zDave40's Goals

[zDave40]

It's 10:45. I boldly set a goal of 150 hours of editing for the month of April. NaNoWriMo's 50,000 words was a bigger challenge, but I met it. I met NaNoFiMo's 30,000 words in December. On January 17, I finished writing the novel at 118,000 words and started editing it. I haven't kept good records of my editing, but I met and usually exceeded all of my goals. In March, I doubled NaNoEdMo's goal of 50 hours.

But I can't do nine hours of editing in an hour and fifteen minutes. So, I missed my goal of 150 hours. And I cannot blame it on the extra workload I unexpectedly got for two weeks.

I finished the book! First draft was the writing. The first edit swelled it to 126,796 words, instead of shortening it. I did another edit, which increased the length by almost a thousand words, to 127,660. I printed it, and my wife read it. She gave me a great review, said I have greatly improved since the book I finished almost three years ago. I have edited her changes into the fourth rewrite and lowered the word count to 127,088 .

I can't edit one more word, can't make it past 141 hours for April. I missed my intermediate goal, but for once, I DON'T CARE!

I am finished!

I feel a bit like I'm drifting. I'll probably rest for tomorrow before getting Chapter One ready for my writer's group on Monday night.

I have no specific plans for May. My NaNoWriMo 2006 novel is begging to be finished. My Sacramento timeline has languished for almost three months. I have much preparation to do on my NaNoWriMo 2008 novel. I want to try all of them, but I have never done more than a few entries on my timeline and a novel at once.

So, I seem to be drifting on a calm lake. No river, no rapids or waterfalls. Everything is tranquil. I have worked almost nonstop from the first of November to the end of April. Six months. I think I can take it slow for a few days, at least. Maybe even procrastinate awhile, if I still remember how to do that.

Maybe I should finish the Harry Potter series first.

[phoenix.writing]

Congratulations, Dave!

That's great news about finishing your draft--and great news about your wife really liking it. I hope you get a lot of positive feedback from your writers' group.

I think you definitely deserve a break--and I firmly believe that you should finish the Harry Potter series

[Beladara]

I second all of that!

Well done, Dave!

[rayelynnlee]

Congratulations!!!

[zDave40]

This will be the first of two posts. It will be too long to read at once, otherwise.

My goals for the remainder of February , all of March, and for part of April:

#1. Finish the editing lessons in Holly Lisle's course.
#2. Spend at least 100 hours editing Transference during NaNoEdMo in March.
#3. Get my blog up and running.
#4. Enter NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) in April.

That should keep me very busy!

#1. I thought Transference would be finished once my writers' group finished going over it, but I didn't get past the second chapter. It needed more work, and I couldn't figure out how to fix the problems. I decided to wait until I finished Holly Lisle's course to work on it. I have ten lessons left to go. That's why I have to do the editing lessons before March.

#2. NaNoEdMo begins in March. I will work on Transference then.

#3. My blog is close to being ready to launch. All I need is to design the layout of the site. I will let everyone on CoMo know when it's up. I intend to use some posts I have made on EdMo last year, here on CoMo, and on WriMo for some of my blog. I'll change them slightly because they need to follow a theme, but you'll recognize them.

#4. NaBlaPoMo's goal is to write a new post for your blog for every day of one month. I should be able to do that during the 30 days of April.

I have learned enough about the Leland Stanford Mansion to be able to give quality tours, so that is no longer a hindrance to my writing. All I have managed to write over the past month and a half is to enter information about Leland Stanford and people he associated with on my timeline of Sacramento. Writing factual research isn't the same, and doesn't satisfy me, like writing and editing my own fiction.

My writing has been on hold for too long. My goals for April and beyond are to write Manzanita Gold needs to be written beyond 50,000 words. I want to get back to the story about Annwyn and Shoss. I still have to complete Holly Lisle's course and graduate.

In order to do all of that, I will be posting less here. I have already cut way back on WriMo.

[zDave40]

This is the second of two posts.

If you came directly to this post, scroll up to see the first post.

This might fit better under another topic, but I don't want to resurrect it.

I suppose that those of you who helped me with the names of some of my characters may remember doing that. Here is an update of the partial cast of Manzanita Gold.

If you recall, the book starts out in the Present, travels back into the Past, and eventually (the reader will hope and expect) will return to the Present. I have more Point of View characters than I mention here. "Present 5." means the 5th character on the list from the Present, and "Past 1" is the first character from the Past.


<Here is an example: of some of the characters:

Present 5. Rebecca (Becky) Roberta Lake (POV Character)--19, at the University, majors in English Language, has taken creative writing, studied English literature of the 1700s and 1800s, knows German, French, and Swedish; plays flute and alto recorder. Her passion is her horse, spending many hours with her appaloosa mare.

On the Trail, she refuses to wear dresses because she wants to ride, so she wears men’s clothes. Caleb thinks she’s a young man until he finds out otherwise—“That young shaver is a bit of muslin?” Then he falls for her, eventually, she falls for him. Now what happens when they return to the future?

She frequently accompanies Wai-chuk on his wanderings, and they soon adopt a father-daughter relationship, although he is old enough to be her grandfather.

She writes the most authentic period-sounding diary using the name Roberta Lacey.

Present 6. Charley Blue (Wai-chuk)—Miwok-Paiute Indian; has outlived his wife by 23 years.
70 years old, but still spry, strong, and fit; raises horses, has dogs; knows Indian crafts, archer, makes own authentic weapons; rejected for membership in local Miwok tribes and Paiute tribe his mother belonged to; feels that he does not belong to this world, jumps at the chance to go on the overland journey, does NOT intend to return; plays Indian flute.

On the Trail, takes his Indian name of Wai-chuk, but he confesses he doesn’t know what it means; he provides almost every main meal by killing game and fishing; he helps Becky buy a horse; when it dies on the trail, he trades his bow for an Indian mustang for her. They spend time together, and the minister accuses them of canoodling, but they are more like grandfather and granddaughter.

Present 23. Wilbur Blackburn—father, 38 docent re-enactor at Sutter’s Fort. Moe calls him an “African domino” and “domino”.

Present 24. Olivia (Liv) Blackburn--mother, 38 docent re-enactor Sutter’s Fort. Caleb calls her a “hankie head” (hankie-wearing darkie because she wears a blue bandanna over her head); Moe isn’t as kind, calling her a “stove lid” or “Nigger mammy”.

Present 25. LaTonya Blackburn--19, City College, history major, plays violin. Caleb calls her a “bit of ebony” and Moe says “dark meat” (attractive black girls; opposite of white meat meaning white girls).

Present 26. Roderick (Roddy) Blackburn--16, High School, journalism major, plays drums. Moe calls him a “spade” (from Ace of Spades, a black card).

Present 27. LaVonne Blackburn (Vonnie)--13.. learned recorder; Moe calls her a picaninny.

Caleb calls all of them “darkies” and Negroes.

Past 1. Caleb Campbell POV Character)—20; sandy hair, shorter than Becky Lake, very glum, too much tragedy in life to have a sense of humor, won’t sing or play instrument, can do penny whistle. Love for Becky makes him happy and smile. Wagon train's blacksmith.

Past 2. The muleskinner Moses (Moe) Krueger--Not a very nice man, rather shady, rough, sometimes nasty in what he says, but he does nothing to harm Caleb or those in the Company. He is his own boss and does not like to follow directions.

MOST OF THESE NAMES WILL BE FAMILIAR TO THOSE WHO HELPED ME WITH THEM.

Past 8. Jan (John) van Schoonhoven—Dutch, 28. Loses leg, stays cheerful and buoyant. His surname Schoonhoven: Dutch, Belgian. Means “From the town of Schoohoven”, which means "beautiful garden”. After wife dies, bonds with Past 23. Martha Moore.

Past 9. Maartje (Martha) van Schoonhoven—Dutch, 28, five months pregnant. Ever faithful to Jan/John, nurses him through his painful recovery period; befriends widow Martha Moore; dies in childbirth.

Past 10. Cornellis (Cor) van Schoonhoven—Dutch, 9, son.

Past 11. Machteltje (Tellie) van Schoonhoven—Dutch, 8, daughter.

Past 12. Eeuwit (Ewing) van Schoonhoven—Dutch, 6, boy. Moe nicknames him Nitwit because he does something stupid, acting like a typical child. In retaliation, Caleb calls him “True Wit” and then settles on Wit.

Past 13. Oskar Gunvaldsson—Swedish, 23, farmer; family moved to New York from Sweden; he wants to find enough gold to buy a farm. His surname in Swedish means "son of Gunvald". The Old Norse name Gunvald means "war ruler"

Past 14. Lovisa Karldotter Gunvaldsson—Swedish, 20, married just four months; Oskar calls her “Lolo”, short for Lovisa, Duva, Swedish meaning "Dove" or min lilla duva, “My little Dove”. She has the first baby born on the trip.

Past 22. Jacobina Karldotter Svensson—Swedish, 22, married to Pär, who dies before she is introduced to the story; she continues on in the company of her sister and brother-in-law. Jacobina and Antonio DeLonghi fall in love and are married as soon as they reach Sutter’s Fort.

Past 15. Jean Pierre Sauveterre—French, 19, recently married. His French name comes from one of the towns in France derived from sauve "safe" and terre "land": therefore "safe haven".

Past 16. Claudine Sauveterre—French, 19, recently married.

Past 17. Frederick (Fred) Förstner—German, father, 32, a carpenter and cabinet maker German form of Forester.

Past 18. Gertrude (Trudie) Förstner—German, mother, 30

Past 19. Liesel Förstner—German, daughter, 10

Past 20. Günther Förstner—German, son, 8

[b]Past 21. Yves Lapointe—French, 25, alone, having lost his wife to cholera, one son to chicken pox last year, and his two girls to measles since leaving Westport. Because Indians embarrassed him, he hates all Indians. His last name, Lapointe, means "point of a lance" in French. The name was originally a nickname for a soldier, which enters into the story near the time he murders a Paiute.

Past 23. Martha Moore—mother whose wagon is attacked by Indians, husband, son, children, sister and sister’s children killed by Paiutes; travels in Past 8. Jan Schoonhoven’s wagon, helps Jan and Marta.

That's just to give you an idea. As you can tell, this is a very involved novel with many layers, two different wagon trains, a large cast, and scads of historical detail. I included some of the 1849 slang here, but I have a separate list of it. In fact, I have separate details on many things used in the book.

So far, it has been wonderful fun writing it.

[rayelynnlee]

Wow. Good goals, you can reach them all

Your novel is definitely complex, looks like it'll be awesome. I'm glad you've finally gotten to the point where you can start writing again rather than all the research.

For a while I was trying to focus on just editing Ivory, but I was missing just writing too much so I had to let myself start my next project.

Can't wait for your blog

[DameBoudicca]

Good luck with all your projects!

And if you need any additional help with your Swedes just let me know - I should be able to solve most historical questions that could arise with them (since I'm not just Swedish but a historian too).

[NutmegAngel]

Wow! And there was me thinking that the research I did into the 1920s was pretty detailed. And now I'm going to have to do research into the 60s/70s because I accidentally started writing a book set then...

[zDave40]

Thanks for the offer, Boudicca. No problems foreseen, but who knows when I get to writing about the Swedes. I have mentioned them, but they are just shadows in the background at the moment. Jacobina Svensson will have the biggest part, but with almost 60 characters, it will be a very small part of the entire book.

Nutmeg, I lived through the years you mentioned. I may be able to give you the U. S. slant on some views, if you want it. I was never very interested in politics, though. I may be able to offer a few websites that are good for resource material.

[NutmegAngel]

It's mostly set in heaven, but I think parts of it will go on earth, probably in schools. Haven't really decided much yet. At the moment, I'm writing a big battle scene...

[zDave40]

My goals for May 2009 are:

Writing Goal:
Continue working on Manzanita Gold. I stopped in January because I wanted to get the final edit done on Transference. I got back to Gold after two months and found out I had forgotten the little details of what I wrote. I read through the 52,000+ words written and decided many things need to be changed before I continue with the story. Last week, I made an outline of the changes I want, like many main character names and even two backstories. I'll do some rewriting and also continue on my way with new material. So, my WRITING goal is

Do 20,000 or more words for MayNoWriMo. (Pencil and turtle Ticker)

Editing Goal
I'm always editing. How many hours will I spend without trying to reach a goal? That is what I want to find out. Since I'm sure I always do at least 50 hours, that is the stated goal, but we'll see just how many hours I spend editing while also writing. My not-stated EDITING goal will be to

Do somewhere around or over 50 hours of editing. (Toy train Ticker)

[phoenix.writing]

Sounds as though you have plenty to keep you occupied, Dave. Best of luck with both your goals!

[annemarie]

One thing I always forget to do is remember to make time for editing *doh*

[zDave40]

I made my goals, barely! This turned out to be a terrible month.

I won't be able to do much writing or editing done this month, I may have time to come by to make an occasionally post on a few of the threads, but they may be very intermittent. My life got very complicated last month, taking time away from writing and editing. And it won't get better.

Last July, I decided to take Holly Lisle's writing class "How to Think Sideways", which is excellent. It is supposed to be a 6-month course and I seem to be trying to turning it into more than a 12-month course. With only seven more lessons to finish and graduate, I need to get busy and finish!

I'm working more days than I intended or expected since I'm supposed to have a part time job. It used to be three days one week, two the next, or approximately 16 days a month. Working five to seven days in a row with some days only four hours long, even with two to four days off in a row, is not exactly my idea of part time. Riding the light rail increases my work day by two or more hours no matter how many hours I work.

And this tour guide job may not last past July 1st.

To "solve" California's budget crisis, Governor Schwarzenegger want to close 220 of the 280 state parks. Although that may never happen, many of the smaller historical parks that can be shut down and boarded up (with one groundskeeper and one caretaker working several parks) MAY happen. I work at two of those parks.

If I am put out of a job, I have no idea what will happen, but I will keep you posted.