Oh sigh

So I’ve had a couple of ‘bad’ writing days… there was the day my electricity was shut off while utility workers did some maintenance, alarms blaring, dogs flipping out, yada yada. There was the night I got a good start going, but hit a small block – I was trying to move on to the next scene but the scene I thought I had finished wouldn’t let go of me… frustrated, I thought I’d stop and go to bed since it was 3a.m. And thunderstorms hit, with lightening hitting so close to the house it was lit up like all of my lights were on and you could feel a hum inside… naturally, both Collies had to potty, but were absolutely terrified to go outside, so they kept whining and moaning, and when I finally gave up and laid down in bed, they each competed with one another to be closest to Mommy and walked up my body to lay on my neck. It ain’t easy to breathe with a 50+ pound Collie curled around your neck, lemme tell ya. Of course, I know it was how close the lightening was striking, that was scaring them. Luna doesn’t like loud noises but Stevie is pretty stoic and could care less as long as she’s got the center of the bed and a pillow! But that night, she was scared, too.

So my daily word count average for NaNoWriMo dropped to 1424 and it estimated I wouldn’t finish my novel until December 9, 2015. *sighs* Not good and not how I wanted my first time entering to go. On the upside, I did have all of my homework done and one of my peers volunteered to read and critique what I had written, see if she could brainstorm with me to get past that blockage.

Fortunately, an idea hit me and I went for it and, I think, successfully wrapped up the troublesome scene. My peer just got the story two days ago, before my muse helped out, so doesn’t know about the changes I’ve already completed. Had a good writing day, today, although turns out it was a little under 1600 words so only bumped my average up to what I should have been doing all along, 1667 words a day. Trouble is, site says I need to average 1719 a day cause right now I’m scheduled to hit the 50k marker on December 7, 2015. M’kay, I’m pleased with the improvement, but I really want to successfully complete the challenge on time.

As for homework, it shouldn’t take too long to complete the required reading, and for my thesis draft I can submit my chapter’s seven and eight – for the required word count of 2500-3000. The combined chapters are around 2800 words. Plus I need to write my discussion piece, which should be okay since it concerns POV on the fiction I’m reading for class. [And it’s all about Sookie! *laughs*] Naturally, I’m trying to focus more time, energy and thought into my story and hopefully make up for the bad writing days.

A solid week of drizzle/rain has left my body fairly sore, as well – kicks in the arthritis-type symptoms I’m plagued with. Not to mention the ongoing wet dog smell – and naturally I’m done writing about werewolves for the moment, so don’t need the olfactory help – and the continual tracking in of dark red Georgia clay. My kitchen tile looks atrocious and the carpeting in the den is officially a lost cause and will be replaced when I can afford it. *sighs* So yeah.

‘K, I need to start describing Kenneth’s house in the story, and then I’m putting my semi-happy butt to bed. With that said, I am so outtie….

**EDIT** Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! I just popped over to NaNoWriMo and saw Charlaine Harris is scheduled to give us a pep talk, soon! Oh. My. God. Can you tell I am excited?!?