I didn't win

But I'm still proud of myself, and I'm proud of Potato, and all my other friends who were excellant, and I think all won.

So wow...

I don't know about Potato, but I'm going to update you guys on my other writing projects every now and then, but don't expect it to be often.
If you want to hear every heartbreaking detail, I'll probably post it all on my blog: http://annieredsky.blogspot.com/

I would give you a link to Potato's blog, too but if you don't personally know her, you can't see it. Sorry.

But besides that, I guess I'll see you next year!!

Write on, PICKLE

Nano is over :(

It is done. We have either won or not won, but it's over regardless.
I felt like I did a really good job this year actually having a story as opposed to "collection of random scenes that mean nothing". Because last year my characters traveled all the way across a stereotypical fantasy land and never achieved anything. At all. It was horrible. So this year, I think I have a story. It's a story that would give an agent a heart attack if they saw it right now, but I think that once I've polished it, I will have fun with it.

How did your Nano go?

Noah Tells his Mom about Solace

He’d never been good with girls, so he did the one thing every teenaged boy does when he needs girl advice. He called his mom.

“Mena Anderson. May I help you?” She sounded tired. Noah wondered how his little siblings, Sam and Kacie were doing.

“Mom? It’s Noah.”

“Noah, why didn’t you call me sooner? I’ve been worried about you!” She sounded genuinely delighted to hear him.

“I’ve been busy, new job and everything… Listen, can you help me with something?”

“Oh, I see… What do you need kiddo?”

“Err… There’s this girl.” His mom chuckled. Noah blushed, and was really glad his mom didn’t have a video reception.

“No it’s not like that, it’s just that she’s different. She drives me crazy! But every time I see her…”

Nah’s mom sighed.

“Honey, we’ve all been there. Tell me about her.”

“She’s my age I think, but she’s small. She really skinny too, like she didn’t get enough food when she was younger, and she’s got blue hair to her waist.”

“Blue?”

“Yep. It’s got dark brown roots coming in though.”

“Hmmmmm…” She’d never much approved of hair dye.

“She’s mart, she’s opinionated. She knows what she wants and she knows how to get it.”

“What does she do there?”

There was no way Noah was going to tell her that Solace was a hazer. She distrusted hazing more than he did, and had only let him get the job because they needed money so badly.

He cleared his throat. “She programs a lot of hazes… their very realistic.”

“Very nice. I think she sounds wonderful. What’s her name?”

“Solace. Her name is Solace.”

His mother laughed.

“What?”

“Honey, do you know what Noah means?”

“No…”

“Comfort and consolation.”

--PICKLE

That Horrible Graph Feeling

First of all, yes I am up at 6:22. I didn't set back my iPod last night, and therefore, my "GO WRITE!" alarm went off at six...

So (as I do every morning) I made myself a cup of coffee, and updated my wordcount (I always forget to before I go to bed).
I look at my NaNo stats, and it says...

So i'm thinking, ok, ok, I just need to write more today, and I'll be all good. So I check how many words I need to get back on target.

excuse me for a second... *googling cat pictures*

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Are you kidding me? Are you freaking kidding me? I can't write 1,325 words in one day! I'm not a superhero. Or Potato! (who may or may not be a superhero... but that's another post. Or possibly my book for next year.)

Those graph can either be totally uplifting (You're gonna finish on November 11!) or completely depressing. (You're gonna finish in March. Grab your kleenex.) 

I mean come on: if my finish by approximation gets any later, I'll be fifteen. 

--PICKLE

When Potato Can't Think of What to Write...

She makes up ideas for more things to write. Sensible, write? (excuse the bad pun)

So now I have a list of 29 titles, and 7 of them have at least partial synopses. They range from serious to just plain bad chick lit, and I add to the list whenever I think of a plot idea or title. Some of them could be full novels, others don't have the steam to be anything but short stories.

Still, it's fun, and a way to procrastinate. See, I'm trying to get to 15k by Sunday, a NaNo-wide goal.  Right now I have 14,265, and a very strong will to procrastinate. I'm even thinking about doing schoolwork. On a weekend. Yeah, I really want to procrastinate writing those last 800 words.

The titles thing, is a really cool way to keep lists of possible story ideas, though. I like to look through it for ideas when I want to write something (not in November), and it's great for finding my plot for NaNo. Even if I don't end up using one of them, I use them as springboards.

What do you use as a way to keep track of random story ideas?

NaNo... it's not for the faint of heart

I am currently on the fourth day of NaNoWriMo, and I am 600 words behind. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be so bad. I can write 600 words in 30 minutes.

Except for the fact that I am battling a nasty cold. I avoided it for several days by telling myself it was "fall allergies".
"You always get them this time of year, Potato," I said, "Nothing to be worried about. This year they're jsut a little worse. I'm sure the fact that you have a headache and are carrying around a box of tissues means nothing."
When I admitted to myself that I didn't usually have fall allergies after the first frost (which was unusually early this year), and we had had the first frost, I started to wonder if I might have a passing snuffly nose.

Not a cold, mind you. Just a snuffly nose.

When I put the mini box of tissues in my purse and started carrying a small bag around the house for the used tissues (because I didn't feel well enough to get up and throw them away), I started to wonder if I might have small cold.

When I got the drippy nose, sore throat, headache, and general sick feeling, I admitted that I might, possibly be sick. Maybe.

So I'm really grateful for the fact that I wrote 4,500 words on the first day of NaNo, because that's the only thing keeping me from sinking under the whirlpool of words. I'm only been able to write around 500 words per day, because after doing schoolwork, I was too exhausted  to write much (not that I admitted I was sick. I was just still recovering from staying up late on the first day of NaNo. You know, three days later, I'm still recovering from staying up 'til 1. Reasonable, right?).

So now that I've admitted I was sick, I'm now wondering if that gives me room to beg off from schoolwork to write more. Not that I'll actually end up writing. I'd probably put up loads of posts on this blog instead.

Sigh. Procrastination.

At least I haven't had a 102 degree fever for a week, like one of my friends. At least I didn't get the dreaded writer's block and stare at an empty page for 2 days, like another. And at least I'm not moving during the month of November, like two more friends.

But still, I'm sick.

So, how is your NaNo going?

Potato

I LOVE writing set in the future

Because then you can screw around with words. How often do you get to write this paragraph:

"She was ten years old again, back home in Cyclone Town. The wars hadn’t touched this part of the Northern American Conglomerate as hard as the costal territories, like Vermaineshire, or the Californias yet, but they were still feeling the squeeze. "

If you couldn't tell, I made the entire continent (except half of Canada I think) nto one big super country. Then I split California up into parts, (I'm thinking, North, South, and Baja- Mexico's part of the NAC) and combined Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire. Genius isn't it?

--PICKLE