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But then I realized that I wanted to finish this year. I gave up midway last year and I really didn't want to do that again. Not to mention that I really really want a proof copy of my novel, which rumor has it is one of the prizes for winning. And since I realized how boring and uninteresting a lot of my novel was, I now know there's about a 0% chance of publishing it, so I have no reason not to get the CreateSpace copy.
But I was only at 27k. Not great. but today.. I wrote over 5k. 5454, exactly, over the process of 2 20-minute sprints and 1 30 minute sprint against Write or Die, then a few extra filler words to make it over 35k. And though I'm barely over 35k, I'm still there!
So only a few more days left... but I think I'm going to do it! I'm SO close. I know I can make it, and now that I've scrapped the plot and now am writing about really strange and awkward characters in the same universe of my story, just taking place after the story ends, I'm free to write whatever pops into my brain.
Not the best way to go. But oh well. It's going to get done, I swear. I'll make sure, somehow. Considering it's Thanksgiving, it'll be tough... but I need to do this.
And lesson for next year? Really REALLY enjoy your story. Like it. Love it. Don't write something because it could be cool, because then you're stuck and have to start after the end. My NaNo is like the epilogue that doesn't go anywhere, and it's full of typos (and I hate typos--notice the moderately nice grammar and good spelling and proper capatilization in this post? Yeah. Exactly.) and I hate it, but you gotta do whatcha gotta do.
And on that note, off to write more and watch a TV show. And to everyone else... Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!
But tonight, singing so many high G-Bs, trying to control the vibrato and keep it soft so it balances with everyone else.... ahhhhhh!
Plus a round of high belting, which the highest notes (an F!!) I have only recently developed... and we sing it way sharp. Double ahh!!!!
(At least I can sing an F now. That's really exciting for me... I thought my belting range ended at E flat. But it's getting higher and higher! Hooray!! (now, granted, I can't sing that song more than 3 times in a row before my voice starts to give out... but still. It's exciting.))
So... no voice. But no need to talk for the rest of the night, so no biggie!
TiVo didn't record Privileged because of the Obama victory. Which is great, because I'm really happy he won... but also a bummer. I'd like to have seen the episode. I guess it's off to internet television methods to watch the show!
I've gotten a little off track with NaNoWriMo, but if I write a few extra words a day I'll be fine. I'm not worred. I can finish... I just need to get the willpower again to start. But I've been writing on and off during boring classes, so I think I'll be ok.
Homework time! Lets get this massive Philosphy exercise out of the way.
- Mood:
tired - Music:Ahava Ktna (look up the "Kosher Pig" version on youtube!)
NaNoWriMo's going alright. I changed my story to a mystery, but it's going really slowly and I'm getting a little bored. I did write in a ridiculous character named Edna Mae today though, and I like her a lot. Stereotypical old lady with glasses and hard of hearing. She makes me laugh. Which is good.
I keep forgetting that I get cranky when I don't eat. So at 12AM, when I'm talking to Adam on the phone and getting whiny, I should remember to eat a snack. My late night snacks of choice lately have been apples. Yummy.
I'm pretty behind for my movement class: I need to be totally off book a monologue for Wednesday. I have the first half of the monologue half memorized, so nowhere near ready to rehearse. But whatever... that's what tomorrow's for. I just finished a plot paper on the play Tilt Angel (it's bizarre, and I'd like it much more if it weren't assigned for class!!), so now I get to go to sleep. Yaaaaaayyyyyy.......
Hope everyone votes today! (I'll be so ready for the elections to be over. I want to know who the next president is! And btw... that reminds me, I was interviewed for Channel 4's news broadcast today! I talked a bit about being a college aged citizen and how I thought the younger demographic would effect the election. They used a tiny snippet of it--not much, but I was happy just to be on TV. I figured they interviewed a bunch a people and they wouldn't include me. They wrote out my name and everything! It's pretty cool. =D)
Goodnight all!!
- Mood:
exhausted
B) Still not sure about NaNoWriMo. I think I've figured out a way to incorporate a bunch of sub-plots, so that it's not really about the girl on the bench, but about the people who pass her and see her daily. I feel like it's going to get a teeny bit philosophical. (Considering I'm in a philosophy class now, it's not surprising.) But then I want to write a teeny-bopper love story too... Well, maybe it'll be a giant combination of stories, so when I get bored with one I do another. It's going to be interesting. Let's see how this goes...
C) Spent 3:30-8:30 homeworking. Usually I can't sit down and just focus, but after class I just went and did a lot of reading, then worked on my paper due Friday in the library. Speaking of the library...
D) I discovered a bunch of new things about Leavey today. There's 2 floors of computers! And a periodical room! And a decent section of just plays! (Especially when compared to the library at home. That one sucks. This one's not half bad.) Can't believe it's my second year here and I'm just discovering new things.
E) Privileged=adorable. I love that show. It's not doing super well, as far as I can tell, but I haven't read a TV-blog that hasn't liked it a lot. And don't tell me if you know of any... I love the show. It's so cute! But I can't stand the title sequence. It's super-short, but no one can type like that! Drives me nuts everytime...
- Mood:
accomplished
So I have an idea, but I'm not sure if it's good enough for Nanowrimo. And when I say good, I mean meaty enough. I have an idea in my head - a really really rough sketch, but it's definitely a passive kind of story. As in, the main character doesn't do anything. Literally. She sits on a park bench and observes the world. People try to interact with her, but she doesn't really respond, and people just go along with their own lives. Nothing happens. The ironic part? The title: The Story of a Girl. It's not really about her... but it is. And maybe, eventually, she'll start interacting with the environment. Something will catch her interest enough to get her to talk, and maybe she'll communicate somehow.
So like I sad, a rough rough sketch. Can I really babble on and on for 50k words about a girl who doesn't do anything? I could see this having great dares - imagine the things she observes! But I also want this to be a serious piece, and that might be too tough for this November. Especially since I didn't win last year. =( But my other idea is too silly and flighty. I want to write something a litle darker, with genuinely developed characters. Yes, a genuine piece for Nanowrimo - it's impossible! But we'll see. Hey, I reread some stuff I wrote last year and parts of it were pretty good. So... we'll see.
In other news, I have an acting assignment that makes no sense to me. I know, I know, it seems impossible. Acting assignments on the outside are usually easy, but once you develop the work it's hard. Not for this. It's a super open-ended assignment and so I'm not sure exactly what to do. Plus it's supposed to be performed on Thursday. I bet I'll be having a couple late-nighters the next few nights. Not all nighters though - I can't do those. I think I need a minimum of 8 hours of sleep to function without yawning all day. Luckily my first class isn't until 11AM tomorrow, so I'm good on that front!!
- Mood:
nervous
Speaking of behind, I'm now a few days behind in terms of Nanowrimo. Nothing I can't manage... but I'm just lacking the energy. Maybe this show is just taking too much out of me, or I don't like my plot as much anymore... I dunno. Call it a sophomore slump (though more like a junior slump... since technically I started 3 years ago but didn't get anywhere). I just don't care as much. but if I do decide to care after Oliver's over, I'll have Thanksgiving and lots more free time after that to catch up and keep writing.
I discovered something fabulous the other day: Streaming TV. My friends watch their shows online instead of on the TV and I was always, "the quality sucks or blah blah blah." But going to the official websites for many shows makes it so much easier... and totally legal too! And yeah, there are those stupid commercials. But whatever. I'm enjoying catching up on stuff that TiVo refuses to record, for some strange reason.
I got my housing info last week. I'm in an upperclasmen/ apartment half a mile off campus. I was SO SO bummed, but I'm (mostly) ok with it now. Private bathrooms? More space? Kitchen? Living room? Air conditioner? Sounds good to me! And I found my roommate and another theatre major living in my apartment building on Facebook, and they both seem nice. Sure, that could change once I actually meet them--IMing and Facebook messaging is not a good way to really get to know someone--but so far, so good.
My first day I got in about 5k, which was a great headstart. The next few days went OK--not too great, since I kind of got burnt out after all that enthusiasm from the first day. And today, instead of forcing myself to write right in order, I skipped ahead a few minutes in story-time, so my FMC and MMC(?) finally meet and start talking. And it all started flowing right then and there. Got 3700 words in today, and probably could have done more had it not been getting late. Things are picking up!
I'll be glad just to get out of this introductionary section. I need to get into the meat of the story. I think it'll really get easier from there.
And I've gotten in this whole week's goal in already! Since this week is Tech Week for Oliver, I'm at the theatre 5 hours/day, so I planned to get in a lot of writing before and after this week and then take it easy this week - 1000 words/day.
Simply put, if I followed my specific plan, I would have 15,500 words at the end of this week.
If I followed the standard 1667/day method, I'd have 16,670 words at the end of the week.
It's Monday. I have 16,231.
Needless to say... I'm good for now! =)
But once Tech Week gets kicking, we'll see how it goes. Especially with all the reading my classes suddenly decided to spring on me this week! Who knows... there's a good chance that all my non-Tech Week time'll be focused on hw, not Nano, since my word count's safe for now. We shall see!
- Mood:
pleased
pizza with sausage
2258 words at start....
Ok, so those aren't actually the lyrics. But I'm excited! First words of the day turned into over 2000 total. Less than 800 left for today's total goal. Looks like I should be A-OK today! And I still had lots to say; I just need to get to bed.
Well, good night! Wish me luck for the days to come!
- Mood:
jubilant - Music:the sound of my keyboard
50 minutes left!
I'm so excited!
I've printed out my outline, finished my MC photo album (hehe... which was way way WAY too much fun) and finished my homeworky-stuff. And I still have almost an hour. Hmm, what to do. I could study for a quiz tomorrow... but that's too practical! =)
- Mood:
excited
It's been a crazy couple of days. Yesterday we had an earthquake! It wasn't too bad, apparently only a 5.6, but it was still somewhat surreal. We were at PYT and just came back from break. It sounded like huge trucks were driving past us (which isn't too uncommon to hear at PYT... I wouldn't have been surprised if a few big trucks rolled by every once in a while). And since it was the designer run-thru, it was filled with people. The staff kept telling the kids to be quiet. We didn't do any of the things I normally associate with earthquakes: hide under tables, in doorways, etc. But with a million people in that room, there was absolutely no way we'd all fit under those 2 tables.
I do find it interesting that PYT has no safety actions, like the boring fire drills of high school. Neither does Foothill, now that I think about it. Interesting... Luckily, I think that (most of) these kids are smart enough to figure out how to deal with something like an earthquake.
Today I drive off to school and as I walk to the cafeteria to eat my breakfast, I decided to check if there's been any changes for my class, just in case.
There was.
It was cancelled!
That was exciting, but it was also pretty lame since I'd already driven all the way up, and I didn't want to wait there for 3.5 hours until my next class. So I came home, and I'm here now. Luckily it's not too far away, but I'm running low on gas and it was a slight waste of gas. Bummer. Oh well.
So Nanowrimo begins tonight! I'm excited. I'm going to get some writing done once it's midnight, though probably not too much-I'm hoping 1000, so I have a nice headstart, but we'll see how many words have been hiding in my brain that are dying to get out come November. I think I have an opening scene, but I'm not a huge fan of it. But it's better than no opening scene, I guess. Worst case I start at scene two, which I'm pretty clear about. So I should be good!
- Location:home
- Mood:
relaxed
So more NaNoWriMo stuff. Sorry it's what I talk about a lot.... but it's pretty fun!
I've figured out a lot more about my characters, which is exciting, and I've plotted out a whole bunch of scenes. It's strange--I don't outline, but I write out scenes that I want to have. We'll see how many holes I'll have once I write those scenes, haha. But so far it looks pretty good. It's strange-the plot was originally going to be a modern-day Cinderella story, but the way its shaping up it's going to have a lot of influences from Pride and Prejudice. There's a lot of distrust at first, but it'll shape up to be a good old fashioned love story.And, I have a tentative title:
The Elle of the Ball.
I like it, because my main character's name is Elle and she starts out working constantly and stuff. But in typical Cinderella fashion, she gets help through her "fairy godmother" and "prince" to eventually become... the Elle of the Ball!
I don't know. Maybe it's a little silly. But for now, it's better than nothing!
- Mood:
creative
I'm done with my lame Intro to College class! I just blasted through the last four lessons. Currently have a 64%, but thats with three ungraded assignments and all my class participation credits ungraded. And since it's P/NP... I should be AOK.
On the other hand, I still have another midterm to go: philosophy. It's not going to bad, since I pretty much know the material, but I just have this lame paper due Monday. I wrote most of the really rough draft tonight, and I figure I'll finish it tomorrow morning and spend the day editing. For an easy topic, I'm surprised at how much I have to say. But once I go back and cut out all the repetition, we'll see how much is still there...
I downloaded this awesome new word processing program called Q10. I originally intended it for NaNoWriMo, but it's so cool that I used it to write this first draft of my paper. I love it! It's a full screen, with automatic word counter on the bottom bar. The background is black and I changed the font color to pink-perfectly Legally Blonde-ish. Though I'm NOT ADDICTED to that show! (I even fell asleep while watching it today. Would an addict fall asleep during the thing she was addicted to? I think not.) But the best part is the typewriter sound that sounds every time I hit a key. It sounds so amazingly cool! (Of course, now as I type this... it seems eerily quiet.) It might eliminate my need for background noise in NaNoWriMo. It will probably eliminate many distractions, especially once I turn off wireless internet. =)
- Mood: accomplished
I'm taking classes at the local community college until I *finally* get over to USC in January. And because I'm taking more than 6 credits right now, I get to take the Intro to College class. Oh joy! what fun! learn all about transferring and how to pick a major!! too bad I already have a major... and I'm already admitted to a 4-year school! And a pretty darn good one, too.
*Sigh* but I still have to take this STUPID COURSE... luckily I'm doing it online.
And I just blasted through half of it in this last hour.
My brain no longer quite functions. Especially about those things related to college... and transferring... and whatnot.
Speaking of brain nonfunctions, I've signed up for NaNoWriMo again this year. And I might have convinced my sister to participate in it too! (Though I think she'll be doing the Young Writers version--50K for a 12 year old? Not so much. 10K? Much more likely for her!) But it's going to be a super hectic November, with this and classes and the show. I'm ASMing our show, and tech weeks right in the middle of November. Great.... but whatever. If I win, yay! If I don't, oh well. I really like my plot though--it's a modern day Cinderella story, with characters that aren't just the stereotypes of good and evil. And I have all kinds of fun dares lined up =).
Just get through this stupid online class, Kat, and then you can get back to the insanity that is writing 50K in a month!
