small, unimportant rant & weekend update

You know what I’m so very tired of? The getting-hit-in-the-nuts gag. Remember in the 80s, when EVERY. SINGLE. MOVIE. had that joke in it? Every single “comedy,” I should say. It’s not as much in vogue now, but I just saw a preview of Flushed Away (the makers of Wallace and Gromit! I want to like it!) that seemed to be going a little crazy with it. C’mon people. It’s just not that funny, unless done really well. And not five times in a row. More of a bad joke does not necessarily make it funnier.

You know what I love about Pixar? (Well, among other things…) They never try to use that joke. Except in Monsters, Inc, when Mike Wazowski is trying to get Boo to laugh, remember? But you know what the best part of it is? Her hood was over her face, so SHE DOESN’T. Love it.

***

Things certainly do move down the page quickly when you’re posting every day. Huh.

So it’s been quite the weekend. One of my little sisters-in-law (16) was over visiting, so we mostly had fun instead of cleaning. My sweetie and I got to escape for a noontime date to see The Prestige (matinee prices — I thought it was a fascinating movie, I must see it at least once more). We all went and saw Pirates 2 at the $3 theater. (Have I ever mentioned how when it’s for movies I want to spell it “theater,” but when it’s live I want to spell it “theatre”? That’s what happens when you live in Canada?) Ate salad bar, pizza, and my Lion House Chicken (don’t worry, I’ll be posting the recipe). Played the Blank White Cards game together — it was work, but very amusing. It’d be even better with more people… Maybe I’ll post some of our cards later.

NaNoWriMo update:

My progress report online is all skewed at the moment, both because of the head start issue, and because I haven’t been updating it every day, but instead only some days. The word count is correct, but everything else is a little off. My personal NaNoWriMo Report Card (here’s a link to one, there are several floating around; they’re lots of fun…) Excel file one is on track, but ah well.…

I’ve done some outlining, though not as much as I’d like. I think I want an outline because typing blind just gives me fits of anxiety. (Check out this fabulous book, though, I got it at my library and it’s so encouraging: The courage to write : how writers transcend fear, by Ralph Keyes)

I did do some word count calculations, though: normally I can do about 1000 words in an hour. At that rate I only have to do about 40 hours of actual writing to get things up to 50,000. Unfortunately, that’s more than an hour a day… hmm.

As far as actually writing goes, though, I got nothing done all weekend until last night, when I stayed up ridiculously late, but wrote 1696 words in an hour. (Woo! faster than normal.) I’m terribly exhausted right now, and with a headache. But, in a way, I feel great. Like the constant needtowrite itch has been scratched, at least temporarily. Not to mention accomplished.

 

NaNoWriMo 2006

So… you may have noticed the little icon over there, under the NaBloPoMo one. Yeah, I’m crazy, it’s pretty much indisputable. (But such a nice crazy!)

I’m starting off right away by breaking the rules: I’m going to use some things I’ve already written. Actually, I think it’s a good rule generally, to start fresh with something you’re not invested in, so you won’t feel as much pressure to “make it good.” But I’m going to continue with the one I started (and did not finish) for last year’s NaNo so I think it’ll be alright, as far as that goes. The benefit, for me, is being a little ahead in word count already, plus not taxing my poor dessicated brain into coming up with another entirely new story.

The working title of my NaNovel is Griffin, it’s a desert city fantasy story. Or at least it was, but I’m considering going back to my original concept for it, which is more of an urban fantasy. In which case I’d basically be starting from scratch… oh dear. I’ll be deciding today — I finally figured out what I need to KNOW, and therefore brainstorm, and then outline before really buckling in.

The whole beginning that I have is a huge mess, structurally speaking. But I’ve decided I really have to just press on and not worry about fixing it at this point. I’m not going to post the novel here. But in the next couple days I may put up part of the first chapter as a fun tidbit. We’ll see. I’m really not worried about running short on things to blog about. The real trick is getting the time to sit down at the computer without small people crawling all over me….

Anyway, I decided after the work I did last year on NaNo that I really REALLY need to give outlining a try. If you want to do the same, here’s a useful link for a novel outline in 30 minutes. Also an entertaining post on the dilemma of wanting to write, and yet not.

And, apropos of nothing (except possibly creativity) here is The 1000 Blank White Card Game. I TOTALLY wish I had heard of this in college.