Thursday, October 11, 2012

Edits, Exterminators, and NaNoWriMo


Progress on edits:

In the last two mornings during my mental meltdown over the mice, I was able to edit eight chapters of my WIP that my writing partner marked up for me, five of them this morning while waiting somewhat impatiently for the exterminator.  They aren't the final edits, but I feel great about the changes and amazingly lucky to have such a talented CP.

Tomorrow (unless a mouse runs across my foot or shows it's little face) I am going to jump back into final edits.  I was hoping to do a chapter a day in October.  At least I kept writing on days that were difficult instead of making excuses.

I have made plenty of excuses about exercise. I have done zero - although I think I may have burned some calories in my cleaning frenzy yesterday.

And I'm having a hard time keeping up with comments and reading other blogs while obsessing over revisions and rodents.  I'm sure you all understand.


Exterminator update:

The dude walked into my garage and found tons of mouse poop.  Definitely mouse poop.  Apparently he can tell the animal from what it leaves behind and explained in great detail how to tell if it's fresh.  Awesome.

He thinks they will go to the attic, where they will eat the rodinocide (cool word, no?) and then they will leave the house and soon go to the spirit in the sky.  I prefer to be humane about removing creatures from my home, but I can't cope with this. 

He also thinks it's going to be a problem if they crawl into an open bag of cheesy chips.  My kids did not clean their rooms yesterday.  Today is the day.  And now I'm a bit of an expert on mouse poop.  Hopefully there isn't any under the stinky laundry in their rooms.  Must remember to wear gloves.



NaNoWriMo update:

I've got the badge on my sidebar and signed up.  I added a little graph for my word count.  If you want one, go to http://www.svenjaliv.com/wordmeter/.

I've decided I'm not going to write through Thanksgiving.  I need time with my family, and, well, I like cooking on Thanksgiving Day with my kids.  So I'm going to try to double up the first few days and write more than 2,000 words a day so I won't have to write as much at the end of the month. 

Honestly, it would be cool to finish the whole novel, not just the first 50K. 

Just an observation - the regional group in the area I live in is run by teens.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Good reason to stay off the forums and just write.

I had to change my user ID because, well, the system said my email didn't exist when it did the day before.  I'm not sure I care. 



17 comments:

  1. Maybe you can use all that info on mouse poop in a story at some point.

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  2. No sympathy for mice in the home - they are a must go situation. (As they like to say here in the South.)
    Editing and NaNo? Go get 'em! Decided I'm just going to stick to the editing this year.

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    1. Editing this month, then writing, then editing. I dunno. I've worked on the edits 12 days in a row and am a little fried from it. I definitely need to schedule a day off every 12 days. :)

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  3. Good luck with the rodent issue. They're tough to defeat permanently.

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    1. My bug guy/mouse catcher seems confident they'll be gone soon. I am choosing to believe him. No scratching in the walls yesterday - he said that's a sign they ate the poison. Yes, I'm going to hell for this - or I'm coming back as a rat.

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  4. I'm so glad that you are getting the rodents taken care of. They carry all kinds of terrible diseases.

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    1. I know this is irrational, but their tails are terrifying to me.

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  5. I once knew I had a mouse in the house because when I went to brush my teeth in the morning there was a mouse dropping on my tooth brush. Not kidding. So gross.

    Good for you for pushing ahead with the edits in the face of mouse-apocalypse!!

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    1. Ick! The edits are my way of escaping. :) Love the term mouse-apocalypse! That would be a horrific ending to the world - if we were over-run by mice.

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  6. Wild mice probably aren't the best to have in the home, but pet ones are very sweet and cute. I don't think we've ever had a mouse problem with four cats in the house. ;)

    Good luck with NaNo and editing!

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  7. A mouse saga? I think I missed an important post. I once worked in an office where a mouse ran across my foot and it took months to get over it. I'm glad the exterminator is there.

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    1. I once worked in an office where giant roaches meandered around as if they owned the place. Mice are better than roaches I think...maybe it's a tie.

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  8. I'll probably be writing in NOvember, but not doing NaNo. I have cats. I hope that will keep critters away.

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    1. I signed up for NaNoWriMo but I find the hype and excessive emails a little annoying.

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  9. Yep, I have a cat too and she is great at keeping mice and other nasties away. Good luck with your NaNo :)

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    1. Cats suck away my air. Wasn't there a movie where a cat was stealing a little girl's air in the middle of the night?

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