The Bottom of the Food Chain and other stories

Despite the fact that I still get jealous every time someone else announces they've signed up for NaNoWriMo, I've decided to do something slightly less strenuous this year. Slightly. Details coming later, after I figure out how much of an event I dare make of it.

* * *

The problem with caring for a garden is that you're defending the bottom of the food chain.

Exhibit A: Maia broke five leaves off my peace lily one night this week, and has shredded or chewed the ends of several more. Theoretically, it's supposed to be mildly poisonous, but it has never made her sick and she keeps going after it. I've taken to locking it away at bedtime.

Exhibit B: A sleek and happy squirrel charged into my corn patch the other day, raced up a stalk, and ripped into an ear of corn. With Lou and I standing not an arm's length away. Squirrels will steal corn by the ears, carry the spoil to the picnic table, and party up. Not kidding. I've seen the leftovers.

Exhibit C: I had to pick green worms off every leaf of a bunch of kale a few days ago.

Thanks to that last ordeal, I later dreamed I was eating a bowl of cereal and found a green worm floating in it. I picked the worm out with the spoon and threw it into the sink, but then I found another... and another. Horrified, I dumped the entire bowl into the sink—and it was crawling with green worms, some of them enormous. After thirteen Wheel of Time books, of course, dream-Jenna knew she was headed for Tarmon Gai'don.

It's been a long week.


* * *

Dog caught in misdeed: "Oh no, I'm sorry, I know I was bad. Please don't stop loving me."

Cat caught in misdeed: "Two squirts with the squirt bottle? Well worth it."


* * *

Writers' link of the week: InkPageant. Instant overwhelming by blog posts on the art of writing. H/T Shallee McArthur.

* * *

Music of the week: my favorite old Over the Rhine song. I can't believe I've never featured this band before.



* * *

Funny of the week: Okay, I don't know where YA Highway got this, but... haha.

* * *

House to clean, books to write, dinner to plan, going-away party for my good friend Sarah tonight... *sniff*... I'm off.

Happy weekend, everybody!

Not Quite Shakespeare and other stories

*assumes striking Hamlet posture, raises hand dramatically*

"To NaNo or not to NaNo? That is the question."

Reasons to:

• The communal aspect and pressure to succeed helps get the job done like nothing else.
• I like having finished drafts. A lot.
• NaNoWriMo comes but once a year. Actually, that's not entirely true anymore. But November is when the spirit wakes fully.
• I have an idea that I think I could write quickly, and it might be nice to have a break from A.D.'s universe.

Reasons not to:

• After months of drafting, the thought of writing nearly two thousand words a day actually hurts right now.
• I'm not entirely confident that my idea ought to stretch to 50,000 words.

Amount of time remaining to make up my indecisive mind, as of this writing:

Source.

* * *

A day in the life of Maia:

7:30 Wake people by meowing and jumping on them if they don't get up right when the alarm goes off.
7:40 Run as fast as possible around the house, at least ten times.
7:45 Find a toy and wrestle it into the ground.
7:50 Make sure people fill food dish properly.
8:00 Follow people around, throw self on floor and demand attention.
8:30 Watch world go by, nap in window.
12:00 Burrow under covers for six hours of beauty sleep.
6:00 Wake up, follow people around, throw self on floor and demand attention.
7:00 Make sure people clean litter box properly.
7:30 Get people to find a toy and throw it over and over again.
8:30 Knead red blanket and cuddle down on couch with people and computers.
11:00 Run as fast as possible around the house a few more times, investigate kitchen counters, try to get into cabinets.
12:00 Make further excavations in potted plants.
1:00 Search house for new toys to play with and throw around.
2:00 Commence top-secret operations that people shouldn't know about. When bored, get some more beauty sleep.

* * *

For those who wish to read about it: further thoughts on Pottermore Sorting from Travis, Mr. Pond, George, and yours truly are now available on The Hog's Head! Enjoy. Oh, and:

Yes, that's a badger chewing on a snake. To all my fellow Hufflepuffs: you're welcome.

* * *

Writers' link of the week: Jocelyn K. Glei collects 25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer. From Kurt Vonnegut to Neil Gaiman, Jennifer Egan to Annie Dillard, a variety of helpful thoughts. My only suggested addition: Pick the ones that work for you.

* * *

Music of the week: I love finding great new girl bands on YouTube.



* * *

Funny of the week: Mr. Pond wrote a fairy tale and got it into the magazine Enchanted Conversation, and I laughed so hard at it that I thought you might, too. Here's "Royal Ball? Get Home Before Midnight or Magic Happens."

* * *

And now I have a house to clean and a couple of errands to run and novels to write and only 24 days, 12 hours, 34 minutes and 19 seconds to make up my mind about NaNoWriMo. I'd better be off.

Happy weekend!

The Finish Line

11/30/2010 12:12 PM
50,909 words

I could have validated a little earlier, I suppose, perhaps being second instead of third of my writing buddies to make it to goal. But I had my heroine in a tight spot (cue Ulysses Everett McGill: "Damn! We're in a tight spot!") and couldn't stop writing until she got safely out of it.

Now I can breathe. And so can she—for a little while.

Of those 50,909 words, approximately 30,600 are part of the current draft. It's something to start with, now that I can cut the scrapped parts into a separate document and delete stupid sentences instead of just striking them out. Won't that be a relief.

Today is supposed to be Tasty Tuesday. Let's see... if I want to celebrate, what should I make? Maybe the guiltless, faultless family chocolate chip cookie recipe. Oh, and Farmer's City Wife wants fudge recipes, so if you have one, do go share it with her.

Time and Effort

Pushing off, so to speak, from Mr. Pond's post on oranges and grass... because we're still not arguing

Click to view full-size. My entire life resembles this graph...

Twenty-seven hours and forty-nine minutes of NaNoWriMo remain to me. I have 1,651 words left to write. Not being a marathoner myself, I can't say for sure, but my guess is that when you get to the last mile, you're pretty confident you'll make it. You might want to die one step beyond the finish line, but you will. get. there. Or else.

It's definitely true of this great November write-a-thon. And I might even work on my novel a little further tonight. Maybe I'll try for the win on the early side. A little certainty makes life easier.

Honestly... I'm ready to be finished. If September and October hadn't been a revision marathon, November might not have been so exhausting, but the thought of writing without a deadline sounds lovely right about now.

Says Mr. Pond:

I do run.

The first few months were miserable. You can’t breathe, for one thing. You can’t really run very far without having to walk, for another. Physically, you have a sensation like the musical experience of listening to someone almost play the violin. Even when it starts getting easier, it doesn’t really.

Now I love running. Not the thrill of having run, or being able to call myself a runner, but the act of running itself.... Because this—not that—is the joy of running. The freedom and rhythm of body, breath, and movement. The ability to move effortlessly for even part of the time, the lightness of pace and rhythm. The subtle teasing sense when walking that you could start running if you wanted. The fluidity of movement.

Of course, he goes on to say, running still has its painful life-hating moments of pushing yourself farther or faster than you thought you could go. Those, however, are moments. And he compares all that to writing. The words come painfully, especially at first. With time and practice, you experience things like ease of motion, freedom, the joy of the work.

Couldn't have said it better myself. As a writer, I live for those times of sheer absorption in the beauty of good phrasing, of powerful scenes, of words that fit and flow together till they vanish—like the clear, clean glass of a window—into the vision they are put in place to convey.

Times like that happen more in the daily run than in the marathon. Now is the time to grit my teeth and put the remaining strength of every muscle into finishing strong. Come December 1, I can pause for breath, take a day or two off, and go back to the routine jog along the bay.

For now, I have twenty-six hours and thirty-three minutes to get in those other sixteen hundred-odd words. I'm off to work on it.

On Pushing through Bricks

Mr. Pond wrote an encouraging post last week titled on giving up, or not, in which he discussed the life-or-death line between a story that is hard to write and a story that hurts to write. It's an all-important distinction, and one I've even had to take into account in this November madhouse that is National Novel Writing Month.

This is sort of a response, but not really a debate, so I won't call it blogalectic. I'll just recommend his post, particularly if you're the writing type, or the running type, or just someone who has to persevere at something. Knowing when to go on and when to stop matters.

Right now I'm procrastinating on my novel by writing a blog-post. A Monday blog for which I have made zero preparation isn't more fun to write than a novel; it just seemed easier. Much as I need to stay caught up and get ahead, right now I feel like I'd make more progress trying to push my way through a brick wall than trying to write 1,667 words of this fiction.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you. There's a big difference between the me of last Monday and the me of today. The hard work at last feels like worthwhile hard work. I've got story I can move forward with. I might be pushing brick walls, but at least I'm braced against solid ground.

Writing gets romanticized as wild artistic inspiration, but anyone who writes seriously knows the crazy amount of effort that goes into making a flight of fancy appear smooth and artistic. Ever seen a world-class figure skater pull off a triple axel? Three and one-half revolutions, waltz jump into loop position, left forward outside edge to right backward outside edge, and they land on one foot with their arms gracefully outstretched. Ever tried to pull off even a single axel? I have, and without the added hazards of skates or ice. Suffice it to say that it is nowhere near as easy as it looks.

Writing professionally, writing for publication, attempting to write a book worthy of being read and re-read and loved—this involves the kind of disciplined effort that makes it possible for one human to gracefully perform a feat that the average human could wind up in traction for even trying.

Sometimes I wonder why I claim to love writing, since it is far more work than fun. But then, some people love gardening, and that is also not fun. Some people love running, and that is downright miserable. And I've known a handful of people who loved mountain-climbing, which experienced Alpinist Wojciech Kurtyka has called "the art of suffering."

Anyone who loves something that involves this much struggle and effort just needs to be stubborn. Fortunately, that's one of my stronger traits. (Also one of my greatest weaknesses, but that's a different blog-post. :P) In perseverance we imitate the dandelion, which is possibly the most stubborn living thing in all of nature. Dandelions can get through bricks (or concrete sidewalks, anyway). A little pressure from underneath, in just the right place; the mortar cracks, the brick heaves up a little, and out comes the flower on the other side.

Of course, then the flower is still a dandelion. But hey, all analogies break down somewhere, right? Okay, I think I'm getting loopy. NaNoWriMo will do that to you. Back to work now.

Halfway

The mark directly between and equidistant from two points on a line.

What you get when you cross the Atlantic with the Titanic.

Where we are in NaNoWriMo.

Current word count: 25,031

I considered making today's post a direct response to Mr. Pond's On Caring Too Deeply, but right now it's getting awfully difficult to stare at a computer screen and type. Besides, his post was very good and I didn't really disagree with it. And it's hard to think of creative new ways to celebrate NaNoWriMo when the program is totally kicking my rear—even if I am staying caught up on word count.

I'm starting to feel as if I care too deeply about finishing without a better reason than "I hate giving up." Last year at this point in the novel, there was action. Captures. Attacks. Fear. Emotional twists. This year, they're cooking. And talking.

I'm even bored.

Perhaps it was a mistake to speed-write a sequel to a novel I've had time to revise. Or perhaps I've just got the halfway blues. In the Halfway video, over at the NaNo site, OLL staffer Lindsey says "If you've been thinking about quitting: Don't do it!"

Dang it, Lindsey, you read my mind.

The will to get through got me something innately revisable last year—something that held enough beauty to be worth salvaging. If I want that again—and I do—it will mean a lot of extra effort. It means I need to not just write, but put some real time into structuring the novel.

I'm the one who signed up for this sport. So be it, then.

Old Glories and Hallelujahs and other stories

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

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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

* * *

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.

* * *

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
 
* * *

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

* * *


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

To all of you: Happy weekend!

Your NaNoWriMo Care Package

[Day 1, and the NaNoWriMo site is so slammed with participants and excitement that it crashed! Here are some off-site things to help you procrastinate.]

If we lived in a perfect world, this post would hand you a bag of chocolate and your favorite brand of coffee. But since I can't transmit that via the internet, here is my best attempt at getting you (and me) a collection of necessities and comforts for the NaNoWriMo experience, all in one place. Enjoy, and best of luck with your 50K words!

1. The NaNoWriMo Song

If this doesn't get you jazzed to write, I don't know what will. Take it away, Kristina and Luke...



2. An answer to the question Why?

The reason given by the Office of Letters and Light staff is the standard "Because you can't revise a blank page." True. In addition to their perfectly good reason, I submit that you can revise the heck out of the first 25 pages of a planned novel, but that still doesn't really count as writing a book. And that is more my problem.

NaNoWriMo is like having Linus Larrabee staring me in the face, after shooting up a television with a pistol, saying "You're a grown man, David. Finish something."

(P.S. No, my name's not David, and I'm not a man. The above simile is brought to you by the movie Sabrina, and contains a direct quote.)

3. A reference for where your word count should be, approximately, on any given day of the month

Courtesy of my husband:

November 1: 1667
November 2: 3334
November 3: 5001
November 4: 6668
November 5: 8335
November 6: 10002
November 7: 11669
November 8: 13336
November 9: 15003
November 10: 16670
November 11: 18337
November 12: 20004
November 13: 21671
November 14: 23338
November 15: 25005
November 16: 26672
November 17: 28339
November 18: 30006
November 19: 31673
November 20: 33340
November 21: 35007
November 22: 36674
November 23: 38341
November 24: 40008
November 25: 41675
November 26: 43342
November 27: 45009
November 28: 46676
November 29: 48343
November 30: 50000

4. Exercises and tips for avoiding carpal tunnel syndrome

Courtesy of TheHealthPages.com: Carpal Tunnel wrist exercises and tips for the workplace

5. Something to show that person who loves you when they complain that they never see you in November

A Grammar's list of the difficulties involved in dating a writer. Number 16 is my favorite... but be forewarned, there's strong language. :)

6. A writing buddy

I like buddies, so if you need or want one, feel free to add me. :) I'll do my best to add you back (leave me a comment if I don't; I probably just missed the notification.)

7. A little bit of NaNoWriMo boot camp. It's not too late...

Courtesy of Nathan Bransford, Literary Agent:

Choosing the Right Idea

Goals and Obstacles (i.e., giving them to your protagonist)

Editing as You Go

8. An excuse to give the doubters (including the little voice in your head)

There's a real value in the simple act of challenging yourself. That is worthwhile even if you don't come up with something that makes it to the bestseller list (even after proper revision). It is worthwhile even if being a writer isn't your lifelong goal. It is worthwhile even if you don't make 50,000—and let's face it, not all of us can every November. Sometimes life gets in the way. But pushing yourself to do things that seem difficult or impossible can build your strength to do better things in life.

9. Best wishes

You have mine! Now go write your book. :)

NaNo Reminiscences

A little email from Lindsey over at the Office of Letters and Light has me feeling celebratory. Turns out the tale of my NaNoWriMo experiences just made it into their Wrimo Report feature! I'm all smiley now.

It's a tale of travel, time, the [swine] flu, and the encouragement to persevere, and I had a very hard time fitting it into four hundred words. Want to read it? It's showing up on the home page this week, but here's the permanent link as well.

NaNoWriMo Odds and Ends

Thirty days ago I began NaNoWriMo at the base of one of the columns outside St. Peter's Basilica. The program ends tonight.

Right now I'm just aglow. I am in love ... throw-back-your-head, fling-out-your-arms, tell-the-whole-world in love with this book. I finished the rough draft last night and am thoroughly happy with the way it turned out.

Yes, it has plot holes; yes, it contains appalling sentences that I hope no one ever knows I wrote; yes, everything happens too fast; but far more came together than I expected and it wound up making itself the sort of story I don't want to put down because it gives me such happiness. It needs a little work, I think, before anyone else will get that feeling from it, but at least I've a start.

For your reading pleasure (or at least, my listing pleasure), here are notes on the experience and the story itself.

Worst things about the story:

• The plot setups are awful--usually gave out way too much information so I wouldn't forget it myself.
• Adjectives--not much better, they all got overused. Adverbs, likewise. I needed words.
• Some of the action and romance scenes are a little cheesy owing to the hurry in which they were written, and perhaps to my own innate cheesiness.
• A lot of them also happen too quickly.
• The rule "Don't tell, show"? Yeah, I broke that one a lot.

Best things about the story:

• The fourth character. I had a primary triptych with a clear protagonist, but the fourth--whom I had loosely planned going in--turned up much earlier in the story and played a far greater role than I expected.
• The worlds. I had some pre-November input from my mom and sister on how I might structure the worlds, and they turned out lovely. In my head, at least.
• The overall plot and theme. It stayed basically true to my main formula, even though a lot of times I just threw something down and told myself I'd figure out what that meant later. A lot of the things I threw down jumped up and made a decent structure out of themselves, without destroying the original direction.
• The surprises. Maybe it's fun to try to surprise a reader; I'll probably never know. It's way too much fun when the story surprises me.

Most difficult things about the experience:

• The temptation to procrastinate.
• Having to rediscover my thought process every time I took a break.
• Writing out of zero ideas, not knowing even how to end the sentence, let alone the scene.
• Spending a solid week singing Kristina Horner's line "I just realized I have plot holes and my writing really sucks" and meaning it.
• Not editing myself. I cheated on that many times.

Most fun things about the experience:

• Starting in Italy.
• Feeling serious progress come from my efforts.
• Not stressing over plot holes and major difficulties/unplanned parts--or stressing less about them, at least. I could just say "Right, that's dreadful" and keep writing.
• Falling in love with my characters, one after the other.
• Getting surprised by really sweet moments. I'm sure most of them are desperately silly right now, but ... well, I can't talk about any of them without giving away spoilers, but one in particular just about startled me into tears of joy.

Final word count: 57,500

Number of cheats used: None, unless you count flinging around the adjectives and the passive verb and other comparatively useless parts of speech without discretion.

Great WriMo moment: Including Mr. Ian Woon. He lives on the Moon. I am inordinately proud of that fact.

What's next: My goal today is to make a quick scan through the story, highlight things I love and things I want to change, and then put it away for a few weeks before starting to overhaul. I am very anxious to do my best by my beloved little tale, and bad revision can kill off all the best parts of a story without fixing the problems, according to Holly Lisle. This absolutely terrifies me. But I hereby commit myself to making a full revision. That's a promise.

NaNoWriMo Win

Thanksgiving Day 11/26/09 8:53 PM

50,272 words

I had just validated and was staring at the winner's screen, grinning about as widely as is humanly possible, when my husband walked in with turkey, the good things that go with it, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream, courtesy of Mom and Dad St. Hilaire.

Lou heated Thanksgiving dinner for me and put on Beethoven's ninth symphony. I am basking in the glow.

Happy Thanksgiving

My husband, bless him, has spent the day taking care of me and sitting on the couch beside me; now he is off giving a little time to his parents. It's just me and my laptop for a little while.

I had thought about posting the customary list of things to be thankful for, which after searching my blog I find that I have never actually done. Like yesterday, however, I went to my story first, got caught up in it, and--by virtue of creating plot holes faster than I can fill them--just validated my novel at 49,021 words.

Giving thanks being more important than winning NaNoWriMo tonight, I finally took a break and came here. But I can't get into a listing mood. Every time I think about listing the things for which I owe gratitude to God and others, it really comes down to this: I am surrounded by love. So much so that here on my couch, coughing and feverish and alone for awhile on a holiday, I don't feel sorry for myself or even particularly alone.

I wish I could have helped my mom hack the turkey in half and cook it on the woodstove when their power went out this morning. I wish I could have talked with my dad and helped care for my grandma. I wish I could have sat at the table with Lou's parents, who have welcomed me as their own daughter. That I could have talked and laughed with our brothers and sisters and played with their children. That I could have made my pumpkin pie and the two green bean casseroles and been some use instead of burying myself under blankets while Lou made me hot tea.

It would have been fun, but I'm really just missing an event. Love itself has enclosed me behind and before, and laid its hand upon me.

Happy Thanksgiving, and may yours be as blessed as mine--only healthier!

Flu for the Win

For anyone powering into the last days of NaNoWriMo with the slightest fears of losing, I highly recommend the flu. Nothing will do more for your word count, even if sometimes you scrunch miserably down into the corner of the couch and type one-handed. Nine hours tête-à-tête with a laptop, despite fuzzy brain and one-handed typing, is opportunity itself. It might feel like cheating, but since it means running a fever and all sorts of nasty things like that, I figure it's fair. Of course, you could theoretically choose a more appropriate time to get sick than over the holidays, but oh well.

I got so caught up in story this evening that I almost forgot to blog. This is fun. Not being sick or missing Thanksgiving ... but driving myself to do something I love, even if the resulting product will need unbelievable amounts of overhaul in December.

If I miss you tomorrow: Happy Thanksgiving!

Bad Timing

I have the flu--with the works. Honestly, at this point I do not care whether it is swine flu or otherwise. I hear they are both bad.

Thanksgiving is looking a lot quieter than it did from the perspective of yesterday.

Even typing makes me feel lousy right now, but I will finish this novel. Or else.

Goals for the Week

Current NaNoWriMo goal: Get as far ahead as possible before Thanksgiving.

I also have a Silhouette article deadline for Thanksgiving day, which translates to Wednesday because with two families to visit (yes, that means two Thanksgiving dinners) there is not a chance I will be handling Silhouette anything on Thursday. The blog might be kind of thin for a few days. Never fear, however: I haven't finished posting about either Rome or NaNoWriMo yet.
 
If you need something to read, one of the NaNoWriMo forums is collecting math jokes. Apologies for the occasional crudeness therein, but I thought many of the offerings hilarious and might have added (heh) the joke about binary if kei8 hadn't beaten me to it.

NaNoWriMo Stream of Consciousness

"How many words have I got? Thirty thousand and some? How long have I been in the thirty thousands? Days? Weeks? Months? I've lost count ... Why does the count rise so slowly? This storyline has scope, dang it! Three primary characters and four worlds ... how can it seem like not enough to fill the word count? I have to get at least ten thousand words out of this world, and they simply cannot all be adjectives.... By the time I get done editing in December, will I have only half the words I do now? Ack! Kill that thought right now, or I will never finish.

"Here I am starting paragraphs that I can't see the end of ... I have no idea where this scene is going. Now when I get to that scene, I will have something to write about. Must get to that scene. Must ... get ... to ... that ... scene! I'll do like the Little Engine that Could. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. The Little Engine that Could always makes me think of the movie Major Payne. Distraction! Write, Jenna, write! I think I can. I think I can. I think I can...."

NaNoWriMo Song

My new form of procrastination: Listening to techno.



I love techno. It makes me throw-back-your-head-and-dance-in-the-summer-sunshine happy, which I needed today. I got in a virtual bar fight. I hate those.

The above song describes the NaNoWriMo experience quite well. Right now I'm in the "I need inspiration" phase. Ack.

Anyway, I liked the song so much I decided to check out some of Kristina Horner's other videos, and Mrs. Nerimon is especially fun. I'd be all right with losing a bet if it meant making a music video that likeable.

Right. I'm procrastinating. I need to go write a freaking book.

NaNoWriMo Day 17

I intended to write a real blog today. Unfortunately for my blog, I also wanted to get at least a day ahead on NaNoWriMo. And to get the laundry done.

I have succeeded at the latter two, thanks to a burst of inspiration and a (finally) working dryer. The former will have to wait. But I'll leave you for the night with my favorite pep talk so far, written by Maureen Johnson. It describes the life of a writer beautifully and precisely.

The NaNoWriMo Halfway Mark

At the end of yesterday, my novel contained just over 26,100 words. Yesterday being the 15th, and therefore exactly halfway through November, I felt very pleased with myself for being 1100 words ahead. (Today ... not so much.)

Lessons drawn from sixteen days' experience as a high-speed novelist:

• Try, if at all possible, to save the creepy parts of your novel to be written in the daylight and with other people around.
• Treats are a great motivator. One night at least, I have made my word count goal only by bribing myself with a bag of GORP with M&Ms.
• Not sure which NaNo staffperson first said it, but they were right: It's very important to tell everyone you know that you're taking part in NaNoWriMo. Knowing that your entire acquaintance will hear about it if you succeed or fail is a powerful motivator.
• Whenever possible, it helps to end a day's writing time in a place that makes going on sound fun.
• Procrastination opportunities abound and must be battled with every available force. Most of the time.
• Got a 12-hour plane ride? Use it. Who really wants to watch in-flight movies anyway?
• Make yourself a banner or cover art, even if you don't share it on your profile. I made myself a banner using some stock photos I found online, and I look at it when I want a kick of motivation.
• Stocking up on coffee is apparently traditional WriMo technique, but overdoing it is counterproductive: coffee jitters make typing and thinking unnecessarily difficult.
• The forums are a lot of extremely distracting fun, when read wisely.

How to Cheat at NaNoWriMo

Lou and I spent some time looking through pictures of our Italy trip tonight. The pictures are still not on my computer. Maybe tomorrow ...

In the mean time, here's something to amuse you tonight (it amused me, anyway): Legitimate cheats for NaNoWriMo success. I don't know if those are officially endorsed by the program or not, but the rules are quite loose, so those "cheats" may well be legitimate, at least to a point.

While I haven't done a find and replace to change every instance of "it's" to "it is", I'll admit to thinking rather complacently of the boost in word count as my main character repeated her full name several times in a row some chapters back. But after all, she had just heard her name for the first time. Those are extenuating circumstances. :)