writing

writing — 1 Comment
14
Dec 06

Hopeless

The other night I attended “From Blogger to Author: How Bloggers Get Book Deals, and What This Means for Publishing.”

Michael Malice from Overhead in New York was there, as well as Julie Powell, whose blog was about how she cooked all of the recipes in a Julia Child cookbook. Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan has a blog called Apartment Therapy. Robert Rummel-Hudson’s blog is about his daughter Schuyler and the challenges she faces having Congenital Bilateral Perisylvian Syndrome, which renders her mute. And there were two agents there as well.

The seminar was probably good for those who don’t know that much about the book business, but for me it was the same stuff again. A popular blog doesn’t automatically equal a book deal, which was what pretty much everyone said. Sometimes, as per Michael Malice, a popular blog can bite you in the ass when you want to do a book (um, bitter much?).

Some people happen have the right combination of a good idea and good luck, like Julie Powell, who was, by the way, so very annoying with the way she kept saying that her experience was “stupid” and “lame.” I mean, once okay, but when she said it the third time, I couldn’t take it anymore, and I had to leave early.

I don’t have any delusions that these blogs will land me a publishing contract. Right now I’m feeling sort of hopeless about the whole writing career thing. As the agents talked about having a distinctive voice, putting together book proposals, having a platform, etc., etc., this hopeless feeling grew. I’ve tried all that. I think I have a distinctive voice; I think I have talent. I searched for an agent, I’ve entered a zillion contests, I’ve sent my stuff out. But it’s really really hard.

Okay, now I’m whining.

I remembered back to that meeting I had with an agent at the Small Press Center writers’ conference last April. She advised that my memoir would be easier to sell if I first published pieces of it in columns like Modern Love. At the time, I thought, Okay, done. But now I realized: MODERN LOVE. That’s in the NEW YORK TIMES. It’ll probably be easier for me to sell a memoir to a small independent publisher than get published in the New York frigging Times.

So I will write my memoir, though first I need to finish my NaNoWriMo novel, which is just sitting unfininshed in my laptop. I’ll look at these other folks’ blogs and get some inspiration. I’ll keep blogging and I’ll keep writing, but as two separate streams.

Maybe I’m not so hopeless after all, but that could be caffeine high talking.

food / writing — 8 Comments
04
Dec 06

I’m an idiot

Finishing up the obssessive weekend posts.

I spent Sunday morning blogging and paying my bills. For lunch I had my leftover cha-jang myun, which tasted so much better than it did the day before. I added some tofu stirfried in olive oil, and somehow that did wonders to the sauce.

Then it was off to the Book Fair. That afternoon they had enough volunteers so I was free to go to a couple of panels. I don’t know much about Amiri Baraka, except that he’s a poet, is from my homestate of New Jersey, and was once known as Leroi Jones. It was interesting to hear him speak about race and politics, though I don’t agree with everything he said. His politics are much more radical than mine.

There was one woman who had to respond to almost everything with a very loud, “Mmm-hmm,” or “That’s right,” or whatever. Okay, so you agree. Now shut the fuck up. At one point Baraka mentioned Richard Wright and the woman started applauding. A few claps I can understand, but it went on so long, and no one else joined in.

A couple of rows in front of me, this white woman who had to be closing in on 60 and who had a NOSE RING for God’s sake – if she had had a hip ensemble, I’d have accepted the nose ring, but she had mousy no-style hair, giant glasses, and a librarian-in-the-’80s outfit – kept turning around to beam at the noisy woman. Oh yeah, it’s great, you liberal drone.

I mean, I’m liberal too, but just because the noisy person is African American and wearing some African outfit doesn’t make her any less noisy or disruptive.

Anyway, the second discussion I went to was on graffiti, specifically this book, Burning New York – Graffiti NYC. It was interesting to hear how it’s evolved over the years, from just tags to real art. I’m tempted to buy the book. Maybe I’ll just go to a store and look at the pictures.

In between the sessions, I went out to see if there were any other books I wanted to buy. I glanced at this one, then was looking at the author picture when I sensed a guy behind me so I glanced back. It was the author.

“That’s my book,” he said. He gave me a card. “Let me know if you have any questions.”

For some reason I was freaked out. I mean, to go from looking at the author picture to looking up and seeing him standing before me was weird. Plus the pressure of possibly insulting the author by not buying his book. Plus he was cute.

Nerd alert.

I didn’t buy the book. I didn’t ask any questions though a couple crossed my mind (“Did you self-publish? If no, which press are with you? What’s your number?” haha, just kidding).

“Oh, thanks,” I said brusquely, and moved on.

I’m such an idiot. Not that I expected anything to happen, but I could have at least had a conversation with a cute boy, especially since almost everyone else there was a freak show. Made an at least temporary contact with another writer. See if his press was looking for submissions.

Duh! God. I need to buy some new boots and kick myself in the ass.

And I brought business cards, too.

Anyway, it was well past 5 when I left. Picked up some provisions along the way, including instant miso soup and a gigantour bottle of soy sauce for $3 at Katagiri, and a pound of organic ground coffee from Really Cool Foods. Turns out they have my favorite Get Gorgeous tea so I won’t have to schlep down to the Whole Foods in Union Square for it anymore.

awareness / TV / weekends / writing — Comments Off
03
Dec 06

The weekend thus far: Friday

The “weekend thus far” post was turning into one of Moby Dick-proportions, so I’m dividing into parts. First up, Friday.

~ ~ ~

Friday night I volunteered for the Small Press Center’s indie press book fair, which started on Saturday. My work consisted of making signage, straightening the books on the first floor (the Small Press Center is in something like a library), helping to string Christmas lights in the “cafe,” and collating handouts. Back to my secretary days.

The signage was made up of three almost letter-sized agenda pages and a large poster board. I saw one of the other volunteers using colored paper to mat the agenda pages and thought that was a cool idea. “I’m totally copying you,” I told her.

My design was simple. Three staggered agenda pages and two colored pages behind them at acute angles. Her design was more complex. The agenda pages didn’t fit exactly onto the poster board and so she got out the scissors and used the paper cutter. The thought of this made me feel tired so I just overlapped the pages. Then she matted each individual agenda page with a variety of colors. I didn’t see her finished product so I’ve no idea how they turned out.

As I worked on the floor, people passing by kept stopping to say, “Wow, that looks great! Those are beautiful!” Later one of the women who was also helping to string the Christmas lights said, “Did you do the signs? They’re beautiful this year!” Good lord, what did they look like last year? Then, one of the gals running the show came up to me and said, “Are you the artist? We need to make arrows.” It was pretty funny to me.

I’ve never thought of myself as having a good eye. When I was a kid, I was skilled at reproducing pictures by hand, but not good at creating visually from scratch. I’ve always thought of myself as visually challenged. I have a horrible sense of direction; all roads and streets look the same to me unless I’ve traveled over them a million times. I can’t remember where conference rooms or people’s offices are outside of my floor.

Spatially in a small area I’m good. I know where exactly where stuff is in my place, my parents’ house, my office.

Maybe having a good eye is a skill that can be developed. I got into a conversation with one of the volunteers about hard work vs talent in terms of writing. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you don’t have the drive and tenacity, who cares? My teacher said the same thing, that most newspaper and magazine editors would take the less talented hard worker over the more talented diva, or divo, as the case may be.

Most of the other volunteers, with the exception of the woman also doing signage, seemed to have had worked for the Small Press Center before, either full time or freelance. The woman I talked to the most had done some PR work for them, was a freelance journalist for several years in the midwest, Pennsylvania, and now here, and just got a job with an academic publisher. It was cool to talk to someone so experienced in journalism, though a different kind than I’m interested in.

Another woman there was the literary agent I met with at the writers’ conference in April. I don’t think she recognized me, and I didn’t say anything. I had sent her a couple of things, at her request, and never heard back from her. Okay, not interested.

The writing world is so small. Another employee for the SPC said I looked familiar though I didn’t recognize her.

I worked from about 5:30 till after 8. They brought in pizza for dinner, which was cool. As I left, the director of the center thanked me a million times for “giving up my Friday night.” I felt like a loser for a millisecond, then let it go.

I walked several blocks north to the next subway stop. It had just stopped raining so the city had that shiny, clean look. All the holiday lights are up now and I couldn’t resist taking some pictures:

With all the stopping and taking photos, I didn’t get home till almost 10. Then I became very interested in TV, including a rerun of House at 11 (the diagnosis always seems to be either a weird fungus or a genetic disease, or a combination of both) so I didn’t go to sleep till midnight.

family / nanowrimo / writing — 1 Comment
30
Nov 06

Yay!

I did it. Whew.

Unlike last year’s NaNoWriMo novel, this year’s wasn’t a struggle to reach 50K. I mean, it was definitely a struggle to write at times, especially during the week, but there’s still a lot more story left.

I’m not sure yet if I’ll continue at this pace, between 1,000 and 2,000 words a day. This weekend I’d like to crank a ton out and see how far that takes me. I may have to bring my laptop to L.A., though I was hoping to avoid that since it’s so heavy. Then again it’ll be good to have something to do while my brother’s at work.

My cousin HL had her baby! HL is the cousin from China who left her husband for an American man she met through me. Whoops.

It’s such a crazy story. I always think if I hadn’t gone to China, she’d have never met SL. She might have never left her husband, who, it turned out, had been cheating on her. Seven years later, she and SL are still happily married and now with a little girl.

Mia was a month early and delivered by c-section. HL is recovering at home but the baby is still in the NICU. SL says Mia’s doing extremely well so that’s a relief. But I’m sure they won’t feel 100% relieved till she comes home.

In the picture she seems really big, but I’m sure she’s teeny. A peanut.

After learning that HL and the baby were okay, the first thing my mother asked was, “Does she look Chinese?”

SL is white, and the baby does have that color skin. But I think her eyes seem Chinese, though it’s hard to tell.

Not a single one of my generation in my family is with a Chinese. My oldest cousin is married to a caucasian woman, his brother to a woman who’s half black, half South American (I think) – btw, their baby girl is GORGEOUS – I was married to a Korean, my brother is dating a caucasian girl, and HL is with SL. That leaves the four younger cousins. It’s become a norm in my family to marry out.

Anyway, I can’t wait to see HL and her daughter when I’m there. Her due date was Christmas Day and she was born on November 24. Quite early. Here’s to hoping and praying for her smooth and speedy progression home.

family / food / holidays / nanowrimo / weekends — 8 Comments
27
Nov 06

Thanksgiving Up and Down

*Sigh.* So Thanksgiving.

Bad news first. Had a HUGE fight with my mother. I don’t even want to get into the details. Mea culpa, but it was a small thing that she let fester for weeks till finally she decided to pull a silent treatment, which of course I couldn’t leave alone, resulting in a giant, tear-inducing argument.

To tell the truth, it was a long time coming. I know I’ve been emotionally distant from my parents these last several months and that I’ve been in a selfish phase. I expected everything to come to a head, and wish it had been worked out more calmly, but we’re taking about my mother here, with her temper and stuborness, SO stubborn that she can’t even admit that she has a temper or is stubborn, a deadly combination. And my poor nice dad caught in the middle, only wanting a peaceful family get-together.

In the end we talked things through and now we understand each other better, and my mother is over her mad and happy again, but I still fell sorta crummy about the whole thing. I feel beaten down. I’ve been pushed in to the peace maker role again – aping my role when I was married – and it feels extra yucky because I realize now that’s how I was during my marriage.

But there’s no use in expressing these feelings because she refuses to listen; she thinks she’s right and that there’s a certain way to behave, and these other feelings don’t matter.

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt bad like this, and I hate her for making feel like this over such a small thing. But those feelings will pass. Once I get some time and distance. Three nights and days was way too much time to spend with them.

I remembered again what someone said, that we all marry our mothers, men and women, and for me it was true. I should have married someone like my dad who though he can be impatient and antisocial, never flips out about anything. Takes everything in stride and doesn’t get insulted by small things. He keeps an eye on the bigger picture, he knows that his children love him, and if he’s assured that we’re okay, that’s all that matters.

Anyway.

Onto more cheerful things. Had a blast with ES. She came in Tuesday night, first stopping at my office to check it out. Then we headed uptown and visited with SB and Ellie. ES is really good at playing with kids. She’s more energetic than I am, and little Ellie was in love.

Around 8:30 SB’s dad came to pick up Ellie for the evening, and we three went out to dinner. La Tour is a French place near me that has all you can eat mussels and frites for $18, which is what I should have gotten. Instead I opted for the French sheperd’s pie, which was like regular sheperd’s pie minus the deep dish as well as the flavor, though it was probably supposed to have that. ES got the steak tartare, which she said wasn’t very good either. SB’s mussels were delish.

Wednesday morning ES went to meet her mother and get tickets for an afternoon show. I worked out, then met ES, her mom, their cousin, and SB for lunch at Ruby Foo’s. Unlike the night before, the food was really good. I got the pad thai, which usually isn’t filling enough for me, but this one was chock full of shrimp, chicken, tofu, soybeans, and other veggies.

While ES, her mom, and cousin went to see The Color Purple, which I’ve already seen, SB and I headed to Macy’s. However, after walking five very crowded blocks, I decided I couldn’t take it. I hung out at home instead, surfing the net and packing my stuff for the weekend.

After the show ES came back uptown, and she, SB, SB’s husband, and I went out to dinner. Italian this time. Then ES and I had a quiet night in, watching the end of the Madonna concert (that woman is in shape, to say the least) and Top Chef, which was fun to watch with another fan.

Thursday morning we were up early to go to the parade. The weather was HORRIBLE. Cold and rainy. My hands were numb by the end. First we waited for the bus. Waited and waited and waited. Finally, we just walked it, which didn’t take too long, but of course it’d have been better if the weather were nicer.

We couldn’t get too close to the parade itself. You had to have special tickets to sit on the bleachers, which were on the east side of Central Park West. To get the the west side of the street would have meant going all the way down the 42nd Street and taking the S train, and coming back up. Ridiculous! But from where we were, we could see well enough.

This poor dog embodies how I felt during the parade:

We stayed for just half an hour, though it felt much longer. Trudged our way back to my apartment, then vegged for a good hour, watching the rest of the parade on TV.

The train out to New Jersey was cuh-RAY-zy. We got there just as our train arrived so I decided to bite the bullet and pay the surcharge onboard, but it was so crowded, the conductors never even collected our tickets.

For Thanksgiving dinner my parents and I had Mongolian hotpot, as opposed to turkey and such.

A warm and hearty meal.

Friday we hit the mall in the afternoon, and after that is when my mother and I had our fight. Fast forward to that night after we made up. I do have to say she reached out to me first, which pre-divorce she’d have NEVER done. So that’s a step forward.

Saturday I saw ES again, the only reason I stayed for so long. Otherwise I’d have left Saturday afternoon. While Thursday was rainy and horrible, the rest of the weekend was gorgeous. ES and I walked around Princeton, which is decked out now for Christmas. Then we met our from AY for dinner at this new place, the Witherspoon Grill. So good. I had the lobster pot pie. Yum!

It was pretty early when we finished, maybe 8:30, and so we got dessert at the Bent Spoon, a new and very popular “organic, artisan ice cream” place, which I think is just a fancy way of saying gelato.

ES got the sour cream and dark chocolate sorbet. Big thumb up from me. I got the vanilla, which was very good standard vanilla, and AY got the egg nog and bourbon, which both seemed full of booze.

After dessert, we headed to AY’s condo nearby and just hung out and gabbed gabbed gabbed till almost one in the morning.

Got back to my place yesterday afternoon. Another upside to the weekend is that now I’m ahead for NaNoWriMo. I’m currently at 46,468, which leaves 3,532 to spread out over the next four days, today included. Very doable.

This morning I was actually happy to be back at work, or at least socializing with people who are not my parents. My upcoming vacation in early December involves seeing a lot of family, including my mother who will also be in L.A., and I’m dreading it now as a result of this weekend.

But it’s just once a year, so I’ll just suck it up and be a good kid. Besides, the bulk of the time will be just me and my brother and that’s always chill.

holidays / nanowrimo — Comments Off
21
Nov 06

Pre-Thanksgiving Prattle

In addition to anti-aging products, I’m a cheap whore for anything that whitens/brightens. Not in a Michael Jackson way of course, but just to keep my freckles under control.

One my favorite products was once the Kose Seikisho Mask White. I say “once” because I used it last night for the first time in several months, and I nearly tore my face off as I removed the mask.

This never bothered me before, but my skin suddenly seems more sensitive now. Afterwards I had a couple of red blotches and my forehead seemed extra wrinkly, as though dehydrated.

I may try it again in a couple of weeks, but I have a feeling it’s too harsh for my face now, at least in winter. Alternatively, I also use the Kose Sekkisei Herbal Esthetic whitening mask, which is creamy and very gentle.

I used to only be able to get Kose Sekkisei online or overseas, but now Bath & Bodyworks, of all places, carries a limited selection.

~ ~ ~

In other news, ES is coming to town this afternoon. Her flight should have gotten in by now. Our plans tonight are to see SB and Ellie, and then go out to dinner (SB only). Tomorrow ES is having lunch with her mom and aunt, and then seeing a show with her mom.

I’m taking the day off but an unsure about what I want to do. At first I thought I’d just do the show, but now I’m thinking I may just do lunch. That way I can still work out in the morning, then have the afternoon to pack for the weekend. Besides, I’d rather have yummy lunch then spend a wad of cash on a show I may or may not really want to see.

ES would like to see the parade on Thursday. I was gung ho about it at first, but now I’m rethinking my decision. I’m not a fan of crowds, especially weighed down by my overnight bag and laptop.

I’m behind on NaNoWriMo. I’m finding it nearly possible to write during the day in between meetings and work-related stuff (and blogging, heh heh). Last night I was lazy, and these next two nights ES is here. Luckily I have this nice long weekend to make up for it.

nanowrimo / TV / writing — 4 Comments
15
Nov 06

Gilmore Girls: Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

As usual, beware upcoming spoilers.

Finally, stuff happened! A few observations.

1) Marty is my kind of hot. I always thought Rory should have picked Marty over Logan.
2) Christopher is my kind of hot too. I saw an old episode when he had longer hair, and his buzz cut is way better.
3) But I still think it should be Luke and Lorelai.
4) Lorelai was hilarious about the jetlag, cheeseburgers, and being so hungry.
5) I love the idea of walking around Paris in the middle of the night.
6) “Welcome home, Mrs. Hayden.” Lorelai futzing with her wedding band. GACK!
7) Zach was so cute to Lane. Maybe I’m a sucker. Can’t help it.

On another note, I’m sooo behind for NaNoWriMo. Like 2,000 words behind. Monday I did zero writing, Tuesday I did a tiny bit, having rewritten a scene three times, and today I did a tiny bit since I was at an all-day training session, which runs tomorrow as well. I’ll try to do some tonight.

There’s always the weekend. Five thousand words a day? Sure, why not.

family / nanowrimo / weekends — 2 Comments
13
Nov 06

A moderately chill weekend

Friday night YP and I caught our coworker, J.’s, opera performance, which was held in the basement of a church near where I live. I’m not an opera expert so I couldn’t give an assessment except to say that some voices were stronger than others, and some people were better actors than other. J. was quite hilarious. She played a Russian prince and really owned the part.

Saturday I was up fairly early to pack my stuff and go to the ‘rents’. Laundry, lunch, and NaNoWriMo. I also read quite a bit of Beauty Junkies, by Alex Kuczynski. The subtitle is The Industry, the Hype, the Beauties, and the Beasts.

Fascinating! Did you know that there would basically be no plastic surgery if not for World War I, the first war in which artillery of such force was used in such close contact with soldiers that it was the first time there were casualties like having half your face blown off.

Faces were reconstructed out of necessity, and as times became more peaceful and people got richer, reconstructive surgery began to include cosmetic surgery, surgery done for purely aesthetic reasons.

Then due to the changing healthcare landscare – insurance nightmares, HMOs taking over, etc. – plastic surgery became more appealing to doctors. Because cosmetic surgery is never covered by insurance, they don’t have to deal with those hassles, and instead get a huge wad of cash for an hour’s worth of work.

And that’s just a sampling. The author explores the Botox boom and accompanying dangers and horror stories (hello, it’s derived from poison!), celebrities and plastic surgery (there’s a reason Nicole Kidman seems so icy – her face barely moves), and L.A. vs New York (not much difference). Makes me embrace the lines on my forehead a little.

My mother annoyed me a bit over the weekend. In trying to share more about my life, I told her about YP and I going to J.’s opera. Instead of thinking oh great, you went out and did something interesting, she could only focus on the fact that I was doing a friend thing instead of a date thing. She gave a big sigh and said, “Don’t you want to meet anyone else?”

At that point I clammed up. I guess I could tell her that I’ve dating off and on for the past 18 months, and that I’ve dated two people exclusively, but I don’t know if this will reassure her or make her worry more and ask a million questions about how I met these people, and whether or not I know they’re okay, and exactly how far did I go with the two I dated exclusively (THERE’S a conversation I NEVER want to have). My bet is on the latter.

I just don’t have the energy to have a whole giant discussion about how I need a break from dating and want to concentrate on myself. It’s not like talking to my friends who understand immediately. It’s like, not only do I have to come to that realization myself and learn to grow and accept my life as it is – not only accept, but to learn to love it, which I’m finding I am, I have to try and convince my mother everything’s okay.

Maybe I’ll have the strength to do it eventually. Not right now. If I open it up now, I feel like I’m just going to be snappish and it’ll turn into an argument. So instead I bury my nose in my book.

Anyway, Sunday was more NaNoWriMo. After I came back, I got to see SB and Ellie for a bit. I must bore them with my, “Oh my God, she’s even taller now!” That little girl cracks my shit up. They had taken a trip to Las Vegas and saw the Cirque de Soleil. At one point out of nowhere, Ellie said something like, “Babwa [her grandmother, Barbara] put one hand here” – covering one ear – “and Poppy [her grandfather] put one hand here” – convering her other ear. “Circus too loud!” I was like, “What the hell is she talking about?”

They saw the Cirque with the guy dressed up like a baby (I forget the name). SB asked, “Was there a baby?” Ellie got a weirded out look on her face and was like, “Not a baby, a man baby.” I said, “That was weird, right?” For the next twenty minutes, she repeated, “Man baby. Weird. Man baby. Weird,” except she pronounced “weird” with something like a Boston accent. Just like flower. “Flowah,” she says.

Gloomy Monday.

nanowrimo / running / weekends / writing — 5 Comments
06
Nov 06

Writing and running

This weekend was all about NaNoWriMo and the NYC marathon.

As per my trusty NaNoWriMo word counter to the right, I’m currently at 10,926, putting me about 2,000 words ahead of schedule. Of course cranking out the words during the week is tough with the job and all, but this weekend it was easy.

On Saturday I got in my word quota by about 11:30, having gotten up at 7. I didn’t work continuously for four and a half hours. I tend to write in bursts, interspersed with some staring-into-space-and-thinking, which looks a lot like doing nothing, and pure procrastination. An example of the latter:

nanowrimo%20triptych.jpg

The pretentious title I came up with for this concoction is “NaNoWriMo Triptych: Fuel, Tool, Inspiration.”

By the time I finished, I needed to get out of the apartment so I checked out the exhibits at Asia Society. They were okay. I took a bunch of pictures before being told by the security guard that I wasn’t allowed. Whoops.

I wanted to check out the Picasso and American Art exhibit at the Whitney, but there was a line out the door. Next time.

Sunday took me a little longer to get my word count in since I also needed to clean my apartment and see the marathon. I went out at about 12:30, first to 1st Avenue which, on the Upper East Side, marks miles 17, 18, and 19. I live slightly west of mile 17.5. I climbed onto a lamppost to take some pictures.

nyc%20marathon%202006_1st%20ave.jpg

Hello, guy in red.

Next I hoofed it to Central Park, which marks miles 23, 24, 25, and 26. I stood at about mile 24.

nyc%20marathon%202006_central%20park.jpg

I love the runners against the fall foliage.

Last year I watched at the same spot but a couple of hours later, so it was a different population. Some of the participants looked like they had never run before, or had gotten up that morning and thought, Think I’ll run the marathon today. But I shouldn’t knock them because there they had it to mile 24.

I’m determined to run the race next year. I thought completing 9 RoadRunners races before November 2007 would qualify me, but I read that incorrectly. I would have had to do 9 races by the end of 2006. Obviously that’s not gonna happen.

Another option for guaranteed entry is to do it for charity, which is what I should have done this year. Team Fox, of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, strikes a chord with me. Plus I like the name – Team Fox! Like we’re all fighter jets or something.

Somehow I hurt my leg while I was cleaning. I must have been in a weird position and stretched too far to attack a dust bunny. So now I’m limping around like I ran the marathon. Whatta joke.

nanowrimo / writing — 2 Comments
02
Nov 06

WriMo WriMo!

And I’m off! To hit the goal of 50,000 words by 11/30, I need to do at least 1,667 words a day. The folks over at NaNoWriMo recommend completing about 2,000 a day at first, to give yourself a head start. Yesterday I did 2,136. Yippee!

Last year I had trouble getting to 50K and I ended up padding the story a lot. I’m trying to resist this now. Also, since I took that writing class over the summer, I find myself automatically cutting extra words and repititions, and rewriting sentences to make them tighter.

Luckily work is slow this month, or at least manageable, and the chilly weather and early nightfall make me want to stay in and just click-clack away.

Angela Tung Oversharing on the internet since 2005.