#help

HELP. I AM EATING THIS WHOLE THING AND WATCHING POINTLESS TV SHOWS ON HULU BY MYSELF. SOMEONE STOP ME. HELP ME FEEL LIKE A HUMAN AGAIN.


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True Story:

I met a distant cousin of mine on Sunday. She's German, but lives in France, and her name is Rainbow.



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Meh.

Post-noveling funk: I was not anticipating this.

All my fingers and brain want to do is write and write and write some more. Didn't anyone tell them that they finished yesterday and could stop now? I feel like my brain kicked into high gear this month, and it hasn't figured out how to slow down yet. It just wants to keep going. I think I'm supposed to be doing other things instead, though. Like grading term papers. Or knitting things.

Writing Land is a magical place--a creative garden, prolific with words and ideas. I think I've been more creatively productive in the last month than I have ever been before, and I liked it. Furthermore, my kitchen is clean, and my home is decorated for Christmas. Both are things I tackled over the weekend, when I was also responsible for writing large quantities of words. None of these tasks were neglected, and I still got to hang out with my family and relax, too.

Work awaits tomorrow. I don't want to be dissatisfied with a slowing of pace and the return to normal life, because there's a time and a place for things like NaNoWriMo and surely trying to keep this up all year long would be exhausting. But I also don't want to turn into a big fat time-waster again. Meh.


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Proudly Announcing...

At 10:16 pm tonight, I passed 50,000 words. At 11:52 pm, I finished the story, typed "The End," and submitted the novel for verification. Total word count: 51,300. Two days to spare.

I am now, officially, a novelist.

Thanks for reading! (The final installment of the Captain's Log will be posted sometime later this week. Now I need to go read up on the logic lesson I'm supposed to be teaching tomorrow. G'night!)


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Ha Hah! Take That, Novel!

...

Guess who is ahead of the writing schedule again! (Total reached just shy of 42,000 words tonight.)

You can track my progress over the next few days using this gadget:



The progress bar will update as I update my count on NaNoWriMo.org


Yay!


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NaNoWriMo Captain's Log, Issue 3

Update the third:

Day 18: No words. (8,574 behind). Breaking Dawn. Rage. Way too complicated to go into here, but resolved to write ALL THE BOOKS fixing ALL THE PROBLEMS that Meyer has created in the souls of thousands of teenage girls. I have a theory that Suzanne Collins has already crafted a gripping response to the Twilight Saga, and cleverly, too. But I wanna help.

Day 19: 24,227 total: 2,801 added. (7,439 behind). Chugging along. Not as fluid, and I’m actually a teensy tiny bit nervous about running out of things to say before I hit 50,000. They say that wrapping up takes a lot longer than you think it will, but I’m not sure it’s going to take 20,000 words long. Got a good amount covered today, though.

Day 20: 28,060 total: 3,833 added. (5,273 behind). Almost 4,000 words, mostly thanks to #Nanowordsprints. These people. I like them. They are getting interesting. The characters, that is, not the Word Sprinters. The Sprinters are interesting too, but what I’m trying to say is that I really like my characters and what they are doing and where they are going. All in all, a really good day.

Day 21: 30,494 total, 2,434 added. (4,506 behind). I like these people and (wickedly) I like the problems I’ve created for them. I like watching them be clever and sort out their problems. Less than 20,000 left. I can do this!!!

Day 22: 33,622 total, 3,128 added. (3,044 behind). A 3k day! More #nanowordsprints. Things are running smoothly. Also, I went ahead and purchased this year’s Winner’s shirt as extra incentive. No backing out now! I hereby give you all permission to ridicule me endlessly if I don’t finish this thing.

Day 23: 36,055 total, 2,433 added. (2,278 behind). Hard to focus today. Moved at a snail’s pace. Fingers like bird claws, or something. Ah well. Still moving forward, still have places to go, and tomorrow is the first full day of true Thanksgiving Break. Only one week left. Onward!

[Via Hyperbole and a Half]

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Two links

One:

A compellingly written reason for reading dystopian fiction in general, and The Hunger Games specifically.

Two:

A review of Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 1 that sums up almost everything I have to say about the movie.

Note to self: write blog post about Twilight v. The Hunger Games. I saw Breaking Dawn Part 1 on Friday night--don't ask me why--and I came away utterly enraged. Real fury, people. I'd seen movies 1-3 on DVD with Riff Trax, and it was mostly good mock-worthy fun, but this...this was psychotic and gross.


Back to noveling. Made it to 28,000 words last night, hoping to make it past 30k tonight!


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NaNoWriMo Captain's Log, Issue 2

Here's update numero dos:

Day six: 11,879 total. 2891 added (1877 ahead)

Wow, those words just kind of flew out tonight. Building the tension up between characters was a lot of fun, and I knew where the conversations and events all needed to go in order to make two characters really hate each other—and now they do! And now the main plot can begin. Writing is magical.

Day seven: 12,809 total. 930 added (1140 ahead)

Sooooo sleeeeepy. Long day at work, plus cooking a full meal for Josh and myself plus sibs tonight. Can’t go on any further this evening. Need sleep. And braaaaiiiiins. (Note: there are no zombies in this novel.)

Day eight: 13,409 total. 600 added. (73 ahead)

Very tired. Full day teaching from 9-5, plus a few hours grading since first quarter grades are due by midnight on Thursday. Typed for 20 to 30 min, but I can’t devote more time to it tonight. It’s only 10:30, but I need to stop and go get some sleep. The end of Daylight Saving time is really throwing me off right now. Chores are falling to the wayside. Kind of gross.

Day…13: 14,415 total. 1,006 added. (7,251 behind.)

Waaaah. Four days of no progress. Grades were due on the 10^th, and all of my word-resources were directed toward grading student essays rather than creating any words of my own. Was too exhausted Fri. night to do anything, and then was gone from 8 am to 11:30 pm on a trip up to Morro Bay and SLO on Saturday with some friends, so again, no progress. Still exhausted today, and needed to get caught up on laundry, hence the measly increase. At least Thanksgiving Break is coming up next week! I get a whole week off from teaching, and more time to devote to this project. My stat tracker claims that if I keep going at this rate (whatever that means), I will finish on December 18, which is not good. Here’s to cracking the whip!

Day 14: 15,884 total. 1,469 added. (7,454 behind.)

So sleepy. Really going to need Thanksgiving to get caught up.

Day 15: 16,935 total. 1,051 added. (8,064 behind). So exhausted. Falling asleep at keyboard. Almost spelled falling “velling.” Story moving slowly.

Day 16: 19,273 total. 2,338 words added. (7,393 behind). Catch up time! A few slow bits, but mostly moved pretty fluidly. Main character mysteriously obtained a great grandmother in England along the way, but if it works, it works! And now, it’s definitely off to bed.

Day 17: 21,426 total. 2,153 words added. (6,907 behind). NaNoWriMo Word Sprints on Twitter = best resource ever (#NaNoWordSprints). They keep me going when I’m tired. 2,000 words in three hours with snack and internet breaks ain’t too shabby. Story’s going pretty well. Hitting a few rough spots, but I’m told that that is most likely just residual second-week slump since I’m still working on getting caught up. Only one class left to teach this week (Shakespeare, and we’re on Romeo and Juliet), and then I am officially on Thanksgiving Break. Yay! Close that gap!

For reference, here's a copy of my stats page after I logged my words for tonight:






Signing off,


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NaNoWriMo Captain's Log, Issue 1

Hey guys! Just finished day 5. I'm keeping a Captain's Log of my progress and my thoughts about the whole process, and I thought I'd post updates on the weekends or whenever I'm trying to procrastinate.

So here is issue 1! For reference, the daily goal is to write 1,667 words.

Captain's Log, November 2011

Day one: 2436 total. (769 ahead of the minimum)

Yay! Fun project! Brand new novel! No prior planning! Flying by the seat of my pants! And I’m ahead of my daily minimum!

Day two: 4185 total. 1749 words added (851 ahead)

Yay! I like this still. I like my characters (except for the one you’re not supposed to like). And I like my premise. Still above the minimum (3334), riding the wave of week one success.

Day three: 6028 total. 1843 words added (1027 ahead)

The magic is wearing off a tiny bit, but I’m finding it surprisingly easy to just keep writing. One thing seems to just lead naturally into the next. It’s weirdly convenient, and not really what I was expecting. Hooray?

Day four: 7256 total. 1228 words added (588 ahead)

Herm. Super tired. Only made it a little over a thousand tonight. Still ahead, and really glad for my buffer. Ideas, plot, and character development still flowing freely, but my eyelids are too heavy to allow four hundred more words tonight. G’night!

Day five: 8988 total. 1732 added (653 ahead)

Hm. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s amazing how much stuff you can get done when you are avoiding doing something else. For instance: washing all of the dirty dishes, hemming the curtains, checking all of the internet things, reading half of a short story, going to Trader Joe’s and Petco… I found it difficult to focus while being around my family as I was writing tonight, but the words got written. The characters seem to be developing nicely, though today was a slow plot day. When not typing, I’m mentally picking out the details of the main action, which is fun, but rather difficult. Looking forward to writing that bit when I come to it. Most of it right now is just setup, which is necessary, but not as exciting, I think.

That's all for now!

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Happy November!

Wish me luck!


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