NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

NaNoWriMo starts this Friday at 12:01 a.m., I believe. Technically, it's early Saturday, November 1. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept, it's a bunch of writers who get together (online) and vow to write 50,000 words by the end of November. It works out to about 1,500 - 2,000 words per day. If you assume 300 words per page, it's about five or six pages (in standard manuscript formatting i.e. double space, one inch margins, etc.) per day.

 

I've never participated in NaNoWriMo before. I told myself it was because I didn't need to. I had the motivation to write. And I do. However, I also spend massive amounts of time wallowing in indecision, trying to work through road blocks, eight different ways to Sunday before finally landing on an approach. With NaNoWriMo, you don't have that luxury. I think that restriction might be helpful.

 

Generally speaking, my best experience has been the time I did not allow myself to get "stuck." For the Ghost and the Goth, when I ran into a scene where I didn't know what happened, I forced myself to jump ahead to the next scene I saw in my head.

 

NaNoWriMo works with my natural tendency to write a rough first draft, albeit the pace is a little faster than what I'm used to. When I'm into a book, I usually write at least a page every day and then three or four pages on Saturday and Sunday. But I can usually get a first draft done in three months, and if I push it, I can get it up to final draft state in another month. So, clearly some days I'm writing more than my goal.

 

So, why, Stacey, the reluctance I hear/read in your voice?

 

I don't know. I've never done this before, written to a specific deadline. However, I know that will be part of my future. I think one of the reasons Linnea is so darn prolific is she's used to writing under deadline, thanks to her years as a journalist.  (And yes, I did spend the better part of a decade as a corporate copywriter, but it's way easier to churn out stuff when your name isn't going to be on it.)

 

I'm worried that trying to write so quickly will force me to churn out a pile of crap. And yet, that is the point of Anne Lamott's advice, "Write a sh*tty first draft." The point being that if you free yourself up, you'll discover things you might never have found otherwise and at least at the end you'll have something to work with rather than a blank screen. To paraphrase Edison, I'll have found at least one way NOT to write that particular story.

 

The obssessive compulsive side of me (oh, yes, shocking, I know...) is freaking out about not making the deadline. 50,000 words in 30 days. There is no prize or anything. It's just about reaching the goal. And I'm never that tough on myself about goals because they have to be flexible and realistic for life. But I DO not like failing. Period.

 

And yet, conversely, that very thing would be what motivates me to keep writing even when I really want to go watch a re-run of Family Guy.

 

Hmmm.

 

Still thinking about it. Anyone else out there participating in NaNoWriMo?

 

 

 

Oh, look! Shiny. :)

This always happens to me. I'm supposed to be working on one thing, but the pristine condition of an untouched, untapped idea is calling to me.

I. Must. Resist.

The hardest part about writing is staying focused. And when you're faced with something you don't know how to get around--how to get started, how to write a particular scene, how to handle a character's issues--other stories start singing the siren's song.

It's not that I don't love the current story, the one I'm supposed to be working on. It's just...the other one is still in this vague, perfect-because-it-hasn't-been-proven-not-to-be-yet stage. When you're up close with an idea, dealing with its flaws, and you're elbows deep in the structure, all the other ideas waiting in the wings seem...easier. Better.

But alas, it is an illusion. For all stories need work, love and care. Some come easier than others, true. Some make you bleed for every word. But whether it's easy or difficult in the writing of it doesn't seem to affect the quality of the story in the end. What will affect the quality is whether I'm willing to put the requisite work in.

I am. After I'm done whining. *sigh*

: ) Stacey

Experimenting with settings...

Hey, just a heads up, I'm playing around with trying to get Twitter to show up on the sidebar here, so things may look different or go a bit wonky...

Feels Like Home To Me...

As always, we had a great time at Valpo Homecoming. I never really thought about the meaning of the word "homecoming" until after I graduated from college. In high school, it was just an excuse to get dressed up and go to a dance. In college, it was a good excuse for a party! But now, 11 years, after graduating, I get it.

I still feel like I'm coming home when I get to campus. It's changed a lot since I was in school there. There are at least three new buildings and fewer old buildings (Goodbye, Baldwin Hall with your narrow stairways and musty air--I could easily imagine girls in poodle skirts and short neck scarves in those classrooms. Something about the design, shape and smell spoke to it being from a different era.)

In contrast, visiting my sister's dorm room was like stumbling into a miniature Best Buy. Televisions, DVD players, iPods, and THREE laptops. Not sound all old-school, but when I was at Valpo, laptops were near unheard of. You were lucky if you had a computer at all, and most of us spent our days camped out in the computer labs, praying that our 3.5" floppy disks wouldn't fail on us when we needed them most. (I once lost an entire paper because my boyfriend, now my husband, borrowed my disk and left it in the frigid car overnight). We printed out on dot matrix printers and then wasted another five minutes or so peeling the perforated strips off the side!

But we had so much fun. I loved being a part of a community like that, with friends who became family.

So...in honor of that:

Me, with flat hair and no make-up, at my favorite computer in the computer lab, scrambling to get yet another paper done. (Yeah, I know it's sideways--you know I have issues with this. :) )




Our dorm room, circa sophomore year, 1994.





This is what I miss--everyone hanging out together! (I'm guessing Deb took this photo, which is why she's not in it. I owe most of the photographic evidence of college to her diligence and skill with a camera.)



My baby sister with me on graduation day, 1997. She's now a sophomore at Valpo, and we walked in this same area this weekend to pick up the birthday cake my mom sent through the Guild.

Google--first in the fight to stop drunk emailing...

I love this. Google Mail Goggles--stops the email equivalent of drunk dialing.

 

I personally have never succumbed to this temptation. Mainly because when I've been THAT drunk (which has been very rare in my life, indeed), I'm usually laying on a couch somewhere sleeping or...giggling. The very last thought on my alcohol-soaked mind would be to get up and turn the computer on. No, no, I prefer the more tried and true version of humiliating myself in person. 

 

However, that being said, I'm intrigued by the story implications of this, if this practice became wide spread. True, you can shut Mail Goggles off, but that involves going into your account settings, etc. And when you need to send that urgent email (in a story) to let someone know who the murderer (evil alien/cult leader/etc.) is, you have to stop and solve math problems? That would be awesome! :)

 

Also, P.S. I'm not good at math when completely and utterly sober, so I'd probably never beat what appears to be a time limit on solving the Mail Goggles math problems. What about some word problems? You know, "An eight letter word for "'atmosphere'" or something. That could work, right? 

 

: ) Stacey  

Catching up, Allison from Palmdale and more...

I haven't disappeared. Just having trouble keeping up! To show you exactly how busy I've been, I must tell you that I haven't even watched Sarah Connor Chronicles from last night! And as far as I'm concerned, that's the only reason to get out of bed on Monday. : )

 

Regarding Allison from Palmdale, last week's episode, I'm thinking that many of you guessed, as I did, that Cameron was based on a real person. However, this raises all kinds of interesting questions about Allison's relationship with John versus Cameron's relationship with John in the future. Who was he in love with? Because you kind of have to assume it's one (or both) of them. Also, how old would that make Allison? Sixteen years younger than John, right? That could be kind of oooky, depending on how old she is/was when we saw her in the interrogation room with Cameron.

 

Den of Geek noted that the necklace Jody wore and gave to Cameron is the one that Allison in the future is wearing. So...does that mean Cameron gives the necklace to John to give to Allison in the future? I haven't verified this for myself--did anyone else notice this? It sort of makes my brain hurt to think about the timeline on that.

 

I have two ideas for the sequel to G&G. And I've been working on writing up a synopsis for both. Hence my absence. One is done--yea! Needs minor revisions. The other I'm still struggling with, but I hope to have it finished soon. In the meantime, I can give you weird stories to read like this: "Reborn" babies. This has science fiction possibilities written all over it!

 

More later...

:) Stacey

 

P.S. If you're on Twitter, I do a much better job updating on a daily basis. Here's my page...