You're My NANOspiration Bonnie Tyler
As much as it seems to be relaxing today to have my characters reflect on everything that just happened in Chapter Ten (including the first event that almost deserves to be under my title "Lullabye For A Lost City" - a title which I feel I'm cybersquatting on until someone who's actually writing a tragedy for NANOWRIMO takes), it does feel like I'm kind of treading water (pardon the pun).
Pretty soon every character will atrophy into the internal monologue of the first few chapters and that can't happen.
The problem is that I don't have time to breathe myself and figure out what the characters should be doing instead of breathing. I think I want to put something mafia related into the book and it would definitely be possible to have Brian (the psychopathic survivalist) being chased down by the mafia now that there is absolutely no law and order in New York City. It would be something, right?
---
The reason that I don't have any time is that I got a phone call today saying the wedding in Michigan (and we're not talking southwest Michigan where they still get Chicago radio and television but way up in the pointer finger portion of the mitten) that I'm the best man for is on Saturday and not Sunday.
Yes, I am the best man ever. But I warned my friend John that he'd be better served getting someone who didn't live 6.5 hours away to do that duty. :)
The point of mentioning this is that I thought the rehearsal dinner was on Saturday and that I wouldn't have to leave Chicago until Saturday moring.
And that's a not so fast.
I have to leave Chicago on Friday early in the morning (before rush hour on the Kennedy, Dan Ryan, and Skyway make life difficult) to get to West Branch, MI (you can do the Yahoo Maps, it's not going to be a fun drive) by 3:00 p.m. to check into my hotel room and then go to the rehearsal dinner.
Then I have to get the groom really drunk and then get him to the wedding on time.
That doesn't leave too much time for dilly dallying or NANOWRIMOing.
I did postpone my minor surgery that was scheduled for tomorrow to the twenty-eighth so that does leave the time I get home from work until when I have to go pick up the rental car at O'Hare (my car won't make the Indiana border, that's almost a guarantee) to write but after that, it's probably Saturday evening after the wedding and even then the bridesmaids, groomsmen, and such will be trashing the happy newlywed's house.
I think the reason my friend made me the best man is that he knows I'm on Wellbutrin and can't drink (he's a pharmacist). That doesn't mean I can protect their house. :)
But, hey, I missed NAWRIDRUNI this year so what better way to make up for it?
Long story short though, whatever word count I reach tonight will be very near to my word count through most of the weekend. I was going to press for 30,000 tonight but sleep would probably be a good idea.
---
Damn ABC for taking away my inspiration tonight!
I make no secret that my NANOWRIMO this year is very heavily influenced by "Jericho" and "The Nine" (though in no way steals any storylines from either). And CBS brought me my post-apocalyptic survivalist inspiration with a very good episode of "Jericho" tonight.
ABC let me down by showing the 2-hour premiere of that new Taye Diggs show.
I needed my character driven post-traumatic event story inspiration and I didn't get it! Damn ABC!
Though on the way home from work today I remembered what one of my pre-NANO inspirations was when it played on my MP3 player (I broke my iPod Nano from last year during the summer when I stepped on it) - "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" by Bonnie Tyler.
I seriously almost named my novel this year, "Turn Around Bright Eyes." But I think I need to save that for some dude lit. :)
I've been playing it on repeat trying to get into that mood of hope and pathos that song invokes. It's not working but at least MP3 didn't let me down like ABC.
---
Just some of my favorite threads from the board for some levity if you're looking for a break (and so I have them somewhat bookmarked):
"The Let's Praise Ourselves for Excessively Minor (or Major) Accomplishments Thread!" - a thread to celebrate the littlest uplifting parts of writing.
"There comes a time in the life of every bad LitFic novel..." - a thread describing how in a multitude of different NANOWRIMO novels in the Lit Fic categories, characters somehow end up in Paris. This actually happened to me two years ago!
"How often do you check your word count?" - like a Kinsey poll on masturbation, looks like we all do it more often than we admit to.
"Teh 50K Green Bar" - adventures with everybody's favorite 13-year old. This thread is one of many when her own Toronto teammates tell her to shove it.
But this one wins the internets...
"Do Your Characters Ever Pee?" - really self explanatory.
And remember, we're all just living in a powder keg and kicking off sparks!
---
CURRENT WORD COUNT: 26,421 words
Pretty soon every character will atrophy into the internal monologue of the first few chapters and that can't happen.
The problem is that I don't have time to breathe myself and figure out what the characters should be doing instead of breathing. I think I want to put something mafia related into the book and it would definitely be possible to have Brian (the psychopathic survivalist) being chased down by the mafia now that there is absolutely no law and order in New York City. It would be something, right?
---
The reason that I don't have any time is that I got a phone call today saying the wedding in Michigan (and we're not talking southwest Michigan where they still get Chicago radio and television but way up in the pointer finger portion of the mitten) that I'm the best man for is on Saturday and not Sunday.
Yes, I am the best man ever. But I warned my friend John that he'd be better served getting someone who didn't live 6.5 hours away to do that duty. :)
The point of mentioning this is that I thought the rehearsal dinner was on Saturday and that I wouldn't have to leave Chicago until Saturday moring.
And that's a not so fast.
I have to leave Chicago on Friday early in the morning (before rush hour on the Kennedy, Dan Ryan, and Skyway make life difficult) to get to West Branch, MI (you can do the Yahoo Maps, it's not going to be a fun drive) by 3:00 p.m. to check into my hotel room and then go to the rehearsal dinner.
Then I have to get the groom really drunk and then get him to the wedding on time.
That doesn't leave too much time for dilly dallying or NANOWRIMOing.
I did postpone my minor surgery that was scheduled for tomorrow to the twenty-eighth so that does leave the time I get home from work until when I have to go pick up the rental car at O'Hare (my car won't make the Indiana border, that's almost a guarantee) to write but after that, it's probably Saturday evening after the wedding and even then the bridesmaids, groomsmen, and such will be trashing the happy newlywed's house.
I think the reason my friend made me the best man is that he knows I'm on Wellbutrin and can't drink (he's a pharmacist). That doesn't mean I can protect their house. :)
But, hey, I missed NAWRIDRUNI this year so what better way to make up for it?
Long story short though, whatever word count I reach tonight will be very near to my word count through most of the weekend. I was going to press for 30,000 tonight but sleep would probably be a good idea.
---
Damn ABC for taking away my inspiration tonight!
I make no secret that my NANOWRIMO this year is very heavily influenced by "Jericho" and "The Nine" (though in no way steals any storylines from either). And CBS brought me my post-apocalyptic survivalist inspiration with a very good episode of "Jericho" tonight.
ABC let me down by showing the 2-hour premiere of that new Taye Diggs show.
I needed my character driven post-traumatic event story inspiration and I didn't get it! Damn ABC!
Though on the way home from work today I remembered what one of my pre-NANO inspirations was when it played on my MP3 player (I broke my iPod Nano from last year during the summer when I stepped on it) - "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" by Bonnie Tyler.
I seriously almost named my novel this year, "Turn Around Bright Eyes." But I think I need to save that for some dude lit. :)
I've been playing it on repeat trying to get into that mood of hope and pathos that song invokes. It's not working but at least MP3 didn't let me down like ABC.
---
Just some of my favorite threads from the board for some levity if you're looking for a break (and so I have them somewhat bookmarked):
But this one wins the internets...
And remember, we're all just living in a powder keg and kicking off sparks!
---
CURRENT WORD COUNT: 26,421 words
posted by incendiarymind at 8:30 PM
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