All that matters is that I got my needed word count and then some: 2862. Woo. Almost 1200 more to the number. Will edit later for a full report of Day 1.

Off to sleep now. I'm beat.

I am so ready for the NaNoWriMo to start! I have characters and an opening scene. Otherwise I am just writing by the seat of my pants, like my title says. I want to write 50,000 words with days to spare. This is going to be a challenge, I think. I don't have any outline. I don't even have a rough idea for an ending. Don't even know what is going to happen in the following chapters. Even without a lot, I feel really good about completing this. The story is interesting enough to keep my attention throughout the month. The one thing that is great about not having an outline is that I'm going to be surprised. Maybe that isn't the best thing to do for writing, but during NaNoWriMo, surprise is a treasure.

I've compiled a list of ten things that I want to accomplish over the next month.

Hopes for 2009:

1.More than 50,000!
2.Writing with days to spare. Wanna have smooth sailing
3.Have a completed novel by the end of NaNoWriMo
4.Meet new people and make more friends
5.More confident about my writing/finishing tasks
6.Have a deeper understanding of the world/greater knowledge of things (places)
7.Mar journals, tea, and music!
8.The energy to keep writing
9.Will edit and try to publish at a later date—in December?
10.Be more involved with community


Though I am a bit tired now and could go to sleep, I'm staying up so I can start on my NaNo. I want to get the 1667 words before I go to sleep.

I have a title! And I have a character's name and a basic idea about her! I now can brainstorm! :D :D

I've had this icon for a few years now. I've always liked the idea of writing in the bathtub--having previously used pen and paper on many occasion--but now, for the first time, I type to you from my bathtub! :D Maybe this will be a regularity come NaNo time. We'll see when that happens. Typically, I find that my plans I set and the actual events do not match each other. Nothing goes according to plan. Hm. Maybe it's a good thing I haven't much of a plan. My only plan this year is to meet people for write-ins twice a week. That's something. Outside of that, I imagine there will be much writing done at my house. I don't know if I will take part in sprints, or if I will simply write when I'm solitary. I really don't know. I can't wait to see what happens when I'm there.

What would I like to write about? What would make me happy to write about? What do I want to express to others?

What would really make me happy is finding something that makes me happy. Sounds like a friggin impossible task to me. Stuck in a loop. Some creative freewriting is in order. And meditating. And some really good sleep.

My parents bought me a laptop this year! A few days ago, actually. I am so in love with it. It's shiny. I'm still getting used to the setup. Mainly, I'm enjoying the freedom of not being tired to a desk greatly. I mean, I can actually type in the bathrub like my icon now! Hehe. That's cool. Just not when taking a bath, of course. Cause...that's very much a collision waiting to happen.

Music...I'm still building my library. I'm looking for suggestions. I'll try anything, but to give you a taste of what I like, here are a few performers: Linkin Park (especially "Shadow of the Day"), Death Cab for Cutie, Coldplay, James Blunt ("Tears and Rain"), Evermore, and Snow Patrol.

The big thing though, I was incorrect about what I wanted to write. As of right now, I have no idea. I'm sure that will change between now and the 1st, but I haven't had that spark of inspiration to figure out what that's going to be. Can't wait to see how that happens and what I end up writing about, though! :D

One of the highlights of the National Novel Writing Month is the Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-thon Fundraiser. This is my sixth year doing NaNo and I've never been, but I've always wanted to. This is actually the first year that I'll be able to attend because I have the funds to get myself to San Francisco!

As it is a write-a-thon fundraiser, you need to get sponsors to get you there. $200 USD will get you in. I need all the help I can on this to reach the goal. Any amount would help. One dollar. Anything. The money goes to The Office of Letters and Light, the parent non-profit company behind NaNoWriMo. Their main program is the Young Writers Program.

Thank you for any help that you can give! I'm really looking forward to this NaNo. I'm trying to be a Municipal Liaison for my area and I'm anticipating winning NaNo number 4.

Please help sponsor me to attend the Night of Writing Dangerously 2009

I love when ideas come when you aren't expecting them. I was cleaning out some pictures from my computer and I stumbled upon a cache of pictures I had for characters in a Laurell K. Hamilton type universe. There were a couple that really stood out to me. I'm going to weave a story around them for my NaNo. Or my Sept. NaNo. I'm not sure yet. I'll start freewriting tomorrow or Saturday. Gah. This is really exciting! The thing I wanted to try for Sept. NaNo wasn't building any ideas, but I'm excited to revisit these characters. It's been about three years since I've done anything with any of them. *L*

I'm sorry to say that I follow that old cliche of being my worst enemy. I undermine my ability, my self-confidence. I give in to the anxiety I feel, that fear that sends me bending over and grabbing my knees for dear life. That's not gonna help when the anxiety is all in my head. The internal trying to affect the external. And it's not really logical. Just gotta remember to breathe and things start getting better.

I've often struggled with writing and feeling like I have the permission to write. Writing classes gave me a reason to write, but having to be responsible for my own writing, for making myself generating ideas when I do not have any specific purpose in mind, I never make myself do what I need to do. Or I let excuses settle in and just accept them.

I'm a writer who doesn't write. I'm worse at this now than I was years ago, even. Now I hardly even think about it. But I'm on the verge of changing that. I am changing that. A conversation with a customer at Borders showed me what I was doing. He asked me what I wrote and I couldn't tell him about any of the stories I had written. I told him I would get back to him and he laughed and said that my stating that I didn't even remember what I had written really showed my disinterest in the subjects. I don't really think this is the case, though. I think the case is that I was so focused on completing the NaNo that I didn't look further than that. And that's what I need to do: set out what the plan after NaNo is going to be.

On Monday, I'm going to go through my computer for my old NaNo files and see if there are stories that I want to complete. I also have plenty of other stories I want to complete, but right now I will start with NaNos. There is also my short story collection I need to get back to. That was nearly ready to be published. So that and NaNos. There. I have a plan for stuff to work on in writing between now and November. Wasn't so hard. As long as I make the time, it really isn't that hard.

Got my pen. Got my paper. Got some books, my music, and a planner. I also have the most important part: a mission. Now I have to define the terms and get it submitted by the 30th. Whew! Wish me luck! :D

a deliberation.
a way of life.
who I am and who I want to be.
my main form of expression.
the best thing in the world.
not to be taken too seriously (by me).
a way to fly.
Heaven.
an exercise where heart, mind, and soul are one.
in my blood.
a fine way to make a living.
not as hard as I make it out to be.
a way that produces mental stimulation.
spontaneous.
something that can surprise you.
fun to do in the bathtub.
a way to draw up emotions.
the only way to live.
like flying.
what I should can will do more often.
like breathing.
easy.
a magical art.
less complicated than I make it to be.
like stepping on garden stones in a light mist.
the perfect thing to do in bed, on a Sunday, when it is raining.
who I am--not what I do.
best done with pen and paper instead of a computer keyboard.
where the dead still lives.
human kind's greatest accomplishment.
a complement to tea with cream and honey.
what I'm doing right now.
a bit sneaky.
the best thing in the world.
fun!
something that never seems as hard when I'm doing it.
about community.
not as difficult as students believe it to be, either.
not about the money.
something worth fighting for.
very quirky.
really cool.
about life--whether fictitious or not.
something that helps me understand myself.
my craft.
a passion play.
always very satisfying for me, even when I don't know what I'm doing.
great without a roadmap.

Happy New Year! &hearts

So, despite the subject, writing did not come as I wanted it today. :( However, I did get two LJ posts posted over on fangirljen. That is a big step. And on the second, before work, I'm gonna start reading the book on journaling I have. Maybe do more reading of something else, too. I don't know. Have to see where I am tomorrow. I know, though, that I am in need of sleep. So that's where I am going now. :)

50,003 / 50,000 (100.0%)

It's barely over, but yeah, that's enough for me. :D

I cannot believe that I let the days slip by. :( Actually, maybe I can. I was good until yesterday before I had to write again. *sighs* And I wanted to write every day this month, but gah, didn't happen. Write in this journal, even, too. But that's okay. I'm just gonna have to accept that. And you know, of course, earlier this week, it wasn't such a big problem to me. Didn't mind that much. But now I do, oh yeah. I even had thoughts over the last couple of days that I want to stop, to drop out now. :() I honestly cannot believe I went there. I mean, I have 16,654 words left to write. That's a little less than a third of what I have to write completely. I can do this. And I can do this quite easily, in fact. If I wanted to, I could do seventeen more sprints at 1,000 a shot and I would be golden. That's nine more hours of writing. That's it. That's all I need to do. I can do that. I can get this finished. Maybe even by this weekend if I wanted to. But I would definitely settle for next Sunday, the 30th. Though, to be honest, I'd love to have it done by the 25th. I also want to get things verified with time to spare. I also want my writing to count toward the LJ donation that is going to NaNo. They are only taking the first 1000. And somehow I have it in my mind that it's going to go quickly.

I salute you, my fellow NaNoers. May you complete your works at the rate you want to get them done. And now...now I'm gonna go writing, in between looking for a job and calling up a few people. :)

33,346 / 50,000 (66.7%)

Didn't do anything at the write-in, but because I had done the Word Wars this morning, I kind of didn't have to. I don't have to write any words before the 21st if I don't want to. But I'm really gonna try to keep the four day lead. I rather like that. :)

30,005 / 50,000 (60.0%)

So this is what writing a whole day is like. :D I started this morning and wrote for four hours. I did about nine pages in my journal and then 2000 words, with some help from a 30 minute sprint. I highly suggest doing those. I got about 1700 in mine, but my Word messed up. :( I was able to salvage 730 words from the recovery (it didn't save in the last twenty minutes of my sprint) and then reconstructed another six hundred. And then, before I left for the Write-In, I did another four hundred. I typed the nine pages, and the one page I did at the Write-In (did lots of talking, or listening to talking today), and then fudged on a couple of hundred words for the 15th instead of for the first hour of the 16th. And being that close, I don't think it matters if I'm not on the 30th. I am now exactly two days ahead. I don't know how I've been able to maintain my writing, but it seems to be working. There are definite ups and downs int his writing and it's mostly taking place in the character's head, but there is a plot. I'm going to try to tweak my pacing just a little.

Later this morning, I'm going to take part in two sprints with theemdash. You should sign up too. They're fun for quick writing. :)

25,006 / 50,000 (50.0%)

Okay, there now! Finally broke 25,000! Woot! Have a write-in on Saturday and Sunday and I think I want to try the Evening of Writing Dangerously, so that hopefully will be a lot of words. Maybe I can do 25,000 in two days. LOL That would be interesting, wouldn't it?

19,028 / 50,000 (38.1%)

Soooo wanted to be over 20,000 today, but that's okay that I'm not because I saw such a great ep of Heroes tonight. :D There were other things I was up to. I'm pleased to see that I am currently about five days ahead of where I was in 2006's NaNoWriMo. So yay for that. :D Now let's see if I can get to 25,000 today. *L* I was toying with the idea of doing 50,000 by Sunday. I'm not sure how serious I am about that, but soon I'm gonna see.