You Know You're Excited for NaNo...

...when you dream about it and you're only halfway through October.

Last night, I dreamt of NaNoWriMo. Also, random family feuds and demonic butlers. But the important thing about all that is NaNo.

I am the most psyched for NaNo this year that I've ever been for any NaNo ever. Including my first one. (Incidentally, I totally don't remember my first NaNo--not what I wrote for it, not how far I got, and not even what year it was. But I'm pretty sure I wasn't this excited.)

I have a story I love. I have a ton of elements in this story. I even have a subplot! (Sort of. Maybe. Kind of. Okay, maybe not. Kind of hard to tell at this point.)

I'd originally vowed not to think about this story at all until November, in the hope that I'd be able to keep up my enthusiasm without overthinking things. Well, that didn't exactly work out. But now I'm more psyched than ever. And I freaking want NaNo to start NOW. I just want to write.

Of course, having another half a month to do some nice planning and research, that's pretty nice.

But I still wish I could start writing now.

NaNo. O. Mi. Gosh. Louise.

I've been hanging out on the NaNo forums, and for some reason this has made me absolutely positive that November is, like, two days away. Oh, do I wish...

At this point, I just want November to be here.

And then I remember I have a short story to write for a Christmastime Sekrit Santa exchange of stories for AW. And I technically have research and a little bit of plotting to do before November rolls around. And then I hope November never comes. And then I hate calculus, just for a change of pace. (I could write a whole blog post on why I hate, hate, HATE the calculus at my college. But I digress.)

Did I ever mention I'm in college now? 'Cause I am. And it's AWESOME. ('Cept when it's not. Like during calculus class. But I digress... 'cause I do that a lot.)

Anyway, for those of you not (yet?) caught up in the insanity of NaNo... November is National Novel Writing Month, and during November, a ton of people try to write 50,000 words of novel in 30 days. (This amounts to approximately 1,667 words per day.) Cue loss of sanity.

I've participated, um, I think four or five times. Technically. Twice, I got past 3,000 words. Two years ago, I got to almost 30,000 words. Last year, I got to about 15,000 words (I blame senioritis).

This year, though? This year... I have two options.

One: I will win. I will get to 50,000. I might even finish the story. I might even get over 50,000 words. Like, y'know, 50,001.

Two: I will die.

No, really. By December 1st, I will have 50,000 words of first draft... or I will be dead. Which means I will have 50,000 words, because dying would just be unfair to my roommate. (Seriously, you think anyone would believe I died of novel failure? No. Which logically means people will assume I was murdered. By my roommate. Because logic is totally my strong suit. Ahem.)

I have four characters. Three of them are named. I have... some scenes. I have a source of conflict, assuming I can figure out who the antagonist is.

Now, what I need: an idea of how the magic works, because that's kind of important. Possibly the main character's "special ability" thing will change. Which could be an issue, but maybe not.

Oh, boy. I don't even really have a plot and I already have plot holes. Where's my muse trap...?

Also, fair warning: I may attempt (key word: "may") to use NaNo as an excuse to post... stuff. Often. With little to no relevance to life. Like word counts. Or complaints about word counts. Or even... word count angst. (I apologize in advance.)

Alternately, I will completely forget the blog again. Because I tend to do that. So... yeah.

No, seriously, anyone seen my muse trap?

Self-Publishing. Also, I'm a Liar.

Self-publishing vs. traditional publishing. It's a time-honored debate in the writing industry. It's not one I should be worrying about, considering I haven't really written anything yet. But I'm not so good with the concept of, like, "logic."

I will never self-publish. Not for some silly reason having to do with some industry bias against people who self-publish--it's because I wouldn't want to spend time trying to design an epic cover, or copyediting, or typesetting, or making sure the margins are the right size, or all those other technical things, when I could be writing. Or REVISING. And REVISING. And... oh, yeah. REVISING.

Also, my self-promotional/marketing skills are, I'm pretty sure, nil. So that would be a bit of an issue. Also, self-publishing is very much a business, and I'm sure my business-management skillz are pretty much right in the "nil" category with my self-promo skills.

But mostly the cover thing. Srsly. (Not a typo. I mean, not not on purpose. That's also not a typo.)

This post was a lot funnier in my head.

I apparently lied. I DO have access to a scanner. Well, okay, I didn't lie--MY printer/scanner/copier/wondermachine is packed away. However, we apparently have not one but two scanners functioning downstairs. So, I present to you: pictures of jewelry. That have nothing to do with writing. YAY!

Matching necklace/earring set. First thing I've made to include beads with matte finish, incidentally. ...Actually, I don't know why I just wrote "incidentally." I do not believe there was reasonable cause to write "incidentally." Y'know what? It's my caption. I don't care. I'll write "incidentally" if I want to, dangit!

Tie pin. No, really. I promise that's what this is.

[Okay, yeah, these pictures aren't much better than what I got from my camera, but they're the best I could do, and I want to INDULGE, dangit!]

Oh, and as a side note--I'm thinking of ditching the 2,321 words I've written so far and rewriting from the beginning now that I have a slightly clearer sense of what's happening in the story. Which is totally not related to the supposed subject of this post at all, but whatever. I made pretty jewelry, so I laugh at logic.

Logic? HA! HA! HA! HAHAHAHA!

Ahem.

On Chain Maille... and Life.

I'm back. Again. Because I seriously don't know when to call a blog truly "dead."

Oh, well.

This week, I wrote 2,321 words. Yayness! This is not a great wordcount for a whole week, but considering I really only wrote two days (Thursday and Saturday), I call that good. Also, I haven't written even a thousand words since school let out and I graduated (SQUEE!) back at the end of May, so I've kind of gotten out of practice.

Also, my camera really sucks at taking pictures of jewelry. I'd thought to post some pics of the necklace/earring set and tie pin I made for some family friends, just to have pictures and also to totally showcase my amateur jewelry-making skillz, but my camera really, really doesn't like to take non-blurry pictures of things. Also, the jewelry is too small. I've heard scanning jewelry can make for some awesome-quality pictures, but my printer/scanner/copier/machineofAWESOME is currently packed. Bugger.

Also, Half Persian 3-1 chain maille weave, I loathe you with all the passion of ten fiery, burning stars. Stupid weave. Why won't the stupid jump rings line up right??? Gaaarh.

Also, Scherzo chain maille weave, I love you with all the passion of ten fiery, burning stars, but why oh why won't you work with 6mm and 4mm jump rings from Hobby Lobby? Why? What did I ever do to you?? *cries*

Also, Hobby Lobby, why are you so bloody expensive?

Why, yes, I am kind of a beading/chain mailling nerd wannabe. Why do you ask?

And, in other news... PENGUINS.

Also, "chain maille" is totally not a typo.

That is all.

Fruit Can Totally Mummify. For Reals.

I found a mummified kiwi yesterday noon-ish.

I am totally not making this up. Also, I have pictographic evidence. Photographic. Eh, "pictographic" sounds cooler, and also it is apparently a word because Firefox didn't give me the angry red line, even though it totally gave me the angry red line for "didn't" before I added the T even though "didn't" is totally a word.

Ahem. Pictorial evidence. (Apparently, that is also a word. Actually, I think I already knew that...)

Mummified Kiwi, FTW

Also, FTW is not a word. But I really hope everyone knew that already.

No, I did not just get on to post pictures and no story. So, here is the pathetic excuse for a story that goes along with the delightful mummified kiwi.

I was hanging out in the front yard, putting off working on my novel (which reminds me I need to update the word counter), and basically digging around in the dirt because our front yard has awesome stuff like abandoned snail shells and pieces of glass and also a giant bolt that I think came out of the push-mower we borrowed from some people last summer. Anyway, I came upon this... thing. I had no freaking clue what it was. I didn't want to touch it, either. But I wanted to know what it was 'cause I'm morbidly curious like that. So I poked it with a stick.

...yes. That is the normal response. Don't know what a strange object in the lawn is? Poke it with a stick! That answers all of life's questions!

Except this one. The stick broke, because we're still technically in winter and it snowed a few days ago so the stupid stick was wet and dead and just generally fragile. Still afraid to touch it, I lifted it with two sticks and brought it over near a rock I had stuck in the ground a few minutes prior. Don't judge me.

The dirt was, unfortunately, the only surface within reach of that rock, and each time I tried to poke the thing, it just got more dirt on it. So, I re-relocated it, this time to a larger rock on the lawn.

At this point, I decided trying to break open a strange organic object whose outer covering resembled leather with a rock and a stick simply wasn't going to cut it. Thus, I touched it. With my actual hands. Not, like, fake hands; unfortunately, I do not have a pair of fake hands. I would love some, assuming they didn't replace my real hands, not least because I enjoy discovering stuff in the dirt and some of that stuff is just too gross to touch with real hands.

I digress.

I still could not figure out what it was, so I continued my attempts to open it, since at this time I'd decided it would be better to dissect it than just to poke it with a rock. I peeled it, hoping the leathery outer layer would just be, say, layers of rotten plaster-cloth-stuff and eventually I would get to the center. Well, no such luck. Then I thought, what if it's an animal or bug of some sort, and I get it open and touch bug ichor? That thought disgusted me enough that I went back to the rock.

(If I thought it really *was* an animal, or a living thing in general, I would not have continued my attempts to open it. However, if it had been alive, it was dead by this point, and also I was pretty sure I'd seen this thing before last summer, so it was safe to assume it was very, very dead, or a plant.)

Long story short--well, actually, no, 'cause really this took two seconds or so--the thing opened, spewing forth the most marvelously disgusting green ichor. (I love that word. Firefox has decided it's not a word when followed by a period. However, the first time I typed it, followed by a question mark, Firefox failed to point it out with its red squiggly line of FAIL. Now it underlines it whether it's followed by a question mark or not. Way to exhibit selective spelling racism, Firefox!)

In the end, I decided it was a mummified kiwi. This is the only conclusion that makes sense. Why? The thing is the approximate size of a kiwi, and its innards were green. That is hard-boiled PROOF, peeps!

Anyway, I will post a picture of this marvelously disgusting goop, because I feel like people today haven't been scarred enough by life yet. You're welcome.

I just realized you can't really see the goop, because it totally looks like part of the rock. Oh, well.

And yes, I was being sarcastic.

Update: Even though I actually wrote in the post that I needed to update the word counter... I forgot. Bad Lilli. I'll go do that now.

I'm Insane. I Have Proof.

I’m reviving the blog again.

You know the definition of insanity? Doing something over and over again, expecting different results? This describes me and blogging. I am insane. When it comes to blogs. What is that, blog-sane? Wait, that sounds like the opposite. Bligsane?

…ahem. Right. Let’s not even dignify that one with a comment.

So, me and my lovely ramblings are back, and we’re here to stay. At least, we’re staying until I latch on to some other shiny new project idea. Or until AP homework finally manages to crush me to death under the sheer weight of paper.

That latter option? More likely.

And we are totally going to start posting pictures. Because statistics say that helps blogs. No, I don’t remember where I read that. Yes, there is the possibility I pulled those stats from behind my ears just now. No, I don’t particularly care how authentic they are.

Picture time!!

Flower Arch of DOOM

Wow. I just realized I suck at photographing stuff. My self-esteem totally just took a hit.