So it’s finally November, and weirdly enough, when 12 midnight rolls in, I did not feel like writing at all. Is it over-excitement? Or am I just stressed over supervising the first ever PinoyWrimo Word War?

Probably the latter. The PinoyWrimos had their kick-off chat starting 10:30 PM on October 31, and it was a crazy conference. Last year we have about 15 in the chatroom. This year we got 29 inside. Whoa. What a wacky, wacky group, this is. Quotable quote of the weekend: TONIGHT WE WRITE! IN CBTL! OMG, that cracked me up.

Anyway, I decided to join some word wars myself, from yesterday’s unofficial one to today’s official one and I realized that I can actually crank out about 1000+ words in an hour — and I am even distracted at that time, checking the chat every now and even worrying how to get back inside the chatroom after Yahoo! kicked me out. All in an ML’s day’s work. :)

It’s been great so far. The people are wacky and amazing, and it’s so nice seeing everyone’s word counts spike up on this first weekend of November. It’s going to be a great month, I can feel it. :)

As for my novel…I think I wrote the longest first chapter ever. My first chapter was around 6000 words! Scrivener is lovely to use, and it’s gotten me really organized and motivated to write even more. My current word count is 6,913 and I’m planning to break into 7k tonight before I go to bed. I like my story this year than last year’s and I really hope I won’t lose steam and I’d get enough motivation to finish the novel within the month. :)

And because everyone’s waiting for this…here’s the first excerpt of I Am Single (And Everybody Knows). This is a part of chapter 1. :D

Please note that this is unedited stuff, so expect mistakes! :D

But knowing Mitchie, I knew she would not give up that easily.

But that’s something I don’t really need to think about now. Especially since I have one last meeting before work ends officially for the day, and because of the impromptu coffee trip with Mitchie, I did not have much time to prepare. As soon as we got back to our office floor and headed our separate ways, I slumped in front of my computer, slipped on my earphones, went invisible on Yahoo! Messenger (Do Not Disturb is useless, just go invisible so no one would really disturb you) and read all the emails and material I need to read for the client meeting I will have in half an hour.

Our company, Street Team Events, is a subsidiary of a bigger company that specializes in Public Relations and Advertising. Street Team is the events arm of the bigger company, where we have our own group of events managers and other people working behind them to make the events a success. Our work with the other subsidiaries is usually limited, since our customers either only want one of each our services, but for bigger clients, we usually meet with them to give them a whole package of what the company can do.

I’m not usually a part of those bigger meetings, but whenever we finally win a client and they have an event that needs planning and organizing, that is when I, as well as the other directors in other departments, join them. We are headed by our very capable, efficient and admirable Managing Director, Glenn del Rosario.

Glenn isn’t really our — by “our”, I mean us directors — boss, but being the managing editor, he was the one who gets to know about the events that we will handle first, and when the deal has been signed, that’s when the rest of us come in so we can talk about how we will approach the project, get recommended people from the assigned account manager and then we assign our team members to the said project. More often than not, our team members are a part of one to two projects at a time, and although it can be stressful, it is also quite fun as everyone is very dedicated and passionate with their work.

I head the Creative Team, which is basically the group of in house designers for Street Team Events. Our team handles all the multimedia that is needed for the event. From the ideas and concept of the client and the account manager, the required collateral would be passed to the designers who will then divide the work among them, setting milestones as the project progresses. Our team can go from making a logo for the event to making the posters, having a photo shoot to even making a commercial if it is needed. Sometimes they ask us to make a mini-website for the event, and in that case, we also have a team member who dabbles in web design and if she is busy, we get a freelancer to fill in the need.

The meeting that afternoon was with our newest client, and I want to be able to get an idea of who they were before I head on to the meeting. I want to make sure I have an idea of what their company is about and predict what they might want us to do, so research time was very important for me. Plus, I did not want to be at a loss for words in front of my co-directors, especially Glenn.

No. Not especially Glenn, but including Glenn. Where did that come from?

I was so focused in my research and oblivious to the world that when I felt a tap on my shoulder, I jumped from my seat. I looked up and saw who else but Glenn himself, an amused smile on his face from having startled me. For a moment I just looked at him, dumbfounded, but then I quickly snapped back into reality. He was still smiling at me.
Glenn was smiling at me.

I pulled the earphones from my ear and put them on my desk. I could feel my face heating up as I fumbled for my words. “Yes?” What a witty reply, Ruth. Yay for you, I thought to myself sarcastically.

“Meeting time, Ruth,” he said, his smooth baritone making my face heat up more. “Let’s go. Meeting is at Tobit.” He smiled at me again.

“Okay, coming,” I said, trying to regain my composure back. He patted my shoulder twice and took a step back to walk to the said conference room. I turned back to my desk to grab my notebook with my page full of notes from my earlier research. I locked my laptop and my drawer, turned and was about to make my way to the conference room when I noticed that Glenn was still there, leaning on the drawers near my desk, holding his laptop with one hand and running the other through his hair.

“Aren’t you going to the meeting?” I asked.

“I am,” he said, straightening himself up. “I was just waiting for you.”

He waited for me?

“Come on,” Glenn said, giving me another smile.

Be still my heart.

This is a minor scene which will jumpstart some stuff for my protagonist, Ruth. Glenn is just a minor character, but he plays an important role (wait so would that make him a major character now? Er) in the changes that will happen in Ruth’s life. What changes? Well, for sure she won’t result to drinking a diet pill to impress this guy, but he’s definitely a part of THE BIG CHANGE that will start Ruth’s adventure. :D

I’m writing Chapter 2 now, and I can’t wait to introduce the other guys that Ruth will meet. :D

How’s your novel going? :)