Fast Fiction

Today I went back to Sabor y Cultura in Hollywood. Parking was a little easier, as it was Sunday and all street parking is free. It also happens that the little lot behind the building has free spots on Sunday that are available if you ask.

The plot is progressing, though today’s chapter seemed a bit slow and involved a little too much setup. I suppose it’s all stuff that’s relevant to later stuff. I also spent a little time fixing stuff earlier in the novel so that I could insert new stuff. I only added word count, though of course it makes things go slower. This explains my slow start for the first half hour.

I found a better table today, too. The one I was working on yesterday was a little small, wobbled and a little high, which mean that my arms were at an awkward angle. When working hours at a time, ergonomics are kind of important. I had another Mexican mocha. They were out of croissants so I had an unsatisfying slice of Manhattan cheesecake.

time….running tally….words…words/minute
2:00 PM…....6,487….......0…...0.00
2:15 PM…....6,704….....217…..14.47
2:30 PM…....7,027….....323…..21.53
2:45 PM…....7,448….....421…..28.07
3:00 PM…....7,986….....538…..35.87
3:15 PM…....8,690….....704…..46.93
3:30 PM…....9,140….....450…..30.00
3:45 PM…....9,833….....693…..46.20
4:00 PM…...10,196….....363…..24.20
4:15 PM…...10,787….....591…..39.40
4:30 PM…...11,417….....630…..42.00

32.87 words per minute average
4,930 words in writing session
2 hours 30 minutes

At this rate, I’m on track to hit 50K in 19.15 hours more of writing sessions.

On this date in history:

2004: 0
2003: 4,009
2002: 7,988
2001: 4,853

Today I went to Sabor y Cultura. I got there a little before 11 AM and found a nice tiny table along the wall and plugged in.

I had a plain croissant and a large Mexican mocha (spiced hot chocolate with a shot of espresso).

I got a lot accomplished. I started the novel with a bang. Actually, it started with a house fire where my MC (Daniel) loses pretty much everything he owns. I also managed to get my main plot arc started by the 5K mark with my MC (Daniel) being told by his boss that he has to make a Christmas wish come true for an essay contest winner.

time…running tally…words…words/minute
11:15….....560….....560…..37.33
11:30…...1,008….....448…..29.87
11:45…...1,497….....489…..32.60
12:00…...2,070….....573…..38.20
12:15…...2,692….....622…..41.47
(got more coffee)
12:30…...2,909….....217…..14.47
12:45…...3,374….....465…..31.00
01:00…...4,046….....672…..44.80
01:15…...4,605….....559…..37.27
01:30…...5,172….....567…..37.80
01:45…...5,582….....410…..27.33
02:00…...6,233….....651…..43.40
02:10…...6,487….....254…..16.93

190.00 minutes total
34.14 words per minute average

In case you don’t want to take a glance further down the page, this day in history:

2004: 0
2003: 4,009
2002: 7,988
2001: 3,034

So, better than last year, but nowhere near that sophmore slump of the 2002! Tomorrow I’m going to try for about the same. 13,000 a weekend should allow me to cruise into the end of the month in style (who knows, maybe I’ll write an extra long novel this year).

I know, I’m a bad example.

But I swear I’ll be caught up by the end of the weekend with the writing.

I’m hoping to do 5K tomorrow.

Also, expect some wonkiness with the blog. It’s moving.

You can go ahead and remember this url: http://www.typetive.com/fastfiction. That’s where you’ll find me soon.

Not now. There’s nothing there now. But soon.

If you know me, you know that I’ve been obsessively documenting things for years. The whole NaNoWriMo thing fits very well with that. And for those of you just joining the NaNoWriMo program, you’ll find out that I’ve been conducting an experiment for the past two years.

I have this theory that for each of us exist the perfect writing conditions. And if I keep track of my writing, I might actually stumble across the formula by trial and error. To that end, I’ve been tracking my word count while writing in 15 minute increments. In the bigger scheme of things, I’ve been keeping track of my wordcount on a daily level and here’s how I’ve done over the past four years for each day of November:
...........2001…......2002…......2003…......2004
1…......3,032….....1,423….......850….........0
2…......3,034….....3,221….....3,276….........0
3…......3,034….....6,159….....3,276….........0
4…......3,034….....6,159….....3,276….........0
5…......3,034….....7,988….....4,009….........0
6…......4,853….....7,988….....4,009….........0
7…......7,699….....7,988….....4,009…....10,076
8…......7,699…....10,271….....7,031…....10,076
9…......7,699…....11,017…....11,536…....10,076
10….....9,371…....12,604…....11,536…....10,076
11….....9,371…....16,340…....11,536…....11,862
12….....9,371…....16,340…....14,069…....11,862
13….....9,371…....16,340…....14,069…....11,862
14….....9,371…....16,705…....14,069…....16,855
15…....12,096…....20,071…....23,954…....16,855
16…....14,824…....23,726…....27,099…....16,855
17…....16,754…....25,280…....27,099…....16,855
18…....16,754…....30,672…....27,099…....16,855
19…....21,030…....30,672…....28,857…....16,855
20…....25,076…....33,239…....31,733…....26,115
21…....25,076…....33,239…....31,733…....31,161
22…....25,076…....34,891…....31,733…....31,161
23…....25,076…....34,891…....31,733…....31,161
24…....35,025…....35,482…....34,512…....35,175
25…....40,388…....35,482…....34,512…....35,175
26…....42,589…....35,482…....34,512…....35,175
27…....42,589…....35,482…....34,512…....42,108
28…....48,512…....37,277…....38,247…....49,006
29…....50,046…....47,286…....47,330…....50,236
30…....51,426…....56,789…....50,455…....50,236
If nothing else, this chart shows that I never start well, I’m always behind in the middle and I always finish. Beyond that, the only thing that I’ve found has made me write is the desperate pursuit of documenting my obsessive wordcount obsession.

I guess there are some accepted principles in blogging. One is that you don’t change your posts, but rather add to them or show changes. I do this (though if I just published, and haven’t pinged, I will make changes and if I find that an image messes up the layout, I’ll move it, but that doesn’t change the content).

The second is you don’t delete valid comments. It’s odd but the only place I’ve been tempted to delete comments (besides blogging.la) is on Candy Blog when I’ve had a few WTF? comments that were out of line (after all, it’s candy, not politics). Of course Fast Fiction is hardly visited let alone well traveled.

Here’s where things have suddenly gone off the deep end:

If you read my previous post about Steve Almond’s piece on Salon about his encounter with literary blogger Mark Sarvas, then you may have visited Mark’s post in response.

When I first saw his post, it had 6 comments. I went to bed, the next day it had 20 comments and the commenting had been closed, because Mark said that he was not willing to moderate comments during Yom Kippur (totally cool, in my book, you can always unlock comments later). But now ALL COMMENTS have disappeared. They were there yesterday, including the 20th comment which was Mark’s point by point refutation of Steve’s article.

Okay, I know it’s Mark’s blog, but there’s a contract that you make with your readers. That if you have comments then you accept comments under whatever terms you set up. (Yeah, yeah, no spam, no off topic, no linking to porn, whatever you want your rules to be.) You can close them, I really don’t think it was out of line, but deleting is just plain heresy. This reeks of inexperience or worse, fear. I hope that Mark made some mistake during his blog maintanence and deleted the comment thread instead of actually pulling all of them, including his own. The rule is if you say it, stand behind it. If you want to retract it, don’t erase it.

But here I am, dispensing blog advice. The girl with the blog that gets barely 30 hits a day. But I’d hope that should I end up with a thousand-fold of hits and comments, I’d still behave the same way.

I was reading Salon.com this evening and saw the most fascinating article featured on the front.
The blogger who loathed me:
My cyber-nemesis had been trashing me for months. Then we met, and I had a chance to take a terrible revenge. by Steve Almond. Yes, Steve Almond, that guy who wrote Candy Freak and I did that radio interview with on Radio Open Source back in August.

What gets the story into true weirdness-mode is the blogger he’s referring to in the article ... Mark Sarvas. You know, the guy who writes The Elegant Variation. Okay, you may not read his blog. Actually, I don’t read his blog. He has one of those blogs that as a writer I feel like I should be reading, but I just can’t. It’s not that I don’t read much fiction, but I can’t stand his writing style. The imperial we, the distancing ... gah.

When I worked in development (not the money raising kind, the reading scripts for movies kind) I read a lot of screenplays and a goodly number of novels, manuscripts and plays. I also met a lot of writers. Eventually I found that I could tell how mentally stable a person was by their text, even their neuroses if I read more than one work.

I’m not saying that Mark Sarvas is nuts, because I don’t think he is. He’s actually very sweet. I met him before he started his literary blog, back in ‘03 when we were ramping up for National Novel Writing Month. He and I exchanged emails and he came to our kick-off party and though he wasn’t going to be noveling with us, he donated three functional laptops to the cause.

But something has always put me at a distance from his writing, so I might look at the blog, but I rarely read it, because I can’t.

Anyway, back to the article - it’s basically about Steve and Mark finding themselves on the same reading panel at the Writer’s Faire. And of course Steve documents all the intricacies of his devilish mind, because that’s what writers do, they open themselves up to us, whether as themselves or through their characters. It’s risky business and neither Mark nor Steve look like sweet-smelling roses at the end of this. But I was able to read Steve’s account of it and enjoy it. Mark’s ... well, not so much. I see Mark has already posted a response.

I’m a bit distressed right now about my candy blog.

The template for it has disappeared. I can’t publish anything new ... I don’t know what happened, but it started last night.

I’m planning on re-doing the site entirely, but that won’t be ready for two or three weeks.

I guess I can redo the template from scratch (I didn’t customize the default template much anyway).

So, if you’re wondering where your candyblog goodness for Monday is, it’s still in my head.

Is it just me or does the coverage of the South Asia quake suck?

I’ve been watching TV for 20 minutes and haven’t seen anything yet. CNN Headline news has political, domestic stuff and health but since I missed the half hour mark, I guess that’s the only coverage. MSNBC has continued its regular coverage ... CNN has on Larry King. The freaking scroll at the bottom of the screen is talking about Reese Witherspoon’s baby and some tropical storm off Bermuda.

18,000 people killed in Pakistan alone and the internets seem to be the only place where people have taken notice.

UPDATE: It’s 90 minutes later and the CNN Headline news continues to report the earthquake as bad but gives it a scant 45 seconds and says that the death toll is only 2,000. But the main page of CNN has been saying that the death toll is over 18,000 for at least two hours. What’s going on with these people?

Since starting NaNoWriMo this year, the launch of the new forums brought the usual anxiety.

I awoke early on Sunday morning just to check how the forums were doing (launch didn’t go so well).

Since then I’ve been dreaming in forums.

Yes, my dreams are formatted as forum posts and replies.

Not all my dreams, I’m sure. But my dreams that I’ve remember are definitely oddly confined to a text exchange world.

I don’t know if this means that I’m spending too much time on the forums or if it means that I’m just learning a new language or if the wifi in the house is allowing me to tap into the site in my dreams.

I’m sitting here with a cup of coffee. Tepid, I found it in the coffee carafe this morning, leftover from yesterday. I reheated it and have just about finished it.

I got up early this morning mostly because I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t sleep yesterday either and I don’t know if it’s NaNoWriMo or just the fact that I’ve been getting to bed at a decent hour.

The new season of NaNoWriMo was supposed to launch yesterday. Though I was off at a wedding (one of two Lauras getting married this month), I was worried that I was going to miss all the excitement. I’m kind of glad I did.

The new year launched, signups started, the old users re-upped and the flood of virtual exuberance brought the server down. Now I can see all these posts up there on the boards, but I can’t log in, let alone respond. It’s a frustrating position to be in, but I think it’s one I need to experience and learn from. I’m one of those people who has grown up in this increasingly technologically sophisticated age and I do want stuff instantly.

I want to pause live TV, I want to see news as it happens, I want to be able to find anyone, anywhere they might be. Though you’d be suprised to hear that I don’t have a blackberry or sidekick. Instead I just sit at home in front of my keyboard.

Today, instead, I will go out. I need to get dog food, so I’ll also do some shopping at the same plaza. And then, if things are still down on the site, I’ll try to go out and do something else. I’m thinking a trip down to Little Tokyo might be in order - I’m just about out of candy right now.

I saw this on Tony Pierce, and then on Wildbell, so here it is, fully memed.

1. What is your full name now?
At the moment, Cybele May

2. What color trousers are you wearing?
Silver-gray.

3. What are you listening to right now?
An episode of Invasion.

4. What was the last thing you ate?
Grilled Ahi tuna with a side of wasabi and broccoli.

5. Do you wish on stars?
Yes, first star I see tonight and falling ones.

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Prussian blue.

7. How is the weather right now?
Dark and smoky.

8. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
Travis, up in Canada.

9. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Yesiree.

10. How old are you today?
The same number of years as there are questions here. 

11. Favorite soft drink?
I don’t like soft drinks. Water will do fine.

12. Favorite sport?
I don’t care for sports. I’ll watch the Olympics though.

13. Hair color?
Dunno what you call it. Brown.

14. Siblings?
Yes, one of each on either side of me.

15. Favorite food?
Hard call. Maybe chicken pot pie, but I don’t have it often, which makes it better.

16. What was the last movie you saw?
Life Aquatic in the theatre. Upside of Anger on DVD.

17. Favorite day of the year?
I don’t like to play favorites. Probably sometime in March.

18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Adventure People.

19. Summer or winter? Winter, because it’s becoming more rare.

20. Hugs or kisses? Hugs.

21. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate. Why is this a question?

22. Do you want your friends to email you back? It’s on my blog, I don’t have trackbacks. Five people will see it.

23. Who is most likely to respond? Jozjozjoz.

24. Who is least likely to respond? Someone who reads that I don’t know.

25. Living arrangements? Mostly facing Southeast.

26. When was the last time you cried? After staying up late reading Katrina stories on my trip to Pittsburgh earlier this month.

27. What is under your bed? Boxes of winter clothes and an empty box for the window fan.

28. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Continuously? That’d be Loren. We met in Chicago in August, 1987.

29. What did you do last night?
I worked on a copywriting assignment and watched some TV.

30. Favorite TV shows?
Lost, Stargates,

31. What are you afraid of?
Idiots, they seem to more damage than smart people with purpose.

32. Plain, buttered or salted popcorn?
No thank you.

33. Favorite car?
I don’t like cars. I like my Prius.

34. Favorite Flower?
Freesias, lavender.

35. Number of keys on your key ring?
Three - one to the house, one to The Man’s office and one to my office. The Prius fob is separate because I never need to take it out.

36. Favorite vacations?
Just about any trip to Morro Bay or last year’s trip to Monterey.

37. Three Bloggers who don’t blog enough:
Lisa, Kari and Robin (I’ve totally given up on Amy).

38. Six friends who you are tagging:
Nope, they gotta come and get it.

I saw this little tidbit on IMDB’s news section this afternoon about the documentary, The March of the Penguins:

Recent reports indicated that conservative “family values” groups have been instrumental in keeping the film alive at the box office, booking large blocks of seats and asserting that the film provides proof of “intelligent design.” On the other hand London Times film writer Caitlin Moran observed last week, “To be honest, this is good news. If American Christians want to go public on the fact that they’re now morally guided by penguins, at least we know where we all stand.”

I don’t know if these family values Christians with their heads in the sand about evolution have been following other news, but they might be surprised to hear that there are homosexual penguins. How does their intelligent designer explain that?

More bad news for Christians comes from the swinging world of chinstrap penguins. Roy and Silo are two gay chinstraps who live in Manhattan’s Central Park Zoo. Contrary to the erratic behaviour of their heterosexual peers, Roy and Silo have been going steady for six years straight (or should that be six years bent?). In addition to hanging out, these lovebirds exhibit what penguin pundits call “ecstatic behaviour” including neck entwining, vocalising and getting it on.

Roy and Silo have refused all offers of lady friends and are so family minded they attempted to incubate a rock. Eventually their sympathetic keeper offered them a fertile egg and the pair hatched and raised a daughter called Tango. The zoo is also home to another young, gay chinstrap couple as well as two lesbian gentoos.

Let’s face it, if the universe has a designer, I hope he’s not a micromanager. If there is a spiritual side to this existence, I’d always assumed it was of our own making (sheer force of will) and has nothing to do with any “plan.”

You remember last month I went to Santa Barbara to get on a boat and see some humpback and blue whales?

Well, on that boat was a reporter from the LA Times outdoor section.

Here’s his eloquent version of events.

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There you have it. On tonight’s Daily Show they had a great segment featuring Ed Helms where he listed the Failures of the Bush Administration - in alphabetical order.

Of course, just like hurricanes, they’re named in alphabetical order. We’re only up to K. (In case you didn’t freeze frame, here you go:)

Abu Graib
Bin Laden
Chalabi
Deficit
Enron
Failure to find WMDs
Halliburton
Iraq
John Bolton
Katrina
Locusts
Mars Attacks
North Korea
Osama & Jenna
Pregnancy: Osama & Jenna
Queer Revolt
Rodents of Ununsual Size
Syrian War
Tigers
Unicyclist, Nuclear
Voldemort
WW III
X-Rated Tape: Osama & Jenna
Yam Shortage
Zero People Left on Earth