I am currently on yet another Skype call with Michelle and Zach. It feels like summer and I’m pretty sure Zach just said, “And I sung my heart out for you,” to Michelle. And Zach and I are the married couple? Pshhh. It is silent. I am pretty sure I should say something.
“Your typing is so scary.” Zach says.
“Heyyyyy,” I said.
And then the conversation changed to the underground railroad.

I think I am going to use this second (or third, really, because I still have that secret blog… and no, you can’t have the link ) blog more often. To post little quippy updates that I don’t have to worry about sounding like masterpieces or spend a lot of time perfecting. I think that it’ll be fun.

We are talking about colleges right now, and I find that I love having this intelligent conversation with these smart people. I need to have more conversations like these. I also need to ignore the clock as it’s 3:03am and tomorrow I’m getting up early (well, kind of early, like 10 am, because I have to shower and go shop for paint with my mom) but this is really fun.

Zach keeps insulting my typing. He says that he thinks I am pounding on the keyboard. I want to tell him that I’m going to give him a pound on the head. Aren’t I sweet?

I am going to start typing again and see if Zach makes a comment. So far, so good. In other news, I find it amazing that I wrote an entire novel in the month of November. I mean, it’s not done yet, but it’s pretty close and I feel really proud.

I am exhausted. Tomorrow is Sunday, and I have a feeling that it’ll be good. G’night, third blog.

136450 Wörter

Komisch, in den letzten Jahren sind mir massenweise Plot-Häschen zugelaufen. Dieses Jahr vegetiert mein kleiner Karl-Heinz ganz einsam in seinem Käfig. Kein Wunder, dass er noch nicht gewachsen ist. Aber jetzt bekommt er Gesellschaft: Gertrude ist da.

Gertrude ist ein süßes kleines Häschen, dass jedoch einen eigenwilligen Kopf hat. Sie passt weder zu meinem NaNo-Projekt noch zu Karl-Heinz, obwohl ich ja hoffe, dass sie trotzdem gut mit einander auskommen werden. Ein bisschen macht mir Gertrude Angst, was sie mir zuflüstert, hat mit Fantasy oder Horror, was meine Genres wären, herzlich wenig zu tun. Sie flüstert von Science Fiction, von Generationenschiffen. Und natürlich hat sie wieder einen richtig guten Anfang im Gepäck, aber keine Ahnung, worauf das ganze hinaus laufen soll. Allerdings deutete sie so etwas an, dass dies der Beginn einer Reihe werden könnte. Verdammt, ich glaube, Gertrude ist schwanger.

Okay, yesterday midnight I have passed the 50 k land mark and I must say I’m getting mixed feeling. What do I mean? Just keep reading and you’ll find out.

My story is longer than I though. 50 k and it just got halfway. By this rate, my story, the Voyage of Survival will finish around 100 k but just I stop writing and take a break to work on my school project, a massive surge of though hit me.

My mind mapped out the story now, disorganize, many mistakes, need to rewrite just like they said it would be but then a tricky though come in. It told me to treat this project as a practice round and since November ended, I should abandon it for a new story that’s a complete opposite of sci-fi, romance. And the problem is that this new idea is tempting. The title is called Virgin Birth. Yup it’s like what it sound like. It’s about a girl who got pregnant without any sexual action and confront his boyfriend about raising the baby together. It’s pretty tempting as the basic idea already raised several plot line to the story that concerning about the boyfriend’s doubts, the girlfriend’s unstable emotion due to the seclusion from his friends and from the religion aspect (Your first guess of the religion aspect will be false if you guess that the girlfriend find comfort in religion or she’s began to drift away from religion and blame God for her situation) The latter guess is close but yet so far. Damn! Look, I already has so much details about that project and my mind keep pushing it in.

Should I abandon Voyage of Survival? Or should continue Voyage of Survival till the end? Damn it, dilemma!!!!! I hate it. Maybe I shouldn’t write for a while to decide but if I don’t write for too long (and this inner conflict will last for a long long time) I’ll become grumpy and bitter. Hmmm, the risk……decision……decision…..risks….decision……Computer error #@@#@##@%))(().

Rebooting……rebooting……rebooting complete. (sigh) that was a close one. Anyway I still have to decide which decision to make. Hmmm, hmmmm, hmmmm, hmmmm, okay this is pointless, better get back on the school project while watching the big bang theory. Toodle…..

I’ve pretty much accepted the fact that I’m not going to win. But I’m still writing. I wrote over 3000 words today, which is a lot for me. Maybe someday I’ll write 10k in one day.

Here’s a quote I found by Jamie Tworkowski, the founder of TWLOHA, that I thought was inspiring (though it has nothing to do with nano). Actually, the whole blog I got this from is inspiring.

“And God must be a pretty big fan of “today”, because you keep waking up to it. You have made known your request for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this thing that has never been known. Yesterday is dead and over. Wrapped in grace. Those days are grace. You are still alive, and today is the most interesting day. Today is the best place to live.”

Nanowrimon loppusuora on edessä ja maali häämöttää.
Missä mennään, kanssananoilijat?
No, Terhi menee Madridissa mutta läppäri kainalossaan. Minä kävin Savonlinnassa sentään.
Hyvin menee, mutta menköön. Tässä vaiheessa uskallan jo kehuskella. Noin 80 liuskan mittaiseksi suunnitellusta käsikirjoituksesta on 60 liuskaa koossa. Mistä tulikin mieleeni, että läppärillä teksti on, muistitikulla ei. Huh! Nyt on oitis kopioitava. Muistakaa muutkin: muistitikku on tänä päivänä yhtä tärkeä kuin aapistikku muinoin.
Savonlinnan työmatkan vuoksi päätin jo urakan alussa, että marraskuuni kestää itsenäisyyspäivään asti. Kunhan linnan pukujuhlat alkavat, aion löhötä sohvalla ja siemailla kuohuvaiset sekä valmiin käsiksen että itsenäisyyden ja naispuolisen presidentin kunniaksi.
Outoa vetoapua tästä ponnistuksen yhteisyydestä olen saanut, joskaan oma urakkani ei ole ollut kohtuuttoman suuri.
Ensi marraskuussa uudestaan.

Yellowstone is the coolest place in the United States. I challenge you to find a cooler place.

Chapter 17. And if you’ve never been to Yellowstone, make plans to go immediately.

I’m up and awake and hitting the ground running!

Back up after only 5 hours broken sleep, I’m on the last lap of my NaNoWrimo 2009 novel. I finally allowed myself to sleep after reaching 42,000+ words in the early hours – 3am! Just made a cuppa and brought up the last 1/4 of pizza from last night to have for breakfast, then I will be back writing. I aim to finish by tonight. Can’t believe I have almost finished when only a few days ago I was so far behind. It’s funny, but it’s just flowing so easily, it’s almost writing itself. This is good So, off to eat breakfast in bed then back to work!

Taken with Blackberry Bold, the Nikon is still in hiding until the end of the competition.

My word count is about 44300 words.

Note:  My computer has been messing up again, but I was able to borrow a computer for a few hours today.

2009 NaNoWriMo Winner's Certificate

That’s right…read it and weep!  I crossed the finish line on my first-ever NaNoWriMo experience!

My final submitted (and verified) word count: 50,429 words.  This translates into 21 chapters totalling 112 typewritten pages.  And the story isn’t even actually done. 

I’ve changed my “Shout Out” image for NaNoWriMo to my official winner’s badge (so be sure and check it out…it’s shiny).  I’m also going to leave my “NaNoWriMo Progress” image up for a bit…it’s nice to see my moniker associated with the word “winner”.

Hypothetical cover for my NaNoWriMo novel

The novel that I have worked on throughout the past 29 days is called Better Angels.  It is the story of an ordinary guy who gets sucked into the machinations of interdimensional beings of extraordinary power and is called upon to be a key player in the battle of Armageddon to prevent the coming apocalypse.  Plus, there’s a stripper named Scarlett O’Farrah.  And a fat brat cat-sphinx.  And armored rhinos.  Obviously, I’ve been having fun with it.  It’s the longest work that I have ever done and it’s not done yet.  I intend to finish it and maybe even work on editing it to the point of being ready for publication…though that won’t come until much later.  It’ll take a lot of editing…while I enjoyed writing it and some portions I do think are pretty golden, others are definitely a little ripe.  It is the classic example of what Anne Lamott would refer to as “the shitty first draft.”  I have an ugly child, but it is my child.

One of the things a lot of folks did for fun was come up with hypothetical covers for their novels.  I had some fun with mine as well (see exhibit above). 

I definitely intend to participate in this contest again.  As I stated in one of my previous “NaNoWriMo Updates“, the camaraderie of the participants and the great attitudes of everyone involved really make this a fun event.  On top of that, I have devoted more time to writing this month than ever before.  It wasn’t always easy, but I feel so good to have pulled it off.  My hope is that I can maintain this level of output (though probably on multiple projects) on non-NaNo months.  A guy can dream, at any rate.

I want to also thank my friends and family for being supportive of my efforts.  I also want to thank all my NaNo “writing buddies”* for their support as well.  They know exactly how difficult this marathon project can be.  I also want to congratulate all the other NaNoWriMo winners…we made it!

*My NaNo Writing Buddies: Kay Qy, kaliawai512, veleda0, Twin_Writer, ravenoak, Kacey3, DudgeOH, rhetoricteacher, Cid, chaetrian

It’s almost over. I’m on the verge of completing NaNoWriMo for the second time. I wrote 2,856 words between 12:15 and 1:45. That gives me a total of 45,213. Only 4,800 words to go. Easy. I got this.

Music tonight was Dmitri Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony. That’s always been an inspirational piece for me, so I wanted to play it tonight. I’m hoping to cross the finish line tomorrow. I’ll have to find something suitably momentous. I wish I had some Mahler but I don’t. Maybe some Beethoven. Berlioz? We shall see. Tune in tomorrow and find out. Almost done. Keep supporting your local Wrimo.

Wrote maybe fifty words today.

I was thinking today.  And do you know what I really just hate the most?  I hate writings of stupid romantic angst.  I hate it.  Hate it hate it hate it to death and I hope I never see it ever again.  Stupid passages that are supposedly really deep about someone the writer loves romantically, yet in most of the cases I’ve seen, they’re younger than fifteen and naive.  I mean, seriously.  And then there are these ridiculous little stories about some sort of love-at-first-sight shit, how some girl meets this unbelievably kind, attractive, cute boy that just so happens to be single and attracted to her.  And then there are never any names exchanged or whatever, and they never have a conversation, not even once, and somehow this girl seriously thinks that they’ll meet each other again instead of despairing and thinking they’ll never meet again like people usually do, or actually taking the initiative to say hi.  Okay, maybe I’m getting a bit too specific here.  Hm.

I don’t want to offend anybody, but there are these kinds of things that really just piss me off.  This is why I stick to my horror and comedy and real romance stories.  Not the fairy tale kind that no one will ever believe in.

You know what, while I’m at it, let’s just condense all my hate today into one post.  Yes, what else do I hate?  People who try too hard to make themselves look “different” or “unique”.  And I don’t mean physical appearance.  I mean saying things like “I don’t care what I look like” or “I never discriminate against people”.  Thinking that no one else they know thinks that way.  Ninety-nine percent of the time these people are lying to themselves.  I know people who have said these things.  You don’t care what you look like?  I saw you lie to someone online about your appearance.  You don’t discriminate against people?  Bullshit.  What about those special ed kids back in school you avoided?  I have said these things and quite a few more.  I thought I didn’t care what I looked like, but the fact is that you will be judged in the future based on how you look.  It may not matter now but it will.  I thought I didn’t discriminate.  And I honestly don’t think I do as much as some other people, but there are still things that I don’t want to recount.

I hate whiners.  “Oh, my life is so horrible!  My parents threatened to kick me out of their house once!”  Too bad.  It was your fault unless they were drunk or otherwise unable to make clearheaded decisions.  “I can’t believe I didn’t make it through the cut!  It’s all their fault; they don’t like me/they didn’t see how hard I worked!”  There will always be people better than you.  Always.  I guarantee it.  If they didn’t see how hard you worked, perhaps you should’ve worked harder.  If you didn’t make it this time, work harder and try again the next time.

Ehhh.

I need to clear my head.

- Ann X.

Yes, technically I have won NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month competition (competing with one’s self) put on by The Office of Letters and Lights to write a 50,000 word novel within the month of November. They gave me this cool little image and a certificate.  Really though, my novel is crap.  The ending is terrible and there’s a number of loose ends that I didn’t tie up because I got tired of writing and couldn’t find a good way to make them work in.  To be fair, the first 500 words are okay.  It’s all down hill after that though.  But hey! It was a lot of writing… and I finished it with a story…. sort of.  I might go back and re-write/revise a lot of it, or I might just do a whole new story next time around.  We’ll see.

Being behind on NaNoWriMo and my school work for almost three weeks, I had forgotten what it feels like to be responsible and complete work on time. I just spent the evening (after getting home from work) catching up on school work. While I wasn’t nearly as far behind as I thought that I was, it felt really good to get myself back on track, and even set up to get some assignments done early.

I realized through all of this that writing isn’t any different than this. It’s easy to shirk off things that will make your writing better (outlining, character outlining and development, proper editing, ect.), but taking the time to do those things right makes you feel better. Better about your writing and better about what you’ve produced. So, I’m going to make sure that I don’t put off those things that will make my writing better, just for the sake of doing it faster. Besides, right now I’m not getting paid for it anyway.

- Rich

It was a pretty big day today, for two reasons.  First, I ran 5K without stopping.  I was only going 5 mph, but still, that’s 3.1 miles and I was pretty excited about it.

Second, I just hit 44,000 words on my NaNoWriMo novel.  I think I have the rest of it mostly planned, I’m not exactly sure what I’ll need to add to finish up the book, but I’ve got a general idea.  Today has been full of fun scenes to write.  Tomorrow afternoon I should be able to write, and Monday afternoon I’ll be at the library for a couple of hours to finish up whatever is left!

I’ll talk to you all after NaNo.

We are almost at the end of November and I’m still not finished posting about my Australian vacation.  I will continue posting about Australia in a day or two.

During the month I’ve also been participating in NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo.  The first I have written about many times.  It involves writing a novel of a minimum of 50,000 words in the month of November.  Today I reached my 50K!  I haven’t validated my word count on the site yet as I hope to write more than the 50K in the next day.

As for NaBloPoMo, that involves posting on my blog every day of the month.  So far, I’ve done that.  I have come close to forgetting a couple of days because I always work on NaNoWriMo first and get carried away working on my novel!

So today, two big sighs of relief!  I think this girl is gonna make it, afterall!

If you’ve missed any of the Australia posts, take a look.  I believe the title of each one is followed by “Australia” or “AUS”.  I hope you enjoy those posts.  There are more to come.

Luna Park, Sydney, AUS

I went to the public library for a while today. Nothing gets me writing like going to the library. It’s not being surrounded by books, nice though that is. It’s not the refreshing change in location. It’s not the peace and quiet. It’s not the people-watching. It is, in fact, the terror that someone is going to notice that I’m just staring into space, into the back of my little work station, not moving, with my Alpha Smart in front of me. The need to look like I’m working gets me to actually work. It’s great.

I’m doing okay on the word count. I would very much like to get a bit more so that the next two days are not an absolute hell of words. I’m at the point where I just have to bully and torment myself into writing, just putting one word in front of another until I finish a sentence, a scene, an episode.

….With 50,293 words.  I feel so proud of myself. =)

I will edit it, but I’m not gonna do so right away; I’m gonna put some space between my newly written novel and myself, and will come back to edit it.  On December 2nd, I’ll check and see what I’ll have to do next.  However, be prepared to see it posted here once editing is done!  The sequel/sidestory may come before that.

This made me laugh. And I like to laugh.

I found this over at Rachelle Gardner’s blog, which has lots of good writerly information. Her blog I found over at Writtenwrydd’s blog. This Internet just never bloody ends, does it?

The old “where do ideas come from” question keeps resurfacing, and – even though I already covered this – there are writers asking this question now. I really don’t know how to explain the process that goes with the formation of story, character, concept and (shudder) Big Ideas, but I’ll give it a fair whack… The least I can do is dissect the piecework of thematically linked elements I used for my NaNo, since November is technically still with us. It won’t be pretty and it won’t be entry-level, but if you’ve come this far then you might as well see the “behind the scenes” extras.

The Scalpel Cuts Thin And True

There are, I am reliably informed, no new ideas. That’s fine. That’s groovy. I’ll play along with the notion that no matter how far I push things I’m never gonna create an entirely new genre, or open up hitherto unknown elements of the craft, or be able to transform the written word in ways which would make Shakespeare spin in his grave. None of that really matters. If originality is over-emphasised by a lot of writers, it is merely due to an abundance of fear. We’re all in the same boat – you, me, Stevie King too – when it comes to new ideas, mostly because the printed word has existed for so long. There are a lot of books, and writers, between the creation of the Gutenberg bible and this moment in time.

Which is why we have to take the scalpel to the world around us, and cut off slices of cool and interesting stuff. There’s big differences between the writing methodologies which have been given prominence over the last decade or so, but the generation of material is still the responsibility of each and every writer. You want my own examples?

• Robots on the rampage featured in the lacklustre I, Robot adaptation. If you can ignore a woefully miscast Will Smith, and the not-so-subtle allusions to Apple being the OS of the future, you will find a couple of salvageable ideas in that mess of a film.
• A robot rebellion (where the artificials gained some semblance of sentience) also makes a mark in the superior Michael Crichton novel Westworld. The films are recommended, though the television series is somewhat less impressive.
• An agency dealing with cybercrime and robotic crime is the focus of the Ghost In The Shell manga and anime. It contains the best depiction of a future society where robots and people co-exist. The multitude of robot forms is more realistic than I, Robot’s conceit that one company runs the entire industry.
• My plans for Charlie were directly influenced by The Godfather, Part II (though it is kinda difficult to get close to that kind of character study, never mind surpass it).
• The idea of the Turing collar came directly from an article in New Scientist which pondered the possibilities we might face once robots gain the level of intelligence we have.
• The small pink rabbit/cat joke characters I used was (in part) a joke at Tenchi Muyo’s expense. I never did like the annoying pet.
• Robot dinosaurs are common in many SF works. I did, however, base my views primarily on old comic-books of the sixties and seventies, wherein they were treated with more seriousness than in some novels.
• The notion of a robot framing a human for a series of murders really caught my attention. I’m not sure if I lifted the idea, or if it was a reaction to I, Robot. Maybe a little from column A, a little from column B.
• The comm’s used throughout my story are direct lifts from Doom 3, which was the first game to make me like the PDA as a game device. It had, of course, been an SF staple for decades, but if I wanted one it would be the make and model seen in Doom 3 I would get.
• Plastiglass is a more complicated notion than glass reinforced plastic, but the idea is in use today. The technology I describe at one point where the glass can be made to turn opaque is also not a strictly SF idea.
• The concept of a city being built vertically goes back to Metropolis, and has seen a resurgence in popularity thanks to Judge Dredd and its’ spin-offs.
• Flying cars… Well… Um… Moving swiftly on-

I would also add stories from The Outer Limits, the legendary RUR, and bits and pieces of non-fiction as having some bearing on the way I fixed my ideas up. See… There really are no new ideas – it is all in the handling. That accounts for the nuts and bolts, but the actual writing will bring out other elements of any idea that can be conjured. There are a few things which haven’t been covered here, but they aren’t pushed to the forefront.

That’s right, y’all, I did it!! And two days early, too!

stats:
Title: It Sucks To Be You
sex scenes: 1
number of main characters offed: 1
number of extremely evil agent Smiths: 1
number of mid-size cities nuked: 1
number of zombies blasted in the face with a shotgun: a shitton

We now resume our regularly scheduled knitting programming.