Time has to pass. I need to get a grip.
Suffice it to say that when I read the end, I held the book in my hands, rested my chin on the rough little platform made by the tops of its 562 pages, and cried about how fine a book it is -- feeling neither sorrow nor joy, just the empty space you find inside yourself when someone takes a pick axe to your heart and everything makes sense for five minutes. I'll be better soon.
Oops. Once again, in spite of my best efforts, I may have gone ahead and talked crazy after all. No apologies. Let's move on.
This post, however, is more about NaNoWriMo. If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, you're missing knowing about all the fun. You don't have to participate to delight in the idea. It's such a cool idea. I wrote about it here: http://lakeewriter.blogspot.com/2010/10/nanowrimo.html
Today, Billy, who as you know sends me bountiful numbers of excellent things from the Internet, found news of a superior offer on Lifehacker.com. I am also a fan of this hacker of life but I forget to go there because there are just too many places to go, as you may have noticed. This blog is, for example, one of way too many of those places.
Turns out there is a free app from "Scrivener the word processing app" especially for NaNoWriMo challenge writing. You get the beta app for FREE. (I used to be in advertising -- I always uppercase FREE. It's the law.) Then if you win the challenge (by merely completing your 50,000 words and sending them in to The Office of Letters and Light) you get 50% off the $45 price of the regular license for Scrivener.
Here's the deal for Mac & Windows as seen on Lifehacker today: http://lifehacker.com/5673442/scrivener-writing-app-offers-extended-beta-trials-on-mac-and-windows
What do I know about this really? Nada. I've barely read the post, but I downloaded the app and it looks very interesting. It captured my imagination which is always wandering around, carelessly susceptible to the lure of shiny objects. I love everything about the idea of NaNoWriMo and I wanted to pass it on before the colors fade.
Now. Truth -> Power.
In this equation, you, the reader, are Power.
This is the Truth. I have no idea whether I'm going to make the challenge.
I have no clue, truly, how challenging a new knee is going to be. I may be so drugged up and cranky I won't write doodly squat for a month. I do have a plan. It's so ephemeral it can't even be seen. But I'm hoping that this Scrivener serendipity may ground my plan in the real world so I can follow it after I come back down from doing sufficient numbers of the fabulous pain-eradicating drugs I've been promised. We'll see.
Maybe none of us will write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.
But maybe somebody will.
Maybe it'll be me.
Or Viv. Heh, heh, heh.
Or you.
Oh right! Just when I was thinking of taking the night off. . . having frittered it away with In Treatment (HBO) -- a good substitute for my own, and here you go off on WammoWritoNovo. As it happens I got up this morning at 5:30 just to try out what it would feel like to string 1667 words together, and one hour later, I stopped just there, end of sentence at 1667. And what did I have to show, 1667 words, no closer to a story than before. But I've been back to the site, looking down the list, where I didn't actually find a Lake Writer... or didn't recognize your pen name -- that would be e-pen name -- anyway, I've got this next-to-impossible notion for a story, a story I can't possibly write in a month, but the curious thing about it is this . . . that I have a notion at all.
ReplyDeleteSo -- do I ignore the fact that I'm working on three/four different exhibits involving assignments on topics ranging from clinical depression, to oncology, to nutrition, to green living and concrete (that's correct, CONCRETE -- as in Roads, Bridges Tunnels- a Department of Transportation contract)?? Do I care about sleep and sanity -- or should I just drink pots of coffee all month, and throw all caution to the wind.
It won't be fun. It won't be pretty. It won't even be good.
My plate would be full -- except for the fact that it's Thanksgiving -- the time of year where one is expected to begin the season of overindulgence -- so, Ann -- who ya got joining you on this crazy venture anyway? Any takers, for real?
I suppose I could get all zen about this NaNoThing and suggest to myself that any attempt in the direction of fiction next month would be something more than where I am, so what would there be to lose?
Of course, I wouldn't want anyone to actually read the product of such a reckless attempt -- because to get to the requisite 50,000 words, I would sweep every scrap of composition into the count, which would include notes, detours, false starts, grocery lists, even comments such as the one you are reading, in short, it would be an exercise in metafiction-- the blogger looking over the shoulder of the would-be writer, jeering at the storyteller in search of characters, running through the streets of a hostile land of make-believe posing as reality.
heh, heh, heh...
Hurray! No, Viv. I really did sign up. I don't know what my pen name might be. I'll check. Wow. I'd forgotten how fast you can get to 1600 words. I have had lots of 3,000 word days and some 5s, but I don't cook on 5000 word days. The mental picture of my first couple of days in the hospital looks like I don't want the laptop there. But it might be good for musing and taking notes. Or complaining.
ReplyDeleteBut you. You are wonderful and I think you should go for it. I don't see a downside. I really don't And you know you can actually scramble the doc before you send it. They don't read them. They just cheer you on! As do I.
P.S. Your family weekend just warmed my heart.
Very close. Wednesday. I may just up and. . . go for it. Got to keep up the blog, the comments, the turkey -- all of it!
ReplyDelete(Ann, you may turn me into a writer, yet)
Wishing you godspeed through the week, and the surgery. Monday, pack your laptop with your toothbrush and lipstick, prepare to recover much quicker than you expect. Be well.
CAPTCHA: Unlaten -- hidden in clear sight