Thursday, November 03, 2005

4,732

So tired.

I typed 1,144 words today. Short from the Cumulative goal of 5,001 by 269.

Need sleep, and may not get many words in tomorrow.

Catch Up on Sunday... (fingers crossed.)

My damned Husband

So, Edmund, my husband is also participating in NaNoWriMo.

Let me get it on record as saying that it was MY idea to join NaNo. I was the one who mentioned it to him, and suggested that it might be a cool thing to do together. After a week (maybe two) Edmund said that he would do it too.

When October 1st rolled around, and we were finally able to sign up on the NaNoWriMo.org site, I was chomping at the bit to sign up and get psyched up to write my first novel. Edmund was a bit more lackadaisical about it, joining up only when my incessent nagging got to be too much for him.

Where am I going with this?

Since Midnight on November 1st Edmund has written 8,512 words. Eight thousand five hundred and twelve.

I have written 4,392 - with hopefully more before I go to sleep.

I am doing well, but Edmund is kicking my ass!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Good luck sweetie.

Now more talk about me!

TSTL

I think earlier today, I made my female protagonist (Maddy) TSTL...

Too Stupid To Live

AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH

It's okay to Suck

It's okay to suck. My book does not have to be perfect. I can always fix it. Keep on, keeping on, keep writing, keep writing...

It's the process, it's the process

Write, Write, Write, Write, Write, Write

4,034

Short lunch stint gave me another 446 more words, for a total of 4,034!

Wow. That's all I have to say. Wow.

I have to quit for a while, and I might not get a chance to write tomorrow or Saturday. If that's the case, I will make up for it on Sunday!

Later.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Name Change: Helen Who?

So I had picked out a name for my female protagonist: Helen. Was thinking of Helen of Troy and my great aunt Helen.

I realized the name was not working for me, Helen was seeming a bit prissy, so today I changed it to Maddy King. Short, sweet and cute. More clown-like. Awesome!

My male protagonist's name is Michael Black (not Mike. He hates Mike.)

Excel Word Counter

Hey, if you are a NaNo peep and you want a cool way to figure out how you are doing with your cumulative word counts go ahead and check this link out:

http://gotthink.com/nanome/resource.html

This is a spreadsheet that I designed to help me figure out how I was doing on a daily basis.

3,588

Yeah! I did some great work today, and now I am 254 words over the proscribed goal! Yeah again!

2,573

Okay, I wrote all during lunch a total of 866. I am now at 2,573, and I just got to the first murder. Fun! Characterization - sucks. Might have to change the protagonist's name. I think that Helen sucks for a name. Okay the whole book sucks.

But I will keep writing.

To go along with the whole 1,667 words a day theme, I have to write 761 more words before I hit my cumulative goal of 3,334 words.

By the way, go me!

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

"Shakes the Clown"

So how do you research a novel set at a clown convention? Well, I don't know either.

As part of my research I purchased and watched "Shakes the Clown" on DVD. Well, I purchased it last week and watched it today.

The movie was much like I remembered it, silly, funny and crass (gross even.) When I first saw it I had a problem with the cocaine snorting clowns but it didn't bother me as much this time. Maybe because I am no longer clowning and it has been a few years.

I was hoping it would inspire me for my convention-themed book. But it didn't really. Most of the clowns I know are cheerful, pun-ridden pranksters and not drunk, pissed-off bozos. Now the drunk clowns work for the movie, just not for me and my story.

But all clowns do beat up mimes. That is pretty universal.*

(*not really.*)

(*not really.)

1,707 -- Great Start!

Of course I wanted to write 10,000 words today, but I finished a very respecatable 1,707. I wrote 627 during lunch and the rest (1080) this evening after I cooked dinner and watched the movie "Shakes the Clown."

Now it is time to go to sleep. I have a very busy rest of the week going on, so I hope I can keep this up!

In order for me to write 50,000 words in 30 days I have to average at least 1,667 words per day. Yeah me, first day and I am ahead. Tomorrow night I twist balloons after work, Thursday I have Toastmasters, and Friday and Saturday I am getting ready for a speech competion and a balloon gig. Hopefully I will find some time to write and/or be able to catch up on Sunday.

As I write I see myself writing sucky things, lurking out of the corner of my eye, I try not to go back and fix them. Let them be sucky. This is a first draft. I can fix everything. And, frankly, I have no idea how the story will unfold, so I am just going to keep going.

It is nice to have rules. No stopping. Keep writing. And all that rot.

I'm a Star

I was featured in the Boston Globe today, regarding NaNo! It was a great novel and I am very jazzed about this! C'mon, go and read it!

bostonglobe1


My portion of the article. Click on photo to go to complete article!
bostonglobe2

(By the way, I said "Will it suck?" instead of "Will it [stink]?")