So, this year I will gracefully decline to participate, and simply wish all the participants good luck and good writing.

1. Basically, I just keep working on the same story, over and over, adding new parts each year.

Some NaNo stats of mine for your pleasure:

• This was my sixth year participating, so this gives me a 50% success rate so far.
• I skipped 2007 because I couldn’t think of anything to write. October that year had been hell, and I wasn’t prepared.
• 5 of the 6 stories have been sci-fi [2] and the 6th story was a romantic dramady [3].
• Two of the wins have been with sci-fi and one with the rom-dram. You’d think that I’d stick with the rom-dram since I have a 100% success rate with that genre, as compared to a 40% success rate with sci-fi.
• Over the course of November, I had four days where I wrote 5,000 words or more, meaning that I wrote 40% of the story in four days. If I could only harness that awesome writing power, I could have been done in slightly over a week. [4]

A lot of writers say that sometimes the characters you are writing will sometimes stand up and wrestle control of the story away from you, and it sounds like a lot of malarkey, but there’s a grain of truth to it. For instance, all the way through my story outline, I had two characters named John and Paul. Halfway through the notes, Paul stopped feeling like a “Paul” and decided to become a Jamie. Okay, fine – it’s early enough to change. But then when I started actually writing the story, John stopped acting like a John and started calling himself Liam. And one of the other characters, who was supposed to be a airhead named Bijou, had a great moment near the beginning which made me decide that she wasn’t an airhead and “Bijou” was actually a silly name for her, so she started being called by her nickname, Beez.

And then there was the story. It’s the same story I started working on all the way back in 2003, and it’s carried me all this way without running out of ideas. There’s this space ship, and there’s this crew on this space ship, and they do stuff, and then there’s a conspiracy going on. Last time I wrote about them, in 2006 [5], I wrote the end of the story without actually figuring out what the conspiracy was, so this year I worked on the middle part where more people start finding out about the conspiracy and trying to figure out what’s going on. However, this year I did it from the perspective of a different crew on a different ship which I had mentioned in passing last time – not that I didn’t like the characters, I just wanted a different group of people to do things this time around.

And next year? I had this one character in this year’s story who was absolutely not what I thought he was going to be, so I’m thinking I might have him set out by himself to see what he’ll do with his own story.

[1] There’s a mouthwash for that. You might want to look into it.
[2] They’ve been part of the same story.
[3] Calling it “fiction” seems so pedestrian.
[4] Somewhere, my boss is hollering “if you could have harnessed that awesome writing power, you would have finished those post-project reports months ago!” To which I reply: “pthththtbbbbbb!”
[5] I wrote the rom-dram in 2008.

A few weeks ago, I announced my intention of participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. What I hadn’t mentioned were all the misgivings I had about starting something that I wasn’t certain I could fully commit to. See, I was going to be in Ottawa for a full weekend for Dave’s Movie Marathon (which was a blast, as usual), plus I knew I would be going home for a few days to see my new niece (she’s adorable!). While I knew I would do what I could to work on the story while I was away, I knew it was going to be difficult, there would be major distractions, and I would fall way behind. But hey, I’m no stranger to that having done this a few times before.

What I was not counting on at all was getting sick. And no, it wasn’t H1N1, but it was almost as bad: a cold that kept coming and going for almost two weeks, starting the day after the movie marathon and lasting until this past Thursday. One day, I’d feel fine and the next I’d be out cold. On top of that, I was stressed out about work, so I never really let myself take the time to get better and I’d keep relapsing from something which I should have recovered from in a few days.

At no point in there did I get much chance to work on my story. Over the course of two weeks, I wrote less than 2000 words, which is, as you can guess, not good. I needed a marathon writing session to get me over the hump.

Fortunately, this weekend was free from work obligations, and I vowed to write at least 10,000 words or I was going to pronounce this attempt DOtS [1]. I’ll spare you the suspense and come right out and tell you that I did manage to make my goal, and the finishing line is well within my cramped, writerly grasp now.

In other stuff: I haven’t been to the gym in almost three weeks, what with the travel and the sick. Last week while I was home sick [2], I was watching a program where people were running, and it made me sad. Suffice to say, I’m going to make it in at least twice this week, but I’m not going to overdo it.

In other other stuff: Crazy Off-Key Singing Guy Who Walks With Purpose, a fixture of my neighborhood but who has been missing for the past year, is back. I’m not sure that I can honestly say I missed him.

[1] Dead on the screen. As opposed to the printed page.
[2] I sucked it up for a day and a half and stayed home sick. It was what I should have done from the very beginning.

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.

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.

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!

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.)

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.

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!

The slightly less short version:

A few weeks ago, I was reading an article about The Diagram Prize, which is a prize given to the book with the oddest title at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Any book with an unusual title can be nominated, and the unique thing about the awarding of the prize is the judges can’t actually read the book, because then the title might make sense and the humour is gone.

All of the titles in the article are amusing in one way or another, but the one that had me scratching my head was Did Lewis Carroll Visit Llandudno? because really, did that question merit a whole book? And who, besides the residents of Llandudno [1], is really interested in something like that?

That’s when it hit me: this would make a great NaNoWriMo story! I could write about a scholarly type writing about an author’s visit to some obscure town, and have half of it be the scholarly article, and the other half being what really happened! Excellent!

I’m starting to get excited about this, especially since last year was a complete bust. I’d been working on essentially the same story for four years, and basically decided in 2006 that it would be the last year I worked on it. I even went so far as to write the ending without there being an actual middle to the story. Last year, I spent months trying to come up with an idea, but couldn’t think of anything and dropped out before I began.

However, I think I can go somewhere with this story, having thought of a good opener on my way to work and a scene involving a bar fight on my walk home. I don’t want to jinx it by saying that I have a good feeling about it, but maybe I’ll go as far as saying that I will be spending the next month [2] giving a great deal of thought to this idea.

[1] Which is a seaside town in Wales.
[2] When I’m not trying to finish my Christmas knitting because I’ll be busy trying to write in November.