TGIO Isn't My Exact Emotion Anymore

One week has passed since the clock magically and cruely ended NaNoWriMo (I was just getting started, really). While I feel much better rested and am not in such a bad mood anymore to real life acquaintances, I really miss it.

Yesterday afternoon was Chicago's TGIO party and being there among the rest of the amazing region I'm a part of, made me really wish I had a working laptop and went to more events. This year was really tight knit.

It did make me feel pretty old as most of the people I started out with are no longer around. There were a couple of the class of 2003 still kicking around (though as I've said on here before, I really consider myself the class of 2004, that was the first year I really tried) but there were so many new, excited faces. I am a little jaded, I admit, though winning for a fifth time did feel as good as the first.

The only letdown was this year's TGIO venue was CRAP! I used my newfound love of Yelp to rip the cold, dark sushi joint that is Aria a new behind! About the only way it could have been worse is if they were blasting bad music over our conversations.

I found out something really weird at the party though. This woman who started at my work last Wednesday was one of the two MLs for Chicago. How I managed to miss that, I don't know (though she did look vaguely familiar right when she started). So if I'm still at this job next November (which I don't think I will be, at least not the entire month since I've vowed to quit on my 10 year anniversary, November 18, regardless) at least I won't get odd looks from 100% of the staff.

Though with how NaNo is growing, perhaps there will be even more NaNoers at work as it starts its second decade.

If I don't end up FiMoing this year and writing about that, I just wish NaNo luck as it starts its second decade. Hopefully I'll still be around to participate.

With 3.5 Hours To Spare, A Small Miracle

I've never been a fan of people who stop right at 50,000 words. Especially if they're on the Word War team. But that was, hypocritically, me this year.

I did write until the end of the chapter where I reached 50,000 at 8:33 p.m. This was 50,125.

The final writing session was from 4:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. so I figured that I deserved a break. And I still hadn't eaten dinner yet. So I stopped.

I kept meaning to pick the novel back up because now I'm really in the meaty part where the plot is just flowing out of my fingers (though I've reached a spot where the final confrontation should happen and I don't know how it should).

And when I sat back down, finally, at 11:15 (after watching the end of the Bears game and writing a review on Yelp of the Mexican place I went to with my parent yesterday), I started typing away. But then I just ran out of time.

Final word count: 50,576.

My lowest word count ever. My latest finish time ever. Well, neither are true if you count 2003 when I gave up. But of the now five years I have won, that's exactly the case.

But with what I went through this Novemeber, some people are congratulating me for finishing at all. Even my old nemesis (and probably best NaNo friend from outside of Chicago) Toronto's ML Deb (greensong).

I'm amazed she finished. And she accomplished something even more unbelievable than me. I wrote a little over 10,000 words the last two days. She wrote 23,500.

All of my NaNo buddies ended up finishing strong this year (except for the few who didn't procrastinate). Kim (rosemilk) wrote 20,000 words today alone.

Now that would have just about killed me.

So I go into 2009 with a fresh lease on my NaNo streak. And next year I'll be more involved again as I'll have a working laptop. Barring any unforseen things. Though I may be in a different region than Chicago. I might be in Washington D.C. or Northern Virginia.

I may do NaNoFiMo to polish off the last few chapters. But I think I've said that every year since that debuted (it's that month's 5th anniversary this year). I'll see how I feel after taking the 1st and 2nd off.

It would be nice just to say, "the end" for once.

This time, however, I do promise one thing. December entries in Retentivewrimo. Or at least one. That's something I've been horrible about.

Hopefully Tomorrow Night Will Not End Up In Regret

I am now officially stressed out. I hoped to be at about 46,000 when I left the Detroit area to go back to Chicago. I should get home in plenty of time to have almost ten hours available to me but I still feel like I'm pushing the limits.

Still, after this last writing session of the day, I stand at 44,051 words. Now a little under 6,000 words could be easily doable if I thought I had that much left in my story. I'm really pushing my two goals for this year a little too close together.

I think I could finish my novel in just about 3,000 words, but I have at least twice that until I reach the required word count.

I just introduced the last element into the story. It will take the main character back to Washington D.C. to rescue Jenae and it will create conflict with Amy (the physician's assisnt who the main character is now together with - a lot happens when you write 5,000 words in one day).

I know this will all end up with Cal taking another drive to drop Jenae back home in West Virginia with the baby. And, well, he would pass through Columbus (where Amy is from) if he drives back to Chicago.

There is plenty I probably could work in if I had more time but I don't.

Only time will tell (and a little over 24 hours of that) what my warped, tired mind comes up with to try to solve this dilemma. But it will not involve any cheating. No dream sequences, none of that. I pride myself in never having used these.

Though I've never been so close to the edge before.

I would say why I'm so close to the edge, but I feel like I don't have time to. Cliff Notes is that yesterday I went to see "Milk" at the Main Street Art Theater in Royal Oak, Michigan with the girl who almost ruined NaNo 2007. Then today I went downtown to Detroit with my sister before going out with dinner in southwest Detroit with my entire family.

If I didn't think I could pull off 6,000 words tomorrow (my record is over 8,000) I would probably regret going to Detroit today. But as it stands I think I would regret not seeing Detroit this Thanksgiving weekend more.

The Uncomforts Of Home Prevent My Writing

I've never been a huge fan of the Eastern Time Zone.

Sure I grew up in it and all that but for some reason Central Time seems to be a place where I can write a lot more. Things just end earlier there (and by things, I mean things like football games and television shows, which is about all I have to do in Michigan).

The last two days of writing have been pretty pathetic no matter where I've been.

What I'm thankful for on this Thanksgiving is that I wrote until 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday night getting up to 35,257 words. I thought I would have some time to write before my sister and I drove home to my parent's house but that just didn't happen.

I was out running errands and such until the very moment I had to pick up her dog and retrieve her from work.

Then today I woke up early and spent the entire day on the phone with my dad trying to do tech support for my laptop that keeps shutting itself down. I'm getting recovery disks to get the system back to scratch (since they're pretty sure it's a software problem) the second week in December. That's not going to help for NaNo.

What also doesn't help is that I have to use my mother's computer with a kitchen chair (and I thought the folding chair I used at home before making a laptop like setup on my bed was bad) that is not very conducive to marathoning comfort. My sister's dog requires a very large bed, apparently so my dad's office, where I usually sleep on a foldout couch, is taken.

I'm sleeping in my brother's room as he's in North Carolina. Lucky bastard. It snowed here in Michigan.

Anyway, end result is I now stand at 36,574 (just over 1,000 words after I wrote a tiny amount at work yesterday just to say that I did). This means in the last three days of the month I have to write 13,426 words. Which is possible but it's going to be really rough.

Looks like I might not do a lot in Detroit after all. Though we may go back to Chicago early. If this is the case, Sunday could be a madhouse sprint of sprints from the comfort and inspiration of my own bed.

At least I'm going to sleep pretty early today so I can wake up and buy some dirt cheap memory tomorrow morning. Though I am not sleeping out tonight. Thank goodness for small favors.

Finally Writing In Small Blocks But With No Theme

Since I'll be in the Detroit metropolitan area tomorrow though Friday, I saw my weekly movie at the Logan Theater today. It was "Role Models." That movie was suprisingly good. It wasn't necessarily the smartest movie out right now but it had a nice ethos. It was centered around music as so many movies are, with Kiss and Wings references holding the film together.

And I realized that's what this year's novel is lacking that I've had in the past. But it's way too late for that now. I'm now 2/3rds of the way to the end point and there's no string like that to be had. Oh well, it's not like NaNos are definitely supposed to be about themes anyway.

I wrote 2,313 words today (313 is actually the area code for the city of Detroit so it's sort of oddly fitting but unintentional) in two writing sessions. One of them was a 30 minute block before I left for the movie. I guess it's a combination of not wanting to fail and actually having something to write about that squeezed me into a small block like that.

It's the kind of thing I've done on a regular basis in past years.

I have just introduced the love interest into the story in the form of a nurse at a clinic in Staunton. So this sets up the conflict.

I have tried to avoid the plot of this movie I once saw where a fake psychologist wraps a town around his finger before it all comes crashing down due to a woman and I'm still trying to avoid that. I have to figure out how to do that.

But I have a long car ride back to Michigan with my sister and her dog to do that tomororow.

Off to write again. I only have about 1,500 words until I finally catch the tail end of the active other members of the word war team. And tomorrow will, hopefully, be peaceful at work so I can stay up a bit late. I don't think I'll get to 35,500 to accomplish this but I'm going to try and get close.

This Fantasy Writing Thing Is Just As Nerve Wracking

Last year when I was word war captain for Chicago, NaNoWriMo was almost like a second job. I would spend my evenings working through the various issues (I don't want to rehash them since they're all in black and white, or whatever color this blog shows up as, in older entries).

This year I tried to avoid that.

This year I couldn't really afford that since I'm really busy at my real job. There is not even a chance to take a day off at my real job (I'm thankful for Thanksgiving Friday this year for sure). I don't even have time to write on my lunch breaks since those are shorter than usual.

I really wish that I did and I know I'm going to regret squeezing in another writing session tonight, but my first writing session was nothing short of pathetic. I didn't start writing until 10:00 since I work up at 8:00 p.m. Today I wrote a review of Philly's Best on Yelp and so I felt I should eat there again tonight.

The owner had actually read my review and commented on a joke line that I put in about rolling my eyes about a substitution. It actually happened but it was more my fault. I took the line out. While I was eating my wonderful hoagie (I gave the place four stars so he wasn't too upset), I realized "My Own Worst Enemy" was on.

Seeking some inspiration from that well written show, I watched the entire thing.

I thought I had gotten blown out in fantasy football this week since I was 31 points behind with Lance Moore and Greg Jennings to go tonight. I opened up stat tracker early in the third quarter and, holy wow, I saw the two of them together had put up 30 points with a lot of time left.

So I turned on Monday Night Football. And I watched as Greg Jennings put up just enough yardage to give me what could be a five point win. I verified the stats independently on ESPN because I couldn't believe my eyes. I still won't until tomorrow morning. I still expect it to be a glitch and instead of being 9-3-0 and in 2nd place in my league, I'll be 8-4-0 and in 4th.

Now I was writing while all of this was happening but I was, as is understandable to anyone who's ever played fantasy football, a bit distracted.

Really long story now short, I only wrote 1,325 words tonight and stand at 31,669. This almost keeps me at around 3,000 words a day to continue on but I feel like I'm taking too many chances. I don't know how busy Thanksgiving weekend will actually be.

I won't believe, similarly to fantasy football, that I reached 50,000 until I'm at about 52,000. That won't happen tonight, obviously, but I still want to push on to 33,000. I'm at the point now where the main character is trying on his new identity for the first time applying for a job at a video store. So maybe I'll just finish this scene.

I forsee being very tired at work tomorrow though.

A Small Town Brings Big Words

I missed my end of weekend goal of 33,000 by quite a bit. I mean there were 3s and 0s in my ending weekend word count of 30,334 but not quite in the right places.

Though I am astounded I was able to squeeze out4,173 words today.

Things didn't look good toward getting anywhere near that this morning when I went out to brunch with a high school friend of mine that was in town at this fantastic creperie in Lincoln Park.

I was supposed to go into work immediately after but I came home exhausted and slept instead until about 4:15. I wrote a review on Yelp and then, finally at 5:00 started back into "Drive."

I wrote for 75 minutes getting to around 27,500. This could have been where I had called it quits on past Sundays. But, thankfully "Animation Domination" was cancelled on Fox so I wrote right on through until about 10:30 p.m.

I don't know what the next two days will bring but at least I'm at a place in the story now where I can write.

I'm right at the beginning of the 23rd chapter (that mystical number). I worked through the end of Washington D.C. (it ended badly) and now have the main character in Staunton, Virginia. It's a city I drove through on the road trip that inspired "Drive" (though I was never suicidal, for me it was just a vacation and had every intention of going back to Chicago) that I thought, "I could live in this place if I had to choose any small town in America."

It really is a nice semi-liberal college town right in the middle of Virginia's bible belt. It went slightly for Bush in 2004 (by about 2%) but I can almost guarantee Obama carried it this time around. And it has a thiriving art scene almost like an artist collective in the west.

I had the main character check into a transient hotel there (still a bit short on money) while he looks for a job. The description of the rules there took up quite a few words.

I know tomorrow I'll have something to write about the job search and I know this is where something important happens that makes him make a tough decision, but I don't know what yet. It probably involves a girl. All my novels do. Stupid dude lit.

Anyhow, off to sleep so I try to push for that 33,000 tomorrow that I didn't get tonight.

Oh, one more thing, I caught and passed my 27th place New Zealand counterpart in the Word War tonight. By 300 words. It feels good to at least be able to say that, even if disaster does strike and I don't finish.