So here's what happened today.

I got up at 11, threw on a sweatshirt and ran down to the only open convenience store on University Way for milk for my non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner of chicken alfredo, only to discover that Rite Aid's fridge is broke and they, in fact, have no milk.

I came back home, and after grumbling for a while set out to finish up my novel today.  I had actually ended the novel the night before, but as it stood at 48,010 words, it did not qualify to win the contest.  So I went back and found a place I could shove in some extra scenes, which turned out decently and left me at exactly 50,010 words.

Well, not so much according to the idiot bot that counts the words on the website.  Some difference between it and Word '07 caused the website to only accent 49,009 of those words.  I think it has a prejudice against hyphens.

So I grumbled a little more, went back and shoved in an extra 125 words in the premise that nobody would probably notice, and resubmitted. The glorious winner's site loaded, and I stole from it this graphic:


I will officially be able to concentrate on neglected lab reports, papers and presentations for the remaining week of the quarter.  Oh, and maybe some Christmas shopping.

As for the novel (if any civilized person could call it that), I am not sure if I'm going to go back and clean it up, or at least anytime soon.  It started out as a neat idea, or at least neat imagery, but looking back I'm finding it full of gaping plot holes, ambiguities and unaddressed character angst that I'm not sure is redeemable.  50,000 words is *about* 140 pages of hardback novel, plus or minus 15 and depending on the font, and I'm not sure I have enough material in the story to flesh out out into a more reasonable and hole-less work of literary awesomeness.  Yes, as the NaNo people keep reminding me in their emails, the brainchild that comes out of NaNo is rarely pretty, as it is written at breakneck speed and zero back-editing or research.  But that doesn't make any of it less cringe-worthy on the readthrough.

Still, if you want to read the draft and egg me on about pushing it further, be my guest.  Just ask for a copy.

I can haz sleep naow?

I was working on my NaNo project during TC class this morning (this prof I have can make volcano eruptions and wildfires boring), and then something terrible happened.

Some stray key was swiped that made the next few key strokes close out of Word without saving.  I lost 600 words in one go.

That does not help the fact that I'm 2,500 behind right now. ;_;

Stupid school.

I announced here in my LJ that i was going to be participating in National Novel Writing Month this year.  For those...2?...of you who don't know how NaNo works, the goal is to write a 50,000-page novel by the end of November.  While it's not impossible, it ain't easy, either.  This is a wonderful and frustrating month.  And here's how mine has gone so far.

Day 1:  It is the wee hours of the morning, after having worked at the start of my new novel since the midnight start.  3,000 words in one day?  I'm going to be finished before they even open the word counter for submissions!

Day 3:  I actually have not only characters but an emerging plot.  And I'm still ahead on the word count.  This is going to be cake.

Day 5:  Well, ok, even after I got that paper written I'm still caught up to where I should be.  All I'll have to do is keep up.

Day 6:  Crap, I have a midterm next week.  Should probably work more on the novel now and get ahead so I'll have time to study.

Day 9:  Behind in the word count all of a sudden.  Stupid lab write-ups.  

Day 10:  Still behind and in desperate need of plot bunnies.  The ship, she's goin' down Cap'n!  WAAAAAAAARGH!




So there you have it.  I'm going to go back to searching the dusy corners of my brain for ideas now.

Oh, by the way, I AM participating in NaNoWriMo this year.  You can read my author and story info here.  Bug me to let you read it!