Friday, October 31, 2008
Only 1 Day Left!
Wait make that Only 3 hours left! NaNoWriMo officially starts in just under 3 hours when the clock hits midnight! I'm so excited. I havn't decided weather I am going to wait up until midnight hits and do some writing before I go to sleep, but I managed to procrastinate 4 hours away by giving out Halloween candy (I dressed up as a princess in a hot pink poofy dress with a crinoline underneath, a purple wig and a pink crown. There was one little boy who lives on my street who came to see me 5 times, he just thought I was the cat's meow. LoL. He is only like 3 or 4 years old, it was cute.) So that took up some time where I wasn't excitedly and impatiently hovering over my keyboard. Good time distraction Halloween is, plus some of the kids are just so damn cute! Also, because I am crazy, and they didn't post the sign-up sheet last night while I was asleep (effectivly denying me a spot), I went against my own good advice and signed up to be part of the Word War Team. Now I am absolutly determind to crank out 50k words or more. Can't let Toronto down, we are gonna crush Vancouver! (at least we hope) ^_^ I'm totally craving Halloween chocolate right now, I'd make myself some tea, but then I would be up until dawn writing (not that thats such a terrible thing) and then I'll be too tired to go to the Inner Critic Clay Social event tomorrow. And as it happens, I'm looking forward to it because I want to meet more people who are participating. I'm looking to make more friends! hehehe! Well, there are now only 2.5 hours left until midnight... Do I go to bed or stay up to type? Gah! I can't decide, I'm too excited to sleep though, I guess I wil be staying up.... Wish me luck!!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Kick Off Party 2008!!!
So tonight was the Kick Off Party for NaNoWriMo 2008 at The Butler's Pantry (down town T.O.) and it was a total blast! First there were introductions, the ML's introduced themselves and the Toronto NaNo schedual was announced. This year's Word War Competitor was announced also. Last year we went up against Chicago & New York and we won! This year we are competing locally, and our competitor is (Duh-Duh-Duh!!) Vancouver!! We are determind to win again this year. I was thinking abouot staying up late and signing up for the Word War Team on the forum, but I think that as this is my first year NaNoing, I will just be part of the cheering section to give myself a year to just get to 50,000 words (since I don't think I have ever written that much in one story ever).
Along with socializing, there were games that we played durring the party, and some prizes to boot. For the trivia portion, I answered a question correctly and I won a cute bunny notebook that says "Cute but psycho. Things even out." I think its the perfect NaNo Notebook, saying and all. Another game we played was a story writing game. a peice of paper was passed around and each peson was to write one or two sentences then fold the paper over so the person writing after you can't see what you've wrote. After everybody has written something on the paper, it was read out loud to the group. We had four papers going, and the stories turned out so-so-so funny. It was a great activity. The last one we did was we were each given an envelope and a cue card and we were to write a character name and discription on it and place it back in the envelope and seal it. The envelopes were then shuffled and redistributed back to each person. The idea was that whichever character you got on the card you received, you have to (as a challenge of course, you don't have to) somehow incorperate him/her/it into your own NaNo novel. I thought that was a great idea and the character I received back fits into my story very neatly. Her name is Catalina and has blonde hair and green eyes. She works as a tavern wench. She is practical, no nonsense, sharp tongued and short tempered. She should fit perfectly into one of my tavern scenes while my character is in the 17th century. I got a good match.
The other thing that I am uber excited about is the NaNoWriMusic 2008 CD. I bought it, I just had too, and came home and right away popped it into my CD player. I've listened to the whole CD twice so far this night, and my favourite song on the entire CD is called Writer's Block by Deborah Linden & Errol Elumir. The music is good, and the lyrics are so witty and just perfect. I would recomend to any other Wrimo to buy the CD. Its only $10.00 and the proceeds go to the Toronto chapter of NaNoWriMo, and everything extra goes to NaNo head-office as a general donation to NaNo. All the other songs on the CD are great as well and I think it will be the perfect musical tool to listen to when I'm in a writing funk or just need something fun.
The other thing I wanted to mention was the really cool, home-made, foam dragon hat that BunnyHero was wearing. I took a few pictures and if I can figure out how, I will post them so everyone can see. It was the most unique thing that I have ever seen made out of that coloured craft-foam. It was too cool for words. I want one too :P
Later *waves*
Along with socializing, there were games that we played durring the party, and some prizes to boot. For the trivia portion, I answered a question correctly and I won a cute bunny notebook that says "Cute but psycho. Things even out." I think its the perfect NaNo Notebook, saying and all. Another game we played was a story writing game. a peice of paper was passed around and each peson was to write one or two sentences then fold the paper over so the person writing after you can't see what you've wrote. After everybody has written something on the paper, it was read out loud to the group. We had four papers going, and the stories turned out so-so-so funny. It was a great activity. The last one we did was we were each given an envelope and a cue card and we were to write a character name and discription on it and place it back in the envelope and seal it. The envelopes were then shuffled and redistributed back to each person. The idea was that whichever character you got on the card you received, you have to (as a challenge of course, you don't have to) somehow incorperate him/her/it into your own NaNo novel. I thought that was a great idea and the character I received back fits into my story very neatly. Her name is Catalina and has blonde hair and green eyes. She works as a tavern wench. She is practical, no nonsense, sharp tongued and short tempered. She should fit perfectly into one of my tavern scenes while my character is in the 17th century. I got a good match.
The other thing that I am uber excited about is the NaNoWriMusic 2008 CD. I bought it, I just had too, and came home and right away popped it into my CD player. I've listened to the whole CD twice so far this night, and my favourite song on the entire CD is called Writer's Block by Deborah Linden & Errol Elumir. The music is good, and the lyrics are so witty and just perfect. I would recomend to any other Wrimo to buy the CD. Its only $10.00 and the proceeds go to the Toronto chapter of NaNoWriMo, and everything extra goes to NaNo head-office as a general donation to NaNo. All the other songs on the CD are great as well and I think it will be the perfect musical tool to listen to when I'm in a writing funk or just need something fun.
The other thing I wanted to mention was the really cool, home-made, foam dragon hat that BunnyHero was wearing. I took a few pictures and if I can figure out how, I will post them so everyone can see. It was the most unique thing that I have ever seen made out of that coloured craft-foam. It was too cool for words. I want one too :P
Later *waves*
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Blog #2 - the second day in a new blogger's life
I've decided that I need to come up with some more interesting titles for my Blog entries. I'd label it something exciting, but nothing of note really happened today.
Today was long and tiring. I had a "class" (for lack of better name to call it) in the afternoon, then went streight from there (Spadina & College) to the mall across from the Lawrence West subway station (can't remember it's name) for a Survivor of Suicide (aka. SoS) meeting. (My brother committed Suicide just before Christmas last year and dealing with the grief is hard. Really hard. I hope you never have to go through such a tradgedy in your life.) He hung himself in the basement of my father's house, and although he had tried to overdose earlier in the year, it still came as quite a shock. He had been hospitalized because of his first attempt and had just been released from the hospital a day before the incident. I'm not sure how Christmas will go this year, considering how last years Christmas went. It's comming up on a full year since his death, and with the Christmas season quickly approaching, everyone's strings are strung real tight, and emotions are running at an all time high. The group topic today was on coping stratedgies, and to be honest, I'm not sure how I'm coping. I mean, I'm getting through life one day at a time, but there are so many things that remind me of my brother and it is hard. I was looking at Christmas cards in the mall while I was waiting for the meeting to start, and the first section I saw were the Christmas cards for brothers. It really hit a nerve. I'll never be able to buy him anymore really cheesy-yet-funny Christmas cards. I always had such fun picking out the one with the absolute worst brother/sister humor in it, knowing he would get the joke. *sigh* Oh well, life moves on...
On the NaNo front, because I was so busy today, I didn't have a chance to work on my character profiles, and there are only 2 days left until November... I'm begining to get nervous. I'm really hoping that I will get some spare time tomorrow to work on them, otherwise I'll be flying by the seat of my pants, and who knows where I will end up from there. LoL! The Kick Off Party is tomorrow at a restaurant somewhere in Down-town T.O. I'm going to have to look up the address again and figure out how to get down there by the TTC. As odd as it may sound, I'm dragging my mother along with me. I'm doing this because a) I don't want to be down-town and taking the subway at 11pm by myself, and b) I know my mother is really into books, so weather she is going to participate in NaNo or not, she is going to be my personal cheering section and therefore my "date". Of course, she doesn't know this yet... The cheering section part that is, and then c) I was originally going to take my boyfriend, but he is going back to school for the 2nd of 3 sections to become an Electrician, so he couldn't make it (we live really far apart, like a 2 hour drive apart. and yes, it sucks). So the conclusion is: I'm taking my mother. I know there will be lots of other parents with their kids there, in a large range of ages, so I shouldn't feel too out of place. At least I hope not. I am really looking foreward to it though. They will be announcing who we (Toronto) are going to be up against for the Word War. I'm not sure if I want to jump in over my head and sign up for the Word War team this year, as it's my first year and there are only 50 spots on each team, and I'm afraid that I won't live up to my potential because it is my first year participating. They will also be releasing and selling the Toronto NaNo CD which is original music written by Toronto artists about and for NaNoWriMo. The CD should cost around $10.00 which I will be able to afford on my poor starving writer's income of $0. LoL. I'll be borrowing money from my mom most likely... How sad is that? Yikes. I'll be back looking for work soon I hope, once my schedule of doctors/dentists/classes/meetings and other such events stop taking over my life... in a few weeks perhaps? Maybe as long as a month, but I need to get work before December, or else nobody will be receiving gifts this year unless they want something made from fabric and modeling clay or something of the like. Maybe I'll just create personalized glass ornaments for everyone. Get some beads, paint, and some old tree ornaments, and I'll be set. Unless I can come up with something more creative...hmmm.....
Hopefully, I'll get to post tomorrow after I get home from the party, but I might be so tired that it'll have to wait a day. We'll see.
ttyl ^_^
Today was long and tiring. I had a "class" (for lack of better name to call it) in the afternoon, then went streight from there (Spadina & College) to the mall across from the Lawrence West subway station (can't remember it's name) for a Survivor of Suicide (aka. SoS) meeting. (My brother committed Suicide just before Christmas last year and dealing with the grief is hard. Really hard. I hope you never have to go through such a tradgedy in your life.) He hung himself in the basement of my father's house, and although he had tried to overdose earlier in the year, it still came as quite a shock. He had been hospitalized because of his first attempt and had just been released from the hospital a day before the incident. I'm not sure how Christmas will go this year, considering how last years Christmas went. It's comming up on a full year since his death, and with the Christmas season quickly approaching, everyone's strings are strung real tight, and emotions are running at an all time high. The group topic today was on coping stratedgies, and to be honest, I'm not sure how I'm coping. I mean, I'm getting through life one day at a time, but there are so many things that remind me of my brother and it is hard. I was looking at Christmas cards in the mall while I was waiting for the meeting to start, and the first section I saw were the Christmas cards for brothers. It really hit a nerve. I'll never be able to buy him anymore really cheesy-yet-funny Christmas cards. I always had such fun picking out the one with the absolute worst brother/sister humor in it, knowing he would get the joke. *sigh* Oh well, life moves on...
On the NaNo front, because I was so busy today, I didn't have a chance to work on my character profiles, and there are only 2 days left until November... I'm begining to get nervous. I'm really hoping that I will get some spare time tomorrow to work on them, otherwise I'll be flying by the seat of my pants, and who knows where I will end up from there. LoL! The Kick Off Party is tomorrow at a restaurant somewhere in Down-town T.O. I'm going to have to look up the address again and figure out how to get down there by the TTC. As odd as it may sound, I'm dragging my mother along with me. I'm doing this because a) I don't want to be down-town and taking the subway at 11pm by myself, and b) I know my mother is really into books, so weather she is going to participate in NaNo or not, she is going to be my personal cheering section and therefore my "date". Of course, she doesn't know this yet... The cheering section part that is, and then c) I was originally going to take my boyfriend, but he is going back to school for the 2nd of 3 sections to become an Electrician, so he couldn't make it (we live really far apart, like a 2 hour drive apart. and yes, it sucks). So the conclusion is: I'm taking my mother. I know there will be lots of other parents with their kids there, in a large range of ages, so I shouldn't feel too out of place. At least I hope not. I am really looking foreward to it though. They will be announcing who we (Toronto) are going to be up against for the Word War. I'm not sure if I want to jump in over my head and sign up for the Word War team this year, as it's my first year and there are only 50 spots on each team, and I'm afraid that I won't live up to my potential because it is my first year participating. They will also be releasing and selling the Toronto NaNo CD which is original music written by Toronto artists about and for NaNoWriMo. The CD should cost around $10.00 which I will be able to afford on my poor starving writer's income of $0. LoL. I'll be borrowing money from my mom most likely... How sad is that? Yikes. I'll be back looking for work soon I hope, once my schedule of doctors/dentists/classes/meetings and other such events stop taking over my life... in a few weeks perhaps? Maybe as long as a month, but I need to get work before December, or else nobody will be receiving gifts this year unless they want something made from fabric and modeling clay or something of the like. Maybe I'll just create personalized glass ornaments for everyone. Get some beads, paint, and some old tree ornaments, and I'll be set. Unless I can come up with something more creative...hmmm.....
Hopefully, I'll get to post tomorrow after I get home from the party, but I might be so tired that it'll have to wait a day. We'll see.
ttyl ^_^
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Pilot
Ever wonder why the first show in a television series is called the Pilot episode? I do, but I havn't gotten around to finding out why, not yet anyways. Funny that, it would be as simple as typing it into Google...anyways...So as you can probally tell, this is my first post and not only that, it's my first Blog post EVER. I've never had a Blog before, so all this is kinda new to me. I guess there has to be a first for everything, and this is that for this (still following me?). I've never had the urge to Blog before now, but thats because I havn't really had a reason to - not that I have much of a reason to start now, other than I saw a post about Blogging on a website I visit frequently, and decided I would give it a shot. I mean, Why Not?? It's certainly not going to harm anything... at least I sure hope not!
So my big and exciting topic today is NaNoWriMo Yay!! It stands for National Novel Writing Month and it takes place in November (Thats only 3 days from now!!). The challenge is to write a novel, which is defined as 50,000 words in 30 days. It sounds crazy, but it is suppose to be uber-crazy-fun! That works out to being 1667 words per day. This is my first year participating, and I am super psyched. Its so popular that there is a handbook published about it called NO PLOT, NO PROBLEM! which I happend to pick up at Chapter's in the month of June because I wanted to brush up on some of my writing skills and I had some time off work to do a bit of light reading. Little did I know that after reading it, I would get sucked into the insane, addicting, wild world of NaNoWriMo. But I am Really glad I did! I've been plotting and doing character outlines since July, and just having a blast. Tnere are some rules though, but they make sence to follow if you want to get the most out of your NaNo experiance. Like you can't use a story you have already been working on before November - your novel has to be brand-new, and you can't write the same word over and over 50,000 times. Oh! And it has to be Fiction. Any kind of fiction is fine - fantasy, sci-fi, horror, suspence, mystery, erotica, romence, western, etc, etc. Of course there are many people who participate and write something non-fiction, but it is aimed at people who are writing fiction. The aim isn't to write something thats 100% perfect, it's meant to help get your creative juices flowing and just get your story idea onto paper. Treat it like a first really rough-draft of a novel. There are even meet-ups with other people participating in your area, to do writing or other fun socializing events like the Kick Off Party, or the TGIO (Thank God It's Over) party. Along with other fun activities and challenges. But if you arn't a social person, you can totally just do it at home, by yourself, or anywhere you feel comfortable writing. You can even try and convince a family member or friend to join in the writing insanity that is November! Check out the site at www.nanowrimo.org It has all the Information and sign up stuff and what-not, It'll even explain it better than I am. LoL!
I'll leave it at that for tonight, and I'll fill you in on all my Crazy NaNo Adventures as they happen before and throughout the month.
Have fun!
So my big and exciting topic today is NaNoWriMo Yay!! It stands for National Novel Writing Month and it takes place in November (Thats only 3 days from now!!). The challenge is to write a novel, which is defined as 50,000 words in 30 days. It sounds crazy, but it is suppose to be uber-crazy-fun! That works out to being 1667 words per day. This is my first year participating, and I am super psyched. Its so popular that there is a handbook published about it called NO PLOT, NO PROBLEM! which I happend to pick up at Chapter's in the month of June because I wanted to brush up on some of my writing skills and I had some time off work to do a bit of light reading. Little did I know that after reading it, I would get sucked into the insane, addicting, wild world of NaNoWriMo. But I am Really glad I did! I've been plotting and doing character outlines since July, and just having a blast. Tnere are some rules though, but they make sence to follow if you want to get the most out of your NaNo experiance. Like you can't use a story you have already been working on before November - your novel has to be brand-new, and you can't write the same word over and over 50,000 times. Oh! And it has to be Fiction. Any kind of fiction is fine - fantasy, sci-fi, horror, suspence, mystery, erotica, romence, western, etc, etc. Of course there are many people who participate and write something non-fiction, but it is aimed at people who are writing fiction. The aim isn't to write something thats 100% perfect, it's meant to help get your creative juices flowing and just get your story idea onto paper. Treat it like a first really rough-draft of a novel. There are even meet-ups with other people participating in your area, to do writing or other fun socializing events like the Kick Off Party, or the TGIO (Thank God It's Over) party. Along with other fun activities and challenges. But if you arn't a social person, you can totally just do it at home, by yourself, or anywhere you feel comfortable writing. You can even try and convince a family member or friend to join in the writing insanity that is November! Check out the site at www.nanowrimo.org It has all the Information and sign up stuff and what-not, It'll even explain it better than I am. LoL!
I'll leave it at that for tonight, and I'll fill you in on all my Crazy NaNo Adventures as they happen before and throughout the month.
Have fun!
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