Words: 750 (in the form of 250 words written and another half an hour of other work) total. I spent some time first coming up with a pitch for the contest NaNoWriMo is holding. I don’t know how people can fit much into the 250-word limit, but I did my best. I still have time before it’s due though, so I’m going to get some opinions and fix it up as need be. I’m worried it’s a confusing synopsis, but I’m not sure what I can do about that. The half hour after that was spent working on the shared document for the TCSTB, reading and responding to another member’s notes.
NaNoWriMo
Daily Challenge Check-in: February 5, 2015
Words: I’m starting to see how the word count challenge can be a problem when one is revising, rather than writing. When I’m doing strict revising of the text, reading and marking and even rewriting, I count how many words I got through of the original text. But some work just doesn’t lend itself to word counting. I think for these situations, I’ll go back to keeping track of how long I work, like I used to. Then I’ll use NaNoWriMo’s rebelling guide for time to word count transference. An hour of work is 1000 words. From here on, that’s what I’ll do.
Today I read and responded to notes and revisions made on “Adventures in Pithea” by the other members of the TCSTB (editing group) on our shared document. Our day-long marathon meeting is on Saturday, so the other two are getting further ahead than they normally do for our weekly meetings. I also worked some more on transferring the revisions from my hard copy onto the computer.
Daily Challenge Check-in: February 4, 2015
Words: Another day when I can’t quantify the amount of work I did in numbers. I started going over notes I made during NaNoWriMo of things I already knew I needed to change for “Pursuit of Power”, my 2014 NaNoNovel. I thought through how to proceed with preliminary revision, and then had to stop.
Later in the evening I also read through notes and revisions made on “Adventures in Pithea” by another member of the TCSTB (editing group) on our shared document, and made my own comments back. So I did do some revision work, but can’t say how many words. I feel confident saying it was more than 500 though.
I Wish My Life Was a Musical
This comic accurately reflects the first time my husband and I met Debs and Errol (we’re the two on the left in the first panel). If you don’t know who they are, allow me to introduce you to a wonderful world filled with narwhals, AT-ATs, beautiful music, fun lyrics, and playful banter. They are a geek band that has been together since 2011, though I only heard about them near the end of 2012.
I was brought into the D&E universe first by Errol and Manda, who is Errol’s partner in a production company they called WE Tangent. They wrote, produced, and starred in a musical for NaNoWriMo. (If you know anything about NaNoWriMo and haven’t watched this yet, do it NOW.) Then they had a streamathon on YouTube to promote the crowd-funding campaign to record the songs from the musical more professionally. I spent the entire 7 hours watching and interacting in chat with these people, and would get a little rush every time they addressed my comments from chat. (I feel this is a good time to mention that I am not just an introvert, but a painfully shy and socially awkward introvert. Online it’s not as bad, but I still often keep quiet unless I start to feel more comfortable.)
The first times I went to the Debs and Errol website, where Errol posted near-daily webcomics for years, I was too overwhelmed to stay long. After November (and NaNoWriMo) was over, and the musical had long-since ended, and I had exhausted all of the videos I could find online of Errol and/or Debs singing about NaNo, not to mention Errol irritating people, I decided to tackle that website. I started at the beginning and was introduced to the band more firmly.
I don’t remember exactly when or how I first interacted with Debs, but what I do remember is that she treated me as if I were already a friend. And that has been my experience with Debs & Errol as a whole. They treat me like a friend. I daresay they consider all of their fans friends. They have gained some decent recognition, and of course sought wider exposure when they could, but one of the biggest benefits (in my opinion) of never becoming too big is that they could still interact with their fans. In fact, in early 2013, my husband asked them if they would record themselves singing happy birthday to me. Errol took it a step further and they ended up rewriting lyrics from one of the songs from the NaNoMusical into the following birthday song for me!
Deb and Errol both live in Canada, while I live in the US, so for a while, I had to pass on their concerts, which were usually in Canada. One on the east coast of the US was still too far for me. But then they announced they were going to be in Ohio. I’m from Indiana, so that’s only one state over. My husband and I quickly hatched a plan to drive to Ohio and see them. The above comic was from that trip, in October 2014. It was only one afternoon, but we got to meet them, have breakfast with them, and see them in concert. I can’t even tell you how hilarious they are in concert. I’d seen some videos on YouTube, but frankly, I couldn’t always understand what was being said. Seeing them in person was better than I could have imagined. My husband and I discussed someday visiting Toronto, where they live, to see them again and maybe meet some others from the D&E universe who live in that area.
About 3 weeks ago, though, Debs & Errol announced that the band was breaking up. Even in this unpleasant news, I still found myself overwhelmed by the way they made me feel like a friend. I don’t want to sound conceited in saying this, but being included in their list of those they wanted to share the news with personally, before they announced it on social media, was more touching than I can say.
Along with the break-up announcement came the news of a farewell concert. Though I can’t say why they set the date for over a month later, it was perfect for us. My husband and I immediately set to work on figuring out what we would have to do to be able to travel the 7 hours to Toronto to be there for the farewell concert. And as soon as I mentioned it to Errol, he suggested that we could perhaps stay in his guest room. So we applied for passport cards, which just came in the mail yesterday, and now we’re ready to start making plans for that weekend. I am both delighted and anxious about this forthcoming trip. I won’t list the people I’m looking forward to meeting in Toronto, in case I leave anyone off, or add anyone who I won’t have a chance to meet. I know there are others from the States making the trip too, some coming from farther away than we are. It will be a whirlwind of a weekend, I’m sure, and I only hope I can handle it all. (Did I mention how shy and socially awkward I am?)
I took my time preparing this post for several reasons. I wasn’t sure if I should make one at all, as this blog is very obscure, and it might turn out to be a pointless endeavor. Several other people have made much more poignant and eloquent posts about this, and some of them even took words out of my own mouth (seriously, if I repeated anyone, I’m sorry). And I just wasn’t sure how to say what I wanted to say.
The odd thing is that, while writing this, it’s the first time I’ve experienced any strong emotions about the band breaking up. Don’t get me wrong–I love Debs & Errol and will miss them as a band like crazy. However, I haven’t been a fan as long as some, and haven’t been as engrossed a fan as others. I’m not quite geeky enough to appreciate all of their works, and I’m not outgoing enough to insert myself into their world more than I have (which, again, just makes it more incredible that we were invited to stay at Errol’s family’s house). I am also not the most sentimental person. Yet somehow, I find myself crying when I think about Debs gently breaking the news to me at 11:30 on a Wednesday night, or about how weepy and emotional that concert is going to be for everyone there.
I only hope that I can continue to be friends with both Debs and Errol, despite only being connected by the internet. At least then it wouldn’t so much like saying goodbye.
These are the posts others have made about this topic, in case anyone’s curious:
http://mandawhitney.com/2015/01/15/my-neighbour-errol-farewell/
http://www.popmythology.com/the-12-best-debs-and-errol-songs/
https://meliwazhere.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/one-week-later-farewell-debs-and-errol/
Daily Challenge Check-in: February 2, 2015
Words: I have no idea how many, but it was way over 500. I’ve been working for 2 hours or so on two different tasks. First I started running a spell check on my 2014 NaNoNovel (“Pursuit of Power”). I did surprisingly well at not editing this year, so there are a lot of typos. And lots of proper nouns that the program doesn’t recognize. I’ve told it not to check grammar, because it will only yell at me for sentence fragments. However, I can see a lot of uncapitalized words at the beginnings of sentences, so I’ll have to fix those eventually too. Though I’m still revising “Adventures in Pithea” (my 2013 NaNoNovel), I am far enough ahead in my individual revision work that my editing group, the TCSTB, won’t get there for a while. And lately I’ve had a strong urge to go back and do some preliminary work on “Pursuit of Power.” I’m a strong proponent of going where your heart takes you, in creative pursuits, so I figured I’d follow it. I’ve made it more than 3/4 of the way through the 100k-word story and will likely finish the rest tomorrow.
While I was working on that, though, I noticed that the other two members of the TCSTB had been making notes in our shared document of “Adventures in Pithea,” where we do our work during our weekly Skype meetings. Usually everyone tries to read ahead a little and leave their own thoughts, revision notes, or whatever, in the document, so we have stuff to discuss when we meet on Skype. The next meeting is tomorrow night, and lately, no one’s had time to get in and make notes before an hour or so before the meeting. So when I saw they were both working on it tonight, I had to jump in there and read their notes, leaving my own responses as warranted. This usually makes the meeting go a little faster, if we’ve already discussed or even fixed minor things before meeting time.
This is probably all so confusing, no one who reads this will have any idea what I’m talking about.
A Look Back at 2014
This year has been a very productive one for me, fictionally speaking. I’ll recap some of the highlights.
I started this blog at the end of April in an attempt to keep myself from slacking off in my editing work. I’ve had some success with it, while at the same time let it slide now and then.
I finished two novels in 2014. The first one, temporarily titled “Adventures in Pithea”, was started in November 2013, and finished in February 2014 at 105,000 words. The second one, titled “Pursuit of Power”, was started and finished in November 2014, the first draft landing at 101,000 words.
I participated in my 5th year of NaNoWriMo, and won with 107,234 words, passing the 50k word mark on the 12th. I was also more socially active than past NaNo years, even if most of that was online, and set a huge daily word count record for myself with 10,516 words on the 15th. It was a good year.
And here at the end of the year, I even had a very writerly Christmas. Here are the writing-related gifts I received this year:
From my in-laws, a set of small notebooks, Doctor Who themed.
I have a larger version of the notebook on the right, but the one in the middle takes my focus. River Song’s spoiler-filled notebook is a great addition to my notebook collection.
From my younger sister, a t-shirt with a reminder to never stop writing in some form or other.
I created this motto and image to go with it earlier this year, for use as a banner in some places. Then I went to Zazzle and slapped it all over several items and set them for sale. I hadn’t bought any yet myself, but hoped to one day. This is the t-shirt, which I did want more than the other items.
From my mom, a medium-sized, lined notebook with the NaNoWriMo logo on the front.
This blank notebook was a new product in their store recently, and I’ve wanted a blank notebook from them for years! I was one (among many, I’m sure) who suggested they create a blank notebook instead of the confusing (to me, at least) notebooks they already had that seemed to have filled pages and maybe blank ones, but who knows without buying them. I love the look with the shield in gold against the black. I have grand plans for this new addition to my notebook collection.
From my older sister, a mug she made herself.
The mug was brilliant. On the front is the motto I made up earlier this year to remind myself that every day should include some time for my creative pursuits, whether it be dreaming up new ideas, planning a story, or writing a story. The sister who made this is one of two who make up the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book with me. That is what I call our little group that meets on Skype weekly to work on the editing of “Adventures in Pithea.” When I turned the mug to see the side and back, I laughed so hard.
Now this month, I have taken an initially unintentional break from my writing projects, which turned into a necessity as Christmas grew closer. Near the beginning of the month, my husband and I went out of town for 5 days, and the days before and after that were busy with preparation and recovery. Then wrapping, shopping, and other Christmas-related activities took up my evening time. Now as the season draws to a close and the new year is set to begin, I plan to delve back in with a fervor. I’ve done heavy revision on 1/4 of my first novel, so there is still a lot to go. Considering that that 1/4 took most of this year, it’s difficult not to get discouraged about how long it will be before it’s ready to attempt publishing. But I’ve not given up yet.
Just before this break started, I had begun a challenge to write/edit 500 words every day, and I am eager to get back to that. I’ve also dropped off on a plan to do one writing exercise from my Now Write! book per week, so I hope to have time for that again too. Those are my plans for this year. That and have as many mega meetings of the TCSTB as the others will allow.
To all of my fellow writers out there–whatever, whenever, and however often you write–what were your highlights for this year? What are your proud or disappointed moments from this year? And what are your plans for the coming year?
December 4
Words: 1693 total. Most of it was several pages of “Adventures in Pithea” I got through revising. (Missy has been corrected in her accusation toward Evan, though he still found a way to be a jerk.) The rest of it, though only a measly 135 words, was original writing, and requires a longer explanation than 135 words probably should.
In October, my husband and I went to a con in Ohio called Ohio Valley Filk Festival. It was our first con. We were only there for one afternoon, and it was a small con. However, in the dealer’s room, there was a wide selection of books. We spent quite some time there. I came away with a book that has already changed the way I think about plotting, creating characters, writing, and even sleeping. It is called Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror and inside are “lively and practical insight and exercises, straight from the top speculative genre writers working today”.
Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I have decided to start going through the exercises in the book. Not all of them actually pertain to me (most of the horror-related articles, for example), so I’ll skip those. But I plan to try to focus on one article per week, and see how that goes. This week’s article involved using random images as story seeds, forcing two images together and developing a story idea or even new story world from those. This morning, I wrote with that in mind, with two images I’d generated a few days ago. It didn’t produce quite what the exercise was expecting, but I do already have an entire world I’m writing in. It was still an interesting idea I may pursue in one of my storylines someday though.
December 3
Words: 998 deleted from NaNo ’14 manuscript (“Pursuit of Power”), and I have now removed all of the “NaNo fodder” as I call it now. I am done with all of the words, phrases, paragraphs, or scenes that I had kept in for word count but marked to delete later. I will now most likely be going back to revising “Adventure in Pithea,” perhaps maybe still thinking through some of the bigger plot/character problems in “Pursuit of Power” when I need a break from the other story or something.
December 2
Words: 1936 deleted from NaNo ’14 manuscript (“Pursuit of Power”). Also, nineteenth meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book (revising last year’s novel, “Adventures in Pithea”).
December 1
Words: 1124 deleted from manuscript. It’s not as quick as it sounds. I have to find the areas where I’d marked words for deletion during NaNoWriMo, then figure out what words exactly need deleted. I didn’t just strike through everything I didn’t want to keep, because it takes longer. I put an end bracket to mark a spot and moved on. So now I have to figure out where the bad words start so I can delete them. This is probably a confusing explanation, but the point is, it’s a lot of searching and then some reading. It’s the first step in revising my novel, and possibly the only one I will do for now.
A Journey of Words 