NaNoWriMo 2102: 51,342 Words!!!!

Yes, sports fans, I did it.  I kicked ass and took names.  I stared down my own procrastination, excuses, and I plowed through that shit.

It was difficult.  It was a slog.  I was about 10,000 words behind going into Thanksgiving weekend but I did well these last three days, only had to write 2,000 words a day.  For those of you wondering, 50,000 words is about 120 pages.  51,342 words is about 125 pages.

And it's not over yet.  I'm guessing I'm about two/thirds the way through this story.  I may rest tomorrow then I'll keep writing.  I'm going to start out with a goal of 1,000 words a day but if that turns out to be too ambitious, I'll throttle it back to 500 until the story is done.  And who knows?  Maybe this will be the start of a good writing habit.  Maybe I'll spend the rest of my life writing 500 or 1000 words a day and never look back.

It can be done, this novel writing thing.  But it's really hard work.  It's a commitment.  It's a big deal.  And I might not get anywhere with this stuff but who cares?  I'm going to keep writing.  When I'm on my deathbed, I'll be frantically typing on my tablet or laptop, trying to outrun Death's grasping hands for a few minutes longer while I lay down my last words.

Have a good weekend, everybody.  I know I'm going to.

NaNoWriMo 2012: 20,178 Words

It's the middle of the month and I'm still behind.  Nothing new there but it's difficult to stay focused and I'm not sure why at this point.  I could blame it on a lot of things, and believe me I've been trying to but the blame isn't getting me anywhere.

I just need to write, dammit.  That is all.

I'm loving my story a lot.  Usually by the middle of the month, I start hating the story and the characters.  I think about quitting and I wonder why I ever bothered but this story is different.  I feel like it's a slog to get it down but I'm really enjoying myself.  Weird.

I'm starting to wonder if this story will breaking the 50,000 word limit.  Like the last NaNoWriMo novel, this one might.

Unlike previous NaNos, I had a much better idea of what this story was about because I've spent a lot of time thinking about it.  I took some random notes on the way to the starting line and I knew there were several scenes that had to be included.  I knew how it was going to begin and how it's going to end.  Thing is the story is still managing to surprise the hell out of me.  For example, my characters keep having these fascinating conversations and for the scenes I knew had to be in the story, they're going differently than I expected.

This has all been great, of course, but it's still a slog.  Onward to the finish line...

Miss Turtle IS Darth Maul

My department at work takes Halloween very seriously and we go all out for it.  This year we voted for a "Star Wars" theme.  We built a Death Star and put up a bunch of decorations.  And each of us dressed up as a character.  Originally, I wanted to be Boba Fett but I realized trying to fit armor on my body would be a serious challenge so I picked Darth Maul instead.  Maul figures prominently in "Star Wars I:  The Phantom Menace" as the villain.

Maul is a badass with a double-sided red light saber but more than that, he has super cool clothes.  I'd purchased the main outfit (including the mask and boot covers) along with a cloak.  I had to buy the gauntlet gloves and turtleneck.  The cloak turned out of be completely inadequate and Maul's cloak is flowing, voluminous, and awesome so I decided to make my own, placing all my modification efforts there.

I bought a bunch of black linen fabric at 50% off and used my bathrobe as a pattern.  After sewing it together, I then sketched out the hood but made it huge (Maul's hood drapes down in the back even when he's wearing it) then sewed that on.  Connecting the hood to the cloak was a challenge but I got it to work.  I noted that Maul's sleeves were very long, almost to the floor, and split on the underside so I had to add more fabric to the already very long sleeves to make them look right.

Me with the cloak on.

Me sans cloak.

The company has a tradition of allowing the employees to bring in their kids for Halloween trick-or-treat and a bunch of fun activities for the families.  When the kids came through I had to take my mask off because I kept scaring them.  Hell, I was scaring some of the adults.

We're already talking about next year and "Alice in Wonderland" has come up as a possible theme.  I would love to be the Mad Hatter again (I did a really great costume of the Hatter years ago) but if someone else wants to be the Hatter then I'll be Mock Turtle.  Of course.

"Mmmmm....Delicious!"

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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As Stewart says, "This piece of footage will live forever."

Oh and here's a favorite image:

I know I'm gloating here but if the guys on the other side had made themselves into assholes this big, you wouldn't be able to resist either.  Denial, arrogance, stupidity, and utter contempt for ordinary people were all on display here.

And it's all going to live forever.  That makes me sooo happy.

Congratulations to President Barack Obama!