Why Yes, I did Fall Off the Face of the Earth

I suppose I should apologize for disappearing right when things were starting to get exciting in Nanowrimo, huh?
I do apologize blogworld. I will say, though, that the last week of Nanowrimo, while successful, was a struggle, and one about which I did not really wish to write. Too much moaning. Too much head-keyboard contact. Too much caffeine.
Then, with the blog-daily habit broken, I kind of fell out of it as other things swarmed in. Things like graduate school, which I started just after the New Year--I got my acceptance letter on the 30th, the same day I finished Nano (but the story is nowhere near finished. In fact, it's still on chapter 7. Yes, I know that is pathetic). Things like my fiance finally (finally) moving here permanently, and wedding planning taking off at about five million miles an hour (I don't see how people can get married multiple times. Just arranging my own single wedding has turned me off event planning FOREVER. And I'm not even doing much of it!) Things like that, which kept me from blogging. The 'real' world needed my attention desperately, and so my stories, once again, were put on the back burner.

Today, however, the real world reminded me that despite the amount of attention I give it, its sometimes not enough to keep things running smoothly. Today, I lost my job.

Now, that is not to say I was fired (I wasn't) or that something terrible has happened that requires medical leave (it hasn't). No, the company for which I work has fallen prey to our sucky economy, and today they announced they were closing stores in an effort to restructure and become more competitive. My store was one of those stores.

We'll have a few weeks, I think, while we try to sell all our merchandise. At least one more paycheck, though hopefully two. Then, it'll be just school, and the quarter is ending soon, so I'll have at least a week of absolutely nothing to do, unless I find a new job double stat.

obviously, I am looking. I was looking before this even became a reality because, honestly, most of us knew SOMETHING like this was going to happen. Now that it has, I really need to put the drive on now.

But there's a small part of me that is kind of looking forward to one less 'real world' responsibility and a little more free time. Maybe, just maybe, I can climb back in the saddle (for the forty-sixth BILLION time) and approach my poor stories with a little more dedication, a little more inspiration. I think about them constantly, especially Five, but when I sit down to actually write, nothing happens.

I need to hold myself more accountable for my writing. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you don't have the discipline to hone that talent and commit to it, you might as well have no talent at all. I have a tiny smidge of talent--I need to nurture it and help it get stronger, not ignore it until I can't write worth a damn anymore.

So here's to new beginnings. I won't promise more consistent posting (yet) because I'm not sure I can deliver. But I fully intend to use this turn of events in a positive way, and I intend to use this space to hold myself accountable to that plan.

Good luck to me. God knows I need it.

~Katherine

Nov. 20: Time. I lack it.

A miracle occurred today. I sat down to work on my WIP, and by some grace of karma or good luck, I managed to squeak in the mandatory word count for today, keeping me if not ahead of the game, than at least right IN the game.
I haven't fallen behind yet, but a series of extremely hard days and late nights have definitely killed my lead.
Thanksgiving is coming up this week, which means my ability to write is going to be further compromised. With less than 20k to go in this project, I really REALLY don't want to fall behind and fail now, but naturally this is also when life decides to get serious about trying to kill me.
Persevere, fellow writers. We'll get there. Eventually.

~Katherine

Nov. 15: Sleep is For the Weak!! *snore*

I am quite sleep deprived, blogworld. The screech of my building's ancient heating system kept me up half the night, and my cat felt it was of capital importance to wake me up two hours before my alarm went off, roughly three hours after I had finally gotten to sleep once the afroementioned screeching had finally stopped. As a result, there may be a few tupos in this post.
Tpyos.
Typos.
There.
I have hit 27,588 words tonight (most of them mispelled). I am, so far, still pleased with my plot, but increasingly bored with my charactrers. They are moving verrrryyyy sloowwwwwllllyyyy. This is partly due to the fact that the beginning of this story takes some time to build. But I think it is also largely due to the fact that they are not being fueled by a sense of urgency. I am not being fueled by a sense of urgency. My story is in danger of falling victim to its own insolence.
No. Indolence. I mean Indolence. My story is in danger of becoming indolent, which means it will slow to a complete halt and just sort of wallow somewhere in chapter five. Not good.
Maybe I should make one of my characters REALLY sleep deprived. That might make things more interesting. Have them trip over things a lot. It would certainly make weriting the text more interesting.
writing*
I think I should probably stop writing this post, now, as I'm clearly not going anywhere with it.
But yes, 27k. Yay! Everyone keep writing! Sleep is for the wkea!!!! And the weak**!!!!!
~Katherine

Nov. 14: Oooh, We're Halfway There, Oooh, We're Living on a Prayer!

Ah Bon Jovi. You always have a lyric appropriate for every time and situation.

It's been four days, blogworld. Four very long, very tiring days. I've been working a lot of 9 hour shifts, including a fun one a few days ago in preparation for a national event of the celebrity-coming-to-promote-book variety. We weren't so much bookstore employees that day as we were bouncers and traffic wardens. Holy cow it was crazy.
I have also been homemaking with the fiance. This mostly involves following him around Ikea in a state of confusion while he writes things down on a piece of paper and accumulates maybe ten thousand pounds of heavy pieces of wood and impossibly tiny screws. This also involves waving my arms around in panic when I realize the ten thousand pieces of wood make an ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS media console. Don't get me wrong, I like it. I like that I can close the doors on the tv set and not have to see it day in and day out. But it is big. Alarmingly so. We have named it Monster.
But amidst all this, I have also been writing. It hasn't been my best writing, by any stretch, and some days I only got a couple hundred words in. But tonight, I crossed the halfway point of 25k, and I am quite pleased! Week two did not kill me, after all!
I hope it hasn't killed anyone else, and that everyone is still plugging along! Don't worry even if you fall a bit behind--I was WAY behind two days ago--for there is still time to get back on track! Even if you end up setting smaller personal goals for yourself for the rest of Nanowrimo, pick some goals and run with them! You will be happy you did!
And now, because I have another 9 hour shift tomorrow, I am going to sleep. Good night!

~Katherine

Nov. 10: And then there were 20 (thousand)

My brain is fried right now, blogworld, so this will be brief. But this evening, I crossed the 20k threshold of word-writing amazingness. What's even more amazing is that I 1. have not killed any of my characters yet and 2. haven't started disliking any of them, the plot, or the general construction of the story yet.
This is the benefit of sending one's Inner Editor to the kennel for a month.
I hope everyone is still trucking along. Do not worry if you're a bit behind, you still have plenty of time to make up ground! The important thing is to KEEP WRITING!!!!
And with that said I am going to get some sleep so I will be functional to write another 2k tomorrow. Huzzah 20,023!!

~Katherine

Nov. 9: Pardon Me, I seem to have misplaced my witty title, have you seen it?

For a lot of people, titles are a funny thing. They can either jump-start or completely bog down a work of writing. Some people avoid titling their books until they are finished with them. Others can't even start until they have named their work. Still others wait for inspiration to strike mid-project.
I tend to name my story files according to my mood that day. Some of them are quite poetic ('Sons of Daedalus' for example), others are silly ( 'Greatest Can-Am Novel EVER') and a large number of them are flat out boring ('Prologue1'. 'story15'). I don't usually settle on an actual NAME for the story until towards the end, when something finally emerges from the woodwork to beat me over the head with inspiration.
This current story has been a bit difficult to title, even for a working title, because ideas have emerged a bit too early from the woodwork, rather than late. My subject matter is a bit too heavy to warrant a cute title, but I don't want a HEAVY title because that would just be contrived and bleh. At the moment, I've named it "Holly #12" after one of my characters, who is--literally--a woman named Holly, version 12.0 (the first 11 versions being dead). I don't know if I'll keep this title, though, because it seems a bit pithy. I don't know.
Too bad titling stories isn't as easy as titling blog posts!
My current word count for the day is 17,678, but I intend to hit 18k tonight. Happy Writing, everyone!
~Katherine

Nov. 8: Kids, don't try this at home

First of all, the numbers:

Today: 2,522
Total: 16,824

In other words, Wrimos and Writers, I have cleared the 1/3 mark. I am almost halfway to 50k! CELEBRATE!

Oddly enough, I blasted out these 2522 gems of writerly genius in three odd contexts: while exhausted, while at work, and while slightly inebriated (obviously, not all at once).
The first several hundred I did this morning, right before I left for work. Because my shift started (mercifully) a bit later than usual, Dennis and I went out to get some apartment stuff, so I did not get as much time as I wanted to write before I left for work. Add to that my unbelievably late staff meeting last night, and consequent lack of sleep, and I was barely awake as I wrote.
The next several hundred were written in a frenzy of over-caffeinated productivity during my 30 minute break at work, a direct result of my afternoon working in the bookstore cafe. I highly doubt I could have achieved what I did had I not first downed my practice gingerbread holiday latte.
My great push, though, came this evening, once I got home. I drank a half glass of wine, and then a full mug of mulled wine, and sat down at my computer. The effect of alcohol a bit too close together was that the world seemed to spin a bit. But what did NOT waver or get fuzzy was my inspiration, which jackhammered away at my conscience until I started writing. 2522 words later, it is satisfied, and the room is still tilt-a-whirling.
Disclaimer: children, do NOT try this at home. Drinking alcohol should only be done in moderation, and only when you're legal, which I am. Drinking does not lead to fits of creative genius, though Oscar Wilde and Jack Kerouac might have you believe otherwise. They are wrong. Finally, do not drive cars or operate heavy machinery while under the influence of alcohol. In some cases, your computer will count as heavy machinery. Have someone (sober) in the vicinity decide that for you.
In all seriousness, though, I am quite pleased with where chapter 3 is headed so far. My characters are deciding to take the 'epically slow' road to developing, but that is giving me more time to figure out the world in which they live, which is a weird one to say the least. Not having to worry too much about a runaway plot at the moment is a very refreshing change. I like how my writing style has changed over the years: from very fast-paced, action and dialogue oriented stories with only a little focus on background and world-setting, to slower-paced but far more introspective and thorough in the backstory/character development arena. I like it!
And now, I am going to sleep!
Keep on writing, everyone!

~Katherine