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?