Well, to celebrate hitting the 50,000 words in the NaNoWriMo challenge, I bought a triple-chocolate cake and some chocolate ice cream. Sunday AND Monday, I had ice cream and cake for desert, with extra chocolate sauce.
Before you ask, I am not normally a chocolate person.
Tuesday morning, my toes felt like they had rug burns. I'm told this is a warning to diabetics that they have strayed too far from the proper diet.
Like I needed a reminder? Well, it seems I did. That's the trouble with things that don't hit you over the head with reminders: you forget, or decide you are OK now.
I'm not.
So back to extremely little alcohol, no sugar snacks, slow-digesting starches, etc.
Maybe I'll remember this time.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
I did it!
Day sixteen of NaNoWriMo and I finished my book, as well as making the 50,000 word target handily. With the epilog and hook for the next book, I got to 51,200 words, 200+ pages.
According to the program I use, (CopyWrite) that was 36 hours of edit time. I am very pleased.
In fact, I am happier with the story, the arc of it, the characters and plot resolution than I am of anything I've ever written.
And it started out as a dare.
So don't be chicken, take a dare once in a while.
And props to the Everett, Washington writing group and to the co-MLs (Metropolitan Liaison) for spurring me on.
Go writers!
According to the program I use, (CopyWrite) that was 36 hours of edit time. I am very pleased.
In fact, I am happier with the story, the arc of it, the characters and plot resolution than I am of anything I've ever written.
And it started out as a dare.
So don't be chicken, take a dare once in a while.
And props to the Everett, Washington writing group and to the co-MLs (Metropolitan Liaison) for spurring me on.
Go writers!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Nearing the finish line
This morning I start on the last 6,000 words of the 50,000 target. I'm pretty happy to be there on the 15th of the month.
I had vowed to "get out there" more than in the past; that's how I got suckered into this NaNoWriMo.org novel month. That's worked out extremely well for me, BTW. I've figured out what (one of) my problems has been all these years.
So I'm going to meet some other writers from the area in a couple of hours. My stomach is trying to rebel at the thought of voluntarily meeting new people, but I'll drown it in good Ghirardelli coffee and see what happens.
There's a thought forming in the back of my head that maybe 2009 is the year I also sign up for the Whidbey Island Writer's Conference in some capacity or other.
I'm not sure there's that much coffee, even in Washington!
I'll keep you posted.
I had vowed to "get out there" more than in the past; that's how I got suckered into this NaNoWriMo.org novel month. That's worked out extremely well for me, BTW. I've figured out what (one of) my problems has been all these years.
So I'm going to meet some other writers from the area in a couple of hours. My stomach is trying to rebel at the thought of voluntarily meeting new people, but I'll drown it in good Ghirardelli coffee and see what happens.
There's a thought forming in the back of my head that maybe 2009 is the year I also sign up for the Whidbey Island Writer's Conference in some capacity or other.
I'm not sure there's that much coffee, even in Washington!
I'll keep you posted.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Writing hard
I'm still crashing away at the NaNoWriMo.org challenge. It's day 13, I'm at almost 39,000 words, the most productive run in my entire life.
I once finished six chapters in 5 weeks, but that was a long time ago, maybe in 2002. That was about the last serious fiction writing I've done.
I've now done 165 pages in 13 days.
What could happen if I made even half of this productive rate a regular thing? Why, I might finish a story! I've only ever finished one book and three stories.
Hmm.
Maybe this sitting in the chair and just getting the words down without regard to "fixing things" is the way to go. I can edit next month, right?
Time will tell.
I once finished six chapters in 5 weeks, but that was a long time ago, maybe in 2002. That was about the last serious fiction writing I've done.
I've now done 165 pages in 13 days.
What could happen if I made even half of this productive rate a regular thing? Why, I might finish a story! I've only ever finished one book and three stories.
Hmm.
Maybe this sitting in the chair and just getting the words down without regard to "fixing things" is the way to go. I can edit next month, right?
Time will tell.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Writing Frenzy
I've signed up for NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing month. I made a commitment to write at least 50,000 words in thirty days.
I admit to thinking it was going to be difficult, but the part I thought would be hard was getting down that many words.
It turns out that it is pretty easy. I write pretty fast, when called upon so to do.
The hard part?
I have realized in just 8 days that all the years I spent pretending to write were really just pretense. I finished my book, did a couple of short stories, but always got distracted by what ought to go into them, what a reader might like to read. What would sell.
All of these turn out to be kind of pointless concerns if you don't get enough words down on the page in the first place.
The point of NaNoWriMo is to produce word count. The secret message is that once you abandon any thought for _what_ those words are, you become freer as a writer than I would have believed.
Now I charging ahead and having more fun with writing than I have since that first story back in 1968, banged out on a rented typewriter on newsprint paper.
I know I'll have to spend December doing edits, but every writer knows the editor is louder in his brain than the creator and so is easy to call upon.
I'm at 27000 words this morning, and I'm just stalling now. So back to it.
Bye!
I admit to thinking it was going to be difficult, but the part I thought would be hard was getting down that many words.
It turns out that it is pretty easy. I write pretty fast, when called upon so to do.
The hard part?
I have realized in just 8 days that all the years I spent pretending to write were really just pretense. I finished my book, did a couple of short stories, but always got distracted by what ought to go into them, what a reader might like to read. What would sell.
All of these turn out to be kind of pointless concerns if you don't get enough words down on the page in the first place.
The point of NaNoWriMo is to produce word count. The secret message is that once you abandon any thought for _what_ those words are, you become freer as a writer than I would have believed.
Now I charging ahead and having more fun with writing than I have since that first story back in 1968, banged out on a rented typewriter on newsprint paper.
I know I'll have to spend December doing edits, but every writer knows the editor is louder in his brain than the creator and so is easy to call upon.
I'm at 27000 words this morning, and I'm just stalling now. So back to it.
Bye!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Beads made
I've been working on the new website and today managed to get some good pics of the beads I'm making. They're all experiments so far, but I've had a couple that are keepers.
I am about 3 hours into making beads now, self-taught. There's just enough serendipity to make it entertaining.
Visit http://www.tassano.org/crafts/
Should I put in bigger pictures? Write more about making beads? (what I've learned, my setup, etc.)
I guess that's up to me, eh?
;-)
I am about 3 hours into making beads now, self-taught. There's just enough serendipity to make it entertaining.
Visit http://www.tassano.org/crafts/
Should I put in bigger pictures? Write more about making beads? (what I've learned, my setup, etc.)
I guess that's up to me, eh?
;-)
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Clearly not a blogger
Nearly seven months have passed since the last post. I am obviously not a blogger by nature.
Sure, I keep a journal in my sketchbook, but who doesn't do that? I just am not convinced that I have enough ego to post to the cold world every thought that goes through my head.
Not that other bloggers do that. I mean, I read other blogs, don't I?
So at what point does one become a blogger? You can't pretend to be posting private thoughts, right? You must assume that eventually someone somewhere will read what you've put up. So one must hope that eventually one gathers a following, eager to read your public/private thoughts.
Maybe I just lack that hope, eh?
Sure, I keep a journal in my sketchbook, but who doesn't do that? I just am not convinced that I have enough ego to post to the cold world every thought that goes through my head.
Not that other bloggers do that. I mean, I read other blogs, don't I?
So at what point does one become a blogger? You can't pretend to be posting private thoughts, right? You must assume that eventually someone somewhere will read what you've put up. So one must hope that eventually one gathers a following, eager to read your public/private thoughts.
Maybe I just lack that hope, eh?
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