Yellow sheets and sticky material

I confess that I write the titles of these posts on the fly when uploading pictures.  Often when I look at my list of posts to write I have no idea what the title is talking about.  But luckily I have the pictures to keep me in line.

Two men (not pictured, though I watched them work during recess duty) are pasting different colored sheets over the yellow material that they stuck up first.

I should probably find someone who is familiar with construction and tell me what is really happening. I’m quite sure I’m not using actual construction terms.

Essay: Reflections on writing 52,082 words in 30 days.

Until this September, I never thought I had a novel in me.  In high school I attempted to write various novels now and then, but never got past the first several pages.  However, one of my resolutions for 2012 was to write one 500-word essay per week for the blog and in doing that, something shifted in me.  I wrote a 6,500-word essay in August about one moment in my life when things could have gone differently and that caused me to wonder how my life would be different if things had gone in that direction.  And that became a book.

But that wasn’t the book I wrote for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, pronounced Naah-know-WRY-mo).  For those of you not in the know, NaNoWriMo takes place in the month of November when thousands of writers across the country band together to write novels.  Or at least 50,000 words of a
novel.  That’s a goal of 1,667 words per day which is more than triple my original 500-word essay goal, but is doable.
The rules for NaNoWriMo say you have to start your novel on November 1.  So the 36,000 words I had written on the book inspired by my long essay were set aside for a new book.  It turns out I have not only A book in me but TWO books in me.
To prepare, I outlined the new book and had sketched out the characters before I began.  I also attended the NaNoWriMo kickoff party for my region.  We all (and there were probably over 100 people in the room) went around and said something about our book.  I quietly groaned when we started, annoyed
that we had to listen to everyone talk about their book.  But as people shared about their novels, I was surprised how much fun it was.  A lot of people in the room were “pants-ing” it, meaning they had no plan, but would just start writing.  I was interested to see how many people had their title picked out because I’m not one for titles, myself.  The first book I was working on is currently called “Chapters” because it’s longer than an essay and this current one has the catchy moniker of “Untitled LO YA fic.”  One woman even had written the blurb for the back of the book which she read aloud to us.
There were several fabulous story ideas in the room and a lot of laughter.  I got a sense of who had “won” (finished their novel) vs. who had not won.  Some people reported that their previous NaNoWriMo novel was published (some self-published, some e-book, some traditional published) and the mood in the room was giddy and full of fun.  I came home excited to begin.
The daily writing quota wasn’t terribly difficult.  I could meet the daily goal of 1667 words in about 90 minutes.  I do have the luxury of a 32-hour work week, and for me, November is the best month to embark on a writing project as I don’t work very much due to the school schedule.  I had a four-day weekend and an entire week off.  Because of that, I was able to write more words per day than the minimum. My self-imposed quota during Thanksgiving week was 2500 words per day which I exceeded five days out of seven, with one day being a spectacular 3024-word day. That’s six times the 500-word essay word count.
I didn’t write on four days of the month (November 16 and then November 28-30. Once I hit that quota I flamed out).  But except for three or so days, I could sit
down and crank out the words.  At this point I’m not sure how good the whole thing is, because one of the other NaNoWriMo rules is you can’t go back and edit during the month.  I’m also not finished.  I think there another 5000 words or so before I can wrap things up.
But is 50,000 words really a novel?  Not really, it’s kind of a novella-length.  However, I think that in writing 50,000 words that fast a lot of “fleshing out” is missing, at least for my book.  I think I’ve got a good overall structure and when I go back to revise I’ll put in more details.  I’ll also fix all my wrong word choices and spelling errors.
I liked the fast pace because it meant I couldn’t waste time on small details which would have tripped me up.  For instance, in my book I have a minor character who is a gossip.  She appears early on and then pops up near the end. When she emerged again I couldn’t remember her name so rather than looking back to figure out where she was and getting caught up in earlier syntax I just wrote [earlier gossip] instead of her name and moved on.  Other characters just got quick placeholder names: Mr. Bioteacher, Ms. Englishclass, etc.
The fast pace also meant I had to produce every day, even if I felt like what I was writing was crap.  Most days when I peeked back (I only peeked, I didn’t revise) it wasn’t nearly as bad as it felt when writing it.  And sometimes something brilliant would just happen, a magical trick of the creative process that I have read about for years and was amazed when it happened to me too.
I noticed an interesting difference in attitudes about people participating in NaNoWriMo vs. people who weren’t.  NaNoWriMo participants are unfailingly
supportive.  It’s like a thing.  Whereas I noticed that some regular people
had a lot of questions, most in the vein of “so is anything really going to
come of this?”  And for a lot of people, I think no, nothing will come of it, if you define “something” as “getting published.”  But I think that the point
of the month isn’t to publish; it’s to create. I think the crazily supportive NaNoWriMo community would agree.
I created a lot over the month. All those words, sure.  But also characters were built, relationships were built, story was built.  I am happy I made all of those things, and that’s where I win.

Three sentence movie reviews: Jolene

I loathed this movie because I could tell it was supposed to be a sort of “actor-flexing-her-acting-muscle” kind of film.  But because the actor was a women it was a troubling story of a sexually abused girl making the same bad choice over and over again in a frustrating way that had a lot of the actor in question being naked and not much other character growth.  I can see that picking a woman and watching all of her movies is a totally different experience than watching the films of a man.

Cost:  free from library
Where watched: at home.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2010/jolene_ver2.html

Skirt project

It seems that all that writing during NaNoWriMo pushed me in a “make something we can touch, dammit” direction and so here I am constructing a handkerchief skirt.

My two kinds of material.
 

This material was very difficult to make do exactly what I wanted to do.  But I persevered.
 
I made bias tape for the first time.  It was easy.  But I made too much the first round.
 
Prepping the waistband.

Stay tuned for the final product.

Requiem: Fox 40 Classic


This is not a picture of my trusty Fox 40 classic which I have owned since the summer of 1994.  There is no picture of that beloved whistle because after years of service, I lost it.  This is the replacement.  The original was black.  In 1994 I think they only came in black, unlike today when everyone can get their favorite color.  I bought the whistle the summer I was a lifeguard at Wild Waters, which was an awful place to be a lifeguard.  We rotated from station to station all day long, spending 7.5 hours per day standing in the sun.  If I had gotten a job at a public pool I would have been outside for an hour at a time, maximum.  If I ever develop skin cancer, I will blame Wild Waters.

When guarding the water slides we had to indicate when children could go, by motioning them forward as we watched to ensure the person in front of them was far enough along that they wouldn’t collide. Because of that,  “Can I go yet?” is permanently in my book as the stupidest question ever.  “If you could go yet, I would have motioned you forward.” I told more than one child in an exasperated voice after hearing the question for the fiftieth time that day.

I bought the Fox 40 Classic because the regular old whistle I was issued did not stand up to the rigors that is guarding at a water park.  Watching the pool portion was the worst as it was a frothing mass of unsupervised children, many of whom didn’t hear me when I whistled at them to stop whatever rule-breaking activity they were doing.  I learned quickly that if you blow a normal whistle too hard it makes a very wimpy “cccaaaa” noise that inspires laughter from the few that can hear it, while the hoodlums I was whistling at carried on with their rule breaking ways.

The Fox 40 Classic, one of my fellow lifeguards told me, never does that because there is no ball in the whistle.  The air travels through chambers.  It’s pretty darn loud too.  I ponied up the then-exorbitant fee of $5.95 for my own and, wow.  That whistle gets attention.

There was only one summer of life guarding for me, but I kept the whistle around.  When I started working at an elementary school and added “recess monitor” to my duties, I pulled out my trusty Fox 40 classic.  It’s been causing children to cover their ears when I blow it at recess for over six years and it deserved more than to be lost somewhere between the playground and one of the K/1 classrooms.  But that’s what it got.  Sorry trusty friend.  

Books read in November 2012

Full-on Mock Printz prep this month. Plus a great non-Mock-Printz-YA Novel which will probably be a top 5 favorite for this year.  And Dennis Lehane’s new book, which I didn’t like very much, alas.

Read
The Brides of Rollrock Island
Margo Lanagan
Read for Mock Pritnz
This is that kind of fiction that I think is supposed to be “literary” because there are a lot of words, and pretty, carefully written words at that, but not a lot of explaining because, I guess, the author thinks the reader should be smart enough to figure things out.  But when it’s not really clear to me from the beginning what is going on, it’s hard for me to attach to the book.  Also, I didn’t find the characters very distinct from  one another, so I was always a bit confused.  That said, there are a few pages in the last quarter of the book that are beautifully written and if you “need” to finish the book, just keep waiting for them. They might make the whole book worth it.

Every Day
David Levithan
A very clever plot device (main character wakes up in a different body every day) executed brilliantly by Mr. Levithan.  This book questions the nature of gender, love, brain chemistry, sibling relationships, family relationships, body type, race, sexual orientation and probably other things I’m forgetting.  I couldn’t figure out how he was going to end the book in a way that made everything okay, but he did it.  I will be recommending this for years, so you should go and read it now so I don’t have to harangue you.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Emily M. Danforth
Read for Mock Printz
I recently lamented that all the up-and-coming actors in my age demographic have either become “too old” and disappeared (mostly the women) or have become established actors, full of gravitas (mostly the men.)  However, it seems the novelists in my age demographic are just now really getting started. Ms. Danforth would be a novelist in my age demographic who has set her story in the same period (more or less) when I attended high school which had a lot to do with my enjoyment of this book.

But!  I also liked that it was set in a tiny Montana town where a friend lived and worked after college and I have even visited that town so I could picture it in my mind’s eye.

And!  I loved it was a coming-of-age novel about a lesbian as those are in short supply (at least I think so, I don’t come across them often.)

Also! I loved the writing–at least three passages made it to my quotes page–and the characters were great. Danforth is quite good at capturing little details that made the story come alive.  The hair tucking of the young minister who looked like Jesus, or Eddie Vedder was one such example. This was one of those books I liked so much I was recommending it to people before I had even finished it.


The Quitter
Harvey Pekar
Read for Book Group
Eh.  It’s a graphic novel, which aren’t my medium.  And I’m not the biggest fan of Harvey Pekar’s schtick.  I thought the art was a good fit for the time period, but I didn’t love this book.

Live by Night
Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane, here are the things you do very well as an author:  You create fabulous characters, fully-formed, flawed, smart and smart-assed.  You write plots that are interesting, complicated, a bit dark and have a social justice bent to them.  These things are very good and will keep me always reading your books. But you know what you do better than everyone else?  Star-crossed love.  And when your book, interesting as it might be and this one was, does not have star-crossed love I feel a great sadness and find myself feeling a bit cheated.  So you maybe you want to move away from star-crossed love.  Okay, I’ll still read your stories.  But I’ll be patiently awaiting your next book with star-crossed love.

Ask the Passengers
A.S. King
Hey look, it’s another book about a girl who likes a girl!  And it deals with that whole “questioning” issue.  That’s a good thing.  I think there is a lot of questioning going on.  Overall, I thought this was a pretty successful book. The main character’s relationships with her sister, family, friends and girlfriend felt pretty true-to-life.  The “ask the passengers” device never stopped feeling like a device.  But I kind of liked it.

Started and did not finish
Moonbird
Read for Mock Printz
I get a big heavy feeling in my chest when I read about species in peril because it seems to be too big of a problem for anyone to solve and the whole thing feels hopeless.  This book is about the amazing journey of a bird, but  it’s also about the trouble his fellow birds are in.  I don’t know what to do about that and dealt with my despair by putting the book down and never picking it up again.

Also, I found the prose rather breathless.  And that annoyed me.

Just when I was ahead of schedule


I wash my face with a half-and-half solution of castor oil and jojoba oil.  I just had mixed up a new batch two days ago.  But sadly, I put it on an unstable surface in the medicine cabinet so look what happened when I opened the door.  Happily, it all ended up on the counter and was pretty easy to clean up.  It still set me back a good ten minutes, though.