Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I CAN'T BELIEVE I WROTE THE WHOLE THING!!!

That's right. I finished last night. 50,311 words. In 14 days. Gloat gloat.

The sucky part about all of that is that I'm the ML for the area, and if I'm not working on something, being at the write-in while people are writing is going to be really difficult.

So I'm trying to come up with something to write while I'm there...something I can add to my word count. I have a second novel idea, but I know I wouldn't finish it by the end of the month.

Maybe I'll just use the random character and plot generator that came in the goodie bags from the kickoff party and write something from that. Hm. Who knows...maybe it'll be better than this year's REAL novel...

Out

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

30K in 9 Days?!

If you're wondering where I went, NaNoWriMo ate me. I won't apologize, but I will check in right now to let you all know that I'm over halfway done!

30,757 at last count, actually. So...that's way exciting. I'm on track to finish before the 20th, when the new Zelda comes out. Yes. That is my incentive this year.

My back is messed up. My fingers are sore. And my brain wants to sleep. But--

I'm getting there!

Out

Friday, October 14, 2011

It's Happening Again!!!

This Sunday is our Collage-o-Rama for National Novel Writing Month. We'll be cutting, pasting, chatting, freaking out, and generally having a great time collaging our novels into existence. Last year I discovered a whole subplot while doing mine. Let's hope I discover a PLOT this year...blah.

But it's happening! NaNoWriMo is gathering steam and hurtling toward us like a crappy metaphor I'm bound to use in my novel! It's exciting! I'm buying candy to send to our sister group in Perth, Western Australia, and they're working on getting their box of goodies to us over here! Hooray for Tim-Tams and Musk Sticks! Special requested.

Did you know that candy over there doesn't ever combine chocolate and peanut butter? Seriously. They think Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the WEIRDEST thing. So I'll be sure to send those. And...Mike n Ikes were specially requested from us, too. Apparently they're a sought after commodity. Oh, and when we talk to them, they like to ask us about peanut butter and jelly. They think that's even STRANGER. Of course, when they sent us vegemite last year, we thought we would die.

It's like...salty motor oil? Yeah...maybe that. But it comes in those Handi-Snacks with crackers and that tiny red stick to spread it. It was...weird. Very weird.

Of course, ask my group about musk sticks and they'll tell you they're like Peeps pushed through a Play-Doh Fun Factory and flavored with old man cologne. I just think they're delicious.

There are perks to being an ML. For sure.

Speaking of...I have to rush off and check my forums...

Life suddenly became a little more exciting around here.

Out

Saturday, November 28, 2009

It Is Finished...

I just wanted to say...



And also...



Oh, and...



Just in case you were wondering.  It ended up being 50,709 words by the NaNo counter and 50,736 words by the Microsoft Word counter.  I think there's another chapter to be written, but I'm done.  It'll have to wait for the rewrite.

Happy noveling to everyone who is finishing.  I'll see you at the finish line!

Out

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Over The Hill...

Yesterday I crossed the halfway point. There is no going back. There will be a novel this year. It might be silly and odd and maybe a little sacrilegious (but not really...I don't dispute or change the character of Christ), but it's SO FUN TO WRITE!

And after I crossed the halfway point, we loaded up in the car, got drugs for various instances of bizarre medical weirdness, and went into the city. Hooray for good friends and great food! And thrift shopping. We decided to put a two dollar limit on ourselves and try to find the ugliest, tackiest, never-going-in-my-house thing we could find. We're going to exchange them at Christmas. So fun!

We ran into an old friend of Robb's from LA...in a porn shop...in Boystown of Chicago...buying lube. How strange. And really, it was more of a novelty shop than a porn shop. But how odd is that?! I swear we could fly to the moon (possibly with Jesus) and run into someone we know.

And then Robb packed. This morning he left for a week to visit his bro in Albuquerque. And my medical weirdness is going away. Thank God for that. Let's never speak of it again.

Today? I'm going to work all day. Boo. But I might have time catch up with y'all later tonight after I get done writing for the day.

Have a great one! Who knows...maybe you'll run into a cute long-lost friend in a porn shop in the gay district of your city.

Out

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

I Am A Robot...

I just thought I should let you all know that I am a robot. Seriously.

I wrote this morning. And I wrote. And I wrote. And when I thought I was close enough to 25,000 to quit for the day, I wrote just a little bit more, adding three more words to be at an even 23,400 words. And then I did the math.

I wrote 4,200 words this morning. What? I went back and did my math again, sure that I couldn't possibly have written so much in one sitting. I added, I subtracted. I stood agape. What? I seriously wrote 4200 words in one sitting. From 10 until 1. Wow.

Hate me. Loathe me. Despise me.

I love me right now.

Out

Monday, November 9, 2009

Update...

After a somewhat disappointing weekend (word count-wise), I am just over 17,000. If write my arse off today, I can be over 20,000. That would be nice. I dont think I have time for that, but it would be nice.

In other news, I am experiencing some somewhat bizarre medical ickiness that I'd rather not go into detail about...but it's been a week and when I thought it was getting better, it just seemed to revert to day one. I'm really not happy about this and I can't afford to go to a doctor to get it checked out.

Meanwhile, I have a tooth that's arguing with me about what I'm eating. And no money for that.

Luckily, I'm too busy writing this month to go spend money (in theory), so I guess I'm saving...sort of. My last paycheck was so small there really wasn't much to save. Blah.

On a positive note, however, I'm excited to be spending Wednesday in the city with the boy and some friends. I love it that I work at a bank and they all work at libraries or have government jobs. Hooray for days off. Let's just hope I'm up for walking all day...

Out

Friday, November 6, 2009

NaNo(Friday)Mo...

Tomorrow I'll be over 15,000 words. Woot. It's effortless at this point. Okay, not true. Today was hard and my butt hurts from sitting so much.

But I'm almost 4,000 ahead. I could skip this weekend entirely and be fine.

I won't, because I'm a creature of habit, but I could.

Yes. I am bragging. It's the one time a year I get to.

Out

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

One-Fifth...

I am one fifth of the way done. Ten thousand words. In four days. How crazy is that? It's super uncommon for me to be so far ahead...but here I am.

It would explain my absence.

Jesus and Co. were in a jam and needed my help...space slugs and lobster people and Pharisees...blah. It's all so difficult to surmount...especially when the inferno ivy keeps hunting you.

Yeah...anywho. I'm having fun with this one. It's silly and light. WAY better than last year...last year was SOOOOOOO depressing.

Hooray for NaNoWriMo and my lovely writing group. I can't wait to see them all on Sunday.

In other news...

Out

Monday, November 2, 2009

It Begins...

Here I am, two days in.

On Halloween I went to a party with my writing friends. At midnight it was officially November 1st. We broke out our laptops (or notebook and pencil if you're lame like me and don't have a laptop) and wrote. I managed 809 words. Then we got to gether at noon until 3 for our actual write-in and I managed 1700ish words total. I went home and typed it all up, expanded a bit, etc. It was 3206 words.

At the end of the day today I made it to 5075 words. I'm one tenth of the way there.

You?

Out

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

National Crazy Month...

NaNoWriMo is almost upon us. I am both giddy and terrified. So...you know...nothing special.

For those of you not in-the-know, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. Every year I, along with a hundred thousand other crazy nutbars, write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Want more info? http://www.nanowrimo.org

You'll be glad you did it! I've written three complete novels in three years, and I'm hoping for a fourth.

What kind of novels, you ask?

The first year I wrote a road trip story. DePaul to UCLA loosely along Rt. 66. There was pot smoking, fights, a pregnancy, scorpions vs. cheerleaders, and a man who was not who he said he was...oh, and a house fire.

The second year I wrote a novel of horror and interior decorating. Hauntings, bad smells, a skeptical husband, a cute daughter, and the mystery of that tiny room in the basement...oh, and a house fire.

The third year I wrote a novel about a woman who has an affair with the guy that runs the arcade and her son who is gay and how they both find out what the other is doing. It had Dungeons and Dragons, bigotry, Ms. Pac Man, adultery, laughter, dating, and fake internet personals...oh, and a house fire.

This year will be the first novel that doesn't have a house fire, I think. Although...maybe I'll squeeze one in just for good measure. If I write about the current idea I have, it will be Jesus in space. Trust me. It's a scream!

I look forward to it (and dread it) every year, and this one is no exception. Is anyone with me on that?

Out

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The Power of Ten--or Fifteen...

My friend Melissa (check her out) ran a feature on her blog today that I think it would be fun to emulate.

She did a "10 Things About My Disability" post that I thought was very informative and witty. And while I don't have a disability, per se, I do have a unique perspective. So I thought it might be fun to tell you fifteen things about myself.

So, onward!

1. I am not contagious. I know, this was Mel's first point, but really. You can't catch gay. What you can catch from hanging out with me, though, is well-timed humor and maybe a laugh or a yawn.

2. I am a bibliophile. My room is filled with stacks of books in front of shelves full of books. And on top of those shelves? Books. I adore them, how they look and smell, the sound of turning pages, the magic of words passed through time. It's a vacation in the comfort of my home, and I love it.

3. I always wanted a Chia Pet. Since the first time I saw the commercials during Thundercats and Transformers when I was just a tiny Viewtiful_Justin. I asked my mother to get me one. I wanted them for birthdays and Christmases every year for what felt like ages. And I never got one.

4. I have a thing for firefighters. It's true. Joe Regular? Meh. But when I find out he's a firefighter, his hot points go up five-fold. The hat, the coat, the trucks...all of it. I don't know any reason why this is. I've tried to explain it, and I've plumbed the depth of my childhood. Nothing. But I do.

5. I have an irrational fear of being abandoned in a public place. I don't care if it's a grocery store I go to three times a week and I'm the one with the car keys; if I look up and I can't see you, I get nervous. Anxious. And I have to stop shopping and come find you. I've never been abandoned in a public place. I've never really been abandoned anywhere. But if I can't see you...I'm afraid.

6. I used to have a great memory, but now...not so much. I was a vault. Lock it away and never lose it. Now? It's more like a sieve. Lots of holes...I put something there, and when I go to look for it again in ten minutes...gone! Names, dates, ideas...gone! That is, unless I write it down. If I put pencil to paper and make those marks,

7. I had a great one for number seven, and then I forgot it while writing the last one...hrmmm....oh! I got it! I was going to say that I love to sing. And I do! If there is a song on the radio that I know, I will be singing along. Not well, mind you, but singing along nonetheless. And if I don't know it? I'll be singing along by the second chorus. And, because of that, I judge a lot of music based on its singability. If it's not fun to sing along, I probably don't like it.

8. My feet are cold. Unless I am wearing shoes, I can guarantee you that my feet are cold. I'm sure it's poor circulation, although I've never been diagnosed or even checked out. But I've heard "Your feet are like ice!" enough times to know it's true.

9. I try to figure you out. When I am in public and I see two people together or a group of friends are all around one table at a restaurant, I try to figure out the dynamics of the group. I like to see if they seem like they're on a first date or it it's someone's birthday, if it's a work group or a school study date. I love figuring people out. People watching...to the extreme!!!

10. I find rudeness deplorable. When I say hello to a cahsier, I expect a response. When I talk to someone, I expect their attention. I hate seeing people come through the drive at work while they're on their cell phone. It bothers me even more to see them talking while they're inside and I'm waiting on them. I can't imagine how people could think that it's okay to do this. It's rude, and it's unacceptible. It's important to be polite.

11. I have written three novels. Each year I participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and every year I've participated, I've won, which means I've finished three 50,000 word novels, each in 30 days in the month of November. It's crazy amouonts of fun. But...the funny thing is that I've never edited one of them. Never even gone back and read them.

12. I'm a gamer. Many, many hours of my childhood were spent (not wasted, spent) in front of the television with a Nintendo controller in my hand. Not Sega. Not Playstation. Nintendo. I am and have always been a die-hard Nintendo fan...although right now they're working very hard to lose my affections--what with their lack of games for true gamers and their mountains of shitty shovelware crap. But, I digress. The fact is, I play, and I always have.

13. I like pirate slang. When I greet people, it's "Ahoy-hoy." Sometimes when I finish packing things at work I say, "Thar she blows." And sometimes, for no reason, I let fly with a "Yarrr." But I don't particularly care for pirates or the Disney Pirate movies. It's just...a love for the sound of it all.

14. It's a texture thing. This is the line I use when I don't like a food. I love cheese, and I love yogurt, but cottage cheese? Those little lumps turn me off. Baked beans, kidney beans, navy beans? Grainy texture. Ick. Same with peas. And marshmallows? Don't even get me started on marshmallows! I don't understand how something can be simultaneously puffy, slimy, chalky, and squishy at the same time. Eww. Add Peep's crunchy sugar coating and you've got the most revolting thin on the planet.

15. I love. There is so much hatred in this world, and only love can set it straight. I want to try to do my part to reverse the ravages of hate. So, I love. I love people and animals. I love quirks and mannerisms, accents and hair colors. I love facial tics and fashion, expressions and emotions. I just try to love. And I fail at this regularly, but I'm always trying. And really, that's all that matters.

What are some things that people don't know about you? Post them up and let me know about them!

Out