Getting My Rear In Gear

And Christmas with my family. Anyway, title first. I've been slacking terribly with my editing, but once I get home I'm putting myself in first draft mode for a while. One scene every day until I write all of these scenes that I need to.
I like first draft mode. It's familiar. Anyway, once that's done, I can start the micro-editing.
And this does tie in to Christmas with extended family, cause we had that today, and I got a few writing books. "Is There a Book Inside You?" by Dan Poynter and Mindy Bingham, and "100 Ways to Improve Your Writing" by Gary Provost.
At any rate, starting probably the 2nd, I'm getting up again and writing until I get this thing done. I want it done ASAP so I can move on to my newest NaNo. And then I also have to work on my other BFS Goals. I think I'll try and do a monthly post on my progress, so I don't forget.
And now I go to read my books.

'Nother BFS Goal

Learn to drive. I'm 15 years old now, and I've driven for all of two minutes once on the way home, once we got onto gravel. In order to accomplish this big, fun, and scary feat, I'll have to get a driving lesson in our old ('73 I think) blue pickup truck. It's about the hardest stick shift ever, so if I can drive that thing, I can drive anything. Then I have to get a permit, take driver's ed, get enough hours for a restricted, then get enough hours for a full license once I turn 16. Wait...I actually do turn 16 this year...that's a scary thought. I've never thought of myself as a 16-year-old. I don't know what I'll be like. Of course, I tend not to be able to think of myself as any age that I haven't been yet. Birthdays are strange for me. It seems like you're supposed to be so different than the day before your birthday. You're 15, then all of a sudden you're 16. But you're never really that different. One day doesn't make that much difference in you to make you an entirely different person. Today, as a 15-year-old, I'm different than I was the day before I turned 15, yeah. But that was...however many months ago. It was back in August. That's enough time for me to have matured. But the day I turn 16? I won't be so different than the day before. I might be different than I am today, since there's enough time for that, but I won't be so different. Age is a strange thing.

Christmas and BFS

Merry Christmas to all! Today has been entirely relaxed. I got up later than sometimes (I woke up at seven and tried my hardest to fall back asleep, but to no avail. I managed to stay in bed for about an hour though), and had a nice leisurely morning, and when my brothers finally got up, we hung around for a bit before moving on to the presents. It was nice. I got my mom a home-made book of Wordoku (which has a longish story that I'll tell in a minute), Tucker got my dad two CDs (An Eric Clapton and a Bela Fleck), us kids got a flying bat thingy each from "Santa," Samuel got a new leatherman tool, a computer game, and a new iPod. Tucker pretty much just got a shotgun as his present. It's a nice gun though. Hardly used, but quite old, great condition. I got some smelly lotion (good kind of smelly. At my house we have pretties (like jewelry) and smellies (like scented lotion and soap and air fresheners and stuff)), some smelly soap, some new earbuds, and a 16GB Creative Zen Mosaic mp3 player. I don't think I'll ever use 16GB. I had been using two before, and I was all right. But ask me again in a month and see what my answer is.

About the Wordoku...the other day at Borders I saw a book of them, but the lines were like 30 minutes long and I had my brothers waiting for me, so I didn't buy it. Then the next evening I got an idea to make a book of them myself. I went online to find the puzzles, and then put them all into OpenOffice to arrange them into the book. Yesterday morning I got up early and finished them up, and then I made a few trips to the UPS store to get them printed and bound. It would have been done in one trip if I had just arranged it right the first way, but oh well. My mom really likes Sudoku puzzles, and these are just the same, but they use letters. When you finish the puzzle, a word shows up in the diagonal.

Sorry for the poor writing, I'm a little bit hyper what with all of the Christmas excitement. Now to move on to the Big Fun Scary challenges that I've gotten so far.

-Grow closer to Christ
-Win NaNoWriMo 2009
-Edit Crystal Glare (my 2007 NaNo)
-Edit my 2008 NaNo
-Learn Italian to a conversational level
-Learn at least one fancy musical piece for flute
-Keep getting up early every morning, whether or not I write with the time. Shall we aim for...60% of the time?


The one on top is the most important of course. And Italian's back up there again...I really do want to learn it. Let's see if I actually can this year. And then I want to learn something fancy on my flute, hopefully to help me with learning that. Getting up early...I like how things are when I do that, but I also need days off now and again. So hmm....editing is pretty straightforward...I want to get them done, and maybe bind them myself if I can't get it done in time for the CreateSpace thing. Um....I'll update the list if I think of anything else I want to do.

I Have Non-Motivation...

Or something. Just today is the first day I managed to actually get up early since...I guess December 10th. Blech. I managed to get a little writing done, but not very much. How come I'm still so unmotivated? It's getting quite annoying really.

In other news, it's time to be thinking about Big Fun Scary again! I had kinda forgotten about it there for a while...every once in a while it passes through my head, but I rarely did anything about it.

Anyway, as a refresher, here's my goal list (summaries of how I did included):

♪Grow closer to Christ: I'm trying to think of where I was at the beginning of this year...I think I've grown this year in that way. We had one of the most awesome mission trips ever this year, to Alaska. On our day off in the week we were up there for, we went to a glacier park, and there especially I noticed the incredible beauty of nature again. God's creation is just amazing. I kind of wish we didn't have to go home. I need to get us to go back up there with the whole family for a vacation or something. But I've grown some I think...I certainly hope so. If I haven't grown closer, which way have I grown?

♪Learn Italian to a conversational level: Um...not really. I tried, failed, and forgot about it until recently when I got a friend to partner up with me. So I've started again, and things are going better. So...goal for next year: finish up the course I have in Italian, and not forget it.

♪Learn to sightread on the piano: This one is kind of hard to quantify, and I didn't do it in December, so it's hard to know. I'm certainly not at the level of my piano teacher for sight reading, but I think I actually can do it now. Even when I play a late intermediate song (which is all I can play usually right now anyway), it has some semblance to the way it's supposed to sound. So I guess I accomplished it. Playing out a hymnal was kind of a subgoal here, and it's...I dunno whether to say accomplished or not. It's certainly not finished, since it requires more experience, but I can kind of do it...

♪Finish my CSS course: Uh...not really....kinda forgot about it.

♪Finish my JavaScript course: Also not really. Also forgot about it.

♪Post in this blog at least once a week: Anope. Even with the weeks I had set that I could miss, due to various things, I didn't do it. Whoops.

♪Write at least twice a week: Also anope. I've been writing quite a bit recently, but after the beginning of the year I fell off for a while. Oh well. Maybe writing twice a week is a lot anyway. I do need some days off.


So even if I didn't win, I learned quite a bit over the year anyway. Now I just have to think about next year's goals...I think I know of a few, but I kind of like have a good list. Anyone else who reads this thing do BFS? How'd you do?

Editing Day...um...10 I guess?

I don't see the cold kitty today...but now there's snow on the ground.

I managed to meet yesterday's goal today (which became today's goal, since I can't seem to even write one stinking scene), and now I can send my characters merrily on their way with sidetrack averted. I even managed to have a character take note of a thing or two that I forgot to have taken note of in the first draft. I had a good enough day I guess.

I've also run through my Italian flash cards a few times, all really simple words so far. I started over when I finally got a friend to learn with me. Simple things I need to know like per favore and grazie and the like. I have to know to say please and thank you! And then there are the personal pronouns in the stack too. If I could just remember all of them. I know so many words in English, why can't I remember just a few extremely simple words in Italian?

There's a Very Cold Cat Outside...

There's a little cat (full grown I think, but still quite small) that comes around and we feed it, so I guess it's our cat. She usually comes by at about 6:30 in the evening, but she's here this morning, outside with the cold and the wind, asking to come in, but we're not supposed to let her in really, only if we're holding her the whole time, which she doesn't really like...

And what's with me and post titles that end with ellipses? Anyway, I'm setting a minimal goal for myself this morning: I just want to finish the scene that I'm writing in. That's all. And at this rate I won't even get that done. The poor little kitty.

So slow...

I'm still writing in just one of the scenes that needs to be put in...I can't seem to do anything quickly lately. I can't just get out of bed when my alarm goes off, and I can't seem to focus on the computer. I don't know if I need some time off maybe, or if I just need to get over it and work. This kind of thing happens to me once in a while I think, but I can never remember how I deal with it. Eventually I just get back into the groove, or something. I wish I could remember.

Oh dear...

Well, I finally managed to get through my novel with my notes written, and now I just want to see about writing in the scenes that don't exist, and then I'll rewrite the scenes that might as well not exist, and then I'll move on to going line by line.

Speaking of...this is the part where I think I'll mess up the most. I have hardly a clue how to do this. I guess I'll work a scene or a chapter at a time and just see how good I can make it, but how exactly do I work at making it better? I'm kind of afraid I'll just make it worse. Although the beginning at least is bad enough that it's going to be hard to make it any worse.

Someone smack me...

Now I remember why I write on a Neo...I can't seem to focus when I sit down at the computer. I've read a few scenes, but I should be much farther along in my manuscript than I am...and posting this is just me fiddling around even more. I don't know what to do with myself. At any rate, I'm going to see if I can maybe read a few more scenes and make my comments so I know what I'm doing when I go through again. As if I could know what I'm doing at all, since I'm editing for my first time...

Decisions, Decisions...

I just can't decide...I have about...11 scenes that need major rewriting I mean major. As in their from totally different characters. Ones I don't have yet. I know I want this to be in this order, but the question is...according to the editing recipe I want to follow, it says to read through it again at this point. But I don't think it takes into account how much rewriting these will really take...I dunno though.

More Editing!

I give you....my outline! Condensed to 30 index cards. It's strange...I would have taken as many as I needed, but it came out to exactly 30. Now I just have to decide on if I'm happy the way it is now, or if I need to move scenes, or split scenes, or cut scenes, or whatever in the world else. After that I can paste them together into the new order, read it again, decide on chapters, and then I get to start editing line by line by line by line by line. Fun.

Actually it is quite fun. But now I'm just stuck thinking about different ways to arrange it. I haven't even moved a card yet! I might just be afraid to...but I was thinking about how my heroes had to get this quest assigned to them by the king before they did anything about this quest, and then I thought: Do they really? I mean, what would happen if they stumbled across it and took care of one of these things, then they go see the king to find out what happened and then he tells them to take care of the other five?

Sorry, that doesn't make too much sense if you haven't read my draft, but I don't even know how it helps me with the problem I'm having with timelines. My characters get sidetracked in the middle of something, and I like what the sidetrack did for my story, and I want to keep it, but I don't know if I want it where it is. I'm having a hard time figuring out where actually to put it.

EDIT: I think I've got the storyline I want. But it's going to be really changed. The big sidetrack is going to be turned into an alternate storyline that I introduce some new characters to take care of. I don't think this is actually going to make it any longer, since I'm not adding any scenes in. I'm just making it happen all at once instead of it being so linear. And now I can switch around when people are traveling. But this monster is going to take a lot of work. I wonder what I've gotten myself into...

First Day of Editing

I'm about 80 pages in to my 141-page manuscript. I exported it to a PDF so I would be tempted to correct anything, but man there's a lot that needs to be changed! Besides almost none of it being worded very well, I think there's some shuffling around to be done with the scenes, and the whole thing is generally a mess. I'm not sure if all novels look this way, or if this one in unsalvageable. I think I'm going to give it a shot anyway, whatever may come of it.

The Last Night Of NaNo...

And all through my head...everything was going haywire. I cant wait until tomorrow when I start editing, but I have absolutely no clue how to prepare. I just came out of one insane project, and now I go into one thats just as insane for me. I had a great weekend doing nothing though. I'll just have to take it a bit at a time. If nothing else I should learn something from this venture.

Done!

I actually managed to finish it! At 2:30pm (my time, CST) I finished my novel. It's awesome. My plan now is to take the rest of the month off and start editing last year's novel on the first of December. That gives me about 5 1/2 months to edit the thing. I hope that's enough time...

But it doesn't matter right now! 'Cause I'm DONE!!!!

A Late Happy Thanksgiving!

But now I can ask everyone how theirs went.

We had family over and ate the turkey, ham, stuffing, mandarin oranges in lime jello, etc. for Thanksgiving dinner at noon. I got my morning writing done, but it's strange...if it hadn't been Thanksgiving, I think I could have finished my novel that day. Last year if it hadn't been Thanksgiving, I think I would have hit 50k on Thanksgiving day.

I don't begrudge it, I really enjoy being with my family. But now, in keeping with my semi-tradition, I have to see about finishing my novel today. I'll probably post as soon as I do it.

If I Could Ever Write Two Scenes in a Day...

I'd be more ahead than I am now. Hopefully I'll finish up the scene I'm writing now so I can be two ahead and feel better about myself...

Family should be coming over tomorrow, and today was spent cleaning the house...now I get to settle down and watch a movie with the immediate fambly though!

And that's why this is a short post. Nothing really to report.

Verified!

I finally got onto the laptop with my novel at 50k (I'm still afraid to plug my flashdrive into the other computer since I don't know if the virus is gone yet or not), and verified my NaNo on the website! See the spiffy badge? -pokes badge on sidebar-

Anyway, as far as finishing the novel, I had been hoping that I would get to write two scenes today, since I did a little extra yesterday, but I was lazy and instead cleaned my room a bit and took a nap before surfing the net on the computer...so yeah. I'm still on schedule though! Just not ahead.

NaNo Day 23 and A Call For Help

I slept in today, as I always seem to do on Sundays whether I want to or not. Anyway, I'm still on track for finishing my novel, but I need some help. It involves the forbidden word of NaNo. Editing.
I've never really edited before, much less something that's the length of my NaNo. I need to have last years novel edited by mid-april. I've read up some on big picture editing, but I still don't really know what I'm doing. So if anyone reading my blog has tips or resources, I would love to see them. Thanks!

EDIT: Heh, I have a few more questions actually. How long does it take for you to go through your novel one time? And when you go through, do you edit majorly, or do you mostly do little stuff? I've looked online a bit, and I found this editing recipe, and it's kind of what I'm going by, but like I said, I still don't really know what I'm doing.

Also, I don't actually need to have this done by mid-April, I'd just like it to be done by then.

NaNo Day 20

I totally forgot to post until just now. Sorry! Anyway, today I joined the growing group of NaNoWriMo winners. I hit 50k! Now my goal, like I said, is to finish the thing. I actually did two plot sections today, so if I need to I can take Thanksgiving day off. Or I have wiggle room for somewhere else. Anyway, good luck to everyone!

Plan And NaNo Day 18

So yesterday I did some calculations, and figured that I had 13 days of November left, and 13 plot sections left, not counting epilogue, which should be quite short. So if I write one plot section every day, I should have a finished draft on the 30th. So then I don't have to worry about it. So I'm gonna try it. So far so good.

NaNo Day 17

I'm sorry, I kept meaning to post and meaning to post, but I never did it. And so you missed probably about 10,000 words. I'm at 40k today. That means that I only have 10k left to write...scary thought for me.

I've been wondering about how close I am to finishing my novel, since they say it's best to be done by the end of November, even if a few scenes were just sketched or shortened. I kinda hate to do that, but since I would like to be able to edit Crystal Glare without worrying too much about this one, I made up a checklist/story arc thing. I have eight sections counting the prologue, and I've totally finished three of them, and I'm probably a little less than halfway through the fourth. So I'm a little over 3/8. I guess if I broke it down further, I've done ten of twenty-four sections, which can be reduced down to 5/12. But like I said, I'm part-way through another section, so I might be closer to 6/12, which puts me halfway through.

But then, the sections probably won't be that even, and I arranged the chapters so that each of my three POVs gets one showing per chapter. I might actually start making things move a little faster, and added details and bits can be in later. I don't want to skip over scenes though, too many fun unexpected things happen for me to trust myself to just color in the lines.

Oh boy...40k though...50k is just around the corner...

NaNoDay 13

No, I actually don't have all of my words yet. I'll get 'em though, and hopefully hit 30k too. My parents have been getting up earlier, and it makes it hard for me to concentrate for some reason. I used to have perfect silence except for my music, and my parents aren't actually that loud, but the fact that I know someone else is up just distracts me I guess...
So anyway, sorry for the short post, I'm still a little distracted. I should get over it. I've been looking at some nice ocarinas online lately, and I think I'm going to hope for one for Christmas. I've also picked up my old pendant again, but it's range isn't too big, so it makes it hard to play some of the songs. Oh well, I shalt not surely die.

NaNo Day 12

I think I've just now realized how intricate my plot really is, or has to be. With three storylines, I have to make sure that the times add up to be equal, and all of that. I never really thought about it before.
So far today I only have about 1k. My alarm block has been doing strange things or something. Oh well. I can still get them done. Coffee helps too.
Not much has happened, but I'm excited to see that the winners this year also get a free proof copy of their books. I just hope I can get this finished and edited in time. I have on idea what its like to edit, much less be editing and writing at the same time, albeit on different books, and even less on editing two novels at once. Fun times ahead!

Non-posting and Days Off: NaNo Day 11

Sorry, I forgot to post there for a while. I got my words on Saturday, and then stayed up insanely late, especially for me during NaNo...11:30 is no time to be up when you're not writing...

Because of that, I ended up taking Sunday off. I couldn't seem to get up early enough Sunday morning to get anything done before church, and after church we had some friends coming with us right away, and I had no chance to write. So I didn't. I had plenty of extra to cover it.

Yesterday brought major slowness on my writing, and I didn't get them done until evening. I think I was kinda still tired from Saturday, since even though I didn't get up at 5:30 on Sunday, I was still up too early. I got 'em done though, and today was much better (seeing as I'm actually already done).

Actually, today I hit a major milestone: 25k! Yay! I'm so excited. I've now written more words than I have left. It's a downhill slide! Hopefully.

NaNo day 8

Accompanied by a picture of various things on my desk! The background is my neo, in the lower left corner is a frappuccino that I'm now filling with lucky stars, and in the upper right corner you can see my full jar of stars along with my not-so-full jar of mini-stars.
Oh, and I hit 20k a bit ago. Almost 1k in for today.
And my computer has a virus that its having a hard time getting rid of. My novel's backed up. Is YOURS?

Whoops! NaNo Day 7

Sorry, I kept meaning to post yesterday, but I didn't. Anyway, so I made my words, hit about 17k. Today hopefully I can get to 20k.

My only problem is I slept late...so I really don't have as much time. Oh well, we'll try it anyway^^

Nano day 5

I think I might have figured out the speech recognition. It was all because of one little option. All I had to do was turn on dictation everywhere. It still takes a long time, since it asks me about every phrase. I still don't know if I'm going to use it or not. It is fun though.

I got my words a lot earlier today. It didn't take me all morning. So I guess I have about 12 or 13k.

OK, this is taking forever, so I'm going to end this post. Ta for now!

NaNo Day 4

I’m having all sorts of fun today. Even though I haven’t got my words, I’ve been playing with the Microsoft speech recognition program. It’s taking a while to get used to, but it’s kind of fun.

Although, I really should get back to work. I only have 1362 words so far today. I’m enjoying my story though, and I just have to get a few more. The speech recognition is a little irritating at times, since for some reason it won’t let me dictate on the Blogger poster. I don’t know what’s up. It just doesn’t want to dictate on a text field like It should do it though, I’ll just have to figure out how.

The good news is I hit 10k today. And so I got to open my butterflyball. And you know what that means: I got my raspberry filled chocolate. I really wish that the chocolate would’ve fit in the little balls though… Oh well, what’s done is done.

So I guess this is my first post with speech recognition. It’s kinda fun to use, but I don’t know if I will not. I guess it’s not bad, but it still taking some work.

Well, I’m off to finish up my words! Maybe I’ll have another post later, we’ll just have to see.

NaNo Day 3

So far I've managed to post every day...yay!

It took me forever to write my words this morning...It was 9am before I hit 2k. I was just so sleepy.

I've only written about 2k so far...but I'm hoping to tap out a few more words this evening to boost it a bit further. I managed to get school done today with my writing, which is a good sign. I didn't even miss out on my exercise, so that's a bonus. At least, I guess it is.

Tomorrow...I actually don't really have anything tomorrow either, besides school of course. My busyness will start on Wednesday, with piano lessons. Oh well, take it as it comes.

NaNo Day 2

It's still early, but I doubt I'll really be able to post later. I totally forgot that today Daylight Savings Time ends, and so I was up at 4:00 instead of 5 like I thought. I got my words, but then at 6:45 I thought it was 7:45 and everyone in the house was still sleeping. And then I remember: Duh! It's the end of daylight savings!

So yeah. I got my 2k written, so I expanded by a few hundred words the lead I got yesterday, but I don't think I'll really get any more writing done today. I'll have to head off to church soon, and then we have a catfish fry to go to (which will be fun), and then after that we have a play and choir recital that I'm singing in (which probably won't be so fun). So I probably won't be back until it's quite late and I'm quite tired. Oh well, that's why I get up early in the first place.

I've seen so many blogs of people who are doing well with their wordcounts. I wonder if it helps that you do have a blog to post successes on. It's just great to see that people are working hard.

Well, I'm off to send NaNoMails to the WriMos I'm mentoring, and then I'm off to church!

NaNo Day 1

So far...it's awesome. Even though I've been writing every morning (except for October of course), I've forgotten how totally awesome NaNoWriMo is. My roommate was awesome and let me set my loud alarm, and so I set my phone to five minutes earlier, hoping it might wake me up. I guess it actually did, a little bit. I remember I was rolling over, but I wasn't thinking; I guess I was still half asleep after all. My alarm went off and I turned it off during the first ring. I heard her roll over, but I guess she didn't really wake up, or else she didn't remember in the morning. I got up and wrote my words, read some of No Plot? No Problem!, and then got started on my day a little more.

After the guests left, I settled down to type again. It was incredible. I've written 5,000 words in less than twelve hours. I dunno. I've never written that much in a day before. Anyway, I've only just now introduced my three viewpoints, and so I think my story will last 50k.

I'm tired now though...I didn't get to sleep until 11 last night...and getting up at 5...urg...

Time Issues...On NaNo Eve!

So today some old friends from Africa are coming to visit, which is awesome, but they're spending the night, which is also awesome.
But you see, I'll have someone in my room tonight with me. And I want to get up at five tomorrow morning. Now you see my issue? I've been getting up early for a long time, but my biological clock still objects. Not as much as it could, true, but it's not actually really set to get me up at five or even five thirty. I don't want to set my usual alarm, because it's insanely loud and would surely wake the guest in my room.
I might have a solution, I might not. I can't remember how hard of a sleeper this girl is, and that might have changed anyway. But I have an alarm on my iPod (even though it doesn't repeat...), and so I can set that and have my earbuds in while I sleep, assuming I can keep them in my ears. When I wake up, I can quietly grab my stuff and move to a different room of the house so I can turn lights on to stay awake, and type away on my Neo. Hopefully.

My issue on this is that the alarm might not wake me up. It's not that loud really. I might end up setting my phone alarm instead, since it vibrates. It'll probably wake me up better. But the question is, will it wake up the other girl?

Oh, and I don't get my all-day writing extravaganza after all. There's a church picnic tomorrow...I should have enough time to get my words done, but there's no chance of getting 5k or anything that day, like I was kinda hoping. I don't know how long it'll take; it might be an hour or two, it might be all day. I think it'll be more on the all day side though, since talking and fellowshipping will be going on. All that is great, and I enjoy it myself. But on the first day of November?

And I have a choir recital Sunday, and a play to watch, and there's a catfish fry...etc. etc. I always feel so busy in November. I guess people assume that there's not actually all that much going on in November, so the schedule stuff to go on then. Then again, it might be that I just want to have a lot more time to myself and my NaNovel.

Despite everything, I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I can finally stop waiting and start on my novel. Although, no matter how much I'm waiting, it still seems to sneak up on me at least a little bit. It's that there's no transition, it's not November, it's November, and then November's over. There's no in-between.

I'm not starting at midnight this year, since I do want to be up early tomorrow, and even though my body complains, it would complain more if I stayed up late tonight and then tried to resume the schedule. It's best not to upset it too much. I'm getting up half and hour earlier, but I'd just like to have the extra time on the first day. Even just thirty minutes would help me get a better start. Don't as me why.

Editing?!

I haven't done any editing before. I totally rewrote a story once, and it went in a different direction than the first time, and I don't think it really counts, especially since I haven't touched it since. But a few days ago I got an email from the NaNoWriMo people saying that Createspace, a company started by Amazon.com, is offering to give all NaNo '07 winners a free paperback copy of their manuscript. I'd send it off right away, but I haven't even read last year's NaNo yet, much less edited it. And I don't want to start now...since I haven't done this before I want to be able to give it my attention. But I think I'll start editing as soon as I hit 50k this year. The code is good for six months, and that gives me until April, but I don't know if I can be "done" by then. If not, well I'm going to get it into a proof copy anyway! I can't pass up the chance to get my book in paperback. I just can't.

Half a month left!

And why haven't I been posting lately? Anyway, the month is about half over, and I still don't feel quite ready for NaNo. I guess I should start feeling the time crunch soon though...

Oh, and three words: The forums rock. They have so much inspiration stuffed into them...even things that I don't know if they're really meant to be so inspiring. I'm not sure about one I was reading, asking about what color your novel was. I started thinking about it, and by the end of it I had a strange emblem kind of thing. It has my colors on it. I haven't been able to get it onto the computer yet, but let me describe it to you and I'll see about getting it up later.

It starts with a golden circle, with red streaked/swirled through it, and around that there's a thicker light brown circle, and then around all of that there's a wave border, and all of it is streaked/swirled with black.

And now I get to explain why! Even if you don't care.

The center is Bawb's part of the story. The gold is for knowledge, and then the red streaked through it is the fireworks involved in his story (yay fireworks!). The next layer is Gioa's, and I'm not actually sure why I picked brown for it. Maybe because she's an Earth. The wave border is Tial's part, and it's all streaked with black because it's all involved in politics and espionage.

Maybe it fits, maybe it doesn't, but that's what came to my mind. I'm not sure it actually answers the question asked though.

Anyway, hopefully I can get my rear in gear and get moving on getting ready. I'm not sure what there is left to do, but I'm sure there's lots. I just can't think of it right now.

More NaNo Prep

It feels like it should be later than just the 7th of October. Maybe because I want it so badly to be later than the 7th of October. Why isn't it NaNo yet?

I packed my butterflyballs yesterday, and they don't look as tidy as I'd like them to, and I couldn't fit in all of the candy I wanted to, but I guess they'll do. At least this way I get to have more to just munch on while I'm writing. I still have a lot left to do, but I'm getting a little tired of waiting.

Must...not...start...early!

Banes of Wordcounts!

Or maybe something that can save you in the middle of November. Things that can be either way. A prime example is the forums at the NaNoWriMo website. Those things can save your novel or completely destroy you if you hang out there too much. That's the hard thing. A few other things that for me personally can mean life or death:

• Origami. This stuff is so relaxing for when I'm stressed out, but if I do it too much I might completely lose my wordcount.
• Music. It may be a great stimulator, but if I know the words I'll end up stopping my writing to sing along, thus wasting precious minutes.
• Chatting with friends. If they're writings and doing NaNoWriMo with me, they can encourage and be a whip to keep me going. Or we can all be distracted at once with chatting.
• My schedule. It's busy enough, and I wouldn't mind dropping some stuff for November, but the thing is, without it I wouldn't be motivated to get up early and get my writing done. And if I don't get up early I don't think I would get my writing done, if that makes sense.

So what do you have that can make or break your writing? It's strange how there are two sides to almost any activity. There's always a fine line between how much you need, and what's way too much.

Plots...

Today starts my big month o planning, and i just finished my plot. Kinda. Is there such a thing as first drafts when you're plotting? I wonder. I need to look over it and see what can be changed and added and taken out and so on and so forth.
I'm working on my reward system for this year. I actually have one. I didn't last year. I did fine without it, but I might as well try it this time, since I have time to set it up.
And now it's time for the question! Do you have something you do to treat yourself every so many words, or do you just get something when you finish, or do you just write and that's your reward?

Ok...now I really AM insane!

So yes I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year...so that makes me at least semi-insane, but yesterday, fairly out-of-the-blue, I decided that I'll do TWO NaNovels this year!

WHY ME!?!?!??!?

Really! I love the plot I'm doing, but after reading those dare threads on the forums I'm sorry to say I don't really have room for them in my story. I hope that's not me caring too much about something, but anyway, apparently I'm going to have my plot as my priority one NaNo - it comes first. The other one is to work on after I get my words for the first one. It's a side novel of sorts. At any rate, I'm going to pack it full of dares and randomness.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to put in it? Or tips on how to cope with two novels at once? I've never actually written much more than 3k in one day. I don't know if I actually care too much about winning with my random novel though, it would sure be fun, but that would mean I wrote 100k in a month...I might die.

Trying Yet Another Thing!

I've been thinking about getting a desktop blogging client, so I'm trying a few things out. Since I might be trying a few different ones, there might be quite a few posts like this. Or maybe I'll make it so you can't tell and just do normal posts....oooh....

Anyway, I might as well make this a slightly useful post to at least myself besides the new blogging thing. Friday I was so tired but managed to get my 2k done, and then I had another late night from practice on Thursday and Friday for youth Sunday today. So anyway, my alarm went off, and tried so hard to get up, but I just couldn't do it, so I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. I love my sleep....and I should probably just take naps or something. Although I had no chance for one on Friday.

Anyway, I didn't get any writing done yesterday, and I'm doing none today, so yeah. I guess that's it.

More October Plans

I didn't realize October was so close...that means the forums open up again! Yay! And I found this really awesome origami butterflyball. It is so much fun. And I put some of those Lucky Wishing Stars inside, so it was a lot of fun to explode. It's kind of like a pinata...I wonder if candy would actually work in there? I was thinking about making one for every 5,000 words. I was thinking of one for every day, but 30 balls is a lot, and one for every 10k would just be 5, and I kind of wanted more than that, so 10 would be good. I'll make them in October and label them with when I can break them open, and then I'll get whatever candy or whatever else I decide to put inside. Maybe a note to myself with encouragement...

I told my mom yesterday that I was planning on taking October to clean my room among other things, and she got all excited. She loves for me to clean my room. And if I'm going to be up for a few hours before everyone else and not writing, I might as well do something, right?

I think I'll do more origami than cleaning.

Thinking of Changing Once Again...

I'm still not sure if I want to stay on Blogger. I guess I'm being weird, but I think I might enjoy being able to have pages besides just the ones my blog is on. Like a page with short stories on it, without having to have it as a post in my blog. You know, stuff like that. But I like the mobile posting I have with Blogger. I've seen some other hosting places, and I guess I just need to try them out and see how I like them.
My problem is I might want to save the posts on this blog. It might be a pain to move them all over...Anyone have any suggestions?

Pros and Cons of Getting Up Early

So I'm going to see about setting my not-so-good blog-writing skills to work and publish a post that hopefully at least one person will find useful.
I've been getting up early for a while now, as I think most of you know, but my problem is that if I don't set my alarm I tend to sleep extremely late. I can't get up at what people think a reasonable hour is. I've decided that 5:30 is better than 10:30 myself though. So now I present you with the list of pros and cons from my personal experience with my person circumstances of getting up early (put in my usual rambling form):

Cons: My family is a group of people who tend to stay up late. And getting up at 5:30 makes me want to be asleep by 9:30. A bit of a problem for spending time with my family, especially on days when we have things going on in the evenings. I should just get over it and live on less sleep, but as it is I'm actually on less than before, and I can get pretty tired. Other night-time activities like concerts or sleepovers can be hard for the same reason. I'm used to getting up early, so my clock is set that way.

Pros: I find I can work better during the day, and even at night before I start getting sleepy and wishing for bed. I think writing as soon as I get up starts my brain as well, so I'm not tumbling about in a haze during exercise and breakfast and even my first few school subjects. It starts my brain. I'll probably have more stuff to put here during October when I'm going to take a break from actual writing to get myself ready for November. My dad comes down the hallway at about seven, but he mostly just says good morning as he goes by my door, then he's off to work. My mom has been having trouble getting up at a good time lately, so it's been 8:15 even before I see her; I haven't had a day yet that I'm not done with my words by that time, if I'm going to get them done in the morning. I'm almost always spent on my writing stints by that time anyway. I'm just trying to imagine what I can do in the almost three hours I have before I have to see anyone - assuming I don't waste it on the computer. There's origami to be done, school as well I guess (just to get ahead for November), and I might actually make some headway on my CSS and Javascript if I would ever sit down and look at them. I probably have to start over now, since I think I might have forgotten everything.

All in all though, I like getting up early, even though I'm starting to miss my family a little bit. I know some school kids have to get up at that time to go to school anyway, but since I don't have to start until later, I have those hours by myself.

And yes I understand that writing for something like two hours straight can be terrible for you hands, wrists, arms, back, eyes, head, legs, ankles, feet, eardrums and various other parts of your body. I think I'll survive for now though. I'm usually done after that anyway. I rarely get any other writing done the rest of the day. Thus my getting up early.

Anyway, I'm going to do my usual thing and ask my non-existant reader-base a question (just in case anyone ever feels like they want to comment): When do you get up, and why, and how do you like it?

To-Do List for October

I know it's not October yet, but I have it all made and the forums are locked, so I have nothing else really to do. (Well, not exactly, but whatever)

-Get ahead on school
I love being homeschooled. I can do extra school on some days and then take the day off of school on others. So I want to get ahead so I have a least a few days off from school if I need them. I'd only need 18 days maximum. We're taking two days off for Thanksgiving, and of course no school on weekends.

-Make a chart to get ahead on school
Just so I can keep track of what I'm ahead on, so I might get ahead on say math, so I can take just that off or something.

-Finish Plot
I just need to finally figure out how all of my characters are going to meet up in the end. Plain and simple.

-Clean Room to create a nice writing-friendly environment.
Simple enough. It's easier to write in a clean room. I'm giving myself the month off, so I might as well get the room clean so I can focus better.

-Take the month of from writing
I don't mean that I absolutely won't write, but I want to give myself time to take a break and relax, so I can be fresh for November.

-Get Starburst to make this Starburst bracelet
It looks like fun, doesn't it?

-Make sure all charts and such are in order
Just to make absolutely sure I'm ready.

I've already gotten the chart made, and I'm a day ahead on Algebra and History. I have all month to work on it, and since I won't be writing, I'll have time to do it. I don't think I want to take the /whole/ month off, but a few days if I need them would be nice.

So what are you all doing to get ready for November? I know I'm asking my non-existent readers again, but I feel better when I invite people to comment. Also any suggestions on what to blog about would be helpful.

Resetting Schedules

First normal post in a while!
Anyway, I've been having a really hard time getting my words written lately. Yesterday I barely got any. Anyway, I decided that all I had to do today was 1k, and I would go from there. And yet today I got my easiest 2k in a while. How in the world does that happen? Somehow I got up the first time my alarm went off, brushed my teeth, and started writing. I also didn't text my friend who was on her way to school until 7, instead of 6:30. So yeah.
I was thinking the other day, trying to figure out why it was getting so hard to write in the mornings. I might have come across the answer: I have trouble focusing while texting. I stopped writing down here at the computer because of distractions, and then I go and text my friend while I'm trying to get my words. Can I ever learn anything? Please?
So yeah. I was planning on starting with doing 1k today, and if I got that done all right I would do 1100 tomorrow, then if that went ok 1200 the next day, etc., etc. But I just go and write 2k, because it was easy and fun.
I'm an idiot or something.

Finally Made My Words!

It's something like 9:08pm, and I just now hit 2k. I hope it never takes that long again.

So Slow...

Some days, I tell ya. Anyway, Saturday was the Back To School Bash the local churches put on as a youth outreach. It was amazing, like always, and it rained, like always.
Yesterday was the Chiefs game against the Raiders. And the Raiders won 23-8. My dad and I actually left before the Chiefs scored their only touchdown. We left when it was still 13-0 actually. Games like that make of glad I don't care about sports that much.
Once again, I'm slow getting my words. I only have like 1269 now. I might have to finish them up later. Actually, I'm thinking of changing my schedule from 2k every day to 2k 6 days a week. If I don't use the day off some other day of the week, I'll take Sunday off. I just feel like I don't have any time for doing anything fun. Writing is fun, but sometimes I want to read a book or something you know? And after writing I have to go right into the school day. I just want to relax. So anyway, in November I'll write every day I can, but for now, I'll quick with this.

Update

Mostly 'cause I haven't written today. I was slow getting my words today, but got them done a little after eight.
The other day (wednesday) my friend said she was tired of waiting and said she was going to start the novel she was planning to use for NaNo early. I asked her a bunch of questions about what she had planned, and here's the list (no particular order, just what came into my head):

-Are you making a world for it?
-what kind of government does it have?
-do you have all of the rulers with family trees and biographies?
-Any old wars or important historical moments to document?
-All of your plants and animals made?
-even the ones you might see just in passing?
-Characters:
-Full bios and histories?
-Going back 6 generations?

That's just what I asked her. Even with that, she said she had done everything, which I'm not sure about, but whatever. The point is she said if I could come up with a prompt-plot that struck her fancy she would see if that could occupy her until November. I came up with it the next day and had it done by 8:15am (I got my words done a lot faster that day, I had even asked her at like 6:45am that day while she was waiting on the bus).

But really, if any of you thought you were done...hah! I'm not. I'll admit it. I have a detailed plot going, but it's not done yet. I'm afraid even to bring the plot to where I'm going to end it; or something. I don't know.

Happy Pen

Another cell post. I seem to be making a let of these lately. I guess that's what happens when you get bored somewhere that you can't get unc computer.
Anyway, Monday (I think, I'm too busy. I can't even remember) I got some fountain pen ink for my birthday that was back in August. Last night I cleaned out my pen and set it out to dry. This morning I got to load it with shiny new ink! I got four colors: Saguaro Wine (a nice redish pink), Eel Turquoise, Hunt Green, and another blue. I put in the turquoise and it looks nice. I like the change from black.
And now I may have to edit this post when I get home, because I might have posted something on this already.

Piano Post

We finally started piano lessons today. I've been wanting to for so long it seems, but things kept coming up and we didn't start until today. I actually practiced during the summer this year, and now that I've had my share of the lesson (my brother gets his turn now; why these take two and a half hours is beyond me. Maybe they won't today), I get to just sit back and relax until he gets done. Thus the cell phone post. I seem to be putting a lot of these up lately.
I was thinking, I think my NaNo experience might be better this year. Not that I had a bad one last year, but this year I've written and practiced a lot more. Just like piano has gotten fun the more I've played, writing gets more fun the more I do it. Honestly I can't wait for November to start so I can law those hands on the keyboard and start writing, hopefully for my second win out of three years. I wonder if I can be done by thanksgiving this year. It would be nice.
And now I go to do school. Poems later maybe!

Writing To Music

Just a quick post while I'm procrastinating about math. Thus it's on my cell phone.
Anyway, I've seen people on the forums who like to write to music (a lot actually), and some can listen to music with lyrics, and some can't focus if the music has words. I don't know which I am, but I have a few Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks on my computer from a friend, and they work really well for generating a mood for writing a scene. They're mostly thriller though, so I need to find something that's for other scenes - mostly general calmer stuff.
And now I return to math. Although, I would like to share a picture I took on my phone. You can see it here with this post. It's nothing special. I was just in the mood to post a picture. Enjoy!

Day Off Today!

I woke up at 5:30 today, and hit the snooze button repeatedly, because I was so tired. By the end of it I decided just to sleep in, and since I also decided that I didn't need the stress and procrastination of trying to write during the day, I haven't done that either. So yeah, not a word written today. It feels nice to have a day off actually. I'm lazy today, but that's all right. I'll continue with my schedule tomorrow morning.

I'd better.

Slowness On The Words...

This seems to happen every Sunday. I guess I just don't have quite enough time between getting ready for church and writing to get all of my words done. At least, not if we in early, like we have been, since I'm playing keyboard on the worship team. So I have a little over 700 words left to do today, and we still have to mow yet as it turns out. I guess I'll write while I wait for my dad to start with the tractor, and then I'll follow him like I usually do. I just hope I can get them done...

So I wrote the poem...

Just like I said I would. It's a sonnet in a sense of the rules, not with what they were usually about, but that's ok I think. Anyway, here it is:

*~*~*~*

NaNoWriMo Prep '08

To prepare myself for NaNo,
I started late in June.
Trying to sleep I suddenly said "oh!"
"I'll write about characters who can play a tune!"

And so I started to plot.
And as I wrote my ideas,
My characters began to fear naught,
And plunge into their arenas.

One will race across the sea,
Another travels through the land.
The third stays home, with all to see.
But all could easily have made a band.

Finally all three will meet up,
And tell their stories as they sup.

*~*~*~*

So here I really am begging for responses. I'm not much of a poet, so I would really like to hear from you with any suggestions.

Poems: Coming Soon!

I've started writing poetry again recently, but since I'm writing this from my phone I can't really insert the line breaks I need. I will tell you this though: I like poems with rules. I guess thats why I like Haiku. But today I'm trying some different types. So anyway, I might have something up in a little bit. Right now I guess I just wanted to post something.

Another Cell Phone Post

I don't have my words yet, so I can't sit down at the computer. Yet. I have about...900 more words to write today. I got a late start, and I was up later than my new usual last night, so I'm having a bit of a hard time. I had an idea off of the NaNo boards though. Someone bought the Lord of the Rings soundtrack to listen to. I have the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks for the first and third movies on my computer through some boring story that I won't bore you with. Anyway, I like to write to them, but it never crossed my mind to get MORE soundtracks. Anyway, I'll have to see about picking some more up. I can write fine most of the time with music with words, but the soundtracks are there to make certain feelings for movies, so its better when you're writing a scene in a book. I think. Actually, LotR WOULD be a good soundtrack...

Time To Organize!

I really think starting school and having that big schedule change - maybe combined with my brother going off to college - has messed with my mind. I'm not talking about organizing my room or anything (though I do want to do that), but I want to go through my blog and make sure all of my posts are in categories so posts are easier to find. Also, I've been thinking about finding some ways to increase traffic on this thing. It's not really that important, but it would be nice to have feedback once in a while. And for that I need people to read my blog, so...yeah. Anyway, I'll probably be doing some research on traffic increasing stuff and trying a few little ideas of my own. And that's all for now!

Blog Searching...

Yesterday I was thinking of changing to a different blog website thing. Whatever you call those...hosts! That's it. Anyway, I don't know what I think about anything anymore right now. Some of the different ones are cool, but I don't know if I really want to switch over. Of course I would continue this blog over there. Anyway, I decided I'm not switching right now. I might at another time, but not right now.

Um...yesterday we didn't have piano lessons, and it messed me up a bit. Mostly because I had my day planned out for 11 or 12 hours at the church, from 10 to probably about 10, but as it went I only had to be there at 1:30. It's a long story that I'm not going to ramble about right now because it's just not very fun.

Anyway, on a happier subject, I got my words done today! And I don't have anything to do really today besides school and stuff which is normal. So yeah...and tomorrow's Saturday which is nice, and I don't think I have that much to do. Which is always nice.

More NaNo Planning

And this time from a cell phone! So sorry for the lack of proper breaks and such. I might get on later and put them in. Maybe. Anyway, i settled on a to-do list for what i need to do. I've numbered them so they're easier to read, but bear in mind this is in on particular order: 1. Finish fleshing out plot. 2. Write backstories for MCs. 3. Worldbuild more. 4. Get organized with notes and schedule an such. 5. Get munchies. 6. Arrange for lucky stars. Some of those will have to wait until later of course, but there's still plenty to do before November comes around. I'm going to pretend I have readers again and ask you how your preparations are coming. And if you think I missed something that I need to do, please mention that too. See y'all!

Planning for November

Or plotting (muahahahaha!), as some like to call it, is going well right now. Today I'm starting school (I love being homeschooled, it gives me more free time to write), so I might not be able to do everything as well, but I got up early and did my writing on my neo in my room. I have a desk in there...I wonder what it's for? Duh. Someone bop me on the head and tell me I could've had a V8 please. Anyway, I haven't done anything lately, but I wanted to make sure I had posted that I got my idea at the end of June. Since then it's fleshed out quite nicely, and I'm already seeing subplots when I usually just stumble into them. Of course, if I don't add them in as I write or something else pops up, it's not a huge deal. I need to make sure my characters have a lot of personality, since I'm doing multiple first-person POV again this year. I loved doing it last year, even with all six of my MCs, but this year I only have three. It's not that I found six so much to manage, but three is all I needed this time around. In any case, my characters need to have their voices already ringing in my head by the time November starts.

That being said, I don't actually have my plot fleshed out from beginning to end. I have the bare-bones outline, with the very basics of what I want to happen. This year I feel like fleshing out a bit more before November for two reasons: One, I have more time; Two, I want to see how it works for me. If I do better with this tighter plot (which still isn't very tight), I'll try and do it more often. If I do better with the plot I had last year, being extremely loose, I'll go with that. But whatever direction my story goes, I hope I can just go with the flow and let things run their course. I'm not going to hold too tight to this plot, if my story wants to change I'll let it. I like having surprises, and hopefully they'll all be pleasant.

Let's see, what else is going on...well, I need to be actually starting school (it's almost 1:00 already)...oh! Tomorrow is going to be my busy day. I'm going to be gone from home virtually from 10 in the morning until something like 9 or 10 at night. Fun. I'll probably use my phone to send in a post while I'm waiting, and if I keep this up I might actually get into the habit of posting in this thing! -gasp-

Idea!

Yes, this is also from my cell. Anyway, I saw a thread on the nano forums for people who might try nano with their phones. I just thought that maybe I could do a blog of my nano to keep track of wordcount, and then I would proceed to write a novel on a cell phone. It's a thought, I don't know if I want to do it for NaNo though.

Trying Something Else New.

This time it's not a laptop thing though. I noticed that blogger offers a cell phone posting thing. I think I had seen it before, but I didn't have a phone. Anyway, thats what I'm posting from now. As for my writing, which is actually my theme of my blog, I got my August goal done of 62k. Saturday I only wrote like 416 words, and i ended up giving myself the day off. NaNoWriMo prep is going well, my only concern is that I'll run out of steam before November comes around. So I'm in no hurry to get this stuff done. There's plenty to do though. Anyway, sorry there's no paragraphs, but I can't put them in this kind of post. But what do you think of this method? I'm asking my non-existant reader base, just for fun.

Writing and Catching Up (Along with Lucky Stars!)

So far since I've started my 2k-a-day writing schedule, I haven't missed a day, and in fact, I'm about 2 1/2 days ahead. Which will slide down if I don't get my words today. Instead of getting up at like 5:30am like I usually do, I thought I would give myself a day off and set my alarm for 7:45am instead. I should've known that I couldn't get up at any reasonable hour. So I didn't actually sit down to write until noon. Then I ended up going back up to eat lunch after writing about 75 words, and after that I didn't get any done really, because we went to Wal-Mart where I bought something (I'll tell you what it is later in the post), and then we went to the floral and gift place for scrapbook paper.

I got a text from a friend I met in Africa name Audrey (Audrey, if you're nice enough to read this, hi!), I can only assume my brother gave her my cell number.

And the rest of this will be related to lucky wishing stars. They are so much fun to make. I don't believe they're lucky, but they're sure fun to make and do stuff with. Yesterday I was making them by measuring, drawing a straight line with a ruler, then using sissors. Today at Wal-mart (I told you I would tell you!) I bought a sliding cutter-ma-bob that I can measure and cut on, so making the strips is going so much faster. The scrapbook paper is for some designs to use to put on the stars. It turns out really nice.

And now I'm going to stop writing this post and I'm going to go write the other 1,359 words I need today.

Trying Something New

Sorry to bug you with the experimental post, but I couldn't help trying this out. I'm currently on my brother's new laptop, and I was evil and set myself up an account, put a password and fingerprint id on it, and now I'm playing with the cool stuff on it. Specifically with the blog-writing program. Anyway, I'm sure he'll notice that I set up an account and stuff, and once he's gone at college (he leaves tomorrow! Sadness...), I'll give him the password and he can do whatever he wants with the account. Although...I will have to watch out for him putting posts up on here. He's not usually so mean as that though. His roommates on the other hand...I don't know about. So, if I do anything suspicious, well, I should be on to sort things out. As long as nothing too bad about it. Anyway, so far this has been fun. I'm off to play with it some more!

Namely exploring Microsoft Word '07 which I've never played with, and messing around with OneNote.

Curse you Forums!

I swear those NaNoWriMo Forums are going to be the death of me. Wordcount wise anyway. I love those things. But they did drive me nuts today. I kept having to post on them when I should've been writing on my new story.

At any rate, my next Yavn story - Jacti - is coming along nicely. I was about to bang my head on the desk for not being able to focus, but after I got over that, I got to a really interesting part and couldn't stop. I ended up with over 3k today. My first day to write 3k in...oh...since November. I've got a day and a half of buffer words now, so if I miss, I should be fine. I'm gonna do my best not to miss.

Possible day though...hm. Well, Sunday we're moving my bro into college, but I can get up early to get those words done, and besides, I have my neo that I can use in the car (if I could focus). But that's the closest thing I can think of right now. I suppose that's a good thing. So as long as unexpected circumstances don't arrive preventing me from writing, I'll be fine. Those would probably mean I would miss more than a day anyway.

Quadruple Loop

I'm dazed and confused (for so long it's not true). Anyway, I've been thrown for a loop four times, and always thrown again before I'm out of the one before. Here are the things that have happened, all of which throw me:

1. My friend who I only know online got her internet back suddenly
2. I finished Rulani
3. Today I found out that I have 60k fewer words to reformat on my NaNo that got corrupted
4. (Very soon after three, just a bit later) I found out that I hadn't tried opening my corrupted NaNo in OpenOffice, and it opened perfectly.

So. I'm mad at myself, my computer, my flash drive, and at Microsoft Word. I don't think I'm going to use it at all if I can help it anymore. Anyway, I have a new, bigger flash drive, since I don't even know where the old one is (it corrupted my file anyway, I'm pretty sure. Although that's my fault to. I had it in the same backpack as some pretty strong magnets), and I'm putting my NaNo on there in OpenOffice, plain text, and Word forms. I'm also changing my file formats to OpenOffice, although I guess I'll keep the Word files around in case I go to a computer that doesn't have it. But Word doesn't like me anymore I don't think. It won't open my files if I just click on the icon anymore, which makes me worry about it's sanity (and me writing this is making me worry about my sanity). So yeah. I'm going to switch to OO. Anyway, I now know my NaNoWriMo novel wordcount. Including some notes to myself and such (none of which were very long):
92,677, or, ninety-two thousand, six hundred, seventy-seven.

I don't know how much I thought it was, but that's plenty long. I'm mostly glad to know.

Now, if you'll excuse me I'd like to enjoy my loops.

Sadness...

Well, I've been working on rewriting my first ever Yavn book, and it went in a different direction than it did at first. And I like the way it went this time much better. It may have helped that now I actually have a world built instead of some vague idea. Anyway, I finished it today, and now I'm all sad. All of my stories are my babies, and I'm sad when I end them. So anyway, if there's anyone out there who wants to read my story, I have it up on Fictionpress. You can find my story here.
Anyway, that's all for now.

Writing Regime

So, I've been writing 2,000 words a day since July 27th, and I haven't missed on a day yet. Also, for a while now, I've been getting up at 5:30 to do my writing. And you can call me an abomination to teenage kind if you want, but I like getting up early like that. I write my words, I'm done by 8 for sure, I eat breakfast, then settle back for a relaxing day. Not today though. Today I went skiing instead of writing in the morning. No biggie, I got 'em done, but it's not near as relaxing.

Another thing I forgot to post (I don't know how I did, maybe in the frantic 4th of July stuff going on) is that around the end of June an idea hit me for a plot for November. It came to me while I was trying to fall asleep (as usual). Anyway, I suppose it had been stewing in the back of my mind for a while, I had actually thought about doing a story around oceans. Anyway, I doodled it down and worked on it, and I think I have it pretty much figured out, although I just got an idea for something to add, which I can always use for a NaNo.

It's almost July!

Do you know what that means? It's almost 4th of July!....That sounds really stupid when you think about it. Of course it's almost 4th of July when it's almost July. Anyway, what I mean is it's almost Independence day. And there's something I must clarify, and apologize if I've decieved you in any way, but here it is, clearly and plainly:

I love fireworks.

I turn into a pyromaniac around the fourth of July especially. So yesterday we went over into Missouri so we could by bottle rockets (they're illegal to sell in Kansas), and today we went shopping around the local tents buying whatever else we needed...for now.
So yeah, just so you know, I like fireworks...and that's about it. Ta!

Second post today? 0_o...more trauma...

There are just a few things I forgot to say:
Yesterday (Monday), was also awesome. Because I did NOTHING.

I woke up around 11:30, ate breakfast/lunch, lazed for a few hours, took a nap until about 4, had some tea 'cause it was teatime for my mom, then lazed around the house until bedtime. Does it get any better? I was really tired, so it was great for me anyway.

The other thing that I didn't actually forget, it just hadn't happened until after I posted, was my mom called me upstairs, then told me I had a UPS package.

Huhwhat? I didn't order anything...did I?

Viola! Twas a shiny Samsung SGH-t439! I had been told that I'd probably get a cell phone before I actually drive, because my brother's going off to collage and my other brother and I will be separate more often. You see, usually us kids don't get our own phones until we get to 15 (which is the age you can drive on your own to school and work in KS), and we'll be on our own more. But for reasons stated above, I get my early. Which is sweet by the way.

Anyway, it's be a lot of fun to play with so far, and....yeah. 'Tis done again.

0_o...Trauma

I did tell you was I going to be gone for two weeks, right? *checks blog* oh...I guess not. Anyway, my absence is actually explainable for the past two weeks (June 7th through....Sunday?). The explanation is as thus:
Media fast for 7th through the 14th. No electronics. Then the 14th my youth group went to Nikiski Alaska (remember me mentioning that?). I came back this Sunday (the 22nd). And I hadn't managed to take the time to write until now.
Verily and forsooth!
Anyway, since I'm sure you're dying to know (yeah right) what I did in Alaska and how it was. Well...first of all, it was awesome. We went to Nikiski on the Kenai peninsula. We stayed in a church called Lighthouse Community Church. We got up for breakfast at 6am every day, went to morning worship, left for the jobsite around....7:30? We'd work until 5pm, then come home, eat supper at 6:30, there's an adult meeting at 7:30, then worship at 8 which lasts usually three hours, but it's awesome. After that we have youth group debriefing, in rooms at 11, lights out 11:30, repeat.

Wednesday was our day off, and we went to Exit Glacier park. I have all sorts of low-quality pictures (apparently a long long time ago in a state far far away I had set it to the lowest setting so I could have 2000 pictures. It was like 0.3 megapixles.), I'll have to show them to you sometime. Even if they're all grainy, they're still amazing. Anyway, I'm really tired after all of the work, and I haven't really been able to get moving.

Oh, one more announcement before I close this blog post: Hey, those of you skimming over: PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!
I finished....the first draft of...my NaNoWriMo Novel, Crystal Glare!

'Tis done.

I wish...

At my house, a lot of times when someone says something, someone else will say "I wish I..." and then they'd say the thing. Just to be weird. So, just to be weird and have some fun, I'll put a bunch of "I wishes":

I wish I could remember to write in this blog more often.
I wish I could find my friends on IM more.
I wish I was done with my novel.
I wish that I could never be done with my novel.

Those are all true, and no, the last two aren't really contradictory. Ask other writers.

Anyway, do you know what April is? National Poetry Month! So, I'm going to write 100 haiku.

Um...I'm not there yet. But I don't believe that I'm actually behind! Not yet! Anyway, I didn't get hardly any written this past week because of revival. Which was amazing. We had Thomas Young speaking if anyone knows who he is, and it was a great week. I'm tired now though.

So, we all know that I flunk the goal of blogging every week. But what about the others? Well...

♪Learn Italian: So far at a standstill. I started, and it was going ok, but then all of a sudden I couldn't stand it. I got confused, probably because I wasn't making myself flash cards and such to help me remember the grammar. What I need is someone to learn it with.

♪Finish CSS Course: Um...let's just say...not so much. No work done yet at all.

♪Finish JavaScript Course: See above.

♪Writing Twice a week: I've been pretty close on this one, but I don't think I've quite made it. So flunk I guess.

♪Sightreading/hymnal playing: Coming along. I've been playing some video game music from the internet, and it's helped a lot. I'm getting better.

♪Grow Closer to Christ: This past week has helped a lot. I've been terrible lately about reading my Bible and doing quiet time, but with mission trip coming up (we're starting the training we always do) I should be kicked into gear. Maybe I can stay there this time.

So, there's the synopsis of my goals so far. However, I'm just about done with the one programming one. I know that I should use PHP for logins and stuff, but I haven't decided whether to attempt it or not. I'm thinking not right now though. We'll see how CSS comes along however.

Various Big Fun Scary

I think I've been keeping up pretty well with my goals, I probably need to be keeping better track, but ah well. Wait a second, I do need to be working more on my Italian, but I suppose I have all year, so it's not that big of a deal. I've found a Bible Study book, or, my mom did for me. Anyway, I've been writing using my Neo, working on my NaNo.

Did I mention that I need to learn PHP to do logins? I'll see about that when I finish my CSS course. I need to make a decision, when I finish CSS, do I go on to JavaScript which I have the book for, or do I start on PHP? That's a hard one. I'll think about it as I try to actually do more CSS...

Speaking of web stuff, once I'm actually fairly happy with my website (well, enough that I think it can be put on the web without be being laughed at too much), I'll move this blog there I think. It won't be for a while though...

If anyone reads this, remind me to do a lesson or so of Italian, and to actually use it somehow, so I don't let it just fly out of my head. I know that the blog is what that's for, but...I don't know. I almost don't want to hurt everyone's brains with my bad Italian. Tell me to get over it please!

Music

I've been listening to some video game music to put on my iPod (I'm a geek/nerd, I know), and one of the songs...called Sad, really is aptly named. But for some reason...I like it. Another favorite is Tarm Ruins. They're both from Oracle of Seasons, a Legend of Zelda game.

I find it so strange how well music manipulates our emotions. It can go straight to the soul. For some reason, I kind of like sad music sometimes. Another song from Twilight Princess (another Zelda game), has a song that you hear once, Midna's Desperate Hour, it's sad, but I like it. I'd like to learn it on the piano. Anyway, that's the today's ramble I guess. Maybe if you're lucky you'll get more later.

Yay!

*happy dance* Oh right. I'm happy because I got to have my braces off today. This is going to be one of the few times I write about myself in the real world.

We went to the orthodontist this morning at about ten, and we didn't get out until something like 11:30. That's ok though, because they yanked my braces off, scraped the glue off with something that sounded and looked like the drill the dentist uses when you have a cavity (It smelled like burning feathers when they did that by the way), and then they took impressions for my retainers. I get one set of clear ones and also a holly (the kind that you see in most cartoons, with the plastic that goes on the roof of your mouth and then the wire that goes around your teeth). After we left (with my teeth feeling strangely slimy, I still don't know if that's how they always feel and I forgot, or if they really are slimier than usual), we went to Panara bread where I got coffee (of course) and a nice sandwich with roasted tomatoes and a tomato pesto, and greens, and chicken. It was wonderful. I was stuffed by the end of it. Then we came home, and as soon as I feel my stomach can take it, I'm going to have a bowl of homemade popcorn.

In other, possibly more interesting news, the other day a friend came over, and I think she thinks I'm a master web programmer. Because she wants to make a website with me (meaning I do all, and I mean all of the work. I'll have to put whatever graphics, do the CSS, whatever JavaScript I can, write all of the pages...etc, etc). I can't really do much with a website, though I'm getting a little better. I can't do PHP or anything like that, so I can't do user logins, which would be better for what she wants to do. She once sat and watched me code something the first time we tried, and when I finished, she said she expected there to be more than that for the time we spent. I should have told her to go buy dreamweaver or something, then she could see how it would work as she made it herself. But she's my friend, and I think I'm supposed to be nice to them. I know there are tons of Bible verses. Like..."Love your neighbor as yourself," "love your enemies"

I'm not saying she's an enemy of mine, but if you're supposed to love your enemies, how much more should you love your friends? Anyway, I just kind of wish she would be more realistic.

Rambly/ranty today, aren't I? Please don't ask me to do more, because I will if I get half a chance.

Language Issues

Also an update on my 2008 goals.

I've written every day so far, and I also posted in my Italian blog today. Which is partly the source of my language issues. Anyway, other than that, I haven't studied coding, I haven't practiced piano. I have swim team tonight, but no piano today as my brothers are off on a hunting trip, it's not really worth it to go. I should get to work practicing piano, and then if I still have time I should write more, or maybe do a lesson of coding. But I don't feel very motivated. I will practice piano though. I've also done at least one Italian lesson per day.

And now on to my language issue. It's resolved actually now, but I want to blog about it anyway. I was getting confused about when to use Parlo, when to use Parli, and when to use Parla. I called and asked, and I got a very nice answer. It's all about "persons" ("people"? I'm talking about first person, third person, second person). Parlo is when you're talking about yourself, first person ("Io parlo"). Parli is second person familiar. So only to a friend ("tu parli). Parla is either third person or second person formal (hehe, haven't dealt much with third person yet...). Anyway, it was nice to know the rule. I can remember it now. It's just I get confused if my program won't just tell me the rule that it is, if they'll just do that, I'll remember it. There are also different words for if it's plural. But I won't go into that.

Oh, if you were wondering, parlo, parli, parla, and all of those mean "to speak."

Time to Get Started!

So, first of all Merry New Year, good luck to you all with whatever you have planned! Second, I added a goal to my list. It's really partly a plan to help me learn Italian. I started a blog, which will be entirely in Italian. To start with I'll be using Google Translator to write the posts so that they're in Italian, but I'll pay attention and my goal is by the end of the year to be able to write them with virtually no help. You can find the new blog here.

If you don't want to try and read the Italian (If you do know Italian, and you see mistakes, please let me know), you can find Google Translator here.