2006-11-08

... A random question ?

First off, I know how utterly bizarre this question is.
But I'm stuck. This is a semi-major story turning point (no really, it is) and I have no kids, so I have no idea whether it's at all plausible.

So could someone with children tell me: how old (ish) does a child have to be before not fitting under your chin when sitting on your lap?
And if you have time on your hands (while writing a 50k novel. HA.) tell me quickly what it's like having a seven year old daughter?

(I thought of asking my mum this, but I couldn't think of a tactful way to say 'so, what's it like having kids? Umm, this is just totally impartial research for a book I'm writing, you know.')

Love Alla

New Calendar

Just made a new desktop calendar to keep me motivated... yes, I know, I could have been writing instead. (That is what my hubby said too.) *grumble grumble grumble*

Take if you like! Enjoy!

New Calendar

Just made a new desktop calendar to keep me motivated... yes, I know, I could have been writing instead. (That is what my hubby said too.) *grumble grumble grumble*

Take if you like! Enjoy!

Current Mood: creative
Current Location: Couch
Current Music: Be a Clown - De-lovely soundtrack

jumps on bandwagon

So, I finally cast my novel.

Jeremy Higgins is Colin Firth (MMC)
Ruth Kesteris Cate Blachett (FMC)
Malcolm Kester is Peter O'Toole (Ruth's brother)
Catherine Higgins is Maggie Gyllenhaal (Jeremy's sister)

And, because I cannot go a month without making icons...

And yes, I know, Cate Blachett looks older than 24, but the picture was too perfect.

Current Mood: creative
Current Location: Couch
Current Music: Be a Clown - De-lovely soundtrack

jumps on bandwagon

And yes, I know, Cate Blachett looks older than 24, but the picture was too perfect.

Second week slump.

Who's hit the second week slump then?

This is my first year NaNo'ing and last week I thought "HA! I'll never hit the slump! I'm far too excited and my story is cool!"
Boy, was I wrong.
I'm struggling to get excited by my characters and my plot has slowed to a bit of a crawl.
I only managed 500 words yesterday, and that was pretty painful! How the hell did I manage 8000 in the first day?! Must have been crazy!

NaNo veterans, how did you overcome the slump?

Second week slump.

Some Inspiration.

Alright, I keep seeing posts about people being behind on word counts, so its time for a story. :)

Last year on November 29th, I sat down to write my third 8 page research paper in a row (I had one due the 28th, the 29th and then the 30th). It was due the next day. So, of course, like a GOOD college student, I waited until the night before to do it. I sat down at 9:00 pm and had the thing finished by 12:05 am on November 30th. I wasn't really tired, so I turned to my NaNo Novel.

I had abandoned it after Thanksgiving break, thinking I would never have the time to finish it with my crazy class schedule. I was just under 30,000 words. But I decided to work on it, just for fun until I got tired and needed to go to sleep.

My little moment of deciding to work on it lasted until 9:30 the next morning. I wrote for 9 1/2 hours straight, no checking my word count, no potty breaks (well, maybe one), no crying fits of despair, I just wrote. When it finally dawned on me what time it was, I checked my word count.

I had reached 46,000 words. The end was in sight! Inbetween all my classes that day (and even during), I wrote.

I hit 50,000 by 11:30 on November 30th. I had won for my second year in a row.

So, when you are getting down because you are behind, remember that there is hope for finishing. I had given up, admitted defeat and I STILL won. I think too often in this crazy pursuit of noveling greatness, we forget that simply writing is what we need to do. It's not all about the word count, and using dares, and having word wars. It's really about you, your amazing plot idea, and your computer/notebook. And you know what? Those last 20,000 words that I wrote in less than 24 hours were far better than those I wrote when all I was concerned about was reaching my daily quota.

Hopefully my story inspired you. :)

Allie aka Starlite2246 on the boards.

Some Inspiration.

Current Mood: distressed

AHHHH!!!

I just figured out the perfect alternate beginning to my story...13000+ words into it. What do I do?!?&%$*)*@ Whatever, I'm keeping my word count. I'll consider what I've already done 'research into my characters'. :p

Current Mood: distressed

AHHHH!!!

(no subject)

I posted this on my website (http://weird24seven.com) but I thought I'd put it here too:

"All right. I like Chess Speak too much to write it while ignoring quality, so I'm going to try this again. I'm starting over with a new story that I have no plans for and I'm just writing what comes to me. I'm currently about 12000 words behind, but that shouldn't be a problem. I'm not attached to this story enough to care if what I write is random and doesn't make sense, but I'm writing it. Amy Jo suggested using the names Faye and Tray for the main characters, and I figured why not use that as the title, so the title of my NaNoWriMo 2006 project is Faye and Tray. Melissa suggested names Alicia and Damian as secondary characters, so they'll be in there somewhere too. So far it's looking like a Fantasy story. Anyway, I need ideas. Email me anything you want to see happen in this story, and it will. Want to see someone die? Want to add a character? Do you want Alicia to be magically transformed into a player piano? Should manatees attack (despite that they don't exist)? Anything goes. Email your plot ideas to weird24seven@gmail.com, and I will incorporate them. If you submit an idea I'll let you read the end product for free. Remember, the story ends on the 30th. Vampires, chickens, soy carrots, I don't care. Oh, and I won't be editing this AT ALL.
-Sonya"

Please email ideas instead of commenting here, though you can do both if you want. It's just easier for me to keep track of them if you email them.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: SEAT BELTS - Clutch

Newbie post and HELP WANTED

Hi all. I'm a newbie, not only to this community, but to Nano as well.

alison_sky is a friend of mine and guided me here. I'm hoping for a little inspiration to actually keep going. I've known about Nano for years, but never attempted it before. This year I thought "why not?" and decided to give it a shot. I'd just read the Logan's Run novels and it gave me an idea. My story isn't exactly original in origins. I'm using the universe Nolan created. So, it's sci-fi, post apocolyptic, with hopefully a little romance later. I currently only have 4583 words written, but I've hit a bit of a... log jam. I sit there and look at the screen. I know where the story is going. I know what I want to say and what the characters need to say to each other. I just can't seem to make my fingers type the words. Does anyone have any suggestions of what might help?

I thought I'd also give you a little teaser of the story as well.

( Teaser )

Alisky, I apologize if I've overstepped my boundaries here. I hope I've not done anything against the rules.

Current Music: Goodnight, Well It's Time to Go - The Spaniels

Oh, dear.

I was doing some math on how much I have written, how far I have to go, and how much I'd need to write to complete my novel.

I'm halfway done NaNo on the 8th and I've come to the horrifying conclusion that I would need easily more than 375,000 words to finish the first novel. Wow, great planning on my behalf.

Does anyone else think that NaNoWriMo should have different competition levels?

Current Music: Goodnight, Well It's Time to Go - The Spaniels

Oh, dear.

Current Mood: blank

Getting characters to fall in love

I need my main female character to fall in love with my main male character because part of my plot twisting at the end hinges greatly upon it. Only thing is that I can't seem to get them to fall in love with each other. The story is set in a medieval setting (but no magic or anything), so it's not like they can hook up via myspace or whatever. They know each other, they work together, and they flirt a lot - so anyone have any ideas on how to get them to fall madly in love?

Current Mood: blank

Getting characters to fall in love

Current Mood: confused

Titles

My story is going very well lately, and it's been eight days since I've started the story and...I'm completely blank on what to call my story! I've thought about it for a while, tried alternative ideas that dealt with the actual story itself and I just can't seem to think of one.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to come up with a good title? Normally, I'm not this blank at trying to come up with titles, but I am for this one...

Current Mood: confused

Titles

Vote now! Your vote matters! For seriousness!

Quick survey!

My novel's setting is a rainforest; the natives -- they're native, but they're not primitive! -- use the rivers as a means of transportation. There is, however, one lake that is sequestered via naturally-formed dams from the rest of the waterway; it's called the Oestel (pronounced 'westool') and harbors the Oestel rai, carnivorous sea beasts who are currently some sort of cross between a whale and a plesiosaurus (think Loch Ness Monster). (This is important, because towards the end of the novel, a pseudo-terrorist plot involves the unleashing of said sea creatures onto an unsuspecting populace.)

Now, here's the rub: originally, I had the method of waterway transportation being these sea beasts, though a domesticated version called the river rai. I'm thinking that may be cheesy. The other option is to have human labor, like taxi cab drivers who row the boat instead of drive the car. This may be okay for passenger vehicles, but I worry about the transportation of large, heavy objects and über amounts of people.

But without further ado... here's the survey!

[Poll #863649]

Feel free to comment with the reasons for your decision. :-)

Vote now! Your vote matters! For seriousness!

Current Mood: Heh.
Current Music: NPR-Italian opera

Wedding Gown Experts?

I need to describe a wedding gown that one of my character goes shopping for the first part of my novel. She's finicky and has been planning her wedding since she was 12. Therefore,everything must be perfect.

I looked up a site about gowns to chose a style or her--she wants to be traditional wit ha modern twist --but I got so lost. It's so confusing and there are so many styles! I never knew that that were that many gowns in the world! And I'm not familiar with the fabrics at all. Tulle? Wht the heck is tulle?

It makes me feel like I'm not a proper girl or something. :P I've never gone shopping for so much as a church dress,that was years ago. There's like,one skirt in my closet right now.

Help a girl out? :D

Current Mood: Heh.
Current Music: NPR-Italian opera

Wedding Gown Experts?

Ergh

Help!

I hate my story all of all of a sudden. I was going gangbusters, and then, pltthhh.

I think I'll chock it up to being a newbie to this, also, next time I need to flesh out my story a little more than I did.

Anyone else with this issue? Do you think I can overcome this?

I'm under 10,000, but not by far.