ROW80 Round 8: 3rd Update

Surprisingly enough, I have actually been quite productive this week. Really, it is surprising, because a) I've still been in a lot of pain with my knee injury, b) I bought a new book to read and c) I bought a new Nintendo DS game (I wasn't going to because I didn't want to distract myself and I thought I should save my money for knee-related expenses, but they had it on sale at work and I got some extra work from uni so I had to buy it :D). Any of these things on their own would usually be enough to have me procrastinating til the cows come home (MOOOOOO!), but somehow I'm managed to ration both my reading and game-playing time and mark just under two thirds of the assignments that were submitted last week. I am hoping to get all of them finished by Friday night, as that is when all the assignments for my other subject are due, so I'll have to get started on those ones next :) And, after my two classes on Friday, the semester is over, so I'll have a lot more free time, which I am sorely looking forward to.

Also, I somehow got myself nominated for a Teaching Excellence Award, which was pretty cool and definitely helped make a crappy week less crappy. I most likely won't win since I'm sure there are other academics out there who are more experienced and/or have more nominations than me, but it is a nice confidence boost. Even though I don't have much chance of actually winning, I'm still going to fill in the application (there are a bunch of forms to fill out) just on the off chance it was a slow year for nominations, because the award money could help me pay for knee specialist consultations/MRIs/surgery etc.

On the writing front; I didn't write anything today because I was marking, but I did get in a few hundred words on my main work in progress on Monday and Tuesday night. It sucks that I am unable to go to my normal part time job because of my knee, but I suppose it does give me a little extra time for writing (on the whole, I'd rather be able to walk without the use of a cane and earn money, though). One of my sidelined WiPs (a steampunk fantasy) has also been rattling around in my head again lately, seemingly vying for my attention to be my NaNoWriMo project. At this stage I'm still planning to work on Dark and Silent Waters for NaNo, but I may still dabble in the steampunk one if my muse takes me in that direction. Provided I have finished my first lot of marking, I am going to set aside Saturday as a creative day, where I will do nothing but draw, paint and/or work on my novel (either actually writing it or fixing up the outline, both need doing).

I think Judgemental Dog approves (sort of) of my game-playing and book-reading:

Click here to see how other ROW80ers are doing.

ROW80 Round 8: 1st Update

Well, it's been a hectic first week of this ROW80 round. It feels like I spent most of the time either at uni or marking uni assignments. Luckily there are only two weeks left of semester, so even though I'll have assignments to mark, I won't have classes, which will free up some time (and energy). After I'd finished marking assignments, I ended up on YouTube (the great procrastination tool of the Internet) and, as usual, found myself watching music videos that bore no relation to whatever I'd gone there for originally. One of those videos was this one:

Yes, I know it's full of 90s pop-music terri-bad (though that black sequined outfit is equal parts bizarre and epic), but strangely enough it got me thinking about my novel (normally I'd feel that gothic/symphonic metal matches the plot better, but apparently my brain has other ideas). Leaving aside the video's laughably awful 'plot' (eg. I'm pretty sure the life support machine would work better if it was actually attached to the dude in some way haha), the characters almost echo the three key players in Dark and Silent Waters; we have the bat-shit insane evil lady/ruler of death who is determined to steal the soul of an innocent man, with his life depending on the strength and determination of the woman who loves him. I also like the 'monologue' from the Death character, which sounds like something the antagonist of DASW would say, if she were in the habit of bursting into 90s pop songs.

In other news, Rex is still on his medication for his bowel disease, but he seems to be responding pretty well, his dose has been lowered to three times a week instead of once daily. He is his normal happy, bouncy self, even if he's starting to slow down a bit with age, and we're hoping that this round of medication will knock his disease out entirely, though more realistically - as the vet says - we'll probably have to keep him on a low dose for the rest of his life.

Anyway, goal progress so far:

• Write 500 words on Wednesdays and Thursdays: Didn't write on Wednesday or Thursday because I was marking assignments and I had to do preparation work for my Friday classes. My old man deciding to renovate the kitchen (and being as noisy and disruptive about it as humanly possible) has delayed me a bit, as it is impossible to concentrate with him hammering and pulling things apart and swearing every five minutes. (update: managed to write about 300 words today, better than nothing)
• Come up with PhD idea: Sort of. Have been discussing it with lecturer and have been throwing a few concepts around, but still haven't really settled on one. Really need to sort this out quickly. Have started putting together a vague document for my research proposal.
• Do 1 painting/drawing each week: No artwork done, but I have done another colour chart for some new pastels I got, which will be used in a review on my other blog.
• Keep up to date with assignment marking: Yep :) Have marked all submitted assignments to date. This week my students are all doing presentations, which means less preparation work, but both subjects have large assignments due at the end of this week and next week, so after that I will be snowed under with marking.
• Keep up to date with research assistant duties: So far yes, though admittedly there hasn't been that much to do at this stage.
• Walk Rex twice a week: He got a walk on Wednesday but not on Thursday; my knee injuries were playing up and I thought that being dragged along by an impatient German Shepherd probably wouldn't help :D

Judgemental Dog lays on the guilt trip:

See how other ROW80ers are going here.

A Round of Words in 80 Days

With the hectic rush of NaNoWriMo over, I was putting off writing by trawling the writing forums, when I stumbled across a link to this site:

A Round of Words in 80 Days

The site was started by a NaNoWriMo participant who, like many others, found it impossible to disconnect completely from their real life in order to meet the requirements of NaNoWriMo. It is another writing challenge, similar to NaNoWriMo, but instead of having only 30 days to complete the challenge, you have 80. Also, instead of having to churn out 50,000 words, writers can set their own goals they wish to achieve. Writers sign in using their blogs, and throughout the challenges keep participants updated on their progress, as well as encouraging others to reach their goals.
Many people feel that writing 50,000 words in a month is just too big a task (in a way, I empathise - I reached 50,000 but only by madly bashing out senseless drivel to fill that Word document). However, sometimes writers need something to push us to keep writing, a deadline, a reward, a supportive community; anything. We need something to get us into our chair in front of our keyboard, without being intimidated by it. A Round of Words in 80 Days should get us there (kind of like bribing a kid with chocolate to clean their room... hmm... now I want chocolate...). It's a challenge that WE choose, so we know we can win :)
I've joined; hope to see some of you there!

NaNoWriMo - The Aftermath

So, it's now December. Not only does that mean we are now officially in the Christmas month (do I hear a collective cry of dismay from my fellow retail workers? Oh yes), it also means that NaNoWriMo has come to an end.
I remember saying at the start of November that I doubted I would get to 50,000 words but that I was sure I'd end up with at least a completed draft of my novella. As it turns out, I did get 50,000 words... but no finished draft. While some scenes seemed to flow through my mind like movies (to the point where I rambled on excessively for the sake of word count), there were other parts of my story that just did not want to be written yet.
Unlike some other writers I know who finished days early, I was a leave-it-til-the-last-minute type. I hit 50,000 words with only 20 minutes before the midnight deadline. And 25,000 or so of those words were written in the last three days of NaNoWriMo.
Because of academic commitments, I didn't really get to start working on NaNoWriMo until the middle of the month, which put me at an immediate disadvantage. And when I finally did get to start working on it, my inner editor just would not leave me alone.
Those of you who know me are aware that I'm a bit of a grammar Nazi, so you can imagine how I felt about allowing myself to write absolute rubbish. Every unedited word I left behind, every incoherent sentence I typed made me die a little inside. Through the early and middle parts of the month, I was still writing as I normally do; write a paragraph, check it, write a few more, check those, finish the chapter, check it, check it again, make people read it and provide feedback, rewrite. As a result, my progress was quite slow. On November 28, I realised that I wouldn't get anywhere near 50,000 if I kept going that way, so I shoved my inner editor into a cage and threw away the key (I threw it somewhere I could easily find it in December though hehe).
Most of what I wrote for NaNoWriMo was absolute garbage. Of my 50,000 words, only about 15,000 or so are worth keeping. But that is more than double what I had when I started, so it's still quite an achievement. I have about four chapters more or less complete now, plus fragments of most of the other thirteen chapters, so I have a more solid foundation to keep building on throughout December; since I didn't make it for November, I'm aiming to have a draft completed by New Year.
In closing, I'd like to congratulate all those NaNoWriMos who reached their 50,000 words. And to those who didn't, well done for trying; it was a huge challenge :)

Why Writers Should Not Be Allowed Out In Public

I started out tonight by trying to work on my novella, but a combination of too much sugar and too little sleep have resulted in nothing but pages of incoherent rambling. So I thought I'd share a little anecdote instead.

Most people who know me know that I work in the clothing section of a large retail store. Tonight I was running around the footwear department, madly trying to tidy it up, and while I was working, my brain was thinking about my novella, and about where a major confrontation between the protagonist and the antagonist should take place. Half way through this train of thought, a customer ran up and hurriedly asked me a question before I had properly registered her presence. As a result, the conversation turned out as follows:

Customer: 'Scuse me, can you tell me where I can find the shoe polish?
Me: The Underworld?
Customer: ... What?
Me: *awkward, vacant pause* What? Oh. Um... Yeah, sorry, two aisles that way.

Luckily the customer had a sense of humour (after she got what she wanted, she came past again and said "Got my shoe polish, had to fight Hades for it though."), but it made me wonder if perhaps my preoccupation with Dark and Silent Waters had become a little unhealthy. Oh well... I'm sure it won't be the last time I make a fool of myself for the sake of my craft :D

Has anyone else out there had an experience where they had difficulty separating fiction from reality?

Staring into Dark and Silent Waters...

I'm taking a short break from writing my novella (I just hit 6,000 words for NaNoWriMo :D), and I thought I'd post a link to the song that basically inspired the whole story:

Shallow Waters - Amberian Dawn

As I've mentioned (I think) in an earlier post, I was muddling away with my fantasy trilogy at the start of the year when I chanced upon this song on YouTube. In creative terms, listening to it was like being hit with a bomb. With the lyrics telling an engaging story and the music setting a dark and depressing mood, my brain filled with images and ideas the same way the Titanic filled with water after it crashed into that iceberg (although luckily my brain didn't sink into the Atlantic ocean, killing around 1,500 people). The world and characters came to life in my mind, growing and changing until it was like a movie playing in my head.

The song may not be to everyone's tastes, but I'm sure that those who have read bits of my novella so far will see how I made the connections (and yes, my novella's title was pilfered from the lyrics).

Out of curiosity, has anyone else ever had a moment where a song/TV show/whatever inspires them to write to the point where they can't step away from the keyboard?

Anyhoo, back to writing I go :)

NaNoWriMo 2010

Well, November is almost upon us, and as most of my fellow writerly folk out there will know, that means it's... NaNoWriMo! (or National Novel Writing Month for those who aren't familiar with it). Basically, writers spend all of November writing a novel, with their ultimate goal being to hit 50,000 words. To find out more about it, click here.

I remember a few months ago, I posted a schedule of completion for my novella, Dark and Silent Waters. It was meticulously planned out and I was determined to stick to it... And naturally, study and illness and a plethora (I know that word is cliched but I still like saying it) of other Crap Events got in my way, so I ended up failing miserably. In fact I don't think I've even touched my novella since I posted the outline.

This will be my first year doing NaNoWriMo. Last year I didn't do it because I was too busy/lazy, but this year I've decided that it might just be the push I need to make some real progress on my novella. Generally I tend to focus too much on 'making something perfect' before moving on to the next bit, and I know that this slows me down. NaNoWriMo will give me an excuse to write absolute rubbish and not feel bad about it, as long as I can bring my manuscript closer to completion (and I can always edit the crappy bits later). I'm also hoping that competing/talking with other writers will give me even more motivation and inspiration to write.

I don't think I'll actually get to 50,000 words - as Dark and Silent Waters is a novella, I can't see it being much more than 40,000 words unless I pad it out with meaningless junk, which I don't want to do - but if I do get a completed draft of my manuscript, I will still consider myself a winner of NaNoWriMo (and I shall brag about it accordingly).

If anyone else is doing NaNoWriMo this year, feel free to add me as a buddy: RebeccaJFleming_DemonicDragon. We can nag/encourage each other on our respective paths to NaNoWriMo success :)