11.05.2010

Old Glories and Hallelujahs and other stories

First sentence: November 1, 12:00 noon, at my parents'.


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Current word count: 10,827
Today's goal: 8,335

NaNoWriMo started off with a bang and a half. First, I got ahead right away. That beats last year, when it took me an all-nighter on a plane to catch up.

Second, thanks to 170-odd-thousand enthusiastic participants, of which I was one, the site was either painfully slow or down for the first four days solid. Props to OLL for having the cutest over-capacity message ever. And props to the brave NaNo server guy, who has been working long past normal hours to get things running. The site works much better today.

As for word count: It's nice to be ahead of schedule, but it feels a little like cheating. Since I don't have a full-time job, I just have a lot more time to write than most Wrimos. My one handicap this year is creative exhaustion; that last revision really drained me. It doesn't even things out, but it has certainly increased the challenge of getting my daily 1667.

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I had forgotten what dull scenes and incomprehensible sentences I can create during NaNoWriMo. Sometimes the only way to keep going is to remind myself: No one will read this draft. No one, I say. Believe me—you don't want to.

But just like last year, I'm discovering the story in ways I, being a lousy planner, could never do with just an outline. More on that Monday, if I can get my thoughts together in time.

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Last year at this time, I was spending my last hours in Rome. The six of us who went—Lou and I, his parents, Mike and Kay—had a reunion this past Saturday. We went through a bunch of our pictures, ate pizza and pasta and gelato and drank cappucini and Italian wine.

I started typing up some of the memories, but it got too long too fast. Mercy. I feel like there's still at least three or four blog-posts on that trip, waiting to get loose from my head.

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In other news, Maia jumped in the shower this morning. Strange cat.

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Writer's link of the week: The future belongs to the best editors. I consider myself a pretty decent editor, and I'd still take the class he describes. Thanks for the link, @michaelhyatt.

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Music of the week: This made me cry. The idea of a random act of culture is pretty cool in its own right, but this piece is so much more than culture—this is sacred and transcendental.



If I could have gotten past tears enough to hit all those Fs and Gs, I would have wanted to join in on the last few lines. That's all I know my part for... but one of my secret little dreams is to sing the whole song with a choir someday.

H/T CMR
 
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Funny of the week: Farmer's City Wife on How Not to Flirt. I laughed and laughed. It sounded so familiar.

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To my fellow Wrimos reading this: Good luck! (And I missed you at write-in this week.)

To all of you: Happy weekend!

3 comments:

  1. Yea, that video of the Hallelujah just made me cry. How awesome. :) Thank you for sharing it.

    I'm coming out of one crazy week and a half, of trying to keep my head above water. I'm looking forward to catching up on Thursday Book Questions as soon as I can though! :)

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  2. There's only two kinds of cats that jump in the shower: Those that jump in & go berserk trying to get out and those that jump in & go berserk trying to get out. Which kind is Maia? :)

    Continued good luck on NaNoWriMo.

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  3. You're welcome, Donna! I just loved it. And I'll look forward to your Thursday Book Answers. :)

    George, she crouched down in the corner, looked around, and made a flying leap back out. I couldn't believe it. Hope I didn't wake the neighbors laughing. ;)

    Thanks for the good-luck wish! I've got 1300 words to write in the next hour and fifteen minutes, so I'm going to go do that now.

    ReplyDelete

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