Tornado warning!

Yup, you read right. I spent my entire dinner hour in the basement of the campus center with a good 300+ people, waiting for the tornado warning to pass. It only got to about 5 miles outside of Grinnell, but still - first tornado!

(Do I sound excited? I don't mean to be, but it's the first time I've been anywhere near a natural disaster. If someone had been killed, I'd feel horrible, but from what I've read it sounds like a machine shed was destroyed and that's about it.)

What work am I avoiding now? A two-page reaction essay to the film we watched in my "Japanese Culture and Contemporary Cinema" class, Shiko funjatta, about a university student who's forced to join a sumo club. It was quite enjoyable to watch, actually - I'm just getting stuck because I've no idea what the format for this essay should be.

Other than that...I was thisclose to actually writing, maybe, but then I got distracted by The Grub Report, a collection of food articles on line. Yes, I have an addiction to food writing, why do you ask? I totally don't spend hours reading recaps of Top Chef and salivating while chomping down some Honey Nut Chex Mix. Nope, not at all.

Anyway, this blog is supposed to be just a teeny bit writing-related, so I'll try to get back on track. Er, tomorrow. Tonight I've gotta finish this blasted essay.

I feel it's rather hypocritical of me to continue updating this blog when I'm not actually doing any writing.

...but that doesn't mean I'll drop it. I will do some writing this weekend, thus justifying my continued presence online. In the meantime, I'll mourn the temporary loss of the NaNoWriMo forums, which are a lovely way to waste time.

Insomniacs of the world, unite!

For some reason, I just can't fall asleep. Thus, you will be treated to a post revealing the inner workings of my brain at 3:20 AM.

I'm planning out my NaNoWriMo. I just used the "TimeFinder" mentioned in No Plot? No Problem! to determine exactly where all my time goes. Here's a breakdown:

Campus organizations: 3 hours/week
Homework: 7 hours/week (when I have no papers etc.)
Meals: 10.5 hours/week
Class: 14 hours/week
Other time, usable for writing: 46.5 hours/week

And that's just on weekdays - I didn't even count Friday evenings, Saturdays, or Sundays. I don't know how I've been wasting all this time - wait, yes I do. Taking naps, watching TV, and messing around on the internet. I think I need to get busier - that way, I'll be almost guaranteed to start writing more.

I've also scouted the best places to write on-campus (from best to worst: the campus center lounge, the science library, the cafe-type place, the regular library, and my room) and made a list with pros and cons. Seriously, I can't sleep. I came up with a NaNoWriMo meal plan too, yet continue to have only a very vague idea of the plot. It doesn't help that I have about four other projects going on right now.

Ach. I'll do some writing, and then go to bed at 4 (and wake up at 8. That'll be fun).

Deja vu

Wow, major flashbacks to last year. I've got this history essay to write, and it's all outlined with evidence and everything, but I Just. Can't. Write. It.

Due in 9.5 hours. About the French Revolution. It's not that hard.

Wow, I should've tried working on other projects a long time ago. This is terrific - I'm actually getting some writing done.

Changing gears

To get myself out of this writing slump, I'm going to put aside my NaNoWriDay novel for a little while and work on other projects. Hopefully, I'll get interested in it again and finish fixing it - because I do love it so much, I just need some motivation.

Editing. Ugh.

I think I know what's holding me back on my book: this seems like an impossibly huge editing job. Reading through the manuscript reveals that about 1/12 of the story actually holds together. The rest of it needs massive overhauls to make sense, and that much revamping is difficult to stomach. Especially since I've set the bizarre, arbitrary deadline of age 20 for me to sell a novel.

I need to divide it into small chunks, and then get it done.

Eviscerated query

Hooray! The eviscerated query has been posted!

Also, reason #5437693 not to live in Iowa without a refrigerator or AC: your Reese's Peanut Butter Cups melt, and you have to lick them out of the wrapper. Very annoying.

Hey, cool...

Listings of gigs for writers: Freelance Writing Jobs.

Nifty.

Maybe it's just how the universe works.

When you're in a creative writing class and need a story, you can never think of something. And yet, when you have a project that you really should be working on - say, a novel that you need to edit - there's a veritable hailstorm of ideas. I object.

Not to ideas, I mean. Ideas are great. My problem is with the timing of the ideas. I mean, I'll still find time to work on them, one after another, but this is just pushing it. I now have Story A, Story B, Story C, Story D, and the screenplay that's about to turn into a novel. Aagh.

Next summer

In case anyone has $7000 to spare, this is my dream for next summer: The University of Iowa Irish Writing Program.

Speaking of horrifying amounts of work...

My roommate and I wrote this screenplay last year, right? It started out as just a way to waste time, and then took on a life of its own, and now we're both really into it. It's about 120 pages long in proper screenplay format, and we love it dearly. But we've been thinking about the unlikelihood of ever getting it produced...

So, of course, we decided to turn it into a novel. Because, y'know, that's ridiculously easy. And we both really need another project.

Ah, well. It's a cool roommate bonding project. And at least it's writing, right?

Oh yeah. Still waiting for Evil Editor's critique. God, do I hate waiting.

Mild panic

Oh god. I submitted my NaNoWriDay query to Evil Editor, just because he said that he was running low on queries, and it's next. As in, I could wake up tomorrow and find it out there with criticisms and his minions' comments.

Breathe. Just remember to breathe. I hate the waiting part.