youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoDCiTsS7dU

If/when I become published I want to design my own covers. I won’t be able to paint or draw them since I’m an awful painter, but I can photoshop and I have definite ideas about what visual elements I want in my book covers.

I have a long way to go and much to learn though. This time lapse video from Lauren Panepinto, the creative director of orbit books shows the amount of skill needed, condensing 6 hours of work into 2 minutes. There’s even a brief interview about her approach. My awe of designers just went into orbit (pun intended).

Comments at bb rightly pointed out how effective this was as a marketing tool for the book. I must admit I am not bought into video trailers for books but based on this particular video, I can see myself checking out the book (due out Sept 2010 and is part of a series). Of course it helps that it’s steampunk and has vampires in it.

This was written for the author’s challenge for the radlist yahoo group. It used to be that there were more published authors on the challenge but recently more first-time / unpublished writers have sent in their contributions. I know I need to transition to “real” writing, with my own characters and stuff. So when I saw the signup invitation I started thinking about what I could write. This time the theme is “surprise party” and we could interpret freely.

I’m glad I have an archive of shorts and 5 nanos. I focused on nano 2005, which I hadn’t looked at since more than half of it was lost in the NZ flashdrive death incident. If I were to rework it to an original, most of it had to be rewritten anyway. The most exciting bit was finding that I still had the mindmap, so all isn’t lost.

Then it was a matter of writing building the back story (including changing the gender of one of the MCs) and writing the challenge. The result, party planner, is a nice prequel. The original title of the main story was tight, and I’m tentatively changing it to Melody’s on Church. The setting is now at Franklin TN, where Nissan has its headquarters — I met a Japanese HR manager at a networking event and he was telling me a little about life there. The title is the name of the restaurant, and I’ve further defined its cuisine as Japanese-fusion.

The short is the story of how the MCs met. I’m pretty pleased with it, yes it’s a bit fluffy, but hopefully not clichéd. It’s kinda cute and sweet.

I finished posting my latest story on pens. This will probably be my last. Towards the end I double posted 2 chapters each time, just so I can get it over with and finish. I lost the attachment to that place a long time ago — most of my peers have moved on, there are only a handful of good stories, and they are hard to find amongst the less good ones. I don’t want to be dismissive, since I applaud everyone’s efforts in writing their story, but there has been a noticeable decline in quality over the last few years.

The story I posted was the one I wrote for nano08, with a bit of editing and filling in the parts I left blank. I guess at the end it turned out to be a decent story. The comments, few as they were, talked about how raw and dark it was. The timeframe switches back and forth, between the present, a few years ago and a few weeks ago. I also switched pov between chapters — some were written in first person, some in third. I’m not sure if it was too confusing or whether it made sense. I don’t think any of my writing group even knew I was posting, let alone give me comments.

I was tidying up the html on some of the stories on hidden doors, and surprisingly enjoyed reading some of my early work. Well, those I could stand re-reading anyway. I’m going to have to step up and get back to those days if I have any chance of reaching the published stage.

Am I being a jerk if I say “that was easy”? Because, well, it was. I made good progress every day, not always hitting the 5k target, which I later revised down anyway. I got to 50k by the 12th, and this year I even typed it all with capitalisation and punctuation. None of those time saving tricks for me. Plus I didn’t use any dares.

Officially the wordcount is 50,038, which is lower than the Word and writely counts but I don’t really care. There are parts still missing, and will likely remain forever missing.

How do I do it? I think it’s definitely a case of practice. And being relaxed. I have no deadlines except the 30th; my own soft target is always the 15th. I’ve never found writing difficult, provided I have a story. And I outline. For nano I always outline by chapter. For a project manager like me, having a set goal and an outline is something so familiar that I can slip into the process as soon as the first day of november comes round.

I have to think of a decent storyline for next year’s, because this year’s story is the worst I’ve written in my nano career. Heck, my entire writing career. But hey, quality isn’t the point of nano. A lot of people forget that.

Which brings me to a little rant. I’m a nano purist, I make no apologies for it. I’ve been at it long enough to earn it. I see people who are writing a continuation of an existing novel, or rewriting an already written novel, or worrying about editing, and I cringe. That’s not the point. The point is to write a 50k novel from scratch, without editing. We have edmo in march for editing. And I would have thought ‘from scratch’ is self-explanatory. Ah well, that’s other people. It’s a self-challenge and in theory someone can write a single word 50,000 times and still win. Everyone’s mileage varies.

I reached 50k yesterday and I’m stopping. Yes, there are still missing chunks but I’m not invested enough in this story to continue. Certain passages will likely end up in other stories.

For those new friends witnessing me do nano for the first time (the witnessing, not the my doing it), it may seem like I’m some sort of writing machine. But really, I’m not. This is my normal nano speed. Bear in mind that this is nanowrimo, when it comes to writing other stuff I ‘perform’ differently. The point of nano is to write a 50,000 word novel from scratch, and write with abandon, ie no editing, no overthinking. And I achieved this. Other notes on this year’s nano:

• finishing on day 12 is snap bang within my average. I’ve finished between 10 and 16 days since 2004
• average words per day 4,171
• 25 chapters
• average chapter length 1,999
• longest chapter 3015 | shortest 1152
• I didn’t do any dares because they moved the thread to the plot doctoring forum and I kept looking for it in the reaching 50000 forum
• this year’s Mr Ian Woon is a partner in the law firm of Appleby, Esterhaus, Kowalski, Woon and Gregory
• I donated to OLL and will continue to do so every year
• I didn’t buy the t-shirt

I will take advantage of the createspace offer of a free proof copy. But not this novel, I’m probably going to ssend nano2006 instead. It’s time I worked on that one, it has a better story. Chef and I have been casually emailing about writing and submitting for publication. My plan is to have at least 3 novels in good shape before submitting my first one. I like to have reserves always ready. In comp terms we call it keeping some back in the attic.

2,883 words | total 50,057 words

I finished. The big push yesterday really helped, as did the 1000 words I wrote at work today. I only had 2000 words to write at home. There was absolutely no excuse.

There are no more chapters to write, the end had The End. Not all chapters are complete, where I couldn’t write the rest of the scene I put in [more], so one of these days when I want to finish this novel completely I’ll go and write those missing parts.

5,753 words | total 47,174 words

I left work early so I had an extra hour. I should have used it to do weight training but I was lazy and opted to write. That’s the eternal dilemma isn’t it, too little free time, too many other things to take care of.

The last few chapters have been long, the story is hitting that ‘final push’ place. I’d like to get to 50k tomorrow, cos I like even numbers and 12 days sound better than 13 days. Fingers crossed.

3,153 words | total 41,421 words

Yeah, the stupid wrist pain has returned. At least it waited till day 10. (Actually day 9 cos it was hurting yesterday.) The end is almost here anyway, so I can live with the pain. I’ll be in wrist braces tomorrow, both of them, looking like those steampunk gloves that my vampire wars character has. Anyway I’ve reached the 40k milestone, which is psychologically huge.

The characters continue to defy my attempt to give them angst, they’re simply too happy to have re-discovered each other. Who can blame them? I’m writing both chapter 21 and 22 at the same time. Chapter 21 is about a nice evening with “steaks and vegetables on the grill followed by whipped cream and rich chocolate mousse spread thickly over her body for me to lick off all night.” Chapter 22 is about helping the SEC inspectors in a fraud investigation. I’m literally writing 1 or 2 paragraphs of one chapter, then turning to the other chapter and writing a passage. Strange how my brain can switch between such different topics. LOL

3,066 words | total 38,268 words

I had a meeting that was cancelled at lunchtime, so I managed to write 600 words at work. I’ve decided to be less demanding of myself and reduce the daily target from 5000 to 3000 words. I suppose I can do that cos I’m ahead, and even with the smaller target I’m aiming to get to 50k by the weekend.

My characters have gone away for a much needed weekend trip to the coast. They’re enjoying each other’s company, going out for great seafood and visiting local attractions. My MC went for a long run along the beach. I wish I were them.

4,181 words | total 35,202 words

I stayed later than usual at Car’s house today. We went to the supermarket, then to the cemetery. Early dinner of a nice big steak her mom cooked for us. I headed out at around 5pm, and got home just after 6pm. By the time I showered, unpacked all my purchases over the weekend and made lunch for tomorrow it was 6.45pm. And TAR started at 7pm. I was too distracted to even watch Iron Chef, the secret ingredient is almond which I don’t like. I’ll catch it on repeat during the week.

To add insult to injury the flapper valve on my toilet broke. Now I have to figure out where the nearest plumbing supply store is. grrrr.

Back to the novel. I did a pretty good job of writing filler material today, padding what was originally one chapter into two. I’m averaging 1,956 words per chapter, meaning I will need a total of 25.6 chapters at this rate. I’ve only outlined 23 so from somewhere I need to find 3 more chapters, or make each chapter longer to catch up.

3,168 words | total 31,021 words

Been up since 7am, we went to the outlet mall at Michigan City. I bought 2 pairs of Timberland shoes, a pair of black Crocs with lining, salt & pepper shakers, a couple of storage jars, a long sleeved Nike running shirt and running gloves. I’m pleased at my haul.

Even though we got home at 4pm and was finished with dinner by 5.30pm, writing was tough. I was bored and had zero motivation. The story crawled along, and I was so distracted that I was hitting word count every hundred words or so.

I’m at chapter 16. I notice that I’ve been doing 2 chapters a day. I’m also not following the outline, I strayed away a bit yesterday and today’s 2 chapters were quite a significant departure. It’s okay though, the main plot is still there. It will just take a different route.

So, some stats after 7 days:

• Total word count: 31,021
• Average words per day: 4,432
• Total hours writing: 25hrs
• Completion: 62%
• Projected completion: 13-Nov-09

5,147 words | total 25,229 words

I managed to write about 1000 words at work today, which made the task easier when I got home. I was also home early enough to fit in a run, my first this week. I’m not getting my workouts in…fail.

The novel turned nice today. I had wanted to write more ‘difficult relationship’ stuff, but the characters decided they were having none of that and preferred to spend the weekend in each other’s company, mostly in bed. Hahaha. I love it when characters decide to throw the outline completely out of the window and go all tangential on me.

There’s a group of us doing nano this year. I’m privileged to be writing buddies with actual published authors. And I’m one of the ones who are ahead of the 1667-a-day official target. Except my target is 5000 a day. This is nothing new, I’ve always had a big daily target, and I always finish early. I think I’ll freak out if I ever fall behind.

4,078 words | total 20,082 words

If it’s even possible, I was busier today than yesterday. Booked solid from 9am to 4.30pm, only able to sneak lunch when the 11.30am finished early. So exhausting.

On chapter 11 already. The 2 chapters I wrote today were better. Better flow, better direction. It’s getting towards the middle section of the novel and things are starting to happen. I just wish I can get more rest. At this point, I’m relying a lot on my nano experience to get through the next few days. Just type the words. Keep an eye on the wordcount. Discipline.

3,355 words | total 16,004 words

It was a long, intense day full of meetings and discussions. I was so tired when I got home. Luckily I had leftover risotto, so I didn’t have to cook.

Writing began at 7.30pm. I decided that I hate my novel. There is no story and the premise is thinner than ice. I’m not writing any descriptions and it feels like I’m just writing a very long blog post. This is gonna be a tough, hard slog.

5,023 words | total 12,649 words

Barely managed 180 words at work today, there was just no time. Got home and decided to make mushroom risotto, which turned out to be tasty but time consuming.

Started writing at 7.45pm, got to 9000 words at 9pm — the reward was ice cream and baseball break for 15mins. I just finished, almost at midnight. I’m at chapter 7, but I’m not liking this novel at all. It’s hard to write and it’s not making sense. But I’ll hack away at it.

7,626 words

I started around 10.30am, after the race and shower. TV off, heating on, outline ready. Wrote steadily albeit slowly till lunchtime, when I reached 2200 words. Got majorly distracted by mafia and vampire wars, and still managed to get to 6000 words at 7pm. I had an ambitious target of 10000 but once TAR started I knew I won’t make it. There was TAR, Next Iron Chef and Iron Chef — 3 hours of TV that cut into writing time. I’d done pretty good today, so I’m happy.

I outlined 22 chapters. I was able to split chapter 1 into 2, and that gives me another happy.

Only 4 more days till 2009 nano and all I’ve done:

• finalised the mindmap
• outlined 9 chapters
• updated the spreadsheet
• made a donation to the program

I haven’t even started looking at the dares. This is NOT GOOD.

Plus, I just signed up for one month’s free trial of netflix that Car gifted me. This is EXTREMELY not good.

I don’t feel ready.

tempo running in my disney shirt
cushioned by the autumn dunes
killers inside my head (thanks brandon)

fellow runners wrapped up warm
locals sipping coffee before their day
we’ve all claimed our own little space

young lovers strolling on the beach
they have the sand all to themselves
the gulls and i shared a knowing smile

i filed the image away safely
it was hard to run on the soft sand
so i continued on the path

via bb, wondermark’s genre fiction generator. For any nano participant who wants some help in planning. Ahem, not that I would go this route, natch.

It took me a while to write the next 20 6-word novels, but here they are. A varied bunch, I think. My favourites: #21 for its cheekiness and #33 cos I have a specific idea for that storyline.

I read Michael Ridpath’s first book, Free to Trade, when it came out in 1996. It coincided with the beginning of my career in financial services, and it was unspoken required reading. It painted an exciting, if superficial, picture of what it was like to be on the trading floor of one of the bulge bracket firms.

This one, The Marketmaker, was his third book and set in the world of Emerging Markets. The MC was a Russian scholar who found himself needing money and employed at the premier EM Fixed Income brokerage in the City, specialising in Latin American bonds, but aiming to expand into Eastern Europe.

I had it on my shelves for since it was published in 1999, and it was interesting to read about the markets then. It was before the term BRIC was even invented; before the LTCM failure; and just after the Asian financial crisis. Those were the days when the words banker and excess were synonymous, before all the scandals that eventually brought about Sarbanes-Oxley. It was also interesting to remember that the bulge bracket was bigger then, and there were more players on the street.

Our MC started all starry-eyed at the broker. There was a charismatic owner / mentor; a dodgy enforcer type with hints of mafia links; a best friend who had to make a choice between friendship and own gains; a beautiful, smart heroine who the MC fell in love with; even a cockney, pudgy East End boy. He was in turns fascinated by the City and angsty that he’d sold his soul. Then he discovered by accident something suspicious, and a series of seemingly unrelated circumstances only heightened his suspicion. He and his colleague-new lover were kidnapped, and he managed to escape himself but leaving our heroine in the clutches of evil kidnappers. In keeping with the “financial thriller” theme that the writer is known for, there were thinly disguised i-banks to give the feel of authenticity and much technical name dropping. I couldn’t help wondering if Bloomfield Weiss was Goldman Sachs and there’s no prize for guessing who the large Dutch bank KBN was named after.

The first half had some exciting trading scenarios and a touching philanthropic initiative. The beginnings of the romance was always hovering as a possibility. Unfortunately the financial backdrop faded to exactly that, a convenient background. The kidnap was a little too drawn out, and the solution to the story a tad too incredible. I was sympathetic towards our MC at first, but the Like (fb term) didn’t stay. I felt the writer was checking off cliché after cliché, the characters and story was pretty formulaic. Towards the end it read like an airport thriller and while there is nothing wrong with that (airport thrillers tend to be best sellers), the twists and resolution were pedestrian and I couldn’t wait to get to the last page.

Wow. It’s almost that time already. This year’s badges have been released early. Time to get a-cracking. I’ve sort of mindmapped the idea, probably need to flesh it out a little. Then it’s outlining the chapters.

I have: a) a small pile of rough paper with ideas; b) beginning paragraphs in writely and c) a few written chapters on the website. I need to get them organised and figure out which stories to work on and which ones to shelf.

full length stories (non fanfic)

1. Lamplight rewrite — a big undertaking, but this is my best shot at a submittable (I hesitate to say publishable) manuscript. At 76k words it’s the right length, even though I’ll need to re-write at least half the story, to take the fanfic element out.
2. nano 2009 story — already mindmapped, needs to be outlined. Unless I get completely busy at work, I must do nano this year.
3. Tight rewrite — this is the nano 2007 story where I lost 20k words after completion when my flashdrive failed. The great thing is I found the outline mindmap that I thought was lost, and the story has enough characters and quirkiness for me to take a stab at it again.
4. In Pieces rewrite — this was nano 2006. Full of angst and not exactly a happy ending. Possibly too autobiograpical. And because of that it’s a story close to my heart. I know people say don’t write your own story, though I can say most of it is my imagination.
5. Summer into Winter — gee, this is the story I’ve been trying to write for almost 20 years. Inspired by David Harsent’s book, I’ll read the book again to see how I feel.
6. road trip story — had this idea recently, not even fully formed. This will be an easy-reading, if formulaic, romance. I wonder if I can write something like that and not make it too angsty.

full length fanfic

1. Atonement — it’s all outlined and over 5000 words written. And now that Spielberg and Will Smith are talking about remaking Oldboy, I have to get my story in first.
2. Days of Innocence Lost — EVERYONE wants me to write this, and even E has said (perhaps jokingly, perhaps not) that she’s passing the Master Will baton to me. There is a great story there, almost my legacy. Anyone who has read Earth will, hopefully, want to read more. After they’ve finished bawling their eyes out, and then cried some more. I have to finish this one day. May be the trick is to take it out of the Wishverse and into a brand new universe of my own creation.
3. Healing series — not exactly outlined, though again I have a good idea where i want it to go. It’s sad at first but very very romantic at the end. A change for me. Has a special place in my heart because it was my first ff idea, even preceding Common Areas. Not a lot of people know that.
4. Bigtown — this will need to go on hiatus, too many other stuff to write.
5. Magic — outlined. Very ambitious, complicated and big project. May be hard to get off the ground.
6. Beloved — the other Wishverse story, a few ideas jotted down on paper. Has too much overlap with DoIL, need lots of thinking.

short stories

1. The Mashup — almost 4500 words written. I need to finish this.
2. Master Will Pet boxing / mud wrestling romp — a straightfoward PWP, if I’m in the right mood this will be fun to write.
3. From the Balcony — this was to celebrate K’s balcony view. Now that she isn’t living at the apartment with the balcony, it’s kinda beside the point. There are elements that can form the beginning of a post S6-fic, let’s see how it goes.
4. Idle Winds — very angsty, a little autobiographical, has common elements with In Pieces, may be I’ll incorporated it there.
5. Unmasked — another one I’ve been writing for 10+ years. Shouldn’t take too long if inspiration returns.

I need to retire from my job to finish all these. Sigh, I can wish.

To be honest, it took me a long time to warm up to the prospect of going to gcls. If it weren’t for car’s persistence and enthusiasm, i would never have gone. My natural weariness about being recognised, being seen as different, having to be sociable and interact with people.

Turns out, I should never have worried.

I made friends. Bucketloads of friends. I met postie, and had such a wonderful time slipping back into the old accent. What a great mate, drinking buddy and friend. And CR, it was my privilege, what a smart and down to earth person. Folks I’d met already — RS, NS, TT. New friends like ML, LA, LL, too many to list. The big names in our community, KK, KG — there was never any pretension, any of that “I’m a best selling author and you’re nothing” nonsense. Well, there was one person…but such a minority.

People who won awards are actually friends. Not (yet) bestest best friends, I’ve only just made these friends and they have longer relationships with each other. But so welcoming. It’s more than I expected, way way more.

They’ve been an inspiration. I think I need to get back to writing. I’d like to have my name on that nominees list one day. Not too far in the future. I don’t think it’s unrealistic.

Today turned out to be a crappy day at the end. It started out well enough, with breakfast and then what KK called “kiss and cry” as good-byes were said. I packed and we checked out of our room. I even went to the membership meeting and … gasp … spoke out.

Just before our bus was due to pick us up the sky opened up. Heavy thunderstorm persisted till we got to the airport. We found seats in the crowded terminal. The flight was supposed to leave at 4pm, and the plane arrived at the gate at 4.05pm, so needless to say we were delayed. The flight wasn’t that comfortable, it was full and I scrunched into the middle seat.

Car was in pain and had been for a few days, poor thing. Her mom was at the airport. To add insult to injury, 3 out of 4 of our bags came but the last one didn’t. It was one of Car’s, but in a twisted turn, was tagged under my name. The agents checked and advised that it looked like one whole cart didn’t make it. At that point, Car and her mom went home and I queued up to register the lost luggage. About 30mins into the queuing, they told us they found the cart, and so we waited another 15mins for it to come out. Okay, nice, relieved. But I had 2 big bags plus my puma bag to haul home. Taxi time. I didn’t get home till almost 10pm.

The highlight of today’s sessions is undoubtedly the author auction, where selected authors get auctioned off to the highest bidder for the first dance at tonight’s award dance. I was as usual busy with videoing, even more so cos a couple of authors had confided their plans with me beforehand — so I could get into the best position. It’s good that the other camcorder was fixed so i could roam. The auction was hilarious, with costumes, muscles, lap dances, leather, heels and plain charm. I actually bid on one and won, but was too busy with my job that i didn’t collect. Heehee.

Quite a lot of free time in the afternoon, so postie and I hung out at the pool. Late afternoon it was time to get ready for the Awards Reception and Ceremony. I’d brought my pinstripe suit and M&S shirt — my best work clothes — which I spruced up with a pin, a pinstriped fedora I bought at Disney, and (lol) one extra button undone (still modest though). There were plenty of fabulously dressed people — the suave in tuxedos and suits and the elegant in cocktail dresses and heels.

Shoes got a lot of attention, from KK’s shiny heels to someone’s rainbow chucks. Mine weren’t bad either, I wore the silver acupunctures that are perfect for this type of function.

The awards were fun. Lots of authors i recognise. Rach from the vlr won 2 awards, one for debut author, i’m so proud of her. And for that I acquiesced when she dragged me to the dancefloor, although I only lasted just over 1 song. I think I made so many friends tonight it’s amazing.

This morning opened with the keynote address from JM Redmann, followed by a coffee chat. Both general sessions, no breakouts. I was videoing again, and paying attention to the interesting talks.

Lunch was provided, which was different from yesterday. Thing about having the conference at the Hilton is the proximity to Downtown Disney, and that there is a 24hour marketplace that sells drinks, sandwiches, snacks and such like. Perhaps the conference can provide drinks and snacks but I guess there wasn’t the budget for it.

After lunch was a session on romance together with lots of ppt slides. I wasn’t overly interested in the next block, but since Car wasn’t well and sleeping in the room and I didn’t want to go upstairs to disturb her, i thought i might as well go to a session. It was on writing series characters, which was pretty okay. The last session of the day I went to a fun and games — it was a hilarioius session of Jeopardy.



There was time to visit the vendors area where booksellers had set up stalls. There’s also a silent auction of goodies like books, posters, action figures, wine etc donated by various people.

Even more people joined for drinks at the bar and dinner. We decided to go to the House of Blues, there were 12 of us at the end.

The evening entertainment was pool and hot tub again, but not before we all sat out a heavy thunderstorm. The pool party was crowded! At one point at least 20 people were sat in the hot tub singing show tunes. I didn’t know any of them, so I left a little early.

The conference proper started today. It’s my first time, and I was a little scared. I stuck closely to the couple of people I met last night, and postie naturally. I had my big camera and my new camcorder in my backpack. Got talking with another participant with a camcorder, turned out she volunteered / was asked to record the conference. So I said I’d help too, and with 2 camcorders it should be better.

So I found myself a job and it made my life easier. Less lonely, less unsure of what to do and where to go. I can focus on videoing and photographing instead of talking to people.

I went to a session about writing a realistic beat cop, run by an actual former beat cop. Then there was a coffee chat, a readers’ panel and finally a session on sci-fi, fantasy and horror writing. All very interesting and fun.

As the day wore on, I ran into more people I know either from the reading last year, the vlr or on fb. I’m pretty surprised I actually know so many people (well, about 10). Joined up with a bunch of them for drinks at the bar then dinner at Downtown Disney, ending up at Wolfgang Puck Express where I had a spaghetti with tomato and basil.

After dinner we sat around the pool, just hanging out. Then a couple of them decided they’d go into the pool. So I went upstairs, changed and joined them. Then more participants came, and we had a pool party. Which got moved to the hot tub until lights out at 11pm.

There are many big name writers at this conference, and I’m only a wee little reader. That said, there was no feeling of arrogance, all of the writers seemed to be just regular people. Many of them have day jobs, which made them more down to earth I think.

I went to an authors’ reading at women & children first bookstore. The authors, some of whom I’ve interacted with online, are all from one publisher. Car picked me up from PT and we had dinner at a nearby pub/restaurant. I had skirt steak with greek salad, it’s been a long time since I had skirt steak and it looked like a long kebab strip! Washed it all down with 2 glasses of blue moon. We debated whether the american 12oz glass was more than the british pint. Eyeballing it, I think the pint is more.

Anyway, we got to the store before the 7.30pm start and found some seats at the back. Gradually people, and the readers, filtered in. The event was great. Nice and relaxed. These are normal people, no airs, happy that their fans come to support them. Took a bunch of pictures too, I was only one of two photogs throughout the evening. Am extremely glad I took the EOS.


From left: Rachel Splanger, Jennifer Harris, Nell Stark, Trinity Tam, Cathy Rowlands, Anne Laughlin. Full set of 88 pics at flickr.

I’m so glad I made myself do nano this year, and was not too overly freaked out about it. I think I’ve learned a couple of lessons: a) I can write 50k words fairly easily and b) keep to reasonable wordcount targets. Looking back, nano 2008 is characterised by an almost laissez-faire approach. I actually enjoyed it. Naturally nano 2009 may not be the same, I may end up stressing about it, trying to get 5,000 words in every day. The standard has been set, that I finish no later than the 15th.

There’s a thread on the forums called “nano isn’t a chore for me” and I think this is where I find myself this year. I keep wanting to place a qualifier, that it is this year rather than all nanos going forward because I don’t want to jinx anything. I see a lot of people for which writing 50k words is very painful, needing word wars, sprints, write or die or small gifts to keep going. Well, bully for them and I really think that they will get a lot of satisfaction out of winning.

What keeps me going, and makes me return year after year, is the sense of achievement. And the sense of belonging (although I keep very quiet and never post in the forums) to a community. People ‘in the know’ when I mention nano, will immediately get it and there’s a strong bond when I meet another nano-ite. It’s a special feeling.

I know the quality of this year’s novel isn’t great, that I tend to use the same simple words rather than trying to think of a more appropriate description. But surprisingly, aside from not capitalising, the draft is in pretty good grammatical and spelling shape. I’m also easily distracted — I’d write 300 or 500 or 1,000 words and then I need to go do something like reading, check greader or play on facebook. This to me forms part and parcel of the whole experience.

And so, what until november 2009? I think I’ve written myself out of writer’s block a little. I will try to edit this story for publication — either at pens or change the names and…gasp, oh the pressure…go for real. I’ll need to finish those CM wips and dust off Atonement. Making it a 101 task was a brilliant idea, I think that was the final push.

Final official wordcount is 51,477. I have a bunch of winner’s badges, the certificate and of course the chart.

It’s amazing how easy it is to not write. I wrapped up the story, condensed may be 10,000 words to just over 1,000. I suppose if I ever want to publish it, I’ll edit it and add in missing parts. There’s the placeholder in chapter 18 that needs to be written in anyway.

The story ended up more a straightforward adventure than psychological thriller. The romance element is very low and absolutely needs to be expanded. For a nano though, it’s remarkably coherent.

I’m flying to London tonight, so additional de-motivation to continue writing. I did most of the packing last night, only last minute stuff and laundry to do today. Plus running. 6km in 43mins, not very good form — my left leg hurts; strength training next week at the hotel I think.

So nano 2008 is done. Quite successful. The validation stuff isn’t due to be online at the site till the 25th, i have to remember to get that done. But now the wordcount according to word is 51,428 words and i updated the official badge.

I woke up at 7.15am, even before my normal wake up time. It’s very annoying, this stupid waking up at weekday hours on a weekend. I did see an opportunity to spend lots of time in writing though. As usual I was distracted, but I made myself focus. Chapters 19 and 20 are long, with many sections. Easier to write when it’s broken down.

I got to 50k by 11.30am. The rest of the day was spent reading, bumming around online and mid-afternoon nap. No running, rest day today.

Initially i figured the story will be 70k words. I’ve kinda condensed the last few chapters so it looks like just 1 or may be 2 more chapters. I’d be lucky if the whole story comes in at 60k.

But hey, another nano won. 50,277 words

Quiet day at work but far too distracted. Had dinner with mm, went for Korean BBQ buffet which left us extremely full when we left the restaurant. we walked for quite a bit, trying to walk the food off and so she could tell me about her day. I had to go running after I got home, even though it was already 10.30pm, because I was horribly over my calorie intake for the day. I could only do half an hour though — 32.30mins 4.53km.

I had about 800 words do write at home to get to today’s target of 45k. I skipped most of chapter 18 cos it’s the sex scene chapter — i wrote the beginning and the end and put a placeholder for later. i can’t write it now. About halfway into chapter 19, and got to my target.

45,248 words

As per the last few days, about 1,000 words at work. Went home early cos I was bored. Running today was 6km in 42mins (7min/km), and a slightly new route. I like this distance, I was aiming for 5km and was pleasantly surprised when I did the sync and saw the stats.

Regular team conference call tonight so I did a push to get done before the call. I targeted getting at least the minimum 1,667 but I’m so pleased that I did more than 3,000.

43,316 words

Attempted a little at work, managed may be 1,000. The target today is to reach 40k so when I got home and finished running (37.37mins 5.38km btw) I had just about 2,000 to do. The story is going okay, I’m getting bogged down a little, but it’s not unusual for the middle part of a story when I’m trying to balance between moving the story on and describing things in a little more depth. In a few chapters, that’s when the meaty part of the story comes in.

Needless to say, I got my target.

40,300 words

I had dinner plans tonight, with ex-colleagues. I knew I won’t get home till late, so I hunkered down at work today and wrote one chapter. 1,800 words, which is kinda the minimum, but at least I got some done.

Felt full and bloated after dinner so went running for half an hour. This particular route basically taking the long way round the block is 4.1km, and again I did it in 28mins. A little quicker, at 6.48min/km.

Seems like my spare time is taken up with nano, running and planning for nano and running.

37,063 words

I wrote for the first time at work, managing around 1,000 words over lunch. I had to go to my Sis’ for dinner tonight, she invited me this morning. So i had to make plans for all my evening activities.

Got home around 8.45pm, changed quickly and did a short run. 4.1km in 28mins, but I ran quicker than usual and broke 7mins/km for the first time.

At the beginning of the evening writing session I was at 33k, the target was to reach 35k. I’m at chapter 14, and things are just getting interesting.

35,201 words

I wrote 7,000-odd words today, and it’s not even 10pm. I could continue, I have another 1.5hrs before bedtime and I can probably get another 1,000-1,500 words in. But I won’t.

I’ve noticed with this year’s nano, I’m much more relaxed and not pushing myself too hard. My wordcount goals have been very reasonable — around 2,000 to 3,000 on a weekday and 5,000 at the weekends. It’s not been a struggle to meet the daily targets. Am I mellowing out? I remember the obsessive push to write, write, write in past nanos. Seems to be overly easy this year.

The other possibility is that this is a good story. I have no doubt that at it stands now, it’s pretty unreadable and needs big time editing, but I’ve had this idea for over a year now, and the basis is good. The flow, the characters, the scenes…everything is in place.

The third possibility is that I have slowed down in terms of writing. I feel bad about it, that my productivity over the last 2 years has been low. But this means I’m not burned out, that i have plenty of inspiration and ability. Heh, I’m not really that bad a writer, you know. I have a modicum of talent and when the writing cells are rested, they can come out and do a good job.

I started slow, getting distracted by reading but managed to get to 28,000 by 2pm. Took a nap mid-afternoon and went for a long run. 7km, mostly at a steady pace and minimum walking. Came home, showered, made dinner and started bashing those words out. Finished 3 chapters altogether.

32,136 words

I hate waking up on a saturday the same time as i would normally during the week. I suppose it’s the body’s routine.

I wrote steadily during the morning, breezing past 20,000 words. I had 22,000 after lunch.

Went out to buy another pair of Acupuncture shoes (50% off, more about these shoes in December) and then for 2.5 hours of body and foot massage. I’ve been stiff, and my legs feeling very heavy, since I came back from Chicago. So by the time I got home it was 8.30pm, and by the time I’d finished dinner it was 9pm. I decided to take a day off running too, there didn’t seem to be enough time to do both nano and running with the amount of time I had left this evening. How was I supposed to know I’d reach my target before 11pm?

25,106 words

I used to be able to write at work. But this is a new job from the last time I did nano, a new company. Even though I sit in my own room, and today I had Pandora on, this has a different feel to my last job. Writing at work just seems so…not what i do here. May be I just need to try it one day. I was busy today, and when I have downtime I spend it reading online papers rather than wanting to write.

I had a conference call tonight. Luckily I was able to escape work early so I got the dinner, running and shower done earlier. I even got a thousand or so words in before the call.

I’m not going to bed yet, so I could have continued and gotten to 20k, but it’s the end of chapter 8 and it’s a good place to stop.

19,188 words

I’ve settled into a routine.

• i get home around 7pm
• i get dinner
• while eating i go through my feeds and do stuff online
• i rest for 1-1.5hrs during which i continue to do stuff online or i try to nano
• i go running — it’s been the same 5km route this week, I’m getting better at it and my time is slowly getting shorter
• i shower
• the rest of the night is nano

I only wrote for total 1.5hrs today, but managed a whole chapter of 2,349 words. This part of the story is relatively easy to write, there is a lot of material, scenes and interactions. I’m actually getting distracted as I want to constantly add padding — descriptions, characters’ thoughts — that are totally uncharacteristic of my writing style. Hee.

16,113 words

I started late, at 9.30pm. Earlier during dinner I was uploading pictures from today’s team lunch, and then I went running.

I didn’t want to set an overly ambitious target, considering the time and how I’m likely to be distracted. 2,500 words seemed right. And I got it in less than 2 hours.

13,764 words

I started at dinnertime, around 7.30pm. I went running after work, so that was one task out of the way before i sat down to write.

Part 4 was easier to write. The characters were moving about, they had a specific task to do, and there was conversation. I’m never happier when I’m writing dialogue.

Part 5 is a short chapter, only 1000-odd words, but I can’t pad it that much. It only has one scene, and it doesn’t flow with either part 4 or part 6.

11,206 words

you get distracted too easily sometimes

This is what Car said when she IMed me to give me encouragement and I admitted that I was trying to write in between watching podcasts. Sigh.

Unlike past years, I’m not getting a lot of opportunities to write at work even though I do get google docs. It’s just that I need to…work…at work.

I got home at around 6.30pm and knew I had to do the following before bed: have dinner, roast the drumsticks for lunch tomorrow, go running, write, watch TAR. The instinct was to run, then do the rest. But after working out the available times, it was better to do the cooking while eating dinner. Then while I was waiting for the hour before I can exercise I can write and check greader / fb / all the rest.

TAR went out of the window cos my tv reception went bonkers. I’ll catch it on youtube.

See about all the distractions? Haven’t even described how I’ve written. I was aiming for 8000 tonight, but I guess 7700s is good enough.

7742 words.

I woke up with mm snuggling against me. what a great start to the day. After dropping her off at church, I went straight home. There were lots of distractions today — not as many feed posts as usual which was good, but lots of activity on fb. I got tired after lunch and found myself on the couch at 2.30pm. Next thing I knew, I woke up and it was almost dark outside — it was 5pm already.

Made a quick dinner of bratwurst and salad. Was contemplating going for a run at around 7.30pm when my friend CL called — she is visiting on a business trip. We chatted for a bit, and then decided to meet up. So I took a taxi down to her hotel and we had something to eat. By the time I got home it was 10.30pm, and by the time I showered it was almost 11pm.

Still, with all the distractions I managed a decent amount of writing. The story is hard to write, harder than I anticipated. Even though I’d outlined all of it, the outlined chapters are too brief and I’m finding it a challenge to pad the words. I know that, because I’m not a detailed writer, preferring to skip whole scenes and descriptions. It’s a discipline to write about movements, thoughts or backstory that I may otherwise have left to the readers’ imagination. I’m on track though, which I’m pleased about.

5,766 words.

I didn’t start writing at midnight even though i went to bed at 1am. I was really tired, very very hungry (didn’t eat anything after my run) and truth be told, i forgot about nano.

I seem to be doing a few unthinkable things lately.

I woke up at 4.30am, and I remembered then. After going through my routines — google reader, check email, facebook — I made a start on my 2008 novel. This year’s novel is a mystery/psychological thriller type.

I wrote sporadically for a couple of hours, then got tired enough to go back to bed. Woke up eventually at 10am and wrote some more. Got to 1,000 words before lunch. Took a break for running and shower, then had to rush out cos I was meeting mm.

I knew 5,000 words is too ambitious for me in my current weakened state. Anyway, I’d outlined 25 chapters, so as long as I get one chapter done a day, and 2,000 words per chapter, I’m on target. I need to shower and go to bed soon, so I’ll just finish today with one chapter.

2,208 words.

Something good came out of being jetlagged and can’t sleep. I ended up Friday night (well, Saturday early hours) writing a response to the fractured fairy tales weekly potluck challenge on the Bella/Spinsters Ink Books Forum. The idea is to create a new fairy tale or fable, “fractured”, or in our case, “queered”.

My first idea was to write one about Goldilocks, the jock, the femme and the baby butch. But someone else posted one about Goldilocks and the thick-haired bears before I even started. Sure, I could have written my version, but I didn’t want to seem like I was competing, you know. Especially cos the other entry was by one of the published authors, all of whom I feel have a superior status than us readers on the forum. I’m not complaining or anything, but my experience with forums is that any time an admin or moderator posts, it has more impact somehow.

It didn’t matter, there are so many fairy tales to choose from. So I started thinking about Cinderella, and it was so darned easy to queer it up. Give her a toolbelt and change her name to Dell, cos “Cinderella” is so girlie. Add 2 evil stepsisters (Lipstyck and Celesbyan), a sassy fairy godmother, a Princess Charming and instead of glass slippers, rainbow crocs. It was always going to be modernised, so I put in references to twitter, 2009 cars and Rachel Maddow. Hee.

And there we have it: Cinderella, Modern and Gay. I don’t think I’ve ever written a post so explicitly gay on this website, so enjoy it.

I came out to my colleagues that I’m a writer. We were at this presentation skills workshop and the facilitator asked everyone to go around and introduce themselves. He included some interesting facts about himself but mostly people stuck to the boring name-job-how long they’ve been with the company-hiking/walking/scuba diving spiel.

So when it was my turn I told them I’ve written 20+ short stories and 5-6 novellas, explaining what a novella is. Then I told them about nano. The instructor remembered, and at the end of the workshop today he told me good luck.

I don’t think it registered to my colleagues. Not about the importance of writing to me anyway. Probably a good thing.

Spotted via pick the brain, this cool poster.

So, what about these 12½ rules of writing.

1. If you write every day, you get better at writing every day
   An interesting observation. Practice, practice, practice. I think it’s right, but I also think everyone has their limit or, to put it nicely, potential. No amount of writing practice will make me Hemingway. So the real question is, will I be satisfied with maximising my small potential, or will it be better to not fulfill it so I am under the illusion that I can make it bigger if only I tried harder? Hey, look at the view of the pyramids from here!


2. Get a writing routine and stick with it
   This I agree. I know how difficult it is to get back on track once the momentum is lost. Work, other engagements and most of all, business trips, are the biggest culprits in my writing career.


3. If it’s boring to you, it’s boring to your reader
   It goes without saying. If I am not invested in the story, how can others?


4. Poetry does NOT have to rhyme. Poetry does not NOT have to rhyme
   lol poetry is “feel” I think. But who am I to say, I haven’t written poetry since I was in college.


5. Resist stereotypes, in real life and in your writing
   Though, sometimes stereotypes work. Especially if they know they are walking, talking, fire-breathing stereotypes. The trick is not to deny that I’ve written a stereotype.


6. Writers read. Writers read a lot. Writers read all the time
   The problem of course is reading more books that will improve my writing, rather than books I want to read for entertainment.


7. Make lists of your favorite words and books and places and things
   Heh, I did that for a long time when I was younger. I’m glad I did cos I go back to those lists often.


8. There doesn’t always have to be a moral to the story
   No. And sometimes there doesn’t need to be a proper story either.


9. Always bring your notebook. Always bring a spare pen
   Notebook noteschmbook. Bits of paper will do.


10. Go for walks. Dance. Pull weeds. Do the dishes. Write about it
    Just recently I had a thoughtflash on the bus and an idea for a story. So yes, it is possible to discover ideas from the mundane. Besides, I do my best thinking in places like the bus or the bathroom.


11. Don’t settle on just one style. Try something new
    I’m not sure about this. Isn’t it better to get good at one style before trying a new one? Otherwise you’re spreading yourself too thin?


12. Learn to tell both sides of the story
    For me, this is less important than Show, not Tell.


13. (or 12½) Stop looking at this poster. Write something!
    Yeah, time to prepare for nano. There’s also a short story competition in my local paper, and a call for submission from the respected publishing house.

Sometimes I’m posting non-stop on food, or macs, or music. These couple of days, it’s been memes. Huh.

This one is a few months old, and I can’t trace its origins. The heading is the dialect meme, but it’s really to do with which version of English you most commonly use. Despite globalisation of the language, I find that it takes less brain power for me to use British words, there are American words I never get.

1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks.
   stream


2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called.
   shopping trolley


3. A metal container to carry a meal in.
   lunch box


4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in.
   pan, or if I want to be more specific a frying pan


5. The piece of furniture that seats three people.
   sofa


6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof.
   gutter


7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening.
   balcony, or if on the ground floor between the house and garden it’s the conervatory


8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages.
   soft drink


9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup.
   pancakes, but thin ones not thick American ones


10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself.
    bap. I know the answer is supposed to be sub, but that for me is short for either a submarine or a substitute


11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach.
    swimming trunks or preferably please have them wear surfer dude shorts


12. Shoes worn for sports.
    sneakers


13. Putting a room in order.
    tidying up


14. A flying insect that glows in the dark.
    firefly


15. The little insect that curls up into a ball.
    I have no idea


16. The children’s playground equipment where one kid sits on one side and goes up while the other sits on the other side and goes down.
    see-saw


17. How do you eat your pizza?
    um, knife and fork


18. When private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff.
    garage sale


19. The evening meal.
    dinner


20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are.
    basement


21. The thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places?
    water fountain

Came across this on a bunch of writing LJs earlier this year. Now that it’s almost time to register for nano, I thought it’s timely.

1. Three authors that have inspired or influenced my writing are:
   Brett Easton Ellis: Less than Zero in particular
   David Eddings who taught me the importance of telling a good story
   David Harsent: more known as a poet but his book From an Inland Sea had a mood that I’ve tried to create many times but without much success
   


2. The hardest part of the writing process for me is:
   anything descriptive. I can’t write paragraphs and paragraphs of scenery or one person’s thoughts on the flowers in her garden


3. One book I have always intended to read, but I haven’t yet is:
   the Count of Monte Cristo


4. (True or False) I sometimes read non-fiction for pleasure.
   false. I’m afraid to say I have no patience for non-fiction. The only non-fiction I read are travel guides, which don’t really count


5. (True or False) I came from a family that read a lot.
   true. I’m lucky enough to come from well educated families on both sides. My grandmother on my dad’s side was highly literate, in a generation some of whom didn’t know how to write their names. She taught me to read some quite complicated books even before I was a teenager


6. My favorite movie adaptation of a book is:
   lord of the rings. I’d never be able to read the books, I tried. I know I’m not alone in this


7. The most boring book I ever read all the way through is:
   none, if I find a book boring, I’d never finish it


8. Poetry is:
   one of those things that’s just beyond my reach, like the word that’s on the tip of my tongue


9. My favorite place to read is:
   where there is no noise


10. The funniest thing I have read recently is:
    the guardian’s assertation it’s proven that teabags taste better than leaf tea because over 96% of British households use teabags. Get real! 96% of households use teabags because they’re convenient


11. The most mind challenging thing I have read recently is:
    the independent article on consummation, very thought-provoking


12. When I stop by my local library the librarians must think:
    did you come in here for the air-con?

They come to me in drips and drabs, but here are the first 20. The first 8 are my entries for the forum challenge. The winning entry was the first one.

It’s not exactly based on any real event or whatever, it was just a feeling. Symbolism, if you will. The idea is to create sufficient depth so the readers’ minds can take it to the next step. The other ones that I like are #15 and 20. And then there’s #6, which appeals to the geek in me.

For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Ernest Hemingway called this 6-word story his best work. In those concise few words, he told a story, but not the whole story. I think the idea is to introduce enough elements in order for the readers to interpret the story. Why were the shoes never worn? Miscarriage? Duplicate baby gifts? Why are they being sold? Where did this ad appear? The brevity and complexity are outstanding.

It’s a popular writing challenge topic. Blackbook magazine ran one in 2004, from 25 influential writers.

“Forgive me!” “What for?” “Never mind.” — John Updike

He remembered something that never happened. — AM Homes

All her life: half a house. — Jamie O’Neill

Wired magazine ran one for 6-word sci-fi stories.

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so. — Joss Whedon

The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly. — Orson Scott Card

Corpse parts missing. Doctor buys yacht. — Margaret Atwood

Commas, see, add, like, nada, okay? — Gregory Maguire

Smith magazine took it one step further by asking for contributions to 6 word memoirs from the public. A book came out of that exercise.

Recently on a writing forum I visit, there was a 6-word novel challenge which attracted a lot of entries. This week I found out that one of my entries came in the top 3. Wow. The prize is a signed copy of a book by the author who posted the challenge. Except I already have that book, so she was very kind and promised me a signed copy of her next book.

It was fun to do, and I’m going to amend my 101 in 1001 list, replacing a duplicate entry with the task of writing 101 6-word novels. I’m going to post these on the 6wordnovel twitter account I created for this purpose.

On the bus on the way to work I had a flash of an idea for a new story. This one may make it as a book albeit a small book. Sigh, I wish.

I’m debating whether to work on this or the fanfic I’ve already outlined for nano. Though, I’m being oh so optimistic that I can write something, anything. There’s the pressure of #23 of 101.1001, there’s the horror of missing another nano, there’s all the stuff going on this year.

Timely post by Nury Vittachi on book titles.

A friend called me yesterday to tell me he had writer’s block. He was writing something he was “almost certain would be a major bestseller”, but had come to a complete halt. “How far have you got?” I asked.

“I’m just working on the title at the moment,” he said.

“Yeah, but how much of the story have you written?”

“I’m just working on the title at the moment,” he repeated.

“You mean you haven’t written any of it? Well, what’s the title?”

“That’s just it. I can’t think of one. But I know it’s going to be a major bestseller. I have a feeling in my gut.”

I’m usually pretty okay with titles. I’m okay with first line and first paragraph. I just need to develop more discipline to continue and finish the story.

Someone on the lj nanowrimo community reminded us that it’s only 4 months till nano 2008.

Sigh. I can plan to do the story that I was gonna write last year, or think of something easier. I really wish I have the time this year, and I also want to write something that has future publishing possibilities, how nice would that be.

Sigh.

It took me almost 3 months to write 9,000 words, which is kinda shameful if I think about it. I know I can do better but I’ve been in bad form for a couple of years. Still, I finished The Dressmaker’s Hands yesterday. It’s not a CM, cos it’s set in an undefined historical period and it’s too much of a cop-out to force coffee in there someplace. So I created a new category for these non-CM short stories.

The premise is based on the segment of the film Eros called The Hand. That film was split into 3 segments by 3 directors — Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderberg and Michelangelo Antonioni. For me the segments decreased in quailty so by the time I got to Michelangelo Antonioni’s I was utterly bored. Anyway, Wong’s segment provided inspiration for my story, down to the title. It can be classified as erotica, with a small plot. I feel like a fraud every time I write a sex scene. By committing those emotions into words I’m implying that I know what I’m talking about. Heh. Will anyone believe me when I say all I have to offer is a good imagination?

Like I said, 9,000 words. Car said “so your entire story is shorter than one of my chapters, eh?” Heehee. Even more evilly, I’m posting in 4 parts because there are time gaps between each small part. In any event, my long stories are usually of 1,500 to 2,500 words each chapter, so I’m not deviating from my norm here.

Atonement wins best drama at the golden globes. I have the book and managed the first page I think. It’s on my list of books to read. I haven’t yet seen the film but look forward to seeing it.

That’s not the point of this post.

Atonement is the title of one of my wip stories, the one based on Oldboy. As the film is part 2 of director Park Chan-Wook’s Vengeance Trilogy, and it deals with redemption and sorrow, I wanted it as the title of the story.

And now my dilemma is, in light of the similarities with Ian McEwan’s book and the (now famous) film, do I continue with the story title or come up with a new one. I thought about the alternatives but the best I could come up with is Screaming into Emptiness which suits the first part of the story and the underlying desperateness but doesn’t have the gravitas of the original title.

I usually don’t have much trouble with story titles. Generally I prefer ones that are simple but it’s not a criteria that it completely relates to the story. Common Areas refer to the objects and location that overlaps the two time periods — the apartment, the postbox, the common areas of the building. Lamplight was more a mood — that story ended up in a different place than first intended, so it’s hard to compare.

So, what makes a good title? I was interested to read that some classic books started with more … mundane titles:

• Gone with the Wind was Tomorrow is Another Day
• Lady Chatterly’s Lover was John Thomas and Lady Jane
• The Great Gatsby was Trimalchio in West Egg
• Of Mice and Men was Something that Happened

An interesting suggestion is that a title must appeal to the five senses. It must look (sight) good, is easy to say (speech), sound (sound) appropriate, be appealing / have influence (touch) and has a distinctive quality or atmosphere (smell).

I also came across some advice on the typical types of titles:

1. a popular expression — The Usual Suspects, Good as Gold
2. a play on words — Burglars can be Choosers, A Hearse of a Different Colour
3. a hidden meaning later revealed in the story — Rain Man, Dances with Wolves
4. from an existing work — The Grapes of Wrath, Absalom
5. a person or character’s name — Hannibal, Forrest Gump
6. a place name — Chicago, Jurassic Park
7. a possessive — Angela’s Ashes, Charlotte’s Web
8. an association of ideas — The Dead Zone, Misery
9. an event or activity — Waiting to Exhale, Finding Nemo
10. a memorable line from the story itself — The Eagle Has Landed, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
11. a long title can have a rhythm — The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, At Play in the Fields of the Lord
12. a simple title that fits the story — Roots, The Godfather

Anyway, this doesn’t help me much. I still need to decide if I could continue to use Atonement. The good thing is, the story is nowhere near finished and by the time it’s done the association with the book / film would be diminished with time.

so, it’s the end of nano. Which I missed. I don’t regret my decision, but I’m determined to do a non-november nano before november 2008, if that makes sense.

What I do miss are all the graphs and icons I could be posting now. Ah sod it, I’m posting anyway.

p.s. yes I completed nablopomo, but it’s really no big deal cos I wasn’t doing anything I wouldn’t have been doing anyway. Now, to do a post every day for a whole year … that may be a little more challenging.

one week till the beginning of November. There’s so many factors conspiring against my participation in nano this year:

• busy at work — the timeline is very tight and we don’t have enough resources
• there’s also that wee global system implementation on top
• need to go to singapore, australia and korea
• write the RKT Christmas story
• I’m almost certain my left hand can’t manage it, it’s been stiff and painful on and off depending on how much typing I do

But a part of me refuses to give up. I’ve got the story outlined — 25 chapters, average 2,000 words. It’s less ambitious than 10 chapters of 5,000 words that I usually do. I know exactly what I want to cover in each chapter.

I guess a compromise will be to do a 30-day 50k challenge, but not during November. Either January or February when things may get less hectic.

Sigh. What to do.

After the stages of writing, here are some thoughts on the art of writing.

1. cut the boring parts — this I absolutely agree with. Exposition and detailed descriptions are as uninteresting to write to me as they are to read.


2. eliminate unnecessary words — I was interested to read this. I must remember to edit out words like very, actually and really.


3. write with passion — would have thought it was obvious, write only what you are interested or invested in.


4. paint a picture — oh man, yes! Show, don’t tell. Every time I read a story where the first chapter is a recounting of the characters’ backstory I groan in frustration. The backstory can be referred to *during* the story, and isn’t it better to reveal it slowly rather than give it all up in one go?


5. keep it simple — as someone with a not very large vocabulary, I’m grateful for this tip. I use thesaurus.com, but I generally keep to words I know. I also don’t like long paragraphs and for that matter, long chapters.


6. do it for love — the article mentions writing for feedback. Sigh, I used to. And then I got used to having feedback. Then the feedback dried up. It’s disappointing.


7. learn to thrive on criticism — one of the gratifying things about being in a writing group is that we beta each other’s stories, which has helped.


8. write all the time — I try, I try. I have so many stories in the queue to be written, it’s finding the motivation. It’s not the time, I can always make time.


9. write what you know … or what you want to know — true in a way, though I believe that one of the fun things about writing about an unknown subject is the research.


10. be unique and unpredictable — and to be creative. How many of us wished we were truly creative?

I should start thinking about nano. In the meantime, I found some writing tips. Here’s how to write faster, better and easier.

The article calls it a writing routine. I think it’s useful as a guide, and the steps seem to be common sense. Here’s my take.

1. dream — no, having set times away from external stimuli do *not* work for me. Having scheduled creative time doesn’t work for me, ideas can’t be forced. Perhaps better writers can churn out ideas on demand, in which case all the better for them. I do concede, that when I put my mind to thinking about an idea *and* the circumstances are right, I can get some thinking done. Perhaps this is more the next step.


2. idea — getting ideas through a new source like reading a new magazine, going someplace new, listening to different music. Basically pushing the brain to a new place. I buy this, and there are plenty of sites online to explore. The danger is, relying too much on the likes of me-fi, del.icio.us, stumbleupon for ideas and more often than not herd mentality creeps in. sometimes it’s recognising that it’s an idea and laterally thinking to make that idea more solid.


3. plan — oftentimes new writers ask, outline or not outline? I definitely think it depends on: a) the writer; b) the topic; c) the story. Most of my long stories I outline — it works for me because I know I’m not forgetting stuff. some outlines are short, just a few dialogue or description randomly pulled together, sometimes I plan extensively.


4. research — heh, I can’t imagine writing without google. may be it’s just fact checking, or a more extensive piece of research into a new concept. I have separate folders per writing project where I lump together links and stuff I’ve come across. Interestingly I can’t pre-research too much, I like the just-in-time approach to getting information.


5. first draft — nano has trained me so I focus on writing and not too much editing. Well, in theory anyway. I find that I’m less bothered by unfinished sections of parts where more factual research is necessary. I’ve been lucky, my first drafts are usually in decent shape.


6. type — I’d like to call this stage the initial edit. The article advocates writing the draft longhand and then typing it. I can’t do that for the following reasons: a) my handwriting is atricious, when I write quickly it becomes illegible; b) I type faster than I write; c) who writes longhand anymore?


7. print — yep, I can’t read long stories or articles on the screen, it’s much better when printed. To save paper I print 2-up, double sided which means the font is tiny, but I’m fine with it.


8. read out loud — sometimes I do that, but not all the time. It helps, especially with difficult passages.


9. final draft — at this stage it’s pretty much done.


10. quiet — this isn’t part of the plan, just a suggestion that quiet environment is better for writing. My tolerance for noise depends on what I’m writing; I usually can’t have music or loud noises. Quiet can also apply to a cooling off period between final draft and submission, to let the story settle.

Shit. Damn. Fuck. Sod it.

Bugger. Bugger. Bugger.

I can’t write.

Is it November yet?

I can’t believe I missed it. Bloggers jumped on the nano bandwagon and came up with national blog posting month. The rules were: “post every day for the month of November. That’s it. No cheating and backdating posts, either.”

Ack, if I’d known I would have done this as well as nano. It’s not so hard to post everyday. But I only found out about it yesterday. Sigh.

There were prizes donated by participants and even luminaries like Heather Champ — I’m not so bothered about the grand prize of 6 months’ free web hosting, but I’m kicking myself that I missed the chance to win a sock monkey, a phone tarot reading, a pack of Shuffle Up playing cards, a $25 voucher from thinkgeek, authentic barbecue sauce and dry rub rib seasoning from the famous Corky’s in Memphis, or the ultimate … nablopomo scarf.

Next year.

I got my nano verified. I wished they’d open it up earlier in the month because I almost forgot. In the end it came in at 50,966 words. As usual winners get a bunch of pretty graphics. Our personal word count bar goes from green to purple and we get a bunch of icons we can use in our signatures. The profile page changes and finally we get a pretty certificate.

 

But what I like most is the graph from the report card which I used to keep track of daily progress. It’s not that it’s a pretty excel chart, it’s just that I came to depend on it daily; and towards the end every 15-20 minutes, to tell me where I was going and how much longer.

Don’t feel like writing today. Watched the Amazing Race and read a book. I think I’ll watch the film again over the weekend to remind myself of the mood and stuff.

Nothing much else to report, it’s been a meh sort of day.

I noticed the “recent entries” list all start with nano, I may as well change november to nano in my diary. I revised my daily target to 2,000 words, and overall for november to 75,000. I don’t know if I’ll even get that far because I’m not writing Atonement nano style. eeeeep! Too much deliberation and not enough free flow writing.

I’ve also been distracted — I subscribed to a bunch of new channels on my broadband tv and have been watching those. sigh.

I’m going to do a second nano, although it doesn’t strictly follow the rules — I am going to try to make some headway into Atonement, which I already have about 500 words written. I seriously don’t think I can write 50k before the end of the month because I will want to edit and think this one through. With the dark subject matter, I can’t use the dares either. The good (or bad, depending on pov) is I have a detailed outline. I’ll see how far I can go, 25k will be good though if I can get 50k I’ll be extremely chuffed.

My wrist is going to hate me, it’s just recovered. Oh, and I’ve hurt my back, can’t make any sudden movements. Tell me I’m crazy.

These were the dares I took this year.

1. Mr Ian Woon — the proprietor at a pub called “The Pub” frequented by the characters.
2. Include an 82 year old lady who owns a sports team — Mr Ian Woon’s mother.
3. Begin your novel with a character waking up to the sound of an alarm clock.
   + if the character is an MC
4. Oh, it’s nothing that a cyanide capsule won’t fix — MC’s friend re: severing relationship with their ex.
5. I am going to spork you to death — ch 6.
6. Well, this is a good quality long, awkward pause — ch 3.
7. Please don’t make me kill you — ch 3.
8. All stressed out and no one to choke — ch 1.
9. Salt/pepper shakers shaped like old coke bottles — ch 5.
10. Have a character wear bright orange shoes
    Bonus points- if another character says “Those shoes are not approiate for back-stage wear.”
    Double Bonus points- if at the time of that stament they are nowhere near a threatre and neither character is an actor.
    Triple Bonus points- if another character says in responese “They aren’t even approiate for dating wear.”
11. Have a character go into a restaurant and order ‘the usual’ — MC’s friend did that in Mr Ian Woon’s pub.
12. include a scene in a park with a wildflower garden — MC and friend in Golden Gate Park.
13. The only things one is allowed to throw out the window of a car in motion onto a highway (in California, at least) are water and chicken feathers. Your characters test this out — MC and friend again.
14. Include a Spontaenious Chicken Situation — torture description.
15. Include the quote “He’s not the sharpest light bulb in the bush.”
    Bonus points if the dialogue after that is: “Why would a light bulb be in a bush?”
    “Why do you think he’s not the sharpest one?”
16. Have cryptic messages written on cars in the dirt/dust/possibly scratched into the paint pass by the main character randomly. Bonus points if they have nothing to do with the plot — I had a forest green Range Rover with random messages, but I forgot after 3 appearances.
17. Include a sign that says “Don’t touch this sign, Edges are sharp” in big bold letters, and then under it, in smaller print, it says the speed limit. And at the very bottom of the sign, in very small letters it says “Bridge out ahead” — in NY
18. Include a note in a library book with it’s last page ripped out — turned out to be a major plot point.
19. God comes to save the MC, but he decides that he doesn’t believe in God, so God leaves, and the MC is in big trouble again — ch 8 dream sequence.
20. 15 chickens appear somewhere in your novel — yet another major plot point, how MC and friend met.
21. Have someone die in a tragic laundry accident — ch 6, minor character.
22. Include a character named Lorelai Mary Sue Sunshine Twinkle Tap Dance Sparkles in your story — imaginery friend of son of said tragic laundry accident victim.
23. Use the word defenestrate in a sentence in context.
24. Include a woman wearing a fedora — server in Korean restaurant having an All Beef Special Cowboy promotion.
25. You’re making up a diease now — ch 5.
26. Heaving bosom — ch 6.
27. The world’s going to come to a very quick end if you don’t shut up — ch 4.
28. Have an MC shout “Don’t look at me, I’m naked!” while walking the street — ch 1 recap.
29. “Good morning!”
    “It’s too early to be morning.”
    “You’re right. It’s way too early to be morning. This time of day is stupid.”
    “Good stupid.”
    “Good stupid!”
30. Include a character who will only eat the slices of bread at the ends of the loaf - ie the ones that are all crust — pizza.
31. There were bagpipes involved — ch 3, random chat talk.
32. It tastes like concentrated EVIL — ch 7, airline cocktail.
33. Use the word waffle as a verb.
34. Someone gets a tattoo removed — a major event in ch 6.
35. Have a trailer (not a double-wide, a small one) in which every inch of the interior is covered with Christmas decorations.
36. No shit, Sherlock.
37. Incorporate an Asian woman, dressed as Bozo the Clown, riding on a Harley.
38. Have one character tie up another character with a rainbow scarf — not exactly tying up, just talk of it. Epilogue.

Dares I wanted to take:

• You learn more if you don’t knock.
• I like you. You smell responsible.
• Dinner is ready when the smoke alarm goes off.
• Remember my name — you’ll be screaming it later.
• You, me, whipped cream, handcuffs. Any questions?
• I bought some powdered water, but I don’t know what to add.
• I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid.
• I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.
• My mother is a travel agent for guilt trips.
  
• This isn’t an office. It’s Hell with fluorescent lighting.
• Have a character who works in a casino with a name taken directly from the Bible. Bonus points if the casino was in fact built on the old site of a church.
• Char A: “I like girl brownies but not boy brownies”
  Char B: “What makes them boys or girls?”
  Char A: “The boy brownies are the ones with nuts in them!”
• “Pumpkin bowling is part of the gay agenda!”
• Include the invisible pink unicorn in your novel.
• Have your characters mourn the loss of a restaurant.
• “Just get in the coffin.”
• Have a character watch an Underwater Pumpkin Carving Competition.
  BP if said character participates.
  DBP if the water is around 47 degrees Fahrenheit.
• “Grumble grumble growl hiss bitch whine piss moan…”
• “Why be difficult when, with a little effort, you can be impossible?”
• “I didn’t go invisible again, did I?”
• “Black holes, apparently, swallow up entire universes, planets, and galaxies. Isn’t is wonderful?!”
• Include a bakery that has bread on display but refuses to sell it.
  +BP if there is a sign outside saying something like “Bread - $1 a loaf”.
• General Systems Error: Please sacrifice two chickens and a goat to continue.
• “I’m really sorry, but my IQ is over eighty. You wouldn’t be interested.”
• “Please don’t eat my hat.”
• Find a way to use the phrase “podcasting amateur cartographer” in a non-humorous way.
• “You make me want to pull out my ovaries and beat you with them.”

I finished the story off, skipped most of what I had in mind for the final chapter and made it the epilogue. Added about 100-odd words and ended it. I could have drawn it out, may be gotten another chapter of 5,000 words, but it didn’t seem worth it.

Two options going forward: 1) start training for the 10km run; 2) do a second nano and write 50k for Atonement. Both options are good, perhaps I can try to combine them.

I wanted to continue and finish the story, but it’s like all motivation had been sucked out of me today. I’m still fighting the very painful left wrist; it’s wrapped in a wrist brace now, and actually resting it on the mbp is okay in terms of support, except my finger movements are kinda restricted. I finally remembered I have an ice pack hidden somewhere and it’s now in the freezer — can’t use it till it’s gotten to the right temperature though.

To make matters worse, when I looked outside the window this morning the air was an extremely ugly brown and I knew pollution levels would sky-rocket. Needless to say I started sneezing almost immediately. The first 60mg of terfenadine didn’t do anything and I had to take a second dose before lunch. And now I feel the effects wearing off and am contemplating a third 60mg. I just took 2 panadols, may be it’ll help a bit (how?).

All this whining is an excuse for not writing a single word today. Sigh. I was also thinking of making a start on Atonement, but I won’t do that until I’ve either finished the nano story or decided to shelf it.

I reached 50,000.

Today was my niece’s birthday so I had dinner with my family at the yacht club. I had written may be two sentences at work, which didn’t count. Dinner was early so I got home about the same time as I would have normally, given how busy I’ve been recently.

Wrote for about 15 minutes while waiting for the hot water, showered, then really started at about 9pm. I was counting every 15-20 minutes, I had about 1,800 words to go till the target. I rushed through the last few sections, there wasn’t much of a plot for this part of the story. The whole point was to get to 50k.

This wasn’t much of a chapter in terms of moving the plot forward — though to quote Chris Baty’s book, plot, what plot? The last chapter especially, though I can see why it could be there, if I were serious about the story, it’ll have to be seriously edited. There’s another chapter to go before the story is fully completed. I’m not sure if I want to, but the option is always there.

Just before 10pm, the word count in Word is 50,051 although the official nano site verified figure is 50,035. It doesn’t matter, I got to 50,000.

My wrist decided to be very painful tonight, so I think I’ll reward myself by taking it easy.

I suppose it’s inevitable. That I’d hit a small wall eventually. Busy at work and got dragged out to lunch, so I didn’t even have a chance to open the files, grrrr.

Started writing at 8.30pm and was extremely distracted, lethargic and just plain bored. Really wanted to read a book or to troll the nano forums. But word count beckoned. I had to resort to stopping every 15-30 mins and counting words, to make myself focus on the writing.

Oh, and padding. The obligatory dream sequence made an appearance, followed by a brief analysis of the dream (repetition is a wonderful word count booster). Food as well, a description of a lengthy dinner served on a long haul flight added quite a few words — the flight was business class so there were more courses and more choices, heehee.

I may have either lost some words or I entered an interim word count incorrectly. It doesn’t matter, I stopped at around 11.45pm. Almost finished.

Hands and wrists — not too bad today, just the left one still cracking like nuts but not too painful.

47,635 words.

I got to 39,000 at work today, I was able to sneak in some time in between meetings and running reports and doing general stuff.

I’m beginning to spend more and more time on the nano forums, probably due to boredom and the need to do something for a break. There are over 36,600 participants who have entered word counts and I’m on the third page when I query a listing based on word counts. The rate I’m going, and based on my vaguest of vague outline, I may end up in the 60k words mark for this story. That is, if I continue with this after I get to the magic 50k.

I started writing at about 8-ish and finished at around 11pm.

Hand update — left wrist is stiff, plus the back of the hand too. New today — similar pain is developing in my right wrist though it’s more concentrated in the wrist area and not the whole hand running up my arm in the case of my left. Typing badly too, more typos than usual.

42,801 words.

Another ghastily busy day, what’s worse is that it didn’t get busy till the afternoon. I got home just before 8pm. I was able to write a few hundred words at lunch — but didn’t get round to counting exactly how many.

Was quite focused when I finally was able to sit down and start. Wrote for about 3 hours and finished at 11.45pm. I suppose I can continue to get to 37,500 (75%) but chapter 6 is just done. Someone on the forums recommended that we don’t end a writing session at the end of a chapter or section, so that when we start again we can pick it up immediately at when we stopped. heh, different styles I guess.

Someone also classified wrimos into roughly 4 categories:

1. those who enjoy taking on the dares, the challenges, and writing as much silly stuff as they can; padding is a game, and writing nonsense is half the fun
2. those who hope to turn out a fairly reasonable first draft of a story, though they aren’t too concerned with preparing for it
3. those who write fanfic
4. those who have a specific idea of writing something they hope to polish later and send out in submission to publishers

There is heated discussion between the groups, and a certain amount of disdain for someone not in a particular group. There are those who do nano strictly for fun; and there are those who take it very seriously.

I thought I was a category 2, but I’m definitely a type 1 this year. I am serious about my participation in nano, witness my basically telling everyone to leave me alone, but I’ve never been concerned with publishing or in this year’s case, even wanting to read it again after I finished. Is it a waste of energy, a painful wrist and all those words? Not really. I know now that I can do it, year after year, and that’s why I like it so much.

Painful hand report: today is not too bad. Mostly my wrist.

37,237 words.

Busy at work, I think I wrote like 30 words only. I was even working at lunch and didn’t leave the office till 7pm. Took me an hour to relax, have dinner and shower. I started at about 8.30pm and finished at around 12.15am. It’s not going too badly, the story is at a point where I know it makes no sense, and this is one story i will not permit anyone to read.

The discomfort in my hand comes and goes, the only thing that bothers me is that it gets stiff and cracks like a nut.

32,634 words.

I felt fine today, no ill hangover effects remaining. Set myself a target of 22,000 words by noon. I was may be 5 minutes late, got to 22,082 at 12.05pm. I’d had a craving for ham & egg sandwich earlier, but since i didn’t have any bread, that was out. Anyway i made a 2-egg ham omelette for lunch.

The next target was 24,000 before going out. I wanted to go for a walk, and I needed to go to the supermarket anyway. I got to that target too.

The next target was 25,000 before starting to make dinner. I was horribly distracted, kept wanting to watch a dvd or read a book and a friend IMed me also. But 25,000 words were done before dinner. For someone who just went to the supermarket I didn’t have much, so I had vegetarian noodles.

After shower and more distractions, I really sat down to pound the rest out. The logical target would have been 30,000 but it seemed too much, and mentally it was a huge barrier. I had revised my target to 28,000 for the day. Wrote in splurts for the 2-3 hours after my shower, and now I’m on a new document in writely.

I finished at 10.30pm and I’m pleased with my progress. Not forcing myself or typing for hours and hours has been good for my hand. It still hurts but for someone who is more than halfway done, it’s in tolerably good shape.

28,245 words.

Woke up 10-ish, and should have stayed in bed. Was soooo tired and sleepy. I think I can’t drink that much anymore (heehee). Couldn’t get the energy to do anything but sit at my desk and surf around the internet, wishing the paracetemol will work quickly. Finally relented at 2pm and stretched out on the sofa for a nap. The weather is definitely getting cooler cos I needed my duvet.

Woke up at 5pm and felt a little more awake. Had the rest of the roast potatoes that I made a couple of days ago and realised I didn’t have lunch. Heehee.

Wrote for an hour or so until it was time for Survivor. Then another hour and a half afterwards. I’m quite pleased that I’m able to get enough words so I can stop at around 11pm. My hand is still stiff, but not too bad, considering today was short bursts and I had some rest.

20,554 words.

Everything I wrote today I wrote at work. We had a wine and cheese party which went on for a long time, for a few of us. Then I joined them for dinner at this Thai / Vietnamese place. It was fantastic, but now it’s like 12.45am the next day and of course I’m way behind the quota for today. Plus a little bit drunk! heehee. I’m gonna be hungover tomorrow morning.

15,042 words.

Wrote again during lunch, and during the afternoon at work. The target was to reach 8,000 by the time I left the office — I got to 8,100.

I know this isn’t good writing, it’s borderline stream of consciousness loosely held together by the semblance of a plot. The good thing is, I’m still not done with my chapter 2, so it gives me buffer for later chapters. I could push myself and finish it tonight, but I won’t. I’m taking it easy and not making myself write every waking hour. It’s just before 11.25pm and I’m calling it a day. My left hand will surely thank me.

There is a thread on the nano forums called “this is going better than I’d hoped” and there are people who actually finished! Looking at the author list, there are a lot of people who have exceedingly high word counts. Ah well, I’m happy. This is the most I’d written after 2 days.

Someone also posted a site where we can test our typing speed. I scored 76 wpm, which isn’t bad. That’s speed typing to a printed text and doesn’t include the creative thinking process that is writing. When writing, on average I’m doing 1,000-ish words an hour.

In other very distracting news, November 26 things is up. eeeeeep! I want to make it a reward for finishing nano as early as possible.

12,136 words.

I started around 12.10am and wrote for just over an hour. I got to 1,061 words before I went to bed, I thought it was a good start.

Wrote at lunch and sneaked in a little time during the afternoon, the aim was to hit 2,000 words at work, which I managed to do.

The inner editor is still in control, I was re-reading and making changes, capitalising and keeping to nrmal punctuation and spelling. I’m hoping that it’ll go away by the weekend. I’ve now vaguely outlined 10 chapters plus an epilogue so it’s the usual 5,000 words per chapter target. Talking about target, I’m officially setting 2,500 words a day when in fact I want to hit 5,000 a day.

Yes, it’s now just after 11pm and I’ve decided to stop for today. I could be getting another hour or so but I’m trying to avoid burnout. More importantly, I’m trying to rest my left hand, no surprise that it’s hurting already, sigh.

The routine is — write in writely, save doc in mbp, save in flashdrive, email to myself. Update xls, update nano site, write post.

6,031 words.

nano 2006 starts tomorrow, or 0.01am if I’m still up by then.

I’m woefully unprepared this year compared with last. I have no plot, just a feeling. No pretty mindmap with all the characters’ details. No characters actually. *shrug* I was organised and disciplined last year, but get too caught up with other things (vacation, Christmas RKT project) and forget to backup the finished product and BAM! flashdrive malfunction and the whole thing is lost. So organised and disciplined is out. Let’s see how it goes.

I kinda knew it, but now it’s happened so many times I have to acknowledge it.

I can’t write when I put music on or if there’s any more than ambient sounds. I need the quiet.

Oh, and a little wine helps too.

I missed the news, even though it doesn’t matter for me, writely is open for registration again.

I adore writely. It has become my wp tool of choice, even though it has fewer functionalities than Word. I’m addicted to its clean interface, autosave, tagging, online access and collaboration features. The only feature I want is to be able to edit my stored collaborators list because I made a typo on one and I’m reminded of it everytime.

Apparently Safari and Opera support aren’t quite there; if they want to be a niche player, it’s these little things that need to happen The lemmings who use Windows and IE are probably Word users, they generally don’t want to venture out of their little comfort zone and try fun stuff like macs, firefox and writely. (see how I steer the convo to “macs are great” so smoothly?)

May be I’m being selfish, but I wanted it to stay invite only, and in beta, for as long as possible. Don’t want it to be diluted by too many users, you know.

Woke up this morning and the person in my writing group who was supposed to post today was sick, and couldn’t post.

We mobilised quickly, got one of the writers who was supposed to post in 2 weeks’ time to swap; and put together a quick “we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming” announcement. It was great teamwork.

In chat this morning were a couple of newbies, teenagers. Came in and went crazy with the emoticons, so we put them on ignore. They whined and complained that we weren’t talking to them. So we did … raised a conversation topic and asked everyone to discuss. Then they complained that we were using big words. OMG that’s so hilarious. One of them in particular was rude and tried to shock. We worked pretty well together as a group to let them know in no uncertain terms that their behaviour was unacceptable.

I mean, come into a chatroom for the first time, the most important thing to do is to listen for a while to get a feel of the participants; and then be polite and respectful. It’s the internet, but manners are important too.

The baiting was so fun that I stayed home and didn’t get a chance to run my errands before needing to go out again.

I saw blurb for the April fools challenge a couple of weeks ago and have been thinking about it. This challenge is where you specify yourself how many words you want to write in April. The only criteria is to go on their forum and say “My goal is xxx words.” You can write anything, in any language … the idea is to set a challenge for yourself.

Not going for the 50k like nano, don’t think I have time. I’m beginning to get some of the motivation and inspiration back, so I think that time permitting, the next few months will be okay for writing. I think 20k is workable.

Came across this in a couple of LJs, to review your own stories for 2005. I know it’s a bit late.

Stories I wrote :

• 7 CMs: Educating Dawn, Indulgences, French Nature, Juste Milieu, Working Lunch, Heatwave and She’s Here
• 5 challenges: Blanked, Home & Away, All the Time in the World, Song of the White Lady and Sex & the Clean City
• 2 collaborations: Earth and Highland Fling
• 1 finished long fic: The Amazing Kitten Race
• nano: I got the required 50k within 2 weeks, but lost most of the story in a flash drive accident

My favorite story: Earth for its impact and power. All the Time in the World for its sweetness and because it’s a continuation of CA and because of how quickly I wrote it.

My best story: Earth, it touched on a subject a lot of people don’t want to think about, let alone read in a fic. All too often fics are fluffy and idealistic, and of course they have a happy ending. Nothing wrong with that, most readers want to read to escape, not be reminded of RL. I know Earth was a difficult read, but my hope is that it managed to affect people, make them think, in ways that an ordinary fic couldn’t.

Best received I think was Episode 10 of KR, where they went to Sydney and dressed up as Smut Bunnies. Everything worked that chapter, like maru said “the stars were all in alignment.” Of course having a kickass co-writer was the reason.

Story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: KR. It had a dedicated following, but was probably too clever / obscure / fact-heavy for mainstream tastes. Towards the end, the snark and snark-on-snark may have gotten too inside joke-y.

Most fun story: hard to say, I can’t write fun or humorous. Blanked I suppose, I had a good time writing it and the humor worked.

Sexiest story: strangely enough, it isn’t Highland Fling although it’s basically a sex romp. I would say, Working Lunch. There wasn’t any actual sex in the story, they sat across each other in a restaurant for the entire story, but the intent was clear.

Hardest story to write: Earth. Reading it caused all sorts of emotional responses (my beta read it once, cried rivers of tears, and said she won’t read it again until I have the entire series finished), think about how it was to write. I had to pull on all sorts of personal experiences to write it.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? Much much more. This was my first year writing, and I never in my wildest dream thought I’d write so much. Sometimes I think I’m burning out.

What genre/topic/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2005? A short story from Dawn’s pov; a reality show crossover; so much smut.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Difficult to say, considering everything was something new for me. The riskiest was probably getting a group of the best active writers together and collaborating on a series. Elemental turned out to be of such stellar quality, beyond everyone’s expectations that it’ll be hard to repeat.

Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year? Get myself out of my current bout of writer’s block. Don’t put so much pressure on myself to write, which is the main contributing factor for the block. Try to finish Lamplight.

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don’t just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

Not even the manufacturer could retrieve the data from my dead flashdrive, so the nano is gone. I was trying to act blasé but it’s tearing me up inside. I keep saying it’s crap, but at least it was crap that I wrote and that perhaps one day I could return and edit. I was proud at how fast I wrote it (15 days) and I suppose I have no one to blame but myself for not backing up.

After various back and forth emails, imation was kind enough to send me a replacement flashdrive, since it’s still under warranty. Brand new, of course, and it’s blankness will surely mock me.

Pretty graphics. First and foremost the ubiquitious little green bar that is so mesmerising. The nanosite introduced this cool flash profile screen where it tracks your progress, the progress of your writing buddies and shows an excerpt of your novel, all in a nice flash animation. I did a screengrab. The chart is from the report card.

My thoughts on nanowrimo.

It was a new thing last year, when I discovered it. I can’t even remember how, but it was almost too late. I pushed myself, I had a lot of support from mm, and there was a huge adrenalin rush when I finished.

This year, I started on time, I pushed myself initially, but when I got to 20k by the end of the first week, the thrill was almost gone — there was never a question that I’d fail. I don’t even want to go to all the trouble of editing, designing the cover, and printing a copy this year.

I know that this year’s story is not as good and the writing is more workman-like, it started well, there were some nice passages. Then it got bogged down in repeated hashing of similar themes. In other words, it was a good, averagely nice piece, but there were no flashes of brilliance.

I’m better at writing now. In between last year and this year, I started writing and posting fanfic. And I joined an online writing group. Being associated with people I now consider as friends (even though I never met them personally and have only had voice conversations with a few) because of common interests and shared sense of fun. There must be something dorky about people who spend an inordinate amount in front of a computer, and are home on a weekend night, that they want to congregate together.

The concept of writing buddies on the nanosite is good too. We can mutually encourage each other, and secretly compete against each other.

Will I do it again next year? In the words of Magnus Magnusson, “I started so I’ll finish.” I can’t imagine not adding 2006 to my list of nanos won. Don’t want a break in the ol’ record, eh?

List of dares taken and used.

Dares I used:

1. Mr Ian Woon - the Director or Mortal Remains Transportation at Air Trans Pacific.
2. Include a pastry chef - that's Chef Harley, who Sam hired at short notice. Chef Harley used to work at the Hotel McFine, before that under the legendary Sugar Mary at the Three Marys restaurant.
3. A young character who is obsessed with a certain college/university - that's Sherry's kid sister, who is obsessed with University of St Andrews cos that's where Prince William attended.
4. Have a character contemplate death while eating a ham sandwich - Sam's flashback to 3 years ago, after the accident.
5. Have a character with silver hair - Sister Dorothy has short silver hair.
6. "Bad wolf" - Melody's description of Abe, at the party. justin's dare.
7. A walk-on gets hit by a speeding bus, gets up, dusts themselves off, and walks away. Bonus points if only the MC sees it - Melody sees that at the pizza place, a skateboarder is chipped by a bus but he just walks away.
8. Have a cameo of one of your online writing forum friends (Nanowrimo site or other sites...), but don't tell them about this cameo until Nanowrimo is over - I included cameos for the entire group (12 people).
9. A character who keeps a journal, but instead of writing the date, writes the number of days s/he's been alive - Sam does that.
10. Include in your story at least once an entire LJ entry that your MC writes that gets accidentally erased. Double points if you also include the replacement post. Triple points if after both those, s/he decides not to post anything, and just keeps it to themself - yep, Sam did that too.
11. "Great googly moogly" - Sam to Melody re: sensationalist journalism
12. Kitten poker - in the same conversation as "great googly moogly."
13. Death by penguins - more sensationalist journalism.
14. Murder a character with a tomato. Poison is okay, multiple tomatoes are okay - speculation that Wendy was trying to poison Roy using poisonous tomatoes but was poisoned herself.
15. Two characters engage in a debate over which is better/more useful/whatever, a scarf, or a towel - flashback of Melody arguing with Abe.
16. Ken's Deli Connection - where Sam bought lunch.
17. "You aren't a college student until you've seen a vending machine pushed off of a 4th floor balcony... Call me when you get to college." - Melody talking to Emmy at the pizza place.
18. "That is just so wrong on so many levels." - Melody to Sam about the tomato poisoning speculation.
19. "There's a bomb in the lasagna!!" - Abe making his entrance to the restaurant.
20. "Gosh. You're such a Juliet." - Melody teasing Rob about how he liked to keep his skin soft.

Dares I took but didn't use:

• Have a character die in a freak trombone accident.
• Include a character who is obsessed with pencils, and who, if he/she does not have a pencil on his/her person at all times, will have a mental and emotional breakdown.
• Someone who loves their computer and carries their laptop everywhere. And if they run out of battery in the middle of their adventure and don't have immediate access to an energy source, instantly throw a fit. Same goes for someone who is addicted to their mobile phone and can't get a signal.
• Have a character who refuses to speak.
• Have a character who treats an inanimate object as pet (talks to it, gives it a name, etc.). Bonus point if it's something really random, like a fork or a chair.
• Have a character who wears a variety of witty shirts, but gets profoundly pissed off when s/he sees people staring at his/her chest. Works best for a female MC, obviously, so bonus points if it's a male. Double bonus if it's relevant. Triple bonus if the char wears a shirt that says "STOP STARING AT MY SHIRT!"
• Have one of your characters wear 7 wrist watches on his hand.
• Include a character that brags over minor accomplishments. "I got a great parking spot at Wal-Mart today." And they must really brag, like they're actually proud of it.
• a character that only eats purple things.
• Have a scene focus on winning a stuffed toy at a carnival
• Have an adult character go into a restaurant, strip, then put on a bib. Make them claim to be a messy eater.
• Have your MC try threaten to kill another character with a spoon. When asked why a spoon, the MC must answer with "because it would be painful."
• Write a scene where your MC defends herself or himself with pepper spray.
• Include an animal stampede through the busy streets of wherever your story is taking place.
• Have a bank robbery interrupted by a second bank robbery in the same bank. Have the thieves try to rob each other.
• Have someone say "the case is afoot!" and "elementary, my dear Watson" but your novel cannot be a mystery.
• Have an argument between at least two characters over a teddy bear.
• Have one character hide something incriminating and against Christianity in a Bible/book on religion.
• Smash up a computer.
• Include a funeral to which nobody wears black, as per the expressed wishes of the deceased before he/she passed away
• A book is passed among the characters. Must be passed on to at least 5 characters
• A jar or bottle of grape jelly must appear in your novel--at least five times.
• Have someone refer (at least three times) to oversteeped tea.
• Have the recurring theme of a ticking clock.
• "Fire bad, tree pretty."
• "I have no idea. No one ever tells me anything."
• "Now, if I really wanted to stalk someone, it wouldn't be him."
• "But you CAN'T do that with a fork."
• "Stop being an ass magnet."
• "I'll get to the pomegranate later!"
• "Psh. I hate being a Nun. I wanna be a pirate!"
• "Hello kitty has no mouth"
• "It's so cold I'm getting goose nipples!"
• "This is the worst headache I've ever had in the history of my head."
• "You can't have a relationship based on cereal preferences!"
• "What the muffin?!"
• "Bitch, do you keep your brains in your glasses?"
• "It's purple, and it's shiny, and really quite stylish."
• "I wish there was something like ice tea... but warm."
• "I am going away! We just happen to be going away in the same direction."
• "She's a baby, not a bomb!"
• "My hands smell like onions."

I finished.

I had the dinner party, but focused too much on the food and not enought on the character development or dialogue. *shrug* I just wanted to get it over with. I don't think the story is as good as last year's, hence the blaséness. Having said that, I'm less stressed than last year. I took the last few days easy, no more than 2,000 until today. My wrists and hands are a little sore, but defnitely not as painful as before.

There are things I had planned, a little cliffhanger at the end, more about the poisoning in Australia, more about Rob's big change, Melody wanting to be a nun, the restaurant opening, Ruby going on Survivor, and definitely more on Sam and Melody patching up their marriage. But the ending presented itself, and I wrote it, and c'est fini. Did one spell check, I'm not bothering with the small caps and editing. Don't think I'll look at it for a while.

Official nano count is 50,141 words, though on Word it's 50,129. Either way, it's over 50k.

Almost there.

A hellishly busy day at work, yet another project landed on my desk this morning, and the timeline is tight for this one. It’s interesting but I wish there were more guidelines about how to do these projects, every time it’s like starting from scratch. So now I have 5 projects:

• global performance evaluation project


• set up and implement functions in a medium sized country office


• same in a smaller office in another country


• a survey system


• new confidential m&a project

Got home after 8pm, retrieved the delivered goods from the supermarket, quickly made dinner, then conference call at 8.30pm. Sigh, I used to work till 9 or 10 and it’ll be fine, but those were my “aggressively climbing the corporate ladder” days. Not anymore.

I only have one scene left, of the dinner party, right now the guests have just started on the appetizer.

48,209 words.

Steady, for the weekend, progress. A thousand odd words. I could push myself and get the 4,500 I need to get to 50k, but why the unnecessary stress? I have may be an hour before bed and I might write more, but I’m stopping my today’s word count now. They are at the restaurant, trying out the new food, next chapter is the last, and it’s all about the dinner party.

45,508 words.

Long day, and as expected, not productive. I’m getting into some funny typing habits, not putting capitals at the beginning of sentences or names and expecting to be autocorrected when I type “nto” instead of “not”. At least I haven’t used the “will not”, “I am” and “do not” padding tricks. Yet.

Got another thousand odd done today. Better than nothing.

44,040 words.

Went out for dinner and then spent most of the evening checking the board and group, went to bed without writing any more. All I did were the thousand odd words I wrote at work.

42,517 words.

Last year, I finished by day 9, so having a nano day 10 is a new experience for me. But then I was under such a tight and unrealistic deadline last year, and my boss was away so I shut my office door during the day and wrote like a maniac.

This year there isn’t the need to push myself like that, and I’m trying to enjoy it a little more. It’s been so busy at work that I haven’t been able to write anything. I even went out for lunch with my colleague so I didn’t have spare time at lunch.

My left hand is hurting a lot, the most it has since I started nano. It’s mainly the little finger on my left hand, if I type too long, it feels very numb and there is painful tension where it joins my palm. My left wrist is also not in very good shape. Somehow I wished it was my right because I have a wrist brace for my right hand (which is fine, no pain). Why didn’t I buy both braces? Silly me.

I feel myself slowing down, I know the 50k is up and I know what the final 2 chapters are about. But I need to get there first. Chapter 8 is filler in a big way. Melody goes to the clinic with Rob and most of the chapter is descriptions about the procedures and side effects of Rob’s treatment. This is the sort of chapter that will get pared down or totally deleted if/when I come to edit.

Still, I should have reason to be proud. 41,371 words.

Between conference call and missing the first hour of the 2 hour TAR special (meaning I have to watch it from the top again at the repeat showing) I had less than the normal time to write. I’m still on chapter 7, but managed to finish it tonight.

I’m not in a nano-ing mood, but I will keep working hard the next few days. I changed the timing of the events somewhat so I can have them earlier, and I can write about them. I realized I’ve basically written it so the 50,000 words take place over a week, but there are events that will take place the week after, so I might even continue after I get to 50,000.

36,063 words.

Distractions getting worse and worse. I can’t write for more than 20 minutes at a time before I need to do something else, even if it’s clicking on another website, getting a drink or something. I’m also pretty tired, need sleep. I’m also feeling a little sorry for myself, nothing in particular, just a general malaise-y feeling. It could be the stupid weather, which has decided to become warm again.

33,224 words.

Caught up to what I should have been at when the weekend ended, so I guess I’m a day “behind”, but I won’t think about that. Downloaded the nano report card which is an excel spreadsheet that gives a pretty chart, and predicts when I would get my 50k, at the rate I’m going. 12 November, that’s what the report card is saying.

28,136 words.

The weekend target was 5,000. But I only started after 9pm tonight and I’ve been horribly horribly distracted. On the nanosite they’re saying the weekend is the best time to write, but it’s the opposite for me, too much happening, I need to be at home with nothing on my mind.

I’m not so bothered though, I can work harder during the week.

22,525 words.

I wrote an amazing total of … 180 words. It isn’t even worth uploading to the nanosite or to justin’s site. I had g13 conference in the morning and we met up after her yoga for a teatime snack and body massage. I was tired and the 2 hours was well spent. Had a simple Shanghainese dinner and reached home just in time for Survivor. Hee.

I’m tired. I was going to write a little but I’m going to bed.

So today’s word count is a paltry 20,247 words.

The first chapter without a meal in it, the conversations and descriptions about coping with bad bad news from abroad took longer, and the strain filled breakfast I had in mind will get shifted to the next chapter.

She’s here tonight, and she is soooooo supportive! I decided to trim my weekend quota from 5k daily to 5k over the entire weekend. If I write more then it would be a bonus, but I want to spend some time together, and I don’t want to get all stressed about it.

20,062 words.

My left hand is beginning to hurt a little, ouch. Plus I was SWAMPED at work today, attended an interesting presentation by an overseas visitor, ran a bunch of reports, put together a step-by-step guide on how to run these reports, sent out an invitation for next monday to do a demo of the system to the group, polished up the proposal, did some analysis on another project. I literally worked through lunch, didn’t have time to read anything or, worse of all, write.

Got home later than usual, by the time I sat down to start writing it was almost 8.30pm. Today’s chapter is split between Sam and Melody’s pov — they both make an effort to have dinner at home, to find some together time. There’s a little cliffhanger too.

12.54am. 15,022 words.

Only wrote about 1,300 words at work today, I was for a change busy working on an impromptu proposal for my boss, something that should not be any of my concern but she needed help. Had a 9pm conference call and TAR was on at 10pm.

Still, chapter 2 is done. This one is from Melody’s point of view. 10,148 words.

I started just after midnight. I’d been rushing to get my Holiday fic finished and I cut it real fine, finishing that one about half an hour after my self-imposec deadline. 11,000+ words, unedited. When I want a break from nano, I’ll go back and edit it.

Wrote about 350 words before tiredness overcame me. I usually need a break after I finish a story but this time I went ahead without one. Plus, I’ve been staying up late. So I decided not to be a nano hero and get some sleep on this first night.

Wrote a little during work. Busy day, I could only manage a little at a time. A few paragraphs before lunch, a longer section at lunch, some more just before I left for the day.

My aim was 5,000 words before bed, I’m at 4,664 right now, but I have another half hour or so before I’ll start thinking of bed.

justin made a cool little page so a group of us can log in and compare our word counts. Thanks, justin.

ETA: 1.41am. 5,327 words.

nano starts tomorrow, so what better to post about than books?

When a book makes the Time 100 Best novels from 1923 to the present, it’s pretty much made it. Obviously some people disagree, and Matthew Baldwin at the morning news compiled a list of reviews from amazon that gave those books only ONE out of FIVE stars. Makes me wonder if I was reading the same book as these reviewers.

I.Have.No.Words.

nanowrimo 2005 launched today. Well, it was more like they added a new announcement on the main page. What’s so funny is they have to disable registration temporarily because of one of their servers exploded. Hmm.

Am I doing it again this year? I doubt it. I had time and energy and inspiration to write last year, this year I’m so distracted with other projects I won’t have the focus to sit down and ignore all my friends and churn out another 50,000 words.

I feel restless, like the spring weather.

Sunny one minute.

Cloudly the next.

Heavy showers erupt with no warning.

And then disperse just as quickly.

My need for self-discovery is as unreachable as the quickfire flash of lightning.

It roars at me as loud as the crack of thunder.

I wonder if this will be a hot summer.

People are telling me they like my writing, this is happening more and more. Everytime this happens I feel like I want to hide, or blush, or deny vehemently. All I know is, I like doing it, I wish I can be better, I wish I’d learnt more, read more, be more perceptive, all those necessary qualities needed to be good.

I wonder how I read? I can never tell. Do I come across as ponderous? Whimsical? Quiet? Am I better at narrative or dialogue? What aboue descriptions? Characterisation? Pacing? I have no idea.

So, really, how do I read?

The nano book arrived. I got off the taxi from the airport, dragged my bag up the steps and the porter at the management office told me I have a package.

I collected the rest of my mail and when I got home I showed mm the package and asked her to guess what it was. She got it in one.

It’s here!

The white edges of the cover showed up, I wonder why they told us to use their template if it was going to be like that. Otherwise the formatting is great, the font may be a bit too large, the margins too. Well, it just makes it easier to read.

I read the first chapter, it’s a different feel, reading it on the screen or on a bunch of printed A4 paper. The feel of reading it in book format is completely different.

Like it should be better. I haven’t read it in nearly 2 months, and I must say, in book form and re-reading it now, it’s not that good. The whole chapter needs to be re-written and tightened up.

But I’m not going to. I don’t intend to publish it. I want to leave the rawness and blemishes there, keep the energy and the knowledge that I wrote all of that within 10 days.

From writers weekly, via tannagh.com, a website I came across on the wordpress support forums today while looking for examples of people using WP as a cms, to display entries and articles like the way I use MT for the non date-based sections here.

This grabbed my attention:

Think NaNoWriMo was tough? WritersWeekly has a 24-hour version.

For the pleasure of spending $5, prospective writers can register for a 24 hour short story contest run by WritersWeekly, a freelance writing ezine. The contest starts noon (Central Time) on 9 April and only 500 people can participate.

Unlike nanowrimo, this one actual has prizes — top 3 prizes are cash $200 - 300 plus some goodies. There're also 20 honourable mentions and 60 randomly drawn prizes. So the chances of taking something away is quite high, especially if not all 500 participants manage to submit.

The topic and wordcount requirements are emailed to participants at the beginning of the contest, to prevent people pre-writing. That's cool.

So now the dilemma is — should I enter? What will I be doing that weekend? Isn't it that week we planned to go away? Can I write on the fly like that?

Looking at the WritersWeekly website more closely (first time I've heard of it), it's owned by a POD company that charges writers like a few hundred bucks for the privilege of being published. With the recent comments on the nano forums about people's dubious regards for this sort of enterprise, it kinda leaves me a bit skeptical of the company. But then again, it's just a competition, I can disregard what the parent company does, right?

Eep, it's already nearly 50% full.

I discovered, through the nanowrimo forums, that *2* copies of the book was ordered. I know one is my "order", but who was the other? It seems like the people at lulu.com may have ordered a copy, may be for their records?

Anyway, I think it's pretty wise of them. According to their instructions, I set the royalty to zero, cos I haven't read it properly and not edited. Once I edited and am happy, I can get an ISBN and set the price properly and all that, or I could retire the book. So they're getting it at cost, just their own printing costs, and before it disappears. Yep, it's real clever of them.

Do I mind? Do I think they're being sneaky? May be they should have told us, but then they gave us this great offer of free printing, I'm okay about them having a copy for whatever reasons they have, as long as it's not made too public. Then again they have thousands of books, so it'll probably get buried.

Which is fine finey mcfine by me.

I finished editing the book already last week. Used the preset 6x9 template and copied the text into it.

Set the margins to 1", justified text. Debated on which font to use, the template came with Garamond but I really don't like serif fonts, so I used Verbana.

Formatted for each chapter, indenting the paragraphs, this is new to me, haven't done indents for ages and ages. But paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter and after each section break don't have indents, so it's a matter of manual formatting. Yuck.

Each chapter title has its own page, on odd pages, so, more formatting.

The footer on text filled pages has a top border line and page numbers, but the blank pages and chapter pages don't. So more formatting and manual page numbering. Total page = 190.

Fun with Word, yeah.

Then to design my own cover. Played round with various colours and, surprise surprise, background is dark blue. The image uses one of the photoshopped versions of the Nice chair. Spent some time writing the backcover, not that easy.

Created an account in lulu, uploaded the content. They usually accept .doc but I converted to pdf already, after a couple of mishaps with embedded fonts it was loaded successfully. Then loaded the front and back covers as jpg.

Then picked the spine.

And I'm done. ID is 98805.

I'd noticed it already, but a) didn't think I'd get it edited on time and b) had reservations about publishing/printing a draft copy. But I looked and looked and thought and thought.

So finally I decided, may be I should.

For nanowrimo winners, they've been able to negotiate 2 offers, one from iUniverse that costs USD309 and includes printing, cover design, 5 free copies and listing on the likes of amazon. Deadline 1 March 2005.

The second from lulu is less sophisticated, but it's free (in US, Canada, I think for countries outside they only charge postage). The catch is the author has to do all the formatting, uploading and cover graphics.

I don't want to pay $309, though the idea of having a listing on amazon and bn.com is tempting.

The offer from lulu has a deadline of 15 Jan. And since I haven't started seriously editing, I didn't think I could make it.

Then it occured to me, just do as much initial editing, get rid of typos and yucky parts, and get a copy in my hands. Why not? Cover design? It's not like I'm a complete beginner at Photoshop, shouldn't be too hard, especially when they have ready made templates already nicely sized.

So, next project. Finish editing. Finalise cover design. Add the front pages. Format the body. Send it off and get a nice printed, bound copy.

Gotta get it done by this weekend though.

From yahoo news.

Irritating words of 2004 include: flip flop when used as a verb, improvised explosive device or what once was known as a bomb, carbs, "You're fired", uber, wardrobe malfunction, blog, body wash or what used to be soap.

These are taken from the Lake Superior University Banished words list.

Strangely enough, some of the banished words have been voted words of the year by the American Dialect Society. Words like blog and the 2003 entry, metrosexual.

Just to show, each to their own.

This from yahoo news.

This year's most politically incorrec term is master/slave, which some find racially offensive.

Which is true, given the phrase's historical context and how totally unacceptably slavery was.

So how come it's returned to semi-mainstream vocabulary. I don't mean using it in D/s situations because that's a whole area the mainstream is not ready for and by its nature, politically incorrect anyway.

Apparently some computer idiot coined the term to describe primary and secondary hard drives. Just what sort of insensitive geek would think of this term, the mind boggles, why not use primary and secondary drives?

Other politically incorrect terms mentioned include "non-same sex marriage" to describe heterosexual unions, "waitron" for waiter or waitress and "higher being" for God, which only makes me think of Cordelia Chase, hmmm.

Or, how I wrote 50,000 words in under 10 days.

SPOILER ALERT: If you want to read the novel and don't want to be spoiled, don't read this post cos not only is it long, it does give the ending away.

*****

In the beginning there was an average person who liked sports (played basketball in school but gave it up once work started), a little music (was forced to learn the piano at a young age), acted in a drama or two (strictly amateur stuff at college) and writing.

It was writing that held the greatest interest, and there are small black notebooks of random scribblings, lyrics and other stuff.

Years passed and projects that were started were abandoned.

Then came fanfic, which was devoured by the truckload. And then writing fingers started to itch. Lo and behold, lots of ideas but not finished. The only finished fanfic had just over 2,300 words written over a long weekend inspired by an imaginary real incident.

Then came the discovery of nanowrimo by accident. It was 21 November 2004.

The mission was to write a minimum 50,000 word novel during the month of November. Start writing on 1 Nov and finish on 30 Nov. From scratch.

Eeep.

It was already the 21st, that left 10 days. Other people had had nearly 3 weeks' headstart.

So what? Just try. It's not a competition, word counts are entirely controlled by self discipline, at the end, "winners" get a nice pdf cert, some icons they can use as avatars, and a sense of self satisfaction. But someone can submit the same word 50,000 times and it'll get through.

Here's how I did it.

*****

Day 1. Sunday night.

The idea was hers. I told her about the challenge and she immediately came up with the premise. A woman loses her fiancé just before the wedding, goes into deep depression, only sees him in her dreams so she takes to sleeping a lot. Her work suffers, her friends are worried, not sure of the ending, may be eventually she stays in the dreamstate and joins him, ie leaves our reality.

I did a quick calculation, 50,000 in 10 days = at least 5,000 a day. Considering I was in the middle of writing Common Areas and it's taking me anything from 3 days to a week to write a chapter target of 1,500 words, that is a tall order.

I start thinking about it but I haven't made a start. I created a separate category in the original writing section though, each part will be an entry.

Day 2. Monday.

It starts of with an examination of what is normal. She is a normal person, with normal ideas, past, ambitions. I want to emphasize the normal-ness of it all. That tragedy can hit anyone anytime.

The beginning of the dream is also normal. The couple wakes up, brush their teeth, have breakfast, go to work. I imagine a suburban house, an average looking office, nothing is supposed to be out of place.

The phone ringing in the dream brings us back to reality, she struggles to get up, and go to work. I have her working in a bookstore, cos it's the best I can come up with, it's not that original but nevermind. I introduce a couple of co-workers, nice people who are concerned about her. There's a small side thread about their effort to buy out the current owners.

She falls asleep and has another dream that starts off in soft colours and hugely romantic. Then suddenly it goes pear shaped and he appears on the bed in what I imagine his state was when he got killed.

The middle of the chapter is padding, I took some wordage on stages of grief and added her thoughts about each step.

Finally it's a bit of backstory about how the dreams started and what she has been dreaming about so far.

Scene to remember, one that I bring back at the end of the story: they meet for coffee (in the dreamscape) and the first words he says to her are,

"For some reason they don't have brown sugar, normal white ok?"

Day 3. Tuesday.

The most obvious place to start the next part is her thinking back at the nightmare. This is followed by the friends going to a club and meeting more people. I don't want so many characters, but there has to be a few other characters apart from the main ones.

By part 2, we already know the name of our MC, who is Katy. The dead fiancé is Brian, the co-workers are Fatima and Rusty. I introduce a few more, Mei Lan ("their circle's nearest impersonation of Jenny Shimizu"), Daria van der Tak (an attorney introduced by Mei Lan) and Conrad (a pretentious git who pretends he's a high flying financier). Conrad disappears after one more appearance, but Mei Lan and Daria really evolve as characters, by the end of the novel they have fairly major scenes. So much so that it's probably possible to base a future novel off these two characters.

I might change their names though. At least Mei Lan's, which is a blatant attempt to pad the word count, by using a two-worded name. I didn't make so much use of the van der Tak though.

There's a second side thread about how Katy is struggling with Brian's employer about beneficial interests of his insurance, pension, 401(k). That's why she needs an attorney. I did a whole lot of research on the net about the rights of common law spouses when it comes to cases like this.

For US, it depends on state. There are 11 states (plus Washington DC) that recognise common law marriages to the extent that the parties live together, act as if, and represent to the world-at-large that they are married. The intention to be married (like registering, booking hotels etc) as well as proof of intent such as loan applications, joint accounts, deeds are used when the courts need to determine whether or not a common law marriage exists. A good point is, there isn't usually a need to determine unless it's a case of will contest, divorce proceedings or wrongful death claim.

So she has an arguable case. I haven't presented whether they lived together but the apartment is certainly in their joint names. Plus the wedding's arranged, they have the license already, the intent is certainly very strong. The way I see it, because there's no will, there has to be some hoops to jump through before the probate is finalised, but unless there's strenuous objections from his family (conveniently, his parents have passed away and he has no siblings) or other claims, she has a claim.

Made a start on part 3. This is the part where everything starts off well but then unexpected people keep turning up and unexpected things happen.

They got their financing from the bank manager and have a party to celebrate. Lots of people come, more chance to develop the minor characters. Lots of feel good factors there.

Day 4. Wednesday.

After the good comes the bad.

After the party Fatima's mother suddenly shows up demanding money and gets dismissed. Needless to say she will be back again to wreak havoc.

Some boys causes small damage when they overturn a jar of marbles. This actually happened that time I was at Forbidden Planet once, these things rolled everywhere and took a while to recover.

When Katy gets home she finds a letter addressed to Mr and Mrs Brian and Katy, which causes a mini-breakdown. Which leads to a dream.

Then comes the first of the Very Important Dreams. No longer normal every day dreams of brushing teeth, this time they are somewhere symbolic, at a railway station, with Brian supposedly leaving, for somewhere. She doesn't want him to leave and appeals to a nearby angel, who refers her to

"the Woman Upstairs"

Part 4 starts with a visit to the cemetary. It figures that she visits him regularly, perhaps making it a ritual. The touching of the name on the headstone is inspired by Paths by Justskipit, I hope I'm not infringing on any copyright there.

She said to me I have to include some scenes that describe their lives together, I didn't want to do flashbacks but I did make her do some reflective thinking.

Day 5. Thursday.

I'm bad. I'm surfing the net and writing during the day. At work. Yikes.

I surfed around the nano website and ventured for the first time into the forums. Came across people who were finished, others who were behind. But lots of encouragement.

And Dares. Oh my, dares. Ideas, preposterous situations, challenges, apparently a tradition. Some seem impossible to incorporate but as I read through the thread I copied the ones I thought were promising. I went back to the last 2 parts and incorporated some of the dares. It's fun.

The third side thread, about Mei Lan's growing feelings for Daria which gets revealed when she and Katy have lunch together. I find it easy to write Mei Lan, and to a certain extent Daria, much more so than Katy, who seems a bit too depressed for me.

A fourth side thread, where she blurts out that she had a one time affair, which is supposed to set up future scenes of guilt, but not really utilised at the end. Deep down, probably just my inner smut kitten wanting a little attention.

Wrote the first part of part 5 which is the dinner party. Shameless padding where I put in planning the menu, the actual recipes and stuff like that. Katy and Fatima plays matchmaker to Mei Lan and Daria.

What Mei Lan wears, a ruffled Pirate Shirt, I got the idea from Master Will, who was wearing a Poet's Shirt at that first moonlight party. Didn't want to be that extravagant, and found a pirate's shirt at amazon. The wide yoke and the criss crossed laces at the front were so perfect, shows off a bit of cleavage too, hehehe.

Day 6. Friday.

One of the Dares is to include Thanatos, the god of death. I did some research, mainly at wikipedia, on this god and Greek mythology on the whole. Perfect. Thanatos had a twin, Hypnos who was the god of sleep. Even more perfect.

Thanatos and Hypnos will appear in one of her dreams, how fitting is that?

I wanted to explore a bit more about the Woman Upstairs and Take-charge Katy's demands. So I stick them in a waiting room and make them go through an interview with a panel of "judges" to see if their demands are met. Kinda like St Peter at the Gate.

I have the 2 gods, then I decided to add representatives from other species, like aliens, humans, animals, robots. Couldn't figure out the animal part, but the robot the obvious choice is the one from Metropolis, the original robot in the original sci fi film by Fritz Lang. I asked my non sci fi focused colleague about aliens and she came up with Superman. Great, cos he can represent humans too.

The interview scene was surreal but very easy to write. The whole idea, and that wasn't actually done very well, is that the interviewees see whoever they want to see. So the penguins before them could have been interviewed by others, and not this particular bunch. I named the panel the gods and robots goon squad.

I wrote most of this at work. Bad me.

Had to go to a dinner Friday night, missing precious time. I was pretty angsty at that stage, all too aware that I was running out of time. And my temper was bad too.

After dinner when I got to her place I wrote a little about the aftermath but that was it.

Day 7. Saturday.

My first full day for writing. And it did not go well.

I was too distracted by my usual places. Fanfic, fanfic, fanfic. Plus WaTchers and The Chosen had new eps which I'd missed. So I was reading them, or surfing through wikipedia. No good at all.

A whole morning and afternoon and all I managed was writing about going to the con, that's after reading a whole load of material about Comic Con, tarot stuff and scraping the bottom of my mind for anecdotes.

Luckily at the back of my mind I'd already been planning for the next downturn — of the bookstore being broken into and vandalised. CSI experience became handy. What I didn't realise was that Fatima's mother turned out to be the culprit which will lead to Fatima leaving. I know now why people sometimes say characters have a mind of their own, I didn't expect Fatima to leave.

Again the ending of the story came from my best girl, who suggested that Katy runs into a double of Brian at a Christmas fair and they talk but this new person has different personality to her Brian and things happen that may or may not be good.

So I was desperately calculating. At the end of Saturday I was at 33. I can't have the Christmas fair until at least 40, preferably 45. I have the Woman Upstairs issue to resolve, at that stage I had no idea who that woman is. That's towards the end of the story, not till the mid- or late-40s. So I have something like 10,000 words I have to fill and no new scenes.

Day 8. Sunday.

Was a very hard slog that I got through by sheer determination.

I took out a character mentioned early in part 1, her therapist, and wrote in a visit. I wrote in a replacement for Fatima which led to a little sci fi trivial pursuit. The funniest line, when Rusty says to Mei Lan, "I'm sure Daria will go ga-ga for your Lara" when they were talking about costumes. Plus of course the significance of both 42 and 50,000.

Then a Dare of putting a recipe for chocolate cake somewhere in the novel, as an interlude. Did that.

Still not enough words. So I used another tried and tested method. Katy writing a letter to Brian to express her feelings. It was long and rambling but it summed up her feelings.

A further interlude, again thanks to my inner smut kitten, of my version of truth and dare, they took turns describing their first sexual experience. Oh I'm bringing out the clichés now.

Day 8. Monday.

I had my office door closed for most part of the day.

Which brings me to the first of the dream finales. The gods and robots goon squad make an appearance, and she finds Brian. They have a night of perfect sex.

In the shadows of candlelight that shone unabated, they danced the slow dance of long lost lovers, as if it were the first time, or their last. It was not a greeting, nor a farewell. It was simply a finding and also a closing. For they had cast the circle now, and a circle had no beginnings or endings.

Aaaannnd I'm at part 10.

The Christmas market, again backstory and padding.

Then she spotted the guy, the one who looks like her Brian. But it was just a glimpse, under the influence of a fair bit of alcohol.

I'm at 45,863 when I leave the office, just over 4,000 to go.

The second part of the dream finale was easy, it's all about the carousel in the room that I've always dreamt about. They get on, it spins faster and faster and they get to the place where souls are judged. They meet the goon squad again and still there are no answers.

I know now who the Woman Upstairs is, it's no one, or rather, it's Katy herself. That in order to get over the grief, to learn to live again, and all that psychobabble stuff, she has to face herself.

The only person who can help her is her

So I write in a bit where she faces off with Thanatos, because ultimately it is his show, this journey is all about facing death. At the end when she is having the argument with him, and the others try to intervene, she says,

This is between Death and me.

and then finally,

"I am the Woman Upstairs, look at me."
The face in the mirror was her own.

So I got to 48,000+. And I knew there was only the one little ending scene, more of an epilogue. And I was around 1,000 words short. Damn.

Shit.

I took her back to the market to finish her Christmas shopping, I gave her a small flashback about a winter coat, I made her think about the ending of the dream.

Then I told her,

She truly believed she would not dream of Brian again. Though she was saddened by the thought, it was not as devastating as she expected it to be, nor did she feel guilt at that realization. He had gone on ahead, euphemistically, with Thanatos, although she was sure he gone some place upstairs.

Heaven, if you will.

It was time to move on.

The last scene would be better off in an epilogue but it's only 290 words. She runs into the double guy and the first words he says to her are,

"For some reason they don't have brown sugar, normal white ok?

And I'm done.

Dares claimed and used:

1. Mr Ian Woon. Done. Part 3. He was the bank manager who approved the small business loan that Katy and Fatima needed to buy their bookstore.
2. Include the line "Mummy did love me! Mummy was just busy. She had a lot of meetings to go to." Done. Part 3. Fatima's mother said something similar when she barged into the store demanding money.
3. One character asks what time is it and the other answers 4.30. Done. Part 3. In the dream sequence at the railway station Katy asked Brian what time it was twice and both times it was 4.30.
4. A stone armadillo painted bright pink, except for its head, which was purple. Done. Part 3. Same dream sequence had an angel stroking said stone armadillo on her lap.
5. A religious object falls on a character and after they discover what it is they say "holy shit". Done. Part 3. A jeweled crucifix fell on Katy and she wonders why an object from the vampire section was hiding among the lightsabers.
6. A character puts a bag of popcorn upside-down in the microwave, the popcorn then explodes. Done. Part 4. Brian did that one movie night.
7. Have a character pass out after eating an apple. Done. Part 4. Mei Lan's date at the bookstore party did that, but we only heard the incident mentioned afterwards.
8. Refer to something coming upon your character "like a mugger in Central Park, up from behind and scary as hell." Done. Part 4. Party animal Mei Lan used it to describe her burgeoning feelings for another character.
9. Include a completely awkward love/seduction scene. Done. Part 4. She had a one time thing with a co-worker, it was awkward, embarassing and unintended. She never told Brian that she cheated on him.
10. Warm onion, another nanowrimo anagram. Done. Part 5. The appetizer at the dinner party was warm onion tart.
11. Incorporate whatever image is on your calendar for the month of November somewhere in your novel. Done. Part 5. My Good Food calendar has a recipe for Portugese Roast Pork with sweet sour vegetables, which was the main course for the same dinner party.
12. Refer to your favorite novel at least three times. My favorite novel is probably The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway, but my second favorite is Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero which was the one I used:
    
    
    
    • Part 5. The warm onion tart had milk, cream and cheese filling, but she knew she could not skimp on the milk or cream, using dairy that had less than zero percent fat content made the mixture curdle.
    
    
    • Part 7. It was a rainy day and there was a less than zero chance of sunshine that day.
    
    
    • Part 8. How do you measure temperatures less than zero?
    
    
    
    
13. Have a previously unmentioned fire extinguisher randomly go off. Done. Part 5. In the gods and robots waiting room.
14. What two male penguins do together is their business. Done. Part 5. As discussed by the gods and robots.
15. Include the God of Death (Thanatos) in your story somewhere. Done. Part 5. Thanatos and his twin Hypnos were part of the gods and robots questioning squad.
16. It's against my programming to impersonate a deity. Done. Part 5. Maria the Robot from Metropolis Fritz Lang Nineteen Twenty Seven was the robots' rep in the gods and robots goon squad.
17. Have a dark and forbidding character say "come to the dark side, we have cookies."Done. Part 6. At the con. "No one wants to be a white hat anymore, that's so out. Come to the dark side, we're way cooler, we can do what we want, we can control the universe, most of all, we have cookies," her friend the Gentleman used this to entice her to volunteer to be made up as a demon.
18. Start one of your chapters (or the entire book) with: "On every other morning, the sun rose serenely in the east, casting glorious rays of light over xxx. Today, it thought better of it and decided to sleep in." Done. Part 7.
19. Include a recipe for chocolate cake in your novel. It may be a separate chapter, but it should preferably just randomly appear in the middle of the story, then the story continues as if the recipe wasn't interrupting it. Done. Part 8. Kinda. She decided to have a weekend cake sale at the bookstore and made half a dozen chocolate cakes.
20. Include the fact that the word 'hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia' means 'the fear of long words'. Done. Part 8. In the letter about how there is not a big enough word to describe how she missed him.
21. I couldn't find you to tell you where I was. Done. Part 8. Katy wrote it in her letter to Brian.
22. "If you stick that thing in me one more time I swear to God I'll break it in half!" It can mean whatever you want. Done. Part 9. Daria's tale.
23. 3 references to a cup of oversteeped tea. Only managed it once, in Part 4. When Mei Lan commented that a cup of oversteeped tea was like a cup of poison.

Dares I thought I could use but didn't:

• Have someone say, "You just got salt in my ear, you bitch!" in public.
• Refer indirectly to nanowrimo and the 50,000 word count. i.e. have someone trying to do 50,000 of something in a month
• Have a scene revolve around the dilemma of grass being green and whether or not the color is a matter of perception
• Mention a helicopter passing over head at odd moments.
• Include line "Where the hell are your pants?"
• Make a character dance on a table. Bonus if they do it in a very suggestive manner. Double bonus if they are completely sober at the time.
• Have someone get their nipple pierced for no apparent reason.
• Have a character who interrupts normal question to ask "I'm sorry, could you spell that please?" in at least two different conversations.
• Use the line "Uphill, both ways," and have it be true in context.
• Include the sentence "The lamp just stood there, like an inanimate object."
• Name a chapter "Hair dye, Fake Nails, and a Fish."
• Include a female Betta fish named Agatha.
• Have a character collect nail polish from the bargain bins at chemists and places like that. They must never let anyone else near their collection.
• Mention how hard it is to cut your nails when they have nail polish on them.
• "A JELLY DONUT?! HOW DID IT GET THERE?!"
• Include the line "Running into trees is not sexy." somewhere in your novel. Bonus points if the speaker is referring to a redhead running into a tree.
• Include a person who does not know what a slinky is. Bonus points if s/he tries to guess and gets it completely wrong.
• Have a math nerd (or, alternately, a non-math nerd for added fun) use the following pickup line: "are you a derivative function? because i want to be tangent to your curves."
• Have someone throw a blender at another character. Bonus points if they're not in a kitchen at the time.
• Have someone eat a piece of fruit that is not a banana in a sexual way.
• Include an animal stampede through the busy streets of wherever your story is taking place.

It's finished. I don't have any more scenes to write. I had to really stretch the last part.

I kind of massaged my submission. Changed words like "I'm" to "I am" to help with the word count. Is that cheating? Grey area, I guess.

According to the MT word count it's 49,037 words.

But that's for entries only. Counting the find-and-replaces, the title, the intro, the chapter titles and chapter summaries it's 50,078 words.

Saved into Word, and did some "encryption" as recommended by the nano folks, using the replace function again. Word count is not affected but the words are not that recognisable.

1. a = bb
2. r = h
3. you = zxbq
4. th = pem
5. en = d
6. l = k
7. o = cha
8. s = ge

It was a hard slog today. The ideas I had before had all been written up and slightly padded. I knew what was coming and the direction of how wanted to story to end, but I was at 33,000 words this morning and the climax can't start till at least 40,000, preferably 45,000. I knew I had another 2,000 to finish off for Part 7 but I was very stumped for Part 8.

At the end Part 7 was short which made Part 8 even more difficult.

Anyway, Part 8's done now. I'm not finished for the night but I thought I'd check-in now. Hopefully I can manage another late 1,000. That'll be great for the home stretch tomorrow.

42,173 words.

Edited at 1.39am: it's now 2 hours later and it's at 43,177 words. Not very good huh.

What's a wrimo's best friend: google and wikipedia.

What's not a wrimo's best friend right now: new episodes at WaTchers and The Chosen.

33,166 words.

Depending on which word count tool I use, I get different results, sometimes as much as 100 words.

I use the MT word count plugin by Adam Kalsey, the MS Word counter and an online word count script. Because I don't have Office at home I can't just rely on the Word counter, and because the MT plugin only works with published entries, I can't use it for draft entries either. Anyway it's just a rough idea.

26,873 words.

I discovered dares. They're real fun, but have sidetracked my story into a weird direction. Amazingly I've completed 11 2/3 dares already. What's with the fraction? Some dares you have to do 3 times, so each time is 1/3.

I thought I could write more, but it's slow.

22,228 words.

It must be a coincidence. Most times whe I do a word count it's always something like 1598, 4989 or 14981. Always just short of a milestone.

16,373 words.

End of Day 2.

It's like going on the treadmill, the first incline looms. I think that reading so much fanfic has helped. The story isn't great, but I can still come up with scenes.

10,288 words.

This is going to be a very boring (for you the reader) 9 days in the run up to 30 November. Because I'm going to drop almost everything and concentrate on nanowrimo.

First, where is my work? It's parked over here.

Secondly I'm going to try to remember to post an update everyday.

I think the image isn't working, but for those interested, I'm at 5,080 words. Still a huge long way to go.

I'm hopelessly late. It's already 21 November.

Can I do it? Write 50,000 words by 30 November? It's national novel writing month.

I can try. I'm not sure if I can even type 50,000 random words by then. Sigh.

I need more time! arrgghh!

I started a new category in innermost room called Blink. I'll try.

gynotikolobomassophilia

In order not to spoil anything, I'll link to its definition rather than post it here. Look it up, it's worth the while, really.

here

Note: I should put a R rating on this post, because of the topic.

I was trying to make sure I have the correct spelling for this word that describes a compendium of demons and mystical beings as it pertains to a particular universe.

bestiary:
a collection of stories providing physical and allegorical descriptions of real or imaginary animals along with an interpretation of the moral significance each animal was thought to embody.

Like a BtVS bestiary would contain descriptions and myths surrounding vampires, hellgods, praying mantis ladies, bringers, and such like.

Now I know, but when I googled it, I didn't know how it's spelled properly and typed bestiality, thinking it's something similar.

Gulp.

bestiality:
1