Tag Archives: Nanowrimo

Quotable Quote

Rants and Encouragements

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My novel still feels flat. X( *kills internal editor*

Yes, friends, no Thursday Thirteen this week or for the next few weeks until November ends because my brain is too wired to focus on anything else but NaNoWriMo (or work). So T13 on refineme.org will return on December. :)

Anyway. MAN. I haven’t budged in my novel. I might have overworked myself yesterday, but I believe in getting a good headstart. Now I still feel some kind of annoyance at how flat my main character seems even after all the planning. :( Rain is still too talkative, and I can’t find a good situation to show and not tell. Argh.

[pep talk] I can do this. I can do this. [/pep talk]

*kills internal editor who resurrected and internal critic who joined him*

Novels are not written by novelists. Novels are written by everyday people who give themselves permission to write novels. Whatever your writing experience, you have a book in you that only you can write. And November is a beautiful month to get it written.
– Chris Baty, NaNoWriMo director

I can do this! I can do this! :)

Uncategorized

First Day Burnout

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Is it possible to be burned out for NaNoWriMo on the first day? :(

I’ve written 6000+ words for today and that’s good progress, but I feel like I’m blabbing too much on the first few scenes. Then again, this is NaNo and I’m permitted to blab and blab to reach the word count.

I just feel like Rain (my main character) is being too talkative without showing too much character. I think I talk too much for my main character instead of showing things about my main character’s life.

But I should turn off this inner editor of mine who’s talking to me right now. I should turn it off. Should should should.

Maybe I’m more conscious of my writing because I’m actually using a novelling tool — yWriter — instead of plain old MS Word, which I’ve used for the past two years.

Things should look better for the next days and I need to churn out more creative juices if I want to finish this. And yes, I still have to tie up the plots to make them more solid. Haha. As much as I did a lot of preparation for this year’s NaNo, I feel so unprepared. Maybe it’s because this year, I’m pulling most of the things out of thin air, it’s hard to write without bias.

I can do this! I think I’m going to need to make chapter descriptions by tomorrow or when I have free time that isn’t occupied by work.

And pray, of course. I should not forget that!

Work again tomorrow! At least it’s Thursday. And Friday’s just around the corner. :)

Dear Diary

Halloween pre-writing

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It’s Halloween and some of my friends who are working are on half day today. I’m itching to go home already — and I have about less than 3 hours before I can finally say goodbye to this working day. I think it’s because tomorrow is a non-working holiday that I just want to go home and plan my NaNoWriMo novel and get ready for tomorrow’s writing bonanza.

And I’m supposed to be in a meeting right now. But I’m not. Oops.

I want to go hoooome. Although…some said there might be some people trick or treating here today. That should be interesting. Haha.

Anyway. It’s the last day of October and tomorrow is the first day of the National Novel Writing Month! There is another reason for November 1 being a holiday (here in the Philippines, at least), is that because it’s the start of an all-month writing frenzy. 50,000 words in a month. Call me crazy, but I love every bit of it. :) From the early headstart of more than the scheduled word count per day to the weekly emails of encouragement, to the people from the NaNo boards, to the downtime sometime around the third week and to the finish at the end of November. True, it’s okay if you don’t get to finish up to 50K words…but it’s so much fun if you can do so! :)

I’ve posted about my novel twice (one, two), and I have a page full of notes for it in my planner, but I still feel so unprepared. My main character’s pretty solid already and I think she can stand on her own after a while, but I still need to give characters to her brother, her best friends and some of her cousins who will be making appearances in the novel. Plus her boss, one annoying officemate and some possible love life angles here and there. My plot feels so scattered too, and though I know the start and the end of my novel, I don’t know how to bridge the two. HELP!!!

This means I should focus on this one tonight. I must!

I won’t be putting up a separate blog for this like I did the past two years (and I never updated them after posting Chapter 4, haha!). Instead, I’ll just be posting some excerpts of the novel here in this blog during the month, as well as some progress reports here and there. You’ll see my NaNo widget over there (look at sidebar!) where you can see the number of words I have written so far. :)

Wohoo. And yes, I am also thinking of how the heck I am going to write given the work I am about to be given starting next month. It’s part of the thrill. Haha. Again, I’m crazy. :P

On other news. Like I mentioned, work is coming this month, and I’ll be doing some things under supervision of a vendor…which scares me a bit because I don’t know if I’m ready just yet. There’s still a part of me that’s afraid of messing up, and I really wish it would go away because I know I’d end up messing up if I keep on thinking that way. :-s

More thoughts on this on the next post. In the meantime, I shall go and read some slides I need to study, which should be easier than writing phentermine reviews. :) I might get interrupted anytime now and I won’t be able to post this.

4:01pm! Two and a half hours till quitting time!

Dear Diary

Your most attractive features are your heart and soul

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Yesterday, I met up with Pau to go to Robinson’s Junction for Chris‘ early birthday surprise. He was surprised even if he knew he was going to be surprised (much thanks to Toni’s missent message). We met up at Mocha Blends right beside Teletech and then ate half of his small Black Forest cake. Haha. Of course, since he has work, we cut the celebration short until Saturday, when we’ll be having a brunch somewhere in Eastwood.

Wow, sosyal. :P

Anyway, on our way to Robinson’s, Pauleen and I were talking and I was sharing with her some of my job hunting woes. What she said kind of surprised me: “I don’t know why you’re so afraid of not having a job. I know for a fact that you’d get a job like that, so why were you so worried?”

I had to smile what she said. Is that what people see in me? Or at least, what my high school friends see in me? When I think about my college years, it feels so far away already; what more for high school? It feels like it’s eons ago, and sometimes I don’t think I even know who the person I was back then. Well, okay, so maybe I do, but I can’t get over the fact that I was so immature back then (aren’t we all?). It’s just funny and flattering how Pau put me in a much higher level than I did myself.

Anyway, I was reading an old online friend’s past blog to pass time here, and I find myself smiling at how youthful she was. Well, she is still quite energetic and youthful as she has been, but things are a lot different for her now. And I also saw how much she went through and I wasn’t really there for her. We used to be really good friends way back. That’s the thing about having online friends: when you lose contact, you end up drifting apart. Maybe that’s why I’m not so keen on making online friends as much as I used to…because I know eventually, I’ll lose touch with them (because I really suck at doing so) and we’d barely say hi to each other when we “see” each other online after.
That was so negative, I know.

It’s just an hour and a half here at work, and to be honest, I really want to go home already. This week has been blah so far.

I should make a new layout. Like soon.

Dear Diary, In His Steps

Friday love ♥

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I was supposed to make a post earlier at work before I went home but the Internet there suddenly went down and when I clicked on “Save”, I lost the entry. Oh well.

This week has got to be the busiest week I’ve had at work so far. I started out reading a lot last Monday, but things picked up last Wednesday when I was asked to go to a training at Libis. From that training, Thursday picked up with two meetings, lots of testing, document updating that lasted until today. I hardly read the Harry Potter 6 ebook I have in my hard drive. How about that. :P I actually started feeling hungry in the afternoons and Jane said that was because I was doing some brainwork. :P

I know this is just a taste of the work that I will be doing in the next few weeks and months. I’m slowly getting the hang of it though…and you know what? I actually enjoy it. :) And it really helps that I’ve got a cool boss too (haha, in case you happen to drop by here, hi Sir! :P).

Sometimes I still feel some kind of fear at the back of my mind, like what if the close friends I have in the office have to leave, or what if I couldn’t accomplish a specific job because I couldn’t understand it or what if I just happen to have a bad week or something? Shallow everyday fears that I’m sure some, if not most people feel. The moment I feel the edges of fear, I quickly shove it away and remember God’s promise that He will always take care of me. He’s done a pretty good job taking care of me for the past 20 years; why should He fail me now? :)

Oh yeah! As of last Wednesday (October 4), I’ve been officially employed for a month. How cool is that? :)

The past few days I’ve also been feeling quite festive. Why? Because National Novel Writing Month 2006 opened last October 1! I mean, how could I not be excited? It’s the biggest writing event of the year! I’ve been browsing the boards and I am amazed at all the creative energy I can feel from the computer. It’s one big community of writers racing to get 50,000+ words within thirty days, and it’s just so thrilling. Ahhh! I haven’t made really big plans for this year’s novel but I’m getting to it. Wohoo. November, here I come! Oh yeah, if you’re a Filipino and you want to join, go ahead! You won’t lose anything; in fact, you’ll also gain a lot of friends because there’s a Philippines forum in the NaNo Boards. :)

Anyway, I better go and do my nightly rituals. My plans for tomorrow are slowly unravelling and to be honest it’s unnerving and I’m thisclose to giving up on it, but let’s see what will happen first. Lord, please let everything work out. I know You will.

Dear Diary

Cousins

You know how in movies or books, where the main character is close to his or her cousin/s? Like in Sweet Valley Twins and Friends, the twins Jessica and Elizabeth share a particularly close friendship with their cousins Robin and Kelly. But that doesn’t only happen in books; I know a lot of people who are close to their cousins. They not only share the cousinhood, but their cousins also act as their best friends sometimes.

I want that.

I came from a birthday party of a younger cousin earlier at their house. Her elder brothers are some of our cousins who were close to our (my brother and I) age. The party was fun, and not that I didn’t like hanging out with my mom, but you know the scene where the “younger ones” within the family tree — ones who are not exactly kids but not exactly grown up yet — get “placed” in a place where they could socialize amongst themselves and then the parents would come later on and get their kids (sometimes even forcibly) home? I want that.

Continue reading Cousins →

Updates

Writer's Block

Oh yeah, update! I updated some of the content of the RefineMe.org. :) Look up there at the menu under the header graphic. :) I’m not yet done writing the About section, but the Faith and Writings are already done. I still have some more additions in the Writings sections that I have yet to add, plus I need to figure out a hack that would let excerpts show in the link. Haha. Anyway, I’d really appreciate comments any of the stories I posted. :)

I believe in the power of positive prophecy. And because of that, I will write it down here for anyone who cares enough to read this to know: Sometime in the near future, I will write and publish a book.

Amen.

Sweet Valley Kids (image courtesy of readingwell.com)The first writer I got introduced to is Elizabeth Wakefield. Yes, Elizabeth Wakefield of Sweet Valley fame. I know she’s not a real writer, but reading so much about her during my childhood years influenced me to want to be a writer. I loved their stories so much and I was so amused that Elizabeth could already write stories when she was seven that I thought, I could do that too.

And I tried to do it. I think I started writing stories when I was in Grade 3. I can’t remember what my first story was about exactly, but most of my stories then were about a group of friends who got into different adventures and mis-adventures — I thank Francine Pascal and Sweet Valley for that. :p The first real series I made was about a group of friends named Sarah Springfield, Carmella Churnichan, Jericho Villa, Patrick Grange, Veronica and Ericka, I think. I can’t remember the names of the rest. They were a group of friends who all live in Ireland and formed some kind of club and whatnot. They have this awesome clubhouse that my friends and I can only dream about, as well as love teams: Jericho and Sarah (my favorite) and Carmella and Patrick. I knew that their group got bigger and there were even French twins where one of them was psychic and the last solid story I remembered about them was that they were investigating in a haunted house (against the warnings of their group’s resident psychic) in their town where a vampire was supposed to live. Sarah got hypnotized by the vampire and eventually became one, and Jericho had to do something about it or else Sarah would be gone from him forever. He ends up killing Sarah the vampire and then he wakes up, realizing it was only a dream.

Boring huh.

Continue reading Writer's Block →