nanowrimo

Halloween has come and gone. I intended to write a blog on Sahmein and the roots of Halloween, but my day seemed to fly by. I ended up working a nine hour shift at work in these really excellent high-heeled knee-high Victorian boots that rendered it nearly impossible for me to walk by the time the store closed and I got to go home. No festivities, I didn't even watch a Halloween movie in full (shame on me. I started Beetlejuice and fell asleep, and Hocus Pocus got lost in translation I'm afraid). But I had a better Halloween than last year, when my only obligation was my internship and I spent the evening home alone, having no trick-or-treaters even.

So now it's November. And yes, by the way, I am looking at Halloween costumes on eBay. Shush. It's best to start now.

November has ushered herself in with a false start, giving us hopeful New Englanders a beautiful dayof sunshine and almost seventy degrees outside. The next day, though, I had to scrape frost off my winshield, so she's not fooling me. Still, my favourite part of November has always been NaNoWriMo. For those unfamiliar, NaNoWriMo stands for "National Novel Writing Month". I have never participated in it, and I never intend to. Maybe someday, when I'm bored and lonely and have no homework and consistant work hours and I'm not in school at all. But never yet and not this year. What's exciting about NaNoWriMo for me is the mood of it. Rarely do I ever see so many people enthused about writing. I love living in it and knowing people who participate in it, even if I do not.

This NaNoWriMo, I'm going to finish my novel.

It'll be more than 50,000 words. I know that already. But I didn't start it this month, did I? It's the perfect time to finish a first draft. It'll be rough, surely, as I already know some significant edits that will be taking place, but the point is, it will be done. And there's no more appropriate month for it.

In writing news...

I haven't worked on my actual chapters in a little while, but again, I'm really not worried. I know exactly where I'm going and my characters are going to take me there whenever I'm ready for them. I've been working on character sketches. In fact, I'm halfway through Daniel's now, and his is my last one to type up (for now. I may or may not give Liselle one, and then I have Winnie and Riley and Drei on the back burner). That'll be done before 2pm, I am assured. And then? Then there's nothing left to do but write. Write the end and be done.

Knowing it's only just beyond my grasp is exhilerating.

. . .

AS A NOTE:

1. I just did a Google search with one of my character's names and found this absurdly old posting of early non-relevant chapters of Fate, back when it was called Quest. I think it was written in about... sixth grade, these posts.

2. I think I've found Daniel's voice again, which makes me very, very happy because he was for a time my strongest character and when I reintroduced him, I felt like I had lost him. So this is good.

{ listening to: a printer. it's rather noisy || mood: exhilerated and motivated }