and back again from the procrastinator...

I've just learned that you can also play with cool stuff here. It's really kind of lame that I've only just realized that you can do this... I mean, I've known for a while that you can play with color, but I've never really tried to use the other cool shindigs for a while.  I didn't even KNOW I had strike through until today, I don't think... I'm so lame, not realizing this until now...

Yes, I know where I should be

Yes, I know, I'm supposed to be doing homework. But I'm in a particularly anti-homework mood, so I'm here blogging instead. Like usual when I'm in an anti-homework mood. And when I'm hungry. And when I've just finished cleaning my room. But especially when I'm in an anti-homework mood because I'm hungry after cleaning my room, for example, right now. Go figure. Anyhow, I'm also kind of bored because, aside from homework and "Glee" later, I have nothing to do aside from blogging. And maybe going and getting some pretzels or something to eat. Or something.
And as a general FYI, I may or may not be posting an update (probably the latter) on the days when I have musical rehearsal, because of circumstances like the one that happened yesterday with the epic staying-up-late-and-feeling-tired-now-but-normal-ish thing. Especially because I probably won't have time to write a lot of NaNoWriMo anyway (BOO!), so there probably won't be anything to tell you about except for maybe how tired I am and how sorry I am that I didn't post the day before or something. And how I should be doing my homework and that I am perfectly (not) content with staying up until midnight again if I have to.
I've noticed something as well, though.
Unless I get just enough sleep to start dreaming, I don't normally feel tired when I miss sleep until late afternoon. For example, now I'm really tired from the staying up late last night, but this morning I was fine. Probably partially due to the fact that I had caffeine this morning.

Day 16: the day after halfway

Pages Today: 5
Pages Left To Write Today: 8
Page Started On: 115
Page To End On: 128
Location In Story: Unexpected encounter with Nem's former teacher turns out to be beneficial. And Flayan has been introduced.
And yes, I know, I didn't post yesterday. I'm sorry. I had a TON of things to do. First it was the first musical rehearsal, from which I had to leave early (I thought my bit was over, but it wasn't, so I accidentally left before my lines as the pivotal role of The Waiter) to go to a black belt kup test (it went okay, aside from the board breaking. We have to do the sparring next week or the next time we go or whatever), and then I had to eat and sit down and write an AP essay that took me 3.5 hours because it had to be handwritten and it was assigned YESTERDAY and was due TODAY. Yeah, not a lot of time for blogging and writing yesterday. However, the rehearsal and the AP essay were my main sources of panic, and now those both have passed with somewhat success. Well, rehearsal did, anyway. Whether I get good grade on my essay is yet to be seen. And whether she can actually understand my handwriting is another issue. It also happened to be my first super-late night for homework. I usually feel like the only junior who normally doesn't stay up until a quarter to midnight or later doing homework - even my brother did it when he was a junior - but I could be wrong. It's just kind of awkward when people are like, "Yeah, I was up til 3 last night doing my AP US essay/ studying for the AP English test/ doing NaNoWriMo!" And I'm just like, "Um... I did my AP US essay before nine, I'm not in AP English, and I did my NaNoWriMo quota during my free blocks..." It's really awkward because it feels like I'm the only one in my group of friends - or in my grade, for that matter - whose lamp is usually out by 11 on school nights. (However, we were visited by our old middle school friend on Halloween, and she said she felt the same way, so that was kind of nice, especially as she goes to a 'normal' school and is taking all IB courses... not sure how IB compares to AP, but I know it's hard).
And, unless I want to repeat yesterday night (I don't), I'm going to go clean my room and do my homework so I can watch Glee tonight. YAAY!!!

not exactly panicking..

Well, I've written a lot more today.
And yes, mother, of COURSE I'm (not) doing my AP reading.
But, in other news, NaNo hasn't got me as panicked as it did before. Mostly, I think, because I caught up. Sort of.
Anyway, I'm officially declaring my progress with NaNoWriMo. YAY!
Also, that I'm probably going to be participating in NaNoFiMo (yes, it actually exists): National Novel Finishing Month. It's during December. And I'll be participating. Because I can. Also because I'll probably need to. Because, let's face it, even if I DO manage to hand-write 240 Composition Book Pages, that's still only 96 typed pages. And, in my head, even with the extra pages created by page breaks for chapters, doing 96 pages condensed isn't a novel. It's a... non-novel.
It's what John Steinbeck did when he was too braindead after sitting down and writing "Grapes of Wrath" - he decided to do NaNoWriMo and wound up with "Of Mice and Men." Except for the fact that he did "Of Mice and Men" first. And that NaNoWriMo wasn't around in 1937-9.
It wasn't around until 1999.
So... my point is no longer valid.
I'm going to go do AP now.

Day 14: May I panic now?

Pages Today: 1.25
Pages Until Completion of Today's Quota: 9
Current Page: 103
Page To End On: 112
Location in Story: Have their new heading and are getting background of the people/ climate in the area they're going to next and discussing how they're going to get there without going bankrupt.
My question is: Can I panic now?
Why, you ask?
Today is Sunday. I probably have around four hours of homework to do today, because AP is annoying and notes take forever. And, although I was able to get some writing done last night, last weekend I didn't start Sunday TEN PAGES SHORT with four hours of homework in addition. And so now I'm panicking. And I hate panic. AAHH! However, there'll be some hope if I get off RIGHT NOW and start doing either homework or writing or something. I'm just glad I don't have to read the entire AP chapter tonight, because then by the end of today I'd be a total of 17 pages behind because I'd have no time to write whatsoever after that. Which would be even MORE annoying.
And I'm going and being productive now. Goodbye.

Day 13: When it starts catching up with you

Pages Written Today: not even one. 22 words (a chapter title and a line).
Pages Left To Write Today: 9
Current Page: 95
Page To End On: 104
Location in story: Luke and Sparky have found stuff out! Now Sparky has to deliver it to Nem + co. Yeah, not much farther than yesterday.
Today was one of those days that's so crowded with Stuff You Have To Do that there's all of no time to write. Which means I'm totally screwed. I did some service stuff this morning and saw "Oklahoma!" (which was REALLY good, by the way) at the nearest professional theater. And there was about an hour in between when we got home and when we had to leave again. And in about 45 minutes we're going to be leaving again and going to my parent's friend's house for dinner. And apparently I have to call my driver's ed teacher to reschedule some stuff and a lot of annoying stuff like that. So life is really annoying right now. Go figure.
So I'm going to go write now before all hope is lost and I have to leave.

Day 12: The Second Friday

Pages Written So Far Today: 6
Pages Left To Write Today: 4
Current Page: 92 (If it were typed, it would be around page 36)
Page To End On: 96
Location in Story: Dragons have been fought. Now Heron and Stea are free. YAY!! Only four more pairs to go!! Cut to Luke. He's very bored without his best friend around to provide some sort of mischief-making fun for him to partake in. So he argues with the guard at his door, Sir Nikolas Whatzit. Yes, you read that right. The guard's name is Nikolas Whatzit, and he's an idiot. But that isn't the point. The point is Luke's bored and wishing he could help Nem, and eventually Sparky the Star comes and helps him out. So that's that. YAY!!

For some reason, I've had the growing urge to start typing up my novel-in-progress. Why? I'm trying to figure that out. I still want to be able to say I wrote a novel by hand, even if it only ends up being less than 100 pages long, but whatever. The way it's turning out, handwriting it in a composition notebook will make it 240 pages long by the end of the month, if I continue with the whole eight-pages-a-day thing. Which I will. Probably. YAY WEEKENDS!
I'm really glad that NaNoWriMo is in November. The other ideal month would be December, because of winter break and everything. I'm glad it's November, however, because I'm around enough people who are doing NaNoWriMo as well to stay motivated, but we also have enough breaks for me to be able to sit and do nothing but write at like 11 pm. Not that I actually DO that on weekends or anything silly like that...
YAY WRITING!!!

Day 11: are you getting bored yet?

Pages Written Today: 5
Current Page: to-be-begun chapter on page 82
Page I should be on by the end of today: 88
Page Started On: 76
Location in story: just killed Fenn the dragon, about to meet the star and goddess and get the cool shindigs that come with saving stars and goddesses. What are these cool shindigs? I have no idea! I just know they're cool and that the four main people get them, and that Maa and Kela won't, and Maa and Kela won't be happy.

I didn't do any writing last night. I thought I would, but I didn't. Mostly because I'm too lazy, because I didn't want to go and get my pens and then get my notebook out of my backpack and then try to write about dragons after a dance.
Plus, I don't think I could write a very good dragon fight after a dance. Dances and dragons don't go together very well. Unless it's the climax of "Enchanted." But even then, it kind of sucked. I wouldn't want to fight a dragon on top of the Empire State Building in the middle of your average climactic rainstorm.

Back!

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.

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?

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!

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).