It’s a quarter after nine pm, the second to last night of November. Here’s what I need to finish before midnight tomorrow night:
1. Write 19,692 words and have them verified by the NaNoWriMo word count tool (allow time for the crush of others also trying to verify at the last moment).
2. Post the several drawings made in the last couple of days, and draw and post ten more.
3. Post at least one blog entry tomorrow.
4. Remember to post on the NaBloPoMo website about the posts on this website.
None of that is too terribly hard.
Oh, I guess they sound hard. The main traits I need to make them happen are endurance, and courage. Endurance to stay awake and keep typing when I really, really would rather be sleeping or doing just about anything else; and the courage to be really, truly, definitely awful.
So let’s see how this evening goes. I’ll update this blog entry periodically with word counts and general reports. Check in via the comments if you’d like to cheer me on.
Our goal for the evening is 10,000 words — more than I’ve ever written in a single day. And here we go!
Update: 11:09pm: OK, so I was momentarily distracted by other blogs, and by the momentous launch of WearPittsburgh. Go, click on the Store tab, and buy yourself a shirt, then stock up on gifts for loved ones. The pierogie shirts are my favorites, as they spread the joy of this special food to the world.
But then I got my fingers going a little, and now we are 500 words or so closer to goal.
Which is not far, I know. We go on.
Thanks to everyone who has commented or sent an email of support. Without you, I would have given up and gone to sleep by now. Hmm, so maybe not so much thank you as damn you…. No, thank you! Onward!!
Update: 1:47am: Another thousand words. I felt my music selections were holding me back, as they were drifitng toward Elliott Smith. I do like the sad emo boys, but on this occasion the depressive, suicidal/mysteriously murdered subtext played poorly. I switched to Robert Palmer — he’s dead but died of natural causes, and somehow that was better. But I ran out of tunes. Jumped onto iTunes to buy some more, and somehow managed to nuke my iPod. It’s restoring now.
If I fail to finish this novel, I will blame iTunes. they have failed me in my hour of need.
I suppose I could tap into this huge pile of CDs that brought me solace for years before there ever was an iTunes….
Update: 3:00am: Brewed a pot of coffee, retrieved the iPod after it had mostly restored. Hate everything in the world right about now.
On a practical level, my hands feel mostly OK. The coffee is kicking in. The rest of the world seems to have gone to sleep, and left me to deal with this manuscript on my own. I’ve written 3,000 of the 10,000 words i’m hoping to complete tonight.
Once more into the breach, my friends.
UPDATE: 3:03am: Forgot to mention that I sketched a clock, the second of two this evening.
UPDATE: 3:13am: Another drawing done. Damn, they are so much easier to pull together than paragraphs of text. What’s that saying … a picture is worth what? Turns out to be just about correct, except they forgot to mention the time savings.
UPDATE: 3:38am: The novel, which started out as a fairly standard piece of fiction, has now devolved into some sort of Paul Auster/Dave Eggers/Bruno Maddox bit of meta-fiction, all self-reflective to the point of perhaps not being fiction at all. Have you read Bruno Maddox’s “My Little Blue Dress”? It’s witty and fun. Not deep, i’ll agree. But it reflects on the relationship between author and creation.
Another thousand words done. I notice that I’m having trouble capitalizing things correctly. Time for another drawing.
UPDATE: 4:24am: Another drawing, another thousand words. It’s interesting to witness my thoughts grinding down. Each thought is an effort, spelling is a challenge. I’m done for the night, and I’ll deal with the rest when I wake.
JCA, that is a crapload of stuff to do in a day, but if there’s one person I know that could do it, it would definitely be you! If egg and maple syrup can be made into a frothy beverage topping, 10k words and all that other stuff that made me tired just reading through it, is attainable too. GO, CINDY! Woo hoo!
Miko, I don’t LOL often, but I burst out with an out loud laugh on the egg and maple syrup/frothy beverage topping comment. (Those of you not in this joke, I’ll explain in a future time.)
Thank you for your confidence. You are the wind beneath my wings.
Encouragement:
1) Bad writing can be accomplished very quickly (I know from experience this is true).
2) Stick figures are easy, and technically still count as drawings.
I have faith in you.
I enjoyed My Little Blue Dress, enough to read many of the passages several times. It goes on and on, but just when you think you’ve had enough it’s rollicking again.
Thank you everyone!
Pokrovka: Yes, that drawing things out beyond what seems possible and then rolling into a new thing, that’s part of what I liked about My Little Blue Dress too. I was a bit surprised to like it so much. Maybe I’ll reread that soon. I should see if Bruno Maddox has any other books out as well.
He has a prizewinning thesis you might be interested in. Check out Bruno Maddox‘s Wikipedia page. There’s tons of crap from that donkey over there though I did fall for his My Little Blue Dress. The novel is a stunner despite Maddox being my nemesis and an arch one at that.