NaNoWriMo is over

and I feel...bereft, somehow. NaNoWriMo gives me a certain purpose - granted, a maniacal frenzied purpose, but a purpose nonetheless - and now that it's over, I don't know what I'll do with my time. Oh, I'm starting a new novel with my friend, a cool steampunk thing, but it won't be the same.

Or maybe I'm just trying to put off finishing my history paper by blogging about the end of NaNo.

Yeah, I think that's it.

50,507

Damn but I'm good. I even finished early this year.

Uh, not that the novel's good, but, you know, at least it's done.

47,170

Thank God for days with no class.

aksjdfsaf. brain melting.

And now comes the painful part of NaNoWriMo, when I realize that I just don't know how to end my novel. Here's the plan for today, a day sans class: 1. Breakfast, 2. More sleep, 3. Writing, 4. Homework.

With any luck, I'll make it to 48K or so.

44,000

Hooray. Didn't make it to 45K last night, but 44K is perfectly respectable. Things are going a bit better. Hopefully I'll get some writing done this evening, and more on the plane tomorrow - I have a lot of homework going into this last week of NaNoWriMo.

Saw Beowulf on Thanksgiving night, and I'm not quite sure what I think. I love Neil Gaiman (who co-wrote the screenplay), but something about it didn't really work for me. The animation was cool and very well done, it's just...I felt like there were a lot of unnecessary bits, as well as a lot of things left out that could have been put in. It was cool the way that Grendel and his mother spoke Old English to each other, though. I'd give it a B- or so.

A little healthy competition never hurt anyone

My mother and I are neck and neck, in the sense that she's 400 words ahead of me.

This is an unacceptable state of affairs and must be remedied. Tonight: sneak attack! I will aim for 45,000 - which I think I can achieve by staying up until 2 or 3 AM.

Justice will be swift.

I take it back.

35,080.

Well, that's...good. Though I've still got a crapload of work to do this evening.

Slouching towards 35K

Probably won't reach it tonight, since I've got a Japanese 10-page research project outline to prepare and an English analytical essay to...well, write, but you never know. I'm at 34,349 and a scene that should be a snap to write is giving me serious trouble. Unfortunately, it's very important to the story, so I can't just blow through it, and I have to write through it before I know what happens next.

36 hours till my journey home for Thanksgiving begins. Mmmmm...pie and cranberry bread. Oh yeah, and some turkey, I guess.

Character soundtracks

Yeah, just for fun - over on the National Novel Writing Month forums, everyone is coming up with 'theme songs' for each of their characters. Seeing an opportunity to procrastinate, I had to do so as well. I'm concerned by the prevalence of angry/angsty songs.

Rae Wesson:
1. "Ring of Fire", Johnny Cash
2. "Lost Control", Unwritten Law
3. "I Will Follow You Into the Dark", Death Cab for Cutie

DeForrest Redding:
1. "Fight For Your Right To Party", The Beastie Boys
2. "With A Little Help From My Friends", The Beatles
3. "Bohemian Like You", The Dandy Warhols

Starla Brazil:
1. "Pain of a Troubled Life", Alison Krauss & Union Station
2. "Independent Women, Pt. 1", Destiny's Child
3. "Bed of Roses", Faith Hill

Connor Blythe:
1. "Destroy Everything You Touch", Ladytron
2. "My Body Is a Cage", Arcade Fire
3. "Career of Evil" , Blue Öyster Cult

Note to self:

Never get really, really ahead. It inspires false feelings of self-confidence and leads to a total lack of writing. Boo.

On the plus side, new episode of Supernatural to watch.

The WGA strike

I'll miss my TV shows, but I absolutely support it - as someone who hopes to earn a living from writing someday, how could I not?

Here's a well-articulated writer's perspective from Doris Egan, a writer on House: the WGA strike.

31K

So I'm at 31,658 and running into a bit of trouble. Here's the thing: I finally have a plot, but it's hard to figure out how to get my characters on their way. I mean, they're supposed to be breaking out of Purgatory - how exactly does one do that?

Urgh.

(In unrelated news: Heroes! Eeeeee! Awesome episode!)

Totally off-topic: network video players

Note: this is not writing-related. Also, I am not sponsored by NBC.

I really like NBC's new video dealie, NBC Direct. It used to be that I hated NBC for taking their shows off iTunes and forcing me to watch them on the internet player, which was terrible - skipped, paused every few seconds, etc. Then they came up with NBC Direct, which lets you download the most recent episode of selected shows and keep it for 48 hours. This is cool because it means that you have the whole thing loaded beforehand, and thus there is no skipping.

For anyone who wants it, you can download the beta version for free on NBC's website.

So, my rankings of networks' free video players:

1. FOX. They keep all the old episodes available, there's practically no wait for it to load, and it hardly ever stalls.
2. ABC. Same deal as Fox, but the commercials are more annoying.
3. NBC Direct. See above.
4. CW. Waiting three or four days to post a new episode? That's just not cool.
5. NBC. Stalls, skips, and they don't keep all the old episodes available. Boo.

Well, that's about it. I will return to avoiding my novel.

Titles

I've now found a title for my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel, which means that I'm way further along than I was at this time last year.

How did I come up with a title, you may ask? Well, in English 223 today, we were reading John Donne's poem "The Ecstacy" (cool poem, by the way), and I noticed a footnote explaining the title - it comes from ekstasis.

Ekstasis is the Greek word meaning "the movement of the soul outside the body". Since my novel is all about dead people and is influenced by Les jeux sont faits and Paradise Lost and Inferno in a very bizarre way (except nowhere near as literary), I think Ekstasis is a very appropriate title.

Plus it makes me feel good to have a real title. And it's a million times better than "Survivor: Purgatory".

30,441 words

Ohhhh, yeah. I love it when I'm ahead. And that means, of course, that it's time to share the joy of my NaNoWriMo experience - namely, my playlist.

Kindly do not mock. These are songs that help me write. I make no claim to have excellent taste in music, and a number of these songs were introduced to me by my roommate and lodged themselves in my head until I listened to them repeatedly.

Top 30 list in iTunes:
1. "Maybe, This Time", Ok Go
2. "Paralyzer", Finger Eleven
3. "Every You and Every Me", Placebo
4. "Breakin' Dishes", Rihanna
5. "You Can't Hurry Love", The Supremes
6. "Whatsername", Green Day
7. "I Don't Wanna Stop", Ozzy Osbourne
8. "Teenagers", My Chemical Romance
9. "Photograph", Weezer
10. "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", AC/DC
11. "Shut Up and Drive", Rihanna
12. "Angel's Wings", Social Distortion
13. "Girlfriend", Avril Lavigne
14. "The Bitter End", Placebo
15. "Offend In Every Way", The White Stripes
16. "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want", The Smiths
17. "The Hand That Feeds", Nine Inch Nails
18. "Since U Been Gone", Kelly Clarkson
19. "Good Idea At the Time", Ok Go
20. "What Does a Girl Do", The Shirelles
21. "Foolish Little Girl", The Shirelles
22. "Faithless", Social Distortion
23. "Stab My Back", The All-American Rejects
24. "Mama Said", The Shirelles
25. "Learn to Fly", Foo Fighters
26. "Pon de Replay", Rihanna
27. "There's No Home For You Here", The White Stripes
28. "You Know I'm No Good", Amy Winehouse
29. "Back to Black", Amy Winehouse
30. "The Well and the Lighthouse", Arcade Fire

The unfortunate need for sleep.

I wonder if there's some combination of Advil Migraine, caffeine, and other totally legal substances that would make me feel slightly more human right now. Without causing me to fall asleep, because I've still got class in an hour and a half.

No? Ah, well. It's poetry class, I should be able to handle it. It's unfortunate that I'm so freaking tired, since I've just gotten a bunch of ideas for things I want to write in my NaNo novel and now they're just drifting in and out of my head...

Aaagh. Need sleep.

26269

I'm now past the halfway mark: 26269 words.

Maybe I should start thinking about a plot.

Reports

My NaNoWriMo 2007 "report card".

And the awesomeness continues...

21,000 words as of last night.

Yeah, this rocks.

Yes, I am Just That Awesome

Uh, not to be hugely self-congratulatory or anything, but...I wrote six thousand words last night. It was terrific. And my main character, who I was hoping would be awesome but up until then had been kinda lame, finally stood up and did something. Yeah, I'm back to loving NaNoWriMo.

Current total: 16,431

Progress!

4500 words written in a massive library spree from 4-9 PM this afternoon (minus dinner from 6-7). Now I'm back on pace. Awriiiiight.

Declaring the Major, or, what my Liberal Arts education has done for me

To declare an English major at Grinnell College, one must:

1. Fill out a Declaration/Change of Major(s) form. Twice.
2. Find an adviser in the English department.
3. Create a Four-Year Course Plan
4. Answer the following question: Before you declare your major, please consult with the faculty member who has agreed to serve as your new adviser. Review the courses you have already completed. Then write below (or attach a separate document) a 100-200-word rationale evaluating your liberal arts education to date and setting goals for the remaining semesters.
5. "...give a brief explanation of your reasons for wishing to declare an English major."
6. Decide now about grad school, certification in primary or secondary education, off-campus study, interdisciplinary concentrations, and honors.
7. Try not to go insane.

It's like applying for college all over again. The only upside to this mess is that my friends and I are having a terrific time figuring out how many times we can include "my Liberal Arts education" in our rationale without sounding like we're mocking the process. Right now, the total stands at zero.

Well, I suppose it's not as if they're going to reject me from being an English major, as long as I turn in something decent. I just have trouble focusing enough to do that when half the time I'm irritated by the question ("Why do I want to be an English major? I just do!") and the other half of the time I'm panicking ("Oh God, what if I get rejected and have to start all over as a Biology major or something horrifying like that??").

Needless to say, this isn't having a terrific effect on my NaNo progress. But I did some solid writing yesterday, and tonight I am library-bound once more for a solid six or seven hours of writing. God bless extended battery life and my renewed love of writing longhand.

Lessons learned from hours 1-10 of NaNoWriMo 2007

1. Do not drink three caffeinated beverages within a four-hour span, do a lot of writing, and then try to sleep. It's completely impossible, and while you're lying there trying to fall asleep, your brain will present you with a strobe-like slide show of millions of random images, none of which you'll see long enough to figure out before it rushes on to the next image.

2. Don't stop, walk back to your dorm, and then try to start again. You'll ruin your delicate thought processes.

3. Eat. Lots of food. Caffeine is rough without it.

God, I love this month.

The current word count

2195 words. Plus, I just got a $100 donation/sponsorship. Sweet.