Saturday, November 04, 2006

NaNoWriMo Update

Well, NaNoWriMo is moving along. I'm doing better than I ever thought possible. Knowing that at least 4 days this month I won't be able to do ANY writing at all, I figured I'd better get an early crack at it... For Veteran's Day, we're heading to see my buddy Tim from grad school, and when my dad gets here for Thanksgiving, all bets are off... So I gotta write right now!

I got up this morning to write in quiet (if you call bunnies hurling themselves against the closet doors quiet), and broke the 12,000 mark. I'm trying to move from point A to point B. I have the beginning written and I have the beginning of the end written, so I need to write the end and fill in the middle. It's a strange way to write.

Unfortunately, the middle is not currently coming to me... But I think it's pretty good so far, and eventually, when all the fury of NaNoWriMo is over, I'll probably be soliciting readers to read my "manuscript" and submit handwritten comments on their copies... Something to think about... :-) That's what Harry Shearer did and he read them all and slept on them, and then the ones that stuck out in his brain were the ones he worked on. I really like that idea.

Of course, distractions abound, as well!

This week, Michael bought us a Sony Handycam, which we've been wanting for quite some time (Well, not a Sony per se, but a camcorder)... The thing is almost as small as my digital camera, and quite easy to use to record on, but I'm just getting started on learning to load stuff onto the computer and such. We'll be taking it with us next weekend.

Tonight, Judy, Heather, Ambareen, and I are going to see the Barenaked Ladies in concert in Fairfax. I'm tremendously excited about that.

And of course, didnt' my state car pick Thursday afternoon to go on the blink? The circuits are loose or something--the digital odometer crapped out, and I can't get gas or keep track of mileage without it. So consequently, I've spent a lot of time in the VDOT garage. I've been writing longhand while sitting there and then transcribing onto the computer as I have the time... It's more tedious that way, but it gets done.

Last night we went to a "Marriage Builders" class, sponsored by one of the local churches here in Fredericksburg. It was very interesting--all the people were so nice and seem to have a lot of fun together, but they didn't make us feel like outsiders. We enjoyed it very much. We were at the Lonestar Steakhouse, and I kid you not, the service was so terrible that at one point when someone asked the waitress if she would bring him a glass of water, she rolled her eyes and stormed out of the room. We were all dumbfounded. There were about 18 of us, and we all ate in stages, as she didn't much feel like taking orders or bringing drinks or finishing taking orders around the table or anything. Whenever anyone would point out that we hadn't been served or those people hadn't gotten their drinks, she'd say, "I know, I'll take care of it in a minute" and disappear for 15 minutes. No one left her a good tip... And one woman's chicken was not even fully cooked. The next class is meeting at a Mexican restaurant, and I'm glad because I was not impressed with the Lonestar.

So that's what's new from Susanland. Back to the grind... :)

1 pearl(s) of wisdom:

nettiemac said...

I'm getting there -- I'm at about 18K words. Even worked on it at lunch today (since I ate in at my desk).

I haven't even gotten to the middle of where I want it to go. I have a partial idea of where this all is going to lead.

My inner editor takes over on occasion, and I have to stop her and just type or just write.

But I'm excited and really getting invested in my characters and in the story. It's the most I've written in ages. And I'm at 50 double-spaced pages in Word.

Holy Moses!!!!