This Year It Really Is T.G.I.O.

Well it's all over but the shouting (otherwise known as the awards) and in the end, Toronto pulled it out by 110,000 words (I'm not going to say anything but there's a certain 110,000 words that might not have been written under certain other circumstances). Chicago put up a valliant fight until the very end and it's a good thing that we did or we might have actually lost out to New York City.

The final standing are as follows:

1. Toronto - 2,980,059
2. Chicago - 2,875,287
3. New York City - 2,859,051

16,000 words. That's how much we ended up beating New York City by and it might not have happened without the dedicated crew that was at the final write-in tonight at Open Books. And special thanks go out to Atlantistale who had the idea to have a mega-word war. It was :30 of war followed by an :05 break followed by :30 more of war.

And I don't even know how much Chicago wrote during this but it was way more than 16,000 words.

---

The most important thing to me personally though was that I wrote 9,581 words today to finish with a total of 70,433 for the month.

That is a record that I don't think will ever be broken.

I think that I should have attended a couple more write-ins. Not that they helped me out much in the way of word count (though I highly doubt I would have written 7,583 words in five hours if it wasn't for being at the write-in) but the people there would start talking about something and I would incorporate it into the novel.

It was responsible for what I think is the funniest passage in my whole novel (though about the least work safe):

“Should we make irishlion29 say he’s hung like a horse?” Andy asked.

“No one is actually hung like a horse, Andy,” Kate said, trying to stifle a laugh, “and don’t you think that screams personal ad? We don’t want this guy to seem too desperate or else Tabitha’s not going to go for him.”

“I’m hung like a horse,” Andy said.

“No Andy, you are hung like a pony,” Kate said.

“Isn’t a pony hung like a horse?” Andy asked.

“According to Wikipedia, a pony is not hung like a horse. And neither are you Andy.”

“Can I at least be hung like some large dog, like a German Shephard.”

“No, Andy, you’re hung like a Canadian.”

“Well if I’m hung like a Canadian, than I’m hung like a proud Newfoundland fisherman named Pierre.”

“No, Andy, you’re hung like a dead fish.”

“Well, if I’m a dead fish, then I never stopped trying to grab the hook.”

“You know what they say, winners never quit and quitter never win. But you’re obviously not a winner and you just won’t stop.”

“Why should I quit, I’m as prolific a speaker as Longfellow.”

“Stop it right now. Quit talking about your anatomy, you’re so not a Longfellow.”

“I’ll quit if you quit,” Andy said.

“Then you’re for sure never going to win.”

“But I like that, let’s say he’s really into obsure Irish authors,” Andy said.

“I think that Longfellow was actually American,” Kate said, “what are you, Donovan?”

“I’m sorry, but everyone knows that Bruce Lee was Chinese except for Donovan. Who actually knows who Longfellow even is?”

“Obviously no woman who ever slept with you.”

“Well, there was that one girl from Nantucket.”

“But she slept with everyone, so fuck it,” Kate said. By this point, I think most of them must have been round because they were both rolling on the floor. They were also both as red as our main competitor’s envelope where it wasn’t out of anger. I almost expected them to go into the room with the bed at that point but they didn’t.

“That’s what she said,” Kate said. I had noticed her starting to slip out of the chair and I knew it was inevitable that she was going to fall on the floor. This was the point that she did.

Somewhere I think in there is that golden moment that everyone will be talking about for years to come. It's my "night trains were the worst" or my "don't worry sweetheart, it's not that small" moment. Funny how two of the three involve dick jokes. I guess they're more universal than anything else except for fart jokes.

The whole thing got really raunchy in the end as I think no one was on much sleep.

But the lack of sleep is something that I intend to correct this weekend, to a point. Though I don't know how much of that there's going to be.

I corrected it a bit this morning by calling in sick to work. I wrote from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. actually but it was probably better for my word count that I slept from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

As of tomorrow, it will be good to stop writing about movies and to actually start watching them again. And I took some photos at the write-in tonight so I'm starting to go back into non-November mode there as well.

December is a new month and while I'll miss November this year, there has never been another T.G.I.O. party where I so agree with the sentiment.

One More Session And Everyday I Wrote The Book

I think I'm going to type just past midnight today which means that I'm going to write every day in November this year. This is, by far, a first. I don't know if I'll ever do it again even if I participate in NaNo until I'm old.

And I just might since these stories are almost like bookmarks in my life. Each year they end up being a collection of my observations on the world condensed into one handy little (well 200+ pages in most cases) tome. Even though I've only LuLued the 2004 book (because it was the only one I finished), I still have the 2005 and 2006 writings around - though I've never even started to read the 2006 disaster.

I'm not one of those that burns their old manuscripts or anything. Despite how awful they are, they are still a piece of my life that I may one day want to just look at and recall. Even if I hate the prose, there's a little something of my life in each.

One thing that I didn't mention in any of these blog entries was that on October 30 while I was driving home from Taco Bell (food for every NaNoers unhealthy November soul), I heard "Everyday I Write The Book" by Elvis Costello.

It was pretty inspiring to write the book every day.

I just found out a couple of hours ago that I am going to karaoke with not-Kate and her friend (the one from the car ride of narrative proportions) on Saturday. That was actually where I originally met her friend (sang "Punk Rock Girl" that night).

Anyway, not getting my hopes up in any way, shape, or form. But point of the story (which some story this month has to have a point since my novel doesn't) is that I'm going to sing it on Saturday.

And it will never have had more meaning.

---

Tonight I beat my previous high word count for any previous NaNo (which I think is 58,229). Though somewhere in the back on my mind, 62k is saying it's an important number so maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, even if I did write 62,000 back in 2004 (I know the overall novel ended up 92,000 on December so I must have gotten close), I should shatter that tomorrow.

Yesterday, after wanting to stop drunk writing but not, I wrote 717 words from 12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. I was exhausted today. But I slept a lot and ended up writing a whopping 2,639 words this evening.

The total of 3,356 words for the day was my second highest of the month. So much for not having much left to write. I broke 60k with a total of 60,852.

This means that 65k is totally attainable tomorrow at the write-in. If I don't call in sick to work, I'm going to try to go right after work. Though tonight I discovered that my laptop's power cord only works in some outlets now.

This is not good news.

At least it blew at the end of November this year and not the start and there was no fire involved.

---

Speaking of fire, Team Chicago has almost reached it's goal of an average of 50k per person.

That was the magic mark that I thought no team would be able to beat (2,750,000). Toronto is almost at that goal tonight. It is going to take some real umph to push through and beat them tomorrow so I hope Chicago has it in them. We're nearly 60,000 behind.

But there's no shame in losing to any team that puts up 3,000,000 words and Toronto is going to be really close to that.

It's like losing to a team in fantasy football that puts up 200 points. There was just no way, even if you scowered the waiver wire and played every position perfectly that anyone is going to beat that.

If someone bowls a 300, there's no way to bowl a 301.

Still, I think Chicago may have a few people already at the write-in tonight who may not have updated their word count for the day yet. I don't think we're really down 60,000 at the end of the day and we made up a bigger deficit than that once before.

I am not going to slack for my part this time. The last day of NaNo is 10 minutes away as I type this and I'm going to try to make the most of it.

At least I'll write a little in it and have all 30 days writing the book.

Why I Shouldn't Write Or Talk While Drunk

So I am drunk right now and I'm still starting to plug away at the novel. I have only written about, well exactly, 790 words tonight. The last 365 were in a word war and I'm not even sure they make any sense.

I know that I suddenly had Kate seduce the first guy that walked through the door when she saw Andy and Tabitha standing there and greeting people (nothing is happening there). This caused Andy to act like Kate and goes into pause mode. I actually made a "Freaky Friday" reference to explain it all but I don't know if that even made sense.

I'm now at 57,496. I put in the forum that I wanted to hit 60,000 tonight but that's not going to happen.

I could but I think work might be very interesting tomorrow regardless.

---

See, I'm pretty drunk right now (though I'm sobering up as I write this).

I went to the Blackhawks/Lightning game tonight and before, me and the motley crew of co-workers and roommates of co-workers went to a bar at Madison and Racine (I believe it was called the Third Rail).

I'm a very slow drinker but I had two there and then two more at the game. And so four drinks in the time I'd usually have two has sapped my sanity.

On the car ride home, I told the girl who doesn't want to be in the story far too much about our mutual friend (not-Kate). I don't even know where it came from but I know that I'll end up hearing about it in the near future (if not tomorrow). Not that it's embarassing but it's still not something I should have spoken out loud as some people don't know how to interpret what I say.

I was still totally logical about the whole thing but I have to say that when I'm drunk, it's not good if I'm around not-Kate.

---

Oh, but what is good is that Chicago seems to have by a miracle (a miracle known a cavafy and ilyq) taken the lead on Toronto again.

It's by about 30k and I'm not sure it will last but I'm pretty happy right now (even if I do have to remind cavafy not to wait 70k until they, I'm not even sure if it's a he or she, updates).

I wanted to write way more tonight than I did but maybe tomorrow I'll actually remember to e-mail myself my NaNo file and write at work.

I'm just happy that while I didn't write, my team knocked me down from the #9 word count to the #13 one.

That and while I was at a hockey game, they turned into Toronto. People who I thought stopped at 50k are now madly going again. I just hope I can get back to doing the same for the final two days.

And that I make an a** of myself no more.

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.

When Fiction And Narrative Non-Fiction Collide

I took a break from writing tonight to live the novel that is my own life.

I mentioned last Monday the awful thing that happened (well, not awful, so much as not what I expected or hoped for) and how it played out like a novel. This is so true with so many events surrounding the woman with me in the car ride. Our whole dynamic has been serialized and chapterized in a way that I couldn't even plan.

Stages in our friendship have actually been marked, though never intentionally, by the sharing of the "Up" series movies. I have to say that I was sort of planned in this at the start. I saw that she had watched "7 Up" on Netflix and I watched it on view it now. I had seen "28 Up" and "35 Up" back in a sociology class in college so I was already a fan of the series (and actually saw "42 Up" in the theater with the woman who would become the basis for Tabitha in this year's novel a ton of years ago).

We've taken turns renting the movies since then. And we've reached the end now.

Tonight I watched "49 Up" which is the latest film in the series ("56 Up" is in the planning stages right now). I don't think it will mark a huge change in not-Kate and my dynamic but I almost didn't want to watch it. It's oddly enough, been one of the things that has brought us to the point where we are now.

Which is a place where not-Kate is someone who I don't want to lose from my life for a long time. And it's not because she's actually an interesting enough "character" to base a novel around but because she generally amazes me.

A lot of people think I'm some sort of secret admirer to her. And while I don't admire her in that Valentine's Day sort of way, I do admire this woman a ton.

There's a line in the new Kanye West single "Big Brother" where he just breaks down and sings in the direction of Jay-Z (who he wrote the song about):

"If you admire somebody you should go ahead and tell um...people never get the flowers while they could smell um."

So in the mood of thanking everyone on Team Chicago who never gave up even when I did yesterday and kept pushing, I'm also in writing thanking not-Kate.

From not-Hoodie to not-Kate, you have been my inspiration and my muse this November (but not in the creepy sort of way) and I hope you continue on that way for years to come!

I won't say in this forum all of the events that shaped the non-fiction narrative that could have been just as good (if not a better) story than my fiction. But I almost wish I had written that story instead of the one I did. Though that still would have been fictionalized because it would have been far more interesting in reality if certain people fit into certain emotional roles which in reality they don't.

Maybe next year once the psychic space is great enough, I'll actually write what went on but in a fictionalized form. Though who knows where those four characters (only three of which actually made my novel) will be at that time. Life may still continue to get more interesting than fiction ever could.

If we keep having these serialized experiences (especially in the case of summer turning into fall turning into winter) I may have no choice but to write them.

---

This November is quickly winding down (though I don't know if it can happen too soon).

I'm already working with the ML to choose my successor as Word War Captain once I step down on December 2 (after presenting the awards).

And for the members of Team Chicago, they can't have a better Word War leader next year if I get my choice. We're even in preliminary discussions with who we might war next year. I'm not naming names, but it's good that we have a couple of people who speak European languages not English.

---

This month still might not be lost on the Toronto front. Chicago has been closing the gap all day and hopefully we can finally overtake them tonight.

I was quite upset at the end of the work day, however, as a Toronto writer who has been causing some issues wrote more words. But this person complied with all requested documentation (after a bunch of rigamarole) so everything is alright.

I think the whole thing has sort of strained my dynamic with Toronto's captain. This is sort of sad because she's the closest thing I have to a non-Chicago NaNo person who I might call "friend" (there's one in Seattle but she hasn't done NaNo in two years).

Which brings me to a bit of sad news. My only two real life friends (that is ones I talk to the other 11 months of the year) who I met through NaNo have both thrown in the towel for this year. Both Kim and Mary (aka the fastest girlz in Chicago) got their 50k so they did their part for the team.

But, more than that, I'm going to miss actually seeing them in November. It's just not the same NaNoWriMo without them. Oh well, I'll see Mary the next time a really good Brit rock band is in town. And hopefully at least one of them will make the TGIO party.

Back In CST And Back In The Game

I really shouldn't be doing this since it's going to be a long day at work tomorrow (and I have a lot of stuff to do in it) but I'm sticking in Chicago's chat room to watch two of our amazing writers hit milestones - 50,000 for one and 100,000 for the other.

I figure it's the least I can do to be supportive in these virtual write-ins since I haven't attended a real one yet. I plan on going to the one of the 29th to 30th if I have anything left to write.

This novel is really fizzling out quickly despite the fact that I'm now at 53,753.

There are more scenes to write, and I think I'm about to write the climactic party scene where Tabitha stabs Andy in the back one more time in front of Kate (who finally realizes who's really on her side). From there, I should be able to wrap it up by the end of the month.

That is, if I can figure out how to make the story climactic. The whole thing is pretty anti-climactic as a whole. There is a beginning, middle, and end, but I haven't done the characterization that I needed.

Which is totally the opposite of my usual dilemma.

I think I need to reintroduce some of the people from the party in "Drugs" back into "Fireworks" because, sadly, I gave them more interesting personalities than my main characters.

---

Yes, my novel is way past salvagability.

My father asked me if I was writing this to get published and I said, "there are things in it that I can use" (mostly the observational stuff) but this novel in general is never going to see the light of day.

Though I will probably end up publishing it on LuLu for Samantha and not-Kate to read.

Speaking of which I really need to give up this blogging for the night and get back to word warring. I think I've actually got more words to say there than here.

I am exhausted from the drive home (my sister had to pick up her dog near Flint) so I actually woke up at 9:00 p.m.

In theory this should mean I'm sort of well rested and should be able to go until about 1:45 a.m. Hopefully the two Chicago word warriors will reach their goal by then.

It doesn't feel like a work night yet but I'm sure it's going to tomorrow morning.

I Broke One Of My Rules Early This Morning

I know that today is an incredibly inappropriate day to do this but I'm taking a much needed break from NaNoWriMo.

I wrote 894 words just as yesterday turned into today to put me at 51,115.

I only wrote them because I was helping a second Chicago person across the 100,000 mark. That's the only thing left keeping Chicago alive, I think. We've got two power writers this year who are just incredible.

Chicago took a brief lead in the Word War again today and it nearly brought a tear to my eye.

It's still showing us with a lead of 2,073,408 to 2,068,834 but I think this lead will be shortlived as Toronto is at an all-night write-in right now. I'm still savoring it though and we may survive as our top writer is doing a NaNoWriDay which means she's writing 50,000 words today.

Which is crazy but I appreciate it.

Not that I don't appreciate every Chicago writer. I actually spent the entire day sending out e-mails to the entire team describing the awards at the end. And since it's me, I put a personal salutation in each.

Hopefully that personal touch will get people writing again. Or if not, than the awards for the people in the middle or at the bottom of the standings will.

It really doesn't feel like there's a week left in November. It feels like the month is nearly over. My brain has "blue screened" already so it feels like there's no more November for me. I'm still writing but there's nothing behind it anymore.

I don't feel anything so I can no longer feel for my characters and that's just not good.

So maybe not writing today will help me reconnect with them.

---

During the word war today, I did something that I haven't done all month - I quoted another source that wasn't mine.

I made two promises to myself. I was not going to do a dream sequence this month and I wasn't going to quote a song verbatim and analyze it.

I still haven't done the first (and it's doubtful I will) and I technically still haven't done the second. Problem was there's a line from "Man On Fire":

"A man can be an artist in anything. Food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Creasy’s art is death. He’s about to paint his masterpiece."

And it just fit Tabitha trying to destroy Kate...and Andy's life so perfectly that I had to use it. And, yes, I did explain it a bit:

I’ve never quite understood you humans and your desire to blow things up. Some of you seem to like to destroy as much as others of you like to create. It’s like an art form to you. While I never saw Tabitha actually create anything, I knew from the time that I spent with her that she liked to fancy herself an artist. Now I think I realize that her art wasn’t creation at all, her art was destruction.

To be fair, I wrote that before quoting "Man On Fire" and not after. Though I think I was pretty obviously inspired by it.

I am writing a meta-novel about movies so I think it's fair. And it still means that 99.99% of the words in the novel are mine. That's just an estimate, I didn't do the math. :)

And I'm trying to be fair in all things. Some would say to a fault.

The Least Enthusiastic 50k Entry Ever

As not the captain of Team Chicago in the past, I admit that I've been pretty harsh in my statements about people who stop at 50k. Now in my role as captain, I'm okay with people stopping at 50,000 but I wish they wouldn't. But as of this year at 11:16 p.m. when I hit 50,221 as the result of a word war, I was ready to throw in the towel.

Until I remembered that I was the captain of the word war team and therefore really should keep on pushing on through. But the energy is now completely gone. I wrote for three hours and 15 minutes tonight desperately trying to break through the barrier on 11/23 and now I can't even think.

I wrote 2,848 words between 8:00 and 11:15 p.m. after watching "300." Well, sort of watching. I fell asleep a couple of times during it but I've seen it before so that makes sense.

And the words, while contributing to the story, were some of the most mundane things that I've written in ages. It was basically my four main characters (and of course the envelope) sitting around in Andy's apartment just getting everything out into the open.

I mean I guess it's important since it's going to be where Kate finally wakes up and realizes where everybody's true loyalties lie. But as far as excitement level, it's about the same as mine is for the book in general right now - pretty low.

This is what I wrote on the Chicago board tonight:

Thanks. I have to admit that I sort of tripped and fell through the finish line pouring all of my reserve story into it. I have to figure out how to set the final climax into motion and not just have my characters psychoanalyze each other (though what better way to mark 50k than just trying to figure out your characters, right?).

---

We actually had four people cross the 50k line today on Team Chicago so it was a pretty proud day for me as captain.

That, I think, is the new theme for the end of the month word war-wise. Chicago just needs to pull as many people across the finish line as possible. That might not win us the war but it will be a great victory for the point of NaNoWriMo.

There's really no point to the war besides egging people on if it's not for trying to help people reach their limits and I think for many people 50k might just be that limit.

I hope there are a lot of people willing to push through that wall like I am but I'm not even sure I am anymore. I'll have to see when I wake up in the morning.

The Day Before The Mystical 50k Day

Alright, this is just weird. Everybody in my house is already asleep and it's not even midnight yet. This is actually a problem as I don't have a car to go to Black Friday sales if I wanted to since my mother is already asleep and it would be her car that I'd be borrowing.

Thankfully after last November's various debacles, there is no need to buy a new laptop this year. No sparks flying out of my power outlet or anything like that. I think the only thing that I would even care to buy would be this MP3 player that is in store in quantities of 20 and I would only wait out for that because it sold out on the web.

It's probably not even a voucher item so waiting out for that sort of thing would be pointless.

This leaves a problem. I need to be awake at about 4:00 a.m. to get in line and bust the door down at 5:00 a.m. And I guess I could probably stay up and write for another four hours or something but that might prove difficult.

If only today were yesterday. I was up past 2:00 a.m. writing away doing word wars. While I only wrote that 1,015 words yesterday, from midnight to 2:00 a.m., I actually wrote 2,488 words. Add in my 1,055 from a writing session just prior to this and I'm at 46,101 words.

Tomorrow might prove to be a bit of a busy day (getting a family portrait for the first time in seven years which means a haircut in the morning) so I'm not 100% sure this will happen.

But, tomorrow will probably be the day that I hit 50,000!

And 23 is a mystical number all arounds so I can't think of a better day to do it than tomorrow.

Unless I'm exhausted from staying out all night.

---

I got an awesome text message earlier this evening from my friend Mary (squirrelgirl22). She's been sick for the past few days and has been frozen at 47,000.

She told me that she's feeling better now and she's got 15 chapters left to write.

I don't even know how many chapters I've written half the time but that feels like quite a few words about to flow through her fingers.

Of course now Toronto has sort of taken control of the Word War holding about a 10,000 word lead consistently throughout the days. This isn't insurmountable and we have surmounted it more than a few times but I liked the days better when we were in the lead.

Well, maybe tomorrow will be a mystical 23rd day of November and we'll finally take the lead back once and for all.

Spending More Time Explaining Than Storytelling

I am absolutely exhausted right now. After I wrote the blog entry yesterday, I actually did a few more word wars and ended up at 41,543 words at just after midnight.

Of course I didn't get to sleep until 1:00 a.m. and then today was a very long, rainy car ride back home to Michigan. I didn't write a single word in the car. The first half of the ride was with not-Kate (she actually sat in the back seat knitting with my sister's dog - though the dog was not, in fact, knitting) so I didn't want to be rude and break out the laptop (unless it was for not-Kate and I to watch part of a DVD or something).

The second half after dropping not-Kate off with his father (though her father was not being dropped off), I just didn't bother getting my laptop out of the trunk.

After my sister and I got home, I ended up just falling asleep as I usually do when I get back to my parent's house. I woke up just in time to watch "Kid Nation" and then attempt to write about half an hour later.

In 75 nerve racking minutes of writing today, I squeezed blood from a stone 1,015. I now stand at 42,558 words.

Not exactly the word burning that I wanted to do on the first day of the long weekend (extra long for me) but I can call that my travel day. And I'm disobeying ML orders and not even thinking of taking a day off tomorrow.

Tomorrow is traditionally a day I lock myself in my room and just write, write, write.

The problem was actually that I backed myself into a corner yesterday by getting the envelope trapped in a police car in an evidence bag. But I got to use these words:

“there’s more honor among thieves than these fucking artists. You’d think they were from Toronto or something.”

Yeah, that was a John Hancock moment. :)

Today, however, I worked my way back out of it by having the envelope just fall out of the car. Yeah, it seems like Deus Machina but I did get to write an explanation:

Thankfully what you humans call “bureaucracy” saved my life. Or simple error might be a better term for it. I was placed in a large pile of things in the “fucking pigs.” It felt like I was I was back in Kate…and Andy’s apartment except it was a bunch of plastic carrying cases with other things inside of them. The pile was equally messy, however and just like in the case of Kate…and Andy’s apartment, I just fell out of the car when the door was opened.

In the movies of action that I carry, things like this are happening all the time because in those, the officers are pretty much incompetent. But these two officers hadn’t shown themselves to be that to me at all. Still, I was sure these things had to happen and this wasn’t random coincidence, much as the envelopes and some of you humans would probably think that it is.

I just fell out of the “fucking pigs” and there was too much commotion with the party slowly exiting in a relatively calm manner (a couple of voices screamed “fucking pigs” on their way out but it was otherwise uneventful) and the officers looking to see if anyone else would like to join them on their way back “downtown” for them to notice that me, who ironically when I look back, sort of started the set of events into motion had fallen onto the ground.

While I’m glad they didn’t since I didn’t end up “downtown,” I’m a little relieved that I didn’t end up in the incinerator anyhow. As the officers were pulling away from the party in their “fucking pigs,” they almost ran me over a few times.

One human did see me, however, and it was Hoodie.

I'm really going off the plot in the story as of late. I just switched the narration to Andy and Hoodie having a conversation and Little Green Envelope just transcribing what they said about what they said at the hospital.

I have an explanation written into the story for this as well:

But you can’t always choose your point of view in situations such as this one. I just have to hope for the sake of the rest of the narrative that Andy and Hoodie are as reliable at telling a narrative as I am.

So in summation, today was basically 600 words of explanation and 400 words of story.

Tomorrow I can hopefully get back to the actual story and write a lot more than 1,000 words.

Today Was A New Day, But Yesterday Was The Worst

Tonight it has been established that I sort of suck at sprints. But I think that's because in the entire four years that I've seriously done NaNoWriMo, I think I've done about five of them. Tonight was actually two of them. One was a 15 minute sprint where I wrote a grand total of 434 words.

Usually dialog, which I'm writing a lot of, goes really quickly for me. But I think the problem is I'm writing things like police and ambulance dialog which is something that I've only done once before. And that was a cop in an alternate history who followed British law and not law from the United States.

I'm getting into some really unknown territory as I've never witnessed a drug bust.

And I've got a problem. The Little Green Envelope is covered in the cocaine that Tabitha is overdosing on and he's sitting there in Andy's hands. So naturally the cops are going to want to confiscate him. Sitting in an evidence locker will totally lose my point of view. So I have to figure out a way that he can stay unincarcerated and get him to the University of Chicago hospital where Kate is currently in the waiting room and Tabitha is currently getting treated for a drug induced seizure.

Backed myself into a word corner here. Andy or Donovan need to be quick on their feet and with Donovan that's a fat chance.

I don't want to make the cops idiot but this is a story told by an "envelope of action" and it is an action movie convention to have the cops dumb and the kids (by kids I mean a group of late-20somethings) smart so it will make logical sense for this to happen.

I should even have Little Green Envelope pontificate on it.

---

So, yeah, the Word War.

Yesterday went from bad to worse. The 12-year old from last year who I thought wasn't on Toronto's team this year upped her word count by 85,000 yesterday evening.

Suddenly the substantial lead that we had evaporated and we were down by 8,000 words.

There is something stinky in Denmark here as she made the comment in chat yesterday that whatever she writes from now on has to have a plot. I get the impression she's writing stream-of-conscious with no plot.

It's being resolved by the three captains right now but can I just say that any doubts I had about the unity of Team Chicago were really put to rest today.

Instead of throwing in the towel (like I almost did yesterday when I found out and some of New York's writers almost did as well), Team Chicago rallied during the work day and we were actually ahead for most of today - at one point by 10,000 words. Though now we're down 8,000 again as one of their writers did a huge jump (one that is working hard for every word so I don't begrudge them).

A five day weekend beckons for me and a four day weekend beckons for most though so hopefully we can put this thing away going into the last week.

smwalter, who I'm just going to say it pretty much has Chicago's Most Valuable Writer award in the bag, organized a chat tonight and six or seven of us are typing until our fingers fall off.

Well, I'm typing until midnight because I have to wake up and pack tomorrow before having breakfast with not-Kate and then my sister driving us to Michigan.

Hopefully Toronto won't know what hit them. And, regardless, we've now opened a 100,000 word lead on New York City. Wow!

Anyhow, yesterday did go from bad to worse but today is a new day. And hopefully by the end of it, Chicago will have recovered, I will have recovered and the rest of November will be a breeze.

Even if up until this point the breeze is carrying more than a whiff of crap stink!

By This Point Next Year, I'll Be Writing Romantic Fantasy

Since I had to drive Amber to Union Station to catch a train back to Michigan this morning, I got to work at 7:45 a.m. This meant I got out of work at the same time as not-Kate. I ended up driving her home. The crazy thing is that the car ride home played out exactly just like one chapter from a novel. I couldn't have made it up any more interesting than it actually happened.

We got in my car in the parking garage near my work and before the car was even out of the parking spot, she said to me, "I have a date tomorrow." She had mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that a friend of her roommate's was interested in her and so I figured it was him. I asked and it was confirmed.

Now not-Kate and me were in pretty much the same situation two weeks ago. She had a boy interested in her and yet he hadn't asked for her number. I was interested in not-Kate's friend and did not have her number yet. She basically had told me that if I wanted the number, I should get it from her friend. Well, the boy she was interested in asked not-Kate's roommate for not-Kate's number and then not-Kate's roommate asked not-Kate if it was alright if she gave him the number.

Of course it was since not-Kate was also interested in her roommate's friend. And not-Kate thought it was awesome that he finally asked for her number.

I saw the parellels and not-parellels of the situation and pointed out that I had asked not-Kate for her friend's number two weeks ago. Seeing that I was right, not-Kate agreed to text her friend right there in the car and see if I could get her friend's number.

By the time we were on Jackson heading past the United Center, I knew things were not going to go as I hoped. Not-Kate's friend texted back asking why I wanted her number.

Not-Kate turned to me and said, "why do you want her number?"

Of course I could have said a lot of things, but I didn't get much sleep yesterday so I said, "why do you think?" She said, "I know why you want her number, I just want you to saw it."

I said, "because I think she's awesome and I'd like to..." I couldn't really say the words. They seemed too real.

I just got really silent. Figuring the funny way out was the best way I said, "tell her I'm a telemarketer and I think she's a good target audience for what I'm selling." Then I said, "wow, that sounded really wrong."

The words were revised to, "he's a telemarketer. Why do you think?"

Not-Kate texted the message over and there was no response for a while. When it came back, I knew from the "awwwww" that not-Kate made that the news wasn't good. She said to me, reading the text message, "I just don't think of him in that way."

Which, of course, the logical side of me says makes perfect sense. I mean, I've only talked to her three times and one of the times was sort of a disaster because it was at a party at not-Kate's house where I was feeling pretty under the weather. But the other two times people who have been there had pointed out that we seemed to have some sort of connection.

And I sort of thought we did as well. We could at least exchange lines like from some sort of old male/female movie from the 1940s. And being as she's into movies like I'm into movies, I figurd that was a good thing.

I said to not-Kate that I had thought she had talked to her about this and that was why at her party, she had said, "you should ask [her] out." She even said this a couple of weeks ago, "you should have asked [her] out."

I thought it was only a matter of doing the asking because I believed the hype and I believed it had already pretty much been settled that she was interested slightly as well.

A few minutes passed before not-Kate got another text message from her friend saying, "I don't want to hurt his feelings. I think [he's] a blast!"

The girl who ended up inspiring the feelings that I'm writing the novel around did not seem to think that at all. I don't know what it is, but I think somewhere along the line, I've become like a homeless guy looking for a job. I'm seemingly too far gone down whatever path, and it honestly seems to be age, I'm down to be in a relationship or even seemingly get a date as of late.

All I'm really looking for recently is a chance and I don't even seem to get that. Even from girls who I thought had already considered the option and were willing to give me that chance.

I don't think all is lost yet and I hope not-Kate puts in a good word for me. But, with not-Kate's friend out of the picture as far as prospects go, now I have none. There are no girls out there that I'm interested in enough anymore to actually ask out. Now if a girl came along, I'm always willing to give almost anyone a chance (crack addicts and stuff, not so much, but friends of friends and the like). But I don't think there's a single girl interested in me out there.

Anywhere.

I mean, Amber, who still for some reason seems to think I can't do much wrong, said to me on the ride to dropping her off this morning that she didn't think if the two of us met now we would work. And this was after positing yesterday night that the present me and the present her (were she not in a relationship) might work unlike when we were together eight years ago.

It's only a matter of time before I can't write these romance novels anymore as I'll have completely forgotten what the concept even means.

---

I figured I could come home tonight and take solace in the fact that until December 1, I'd have other things on my mind and could bury this rejection.

I even had a captain's meeting tonight where I had to think of everything but this girl in coming up with the awards for the team and such. But even that couldn't distract me.

I did set an example of working through adversity and pounded out 1,562 words of the party scene (where Tabitha has a mild drug induced seizure). It's set the scene for a confrontation between Andy and Kate in the hospital waiting room (Andy, against Kate's objection helps carry Tabitha down the stairs from the party to wait for the ambulance) that really sets the stage for the end of "Drugs."

I started to imagine the envelope getting stoned off the cocaine that Tabitha cut with him but I think that was too light for what's happening. I can't write funny right now. Even though that's the one thing that I apparently still have going for me even if it just results in girls thinking I'm a blast and still not date material.

I don't know how funny the rest of the story is going to be. After all, this was a major blow.

---

I did cry inside with happiness a little earlier today with a message left by our ML Tim on the Chicago board:

I just wanted to take a moment to say how awesome displacedbeatnik is for leading the Word War this month. He's been a great motivator, and has been on top of things from the day he emailed me about word war negotiations with NYC and Toronto.

I think, after all is said and done, we should all chip in and buy him the biggest pint of whatever libation he desires.

Aside from that, everyone in Chicago has made me proud to be the Windy City ML this year (especially when it comes to talking smack on the ML board with the Toronto and NYC ML's about who will win). Thank you everyone for putting so much effort into this years NaNo.

This just made me think that there is some good left in me in some way and that I just can't get these girls to see it. But I've been thinking that for quite some time. Maybe that's the problem. It's not that I'm completely unimpressive it's that I'm no longer in situations where the people can be impressed by it.

Though that's the other thing with this girl. She has been and I just remember as I was mostly drunk singing "Punk Rock Girl" for karaoke and her singing along. I thought that she at least saw that I was capable of being pretty awesome and not just some hollow depressed shell. And maybe she did. I don't know.

Maybe this can all be a scene in next year's novel.

That Late Month Depression Is Hitting Early

I'm really trying to stay positive here but my analysis for Team Chicago says that we are absolutely f*c*ed for the same reason as we lose these Word Wars all the time. We start out this brilliant display of enthusiasm and then the bottom drops out - literally.

We stand nine people behind New York City in the place where the Word War is going to be won or lost, people at 20,000. The only reason we're still ahead is that we have 10 wonderful people who are over 50,000 words already compared to New York City's six and Toronto's five.

But even here there's a dark cloud to ruin the silver lining. We have three writers who are finished with their novels. This is an amazing, wonderful thing, and I wish I could actually be one of them. The problem is that they're not going to be adding anything more to their word count. And that's fine for them but it's not the greatest thing ever for the team.

I think we still have about 42 writers who are still trying to get to 50k so we can still pull this out but our lead over New York City has been sliced to 35,000 words out of 1.57 million (we have 1.57 million, they hacve 1.53 million plus some change).

I mean that's as close as the Florida election in 2000. And we all know what one county screwup did to that one.

Myself, I'm not really helping matters since I didn't hit my goal today of 38,000. I stand at 36,716. I should be able to make it if I do one more writing session but I'm waiting for a phone call from a friend who needs to stay "downtown" (she's a suburbanite if you didn't catch the terminology) before she leaves for Michigan tomorrow.

I didn't even finish watching "Zodiac" today.

I'm just depressed all around at the present second because of real world issues totally apart from the word war.

It's just up until this point in the month, the word war really has been the one thing that's been a constant stream of good news in my life. Hopefully it will be again since we still have a lot of Chicagoans still writing.

I just think our lead is about to become extinct and we'll have to hear it from New York City for an entire year.

I think maybe the entire Chicago team is cynical. Which is a good thing in real life but compared to the cheerleading convention that is Team Toronto or the brooding determination of Team New York City, it's not a recipe for success.

---

Oh yes, my actual story. It's in a spin cycle right now as I don't know exactly how to play out the set piece of the party.

I really want Tabitha to overdose on drugs but I can't seem to get to that point. I think it might be better if Kate does it and Andy saves her. He's at the party with another woman right now (and is trying to make Kate jealous) and I think it would be best for the story if this happens.

Except right now I have it so that Kate is about to confront Andy on the dance floor in front of this other woman. Problem is the P.O.V. is not in the right place for there to be any confrontation that the Little Green Envelope can overhear. He's at the DJ booth (the narrator) and they're on the dance floor.

I have set up the piece alright, I guess. But I don't know where this is going to next.

And if that's the case, I don't think I'm going to hit 70k. I know what people on the team are going through right now. I just don't know how to make it better for them so they can get the words that we need to win.

And it sucks. Too bad I'm not writing the book about depression this year.

FUCK!

After A Night Of Research I Return With Words

Another Saturday night and another missed day of writing here on Retentivewrimo. But that's o.k. With the time change to the Pacific Time Zone that blogspot does, it doesn't look like I missed a day. This unlike what it does on the NaNo site where I can't figure out exactly where it cuts off a day for the tracking chart. Then again, I don't think they know either since the little calendar graph I have on the right side of this page keeps changing colors.

Right now for today (yesterday) it's reading green so that's good. Though according to my calculations (which of course do not coincide at all with the site), the 2,265 words that I wrote today should probably be that bright green color.

I don't know where these words are being counted since I wrote them all between the hours of 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. It wasn't like I had a 2:00 a.m. writing session of anything.

Had I done that, I would have felt guilty since I told the Toronto captain that I wasn't going to write anymore after she went to sleep.

I now stand at 35,188 words which last year I didn't reach until November 24. It funny because by then my morale according to last year's chart was at a 3. Last year on the 17th, it was also at a 3 and I was in Michigan for my friend Wellman's wedding (where I was his best man). I wrote 0 words during that time even though the wedding was in the middle of nowhere.

This year since I actually like my story (to a point, though I'm not in love with it) I probably would have at least tried to write from my room at the little Bates Motel on the outskirts of the sticks where I was holed up.

According to the neat-o spreadsheet, I'm actually scheduled to finish the novel one week from today (or reach 50,000 at least). Not ironically since it's a common calendar trait, I'll be in Michigan when I finish the novel. Though not for a wedding (though there is one on Sunday that my sister and I are not going to even though we were both invited), just for Thanksgiving.

And the day I'm actually scheduled to finish is the 24th. The exact same day that I was at my lowest point last year.

Though maybe, just maybe, I'll actually finish earlier and push on to the 70,000 or so that I'm aiming for (though am now behind pace to achieve by quite a margin).

---

So what was I doing tonight instead of writing?

I was doing research.

I didn't end up going to the old school punk concert (I think it was sold out) but reverted to my original plans to go to this dinner party just west of my apartment. The food was spectacular and the conversation was surprisingly good.

It was my friend Samantha's friend Teddie's party and he's one of those writers that writes 12 months a year. So at his party were actual writing students from Columbia College (which I make fun of in my NaNo but I didn't tell them that). And I ended up at a table with four of them. They asked, after talking about their professors in the Masters of Creative Writing program for a while, "so are you a writer too?"

I told them that I was but not a very good one.

"That's okay," one of them said pointing at the woman at the head of the table, "she's not a very good writer either."

The table temporarily fell silent before she said, "that's okay, I'm really not."

I also had a nice discussion with another one from a journalism background (like me) who has the same problem I do. That is, he writes endless dialog ("quotes") and then his characters exist in a vaccuum.

And he's getting his master's degree in creative writing so I don't feel too bad. I think it might just be a writing style.

I wanted it to be a bit more froofy there so I could get how the artsy half talk. But it was actually pretty down to Earth. I was invited out to this party in Pilsen (which is exactly the situation and place that the chapters I'm writing currently happens) but I just decided to go home instead.

Now that would have been exact research.

But I don't think I would have been able to stand it.

Instead, I got a text message from not-Kate that she was not enjoying the hipster bar in our neighborhood she was at (she actually lives a block away from where the dinner party was) and that I should stop by. So I did.

I guess that was enough hipster aggrevation to spur me on for the night. As was seeing not-Kate on the weekend. Since she's the only one who's said that she really wants to read it when I finish.

Which means I have to finish. Which means that I'm pushing past 50,000. Hopefully.

My sister and I are also giving her a ride back to Michigan on Wednesday (she lives about halfway so we're dropping her off at a Taco Bell off the expressway). So that will be a good way to make sure I write over Thanksgiving.

Maybe even edit it in December. Who knows.

The Weekend Is Blown Before It Starts

I was going to watch a movie tonight. Well, instead I wrote. Which is pretty good although a bit of opposite world. I wrote 1,919 words in a mad sprint between 9:00 and 10:15 this evening. My total is now at 32,923.

In my novelling numeroly, that's a pretty good sign. It's why I didn't write another word.

That and I finished Chapter Twelve. It's scary that when I actually write this year, I'm only doing half a chapter a day. Tonight's writing killed the momentum a bit as it was just a bunch of ripping on Tabitha's boyfriend Donovan (which is a bit of an inside joke because not-Tabitha once had me listen to a Donovan song and actually thought I might like it - though he did have an awesome Scottish accent in it).

I think, since I'm writing in humor/satire/parody that the novel sort of needed a really funny scene but I've lost all the tension from the end of "Pets" as I've went into "Drugs." Though I did set into motion the party scene where the three main characters. I think I have to promote Tabitha to MC status as she gets as much page time as Andy and more than Kate. Damn you Tabitha for taking over my story!

It is sort of sad that I've given Donovan more of a story than I've given Kate.

He's basically got five roommates who hate him because he screws up all the time and just doesn't get it. His line is, "what's the worst that could happen?"

It's from this line that I think I finally shattered the fourth wall after kicking against it the entire time (the narrator talks to "you humans" reading the novel for pete's sake):

“And you have just brought in a 90-inch flat screen rental television that is only balanced on a stand. A stand that people will be dancing around.”

“We can, um,” Donovan stammered, “put up a rope or something.”

“A rope?” the bald man asked.

“Yeah,” Donovan repleied, “like at a museum or something.”

“Like at a museum or something?” the bald man said repeating Donovan’s statement as a question for the second time. Then he went off on his own script saying, “where are we going to get a velvet rope at this time of night?”

“What’s the worst that can happen?” Donovan asked.

“It’s a good thing we’re not in a novel,” the bald man said, “or you just really sealed our fate right there.”

Sadly, I doubt that scene will ever see the light of day after it goes through the beta reader(s).

---

I really need to sit down and scribble away in my writer's notebook since I've now introduced three new characters who make their first appearance in "Drugs." I keep saying they won't continue into "Fireworks."

But Donovan probably will.

I'm thinking that he'll probably end up pretty crucial to the story, dumbass or no dumbass.

Maybe he can even be a counterploy when the real war between Andy and Tabitha begins. Though I don't want to make Andy too evil. Kate can't be the only redeeming character in the story.

I have hit a dilemma. I don't know what to write after the party (which will probably take up my weekend). The whole premise of my story is that it can only be narrated by the Little Green Envelope. So once the party is over, I'm not sure where he's going to be.

And I can't make the entirety of "Drugs" the party.

Though moving on to "Fireworks" would mean that I'll finish my novel in November probably so maybe I should. I was going to have Little Green Envelope get lost on the streets of Chicago but that's probably almost as silly as six people in an art collective arguing for an entire chapter.

Not that this happened in my novel or anything. :)

---

Tomorrow's not going to be a great writing day.

I was just going to go to this dinner party with Samantha (though I'm not her +1) but now I realize Stiff Little Fingers is in town tomorrow as part of this old school punk festival. So now I think I'm going to that all day.

The first band I want to see is The Methadones and they play 5th so that will probably be around 4:00 p.m. And I'm not going to stay for Naked Raygun (I'll probably stay for 7 Seconds who play between SLF and NR). Despite the Chicago pride, I've never been a fan. But I think I'm seeing the Joe Strummer movie "The Future Is Unwritten" at the Music Box tomorrow night at 9:40.

So it's basically writing between about noon and 3:00 p.m.

It's sort of sad that NaNo more on the weekdays than the weekends, but I guess that happens sometimes. Next weekend in Michigan, I'll probably write more.

The Midway Pep Talk For Everyone

Sometimes NaNoWriMo can be a lonely place. Now, of course, being a four time participant, I've managed to pick up a lot of internal people along the way but to the outsider it's still sort of a weird thing to do to write 50,000+ (I'm aiming for 60,000) words in one month. And there are, of course, some people who won't let you forget the fact that it's not a normal thing to do.

But one thing that I found today is that when people find out those words serve a noble aim, they get behind you 100%.

I told the girl who told me that I am not going to write her into my novel (shame because she would make an interesting part of a composite character) that I was the team captain for Chicago in our word war against New York City (I don't tend to mention Toronto because no one hates Toronto), she suddenly became incredibly excited about the prospect of every word I type.

"You need to beat New York City," she said, "put them in their place and show them what an awesome city we are."

I wish I could singlehandedly beat New York City. But it's the team that's really doing it. I feel like I've barely contributed the last couple of days.

And then I talked to my friend Kim toward the end of the work day. Kim is an incredible writer (though she writes short-form fiction and not long-form fiction) who is actually part of the Second Story group. If you get a chance to see this group of writers, they are incredible. I recommend their monthly readings at Websters Wine Bar as one of the best excursions in Chicago. So I always worry that people like her will be weary of speed writers.

She's actually extremely supporting of the endeavor.

As I was describing to her the plotline for this novel, she actually said it sounded like a great idea. I get that a lot. I just hope that I'm doing the unique perspective of having a Netflix clone envelope narrate it justice. I always worry that my prose doesn't exactly match up to my mechanics.

If I could ever get the two to coincide, I could actually probably write the other 11 months a year.

When I told her about the word war, she was equally excited about it and equally as keen of Chicago beating New York City.

It's funny that the NaNo powers that be are always saying, "tell your friends you're writing to keep yourself going and make sure you finish." Well, if you tell them that you're doing their honor a favor by writing, it really doubly makes sure that you finish writing. And that you don't stop writing until 11:59:59 on November 30 to boot.

Oh and if you tell them the money raised goes to literacy programs and such, they'll really think you're not just on a writing ego trip. :)

---

I finally cracked 30,000 tonight (30,306).

I wasted a lot of time. I came home from work and took a nap. Then I woke up and watched the Democratic debates (I was an Edwards supporter but Bill Richardson really impressed me tonight as did Joe Biden - if only he didn't go around making racist comments - so I may switch to one of them). Then I watched "The Office."

So 8:30 p.m. rolls around which is usually when I start writing on a Thursday.

And I had the best intentions to do so on this particular Thursday as well. But then I went to check the word war real time standings (one of the Toronto participants made this incredible app that updates at the same times as the NaNo site) and there was a chat room added.

I ended up in the chat room until about 10:00 p.m. at which time I said, "I really have to go and actually write something tonight before I end up with my first 0 writing day of the month."

And I did write. I finished Chapter 11 (or as I like to call it the bankrupt chapter) in which Tabitha, looking for her boyfriend in Pilsen, finds out about the party that will bring all of the characters back together. It's not the most action filled chapter I've written (though the dialog is sort of funny) so I think it goes right along with my tradition of writing Chapter 11s that are spaces to breathe with how boring they are - hence why I call them the bankrupt chapters.

Though I can't say I wasted all my time in the chat room. I actually was writing the mid-month pep talk for the Chicago Word War team.

Which read as follows:

If you're reading this, you've made it to the middle of November. No matter how many words you've written, that in itself is an accomplishment. Many writers don't even make it close to here (as you might notice the site has gotten a lot faster). This unfortunately, seems to include some of our team.

If anyone knows the whearabouts, of the following people and their NaNoWriMo status, please let me know (or post it here in the forum): Hats, joycer, KimmyKatt, robinmj, Sandylul, stacykathryn, and superberg. The odd thing is, none of them are really even that far behind since they all started out pretty fast.

I know some of you are at 50,000 already (congratulations esepecially go out to smwalter who has already finished her novel and written 50,000 words).

We are still rocking away as Team Chicago and have 22 of our writers ahead of schedule. 29 out of 55 have broken 20,000 (and a 30th is just behind).

But despite our rocking at the top and in the middle, there is something worrisome. #35-#45 on our list (and I'm just going by the numbers on the Elumir's rocking: http://www.elumir.com/nanowrimo/) seem to be falling by the wayside a bit and losing ground on their New York City and Toronto counterparts.

I don't know if anyone actually said this, but at least in the case of word wars, "wars are won and lost at the margins."

I know it may seem to some of you in that range like 50,000 is a long way away, but take heart. For one thing, look at all the people up at the tippy-top. A lot of them have written more than the 35,000 or so words that you are from the finish line. Thanksgiving is not in the rear view mirror yet for us (though I know if your family's like mine around the table, sometimes you wish it could be). And Canadian Thanksgiving is over!

But even if you don't think you can make 50,000, there's still wonderful personal bests to achieve and maybe that perfect scene to write. NaNoWriMo isn't just about the people who write 50,000. It's about the people who write 20,000 and 30,000 and 40,000 as well. And even those who just write 10,000 words in the last two days to prove they can.

An internet friend of daevient and I (at least I think he's daevient's LiveJournal friend as well) wrote 40,000 on November 29 and 30 locking himself in a Kinko's. So anything is possible.
And if you need motivaton, it's a little scary. We've had our lead over Toronto sliced almost in half. The reason? Some of the people who might have otherwise been left for dead have come back and are writing with a flouish (padys and Litharukia).

You might think the people at the top of the list are where the difference is made. Really, it's the people toward the bottom of the list who make all the difference in the close one.

In the immortal words of Peter Gabriel (though sung by Kate Bush), "don't give up, you still have us."

Even if you're not cruising to 50,000, remember we're all going through the same thing and we're here for you. And your words count just as much as anyone's. And in the end, you guys can be the difference maker. How much power is that? Don't abuse it. :)

Joycer has actually checked and said she had been handwriting her novel so that makes me breathe 14% easier.

I think I did my job as captain there. That's the other thing the people at work told me. That I need to get the people who stopped writing to start again. I hope I can accomplish that as Toronto has a couple of people who have started again mid-month and if they write like they wrote last year, Chicago may be in serious trouble.

---

Speaking of mid-month. I think I'm going to write from midnight to 12:45 a.m. like I did back on the first. I think it's a fitting way to start back up again.

I don't think I'll get the same 1000 words I did back then though. Things are just going a bit slower as I move into the "Dead Zone": 30,000 to 40,000 words. It's a scary place and I hope everyone reading this gets through it. Even if you're from New York City. I just hope you New Yorker get through it on about November 28.

Speaking of which, I didn't forget the link from yesterday: http://jaybizz.blogspot.com/.

This woman is seriously amazing as not only is she the only other NaNo blogger that seems to blog daily but she's also leading Team New York City with over 100,000 words. And I thought I was verbose!

The Earliest Closing Day Of NaNo In A While

According to Blogger, this is the 100th post I've made to this blog in a little over two years. Which, of course, is saying something since I only use it for a little over a month each year.

And by use, I mean, blabber away about my own novel and whatever Word War I'm in and whatnot and give unsolicited advice.

I used to actually post links to other people's blogs and that sort of thing but I've been pretty much all consumed this year. Though in this consumption, I actually stumbled across a decent blog from a member of Team New York City. Course now I've lost it so let's not bring that up. Maybe tomorrow at work I'll find it again and maybe even post it on the sidebar.

Which reminds me how bad a community member I've been as of late toward my NaNoBlogging brothers and sisters. I haven't even listened to the NaNoWriMo '07 Podcast. I used to eagerly await each new one because Derusha is teh awesome (she, unlike me, actually pays attention to the greater NaNo world around her). Now I haven't even listened to the official Podcast and it's on Episode #3.

This is the same thing that happened last year. I got so involved in Chicago that I forgot there's a whole bunch of people out there not in Chicago, New York City, and Toronto who are actually noveling this month.

Tomorrow marks the unofficial halfway point (I saw unofficial because the official halfway point is when the clock strikes midnight and turns tomorrow in November 16, 2007) of NaNoWriMo. So it's as good a time as any to make a second half resolutions.

I'm going to at least try to listen to the Podcast backlog at work tomorrow. Workload hasn't really been allowing me to get a solid five minutes of listening to anything recently especially catching up from Tuesday today.

And I'm going to try to surf the various boards again. I haven't done that in a few days. Though the genre boards and the like seem to be calming down. It looks like a lot of people haven't made the halfway point this year. Which is good for the speed of the site for sure.

That includes about 12 members of Team Chicago but, hey, our "keep" rate is higher than the NaNo average.

---

Not-Kate heard a piece on NPR yesterday about NaNoWriMo so that's sort of cool. Oh wait, I just realized. That's probably the piece recorded at the kickoff party.

Not-Kate goes to sleep pretty early so she's probably not awake but I'm going to text her now.

Anyhow she said, "and I was like you do that."

So, at least there's some recognition of it from a few co-workers. All but one who are slight basises for the characters but still.

Speaking of which, Hoodie, who is a combination of my friend Kyle and myself (but more myself) is about to make a reappearance as a DJ in the story spinning at the party that brings the three primary players back together. So that should be sort of fun.

Anyhow, now I'm just filling words.

---

I set a simple goal for tonight, to hit 30,000 words. That is just not going to happen.

I didn't take a nap after work so I'm exhausted. Even though I stand at 29,473 right now, the thought of even 526 more words (about 30 minutes) seems like a sisyphisian task.

One night I have to just say no to another writing session and I think this is the one.

If it means a faster 526 words tomorrow or the ability to actually write at lunch it's good. I need a recharge like no one's buisness and 30,000 is probably about my halfway point so this is as good a time as any.

Good night world. For once I mean it.

My Eyes Are All A-Flutter With The Sick

One thing that I'm not going to try and do next year is organize any write-ins for the west siders. I'm pretty jealous of Toronto because if one of them organizes something, it seems like every writer in the city shows up. Or maybe it's just my location, time, or just me. But I was at Atomix Cafe tonight as was posted on the Chicago boards and had a great time having a write-in with myself.

I think part of my problem is there's a much longer North Side write-in going on simultaneously to it. Since I drove to Chicago and Damen anyhow, I might as well drive to Chicago and Wells. Cripes. I should have checked that before scheduling. They're only two miles apart. But, to be fair, it's two miles west.

Next week there's not a near north one scheduled, so I'll go ahead and still give it a go. But from 5-9 or something. I don't think anyone wants to attend a two hour cram session. That is, unless they do the near north one again.

I did have some amazing vegan chili and two mugs of warm cider (that really hit the spot with how I've been feeling recently) so it wasn't a total waste of time. Oh and I kicked out 1418 words as well (in 90 minutes interrupted by eating). I now stand at 26,782.

Which puts me still soundly in 18th place on Team Chicago.

And I think all 17 people ahead of me were at the other write-in. :)

---

I have no excuse for not writing more today. As a reward for finishing Part One (finally!) yesterday night after checking in here on Retentivewrimo, I called in sick to work today.

Or I ended up sick because I was up really late breaking through the "Pets" barrier.

I wrote the following prose to get the ball back rolling:

“I’ve got it.”

Tabitha held me high in the air as if she was holding up a trophy she just won for winning a race. And in a way, that analogy isn’t far off because I could tell that she felt that she had won me, in a battle of wits if nothing else.

“He gave it back to you?” Kate asked.

“Without even a fight,” Tabitha said, the glow of victory still showing on her face.

“What did you do?”

“I slept with him.”

There was almost a look of terror on Kate’s face as the words came out of Tabitha’s mouth. “You did what?”

“I’m just kidding Kate,” Tabitha said, putting me down on top of the DVD player, “why would I ever do that? I mean, he’s not a bad looking guy or anything, but have more faith in me than that.”

“So what did you do?” Kate asked again, this time a bit more weary sounding of what Tabitha’s answer might be.

“I beat the crap out of him,” Tabitha grinned.

“Come on Tab,” Kate said with a hint of displeasure sneaking into her voice, “he’s about a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than you. And you know while he’s above hitting almost any other woman in the world, he’d really like to throttle you.”

“He wouldn’t stand a chance. Those kickboxing classes really come in handy.” Tabitha cut a karate chop through the air with her small hand.

“T-a-a-a-b. What did you do?”

“I’ve known that boy for longer than you have,” Tabitha said in a way that I could almost hear Andy’s voice when he had said the same thing to Kate a few days before, “I know all of his weak spots.”

“What-did-you-do?”

“I told you already, what’s any boy’s weak spot? I kneed him right in the peas and carrot and took it from him lickity split.”

“I still don’t believe you.”

“Fine,” Tabitha said, “if you really have to know.”

“I do.”

“Let’s just say that he has a much weaker spot than that, and I hit him there instead. I told him that I’d convince you to take him back if he gave me back the Little Green Envelope?”

Kate’s mouth dropped open as if the extra space was needed for how much her volume was about to raise.

“Why would you do that? Why? You know I don’t want him back.”

“Trust me on this one, will you? That asshole isn’t going to know what hit him by the time this is done.”

“Tabitha,” Kate said, “does he really deserve for you to try to ruin his life? He’s not a bad guy. He was always faithful to me. He and I just weren’t meant to be together.”

“Kate,” Tabitha said, “there are things I could tell you from that boy’s past that would make anything I could possibly do to him seem like ‘nah, nah, nah, nah, boo, boo.’ Just trust me on this one.”

“I trust you,” Kate said wearily, “but somehow I get the impression that Andy does too.”

“This is for all of womankind,” Tabitha said in a grandiose tone, “why would I sell out a sister? We’re all in this together.”

There was something so convincing in the woman’s voice that I looked at the Little Green romance Envelope and felt as though she was turning against me as Tabitha spoke just for being a male envelope. Good thing she didn’t, because we were both about to embark on a long trip back to the warehouse.

Remember a few entries back when I said that I was going to have to take flack for this book being anti-woman? Well now I'm really going to take that flack!

I should have actually broken 25,000 last night but instead I broke it while I should have been at work. I definitely have to go in tomorrow so I'm going to wrap this up. I have to deal with a New York issue before I do. I <3 being Word War captain sometimes, let me tell you.

I'm just a few inches away from sending the envelope to a post-apocolyptic New York City just so I can destroy it in this novel. Seriously.

It Was Less Troubling When They Hated Each Other

Fate help me. I have just written 1,376 words more in the same chapter that I've been writing for three days. Well, truthfully, I just split the chapter so it's now partly in Chapter Eight (where Kate drops the Little Green Envelope back to Andy) and partly in Chapter Nine (where Tabitha goes to get the Little Green Envelope back from Andy if he gives it to her or not).

I had to make so many decisions on the fly in this chapter and the mood changes so many times that it seriously felt like I wrote 5,000 words tonight. To only be at 24,073 is actually shocking to me. The reason is partially that I didn't check the word count at all since I felt like I was in a flow that I haven't felt all novel.

There is a slightly major problem with this last bit of writing, however. It was supposed to really set the conflict for part two of the novel. I almost had Tabitha and Andy hook up (they were "seeing each other" for a time three years prior to the start of the novel and Tabitha broke it off because she thought it was getting too serious) which would have really created a conflict all around.

I think I wrote the chapter so there was a palpable sexual tension between the two. I mean, I did have Tabitha offer to sleep with Andy. They definitely had a pretty physical relationship in the past it would seem. But Andy rejects the advance and Tabitha is more embarassed by it than anything. Then they get to fighting again and Andy is ready to kick Tabitha out the door (more drag her by the wrist) when Tabitha basically says that she's got a plan to get Kate and Andy back together.

Andy listens to this plan and I leave the chapter as I wrote it right now with the two of them sitting on the couch and Tabitha explaining the way things are to Andy.

It's not the world's funniest chapter. And it dragged out a lot of really personal storylines for me (not based on any of the characters in the book, but on completely different people). It got so emotional that it even shut Little Green Envelope up. I don't think that there was really anything to make fun of it was so intense.

This is the last few paragraphs of what I wrote tonight:

“I mean, look at us,” [Tabitha] said, “can you ever possibly have pictured us together? And I don’t mean behind closed doors, but out in the world? There isn’t a single way in a million years that it would have worked. And maybe I think that if you could just get your act together that you and Kate could work out. It’s not like you weren’t working, you just have to quit acting like a jackass.”

“Is that your plan,” Andy said, still sounding as if the air had been let out of him, “for me to stop acting like a jackass?”

“It’s certainly a start,” she said. “What you need to do is be the you that I knew a few years ago. I don’t know what’s happened to you. It’s like you’ve lost the will to be a nice person.”

“I still am,” he said, “you just don’t see it because you’re the last person in the world that I’d want to show it to.”

“That’s too bad Andy,” she said, “you ever heard of the ‘best friend test’? It’s an old saying that if you really want a woman to like you, she’s not the one you want to convince. Or, that’s not totally true. She’s obviously the one you want to convince. But the person you want to convince the most after the girl herself is the girl’s best friend. If you’ve got her than you’re pretty much home free.”

“Does that rule still apply after three years?”

“Boy,” she said, “it applies until either the girl or the best friend is in the ground.”

This is not the Tabitha that I wrote up until this point at all. There's nothing seemingly vicious in this dialog at all. She actually seems like she's not flighty or at least trying to act that way. It's the Tabitha that I think would be the Tabitha where she's not putting up a front. Similarly, it's the Andy where he lets his guard down as well.

Of course since neither of them are entirely trustworthy characters up until this point in the story, either of them could just be trying to get an advantage over the other emotionally. It's the undertone of exploitation in the scene that I might want to play up more if I ever go back and edit this into a second draft.

After all, based on the limited dialog, it was only a few minutes since they were at each other's throats.

I think either Andy or Tabitha have to say something to set the other one off. But if the round-and-round starts again the chapter may end up being 20 pages that I don't finish until way after mid-month.

Talk about screwing up the pacing in the name of a word vein.

---

The Word War has really started to mess with my mind I think. 24,073 puts me on pace for 60,180 for the month (I have the spreadsheet projection, I didn't actually do the math).

Yet, somehow I feel as though I'm really far behind. This is probably for the best though as it will actually push me to finish the story in November.

I sort of wanted to use NaNoFiMo to blow the dust off of my 2005 alternate history novel, "Stars, Bars, and the Crown" and finish it. I left it pretty much at the climax. I just worry that the resolution won't match the intensity of where I left off.

This novel is so personal and that one was much grander (even though the central story is interpersonal) that I don't even think I'm preparing myself for that one writing this one. I created whole worlds for that one (there are six newspapers of various political bent in that one and I actually wrote coverage of various story events in all six perspectives) and this one takes place in two apartments - so far.

But it's starting to get to the point where this one might pick up some steam. We'll have to see.

The Best Four Words In The NaNo Dictionary

Phew! That was a close one. After talking far too much smack on the New York City boards the last couple day (capped off by me mistakenly claiming that Chicago was the basis for Metropolis), Team Chicago didn't let me down with its word count. I think I'll leave it up to the couple of team members who are over on the New York City board regularly to hold up the fight since I'm just screwing it up.



The Word War totals for the second count, turned out to be the following:



1. Chicago: 978093

2. Toronto: 925719

3. New York: 910024



What's a bit scary and what I didn't post in my message on the boards is that we barely won week two and Toronto's pace may catch them up with us soon. For week two, Team Chicago wrote 397,807 words. Team Toronto wrote 392,608. And Team Chicago already is down to 45 members still writing. Though I don't know what that looks like on the other teams. I'd imagine they're down around 80% of people still involved in NaNoWriMo as well.



I did send Toronto's captain a congratulatory letter on moving up to 2nd.



I'm not going to go so far as to say that if we can't win that I want Toronto to win because that comes with its own bit of embarassment if they beat us two years in a row. That being said, I don't want New York City to win if we don't either since those guys seem to have a huge ego about being the "only city that matters."



And I love New York City (else I wouldn't spend over a week there each year) but I'm beginning to get why my roommate hates everything New York City as he's Illinois born-and-bred.



I should have actually taken this whole competition as an omen. I started Eli Manning of the New York Giants over Donovan McNabb today in fantasy football. Manning had o.k. numbers (13 fantasy points) but McNabb just went off for four touchdowns (37 fantasy points). So I am going to lose (barring Matt Hasselbeck suddenly getting injured on the other team).



At least Team Chicago brought a smile to my face tonight or it would have just been an awful day (I actually lost in all three fantasy leagues, one to the last place team in a league where I was 8-1 going into the week).



---



I really have to turn in early tonight as I went into work this morning and discovered that I may actually have to do my computer liaison job to a large extent tomorrow.



There are some things I discovered in Word 2007 that I'm going to have to show everyone in my department how to do. For some silly reason our I.S. department decided not to include me in the testing rollout (though I did get to see some of the new features as they did include not-Kate) even though my department does things that no other department does such as desktop fax rosters to the various states - which I found today I couldn't do.



I even have to show everyone how to print on our company letterhead since this is totally different.



What I really want to do right now is write since the last scene flowed like melted butter. I forgot what it feels like to hit a word vein since I hit them so rarely these days.



I actually enjoyed writing the scene where Tabitha comes barging in to Andy's apartment to get Little Green Envelope. I wrote some funny lines even. Like these:



“I think what you should do is give me back the keys,” Andy said.

“Or what? You’re going to call the police?”

“I could do that,” Andy said, “after all I’m not the one who’s breaking and entering, am I?”

Tabitha seemed to go into pause mode at this one. The rapid fire responses she had been giving stopped in their tracks like she had taken a bullet in the head and was just waiting to drop to the ground.

“No but…” Tabitha’s pause mode ended.

“Just give me the keys,” he said, “and we’ll pretend like this didn’t happen.”

“It’s not breaking and entering,” Tabitha said quickly, “because Kate gave me the keys.”

“Kate has, or I should say had, a right to those keys. You, little red headed devil, do not.”

So it turns out that I was right after all. Maybe Tabitha did have horns that only other humans could see.

“Her name’s on the lease too,” Tabitha said, now back to almost full speed from her slow motion, “so she still has a right to these keys, and um…”

“Um, what…”

“Give me back the DVD and I’ll sleep with you,” Tabitha said so quickly that I could barely make out the words.



I also actually wrote an action scene (not that kind of action scene, this promise never comes to fruition) where the two of them rush to get the DVD. I shouldn't really call it a scene since it's a couple of paragraphs, but whatever.



Point being, what's wonderful about this is that my characters are starting to take over the story so hopefully the writing will get easier. I even had Little Green Envelope speaking for me when he said, "well that was unexpected."



Those are the best four words in the NaNoWriMo dictionary and when they count as four words all the better.

How To Get One Word Out Of Thousands

Ugh! So what was my excuse for only writing 2.25 hours today (to bring me above 20,000 but barely - 20,835)? I spent the afternoon arguing with member of the New York City team about the comparitive ethnic diversity of restaurants in Chicago versus New York City. And then it tangented into a bit of a spat with one particular member of the team about if the United Nations was in New York City or if it was an independent entity.

Anyhow, it was pretty pointless regardless. The embarassing remains will be on the New York City Word War thread for the rest of the month. Actually until next October.

Though it did get me nice and ready to write a fight scene in my novel. Too bad there was none to be written. About all I got out of it, word count wise was to get to use the word "jacktard." Which is what I wanted to call the other person but I had to keep it civil. Now I remember why I don't use interweb bulletin boards for the other 11 months a year.

The portion of my novel where I actually use the word "jacktard" is quite possibly the first spit milk line that I've written in a while. The whole section is generally humorous so here it is:

“Don’t forget,” Andy said, “I knew Tabitha way before you did. I think I know her at least as well as you do. She’s got you on a pretty tight leash, right?”

Kate went into pause mode for a second before admitting, “like a drill sergeant. Surprised she hasn’t made me drop and do pushups yet.”

“I never made you do that,” Andy said, “at least you can give me credit for that.”

A little laugh came out of Kate. “As long as you promise no axe play,” she said, “I’ll come upstairs. But only for a few minutes, okay.”

“Don’t worry,” Andy said, “I haven’t bought an axe in the time since you moved out.”

If I could have dropped myself to the floor, I would have when I saw the apartment. It was absolutely “spotless” (as you humans would call it but I’ve noticed that you humans usually don’t decorate your apartments with spotted patterns to begin with so aren’t all your apartments “spotless?”). And there was a new carpet in the room with the television. This was what Kate’s eyes seemed to be focused on.

“Nice carpet,” she said.

“Thanks,” Andy replied, “it matches the drapes.”

“You really are a jacktard,” Kate said trying to hold back a laugh for a reason that I really couldn’t understand, “but a jacktard with nice new carpet.”

High quality writing all around but at least I brought the funny for once with my human characters. I sometimes feel like I'm writing two novels. One breakup melodrama with the human characters and then the narrator making fun of it all. I don't know how that's going to play with an actual reader.

Though I guarantee at least one person who is going to fall out of her chair when she reads that line. And it's going to be not-Kate.

---

Right after I wrote those lines, I actually had to go into the Romance thread and requested assistance. See Andy tries to seduce Kate into having "that messy thing that you humans do in the room with the bed" (as the Little Green Envelope calls it) on the new carpet.

And I wasn't sure yet, at this point, if I should have her take him up on the offer or not.

So I posted a thread called "Do they or don't they" in the Romance genre lounge. It's a place I'm never totally comfortable even though my novel is a Dude Lit novel (or a satire of Dude Lit novels) and therefore technically a romantic comedy (like "High Fidelity").

But they were very helpful. At least the first person who responded (I'm assuming it was a woman because in my times in there, I've come across maybe four other guys) was and he or she gave a definitive, "no."

So they didn't. Instead I just wrote this melancholy scene where Andy stands in the doorway feeling rejected for about 10 minutes after Kate walks away down the stairs and out of his life again.

And then the Little Green Envelope makes fun of him. See the cycle?

Actually that doesn't happen but I don't want to give too much of the plot away. Even though I'm sure I'll excerpt too much in the remaining time in NaNoWriMo.

---

I still mean to finish "Pets" tomorrow. I think that I've written about 3,000 words too many in it. The envelope was going to be mailed back in the original plotting the day that Kate moved all of her stuff out of the apartment.

This is the event that triggers "Drugs" (or the part called "Drugs" though I was going to have Andy turn to drugs).

Now I think that instead, Tabitha is going to bust into the apartment and take the DVD for herself and shove it (and probably Andy's head) into the mailbox. That will then set off "Drugs."

I blame the Word War for these extra words. I'm putting off starting "Drugs" until I know what's going to happen in it just so I get a word count every day. Not that I'm not fond of what I've written extra in "Pets" it's just not the pacing that I wanted.

Inside The Inside Of My Mind

The best part of NaNoWriMo is not even realizing that the cable is out. But, since the cable is out, I don't get to wake up early tomorrow and watch the footcer (my favorite team Fulham is playing Liverpool). Though I probably will wake up early anyhow (it's the 11:00 a.m. match on Fox Soccer Channel so it's not really that early) and write.

Or like last Saturday I'll crop some photographs as I have other year-long creative endeavors that I can't just stop in November. This is what I did last Saturday. The good news on that front is that I don't have my cropping laptop (the one that hooks into a full sized monitor which for some reason the one I'm writing this blog entry on doesn't) as I've loaned it to Samantha.

So really I have no excuse not to just write all day tomorrow. I'll find some excuse to write almost nothing I'm sure but that's not the plan right now. If you look at the awesome new widget on the right side of the page, last Saturday is a little red day.

Though my word count (18,651) is not setting a good example for most of Team Chicago so I really should do something about that and there's no better day than to start tomorrow. That sounds pretty slacker until you consider that there's not really much time left in today (an hour here in the U.S. Central Time Zone).

I'm still not feeling totally well so maybe I'll end up sleeping all day tomorrow, who knows.

---

I did something today that I haven't done all of NaNo, I wrote at work.

We're getting new computers on Monday at work. As departmental technology liaison, that's going to be a pretty hadesish day for me. I only mention this, however, because I wanted to get one last day of writing in on my old work computer.

That computer has served me well for three NaNos so it deserved at least one more college try. I wrote 592 words on it during lunch.

It's sort of odd writing at work, especially considering that I managed to leave myself on a Tabitha rant yesterday. It should have provided real life inspiration that the real life Tabitha was around (though the character is moving further and further away from this starting point and becoming pretty unrecognizable) and she and I are (I don't know if she knows this) on a "piss me off and I'll put you in my novel" mode right now.

I guess I've started to feel guilty that I'm badmouthing her so much thusfar in my novel. But since it's no longer her except for one aspect, I don't feel as bad.

It's really more an indictment of all Chicago artists than it is of any one. And since that's a reoccuring theme for me, I think it's all good. Though some others might disagree.

Today was actually an awesome day at work full of good times and laughs. Doesn't make for writing a really negative chapter next about work (if I choose to do that). I'm not feeling that negative right now in general so Holden Caulfielding isn't on the agenda.

Of course I'm about to watch a movie so maybe getting to sleep late will put me in a more bitter mood. I figured I'd be full of piss and vinegar this November but maybe writing everything down has been a bit too cathartic.

---

One thing did raise my ire today though. The fact that I left the words I wrote at work at work. I was actually amazed when I wrote in the filler words how long that it took. It's sort of refreshing that I can now write faster in the context of the novel than I can outside of it.

I shouldn't really put this on here, but I'm going to anyhow:

[17362 17362 17362 Get This From Work on Monday 17362 It Talks About Kate Trying to Put the Little Green Evelope’s neighbors back in piles and Tabitha yelling at her and saying that if the situations were reversed, Andy wouldn’t do the same.

It establishes the fact further that Kate is still trying to help Andy even though she’s mad at him. It would have been good to have this but you were in such a hurry to get out of work that you left it there.

You are sort of an idiot for doing this, but, hey, at least your laptop didn’t explode like last year so you’re doing something right. Well maybe you’re doing something right but I bet you won’t go back and read the 17362 words that you’ve wrote so far, will you?

Yeah, this will hopefully never see the light of day even though I’m probably going to post this on the blog tonight or at least talk about it.

65 more words and I’m back at 17000. It’s harder to talk about what I wrote than it was to actually write it.]

CHAPTER SEVEN

[17362 works to establish Tabitha as an artsy fuck. Her apartment is just what you’d expect with all the right books (which Little Green Envelope calls written narratives) and all the right films and such.

It also establishes her a pothead who likes to “wake and bake” but Little Green Envelope doesn’t judge her.

I leave it up to the reader to judge her in that regard or not despite my obvious hatred of the character from beyond the fourth wall. I mean, I can see why Kate sticks by her and all but there’s not much redeeming about her yet. I’ll have to change that. She’s not entirely one dimensional.

Neither was Cassandra. For the record. But I already talked about that in the blog yesterday so typing it here to kill words is the heart of redundancy. 17362, I’m almost at 17,362 so I can start writing as soon as I take a nap. Though I need to get dinner. That’s very important. Can’t write exhausted tonight because I need to write something to latch onto tomorrow. Maybe Kate taking the Little Green Envelope to work so he can see first hand if her job really in unfulfilling as she seems to think it is.

It probably is. Kate is sort of spacey but she’s got a good perception on things. 17362. Almost at 17,200 now. It doesn’t seem like I wrote this much at work but I was writing for a solid half hour. Well, maybe not solid but at least trying to write at work on the last day on my old computer. I’m so flippin’ tired now that I don’t want to even write the hundred filler words I have left.

But I’m going to because if I can’t write 100 filler words, how am I going to write anything tonight?

Should I even write tonight? I mean, I’m not going out but maybe I should watch a movie. I have “A Lot Like Love.” It would be good to watch a romance movie since I’m writing about them. Yeah, I’ll probably do that after I drive to Taco Bell and get food. I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow.

17362. I feel like I’m singing “Seasons Of Love.” So I’ll just say that I left off where Little Green Envelope is talking about how silly Hollywood portrays marijuana use. And these here are the last nine filler words.]

I've always said this is truly a window into my mind during the month of November so now everyone can see how the gears turn behind the scenes. Or even further behind the scenes than I put on here.

It can sometimes be a pretty scary place, I have to admit. :)

I'm Writing This With Words, Not Non-Verbal Cues

I'm violating my own cardinal rule of NaNoWriMo to write this entry. I stopped mid-chapter in the middle of a scene that I'm actually writing at a pretty good clip (up to 15,883 words) to "pick up" the Blogger. I always tell everyone who will listen (or isn't listening) that that's a simply brilliant way to kill your word count.

But I figure gathering my thoughts to continue writing is still doing something productive to the speed noveling end.

I keep having this reoccuring thought as I'm writing this latest scene. Kate has returned to the apartment to pick up her things to move out totally with Tabitha in tow to help. And I keep having flashbacks to my 2004 novel (which is, I haven't mentioned, still available in its entirety on LiveJournal as it was serialized). In that novel, Emily the FMC goes to Europe with Cassandra. Cassandra is the MMC's cousin as well as being Emily's best friend. Throughout the first part of the novel, which just like this one takes place after a breakup, Emily keeps having second thoughts about breaking up with Scott. Cassandra is always there to remind her that Scott is a douchebag (though I wrote that novel before douchebag was the word-du-jour) and why they broke up in the first place.

Well flash forward to the present time. In this scene Tabitha keeps reminding Kate that Andy is a douchebag as Kate has second thoughts about breaking up with Andy.

That's not the big problem though. The bigger dilemma is that Tabitha is quickly turning into Cassandra. She's adopting her mannerisms and everything. The big difference is that Tabitha is artsy and Cassandra was just, for lack of a better adjective, slutty.

I think their motivations are going to turn out to be incredibly different. It turns out that jealousy is Cassandra's driving force. I'm not sure what Tabitha's force for trying to keep them apart is yet. Maybe it's entirely altrusitic. Maybe she can just see, as hopefully the reader can, that "those two just weren't meant to be together." In the 2004 novel, Scott and Emily were, or at least I tried to write them as meant to be together once they got their own crap together.

So there are major differences but I still can't help but think that anyone who read my 2004 NaNo is going to think I'm just repeating myself.

I said I wanted to return to my roots for this one but I didn't mean in that way.

---

At the Chicago International Film Festival, my friend Samantha and I went to see "The Age Of Ignorance." This is the new film by the French-Canadian director Denys Arcand. He's the guy who won the Oscar for "The Barbarian Invasions" (well deserved because that movie was all sorts of awesome).

At the Q&A session afterwards, an audience member accused him of writing weak, unlikeable female characters. He tried to defend himself saying that his female characters were deeper with better motivations than the audience member gave him credit for.

I hope to never be in that situation (though it's doubtful this novel will see and audience of more than three or four people tops) but I want to defend myself in advance.

I've always tried to write female characters as stronger than their male counterparts, just in different ways. Someone reading this novel might chastise me for making Kate a bit touched (to put it nicely) just like Emily suffered from clinical depression. And they'd further state their case by saying that Tabitha is just controlling and slightly one dimensional.

I'd like to point out that in my 2005 novel, it's Mia (the MC's girlfriend) who holds everyone together and is the voice of reason and not Liam (the MC) who sort of bumbles through life while thinking he knows it all.

Sure Kate is just about bat crap insane at this point in the story and sort of wishy-washy in maybe wanting to take Andy back but I'm not trying to make her a weak character. After all, she had the strength to walk out in the first place (which the girl that she's not really based on was really proud of).

I just write characters with issues. All my characters may be a little weak in the grand scheme of things, male and female. I just don't know any Harrison Fords or Glenn Closes in my real life who are ready to take on the world and make it their oyster. All the people I know have flaws. It's those flaws that make us human.

To write otherwise to me seems really dishonest (as would making my characters infinitely likeable).

---

Before I start tangenting again to entirely forget what I wanted to write on yesterday, I'm going to get down to it.

Dialog.

As I've mentioned, my friend Samantha is NaNoing this year (at least I think she is - she's yet to recover her word count after her laptop got stolen from her apartment a few days ago). While we were driving on Saturday to see my friend Adam's play, she confessed that she hadn't written any dialog in her first 3,000 words or so.

I was shocked. Dialog to me is the most beautiful part about writing. To think that some people are scared of it or avoid it for other reason befuddles me.

But, lo and behold, Samantha is not alone in this fact. I found an entire thread on the boards questioning if dialog is even necessary. I can't find it now (too bad NaNoWriMo has taken down the find people by where they've posted for now) but there were seriously a third of the people in the forum who said, "don't worry, you don't need dialog."

Um, what?

I mean, there's non-verbal communication and it's a crucial part to storytelling but an entire novel, NaNo or not, without dialog is not worth the paper it's printed on. No one, and I mean no one, cares about a novel that says, "they did this and then they did that and then this happened."

While an insanely high amount of communication is non-verbal, human beings communicate with words.

On the positive side, I have this to say. To anyone who's afraid to write dialog because they think it sounds inane - humans talk inanely. Now there's a point where the dialog becomes really bad and that's at "hello." The problem is never the dialog, it's where the dialog starts and stops. It's been my experience that dialog should advance the plot in the same way that action does. If you don't mention someone walking every stop, don't include the greetings and the goodbyes.

Other than that, pretty much everything is fair game.

And I guess if you want to write a dialog-free novel go ahead it's your NaNo. I'm just not swapping with you.

---

Well that was sufficiently negative.

To close this on a more positive note, here's a link to an awesome video that I got off the Chicago boards. It was posted in response to a post by our ML (and since today is ML appreciation day, can I just say that TimSimms is doing an outstanding job with Chicago) and I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.

One person at work actually said it was the funniest viral video she had ever received.

Now that I hyped it up, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBHOL1PcPR8

There's proof that dialog doesn't have to be even slightly human to be human. Enjoy!

Even Though I Made The Game, I Wasn't Thinking About It

I thought it was going to take the weekend and me collecting my thoughts to get me back on the writing track. At work this afternoon (I ended up going in after all though if this were an NBA injury report, I'm day-to-day for tomorrow and Friday and if it was an NFL injury report, I'm Probable for tomorrow) I was actually fretting that I was done for. It's a bit early in the month for that to be sure but people have dropped out over less than writer's block.

But tonight I got back in track by jumping ahead a little bit to a couple of ideas that I had earlier in the month. The one that provided the most word count was having the narrator talk about Little Green Envelope sex. At the kickoff party, I thought it was a good idea (or at least a funny one) to have them engage in human activities - including that. But as the month has actually begun, I decided that the story was better told by keeping boundaries between the Little Green Envelope world and the human one.

So instead I think I wrote an amusing section of the novel:

I know that some of you humans are probably getting all sorts of ideas and asking all sorts of questions about us Little Green Envelopes by this point in the narrative. You’re probably saying to yourself “do they do what you humans do in the room with the bed?” or “do they ever want to switch their genders?” or “do they ever want to send themselves to the incinerator?”

The answers to those questions are “no,” “sometimes it happens by mistake but we don’t attempt to,” and “no.”

But the first question is the one that’s most important here as I’ve raised the subject. It would be virtually impossible for us to do that messy thing that you humans do in the room with the bed. After all, we can’t move ourselves. And we all have the exact same parts (and we’re lacking the parts that you humans have that lets you do that messy thing in the room with the bed). But if you want to picture how that would work if it could, then go ahead with your own narrative in your “brains.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if you humans sometimes take two of us envelopes, lip the flaps and start to put the corner of one of us into the open slot of the other trying to imitate the messy thing that you humans do in the room with the bed. And of course you wouldn’t even know that you’ve got a good chance of smashing together two males or two females. Which there is, of course, nothing wrong with. We Little Green Envelopes appreciate our brothers and sisters from that genre a lot. But I know that I’ve just disgusted quite a few of you humans with that thought so I’ll quit fast forwarding.

But first, can I just say for the record that we would get no enjoyment out of that act the way you humans seem to. In fact, it’s actually quite painful when you smash us together in any way or pile us on top of each other (though it does make it easier to converse close together since we can’t control our volume) or bury us or put out fires with us or kill insects with us by smacking us against “the wall” and crushing them. I don’t know why you humans think that because of our physical appearance we’re so good for doing all of those things when really all we’re supposed to be used for is carrying movies through the mail.

So if you get nothing else out of this narrative, just remember that fact.

I felt a public service announcement preview right there. I’m sorry.

And I finally had the Little Green Envelope come in contact with the Little Green romance Envelope that Kate had rented and which she watched the night before she broke up with Andy and left. I know I had planned that in advance but I don't know when I was going to put that in. I figured it was going to be just before the story moved out of the apartment by the envelopes being sent back. And I think it still is.

I think I'm getting close to the end of part one of the novel. I even made "part" markers. Since the novel is "Pets, Drugs, and Fireworks" part one is called "Pets." Part two is going to be called "Drugs." And, I know everyone is going to have figured this out by this point, part three is going to be called "Fireworks."

Part one has a lot of the mention of the cat that Andy owns so I think it makes logical sense. Part two is going to have Hoodie dragging Andy to a party where a Bruce Lee movie is going to be shown as background entertainment and where there will be some crazy activities so that goes along with the "drugs." I've yet to have any reason to call part three "fireworks" yet but I'm thinking the story is going to end around the fourth of July. And there will be quite a few emotional fireworks since it's the third act.

Part one has really been sort of mundane like "pets" would indicate. It hasn't left the first apartment so it's very fitting. I just hope if anyone reads this, they can survive "Pets" and get to the, hopefully, more exciting "Drugs" and "Fireworks."

I've also had a lot of exposition by the Little Green Envelope in part one so it's almost like he's treating the humans as "pets" (ironic since he has no control over them and is the possession and not them). But since the three acts of a traditional novel are introduction, conflict, and resolution, I think I'm fine with the "pets" chapters being that way.

At least I'm justifying the novel thusfar in that way.

I think at 14,000 words (13,981) like I am now I'm needing to get a little more conflict into the story and I will very soon. Pets really needs to transition into drugs post-haste.

---

13,981 means I'm now on pace to reach 60,000 words this month. But the Word War has made me feel pretty inferior in that regards. As usual Toronto's got this one person who's decided to set their sights on 150,000 words. This one isn't 12 though so that's good.

They have stated that they are going to reach 50,000 tonight.

I look at my novel and I guess there's nothing that I haven't written thusfar that I couldn't have written in the first night or two if I had really pinned myself to my chair. Well except that very meta first fight scene since my roommate was vacuuming obsessively on the 2nd. But had I found something else for them to fight about it could have worked just as well.

I keep thinking part of my problem is I'm breaking at weird points. I'm leaving myself wanting to write the next chapter and all but I'm sometimes breaking mid-thought from exhaustion or whatever. I look back to my 2004 novel, still the most successful and thinking that I wrote that only a chapter at a time. If I couldn't finish the chapter, I wouldn't start it. Of course, those chapter were only about 1,000 words so I could do that. These are five or six pages a piece.

Next year I am going to write chapter to chapter again. I just have to get a story that's more easy to serialize.

---

Speaking of the Word War, Chicago won round one! I'm shocked to be honest, but the final standings for October 1-6, 2007 were as follows:

1. Chicago: 580286
2. New York City: 572825
3. Toronto: 533111

Of course the only standings that matter are November 1, 2007. Still this is the first time we've ever been ahead of Toronto in any count so I'm psyched.

I've actually put together a Rhapsody playlist of all-Canadian artists to egg myself on. It contains The Tragically Hip, Our Lady Peace, Barenaked Ladies, Bruce Cockburn, Leonard Cohen, and Neil Young.

There's no real soundtrack for my novel yet which is why I probably don't have the feel of it yet but maybe that's for this weekend. I'm too busy writing right now for that.

---

I have some thoughts on dialog but I think I'm going to go back to writing and try to hit 15,000 tonight (some people are going for 20,000 today but I'm nowhere close even if I wrote for a solid two or three hours).

This Chicago Weather Is Good And Bad For The Novel

It should be a good thing that I'm writing tonight's blog post after I should be asleep and dreaming (as I try to be part of "all good people"). But really it's just because I was sick as the proverbial dog today (which is why it's annoying that my cat is in really good spirits and trying to interrupt my writing on a regular basis) and I slept from 5:30 to 8:30 this evening.

I cancelled the West Side write-in I was so out of it. I was, thankfully, not too out of it to remember to do so.

If I call in sick to work tomorrow, I'll feel guilty writing. But not too guilty. Since, after all, most of my writing has been done under the covers anyhow. If I could cross my arms and shiver in this sudden Chicago cold snap while writing, I would do that. Next year I'll have to figure out a way to make that happen.

---

Today I figured I had to tell the person who I basically stole the story from that my FMC's life was based on what happened to her.

She took it surprisingly well. There's this other girl at work who told me that if she's included in the story, she will be extremely pissed (and it's not the one who another character is based about 80% on thank goodness).

All that the person whose story I was inspired by asked is that I make the MMC a complete asshole. And, well, that's not too far from real life or the story. Thusfar he is. Though I don't like writing one sided characters so I'll have to give him at least some redeeming qualities.

I did tell her the truth that the main character isn't her (she actually has personality traits more closely related to someone else). Just a person in the same situation that she went through. And it's not like I set out to steal her story - it just happened because I've never been in the situation where I've been co-habitating with someone who just doesn't care and she has.

What's amazing was that she figured out that she was the inspiration for the MC without my even telling her. Unless she's reading this blog. Which is possible. In which case, "hey H."

Though I don't think it's really hard to tell which four people are the four which the four characters so far are based on. This other person (the one who doesn't want to be in the story) guessed right off the bat. Then again she knows pretty much everything that I could possibly have used for inspiration so maybe others, even those who are close to the events (those few events in the novel that might actually have happened) might not be able to guess.

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Tonight was when I ran the numbers for Team Chicago for the first time, and we're looking good in some areas and in others, I'm slightly worried. Here is the report:

Now that the team is set, we can get down to the dirty business of comparing our word count to the other two regions. The three team captains agreed yesterday that we'll post them every Sunday but to get a starting point, we also agreed to post them either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Keep in mind that these word counts are inaccurate the moment they're posted (almost). But since it's past midnight in the Eastern Time Zone where our two opponents reside it's fair to post our closing word count for November 6, 2007.
Right now, Team Chicago stands at 580,286 words. That's an average of 10,551 words per team member.

The closing number that goes by the 1,667 words per day count is 10,000 on the 6th of November. So that means that on average, our team is ahead of pace to average 50,000 words (52,753 to be exact). We currently have 26 of our 55 team members (47%) on pace to break the 50,000 word mark. Let's try to beat last year when we had 37 of 47 (79%) members of the team as NaNoWriMo winners!

We actually have our top three Word Warriors from last year (rosemilk, Tungsten Monk, and Panstygia) back on the team so things are looking good to avenge our loss to Toronto.
If we each write an average of 50,000 words, we'll end up with 2,755,000 words. That's the goal more than anything; except for beating the snot out of New York City and Toronto of course. :)
I tnink it's important to remember that we're a team so we want everyone to succeed in getting their 50,000 words. That being said, here's a little internal competition to egg everyone on. Here are our top 10 writers out of the gates:

1. CrimsonBlood - 33,8732. squirrelgirl22 - 26,1553. rosemilk - 24,9144. cavafy - 24,9055. LeeB - 20,3616. Panstygia - 18,6447. atlantistale - 15,0868. smwalter - 15,0719. TimmSimms - 14,97910. daevient - 14,576

Congratulations to all of you for being way ahead of schedule. You inspire me at least if not the rest of the team. Each week I'll also post the five people who made the biggest word gain in the week (or in this next case five days) prior.

Keep on typing Team Chicago and write early, write often!

Which reminds me, I need to change my signature back to the "write early, write often" slogan. I think I'll do that now instead of going to sleep. Maybe I'm not all good people.

I Should Have The Little Green Envelope Write These

In the three NaNo novels that I've written up to this point, I have been really good about creating composite characters or just making the characters that populate my pages up from scratch. This year, I've apparently thrown that writing technique to the wolves because, thusfar, the only two characters I've mentioned besides Kate (who as I've mentioned is half based on a real person) and Andy (who's just the side of me that I'm not proud of) are based almost completely on real people.

One of them, who doesn't even have a name except for "hoodie" (Andy's friend from work who lives in the same neighborhood) and Kate's best friend Tabitha (who I think I straight out stole from what I once said my friend Samantha should name her main character except the character isn't based on Samantha) are based almost 100% on real people.

And the worst part is, I didn't even bother trying to disguise Tabitha's identity. In real life the character that Kate is based on really is Tabitha's best friend. At least in the context that I know both of them. And, of course, what situation would I put Tabitha in except for the exact same situation as reality. Gave me a chance to talk a bit of smack that I shouldn't have talked, but it was cathartic to a point.

Though I think I can be a bit forgiving to myself as the original novel was going to be about Tabitha. Or Tabitha was going to be one of the two MCs (the female one, though I have been known to switch genders and keep all the personality traits of two people to disguise them).

Tomorrow, or maybe for a half an hour tonight, I'm actually going to have Andy call Tabitha and the true extent of their prior relationship (which is completely fictional, by the by) is going to be revealed. Who knows, maybe I'll actually get a subplot out of it. Fate knows my novel needs one of those as it's approach 10,000 words rapidly (at the time of writing this, I'm at 9,253 words).

Maybe Andy will even do something really bad just to screw over Kate. Though Tabitha apparently hates Andy in the novel and is really tight with Kate so this might not be a viable option.

---

And maybe I can actually write something humorous in this interchange. Thusfar all the humor has still come from the Little Green Envelope and his lack of understanding of humans (and the fact that he thinks he understands them a lot better than he actually does).

He's even been the vehicle for pointing out the satire. And I think that's a worse narrative crime than anything that I've done in creating characters.

Though I do like what I wrote tonight about his musings about the phrase, "I'd rather get a root canal.":

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Andy. I don’t know why you humans, especially you humans in the larger cities, are suddenly so fond of saying that word three times. In the older movies I transport, a simple “yes” or “yup” or even “h’yup” (if the setting is right – I notice a lot of dust around in the movies where that is used) suffices. “Of course, who else would she be staying with than the person I would rather get a root canal than call?”

Do you humans actually ever get presented with that choice? I think of all of the phrases you throw around, this is the worst. It’s as if there’s nothing worse in life than going to the dentist. Though I do have to say that in all of the movies I’ve transported where this scene is carried out, they do make the dentist’s office seem like a pretty scary place. There are all sorts of torture instruments just lying around and some male human (almost always) or a female human (occasionally) in a little white coat sticking them into where you talk while you squirm in either pain or just fear.

I would have to think that even if you chose the root canal, all it would serve to do was put off the other choice for a little bit until you had to do that eventually. I don’t see the human or whatever with the other option going, “well I know you just had the traumatic experience of the root canal and all so you can skip this horrible business meeting where you have to talk about a big cardboard page with some lines on it today. Or, let’s face it, you just had a near incinerator experience with the male human in the little white coat so let’s just say you never have to talk about the big cardboard page again. You made your choice and I’m proud to say you chose ‘root canal.’”

---

I didn't get a chance to do much writing tonight in general (my goal was 10,o00 words) since I was in chat for two hours negotiating the final teams for the Chicago v. New York City v. Toronto word war.

Turns out the teams are 55 people. I negotiated for this because person #52 and #53 were on the team last year and both got 50,000 (both are well on their way this year). It was a compromise because person #55 is the only one in the entirety of the Chicago volunteers who haven't broken 1,000 yet.

But in their request to be on the team, they said that they wanted to be inspired to write by being on Team Chicago. And if the word war inspires even one person to break the 50,000 mark than it's done its job.

That, of course, is my Kate side talking. The Andy side says that the point is to kick the behinds of both New York City and Toronto. I don't even know what the Little Green Envelope side would say. But chances are it would be way funnier than anything said by my actual MCs.

I Think My Goal Is To Write 1,700 Words In Here Per Day

Now I've backed myself into a bit of a corner. I had my first moment of NaNoWriMo where I typed something completely unexpected. While my narrator was pontification on how often he used words in the past tense, I came to this realization (scarily, I almost wrote "he"):

"But I’ve used the word were too much. It’s like rewinding to a time when I knew them as Kate and Andy, as opposed to Kate…and Andy. Maybe I tip my hand too much in that they don’t get back together. I’m not the best at foreshadowing even though one of the advantages to being a Little Green Envelope is that I get to see everything at once. I know that you humans are all thinking that this is how the narrative arc is going to go. But this isn’t the story of Kate and Andy. This is the story of Kate…and Andy."

So, crap. I had the original thought of the story that they got back together at the end and he ends up back at their apartment for a happy ending. Now they don't get back together at the end. I try not to write predictable endings but I think for once my novel is supposed to have a happy ending at least. So now I have to find a way to get Kate and Andy both happy and both growing as people separately. And I guess that's the reality of a situation like they're in. From what I've written so far, I could have had them realize they needed to adapt a little piece of each other that they themselves were lacking. I had that happen in my 2004 novel even though that didn't have a happy ending.

I guess telling two disparate storylines ends up with a higher word count. But I'm trying not to write to the competition this year. That just ended up making me miserable last year with the finished product.

Though this year's competition is going to be huge. Chicago, New York, and Toronto buoyed by MLs who support the competition may have 50 people. Being team captain, I at least have to try really hard to get way about 50,000.

---

Speaking of word counts, I wrote the following bit of old NaNoWriMo experience in one of the forums. It's about daily word counts:

Per day word counts don't work.

If you miss a day, you end up trying to double up. Or triple up - or quadruple up.
I don't aim for words per day, I try for scenes per day. Or, even parts of scenes per day. Today, for example, I was going to write this fight between my two protagonists. No matter how many words it took. I got tired so it was only 1,500 and it's not done yet. So tomorrow I finish the fight (I did stop it at a logical point, when the initial aggrevation ended) and I'm going to try and write two other scenes as well.

Also, I write to word goals. My first goal for tomorrow, for example, will be 5,000 (right now I'm at 4,180) so the fight will probably be about 820 more words. 5,000 is also the end goal for day three in the 1,667 method but this is coincidental.

If you write in this method, you're not watching the counter and it's amazing how much faster the words pile up. If you stop once you get your 1,667 it means you're probably ending mid-stream and might find it hard to pick back up.

And I stand completely behind that. Chances are if you are checking your word counter (I almost said, "if you humans are checking your word counters") than you're not really enjoying what you're writing. If you're in the flow, just go with it. If that means you write only 500 words in a day than you do. Some other day you'll probably be closer to 5,000 when you hit a word vein.

So call me cynical but, hey, I've completed this thing three times so what's to say I'm wrong?

I know people have completed it writing right around 1,700 words per day, but it's a dangerous precipice.

Out Living Life As Well As Writing About It

So it looks like I missed my first day of November blogging on here. There are worse things that could happen during November for sure.

I did buy my writer's notebook at about 2:00 p.m. today and then went home and took a nap while watching this special on the History Channel on what an earthquake would do to New York City. Here's a hint - total destruction. Kind of what like the mad writers of Chicago are going to do to them. As of yesterday evening, which was the last time I could actually get on the NANO site, we already had 10 people above 5,000 words. And my friend Mary was already at 20,000. That girl can flat out write.

Then my friend Samantha, who is also NANOing called saying how tough it was to write once she actually started.

She has written about three scenes and is only at 4,000 words. I told her that she needed to add more descriptions. She told me that she hadn't done much dialog yet and I told her that dialog is half the fun of NaNoWriMo. We ended up discussing it a lot. Sad thing is, she's got way more anecdotes to work in than I do. If I could borrow her life (she's writing semi-autobiographical) and work some of that in with my unlikeable characters (she hates movies with truly despicable types in them) and my dialog than together we could set the speed writing world on fire.

After that, I sat down for a solid hour and finished off the fight scene. I won't say what Kate and Andy fought about but it involved a different sort of stain than the cat left. I think it goes to the lengths (no pun intended) that the dysfunctionality of their relationship has reached before the reader is dropped in.

Tomorrow's (later today's) writing is going to involve Kate finally deciding to walk out of the situation and Andy searching for her all around town (using his cell phone of course since if he actually physically searched it would involve going out of the narrator's view.

I haven't plotted too far ahead so once the breakup happens, there's no saying where the path of the Little Green Envelope will go. I'm guessing he's going to go back to the warehouse where the reader gets to meet some other Little Green Envelopes and such. I know he's going to be sent to a cheesy party where Andy is going to show up so he can catch back up with his storyline soon after.

But I have no idea where it's going to go after that. So at about 10,000 words it's going to get difficult again. I'm just going to relish the words while they're still coming.

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Even though I wasn't writing tonight, I did do something speed writing related.

I went to see a play at former Editor Adam's theater. More to the point, I went to see a collection of 18 scenes. 9 of which were by the original playright, Suzan Lori-Parks and 9 of which were interpretations of the same name of the scene by Chicago playrights and other writers affiliated with the theater.

It was a great experiment in what different authors can do with the same starting point (in this case a name).

Even though some of the scenes left a lot to be desired.

It's off to sleep now though as I have to go into work tomorrow. After that, I hope to get to about 8,000 words (putting me a bit ahead of the game). But I'm sure I'll get distracted a bit more. The good thing is, I'm not falling behind. I'm just not getting ahead either.

I just have to start thinking further ahead. Something has to happen that's exciting. I just have to figure out what that is.

Fighting Sleep More Than Writing Fighting

Not too much exciting to report today. I wish I was writing a workplace novel because my most interesting anecdotes seem to come from there. Today a co-worker and I got in a conversation about a spy in our office who watches everything we do. Now, that could make a good storyline in itself because the changes in my work's organizational culture over the past few years has been something to write about.

But I'm trying to write in satire, humor, and parody and there's already an abundance of way better material in that respect. I'd feel like I was stealing from "The Office" and "Office Space." Plus, some people are having a hard time keeping a sense of humor about the whole situation.

So instead of changing gears (though I could have the Little Green Envelope be taken to the workplace of the two main human characters if I really wanted to) I went ahead and wrote the scene that I've had churning in my head for about the last 24 hours.

The two main characters were given last night. The "male human" is named Andy and the "female human" is name Kate (short for Catherine). I shouldn't say who is the main part of the conglomeration for these characters as it may get me in a severe amount of trouble.

So far all we know about Andy is that he's a workaholic (and no, he's not based on Andy from "The Office" though that thought did cross my mind when I named him) and at home he's a total mess. Kate hates her job because she feels unappreciated and is constantly cleaning the apartment. It's a bit of "The Odd Couple" meets "The Break Up" so far if I'm using the movie comparison that much of my novel is based on.

So, yes, back to the fight scene. It's a very short fight so far (about 1400 words) over the messes that the cat leaves on the floor of the couple's apartments. But, really, the undertone to Andy is more about the fact that Kate uses vacuuming with her iPod on as a way to really avoid the situation (so I guess I also have to add to the personality traits that she avoids confrontation through ecapism). On Kate's end, the fight is about how Andy doesn't think the crisis she's going through at work matters.

I'm going to have the fight revive tomorrow (a few hours later in the story) since I know it has to get way more heated than I can get it to be in my exhausted state right now.

The fight's subject was actually the first bit of post-modernism to sneak into my novel this year. The way I figured out what the fight was going to be about was that my roommate was vacuuming for about an hour tonight - while I was trying to watch "The Next Great American Band." I thought to myself, "how long does it take to vacuum half of a friggin' two bedroom apartment in Chicago?"

I actually had Andy say something similar to Kate (I didn't say it to my roommate) except they live in a one bedroom so I adjusted accordingly. I really have to get my writer's notebook tomorrow and map out Andy and Kate's apartment. Yeah, I wasted my time watching television.

The person that Kate is loosely based on would be deeply disappointed. Though I have to say none of Kate's mannerisms thusfar are based on this person, just the situation she finds herself in.

Well it appears as though my talk about the office did have some bearing on tonight's writing after all though.

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The goal tonight is to get some sleep because tomorrow I want to have the full energy to finish off the fight scene. It's got to get way rougher than it did. It's not the gran mal fight in the relationship, but it's pretty close.

And I can't build up enough anger to translate it into the characters if I can barely keep my eyes open.

Where My Worst Is Good Enough

Just like the past couple of years, I didn't do a bit of pre-planning for NANOWRIMO. This year I've been even worse than usual. I didn't even buy my writer's notebook. This has been the highlight of past years leading up to NANO. Technically, it's the time that I consider the month to start even though I almost always do this in October.

Though I have real life money problems to blame for this more than any neglect. I'm going to do this tomorrow because tomorrow is when I actually start.

Thusfar, I've written once. I wrote when I got home from the Hold Steady concert (even though I was there for the openers Art Brut. I could have gone to sleep, but I really wanted to get a start sooner than usual. I wrote for about 30 minutes when I got home at 12:15 a.m.

I wrote like a storm and got 1,037 under my belt before I went to sleep.

The key was that I'm actually using a narrator this year as opposed to that third person omniscent voice in the sky. As I mentioned before, the narrator is a plastic "envelope" for an environmentally conscious movie-to-your-home company (called Little Green Envelope).

What I discovered yesterday in starting my novel is that he's sort of bitter with his place in life. He's always referring to "you humans" to describe the differences between Little Green Envelopes and you and I (the collective you).

He has no name and I don't think he's going to. Though other "envelopes" are going to have to refer to this one at some point so he might have to.

The "you humans" that appear in the novel are going to have to have names. But I don't think they're going to appear until what I write tomorrow. And when I have to start thinking of names, I'll actually have to come up with things like personality for the characters.

The next bit of writing is going to be the little green envelope apologizing for not understanding the rules of narrative writing since he's only seen movies. I hope that this will allow satirization of movies at some point in the future. There's going to need to be something since I don't know what the plot is yet. Then again, I didn't know that in the similar novel in 2004 either.

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It sounds like it, I'm sure but I'm already hanging around on the "NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul" boards.

There is an interesting thread called "Anti-Nanoers" in which a LiveJournal entry by a guy with a giant stick up his bum about NaNoWriMo is linked. He goes off for the entire entry about how no one who does NaNoWriMo is a real writer. He's more bitter than my narrator but a lot of what he says is true.

There are way too many people on the site with dreams way bigger than their talent. But I think most people get the fact that you can't write the Great American Novel in 30 days. I saw an icon on the NaNo LiveJournal community today that said, "your worst is good enough."

I think most people by the middle of their first year, unless they were already pretty good writers coming in, realize that NaNoWriMo is somewhere between a 30-day brainstorming session and just a way to have fun writing things that will never be published.

I know if I were worried about getting published, I would never in a million attempts write a novel where the narrator is a Little Green Envelope.