Actually, those two topics have nothing to do with each other, but I aim to discuss them both anyway.
I ended yesterday with 11,951 words, which beats Monday's goal by aproximatly 300 words. That would be great, except yesterday was Thursday. I am not done writing yet for today, so I'll come up with that number sometime tomorow. I'm getting this thing done, slowly but surely, not dropping out at Week Two for me this year, not me no sir. To that end, Katie80 and I (and anyone else I can rustle up for the occasion) will be meeting tomorrow for a write-in.
Now to spread the gospel of AM talk radio. My roommtes and I discovered this wonderful thing quite by accedent. I had gone home for the weekend, and in the ensuing hurry to get out the door, had forgoten to turn off my alarm clock, as my roommates found out at eight o'clock on Saturday morning. Not knowing which button to push to shut the thing up, my roomates solved the problem by unplugging it. I can't say that I blame them, really. So, Sunday night, I notice that the alarm clock was unplugged and replugg it. I then reset the clock and the alarm, and went to bed without resetting the radio station. It turns out that the defalt station is one of our many AM talk stations.
I have tried every form of music as my wake up station, I have even tried NPR, and I have slept through every one of them, but the nutty guys in the 5-9 block on AM 570 wake me up. As a bonus, they are really, really funny.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
I found the accelerator...
That's right, I am no longer stuck in nutral, I got into gear and the story is moving, darn it. I called it quits today with 10,039 words, which is just a bit over last Sunday's goal. I'm starting to make up for lost time, now if I could just ignore the fact that my goal for today was 15,000.
I also had time to get a suprising amount of my homework done (always a good thing to do, since NaNo is for fun and homework is for a grade). Now here's praying that my sore throat, itchy eyes, runny nose, and slight head ache are all do to allergies and I'm not actually sick. Allergies I can tough out, sick is hard to do.
I also had time to get a suprising amount of my homework done (always a good thing to do, since NaNo is for fun and homework is for a grade). Now here's praying that my sore throat, itchy eyes, runny nose, and slight head ache are all do to allergies and I'm not actually sick. Allergies I can tough out, sick is hard to do.
The week two gauntlet
Going in to week two with a deifcet is not a good thing. It only makes a bad week worse.
I stopped writing last Thursday about 500 words short of that day's goal. Then I went home for the weekend, and nothing ever gets done when I'm at home, including NaNoWriMo. So my collective word count for Friday and Saturday is 0. On Sunday I started trying to play catch up, and managed to get to 5633 words, but to be on track I needed 10,000 or so. Right now I have 6,757 out of 13,333. Ah well, what kind of college student would I be if I didn't procrastinate?
As for the plot, as the writing has gone on it has morphed a bit, as was to be expected. Now, I am writing any bits of the legendarium and/or culture and/or history that surrounds the Celestial Sphere, usuing Harmonia as my narrator, because she has an (almost) unique experence from which to explain everything. Also this gets me to clear my brain of all those little cultural bits which have been floating around in my brain for a year but which have yet to find an actual home anywhere yet. Like explaining how the radios works, yea, that is going to happen.
As a totally random aside: I played Doom 3 today when I went home to vote. It r0x0rz, I must say, but ^%$ the lighting is hard to deal with. I only had like an hour with it so I didn't get very far, but I keep getting killed by those two zombies that attack you right after you leave the airshaft in the return to HQ mission. Why can't you have a gun and the flashlight? That ought to work for the pistol if nothing else.
I stopped writing last Thursday about 500 words short of that day's goal. Then I went home for the weekend, and nothing ever gets done when I'm at home, including NaNoWriMo. So my collective word count for Friday and Saturday is 0. On Sunday I started trying to play catch up, and managed to get to 5633 words, but to be on track I needed 10,000 or so. Right now I have 6,757 out of 13,333. Ah well, what kind of college student would I be if I didn't procrastinate?
As for the plot, as the writing has gone on it has morphed a bit, as was to be expected. Now, I am writing any bits of the legendarium and/or culture and/or history that surrounds the Celestial Sphere, usuing Harmonia as my narrator, because she has an (almost) unique experence from which to explain everything. Also this gets me to clear my brain of all those little cultural bits which have been floating around in my brain for a year but which have yet to find an actual home anywhere yet. Like explaining how the radios works, yea, that is going to happen.
As a totally random aside: I played Doom 3 today when I went home to vote. It r0x0rz, I must say, but ^%$ the lighting is hard to deal with. I only had like an hour with it so I didn't get very far, but I keep getting killed by those two zombies that attack you right after you leave the airshaft in the return to HQ mission. Why can't you have a gun and the flashlight? That ought to work for the pistol if nothing else.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
"Join the Dark Side. We have candy."
Kelly, who is probably the nicest person I know, was the RA on duty last night, Halloween. So naturally, she dressed as Darth Vader as she made her rounds. She did this with a bowl of candy, knocking on doors and greeting people with the above line. She was also accompanied by an entourage, which amongst other things, included Megan, in her Ren dress, carrying Genesis's CD player, which we were using to play the Imperial March as Kelly walked. It was hilarious.
I lived through midterms, and got away with a light mauling. I only had to take two, thank God, which means that I avoided a lot of the stress that my pre-med roommates are burdened with. The good news is that I got a 97 on my economics mid term. The bad news is that I did so poorly on my Italian mid-term that I don't even want to think about it. I have until the fourth of this month, that would be Friday I guess, to decide whether or not I will stay in the class.
On a more positive note, NaNoWriMo began today. I am ahead of my word count right now. My goal for today was 1,666 words, and I got 2,220. Let's hope I can keep my momentum up all month, I'll need it especially next week (the dreaded week two) and over Thanksgiving Break (when my entire family will conspire to disrupt my noveling attempts).
This year's project is called A Time for Peace. It is the history of the rebellion which takes place roughly 150 years before the start of Die Complex, which is my novel from last year. The problem with writing in an alternate, high-magic, world is there is so much that needs to be defined. As I've been working on DC, I've found that I have trouble explaining things. If I take the time to explain all the odd things that are particular to the Celestial Sphere, then the thing ends up like something by Victor Hugo -- with huge blocks of text that do nothing but establish a setting so that one line which actually progresses the plot can make some sort of sense. It was really giving me trouble until I finally decided that this history and setting would get their own explanation, and I gave my self permission not to explain things in DC. A Time for Peace is a little about the setting, but mostly about the historical events that overshadow everything that happens in the Sphere afterwards. After this, I hope to be able to go back to things like Die Complex: stories about live for mostly unimportant people who just happen to live in the Sphere. Or put another way, like the cozies my mom likes to read, only not on Earth, and with more explosions. ATFP is being told from the first person prospective, a first for me, by Hinoska Harmonia, one of the eight Salcenian lujan. Someday I might explain here just what that means, or I could finish this, get it published, and you all could just buy a copy.
Here's the first paragraph:
I would also like to announce that earlier last month I passed two major writing milestones. The first is that I filled my first steno pad for Die Complex and that I have finally moved on to the second one. The second is that I received my first rejection letter for a novel I submitted to an open call. Since it was the first version of DC, it is probably just as well that it was rejected. In about a year or so I hope to make it presentable enough to send out. For right now, it is on the back burner (or more accurately in the hanging file under my desk) and is going to stay there until at least the end of November.
I lived through midterms, and got away with a light mauling. I only had to take two, thank God, which means that I avoided a lot of the stress that my pre-med roommates are burdened with. The good news is that I got a 97 on my economics mid term. The bad news is that I did so poorly on my Italian mid-term that I don't even want to think about it. I have until the fourth of this month, that would be Friday I guess, to decide whether or not I will stay in the class.
On a more positive note, NaNoWriMo began today. I am ahead of my word count right now. My goal for today was 1,666 words, and I got 2,220. Let's hope I can keep my momentum up all month, I'll need it especially next week (the dreaded week two) and over Thanksgiving Break (when my entire family will conspire to disrupt my noveling attempts).
This year's project is called A Time for Peace. It is the history of the rebellion which takes place roughly 150 years before the start of Die Complex, which is my novel from last year. The problem with writing in an alternate, high-magic, world is there is so much that needs to be defined. As I've been working on DC, I've found that I have trouble explaining things. If I take the time to explain all the odd things that are particular to the Celestial Sphere, then the thing ends up like something by Victor Hugo -- with huge blocks of text that do nothing but establish a setting so that one line which actually progresses the plot can make some sort of sense. It was really giving me trouble until I finally decided that this history and setting would get their own explanation, and I gave my self permission not to explain things in DC. A Time for Peace is a little about the setting, but mostly about the historical events that overshadow everything that happens in the Sphere afterwards. After this, I hope to be able to go back to things like Die Complex: stories about live for mostly unimportant people who just happen to live in the Sphere. Or put another way, like the cozies my mom likes to read, only not on Earth, and with more explosions. ATFP is being told from the first person prospective, a first for me, by Hinoska Harmonia, one of the eight Salcenian lujan. Someday I might explain here just what that means, or I could finish this, get it published, and you all could just buy a copy.
Here's the first paragraph:
Lorimawtre and Shamroukh were the first gods, do not ask me who came before them. It would be like me asking you to describe events which took place before your parents were born, and expecting you to speak from experience. What matters is that they were the first.
I would also like to announce that earlier last month I passed two major writing milestones. The first is that I filled my first steno pad for Die Complex and that I have finally moved on to the second one. The second is that I received my first rejection letter for a novel I submitted to an open call. Since it was the first version of DC, it is probably just as well that it was rejected. In about a year or so I hope to make it presentable enough to send out. For right now, it is on the back burner (or more accurately in the hanging file under my desk) and is going to stay there until at least the end of November.
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