I DID IT!!!

I can't believe it. Because of this last week, especially. Before that I was pretty confident in my winning abilities. Even though I wasn't sure how...

BUT I DID IT! ALREADY! 50,047 WORDS! I'M DOING A HAPPY DANCE NOW! AS WE SPEAK!

Enough caps for you? Me too. Maybe. Instead...




Heh Heh. I haz a book.

48,383

46,576

I'm so close I can taste it. I may not even have to keep working 'til midnight. I'm beginning to think I may not run out of scenes to add before 50,000, after all. (One can add words by adding a little description here and there, but for thousands of words, it helps to have big blocks of text to add -- whole scenes.) I'm not sure why I think that, given how much I've already filled in and how close I am right now to my "The End" scene I've already written... I guess the thousands of words I've already added last night and this morning are making me hopeful, contrary to all reason. No. Not all reason. Even if I do get stuck, I think with all the time left before me, I really will win. Squeeeee!!!

41,133...

...albeit I did quote an entire song from Into the Woods, supposedly as "flavor text"...

39,955

Yep. I know, it seems a shame to go to bed before 40,000. But I'll get there tomorrow. Or I'd better. This is going to be a very tight week. But I will make it, somehow. Stupid Thanksgiving. No, good thanksgiving. I give thanks for it. Yes. And for novels, too. I'm a teensy bit loopy at the moment, having spent two days trying to work on my novel ALL DAY, and having semi-succeeded, while still only managing something like... what, 4,000 words a day? Blech. (For perspective, it really only takes an hour to write more than a thousand words, when you're not completely stuck, not counting breaks, so that's only about four hours of writing a day, and yet I was working all day, really, really I was...) But...

...I actually figured out how my novel's going to end! Squeeeeeeeee!!!

I think. If I don't later decide I hate it. And the execution and details are a bit tricky. But whatever. I stick my tongue out at writer's block. Then I apologize profusely, not wanting writer's block to take offense and strike again before December 1st.

I actually wrote part of the ending too, complete with "The End," which is just silly, because real published books don't end with that. At least not most of the time. But again, whatever. Now I just need to fill in the pesky area between the spot I'd written up to earlier and the ending... and flesh out some of the scenes that I had shortened to ridiculously concise sketches.

More Smoke Photos

November 2008

I put an album of my November photos up on google. However, my November photos consist entirely of pictures of smoke. So, there are a few more than I posted on here earlier. Not a lot. And they're pretty repetitious. Meh.

The End of the Affair

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Read: 10/21/08-11/3/08
LibraryThing tags: SLOBS (a reading group), Character, Movie Inspiration, Theology, Catholic, Atheism, Suffering, Redemption

A book I probably never would have picked up on my own, but I'm glad I read it. Not being fantasy, I didn't have an addiction to fight and had to push myself just a little to read it, but I still finished it in only three sittings. It's a short book. Very well done, too. I don't want to give away too much, provided you haven't seen either of the movie versions (I haven't yet). At first, on the surface, it's the story of an affair; it's actually a story of the nature of love; human love, religious love, hate, jealousy, indifference. By the end, it becomes very moving. It's a story that can be read and enjoyed on several different levels. As a Christian, I loved it, but I think one could easily enjoy it regardless. Technically speaking, it's skillfully done, seamlessly weaving past and present and two different viewpoints. Certainly it's rightly shelved with the general fiction rather than the Christian fiction (although... that tends to happen with classics, anyway...). The questions raised are ones that Christians are concerned with, but the answers are left... relatively vague, I suppose. And the questions certainly aren't exclusive to Christians. I think an atheist would have to wrestle a bit with this book... but they could probably ignore it or discount it, if they chose. Meh. Recommended.

27,126...

...words dragged out of me, kicking and screaming. This novel lacks a bit in the "purpose and direction" department. Kind of like me. I have a feeling I'm not halfway through the story, but it's hard to say, not knowing what's going to happen next. Stupid decisions.

And hey, isn't this supposed to be my mood for the second week, not the third week? Yeah, I might not be halfway through...

SoCal Ditty

There's a cloud over my head; not white or grey, but brown. The light glows red, in place of rain there pours down ash instead.

Isn't this weather for October, not November? Our falls are always "Indian summers;" so would this be an "Indian fall?"








These were taken from the top of the parking structure by my work. I would guess, based on the direction, that this particular smoke (to add to the soup...) is from the Brea fire. And here's downtown LA, in the other direction, for a small small taste of the air quality:





















And sunset amid the smoke, seen through the door of the shop.

The novel made me do it.

That's my new motto.

14,505.

Writing When You Don't Know Where You're Going

It's more efficient than one would expect. See, as I try to figure out why certain characters are doing certain things, my main character thinks about and vocalizes the different options. A lot of this may have to be cut later on, but it's writing that I would be doing no matter what, since I think more clearly in writing. I would either write about it in notes, before the draft; or like this, in the draft. But doing it this way, I get a little bit of usable prose at the same time. What's not to like? Well, it does feel a bit like pulling teeth. But there can always be frustration in planning and hammering out plot.

I'm at 10,589 words now. Go me.

Also, I love the fact that I have both Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars and The Tasha Tudor Book of Fairy Tales sitting in a pile on my desk for the sake of flavor text. I like quotes at the beginnings of chapters. And a Suetonius-Tasha Tudor combo? Perfect. Evidently. Although I'll admit I'd prefer an annotated original Grimms' Fairy Tales... I'm going to have to get that... I have read the original "Rumpelstiltskin," I just don't own it. Which would come in handy. Ooh, birthday present, anyone? Speaking of which, I don't feel comfortable donating to NaNoWriMo this year, since John and I are at one of our worst financial positions yet (which is saying something), and my spending affects him, too. But I would love it if other people would donate to them for my birthday. They deserve it. They are awesome, and they need it.

8,569!

Words in my novel, of course. What else would I be writing about? It has yet to catch up to Aedhira (which I've been working on, off and on but more off than on, for years), but it's sadly more than halfway there. A few things have even Happened now. Although... they were all pretty much things I'd been planning on, before November 1st. It's the huge gaping plot gaps ("'Gaping gaps?' You can do better than that, Marcy." "Yeah, but if I changed it I wouldn't be able to put this cool parenthetical thing in, and my Word Count would Suffer." "Silly! This isn't your novel!" "Oh. Well, apparently my Internal Editor has been dismissed for the month, and I ain't calling him back for nothing.") that I didn't manage to get to before November that I'm worried about. Un-planned Happenings have begun hinting at themselves, but we're worried they don't know where they're going, they're just going to run all about, laughing at me and yelling, "Nah nah! You can't catch me!" Yes. Well. But bits of the book look surprisingly readable and interesting. I'm crossing my fingers that my word output will not drop next week, because I've barely built up any cushion at all. Oh well. I did manage to get 2,000 words out today, a non-weekend day (speaking of which, I really should post this and go put a dinner together for work tonight...), and that's a pretty good accomplishment. I've been consistent. I can do this.

This was the easy part?

The first week of noveling is supposed to be easy. "Week One is a fantastic time to build up a comfortable word-count lead," they say. Meh. I suppose they're right. Work and other plans rendered noveling impossible yesterday, but today I reached my 2,000-word goal with no problem. I went at a leisurely pace and still finished before the two hours I had allotted. So what am I whining about? Well, um, it's just that it's 2,000 (or 2,199 now, counting chapter titles and such, to be exact...) of... nothing. I'm going on and on about feelings, and motivations, and background, and nothing is happening. Meh. I knew that'd be my weak spot. And yes, yes, it doesn't matter. Editing will come later, and I will give it Plenty of material to deal with. I will output, output, output! Yes! Internal Editor, take that! In fact...

Internal Editor, thou art doomed!