30 Days of Insanity

It's that time of year again. It comes 'round every November. For a month, I'm either buried in my laptop or huddled in a corner with a spiral notebook and pen. It's NaNoWriMo time, ladies and gentlemen!

I've really been looking forward to this year. I can't say why; I really don't know why. But I've been counting the days and making my plans. Maybe it's because my first essay in school was about NaNoWriMo, and how it helped me rediscover my joy for writing. Maybe it's because school is taking all my waking hours, and I'm looking at writing for NaNoWriMo as a little bit of downtime.

Then again, I could just be weird. One way or the other, the reason behind my excitement doesn't really matter. All that matters is the fact that I am excited. I've got my vague story plot. I've got my main character. And today, after I got home from school, I designed my cover and signature banner.

If you're not the least bit interested in my story, you may as well stop reading. Oh, wait. I took an algebra test today and grades are already posted. I got a 105%. Okay. Now you can stop reading. :)

Now, for my story, and the history behind it. Last year, you may or may not remember I wrote a story with the working title Blur.  I hate that title. It's not particularly representative of the story. But until I finish it and come up with a better one, that's what I'm stuck with.

Anyway, last NaNo I wrote Blur, which was about a woman who discovered the power of daydreams and indulged until they took over, blurring the lines between her fantasies and reality. My conundrum as I wrote was whether to write it so the fantasies were reality and she just thought they were daydreams, or to write it so she ended up in a mental hospital. As time went on, the story ended up with my main character institutionalized, and I actually had a lot of fun with her descent into madness. But I still wanted to write a story where the daydreams were real.

Lead Glass, my NaNo project this year, was borne of that desire. It's not quite a daydreams are real scenario, but it does promise to be fun to write.  Here's the synopsis I posted at the NaNoWriMo website:

Nadine Thomas is a woman in her 40's, and what those of yesteryear would have termed an Old Maid. While browsing a rundown, musty antique shop two towns away from her home, she finds and purchases an old lead glass window that captured her attention and refused to leave her alone. When she finally gets it home, she discovers the window isn't just a window, but a portal through time and space. Using that window, she travels to exotic times and places, discovers the true origins of her window.  She becomes deeply embroiled in the mystery and theft that surround her portal, and works with a temporal detective to apprehend the thief, find the other missing windows identical to her own, and restore them to their rightful home.

So, the synopsis needs a little tweaking, but you get the gist. Nadine is going to travel to different times, places, and even planets and experience all kinds of exciting adventures.  See? Fun!

It remains to be seen if I'll be able to finish this year because of my school commitment (I also have a research paper due the first week of December), but I'm going to have lots of fun giving it the ol' college try.  (Sorry.  I couldn't help myself.)

Because I'm Still So Excited

Grades from Wednesday morning's Algebra test were already posted by Wednesday afternoon. I'm now proudly sporting my second algebra test A. But that's not what had me actually squeeing out loud in my car on the way home today.

When I walked into Composition today, the instructor stood behind her podium at the front of the classroom. "I've only got two essays left to grade," she told us.  "After I do that, I'm giving them back to you."

About ten minutes later, Mrs. D was walking around the classroom, setting an essay packet in front of each student. When she reached me me, I closed my eyes a second and took a deep breath. I heard the papers hit the table. Felt a slight rush of air as she moved away and on to the next student. Then I opened one eye -- just a teensy weensy bit -- and peeked. I saw my grade. Both my eyes popped open wide in shock and happy disbelief.

Next to the words Essay Grade was 100/A written in bright purple pen.  100?  She gave me a 100! I worked hard to contain myself. I looked further down the paper until I found the comments section.  Lynn, it said:

This is fun.  This is witty.  This is inspiring!  I really enjoyed the humor.  It's always enjoyable to read when you feel like the writer is having fun, too.  Plus -- you can write!  May I keep a cc for use in classes?

Whoa. Wow. Wow. 

WOW!

I wanted to bounce in my seat. I wanted to clap my hands. I wanted to spring from my chair and happy butt wiggle all over the classroom. 

I didn't do any of those things.  I just sat there.  And while the rest of the class worked on filling in their error logs, I continued to sit there, as there were no errors marked on my paper.  I shifted in my seat and set my essay aside. It was easier to resist clutching that paper to my chest and tangoing around the room with it that way.

When class ended, I very calmly packed my things into my bookbag.  Without dancing.  Or giggling.  I'm pretty sure I managed to avoid grinning.  I made it out of the building. Across the parking lot to my truck. And about a mile down the road.  Then, as I hit the onramp for the highway, I let loose.

"SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Photo by http://www.sxc.hu/profile/sinoreport

Want Bacon With That?

I did it! I did it! I did it!

You've heard of The Shot Heard 'Round the World? Well, at 9:21pm on Tuesday, November 30, I let out The Scream Heard 'Round the World.  Yes, that odd piercing screech you may have heard at that time was me.  Screaming with joy.  Because I had just received a winning word count from NaNoWriMo.  I had just seen the winner screen come up.  I had finally finished my 50,000 words in thirty days, and I had won.  This makes my third winning year in a row out of four years of doing NaNoWriMo (I lost the first year).

Am I proud of myself?  You betcha!

I'm also toast.

Writing 50,000 words in a month, especially when they were so difficult in coming in the beginning, is quite taxing.  My writing brain has officially turned to mush.  So my first order of business has been taking a little writing vacation.  But that doesn't mean my plate is empty -- my To Do list is tremendous.

I should specify that I was taking a fiction writing vacation, because while the fiction writing is on hiatus, the copywriting continues.  I've been helping SoundGuy and his colleagues with copywriting and layouts for their business.  That's taken some time since these men I'm dealing with...  Let's just say it's been work.

Then there's Christmas.  Christmas will be tough this year since we've also become victims of the economy.  We're not as bad off as many, but we're in nowhere near as good shape as we were last year.  It's going to take some work on my part.

Some of that work involves handmade gifts.  Gifts like these crocheted dish sponges , these crocheted dish sponges , and the crocheted dish sponges from this site.  I'm also planning to make a bunch of these hangers, and a bunch of scarves and a prayer shawl on my Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine.  And if I have time, a few crocheted dishcloths, as well.  Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I can dedicate my time to hand knitting, machine knitting, and crocheting.  I've got to get crackin'!

And speaking of handmade stuff, check out this adorable tote bag!  And this one. Can you believe them?   Both are crocheted with "plarn" fashioned from recycled grocery bags.  I'm in the process of making my plarn, because I must try these patterns.

Ooh, and the fall portraits.  I took fall portraits of my kids.  Must get those processed.

Additionally, I've still got writing stuff on that To Do list.  I have to finish re-entering CHESTER & RUBE (my NaNoWriMo 2008 winner) into the computer so I can try and edit that one into a series of early reader books.  That's my goal with that one, anyway.

Then there my winner for last year's NaNoWriMo, SAVING WONDERLAND.  I need to finish writing it and edit it for submission.  Which means I should probably figure out where to submit it.  That one may end up as a trilogy.

We mustn't forget BLUR, this year's NaNoWriMo winner.  At just a hair over 50,000 words, it's actually almost finished, making it the shortest story I've every written (have I mentioned I'm wordy?).  I want to get that baby done.  At that point, I'll decide if it's worth the effort of trying to get it edited.  It may end up as one of those creatures under the bed, waiting to attack in the dark of night.

Always lurking in the back of my mind are my previous mss, BURN ME ONCE and IRRESISTIBLE HARMONY, both of which I'm still planning to submit (or re-submit, as the case may be).  I just need the time for updates and final edits.  And assembling the submission packages.

Oh yeah, and finding my courage.  ::sigh::

I need more hours in the day.  It looks like I'm going to be toast for a while.  Not quite so bad as long as I can get some bacon with it.

NaNoWriMo Has Me BLURred

There's still more to LittleDude's story, but updates may be even fewer and further between this month.  It's November, and that means NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is upon us again.  That's the time I completely lose my sanity and try to write a 50,000 word novel (or 50,000 words of a novel) in thirty days, from November 1-30.  Which of course means all my spare time (what little I have) will go to writing.

This will be my fourth year participating in NaNoWriMo, and once again, I'm doing something a little different.  Last year's NaNoWriMo project (a win!) was SAVING WONDERLAND, the story of Dinah, who was transported through a faerie portal into Wonderland, a land that's a mixture of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz and all the fairy tales we grew up with jumbled together.  Dinah is thought to be the savior of Wonderland, the one chosen by the Wise Ones to wrench the land back from the House of Green and restore her to all her former glory.  The story's not done yet, but it's been great fun writing.

The year before that was another win with CHESTER AND RUBE, the tale of a small white duck and a giant purple dinosaur and their adventures in Feckerson Forest as they embark on a quest to save their beloved homeland from the evil Centipig and his pigapede minions.  I'm in the process of attempting to break this story down into a series of children's books.

My first year with NaNoWriMo was a monumental failure with SHIFTING RHYTHMS, a contemporary romance.  I still want to write that story, but I've yet to find myself in the correct frame of mind.

This year's project is going under the working title of BLUR, and here's the novel blurb from my NaNoWriMo profile:

BLUR (working title)

When daydreams merge with reality

Her husband left her for a younger woman.  Her teenaged daughter is heading off to college.  Her job pays the bills, but is mundane.  She has no romantic prospects.  Few friends.  In short, she's fallen face-first into a deep, unending rut.

Until Grace Walters learns the power of a daydream.

She dreams while working at the power company.  She dreams while cooking dinner.  She dreams while vacuuming her quiet, empty house.  And in those dreams, her life is interesting.  She has friends.  Lovers.  Adventures.

Summer comes, and her daughter's off on a pre-college adventure.  When her boss tells her she must either take all her saved vacation time or lose it, she takes the summer off work to immerse herself even further in her newfound love.  Her daydreams. 

And that's when her daydreams take over, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality.

So far, I'm having fun with this, although writing Grace's fantasies has become much more fun than writing her reality. I still don't know how this one will end, though. Will it turn out that she's not just daydreaming, but traveling inter-dimensionally and actually living these dreams? Or is it a much sadder ending, and the daydreams have taken her sanity, leaving her staring blankly from a window in a mental facility? I guess I'll find out soon!

In the meantime, I will resume LittleDude's story when I have time.

Context Shmontext

I love how things that sound perfectly reasonable in context can sound completely off the wall outside their context. Take a recent line I wrote for my story, for example:

I'd have to go commando for the rest of my stay, but I couldn't blame the zebra for it.

Within my story, that's a perfectly reasonable thing for my character to say. Reading it here by itself, though, would have the average person scratching their head and worrying for my sanity.

(Trust me, it really does make perfect sense in context.)

Or another favorite from my story Burn Me Once:

Never doubt a psychic old lady in thong underwears.  It ain't good for you.

Or those moments where, while absolutely not eavesdropping, you hear just a snippet of conversation from somebody nearby.  Something that makes you think Wow, I really started listening to that conversation at the wrong time.

I was reminded of this during a recent drive with SoundGuy, when the song "Kill the King" began to play in the truck.  In context, perfect sense.  It's Mordred singing about his desire to kill King Arthur and claim the throne for himself, and it shows up on a rock opera about King Arthur.

See?  Perfect sense.

It was the possible out of context reactions that had us laughing, though.  And that's because we were remembering how not long after I bought these CDs, LittleDude started Pre-K. 

When I first bought the Once and Future King CDs, we listened to them a lot.  So much that even my kids were singing along.  With most of the songs on those CDs, that wouldn't have been a big deal.  But the average person might have questioned my parenting decisions when hearing my  four-year-old sing these lyrics on the playground:

I wanna kill the King of Britain dead
I wanna thrust a knife deep in his chest
I wanna feel and see his blood run red

And if that's not bad enough?

I'll kill the King, I wanna see him dead
I wanna seize his Kingdom, gonna take his head
I wanna kill the King and rule myself instead

Yeah, I was waiting for the concerned phone call from his teacher.  Luckily it never came. But it's still one of my ultimate Out of Context moments.