A Conundrum

Unfortunately, this conundrum is not as simple as figuring out what the word "conundrum" means, or how to use it in a sentence. This conundrum is much much bigger, and it is this:

NaNoWriMo is coming. O_O

These words are enough to strike fear into the heart of the unprepared writer, myself not withstanding. Not only am I not prepared for this massive noveling event (see sidebar for more posts on this topic) but I am terribly, dreadfully....busy.

Which is partly why the blog has been so quiet lately. Between schoolwork, testing, driving now(!!), church responsibilities, redoing my room(!!!!!), impending job opportunity, and everything else, the blog has fallen to the wayside. But I have not forgotten it!! I would LOVE to post pictures of my newly painted room, but it's not quite finished yet. And I really want to put in the finishing touches before I take the pictures. It will look very...designer. I've been super excited about the whole project over the last few months.

Back to NaNoWriMo. If the last few months are any indication of the next few, my life shall be hellish indeed. Not that busyness is a bad thing. I enjoy every single one of my activities, but there is simply no rest. As my friend Maike puts it so nicely, life is like the sea pounding against the shore. Over and over and over like one great rhythmic heartbeat that never stops beating. Powerful. Constant. Mesmerizing.

I have much on my plate between youth and government (which my research for my bills is sadly lacking) and my schoolwork. I'm expecting to be taking three online language arts courses through BYU this semester, which means lots of reading and writing for school. Will participating in NaNoWriMo be setting myself up to fail? Will it be too taxing of a challenge to undertake? I already feel a little overwhelmed. Mom is urging me not to do it this year...

And I wasn't. Or at least I wasn't--until today. Today, I had the pleasure of spending some time with Kristin and Sabina in the Starbucks at the mall. We didn't get much work done, but it was so refreshing to be with them, to laugh, to brainstorm. And I came up with a plot.

I suppose, it would be cruel not to tell the plot. A genius in the making must keep their secrets carefully, but I think that an exception will be alright. Just this once. ;) It started with two elements. Art and Dance. I wanted to write a novel about one of these two things... but what? And how? I thought of a couple different scenarios. Then I browsed through Wikipedia's 36 dramatic situations and wrote down which ones stuck out to me. Two characters: a struggling art student and a mad painter.. All combined into this, the plot of my story:

A genius painter, mad and alone, sacrificed everything for his art; but when he takes on a struggling art student to model for his paintings, they find they have more in common than meets the eye.

I admit (confession time!) that it will probably be a love story--but not of the kind that makes you want to gag. It will be cute and sweet, and the model/budding artist will teach the seasoned painter how to see the beautiful things in life. See? Doesn't that sound sweet already? It will be a Scrooge-like transformation, I think.

I'm still not sure how the whole story will go, but I feel like the possibilities are endless. I don't have an era or any particular sequence of events. All I know is that the student is female, and her role will be similar to that of a modern internship. She poses for his paintings in exchange for lessons in art. <3 I'm in love with it already!

AND, now that I have a handy dandy keyboard for Bernard, everything will go much much smoother. I can write in a more comfortable position, take it to starbucks. All I need is a little stand for Bernie and I'll be good to go! Mom doesn't want me to do this, but I feel like I can't not. Such frustrating feelings. Sometimes I do not understand myself. What a conundrum.

Saved From Blithering Dust!: A NaNoWriMo Update

Greetings, people from the real world! Today, I have extricated myself from my solitary lair-- a hole whose depth knows no end to the amounts of tasks that require my personal assistance to complete. Menial things like chores and schoolwork and calming crying babies.. And before my very eyes, I watched my word count lead drop like a piece of lead falling through air. With nothing but feeble attempts to stop it. A tragedy, to be sure.


Making the tragedy even worse, like that of the likes of Shakespeare, was the fear, the paranoia, that accompanied it. I was deathly afraid that my story would not make it to 50,000 words! I'd had concerns in the beginning, but none so deep as the despair I felt today when I realized, I'd hit the climax of the novel at a measly 23,000 words! You cannot fathom how much it pained my heart to admit so. I simply did not know what to do.

Enter: Nicole.

*bling!*

I called Nicole and we talked for a mere 45 minutes on the phone and she had my story completely up and kicking'!!! She helped me develop my characters a bit more, fill in a few holes, and, last but not least, she offered many ideas for me to use to extend my plot (and word count) Yay Nicole!! As I later reported to my family, she truly saved my novel from becoming a blithering pile of dust (as the title of this post says.)

In case you are confused at this pnt in time, I shall explain. November is National Novel Writing Month-- a wonderful word filled challenge for writers across the world to write a wacky  amount of words in thirty days, or one month. (impressive alliteration though, huh?) the goal is the aforementioned 50,000 words. I successfully reached the goal the last two years and I'm hoping to again this year, thanks to Nicole!! (I swear, if I publish the beastly thing, I will dedicate it to her!)

My story this year is a modern retelling of the classic story of Hansel and Gretel, with a few new twists. The basic plot is this: After moving into their new step-Father's country mansion, two rebellious city kids get mixed up in something way beyond their initial suspicions of the old man living next door...

(*SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!!* the old man who lives next door happens to be a cannibal who kidnaps children and eats them! Disclaimer: Although the author enjoys writing about cannibalism, she does it endorse or condone the practice in any way.)

Fun Facts:

-My decision to write a retelling of H&G was made several months ago when Bethany and I were brainstorming ideas we could write. And we decided to do an adaptation of a fairy tale and swap novels afterward! Just to see the differences and similarities. Because it'd be fun(!) I later realized that it was quite a challenge.

-Originally,  my story was to be set in cyberspace. But as I worked with the story, I realized that it was turning into more of a incestuous Internet romance (in which the brother and sister meet in an Internet chat room and inadvertently fall in love) and less of a tale about Hansel and Gretel. (I was kind of going for a Luke/Princess Leia type thing.... But not.) I was all prepared to write it too (as I had no better ideas and we were not two weeks from November first) but when I told Bethany, she strongly urged me to change my story. (Probably because she didn't want to read it, which is understandable.) Please don't ask me how I came up with that plot idea or question my moral soundness. Because, while I desire to be completely honest with my real life readers, I do not desire to spend the rest of my life living in a hole of shame. That's a reasonable request, I should think.

All that to say, that I have written a total of 0 words today. And yet this post is nearing the 700 word mark. But I shall leave you with hose thoughts for now. Til next time!

50K

Last night, I reached 50,000 words!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

I was so happy!! And so fried... I ended up writing about 4000 words yesterday. But I did it! The story completed itself at 50,130 words although I might add to it in the next week, rearrange scenes and what not. I was so tired when I finally got there, it was like my mind went kind of numb...

And then I proceeded to do my happy dances all around the house while singing "No Eating Here Tonight" from Finding Nemo.  Although, I must say, I think the effect was rather lost because I was really hungry at the time and it was nearing dinner... but no matter!! After the quiet numbness wore off, the excited giddiness set in. And I could not stop dancing all around the house. It was great fun.

And now, me and Bethany are planning to do a novel swap at some point (details still need to be worked out) and in the meantime, I will be rearranging scenes because this year, I didn't write my story in any sort of order, whatsoever. But following whims is one of the good parts about NaNoWriMo...

Now, though, I'm not really sure what to do with myself... I think I will be getting the NaNo Blues pretty soon. I'll probably end up filling the empty space with mail... (it's been piling since November started..)
and thus, I welcome myself back into the real world!!

I Have Decided...

I have decided that coffee is a wonderful thing. I used to not like it, just because it was bitter but you know, with a little bit of half and half and some sugar, it really isn't half bad!! I tried it one day when I was falling asleep during school so I poured myself a cup from the dregs in the pot and after drinking it, I felt more alert. It was amazing!! Although, the bitter aftertaste is a little hard to get past in the beginning, I don't think it's so bad!!

I used to dislike coffee because I had a bad experience with it. I'm like five years old and my job is to collect the dishes in the living room and put them in the sink. Most of the dishes in the living room were coffee cups. Usually, they were empty but on occasion there was coffee! Well, one day, I got the great idea of seeing what coffee would taste like!! O_o Looking back, I realize that the coffee was probably several days old but still, after that experience, I very highly disliked coffee for a while. And at the time, I didn't know any better! But still, it did not taste very good. And since then I haven't really liked coffee. But recently, I've been trying tastes of it here and there and recently, I've drunk whole cups of the stuff.

But I'm not an addict or anything so no need to worry (yet).

I am also discovering that it seems to go straight to your bladder. T_T But I think the alertness is worth it! But ultimately I think that it depends on my mood. I won't drink it if I don't feel like it. But I just had a cup today to help me keep up on my writing. I was starting to feel some brain-deadness so I had some to give me the stamina to keep writing. But I am most tired of looking at screens. I am so close to 3,000 words for today though, that I will probably just finish that up and call it a day.

41,033 words!!

Also, in other notes, Aunt Colleen arrived today! Hooray! It is so good to see her again! I will post our adventures with her later.

My New Pet

I am pleased to announce that I have a new pet!!!
His name is Fred!!
He is a typewriter!!

Yes indeedy!! I bought this lovely typewriter at a garage sale for-wait for this... five dollars!!!! It is so amazing!! Cameron has been begging me to let him use it ever since I brought it home. I told him no... Dad got it to work for the most part. The ribbon is old so we just messed around with a piece of paper. It was great. :) Writing nonsense sentences on this clunky old typewriter...

But anyways, Cam is dying to use the thing and I keep telling him no because I don't know how to work it!! (Soon enough, I will have the skills... soon enough!) But for the time being? I don't. And dad doesn't always have the time or interest to help us... hmm. I will have to find someone else. I have already pleaded to the Amazing Typewriter Brigade from Nanowrimo and they were very helpful indeed.  They told me where I can find ribbons for this. Hooray!!

All in all, I am very enamored with Fred. (I have always loved the way typewriters looked!! I don't know why... And I started wanting one after someone wrote me a letter with a typwriter... it was FABULOUS!!) I just don't know how to use it...

Another typewriter was also mentioned in this post. For those of you who might (or might not, as the case may be) be interested. Hmm, now that I've looked at the picture better, I think that other typewriter is cooler... but Fred is cool too.

More Pictures:

 Did I mention it comes in a super awesome case??

Of Finger Mustaches, Snowman Pajamas, and Walking with the Old Man

I wish I had more better pictures to show you... but I don't. And I took this myself (which is why it looks so bad!) Seriously, I don't get people who can sit there and take tons of pictures of themselves... For one thing, you always end up with your arm looking like it has cancer! And then, whenever I do it, I always feel like such a dork. This was one of those moments. The reason I'm smiling? Not because I just painted myself into the painting of Mona Lisa. No, I'm smiling because I feel ridiculous taking pictures of myself. (that's why you don't see very many pictures of me on this blog; cuz it doesn't happen if someone else doesn't do it.)

So, for Halloween, I dressed up as a French painter and I had a FABULOUS finger mustache (which I didn't get a picture of, sadly.) We went to a church fall festival (the big church...) and Cameron got a lot more candy than I did!! It wasn't fair. I think I'm getting too old. I feel weird and awkward saying "trick or treat" now. But somehow, by the grace of Cam and also Sydney and also Miss Darlene and soon to be, possibly, hopefully, Daniel, I will have more than enough candy to last me through November. (Noveling snacks!)

When I wasn't getting very much candy, I was like, "I declare socialism when it comes to candy distribution!" (I am learning much about socialism in history. Everyone works according to their ability, and takes according to their needs.) And Dad looked at me from pawing through Cam's candy bag and said, "Yeah, get out of her Frenchie!" XD It was so funny!! I just laughed. Next year, I am dressing up as a mahjong tile!!! We'll see how that one works out...

Then today, when I walked the dog, I decided I would wear my pajamas out. Because I can. Because I felt like it! And I decided that just for this morning, I wouldn't care what anyone thought of me! It was all very great fun. I imagined all the looks people were giving me as they drove by. It amuses me. And I was really super warm! Last Christmas, Mom made me a pair of flannel snowman pajamas (actually, the whole family has matching pairs.) and I wore a pair of leggings underneath. My goodness! It was so warm!! I wish I had a picture but again with the taking pictures of myself thing.


And on Monday, I was walking in the evening and I saw an older man (okay, he was an old man. But not like, frail or anything..). And we know the man...sort of. His name is Carl and he has a dog named Daisy and we walk by his house every morning with Pat. So I caught up with him and decided to walk next to him and talk to him as if we'd been friends for a long time!! :) I explained who I was of course. And we talked about his dog and how he tries to walk her for an hour every day. And I told him I missed seeing him in the mornings... It was a nice conversation. Nice dog. nice walk... It was all very nice.

On a side note, I think I have *drumroll* 4,288 words!!! and more writing today! I'm going to hit 5,000 today. I am I am I am!! I think I wrote 2,000 ish words yesterday...

That Time of Year Again...

NaNoWriMo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, It's that time of year again. Yes folks, it is NaNoWriMo Time!!!! NaNoWriMo (wri as in write-not wree...) National Novel Writing Month. November 1st-30th. 50,000 words of fiction in 30 days and it starts tonight... O_o 

Can someone please scream and run around in circles please? Thank you!

As of right now, I have about four hours before the madness begins... and only a vague sense of plot.

This is what I posted in the forums:

So far, mine will be about fake religion and hypocrisy (now that I'm thinking about it, it the main fake religion will probably be similar to how the Pope took control of the Roman Catholic Church..) And it's all very mindless and zombie-like and this fake religion is mainly just recruiting... I guess it's also kind of like a cult.
But there is a group of children who breaks away from the mindlessness and probably tries to overthrow the figure that is a parallel to the Pope and undermine the whole religion and establish a true faith... I don't know. Something along those lines

Popes and Cults and Rebellion! That is the extent of my plot so far! 8 hours and no beginning, I hope I can get my hands on some mountain dew tonight! Midnight tonight!! It's on!!

Feel free to badger me about it any time you want! Ask me about my wordcount! Ask me how my characters are doing! Ask me how much caffeine/candy I've consumed!! (I've begun hoarding some awesome stuff for my super secret nano fuel/stash!! And I will be adding to it later tonight!!)

On a side note, for Halloween, I'm dressing up as a very French artist. And I have a super awesome finger mustache!!! Will post pictures later!! Happy Halloween/Almost November!!