Here we go!

It's the eve of NaNoWriMo!  I have put a widget on the sidebar where anyone can keep up with how I'm doing on my word count.  On top of keeping tabs on my overall word score, it will also mark every day whether I reach 1,667 words (green) or not (red) as well as if I did exceptionally well (dark green) or poorly (dark red).  I do anticipate a few dark red days.  I may try to take a day off here and there if I am doing well enough with my word count.  We'll see.  Either way, I was hesitant to include the calendar because I know if I fail epically it will be broadcasted to everyone!  On the other hand, keeping everyone else from seeing me fail may be another incentive to write.  I will start writing tonight at midnight, so hopefully if you check the calendar on this blog sometime tomorrow, you'll see one little green box.  Maybe I'll try to see how many words it takes to get a dark green box.

As I mentally prepared myself this evening to start what I fully anticipate to be an insane month, I sat by a bowl of candy for my first ever Trick or Treaters and watched The Hurricane, the movie based on Rubin Carter going to prison for three murders he did not commit.  I picked it because it is the only movie my boyfriend and I own that I had never seen.  I'm surprised I hadn't, really.  It depicts his relationship with a boy, Lesra, who read and was inspired by the book Rubin wrote in prison.  When they finally meet in person, Rubin starts talking about the magic of writing to the boy who is newly literate.  I really couldn't have picked a better movie to watch tonight, for that scene on its own.

And then there is also the link between the movie's title and a certain force of destruction that has been terrorizing the east coast.

The NaNo group held a kick-off party on Monday at a martini bar in town.  I'm always up for a reason to splurge on a cocktail, but I really enjoyed the event.  There were at least 30 people present, so I met a lot of new people as well as received a few more movie suggestions that may help me with inspiration when I get stuck.  I'll see them again on Friday for our first NaNo write-in.

My GREs are now over.  I'm very happy with my scores, which means I can put most of my efforts into the novel rather than studying for a redo (although I may have to work on graduate school applications now, but we'll get to that later).  I went back to planning my novel.  Fortunately, I figured out some additional things I can do with Allie's life, and it also strengthened one of my characters in the process.  I seem to find that adding connections in my story is a positive thing.  Donald Maas recommended it in his book Writing the Breakout Novel, and I'm seeing that he was right.  I had hoped I would figured out a little more before November, but people have won this thing with much less planning than I've done.  None, even.  What I have now will have to be enough.  Wish me luck!

I can't believe that with two and half hours to go before November is here, I actually have butterflies.   

Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo

Lunch break.  Thought I'd write something quick.

I feel like I've been talking about National Novel Writing Month for a while now.  I can't believe it is almost here!  I am pretty much terrified, so I've been trying to figure out how to prepare for it.  I'm surprised how many websites I have found online with tips.  I saw a few things I was already planning to do (let everyone know I am going to be much less available in November), but others I hadn't thought of (freeze meals for easy dinners).

Every single site I have found so far tells me I need to stock up on coffee.  Well, that's great, but I don't really like coffee.  Doomed.  I love the smell of it, but no matter how much cream and sugar I add I cannot get past the bitterness.  Luckily, there are lots of energy drinks available these days.  I'm not a big fan of those, either, but I'll try them out.  Or tea.  I think I once saw caffeinated gum at a gas station.

I have not had the chance to write lately.  I've tried a little more outlining to get me prepared for November, but I've got other things I need to work on, too.  I can only do so much and stay sane when I get home from work--granted writing can be fun, but it is still work.  I'm taking the GRE this Saturday evening.  This might sound strange, considering that I'm writing a novel, but I'm a little concerned about the Verbal section.  I bought a set of flashcards with the 500 most commonly used words, and I can't believe what I'm expected to know.  When on earth will I ever use some of these?  Sure, some are not too difficult to figure out (why would I ever use "pellucid" when "lucid" is a perfectly good synonym?), but others require pure, rote memory.  There are a good 100 words I'm not even bothering looking at.  I figure it'd be a waste of my time.

When I'm not preparing for the GRE, I'm debating with myself over the title of my novel.  I had something in my head for a while, but I realized that it had religious connotations to it.  I'd rather keep those out because I've got no such intentions for my book.  I don't even really have any explicit message in mind for my story.  I am writing it to entertain myself primarily, and others secondarily.  Either way, I need a freaking working title.  I started writing out all sorts of ideas and filled a sheet of paper with a combination of overdramatic, boring, and misleading titles.  My working title, for lack of any more inspiring ideas, may end up being A Second Life or something else that is super literal or prosaic (GRE word!)

I know I have not really written many updates lately.  I'm not sure my time will free up much in November.  Even if I do have time, I'm pretty sure I'll want to get away from computers.  Maybe I'll try to write just enough to get across my progress, but we'll see.

My plan as of now: invest in ear plugs; buy frozen dinners and coffee/tea/some random bad tasting, energizing crap; take a couple days after my GRE to refine my characters

And finally:  on Halloween night, at 11:59 pm, I will turn on my computer and write until I hit 1,667 words.  I want to start with a bang!

Hemingway experiment: write drunk, edit sober

I have decided to try a little experiment.  While Ernest Hemingway had a reputation for indulging in alcohol, he was also a brilliant author.  One of his famous quotes, "write drunk, edit sober," has always made sense in theory.  After all, the quality of the first draft does not matter.  You simply need to get something down.  Polishing comes later.  I have an issue with this, sometimes.  I find it too tempting to edit as I go, I get stuck on word choices, and sometimes I sensor things in my writing.  I thought I'd take his quote to a more literal interpretation.

I bought myself a bottle of Riesling wine, and have already made a dent in it.  Unfortunately this particular brand is a little too sweet (I should have looked that up ahead of time).  I anticipate that tomorrow morning when I have to hold a stand at the farmer's market to recruit families to do experiments, I will be nurturing  hangover.  Such is the price of writing.

I'm going to go on record, before I get too deep into this bottle, and say that I don't suggest that anyone who wants to write should drown themselves in alcohol for their craft.  I just thought this would be a fun experiment seeing as how I've got nothing else to do on a Friday night.  Also, I don't plan to get drunk so much as buzzed.

Here goes.
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Okay, so it is an hour and twenty minutes later..  I wrote about 1,300 words.  I'm not sure what I think of what I accomplished, and probably won't know until I'm fully sober.  Right now I think that, although I came up with a few good ideas, my writing isn't very 'pretty.'  It's looking fairly basic.  That doesn't really matter, because the point was to lower my inhibitions and just let myself write.  Still, I'm not convinced I couldn't have come up with these ideas while sober.  Normally I do come up with a few good ideas while writing, anyway.  Nor do I think I would have taken this scene down a notch without the alcohol.  Where is the benefit?

It was harder than I thought to write with a buzz, partially because I kept mistyping.  A couple times, I wrote an entirely wrong word that started with the same letter.  Plus it was tiring.  Unless I wanted to drink a hell of a lot to maintain this level, I knew I was bound to start to crash soon.  It's only 9:30 and I kind of want to go to bed.  Seriously?  My 21-year-old self would be ashamed.  But she also didn't have a full time job that meant waking up early to run experiments.

All in all, I'm not sure this is something to repeat.

Word count- 17327

October delays, and a synopsis draft

October won't be filled with as much writing as I'd hoped.  I recently realized that, although I don't know for certain what I would do, I really am ready to leave my lab manager position behind.  The best thing I can think to do next is try going to grad school... if I can figure out what I would go for.  In order to leave the option for grad school open, I've been preparing to take a GRE later this month.  (Is it strange that I'm writing a novel and yet it is the verbal section I'm worried about?  I did grow up with a physics professor as a father, though.)  I really should do better and study to take the one in psychology, too... but I kind of hate the idea of studying for that when I'm trying to get ready for Nano.  This is discouraging, because it tells me a few things about my priorities for my future.  I would love to write for a living, but realistically I would not be able to support myself, so I need to pick a career.  This is where I turn into a whiner and start complaining about how I don't want to do that.  I really really really need to get serious and freaking pick a path.

Plus Jordan and I have finally gotten bicycles, so we've been riding them alllllll over town.

Since I can't write about having actually written... I've decided to release a draft of my synopsis.  It's a work in progress, but I guess I don't see the need to be quite as secretive anymore.

Initially, Allie Hepner thinks the hospital room she has been visiting every night is part of a dream.  As they return and grow longer she must face the possibility that she is not dreaming.  Rather, she is waking up in the life of Candice Waybright, a woman who was involved in a car wreck Allie caused a week prior.  She suddenly finds herself surrounded by Candice’s family and husband who believe she has retrograde amnesia.  As they teach her about Candice’s life and try to rebuild their relationships Allie must figure out whether the life she worked so hard for is everything she thought it was, and what happened to the real Candice Waybright.

My biggest problem right now is not knowing what to do with Allie's life.  I have all sorts of ideas about life as Candice.  I'm excited to write it and it is much more fun... but I need to figure out how to make life as Allie more interesting.  If not, I may have trouble trying to write 50k words for Nano.

I am trying to do as little traveling as possible in November, because I would love to have weekends to shut myself off to the world and write so I can stay on track.  The problem is, I've got plans for 2 weekends and plans for another undetermined weekend.  Something tells me I may used some of my paid time off days in November to make it work.

I do plan on doing virtually nothing else in November, though.  Sorry in advance if I turn down any invitations.

I'm still at about 16,000 words.  Ack.

Breaking Bad and other writing assignments

Dexter has made way for Breaking Bad.  I wish I could say it's some joke, but as soon as I caught up with one distraction, Jordan and I launched head first into another.  We've gotten more than half way through the fourth season since I last wrote.  I think I just have to accept that I'll always have these distractions and just find a way to write despite them.

I also spent a decent chunk of time since my last post working on a submission for a developmental psych conference.  I was working on an entirely different sort of writing, and then when I emailed it to some of the professors/co-authors, one of them completely schooled me.  She reworked the entire thing (which, I hear, she often does).  Really, it is a great thing.  She knows what the panels will be looking for and how to give the abstract the best chance of getting accepted.  I'm flabbergasted I can list these professors as my co-authors.  At least if I ever finish my novel I won't be as shocked if it needs heavy editing.

I have recently started dedicating myself to half an hour of writing in the mornings, before I do much else.  It kind of gets my mind going for the day.  Plus, I'm starting to realize I'm going to be shorter on time to write, so I need to write when I can.  I've got to GOT TO prepare for a GRE I'm taking later this month.  During that time, I'd love to (but won't count on) write at least 800 words a day to warm me up for NaNoWriMo in November which would simultaneously get me to the 40,000 word goal I'd love to hit by Oct.31.  If I can somehow manage that AND win NaNo (seriously, who put NaNo in the month with Thanksgiving traveling?) I'll have 90,000 words.  Looking at my current word count, I know I've got to get more serious.

Hey, I have written 12,000 words in a day before.  Not the best writing, mind you, but I'm not looking for polished either.

I'm somewhat still using my strategy of writing out parts of conversations and then typing them up later.  I started with maybe 175 words of dialogue which, when I started typing it out, transformed into just over a thousand words when as I expanded it and fleshed out the scene.  Not bad.

I feel like I'm on a roll.  I'm going to try to write a little more.

Total word count:  16,068 (17.8% of my goal)