Recently in Dailyish Musings Category

All right, I know I've been delinquent in updating, remiss in keeping in touch, but I promise as of December 1st I will be back to a regular posting schedule.

Participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this month has been amazing for many, many reasons. I've finished the first draft of my graphic novel, developed the plot and half of the first draft of the sequel (the full story will take somewhere between six and nine graphic novels), and right smack dab in the middle I came up with an idea for a screenplay that is just begging to be written. Internet, I am hopelessly, thoroughly hooked on writing. Oh! And somewhere in the midst of my frenzied writing/working/parenting schedule I also made it known to my superiors that I will be applying for the teacher internship program that my work offers. Yes, the words 'I would like to teach high school students' came right out of my mouth and hung there for all to see. NaNoWriMo either enabled the deepest recesses of my soul to pour forth freely, unhindered by that pesky internal editor that I had to chop up and put in the basement freezer, or I went completely insane.  Probably the latter.

No, in all seriousness, I love the students I work with, I love the philosophy of the school and I haven't met a staff member that I didn't immediately respect and admire for some reason or other. If I'm lucky enough  to be accepted into the internship program, I'll be over the moon. However, that is a long way off. Next September. In the meantime I've got three writing projects to complete.

I'm going to give the rough draft and a half of my graphic novel a month's rest. I want to look at them with fresh eyes on January 1st. Then polish, polish, polish, until Comic-Con. As for December, I plan to write the rough draft of my screenplay.  I've been attending a read & critique group  of screenplay writers for a few months now. The format for writing a graphic novel is very similar to that of a screenplay, so it was a natural fit. My group has been an invaluable source of information, analysis and feedback. Everyone should have read & critique groups. For everything.  Difficult day with the children?  Thank goodness I have my read & critique parenting group!  Traffic particularly nasty?  Whew!  A good read & critique session with my fellow commuters should put it in perspective!

But I digress. As it so happens, I have this week off work and Kyna has no school. I'm finished my NaNoWriMo writing and plan to spend the last days of November letting ideas percolate for my December screenplay project while I take Kyna to the zoo, cook some delicious food with friends, and pull out the Christmas decorations. 

In short, I'm breathing the crisp holiday air with gusto.

Have I mentioned that I work in a highly uh..., we'll use the word 'progressive', high school environment? Today, as I helped out a chemistry class, the teacher took a brief break to show the students this short YouTube video. It is, after all, Friday.

Now, before I unleash its supreme brilliance upon you, I need to clarify my own position on Star Wars. I am an old school Star Wars fan, and loved the original three. However, after sitting through an hour and a half of Jar-Jar Binks, I decided that our relationship as film and fan had  come to an end. That being said, this is possibly the most brilliant musical tribute to a composer I've ever witnessed.

Ladies and Gentlemen, a tribute to Star Wars theme composer John Williams:

Hopefully you did too.

We've got cake and champagne and have settled in with friends for a night of intense political speculation. It's like Christmas for adults.

And all is well. I am happy to report that with constant vigilance and supreme dedication to duty, I have completed the necessary one thousand six hundred and sixty seven words BOTH days of this fine month of November. Two days in, and I'm not behind. I couldn't ask for more.

I even signed the contract. It reads:


I love these people.

Otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month. In November I will attempt to write 50,000 words in thirty days. That will be around work, parenting, and the genetic need for a minimum of eight and half hours sleep a night. So far, with my job, I've managed to write about ten pages every two weeks. Under NaNoWriMo rules I will have to produce about five pages a day. That's without dialog. Dialog creates inordinate amounts of white space. Space without any words. Which is bad.  NaNoWriMo is all about quantity. Quality is burned in effigy and internal editors are chained to the radiator. All that matters is your word count, your friend's word count, and whether your word count is higher.

If I write one word blogs during November, or all my haikus are missing the last line, that is because these words Do Not Count.

So on this day, sometime before November 2008, I, Daisy, do hereby pledge to write long winded paragraphs, abysmal subplots, crappy dialog and ignore plot structure altogether. In regards to character arc, if my finished work has a consistent protagonist, it will be a miracle. May the one with the highest word count win.

Wish me luck!