So we're at 67 days and counting until November 1st. For those that haven't read my previous post, you'll have no clue what I'm talking about here.
Anyway, even though I still have two months, I had a momentary freak-out yesterday at how much I still have to do to round out preparations for my story.
Yesterday afternoon when D and I got home, I started looking around online for a few more character/race names. It wasn't long before we were discussing one race in particular. Now mind you, I didn't have more than a vague idea of them in my head to start with, but D informed me that, with what I did have in mind, it'd probably be a good idea to have something more concrete (strenghts, weaknesses, etc). It turned out to be a good thing because not only did it make me think more about them, it gave me some more story-line. He even made a list of a few different things the race could be called and I've finally given the little critters a name.
That's not what put me in panic mode, though.
We continued talking and he asked the question, "So, have you decided where the story is going? Why the characters are undertaking this journey in the first place?" Um...well...kind of. So I had to think about that, too. I finally came up with the thought of creating a place that people think is a myth; just a bedtime story, and that my characters are trying to find it. There's a lot more to it than that, but I don't wanna get too much into detail yet.
I wrote down a few ideas and D continued tossing questions out there.
The basic beginning premise of my story is there's a 16 year old girl (my top main character), who gets pregnant, shipped off to live with her grandmother, and somehow gets transported to this magical realm. D and I began talking about the ages and experience of the girl's guardians once she's transported and I realized that they need to be older than what I originally thought them as. That meant that the girl needed to be older, which meant that I couldn't use the whole 'shipped of to grandma' idea. And that, ladies and gentlemen is when I realized that I needed to totally and completely rework my beginning. Which, in turn, led to a momentary, panicky breakdown. On one hand I was kind of purposely being overdramatic and it was kind of funny, but on the other I was thinking, "oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!" But, no harm done. I already had an idea for a different story using a chick in her early 20s so I'll just rework the idea a little and use that.
I realize, though, that I really really REALLY need to do a character outline on her.
Well, D is doing calculations on his computer for a job we're going out on later today and I think we're gonna mow today, too so I should probably use this time that he's busy to do some outlining.
Let the insanity begin anew!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
NaNoWriMo is feasting on my soul
Okay, well that might be a little too dramatic, but it's taking up a lot of my focus at present.
The point of NaNo is to write at least 50,000 words in thirty days. It's not really a contest per se, no prizes or anything, though I think if you complete the 50,000 word requirement you get a nifty pdf certificate. People mainly do it for fun, for the challenge, and some already published writers do it to spark creativity for a new book.
I think I have a pretty good idea of the main plot of the story, but the little things are driving me to the beginnings of insanity. Thankfully I still have a little over two months to finalize outlines and think up more mini plots, characters, events, blah blah blah. I'm already ping ponging back and forth between extreme excitement and "what the crap did I get myself into?"
D is being quite the good sport about it all; even going so far as to give me a few fresh ideas that I can use. We've also been doing a sort of exercise for each other (D is a really good writer, too). We take four basic perameters (Object, Environment, Character, and Mood) and then spend half an hour to an hour writing a story. Mainly it's just something to get the creative juices flowing.
The first time I wrote a story from a kitty's perspective on moving to a new house. I haven't done any real editing on it, but it's about 1,500 words from beginning to end.
So, yeah. Pretty much my whole thought process for the next couple of months is going to be centered around writing and what I might be able to cram into this story idea of mine.
As far as the job thing goes...still haven't heard anything from either Walmart or Food City. I think D and I are headed out on a job in about a week or so and we've gotten a lead on another potential job. We've worked for the guy before and he's a total jerk, but we need the work.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Is it November yet?
So, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It doesn't start until midnight of November 1st and it ends at 11:59 pm on November 30th, but I'm quite occupied with character outlines, story outlines, plot ideas, etc. I've even gotten this nifty Web Badge to post here.
The point of NaNo is to write at least 50,000 words in thirty days. It's not really a contest per se, no prizes or anything, though I think if you complete the 50,000 word requirement you get a nifty pdf certificate. People mainly do it for fun, for the challenge, and some already published writers do it to spark creativity for a new book.
I think I have a pretty good idea of the main plot of the story, but the little things are driving me to the beginnings of insanity. Thankfully I still have a little over two months to finalize outlines and think up more mini plots, characters, events, blah blah blah. I'm already ping ponging back and forth between extreme excitement and "what the crap did I get myself into?"
D is being quite the good sport about it all; even going so far as to give me a few fresh ideas that I can use. We've also been doing a sort of exercise for each other (D is a really good writer, too). We take four basic perameters (Object, Environment, Character, and Mood) and then spend half an hour to an hour writing a story. Mainly it's just something to get the creative juices flowing.
The first time I wrote a story from a kitty's perspective on moving to a new house. I haven't done any real editing on it, but it's about 1,500 words from beginning to end.
So, yeah. Pretty much my whole thought process for the next couple of months is going to be centered around writing and what I might be able to cram into this story idea of mine.
As far as the job thing goes...still haven't heard anything from either Walmart or Food City. I think D and I are headed out on a job in about a week or so and we've gotten a lead on another potential job. We've worked for the guy before and he's a total jerk, but we need the work.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Is it November yet?
Monday, August 17, 2009
Morning wake-up post
So far I've been awake for about an hour and a half and had three cups of coffee, but I still feel like if I crawled back into bed I'd be asleep within minutes. I did wake up a few times during the night, but was able to get back to sleep fairly quick...still woke up not feeling very rested.
Thankfully my back was less sore this morning than I anticipated. Yesterday D and I went out on a rather intense job, in the woods, where I had to tote around nearly 40 lbs. of weight for an hour in 90 degree heat. I was carrying a machete (strapped on my belt), and a bag that had 6 wooden stakes, 6 2 ft. pieces of rebar, and a 4 lb. hammer (to drive the rebar into the ground). So, while my lower back wasn't nearly as hurty this morning, my shoulders and upper back are a little tight.
On a up-side, I got to actually use the machete yesterday. The way D does his work, he needs clear line of sight between where he stands and where his instrument is set up so that means if there are branches and things in the way, they need to be cut down. D is definitely much more experienced at machete work so he did most of it, but I got to do a little. Let me just say that birch trees are one of the hardest to cut. By the time I got four branches cut that were about as thick around and two thumbs, he'd already finished the rest of the line. It was still fun, though. The only other times I've gotten to use the machete were to clear a short line where there were a few thin branches and really tall weeds and then to clear some branches and bushes out around a property corner.
In other news, the job situation is still unchanged. I had applied at a zoo near here, Food City, and Walmart. The zoo didn't have any openings that I was qualified for unfortunately. I would've really liked to work there. Walmart said they might have some openings later this month and when I called Food City to check on my application, the store manager was on vacation, but the lady I talked to was assistant store manager I guess and said when he got back she'd talk to him about any openings and they'd call me if there was something. So I'll hopefully hear from them sometime this week. *fingers crossed*
I'm really hoping things are gonna start cooling off here weather-wise. Granted it's only been hitting in the high 80s to low 90s so far, but it's been crazy humid. I'll be surprised if we don't break 100 degrees by the end of the month.
Once D and I get done with another job coming up in a few days, we'll probably end up taking the truck up the ridge at the back of his dad's property to get started on cutting wood for this winter to use in the wood-burning stove downstairs. It'll save a lot more money on the energy bill if we use it. I'd like it to be a little cooler when we do it, but the sooner it gets done the better.
Well, time to check on laundry.
Ciao
Thankfully my back was less sore this morning than I anticipated. Yesterday D and I went out on a rather intense job, in the woods, where I had to tote around nearly 40 lbs. of weight for an hour in 90 degree heat. I was carrying a machete (strapped on my belt), and a bag that had 6 wooden stakes, 6 2 ft. pieces of rebar, and a 4 lb. hammer (to drive the rebar into the ground). So, while my lower back wasn't nearly as hurty this morning, my shoulders and upper back are a little tight.
On a up-side, I got to actually use the machete yesterday. The way D does his work, he needs clear line of sight between where he stands and where his instrument is set up so that means if there are branches and things in the way, they need to be cut down. D is definitely much more experienced at machete work so he did most of it, but I got to do a little. Let me just say that birch trees are one of the hardest to cut. By the time I got four branches cut that were about as thick around and two thumbs, he'd already finished the rest of the line. It was still fun, though. The only other times I've gotten to use the machete were to clear a short line where there were a few thin branches and really tall weeds and then to clear some branches and bushes out around a property corner.
In other news, the job situation is still unchanged. I had applied at a zoo near here, Food City, and Walmart. The zoo didn't have any openings that I was qualified for unfortunately. I would've really liked to work there. Walmart said they might have some openings later this month and when I called Food City to check on my application, the store manager was on vacation, but the lady I talked to was assistant store manager I guess and said when he got back she'd talk to him about any openings and they'd call me if there was something. So I'll hopefully hear from them sometime this week. *fingers crossed*
I'm really hoping things are gonna start cooling off here weather-wise. Granted it's only been hitting in the high 80s to low 90s so far, but it's been crazy humid. I'll be surprised if we don't break 100 degrees by the end of the month.
Once D and I get done with another job coming up in a few days, we'll probably end up taking the truck up the ridge at the back of his dad's property to get started on cutting wood for this winter to use in the wood-burning stove downstairs. It'll save a lot more money on the energy bill if we use it. I'd like it to be a little cooler when we do it, but the sooner it gets done the better.
Well, time to check on laundry.
Ciao
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Harper's Island
The title of the post is a show D and I have been watching off and on for the past couple weeks or so. I think, considering what happens, it was more of a short story than an actual tv series.
Lemme just say...it was quite icky!
It's about a guy and girl going back to an island to get married where the guy spent summers as a kid. Murders start happening again (7 years after a previous rampage of murders).
I don't wanna give away the ending, but it's definitely trippy.
I think we spent the whole series, up until the last few episodes, saying who the killer was. You don't end up knowing until the last few episodes. And, like I said...it's icky. Not for the squeamish and not for those prone to violence. Lots of blood and gore...made me jump a few times.
There's one time (I think the second to last episode) that I yelped/sqealed and made D jump. I would've been more scared if I hadn't been so amused that he jumped. *grins*
But, also, just like a typical horror movie...the people in it are quite stupid.
"Let's go into the dark scary tunnels where the killer is...our friends are there and we can help" ... (like it worked so well last time)
"Let's split up...we can cover more ground." (Like the last time you did that and someone got killed.)
At the end, I think D and I were both glad it was over, but it was fairly entertaining.
On another note...we got two new movies on Netflix. One was League of Extraordiary Gentlemen (I think my folks had that on dvd and I've watched it a few times) and the other was The Departed with Matt Damon, Leonardo Decaprio (sp?), and Mark Whalberg (sp?). The latter was a fairly good movie. Quite long at about 2 1/2 hours, but really good. Gory and lot's of people getting shot in the head, though (mafia movie).
Anyway...as far as other things...I've put in job applications at Food City, Kroger, Walmart, Smoky Mountain Wine and Liquor, and the Knox County Zoo. Hopefully something will pan out.
*fingers crossed*
Lemme just say...it was quite icky!
It's about a guy and girl going back to an island to get married where the guy spent summers as a kid. Murders start happening again (7 years after a previous rampage of murders).
I don't wanna give away the ending, but it's definitely trippy.
I think we spent the whole series, up until the last few episodes, saying who the killer was. You don't end up knowing until the last few episodes. And, like I said...it's icky. Not for the squeamish and not for those prone to violence. Lots of blood and gore...made me jump a few times.
There's one time (I think the second to last episode) that I yelped/sqealed and made D jump. I would've been more scared if I hadn't been so amused that he jumped. *grins*
But, also, just like a typical horror movie...the people in it are quite stupid.
"Let's split up...we can cover more ground." (Like the last time you did that and someone got killed.)
At the end, I think D and I were both glad it was over, but it was fairly entertaining.
On another note...we got two new movies on Netflix. One was League of Extraordiary Gentlemen (I think my folks had that on dvd and I've watched it a few times) and the other was The Departed with Matt Damon, Leonardo Decaprio (sp?), and Mark Whalberg (sp?). The latter was a fairly good movie. Quite long at about 2 1/2 hours, but really good. Gory and lot's of people getting shot in the head, though (mafia movie).
Anyway...as far as other things...I've put in job applications at Food City, Kroger, Walmart, Smoky Mountain Wine and Liquor, and the Knox County Zoo. Hopefully something will pan out.
*fingers crossed*
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