I'm so close that it's maddening

I've got this novel, see? And it's supposed to be at least 50,000 words long.

I have over 48 k words written out in Open Office, but as soon as I switch the text over the Microsoft Word, my word count drops by over 1k.

Ack!!!!!!!

So, I still have the whole ending to write, where I get to figure out the bad guy's fate, and the good guy'ses [sic] rest of their lives (short? long? who knows. not me) and I guess I'll just have to keep writing until the end comes.

But, I'd also like to know the definite moment where I hit 50k words for real so I can breathe a bit more easily. Entering my text into the NaNoWriMo website brings up a word count that matches MS Word, so they think I'm 1k behind as well.

Poo.

And yet, there are much greater things in life I could be worried about right now.

I admit that it has been nice to get immersed in a story so totally different than my own, and yet so incredibly like it in some ways. It puts some perspective into my life, and vice versa, as I watch words pop up onto a page almost by themselves. My labor is to listen closely and refine where I can.

I have until Monday evening to finish this up, and I will get the word count. But I just don't know if the end will have real closure before then.

After all, I really want to see this bad guy squirm, but it doesn't always work out that way, does it?

Turkey Day

We had some friends and missionaries over. It doesn't look like much from the pic, but it was a lot of work.

Rolls
Turkey
Scalloped Corn
Sweet potatoes baked with granny smith apples (Thanks for the recipe, CG! It tasted like pie)
Cranberry sauce
Mashed sweet potatoes with toasted marshmallows (this recipe, but I didn't add milk, butter, half the sugar, and only half the vanilla. Tasty!!!)
Mashed taters
Gravy
Green bean casserole (with roasted mushrooms)


This is the first year where we havn't had many leftovers at all. The only things we had left from the turkey were the drumsticks and two cups of extra meat. I guess it's a good thing we have those other two turkeys people gave us. Man is happy to be eating turkey well into the new year.

Not shown:
Pumpkin pie
Cherry pie
Brownies
PB brownies
Homemade whipped cream.


I was on the bike twice today, even with moderate portions. The carbs!!!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

Novel

Now, it's interesting to write a novel.

I grew up reading some really great stuff. Tolkein, R A Salvatore, Raymond E Feist, and countless other novels in the fantasy and sci-fi genres consumed much of my adolescence. These books seemed so surprising and complex, with characters I could really believe and feel for. It seemed like each person in those books was a living, breathing person who could knock on my door at any moment.

I'm over 31,000 words into my book and things are, indeed, getting complicated. I have three threads going right now (two major, one minor) but I have many of the machinations of several different warring peoples ruminating aside from those.

Next time, a thorough outline is an absolute must. I'm a bit lost and feeling like my people aren't alive quite yet. I often catch myself writing a scene only to suddenly realize that someone did something they shouldn't have done, by their very nature. I have to give each person credit for at least the sense God gave billy goats. That makes things a whole lot less convenient from a development standpoint.

As I stump through the wilderness of a new world that I'm giving birth to even as I gestate it, I realize that honesty in writing is very hard. Writing what is real is hard. Someone gets a splinter, but do we care? Someone swims for twelve hours in an ocean, and is it worth noting that their clothing is salt crusted and they can never stand the taste of fish for the rest of their life?

-sigh- I often wonder what I got myself into. I'm over my head as I reach for the level of riveting involvement some of my favorite authors can invoke, but I don't have the tools or expertise to pull it off yet.

But I'm going to finish. I may be plodding along right now but I think I have enough story in me to get to the goal this year. Brian, you'll very likely win the word count war, but I'll be ecstatic just to get to the fifty thousand mark.

And then I'm going to sit down and rewrite the entire damn thing.


PS, I feel like a middle school kid for getting all excited over this, but my heroine just found the foundation of her learning experience and is now fumbling around, trying to make sense of it. And it involved getting her first kiss.

Squee!!!

Not for the faint of stomach

This page grossed me out, hardcore.

Thanks, Romeo.


http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

whining

Tag: Mom, why do you keep making food I hate?

Me: Why do you keeping hating the food I make?

Tonight's dinner is homemade chicken soup with cheddar drop biscuits.

YUM!!!!

Unless your pseudonym is Tag.

autumn

The kids keep asking me when winter will officially be here. I've had to explain that, even though there are dates on the calendar that declare when a season officially starts, nature doesn't pay much attention to that sort of thing. It's been drippy here, and the leaves are mostly off the trees. We have yet to get a really solid freeze, if one at all, but I'm ok with autumn for a while longer. It feels appropriate the my first real fall in a few years would linger.

(novel update: 22k+ words and still have plenty of plot to go. I'm feeling good about getting to 50k by the end of the month.)

Aha!

So, I've been looking at my NoNoWriMo progress graph, wondering why I can exceed my daily goals only to have the little calendar on the right give me a little red square. That's confusing.

Until I realized that I had been reading the graph wrong. Oops!! Compare my actual word count with the line on the right, not on the left. Got it.

So, you should be seeing more green squares in coming days. It's red for today so far, but the day ain't over yet. The counter below it is more up to date, so look at that one first.

Poll

Don't forget to vote in my new poll.

I'm curious to see how many introverted friend I have. :)

Testing some more

It seems that light red means I was slightly under my daily goal. Light green means I exceeded my goal. Dark red and green indicate increased values of their lighter iterations.

(by the way, I'm up to 10,031 words. I don't know why the above doohicky isn't updating.)

Testing

Ft Hood

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Major Hasan, his family, and everyone affected by yesterday's tragedy.

Novel

I don't know that I've ever counted words in any paper I've written.

But, I'm up to over 8,000 words, and they take up about 11 pages (of the 8.5x11" persuasion)

I've learned that I should have done some prewriting for this, like a thorough outline, and some description of peoples and terrain. Also, naming characters and figuring out who they are as you go isn't easy.

I'm also having trouble figuring out exactly where chapters should start and stop. Developing a sense for how to place all of this stuff is going to take some real work.

But I'm doing it, for the first time. I've started books as a younger person but I was too embarrassed to work on them for long. I've finally learned that I don't have to be embarrassed at my own fantasies. The book exists simply to express them, not to judge me for them.

And that's kinda fun.

The working title is "Kuma's Gift".

potholder, part II

I feel I must mention that this is the picture that caught my breath. It's the one in the upper left.

And here is the pattern for it, if you want to make it.

For those who don't pursue the stringed arts, this is known as a "stash buster", or an item that can be made from all of the bits and ends of yarn left over from previous projects. That's why the pattern is called "wool eater".

And, Crusty Cupcake left a comment saying that it looks decorative. I totally agree. I can see this being a trivet piece at best, and possibly framed if you come up with stunning color combinations like these ladies did. The favorite materials for these are natural fibers such as cotton or wool, and wool does not like to get washed after getting dirty. If you do, you'll have a Barbie sized potholder.

potholder

The most beautiful potholder I've ever seen.

Thanksgiving and comfort items

On Sunday, we took away Freida's pacifier.

She isn't quite 2 yet, but it seemed like it was far past time for her to be done with it. There's never a really happy time of life to take away something that helps you sleep, or feel better after a traumatic event.

Her first nap was, of course, a tragedy of Greek proportions. She does fine at night but during the day she just won't settle down without a fight. She had a very specific recipe for slumber during daylight hours which included a couple of special blankets, a pacifier, a fistful of her own hair, and recently she's added this little stuffed seahorse that plays classical music. The absence of any one of these things meant an exhaustive hunt for the missing object before nap time could occur.

Oh, well.

I finally found the last pacifier today, behind her crib. I quickly put it in my pocket but I think she heard its familiar clacking noise which comes from being coupled with a pacifier keeper. I took it out to the kitchen and considered putting it back in the silverware drawer, where we keep them. After an internal struggle, I put it in the trash. It felt like a loss.

All of the other kids gave up napping when their pacifiers left, except for Tag who never would take one. Princess stopped at the tender age of 13 months, far before I was ready for her to be awake all day long. I don't even remember when we took Pebbles', but she immediately latched onto her blanket which is still her favorite comfort item.

Freida says "wadder" now instead of "waher". She also says "whassat?" and "where go?" and "neeth" (please) and "dank you". She scoots chairs around and turns lights on and off and has taken to drawing on my walls. I just received a wall touchup kit from a nice maintenance man so I can cover up about 6 square feet of permanent marker damage.

Anyway, I'm putting together a mini cookbook of what I'll be making for Thanksgiving this year. We're inviting friends and any family in the area on over and cooking up a big tom turkey.

Recipes on the list:

Stuffed Mushrooms
Brined Turkey (if you use this brine, only use about 1 cup of sugar)
Roasted Squash
Mashed potatoes
Homemade cranberry sauce

We have friends bringing rolls and a couple of pies. I'll likely get some whipping cream for that.

NaNoWriMo

Ok, I'm finally taking the plunge.

NaNoWriMo.

I just got a registration email that assures me that NaNoWriMo loves me.

None of you may ever hear even a breath of what I write this month, but let's hear it for an exercise in pure output.

Halloween

Rainbow Princess:


This one wouldn't hold still long enough for a face shot. She was supposed to be a she-devil. The red dress had her sold on sight.

My depressed Firefighter.

A little mermaid. It was too cold to go sleeveless.