2:56AM Update

Yes, I'm still awake.  Just hit 26,000 words and starting to feel a little tired.  But at least I am way out in front on my word count, over 6,000 words higher than where I need to be to be on track.  So that is a nice feeling. 

Happy Noveling!

2:05AM Update!

Well, as you can see from the title, it's 2:05AM and I just passed the 25,000 word mark! Halfway there and it feels great! The NaNo website has these cool stats for number people like me, so according to mine, I have to write 1389 words per day to finish on time, and on average I've written 2085 words per day and at that rate I will finish on November 23.  That's a whole week ahead! This is the first time that I've been scheduled to finish earlier than November 25.  Two years ago I hit 75,000 words and finished my novel on November 25, so the goal is to beat that this year. 

Well, more stretching exercises for me and then on to 26,000!

1:10 AM update!

Not that anyone probably cares, but I promised updates, so here they are.  It's 1:10 AM. I got home from Aaron's store about quarter to midnight, stopped at the store to pick up some novel food in the form of Pringles, 5-Hour Energy, G2 Gatorade, Cherry Dr. Pepper and Red Vines, and then got to work on the novel.  So as it stands now, I'm at 24,084 words and going to push on towards 25,000 here in a minute after I do some stretching and breathing exercises to keep me from being too sore tomorrow.  I'm feeling good, the novel is coming well, I'm right in the midst of the suspense of my novel and the story is so creepy that I'm getting scared just writing it. 

Onward to 25,000!

Script Frenzy and All Nighters

A quick blog entry, and then I'm going to work on my novel.  For reals.

Two things I wanted to share with you, dear readers.  The first is that I am planning on staying up all night to work on my novel/do other things unrelated to working on my novel.  Aaron has inventory at work tonight; he left about two hours ago and won't be home until 6 or 7 AM probably.  So being the supportive girlfriend that I am, I'm going to attempt to stay up for as much of that as I can, puttering away on my trusty laptop, so that I can sleep in with him tomorrow.  Not that sleeping in is usually a problem for me.  So as I embark on my own Night of Writing Dangerously, my word count stands at 22,660 and at bare minimum, I would like to hit the halfway point of 25,000.

The second thing I wanted to tell you about is that I am seriously considering doing Script Frenzy in April.  For those of you who do not know what this is, it is a sister operation of sorts of NaNoWriMo and is for writing screenplays, plays, TV scripts etc.  I have never participated in Script Frenzy but I've recently become intriegued by the idea of writing a screenplay.  I have a couple of ideas that wouldn't work great in a novel but I think would make a great movie.  So I'm bouncing that idea around in my head.  We'll see.

Well, Aaron just called and he forgot something here that he needs for inventory, so I'm going to run that down to him.  Then I'll start on the nightly word count when I get home.

Fly, fly away!

It was with great sadness and a few tears that I learned last night that Dave Niehaus, the long-time play-by-play announcer of the Seattle Mariners and Seattle icon, passed away at his home in Bellevue at the age of 75.  From the time I was a little girl, I listened to baseball on the radio.  Dave Niehaus was there every summer night for my youth, my high school years, my college years, and into my twenties.  His colorful visions of the game prompted Gene Autry to remark once, "The best game I ever saw was the one I heard Dave Niehaus do on the radio."  He threw out the first pitch at the Mariners first ever game in 1977.  He was chosen by the fans to throw out the first pitch at Safeco Field.  He was there for every great moment, every depressing season and every emotional victory along the way.  His calls, his voice and his enthusiasm for the game were broadcast through Seattle for years.  He was more a part of the city than the brick and stone that  make it up, and to many of us, he was the voice of baseball.

Summers will never be the same without him, baseball will never be the same without him, and Safeco Field will certainly never be the same.  He summed up all that is great about baseball, the green grass, the smell of hotdogs and the warm summer nights at the ballpark.  He brought the joy of the game into houses all over the state and the country, and he will be very sorely missed. 

So grab a glass of beer, get out a hotdog, some rye bread and mustard, and raise a toast to a man whose voice warmed our hearts.  To Dave.

Writing as a career?

For about two years now, I have had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I dropped out of college at 20 because I didn’t want to take out student loans if I didn’t know what I was going to use my degree for. Since then, I have been working at Blockbuster trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. My parents are getting anxious.

Well last night, the answer seemed to hit me. Ever since I was a very small child, I wanted to be an author. It wasn’t until I was a teenager and realized that being an author is not a sure source of income, that I tried to choose a different career path. Well last night I decided that I should just go for it. I’m 22 years old, I have quite a bit of life ahead of me before I have to become responsible, so if I want to become a published author, I should just try now. So I gave myself a deadline of three years, which puts me at 25. If, by my 25th birthday, I have still not made any headway towards becoming a full-time writer, then I will put my writing aside and find something responsible to do.

In the meantime, however, this is the plan. Write on my blog on a much more regular basis. If you guys enjoy reading my blog, I’d very much appreciate it if you would share it with your family and friends. This way I can establish a readership base. Second on the plan is to write at least two novels a year, revise them and seriously start querying agents. Thirdly, I will write some short stories and attempt to win contests with them and get them published to get some credentials under my belt.

On the NaNoing side of things, I am at 14,549 words!

Wish me luck!

And so it begins

Well, NaNoWriMo has officially begun.  I managed to force myself to stay up until midnight last night, and when it finally rolled around, I cheered quietly to myself and pounded out about two hundred words before passing out at about 12:20.  Today between my bus rides to and from work and my lunch break I'm at 1,505 words, nearly to my daily quota so another half hour before bed should put me up to about 2000 words.  The story seems to be working out ok, my main character is already beginning to take over the story in a good way, and I discovered that 5 Hour Energy drinks, when added to G2 low calorie Gatorade, taste wonderful, give me energy and don't make me hyper/jittery.  I felt great all day even on 5 hours of sleep and I think they may end up being a November staple.  Unlike coffee or soda or most other energy drinks, I didn't feel like I was going insane, I could focus on work instead of having my brain running a million miles an hour in six different directions, and so far no crash.  Probably a combination of the electrolytes in the Gatorade, the low sugar content and the hydration from drinking a reasonably healthy form of liquid. So all in all, a good start to NaNo.

Oh, and yesterday I happen to glance at my horoscope in a magazine.  Now I'm not particularly into that whole thing, but I have to say I was pretty happy when I saw that it said, "A creative venture of yours will be successful."  That's got to be a good omen for November.

Happy noveling!