Archive for the '2008' Category
November 30th, 2008 by Rebecca
So, I did it. This afternoon at about 1:45pm [1] I crossed the 50,000 threshold, and I didn’t stop smiling for about two hours.
Earlier this week, I’d pretty much given up because there were so many other things clamouring for my time. Monday and Tuesday I didn’t write at all, chosing to focus on my book club books. On Wednesday, I opened the file and read the last few paragraphs and added a few hundred words. I didn’t expect to reach 50,000 since I still didn’t have an ending, but I’d see how far I could go.
During the day Thursday, I added a few hundred words here and there, and it ended up shaking loose a few ideas. That night, I kept at it and got close to forty thousand. Friday night I got the rest of the way there. Saturday morning, while I was walking home from Christmas shopping downtown, I thought about what I really wanted to accomplish – did I really care if I finished? Was it really important to finish, and in the big scheme of things, did it matter if I finished?
The answer was yes. Nothing depended on me finishing it, but I wanted to succeed. And how could I give up so close to the end?
As soon as I got home, I started writing, and over the next two hours added another three thousand words to the story and had an ending in mind. Later that night, I added another two thousand and positioned my characters for the big finish. This morning I got up, added half of what I had left, took a break for a few hours, and then sat down and finished the thing in one go. And there was an ending – a happy one, too. In my fictional universe, it’s entirely possible for two random strangers to meet on a subway, fall for each other, decide that it’s true love after three weeks, and then agree to open a book shop together [2].
Thank you everyone who’s cheered me on, offered encouragement, and asked me how things were going. I wrote this story because I wanted to, but I kept going because I knew you cared. Congrats to my fellow NaNo’ers – Julie, Randal, Rhiannon and Meghan – and to Dave for his successful participation in NaNoBloMo, the blogging equivalent.
[1] I’m not used to writing numbers anymore – I’ve been writing out the whole word for a month now in order to pad my word count.
[2] That’s actually pretty much the plot of my story this year.
November 23rd, 2008 by Rebecca
My NaNo story is going, but I don’t know where. It’s not at all the story I had planned to write, and the one I planned to write had a beginning, a middle and an end, although the end was kind of nebulous. I guess I figured I’d decide what the ending was when I got there.
However, the one I’m writing now was unplanned, unscheduled, and unscripted. I’ve gone off the marked trail and I’m wandering in completely unknown territory. For a while, I could see what was coming ahead and was getting there fairly quickly and easily. Except, now that I’m there, I don’t know where to go. I’ve been puttering around this one event in the story all week (the big date between my two main characters [1]), and now that I’m there, I don’t know where to send them.
To top it off, it’s been a very busy week at work and this coming week is a nightmare of meetings, schedules and deadlines. I’m leading two book clubs at work, and I’m not finished either book [2] which is causing me no end of anxiety. The staff party is next weekend, and I desperately need to get my hair cut at some point. Plus, I’m just managing to not fall any further behind with the word count instead of getting ahead. While I honestly feel that I can do this, and that it’s entirely possible for me to win again this year, I’m wondering how the hell I’m going to manage it. [3]
[1] It’s a breakfast date on a Saturday morning, and I came up with a dozen different jokes revolving around someone saying to one or the other of my main characters, “Shouldn’t a great date end with breakfast?” Ha ha. I know. Funny stuff.
[2] I’ve read both books before, but not in the past three years.
[3] A lot of suggestions I’ve read on various forums on various web sites recommend writing smut when you get stuck. Let me tell you, I’ve tried on more than one occasion and it never pans out – I just can’t bring myself to do it. So my characters end up holding hands or kissing, and I end up rolling my eyes at the silliness of it all.
November 18th, 2008 by Rebecca
Dave’s Movie Marathon was a total blast. He and his lovely wife Sarah were generous hosts and made everyone feel welcome. The only person I’d met before was Jorge so I was a little nervous going in, but I had nothing to worry about. You guys made me feel right at home, and it was great to finally meet you in person. The movies were varied and intertesting, and all of us on the nomination and selection committee [1] deserve a round of applause. Also, mad propz to Jorge for liveblogging the whole damn thing [3].
The highlights:
Death Race 2000 – I arrived after it had already started, and Dave got me caught up. It was a great ice breaker movie because I could turn to the person sitting next to me and say, “Did Sylvester Stallon really just insult her by calling her a ‘baked potato’?”, or exclaim in amusement with everyone else when David Carridine put on a mask to have sex [4].
Lifeboat – This is a movie I never would have chosen to watch on my own, but I’m glad I saw it.
Glengarry Glen Ross – Since I got back, I’ve been raving about it to anyone who makes the mistake of passing through my line of sight. It was a truly awesome movie with so many outstanding performances, although I’d have to say Jack Lemmon was my favourite. He could go from depressed to obsequious to furious to begging in the blink of an eye.
Hard Core Logo – I have lengthy theories about the dysfunctional relationships in this movie, but in the end, it’s a bittersweet movie about a rock band.
Audition – All I know of this movie is that at one point, the cries of horror from those still standing woke me up. I snickered and went back to sleep.
In the end, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
(As for my NaNo story, sadly I’ve fallen rather behind. Sunday when I got home, I was too exhausted to write more than 500 words, and yesterday I didn’t get any done either. Maybe I’ll have to pull an all-nighter tonight.)
[1] Which was all of us, since we all nominated a slate of movies, and then ranked the nominees; the winners being the ones with the most votes [2].
[2] Or the ones Dave wanted to watch and snuck in.
[3] Seriously, go read his post! The funnest part of the whole thing were the photos and movies we made for each movie we watched – we weren’t just passive participants, we were ACTORS!
[4] And the dancing!
November 12th, 2008 by Rebecca
As is the wont with NaNoWriMo and the writing of fiction in general, sometimes your story gets away from you, and you end up following these tangents to see where they end up. Witness:
Originally, the hero of my tale was to be the subject of an academic paper, examining his output before and after a pivotal visit to a remote area. That got pushed aside in the first 10 pages because I was running out of ways to sound smart. I was still going to send my hero to this place, and he was going to fall hopelessly in love with a barmaid, and live happily ever after. But no! The hero’s friend chimed in early on, before plans were made to head to the remote area, that his girlfriend wanted to introduce the hero to her cute friend at a party. And maybe he’d still head to that remote area, but with cute friend in tow.
But what’s this? Now he’s been picked up by a cute librarian the hero met on the subway, and the whole trip thing is in jeopardy. I hardly recognize this story anymore!
Anyways, yesterday I was doing some serious catching up, and towards the end, I wrote a disgustingly cute text message exchange. Seriously, if I knew two people who were having this exchange, I’d vomit all over them.
T (The Hero): Vulcan death grip or Jedi mind tricks?
C (The Cute Librarian): Jedi – would use it for good, not evil.
T: Depends on what kind of evil it would be used for >:)
C: Am getting image of using powers on Han Solo
T: You are wicked and evil and I like how you think
C: I am a little wicked, not so evil, and I like how you smile
T: I am definitely wicked, not at all evil, and I like your dimples
(Background: the exchange started with a discussion of what was better – Star Wars or Star Trek, and it’s descended into an exchange of something-Star-Trek-related vs. something-Star-Wars-related. I’ve pretty much run out of ideas for this-or-thats, so any suggestions are welcome.)
November 5th, 2008 by Rebecca
Or trying as hard as I could. I now sit at a healthy 2589 words, which is still about 4000 short of where I need to be at the end of the day, but it’s 2300 words ahead of where I was yesterday when I called it a night [1], [2]. I’ve been at my computer off and on since 6:30pm, doing either chunks of writing or short sprints (7 minutes writing, 5 minutes cleaning off the dining room table or picking up dry dishes or cleaning Bing’s litter box). It’s gone well that way, and the only reason I’ve stopped for the night is that I’m tired and you can only force it for so long before the words start to dry up.
As for the election results, I’m a little too scared to hope. I remember going to bed in 2000 thinking Gore had won it, and waking up at 4am and finding out that he hadn’t, and it was looking very likely that Bush had won. Yes, things look good for Obama right now and I really hope he wins (and Props 8, 2, 102 and 48 fail), but I’m not holding my breath.
…Oh wait. McCain is giving his concession speech on CNN right now. Never mind, I guess.
[1] Although election officials in Florida will need to verify that first before anything is official.
[2] Tomorrow, if I write another 2300 words, I’ll be up to almost 4500 words, which is only around 3400 words behind where I should be.
November 2nd, 2008 by Rebecca
My plan for the weekend was this:
Get up at decent hour.
Write 2000 words.
Get act together and head to Steampunk party.
Party like it’s 1899.
Come home at decent hour on Sunday, and write another 2000 words so I’d have a nice buffer.
What really happened was this:
Wake up, look at the clock, roll over and fall back asleep. Finally get up and watch this week’s So You Think You Can Dance Canada I recorded earlier.
Think about writing, decided I want to shower, and head upstairs.
Start to get dressed, but start worrying about everything I need to pull together to take with me and start throwing it all on the bed.
Sit down, write 100 words, and go to iTunes to look for a song I want to listen to. Spend the next 45 minutes puttering around the iTunes store looking for other stuff.
Stress out about what I still have to pack, abandon my story, and finish packing. Leave for party.
Stay later than I expected, get on the road later than expected, and get home later than I wanted. Call a friend to see if she wants to go to the movies instead of writing. Then play around online instead of writing.
Be resigned to the fact that I’ve written a grand total of 100 words in 2 days [1]. Oy.
[1] Hell, this blog post is more than I’ve written this weekend!