Last night, as the minutes ticked closer to midnight, I began to get a twitch in my eyelid -- a sure sign that something in my brain was going to over heat and explode. It wasn't so much any lack of words that was causing the problem, I had a clear sense of what I would write once I got to a computer. And that was the problem getting to a computer.

Every Monday night my mother, my sisters, and I take a 3-mile walk around the local track. Due a completely failed sense of time that night, I figured I could take the walk, head on home, and get to writing with plenty of time. I was clearly delusional.

By the time I got back to my sister's house, it was drawing near 10 p.m. and I had 4,000 more words to write. Worse was that it would take me half an hour to get home where my lap top was sitting idly by waiting for my command. There was no way I could head home first and still have time to finish.

Fortunately I was able to use my sister's laptop to finish off the novel. While my family watched Intervention and Hoarders, I typed away frantically, caring less than usual about the bad, bad sentences and the repetitive phrases. I eeked through the finish gate with 50,189 words and 5 minutes to spare.


Project: Untitled Alternate World Novel
New Words: 30,184 (Over the course of 5 days with 4,000 written between 10 p.m. and midnight on November 30th.)
Current Total Word Count: 50,189
Goal: 50,000+ words

Random Sentence(s): Mitra tumbled off the boulder. Her shoulder stuck the stones as she fell, and her arms and hands were cut up by the rocks beneath her. She realized with perfect clarity what the vision had been telling her. Sonia had been sent to her for help and Mitra had failed her. She lay on the ground and wept.

Notes: So, here's the score. While I have completed Nano, there are many upon many more words to write before this story will be complete. In fact, I think I'm not even a quarter finished, in part because of the natural fluff that goes into first drafts. Therefore, I will be continuing with this story. For the time being the goal will be extended to 100,000 words, but I think its going to take more than that.

In between eating pie, hanging out with family and friends, lounging in front of the TV, gambling away my dollars playing 31, drinking mixed-vodka drinks, dealing with my many car issues, and generally being thankful for all the joy in my life, I've also managed to write 18,880 words over the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend. (Since writing for Nano was my only goal, I achieved it with aplomb!) The typical response from my non-writerly friends, when I announced my daily word count, was a shake of the head and a look of wonderment. To which I just shrugged and offered a pleased smile, because while I know of plenty of writers who make my word count look itty-bitty, I was still quite proud of myself.

I have over 3k left to write by midnight tonight in order to complete Nano. It will be done just as soon as I can escape from the imprisonment of work. Will have a writing update for that as soon as I'm done.

Oh, here's some lists of things that need doing. :)

Things I MUST do this week:
-- do my 3-4 marathon training days
-- write a minimum of 5000 words on my UAWF novel
-- complete this week's therealljidol entry
-- complete this week's brigits_flame entry
-- update my resume (just in case)

Things I HOPE to do this week:

-- post a new youtube video (should happen)
-- prepare and send out a poetry submission (may happen)
-- do a sketch or two and/or get animation art pages done (could happen)
-- do morning poetry/journaling (0/7 days completed) (should happen)

I would like to say that the reason that I have no posted over the past several days was a sign that I've been writing wildly away at my Nano novel. I would like to say that, but it would be a lie. I have written nothing, well, next to nothing, in the past few days.

There are several reasons for this. One, I am currently car-less due to a blown head gasket. I'm also currently in an internal debate of whether or not its worth it to get it fixed or find a way to get a new used car for myself that might run better over the long haul.

Two, I started reading Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest (a.k.a. cmpriest), which not only has an awesome cover, but is a fantastic read. Furthermore, while it combines two of my favorite things (steampunk and zombies), the storyline is totally addictive and the characters totally believable. The result was that I was totally absorbed in the book and could not think of doing anything else until I finished it, at which point I was promptly upset that it was over.

Three, as happens occasionally, when I overwhelm myself with creative projects and life, I get to the point where I burn out and can't do much usefull until I've unwound enough to return to making progress. Hopefully, during said unwinding (involving much TV and movie watching), I don't lose any come back just as inspired as I was previously.

All that being said, I've managed to come back to the computer and make some progress today. So, here are the stats.

Project: Untitled Alternate World Novel
New Words: 3,303
Current Total Word Count: 28,434
Goal: 50,000+ words

Random Sentence(s): Sonia watched him, slightly disturbed by the flash of his yellow teeth and the way his skin shook when he talked. She had an instant distrust of really old people. Her mother would have smacked her upside the head if she knew this. Sonia clicked her tongue, imitating the sound of her mother's hand connecting with her skull.

Notes: I found that I have written entire scenes that I already know will be thrown out at a later date. I'm jumped back one scene, simply restarting it so that I can be on steadier ground as I continue. I expect that changes like this will continue to happen throughout, but I suppose it matters little as long as progress continues to be made.

Project: Untitled Alternate World Novel
New Words: 5,126 (Two days worth of writing.)
Current Total Word Count: 25,131
Goal: 50,000+ words

Random Sentence(s): The children ran up the rows collecting the stones, laughing and shoving and pushing. It was a race and the children threw the stones into separate piles, which their father would count at the end of the day. To the child who had carried the most stones, the father would award a prize. Sometimes the prize was to be carried into the house on his shoulders for dinner. Sometimes the prize was an extra story when they went to sleep. Sometimes the prize was simply a kiss on the cheek, a pat on the head, and a well done. These were the only gifts he had to give them.

Notes: Passed the halfway mark! *joy*
Of course, that's halfway for Nano, not halfway for the novel itself. In fact, up until the 20,000 word point, I've only been dealing with the first three chapters, which I know will be much shorter in the final version. I've kind of been feeling stuck in those chapters. Part of it has been because the chapters have been especially long due to all the back story that's been slipping in as I figure out who exactly these people are and what exactly are the rules of the world in which they live.

But I'm past them now. There are still one or two more introductory kind of chapters to do. Writing from multiple points of view means getting to know each character and what they mean in this world. But these chapters should hopefully goes smoother. And beyond that I'm into other chapters that deal more with the progression of the plot, which is far more interesting than figuring out the whole back story thing. So, now I'm starting to get excited again.

I'm figuring this excitement will continue until I begin to reach those points where I'm not sure what's going to happen next. Hopefully, those answers will fill in as I work my way up to them.

The one worry that these long opening chapters give me is that this will probably mean that my draft zero will require a monsterous amount of writing before I call it done. I imagine it to be well over 100,000 words. But that's just my inital impression and who knows what will actually come about.

Oh, and I've discovered one major inconsistency in the "rules" of my world, but I've also fixed it as soon as I discovered it. So huge sigh of relief there.

This was an especially slow week for me in terms of getting things done. It's something that happens when I set (too?) many goals for myself. I get to the point where I start to burn out, so I take in mental breaks. The problem with that is when those mental breaks turn into day long marathons of watching The Guild online. (It's really good and make me want to play World of Warcraft, something I've never done before. I'm glad I don't have the money or time to spend. Heh.)

I did get two walking/running days in, and while I'm still over 6,000 words behind, I made some significant progress on my Nano novel, passing the 20,000 word marker. So the week was not a total loss.

Things I MUST do this week:
-- do my 3-4 marathon training days
-- write 1,667 words/day or 11,700 words total for the week on my Nano novel
-- complete this week's therealljidol entry (Back to must so that I don't use up all my Byes)

Things I HOPE to do this week:
-- complete this week's brigits_flame entry (I'm out of the competition, so this is no longer a must. *shrug*)
-- post a new youtube video (probably not going to happen)
-- prepare and send out a poetry submission (may happen)
-- do a sketch or two and/or get animation art pages done (could happen)
-- compile movie listings for zombie site (highly unlikely to happen)
-- do morning poetry/journaling (0/7 days completed) (can't find my journal so may not happen)

Project: Untitled Alternate World Novel
New Words: 7,633 (This is over the course of several days since I last posted. About 3600 was written today.)
Current Total Word Count: 20,005
Goal: 50,000+ words

Random Sentence(s): She looked out across the valleys and the other seven peaks. The sky was bright blue and clear and the sun had not yet dipped down behind the mountains. She could feel its warmth on her back.

Notes: Hey! I passed the 20,000 mark. Sweet!
I'm still far behind, and I'll have to write 5,000 or more words tomorrow to be totally caught up, but I'm feeling good about this whole thing. Using Write or Die today really helped me put out some words despite all the distractions that there are in my house.

TITLE: Utitled Alternate World Novel, Chapter 1
PROMPT: Key
WORD COUNT: 1622
NOTES: This is another edited excerpt from my Nano novel. Written from the point of view of a different character, it happens before Sonia's scene. It should give you a sense of how she ended up in this other world. I missed the deadline for the brigits_flame contest, so I'm just posting it for fun, since I put in the work to edit it.

( Read more... )

I've fallen rather behind on Nano. And what's more, instead of writing or even going on one of my walk/runs for marathon training, I spent last night in a frenzy of watching TV episodes on hulu.com. I watched the latest Heroes and Dollhouse episodes, and then discovered that hulu also has some old Buffy episodes, so I went and watched three of those. I have no proper excuse, but I choose to fogive myself for the indiscretion on the premise that I needed a mental break.

Going home to work on Nano doesn't seem to be effective for me. So I will be going to a coffee shop with no internet access tonight, which will force me to either write or stare at the blank screen for long periods of time. (I have no games on my computer.)

However, there is another distraction that I have to be concerned about. As usual, I'm getting all kinds of ideas for other stories and novels while I'm in the middle of a current creation. Most of these I can just take down a few notes on and set aside. But this idea has sort of hit me upside the head and I really, really want to write even though I know that I really, really have to wait until I finish draft zero of my current Nano novel. (And that's finish all of draft zero, by the way, not just the 50,000 words for Nano.)

So I will take down the beginnings of notes and ideas, forcibly put them away in a file, and try really, really hard not to think about it too much. Oh, but it's going to be hard.

This year has had an amazingly long List of Suck.* Some of the items included in the List of Suck have already been mentioned in past blog posts, so I won't repeat them.

In response to this List, I have, along with my sister, been calling Fate out.

"Bring it on, Bitch!" we've shouted. "Bring it on right now, because I'll be damned if I'm carrying any of this shit into the next year!"

We thought this amusing at the time. I realize now our mistake. 

Fate is more than happy to present you with more challenges if you ask for them. For example, Fate has decide to play a game of hide an seek with my cell phone tonight while I was in Mountain View. She was very good at the hiding; I was very poor at the seeking. The cell phone has not been found. Therefore, I present this apology.

Edited to Add: I came in to work this morning and found my cell phone in the office. Which means that it was never lost in the first place. This is very odd, because last night I was 100% sure that I had my cell phone when I got out of the car to go to the write-in. Very, very odd. But thank you Fate for returning my phone to me, even if it's not technically a return and it was just sitting there all along.
 

---

*Note: There is also a corresponding List of Awesome, including, but not limited to, growing metamorphosing connections with family, friends, and internet aquaintances, traveling to Hawaii, getting more connected with my writing than ever before, and all the daily delights such as waking up, stretching, dancing, singing, laughing, smiling, learning, and just plain living.
 

 

I find myself currently in a state of great exhaustion. I had the unfortunate pleasure of receiving a summons on Saturday. I'm being sued for a car accident that happened two years ago (falling just inside the statute of limitations). Fortunately my insurance company is taking car of everything, so I don't have to worry about it per se, but it's still hit me with a high level of stress.

On top of that there is currently high levels of unmentionable drama occurring in my family life. *sigh*

The good news is that I completed most of last weeks Musts. I only fell short by one walking day and 1,000 words on my Nano novel. I'm at 12,372 for Nano, and I wrote the two contest entries I intended to write. I consider this a great personal accomplishment all and all, especially considering that that took many late, late nights for me to achieve.

i'll be kicking off the week with a long, long relaxing walk tonight. This walk will include much venting between my two sisters, my mother, and I. I look forward to this. After that I plan to get my rear home and get some more words on the page, because tired or not, it must be done.

Things I MUST do this week:
-- do my 3-4 marathon training days
-- write 1,667 words/day or 11,700 words total for the week on my Nano novel
-- complete this week's brigits_flame entry (using excerpts from my Nano novel)

Things I HOPE to do this week:
-- complete this week's therealljidol entry (Moved to a hope to, because I can take a BYE if I'm not up to it.)
-- post a new youtube video (probably not going to happen)
-- prepare and send out a poetry submission (may happen)
-- do a sketch or two and/or get animation art pages done (could happen)
-- compile movie listings for zombie site (highly unlikely to happen)
-- do morning poetry/journaling (0/7 days completed) (can't find my journal so may not happen)

Project: Untitled Alternate World Novel
New Words: 5,577 (This is over the course of several days since I last posted.)
Current Total Word Count: 12,372
Goal: 50,000+ words

Random Sentence(s): Mitra found the girl was nestled in outcropping further down the mountainside. The snow had melted around her in a circular ring. There were not footsteps in the snow leading into the circle and Mitra could not figure how she had got there. It was a most curious thing.

Notes: I fell behind on Friday and Saturday. The staying up to one a.m. several nights in a row had taken a toll and I was exausted both nights to the point that I didn't bother writing. This gave me 4400 words for catch up today. I drove down the hill to a local coffee shop to get some work done, because it was far too distracting to try and write at home. I am now only 1,000 words behind, a more reasonable number, which I should be able to catch up in the next day or two.

* * * * *

In personal victories, I participated in a fmaily-wide effort to clean out the basement. Much was accomplised and what we refer to as the dirt room (which is a space under the house that is mostly dirt) is now almost entirely box free, the paper work is nearly handled, and my car is loaded with clothing and books to drop at goodwill. Between writing and cleaning/organizing, I have to say that this was a very successful weekend.

I may not have mentioned this, but I will be moving in January or sooner. The whole family will be moving actually and I'm not sure what that is going to look like yet. It probably means that I'll be getting my first apartment on my own, but not until my car payment is finally paid off first.

And now for much needed sleep. Ahhhhhh.

It begins with spilled milk. Spilled milk and chips. The milk is dripping down the arm of the couch and pooling onto the brown carpeted floor. The chips are scattered in a wide arc. My sister is staring wide-eyed at her newly created disaster.

I, too, am slightly dumfounded. It’s such an impressive mess. I open my mouth to say something, but my brother speaks first.

“Clean it up!” he says. “Clean. It. Up. Now!”

( Read more... )

TITLE: Utitled Alternate World Novel, Chapter 3
PROMPT: China
WORD COUNT: 1254
NOTES: This is my week one November contest entry for brigits_flame. It is also an edited excerpt from my Nano novel, which about a scientist who in the process of trying to create doorways to other words keeps accidentally pulling various people and creatures through to his own words by mistake. One of these is a woman from San Francisco, whose point of view is featured here. (In hindsight, I probably should have spent my time writing new words instead of editing this. *shrug*)

---

( Read more... )