Friday, November 2, 2012

NaNo Update: Mid-Day-Two

Thanks to Katy Upperman for the NaNo Blog Template!

Progress (word count or a general status update): 3,002

Current Mood: Confident

Inspiration: Not writing-related, exactly, but I just read this account of how my childhood best friend helped evacuate babies and children in the pediatric ICU from a New York City hospital at the height of the storm.  I'm in awe that she could do something like that. She slept at the hospital Sunday night so she wouldn't miss her Monday shift, worked all day Monday, then stayed on after her shift ended.  That night, she hauled equipment up pitch-black stairs and helped evacuate patients down those same powerless stairwells.  She and her colleagues did so much on so little sleep in the midst of such chaos--really, if it's important to you, you can write a novel this month.  I mean, come on.  

Goals as of Today: I should be at 5000 words by the end of the day--my goal is to get my writing done during the week while Mr. S is at work, and I've left some low-word-count days for holidays and possible travel, so my daily goal is 2500 words per weekday. 

Recent Favorite NaNo WiP Line:  
 “Rob.  You weigh seventeen pounds.  If you could run a mile, it would be like a ninety-minute mile.  You can only do the first half of a pull-up--the part where you grab the bar and just hang there.  If your romantic prospects hinge on you becoming a varsity athlete, you are going to die alone.”  

In response, Rob looks hurt and steals what’s left of my pizza.  Cramming it into his mouth, he manages to get the words “Eighteen pounds now, dude” around the giant wad of crust.

Non-NaNo News (because life DOES go on):  
Yesterday, I did most of my writing in bed as I nursed a migraine.  However, my plan to maintain my sanity and health during the rest of NaNo involves scheduling writing time, reading time, and MOVING time.  I want to get up to about an hour a day, in 20-30 min. increments.  If the weather is decent, I'm going to try to make some of that be walking outside (going days without leaving the house is not great for that whole "sanity" thing I mentioned) and if it's not...well, there's nothing about this sentence that is not a little embarrassing, but here goes.  My husband and I love the show Shark Tank, and after we saw Billy Blanks, Jr (son of the Tae Bo guy!) seeking funds for his hip-hop exercise DVD, we bought it.  It's actually really fun as long as I'm alone and no one can see how pathetic my dance moves are.  
 
In my downtime (ha!) I’m reading: Finished Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers yesterday--review this Sunday but OMG DUVAL, I have the biggest lit-crush right now--and pulled Audrey, Wait! from my TBR pile to start today. 

You should read this blog post: Bellevue Runs In My Veins, So I Cry By: Lydia Kang Because: She captures much of how I'm feeling about Sandy and New York much more eloquently than I could. 
You should also read this blog post: The Things Aspiring Writers Are Good At By: Steph Sinkhorn Because: She's one of my very favorite bloggers, and this is a great post for keeping spirits up during NaNoWriMo (although it's not specifically for NaNo).
 
Gratuitous Photograph:
Some of the bookshelves in my office (plus a painting my dad did just for me when I was little--he had a larger one of the same blue door, and I got upset when he sold it.  So he painted a little one for me.  Not many people got to commission oil paintings as four-year-olds; it's pretty much my prize possession.)

So, how’s NaNo going for you? (And if you’re not NaNo-ing, how’s your November shaping up?

10 comments:

  1. Congrats on your progress so far! Your friend and the other doctors and hospital workers at NYU hospital are amazing. In the midst of all of the sad stories coming out of Hurricane Sandy, it's nice to read some uplifting ones. :)

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    1. I'm totally floored by what they accomplished. And I mean, knowing her since we were toddlers, I can tell you: she's awesome, but she is not actually superhuman. So she was freaked out and exhausted and probably uncomfortable and achy and hungry and a million other things while all of that was going on--and she did it anyway. Hearing her story is making me realize that about emergency workers and all these heroes we keep hearing about: they are, basically, ordinary people. Really brave, dedicated, caring ordinary people. It's easy to label them as heroes and secretly assume they have some kind of superpowers, but they don't--which I think is a kind of challenge to the rest of us to step up our game, you know?

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  2. Congrats on your impressive NaNo count thus far! I love the excerpt you included -- so fun! And like Ghenet said, thanks for sharing some uplifting news about Sandy. It's inspiring to read about people helping each other so selflessly.

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    1. Thanks :) Gotta keep powering through the weekdays so I can make the most of weekends with Mr. S--he's been working a lot of 12-hour days (sometimes even longer!) so weekends are pretty important right now.

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  3. Thanks for sharing about your friend. We watched the news coverage of the storm way up here in Canada, but these are the types of inspirational stories that ultimately should be passed on and remembered. Glad to hear NaNo is off to a good start for you and hope it continues on that way :)

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    1. I'm so glad the TU (one of the papers from where I grew up) covered my friend's story--when I heard about it, it made me just want to run around hollering "Can you believe what Becky did???" I do hope the many men and women doing things like this continue to get the recognition they deserve.

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  4. Great progress so far, Jess! Thanks for sharing this story about your friend. Very inspirational. The people who do these kinds of things are truly amazing! As for the moving thing, I hear ya. My knees, arms, wrist, neck, everything are really starting to scream at me for all of the sitting that I've been doing. I keep meaning to work in some yoga or something, but getting started is always the hardest. Especially with NaNo going on. (I'm revising the WIP you read AND writing the other WIP--crazypants.)

    Thanks for sharing both of those posts too. I went and read both of them and then promptly followed them too. :)

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    1. Yay! Both of them are very cool bloggers--Steph has SO many great posts about privilege and writing and just being a person in the world. And Lydia does Medical Mondays--she posts on all kinds of weird/creepy/violent medical questions that writers need answered for their WIPs. There's a huge archive of them on her site.

      And my theory on the moving is to set a high goal so I'll do any at all. Some is better than none! And I'm thinking about this month as a time to set some good routines in place.

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    2. I just realized I forgot to comment on the segment you shared. It sounds really good! Can't wait to see more. :)

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    3. Thanks! I'm totally falling in love with my characters (in ways that I did not anticipate and I can already tell how crazy much revising I will have to do at the end of this month, but I'm excited for that.) I'm having a blast so far--I just hope I can keep it going.

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