spinnerin

Now up to 26,001. Today's 'I should probably edit these out in draft 2' infod...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:41:13 GMT

Now up to 26,001. Today's 'I should probably edit these out in draft 2' infodumps include trolly buses and the plants in the UW arboretum.

Starting to worry I am lousy at titles.

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:35:59 GMT

Starting to worry I am lousy at titles.

Reached the halfway point on my #nanowrimo project. Yay!

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:20:50 GMT

Reached the halfway point on my #nanowrimo project. Yay!

Oddly, thus is a drama the cats play out when one person is already up and av...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:34:47 GMT

Oddly, thus is a drama the cats play out when one person is already up and available to feed them, but the other slept in.

Apparently it was Sputnik's turn to play the 'ohmigod you're still in bed we'...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:33:47 GMT

Apparently it was Sputnik's turn to play the 'ohmigod you're still in bed we're going to die out here if you don't wake up' game.

Also, usually the green hair means I don't have to remind people of whether t...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:06:31 GMT

Also, usually the green hair means I don't have to remind people of whether they've talked to me already.

Having Ya Hala seating fail.

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:05:20 GMT

Having Ya Hala seating fail.

Half an hour of writing during my lunch break brings it to 23850. #nanowrimo

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:22:35 GMT

Half an hour of writing during my lunch break brings it to 23850. #nanowrimo

The thing I am most surprised to discover about #nanowrimo is how much I can ...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:21:33 GMT

The thing I am most surprised to discover about #nanowrimo is how much I can love & hate this project at the same time.

Aha, breaker problem. @nerdword reset it and now the heat works. But I'm stil...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:06:28 GMT

Aha, breaker problem. @nerdword reset it and now the heat works. But I'm still going to read in bed now.

The heat in our living room seems to be broken. I'm sad I didn't think to try...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:03:21 GMT

The heat in our living room seems to be broken. I'm sad I didn't think to try it before I was feeling Too Cold.

View from OHSU

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:53:28 GMT

View from OHSU

Fun with typos: "begins to explode" instead of "begins to explore". #nanowrimo

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:55:18 GMT

Fun with typos: "begins to explode" instead of "begins to explore". #nanowrimo

Dude. Does ABC wish they'd replaced V with an infomercial? The ad/content rat...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:52:31 GMT

Dude. Does ABC wish they'd replaced V with an infomercial? The ad/content ratio is obscene.

Just hit 20k. Woo. #nanowrimo

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:08:24 GMT

Just hit 20k. Woo. #nanowrimo

Doing my best impression of a mind-reader.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:31:49 GMT

Doing my best impression of a mind-reader.

I hope I'm not the only one who keeps staring at the word count chart. I coul...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:26:13 GMT

I hope I'm not the only one who keeps staring at the word count chart. I could be halfway done by the end of the week? Really?

Up to 18k words, and pie dough is chilling in the fridge. What else does this...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:20:19 GMT

Up to 18k words, and pie dough is chilling in the fridge. What else does this evening need?

Dresden Codak » Archive » 42 Essential 3rd Act Twists

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:10:52 GMT

Hilarious.

http://dresdencodak.com/2009/05/11/42-essential-3rd-act-twists/

Daydream Games

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:55:59 GMT

According to my notes, in the last week I’ve read Heart-Shaped Box, seen District 9, and knit the sleeve of a sweater. I’m also up to 17,000 words on my NaNoWriMo project, which has been eating my brain when I’m not working on something else.

Part of the fun of this is that by writing every day, at a pretty steady pace, I’m giving myself permission to daydream that I too could be a Real Professional Writer, with books on shelves at Powell’s and fans who give me 5-star ratings on Amazon. I imagine that I will finish this book, and I will revise it and sell it to a publisher, and I will write another one that will be even better. And really, this is an easy dream to indulge. I’ve been writing stories on and off since I first learned to read and write.

This fits in nicely with Russell Davies’ notes from his Playful talk, about things that are barely games, exercises that tend to be open-ended and have a minimum of rules. He says,

When I walk through the crowds on Oxford Street a tiny part of me is pretending I’m an assassin slipping steely-eyed through the crowds in order to shake the agents on my tail. And I bet it’s not just me. I’m not saying I’m massively deluded, just that, very often, some bit of us is always trying to play those games, to make mundane things more exciting. … I think that’s why we find Jason Bourne so resonant. It’s easy pretending to be him. Because most of the time he’s just commuting.

Click the link for the full thing with some fun pictures, graphs, and interesting ideas. The comparison of time spent in “moody commuting” vs. “fighting & killing” cracks me up.

Pretending to be a writer is enough fun that a lot of people do it, though most remain at the stage where they haven’t gotten around to putting words on paper (or screen, as the case may be) just yet. Right now I have a third of a novel, which may or may not massively suck (probably does, since it’s an unedited first draft), and I don’t have to have a real plan. But the possibilities seem endless, especially if I just continue to write. I like this feeling; it’s a good place to be.

# # #

A quick “things for sale” reminder: I have yarn and felt things in my Etsy shop. They make lovely gifts. I’m also thinking about setting up some sort of photo print shop, and putting last year’s family cookbook Christmas project up for sale as a food bank fundraiser. It has a jello salad recipe in honor of my aunt, who died last spring, as well as a number of other tasty things.

Posted in me, projects

Eating garlic bread, leftover from last night's spaghetti dinner.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:40:36 GMT

Eating garlic bread, leftover from last night's spaghetti dinner.

Glad I thought of starting spaghetti sauce in the crockpot while we went to a...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:38:46 GMT

Glad I thought of starting spaghetti sauce in the crockpot while we went to a movie (District 9).

Hit a massive pothole on mlk near burnside. Knocked a hubcap off the car.

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:18:47 GMT

Hit a massive pothole on mlk near burnside. Knocked a hubcap off the car.

Bah.

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:09:15 GMT

Bah.

Now I totally want oatmeal cinnamon bread too.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:07:28 GMT

Now I totally want oatmeal cinnamon bread too.

Oatmeal for lunch feels perfect for this weather.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:40:47 GMT

Oatmeal for lunch feels perfect for this weather.

The flooding is obviously a sign of zombie apocalypse as well. They'll be for...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:16:54 GMT

The flooding is obviously a sign of zombie apocalypse as well. They'll be forced out of their graves, the way earthworms come up for air.

Hit 16,027 words. Maybe I should have lunch?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:51:36 GMT

Hit 16,027 words. Maybe I should have lunch?

Almost a third of the way through my nanowrimo project. Whew. Now we go do mo...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:35:18 GMT

Almost a third of the way through my nanowrimo project. Whew. Now we go do more mean things to the main character for a while.

Sputnik is watching my specs run, over my shoulder. He seems less than impres...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:20:17 GMT

Sputnik is watching my specs run, over my shoulder. He seems less than impressed with all the green dots.

Stopping for the night at 10,031 words. Feels pretty good still. #nanowrimo

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:49:04 GMT

Stopping for the night at 10,031 words. Feels pretty good still. #nanowrimo

Everyone talking about being sick makes me want to never leave the apartment....

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:13:47 GMT

Everyone talking about being sick makes me want to never leave the apartment. I so don't want to catch anything right now.

Up to 7491 words for #nanowrimo. Think I'll put the laptop away and read Hear...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:49:18 GMT

Up to 7491 words for #nanowrimo. Think I'll put the laptop away and read Heart-Shaped Box until V comes on.

Up to 5044 words and I don't hate story idea 3 yet. That's good, right?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:42:03 GMT

Up to 5044 words and I don't hate story idea 3 yet. That's good, right?

This week's side projects update: Writing and Rayguns dyepot-teapot.com/...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:49:33 GMT

This week's side projects update: Writing and Rayguns dyepot-teapot.com/...

Writing and Rayguns

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:03:18 GMT

I watched all twelve hours of the V marathon on tv yesterday, since I don’t think I’ve ever seen it (unless it was when it aired originally, but I was four then). This gave me plenty of chances to engage in my current favorite tv-watching game, which is to guess at the plot points before they happen (things like: it’s the last half hour of the 2nd part of 3 episodes, so the girl will probably give birth to the alien baby just before they cut until next week).

There’s sort of a point to this, which is that I’m trying to figure out how to write stories with an actual plot, and not just a character with issues who will sit there and moan about them for a while. I’m actually practicing this skill, by participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo. Currently I’m at 3674 words and into my third story idea (I’ve been keeping a file with these for several months, writing down a couple keywords and an idea for the first sentence as I think of them). The first piece was about a space probe (needs more research so it has Realistic Details instead of a lot of hand-waving), and the second is about stalking people via the internet (needs a plot before I bore myself to death). Idea #3 is a take-off of last week’s comic book remake/remodel challenge, the lovely kung-fu ballerina Super Ann.

I think I have the first act figured out, but not much past that, so I’ll either switch to a new story at that point, or (ideally) be struck by inspiration and figure out how to keep going. I’m not worried about my ability to write 50k words in a month, so much as my ability to stay interested in my under-plotted story long enough before I want to work on something else.

The other half of this post’s title, the raygun, is my Halloween prop. I went as a space pirate. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture, so you will just have to take my word for it when I say my hair looked awesome. Also, the gun makes a good tool for interesting TTV-style photographs.

In closing, here’s Lucas looking menacing as a lumberjack.

Posted in projects Tagged: halloween, writing

Through the raygun 2

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:29:06 GMT

Through the raygun 2

Watching V through my raygun

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:30:17 GMT

Watching V through my raygun

Managed to hit 2027 words to kick off #nanowrimo. This idea of coming up with...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:13:43 GMT

Managed to hit 2027 words to kick off #nanowrimo. This idea of coming up with a dozen story ideas so I can bounce between them may work.

Halloween

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:37:08 GMT

Halloween
Joe Paterno x 2