Thoughts of the Sixth Day

The coffee chat was awesome. I was a bit skeptical going to it, just because I didn't know the people and wasn't exactly sure what was going to be happening because it was called a "coffee chat" instead of a "write-in".

It was different. We spent a lot of time just talking about how things were going and getting to know each other and stuff. I liked the people that were there. We talked a bit about the NaNoWriMo website and possibilities for the TGIO party.

I found possibly the only outlet in the place and ran my super-long AC adaptor cord all the way across the café to it so that I could work on my story while I was listening to them talk (it got to a point where I didn't have anything new to say because of my age/NaNoWriMo inexperience). I kept expecting the guy at the counter to come over and tell me I couldn't plug it in like that because it was a safety hazard (there was just barely enough slack to let it lie on the floor).

After about two hours, everyone left. I stayed for an extra hour and got my daily 2K written. I met this girl (and by met I mean we talked but I have no clue what her name was) that I would assume was a college student somewhere nearby (since she was doing what appeared to be HW) and we talked a bit about writing and NaNoWriMo and stuff.

I almost lost everything twice because I kept accidentally unplugging my laptop (thus rendering it unworkable) or closing everything. Luckily, each time I had just saved so I was okay.

Oh, and I learned that while I don't love espresso, I like it. So that's the only kind of coffee I'll drink. Nice, eh?

Before I went to bed, I wrote a hundred words or so. Had I built up any steam I was going to continue and try to reach then 4K mark, but it didn't happen.

Also, I read the chapter on Week Two from No Plot? No Problem!. It was interesting and the "feeling" that I'm "supposed" to be feeling during Week Two is the same one that's been there almost since the beginning. Because I've had this idea running around my head for so long, I kind of hope it means that I'm just on a slightly different motivation schedule than most other people. Which means sometime in the middle of Week Two, I should be hitting the Week Three motivation level.

At the coffee chat, we were talking about first year vs. second year. Everyone was of the belief that the second year was the hardest for various reasons, so that could be it too.

Days Four and Five

DAY FOUR THOUGHTS:

When viewed singularly, today was a productive day. I wrote a bit more than 4000 words. When viewed as a catch-up, though, it was sub par. Instead of going a hundred or so words over my 2K words goal, I went 15 over (for each day) at the most.

But, my morale is back up there. I brought my laptop into school and got to school an extra hour early. It was semi-motivating to work in the CC. On the one hand, my friends were interested in what I was doing and the ones who already knew were bugging me about my word count. But on the other hand, the ones who didn’t know wanted me to explain NaNoWriMo to them and what my plot was. So that was pretty distracting.

I talked to Sid a lot about the plot and what was going to happen. That helped me get some things ironed out that I hadn’t thought of and he pointed out a couple errors in what I was thinking (note to self: Rome is NOT in Greece…). One of the suggestions made in No Plot? No Problem! was to not talk about what you were writing with other people. While I can understand the basis behind this – for a long time my idea was just talk because it was so much easier to talk about what I was going to write than actually write it. But I’m finding now that it helps a lot to discuss what’s going on with other people so that they can point out the flaws in my logic that I’m missing. I’m sure that it’s costing me something in productivity because it is a lot easier to discuss what’s happening than write it, but it’s saving me editing time in the long run.

I did a lot of writing in front of the TV today. It made everything go a lot slower and it was a lot harder to concentrate on what I was doing, so I probably won’t do that again.

DAY FIVE THOUGHTS:

Wrote a bit in the CC, wrote a bit during Elements of Writing, was going to write a bit during CS but the battery in my laptop wouldn't work.

I went over Bethany's after school and by the time I got home I was exhausted, so I didn't get anything else done. Oh well. There's a coffee chat tomorrow at the Border's in Framingham, so I'll try to get tons done there.

Thoughts from Day Three

I didn’t do much of anything today. Before my calc lab, I read some more of Eats, Shoots and Leaves, but not much of it.

After the lab, I drove to the Panera in Smithfield, RI, where people were meeting for another write-in. The Municipal Liaison was supposed to be there at 5pm to make sure there was going to be enough space and enough outlets. When I got there at 6-ish, there was no one there. I waited until 6:30 and then left.

Later on I found out that the ML had gotten lost and the people at Panera were really bad at giving directions, so she didn’t get there until 7. No one else showed up, so I didn’t miss much.

I didn’t get any writing done. Once I was at home, I was too tired to concentrate on anything, so I went to bed.

I guess I’m going to have to bring my mum’s laptop to school tomorrow and work on it before classes and such, because now I have to write twice as many words to make up for missing today.

Thoughts on the First Two Days

FIRST DAY THOUGHTS:

It was difficult to get into the swing of the story. I thought I had a good idea and a lovely beginning. Well, my idea is good, still, and I can feel it. But the beginning is… not good.

I think my problem is that I've been thinking about this for far too long. The beginning, the end, the major plot twists are all known; I'm not all that curious to find out what's going to happen.

Then again, I was exhausted last night. Maybe that was a part of my struggle to reach 2K. Clearly, I did so in the end, but I couldn't make myself write any more. Considering I got it done, there's also the possibility that my lack of motivation is just another symptom of the general apathy I am feeling and have been feeling.

Have I started Week Two early?

I wonder if, since this is my SISP, I can get the school to cover my "expenses". Probably not…

I wish I had a laptop so that, when I went o write-ins, I could just type everything instead of having to write it out and type it up later.

The first write-in that I knew about ahead of time is tomorrow. It's from 5-10 at Tealuxe in Providence, which is half an hour from my house. Unfortunately, I need to leave straight from school, so that's an hour of riving because there's no good way to go from Worcester to Providence. Parking will be a costly bitch, but I don't care. It looks like it will be fun.

SECOND DAY THOUGHTS:

This was another day of struggling, unfortunately.

Right after my CS lab, I drove down to Providence. In trying to find Tealuxe, I only got lost once and realized it almost immediately. I got there and managed to find a parking space that was on one of the streets it was on and taught myself how to parallel park.

Inside, I bought an absolutely delicious chai. It was pumpkin and something and something. But that's not the point.

Tealuxe was incredibly crowded and there were six of us (including me). It took a while for there to be enough seats open that were next to each other, but it eventually happened and we all sat down. I met this very cool guy named… Rob, I believe.

Everyone had laptops but me, so that was kind of frustrating. They were all clicking away, and I had to sit there with my pen and notebook and scribble. I didn't get much work done because I was more interested in watching people and listening to conversations (to provide fodder for dialogue in my story, though!) to write a lot.

The RI ML gave me some of last year's swag. Well, she gave everyone who came some of last year's swag if they wanted it. I now have a pen that says "Magical pen of wonder / National Novel Writing Month / 2003", which I used to write the majority of what I got done at Tealuxe.

It was a good motivator, though. I think, had I had a laptop, I would have written a lot more. At least the 2K that was my goal. When I got home, I went downstairs and found one of the ancient laptops Mum got from school and dragged it up here to get it working so that I can bring it to the next write-in. That was incredibly frustrating and took a while, but it works now, so I'm all set.

Once I was home (and I didn't get lost once going home) I finished up the 2K. That took an abominable amount of time, especially considering I only had to write about 600 words. So far, I'm on schedule and building up a bit of leeway so that if I absolutely can not make my goal one night, I won't be totally screwed.

Oh, and I should mention that I finished No Plot? No problem! up to the Week Two part. I plan on reading (like it's suggested in the beginning) each week's chapter the first weekend of that week. There were some good tips and tricks, but most of them didn't apply since I'm already so incredibly unmotivated.

I also started reading Eats, Shoot and Leaves which is turning out to be hilarious and really interesting. Hopefully it will improve my grammar a lot.

That's all for today.

4,311 / 50,000 (8.0%)

First Wordcount Update

As of right now, this is where I'm at:

2,202 / 50,000 (4.0%)

I might add more later on, though.

Character Info

NAME: Skyler

AGE: 30

GENDER: female

WORK: adventurer/archaeologist/researcher

FRIENDS/FAMILY/LOVE: Arich is her friend and eventual love interest. She's a loner and travels a lot, so there's no one else to talk about. Her only living relatives are her mother and father. But they live far away and are disapproving of her job and ideals. There was her grandfather, who she was very close to, but he's dead. Possibly going to make appearances in flashbacks.

LIVING SPACE: Messy, but with an underlying order. Her workspace is messy while working, but gets cleaned up at the end of every day (that she works). She's very particular about where things go in the mess and has a neurotically clean bathroom.

HOBBIES: movie-watching; her work is her main hobby

PAST YEAR: same thing as now; met and took on Arich has her apprentice; work = life

FIVE YEARS: worked with her grandpa a lot; then gramps (a spry old man) was killed; she took on her quest as his and has been doing the same thing since then.

VALUES: much emphasis on respect, loyalty, trust; loose morals otherwise; not main-stream religious; pagan, sort of

POLITICS: conservatively liberal; not a tree-hugger, but pro-abortion

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NAME: Arich

AGE: 27

GENDER: male

WORK: apprentice to Skyler; languages; inherited $$?

FRIENDS/FAMILY/LOVE: Skyler is his friend and eventual love interest. His friends don't make an appearance until the latter half of the book. He's a loner like Skyler, so doesn't have all that many friends. His parents and such are dead. His master is his only family, but they have an incredibly bad relationship.

LIVING SPACE: Organized, but not meticulously so (can handle Skyler's mess)

HOBBIES: sword-fighting; not many/not known

PAST YEAR: sent to work with Skyler

FIVE YEARS: being reintroduced to mortal culture and getting used to the pill and its effect.

VALUES: moralsome; big against lying and such; quite upset that he has to deceive Skyler

POLITICS: nothing; no opinions and avoids it