A Blur

Wow. I just wrote a couple thousand words in a couple hours.
That's pretty stunning for me. Definitely not typical. I do have a pretty strong idea of where I'm going, however, and I'm feeling comfortable in the setting I've invented, so I'm sure that contributes.
I'm up to over 12K words (actual number there on the right), which is below where I "should be" if I were writing an equal amount every night, but I'm steadily gaining ground on the "should be" number. Actually, what I'm more concerned about than getting where I "should be" is making the most of the time that I do have in the chair and writing a thousand words an hour, rather than the five hundred I usually produce. That way I have time when I can get out and play and not feel pressured! :D

Progress!

Well, it's been a long slog, but I've made some good progress today. I'm up to... 7661 words right now. That's several thousand below where I *should* be, but it's making progress. Things are going much more smoothly now that I have my (muahahahahahaha) plan. Hopefully the rest of the day today and tomorrow I should be able to make more progress.

Jeri issued a writing challenge and then posted her own response to the challenge. I, amazingly enough, have managed to meet the challenge myself. In a nutshell, it is: Write a short short piece titled - or themed - either “Karachi by Monday” or “The Pakistani Schlep”. Both of these are inspired by our friend and fellow UCFer, Saqib Sadiq, getting engaged! Yay, Saqib! (He's also generously posting peek at the experience for us foreigners. Again, yay, Saqib!)

My "entry" is under this link and is an excerpt from my NaNovel. Interestingly enough, I managed to work in another writing challenge in there. My fellow UCFers should be able to spot it.

Later: My final count for the day, 8346 - 4K more than I had this morning. :)

Depths and Heights

Well, I slacked off yesterday too, 'cause my siblings and their S.O.s asked me out to dinner and a movie. We went to see RocknRolla, the latest Guy Richie film. Very funny, if a bit rushed at the end. The music was great (heavy bass beat, which I like) and the guy who plays the RocknRolla himself is great. Actually, I found the acting in general to be top-notch. Gerard Butler is, as usual, yummy to look at and yummy to listen to. I think one of the things Guy Richie does best is to show how men (friends and enemies) relate to each other. It's one of the things I like best about his movies. So anyway, I recommend it (4 out of 5).

So, I'm in a wordcount hole, mainly because I have some great characters and a great setting, but no plot/conflict. This morning, I sat down with a piece of paper and hashed out a plot. I had dropped in one piece of mystery into the already written part of the story and then drew out the thread of the story from there. I've got the whole thing roughly sketched out. I'm hoping for some of the motivations to develop some inspired qualities once I get there, but for the moment, I have a map. So, HURRAY, writing should be easier from here forward! I'm working in yWriter, which has places to write in Chapter headings and descriptions, so I've done that. Unfortunately, it doesn't count them towards the word count. I could manually add it, of course, but it's only a few hundred words, so in theory it shouldn't make or break me. So I'm very optimistic about my word output this weekend.

What is the depth? I just finished the last of Janiece's apple butter. I had been rationing it, a small spoonful here and there, but now it's all gone. :(

Escapism

Yesterday, I cooked dinner, watched a little TV and got caught up on my internet. I did not write a word. :(

So, tonight, I went out, had dinner and drinks with a friend, and got back in time to go to bed at a decent hour. I figure, if I know I'm going to dick around, I'd better enjoy it.

I'll work on catching up tomorrow and this weekend. :P

WOW.

It's actually scary to listen to the speech of someone who speaks so well and so much to the heart. I love that he reached out to those who did not vote for him. I love that he pointed out that the work has only just begun. (Because he's right. There's a long road ahead.)

It's scary to have my hopes raised so high.

Scary, but thrilling.

Wow. What a moment.

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Makes me proud to be an American.
I love diversity. I think it's one of the best things this country has going for them. I simple do not understand those who want to be surrounded by those who are exactly like themselves. Intellectually, I know it's about fear, but I still don't really get it.
Like Michelle, I'm a little teary eyed about what this election says about the maturity of the American voter. A pundit on CNN pointed out that this doesn't mean that there isn't anymore racism, but that people are voting for Obama *in spite* of their own racism. I would point out also, *in spite* of the fact that he has a foreign sounding name. It was something that was extremely apparent to me when looking at my ballot. There is no hiding that his name is so different from the Joe Schmoe Anglo name.
Here's Jim's response.
Here's Janiece's well-written "Open Letter to President-Elect Barack".
John Scalzi has Reality Check post I think is a good antidote for some of the extremist kool-aid that's been drunk by both sides.
(Others to be posted as they appear.)
For perspective on John McCain from a former Navy man, here's Jim's post on McCain. (He's pretty rough on the guy, but then again, McCain betrayed something Jim really knows the value of -- his honor as a naval officer.)
More from Michelle and Nathan (stole a link from him, see below).

And to address the breaking of a racial barrier, here is Whoopi Goldberg (Isn't that a Jewish name?) and our own MWT, an American of Asian descent.

I'm good for me :)

I made chicken stock this weekend with the bones from the dinner party and so, of course, tonight I made chicken noodle soup!



It was really yummy, with pieces of chicken, noodles, carrots, green onions, edamame, and sliced mushrooms. Yumm!

Is it because of this kind of thing that I got the following results?

35.5 miles per gallon

Created by The Car Connection

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Hmm, I'm only up to 3901, but I'm sure I'll make it up soon. :/

Let Sleeping Cats Lie

Some of you know that I have perfectly adorable kitties. Here's some proof:



In other news, I've written almost 500 words this morning. I went back and tweaked the opening scene so it runs in a more fruitful direction and added some information. Technically, I'm not supposed to be editing my work yet, but :P to that. Now, I need to procrastinate by putting some food on to cook and some laundry in the machine. Multi-tasking, it's the wave of the future!

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Later:

Again, I got lots done -- made chicken stock, cleaned out cat bathrooms, (hmm, didn't do laundry), cleaned up the dining table, and started collecting leaves. AND got my quota of writing done. I'm up to 3508 words, which is basically on track for finishing in time, if I write the same amount every day. Generally, in the past though, I've tried to get ahead (or catch up) on the weekends, as I don't get a lot done on the weekdays. We'll see how it goes.
I've got a decent track going on the story, and I have a strong feeling about where my story is the strongest. The best part is that I like my main characters. :)

Tomorrow, it's back to work! :P

Procrastination Productivity

Ah, procrastination. So far (at 7:30 pm), I've gotten tons of things accomplished today, but not much writing. Mainly, I did a bunch of financial housekeeping I needed to get caught up on. I also did some other errands around the house. And now, having gorged myself on procrastinatory productivity, I'm going to get my minimum words out before I... hmm, I can already think of something else that needs to be done (the cat bathroom needs to be cleaned!). Fortunately, I'm already on the computer. I'll come back and let you know how I've done. ;)

Later, around 11:30 pm: Whew! I got just over the minimum 1670 words done today. Hopefully it'll start getting a little smoother. :/