And here we have the word cloud for Novel #2. Currently untitled. I’m really bad with titles. Writing the novel is always far more easy than coming up with a title for me.
I thought this font was really appropriate for this novel, as some of the characters are rather old. As you can tell by the names that appear, it’s about a bunch of Russians. Again, I use the word like way too much. It’s huge… I’m confused why the world ball shows up on here though, as I don’t remember ever using the word, let alone more than once. I like how family and other titles show up all over it, because family is a huge part of this novel. Family and family loyalty.
Okay, sharing time is over. I couldn’t resist doing these Word Clouds because I love my tag cloud and things like this so much.
So, I found Wordle.net and decided I had to make a word cloud for both the novels I’ve written/started writing this NaNo. Here’s the first one that belongs to my finished novel, Trophy. You might recognize some of the names on there from all those character questionares I filled out and posted earlier in the month. I’ve also discovered that I use the word like a ridiculous amount, as it shows up on both my word clouds, and in big font. This is something I need to work on, as I don’t think people in Pennsylvania are Valley Girls like me. It’s a little bit more appropriate for my characters in Trophy, as it takes place in Seattle, which is closer to California. That’s my logic.
Maybe this word cloud gives you a little taste of what Trophy is about. The word cloud for Novel #2, which is untitled and in progress will show up tomorrow!
This year I finished NaNoWriMo astoundingly early. By astoundingly I mean November 18th. This left me with 12 whole days of… nothingness. Also, by the 18th I considered the first draft of my novel to be done. There really wasn’t much else I could add to it for the sake of word count without making it a heinous crime against nature.
Fortunately, I am plagued by ideas, ideas, and more ideas. Way too many ideas. Sometime in October I had a dream that I really wanted to write out. It was just a scene, but it got my brain going. However, I had already made up my mind on my NaNo novel for this year, and had done extensive planning. I wouldn’t allow myself to change my whole story at the last minute. I wanted to write my original novel, and damn it, that novel was going to get written.
So, I put this second novel on the back burner and tried to fend off the plot ideas that popped into my head in order to focus on my actual NaNo novel. However, early in November it became apparent that I was going to finish ahead of schedule, well before the 28th like I had the year before. It also become clear that reaching 50,000 words with my first novel was going to be a challenge, and that there was no way I was going to take it much further than that.
I knew this meant that I would be able to write this second novel. I scrambled through that first novel, writing over 8,000 words each on two days.
After finishing on the 18th I took a couple days off, and a couple for brainstorming the new novel. The second one involved creating more of a world than the first did. I spent my time brainstorming the world, rather than the people that lived in it like my first novel.
Originally I thought maybe I’d even be able to reach 100,000 words this November, but I took more time to rest and brainstorm than I had planned on, so that doesn’t seem to be in the cards anymore. I’d look to shoot for 75,000. We’ll see if that will end up actually happening.
I know I’ve gotten some new readers lately through NaNo, NaBlo, etc. Rather than make you dig around trying to figure things out, here’s a quick list of acronyms and secret agent code names you might encounter.
Best Friend
This one should be obvious. If you can’t figure this out, I’m not sure how you’re capable of using the internet. Best Friend is my best friend. Simple, right?
The Boy
Now an ex-boyfriend, he earned the title because he was the first male discussed on this blog. January-June.
BBF
Better BoyFriend. So named because he is not socially inept like someone else (see above). Current gentleman caller. June-Present Day. *cough*wassinglefortendays*cough*
Boy
Another person so dubbed because of their earlier involvement. An ex-boyfriend of Best Friend. November 2009-February?
Elf
Boy’s successor, and also now an ex of Best Friend. He looks like an elf. Seriously. Only now he thinks he’s Jesus. But he was an elf first. May-September/October?
NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month. I write 50,000 words each November, because I’m crazy. I’m shooting for 100,000 this year.
NaBloPoMo
National Blog Posting Month. Also in November, making me even crazier. Yes, that means I write 50,000 words of a novel, and 30 blog posts in a month. Hurts so good.
I think I heard this one in H&M or Forever 21. It sounds like the kind of music they’d play in there. This isn’t the kind of stuff I’d listen to normally otherwise, but I’ll listen to anything while I write.
Got Your Number- Nadia Oh featuring Space Cowboy
Another one I wouldn’t listen to normally. I definitely heard this one in H&M or Forever 21. I’m going to guess it was H&M though. It’s funky disco pop.
My Delirium- Ladyhawke
This one goes with Metric really well. I remember listening to this song a few times after I first found it. One of my slightly different finds that I actually like a lot.
Undisclosed Desires- Muse
Okay, first of all I need to get it across that I do not like Muse. I love to make fun of Uprising whenever it comes on the radio. The Boy liked Muse, which is an even better reason to make fun of it and hate it in my book. When I first heard this song, I did not know it was by Muse, although I was guessing it was. I was disappointed when I found out it was indeed Muse, because I really did like this song. However, I’ve put aside my previous issues with Muse in order to listen to Undisclosed Desires over and over. I still don’t like Muse, but I’ll listen to this song.
Soul Meets Body- Death Cab for Cutie
One of my more recent finds, I first heard this song last Monday morning. It’s another one of those ones I don’t have that much to say about, possibly because I haven’t listened to it that much. I don’t normally listen to Death Cab for Cutie. I can’t even name another one of their songs. I should probably work on that.
Little Lion Man- Mumford and Sons
This was another one that I loved before I knew what it was called. One day Best Friend posted some of the lyrics to it on Facebook and I asked her what the song was called because I recognized it as a song I liked. She told me, and then I promptly forgot about it. Then I heard it on Monday morning after the Death Cab for Cutie song was on and Shazamed it. I need to look up more Mumford and Sons songs because I’m a big fan so far. They kind of remind me of Blue October.
Thanks for putting up with the musical explosion. Maybe you even found a song you liked.
For those of you poor people not in the know, Shazam is an amazing app for the iPhone that you can use to identify music. At a store and you hear a song you love but don’t know? Shazam it! Now, I’m cheap and only use the free version of Shazam so I can only get 5 songs identified a month. Most of the time I’m unable to easily Shazam a song, or I forget about it and just google the lyrics by typing in a line or two.
Today I set up a queue of some of the songs I’ve Shazamed lately on YouTube and listened to them while I had NaNo time. I’ll probably break this up into two posts since I want to actually write about the songs a little too.
All In- Lifehouse
I feel like I’ve heard this song around before. I don’t know what to say about it now… Okay, so there are songs I actually have things to say about, I promise. Just not this one.
Lisztomania- Phoenix
This song has been on the radio all the time lately. I tagged it a while ago and forgot about it until I was setting up a playlist on iTunes and was just putting all my Shazam songs on it. I was really excited when this one started to play and I realized that I knew this song. I always stop to listen to it when it’s on the radio, or at least most of the time, so I was happy to finally know what it’s called.
Help I’m Alive- Metric
I’ve started really liking Metric since I first found them after seeing Scott Pilgrim. Remember that song that Scott’s ex-girlfriend and her band sang? That was a Metric song. I really like Help I’m Alive. I heard it on the radio one morning and wanted to know what it was called since I liked it, and was happily surprised when I found out it was by Metric. I have the acoustic version on my phone, which I prefer. I also converted BBF so he likes this song too.
Take Everything- Greg Laswell
I really like this song. I need to listen to more of his music because I really like this song. Greg Laswell kind of reminds me of Mat Kearney. Specifically, Closer to Love, another song I heard on the radio and looked up because I loved it. My Shazam mix is really interesting because it’s pretty diverse, and I don’t think I would normally listen to a few of these songs otherwise.
Civil Twilight- Letters from the Sky
Another song I feel like I’ve heard around before. Supposedly it was on Harper’s Island, although I never watched that. Sounds kind of like Coldplay or U2 to me.
Alright everyone, thanks for putting up with all my brainstorming for NaNoWriMo! This is the last of these 30 Question Character Surveys.
Your siblings, in great detail.
Marc
Tanner’s not too bad for a big brother. He can be a dick at times, but I’ve got to be grateful since he saved me from the parents. Plus, he’s pretty chill. He lets me do my own thing. I get to live in his garage so I feel like I’ve got some amount of independence. He cares but he’s not breathing down my neck all the time. More about him? He’s twenty five. He’s trying to get into security type stuff, so he’s a night guard right now. He used to work the day shift but his boss switched him a couple months ago. I think he majored in Poli Sci in college, probably because you can do anything with that. He’s got good taste in music.
Lizzie
N/A- Only child.
Sadie
Julie in great detail? Not possible. She’s not that interesting. She’s as close to a cookie cutter Asian as you can get without speaking Engrish and being an awful driver. She refuses to drive.
I guess we were kind of close when we were little. And when I say little I mean when I was a baby pretty much. Julie is around 6 years older than me. By the time she was 9 she was tired of me. She was too busy being the dazzling star child. We just don’t get along. I’m the “rebel” I guess, because I’m not into science and math. We’re too different and we never bothered to try and understand each other.
As you can see, I’m totally owning with my NaNo word count this year. On Friday I took part in a 24 hour word war and wrote over 8,000 words in one day. That’s about 4 of my average daily quotas, in one day. Not only am I going to finish on time at this rate, but I’ll end up finishing halfway through the month.
Sounds great, right?
My only problem is that I’m already reaching the end of my novel. I haven’t written many, or really any filler scenes. Everything that’s in there is important, and is part of the action. I’m going to have to start writing fillers in though, or there’s no way I can stretch this novel out over 50,000 words. I also think my scenes are more concise than they were in my novel last year. Things don’t drag on. The dialog is quick and to the point. It’s great and all, but this is really going to create a problem when it comes to reaching that final word goal. The writing is coming easy.
Even if I do reach 50,000 with this novel, there’s no way it’s going to take me all month. I think I might end up writing two novels this year. I’d prefer to just write 75,000 of one, but that doesn’t seem like a possibility right now.
My word count conundrum is getting me all worked up though, because I do really love my story this year, and my characters. I want to write it the right way, and I’m happy with what I’ve got so far. It’s just going so fast…
It’s happened again. Along with NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo comes another annual event. The NaNo bug. For the past two years, when November rolls around, a cold sneaks in with all those words I’m writing. Last year it waited a bit longer before rearing its ugly head, but this year it wasted no time. In fact, it didn’t even wait for November to start. Halfway through my government test on October 29th, I started to feel the cold creeping on. By the end of the day I just wanted to go home. Unfortunately last weekend was pretty busy for me so I didn’t get to relax much.
This year was a congested head, runny nose, and a scratchy throat but not much of a cough. I thought I had shaken it off by the 4th or 5th. Not so lucky. Saturday I got the second leg of the cold, thanks to my lovely father who passed it on to me. This is the upset stomach part. All Saturday I had this nauseous feeling I couldn’t shake off. I could go into detail about the feeling but I’ll save you.
Uncreative Writing 