Day 1 - Trials and tribulations

Well, any of you who are frequent visitors to the NaNoWriMo website know it's down. Down something *fierce*. This wasn't as much of a problem last year, but we are experiencing record-breaking totals... at one point, we had over 16,000 people online at once.

It's just as frustrating for us as it is for you. The good news is, the tech team is on it,and working hard to get things back on track. Specialists have been called in, and things will work. We promise! In the mean time, write your novels, and hit that word count goal! I did a 15 minute word war with NaNoLanta and got 687 - I think I can manage to get 1667 today. It's funny, you'd think I'd write when the sites are down, but I worry so much about catching up on modding I don't. I write better when I don't have 50-something posts in the abuse queue. ;)

I did get a rousing good first page or so on my novel. An impressive opening scene with water knocking over secret service agents. I think we've got something here. :)

I got on the site long enough to post an excerpt. I also have it on very good authority that Liquid Story Binder will again be offered at a discount this November. Check it out from my sidebar over there... it's what I use to write my novels, and I can't sing its praises enough. Super flexible, bit of a learning curve, but worth taking the time for. It'll adjust itself to how YOU work - it doesn't require you to change how you do things.

So what are you writing this year?

I've finally gotten my idea. I had a dream (which is where most of my story ideas come from. Mortuus Rex came from a dream) that fascinated me. It involved a mermaid, addressing Congress, demanding recognition as a sentient species, protection of "human" rights for all sentients, and demanding the cessation of unlawful experimentation on the males of her species in private corporate research.

And an idea was born.

I've been working on the idea in my head, and I've got a few points; I don't know how I'm going to get to that scene (for starters, I have no idea how in the world random Person gets to address Congress) but I know now that this mermaid will either escape from a corporate research facility, or break into one in an attempt to free her mate. I haven't decided which.

Mermaids will be very Amazonian; matriarchal society, warlike, and the purpose of my MC's trip to Capitol Hill will be to attempt to prevent war from breaking out. Before you start laughing about the idea of a primarily water-based race waging war on the US, think for a moment: what happens when your sea-traffic is disrupted? International trade would be affected, attacks on ports could be catastrophic for local economies, and widespread enough attacks would wreak havoc on the national economy. I could really have fun with it. In fact, just now I thought it would be awesome if I had her attempt to convince Congress to intervene fail initially, war to start (just so I can show just how much trouble a sea-bound race could cause) and they then decide to sit up and listen.

I've been researching on TV Tropes for ideas and tropes (warning, DO NOT click that link unless you're ready to wikiwalk... TV Tropes steals hours from my day on a regular basis) and I've decided a few things; I think my mermaids will be mammalian, which means no scales... which is kinda sucky, because my working title is Scales of Justice. Le sigh. I am accepting ideas for a new title, by the way. I'm thinking a more dolphin based mer-person.

I do know that I don't want the males to be strictly humanoid. Originally, I'd planned for them to be vaguely sea lion-ish, but given that I might want them to be dolphinoid, I might go with that. Or maybe the idea of a non-humanoid male might be a bit too squicky, so I might just go with traditional mermen.

I'm also playing around with the idea of the females having to go ashore to give birth in human form, which might solve the mermaid problem (TV Tropes warning). I think the primary setting will be Chesapeake Bay; the mermaid will be able to swim up the Potomac for the entrance into Washington DC. I think. I need to check my map for that.

I did have an incredibly generous artist from the NaNo Artisans forum make me a cover for my novel; it's really quite pretty. Simple, and I love the color. The Artisans have offered to make the staff covers, since we don't qualify for 30 Covers, 30 Days, so we miss out on the chance to get awesome covers made. They've really made some beautiful covers... be sure and check it out!

I need a new layout

I love my layout. It's beautiful, it's colorful... but I've had it for years. I think I need a new one. I'm toying about with the idea of creating my own (I AM a web designer after all, it's not that hard) but if I can find on that suits my personality, I'll use it.

I dunno. I'll look around and see!

When it rains, it pours

For the past week, I've been in a writing frenzy. I've picked up Pride of the Hunt, which I abandoned about halfway through NaNo last year, and even wrote several thousand words on Mortuus Rex; I haven't stayed up until 1 AM writing in months.

There's a change in the air; quite literally. I can feel fall coming, and with it comes my muse. I've programmed myself, over the last 9 years of doing NaNoWriMo, to feel writerly in the fall.

The forums get to buzzing, and now it's translated into writing motivation.

I've still got more to write on my handwritten novel. I need to focus on it, because my aim is to have it finished before November, but my other two stories (this is the prequel to Pride of the hunt, and is untitled) keep calling me.

Mortuus Rex has taken a turn for the darkly erotic; this isn't really like me, but it's been therapeutic. I'll probably plan on editing it harshly and toning a lot of the violence down. It's a damn good story, and I don't want it pigeonholed as erotica; that's not the point of the story. It IS a dark story (death and vengeance abound) but I don't want to get it lost in all the sex. Although the sex is awfully fun to write. ;)

Overall, though, I'm happy. My brain's buzzing with ideas, and this bodes well for 2010. Bring it, NaNo!

So it begins

It's starting. The NaNoWriMo forums are starting to buzz. There's a few more posts in Character and Plot Realism, there's a few more private messages, the activity is ramping up in Games and Procrastination.

People are getting excited. Ideas are flowing, people are starting to ask if it's okay to start now... it's an energy that's difficult to describe. I have a unique perspective on things; I am able to see things from behind, where HQ starts sending out more planning emails, the MLs start posting more often in the private forums... it's just amazing.

NaNoWriMo is an event that's unlike any other. There's a freedom to it, a sort of rebellion against the traditional views of art and writing and creativity. Instead of a methodical, meticulous crafting of a masterpiece... it's a mad dash to the finish line, the end being more important than the means. Where no one cares if it's great... it's the accomplishment, the completion, the fact that you finished at all that counts.

There's a mad abandon that is absolutely infectious. I started dreaming of what I wanted to write, spawned almost entirely by reading the increased activity in the forums!

It's amazing, it's fun, and I love it. It's this energy that has kept me coming back every year, for eight years.

I think it's why, when other nonprofits sputtered and failed, falling by the wayside, NaNoWriMo continues to be supported by your donations. Why people love it so much that they'll chip in their $10, their $25, in a way that raises hundreds of thousands every year. (We still have more plot bunnies from our summer donation drive available!)

It's amazing. And I'm so amazed to be a part of it.

Writing by Hand

I'm getting close to the climax of the novel, and the end of the journal I'm writing in, and I'm wanting to start entering it into Liquid Story Binder, but I'm so, so committed to finishing this in handwritten form, first.

You see, when I first started writing, I didn't have a computer, or even a typewriter. So I wrote by hand; even though my handwriting is atrocious (so utterly, utterly atrocious, as you can see in the picture) it was what I had.

When I started using a computer, my handwritten tendencies fell by the wayside, and I noticed that my prose actually sounded worse. I type SO fast that my fingers get ahead of my head, whereas with the handwritten work, it forced me to take the time to write it out, so my head stays well ahead of my fingers.

So went and bought a lovely little blank journal, and started writing by hand again. It's worked.

It's also easier to write distraction-free, since I can't surf the internet with a notebook. I lay down in bed, every night before I go to sleep, and write. Sometimes just a paragraph or two, sometimes, a few pages that keep me up until I finish the scene. Always something.

Here's my lovely little journal. Red isn't one of my favorite colors, ordinarily, but I really love the design of this one. I added the little brown ribbon as a sort of "handle", and also use it to distinguish mine from my husbands that he accidentally purchased independently in the exact same cover.

I scribble away, and feel so very writerly. The best part about it is that it fits in my purse, so I can take it with me wherever I go. I could write on the iPod touch, sure, but it would be tedious, and iPod would always be attempting to correct my spelling. Shapewriter's fun, but too difficult to use for any length of time. And I MUST have a Pilot Precise pen.I prefer V5, but ended up accidentally buying V7. Lines are thicker, but it still looks good, so I can use them.

So I need to finish out this novel, and one day, when I'm published and famous, this will be something I can show off at conferences as how I got my start. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to hock it on ebay for a few thousands bucks, eh?

One of those random memes

The first batch of text I wrote gave me Dan Brown. I found that... uncool. so I chose a different blog post.

I write like
Vladimir Nabokov

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Unemployment means more writing time, right?

So I got laid off from my sweet, awesome job. This sucks for the finances, but you know something? This means LOTS of writing time. I've been carrying my little red notebook around, scribbling, and I've written probably around 20k in the past couple of weeks. I'm rather happy with that. At the very least, I write for an hour or two before bed. Today, I've spent most of the day with the notebook in my lap, writing a paragraph here and there between distractions (It's very hard to write with a toddler and a preschooler around.)

I've really begun honing my writing process. I do better without the distractions of computers and the internet when I'm getting my initial ideas down; so a little leather-bound notebook is the way to go for me. It just... feels right. It's how I learned to write, it's how I've always done it. The only thing that sucks is it makes my arthritis act up. To the universe: I know it seemed like a funny idea to give arthritis to a teenager, but that was WAY uncool. If it hurts this much now that I'm in my thirties, it's gonna suck when I'm all old and stuff.

My mother showed me a book one of her customers had handed her. It made me hurt for the author; it was clearly self published, too. A no-name publishing house, based locally. What makes me sad about these things is they sell themselves short; I scanned through the book, and her writing wasn't that bad. It could have stood a little professional editing, but overall, it seemed readable. She suffered from the terminal "said" disease (you know, the inability to use the word "said" in dialogue.) and there were some rambling bits. I was impressed with the quality.

It's never a good sign, though, when the author is giving away the books in convenience stores.

What bothered me more than anything wasn't the fact that this author published her own book, it's that she created her own "publishing company" that advertises its services to other authors, and that she didn't bother to get a professional to design her website. She didn't even get a separate URL for her publishing company... it's just her own name. "authorname.com", you know.

Here's something I'll tell anyone: If you're not a professional web designer? Don't do it yourself, and don't hire a friend who doesn't do it for a living. As with any business, using a professional makes all of the difference. As a web designer myself, I can promise... no you can't do it on your own. It's not something just anyone can do, and do well. There are elements of design that will show your lack of expertise. Do yourself a favor, and pay someone else. The investment will be worth it!

That reminds me... I REALLY need to start working on mine! After all, I'm officially a degreed web designer now... as of June!

Anyway, now that I've rambled on enough, I'll wrap it up, and I'll keep you updated on my progress. Heck... I think I'll break out the camera and take some pictures of my notebook for you.

My mind works in strange ways

I found this little tidbit scribbled on the back of an expired WIC voucher, apparently written in the waiting room while waiting for my husband's neurology appointment to be over.

---

A Watchtower sits on a coffee table in a doctor's waiting room. Slowly, it devours its tablemates,one by one consuming them, page by oage, occasionally splitting and leave a new copy of itself to replace the one it eliminates. One day, the receptionist dusts the plastic plants, and wonders what happened to all the Newsweeks, Time Magazines,and Woman's Days, and why there are fourteen copies of the Watchtower. The phone rings, and she scurries off. Why is a ragged copy of Bible Stories is glaring balefully up at the magazines from its upside-down vantage point on the floor beside the table.

She sets the book back on the table, the phone rings, and she scurries back into her office on the other side of the foggy sliding glass.

She doesn't hear the rattle of wooden legs, the tearing of paper, the flutter of fallen pages. The combined forces of the cannibalistic Watchtower are no match for the hard-bound strength of the Bible Story book.

The janitor grumbles about damn kids and their worthless parents as he sweeps up the tattered, torn remains of fourteen Watchtowers, scattered around the waiting room floor.

Elisabeth's Dream

My four year old told me a story about a dream she just had, and I thought I would record it here for posterity (and for you, dear readers, should you want to see.)

"I dreamed about the skunks, and they were in the trash can. They were stinky. And they sprayed me, and it was really stinky. I told them to get out of my trash can, but they sprayed me. It was stinky. Those were stinky skunks."

I think the skunks might have been stinky!

I'm jumping ship... Sorry Firefox, Chrome, here I come!

Google Chrome - Get a fast new browser. For PC, Mac, and Linux

You know, I tried Google Chrome right when it came out, primarily because I'm a HUGE Google fan, and will jump right on the bandwagon with just about any product they make, because they're Just That Awesome. I'm a major Google Borgite.

But I couldn't make the switch to Chrome, because while it was awesome, fast, and googlicious, it lacked one key feature: Adblock. I have gotten used to browsing ad-free, and I wanted to keep it that way.

So I sacrificed, and made do with Firefox's slowness because I needed to be Ad Free.

But now... NOW, Google Chrome has extensions! Extensions including AdThwart, which uses the same filters as Adblock does for Firefox!

Firefox, I love you, you were my first non-IE browser, and I will always have fond memories.

But you use over 100k of my existing memory, and that's simply unacceptable. Slowdowns, freezes, and random click and gray out the screen and load problems have reached critical mass. You take too long to load, and too long to shut down.

So I'm leaving you for Chrome. Oh, I'll probably still come see you from time to time as I moderate Freecycle groups, but I'm afraid that we'll have to just be friends. It's not you, it's me.

Okay, it's you. But I do still love you. Promise.

So what to work on now

Now that I have (gratefully) taken my post-NaNo break, I'm ready to start writing again; however, this is the first time in many a year I desire to write with a purpose. You see, I posted a list the Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary things forum, and on this list involves two primary goals:

Completing my 2009 novel, and completing my 2008 novel. I'd like to complete the 2008 novel for CreateSpace's free proof offer for NaNo winners. I've missed this offer (or the similar one from Lulu) every year, and dangit, I want this book in my hands, even if not published yet, for sheer vanity's sake.

Now, I'm struggling with the desire to finish my2007 novel, Heaven's Bounty. It's such a GOOD story, and now I've finally figured out where I want to go with it, after letting it sit for a year or two.

This is why I'm not a published author yet. It has nothing to do with the quality of my work; I'm convinced that my prose is as good or better than anything you'll see in Barnes and Noble. It's the fact that I don't finish novels, and therefore am unable to submit them for consideration.

So that's my goal for the coming year: to complete a minimum of one manuscript, and polish it well enough for submission to agents.

Not a publisher, mind you; Like Editorial Ass, I believe firmly in the power of agents to help authors in more ways than just finding a good editor.

But to do this, I have to not only finish a novel, but polish it well enough to put through my critique group, and then polish is MORE into perfection.

But now my dilemma is I have multiple novels that I want to work on. I'm going to finish them all, but in what order?

What I have:

1) My first love, my original. The Story that Had to be Written. I'm currently working on handwriting the second draft, which I'll then transcribe into the computer. This is the one I'd like to have for the CreateSpace offer.

2) The sequel to the previous one; I know, I know. In all fairness, I HAVE finished the first one, when I was 15 or 16... I know how the first one ends.

3) This year's. This one is the one about the widow who ends up as a Queen, and then has to take her husband's assassinated soul, memory, and skills and avenge his death and take back his kingdom. It's FUN, but it's lying fallow again, victim of 50k disease. Mortos Rex.

4) 2007's novel, Heaven's Bounty. It's a sci-fi piece about a winged bounty hunter who is captured, wing-clipped, and raped (dark stuff) and set free by her friends, then seeks to find the source of her deceased captor's freakish shapeshifting powers, powers her love also seems to possess. This one is so much fun, and the voices for all those characters have started up in my head.

5) Of course, Double Edged Sword, though a good chunk of it has gone missing. That's a hard one to write though, and when I get back to it, it's going to be like pulling teeth. Good story, just delicate work.

I dunno. I'm going to work on them all... but which first? My bones tell me I need to finish this year's novel FIRST. It's what's most recent in my mind, and dammit, it would be nice to finish a NaNo novel the same year I started it.

But Heaven is calling...

Looking for a great way to boost word count?

The wildly popular NaNo Word Sprints are going on over on Twitter. It started out simple enough, with a couple of word wars on the main NaNoWriMo twitter. It's proven to be so popular that we've got a ton of people doing it, and I even volunteered to run a few myself during the day and when I'm writing. Before, it was just on the west coast time, which is exhausting for us east-coasters. 

Most common is 10, 20, 30, and 40 minute word sprints.  It's a great way to sprint through and get some fast words racked up and see how you compare to others. Some people are insane writers, one even managing to pull off over 1,000 words in just ten minutes!  Most people write at a more reasonable, less wrist-breaking pace.

It's fun, and be sure and check it out.

Squeaky new OS, and writing progress

A couple of days ago, I installed Windows 7 on my laptop. See, when I bought this thing, it had Vista on it, and I hated it. Oh, I could see the potential, but it's such a resource hog that doing anything was a big pain. Before I wiped it, it actually took ten minutes to shut down. We won't talk about how long it took to boot up.

Well, I found a deal online, where students with a .edu email address can get a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional for $30. For $30? Why the heck not. The reviews from friends who have used it have been good, so I decided to take the plunge.

Oh. Em. Gee.

It's what Vista SHOULD have been. It's fast, responsive, and shiny.  It does cool things, and my laptop is running the way its specs say it should.

It put me a little bit behind on my word count, setting everything up, but overall, I've installed a LOT of operating systems (some multiple times) and this was by far the smoothest, fasted install and setup yet. I'm very impressed, and for the first time, I'm going to give Micro$oft props for not blowing yet another OS.

On the NaNo front, last night I broke 40k.  My aim is 50k by the weekend, and to continue beyond as far as I possibly can. I'm getting into the meat of a new story, and things are really starting to roll.

I'm also competing with Snark.Gallant; we're running neck and neck, and I'm hoping to overtake him tonight. ;) Of course, he hasn't updated for the night, so the bastard has likely added a few more thousand. A worthy opponent indeed.

With great inspiration, I write

Last night, I got inspired. You see, the night before last, I hada dream. It was a dream that hung with me all day, and I started thinking about it.

So I started writing. After a total 2.5 hours worth of writing? I'd jumped from 21,705 to 30,474. I hit my stride, and this story has exploded. It's not really related to my current NaNo, but I did the cheesy old trick of "meanwhile, in another part of the universe." This one, I fully expect to hit 50k before the month is over, so I'm keeping the words. To see my erratic performance this year, click the widget to open up my progress report.

I love this. This is how NaNoWriMo is supposed to feel. 8,776 words in 2.5 hours, so excited I can barely contain my enthusiasm or stop writing. I was up till 2 AM last night. That's what I missed. I will post an excerpt from the piece I'm working on, and tell you more about it as it gels soon. For now, I must WRITE.

Today, I'm about to embark upon the terrifying prospect of upgrading my computer from Windows Vista to windows 7. I found a deal that offers a copy of Windows Home Premium or Windows Professional to students for $30. So I've downloaded it, and now, all I have to do isfinish backing up the rest of my files. I'm uploading all my non-music stuff to dropbox (which, by the way, thanks to all of you who checked it out... thanks to those referrals, I now have 5 gigs of free storage instead of 2. It's going to take about five hours to upload all of my remaining photos, but they'll all be safely stored, and in no risk of erasure by the upgrade.

I'm moving all my music over to the desktop PC. It's got over 200 gigs... it can handle it. I love modern technology. I can't believe I'm sending over 12 gigs of music through the air to the PC nearby, while I sit here and type, and while I'm uploading pictures to another storage site. how awesome is that?

So I'm going to take advantage of my remaining hours of backups to write, write, write, and see how much further I can go.

And here, for your interest, is my progress towards my goal of 100k. I'm still a bit behind where I should be, but a couple more nights of writing like last night, and I should be caught up with no problem.

Let's see if we can't get a little less red in there, whaddya think?

Onward!

Signs I might be a computer addict

I just bought a $50 mouse. No, seriously.  In all fairness, it claims to give 15 months worth of battery time, so I should make up the difference in battery usage.

You see, my old laptop mouse has taken a beating.  I've used it a great deal, and it gets knocked off the table a lot, so the right mouse button doesn't work well, and the left is starting to fail. It's also getting less responsive. So, the time came to buy a new one. 

First, I bought a belkin from Target. Public Service Announcement: Do not buy belkin products. That mouse won't work without a mousepad, which is useless for a laptop! If It can't work on my couch cushion, I don't need it.

So I splurged on a Logitech M505 in a very nice shade of red. Not only is it stylish, it's Logitech, and you just plain can't go wrong with Logitech stuff.

So far, I like it. It's fast, responsive, and doesn't care if I'm  using it on my jeans leg or the table. 

We'll see in 15 months if it lives up to its packaging about the battery life.

As for NaNo, let's see.

I  haven't written much in the past few days. I think the problem  has been that my husband has been home all week, thanks to my injured foot/ankle. That does not make for a creatively-inclined writing environment. In fact, he's been here ALL. The. TIME.  It's mental interference.  So, I'm taking today off for schoolwork and such, and this week I'm going to hit the writing hardcore and catch up to my word count deficit.

Back up your novel, RIGHT NOW!

One of the worst things that can happen to any artists is to lose your work to a corrupted file, a power outage, or storage device failure. It's happened to me several times, and now I back up my novel in several places.

1) I have Dropbox set up on my computer. It automatically syncs my files stored in its folder, without me even having to think about it.  I can access it across multiple computers, or log in online anywhere I have net access. 2 GB free. If you get referrals (such as with my link right here) you can earn another full GB of free storage. They also offer paid accounts up to 100 GB, I think it is. 

2) USB stick.  I keep a 2 GB drive handy at all times.  It's nice to have, but they're losable. In fact, I'm missing one now, and it's annoying me.

3) Google Docs - it tends to muck up your formatting, but it's perfect for writing from anywhere, and making backups. better to have to redo your tabs than to lose it completely, eh? It's also great if you want to share your writing with a few people for critique or collaboration.

4) Backup to another partition on my laptop.

5) Email it to myself.

Backing up is vital... I lost over 30k on my original NaNoWriMo novel, and I'm missing about 20k on the one from two years ago.  It makes me very annoyed, and if I'd been more diligent about my backups... I'd still have it.

A little short on my daily goal

Yesterday, I bell a bit short of my goal.  I'm at 6,026, and I was planning on being at 6,670 last night.  That adds a bit more to what I need to have done, but that I can do.  I managed to insert a gratuitous sex scene, but I think it's actually going to advance the plot a little; add some conflict early on (and not the kind you think, either). 

Just to share a little, here's a short snippet of what I've written so far (in all its unedited glory). One of my MCs is an albino; however, I'm trying to make her representation realistic; albinos have serious vision problems, as a result of the lack of pigment in their eyes, and glasses don't help, either. So she's actually mostly blind. And magic hasn't automatically fixed it, either; her spells help, but are imperfect. 

Anyway:

   Sara stretched and reached for the ceiling, trying to work the kinks out of her neck and back.  She had been sitting for hours, poring over one of her beloved texts, nose to book, the only way she found it possible to read.  The spectacles that should have been on her face were lying by the book.  They gave her headaches, and they didn’t really help her much, anyway, but her instructors insisted she have them.  They were mostly just fashion accessories at this point.

    “Still moldering away in this library?” Larath said,patting her on the shoulder and flopping noisily into the chair. The librarian glared as he scraped chair against floor and knocked three of her books onto the floor.

    “Larath, you need to be more careful!” she admonished, stooping to gather up the books.

    “Sorry, sis, I’m just not good with this stuff.”  He thumbed through one of the tomes, sniffing and setting it down with a shake of his head.  “Give  me the sawdust in the salle over the musty dusty in here any day.”

    She shook her head.  “You’re lucky you have me around, you know, otherwise you'd be a complete ignoramus. How did you even manage to pass your classes?”

    Larath grinned at her.  “Easy.You helped me.”

    She rolled her eyes.  “I shouldn’t have.  Maybe you would have learned something other than how to swing a sword.  Speaking of which, aren’t you supposed to be practicing for your final practicum?”

    He shook his head. “I was supposed to, but instructor Elias managed  to sprain his ankle, so the session was cancelled. I’ve got the rest of the day off!”  he stretched and leaned back in his chair.  He pinwheeled his arms wildly as the chair overbalanced and nearly toppled over, dumping him into the floor. He seized the table and steadied himself. 

    Sara shook her head again. “You’re hopeless. Get out of here before you tear the place down, or get me kicked out of here. I’ve got to finish this.”

    “Nuh uh. I’m here to make sure you eat, young lady. A little bird told me yiou’ve been here *all* day, and haven’t stopped once for anything to eat. If you fall over from starvation, you’ll never have the energy to finish your exams. Or stay up to study for them.”

    She sighed. “But I just have a few more pages--”

    He grabbed her arm, closed the book, and pulled her up to her feet. “No way. You're coming with me, now, while lunch is still hot, so you don’t end up with a bowl of stewed leftovers.” 

    Sara grabbed her cloak and slung it over her shoulders. She murmured a few arcane syllables, twisted her fingers, and pulled the hood of the cloak over her head. “Alright, alright, I’m going.”  She let him guide her through the tables, thankful that this time, at least, she wouldn’t end up with another bruised thigh when some thoughtless ass forgot to push his chair under the table.

    “Sara! Sara!” someone called.  She looked back to see the librarian’s indistinct shape, glowing, waving something high in the air.  “Wait!”  The librarian caught up to her, and the glow faded to see the blurry human form.  She blinked to try and clear her vision, but the spell had malfunctioned somehow, and the blur remained. 

    I need to work on that.  Still not handling the far to near transition well, Sara thought to herself. 

    “Sara, dear, you forgot your spectacles,” the librarian said, shoving the metal framed lenses into Sara’s hand.  Sara smiled, swallowing the retort, and crammed the spectacles  onto her face. The librarian smiled, and bowed, then scurried off to her desk.

    “I thought those didn’t help?” Larath said as they walked out of the library.

    “They don’t. No one seems to believe me when I tell them that, though, so they keep insisting I wear them. They give me a headache, but if I don’t wear them, the headache I get from the constant nagging to put them on is worse. So I close my eyes, or just grin and bear it.”

    “That is so cool. I wish I could see with my eyes closed,” he commented, holding open a door for her.

    “I wish I could see more with them open.” 

NaNoWriMo 2009: First day's progress: slow but steady

I didn't get as much of a boost as I was hoping for, this go round, but I've set a comfortable pace that I think I can actually maintain.

Last night's trauma left me with a pitiful start: 200 words by the time I went to bed. In all fairness, it was the Lortab that left me drowsy and unable to focus, that combined with general exhaustion from a long day and pain from the sprained ankle.

Today has been a frustrating day dealing with malfunctioning forums, although I have been incredibly impressed by their performance thus far. Failures to load aside, they're staying up and reasonably zippy, given that this is our highest traffic day, and in years past, this always meant CRASHING or completely unusable.

I wrote in drips and drabs, starting and stopping my writing timer so I could keep track of how much actual time I wrote. Most of it happened after 9, when the girls went to bed. Final results?

60 minutes of writing, 3,737 words total. I need 3,334 per day to reach my ultimate goal of at least 100k. My full goal: 100k or a complete novel. Preferably at least the former, combined WITH the latter. I'd really like a complete novel, more than a particular word count, so if I hit 90k and it's done, I'll be happy.

i'm starting the story slowly, with the interactions between my two MC. They're twins (don't groan, please). One is albino... but she suffers from the same maladies real world albinos do. She's damn near blind, and has to wear a cloak any time she's outside, or she'll get a severe sunburn. This is a fantasy, so she's learning to use magic to compensate, but it's imperfect, and she's definitely a bit handicapped.

Her brother is the protective sort, very outgoing and physical, she's introverted and academic.

I've also introduce the other MC, the third member of their Hunter's Triad. This thing really has a bit of a YA feel this first chapter, even though they're 22, because they haven't yet become Journeymen, and are still students. That's definitely not the focus I'm going for, though. They'll be out in the world and their age and student status will be left behind.

I'm trying to decide if I want three POVs or not... there will be at least two, Sara and Larath, but I'm trying to decide if I want to pull L'varen in. I guess it'll depend on how strongly he comes through for me. Right now, he's a bit more clownish than I intended. He'll get more serious, I hope.

Things are flowing smoothly, a good sign. I was already having trouble finding my characters last year at this point. They're coming through, and already feeling real.

A bit about them: They are both 22, and living under the shadow of very famous, skilled parents. Part of the point of this story is going to be them finding their own identity, outside of a famous family, and making a name for themselves. Sara is not as concerned with this as Larath; she's content with her books and her magic. He is more ambitious, and is determined to be a greater Hunter than his father, who is one of the best. i'm trying to design them to be not polar opposites, but complementary. They're close. I'm going to introduce more friction as the story continues, because I want their growing independence from each other and their parents to be a strong focus until the middle of the story, when it's going to become more about them dealing with the consequences of their family's past... through no fault of their own.

So, tell me about your stories. If you're doing NaNo this year, what is your novel about? What genre? How has your first day gone? I'd love to hear from you.

Of sprained ankles and Trick or Treating

Yesterday started great. We went down to Cordele, GA to ride Thomas the Tank Engine (the real one.. full sized passenger train, not just the dippy little thing at Six Flags).

It was an absolute blast, although my husband almost had a seizure and the staff freaked and called the ambulance. It was more embarrassing than anything.

We got home, carved pumpkins, went trick or treating. All went well, until we left the last house, and started walking to the car to go to the next neighborhood. I put Elisabeth on my back, and lo and behold, a pothole grabbed my leg. I went down, candy and Elisabeth went everywhere and I started hollering... fortuitously, I fell down in front of a freakin' golf cart. They helped me over, and rode me down to my car, and Nathan came to get me and take me to the ER.

Four hours later, I've got a really bad sprain, (yes, crutches) I can't walk, can't do much but sit around.

Ah well. Necessity is the mother of invention, and it won't be that long and I'll be back on my feet. The good news is, this means I've got lots of ass time for writing and modding the forums. Naturally, I've done neither this morning.

Back to the grind.

Oh, and last night, I did manage to get 200 words in before the painkillers knocked me down.