Cheating.

I'd like to get something straight. Not that anyone's accused me of this, or anything, because they haven't. But during WriMos, something that's really common is to stop using contractions, or use lots of flowery description, or switch hyphenated words into two separate words.

I don't do any of that.

Sure, I've done the occasional "Have not" instead of "haven't", but it's usually to fit the character, not to get my WC up.

The way I see it, is if I have 50K, but only 45K of actual words, once I eliminate all the "cheating", I feel like I've failed.

I want to write a novel that's got all of the right parts. I don't want to go through and have to change every "do not" into "don't"; for one, that'd get so boring, and for another, I'd hate to see the WC go down.

I don't have anything against people who do this, of course. It's just not my style.

WC of the Day:

26,687 and rising.

Halfway there.

So I did it. (: I hit the 25K.

I don't know what it is about that particular number, but hitting the halfway mark three days into the month really brought up my spirits. (: The last two thousand were torture, but I did them (I don't really remember it, but I know I wrote it, I have the proof), and I really like where the story's going.

I'd thought it would be upwards of 90,000 words, but I'm thinking it's going to be severely less than that. I just can't seem to think of a good enough subplot that'll warrant it, anymore. I thought I had more planned. Actually, I did. But unless I decide to go back and add an entire subplot, Natalie's death just isn't going to happen. Unless I decide to do it from the killer's point of view, but that's probably not going to happen, because I'd planned on keeping it completely secret until the end.

Yeah, I like mystery in my horror. :P

I guess that's it. (: All my news lately is about JulNo...

Oh! Except camp. (: But that's on the thirteenth, by which point I will be DONE, blissfully done! :D

Goodbye, lovelies!

Climbing a Mountain.

So JulNo is going really well. I've got about 22,000 words, give or take a hundred, and for three days, that's damn good.

One of the ways I've found to really motivate myself is to use this thing called the Stats Menu, on the JulNo page. Basically, everyone who's put in their wordcount for the month so far gets a rank based on said word count, and you can tell what number you are.

I've been behind a certain user for a day and a half now. Sure, others slip ahead of me, but only by a hundred or two, and I can make that up very easily. (There was a time, actually, when one user was one word ahead of me and I was like uh... Wow. Coincidence much?)

So this user (We'll call her D, though that has nothing to do with her username) has been ahead of me. Currently, she resides at the safe halfway mark of 25,000 words.

I've only got 3,000 to go, and it seems so damn hard. I don't know what it is; maybe it's a psychological thing? maybe I'm just crazy? But it seems much more difficult to do those 3,000 words than it's been to do the 22,000 I've already written.

And the 22K has been difficult. It's not been easy, no way.

I feel like I'm climbing a mountain with this. With 25K will come the halfway point of the JulNo goal (probably only a third of my actual novel, but oh well), and once I hit that, I feel it'll go much more smoothly.

It doesn't help that I'm at a point in time where my characters are all remembering their awful, awful pasts, and I hate doing that to them...

I'm going to hit 25K, though. I will. If not today, then tomorrow.

I really, really want to get it today, though. (:

(This has been a procrastination-heavy blog post by me. ;D)

JulNoWriMo

July Novel Writing Month.

Have you heard of it?

Basically, it's a time, much like National Novel Writing Month, where you write 50,000 words in a month.

No, I'm not kidding. (;

It's very very insane, and very very fun. (:

So far, I've got... 13,134 words. I hope to have 14,000 by bedtime, but I doubt that'll happen. Ah, well. I'm 6 days ahead of my schedule, currently, and I'm hoping I can get farther ahead tomorrow.

This has been a post by me; if you see excessive blogging in the next month, this explains it.

I procrastinate, what can I say? (:

Realizations ?

I'm quitting dance. I'm just too fucking sick of always getting hurt and shit, and I can't keep beating up my body like that. I'm taking musical theater again. After 11 years, next year will be the first time I don't have to worry about dance to do things. Things like hanging out with people and junk.

It's terrifying.

I can't even imagine what it's going to be like next year.

I might go back, if next year is too terrible. I'm taking at least a year off, but it might be more. Or less, depending.

This is going to be awful.

At least I have a (mini) solo in Thriller...

I'm trying my hardest this recital...

I have to do great.

Or, at least, what passes for 'great' with me.


So I did the variety show. xD

Wait, have I talked about the show? o.o I don't think so... My choir teacher didn't like my solo, because my "boobs bounced like bumblebees!" (yeah, I know), but I got to do a duet with my friend. It was really fun. (:

My best franns came and they cheered me on. Whoop!

So, at this moment, I'm happy, but depressed.

Blargh.

I don't understand.

the point of Tumblr. It seems like Twitter, which is basically Facebook...

There are far too many sites these days that are all about the fucking same. I don't know what I'm talking about.

I'm mad. Really mad. I don't even know why. I'm sick of being so goddamn pathetic.

I like a boy.

Yeah, I know. I should stop caring. I mean, just because he asked me out... And said he'd call... And didn't... Doesn't mean I should get all bent out of shape, right?

I know this. I promise you.

But goddamnit, I really like this boy. And it bothers me that he doesn't give a damn back.

Whatever.

I found this. (:

It's adorable.

I love cute things. XD

I ate like 50000000 brownies today. I feel extremely fat. xD

Ugh. I can't get into this.

I'll post more when I'm feeling funnier or less pissed off.

Listening to: Regina Spektor and Taylor Swift (please don't judge).

Bye.

Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, and giving into trends.

So as you may or may not know, I'm a huge Chuck Palahniuk fan. I think he's absolutely freakin' amazing, and he is seriously a genius. I could go on for a really long time about him, but I'll spare you the detail. Suffice to say that I'm a fan.

So I was talking to Friend Number One, and she said "Oh, why don't you read Kurt Vonnegut? He's seriously JUST like Palahniuk, but funny."

I chose to ignore the dig at dear ol' Chuck (I find him absolutely hilarious at times) and thought about this. I hadn't read Vonnegut before. I merely knew him as a "funny old guy who wrote Slaughterhouse Five", a book that sounded completely rotten (based on the title alone).

Then, in class, we read Harrison Bergeron, and I realized just what the hell FNO had been talking about--he was amazing! His story was a beautiful dystopia (the only sub-category of Sci-Fi that I like), and he didn't overuse words. Brilliant.

So now I'm reading "Armageddon in Retrospect" (a $25 value for $4.99--seriously), and I'm very happy I decided (well, was forced) to read HB. Very good choice, teacher.

In the same trip to the bookstore, I got "Lullaby", by Chuck Palahniuk. I had been talking to Friend Number Two about him as well (I talk about books a lot), and she mentioned that her copy had been stolen. Aside from being shocked that she was so calm about it (stolen books?! call the cops!), I decided that, having not read it, I had to buy it. So I have, and it sounds promising.

My little brother wants to read it... I'm not sure how to explain that Palahniuk is NOT a good idea for an 8 year old to read. Or a 15 year old, probably, but Mom's given up on me reading "teen books". :D

I think I'm going to start limiting my time spent on this here interweb. I spend an average of 2 hours a day on here, just surfing the 'net, and it should stop.

... Starting tomorrow. :D