first off I would like to say thanks to my family for letting me attempt to write a novel this past month. Just a crazy idea, but they were supportive.
Now that the crazy month of November is over…
I will do more chores around the house,
I will play with you more,
I will snuggle with you more.
I will blog more often.
I couldn’t have done it without your support.
(And looks like Mr. Grunty is getting sick, poor boy has a stuffy nose.)
tonight
Miss Squeaky was laughing at the “What kind of diaper does Miss S have on her bottom?” song.
Mr. Grunty found me and his mommy doing a congo-line, singing “let’s go change your diaper” funny.
I love their angelic little laughs.
well, two years ago I was at 40 thousand words.
Today I am at 44 thousand words. I only have to write six thousand more words within the next 51 hours.
woo-hoo, doing better than last time.
No, the story isn’t even close to finished.
I am at 40,042 words.
I am 3,300 words behind pace.
I only need to write 2500 words a day for next four days.
From Friday
Well, I’m no Stephen King. I hear that Mr. King puts in 4 hours of writing a day, only taking off Christmas, Thanksgiving and his B-day. Well, it was the end of yesterday, I hadn’t NaNoWriMo’ed yet, and being very sleepy, I considered not writing. But I just couldn’t take the day off. Although I only did 110 words. Yep, back to being two days behind.
Right now, I am watching Mr. Grunty & Miss Squeaky on their play mats. No, the don’t have a specific one, on most things they share…pacifiers, bottles, toys, I’ve even been known to put them in the “wrong” crib, just to play with MyBetterHalf’s mind. It is funny that now, Mr. G is giving his hand-me-down clothes to his older sister. So, she’s wearing a lot more blue these days. It confused me for a moment when she first wore one of his sleepers.
At first, I was adamant about trying to break the “girls wear pink” rule…but I’m not very smart about the sorting of the clothes, that it was very easy to see pink, and know it was for Miss S. I don’t think we’ve put Mr. G in anything pink. Why is that? Why has society deemed pink a feminine color? Is it that way in other cultures? I used to have a super bright neon pink hat. It was very useful like when moving, anyone wanting to know where I was, they just looked for the glow. I miss that hat. That reminds me, I also had this black hat I stole from a room mate that had a pink flower on it. I miss that hat too. I think my realization of pink being an OK color was from a bicycle magazine in the 80s, there was this beautiful paint job, dark green with pink high-lights. Then after that, maybe Georgia O’Keefe.
I was prepping food on T-day, and I heard a thump and MyBetterHalf squeal/shriek. Oh no, I was scared to look. But…Miss S learned how to roll over on Thanksgiving! Yay! Like eight times!
Mr. G rolled over this morning.
Mr. G has finally caught up with the hand-eye coordination, it makes me happy to see him grabbing stuff. (He still doesn’t taste everything like his sister does.)
from Today
Well…I dunno about NaNoWriMo…I’m currently 6,169 words behind.
Let’s see…my parents were supposed to visit for Thanksgiving, but that morning I got a call, “we won’t be able to make it” from my little sister. Next day my mom calls. She temporarily lost the ability to walk. That can’t be good. She visits a neurologist on Monday. Reminds me of back a couple summers ago when she had a big seizure, and we’ll we still don’t know what’s going on. If things were different, if she was healthy, it would be great to see if she wanted to watch Mr. G & Miss S.
Thanksgiving food…here’s the thing. I don’t like turkey. Well, I do heart the baked on salty, fatty goodness of baked turkey skin. Almost as tasty as bacon. But the rest of the bird. Eh. Maybe it’s from me probably prepping and cooking and serving at least a thousand turkeys in my career.
I do like stock though. And I made up a tasty stock, so we could have yummy dressing. Well, half way through the process it was tasty. But I got greedy, and by dipping bread in the boiling stock I burned my tongue. Still don’t have my taste buds back.
Today sucked. I had to install new car seats for the childrens. The diagram directions do not match the reality. GRRRRRR!!!! And every other page says, “if you don’t do this proper, your child may die.” I hope it did it right. I do not want my babies to die.
OK, to end on a happy note. My babies talking style.
Mr. G has gotten to be the talkative one. He’ll tell a story, I think the name of it is “Mr. Grunty and the 104 bears” (he has four bears, his mommy has a hundred bears). His stories have plenty of vowels, and lots of run on “sentences”. He’ll be rubbing his hands together while talking and sometimes will pump them up and down because of the excitement in the story.
Miss S still gargles when talking. And her words are slower, more deliberate, with more consonants.
While changing diapers, I started doing grunting noises when pulling off clothes, the babies are amused. Then I started grunting the vowels like Shrek. They are still amused. My throat is sore. And sometimes Mr. G grunts a few vowels back.
Remind me to write about me crying at work last week…
Good job Dallas. That was a much better half-time show.
First, Texas native, Miss Kelly Clarkson played upbeat songs.
Second, there was some weird giant ribbon things that the cheerleaders twirled and spun which turned into a giant “Give to this charity” banner that one forth of the field. (Detroit only brought out a banner.
Third, audience participation held up placards in the stands to make a blue Cowboy star.
Finally, instead of interpretative dancers, there were scantily clad Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders doing their routines to the songs.
…uh…and I know it’s futile…but, go Jets.
Dear Detroit sports fans
I am sorry you had to sit through that horrendous half-time show. Personally, when I think “Detroit football” I do NOT think of the Goo-Goo Dolls accompanied by interpretive dance. Worst. Halftime Show. Ever. I’m sure it made you mad enough to go riot (1943, 1967, 1984) or whatever y’all do for fun in the Motorcity.
Seriously, the NFL thought…what will get the crowds all excited, and came up with the Goo-Goo Dolls? Yes, the town that recently gave us the White Stripes, Kid Rock, and Eminem had to sit through mellow sounds of John Rzeznik’s crooning.
Just for reference, on the show “America’s Next Band” I agree with Mr Rzeznik most of the time. And “Iris” is one of the most beautiful songs written.
But the point of my rant is “pick something appropriate for an accompaniment.” You wouldn’t serve Crème Brule at a tailgate party. You wouldn’t serve Cheez Whiz at a wine tasting.
And in closing…go Packers!
NaNoWriMo has been a bit tough. Last time I successfully finish, way back in the 2005, I made a big push of like 20k words in the last week. Well, don’t think I have that luxury this year. Fortunately, I have already hit 31,000 and there is still 9 days left. So, better off than I was last time.
Funny story, I was looking up something for the story, I wanted to get the facts right. MyBetterHalf asked, “I thought you always said don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.” I do say that, which is why I wanted to get my facts straight, because the story ain’t gonna be good.
Some things that have bothered me…am I writing Sword&Sorcery or Literary Fantasy? Does it even matter?? (no.)
Earlier this week I hit a block around 30,000 words. I didn’t know where to go next.
Then I decided to work backwards, trick #1. I know the last line of the story. (I’ve known the last line since like ten years ago. I’ve been mulling over various incantations of this story since then. I once started to write it, but I think I’ve lost it, and so, basically NaNoWriMo 2007 was starting over with only a basic idea.)
So, I started with the last line. And then worked back. Woo-hoo, it worked! I have a score of things that have to be done before the last line makes sense.
And, trick #2 to getting around writer’s block. Dreams…each of the five main characters will have a few. Also, for later I’m tossing in a “things that each character often says” which I suppose is kinda like writing down background notes, but heck, I’m using those words. You know what they say November, “no editing”.
Finally the best of all, trick #3…bring out the gnomes. In my story, gnomes are very inquisitive, and very verbose. I really like gnomes, their silly little pranks should lend to some hilarity, and should boost the old word count.
Tonight MyBetterHalf asked me if the story is based on true events. All stories are based on true events I answered. People I’ve met, something interesting they said, or a funny story I’ve heard will work its way in. But I don’t think any of my characters are based on a single person. Well, except for me, I suppose that all of them are based partially on me. Especially that super sexy hunky character on page 38! I hope that I haven’t directly ripped off a someone I know. For instance, I love the saying “THANXIES” but none of my characters will say it. For one, it is a little to blatant of a rip off. And, more importantly for NaNoWriMo, it is much better to write “Thank you very much, that was a very kind gesture that should be remembered forever.”
I heart gnomes.
So, like, I offended 2 people at work today, that I know of.
Sorry if I’ve done the same to you. You should pro’lly tell me about it, and i’ll try to learn from my mistakes, but I am pretty clueless.
I look into the the future, and…sad. Right now my children’s are so happy to see me, and smile all big, and are excited…but they may turn out like me, and maybe make contact with their father once a quarter during their 20s.
Not that I’m doing much better now-a-days in talking with my dad.
