Well, although I have no real right to, I kind of feel like Cinderella. I just got back from Fall Formal (which was actually okay for once, despite the fact that I kept having to pull up my *strapless* dress because we couldn't find this special tape we'd bought to help us lesser-endowed people with strapless dresses), and hung out and stuff, and now I'm sitting, blogging, feeling tired and knowing that, although it's 11:00, I probably should be going and finishing today's quota for NaNoWriMo. Yes, I KNOW tomorrow is Veteran's Day. I LOVE YOU, VETERANS =). But I also know that if I don't go and do writing NOW, my Evil Stepmother (otherwise known as procrastination) will catch up with me and force me to fail by eating me, even though the NaNoWriMo predictor says I'll finish way early - early enough to type it up, even. So, alas, I must depart my fun (at 50 minutes til midnight), and write about the Union of the Lesser-Known Creatures, Species, and Beings. And also killing dragons. And finding stars and goddesses. And maybe the Evil Stepmother of Procrastination won't eat me, because I don't want to be eaten. It kind of sucks, from what I hear.
So, farewell, my friends. I hope to see you when I'm *not* published. Or something.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Day 10
Pages Written Today: 5
Current Page: 77
Page To End Up On: 80
Location In Story: About to beat up Fenn the Dragon; have now unofficially started the Union for the Lesser-Known Magical Creatures, Species, and Beings in order to talk their way past the guard at Fenn's door. This is a complete deviation from what I expected to come up with, especially as I had Maa and Kela attempt to talk their way past a different guard by saying they were from the Turman Guard Union, but both parties said they were inspecting the castle. I don't know WHAT the thing is about these Union things, but they come in handy when I need some way to get from point A to point B (point B is usually the Annoying Doom Creature Guarding the Star/ Deity).
I think it might actually come back to haunt the characters in a good way, as they already promised the guard that they'd try and get him published. As all my creatures are pretty much pulled from my own head (except for the dragons, trolls, goblins and stuff), this Union for Lesser-Known Creatures, Species, and Beings could come in handy (if only to give Zack a career afterwards). Karma, anyone?
Also, fall formal at my school is tonight. YAY! Therefore, I will probably not be getting ANY writing done WHATSOEVER after about 5:30 because that's when my voice teacher comes, and auditions for the school musical are tomorrow. YAY!
I have only two issues with the fact that our musical is Guys and Dolls:
1. I've already been in Guys and Dolls (it was a shortened version, but still. It counts), and
2. if I want a good part, which I kind of do, I'll either have to learn how to sing soprano or learn to do an obnoxious New York accent - not sure which is easier.
I can sing soprano, I just can't do it WELL. However, the New York accent is kind of harder - I haven't met enough native New Yorkers who still have a lot of an accent and talked to them long enough to figure out how to do it yet. From the little I have heard, however (I may be thinking of a Jersey accent...), it's kind of like Cockney but more obnoxious. Any thoughts on which is easier, anyone?
Current Page: 77
Page To End Up On: 80
Location In Story: About to beat up Fenn the Dragon; have now unofficially started the Union for the Lesser-Known Magical Creatures, Species, and Beings in order to talk their way past the guard at Fenn's door. This is a complete deviation from what I expected to come up with, especially as I had Maa and Kela attempt to talk their way past a different guard by saying they were from the Turman Guard Union, but both parties said they were inspecting the castle. I don't know WHAT the thing is about these Union things, but they come in handy when I need some way to get from point A to point B (point B is usually the Annoying Doom Creature Guarding the Star/ Deity).
I think it might actually come back to haunt the characters in a good way, as they already promised the guard that they'd try and get him published. As all my creatures are pretty much pulled from my own head (except for the dragons, trolls, goblins and stuff), this Union for Lesser-Known Creatures, Species, and Beings could come in handy (if only to give Zack a career afterwards). Karma, anyone?
Also, fall formal at my school is tonight. YAY! Therefore, I will probably not be getting ANY writing done WHATSOEVER after about 5:30 because that's when my voice teacher comes, and auditions for the school musical are tomorrow. YAY!
I have only two issues with the fact that our musical is Guys and Dolls:
1. I've already been in Guys and Dolls (it was a shortened version, but still. It counts), and
2. if I want a good part, which I kind of do, I'll either have to learn how to sing soprano or learn to do an obnoxious New York accent - not sure which is easier.
I can sing soprano, I just can't do it WELL. However, the New York accent is kind of harder - I haven't met enough native New Yorkers who still have a lot of an accent and talked to them long enough to figure out how to do it yet. From the little I have heard, however (I may be thinking of a Jersey accent...), it's kind of like Cockney but more obnoxious. Any thoughts on which is easier, anyone?
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Day 9
Pages Written Today: 6
Number of Pages To Write Until I Make It To The Quota: 6
Current Page: 66
Page I have to finish on: 72
Place In Story: Kaibom and Zazan have made themselves known, after Zack and Nem get thrown into Fenn's dungeon. Now Kaibom has an idea about how to get out of the dungeon! Cut to the Annoying Wizards for plot effect. Hooray!
You know, now that I have to force myself to write a lot every day - I missed a lot on Sunday, obviously, so I had to write 12 pages yesterday and I have to do 12 more today to catch up - is that once you get past the exposition, there's nothing really fun about writing a novel except for meeting new characters and killing people and finishing the darn thing. Has anyone ever noticed that? (this goes for those of you who read novels, too...) Well, I guess a good novelist will keep you reading regardless, but I don't think anyone ever put out anything good in 30 days. I KNOW the NaNoWriMo novel shouldn't be good, but in order for a novel to be deemed a Bad Novel (or at least a Not That Good Novel), it has to be deemed a Finished Novel first.
So that's my rant for today. YAY!
Number of Pages To Write Until I Make It To The Quota: 6
Current Page: 66
Page I have to finish on: 72
Place In Story: Kaibom and Zazan have made themselves known, after Zack and Nem get thrown into Fenn's dungeon. Now Kaibom has an idea about how to get out of the dungeon! Cut to the Annoying Wizards for plot effect. Hooray!
You know, now that I have to force myself to write a lot every day - I missed a lot on Sunday, obviously, so I had to write 12 pages yesterday and I have to do 12 more today to catch up - is that once you get past the exposition, there's nothing really fun about writing a novel except for meeting new characters and killing people and finishing the darn thing. Has anyone ever noticed that? (this goes for those of you who read novels, too...) Well, I guess a good novelist will keep you reading regardless, but I don't think anyone ever put out anything good in 30 days. I KNOW the NaNoWriMo novel shouldn't be good, but in order for a novel to be deemed a Bad Novel (or at least a Not That Good Novel), it has to be deemed a Finished Novel first.
So that's my rant for today. YAY!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Day 8
Pages Written Today: 7
Pages Left To Write Today: 9
Current Page: 55
Current Location: outsmarted the goblin (sort of), now it's time to go INTO THE CASTLE!
Page I'm Supposed To Be On By The End Of Today: 64
Yeah, this is probably not going to work...
It doesn't help that I barely slept last night because I was studying for a history test that I probably failed because I didn't review enough of the older notes to get an 'a', or a 'b' for that matter. I'm also completely brain dead because I was in tears about that and the fact that I didn't get into Districts for the third year running and frustration about the test. I didn't think I'd be so pissed about Districts - I've never gotten into Districts before - but for some reason, I was. I think it was mostly because this is the THIRD FREAKING TIME I've auditioned, and next year's my last year and my last chance, and my score was lower this year. I was also really tired from going to bed at almost midnight and waking up at five til seven and frying my brain for a history test that I probably didn't pass. :P
In other news, for some reason I got a B in AP last quarter. I don't know HOW I managed to get a B in AP last quarter, but I did.
YAY!
(Things don't bode so well for this quarter).
Pages Left To Write Today: 9
Current Page: 55
Current Location: outsmarted the goblin (sort of), now it's time to go INTO THE CASTLE!
Page I'm Supposed To Be On By The End Of Today: 64
Yeah, this is probably not going to work...
It doesn't help that I barely slept last night because I was studying for a history test that I probably failed because I didn't review enough of the older notes to get an 'a', or a 'b' for that matter. I'm also completely brain dead because I was in tears about that and the fact that I didn't get into Districts for the third year running and frustration about the test. I didn't think I'd be so pissed about Districts - I've never gotten into Districts before - but for some reason, I was. I think it was mostly because this is the THIRD FREAKING TIME I've auditioned, and next year's my last year and my last chance, and my score was lower this year. I was also really tired from going to bed at almost midnight and waking up at five til seven and frying my brain for a history test that I probably didn't pass. :P
In other news, for some reason I got a B in AP last quarter. I don't know HOW I managed to get a B in AP last quarter, but I did.
YAY!
(Things don't bode so well for this quarter).
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Day 7
Pages Written Today: 1/6
Pages Left To Write Today: 7 and 5/6
Current Page: 48
Page To End On: 56
Location In Story: Is the goblin REALLY dead, or is he just pretending to throw them off guard? The only way to find out would be to enter the gatehouse where he stays and fight the darn thing. And where is Fenn the Dragon hiding the goddess and the star? First they have to go through the gatehouse and fight the goblin, before they can think of fighting the dragon! (No pressure or anything).
Yeah, I haven't had any time to write at all today, even with daylight savings time and stuff. I was a slacker and was on facebook and you tube the entire morning, even though I woke up early to get some work done. It didn't work, obviously. So now, not only will I be studying a lot for an AP test tomorrow (which I'll most likely fail), but I'll also (most likely) be WAY behind on my writing, which is going to KILL me this week because I have MORE AUDITIONS! Great. I wasn't ready to die yet. I hope that all of you will be at my (entirely necessary) funeral, to be held in the coming weeks.
Pages Left To Write Today: 7 and 5/6
Current Page: 48
Page To End On: 56
Location In Story: Is the goblin REALLY dead, or is he just pretending to throw them off guard? The only way to find out would be to enter the gatehouse where he stays and fight the darn thing. And where is Fenn the Dragon hiding the goddess and the star? First they have to go through the gatehouse and fight the goblin, before they can think of fighting the dragon! (No pressure or anything).
Yeah, I haven't had any time to write at all today, even with daylight savings time and stuff. I was a slacker and was on facebook and you tube the entire morning, even though I woke up early to get some work done. It didn't work, obviously. So now, not only will I be studying a lot for an AP test tomorrow (which I'll most likely fail), but I'll also (most likely) be WAY behind on my writing, which is going to KILL me this week because I have MORE AUDITIONS! Great. I wasn't ready to die yet. I hope that all of you will be at my (entirely necessary) funeral, to be held in the coming weeks.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
And again...
Well, here I am again. YAY! I've done some writing and some homeworking, and I feel like blogging right now. So here I am. Hooray! You know, I've noticed something. I just noticed how easy it is to fall into the habit of going back to re-word stuff to make it longer until I started working on NaNoWriMo (or how much I do so). I know that it's completely against the rules of NaNoWriMo, but I'm finding myself doing it anyway. (by the way, you aren't supposed to be editing during NaNoWriMo. The point is to just crank the darn novel out of your head and say you did). I'm not entirely sure, though - IS it against the rules to edit if it makes a phrase longer, and therefore makes you, the writer, more likely to succeed? I think it kind of works? Maybe?
Mind you, this whole extra-wordiness thing doesn't come without benefits. I just had to write up a physics paper about Why Our Egg Drop Project Failed, and using the extra amount of elaboration capabilities I have acquired, I was able to make it actually three pages long, instead of, I don't know, half a paragraph, maybe? Okay, it wouldn't have been THAT long. But I AM in more practice of not writing compound words unless it's in dialogue for characters who are not likely to not make compound words (blog posts excepted), so that did help. And also, our project was terrible. And there was a lot to fix about it. But it was longer when I hand wrote it. So I had to use the elaboration skills to make it work. YAY TIM GUNN FOR MAKING THAT PHRASE REMIND ME OF HIM!
I'm feeling really random right now. I'm out of it. I didn't take my meds this morning so I had to have coffee at around noon, and I intended to take a vitamin only, since the coffee's caffeine would work well enough for the time being, but I accidentally also took my meds. I'm going to be up LATE tonight...
Well, at least I can get some more writing done.
Mind you, this whole extra-wordiness thing doesn't come without benefits. I just had to write up a physics paper about Why Our Egg Drop Project Failed, and using the extra amount of elaboration capabilities I have acquired, I was able to make it actually three pages long, instead of, I don't know, half a paragraph, maybe? Okay, it wouldn't have been THAT long. But I AM in more practice of not writing compound words unless it's in dialogue for characters who are not likely to not make compound words (blog posts excepted), so that did help. And also, our project was terrible. And there was a lot to fix about it. But it was longer when I hand wrote it. So I had to use the elaboration skills to make it work. YAY TIM GUNN FOR MAKING THAT PHRASE REMIND ME OF HIM!
I'm feeling really random right now. I'm out of it. I didn't take my meds this morning so I had to have coffee at around noon, and I intended to take a vitamin only, since the coffee's caffeine would work well enough for the time being, but I accidentally also took my meds. I'm going to be up LATE tonight...
Well, at least I can get some more writing done.
Day 6
Pages Written So Far Today: .5
Pages To Write Until Done Today: 7.5
Total Pages Written So Far (counting page breaks for chapters): 41
Page to Stop At Today: 48
Location in Story: prophetic dreams give Nemesis and Zack their first heading for Where To Go To Find The First Star And The First Goddess
What's happened since I last Posted: Nemesis and Zack went to the shrine; Maa and Kela have begun arguing and Maa's moods have begun to affect the weather. They discovered where the first pair (Heron and Stea - healing, home and hope; healing) are hidden, but they're held up by Maa's moods pissing off the minor rain gods and having rain dumped on just the two of them. The end.
In other news, I had an audition today for District Chorus. I think it went okay, except for sight reading. I kind of killed that. But I think the main part of the audition went okay. I was also the room monitor for the tenor 1's and the freshman and sophomore soprano 1's (those are the higher parts of the two voice parts). I basically gave their sheets to the judges (who are behind a screen during the audition) and pressed 'play' on the CD player for the backup music.
I felt really sorry for the people who messed up out of nervousness and the people for whom I accidentally caused the CD player to have technical difficulties, because until the terror kicked in they were doing fine.
There was this one girl who was freaking amazing, though - she hit all the notes perfectly (even the really high jump to a high G) and got her sight reading nearly perfect on the first attempt during the practice session (they get 30 seconds of practice before performing it), and she did it perfectly during the performance. It was insane. I'd be depressed if her score doesn't make the cutoff, because she was really good.
A lot of the girls were really good, even though some got off-key after the jump and/ or were really quiet the entire time. A lot of the guys were good too, but I noticed that a higher percent of them messed up. The percentages were probably fudged because there were probably twice as many girls as there were guys auditioning in our room.
So that's that for today. :D
Pages To Write Until Done Today: 7.5
Total Pages Written So Far (counting page breaks for chapters): 41
Page to Stop At Today: 48
Location in Story: prophetic dreams give Nemesis and Zack their first heading for Where To Go To Find The First Star And The First Goddess
What's happened since I last Posted: Nemesis and Zack went to the shrine; Maa and Kela have begun arguing and Maa's moods have begun to affect the weather. They discovered where the first pair (Heron and Stea - healing, home and hope; healing) are hidden, but they're held up by Maa's moods pissing off the minor rain gods and having rain dumped on just the two of them. The end.
In other news, I had an audition today for District Chorus. I think it went okay, except for sight reading. I kind of killed that. But I think the main part of the audition went okay. I was also the room monitor for the tenor 1's and the freshman and sophomore soprano 1's (those are the higher parts of the two voice parts). I basically gave their sheets to the judges (who are behind a screen during the audition) and pressed 'play' on the CD player for the backup music.
I felt really sorry for the people who messed up out of nervousness and the people for whom I accidentally caused the CD player to have technical difficulties, because until the terror kicked in they were doing fine.
There was this one girl who was freaking amazing, though - she hit all the notes perfectly (even the really high jump to a high G) and got her sight reading nearly perfect on the first attempt during the practice session (they get 30 seconds of practice before performing it), and she did it perfectly during the performance. It was insane. I'd be depressed if her score doesn't make the cutoff, because she was really good.
A lot of the girls were really good, even though some got off-key after the jump and/ or were really quiet the entire time. A lot of the guys were good too, but I noticed that a higher percent of them messed up. The percentages were probably fudged because there were probably twice as many girls as there were guys auditioning in our room.
So that's that for today. :D
Friday, November 5, 2010
Day 5: The Day In Which The Post Has More Substance
Pages Written Today: 7.5
Pages left to write today in order to be on time: 4.5
Location in story: left Zack's house around midnight. Now on the way to the shrine to get important information because the Gods say so.
Other noteworthy things: I've officially ruled out the possibility that Zack and Nemesis will fall in love because Zack's sister can communicate with the stars/ knows all about astrology and such, and so she basically ruled it out because Zack is a Scholar sign and Nemesis is a Warrior sign (those are their horoscope-type things. I'd been playing with the idea, and I may change it to them being the exception to the rule and all). So that's where I am.
I started today 12 pages behind because I had to go to a chorus thing right after tkd yesterday so I only had time to write about four pages. And now I have to write 12 pages to make up for it. 12.5, really.
I've also noticed something: the only day that I was ahead was the first day, and then I had only done about nine pages, instead of the eight per day that I plan to do. Now I have to do 9-12 pages just to make up for my slacking off on Tuesday. Funny how these things all decide to snowball all at once.
Well, not funny. Annoying.
Which reminds me that I should probably be writing now.
Or doing something else productive.
Like writing.
Pages left to write today in order to be on time: 4.5
Location in story: left Zack's house around midnight. Now on the way to the shrine to get important information because the Gods say so.
Other noteworthy things: I've officially ruled out the possibility that Zack and Nemesis will fall in love because Zack's sister can communicate with the stars/ knows all about astrology and such, and so she basically ruled it out because Zack is a Scholar sign and Nemesis is a Warrior sign (those are their horoscope-type things. I'd been playing with the idea, and I may change it to them being the exception to the rule and all). So that's where I am.
I started today 12 pages behind because I had to go to a chorus thing right after tkd yesterday so I only had time to write about four pages. And now I have to write 12 pages to make up for it. 12.5, really.
I've also noticed something: the only day that I was ahead was the first day, and then I had only done about nine pages, instead of the eight per day that I plan to do. Now I have to do 9-12 pages just to make up for my slacking off on Tuesday. Funny how these things all decide to snowball all at once.
Well, not funny. Annoying.
Which reminds me that I should probably be writing now.
Or doing something else productive.
Like writing.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Day 4
Basic Stats: (Will do proper update later)
Pages today so far: 6
Total Page Count: 27
Location in Story: Nemesis has regained consciousness; Zack has tried a sword (which is a complete deviation from my initial plot thing); they will leave within the next two pages. Zack's mother does not want him to.
What may or may not be coming: stuff.
Pages today so far: 6
Total Page Count: 27
Location in Story: Nemesis has regained consciousness; Zack has tried a sword (which is a complete deviation from my initial plot thing); they will leave within the next two pages. Zack's mother does not want him to.
What may or may not be coming: stuff.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Back again
I know I should be cleaning my room, doing precalculus, working on my thing for NaNoWriMo, or doing something else productive. But instead, I'm here. Procrastination by blogging. About how I shouldn't be blogging and doing something else instead of being a procrastinator, like usual. What's new? I know what I'll do! I'll be a procrastinator by writing the end of the NaNo novel, in the style that I was ranting about earlier today! YAY! And all of you who want literary updates (I know there has to be at least a couple of you... anyone?), I'll do some updates when I get some stuff to post. In the mean time, READ MY OLD STUFF! It's under that little link to your right under the archives that reads "story." It goes in chronological order, newest first. So do some reading and some commenting, because you may or may not be hearing any sort of literary things from me for a while. Unless it is a rant about how annoying and/ or difficult I'm finding NaNo. And progress updates of the things thereof. :P
goodbye for now.
goodbye for now.
Also...
Okay, just an official location update (I will attempt to remember to do this every day from now on) of how many pages I have written and where the characters are and how much time I spent writing today:
I have done twenty-one pages.
Zack has just come into the picture. He will eventually be the BFF of Nemesis and the Savior of the Day in one way or another. He is very smart and generally made of awesome.
I wrote for a little more than two hours today, plus the time I will hopefully be putting in tonight.
YAY!
I have done twenty-one pages.
Zack has just come into the picture. He will eventually be the BFF of Nemesis and the Savior of the Day in one way or another. He is very smart and generally made of awesome.
I wrote for a little more than two hours today, plus the time I will hopefully be putting in tonight.
YAY!
Day 3
Well, if I'm able to write tonight, I'll (hopefully) be able to make up for the six pages that I didn't write yesterday. HOORAY! (I wrote for almost two hours today. It made me very happy.).
I began to think about the end of my novel today in creative writing (as I so often do when I'm only a few thousand words into a story), and that led to a discussion/ brainstorm with my creative writing teacher about who should wind up falling in love with whom.
The annoying thing is that, although I greatly enjoy writing romantic scenes (I'M SUCH A GIRL), I'm also absolutely horrid at having the scenes not be completely made of cheese. This may also be because I've never actually been in one of the numerous situations that my characters have been in, including the ones where most of my semi-romantic scenes take place, involving a dance/ ball where the only dancing you're allowed to do was partner-ballroom dancing, and the implication in said dances was that if you danced with someone, it meant that you actually sort of liked them, that you wanted to just torture them because you know they hate dancing and dresses (as in the case of Shya and Tel. However, Tel does like Shya, so that doesn't really count), or you just have to be polite and suck it up and dance with that person because your mother told you to.
So that's what I have for today.
I am extremely psyched to work on this shindig. Except for my hand becoming extremely writer's cramp-y today (as will probably happen every day I write for two hours. This doesn't bode well.).
I began to think about the end of my novel today in creative writing (as I so often do when I'm only a few thousand words into a story), and that led to a discussion/ brainstorm with my creative writing teacher about who should wind up falling in love with whom.
The annoying thing is that, although I greatly enjoy writing romantic scenes (I'M SUCH A GIRL), I'm also absolutely horrid at having the scenes not be completely made of cheese. This may also be because I've never actually been in one of the numerous situations that my characters have been in, including the ones where most of my semi-romantic scenes take place, involving a dance/ ball where the only dancing you're allowed to do was partner-ballroom dancing, and the implication in said dances was that if you danced with someone, it meant that you actually sort of liked them, that you wanted to just torture them because you know they hate dancing and dresses (as in the case of Shya and Tel. However, Tel does like Shya, so that doesn't really count), or you just have to be polite and suck it up and dance with that person because your mother told you to.
So that's what I have for today.
I am extremely psyched to work on this shindig. Except for my hand becoming extremely writer's cramp-y today (as will probably happen every day I write for two hours. This doesn't bode well.).
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