One Week One Week One Weeeeeeeekkkk!!!!!

Yes, the reason for the continual forum span is nearly upon us!

ONE WEEEEEEKKKSSSS!!!!!

So this whole handwriting thing...

So if the amount I've handwritten today were part of NaNoWriMo, and my estimations on the count are correct, I'd be about a fifth, maybe more like a quarter or a third of the way done. 32 pages of narrow rule.
And the night is still young.
Too bad it's not fiction, right?

Five years

We all have pet projects, the ones that we can't let go of, no matter how much we try. Mine started as a trial run for NaNo 2007, after I had a dream I had to get out or I was going to lose it. What followed was about 20,000 words in a handful of Moleskine cahiers over the course of the week of fall break. I've worked on it in bursts over the years, first as a continuous story, then as a discontinuous set of shorts that weave in and out of the original idea, and take it from a novel to an epic. What once spanned two years now covers fifteen.

Last night, I had a revelation. There is a key event that is the premise for most of the action in the story. Without it, the dream I had makes no sense. In the past, I'd just danced around what happened, the mechanics, but five years and three months after I wrote the first words, it finally came together. I know how out all happened, and it works. It's beautiful.

Halfway!

Crossed it! Many thanks to Brother Simon for the inspiration! 1000 words in maybe 20 minutes that felt like five? That's a great feeling!!

RHINO I LOVE YOU, wherever you are...

And lo, there were shenanigans.

And squid.

Yes. I'm writing a blog post rather than working on one of my two nano novels. Huzzah!!!!

And I'm laughing at how strange one of my profs is... I don't know what they used to put into the water int he Eastern Bloc...

TOMORROW!!!

It's almost here!!

Thursday, Thursday

*cue Friday backing track*

Nanowrimo starts on Thursday!

Doo doo do do doo

Mnah mnah.

Doo doo do do doo.

Mnah mnanowrimo!

November, November

Can't it be here already? I admit that the Vignette Challenge was a fail, but I'm kinda getting excited for NaNo...

Stolen Quote

So, with NaNoWriMo and the Vignette Challenge coming up, I just want to inspire you with a quote I stole off the comments of Mr. Clemens' latest blog post:

"Having time and the ability to write are not prerequisites. Otherwise a lot of us would be in serious trouble."

Yup. very true.
Now back to work!!!

Camp NaNoWriMo

Should I do it?

That's the question.

It'd have to be June, as I start school in August. Thing is that I don't know if I'll have the time to work this in November, so maybe a trial run would be good? That said, I'm working at an actual camp this summer, and I'm wondering if I'd rather focus on that and climbing... and just see how November goes? That might be more fun, as a computer and bouldering don't really mix. Blood just makes my computer dirty, and packing it on a long approach to routes isn't exactly practical. I've been writing, just not at the pace that I'd need for a summer comp (unless it's a set your own goal sort of thing, in which case, tell me and I'll reconsider.)

Sitting here thinking about it, I'm leaning towards something I wrote about last July (oh, and maybe I should save my writing impetus for July and the Vignette Challenge--I'll give it one last go before declaring it an official flop.)

Here are more awesome videos about bouldering... including some stuff that has kicked my butt recently.

Epic Journey XVII: Disinterest

Every been on one of those quests, those project, where you're all excited about it at first, and then yu actually go to get started, and it isn't as cool?

Oh yeah. We've all done NaNoWriMo. Should have remembered. We've all been there.

Well this time, there is No Way Out. Damn figuring out how to commit to projects.

Epic Journey XI: Three hours

This time frame makes me thankful I've done National Novel Writing Month so many times and know how many words I can crank out in a short amount of time. I have three hours to reach the summit before darkness.

Epic Journey III: The Problem with Austerity

As a student, you often run into the concept of austerity. Life, and often finances, are such that you live a life that is much less ostentatious than you might wish it to be. During certain times of the year, you retreat into your cave and don't come out except for midnight food scavenging runs and ambushes on the printer when it is time for that. But, in theory, you deny yourself the simple pleasures of life, like dessert or TV time, and there is a point at which you crack and after that, it's all downhill. You spend inordinate amount of time on Hulu and Wikipedia, researching totally irrelevant things, much like you do during NaNoWriMo, but this time, you're even more distracted, because you've been depriving yourself for so long. That's not even counting the chocolate binges that are sure to come, at least if you get your hands on the money to procure chocolate, even the cheap chocolate. Your mind slowly melts away, wishing that you had more time or more motivation and you weren't writing long and rambling a pointless blog posts, but it's useless. That's the price of Austerity.

Woot Procrastination

Yup. I have a precis of a paper due in the morning and I haven't started. I haven't even done the research. Woot!

Yay for being a procrastinator.

And sad news in that November is almost over. I need to get the SCSS fixed so I can at least type a page and say that I'm something of a Brigadier.

Okay, rambling is over. Sometime soon, I'm going to do my NaNoWriMo writeup and then we'll go from there...

Thanksgiving Weekend

There was a time when I'd spend Thansgiving writing my butt off for NaNoWriMo. This year, like a few of the years past, I don't know if I'll be doing that. Unlike most of my comrades, I hit 50K and then I stopped this year.

So, what will I be spending my Thanksgiving weekend doing?
The following, and in this order:
A research project on the various high altitude adaptions of global populations
A project examining the effects of the young male population in modern china, and the propensity for revolution
And finally, a project detailing water rights and issues surrounding them and food security in Utah and beyond.

They're due in that order, starting Dec. 7 and one a week after that. And there is a thesis I wrote... yeah, it really needs to be done, and my application for a masters program--my backup if I don't get into medical school this year.

So I just want to let you know that I may not be around for a while, you know? Trying to get all of this done may well drive me crazy, but that's okay. :)

Cheers.

A

Holy hell what a day.

Okay, it's been a little over a day. And it involved 12,310 words. But I FINISHED! I matched my time from way back in 2007. 17 days. Yay. Finishing like this means I get to check out this consignment shop I've been eyeing...

Wow. What a feeling.

Okay, going to watch my rhino play with his new wings. And to get a real rhino for pictures today!

0 word day

You read it. 0 words. Zero. Cero. Trippy, no?

Stuck

Day 10 update.

I'm stuck. I outlined in October and now I can't look at it without getting nervous. that's not a good thing. See, Clemens, your side isn't always better. In the course of today, I've gone from two ideas to do four, the latest involving a merry band of woodland ninjas facing a sock shortage who decide to become pirates. Whoo.

Eight hundred words until I hit 30k. Then I sleep.

The Hump

Eight days in and I crossed 25k. I can do this.
Now, to sleep... perchance to dream... oh wonderful world of new ideas.