Round 2 Goals

My goals are simple again - even though I'm also doing Camp Nano this month, with a goal of 50,000 words.

Once April is over, I'm going to attempt to keep up my momentum by continuing the 1,667 words per day. That, and continue planning far enough in advance that I'll always have something to write.

It sounds simple, but I have to do everything on my terrabyte drive and take it with me everywhere I go. Scrivener is on that drive, as well as my projects, so I can work anywhere there is a computer. My laptop is on its way out, so I made everything portable to use the computers at work instead.

Hmm. Maybe it doesn't sound so simple after all.

Looking forward to jumping back into ROW80!

Why Negative Coffee Times Negative Coffee Equals Positive Evil

The end of the semester is winding down here at the college. I didn't have a lot of students Monday, and when afternoon rolled around, I was fading fast. I'd only slept a few hours on Sunday night, and not well. My  coffee addiction tried to send me to the coffee stand downstairs, but my logical mind prevailed, reminding me that if I had coffee in the middle of the afternoon, I'd face another sleepless night. Oh, bother.

So, Kris, who was in the lab with me and studying for a Calculus final, began sketching my babbling on the board, in the form of a graph with a cracked coffee mug. The mug was slowly dripping coffee into the negative quadrant of the graph (any value here will be negative). We all know that, in algebra, a negative multiplied with another negative will give you a positive; in physics, we'd need to determine how fast we'd have to drink the coffee. (A linear function -- f(x) = x -- was drawn through the graph, bisecting the coffee mug and giving us an arbitrary line from which to determine how much coffee we had available to drink. Once it dripped below the line, we'd be * outta luck.)

So, by extrapolation, here are the parameters of the graph:

coffee = good
-coffee = bad
(-coffee)(-coffee) = +evil.

Makes sense, right? (Yes, and I agree, we should have had more work to do that afternoon!)

Goals? Oh, right, let's talk about that.

Pages: Met, thanks to Nano.

Exercise: Nope. I've been tutoring or dealing with pre-Christmas stuff whenever I've not been working.

Planning: Yes. So much so that around 4:30 this morning I woke up, realizing that I needed to find out the age of the "death" of Akhenaten so I could reasonably determine whether he had grey hair or not. Nothing like obsessing, right?

Food: Managed to stay away from the fried chicken still. Pizza, though, I ordered some because the guys asked me to. And since there was a new pizza on the menu, I tried it. I didn't like it. Yay! I did order a vegetarian pizza with light cheese, just so I could feel a bit better about my bad behavior.

How's everyone else doing?

Welcome to December!

Before anything, I'd like to take a moment to say "Congratulations!" to all the winners of Nano 2012 - and that includes everyone who participated. Even if you didn't get to 50,000, it was an incredible effort. Nano provided the impetus to get more words out than may otherwise have been achieved. That's always a win!

I won Nano, but I sure didn't win on any other fronts over the past week.

Exercise was negligible at best. I worked late on Monday, so fried chicken ended up on the menu. Much to my shame, I indulged. The good news is that I didn't like it as much as I normally do. Maybe I'm getting over my addiction? I'm hopeful.

My very small writing group elected to keep going throughout December, too. So, I'm plowing ahead with the rough draft of Immortal Blood, hoping to make significant progress during the holidays. That should be kind of easy, because my college will be shut down for three weeks between semesters, so I have hope.

Is everyone else as wrung out at I am?

See everyone on Wednesday.

Calculus and Cookies...

For all of us mathematically-inclined (or crazy) people out there, I was thinking about a new exercise today for my students. It was an exercise in junk food. Specifically -- cookies.

Now, everyone has a favorite cookie. It could be chocolate chip, Oreos, oatmeal, or those delightfully addictive mint cookies that the Girl Scouts tempt us with every year. (Mint cookies and I are very familiarly acquainted.)

What if each student, choosing their favorite cookie from a predetermined list, took the dimensions and tried to find out how many cookies could fit into a specific area. How much area was taken up by the cookies? How many cookies were used? And how much of the original area was left? Here's where the calculus bit comes in. Integrals are used to find the area under a curve. (We knew calculus had to show up eventually.)

Get the answer right for your type of cookie, and you get to eat said cookies.

How's that for incentive?

Personally, I can't try the cookie thing, because I'm still trying to lose weight. And it's going slowly, I'm afraid. So is the exercise. But some of my other goals are going well.

For instance, my planning is still going forward, as is my writing. My Nano word count is just over 20,000. I have no idea what my page count is, but I'm sure it's inching toward my 80 pages for this quarter.

Not so good on the fried chicken front. I bought some last night on my way home from work. Once I got there, I went to bed. I was utterly exhausted, and I let the guys figure out whatever they wanted for dinner.

I haven't ordered any pizza though, so that's still good.

Fighting the junk food craving is a day to day adventure. But I sure wish the cravings would go away.

See you on Sunday!

Doing It Uncaffeinated...!

Morning, all. It is morning, right? I'm not sure - it's still kinda dark outside here.

Yes, you read the name right. I haven't had coffee. Or Mountain Dew. Or tea. Or even dark chocolate. My eyes are still blurry. I apologize in advance if this comes out like stream-of-conscious drivel. That's how my brain's working (or not) this morning. Or I could just be gearing up for Nano.

Speaking of Nano...if anyone's doing it and they want to friend me, I'm over there as laramcgill.

Goals, you ask? Well...

1. Planning is going well. I dreamed I was part of a police team of some sort (in Wales, no less!) and got shot in the back. It grazed my lung, and I found out very quickly what it was like to bleed and try to breathe at the same time. Interesting from an academic standpoint. Not so good from a personal one.

2. Exercise. Not so good. I had plans to drag my roommate swimming yesterday, but that didn't happen because of other things that turned up unexpectedly. We'll see about today. Taking it one day at a time.

3. I haven't had any pizza or fried chicken since I last checked in. No, wait. There was a piece of leftover cold fried chicken in the fridge that I scarfed one morning for breakfast before work. In retrospect, that might have been the best thing I could have done - I didn't like it. And now I'm much more likely to pass it by in the grocery store. (I did yesterday - I wasn't even attracted by the usually-irresistible scent!)

4. Processed food. Doing great on that - things like boxed rice mixes and Hamburger Helper and soups and stuff just don't make it into my cart. I'm still buying things like stock though. I use too much of it to be able to make it on my own and still have enough. Not to mention that my freezer isn't big enough!

Have a great, productive day everyone! Now I just have to find a way to wake up so I can get crackin' too!

Potatoes??? And Death

I'm sitting here at work, on my lunch break, and I asked my associate what I should write about today. She looked at me, smiled, and said "potatoes". Okay...I can do that.

Potatoes. I love them. I could even be considered addicted to them. They are the bane of my existence, especially since I'm trying to lose weight. And they're really convenient for breakfast, baked in the microwave with a couple eggs, over easy, on top. Ah, well, I must find other things for breakfast...

But Death - I had a wonderful/terrible breakthrough for the climax of Immortal Blood. In order for the heroine/love interest to fulfull the heroic destiny of such characters, she's got to die. It's the only way she can get to the Hall of Two Truths to speak to the gods. Bummer, that. But, as the hero, she's got to step up to the plate.

Doing a lot of prep work still, and it's coming along well. I got the final scene of "Broken" the other day. It came out excellent, with room for a sequel if the possibility is acted upon.

This will be a short post, as I've got to get back to my students. Lunch is over, so I'll see everyone later!

I've Made a Decision

Greetings, everyone. Here's a rundown on how I've been getting on...

1. Exercise. Not the best. I've just done some gentle walking because of my back. It's been feeling much better over the past couple of days, though, so I reactivated my gym membership yesterday and I'm hoping to go back and start swimming in the next couple of days.

2. Writing. To my disgust, it also hasn't been that great. That's because I had to make a choice to take on a couple of private tutoring assignments that turned into more than just a few hours of work. It was lucrative (over $300) but took a lot of time that I would otherwise spend on writing. That finished yesterday, so I'm back on track. I think.

3. Planning. My planning is coming along slightly, but just in my head. I decided that my heroine has to die at the climax of my book. She has to be the one to take the ultimate risk, and in order to be successful, she has to die. The plot won't be satisfied otherwise. That was a really hard decision to make, but I feel better about the direction of the story, so I guess it's worth it.

4. I've made a decision about NaNo. I find I work better if I can flip between two projects, so I'm going to be working on a contemporary suspense (nope, no paranormal elements here!) called "Broken." I'm having a great time with it so far. Lots of death, pain, and viciousness - but none undeserved. Except that foisted onto the victims. It's okay, I promise. They'll get their revenge. Le Comte du Monte Cristo would be proud.

How's everyone else doing?

Finding the Writing Magic

Something struck me this morning. Sipping on coffee and thinking about gearing up to write, I suddenly asked myself why it was so easy to write backstory and have everything fall into place. I mean, the first draft can be an agonizing process, slow, torturous, feeling like you're walking through quicksand that's halfway up your thighs. And that's on a halfway decent day. Why doesn't it work that way with backstory?

Why is freeing yourself from self-imposed shackles so hard? And how do you cut them off?

Nora Roberts said once (in some interview I read somewhere) that you just have to vomit out the first draft, and then fix it up later. When I think about that, I find it much easier to work. When I lose sight of that direction, everything becomes murky and confused. Nora's advice gets me through Nano every year. But I sure have problems remembering it from day to day.

What do you use to motivate yourself on days when the vision eludes you?

BTW, I still plan on blogging during our down time between sessions, so feel free to pop on by.

Happy creating!

Lara

Productive? I'm Not Sure...

It's been an interesting couple of days. Yesterday I did some tightening up and plotting, but I didn't produce any actual pages.

Today, though...it's been glorious. In Calculus, for example, I got 5 new scenes. That's a direct result of realizing (before class) that I need to change the motivation and personality of the female lead somewhat to make her more sympathetic and less selfish - even if her selfishness and slight martyrdom complex stem from good motives but inaccurate information.

She'll start off with more of a spine, which will solve something that's been niggling at me for a good long while. Woo hoo!

I'll let my fingers skitter across the keyboard once I get off work. I've got a lot of rewriting to do.  Hopefully, it will get me out of the problems in the middle, and it won't seem out of character for her to kill her abductor with the Traveling Shovel of Death!

Everyone familiar with NanoWriMo knows that particular implement...(insert evil laugh here...)

Have fun, and a lovely, safe 4th of July!

Lara

Masochistic Tendencies...

Is anyone out there crazy enough to get sucked in to the June clambake that is Camp NanoWrimo?

One of my "friends" pointed it out to me the other day. Now, she knows that I have enormous difficulty turning down anything that has to do with writing. It doesn't matter that I'm involved with our 80 days event. Nope. Not a bit. She's luring me into the woods with the promise of more words. I can feel her emanating her peculiar brand of treacherous glee from here.

But is it really treacherous? Is it a quicksand-ridden meadow that hides the death of plot, or something that will help me achieve my final goal - a published novel? There's only one way to find out. Be as brave as Sam Gamgee and put one foot out there, beyond anything I've ever attemped before.

So, sure, what the heck...I'll give it a shot. Two challenges at once. More words, more craziness; not a problem. I think.

The only thing I can be sure of at this point is that I'm most definitely insane. And I don't think there's anyone here who would disagree with me.

But, just in case you want to hang out in a cabin in the woods with me for the month of June, look me up. I promise - we'll have fun. And I promise - no mosquitos..

(Now if I could only make sure to get my Calculus done...)

Lara

Oh Boy, More Fun!

Today I found out about a new writing challenge - Around the Word in 80 Days. (I think I got that right.) You can set your own goals, and you report in twice a week on your progress. Sounds like fun.

I've been going through Nano withdrawal, since I didn't get to participate this year. This could be a blast! It's offered four times per year, so I never have to go without my fix. With fun like this, I might be able to keep my Editing Witch locked in her broomcloset forever...

It's Coming...

I can see it in the distance, just cresting over the horizon. It's NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month.

I've been involved in this madness now for the past four years (or so). I haven't won every year, but I've managed a respectable 50%.

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo (Nano for short) is an annual event where anyone can commit to creating 50,000 words of fiction during the month of November. Local people get together at coffeeshops and write together while ingesting inordinate amounts of legal addictive stimulants. Nice. And, like any good contest, there are prizes. The Office of Letters and Light, the creators of this worldwide zaniness, provide some goodies. Local groups provide others.

One year our group was given small cans of Play-Doh because it was easier to smash and throw when you were pissed and/or frustrated. It worked really well. The damage was kept to a minimum.

It might work well this year, too. I'm going in cold for the first time. I'm a very structured person, a real Type-A, and I've never gone in without a really structured outline. The only thing I know is that I have a new werewolf family, Italian/Etruscan in nature, stemming from Romulus and Remus of ancient legend.

We'll see where that goes. Time to go do some research.