Cue Panic

Listening: Annie - Vanessa Carlton

ONE HOUR TIL NANO. I am forced now to flail wildly.

But I am also forced to admit that I may not be as screwed as I thought I was. I have more effectively solved the dilemma I was experiencing with POV, due in no small part to input from both Jam and John. Glee glee glee. So that's been sorted out.

Also, as long as I know where my novel's going I don't mind not having a clue about the in-between. Sometimes it really is fun just to suck back coffee, snarf chocolate, and write until your forehead starts to bleed. It is going to be ridiculously hard not to go back and edit what comes out of this month, but as long as I keep up with some of the tips I've read on the NaNo forums I think I'll be alright. There's plenty of time for editing later. Right now what I'm concerned with is effectively conveying this story the way it bloody well wants to be conveyed. Or how I want it to be conveyed. Whatever comes first.

2000 words is tonight's goal. I specifically downloaded a decent word program (yay AbiWord) to do an accurate word count on my laptop. My reward for reaching said goal is actually allowing myself to sleep. I can see right now that this is going to be one hell of a month.

OMG TWENTY MINUTES TO NANO OMG OMG OMG SO CLOSE PANDA PANDA PANDA PANDA

Icarus loves Benji's new haircut

For the musical whore in all of us

Listening To: Micah - Russian Circles

OH.

MY GOD.

Okay okay okay. I was cruising the NaNoWriMo message boards this morning, specifically the forums on music, and a user called "Ronneh" was suggesting that others visit a website called Pandora.com. Being a music fanatic, I said, "Okay, I'll check it out".

Sweet Christ is this ever an excellent site.

It's not like the internet radio we're used to. With Pandora, what you do is type in the name of an artist or a song that you like, and immediately a radio station is compiled featuring similar music. It's a wicked way to introduce yourself to new sounds that you'll enjoy. I've been listening to my stations for the past twenty minutes, and already have three new songs and two new artists that I really want to check out.

And what everyone likes to hear: registration is free! There is an option to update to a version with no ads, but I can take ads.

Go to this website immediately and see for yourself how awesome it is. I'm serious. No, shut up, I really am. Go now.

--

NaNo Status:

I was having a crisis over POV, but that's been resolved now. With only two days remaining, I still have to flesh out my plot... but hopefully that'll be done by Hallowe'en night. Adieu.

Icarus makes a kick-ass Gentlelady Death

Of shapeshifters and schizophrenics

Listening To: Blue Light of the Flame - Dar Williams

So I was scribbling in my NaNo notebook today, trying to work out the bare bones of my plot, because my thoughts are better organized when they're written down, when suddenly I was assaulted by a new character, who brought with her an aspect to another, older character I had not known about before. Her name is Charlie, and she is a chronic kleptomaniac with schizophrenia. She also happens to be hi-goddamn-larious.

She has several voices in her head, one of whom scares the bloody hell out of me but doesn't cut in all that often. The most prominent one is a fellow she calls The Psychiatrist, who seems to know a lot more than he says. Which would be enough to make me nervous but... Charlie doesn't seem worried.

She also seems of the opinion that Scior is a shapeshifter. Wouldn't that be a fascinating development.

I love it when I get just enough ideas to keep me from having a mental breakdown. Now that I have all my MCs and the skeletal frame of a plot, I just need to work on putting meat on the bones.

Tonight was the first official meeting of the Newfie NaNoWriMos. Jam and I got to the coffee shop like an hour and a half early, so we were sitting around just waiting for it to be 7:00 with nothing to do. Every few seconds Jam would go "What time is it now?", which actually only got more amusing as time went on. Towards the last half hour we got all paranoid, assuming we'd be the only ones there and that we'd totally get blown off. It was a depressing half-hour.

It didn't last, though; Lilly and her friend Melody turned up, saw the sign, and plunked themselves down, which calmed Jam and I immensely. We struck up a conversation immediately and it wasn't long before Bob turned up with his daughter, who was adorable. Then Alesandra and Mike appeared, with Gen bringing up the rear. We had a nice (noisy) bunch there, and had a lot to talk about. Some of it even NaNo-related.

It was so excellent to get to know everyone that we immediately planned for our write-ins. They'll be taking place Tuesday nights, starting on the seventh (obviously). Even though Melody isn't writing NaNo, I think she'll be an asset to the group, because she is hilarious. She and Lilly are like Statler and Waldorf or something. Wow.

So NaNo is in about five days. Who's excited? I'm excited. Am I ever. I must try not to neglect Twi too much this month, though, or I might never finish that damn book.

Icarus is chasing vultures in the World Train Center

Well that was interesting.

My weekend consisted of me hacking up a lung, going to work, and going to my high school graduation. I had honestly hoped not to set foot in that school ever again but meh, I made an exception today. Which didn't suck, it was a good excuse to wear my sexy lawyer outfit.

Watch me letigate, bitch.

Jesus Christ I hate people who love the sound of their own voice. Like my former principal. My God that guy is a dick. Seriously. Is he ever a dick. I really hope my friends wore their FYL shirts today. Jesus.

--

On the subject of NaNo...

I am unsure whether I should be getting psyched or worried about this upcoming writefest. I'm doing both, really. I have my main characters, I have my basic plot, but I don't have the meat meant to flesh out the skeletal frame of this excuse for a story. Adventure, yes. Danger, hellz yes. Sexual tension, probably. Humor, you bet. But specific events aren't planned. And I only have until the 31st to do it.

My muse has lost control of the ship that is my Creativity and can only now bring himself to chant "Oh God oh God we're all going to die" as it plummets to an ugly and unforseeable demise.

One thing that I have found bothering me immensely is that I've come up with one character with two names, and now I'm unsure whether to make them two separate people or to pick one. Johnny Mongrel and Random Jack are both equally endearing in my mind. The question remains which of the two becomes the somewhat compulsive conman from the Yellow Realm, and which becomes the charming jackanapes from the Mirror World.

Time will tell. Hopefully things will be more fleshed out by Thursday, at the NaNo meeting.

Icarus supports the FYL Campaign

So I was so excited today about starting a blog (I believe the first (and last) one I had disappeared around December of 2002) that I was basically contemplating things I could say that would actually sound intelligent and meaningful that I could post about. As soon as I realized what I was doing, I felt like I was back in kindergarten looking for something impressive to reveal to my classmates the next morning in show-and-tell. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now.

What is it about our mentality that makes us want to post only "meaningful" tripe that we couldn't care less about? Like wanting to sound all deep and meaningful when all we really want to do is talk about what happened during the day. We love talking about stuff like that, but we don't, because no one else cares. At least, that's what we're told.

Forget that. I'm as guilty of this as anyone else, so I know how irritated it makes me feel. I'mma just do what I did in kindergarten and bring in stuff that may not get people interested, but won't make me feel like a glory hound.

So if I wanna say "Today, Cole sat in on my Linguistics class and drew me X-rated pictures, and then later Ben panda-body-slammed me so hard I can't feel my left arm, even four hours later", I don't think that the desire to say meaningful things should stop me. Today was a good day, and I don't want to ruin it by hurting my brain.

I also realize the irony in that this is a post with a meaning, but I'll try to defuse the impact with this.

Gaff Topsails is the most ridiculously boring book ever conceived by the mind of man. EVER. Picture a rousing game of Bridge while watching political campaigns on TV while listening to your government whine over the radio about how they don't have enough of your money to pay their salary, and you wouldn't even come close to how mind-numbing this book is. If ever I wanted to take a nail gun to the temple (yes, I know I have a fixation on nail guns), it is every time I open this book. I would probably have done it by now, had my brain not dissolved into a puddle of liquid idiocy. Sweet God and all that is holy there is more to writing than putting so much description into a book it could choke a goat. And if I have to read another euphamism like that one where the kid mistakes the scent of the sea for the smell of his semen, I'm just going to...

...I don't know. But it won't be pretty.

Icarus

So I've decided that if I'm going to be snatching up every cool thing that James introduces me to, I may as well just jump on the friggin' James Bandwagon. Thanks for being awesome, now I no longer have a life.

This blog will be used mostly for

a) ranting about NaNoWriMo in November
b) ranting about work
c) ranting about my own novel
d) ranting about university
e) ranting about things in general.

If you can handle listening to a cynical bitch whine about everything (and occasionally be so ridiculously happy that it'll make you want to take a nail gun to the temple) then you're in the right place.

I can't promise I'll be funny, but I can promise that I'll try.