I have helped fashion ringed worlds of mollusk oracles, those shelled and un, who visit greasy spoon/brothels and pay with the pearl coins they create.

I have learned the secret stories of objects, and objects in stories.

The arcane process of magazine and novel submission and editing has been whispered.

Books aquired and signatures too, made at least one writer blush.

I bask in the fire and life of many artists, and writers, and even made new friends.

I am inspired, excited about scripting for my new comic, and honored to be in this years art show.

Ahh

I’m learning a lot about the future outline of my novel. These last few chapters are pretty clear about the action needed, though some of them need to be somewhere around chapters 4-5, so some shuffling will occur.

So, the next step is to rework the outline, and examine it for flow and action, and try to see what I really want to accomplish. It’s going to need a lot of effort, but I’ve got a pretty good handle on the direction.

I’m curious what I’ll end up with.

Then, I notecarded my way up to a point in Chapter 7 where I felt the chapter should really end. I moved the start of Chapter 8 up.

Feeling really good about this. Starting to realize that chapter 7 and 8 are really the middle of my novel. I’m looking forward to moving the outline around. Only two more chapters left to notecard.

yay!

I’d say I got about halfway done with notecarding last night.
We even switched coffee shops, as the one we were at closed at 9. We headed over to Mother Fool’s and got some dark chocolate, and I put my headphones on and notecarded my way through chapter 3, 4, and the 30 notecards of chapter 5. (guess which chapter needs cutting down.

It kinda feels like a real story though, just reading through the outline again.

I ran out of notecards! I had to grab some ones that I’d been using for the last book I wrote. (they had only titles that I’d scratched out for the proper Shroud title/chapter on them)

I’m numbering each card in the bottom left corner, for each chapter. That’ll give me an idea later what order I originally had them in. If I move things around or add new ones into a chapter I think I’ll put a new number on one of the right corners somewhere. Hrm.

Feels like progress though. Moving slowly on.

Take the test here:
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=14457200288064322170

Good quiz for you writer’s out there!

Happily the writing in this middle section of my novel written in 03 is not as bad as the writing in chapters 1-3. It’s pretty readable, not pretty, but at least most of the sentences make narrative sense.

Chapter five features many journal entries of the father of the protaganist, and some of the text is compelling. I’m not sure this book has space for these 31 entries, but knowing what happened in those past dark days will certainly aid me later.

Chapter 6 returns us to story, and has a lot more sense of where things are going. It’s incomplete, (which I noted when I wrote it, but I included some notes on where I wanted to go).

Those in the writing group know, this is the first time I’ve actually ever read through my novel. It’s really hard to pick up most nanowrimo novel and read them in their raw form. (There are of course better writers,(Eric), who can write fast and well, but I am not yet one of those).

After that first rush when all the words were pushed out, ready or not, I haven’t had the courage and determination to get back to them. (Mostly discouraged by chapter 3).

But I’ve pushed past my roadblock, and I should be able to finish my base outline soon. My chapters are divided with little ryhme or reason, but I don’t think I have more than 9.

After the outline, then I may notecard out some things, and see if I have all the parts required for a complete narrative.

Yay! Progress.

Should be an easy enough task, until she learns her crew is blind, her passengers may be sacrifices, and oh yeah, the lady with the steel muzzle veil… is a manipulative siren, out to take over the ship.

Her first mate, Elion the Wavesighter, seems like he might be of some use, even if he also appears to have a hidden agenda.

Is there any sanity left on the high seas?

Join us @ the Sun Prairie Public Library from 2-4:30pm – December 4th

http://www.scls.lib.wi.us/sunprairie/

I would like to invite any and all who have participated in this year’s challenge to join with the nano’s from madison and wisconsin for a celebration of the end of november! I still have stickers and buttons from HQ if you didn’t get one!

Come join us for some cake, and punch, and general fun! Tell us your funniest writing mishaps this month! Bring some or all of your novel to show off.

There may be some small prizes given away.

You’ve made it! You deserve it!

(p.s. you don’t need to have won the challenge to attend, just to have tried!)

p.p.s.s. If you think you can make it, respond here or at the nanowrimo forums so we can plan accordingly.

Yay! I have now, written the first rough draft of my second novel. It needs lots and lots of things, world building, character building, a completely reworked outline, but it exists, starts and ends, and things happen in the middle.

We’re having a Thank god it’s over party on Saturday, must get that all set, but it should be fun, too.

Secondly!!!!
A Song For Evan is an Elfwood Mod’s Choice! That means it’s featured on the main page all day!

http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/elfwood.pike

It also gets a special star and icon in my Elfwood Gallery forever! WOO! My first mod’s choice! I’ve been on elfwood for a long time, (and really never produced much that could even have a chance until now) but it’s so cool to finally have one, on a piece I’m proud of too.

:dances:

gah…

3000 left.

Hey, I finally got caught up. and all it took was 5426 words in one day.

47,000 / 50,000 (94.0%)

This is more than the minimun required for today, which is 46666.

Yahoo! Nano, you will be mine, once again!

I will likely show up between 6 and 6:30

Come join me for another push to finish our novels!

http://www.goblinfernpress.com/

The Write Place
3809 Mineral Point Rd.
Madison, WI 53705

Madison:
608-442-0212

Toll free:
888-670-BOOK
(888-670-2665)

Yah! the commission is done! I’m so happy with the way everything turned out!

Had a good day today, finished my 3 day, 10k word sprint.
I hit 30k+ today for my nanonovel! woo! only 5000 behind now.

30,443 / 50,000 (60.9%)

18,807 / 50,000 (37.6%)

Wow, last night just plain rocked.
I got to see my mom and dad for dinner, mom made this awesome eggplant parmesan and we watched Clean Sweep on tv, and then checked out her digital pictures from their vacation.

Then, I headed out to Muddy Waters and had a great nanowrimo writing night, not only did around 7 people show up to pound on their novels, I personally was motivated to write, and got almost 3000 words done! Also, had very good coffee and juice, and conversations with loverly writing people. OCR wrote 6000 words!

Realized I’ve known Eric and Jane now for a whole year, and also that I’ve known Heather for 3! It was interesting to be sitting in the same cafe, with the same people working on the same project, just at a later time.

Plus, happily my muse was concentrating, and I don’t feel like the words in chapter 6 last night were all that bad, so my infernal critic had to just be quiet and sit in the corner.

I was up too late though, I went home for a nap over lunch. Good day at work too, lots of things getting done.

Excited about tonight. Hope to get to 20k on the novel, and finish ’s commission. And my husband is home! He’s been working away from here all week.

16,022 / 50,000 (32.0%)

Writing is going slow, we traveled for a family thanksgiving up north last weekend, and I took friday off writing and did art. (Which was lovely really, I’m almost done with ’s commission, and excited about it’s direction), so for the last three days, friday-sunday I wrote about 2300 words. Thankgiving with my husband’s family was nice though, we got to catch up with his younger cousins, who schooled carlo, and I, and our friend ana, all at the same time in Halo2, after seeing the game for the first time. And the Packers won. yay. I actually wrote in the car on the way home.

Last night I pulled myself away from the Halo2 and after a very long time sitting and staring at my monitor, and much futzing around with iTunes,(there were 4 people sharing music at Company of Thieves), I actually got just over 1000 done, which is good because I wasn’t certain I’d get more than 60, and really really wanted to go home to more Halo2. But I stuck it out, and went through 2 italian/french soda’s ( look what you’ve done, I now have at least three of these a week, and more this month because of all the coffeeshop writing I’m doing)

I think I’ll feel better when I hit the 20k milestone, and then 50%. According to my Nano report card, I only need to do 2265 words a day to make it by the end of the month. Which isn’t really all that bad, and I’m fairly sure I can do some catch up this coming weekend. Pushing forward.

12,536 / 50,000 (25.1%)

Yahoo, made the first quarter. I’m using http://www.bartastechnologies.com/products/copywrite/ to write my nanonovel this year, and openoffice to run the nano reportcard.

Copywrite is really cool Mac writing software, instead of just making one document, you make a project, which lets you link all sorts of documents together, in categories like; chapters, ideas, premise, places, ect. But all the documents can be linked together and exported if you have the paid version. You can also set the status on each document, like; new, rough, draft, final.

But the best part is… every document has a little notepad you can use, to meta-write, things you want to remember to add, things you are working out, it’s like writing in the margins. AND there is also a linked scratchpad for the whole project notes, so while the document notes are only available from each document, the project notes are accessible by all the documents!

And the best feature for nano is… i can set my goal(50,000 words) AND have it count the notes and the documents, so i don’t have to put all my theroretical notes in my main story document, but still have all my words count! Wow! cool! And I did do a lot of note-ing last night, about a thousand words on what if’s and what about’s and how people see each other. I discovered some very cool stuff that is totally going to help me fill in the blank spots in my nebulous outline.

8,510 / 50,000 (17.0%)

I wrote a lot this weekend. Not quite caught up, but moving along swiftly, I anticipate reaching 10k tonight, which is nice. I’ve just introduced my two main characters.

Saw the Incredibles (awesome) and Casshern(wow!), this weekend, while type typing away.

Had great time on friday also, got to hang with in honor of her new domicile, and a group from the carrying party went to Ella’s Deli, where I had the best autumn sundae with pumpkin icecream, mmm.

Halo 2 comes out tommorrow. Crazy time is here again.

~~~~

Voted today, had to register at the polls, because we’ve moved since the last ones. I didn’t get a sticker, but I got the whole thing over with. Seriously, all this stuff is making me stressy and sick. I wish I could sit back and think, hey, my vote can’t possibly be the lifechanging decider, but we live in a swing-state. So all I get is stressy, and oversaturated by all the stupid campaigns. grr.

But my part is done. I voted.

Cal and I will be postering up around town too, but if you want to help, take this unofficial poster
http://www.soundchasers.com/filemgmt_data/files/nano%20flyer.jpg or

http://www.soundchasers.com/filemgmt_data/files/nano%20flyer.png

and print it out, write our kickoff info at the bottom (Cool Beans Coffee Cafe, Nov 1st 7:30-9:00 ) at the bottom, and put them up in your dorms, gas stations, coffee shops, office boards that you frequent!

If everyone can do 2-5 around town, perhaps we can persuade even more people to join in this seasonal challenge!

Thanks!
dreamling

p.s. If you love this kind of thing, you can see all sorts of other awesome stuff to print out and hang up here.

http://www.soundchasers.com/filemgmt/viewcat.php?cid=1

The kickoff place and time has been decided, and posted in our local calender as well.

Kickoff! Cool Beans Coffee Cafe
Nov 1st, 7-9pm

Come out and learn what this whole Novel in a Month is all about, meet winners from previous years, chat about time management, best places to write and your novel ideas!

Can’t wait to see you all.

I’ve been having trouble writing this summer, so much stuck in my head, work, other things, and every word was so hard to place on the page.

Tonight was so much better. The short story I’ve been hammering on seems to be settling into a nice cadence. It feels very nice to be creative. I feel like I can finally have the creative space and energy to write and draw again.

I’m flying, creatively. I told them it might have been the caffeine from my Thieves Mocha, but I know it’s not true. I am happily surrounded by creative people, doing creative things, and looking forward to more creative things.

Feels real good.

Now I’m over at K&M’s, watching a bit of Kill Bill 2.

This qualifies as the best monday I’ve had in a long time.

The w0rd-vixens, belleweather, Kim, Heather, and I had lots to chat about; plots and designs, murders and missions, music and madness. (We also had a Gr4mm3r-Fox, Ray, Show up later)

I’ve decided to work with asking casual motivation questions to help fill in the holes of things I’m working on.

Last night, my husband and I met two people, Jason and Stephanie, who tracked me down via the internet, and my Halo tendencies, we sat and chatted, and then played some Halo. They are very nice, and good at Halo. We look forward to seeing them again.

Our A/C is fixed. All hail the cool air that gives life and meaning to our domicile. I think I am sleeping better now that we’re not sleeping on the floor in the basement. I am also feeling less stress this week, which is lovely. This also means I can finally hold art night over at our place tonight! woo.

This weekend is our anniversary. We’re going to spend the day and night in Milwaukee. I’ve booked a room at a B&B near the down town area, The Acanthus, and we plan on wandering about the Milwaukee Museum for the day. I’ve never been there, and am thrilled. We once took a trip to the Chicago Museum. That’s a fond memory. I can’t wait to make more. I’ve never stayed at a B&B, and am very thrilled. Yay! some time for just us!

Sunday we’ll likely share a dinner with my parents, and grandparents at Porta Bella, whom we share an anniversary with. (4 generations, 3 still living) My mother and law and her husband may join us as well. It’s becoming a tradition.

After the meeting I spent some time chatting outside in the cold with my favorite cynic. heh. Life rocks, bring on the ass-kickery.

I don’t know if I’m coming down with something, or if it’s a little windburn from last night, but my face has been flushed all day, bright pinky purply. (well, perhaps I’m a bit more sensitive about the color, but it feels warm to the touch) I also have a not fun headache, and I forgot my snacks and food stuff at home.

I’m just going to take a half day, and get myself some lunch, and tuck myself in. I went to bed early last night, but perhaps more sleep would help this, whatever it is. Screw the fact I’m using the last 4 hours of my ETO.

Plus I’m all ready for my meeting tomorrow morning, so things should be fine.

I am Printing my Novel in it’s raw form!
This is the first time I’ve touched it since last Sunday.
EEEEE!

Nano Wrap-Up This afternoon at cool beans, be there!

Avg Words Written Per Day: 1673
Avg Hours Writing Per Day: 2.14
Avg Words Per Hour: 783
Avg Morale Per Day : 7(scale 1-10)
My novel is one of : 3680 Nanowrimo novels
Day I wrote the most words: Saturday the 29th (4697)
(I broke this into two sessions of ~2000 each. 2000 before noon 2000 at Cool Beans, and the last 500 at home. )
Days I wrote the least words: 6th, 7th, 8th, (0,0,0)
(Though I did write some on paper, I just added them all together on the 9th)

I achieved 50k on the 29th, though much remains to be written, as well as edited and reworked.

Saturday night I woke up about three times, feeling anxiety over the fact that I needed to ‘finish’ and what was I doing sleeping. (Even though, of course, I had finished for Nanowrimo, though didn’t have time to validate until Sunday morning)

Even after spending a month with these characters and the story, I still feel good about it, so I’m hoping that means I’ve got a solid start.

This is the year I wrote my novel.

Nanowrimo.org

Also please drop into the LJ community
madnanowrimo.

I’m going to be a Municipal Liaison for Madison again this year, along with Heather, and it’s really going to be grand.

It’s a really great experience. Don’t worry about the Plot, just the wordcount.

Come on, You Can Do It! What are you waiting for!

Argh, Why can’t I resist the call of an actual novel in 30 days.

But… a lot of things I didn’t know were possible, I’ve been doing, this year. Who knows?

I even have a story idea…

When I was in junior high I wanted to be a writer, badly, and I did a lot of research, reading books on how to submit, where, what format, and also reading articles by authors, looking for that *secret* that would make me a real author.

More recently, I’ve become more focused on visual stories, comics, manga, and have been researching how to do that, how to break in, learning things like better visual storytelling, layout, design, techniques, and reading articles by authors and artists, looking for that *secret* that will make me a real artist.

And they all say the same thing. The most important thing is… to do it. If possible, every day, if you want to write, write, if you want to be an illustrator, draw. Over and over, focus on your passion. Shine it, hone it, sharpen it.

The work is never wasted. Ever. Every word you write, and every line I draw is a step, in a series of steps to the goals we aspire to. Many other people feel the same way you do sometimes, I certainly do, but several things keep me going.

1. I am not the best artist around, I know this, but, a simple google search shows I’m not the worst.
2. more importantly than comparison to other artists, compared to my earlier work, my recent works are better. Progress! Hey, how did that happen. What makes me excited isn’t where I am now, but wondering where I’ll be in three years!
3. An aside, I seem to learn more by doing, than reading all these books and articles, and am coming to a point where I just have to experiment, and teach myself these techniques I’m lusting after.
4. There is always a Golden Child. Someone who is better, more prolific, more noticed, or just more aware of their own talent. I remember the one I knew in high school, she was an amazing artist, very encouraged by the staff. I was very jealous… but… looking back, I can see that she was the one putting in all the extra work for her pieces that were often displayed. So, she started a bit earlier, she had more encouragement. She was still working through the same process we are, the hard way. There is no substitution for pure insane stubbornness in pursuit of your art.

That said, you can learn lots working on short stories/exercises/koan’s that your prof sets up for you. His job is likely to push you and your art in directions you may not have thought of before, and you can bet he’s going to try challenging Golden Child as well.

I know you can do it, and do it well. Now it’s up to you to show the world what the rest of us already know about you.

originally a response to a post by Gamerchick.

His sister’s daughter raised the dead or so they spoke of her beauty. With no simple mind she did not hate or feel affection or sense of duty. She shaved her head and of her name her very legend says the same. She simply rose and flew away.

Now his brothers they were twins. One was heavy one was thin. They could never think about why he kept himself so within. One of their children bore his name, and grew to be the same he too was buried in the spring.

He rode off to start a war. He knew his people to be hungry. About the time his sister born, he won and lost with desperate fury. He should have died out on the field with his solitude and shield, but to time he had to yield… and age in misery.

His very home had lost its face. More then once been laid to waste. His mother who outlived them all, tried to keep the place in shape. But with the ticking of their fate, she grew old withered away, died alone and in disgrace.

No there has never been a trace, only phantom waves and shapes. Of any force they left behind or any history in time. Pre-designed to be confined buried in forgotten mines, a tiny shadow on our race.
~~~~
here is the mp3
click to listen

I’m thinking of putting these people in my novel.

Well, people with these attributes.

Been thinking about it for quite a while. lots of good places to start.

if I can’t hit it with them… then I’ll fall back to this

http://www.rain-street.org/fightcrime.htm