What the Junk?!

I think I have decided on my story for this year's NaNoWriMo. It's a story I started a long time ago and didn't go anywhere with. I am going to revamp it and start over. The basic premise is good and I can definitely work with it. I just need to do a bit of research, not a lot. These are characters I've used over and over in my own personal stories.  This is a totally new direction for them. I think it will be pretty fun to do. I'm actually pretty anxious to get started. It's going to be a fun one to write. 

I already have it ready to go in Scrivener. I have all the old footage to review before I start anew. I also have ideas and things in there. I love Scrivener and couldn't imagine writing without it now. It's so great to have everything right there.  It's just the best!

Sort of a boring day. I did write more than I did yesterday, so that was good! I wrote yesterday and got to a certain point. I added an entire scene that I decided against and scrapped that part. I DID save the text in a note in Scrivener. I might go with that later, I haven't decided yet. It may be put in but a lot different and I wasn't ready to write that part yet, so to the side, it went. That, of course, made yesterday's writing count go down. I didn't write a ton more today, but I did write more and that is what counts. :) I sort of want to add in that drama from yesterday (revamped) but we'll see!

Whee!  I did that today.  I had an event in my story. It is going to lead to a secondary event that I'll start tomorrow!  It went well, but I think I need to go back and add more details when I edit later.  It's going to be interesting with the next part, I think.  My people are in a compound after the Z Event. This is what the zombie apocalypse is called in my series.  Their compound was attacked by hostile survivors who wanted to invade. The invaders were attacked by zoms (what they are called in the books) and now the compound is surrounded by zoms. This means until they wander off, there is no leaving for supplies.  I have to get them through this and see what is next for them!  I'm not even sure.

One of the characters I introduced this time was going to be an older misogynist dude and it turned out it was a kid trying to act like an adult because he was alone and scared. I didn't see that coming and I"m writing this! lol, I need to work up a full character profile of him and the other new character I added.  I have their names and ages and a bit of background for the second one, but I need to flesh them out.  I have a character template that I got via Evernote that I use in Scrivener for my characters. It's easy to have a backup of them in my Scrivener binder and my Evernote. As I learned last November, ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR WORK. Thanks again Evernote! If it were for them, I'd have lost my first few days of writing last year and not been able to carry on until I could get my computer back to life!

This is my area before I started writing earlier:

As you can see, I went to Starbucks! :P I got a venti flat white and a chocolate chip cookie for inspiration.  I have written my first 1750 words and it feel great! A good start to this year's NaNoWriMo! Yes, it's all backed up in Evernote!

Well, the snow didn't last long.  We got rain and some sleet too.  It was pretty much a bust.  Oh well.  Maybe we will get one nice snow this year.  I didn't go out today just in case the roads were icy.  I got all my usual Sunday stuff done.  I got a good deal of writing done too! :)  I was happy with that and I can't wait to re-read it.  I am sure I'll add a few things to it and edit it some tomorrow.  I love writing in Scrivener and being able to edit as I need. It's so much easier than writing in a basic word program!  I also want to give props to Evernote for always being there to back up my work!

It was very cold today.  There is still some snow in places hanging on.  The forecast now is for more possible snow and ice this weekend. I am not sure if it will, but it's certainly going to be something if it does. It's so blasted cold!  I'm glad my friend gave me a better heater for my room a few weeks ago or I'd be freezing to death in my own house! lol

Speaking of my house... Last night, I was in the bathroom that is next to my bedroom and I heard something.  Every so often, I'll hear animals under my house and they come near the tub and I can hear them in the bathroom. I knew immediately what it was, so I went on about my business.  Well, later on, I kept hearing this weird noise.  It was a sort of chirring/chittering/ churring sound.  I figured it was the animal. Since the bathtub in the bathroom next to my room is so close to my bed on the other side of the wall, it had to be that. It was SO LOUD at one point I could swear whatever it was was actually in my room. It trilled and made noises and then, it SCREAMED and I mean screamed.  After that, I heard nothing. @_@; I don't know if something killed him, or he ran away somewhere else. I haven't heard anything at all today. It was pretty damn creepy. I looked up various animals (sounds on YouTube) and I THINK it was a possum, but I am still not sure.  I was going to get a recording when it was doing the weird churring sounds and then it started screaming.  This was right after midnight too, so...  yeah, that was fun. :p

I wrote yesterday and today and I opened a Scrivener file for the other story idea I have. I'm not ready to work on it yet, but I'm going to have it to use to put my ideas in.  I have some already in Evernote so I'll have them both places.  I keep coming up with stuff for it,  so I figured I'd go ahead and get the Scrivener file started so I could put ideas and research in there as I go.  I think it's going to be good, but I'm too invested in the current one. I have enjoyed it so much! 

By the way, here is the weather from the app on my MacBook Pro:

Looks fun, no? :p

So, I cannot upgrade to Big Sur on any of my Macbooks.  I'm sort of sad because I know in a few years, some apps won't work. I'm hoping that the ones I use the most will still be able to run on Catalina.  If I can continue to use Evernote, Scrivener, and Chrome, I'll be okay.  I would love to try out Big Sur though. I have heard that some people HAVE put it on a mid-2012 MBP so I know it can be done, but Apple is not giving me the option through the App store.  Oh well!

It's been a pretty boring day. I didn't even leave the house.  I did get my daily journal set up for 2021.  I used to buy a dated planner each year.  I got a couple of undated ones free a few years back.  I dated and have used one this year. I thought about buying a dated one for 2021 and saving the other un-dated one for 2022. I looked at planners and I couldn't find one I absolutely loved.  I found several I liked in some ways and didn't like in others.  I just said phooey on it and dated this one today!  It's ready to go.  I haven't even started setting up my bullet journal for 2021.  I really need to do that.  I have the new Leuchtturm for that already, I just need to start setting it up.

It actually snowed here today for a little bit.  It was mainly snow flurries, but it was pretty.  I enjoyed watching it for the short time it happened.  I hope we actually get a decent snow event this year.  We probably won't, but it would be nice!  I had to run an errand today and it was pretty darn chilly out there. I found out that the heater on my car works great!  I had never really had to use it before. The air worked well all summer, so I was hoping the heat would too and it does. Yay! One bright spot in my dreary life. 

I got a little writing done today but it was sort of meh. I want to try to work on it some more before bedtime so after posting this, I'll go and do that.  I want to get to the exciting part! I could write it ahead of time since I'm working in Scrivener, but I'm trying to write in order.  We'll see how well that goes. :p

Well for today it is.  I got my NaNo work done and a little on my other work.  I was glad to get them both done. I am getting there on my NaNo work and I'm still loving my other story.  I will definitely continue it after I finish NaNo.  There is another old story that I pulled out not too long ago and I think I might just work on it too after NaNo and I've completed the one I am doing. I had actually done a little on it in Scrivener and I realized that it was the one work I didn't get back. I hadn't done a lot on it so it's not too bad, but I would like to re-read what I had done. Oh well.  The old drive will let me load it on the case when I plug it in externally, but the part of the drive that the stuff is on that I can't get it not working. It's there but it's acting like it's not there.  I still don't know what to do about that, but I'm not going to delete anything just in case I might be able to get that portion back.  I wish there was some magic fix!

My NaNoWriMo writing is on track. I'm getting in on the average right at 2000 words a day. Today I hit 20,710 words! It's going pretty well.  I just hope I have the other 29,000 words! :p

It's been a long day and I'm extremely tired.  I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and I'm totally dragging today.  Hopefully, I'll sleep well tonight.  I need it.  

My hard drive won't mount at all now so I might have lost my files.  I'm so glad I was able to get the Scrivener files last night!  I also set all my backups for Scrivener to go directly to Dropbox so I will never have to worry about losing anything again.  I can't do this again. I still hope that the drive will mount again but I am not holding my breath!

Totally meant to post last night.  I've been trying out different recovery software and I FINALLY found one that will let me get up to 1 GB of data. I was able to get my Scrivener files. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am now hoping to find a discount link so that I can purchase the license for the program so I can get everything back. It's less than the other software options I've tried and I've been able to get my Scrivener stuff so I'm happy to use it.  I just need to save up for it.  

I participated in a virtual write-in again tonight and I just realized that I never ate dinner. D'oh!  I was busy working with the program trying to recover files right up until I went into the session. I got my writing done with everyone and was happy to know it's all back again! (all my old works)  So so, relieved to have that. I have now done backups to Dropbox and I plan to do weekly ones. I'll still do daily ones to Evernote!  Evernote saved my butt last week for sure! Now I have to get something to eat and I am going to relax.  So happy to have my old Scrivener files!

I actually had the blog posting option open on my laptop last night to post.  I was working along on some of my writing.  I had gotten my days NaNo session done and had worked on the other story I've been writing.  I got on a roll on that one and when I finally took a breath and looked at the clock, it was after midnight. D'oh!  So, I didn't post here last night as I planned, but here I am tonight.

I have been gone all day on a thrift run.  My friend got off at noon and he and I went on our thrift run, Reidsville, Eden, and then Martinsville.  I got a lot of goodies and some useful things, too! I found a wireless mouse almost exactly like the one I have brand new for $2.99.  I don't need one now, but it never hurts to have a spare.  It is Logitech just like the one I use every day with my MacBook Pro.  I like the wireless ones a lot.  I got four candles, a lot of crafting stuff (card stock, scrapbook papers, a whole bag of assorted stampers, and some envelopes and notepads.  I also got other assorted things. It was a good run. In the last Goodwill, there was one of those metal pencil/pen holders that had pencils in it.  Brand new, Ticonderoga pencils just chilling in it.  I picked it up and got the pencils and the container for .99¢!   I love Ticonderoga pencils so 24 brand new ones in a pencil cup? Yes, please!  One of the useful things I got was a George Foreman grill in the Salvation Army store in Eden. The inside looked brand new.  Mine has gotten where the coating is starting to come off (the non-stick stuff). I saw this one for $7.99. I plugged it in and the light came on so I figured I would take a chance with it working.  I was going to replace mine with a new one but this was a lot cheaper!  If it works, that will be great.  It was a fun trip and I came home and unloaded all my goodies, looked through them, and then got to work on today's NaNo session.  I hit my 10,000-word mark yesterday! Yay!

I may write a little on my other work.  I am running another disk recovery app on the Mac. I'm hoping it will let me recover at least my old Scrivener files and THIS time, I'd definitely going to back them up on Dropbox and the MBP! I started the lately scan today before I left and it's still running.  That is over ten hours so far! Sheesh! The bad thing with this one is there is no progress bar.  I hope it's still scanning away.  Who knows?

It has been a hectic 24 hours for me.  Last night I did a write-in for NaNoWriMo and that was fun!  My computer was slowing down terribly so I went to restart it.  I was smart enough to back up the day's writing in Evernote.  Good thing I did because my hard drive failed quite spectacularly!  I went to Target and bought an external hard drive and I was able to re-install Lion (SO OLD) and then I was able to upgrade to... I think it was El Capitan and from that, I was able to install Catalina.   I currently have Scrivener, Chrome, and Evernote on here.  I am going to try to save my files from the bad hard drive, but for now I'm satisfied.  I have my first two days of NaNo writing and I can keep on.  I haven't written today because I was trying to get my MacBook Pro back to a working laptop.  It is and I hope tomorrow to get the files from the dead drive. It's there, but I'm going to have to do so work to get my files back. I'm just happy to have a working laptop for now.  The other stuff will come later.  I'm going to get my daily word count for NaNo and I'll feel so much better.  Wish me luck in getting all my files back!  

I am still not sure if I'm doing my zombie fic or the skating fic, but I am working on full character profiles for my skating characters.  I'm probably going with that to do for NaNo. If not that, a whole new one.  I do want to write more on my zombie fic, but I'm not sure I want to do that for this year's NaNo.  I might re-read the first four and see.  I have a lot of ideas for the skating story, so ...  Yes, I still have no clue which to do. :P

I had all the stuff in one notebook stack in Evernote.  I fixed that by making two stacks in Evernote.  One for the zombie books and one for the skating books.  It makes it easier to keep up with everything.  I love Evernote so much!  It's so dang handy!  I still use an Evernote template for my characters.  I write up the info in the template in Evernote. I keep a copy of it in there and I copy the templates into Scrivener.  That way I can reference it either way.  It helps to have those in Evernote for on the go since I always have my phone with me.

So when I wrote my latest book for Camp Nano back in April, I saved each day as a separate file in Evernote. I saved it all in a notebook for that book. I was re-reading through it recently and realized that there is a part missing.  I also found a continuity error and a place where I need to rename a character.  What worries me is the missing portion. I'm hoping it's actually in Scrivener and for some reason I didn't copy and paste that part into Evernote. I think for Novembers NaNo I'm going to write the second book to this one.  I really love the characters and they have a good future.

I'll use Preptober to do some character profiles and plan out the details for the next book.  I'm opening Scrivener now to see if that part is there or if I have to add it back.  I introduced a character when I was writing, but his intro is missing in the copied parts. D'oh!