November 30, 2005
what now?
I need guidance
with about 75 minutes to spare
final word count, you know you want it....
50,012
Yeah, I do feel like a winner.
The truth Hits everybody
Hey there sports fans, my story was finished at 49,934. There was nothing more to say.
the lyrics I heard as I finished:
I thought about it and my dream was broken
I clutch at images like dying breath
And I don’t want to make a fuss about it
The only certain thing in life is death
Once again nice work by IR. We at GBatT appreciate the awesome amount of support that we've gotten over the past 30 days.
Thirty days I wrote every day for 30 days. I am kinda impressed with myself. As for the story, well, it started out poorly, the middle was bad, and the less we say about the end the better. But besides that, it was terrible.
[thanks BlackAdder]
chart warning: indigo
Oh yeah, this is my 100th entry.
I need help
this will be difficult:
Which is a better album?
the Police Synchronicity
U2 the Unforgettable Fire
last day
Sophie woke me up this morning so I could write. I think she likes the part about the mountain lion.
Funny thing happened, the breaker for the power for the side of the house where the computer is, got flipped. Fortunately my computer is smart enough to save more frequently than I do, and I didn't lose any of this mornings progress.
Yes. I have just made a back up.
16 hours left of this _____ called NaNoWriMo.
Current word count warning: yellow
44,745
November 29, 2005
November 28, 2005
50 hours left
so very sleepy
I'm gonna call it a day
40,184 words total
November 27, 2005
oops sorry
Hey sports fans, sorry I forgot to post my progress yesterday.
Looks like the habit of daily posting during NaNoWriMo died easy enough.
yesterday I quit at a word total of 34,227
right now I am at 36,926 I may try to get a bit more tonight.
We would like to thank Indecisive Ramblings for charting our progress. It is so nice to get props, and we thank IR for their much appreciated encouragement.
I only need a bit more than 14 thousand words in the next 74 hours. Now if only I could give up work and sleep.
I thought I had run out of story, but I just threw a wrench in my heroes' plans.
and finally...
we at GBatT would like to send a big ole "Yippee Kay-Aye-gradulations" out to the Tiki Lodge.
November 25, 2005
Black Friday pt 6
well, I didn't get into the black today
current word count 30,888
I have muscle insertion and origins to learn.
Why, oh why am I such a procrastinator?
Black Friday pt 4
I'm in the thirty-thousands!!
woo-hoo
yippee
and other celebatory noises
current word count:
30,179
Black Friday pt 1
...let's see if I can get out of the red on writing...
current word count: 28,463
November 24, 2005
Thanksgiving
We at GBatT realize how lucky we are.
We thank God for the many blessings that I have, that I don't deserve.
I have a great wife, a good family, good friends and a couple of perfect kitties.
And I have stuff. Stuff that kings of old could only dream of. Stuff that many in the world still can not comprehend.
It's good to be an American.
Libertarian propaganda warning: mauve
from our friends at Cato
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2891
...and remember, it's cato.org.
More likely than not you don't want to type
www.cato.com
November 23, 2005
day 23
I just found out today that there is not 46 days in the month of November.
Since when did that happen.
word # warning: indigo
27,186 words to date
up to 71% of where I should be if I were on pace. Which is the best percentage I've had.
I think I'm ready to write the next scene as soon as I wake up. I don't think I'll be stuck in the 20k range for long.
2105 words today
I need to average 3260 words a day for the rest of the month. I'll try not to think about the fact that my personal best so far has been ~2300 words in a day. I think I'm scared.
Half !!
Happy Thanksgiving Eve everyone.
I am a bit sleepy. I hope I don't have to think at work in six hours. Good thing I conned my boss into making the coffee.
word count warning : chartruse
25,081 words written
November 22, 2005
half??
current word count
24,135
.
thank you for your support
a new trick
evidently a GIF is better than a Bitmap
chart warning : 100%
November 21, 2005
BLue Monday part 5
I have heard that if you do something for 21 days in a row it is a habit. Does this mean I am a habitual bad fantasy writer?
I am pleased as all punch that I've done this as well as I have. By far my best results for an ambitious creative project.
warning...for Sports Fans only...
current word count : 22,975
That's right sports fans, I wrote 2,358 words today. That is my NaNoWriMo best. Or, that's the sharpest slope increase for you chart folks.
Blue Monday pt 4
Those who came before me
Lived through their vocations
From the past until completion
They will turn away no more
And i still find it so hard
To say what i need to say
But i'm quite sure that you'll tell me
Just how i should feel today
22,229 words
BLue MOnday pt 2
"I have a cunning plan!"
I came up with it at lunch.
"Once there was a little sausage named Bauldrick. The end"
current word count: 21,150
blue monday
Is it too late to withdraw from NaNoWriMo?
I better not, 'cuz I promised my boss I would finish.
Stoopid #%@^$&@* promises.
November 20, 2005
Sunday pt 2
HA!!
I'm up to 20,617!!
what do you thing about that, K??
...hmm..do you think I can convince to the kitties to insulate the pipes under the house?
Sunday pt 1
current count 20,562
should be at 33,333...what a nice pretty number.
Yay, I'm up to twenty thousand words.
Only thirteen thousand-ish to do today, and then I will be caught up and back on track.
November 19, 2005
November 18, 2005
my boss
One of the bad things about working with friends, is sometimes there is a chance that personal secrets may leak into the work place. And co-workers may gain knowledge about you. Knowledge that they could use against you. It does make me nervous that my friends at work know stuff about me. Like my birthday. Or that I NaNoWriMo. I don't want the other folks to know.
Today my boss asked what I will do at the end of November would I keep writing.
"No."
She asked what if I'm not done, with either the story or the 50,000 words.
"I'll be done."
currently at 19,514
I know I shouldn't
...read TS Eliot when I am sad, sleep deprived and behind on my word count. But TS is the best.
...and if Mr. Eliot couldn't find the right words...
...but, it ends almost hopefully..."For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business."
Poetry Warning: Green like a garden. Green like a light. Green like a radioactive neon ghost. Green like "it ain't easy bein'". There are so many different colors of green, and I really should be writing a novel, or studying, or playing with the kitties, or sleeping and I should quit babbling on my blog. Hmm...I wonder if I copy and paste this into my story, if it will count. It would. But I would consider it cheating.
From East CokerV
So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years—
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres
Trying to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate—but there is no competition—
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
NaNoWriMo rain
Yeah, maybe I should have posted this image a few weeks ago.
Friday night, my woman left me, and...
...I'm only at 19,482 words
cheerleading
Every week I get a bit of encouragement or advice from NaNoWriMo.
So in case you're curious...
NaNoWri Mo week 3 advice Warning: glistening grey
and I quote:
"1) The more you write, the more inspired you're going to feel. If you're feeling
pokey now, it's because you're not writing enough. Push yourself to write every
day, and make a point of adding something to your word count any time you're
within striking distance of a keyboard. Harness the power of micro-sessions. If
you're far behind, stop figuring out where you're supposed to be each day.
Instead, just dive into your story and write until you've rolled the word
counter up by a thousand. Then take a twenty-minute break, and go after another
thousand. Don't worry about getting caught up - that'll take care of itself.
Just keep rolling those thousands.
"2) Don't linger in the 20,000s. The 20,000s are a quicksand pit filled with
dyspeptic hyenas. The best way to deal with the 20,000s is just to heave
yourself into them and then write like mad until you're out again. Some
participants do the 20,000s in three big days. These are wise participants.
"3) Abandon the quest for pretty sentences. Beautiful language is small-stakes
writing. We're doing something epic here. We're aiming for completion. We're
shooting for the dramatic arc, for the roar of the crowd, for the ticker-tape
raining down on us in slow motion as we type our final sentence, run one last
word count, and then close the book on a truly triumphant month.
This is big.
This is very big.
And it's yours for the taking. But to get there, you need to give yourself
permission to make messes. To write ungainly sentences and create absolutely
atrocious dialogue. I know it hurts to leave ugly prose in your book. But you
can polish everything to perfection next month. For now, it's all about crossing
the halfway point of your novel and beginning the sprint homeward."
November 17, 2005
NaNoWriMo day 17
18,685 words
I am about 10,000 words behind.
I am at about 2/3 of where I should be for pace.
Sophie tries to help by jumping on my lap.
November 16, 2005
day 16
17,199 words
I learned a bit about adoption process tonight.
November 15, 2005
paperback writer
I think we can blame it on the Beatles. As a child I heard "Paperback Writer" and fell in love with the song, and the idea of being a writer.
I have to say, I think that song and it's performance by the Beatles is perfect.
Today at lunch, I practiced brain storming for only two minutes, coming up with as many different missions that my heros have to accomplish. I didn't look at them, I just tried to come up with many ideas. I will look at the list before bed and sleep on it. I believe in the power of the mind to solve problems when one's self gets out of the way.
For example: Archimedes and property of density while taking a bath, running naked down Athen's streets screaming "Eurka!" (OR so the story goes)
example: the chemist how discovered shape of benzyne because he kept dreaming of snake swallowing its tail
example: Poincaire realizing the solution to a math problem while stepping off a bus
Oh yeah, Happy Ides of Novemeber, sports fans!
And you-know-what-coming warning: Black & White
Current word count 16,857
67% of where I should be
November 14, 2005
day 14 part 2
Who needs sleep?
Who needs clean dishes?
I crawled my way up to 15,135 words.
Woo-hoo, I'm catching up!
day 14
NaNoWriMo current tally 14,145
last night I had a good idea...but uh...I must have forgot it...or not sure how it fits...or something...I could've swore I would have knocked out a couple thousand words tonight...no such luck
November 13, 2005
the Thirteenth day
I bought insulation today for the pipes in the crawl space. Using a seven year old gift certificate.
Today is a friend's birthday, I've known him for more than two decades. Happy Birthday old man!!
I really heart SleaterKinney. The band, not the road.
current word count warning: Neon Pink
Thirteen days of typing.
Only four days that I met the necessary daily average.
13,356 words to date.
....now how the heck do I post this Excel chart I've created?
November 12, 2005
November 11, 2005
NaNoWriMo Day 11
part 1 - 8537 words
part 2 - 8983 words
part 3 - 9890 words
...and my final total word count is now...
...
10,106 words
Yay! I have written ten thousand words.
Veterans Day
We at GBATT would like to thank the veterans who have left their homes, friends and family to help keep us safe.
We look forward to a day when their work will not be necessary.
November 10, 2005
day 10
Hey there sport's fans!
NaNoWriMo is one third over.
Yours truly has written 8284 words.
And I gotta tell you, it's good and original.
Too bad the good parts aren't original, and the original parts aren't good.
(I love that joke.)
I am impressed though that I've written something everyday for 10 days in a row. I don't even brush my teeth that often.
November 09, 2005
number nine...number nine
NaNoWriMo
my current word count: 8002
I should be at 15,000
I am so far averaging 889 words a day, while everyone knows it should be 1667 words a day.
I did show self restraint, I didn't stretch out a fight scene for multiple pages.
:-jon
November 08, 2005
week 2 day 1
A week has gone by.
I must be havin' fun, 'cuz time is a flyin'.
word count: 7,563
Mental Health
so I am going through disaster relief training at work.
I hope I never use the training.
Now there is a belief in some quarters that "oh, I won't be affected by Post Tramatic Stress Disorder" or "the stress won't get to me" or "I can handle it"
...but that would be the same as saying "I won't get cancer."
...This can also be in reference to depression. Some might say, "What do they have to be depressed about?" Which is like saying..."What reason do they have for Parkinson's Disease"
Now I learned that 75% don't get PTSD. That's good.
I also learned of these great wound dressings.
well...I should write, or study, or do laundry, or play with kitties....
November 07, 2005
November 06, 2005
day 6 part 3
I'm at 6,606 words.
Just for reference, the DaVinci Code has 138,738 words.
Dragons of Spring Dawning has 126,079 words.
:-jon
I saw a movie
...and I liked it.
I think Zorloc said "best sci-fi in 10 years."
I'll agree.
:-jon
day 6 part 2
5,477 words
NaNoWriMo says:
Everyone knows that any deep and lasting work of art takes an entire month to make.
day six part 1
As you may know. I play D&D. Silly, I know. But it's fun sometimes.
I am using some of my characters for my novel. I have them stuck in a jam and I really want to change the rules to get them out of the jam. But that's one of the things I dislike about fantasy, when all the sudden the author suddenly remembers that the character has a special ability or item that is just perfect for the impossible situation at hand. One of my problems with LotR. So Sam & Frodo get the Ring in mount Doom, and lava everywhere, they are probably gonna die, and it is most hopeless...and then the eagles show up to save them.
So, I have these characters, I decided their powers months ago for the DnD game we play. Now let's see if I can get them out of trouble.
current word count: 4,845
review Dragons of Spring Dawning
I finally finished the Dragonlance Chronicles
The main weakness of the story was the plot. The story was more like a ride the characters were on than actually about choices that they made.
I did like the characters. They all had strengths, weaknesses, bits of pettiness, regrets, fears and doubts.
The story dealt with what is love, and how does one react when that love is betrayed.
:-jon
NaNoWriMo day 5 pt 3
I got up to 4,545 words
so more than two thousand words on Saturday.
Still far behind.
:-jon
November 05, 2005
NaNoWriMo day 5 pt 2
up to 3,762 words.
Even if I pull this off. I don't know if I will consider it to have "written" a novel. Maybe written the rough draft. But I don't even think it will be conhessive enough to be called a bad novel.
Anywho...off to memorize some skull articulations.
NaNoWriMo day 5 pt 1
So, you want to write a novel??
It's not to late to join the insanity.
I have got to get to 10,002 words by bedtime Sunday. They are recommending three a days.
Currently at 2,884 words.
Should be at 8335 words.
:-jon
November 04, 2005
NaNoWriMo day 4
I'm at 2503 words.
I should be at 6668 words.
:-jon
November 03, 2005
NaNoWriMo day 3
NaNoWriMo is says
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
current word count 1521.
I should be at 5,001.
Day three, I should be 10% done. Oh my, time goes by fast.
I think this would be easier if I wasn't hampered by sobriety.
I'm thinking to much. Today I spent 30 minutes figuring out the logistics of transportation routes and costs for my characters. And it doesn't matter. Nothing of intrest happens from point A to point B.
bed time now
November 02, 2005
NaNoWriMo day 2
today I am at 1067 words.
I should be at 3334 words.
Can anyone participate in NaNoWriMo?
No. People who take their writing (and themselves) very seriously should probably go elsewhere. Everyone else, though, is warmly welcomed.
November 01, 2005
NaNoWriMo day 1
well
I have a new hobby.
today I am at 520 words
I should be at 1,667.
Uh-oh, this looks like it could be tough.
NaNoWriMo is all about the magical power of deadlines
NaNoWriMo - day 1
asdklhafoiashl;fkashdioashef
so allegedly I started this draft back in Nov 2005.
I am now gonna publish it on 4/24/08 ...to see where it shows up.
Bad Stories
So, last night, when I should have been studying, or doing the dishes, or handing out candy to little monsters...I visited a friend.
We were talking about what makes a bad book.
1) fight scenes that go on for pages that describe every little nuance of the fight. I think in movies, the fight scene is kinda like ballet, not realistic, but adding to the story. In this I think Tolkien was good, the fight scenes in the Lord of the Rings book were pretty short text wise.
2) Too much internal dialog where the character explains what they are saying.
...anything else I should be avoiding this month???