…are on order [again]. Maybe they’ll actually come this time, and I can hold them in my hands. I don’t really want to watch them right now. I just want to have them in case I want to watch them [particularly the eps where Spike is tied up in Giles’ basement or using the BuffyBot — hilarious].

A Jareth action fig, sculpted by NECA, debuts in March 2007. I saw the news here. Maybe this will compensate for the canceled Palisades 12″; I’ve heard that NECA sculpts are very detailed and realistic. I still wanted a 1:6 mass-produced Jareth, though. No pictures yet, but I’ll post ’em when I have ’em.

I found a great site for some free TV: http://www.dailymotion.com

Over there I’ve been watching many hours of two shows. One is House, which is, of course, about a brilliant asshole doctor, medical mysteries and his untermensch staff. This show really tries to be a medical show or some sort of procedural [like Law & Order in the hospital] or even a drama, but it really is a comedy at base. The stock plot — dramatic falling ill, weird symptoms, doubting co-workers, brilliant deductions by House, diagnoses + fascinating/revealing/icky revelations about the sufferers involved — are so fixed that I don’t notice them, although I do like to see what weird disease cocktail the writers think up next. Plot aside, the show basically consists of House proving what a genius he is and making fun of other people. Since he’s always completely vindicated, despite his momentary hang-ups, his triumphant conclusions are never in doubt, so I just go along for the ride, laughing mostly at the character’s ruthlessness and arrogance. Laurie’s long resume as a comic actor serves him well here, as his expressions add hilarious nuances to his condescending remarks. So basically House is an hour of a magnificent bastard making faces. Being a sucker for magnificent bastards, especially when they make faces, I really enjoy this show.

The other show that I’ve caught up on is Heroes. Like a comic book in TV form, it tracks the slowly interlocking story of a bunch of adolescents and post-adolescents who have superpowers. This show leaves me emotionally unegaged [except for the story involving the cheerleader, realistically and engaging played by Hayden Panetierre, and her evil dad] and the creators can’t really create strong female characters. However, I really enjoy the leisurely way in which the stories unfold, then slowly interlock. The show’s structure, suspense and clean use of comic tropes pulls me in. Although they could do without the pretentious beginning and ending narration.  

I also tried watching some Smallville season 6, but so far it’s a big fat turd without much soapiness to make for enjoyably slumworthy viewing. There’s also some Gilmore Girls up there, for those interested. AND LOTS OF SOUTH PARK!

Now I just have to find me some Supernatural [available on dailymotion.com, but in French dub] and, of course, BTVS! 

EDIT: You can find the latest eps of some primetime NBC shows on their Web site: http://www.nbc.com . Beware, though — there’s nothing beyond the latest ep, and each ep appears in 5 chunks of 8 minutes. I do have more success loading NBC shows than I do with ABC shows, though.

First off, my NaNo word count total is greater than 50474. It’s closer to 51272. Would you believe that I forgot to count a whole day’s production in my final tally? Anyhow, NaNo won’t let me update my word count, now that I’ve won, so I’m just making that note here.

Secondly, I gave my opus a cursory read-through (all 110, single-spaced, 12-point pages of it) this morning. So far the characters seem consistent, engaging and well differentiated, each with distinctive voices (very important when most of the story is just them talking). The overall setting (Boston area) comes through clearly, although I need to work on the setting of specific scenes. (I tend to get caught up in the dialog to the neglect of the setting.) The tone, for the most part, is consistent; though the story starts out light and comic, then moves toward a more thoughtful middle, Sarah’s melodramatic, sarcastic, slightly pedantic and wry voice remains the same throughout, which gives the tone some continuity. Despite its small focus on two or three people, it feels like a busy active novel, not overstuffed, but realistically populated with primary, secondary and tertiary players. (All that work on the backstories of bit players in Sarah’s life pays off, I guess!)

In summary, I’m proud of myself for having reached the NaNo goal. I’m also proud of myself for producing a substantive, compelling part of a story that I still like and want to write, even though I’ve been eating, breathing and sleeping it for the past three and a half weeks. In other words, NaNo helped me gain a lot of ground on a promising project, one that I think could actually go somewhere [maybe to a publishing house].

My final word count for the NaNo project is 50474. I’m very proud of me. I’m also very tired. We now return to our regularly scheduled lives, thank GAWD.

Those of you that have given me encouragement, especially damsel_ophelia, twigling, brennil, donals_girl and Rampant Bicycle, I salute your persistent compliments. Far more than any coffee (pictured in the miniature winner’s certificate), the accolades from you guys motivated me, giving me a great incentive to work as hard as I could on this project. Thank you very much! Also thank you to Jareth, Frank, Jennifer and my new computer.

Updates on Sarah, Milly and the hordes will continue because the story is only about half over. Updates, however, will appear on a much less INSANE schedule, spaced out over months, rather than days. For the next few days in November, I’m not writing any fiction at all because I’m freeeeeeeee. I will enjoy a vacation from my cacoethes scribendi until I need to cough up season 9 of Love Has Fangs. [Oh yeahhhhh…you remember that, doncha?]

NaNo counter says I’m at 48704, which means 1296 to go!

Official NaNo counter say 47396, which means 2604 words to go.

I’m at a momentous point in my story. I’ve just finished writing a first draft of the most emotionally charged scene [climax?] in which Sarah and Milly have some sexual action, then break off when Milly makes her not-so-disastrous revelation.

The sexual scene between Sarah and Milly works out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Sexually charged scenes are always difficult for me to write, which means that I often shear off before the characters get too close physically. However, sex scenes can also reveal a lot about the characters because they are in a moment of great intimacy, so sexual actions can be extremely effective tools for character development. That said, the trick is to write sex convincingly.

A 10-year-old article in the Associated Writing Programs Chronicle (May/Summer 1996), entitled “A Sex Scene is Not a Sex Manual and Other Basic Principles,” by Elizabeth Benedict, forms my guide for writing good sex scenes. This is her list of general principles, quoted verbatim.

According to the NaNo counter, I have 46475/50000, or 92.95%. I have only 3525 words left. At the rate I am going, that’s one day’s work if I push myself to the point of hemorrhaging, but three days’ work at the absolute maximum if I take it leisurely.

Finally, I’m in the midst of miserable Milly revealing her secret, which is not so miserable, to surprised Sarah. Sarah is puzzled; Milly is convinced that she’s loathsome. Both of them have a lot to learn. I am nowhere near done with this!

…that I’m currently on an even 45000. I wanted to get more than 1989 words written today by this point, but I had to stop for a few hours and do some research. Sarah was telling Milly one of her stories from her Latin-teaching days. Thus I had to research Caesar’s Gallic Wars, Vercingetorix’ rebellion and Celtic/Gallic mythology so I could create a halfway convincing tale for Sarah to tell.

Okay, back to the keyboard… With the research-laden portion of this scene done, I should move a bit more rapidly.

43011 by the NaNo counter!  That’s 86.02% complete.

I have just 6989 words left. I plan to write as much as possible this weekend in the hope of finishing early.

…says that I have 42900/50000, which is 85.8%. With only 7100 words left, I feel as if I am easily coasting down a hill, speeding faster and faster past significant numerical milestones. With each day, I approach closer to the end of the project. I also find it very easy to hit my minimum word count, even to supersede it.  I am motivated not only by exciting scenes that are fun and easy to write, but also by a gigantic desire to hit 50000 words and be done with this project FOREVER. I think the desire to get it out of my life [NaNo, not the novel] provides a stronger inducement than the actual story itself. :p

I’m gonna go write some more, at least making it a nice round 43000….

With 2777 total for today, I’m at 41815/50000, or 83.63%.

Sarah and Milly are talking about Milly’s “drag queen” doll. Sarah correctly perceives it as the most important doll in Milly’s collection, which disturbs Milly deeply.

I have done 2001 words so far today, for a total of 41039/50000, or 82.08%. Right now that leaves me 6 days of 1494 a day to hit the 50000 mark.

Right now Sarah and Milly are having a tea party as a prelude to the Monkey Wrench scene. Speaking as a doll collector, I must say that Milly’s apartment, with a range of dolls from all sizes, countries and purposes, is pretty damn cool. Since I really want to write this scene, it flows more easily from my fingers than scenes that I don’t want to write so much. I have overcome the T-giving lethargy, much to my relief.

I will try cranking out some more words later today so that I can get ahead. I wonder if I could even [gasp!] finish NaNo a day early or so.

Today’s word count is 1322, for a total of 39038/50000, or 78.07%. Tomorrow I write the Monkey Wrench scene.

I’m at 977 words total so far, which leaves me 313 for later in the day after I get back from T-giving festivities.

I wrote 246 words to go toward Thanksgiving’s totals.  I have 1290 left to go for tomorrow. Why is it such a chore?

I’ve been doing my word counting inconsistently. At first I put each day’s output in a separate file, then added the days’ totals up as I went along. But I have also been keeping one continuous document of every day’s output sequentially. Sometimes I have drawn from that for my word counting.

Most recently I’ve been adding a single day’s numbers to my running total, NOT using the continuous document. Just for the heck of it, I decided to paste everything I’ve written so far into the continuous document and check the word count of that.

I thought I had written 36296.

Open Office’s word counter says 38156.

Word’s word counter says 37719.

NaNo’s official word counter says 37716. Amusingly enough, the NaNo Web site says that the official word counter errs on the generous side.

Anyway, going with NaNo’s conservative estimate, I’ve written 1420 more words than I originally calculated. That brings me effortlessly to 37716/50000, or 75.4% complete.

Let me repeat that so that you can grasp the import of this. I’m over 3/4 of the way done [with the NaNo word count — not addressing the entire novel here]! I’m also ahead of schedule because I have 8 writing days (11/23, 11/24, 11/25, 11/26, 11/27, 11/28, 11/29, 11/30) left, or over 1/4 of the time.

I’m not going to write any more tonight because I really don’t have any motivation. I had to force myself to do job-related work and NaNo-related work today. I have lost much of my concentration due to the excitement and interruption of a day off which is kind of in the middle of the week. I will therefore rest my brain until tomorrow, when I may have more energy to tackle challenging and climactic scenes.

Have a happy T-giving, if you celebrate it.

At 593 words for today already (it being a slow day at work), I have currently hit 35321, or 70.64%! 14679 words to do, at 1631 per day [including today] until the end. I must write as much as I can today before Thanksgiving tomorrow.

EDIT, 1:03 PM: So today’s goal is 593 + 1631 = 2224. I’m at 1479 now, which means just 745 more to go. Sarah and Jasmira, finally reconciling after their fight, have returned to their usual snarky banter. On Jasmira’s end, the conflict with her boyfriend Devon deepens. Though Sarah and Jasmira are getting along, soon all hell will break loose in Sarah’s life with the dreaded Monkey Wrench Scene! Why yes, I do enjoy making my characters suffer.

Special thanks to damsel_ophelia, donals_girl and LoreMistress for frequent cheerleading as I draw nearer to my goal. A simple comment adds a lot to my motivation.

EDIT, 2:56 PM: I’m at 1935 now. I need to post these updates because I am really not very motivated right now. My goal is to write at least 289 more words today and then even more so I can maybe take a day off for Thanksgiving.

I’m not sure how much time I’ll have this evening, so I’m posting latest stats. I’ve done 1906 today, which brings me up to 34361/50000, or 68.72%. I’m so close to 35,000 (639 words) that I can taste it, but I hit a natural scene break. If I do have more time today, I will definitely hit 35,000, which will leave me with 15,000 left, at an utterly manageable 1,667 words per day till the end of the month.

EDIT, 6:17 PM: 2273!!! 272 to go to 35000! …I ended up leaving 2273 as my total for the day. That means a current word total of 34728, or 69.46%.

My l33t skillz brought me 2262 words today! My total is currently 32455/50000, or 64.91%. The jury is out about whether I will reach the NaNo goal. A lot depends on my word production during Turkey Day festivities. But I feel satisfied with my progress and, most of all, with the amount of work that I have gotten done on Sarah’s novel, word limit or no.

The story feels like it’s around halfway done, maybe a little less. I have 1.5, maybe 2, more scenes before I get to the CLIMAX…or the Monkey Wrench in Sarah’s Happiness. So I’m moving along at a steady clip. I think my word counts are going up because I really look forward to writing the Monkey Wrench scene.

537 words during lunch.

2166 so far today, for 30193/50000, or 60.39%! Sarah and Milly’s first date, partly in summary, partly not, took much longer than I anticipated. They are now done and firmly within infatuation, if they weren’t before.

I may make it to 50000 after all! I’ve been increasingly hopeful as my word counts have increased, but I’m still not sure. Anyway, I have made substantive progress on my story, and I think I’ll write a bit more, since I have the time, just to see how far I can go.

Goal: 1000 more words! I can do it!

EDIT, 8:30 PM: VICTORY DANCE!! I did a total of 3252 today, or 31279/50000, for a final percentage of 62.56%!!

Today I did 1843, for a total of 28027/50000, or 56.05%.

1778 today, for a total of 26184/50000, or 53.63%.

Sarah’s talking to her sister again. Sometimes I think that the themes of sexual orientation, job frustration and romantic prospects are outweighed by the introversion vs. extroversion theme so neatly illustrated by Sarah and Jasmira.

649 during lunch today. Time for some plot-propelling summary so that the story just ain’t conversation after conversation.

And I did treat myself to something nice last night…I went to bed. :p

1776 words today, for a total of 25036/50000, or 50.07%!! I accomplished today’s goal and also finished the scene that really gets Sarah and Milly’s friendship rolling…. I’ve been very busy today, and now it is time for bed because I must have enough sleep to accomplish this weekend’s grandiose writing plans.

594 during lunch today. The conversation between Sarah and Milly picks up its humorous bent, which makes writing easier.

EDIT: Today’s goal is to make it to at least 25000 words, or 50%!

I did 1661 today, for a total of 23260/50000, or 46.52%!

Today the NaNo project concludes its 15th day, so I have officially passed the halfway mark in terms of time. I should pass the halfway mark (25000 words) later this week.

I finally got a thread for Sarah and Milly’s second conversation. Milly’s taking it into some unexpected and surprisingly personal depths…not gushy and overinformative, because she’s a refined lady, but definitely heartfelt.

I did 1318 today, for a total of 21599/50000, or 43.2%.

I also ran into my first block [still no idea for Sarah and Milly’s second conversation or first date], so I felt rather resentful to the story for the first time. My block frustrates me because I need some planning time, but I only have enough time to write, not plan. While I have the questions lurking in the back of my mind, their lack of answer pisses me off because I need answers now. Then I skipped out of the chronological order to start a scene where Sarah asks her boss for more work.

Exactly two weeks into NaNoWriMo, I feel accomplished, but also tired. I can’t wait until the project ends, and I can go back to doing other things besides writing.

I did 1218 yesterday and 1221 today, but my word counter is all messed up, so I should be at 20281/50000, or 40.56%. While daily word limits do give me finite goals, I don’t work best with such arbitrary limits. I work better when I follow the flow and breaks of the story, e.g., stopping to rest at the end of scenes, chapters or climactic points, rather than when I reach a certain word limit. Anyway, I’m not really keen on word limits, so, when this project is over, I will probably retain a low minimum [~500 words a day, you lazy bastard!], but not maximums.

I’m at 20000+ words, but I’m nowhere near 40% done with the story. In fact, when I look at my outline, I’m just about 20%, maybe 25%, of the way through. Either my story is a big one, or 50000 is a small novel.

Sarah is gearing up to talk to Milly for the second time in prep for a third and juicier conversation. I’m trying to figure out what they are going to say to each other….

I did 1513 words today, for 17842/50000, which is 35.68%.

Sarah is talking to two of her friends who live in the same building, so we have an expose on her squalid garrett and her eccentric friends. Everyone in the story is eccentric, which, interestingly enough, makes it more realistic.

Good thing I wrote a lot during lunch because I’m busy tonight so I will not have time to write. I accomplished 1262 words today, which brings me to a total of 16329/50000, which is 32.6%.

Sarah is walking home, which means engrossing and depressing description of her small, expensive apartment and apartment building. Conversation with her non-Milly friend and the non-Milly friend’s boyfriend later about, of course, Milly. Everyone except Sarah appears to be paired off in this story [well, except her boss, but he’s too obnoxious to rate a significant other]. Sarah should find this nauseating…

I did 1003 words during lunch, which is great because I’m bizzy this evening.

Only 1245 words today. That’s 15067/50000 total, or 30.13%. I would like to spend more time writing tonight because Sarah is talking to a secondary character who, unexpectedly, developed a personality and a plot-futhering purpose, but I have two overdue book reviews, so I will work on them now and maybe do more intensive writing this weekend [hahahah!].

I must investigate this more thoroughly when I have time. Apparently there’s software out there that will take much of the layout, wailing and gnashing of teeth out of constructing LHF every week.

Comic Book Creator. For PCs. 

Comic Life. For Macs.

1331 words total today!

That’s 13822/50000 done, or 27.64%. I’m consistently beating my 1200 goal!

I’m still working on the scene at Sarah’s work where she basically mopes. It did contain just a lot of dumped information about the company, but I added a narrative hook in the beginning where she argues with her boss about the menial and tedious job she’s doing. I think her boss is overdone in his flamboyant annoyingness. However, it’s just a rough draft and therefore a chance for me to express my own frustration with any past bosses, so there. :p

Yay, 423 words during lunch today! 777 more to go for my daily goal.

Now that I’m getting into the meat of Sarah’s job, I find that I need a basic Latin textbook. In her job, she is doing light edits on a first-level Latin text, and I need one for guidance…also because most of my Latin has evacuated my head. 🙁

1395 words total today!

I have a total of 12491/50000 done, or 24.98%.

My new goal seems to be working well. “How about upping the stakes?” as Jareth would say. I’ll try 1200 as a goal for a while longer, through Friday. Then I think I’ll increase the daily goal to 1450 or so.

I’m just coasting right now on material largely developed before NaNoWriMo starting: description of Sarah’s workplace and coworkers. Since she spends a lot of time there, I need some sketches of more than just the queer coworkers. Plus she’s brooding, which is a good excuse for her to wander around and procrastinate…

528 words!

I have decided that my new daily goal is 1200 words, so I’m 672 shy of the day’s goal.

And now back to the other work…

I took a leisurely amount of time yesterday to read everything I had written so far. Despite earlier misgivings, I discovered that Sarah did NOT come across as critical and negative as assumed. While whiny, melodramatic and pessimistic, she balances these traits with a very dry sense of humor, keen pyschological observations and an appreciation for beautiful details.

I also worried about the style of this story. Unlike everything else I’ve ever written, this story digresses. As narrator, Sarah is constantly telling stories aside from the main one. Her digressions may be just a sentence long, but they usually run for paragraphs or even pages. I feared that her speechifying would kill the forward momentum of the plot.

Not so. In fact, Sarah’s stories seem to work to positive effect. Because she interprets even the simplest lines of dialog, you get a clear idea of how her mind works, what she desires and what her social world is like, though she is interacting with only a few characters. All of her stories contribute to the development of the cast and the situation so, in my view at least, they make her more sympathetic and more interesting.

1331 so far today for a total of 11906/50000 = 23.8% done. Thanks for the input, Loremistress of Rampant Bicycle. I too think that a smaller quota would be better for me, my characters and my family. 😀

I’m at 9765 words, which is 19.5% done. It’s also 150 ahead of schedule.

I’m very ambivalent about the project right now. Almost 2000 words a day takes up almost all of my time. Writing becomes a chore that I resent, rather than an exhilarating project that challenges me. Well, meeting exigent word limits challenges me, but my excitement and creativity suffer greatly.

I am seriously considering dropping my word limit to something more attainable, but still challenging, like 1200 words or so, for the month of November. I clearly won’t hit 50000 words, but I will participate in the mind-altering fun of NaNo, but without self-flagellation.

Any opinions?

Doll meet and movie yesterday interfered with my word count. Darn fun…taking me away from the business of writing! I have discovered that 1923 words a day leaves me little time to do anything else besides eat, sleep, work and exercise. 1000 words a day is much more feasible, a saner alternative for me if I want to sustain my dedication as a writer and not burn out.

Yesterday I did 1547 words, which left me 376 words short of the day’s goal. However, since I’ve written a few extra words over the past few days — 137 to be exact — I’m really at 1684 for day 4, which leaves me only 239 words in the hole.

7453/50000 = 14.9% completed.

Sarah’s on the verge of meeting Milly, while the story hasn’t decided whether it is a romance or a Bildungsroman…or both. Whatever it is, it appears too sarcastic and leisurely to be chick lit.

EDIT: Now I’m out of the hole…added some description of why Sarah moved to Boston [to get away from the family!!]. 220 words so far counting toward today’s quota. 1703 to go!

So tired and unmotivated…yet I have completed 5906/50000. Too lazy to figger out percentage. Must…sleep…

Hooray! 476 words during lunch today. 1447 to go until I reach today’s goal.

Clearly my lunch-time productivity is bottoming out. However, I don’t care that much. The whole point of writing during lunch is to break up my blocks of writing time. Instead of getting home and pounding on the computer for 4 solid hours, I do 1 hour of writing at work and lessen the time spent before the screen at home.

Now it’s time for Sarah and Jasmira’s conversation…the first of the novel, so it should set the tone, illustrating their closeness and sympathy, as well as their constant competition and difficulty in truly understanding the other.

It’ll be a snap!! :p

Okay, 2010 words completed today. That’s a total of 3981 so far out of 50000, or 7.92% completed!

Sarah finally got on the phone with Jasmira, her twin sister, and Devon, her sister’s boyfriend. We finally are getting into the meat of the story, like Sarah’s loneliness, Sarah’s constant comparisons between herself and Jasmira and, of course, her own wishes for a significant other.

All my verbosity is finally paying off…getting a better idea of characters, setting and such in action. Maybe, after I do that, the events will happen quicker.

Argle bargle nargle ZOUSE!!!

EDIT: My word counter and NaNo’s are in disagreement by some 50 words, so I’ll just be sticking with mine for now and checking NaNo’s every 7 days.

669 words during lunch. 1254 to go for today!

Ladies and gentlemen, Sarah has left the building. Thank GAWD…took long enough. I fail to see how this story is going to get ANYWHERE in 50000 words, but I think I am just suffering from beginner’s myopia.

Off to crack my neck…

That is, of course, French for “yippee.” I reached today’s goal. I did 1971 words. 48029 to go! And I’m ahead of schedule!

For the record…my goal took about three single-spaced pages in 11-point Times New Roman. it also took me about 3 to 3.5 hours, including some time staaaaaaaaring at the computer screen.

Thanks to batchix and the Loremistress for early encouragement. I will keep you in mind as a reader, LM, once this atrocious draft gets banged into more acceptable shape.

Note to self: NOTHING HAPPENS in 1971 words. It’s been about 10 minutes and Sarah is still leaving work. Of course she’s saying bye to coworkers, but still…she digresses a lot. Darn loquacious erudite narrator…

Forthwith the NaNoWriMo minutiae! Got out all my documents [character sketches, Sarah’s local calendar, list of plot events], then realized that 2 of the docs [calendar and plot] didn’t open on Word because they are Open Office, which is foreign to Word, even though OO nicely opens Word files. How annoying.

Undaunted, I pushed on to…stare at the blank screen. After dwelling with Sarah, Milly, Jasmira, Devon and everyone for over a year, I’ve grown to know them intimately. But how should I start writing, actually inscribing, about them? How can I commit these full-rounded characters to a fixed form on paper that will limit their glorious multi-dimensionality?

Answer: Just write, you perfectionist. You’re making a rough draft. You can clean it up later. The point is to take advantage of this contest and its deadline, forcing yourself to finish the story that you have so painstakingly planned.

During my lunch break, I wrote, stared, fumbled. Still getting a feel for my characters in action, I made Sarah sound like a prickly bitch… There’s a fine edge between sarcastically humorous and crabby. Unfortunately, I’m not sure where it is so I trip over it frequently.

780/1923 words done for today. 1143 more to go.

Soon I will get into my groove, and the words will come much easier. Starting off is always a challenge.

Who’s reading this drivel???

My neck and shoulders continue to hurt. [Pain started yesterday, even before I starting banging on the keys.] Let this be a reminder to stretch frequently, contort myself away from the computer and drink lots of water while resting les yeux.