Countdown: 16 days

Okay, so it's slowly slowly slowly getting better. I'm almost through this round of papers and exams, and it's homecoming weekend, something I enjoy immensely even if all my friends seem to hate it. Just wish I felt more prepared for my last few exams next week. Ha ha!

I've been busy enough that there's nothing really new on the noveling front. Came up with a basic outline of a plot, and a new character made himself known. He's sort of a sidekick/anti-hero sort of guy, he is NOT a love interest for my main character no matter WHAT lovely chemistry they have, and I'm thinking of calling him Alexander. We'll have to see if that name is actually going to stick though. Also, my main character has finally enlightened me to her personality type (which is a combination of the two possibilities I had originally picked for her). I've also discovered that this is going to be a prequel of a prequel in respect to the last two NaNoWriMos that I've done. (Is that the correct plural of NaNo? NaNos? Hm). That tosses me into some interesting world-building that I wasn't initially anticipating, but I'm excited for nonetheless. It also gives me a chance to rehash this concept I've been working with into something more believable. Considering the idea is kinda out there anyway, this is a challenge.

. . . . When I said "nothing really" I meant nothing really day-by-day, but keep in mind it's been a week since I last posted here. Well, almost. :)

Spent most of yesterday baking cookies to take to the homecoming party, and I get to spend the next few hours seeing if I can haggle a ticket to go to the game today. If I don't, oh well, it'll be on TV and I'll still be with some awesome people. Here's hoping we actually WIN this time. C'mon Rammies, pull it together!!

Now, I must run so that I can get to south Loveland by ten. *hums the CSU fight song*

Countdown: 22 days

(Yes, this was technically posted late Sunday night, not Monday morning, while I should have been working on my New Criticism paper for my lit crit class)

To override my last angsty post that had absolutely nothing to do with NaNoWriMo, I shall give you another, almost equally as angsty post that has possibly even less to do with NaNoWriMo:

I hate Mondays, I hate my workload, I hate tests, and I hate complicated papers.

They take away from more important things. . . . like SLEEP.

Okay. That's all for now. Hopefully a more pertinent post on Tuesday, possibly later since this is a bit of a heavy week for me.

Countdown: 23 days

I actually wasn't going to post anything today, since I'm fairly busy and I don't have much to talk about . . . but I dunno. I need this out there somehow, even if it is a little bit personal. I only found it through NaNoWriMo.

So, since the website's been down for a bit and I'm taking a break from my studying, I decided to go ahead and follow @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter (my Twitter address, by the way, is http://twitter.com/lanole in case anybody's interested). While I was sprinting, I noticed a new tweet come up. Even though it wasn't time for the sprint to end yet, I decided to see what it was. It was the Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged Series' twitter, sending a link out. I had a minor fangirl attack of glee, assuming it was a video of some sort, and clicked on it so it could load while I finished my sprint.

It was fanart of some sort, through deviantart. My "remember password" feature on my browser for some reason automatically. Getting distracted (as I always do; this is not a good sign for the November ahead) I clicked on it. It was a journal entry from one of my old "friends" (I don't use deviantart anymore, for many the same reasons I don't use Facebook. I wasn't really using it for its intended purpose; in this case, art; and the communication with my so-called "friends" would only depress me). I clicked on her old journal entries that caught my eye, and I noticed that in response to the comments on one of her entries that mentioned me. By name. Implying that she missed me.

And others agreed. Now, for anyone that knows my history with these people or understands that I have possibly the worst self-esteem in history, you can understand why this comes as a huge shocker to me.

I don't know. It doesn't really change my opinion of them in the least, but it gives me a funny feeling in my tummy. A feeling that I can't identify.

Countdown: 24 days

Well, so much for posting once a day until NaNo. Got busy with schoolwork and the like. And the forums. Oh, God, the forums.

On that note, I'm already posting on the "NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul" forums. It's only the 8th of October. I don't think this is a good sign for things to come.

Anyway, one thing I've been thinking about lately is planning. I'm not big on planning. I usually get a vague idea of a beginning, a couple of main characters, and I go. This can lead to some interesting, thrown-together-at-the-last-second endings, but generally it seems to work. At least, with my general writing. Not so much with NaNoWriMo and stories that I actually care about. Not to mention it was only after I began some sort of planning that I actually managed to finish NaNo.

It's one of those things that every other writer seems to love and I hate (along with trying to name all the characters in my story so that their name is somehow "meaningful" to that particular character. I hate that, I don't get it). Take one of my friends that I've done NaNo with for the past couple of years. She plans out everything, down to the last scene. To me, that takes the spontaneity out of writing, and that takes the fun out of the writing. That being said, I do obviously need to plan somewhat, otherwise I get stuck about 20k into it and quit.

I like notebooks and note cards. They let me put things in all sorts of weird orders, draw arrows, write in margins, and rearrange to fit my needs and are easier to carry around than computers. Okay, so laptops might be fairly easy to carry around, but notebooks and note cards never run out of batteries. :) Even in the midst of non-noveling season, I always carry around a spare notebook in case inspiration hits me while I'm out and about.

I don't know. I guess it's a question I'd like to pose to people; how extensively do you plan, especially for NaNo? If you do plan extensively, how do you do it? On the computer? In a notebook?

Countdown: 28 days

There’s one thing that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. It was mentioned in my honors ecology meeting early on this semester, and it’s been floating around in my subconscious ever since, but now in the midst of my creative writing class and doing NaNo for the sixth time, it’s come to the front of my mind.

A year ago, I threatened to kill myself on the internet (specifically, on Facebook, which I am no longer a member of) and aside from nobody noticing, which is a different rant altogether, I was taken to a doctor and diagnosed with a list of personality/hormone disorders long enough to give even the most OCD person a headache. Needless to say, I’ve been on anti-depressants ever since. After a semester and a half of being on Zoloft and hating it (the damn stuff made me sicker than a dog) I’ve managed to strike a nice balance with a pill that has only minor side-affects.

Thing is, aside from a few required creative writing assignments and a horrible NaNo attempt last year, I haven’t written anything since going on the drugs. I found out in late August early September that anti-depressants are known to reduce creativity in artists. I initially did some searches on the web and found a few forums/websites dedicated to this problem, but I got so swamped in my workload that I never really took an in-depth look at any of them. Now, I’m trying to start planning my novel for this November and trying desperately to find a plot that doesn’t sound like something a cat coughed up on your living room rug. And I’m failing somewhat miserably at it.

Enter the real start of the problem. I love writing. I’ve always considered it something that I absolutely have to do, a part of me, so to speak. However, being on these pills is making it so that I can’t. I want to be happy, but I also want to write, and it appears as though I’m not going to be able to have both. Is this dampening of my creativity all in my head? Possibly, but I doubt it. The chemicals and things running about in your brain and nervous system really do change how you feel and think, and I was having trouble writing even before I would have made a connection between creativity and anti-depressants.

I don’t know. Between November coming up and how sluggish and unmotivated to do ANYTHING at all this past week, it’s something that has come to mind a couple of times.

Also, just so it’s out there for the whole damn internet to see: I HATE MONDAYS. So very, very much.

Countdown: 29 days

Hey, look, I found a better way to do the countdown!! Too bad none of the countdown "gadgets" on blogger seem to want to work for me. :(

Anyway, here I am writing blog posts when I should be starting the layout for my novel. Or homework. Yeah, homework. That's good, too. To be honest, though, I haven't actually given much thought to my novel yet. I have a premise that might be fun, but no plotline to work with (this would make it like the third year in a row that this has happened to me). Or I could redo the novels from last year or two years ago, but I almost want to work on those as projects outside of NaNo. Also they have so much planning yet to do that I hate to just stuff it all together in a month. Oh well. I'll browse around the forums on the website and see if I can't find anything that catches my eye.

On the bright side though, this is my favorite time of year. It's finally getting cooler (at least a little bit *glares at the 80-degree high predicted for today on her weather app*) and I just enjoy the feeling I get this time of year. I'm finally settling into a routine with school, I adore the holidays, from Halloween to New Year's. The high from NaNoWriMo is also nice, too, especially now that I have the FoCo community to share it with. I have to admit that I fancy the changing day length.

There's really not much else to say though. October is still fresh, and pre-NaNo stuff has yet to take off. I'm being lazy about my planning (or I really just don't want to get it done by this time next week and spend the rest of the month with nothing to do). I've also been just really sluggish and unmotivated this weekend. Mmmppph. >.<

It's that time of the year again . . .

So hey, the NaNoWriMo website has reset and is back up and running. I've posted already in my regional forum. Really tired, though, so I think I might go take a nap now. I haven't started planning yet.

Countdown: 30 days until the start of NaNoWriMo!