I officially finished my first NaNo!

On the bus home today, I crossed the 50,000 word threshold. And kept going because I was stuck in the middle of an anecdote and had to get out before I could live with myself stopping. It was a great anecdote, really, though I suppose that's something you'll just have to take my word for.

Looking back at my novel, and I have looked over parts of it (which I may never do again), I've decided it's really not good. There are gems, to be sure, but the majority of it's just crap. But I suppose that's NaNo for you, making pure crap completely acceptable. I skipped both the best and worst parts of my life - middle school and high school, respectably - and I don't know why. When I started, that's what I wanted to write about the most. Now, they're nowhere to be seen.

It was a blast, and now not only do I have my very own autobiography/novel to show off (or not), I have this nifty obsession with word count. [181]

See you next NaNo!!

Hitting the finish line isn't exciting like I'd hoped it would be.

I am proof that procrastination works wonders:

So that 15-page paper that's due tomorrow, I have almost 14,000 more words added to my novel to show for it. I simply cannot bring myself to do that stupid paper, but at least I was a productive procrastinator, I suppose.

Now there's just a little meeting and some dinner to stand between me and finishing that paper. But no more NaNo. That probably would not turn out so well for my Government grade.

Disclaimer: During my writer's crisis I thought it best to switch gears on my autobiography, something I definitely couldn't have done had it been pure fiction. Instead of going from past to present, I abruptly (after a brief explanation) move from somewhere during fifth grade to talking about college and begin going backwards into the past.

I'm not sure that it's working to tell the story I want to tell, but it's definitely getting the word count up. I'm able to write so much more vividly and so much more story-like with these more recent events, just because they are so recent. Stories from so long ago were a bit hazy and read a lot more like a scattered bit of what actually happened. Those parts ended up being not very involving and not very interesting, to tell the truth. The thing is, I know the whole story, so it doesn't matter that it's out of order, but to anyone else, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's probably a good thing, then, that no one but me will ever read this little slice of my life.

I love that NaNo makes this all okay.

We saw the sun come up Sunday morning, that sneaky little bugger. It stayed pitch dark until almost 6:30, and for a while there, we were beginning to doubt that it would make an appearance at all. But it did, and we made it through (with pretty artwork to prove it)!

Overall, the exhausting experience was quite fun what with rainy walks with carrots, Taco Bell trips, and of course, our ridiculously trendy NaNo ensembles. It successfully pushed me just past the halfway mark. I don't think I'll be able to write until Wednesday, at the earliest, so thankfully I got ahead when I did. I have two large, terrifying exams tomorrow (Psych and Marketing) as well as a 15-page research paper for Government, a print ad, a Psych paper, and a team project by Friday.
Woo hoo!

Just before Thanksgiving Break, on Thursday, I will hopefully have all of that finished and can truly enjoy my Smart Monkey time with Jackie and be productive. And then, Thanksgiving!!! Which means not only a relatively relaxing break from school, but a trip to Michigan and ample time to NaNo along the way as well.

So our "staying up til the sun comes up" was buckets of fun. It wasn't as productive as I'd hoped, for me at least, but it was much more fun goofing off. We did write for most of the time, however, with minimal breaks. A brief rundown: we watched Election, then started writing at 10, fueled with caffeine/cocoa concoctions from BJs. Took a Taco Bell break at midnight, and my fashion-blind hobo look was well-received among the rude students on campus. ("I like your stripes! And I'm not just saying that to be a douchebag, I really do!!" - thank you, Mr. Drunk Basketball Player, it really means a lot.) Once we were fed and re-fueled, and one episode of LOST later, we started writing again until 2:30, when we went on a carrot-filled walk around campus in the rain and our leggings. We just missed the cutoff for ordering cookies (but more than more than made up for it with last night's stroke of delicious luck!) and then wrote til about 5:30, when we just lost it. That's where our pretty pretty artwork factors in. We watched an episode of The Office, and then it was finally 6:53 and it was officially light out. Our all-nighter was done, so Meg went downstairs to bed. I was wide awake, and frankly quite proud of myself, until I decided to lay down around 8 and woke up around 12:45, very confused as to why Scooby Doo 2 was on TV.

We're doing really well on our word counts, and it's probably a good thing that we're both ahead, seeing as this week is fiendish. I'm sure Meg will tell you her scary amounts of things to do, but I have: a Bio proposal, a Bio paper outline, a Fiction piece due (the scariest of them all), a Grammar quiz, Grammar flashcards to consequently make and study, a Latin test, and, oh yeah, a completed rough draft of my autobio for class. Fun!

Thursday Meg and I are going to be smart monkeys, and hopefully that will be a welcome stress-reliever. And then we'll have 10 days off from school to make our nanos the best things ever written in a month! :-P

Enough said.

Nano Art, circa 5:30 am.

So, I'm in the library because the rest of my classes were cancelled (yay) and I'm waiting for Meg so we can go to lunch. I went to Autobio today and Gigi handed back a packet of all the writing I've done thus far that may potentially make it into my final memoir. She had mostly really positive comments, which left me excited and anxious to perfect my autobio. But all of her suggestions revolved around a central theme. She says she loves my voice, and I have a great description and a fluid narrative; but what is missing is the me factor. She wants to get a better sense of who I am, what I think and like and feel passionately about, and why. She wants to better understand the things that I hold so dear to me: my parents, my relationship with them, my sister, my home, my neighborhood, my intimate family relationships, my identity... basically, all the heavy/central stuff. And I now know why she commented about that: I can't seem to bring myself to write about the things I cherish the most.

I've tried many times to start writing about LNT, Hannah & Sarah, my family dynamic, my extended family, my beautiful home and neighborhood, and everything I write just sucks. (I know nano writing is supposed to suck, but I'm looking at this in terms of which pieces I'm going to choose to put in my memoir, what stories I need to tell most of all. So I have to take it seriously, and really hone my voice.)

I'm holding back, and now I can really see it. I never thought it would be so hard to write about the things that really make my life worthwhile. I wrote 15 pages on youth group the other day, and I said a bunch of stuff, but it was, at the same time, nothing like what I needed to write about. I really have to work on opening up, being myself, and letting my writing really stand for who I am, and it's scary because it's a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Welcome home, Week 2 Writer's Crisis. Oh, how I haven't missed you so.

I've had a writer's crisis. Nearly one-third of the way there and I'm questioning everything.

Oh NaNo.

I applaud Meg on her major progress. She's coming along quite nicely, as am I. Spending the afternoon in the cafe was really fun, a delightful change of pace. I tackled some hard stuff today, and 14 pages later, I'm not sure if I feel sweet release or frustration, but what's done is done. And now, tomorrow, I move onto another, hopefully easier to write, chapter. The fingerless gloves really add some by-the-light-of-the-moon-in-a-dusty-attic-struggling-writer ambiance, ha. Hey, whatever works, right?

And here you thought I quit. Fear not, I just went to Canada for the weekend - probably not the best idea in the middle of an intense NaNo-ing month - but it was planned before I committed to NaNo. I brought my laptop along with me, all set to type away the four hours spent in the car and make great headway on my autobiography. However, apparently typing in moving vehicles doesn't have the best effect on my stomach so, less than 250 words in, I was calling it quits. Long story short, I came back from Canada completely exhausted and more than 5000 words behind my goal.

Yet, here I am today, almost 1000 words ahead of my daily goal. (Thank God, since the overwhelming, super-stressful part of college is quickly approaching.) I'm not quite sure how it happened, but it did, and I'm excited about it. Jackie and I went to a very Ithaca cafe in the Commons today for a change of venue to NaNo. I've decided it's something that isn't quite as necessary for an autobiography as for a piece of fiction, but it was nice nonetheless. I like the atmosphere of cafes - very conducive to novel-writing.

Looking forward to Staying Up Until the Sun Comes Up!
Expect some craziness then, if not sooner.

Offering up a few pearls of wisdom: first of all, please ignore the nano counter to the left. Something screwy is up with them, and as a result, our word count goal is significantly A. different from each other and B. completely off the actual target. Do, however, look at the bold number in black: that's our amassed word count, and it's accurate. Observe it and be in awe of it. Also, I workshopped one of my pieces in my autobio class today; I was a bit surprised at the feedback I got. Apparently my professor, and a few of my classmates, think that I'm holding back in my writing. I never, ever considered that to be true -- but now I'm starting to have doubts about that. Maybe I do hold back. And now, for the first time all nano, I'm having writer's block. I'm meaning to start a piece about my family & holidays, but for some reason, it's a lot harder than I thought. I think I'm afraid of not being completely honest and saying what I want to say, although I don't know why I should not want to write it. I feel like I'm perfectly good at going on and on about things (consider the amount of pages I've written about my pets & fostering), but not so good at revealing everything at its core. Oh, I don't know.

Tomorrow Meg and I are going to the commons to write in one of the cafes. Maybe inspiration and honesty will stop in to say hi.

Writing nonfiction, at least at this point in the nano game, is so much easier than writing fiction. And my hamsters -- my darling boys -- are SO noisy at night!!!!!

Apparently, I am a nocturnal writer. Two nights of NaNo, two nights where I made my word count within the eleven o'clock hour. I'm just slightly ahead of schedule, which I would love to keep up because, right now, it's all that's keeping me on the "ham" side of the plate in this thing.

So the first 48 hours of so of nano have been just fine. Meg and I toasted each other with our sparkling grape juice and got to work right at midnight. We wrote together for about a half hour, and we each got around 800 words. I wrote a little more after she left, and by the time I went to bed, I had already reached my word count. I continued to write after I slept and went to class, but now, two days into it, I'm afraid there's been a change of plans. I think I've decided to do nonfiction -- I had wanted to do it over the summer, and had planned on it. But that's before I had to write my autobio for class; I thought fiction would be good in addition. But come to think of it, I really do feel that at this point in my life, right now, the best thing for me, is to write nonfiction. I want to write a full-length autobio. I look at it this way: chances are, I'll never be motivated to write a book length autobio again (unlesss I do it in another year's nano, but why not do it when it's fresh in my mind?), and I can always write fiction another time. So, as soon as I convince myself fully, I will switch over to nonfiction. I wrote almost 5k of my autobio last night and this morning, so I won't even be behind. We'll see.

In other news: Nano (aka Schizo) and Ace are the best, smartest hamsters ever!! I just adore them already.

I've decided that NaNo scares me. Commencement is less than 3 hours away, and our elaborate preparation period is officially over. It's finally hitting me.

I am so anxious right now that I can't really even think of much to say. Still, I did want to drop in to point out the new feature I added over to the left. It took a little finagling, but I finally got those little jewels over from the NaNo website where they belong and working. Yay!

Hopefully I'll find some words when midnight rolls into NaNo Headquarters, where Jackie and I will be wearing our thinking caps, sipping our "champagne," and with any luck (on my end), typing furiously.

I know I'm hogging this. But I'm very wordy -- and quite anticipatory!! Less than three hours before we're on our way. And now Meg has this trendy little word counter thingamajig to tell the world just how far we've come. We should link our nano profiles to the site too. Today, Meg and I savored our last beautiful hours of freedom before midnight sends waves of inspiration down our spines -- we went shopping. We went to Wegman's for munchies (beverages so we can always be hydrated, baby carrots, chips, and sparkling cider in lieu of champagne, which we will drink tonight), Target for our stylish gear: my newsboy hat (I am wearing it as we speak, and loving it dearly), leggings (they were bought sort of on a whim, and there's a lot of material to work with, not to mention it's a strange something to get used to, but now we love them... and I haven't been able to take mine off yet... I did put jeans on over them, but they're just so damn comfortable!) and, of course, my soon-to-be-fingerless gloves ($1.49 for four gloves!! -- two green, for everyday writing, and two black, for any brooding, morose writing). We stopped into a pet store or two to check out the going rate for guinea pigs and hamsters (I really want two hamsters, we planned it all out) and The Dollar Store for champagne flutes.

The room's pretty much cleaned and stocked and ready to roll. We're just anxious to get through the next coupla hours. Oh my, nano's really here!!

Staring at Mr. Potato Head who will be our current mascot until we get hamsters,
j (is that too hip? can I pull it off?)

Hello again. I thought it best to freshen this site up a bit, considering nano 06 has ants in its pants and is practically here. Yes folks, in roughly 28 hours, novel craziness will set in. Frankly, its a yummy combination of excitement, dread, and scaredy-cat fear, but we'll do the best we can. I've been mulling over some ideas, mainly how to start and how many verbacious (I was going for something like loquacious, and probably should have settled for verbose, but verbacious sounds far trendier and quite hip, so I'll use that) characters I can think up. Whatever keeps the word count climbing.

What's a shame is that I had such a clever little post thought out in my strange quirk of a brain, but it dissipated and retreated to the far corners of my mind long before I decided to hunker down and write something. It was quite humorous, I kid you not.

I'm watching Deal or No Deal and I have to say, it's so addicting. I smell a month full of case-picking, deal-refusing, bald-Howie distractions. You know, something to gnaw on between bags of baby carrots. Speaking of, Meg & I have quite an adventurous afternoon planned tomorrow. It involves Target (elitely pronounced Tar-jay), a hat, some gloves (which I will hack at violently to rid them of fingertips...), leggings (yeah, we are going to be SO stylish), carrots, and other nano nourishment. Please donate to our fund. We are starving artists -- literally -- and are in desperate need of care packages. The larger the better. Thanks and mazel tov and kudos in advance.

I do toy with writing an autobio instead of fiction, especially considering that my autobio is the major project I'm going to have to intersperse with nano. But when it comes down to it, I want to write fiction. I want to build up my own world and, if the mood so strikes, destroy it later. Because I can. So I will.

Trying to think of various eccentric plot points and delicious supporting characters,
- Jackie (but you may call me J-Ro, or Jon Luc, whichever you may prefer)

50,000 words.
30 days.
1 novel.

A simple challenge. Actually, it probably couldn't even be considered a challenge - more like a joking suggestion - from my co-blogger, Jackie, and here I am just days away from starting what could be the next Great American Novel. Or not.

And that's just fine with me. You'd think, being a bit of a perfectionist and whole lot of pathological procrastinator, penning a 175-page novel in a contest that allows no room for compulsive editing and not a whole lot of time for the "I'll get to it eventually" excuse would be quite a problem. After all, there's nothing enjoyable about letting a month of your life become completely consumed with what will, in all actuality, turn out to be a piece of crap. But, you see, there is.

First of all, I have Jackie by my side in this whole adventure. We have the entire next week before us planned in preparation for the great month that is November. Then, once we've hit the ground running at midnight on the 1st, of course, our schedule is chock full of both the fun and ridiculous to help us get through the month with our sanity intact and, with any luck, two wonderful novels.

And, most importantly, I'll be able to throw aside everything that's stopped me from writing in the past and finally get something done. NaNoWriMo was started for the "1-day novelist" and, as one such novelist, I'm prepared to take full advantage.

Wish me luck. Wish Jackie luck. Stay tuned for our insanity, moments of desperation, and bursts of motivation. When we cross the finish line, it will all have been worth it.

Hello blogging world. It's almost 11 on Wednesday night, and you know what that means: the countdown to NaNoWriMo 2006 is officially in full swing. Less than a week people, can you feel the excitement? Well, you probably can't, because you probably aren't all that excited.

But I am. In fact, I'm ecstatic. I remember sitting back at my desk right before the clock struck midnight on December 1, 2005. It was a joyful yet mournful moment -- I had such an unhealthy, not-all-that-sane amount of fun during NaNo 2005, and I didn't want to let that go. My 2005 nano (I will heretoforth not capitalize it, because the tricky combination of the shift and N keys is quite a workout for my little digits) novel, Incendiary, was for the most part worthy of a life of toilet paper. Alright, so that may not be entirely true -- parts of it did surprise me. I loved discovering that I had a subplot or two, and some descriptions/dialogue rather pleased me. It would have been nice to have actually concluded my novel; even after hitting 50k, I neglected to give my characters a proper goodbye.

I'm really excited for this month for a couple of reasons. First, Meg will be my companion in crazy. While hers will fall more on the fictionalized autobiographical side, mine will be pure, sadistic (well, I hope not, but you never know what my twisted mind might think of at 2am after a late night run to Taco Bell...) piece of fiction. But it will be so much fun to have a fellow nano-er at my side. We're turning my dorm room into nano headquarters -- it'll be the purtiest room this side a' Terrace 3. And we've got so many fun things planned: among them, scoping out local cafes (if we're daring, we may even head over to Magical Cult Coffeeville) and staying up til the sun rises (oooh boy).

I know that the month will simply fly by. Waiting for 12am on 11/1, however, is the hard part. Well, that and thinking of the next great American novel. But I'm working on it. In the meantime, we have a calendar to make, a room to transform, and carrots to buy. I would also like to reread No Plot No Problem (every nano-er's guide) and even take a peak at my nano 2005 book to jog my memory of the insanity. All in all, it should be a good time.

We'll keep you posted with our progress, our craziness, and our darling little creative masterminds, so remember this site. Favorite it. Bookmark it. Tell it to your friends. Love it. Need it.

- Jackie (and yes, as you can tell from the previous entry, I have an insatiable desire to tell people what my name is, in all capitals, more often that could be conceivably normal)

MY NAME IS JACKIE