Confessions and Writing

All right, confession time:
I haven't edited almost any of NaNo2011 this month.  To be honest, this isn't a huge surprise - this is something that needs to be done, sure, but let's face it, I'm a college student with a significant other and a laptop that has an Internet connection.  In my spare hours, I'm probably going to be texting said significant other or dawdling around random Internet sites.  (Well, actually, there's an App store for Macs, and I've downloaded a free game from there that gives you around two dozen different types of card games, so that's what I've been killing time with).

Unfortunately, finals week is going to be speeding over the horizon very soon, and I need to have my stance ready to... do whatever I need to do to flip it over and... do something.  What's a good metaphor for defeating Finals Week?  I don't even know.

Anyway, whilst I am trying to figure out my metaphors (can you tell I haven't done much creative writing lately?), I also need to work out my school forms for next year so I can, you know, continue my education.  I need to make the Official List of Classes I Want to Take Next Semester (including the List of Classes to Sign Up For if I Don't Get My Top Picks and the name of a potential advisor) for my meeting with my advisor tomorrow (who will be on sabbatical next year), and then go to Rez Life with the person I want to room with next year to see if we actually have a room yet.  The hardest part, I think, is figuring out my advisor - it has to be in your major, not your minor, so I can't ask my drama professor to do it (I want to minor in drama).  I've only taken one English class this year, and the teacher, while nice, isn't very organized.  I don't know whether (or even if) I'm going to take on archaeology or classics, so I'm not sure whether I can ask my Greek professor to do it next semester.

The joys of being in college!  Not.

On Headlines and Bombers

Sometimes, I have no faith in humanity, and sometime, the gross situations bring faith. For example, the people who sprinted to the finish line of the Boston Marathon and continued an extra two miles to give blood for those who were injured.  If you can actually tack on two miles after your marathon, even if you're doing it as a cool-down, you're amazing.

But there is something else that bothers me.  While the events of Boston and now MIT are tragic, I think that there needs to be more balance between the coverage of the bombers and the coverage of the other things that go in the world - or outside of it, for that matter.  Would anyone hearing the news today learn that two planets that could easily support life have been found?

Maybe people will get outraged that I suggest that we care as much about hypothetical planets as I do about people who have died, or about people who are killers, or that I care more about what is happening light years away than I do in locations several hundred miles from where I live.  And I don't, really.  What has happened this week really sucks.  I don't know anyone personally in Boston, though, but that doesn't stop it from sucking.

I just wonder... the scientists get quoted as saying, "This is really cool!" in articles about planets.  Law people are quoted as saying long paragraphs about what's going on.  I'm hoping that the reason many astrophysicists don't get quoted as much is that most people don't speak fluent Astrophysicist, while the law enforcement people are calming the public down.  While that's all well and good, I think we need to get a bit more of both.

Class Registration and Trash

The interesting thing about going to trash cleanups for service hours is that, if you do it enough, you start giving out arbitrary awards.  All you get is bragging rights until the next cleanup.  For our service fraternity, it's just Find The Most Interesting Piece of Trash.  I found a 21st birthday card that played epic music when you opened it to reveal an illustration of a bar.  (I have no idea why they didn't keep that, but whatever).  There are more interesting ones, though - apparently someone found used condoms and an aphrodisiac earlier this week.  Keep in mind that this is a highway cleanup that we do. WHO HAS SEX ON A HIGHWAY?
That would make an interesting story.

In other news, however, class registration is coming up.  Right now, I hope I'll be taking a science, a math, economics, and Greek next semester, which will be kind of annoying (that's what I get for loading up almost all of my arts and social credits this semester), but I have friends who can help if I need them to. The science is going to be interesting - I'm hoping for Astronomy 101, which goes into the Astrophysics minor (which means it's going to be actually challenging).  The annoying thing about it being a lab science is that it's got a lab component (duh), but the lab block seems to be in the time slot where everything interesting seems to go.  The same goes for Greek.  Apparently, all the fun courses want to be put on Wednesdays at 2:10 and MWF at 10:20.  I don't know how this is going to work out.

By the end of college, I will be master of the Scheduling Tetris.
Hopefully.

On NaNoWriMo and Nerdfighters

I recently started watching videos by John and Hank Green (their YouTube channel is called vlogbrothers; they call their fans nerdfighters).  John is a professional writer, and Hank does music.

Anyway, John did a video a few years ago on NaNoWriMo, and he pointed out something important.  Apparently, NaNo teaches you two very important things for Professional Writing: Discipline and to Allow Room for Suckiness.  Discipline, because you need to write every day, and Room for Suckiness, because you can't get everything right on the first try.

I hope this is good advice (I mean, it comes from a professional writer, so it's got to be good, right?), but I think it's worth listening to - if only because I want to be a writer.

The Year Ahead

I know it's only been nine hours since my birthday ended, but I guess it's time to do a Post On What I Want To Accomplish Next Year.

1. Actually go through the process of fully editing a novel. I know this has been on my List Of Things To Do for a while, but this time, I want to make it happen.
2. Get a job, at least for the summer. Even if the job is only to knit a lot of scarves and hats for when everyone wants Winter Holiday Gifts.
3. WRITE MORE.  That is all.

I already feel old...

Ways to start a birthday that are surprisingly entertaining:
1. getting a pop-rock rendition of "happy birthday" blasted at 12:00 AM by one's roommate.

Ways to start a birthday that can give one temporary heart failure:
1. getting a pop-rock rendition of "happy birthday" blasted at 12:00 AM by one's roommate.

Yes, friends, this is how my birthday started, in panic and confusion (which readily cleared up, but still).  The weather decided to go up to around 90 degrees today, which is disconcerting when you realize that the temperature at this time last week was about half that number.  Also, when you realize that it's April.
Anyway, though, it's very nice to be able to wear shorts on my birthday.

I may or may not be posting later; if I do, I'll see you then.

the final hours

Well, my birthday is tomorrow, and I don't know how I feel about it.

When I was a kid, I was super excited for birthdays.  I would refer to myself as 'eight' in my head when I still had a week left of being seven.  As I got older, the process slowed down, and eventually reversed a bit - it took me a while to start saying I was eighteen, not seventeen (I think this was partially because I had expected a lot out of my seventeenth year; after all, seventeen, thirteen, and fifteen are three major ages for main characters in YA novels).  And now that I'm soon going to be another year older and another year wiser, I don't know what to do.  THIS IS WEIRD.  SOMEBODY HELP.

The big things that have happened this past year have included:

1. knitting a prom dress
2. graduating from high school
3. getting a job
4. hiking Philmont Scout Ranch (yes, females can do that! SCORE!)
5. going to college
6. meeting a crap-ton of awesome people
7. staying up past 2:00 AM
8. staying up past 2:00 multiple times
9. finished writing a novel! (at 12:17 AM)
10. getting into Doctor Who, Stargate, and a bunch of other things that have made me even more of a nerd (not that I really mind).

In all, it's been a really good year. :D

On Summaries

Today, I have to write a review of Les Miserables for theatre as a production critique, because that's what we do in theatre class.  I think the hardest part, for me, is the summarizing.
Why?
I know the story so well - I have seen it five times, counting the movie, and I have the soundtrack nearly memorized. If you asked me to sing a bit of any given song, I'll be able to at least hum the melody, if not the words.  The difficulty in summarizing the play in under a page is not making sure I get everything in, it's deciding what details to leave out.  Act Two can easily be summarized in two sentences or less: "The revolution fails; except for Cosette, Marius, and the Innkeepers, everyone dies. Cosette and Marius get married and join Valjean at his deathbed."  It's easy.  Act One, on the other hand, took two-thirds of the allotted page, and most of that is backstory.

How does this tie into writing?

In the event that I actually get something published, I'll need to make sure my backstory is sound but can be summarized, and that the same can be said of the actual story.  There is always the eternal question of What To Keep In And What To Leave Out, and when I get through my first Real Typing Session today, I hope I'll be able to identify that well.

Going Back

This month, I want to work on typing up and editing my NaNo2011 novel (the one I wrote during November of my senior year; it is, in my opinion, one of the better novels I have written.  It is also the only one that has an ending that is connected to the rest of the story.  NaNo2012 has an end, but I have a scene or two to add before that).  It is going to be rather interesting, I have to admit.  I have not seen most of this novel in quite a long time - the middle bits tend to get ignored in the grand scheme of typing when there are a lot of false-starts.  Since this novel is in roughly the 100,000-115,000 word range, this is going to take a long time, and I hope I can get through it.

I think there are three important things I will need to focus on when I start editing:
1. Work out characters' back-stories more, especially the principal characters.  It is probably going to take a while, but if I know their stories better, I will be able to work out whether they would actually do or say something, or whether I was just putting a certain statement in to be punny or tack onto my word count (it's been known to happen).
2. Work on general plot arc/ subplot arc.  General plot arc comes first, then the subplots.  I made a list the other day: there are five plots in this novel (one main and four subplots).  I need to work out which should stay and which should go (or perhaps should just fade, but not leave entirely).  From there, I need to...
3. ... Work on scene selection.  I think this is going to be the hardest part of the entire thing, which is why I'm going to be doing it last (it's also last because I can't really do it well if I don't have 1 and 2 sorted out properly).  This step is where I add and subtract scenes to make sure it's actually going to work in the general plot.  I predict that my word count will shrink rapidly if I work on this step for a long time, and go thoroughly through step 2 (though step 1 might add a few scenes).

At this point, I need to stop thinking in terms of word count and start thinking in terms of MAKE THIS A BETTER NOVEL.  I am no longer in NaNoWriMo: I'm in WiCaEdMo (Wild Card Editing Month), in which word count and word quality are not the same thing (they never were, but the NaNo mindset tends to force you to ignore that).

Also, this is not an April Fool's Joke.