to a 4-note theme. 100 points for anyone who gets that reference. My money is on Nicole for this one.
So November 1st. Time to state goals for the month. I've already said I'm going to attempt NaNoWriMo this year. That's 50,000 words. Which I believe D.B. (the accountant) figured out is between 6-7 pages a day. So, two hours of non-editted typing should pretty much get me there. The non-editted is always the hard part, but is the main point of the whole exercise.
Wow, just felt myself tense up thinking about that. So an addendum to the goal is to do it without hurting myself. My buddy, Geoff, actually ended up in the hospital a few years back from stress and exhaustion. Deep breaths, walks, plenty of sleep. All part of the monthly goal.
For the rest of the week, through Sunday, I'll write 24 pages and attend the Scaring Your Readers Workshop that PPW is sponsoring on Saturday. Tension was one of my weak areas in MMG so an all-day workshop should help.
Good luck to all of us on our goals this month, whether or not we're doing NaNo.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Cheating and Eating
Since I don't belong to the CSFWG Sunday group anymore, but do go out to dinner with the group after the meeting, I decided to go to the Starbucks at the B&N where they meet and do a little writing. I wrote seven pages of the Vesta story while I waited for the meeting to finish. Since my goal for the week was 5-10 pages, I met my goal. But, since one of the rules for NaNoWriMo is that you're supposed to start a new book, it is cheating. Oh well. Pirate.
It was a fun dinner, as usual, but more . . . just more. I was sitting pretty much at the center of the table and at one point there were three different conversations going on around me. I was having a nice conversation with Nicole, Ali and Jenny while Whit was regaling John and Marie with something outrageous at one end of the table and a somewhat political discussion (that I KIND OF [inside joke] wanted to jump into) happened at the other end of the table. Everyone seemed to be wound up. Maybe it was the length of the meeting and the sheer number of critiques.
Some topics of discussion:
--Dumbledore's sexual orientation
--Christian Bale
--Historical accuracy in fiction
--Neil Gaiman
--Strange coworkers
--Halloween costumes and customs
--Russell Crowe
--Slumber parties
--Fortune telling
--Heroes (the television series)
--Acting one's age and what that means
--Joss Whedon
--Dinner auctions (see Ali's blog for more on that)
--Pan's Labyrinth, Solaris, Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon and other disappointing movies
--Do people think your characters are you?
--Having too much to do
--Zombies
--Sherman Alexie
--Cheating at NaNoWriMo
--Bad writing
--Good writing
--Turning bad writing into good writing
--Great Big Sea (briefly, but they must be discussed at each monthly dinner)
--Whiny boy singers (watch this space for more on that and a related topic)
There were more, but I can't remember them right now. All I know is that it was late when we left and we were still chuckling.
Oh, my goal for the week is to write another 12 pages of the Vesta book. Another cheat I'm doing with NaNo is to set my goal at 30,000 words which is 20,000 fewer than what you're supposed to write. That comes to 4 pages a day and since Saturday is the 3rd . . . And I'm going to the PPW Scare Your Writers workshop on Saturday since I need some help with building tension. That's it.
It was a fun dinner, as usual, but more . . . just more. I was sitting pretty much at the center of the table and at one point there were three different conversations going on around me. I was having a nice conversation with Nicole, Ali and Jenny while Whit was regaling John and Marie with something outrageous at one end of the table and a somewhat political discussion (that I KIND OF [inside joke] wanted to jump into) happened at the other end of the table. Everyone seemed to be wound up. Maybe it was the length of the meeting and the sheer number of critiques.
Some topics of discussion:
--Dumbledore's sexual orientation
--Christian Bale
--Historical accuracy in fiction
--Neil Gaiman
--Strange coworkers
--Halloween costumes and customs
--Russell Crowe
--Slumber parties
--Fortune telling
--Heroes (the television series)
--Acting one's age and what that means
--Joss Whedon
--Dinner auctions (see Ali's blog for more on that)
--Pan's Labyrinth, Solaris, Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon and other disappointing movies
--Do people think your characters are you?
--Having too much to do
--Zombies
--Sherman Alexie
--Cheating at NaNoWriMo
--Bad writing
--Good writing
--Turning bad writing into good writing
--Great Big Sea (briefly, but they must be discussed at each monthly dinner)
--Whiny boy singers (watch this space for more on that and a related topic)
There were more, but I can't remember them right now. All I know is that it was late when we left and we were still chuckling.
Oh, my goal for the week is to write another 12 pages of the Vesta book. Another cheat I'm doing with NaNo is to set my goal at 30,000 words which is 20,000 fewer than what you're supposed to write. That comes to 4 pages a day and since Saturday is the 3rd . . . And I'm going to the PPW Scare Your Writers workshop on Saturday since I need some help with building tension. That's it.
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