to take a break to sort out things in my head. I think the ending will be easier after I let my characters set with me for a little while. They all turned out slightly different than I had originally planned.

I’m so excited because now I get to blog about other things again, not to mention start knitting, watching movies, reading and having a social life again. Thanks for reading about my writing adventure, and I hope you all continue to enjoy the other subjects.

One more day left!!! I’m so close and I think I’m going to make it. I can’t beleive I somehow seemed to manage juggling all of my crazy assignments for the last week of school and this word count. Thanks for all the great comments. They have helped so much.

Word Count; 2,347

Words Left; 2,070

Words Written; 47,930

No Excerpts for the rest of this because my book has gone to total crap! Endings are hard!

Can’t…write…any…more….

Word Count; 1,536

Words Left; 4,417

Words Written; 45,583

Days Left; 2

Today was hard. I so wanted to just play on the internet after I got all my work done, but I made myself do the words. I’ll be glad when this is over. I’m ready to finish those last few words.

Word Count; 2,028

Words Left; 5,953

Words Written; 44,047

Days Left; 3

Here’s an update for Friday and Saturday combined.

Words Count; 4,215

Words Left; 7,981

Words Written; 42,019

I’m on the home stretch!

I got an I-Pod!!!! I’ve been wanting one for so long, and I finally broke down and got one. No it’s not one of the cool new ones with the video screen, but it does have a color screen for photos. It also has 60 Gigs. Way more than I’ll ever need, but something that I can still grow into.

I got it from the Duck bookstore. They had the old ones on sale because of the nifty new ones. What’s even cooler than having an I-pod for my extensive and expansive music collection is that I now have a new thing to create accessories for.

I’ve knitted myself an I-pod cozy. Since it was such an easy project I decided to try and do my first cable on it. It’s not quite right because I got inpatient and refused to read any instructions on cabling . Not only did I get to create something cool, but it protects it too! Here’s the picture;

Expect to see more I-pod cozies in the future.

This weekend is a weekend of real vacation for me! I’m going up the coast with Anthony. It should be tons of fun and relaxation. I’ve never seen the Oregon coast so it will all be new sight seeing for me.

Since I am spending the weekend away, I’m pretty sure I won’t have internet access. I promise I will be continuing to NaNo during this vacation, and I will also update you on Sunday when I get back.

Have a great Thanksgiving Weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Things went smoothly today especially considering the day was full of good food and good company. Check out Taylor’s blog to see what my thanksgiving was like.

Word Count; 2,054

Words Left; 12,196

Words Written; 37,804

Days Left; 6

The month is almost done! NaNo is whizzing by as well as the rest of my University term. I’m going to try my hardest to prepare for next week (the end of NaNo and the last week of classes where everything is due) and keep my sanity. I’m sure there are going to be several late nights and a slightly crankier Jodie.

As the month is winding up I’m realizing how much I’ve learned in this novel writing process. First of all, it didn’t go as I had expected it to. I knew it was going to be hard to write a cohesive story from beginning to end, but I didn’t expect quite so many holes in my plot. I’m a little scared to read it again. Second, it’s amazing how much my story changes depending how I feel. Last night I was starving and all I could write about was food. Then there are all the plot twists that get entered on a whim. That part is what creates those holes, but it’s probably the part the was the most fun.

Okay enough gibber jabber. Here’s the breakdown for yesterday.

Word Count; 1,705

Words Left; 14,250

Words Written; 35,750

Days Left; 7

Excerpt;
The last thing that Ilene kept secret was her lunch dates with James. James had showed up at her apartment the day after she had confirmed her pregnancy. She wouldn’t have burst out in tears the way she did if his timing had been different, but she had felt desperate to talk to someone. She told James everything, and he was the only other person who knew. At first she was worried that he would tell someone else, or worse look at her as disgusted as she felt with herself. Thankfully James didn’t do either. He comforted her and gave her whatever help he could at the time. After he left she was sure he would never talk to her again. It was quite the opposite, he dropped by the next day making sure that she felt better. Ever since then she went occasionally to have lunch with him.

I had a particularly bad bout of phantom pain last night. It’s a very interesting phenomenon, and you would think that being an amputee for ten years would make it stop, but it doesn’t. I think I’m destined to have phantom pain for the rest of my life.

Phantom pain is basically nerve memory and it results in pain or tingling. The weird thing is that I feel it in a foot I no longer have. It’s a little different for everyone, but for me I can really feel my knee and foot. I can also tell that my knee is bent at a ninety degree angle. That really bothered me at first because I felt like my leg was going through the hospital mattress when I was laying on my back. It doesn’t hurt nearly as badly as when I first had my surgery, but it shows up every once and awhile to surprise me. It’s never a dull or aching pain, but is rather sharp and sudden.

I can’t really tell why it happens and I can’t predict a bad day. I do know it happens when I have a fever because all of my nerves are super sensitive, not just the missing ones. Sometimes rubbing or tapping the end of my leg (sort of like reminding it that nothing is there) helps, but nothing was working last night. I ended up taking some Tylenol and went to sleep. I’m really lucky because this is rarely a problem and I hardly ever think about it. Just an interesting fact from the world of amputees.