November 2002

Saturday, November 30, 2002

Help! I can’t stop writing!

imageWell, I’ve meandered myself into a wholly unsatisfying but final ending. I’ve killed off two of the five main characters. Destroyed The Russian Watercolor Plates.

It is done. For now.

As I like to say, I’ve ruined a perfectly viable idea for a novel this month.

There’s always rewriting. Or better yet, there’s always starting over.

You can read it in its entirety over there. Just click on The Russian Watercolors. And I’ve also posted my status spreadsheet, too. Though I can’t figure who finds a spreadsheet of someone’s word count interesting. Oh, me!

Final tally today - 9,504 words today. I’m going to go have some leftover turkey and watch a DVD!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:31 pm     NaNoWriMo

And still going

imageI did my 10K yesterday and I’ve now hit 50K and verfied my novel. I’m going to keep writing until I finish the damn thing. But I wanted to come over here and change out my participant icon to the loverly winner one!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:57 pm     NaNoWriMo

Still going

imageI’m not going to post much here, except to say that it’s midnight and I’ve written some 8,700 words so far today and I’m still going. I might finish this evening, I might just hit 50K and go to bed or I might just go to bed. Hard to tell at the moment. What I do know is that I will finish before tomorrow night at midnight.

Yup.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:12 am     NaNoWriMo

Thursday, November 28, 2002

The Meal

imageI didn’t write much today.

Well, pretty much not at all.

I did other stuff.

Appetizers
Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Tortilla Crisps with a Fresh Fruit Salsa of Strawberries, Kiwi and Apples
Goat Cheese with Deep Fried Shallots and a Sun Dried Tomato Tampenade on a Whole Wheat Baguette
Blue Cheese and Onion Crisped Crackers with Fresh Pears and Grapes

Dinner
Turkey rubbed with Sage, Olive Oil, Garlic and Rosemary
Whole Wheat Sage Dessing with Pecans, Leeks, Celery and Onions
Shallot and White Wine Turkey Gravy
Wasabi Mashed Potatoes
Baked Yams served with Spiced Brown Sugar Butter
Romaine Salad with Tomatoes and Balsamic Vinagrette Dressing
Green Beans with Shallots and Almonds
Horseradish and Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry and Mango Salsa with Pine Nuts

Dessert
Fresh Baked Apple Pie with Candied Ginger
Pecan Pie
    both served ala mode with Mashti Malone’s Cardamon Ice Cream and Raspberry Sorbet

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:19 pm    

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

See, whenever I get encouraged ...

imageI guess I got a little optomistic there. Which I think is usually okay, but there’s a rule somewhere that says that you’re not supposed to share that with the universe.

I’ve got a really great excuse for not writing for the rest of the week - it involves a trip to Chinatown, some strangeness and then a call to 911 and a visit from the paramedics. Though I likely won’t let it deter me from my goal (damn supportive people in my life being damn supportive!). Mom is staying the rest of the week with me, and other relatives are already in town or winging their way here. This cuts into available writing time severely, and I’m quite exhausted as it is and it’s only Tuesday.

But, I was feeling like I’d written myself into a corner there for a while, and I think talking about it with my mother may have solved some of it. So, if all goes well, I will write a bit this evening after everyone’s gone to bed. But I’m not going to say that I’m optomistic. I have learned that much.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:20 pm     NaNoWriMo

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

This is the way the whole month was supposed to go

imageIt’s the twentieth. Two thirds of the way through the month and finally, today is the way the whole thing was supposed to go. I worked in the morning from home, I went into the office for a while, then on my way home I stopped at a coffee house (PsychoBabble again) and sat there for about an hour and got myself 2,566 plot advancing words.

That’s what I thought I’d do this month. A little work at home, a little work at work and a little work on the novel on the way in between the two.

But I guess the real point is that I’m on track and the plot is moving and the words are flowing free and easy.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:31 pm     NaNoWriMo

Monday, November 18, 2002

Things are perking up

imageSorry, illness abounds this weekend. Though I didn’t come down with this flu-thing myself, it certainly causes a sleepless night or two when there are others in the house with it.

The good news is that I got some stuff done this weekend. You’ll see that I’ve crested the thirty thousand mark today. The most amazing thing about my 5K day is that it only took me two and a half hours to do it. That’s a whopping 2,100 word per hour average. Sometimes those ding-dang words just pour out of me. Mostly because I don’t have time to milk them.

Saturday I wrote for two hours up at Bean Town in Sierra Madre and ran into two other wrimos. Then Saturday evening I was back at Silverlake’s own The Coffee Table for three hours. I didn’t get much writing done there, my battery crapped out and I forgot my power cable. Last night I sat at the dining table and squeezed out a scant 1,000 words before bed.

Today I wrote at Espresso Mi Cultura in Hollywood on Hollywood for an hour before rehearsal and at PsychoBabble on Vermont in Los Feliz for another hour after.

The story is getting bogged down in NaNoNess, and the fact is, I’ve got plenty of story left for the last twenty thousand words and I can just let go and stop typing Bureau of Printing and Engraving all of the time. Call it BEP or something. Or just the Bureau.

All files are updated here now, so you can read the glorious hundred page (space and a half) tome-in-progress or check out my stats in the cybelestatus.xls file. Do, please, understand that the file that you read here is rough, very, very rough. I’ve not proofed it in the slightest and I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve noticed some typos, especially when it comes to homophones. I do know the difference between “know” and “no” and “knew” and “new”. I just hear things in my head and transcribe them. Sometimes I catch it as I go, sometimes I don’t.

I’m getting really jazzed about things because it practically writes itself. If I can just do 1,500 words in an hour, I can probably do a little work in the evenings this week without losing steam on my other projects.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:34 pm     NaNoWriMo

Friday, November 15, 2002

Getting back in the groove

imageI went to the doctor this afternoon. This is what the MRI results were:

    “The medial meniscus demonstrates degenerative signal of the posterior horn. There is mild irregularity of the inferior margin which is due to degeneration.”

But it wasn’t all bad news, I spent a good two hours at the Silverlake Coffee Company on Glendale Blvd. A very good two hours. I blasted out 3,366 very nice, coherent words. My total is actually coming up to an acceptable level.

I promised myself I couldn’t leave the coffee house until I hit twenty thousand words, and I did just that.

I celebrated with some ice cream after dinner and installing the new network card on my laptop. Yay for networking!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:45 pm     NaNoWriMo

Monday, November 11, 2002

In the groove

imageI was supposed to have a database meeting this morning. I got up early and did lots of data entry to get ready for it, but about fifteen minutes before, it was cancelled. No matter, I had back-up plans, which was a rehearsal for one of my plays. I went. And I felt so good afterwards I headed off to The Coffee Table in Silverlake for a little lunch and writing. I was there for scarcely and hour and I got over a thousand words in (along with a full meal).

Buoyed by this, I went home and bought plane tickets for the holidays and then headed out to another coffee house, The Silverlake Coffee Company. I’d not been there since they opened, which was probably about six years ago. Most notably it’s across the street from Rockaway Records. Which for me is a very dangerous place to be. I did not go across the street, I did not spend endless hours sampling new and old music. Instead, I sat there with my little lappie for an hour and a half and logged almost three thousand words! I had a lemon bar.

So, tonight, I watch TV and fold laundry. I’m not exactly on track with the word count at the moment, but I know now that I can have 4K days that only take about three or four hours and that’s not entirely unworkable. I think I’m going to plan for three 4K days a week and the rest to be 2K days. So, by next Monday, that’ll put me at 36K - well within the new goal of getting to 50K by the 23rd. Whee!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 5:33 pm     NaNoWriMo

Sunday, November 10, 2002

Thanks to all who advised me capably

imageI think I’m ready to get back on track with the novel. I am going to ignore reality and have another Bureau of Printing and Engraving in the United States of my novel and it will be located in San Francisco. No editing involved, in fact, I may add some words that explain this previously unknown BEP facility (maybe it’s top secret, who knows?).

Onward. I’m off to CyberJava in Hollywood for some cafe-styled writin’ before rehearsal.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:06 pm     NaNoWriMo

Saturday, November 09, 2002

Damn the Internet!

imageThis morning I started typing away on my little novel (which is still considered little at 10 plus words) and I decided to check the Internet for a little fact or two to help me with a scene I’m working on.

Problem is, I’ve had this nagging feeling in the back of my head about the setting of my novel and the fact that I’m taking on a fact based layer - with the counterfieting. I decided to set the book in San Francisco, because they have a mint there. Little did I know that there is a difference between a Mint and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. Turns out there are only two locations in the United States that print currency. Washington, DC and Houston, TX. Neither of those, you’ll notice, are San Francisco.

So, I’m stuck. What do I do? Do I go back and edit to reset the whole damn thing in Washington, DC (which I know rather well, at least the museums). Or do I just continue on pretending that there is a Bureau of Printing and Engraving in San Francisco.

I’m very, very tempted to go back and edit. I’m thinking it wouldn’t take more than an hour or two. But I always think things will take less time than they do.

Oh, sigh.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:13 pm     NaNoWriMo

Friday, November 08, 2002

Week two starts with some procrastinatin’

Good Heavens! I couldn’t resist.

I thought it kind of went with the theme of my novel. Founding fathers are on dollar bills ... right?

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:53 am     NaNoWriMo

Thursday, November 07, 2002

Still more nothin’

imageI didn’t write.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:15 am     NaNoWriMo

Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Posting and feeling okay about it

imageI did a few words this evening. Two hours, 1829 words. I’m not setting the world on fire. I ended up surfing around the web a bit. I found a great site for info about counterfieting. I was surprised at how many questions it answered for me. I’m getting a better handle on my Secret Service Agent character, Gregory Conklin. And I think I’m finding a way to put a little humor into the whole thing. Which will make it all much more bearable.

I’m not able to resist the editing thing. I go back and tinker with things. Thankfully I haven’t hacked anything else out since day two.

So, I’m at 7,988. I wanted to break 8,000 tonight, even though it means that I’m still behind. But tomorrow is a work at home day, so I may be able to get some stuff done while I upload.

The big thing was tonight I finally posted an excerpt on the NaNoWriMo site in my profile. I’d been resisting. I don’t know why. It’s not like we all have great expectations about our work we’re doing. I just don’t want folks to look over that particular block of text and start to wonder why they were in my company ... must reinforce, it’s the fact that I am fearless enough to not only post the excerpt, but the whole damn thing so far over there. Yeah for courage!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:51 pm     NaNoWriMo

Nothing ...

imageDay five is beginning and if you look to the left, you’ll notice that I haven’t written anything since Sunday.

Well, I have written, just not on my novel. I had to do a rewrite of a monologue for rehearsal. And in general, 1,400 words would not normally take me that long, but these had to be 1,400 good words, so that kind of ate up the morning.

Today is one of my “go to work” days, so that makes working on the novel so much harder. I’m going to take the file with me and try to keep it open in another window, but I don’t have the greatest faith that I’ll be able to multitask that well.

Maybe I’ll just post more here later.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:32 am     NaNoWriMo

Sunday, November 03, 2002

Finally some words

imageThis morning I got up early. Not really on purpose, I just woke up rather early and then, well, didn’t go back to sleep. Then I decided to go out and get some new headphones for my laptop to use while I’m writing (I’ve loaded about two gigs of MP3s onto the hard drive already). This is really a nice thing to have. So I loaded up all of my stuff and headed over to the Bourgeois Pig in Hollywood. I met up with three other wrimos. The good thing was that I was the first one there. I staked out an excellent table and got in about 1,000 words before the first one showed up.

The other cool thing was that even though there were four of us sitting at the table, all of us had in earphones, so the temptation to talk was slightly reduced and therefor productivity enhanced. That’s not to say that there weren’t several hours wasted on that socializing thing ... well, I wouldn’t call them wasted. I quite enjoyed it.

I had a bit of a breakthrough ... or maybe a red herring, but it was good territory to mine as I’m getting to know my secondary protaganist (Gregory Conklin). I’m having a little trouble getting into the meat of the story as I struggle to “set things up” in some satisfactory way and I’m still editing as I go. But if I continue at this rate, I’ll still make it in time and perhaps end with a better first draft than last year.

I’ve posted the 15 pages that I’ve got there on the link with my word count. That PDF file will evolve (in case you’re reading this in the archives) into the full draft as the month goes on.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:54 pm     NaNoWriMo

Saturday, November 02, 2002

A few steps backwards, a good foot forward

imageWell, as I thought would happen, I have gone ahead and started editing my novel before I even get into it. Though I hate the prologue at the moment, I am keeping it, with the understanding that whenever I am blocked or feeling like I need to do some research or something before continuing, I can at least go back and work on that.

I deleted everything else that I did yesterday. So I started today at 517 words. I’m now at 2,968. Not entirely bad. I’m posting my word count chart thingy here: cybelestatus.xls. It’s not really that big a deal yet. But it will be.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:54 pm     NaNoWriMo

How to NOT make your daily word count

imageHere’s a handy tip. If you don’t want to make your word count goals, go to a great coffee house and try to write with your best friend.

At least I’m not able to do it very succesfully. Maybe as my priorities shift later in the month from important things like relationships to these trivial goals like finishing a book in a month. Then I’ll be able to blow off the guy sitting right next to me.

I’m thinking this writing out in coffee houses this November is not going to help me much. It was great last year because I didn’t know anyone. But this year I’m the frickin’ Municipal Liaison and I’ve now personally emailed everyone in the Los Angeles Basin.

The good news on the goals front though is the fact that I had a little meeting with my boss yesterday morning and told her that I’m only coming into the office two days a week for the rest of the month and then one floating day a week when I’ll work from home. Jeeze, I love freelance!

Okay, I’ve got an hour before I have to leave for rehearsal. Maybe I can do some catching up.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:40 am     NaNoWriMo

Friday, November 01, 2002

Is writing the same as caffeine?

imageSo, I did that little jumpstart of writing last night. And instead of following my own advice and leaving off at a spot where I know where I’m going, I left off at the end of the prologue.

I went to bed thinking that I’d just start the novel in the morning. But then I thought, “How will the novel begin?” And I started writing in my head. For hours. Four hours. I probably should have just gotten out of bed and come downstairs and typed it out so I could sleep. But there you go, writing is not tiring, it’s energizing.

Kept me up until about 4.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:27 am    

Just a little taste

imageI stayed up until midnight so I could at least do a little before bed. Then I could wake up and know that I at least had 500 words in the bag for the first day.

And that’s what I did. 516 words. And the encouraging part was that it only took me 15 minutes. At this rate, it’ll only take me another 23 hours. Well, maybe I can’t just sit and write for 23 hours straight and have the novel. I don’t think I know much about what happens after this. But I do have about eight hours before I have to think about it again.

If you’ve come here to read it, well, give me a day and I will start posting the ENTIRE thing over there on the left as a PDF file. Make sure you have Adobe Acrobat Reader. Should I post it as one file or break it up into chapters? Is anyone going to read this thing? Or am I just doing this to prove that I’m doing it?

Off to bed!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:23 am     NaNoWriMo




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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During November it's all about me writing a novel. Sometimes it's about whalewatching. You know, and then there's other stuff.