Guy Fawkes Day

I'm not British, but I've seen V for Vendetta far too many times to think of the fifth of November as anything else.  And not even the real thing, but the fabulous Hugo Weaving version of the day.

This is really the least prepared I've ever been for a Nano month.  I usually keep a page or two in one of my journals with ideas and stuff, and it's being filled throughout September and October in preparation. 

Now that I'm not sitting at a desk all day, using the journal to keep notes isn't really beneficial, so all of my to-do, to-remembers have gone on this wipe off board.

For November, it's had a makeover.   A Nano makeover.

The wipe off quality is nice.  Once I have inputted into the story something I've thought of, I can wipe it off.  Long-term stuff on the construction paper and the post-it notes, and I have an ever-evolving storyboard.  Which is something I've never had before and I'm finding is quite useful.

Also, magnetic.  I went through my magnetic poetry words and pulled out the ones that seemed to connect with my ideas for the story.  I've created two phrases with them, "Curl my monsters open" and slightly less awesome, "Spirits against evil."

I stand in the kitchen in front of my marker board for at least an hour, combined, during the day.  And yesterday when I was doing the dishes I came up with a huge, useful idea, and now I don't feel quite so lost within the story as I did before.

I've been writing the story in fragments, just as they come to me, bits and pieces.  I may not keep them in exactly the order I've written them--in fact, I can't.  I'll have ruined the big reveal within the first couple pages.  But I do want to keep it non-chronological.  Put Spencer's story together like a puzzle where you don't know what the picture on the box was from the beginning.

Tres November

I don't know what possessed me to start this so spur of the moment.  I am also in the middle of a queen sized afghan for our bed (I never fathomed how much work a queen size blanket is before) and plus I've had a frenzy of what I've been calling Spring Cleaning.  Boxes that have sat untouched since we moved in May are suddenly empty.  Closets and cabinets full of "I don't know where to put this yet, so we'll just put it right here," are now clean and organized.  I'm putting the basement rec room in some sort of liveable order, prepping for the long winter and knowing we will cope better if we have a larger space to roam.

And then I throw Nano in on top of that.

I might as well catch up quick with a photo of the day collection.  Cuz I mean, what's one more thing!?

oh.  one more thing... it'd be the perfect month to get pregnant again.  somehow I have to work that into my day.

I need to sit down and create a plan.  I think I need to read through all of the apocalypse stories.  I realize that Spencer's story is nothing, whereas Ecila and... well, let's just call it Aniste's story are a bit heavier and have more to say.  I have to figure out what i'm doing, whether i'm simply sticking Spencer into Aniste's world... and how will I do that.  I have begun with a first person narrative.  I don't think I want to do the two women in that way.  So how do I blend it all together?

Maybe I should've been thinking about this in the months leading up to it.

Or maybe I should've realized that my not thinking about it meant that I ACTUALLY SHOULD NOT DO IT.

Tres November.

It's too soon to give up.

It will be too soon to give up until November 30th.

November Two

I once admitted my love for Fall Out Boy AA Style.  My name is sara, and I love Fall Out Boy.  I know I have a problem, and accepting that is the first step toward recovery... right?

nope.  I love FOB.  I always will.  Shall we say I was born this way?

I just purchased their entire newest album in MP3s and I listen to them while i'm proofing my work.  Full blast in my ears until I can't really hear the transcription once I turn off the music and go back.

This song, Alone Together...  I today first really listened to the lyrics, after the title caught my attention.  Only last night late I wrote the "alone together" phrase into my story in a piece about Spencer and Kath and the third of the quiet boys in the group.


I don't know where you're going
But do you got room for one more troubled soul?
I don't know where I'm going
But I don't think I'm coming home and I'll say
"I'll check in tomorrow if I don't wake up dead"
This is the road to ruin
And we started at the end


This lyric entirely embodies my story.  For serious.  Every single line down to the road to ruin, even down to the part that we started at the end.  I started my Nano story at the end, and the he/I of Spencer even notes that he wants to start at the end because that is the newest.

I love Fall Out Boy.  This new really funky album will be the soundtrack of Spencer's Story.

It's November.

It's fucking November.  I knew quite well that November was coming.  And I knew also, because my email has been blown up by them, what November means.  I hadn't made a decision one way or the other, but it seemed like a No.  I wasn't thinking about a story, I was thinking "Hey, you need to finish the Verse before you go off and start something new."

yep. that's what I was thinking.  but now I want to jump right into Spencer's story.  what comes after the Verse.  What connects to the Apocalypse stories (WHICH AREN'T EVEN DONE, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!! STOP THIS AT ONCE!)... did you hear something...?

So I signed up for Nano.  I didn't even sign up last year.  But an update to the site now means you can save your stories' synopses and excerpts for all the years you participated!!  I want to go back in there and fill them in.  I don't have my original synopses, but it'll be fun to rewrite them.

Of course I had to goof off yesterday on Halloween instead of working.  on this file which turns out is easier than pie.  but I still got two hours on top of the half hour left that were assigned for today.  hopefully I can get some writing done, and also the amount of work I need to make The Husband not stab me with his knives of "you're not making enough money" fury...

Working From Home

I've been working writing into my working from home.  The daughter gets up at 7:45 so sometimes i stop working in the morning long enough to type something up that's been written down.

Just now, i figured something out that was causing a block in the verse.  i feel like i'm always saying that.  It has to do with the running away factor.  I could always ask myself too many questions about this.  why didn't he do this?  why didn't she do that?

and it all happened while i was typing up chapter three and rather than make Anka friendly, i made her suspicious.  it all fell into place.

i worked it out in my head while i was doing the dishes.  i wonder if i'll remember it later.  there are some notes, but not as beautiful as it was in my head.