Deviation Actions
On that note, Keurig needs to make me a fuckin sponsor; I literally drank over 150 cups of coffee in those 20 days I was cracking down, and at least 25 SF Red Bulls. Hey, I'm old, I need(ed) the energy.
I got myself a gift yesterday. It'll be here on Wednesday. It was a three-part thing. I beat the challenge, I always get myself sommit for Christmas, and my laptop has been BSoD'ing a couple times a month for a year now. My poor Seagate external backup drive, he's tired, my constantly driving him. "Dude, you've ONE FILE that's new, must you put me through the backup process?" he asks every time I plug him in.
So that'll be here tomorrow. *hugs laptop* You are a good boy! And I'm not replacing you! You're just getting a brother!
For December, I want to continue writing Verloren in draft form, and once January rolls round, perform a holy-hell-edit-and-reread on the first 'act' for lack of a better term, essentially all I wrote in Nov. Once that's done (within a week I hope), I'll send that to my sis, Erin.
As for her, today is the second day of her second 72-hour chemo infusions. She gets 10 days off IV treatment in-between these infusions, but it took her five days to recover last time. This is her life now. Will be until she dies. Lord that's fucking sobering. She's finally started having pain, but whether it's her psyche fucking with her now that she's been diagnosed, the cancer itself, or the chemo effects, she doesn't know. My vote's on all three.
So I'll awkwardly segue now, and wrap this up by a 'what did I learn' thing regarding NaNo. Guys, whether you're a long-time, experienced writer, or if it's just something you've always wanted to and haven't, well I'll be the first to say you don't have to wait for sommit like NaNo to come round next Nov., but if it coincides, then I really would urge you give it a go. This next bit goes to all who did participate and those who may in the future too: you cannot look at it as a pass/fail - win/lose situation. If you write 5k words, 25k, or win the damn thing, the fact remains at the beginning of the month, you didn't have those words on-page, out of your heart, soul, and brain, right?
Okay, lemme finish this now...
Right:
-Took the challenge on to begin with, after hemming and hawing for years (and last year I'd written a gigantic story in Sept./Oct [Spill Division as you dA peeps may know], more than 60k words, and totally forgot about NaNo til Nov. rolled around and by that time I was so over that story [that was part of it]). So I knew I could do it, instinctively.
-Didn't give up after screwing up in the first week. On the 1st, I wrote a 1600 words chapter, and over the next several days I pushed it up to 3k, then chopped out half of it, and then on the 6th I threw it all out and started over from scratch. For some reason I thought I'd write Verloren in third-person perfect tense, a way I've not written since switching to first-person present several years ago. It was terrible. But I recognized it, and started over, and kept going.
-For the first time ever, I wrote chronologically, rather than skipping ahead, way ahead, writing the end, etc. And this motivated me like I never thought it could. When I was ready to wind down the current chapter, I found myself looking forward to the next, because in that chapter I get to write (whatever), and it was gonna be (dramatic, fun, exciting)! I don't think I've changed my skipping ways forever, but I've definitely curbed the addiction.
-Another first-time thing, I did not reread (unless I was confirming whether or not I'd explained something already), and I did not edit (unless I was adding a large section or moving one). Had I done these things, I would've maybe hit 20k words. I've decided to finish this novel as I began it, and knowing there will be an actual, complete (if unedited) story to read and add to and fix and subtract from...but FINISHED, is really exciting.
-Participated in the community, which was great!
Wrong:
-I'm not one for outlines, but even an emaciated skeleton would've worked, helped me get things together a little better.
-Also in reference to the last point, disorganization continues to plague my writing life. Piles of Post-It's, multiple hand-written journals with no rhyme or reason, with handwriting that is often indecipherable (and it's mine, lol), the endless Word files with helpful file names (Notes 1, Notes 2, Notes 4709), etc.
