Thursday, November 15, 2007
25K
Yahoo! I just passed the 25,000 word mark (25,019 to be exact at this particular moment). And right on schedule because it is November 15th. I am happy and I just wanted to share. More to come.
Days 12, 13, 14: Nanowrimo
I haven't charted my progress in a few days but I am still in the Nanowrimo game. Sadly, I am no longer in the NaBloPoMo game but that is another story.
Nanowrimo
Words written so far: 23,506 total. OK - I am color coding this orange because I am ahead of my goal but behind on my super goal.
Impressions: On Tuesday, I took the day off and didn't write at all. Because I was ahead, missing a day didn't impact my progress. I had my best ever session of writing last night. I wrote 2,802 words and they weren't all crap! In fact, I posted a new excerpt on my profile on Nanowrimo. You can see it here. The writing is not great. Basically, I am just trying to get my story on paper and then after I finish, I will go back and make it great. That is the plan, anyway.
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: Before last night I was feeling unsure about my ability to finish. After my session last night, I am feeling optimistic. I will finish. I want to know what happens in the story!
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: I already lost. See above. I will no longer be including this statistic.
Nanowrimo
Words written so far: 23,506 total. OK - I am color coding this orange because I am ahead of my goal but behind on my super goal.
Impressions: On Tuesday, I took the day off and didn't write at all. Because I was ahead, missing a day didn't impact my progress. I had my best ever session of writing last night. I wrote 2,802 words and they weren't all crap! In fact, I posted a new excerpt on my profile on Nanowrimo. You can see it here. The writing is not great. Basically, I am just trying to get my story on paper and then after I finish, I will go back and make it great. That is the plan, anyway.
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: Before last night I was feeling unsure about my ability to finish. After my session last night, I am feeling optimistic. I will finish. I want to know what happens in the story!
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: I already lost. See above. I will no longer be including this statistic.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
LOST NaBloPoMo
Well, it is over. I lost NaBloPoMo. Last night I went out to a fun event (Velvet, Votes & Vino) and afterward to a fun dinner. I got home around 11:20 with plenty of time to post (and I was thinking of posting). I walked up to the door and...it was locked. I am always trying to minimize what I carry with me when I go out and I have a bad habit of not taking the house keys. I knocked on the door but there was no answer. I threw shoes at our windows but there was no answer. I called our phone and W's cell phone repeatedly but there was no answer. I banged on the door (risking waking up our children) but there was no answer.
After about a half hour of trying to wake W (or my children) I went to a nearby lodge to see if there was room but there wasn't. It was REALLY cold last night and I was not looking forward to sleeping in the car. I went back to the house and tried calling and banging on the door again. At that point I was pretty much panicking (both at the prospect of sleeping in my car and losing NaBloPoMo) and randomly calling friends (none of whom answered). I tried to make myself comfortable in the car and called the house one last time. W finally answer and let me in but it was too late - it was after midnight.
I know, it is totally my fault. I take responsibility for not taking my keys and for not putting some random post up yesterday. But I am also really disappointed, too. Darn.
After about a half hour of trying to wake W (or my children) I went to a nearby lodge to see if there was room but there wasn't. It was REALLY cold last night and I was not looking forward to sleeping in the car. I went back to the house and tried calling and banging on the door again. At that point I was pretty much panicking (both at the prospect of sleeping in my car and losing NaBloPoMo) and randomly calling friends (none of whom answered). I tried to make myself comfortable in the car and called the house one last time. W finally answer and let me in but it was too late - it was after midnight.
I know, it is totally my fault. I take responsibility for not taking my keys and for not putting some random post up yesterday. But I am also really disappointed, too. Darn.
Clutter Battles - Part 9 - The coat closet
The bad news is, we didn't take "before" photos. It would have made a much better story! But alas, you will just have to take my word for it that our coat closet was a terrible mess. It was filled with things that shouldn't have been in there (like a window fan, an entire bag of outgrown outerwear, ski bib, etc). Today was my lucky day. Today was the day when Beth Meridith of Living Spaces Design came to my house to help me organize the coat closet. Thanks again to Brooke and Bob for getting me this time with her for my birthday!
Below are after photos. They are different shots of our teeny, tiny coat closet. One of the most important differences from how it looked before is that we took the door off. That alone gives us more room which we desperately needed.
Below are after photos. They are different shots of our teeny, tiny coat closet. One of the most important differences from how it looked before is that we took the door off. That alone gives us more room which we desperately needed.
Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 1 = Looking into the teeny, tiny closet.
Figure 2 = Bottom of our coats plus our shoes. You can see a shoe sorter on ther right hand side which is where we keep hats, gloves, scarves.
Figure 3 = Top of our coats plus a little storage up above. We have some rain boots, summer hats and some tarps for the park.
Figure 4 = Left hand side of closet on bottom - just hooks for kids jackets. Basket on bottom holds twin's hats, gloves and rain pants.
Figure 5 = Left hand side of closet on top - hooks for cloth bags, diaper bag and W's backpack.
I really like the end result. But the real test is will be be able to keep it neat? I should take another set of photos in a week to compare. Fun stuff. After one day it is still looking good. Yay!
Monday, November 12, 2007
Social Networking Explosion
W: Dave just got a new job. It is more secure and just got Class A funding.
Me: WTF - I just got an invitation from a guy named "David" inviting me to join something called "Plaxo" (what a horrible name). It turns out it is Dave and he wants me to join and then yesterday I got an invitation from Eric to join "Plaxo" as well. Is that all they do - join social networking sites? Who has time for that?
W: Yes. And if you are having trouble managing your subscriptions, I have a social network management tool and I can send you an invitation.
Me: That is funny. I should blog about this.
W: It could be your blog post for the day.
And it is...
Me: WTF - I just got an invitation from a guy named "David" inviting me to join something called "Plaxo" (what a horrible name). It turns out it is Dave and he wants me to join and then yesterday I got an invitation from Eric to join "Plaxo" as well. Is that all they do - join social networking sites? Who has time for that?
W: Yes. And if you are having trouble managing your subscriptions, I have a social network management tool and I can send you an invitation.
Me: That is funny. I should blog about this.
W: It could be your blog post for the day.
And it is...
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Day 11: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)
Nanowrimo
Words written so far: 19,198 total. Ok - I am color coding this orange because I am ahead of my goal but not quite at my super goal. But I am tired and am going to sleep.
Impressions: I really liked the writing advice in the Nanowrimo pep talk of the week by Naomi Novik. Here is my favorite part of the pep talk and the one I have been using the past two days, "If you're finding a scene boring to write, cut it and skip to the good part. Set something on fire. Have zombies attack." Now I haven't set anything on fire or had zombies attach but I have definitely been skipping to the good parts.
I may be thinking far too much about my story (or perhaps not enough) because I keep trying to find ways to bring it back around. What I suspect is that I have created far too many non-essential characters that I now have to a) deal with and b) figure out something for them all to do. I remember doing this the last time I did Nanowrimo in 2004. At the end of my 50K words, I had like 40 characters which is far too many to keep track of (by me or the readers). I need to be very intentional about adding characters.
My story is very "good guys vs. bad guys". The problem is, the bad guys are generally faceless and nameless (big corporations). This is a problem because you want to get to know your bad guy for them to be realistic. However, this, of course, goes against my point above about creating too many characters. Another quandary to work my way out of.
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: I am still going strong but I am finding it harder and harder to stay with my story. I need to let my characters take me where they want to go and not worry so much (for this draft anyway) about tying things together. 100%.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: I am still in the game.
Words written so far: 19,198 total. Ok - I am color coding this orange because I am ahead of my goal but not quite at my super goal. But I am tired and am going to sleep.
Impressions: I really liked the writing advice in the Nanowrimo pep talk of the week by Naomi Novik. Here is my favorite part of the pep talk and the one I have been using the past two days, "If you're finding a scene boring to write, cut it and skip to the good part. Set something on fire. Have zombies attack." Now I haven't set anything on fire or had zombies attach but I have definitely been skipping to the good parts.
I may be thinking far too much about my story (or perhaps not enough) because I keep trying to find ways to bring it back around. What I suspect is that I have created far too many non-essential characters that I now have to a) deal with and b) figure out something for them all to do. I remember doing this the last time I did Nanowrimo in 2004. At the end of my 50K words, I had like 40 characters which is far too many to keep track of (by me or the readers). I need to be very intentional about adding characters.
My story is very "good guys vs. bad guys". The problem is, the bad guys are generally faceless and nameless (big corporations). This is a problem because you want to get to know your bad guy for them to be realistic. However, this, of course, goes against my point above about creating too many characters. Another quandary to work my way out of.
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: I am still going strong but I am finding it harder and harder to stay with my story. I need to let my characters take me where they want to go and not worry so much (for this draft anyway) about tying things together. 100%.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: I am still in the game.
Day 10: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)
NaNoWriMo - Progress report for yesterday, November 10, 2007
My words written so far: 17,901 total.
Impressions: I don't like doing the progress report for yesterday, today. It is disconcerting and I can't really remember what my impressions are! I think I am going back to the old way of doing it. It really doesn't save me any time either way. Yesterday's writing was ok. It was mostly done in a coffee shop but a little was also done while trying to direct a gluing project for two 4 year olds. Needless to say, I couldn't concentrate very well!
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100%. But I have to say drinking two beers before trying to write is probably not a good thing to do all the time.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: 100%.
My words written so far: 17,901 total.
Impressions: I don't like doing the progress report for yesterday, today. It is disconcerting and I can't really remember what my impressions are! I think I am going back to the old way of doing it. It really doesn't save me any time either way. Yesterday's writing was ok. It was mostly done in a coffee shop but a little was also done while trying to direct a gluing project for two 4 year olds. Needless to say, I couldn't concentrate very well!
Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100%. But I have to say drinking two beers before trying to write is probably not a good thing to do all the time.
Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: 100%.
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