I WIIIIIIN!

NaNo's site reads my novel as only being 50,196 words - but I knew that would happen, so I wrote until I had 50,318 on OpenOffice, just to be sure.

But I WIIIIIIN! After cranking out, what, four thousand freaking words today?? Insanity. But I did it! And I think I actually covered all the ground I'd had planned out (aaand then some), so I'm really, really happy.

I feel like it might actually be somewhat readable in its current form, too, which is new. There are some bad rambling places, but overall... I am pretty darn happy. There are scene changes! There are people with personality! There is some less-than-painful dialog! wooo!

...and the book I mention in that last paragraph? Is the one with the flower-meaning lists that I've been consulting all along. :)



Yaaaaaaaaaay. That makes three wins out of six attempts - wooo for a 50% success rate! \0/

oh quantum physics

Tom gave me a pretty good explanation, and I read the following articles and looked at their pictures, to try to get my own grip on the physics of the teleportation we've been doing lately:
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/19690
http://www.aip.org/png/html/teleport.htm
(The second one is a rather old, outdated article, but the basic premise is the same - and it's explained muuuch more simply.)

It took me awhile to realize that we're not actually moving particles around, just the information that makes the particle what it is. Or something like that.

The best way to learn something really is to try and explain it to someone else... even if that someone is a fictional character. That you yourself are writing. (Bonus points if she knows even less science than you do!)

But I am GOING to make it to 50k! I had a coworker's party Saturday night, and then went downtown for a little while, and I need to remember I can't drink as much as other people I know. ;p Crashed that night. Sunday I worked early, as did Tom, so after getting home and then going grocery shopping... uh, we were out by like 8pm lmfao. So I wrote about a thousand words before showering this morning, spent the day on a belated Thanksgiving dinner for us, aaaand now am trying to write before the three glasses of wine make me fall asleep. woooooo!

I love Chris Baty

For the uninitiated, Chris Baty is the crazy who started this whole whirlwind adventure that calls itself NaNoWriMo. And every week, of every November, he sends out pep talk emails, which always lead to both giggles and warm fuzzies of camaraderie and encouragement.

Closing this week's:

"I didn't say this in the Week One pep talk because we'd only just met and there's really only so much cornball sentiment from a random guy on the internet that anyone should have to tolerate in one month. But here's the truth: You have a book in you that only you can write. Your story matters. Your voice matters. The world will be richer for you seeing this crazy creative escapade through to 50,000 words.

This may be hard to believe given the craptastic state that many of our manuscripts are in. But there are great, unexpected things ahead for you in Weeks Three and Four. And there is someone out there who has been waiting their whole life to read the book you're writing now."


That... is exactly why I drag myself through the slog of 50,000 words every November. Because I think (I hope) he's right. And not just about me, but about everybody - everyone views the world from a different place, with different eyes, seeing different hues of every color in the world.

So, yay for Chris Baty. <3

word count avalanche!

After work, I walked over to Tim Horton's. Got a soup'n'bagel combo with a hazelnut coffee. Sat down by an outlet, plugged in the laptop, and started writing.

I called it quits around midnight, because I could not write again until TUESDAY (11/9) and still be on top of things. I played Carmen Sandiago and crocheted until Tom picked me up at 1.

I freaking rocked the writing. I was the only NaNo'er there this evening, but that was fine too, I was able to zone in to my story and it was really, really nice. I even wrote a few sentences I was really, really impressed with! So, there's going to be a rather large chunk posted... I'm back-dating the time stamps since it was, technically, written on the 7th.

first write-in

...my sixth year, and today was the first write-in I ever managed to get to. Three other people turned up at one of the coffee places on campus, and someone was good enough to bring a power strip, and holy crap if I didn't write a good 2000 words in, what, three hours? With loooots of talking in between. One woman, I actually had a class with a few years ago. The other girl loves Batman and was raving about the audiobook version of the novelization of the newest Star Trek movie. The guy is going to go poke around an abandoned sanitarium like next week, he's using several abandoned places in his story.

This, is pretty freaking awesome.

I have people to share my NaNo experience with - people who understand the excitement of wordcounts, the frustrations of plot, the ridiculousness of characters. And I have things in common with these people! I always forget how nice that feels, the only people I've hung out with in ages are my coworkers. And while some of them are pretty awesome people too, and I even have a few things in common with some of them... it's a really great feeling to just sit down with some people you've never met before and just fall into conversations.

NaNo makes it so much less awkward, too. When there's a lull in the conversation, you just go back to the writing you're supposed to be doing. When you get stuck, you start talking again. You have people to remind you how to properly use quotes inside of quotes. It's a very cool thing.

Tomorrow night after work, I'm going to Tim Horton's until Tom gets out of work. It's one of my favorite places to write, and while most of the local NaNo'ers are meeting in the afternoon, it's sounding like a few will drop by at night, so that'll be good.

It's so strange having my wordcount already DONE for today, and it's nowhere near midnight! (Not being able to access the campus wifi - since I don't have an active student network account - was probably a VERY, very good thing.)


Also, regarding today's chunk: 1) I've never actually seen documentation of street names and things changing like that, it just totally makes sense to me that they would. I know growing up, we always had our own names for places - one particular intersection up the street was "four corners", the dirt road leading to a farmer's cabin was "Swyers Road". 2) I was not expecting my random zoning guy to be so entertaining! I was cracking up as I pictured this guy in this little office throwing maps all over the place. He's adorable! He made me so happy today, I had no idea how I was going to make today's section interesting, and then he showed up!