Three Characters In One Novel In A Car
Another day of life being more interesting than fiction saw me write only 1,239 words today. This leaves me at 56,756. Which I think is only about 1,500 words off my personal record of 58,000 or so (if memory serves 58,229).
I should get that tomorrow night after the hockey game I'm going to. Yes it sounds really Torontoan to go to a hockey game on the third to last night of NaNoWriMo, but I planned this way before I thought about the fact that I might be Word War Captain this month. Then again, I wonder if I were just on the team if 56,756 might be good enough to take a day off.
I'm pushing for 62,500 now I think. I just hope my 2,500 less goal isn't going to cost the team.
I skipped out on the west side writing group (which pretty much means it didn't happen since I haven't seen any complaints on the Chicago boards) tonight and slept. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow and so I hope to resume this sleep thing as soon as I finish this entry.
I have been working through lunch the last couple of days so tomorrow, Thursday, and maybe Friday I'm going to do mad writing at work.
I've been reluctant to do this with not-Kate and not-Tabitha right in the building (not-Tabitha actually sits only a couple of cubes over) but today, an odd thing happened. Truth again became stranger, and a better story than, fiction.
---
I drove to work today in anticipation of going to Atomix after work and was supposed to leave with not-Kate at about 4:20. I got stuck in a last minute phone conversation at work.
In the meantime, not-Kate went over to talk to not-Tabitha.
The phone conversation ended and I walked over to not-Tabitha's desk to retrieve not-Kate. Usually, even though she starts at 8:30 like me, not-Tabitha stays until at least 5:00 (she's our web designer and we're about to roll out a new web site in 30 days). But today she left early and I offered her a ride home as well.
Which I think shocked not-Kate more than it did not-Tabitha.
Despite the fact that I made certain parts of not-Tabitha's personality into the antagonist of my novel, I really don't hate her as such. I just don't remember anymore what I once found so fascinating about her that I got into the unrequited smittenness about her.
So we all had a pretty peaceful car ride as unlike in the novel, there's not constant animosity. There's some guarded words here and there and some cruel inside jokes (mostly from not-Kate and not from not-Tabitha) but no snappy dialog.
After we dropped off not-Tabitha (she lives in East Village, not-Kate and I live in Logan Square), the first thing not-Kate said to me was, "you both act different around each other, but you were pretty normal."
I said, "that's because I'm totally over her."
At first not-Kate didn't believe it but that I explained to her that the Sunday of trouble just sealed it. I'm not sure how not-Kate didn't figure this out (the Sunday of trouble was when I went into work on a Sunday where not-Tabitha was there blabbing in Valley Girl on her cell phone as she didn't know I was there, causing me to reevaluate everything).
We ended up talking about not-Kate's new boy and some other things and just generally having a nice car ride home. There were a few funny lines that will be added to our huge collection of inside jokes (none of which would make sense unless I spent a ton more time than I have explaining them) but nothing story-worthy (besides the fact that she said she hadn't given up hope for me despite the events of eight days ago).
I told her pretty much everything I said in here yesterday (I'm always amazed she's so cool with being the FMC in my story's basis) and she generally agreed. "It freaks me out that all of our car rides have a beginning, a middle, and an end like chapters in a book, but I've just learned to accept it," I said.
Oh, there was one event with not-Tabitha. She finally confirmed that she didn't read the 2004 NaNo novel that I gave her. Which is cool, though I really wish she had. Now, though, I'm not sure she'd entirely appreciate it like she would when I first gave it to her back in June or July.
She did apologize for not reading it though and said, "because I'm an asshole."
Now that is something that a reticent Tabitha would say. So maybe I haven't put the good not-Tabitha (which right now, the character in the book is being) too far off the mark.
I should get that tomorrow night after the hockey game I'm going to. Yes it sounds really Torontoan to go to a hockey game on the third to last night of NaNoWriMo, but I planned this way before I thought about the fact that I might be Word War Captain this month. Then again, I wonder if I were just on the team if 56,756 might be good enough to take a day off.
I'm pushing for 62,500 now I think. I just hope my 2,500 less goal isn't going to cost the team.
I skipped out on the west side writing group (which pretty much means it didn't happen since I haven't seen any complaints on the Chicago boards) tonight and slept. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow and so I hope to resume this sleep thing as soon as I finish this entry.
I have been working through lunch the last couple of days so tomorrow, Thursday, and maybe Friday I'm going to do mad writing at work.
I've been reluctant to do this with not-Kate and not-Tabitha right in the building (not-Tabitha actually sits only a couple of cubes over) but today, an odd thing happened. Truth again became stranger, and a better story than, fiction.
---
I drove to work today in anticipation of going to Atomix after work and was supposed to leave with not-Kate at about 4:20. I got stuck in a last minute phone conversation at work.
In the meantime, not-Kate went over to talk to not-Tabitha.
The phone conversation ended and I walked over to not-Tabitha's desk to retrieve not-Kate. Usually, even though she starts at 8:30 like me, not-Tabitha stays until at least 5:00 (she's our web designer and we're about to roll out a new web site in 30 days). But today she left early and I offered her a ride home as well.
Which I think shocked not-Kate more than it did not-Tabitha.
Despite the fact that I made certain parts of not-Tabitha's personality into the antagonist of my novel, I really don't hate her as such. I just don't remember anymore what I once found so fascinating about her that I got into the unrequited smittenness about her.
So we all had a pretty peaceful car ride as unlike in the novel, there's not constant animosity. There's some guarded words here and there and some cruel inside jokes (mostly from not-Kate and not from not-Tabitha) but no snappy dialog.
After we dropped off not-Tabitha (she lives in East Village, not-Kate and I live in Logan Square), the first thing not-Kate said to me was, "you both act different around each other, but you were pretty normal."
I said, "that's because I'm totally over her."
At first not-Kate didn't believe it but that I explained to her that the Sunday of trouble just sealed it. I'm not sure how not-Kate didn't figure this out (the Sunday of trouble was when I went into work on a Sunday where not-Tabitha was there blabbing in Valley Girl on her cell phone as she didn't know I was there, causing me to reevaluate everything).
We ended up talking about not-Kate's new boy and some other things and just generally having a nice car ride home. There were a few funny lines that will be added to our huge collection of inside jokes (none of which would make sense unless I spent a ton more time than I have explaining them) but nothing story-worthy (besides the fact that she said she hadn't given up hope for me despite the events of eight days ago).
I told her pretty much everything I said in here yesterday (I'm always amazed she's so cool with being the FMC in my story's basis) and she generally agreed. "It freaks me out that all of our car rides have a beginning, a middle, and an end like chapters in a book, but I've just learned to accept it," I said.
Oh, there was one event with not-Tabitha. She finally confirmed that she didn't read the 2004 NaNo novel that I gave her. Which is cool, though I really wish she had. Now, though, I'm not sure she'd entirely appreciate it like she would when I first gave it to her back in June or July.
She did apologize for not reading it though and said, "because I'm an asshole."
Now that is something that a reticent Tabitha would say. So maybe I haven't put the good not-Tabitha (which right now, the character in the book is being) too far off the mark.
posted by incendiarymind at 8:11 PM
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