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Sunday, November 30, 2003
The Formality of Finishing
But I started a novel. So, I have to finish a novel. And so I did. I killed them all. Well, not everyone. Damon lives (mostly because he’s doing the killing) but Dympna, Brother Gerebran, Raina and the Minstrel are murdered. I went over to The Coffee Table and sat in the back and had a little split pea soup and green tea with ginger and just wrote the ending. time…..tally…...words…words/minute The manuscript itself is a horrible mess. I abandoned using chapter headings back at chapter three, and I’m not sure I even marked breaks. I wrote the fairy tale piece as one long chapter, but it’s really supposed to be interspersed in alternating chapters. But if I don’t have chapters, how am I supposed to alternate. I suppose I only have four chapters ... I never did any spell check. I know there are several large gaps and other continuity errors. But such is the way with NaNovels. For now I am going to go to bed with a gentle sense of self-confidence. Not only did I write a novel in a month, but my tally shows that I spent a scant 32 hours actually at the keyboard working on it. So how much can anyone expect? A Little Diversion
But for the past week I knew that I was not going to write today, at least not during the day. November is a stressful month and deserves a little diverson. I went for a hike today with the Man and wrimo Will. We went to Devil’s Punchbowl in the Angeles National Forest. We went off the trail, which has its benefits, and drawbacks if you end up getting. Which we weren’t, seeing how we always knew where were, just not necessarily how to get back to where we knew we wanted to be.
Oh, and I took lots of photos! POSTED BY Cybele AT 5:41 pm Saturday, November 29, 2003
The Nine Thousand Words
I slept in. An essential prequel to a binge, if you ask me. And you should, since I’m an expert of the easy binge. I showered and did my emails and such and then I headed over to Espresso Mi Cultura in Hollywood. I found a spot on my second loop around the block, which is good because I really, really wanted a Mexican mocha with a double shot of espresso. I’m really not much for sugary drinks (I like my sugar in my candy, thank you very much), but a Mexican mocha is a very, very nice way to start a binge. time…..tally…...words…words/minute That leaves me less than 3,000 words to wrap up the story. Unfortunately it’s not that easy. I’ve only accounted for two miracles, but I figure I can just skip over the third, because I find no mention of it in the listings of her life story anyway. It’s a novel, not a petition to the Pope for beatification, after all. I’ve gotten them to Gheel. Now I just have to have the spies find Dymphna and have Damon come after her. I’ll try to post later with the latest version. Right now the one that’s up is 12,000 words shy of where I am now. I’m sure you’re all following along with the home game, right? Friday, November 28, 2003
Whee! Lots o’ Words!
We went down to Crystal Cove in Orange County to the beach for the afternoon. I got some cool photos ...
Then home and off to The Coffee Table in Silverlake for some words before dessert. time…..tally…..words….words/minute I wrote a horrible scene (in the sense that it was emotional) where Damon kills his horse when it comes up with a broken leg after a tumble in a stream bed while chasing Dymphna. But it’ll give me a good spot to start from tomorrow. Monday, November 24, 2003
Well, if You’ve Got Nothing to Look Forward To, Look Back
I’ve not looked at it since I finished it way back in November of 2001. I might have glanced through it when I exchanged novels with some other wrimos back in the early days of the nascient 21st century, but other than that it’s been sitting on my hard drive. Well, I don’t recognize it. I opened the file in order to make a PDF, and I really didn’t recongize it. I didn’t even realize that the main character’s name was Alicia. That doesn’t sound like a name I would give a character. Well, I must have. I don’t think someone found the file on my computer and did a global find & replace. But maybe our firewall isn’t as good as I thought ... Anyway, it’s up now. Have a great time reading it! To bring you up to date, I did not write this weekend. I did a brief session over at Silverlake Coffee Company, but the blaring music, bad service and incessant smoking caused me to leave halfway through my three hour session. So I only got about 2,500 words for the weekend. I’m planning to write LOTS AND LOTS later this week. Maybe a session on Wednesday and then doubling down on Saturday and into Sunday. Whee, a last minute wordcram! Sunday, November 23, 2003
What I’d Really Rather Do
Or I can keep writing a novel that gets shittier by the day and feel only the satisfaction of completing the task because I really won’t have anything of value to show for it. Maybe I can paint a little now and write a little and then paint a little. Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Lurching Around Looking for a Plot Groove
Things are going along okay with the novel. The pacing, again, is off. I feel like I haven’t gotten the story going very well, but I think I feel that way every year around the 30K mark. Someday I’m gonna write a novel that is just crammed full of plot and when I run out of plot I’ll just cram some more in there. But that’ll be another year. This year I’ve got a plot and involves a girl running away from home in order to keep her father from forcing her to marry him. And he’s just now announced that he intends to marry his daughter. I’m at 27,000 words and he’s just now mentioned this? I know, I know. Just write it and worry about it later. I will. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, I will. I’m just talkin’, you know? Because I hadn’t updated my blog and I wanted to let you know that I hadn’t forgotten about it. I also spent a little time fixing my excel status spreadsheet. It was misbehaving because I wasn’t writing every day. So I just took out the days I wasn’t writing, so it won’t have 30 rows like it’s supposed to have. It’ll probably only have about 14 rows. Let me know if it’s still not working properly. Sunday, November 16, 2003
A Little Extra Time - A Few Extra Words
So, since it was late in the evening, I went local, to the Silverlake Coffee Company. Unfortunately it was the busiest I’d ever seen it, so I had to settle for a seat outside. I’m a whiner and I’m gonna tell you it was just a smidge too cold for the manual dexterity needed to operate a keyboard. I had a lemon bar and a large cup of gen mai cha. They really have the best tea there. I don’t know if it’s because it’s loose tea or because they’re very generous with it. The first twenty minutes were a bust as I moved tables twice, but you get the idea here: time…...tally…..words….words/minute So, the goal is to go out on Wednesday night and perhaps get another five thousand words under my belt. Maybe they’ll even be good words. Saturday, November 15, 2003
Not Quite 10K But Well on the Way (okay, it rhymes)
I had a nonfat latte and vegetarian sandwich, this time without mustard and without mayonaise. The afternoon went something like this: So, to reward myself I walked across the street to Rockaway (I don’t actually recommend that website, btw, it’s quite annoying, though it may actually have some good content) and bought myself two used CDs, one was the missing Enya and the other was a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. I actually wanted one of those monk chanting CDs, just for writing purposes because I’m having trouble with my first plot. I headed home for a little while and took the dog out. She had a little upset tummy earlier this afternoon, so I wanted to check up on her before I headed out again. Then I headed over to Rocktitlan in Hollywood. I had a Mexican hot chocolate with a shot of espresso and one of the worst croissants ever. (It was small, sticky, had milk chocolate instead of dark and was more bready than buttery.) That’s okay, I got lots done, a little over 4,500 in two hours. time…...tally…..words….words/minute That brings the tally for the day to 9,638 and my total so far is 23,953. So I’m a little more than a thousand off of half-way, but it certainly not an unrecoupable lag. POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:49 pm I don’t have an attic ... where am I going to put the painting?
brought to you by Quizilla POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:09 am Thursday, November 13, 2003
Defenders of the Faith
Perhaps I’ve embraced the ideals of NaNoWriMo a little too whole-heartedly or perhaps I’ve just appointed myself a vehment disciple or knighted myself, or perhaps I’m just angling for a fight. What am I talking about? Rules. The rules for the damn challenge. I think I’m a purist at heart. In all things. I don’t like hybridized things (well, except my new car, but that’s another story). If you’re going to bake a cake, make it a real cake with sugar and flour and all that, because making something out of soy and apple peels is not the same thing, it’s a valid thing, but I don’t consider it a cake. I think NaNoWriMo should be preserved in all its purity. Write a novel of at least 50,000 words in one month. Period. A pure work from your own mind within the month of November. Sure, your idea comes from somewhere, something that may have happened to you, or an idea sparked by a painting or a cartoon, but it should be something you create. I’ve taken it upon myself to spread this message on the NaNoWriMo Forums. Not in an evangelistic way - I don’t go inserting myself into every conversation saying that folks are not following the rules. I just hang out in a little poorly traveled corner and hope to answer questions. Sure, I probably come off sounding like a have some sort of exclusionist view or superior attitude. But they asked, didn’t they? Who did they think would answer. Anyway, my rules for writing a novel in a month. The novel must be started and finished within the month of November. No pre-writing (I had character names and a map of Ireland from the middle ages as reference). No picking up an unfinished work. No stopping at 50,000 words. That’s right, the story must come to some sort of conclusion - no matter how hastily and awkwardly tacked on, it will end. Now is that so hard? Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Neither Rain nor Cold nor Dark of Night
I went over to The Coffee Table and sat on the back patio in the waning rain and the kerosene heaters and popped my earbuds in with my celtic/new age mix. I had: time…..tally….words…words/minute As I posted on my excerpt at the NaNoWriMo site, I have nothing much to say about the actual thing. I don’t recommend reading it, especially at this juncture. I’m working on the interwoven story, but I haven’t done that yet, so it just sits there like a turd in the wrong spot (I’m not sure the right spot for a turd, maybe a kitty litter box or a toilet, but I digress). So, I can only beg your forgiveness or at the very least caution you not to give a looksee until maybe December fifth or so. If even then. But here it is in a nutshell, this is how Word AutoSummarized the thing: So, that about brings you up to date. I’ve got a character named Dymphna and she has some sort of trouble with her neck. Tuesday, November 11, 2003
More Whining
I know, there are only three or four of you reading and you don’t need to see that I’m updated on weblogs.com, but it’s a feature of blogger and I’d like it to work. So, I’m going to try to do it manually. POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:46 pm Sunday, November 09, 2003
Worst Place Ever - Best Tally So Far
The tables were low or high, small or huge. But as far as I could tell, there was no way to match a level surface to a comfortable chair in order to type. So, I pulled a small side table up to a little couch that had a cushion on it of the same level as the table and I set up my laptop and just hunched over it and typed. I got about 1,000 words in before the first wrimo showed up. Overall, the day netted 4,505 words. I’m still behind where I should be at this date, but I know that I will be able to write one evening this week (I didn’t last week) and I’ll catch up. I ordered: time…..tally….words…words/minute It’s a great bookstore, and the coffee house would be great to hang out in under other circumstances, but for a novelling location, I found it a little off. But who am I to argue with 4.5K? Saturday, November 08, 2003
Uneven Evening
Well, best laid plans and all that rot. I got to the Silverlake Coffee Company. It’s blissfully deserted. Just me and the guy who works there. The music is loud, he’s playing Blur, I think. But I drop my laptop on the table closest to the door and order: 1 large cup of Gen Mai Cha (green tea with toasted rice) I settle in and when the fellow behind the coffee bar disappears (he sits out back and smokes), I went and found him and asked if he was going to sit outside if he could turn the music down. Which he did obligingly. And I got to writing. A few more people came in and a few left. Then a fellow started moving tables around. Then he brought in a couple of guitars and a small amp. Oh, there’s live music on Saturdays. I’m the only one there, except for a kid at one of the computer terminals, I think he’s the owners son. The guitarist introduces himself, to me, because I’m the only one there. Steven. He usually has a vocalist, but she’s sick right now. So, he played for me. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind a little instrumental (maybe not right next to me) but he was exceptionally chatty. So, I didn’t get quite as much done as I hoped. But I did get 3K in, and at this moment, that’s something to be pleased with. time…..tally….words…words/minute I’ll probably go back next week, but probably a little earlier. 
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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.
COUNTDOWNCandy Blog Book First Draft -3954 days NANOVELS2010: Screen Name 2009: The Girl Made of Sugar 2008: The Retaining Wall 2007: The Drowning Whale 2006: Limited Liability Chocolate, an LLC 2005: Heap 2004: An Alphabetical Order 2003: The Saint of Runaways 2002: The Russian Watercolors 2001: The Exchange
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Copyright 2001-2026 Cybele May
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I suppose after doing this twice I have a certain sense of confidence, one that almost replaces the actual act. I know I can write a novel in a month because I have written a novel in a month, so why do I have to write a novel in a month?
