QUOTE OF THE NOW

"Our life evokes our character. You find out more about yourself as you go on. That's why it's good to be able to put yourself in situations that will evoke your higher nature rather than your lower. 'Lead us not into temptation.'" Joseph Campbell

Friday, November 29, 2013

Ah non, mon français!

My French is slipping again! So I watched two back to back seasons of a show called La Galère, but Netflix doesn't have the other seasons. Hapoo. It's about 4 women who, with their kids, decide to live together. This is the song they play at touching moments.


Saturday, November 23, 2013

fighting to the bottom of the deep

Two great songs I heard on the radio this week.

Whitehorse - Devil's Got a Gun (They do a nice cover of "I'm on Fire" too.)
I'm never going home
I'll be the only one
With daylight on my tail
And heaven on the run

Lyrics from eLyrics.net



Think of all the work you’re doing
As work that you can only understand


Friday, November 22, 2013

"Do you have a stroller for 533 children?"

Delivery Man comes out today and might be worth a look in. It's an American remake of a French-Canadian movie, but by the same director/writer. The preview looks exactly like the original.

It's about a guy who was a sperm donor years ago, and finds out he has 500 kids, a bunch of whom want to find him. He secretly starts to look them up, and gets drawn into helping them out with their lives. It's a lovely little comedy--one that takes you from a silly premise, to a touching story about our desire to feel connected and cared about. Makes me all weepy-esque.




Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Nano nomore

Well, I've decided to stop Nanowrimo again. Well, if I happen to write 50 000 words this month, then great--I don't want to stop writing my story. But although I'm at 16 000 words, which is still in the achievable realm for me (the perpetual late starter), it's been similarly torturous like last year. Not the same, cause I don't hate my book like last year; but there's been no fun involved. Writing is work, but there should be some pleasure.

And when I'm procrastinating I waste my time a lot. I don't want to watch really engrossing movies or work on crochet and get hooked on it, cause I'm trying to only procrastinate in ways that are easier to disengage from. The result is a lot of wasted time. A LOT. Cause it's not like I procrastinate and then spend a few really productive hours, which was my way in the past. I just keep procrastinating and procrastinating and making myself miserable.

And it's not even like the writing's going badly. It's just coming vair vair slowly.

I don't know what's the problem I'm still having. It could be...

(1) Mid-life crisis. The ole what-is-my-life 40s. And writing falls under the general heading.

(2) Writer no more: Maybe it's no longer something I want to do!

(3) Life in Limbo: I don't have my old writing desk, my writing pals, my candles, my super chair, my apartment, my two cats, my marriage... It may be that my brain associates this current life with watching TV and crocheting.

(4) Or it might be Nanowrimo, and not me. It may no longer serve my purpose. The years I succeeded I was pantsing, and it was a lot of fun. Which might suggest the problem here is my determination to plot. The only problem is the last few times I pantsed, even outside of Nano, I was very unhappy with the end result. Massive overhauling was required, and that was no longer working for me either.

The one thing I do want is a regular writing habit, so I don't want to give up working on the story. I'm glad I had Nano to kickstart me, but now I need to let a more organic process take over. In years I did Nano, I'd end up not writing at all in December cause I was worn out and ready to get back to watching Christmas movies. I don't really want to be in that spot again. I'd rather do 400 words a day and each month.

Anyway, we'll see what happens. :-)
  

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Nanowrimo 2010... We brake for youthful enthusiasm

[kitteh content]

This was a weird Nano cause I lost my job early in the month. So I was free to write (and it was Minion's first nano), but there was a lot of emotional kookiness. And it wasn't long after that everything in my life started to go dooown dooown dooown. But--now they're going up up up! So... everything changes. Accept accept accept.

One continuity year to year: The sore butt.















Saturday, November 16, 2013

Need dirty music to write sex scenes to?

 This is like old Prince. Old filthy Prince. ;-)


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Nanos updates

So the writing was pretty TORTURous for a bit. I spent an entire day on Sunday playing ipad games and watching Dr Katz episodes. The clear signs of someone trying to NOT do something else with her time (I didn't settle into watching movies and crocheting) but still also NOT writing.

I think I didn't know what to write next. So I finally employed the old trick of just skipping to something fun. I didn't skip ahead exactly, but I focused on the romantic plot line for awhile until the political one crept up on its own. It worked great. I finally got 3534 by Monday night.

Tuesday night I was stumped again cause I needed to make Something Happen to get my plot going, but didn't know what that action should be. So procrastinating ensued. But one I got the idea, I was able to do 1585, and then write out what scenes need to happen next.

But oh that Sunday was PAINFUL. Lord I was a mess.

Here is Madame Paw Block herself. "I'll just settle down here on mahmmy's chest... Can't see your keyboard mahmmy? Wah wah wah. Practice your touch typing. But first, pet me."


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown

Did anyone watch this on PBS' Great Performances?

My current story is based on parts of Shakespeare's Henry IV & V, but I haven't managed to catch it all yet. Richard II is supposed to be excellent.

Richard II (Ben Whishaw) is a vain, self-indulgent man who rules with little regard for his people’s welfare. He is ultimately overthrown by his cousin Bolingbroke (Rory Kinnear), who ascends the throne as Henry IV (Jeremy Irons). Henry IV’s reign is marred by his own guilt over Richard’s death, civil war, and the gnawing fear that his son Hal (Tom Hiddleston) is a total wastrel unworthy of the throne. When Hal comes to the throne as Henry V he is left to bury the ghosts of his father’s past while fighting both the French forces as well as his own inner demons.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Remembrance Day by way of Metallica

I've been back on the Metallica. The hero of my story is partly based on their bassist, Jason Newsted, who's long struck me as a great guy. A geek in the sense of being SUPER passionate about stuff, and not being afraid to show that passion. He looks like a tough guy...


...but you see him in interview and he's a chatterbox and such a goof that he's totally uncool...

 

which of course makes him uber-cool. He was so passionate about metal that he destroyed his neck and back through constant, massive head banging, and has had many surgeries and years of recovery.


This is to segue into Remembrance Day. When I was at university there was a wall in the old Engineering building showing the names of students killed in WWI. Then I'd go lead a seminar and think OMG these guys are that age. They would have been called up! But they're so little!!

While war does horrible things to civilians, it also does horrible things to soldiers. Even to soldiers who do horrible things to civilians. War not only kills some of the "best and brightest" but it also takes some doofussey, not very deep, maybe from bad homes 18 year olds and gives them ample opportunity to become their worst selves. And then have to live with it, live with knowing that they're capable of rape or torture. Something maybe they would never have found out about themselves, or would have had a chance to outgrow. That's another sort of cruelty.

Here's Metallica's interpretation of the anti-war book Johnny Got His Gun (great high school reading, I recommend.) And you don't need to see the movie cause it's summarized in these 7 minutes!

   

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Damn car

I hate to confess it but, besides the convenience, there are some random perks that come with car ownership.

One is the ability to give someone a lift. Friends and coworkers and family gave me so many lifts over the last 20 years, it feels nice to pay it back. And Nanaimo is the kind of place where strangers at a thrift store will offer to take someone home who's got a crap load of stuff to carry. I was able to give one young woman a lift home, and finally found a use for those two camping mattresses I bought to sleep on the floor here. (She and her bf didn't have mattresses yet.)

The other perk is that I listen to radio, and discover new songs faster than I used to. Looks like the "Inner Ninja" guy might be more than a one hit wonder.


Friday, November 8, 2013

Book relief

Came across a photo of books I bought back in 2008. Such a relief to see that I have read some of them since then! Well, 9 of the 36 we bought that day.
\

The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson: Didn't like at all.

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger: Didn't finish, didn't like.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Shaffer: 
First half super witty, second half cliche and badly researched.

Three Bags Full - Leonie Swann:
 Sheep solving a mystery--really enjoyed.

Morlante - Stéphane Dompierre: About a writing pirate. Violent but funny.
 
Monkey Love - Brenda Scott Royce : Cute.

My Lucky Star - Joe Keenan: VERY Wodehouseian. Enjoyed.

Salaam, Paris - Kavita Daswani: Okay

Millionaire: The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance - Bored, stopped reading.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Candy crush, solitaire, Dr Katz, facebook, and my year of change

Nano is off to a slow start, though probably better than previous years. I bring my ipad to work and write about 400 words on my breaks. Then I get home and watch a show or two, debating on facebook [the good kind], watch Dr Katz on youtube, read email, play solitaire, play candy crush... It's so vair vair sad.

The first couple days were the hardest. I actually had Sun-Mon off (don't always have two days off in a row) but it's like I was having flashbacks to last November when Fernando and I broke up, or something. I'd be listening to songs while writing, or collecting songs for my playlists, and hit on some break up song and feel BLEH.

Then I noticed my meditation book and remembered that if I meditate sometimes, even for one minute, it will help relieve this stress. And I reminded myself that even if I write 400 words/day and don't complete nano, or have a big Race to the Finish, that's OKAY. So I meditated, I accepted... and the poopiness lifted.

If home is where the heart is, then it explains why I feel displaced. I can't imagine how devastating it must be to be an actual Displaced Person. But I can see things I'm still learning or experiencing by being here. So it's all good. Meditate and accept.

This calls for a song! Here are the Canadian sisters who play the daughters of a country star on my fave show Nashville.

I belong with you
You belong with me
You're my sweetheart

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Nanowimo 2008: Giv'n'er

This month I'm going to share with you some of my blog posts from my previous nano months. Some years I created non-nano content in advance and posted that, and... those are boring to re-read. It's much funner to see someone being tortured for 30 days. Lesson Learned

2008
[minor cat content]






(Deaner explains what "givner" means in the movie FUBAR)





Monday, November 4, 2013

Romance vs Porn?

There's this idea--and it's been coming up more and more lately--that romances (movies? novels?) are equivalent to porn. That men get unrealistic ideas from porn, and women get unrealistic ideas from romances.

First of all... usually when people say this I'm not sure which romances they're talking about. Romance novels? Which ones--there's a huge variety out there. Have they ever read any? Or do they mean movies? Fred and Gingers? Moonstruck? Meg Ryan's oeuvre?

Second... pornography is pretty much only about sex; romances are about a whole bunch of things, sometimes including sex. If we're going to compare, then we need to compare like with like. There already exists a female equivalent to porn, it's called erotica. 50 Shades of Gray.

If romance novels are female fantasies, then the male equivalent is something like entourage or Californication. Cause there's more than just a fantasy element--there's also plot and character and growth and story.

Porns are a means to an end: To ejaculate. Romances are not that utilitarian.


Sunday, November 3, 2013

Still counts! (Counting up to 50 000)

So I have a teeny bit of Nano Advice for nanowrimo-ing.

Strikethrough is your friend friend. The goal is to rewrite and edit as little as possible, cause that's part of the process. Learning to power through on a first draft. But sometimes I just really need to take something out! Just a wee bit! So now I use strikethrough, and it doesn't change the word count. So that when I edit the book later, I can find the things that really need removing. ...I think it counts, man. The words did get written, after all. They must count. ;-)

If there are whole sections to take out, then I just bold them or something. Set them apart visually.

Also, if I change ideas on something partway through, I don't go back and edit the stuff that's no longer relevant. I just start writing as though that's what I'd been doing all along. (Though going back and ADDING stuff is always cool!)

Froggy AuntB was saying in Comments that she's contemplating changing to a different story. I say, if she does, to make sure to keep the original words/story. What do you think Dallas dream sequences are for? Just start the new story like this:

Claudette woke up with a start. "Wow... weird dream."

Then start the new story. As Akon once sang: "Still counts!"

(Don't forget to add a blog widget! My dad reminded me today.)


She kept lookin' at her watch
(Doesn't matter, had sex)
But I cried the whole time
(Doesn't matter, had sex)
I think she might've been a racist
(Doesn't matter, had sex)
She put a bag on my head
(Still counts!)


Saturday, November 2, 2013

nanocats

Kitteh be paw-blockin'.

"I can't see the screen and your fat ass is on my mousepad."
"Shouldn't have named it after a rodent, mahmmy."





Friday, November 1, 2013

7 months! and a nano prep

I spent yesterday evening cleaning up my story folder, getting the photos ready of my characters, music playlists, etc. All the stuff Lani calls "fueling the magic" of the story. Well I've been doing it all month, but now I'm trying to sweep up all the odds and ends and make it presenta

This is stuff I usually do IN November, which is why my word count is always low in the beginning of the month. I'm hoping to be a little more even-handed this time. Even-fingered.

And in other news, 7 months till home!


Reading

Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love
Les années douces : Volume 1
Back on the Rez
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
Stupeur et tremblements
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