BoNoProMo Update, and What Color is Your Aura?

I do love those Google-powered miniature moments of research that I get to do while writing - "How Much Does It Cost To Start a Taxi Business?" (answer: outside of a big city, as little as $20,000) and "What Do Different Aura Colors Mean" (answer: purple people are natural mystics and good with animals, while reds are energetic and quick to anger). What did we all do before the internet? (bonus answer: accumulate shelves full of reference materials, and make a lot more trips to the local library).

Well, if you've been following along at home, the above rambling probably indicates that I am, indeed, continuing to write. In fact, I've been sticking to my previous-detailed BoNoProMo schedule of ten hours (in total) for May 1-7 pretty closely, although on any given day I might have been plus or minus as much as an hour. The result? One new short story written, of a little under 3,000 words, that will be critiqued come this Friday at the next meeting of the Bay State Scribblers. It's certainly not submission-ready (yet), but I must admit I'm just pleased to have already brought forth something with a beginning, middle, and end. So far, the experiment is a success.

Thanks again, Lisa Borders.

Not really sure what's next in line, however, and that could be a problem. The above-noted Google research was for a story opening that takes place in a setting I like, but the first couple of pages basically consist of two rather boring characters trading some witty dialogue, without any real conflict. Oh, but they're having "relationship issues." Bah. We'll see what happens, but I suspect I'll abandon that piece, and then flail about in my notebooks and (computer) files touching a variety of abandoned story beginnings, odd scenes, dialogue snippets, or character names until something sticks to my (virtual) fingers. I know my own writing style, and I go through a lot of false starts before finding that stickiness. This may be a week full of them.

What's the schedule look like? Well, with Penny happening to be out of town, I can go full-on hermit crab mode if I want, or if I have to, but let's try this on for size:

• Thursday, May 8 - 1 hour.
• Friday, May 9 - 0 hours (writer's group meeting). Maybe sneak in a half hour.
• Saturday, May 10 - 2 hours (somebody's wife's birthday, but we don't celebrate those).
• Sunday, May 11 - 2.5 hours.
• Monday, May 12 - 1 hour (back to work).
• Tuesday, May 13 - 1.5 hours.
• Wednesday, May 14 - another 1.5 hours, and time for your next update.

Hey, if you're a writer participating in #BoNoProMo (follow us on Twitter!), what's your schedule been like? How goes it so far?

(My, there have been a lot of parenthetical digressions in this post, haven't there been? Anyway...)

Thanks for reading,

Stephen