Monday, October 31, 2011

A little NaNo talk..

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month) is a yearly event that sends tens of thousands of novelists into a frenzy. This year is no exception. I am one of the novelist.

“But Yume (or DJ or Cissy or whatever you call me), how do you find the time to write 50 thousand words in 30 days?” Let me answer that for you. I don’t find time – I have to make time. 50K words breaks down to 1667 words a day. That’s a LOT of words to do for 30 days straight. The first week you’re on fire! After that, it gets harder.

But I love it. Each year I write something I have never written before. Sometimes even new genre’s. last year I wrote a pirate story. I did pretty well for a new genre, but then I ran out of ideas. It was too much of a foreign territory. No worries though, it is saved. I have a real feeling that story will come back to me in time and I will know what to do with it then.

This year I have a story with ghosts and spirits and angels and such. This is new for me. I think I’ll be fine with ideas though. Time is short so that will be my biggest challenge. But I think I will be fine. I am really excited about my new characters. Clementine is really neat. So is Stone. I have a lot of excitement for that.

Anyhow.. some of you have dealt with me before in November. If so you know your job. If you’re new let me advise you of your job. If you see me screwing off you have permission to fuss at me with a simple yet effective “WRITE Dammit Write!” 

Thursday, October 20, 2011

10 Commandments of NaNoWriMo for 2011

These are mine. Yours may vary.

10 Commandments of NaNoWriMo

1)      Thou shall be very selective of internet time until thine word count has met it's daily goal..
2)      Thou shall follow thy characters wherever they may lead, for they know their story better than thee.
3)      Thou shall remember to sleep.
4)      Thou shall not neglect thine homework or tests.
5)      Thou shall allow thyself the nectar of the gods without guilt, for Pepsi keeps us sane.
6)      Thou shall get ahead of the word count whenever the ability arises so that it will balance on days when inspiration or time is lacking.
7)      Thou shall not neglect thy crowning glory of hair, nor thy eye makeup.
8)      Thou shall remember that fruit edible by fingers is thine friend, as are Stouffers animal crackers.
9)      Thou shall have a scrunchie available at all times to pull back thy crowning glory.
10)   Thou shall not delete a sentence for thine NaNoAngel will lose it's wings and plummet to the ground.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Run For Your Lives

I never did wrap up Dragon*con or talk about Pottermore further. Someday I will.

What I am here to blog about is something else entirely. It started with Scar. She posted a link to her husband (I think) that she wanted to do a Zombie 5K run in Austin in December 2012. I posted it on my Twitter asking for any takers for the Atlanta run. I didn’t expect any! But..

My sister replied. She lives in Atlanta. She was game. Well, nothing much else was said from there. Given the fact my sister nor I are runners the idea seems crazy. It seems even crazier because the run is in exactly 5 months. Not 5.5 months, not almost 6 months – 5 months from yesterday. Holy cow! No way we can be ready, right?

Well Monday, exactly 5 months from the run, I got up at 5 in the morning to start exercising. I did not run because I lack tennis shoes (I live in Florida. I have flip flops and work shoes.) and also I probably need a good sports bra less I injure myself. So this weekend I should have time to go shopping for these items. I live in a small town – our shoe stores are Walmart and JC Pennys and one sports store that caters to everything (Not even sure if they have shoes to be honest.)

In addition to these things I had been holding onto a friends site of Couch-to-5K. I sent it to my sister because guess what – she started running in Atlanta today! I had no idea she was serious about the run. Sooooo seems siblings stay on the wavelength even without meaning to! After sending her the link I started looking around for something else and found a better Couch-to-5K link. I sent her that too.

The obstacles of the course will likely cause me to end up a Zombie. Still, I want to do it. I want to say I did it! Even at my very best shape (and some of ya’ll know how amazingly in shape I used to be) I could have NEVER scaled a wall. I don’t set my sights that high now. But I have my sights on completing that course, Zombie or Human, I will cross that line!