NaNo - Day 30. Done.

So, it's just gone 9pm, and I've struggled over the finish line, at 54,037 words.

I have 123 pages in front of me, hot out of the printer. I will bind this, and probably never look at it again. The story might be salvageable. I dunno. Can't think about it now.

I do feel like doing some celebratory eating.

Speaking of celebratory eating, I went down to North Carolina for Thanksgiving. My sister has a house down there, and so we all (my brother and his girlfriend, my mom, and my sister and her kids) congregated for food and Phase 10. I am pretty crap with babies, as my four month old nephew demonstrated. He's adorable, but given to vomiting. Or maybe that's just in my imagination. My seven year old nephew is capable of full conversations at this point. My sister's house is never, ever silent.

On thanksgiving day a couple of my sister's friends came over, a ranking officer who was to deploy to Iraq in a matter of hours, his wife, a medic in the army who would deploy in two weeks, and their young daughter. I watched them laugh and talk, while feeling...fear, I guess it was...for them at the back of my throat. Families must be saying goodbye all the time. I don't know how they deal with that life. I deal with it in part, I worry for my sister and I worry for her boys.

I'm seeing what I can cook up for December, project-wise. There's going to be something. Jodes and I are meeting tomorrow to plot and plan.

Congratulations, all you writers.

jules

NaNo - Day 26. Headed out.

Headed down to North Carolina for a couple of days.

Happy thanksgiving to you and yours.

jules

NaNo - Day 25.

I wrote today, completely without intending to. Added another 3K, bringing the total up to 44K. Just about halfway through the outline.

But, I have eight hours on planes over the next three days. The world can be accomplished in that amount of time, as far as NaNo is concerned.

Watched BallyKissAngel all day. Stephen Tompkinson is a hottie. I like Northern Lads. Would love to freak someone out with my Irish accent.

I'm headed down to North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with my family, meet my tiny nephew. I hope someone's bringing the Uno cards.

Today I wished I was more dry and cynical, but now I'm thinking the better of it.

happy holidays,
jul

NaNo - Day 22. Taking it Easy.

I didn't write a word after my 10K yesterday.

I left my home and went out and had fun.

First at the NaNo gathering in midtown, I got some caramel brownies and some vegan coconut cake.

And then I watched Chris do comedy, at a beautiful little theater around the corner. Funny.

I picked up Jonathan Franzen's book of essays: How to be alone. I am reading it and enjoying it very much, if "enjoying" is the word for it. Existence is difficult, creative reach is difficult. I appreciate when people tell the truth about it.

This morning I walked into my deli and there was Duran Duran on the sound system. The Reflex, then A View to a Kill, then Ordinary World. I walked out, with breakfast, floating.

My head is being retooled. I want to have fun today. This may or may not involve writing.

j.

NaNo - Day 21. Challenge Check In #3.

Okay, an additional 2,315 words, to make 10,704 total. I'm over the hump!

I originally wanted to be done by now (3pm). There's still 6,296 to go.

Seven scenes left, but I can write at about 1000 per scene and be good to go. Yay.

I am going to break for a pop tart, and more 15 Storeys High.

woot,
jul

NaNo - Day 21. Challenge Check In #2.

Okay, another 2,711 in another 48 minute session. 8,389 total. Lots of dialogue, which tends to slow me down.

The good news is, I'm finally off the first page of my outline. Yay.

The bad news is, I have about nine more scenes to write, only just about halfway through my desired wordcount for the day. It's almost 1pm and I'm nowhere near finished.

I've overshot a little bit, so the word count comes down a little per scene - 1100, or thereabouts.

My wrists are twanging slightly, so I'm going to take a mini break for my new obsession - Sean Lock's 15 Storeys High. Great, great radio. The TV series is pretty great, but radio show is even more off the wall.

Sean Lock reminds me much of my favorite ex-boyfriend - borderline cockney, endearingly zany. Sean has an extra measure of keenness, brain-wise. He's totally believable, no matter what he says. I dig him.

England swings
like a pendulum do,
j.

NaNo - Day 21. Challenge Check In #1.

3009 words in about 50 minutes.

I used Write or Die in Kamikaze mode, with the "Evil" grace period setting. "Evil" really doesn't leave you much time to think.

Two more scenes, and I'm off page one of the outline. Although I'm slightly behind as far as the story is concerned.

And all of this writing is crap, pretty much. Every friggin' word of it.

5,678 total for the day, so far.

more soon.
j.

NaNo - Day 21. The Challenge Begins.

Okay.

It's 10am on Friday. I'm setting myself the 2 day challenge of 17K per day. This will have me finished by Saturday night, but I'll also get a taste of how next year will go. I already got started this morning - Dana has 2600 words I restlessly typed at 1am.

I'd like to get 17K done tomorrow as well, although I'll be working a 10 hour shift. If I can keep that kinda word count up on working days, I will be *golden*.

My goal is to finish 14.4K before 3pm, which gives me a few hours to do errands before I have to leave for the evening.

Tonight will be spent in Hell's Kitchen - Livvy's bringing brownies to Bar 9, and then there's a friend performing a couple of blocks away.

Check in a couple of hours.

Write or die,
jul

Nano - Day 20. A Challenge.

Okay. I figured out how I'm going to get through this thing.

Two days. 17K words per day.

I consider it practice for next year - I want to join the half million club next year. That pace is 17K per day.

Theoretically, I can do this no problem. After doing the 50K in a Day last year, my notion of what is possible has exploded. But, doing 17K every single day will definitely be a challenge. I'll have to have everything outlined and very well set up. I even have a rough plot, something I was supposed to start last year.

The truth of myself is that I'm more of a sprinter, not a marathon runner.

I'm really good at short, sharp bursts of energy, not sustained energy over time. Even now, after I'm done with the current draft of my story, I'll have to admit to myself that it's still only a kernel of an idea. Some serious reworking will be required before it's anything that can stand up on its own. More work than I've ever done on a piece of writing.

It's something that I'm worrying about with songwriting as well. How do you take something that is currently a good idea to being as good as it can be?

I feel like I'm in a dark, locked room, feeling around on the walls for a doorknob. Or a window that I can let up. Something that might let some air in. Now it's just...dark.

I pulled out two of my favorite books, Martin Amis's The Information, and John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. I'm worrying over which to dive into first (when I have DeLillo's Underworld and Gruber's The Forgery of Venus also calling my name).

It's been a sad morning - I spent it watching David Foster Wallace show his soft, flayed, yearning, eager humanity on Charlie Rose. Still feeling quite devastated over his suicide.

j.

Nano - Day 18.

Last night I went to the meetup at the Tea Spot.

I kinda knew what was up, I knew that these meetings are often more social than writing. But, I was greeted with such an outpouring of love from a hot steamy room of writer friends I haven't seen for so long, I am not going to grumble that my output at the meetup last night was zero words.

My noble acts for the evening included having a mexican hot chocolate, and being fully distracted by the Distractivores, who weren't writing, but distracting everyone trying to write.

Evil Dan is moving to Boston, so last night was his going away party. Half the room emptied to go to dinner with him, and the other half emptied half an hour later. I had done no work. So, I typed like crazy on the way home, and with Write or Die later on that evening. I got my 3K, bringing my total up to 30K now.

I still feel oddly divorced from my plot, but I will struggle on toward the end. What I should do is pick up the pace significantly, satisfy myself with 1000 word scenes and just try to get through the action as quickly as possible.

I hope I can finish this thing in a week.

j.

Nano - Day 17. 10K words.

I wrote quite a bit today: 10,482 words.

Not to say that any of those words are particularly inspiring, but they got written, somehow.

Going to the write in helped. Write or Die this morning helped. The additional session in Barnes and Noble helped.

My total word count is 27,253. Over halfway there. I'm only just out of part 1 (of four parts). Hm.

I am a little exhausted. There's lots going on.

j.

Nano - Day 16. Eeking towards story.

I am still way way behind, still undermotivated, but the two main characters met each other yesterday. And I felt a little electricity in their exchange.

They hated each other, almost instantly. And then they gave each other a reason to hate each other even more.

Hm.

Today is Sunday, and I am not working. I will be going to the write-in today, partaking of baked goods and such, and hopefully pushing my word count over the 20K mark. We shall see how that goes.

Today is also Jodes's birthday. Happy birthday, Jodes.

j.

Nano - Day 12. I have found love.

Oh my gosh.

It's 6:21am. I've already logged 2000 words for the day.

Because of Dr. Wicked's Write or Die.

You choose a word goal, and or a time goal. I needed 1630 to complete the current scene I was working on, so I chose that. My time goal was 48 minutes.

And then you choose a mode: Gentle, Normal, or Kamikaze.

I chose Kamikaze, naturally. And clicked on the button.

So then, you're given a screen, and you just start typing. There's a countdown at the bottom, and a word count. Fine. At some point, you'll get distracted, of course. And your mind will start to wander, and you'll stop typing. After a few seconds, oh, 20 or so, the screen will flash red.

Now, if you were in gentle mode, you'll get a little window that says "Keep typing." If you were in normal mode, a little song will play. It's quite cute, actually, but potentially embarrasing, especially if you're in a quiet setting.

But, if you're in kamikaze mode, your document WILL START TO ERASE ITSELF. It was a delicious, confusing moment for me, when I realized I had to keep typing or my doc would disappear.

You can choose a forgiving, strict, or EVIL grace period.

In 48 minutes I had about 2200 words.

Result!

I love you, Dr. Wicked.

If you're writing, go get some love: http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html

j.

Nano - Day 11. Yawn, yawn. Yawn.

Some things seem more rational while you're doing them than they appear in hindsight.

I started watching the back half of the series Dexter last night. My sister recommended the show a while back. The whole first series is up on Netflix. I'd seen the first few episodes and found them mildly interesting.

Last night, around 1am, the first series got *good*. I was up watching until...oh, 6:30am this morning.

It's now 9:15am, and time to go to work.

I have a feeling today will be difficult, on just a couple of hours sleep.

Dexter was pretty horrific, by the way. I wonder if it could have ended any other way.

Anyhow, time to work. Cross your fingers for me.

Nano - Day 10. Ouch. Ouch, ouch.

I'm two and a half scenes in, and I feel like teeth are being pulled out of my head one by one. With a blunt instrument.

The scenes are way too long. 2500 words per crappy scene is way too much.

The past couple of years I was a total overachiever during NaNo. I'm just going to have to let go of my former self for now and be...an achiever. If I get through 50K with this novel, with a complete lack of focus and interesting plot, well, I'll just have to call that successful. And this will be good practice for me. I don't normally write if I don't want to. Nano gives me a good excuse to write even though I absolutely don't want to.

I went to see Neil Gaiman yesterday. It was a total spur of the moment thing, I just happened to find out he was being interviewed at the 92nd Street Y for The Sandman's 20th Anniversary. I called, there were plenty of tickets left. So I went.

He doesn't ever seem to change, of course he was dressed head to toe in his trademark black, with a crown of thick black curls. He was affable as usual. Neil is so natural, so genius, he doesn't even have to try. He doesn't even have to try. He does a mad Harlan Ellison impression. I was quite impressed with Chip Kidd, his interviewer. He looked like the love child of David Sedaris and Fred Schneider from the B52s. A terrific, almost irreverant, campy foil for Neil's quiet, boyish Englishness.

I bought the Graveyard Book and stood in (the long, long) line to have it signed. I read it halfway through in the wait (Neil's fans are hardcore). Now this is how it's done my head said to me, reading through the first few pages. He drops you right in the action, keeps things moving swiftly, there's always a buildup and a payoff.

I wish I had had my camera. I managed to ask Neil a question that no one has ever asked him before, he said.

I'll take that as a compliment.

Finished a crappy scene on the way home, with many more to finish before it's over and done with. I have a things to do list as long as my arm and I stare at it day after day, waiting for my focus to return.

Hm.

j.

Nano - Day 8. The Work Starts.

It's a Saturday, almost noon.

Normally I'd be at work. Today I'm not.

I also have an outline together, all written down and worked up and typed out and scened. I feel like it's thin on details, and I'm a little nervous about filling the details in. I read Anne LaMott's essay on Shitty First Drafts; I feel a little better.

It was a great week for shows, Tom McRae on Wednesday, Thea Gilmore on Thursday, and my friend Jodes last night - all great shows. Jodes was *terrific*. I felt like a proud mama, watching her pounding away on the piano and fully finding her fierce. Yay.

Jill, Jodes, Trish and I sat in Bruno's until late o'clock at night. I ran my little plot by them, and they seemed interested. There are still great big black holes in the storyline, but I know I can't worry about those until I get there. I keep thinking about Don DeLillo's White Noise. DeLillo does some *fabulous* characterization work in White Noise, and then a town-wide chemical cloud hits. I need a town-wide chemical cloud, a late stage external conflict to shift everyone from the mess they're in to a wider, deeper mess. Hm.

I keep missing the Nano meetups. There were caramel brownies at Bar 9 last night, courtesy of Livvy. *sigh* Happy Anniversary Livvy.

I'll let myself procrastinate until 12:15. Then it's Part One, Chapter One, Scene One.

Wish me luck.

j.

Nano Day 6. A Plot Burgeoning?

Hm.

I hate skipping days of check in, but yesterday was spent in a hangover. Wow, this country did the do on November 4th. Amazing. Inspiring. I spent the evening glued to CNN and MSNBC, but I should have gone to the village. People stopped traffic in the street.

So -

We're six days into NaNo, and normally, I'd be a writing fiend. But, I've been struggling with finding a plot inspiring enough to spend the rest of the month with. The last plot I came up with was a Sandra Bullock movie. Ick.

But, a name that came to me a few days ago has grown a few threads of storyline, something that might be the one.

I feel like I should run this plot bunny by Livvy to see if I'm pilfering anyone else's work.

Hm.

I'm running out now. For pancakes.

Yum.

j.

NaNo - Day 4. Election day.

Wow, I almost had good news there.

On a long, dreary train ride into the city, I came up with a plot that I was starting to like. Grew the idea just a little.

Came to find out that the basic plot was used in a SANDRA BULLOCK movie.

Ew.

So, no inspiration. No word count yet.

But, I'm going to take the next few hours and stop searching for inspiration on the novel front. I'm going to leave the house, walk two blocks, and vote. I don't know how much of the election hoopla I will be able to take today. I fully plan on coming home tonight, having a nice cup of tea, and then waking up to all the results on Wednesday. I've been refreshing The Huffington Post every few minutes, and I can't take anymore....

But, I will vote. Hope you will too.

j.

NaNo - Day 2.

Errrggggh.

More plot stress. No mental focus.

Will keep working on it.

j.

NaNo - Day 1.

So.

I was going to write you a whiny post about how I wrote 1300 useless words on the train this morning, completely uninspired and uninspiring.

I was going to lament about the blankness in my own head, how I can't think of one thing I want to write about.

But, today I got on the phone with my buddy Su. Su and I have been talking about National Novel Writing Month all year. And, in my attempting to convince her that it's more than a worthwhile undertaking, I convinced myself as well. A curious co-worker had follow up questions, and I got to relive some pretty amazing moments from the past couple of years.

I also started working with Holly Lisle's plot clinic. It may be a couple of days before I have a workable outline, but if I chart out where I'm going, they will be days well spent.

And look! The universe is giving me an extra hour tonight to work on plotting. I'm going to go make some lists.

More. Soon.

j.