NaNoK8's Xanga

::Sigh::

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 04:09:26 GMT

On the one hand, my amazingly sweet and thoughtful husband bought me a NaNoWriMo shirt to help me get through the middle-of-the-month slump.

On the other hand... I just got so mad at the sheer dumbness of the tack of my current storyline that I wrote "WHAT IS YOUR POINT???" and slammed the notebook shut (having to write by hand, was in choir). And, I'm having bad finger cramps, despite goign easy on the typing the last 24 hours. My knuckles are getting all arthritic or something. Makes it very unpleasant to type.

This whole "work all day" while trying to write staggering works of literary genius (see immediately previous post) is for the birds.

Encouragement

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:16:13 GMT

I had a non-day yesterday, and output is looking sketchy for today as well. For shame!

This popped up in my daily reads today and, while I ought to save it for December 1, I'm going to go ahead and post it here now. Maybe I'll post it again in a couple weeks. Ready?

Also, my puppy makes me happy.

20,000

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 01:24:29 GMT

Ye gourds.

I haven't even stopped for the day yet, and today's output has trumped anything else I've accomplished all month. I didn't think I could match yesterday's 3,222 words, and yet... somehow... today I've already hit 3,790. Even crazier? Two thousand, three hundred and sixty-five words of that are an explication on Hamlet. That fits into the plot. Because one of my characters is a professor of Shakespearean lit, and he goes off on a tangent about Hamlet that turns into a lecture about himself. Probably bored the class to tears, but oh well. Apparently I have a lot to say about Hamlet! Who knew?!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 01:33:43 GMT

17,000

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 00:01:44 GMT

16,000

Pushing 14,000

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 16:15:50 GMT

Yesterday was a power writing day. Two thousand, nine hundred and five words, making it the second most productive day yet. (The winner thus far is the night of the write-in... guess those things really work!)

It was an unusual day, too. Imagine my surprise - actually, at least one other NaNo soul on Xanga will sympathize, I think - when the chapter I was writing yesterday turned into a 1,400 word suicide note. No, not for me - I'm not that depressed with my word count. I had no idea my character was feeling so badly about everything. Now I don't know if she's going to make it to the end, and she almost has to... or... oh dear.

La Muse, from the other side of the house where she is, apparently, watching a Trading Spaces marathon, just shouted "OR DIE TRYING."

I have a buddy at work who is doing NaNoWriMo. When we were talking about it back in the glory days of October, she asked if I was a Planner or a Pantser (as in "write by the seat of your pants"-er). Both of us, as it turns out, are pretty much Pantsers. Yesterday, I said to her that there was a basic problem with being a Pantser. On the one hand, you never know when magic is going to happen in your novel. And on the other hand, you never know when magic is going to happen in your novel. That second "when" is accompanied by a thought, but never written, "or if."

Right now it is 10 AM on a Saturday morning. My puppy is driving me crazy. She woke me up at 3 AM, so I let her out of her crate and let her outside. I put her back into her crate, and she woke me back up at 6. At that point I let her on the bed with me, as usual. At 9, she woke me up again, but I made Ryan take her outside. At 9:20 I got up to check out the torrential downpour (now over, but supplemented by CD version), only to discover that somewhere between 6 and 9 she'd peed on the bed. Now she's running around being a pain in the butt little dog, while I'm wondering if there's something mentally challenged about a poodle that can't figure out to jump off the bed first. (She thinks she can't jump, seems physically incapable of jumping onto a bed, and won't jump off of anything unless pushed. Hard. I think she's scared of heights.)

And my feet are cold. I can probably fix that problem.

Oh, and I'm drinking chai, except that we're out of milk, so it tastes a little odd.

So glad today's game is an away game... I can watch the game from the comfort of a sofa while racking up the words. Whoo hoo!

A-Muse-Ing

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 14:34:34 GMT

This is going to be exceedingly disorganized. I hope you'll stick with me.

You can all read the word counter up there. I'm deathly behind. I mean, it could be worse - I'm not in any real danger yet, assuming that I can become productive again. Work is making NaNo really hard. I'm in the process of transitioning between positions and, in the meantime, am doing the work and projects for both. On top of doing two jobs at once, I'm juggling some major projects, both for work and otherwise. Somewhere in there, I'm supposed to wedge in noveling next to housekeeping, election drama, pets, The Office, football (I work at the games), and sleep. Sleep is being the biggest bugaboo, actually. I've gotten myself into a pattern of going to sleep at around 10 so that I'm human when I get up at 6:30. Since I'm a night person, this not only cuts into my prime writing time but has done something very odd to my Me-ness in general. I feel weird, all day long, because of these early mornings. (Grr, 8-5 jobs!) The thing is, I don't really have a choice. I can't not go to sleep at 10. If I try, I end up asleep anyway.

Remember how my novel has eight different, largely distinct, storylines? Well, I started with my favorite one, so that I could kind of leap out of the gate. From there I went to another one I liked, then hopped over to one that I didn't like very well. Et cetera. Now I have two that I've barely tackled. One, I like a lot - but I'm having trouble starting it. The other, I don't like at all. Ergo: I've hit a wall. That, on top of all the rest of Life going on, has resulted in 900 words in the past three days. Not each day. Total.

But!!!

Last night, as I was shopping for supplies for a major work project, my muse tapped me on the shoulder. I thought I was too busy, so I ignored her. QBobicus isn't much of one for being ignored, though. Next thing I knew, she was in my face, jumping up and down like a crazed six-year-old in a toy store who hasn't yet figured out that Mom and Dad aren't going to buy anything this trip.

I'm not going to tell you what she told me, but I will tell you that I'm re-energized, excited, chomping at the bit (I was going to say "raring to go", but I can't believe that "raring" is actually a word). And I'm filled with a new-found confidence. I was having trouble figuring out how I was going to justify my transition from the third person in Part I to the first person in Part II, and now I know. It's going to work well, it's going to work fast, and it's going to be fun.

Besides, lest I start to feel discouraged, I'm beating Chris Baty. That's got to count for something, right?

Stupid Election Day.

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 15:06:50 GMT

I can't believe I didn't write a single, solitary word yesterday. Today is going to hurt.

Cameo?

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:11:55 GMT

The eighth (out of eight) story line in my NaNovel deals with a character who is in a college marching band. As a result, I need to populate said band with bit-part characters. That's where you come in.

If you are a current or former bando, and you'd like to make a cameo appearance in And Other Myths, leave me a comment (here or at CapnK8) that includes:

Your first name
Your last name with between 1 and 3 letters changed to create a psuedonym (I may or may not use the last names)
Your instrument
Any particular requests/quirks/habits/traits that would make this cameo you - including whether you'd be willing to be cast as a Total Jerk. ;) Because I need some of those, you know. Not all of my cameos can be nice people!

I may not use everybody, but I might!

10,000 - Phew!

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 04:50:28 GMT

I'm 1,919 words behind where I wanted to be, given a 2,000-a-day goal, but I'm on track to finish before the end of the month. Thanks be to the write-in!