How many Broadway stagehands does it take to change a lightbulb?
Hahahahahahaha!
That's the whole joke; I can't think of a really good punchline
But anyway:
End of Day Twenty-seven: 47,107
End of Day Twenty-eight: 50,069, and done!
It was actually somewhat after midnight (but it still counts as
Day Twenty-eight).
When I had finished the story, written the last line (of which I was and am
quite fond), it was only 49,600 words or so.
I scrolled around adding a few words or a sentence here and there, but
that didn't help much.
Then, fortunately, I realized that I'd left out an entire short chapter
(the story has 138 chapters, and they're all short) near the end, so I added
that one, and then made it a little bit longer, and there it is!
It's only over 50,000 words if you count the chapter numbers, but the chapter
divisions are important to the narrative, so that doesn't really feel like
cheating.
I'm quite happy, if sleepy.
Now if only I could spend today celebrating, instead of
setting up meetings and writing PowerPoint.
:P
But there's always tomorrow!
(Oh, and if anyone actually reads the novel (I think it's not
really all that terrible, considering), and would like to comment on it,
please by all means do! I might even remember to publish it in the weblog!)
Home Stretch!
End of Day Twenty-five: 41,099
End of Day Twenty-six: 44,042 (woot!)
Today's Goal: 47,000
Tomorrow's Goal: 50,000 (victory!)
Sat down on the guestroom bed with the MacBook at ten pea em or so last night,
when the rest
of the house had turned in, and wrote solidly (modulo tooth
brushing, changing into night clothes, etc) for two hours.
I plan to do the same thing tonight and tomorrow night, and then be done!
We'll see.
*8)
ITMFA!
Well!
End of Day Sixteen: 22,033 (actually I don't remember)
End of Day Seventeen: 25,098 (late to halfway point)
End of Day Eighteen: 26,061
End of Day Nineteen: 26,175 (sheesh!)
End of Day Twenty: 31,599 (woo)
End of Day Twenty-one: 33,159
End of Day Twenty-two: 34,005
End of Day Twenty-three: 36,036
End of Day Twenty-four: 39,007
Currently: 40,531
Today's Goal: 41,000
Definitely the slowest and most random NaNoWriMo month of writing so
far!
I'm not actually sure about all those numbers; quite likely the
number for the 19th should be higher, I dunno.
And did I really write nothing on the 16th, the
last time I weblogged?
Not impossible, actually; I think I recall playing lots of WoW and
Second Life during the rest of that day.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I can and will do another five
hundred words tonight, and another nine thousand in the next five
days, so I should be able to squeak in under the wire.
*8)
I'm also pretty sure I have the plot and ending (such as they are) pretty
well worked out, so I don't expect lack of knowing what to write to be a
problem at any point (at least not strategically; tactically there's
always a problem finding a good synonym for "panther" or whatever, but
in November one pretty much just charges blindly ahead and doesn't worry
about that sort of thing much).
Second Life has actually been very frustrating, in the "not being able to get in at
all without crashing immediately or in the first two minutes and having to
reboot the entire machine" sense.
So I haven't been doing a huge amount of that, either.
On the other hand, I have been doing quite a bit of WoWing.
Just yesterday, wanting to see what the Elf quest-chains look like and
wanting to run a spellcaster and thinking it'd be fun to have two
characters on the same server, I rolled up ("rolled up") a Night Elf
Priest called Spennatrix (to differentiate her from Spennix), and got
her up to ninth (or was it tenth?) level.
That was fun; and next time I'm on as Spennix, Spennix can mail her some
money and useful gear (a common practice known as "twinking", the
thereby-benefitted low-level characters being known as "twinks").
This trick can't be used to completely warp the game, as most of the
good items can't be used by low level characters at all, and there's only
so much a low-level character can do with even a high-level's pocket change.
But still, fun.
Let's see.
We had yet another Thanksgiving Dinner That Couldn't Be Beat, just the four
of us, as it usually is.
We're such homebodies!
Neither of the adorable children ate much turkey to speak of (the little boy
preferring cheese and starch, and the little daughter being sort of quasi
pseudo a bit vegetarian), so we had tons of leftover that, and at M's urging
we made a real-live Turkey Pot Pie, which turned out just yummy.
(The little boy still won't eat it, but the little daughter will.)
Also in the throes of the college application process, and finding out just
how unlikely we are to get any financial aid, and like that.
The latter depressing in a way, but not unexpected.
I won't bore you with the details.
*8)
We had Chocolate Silk Pie with Thanksgiving Dinner, and the weekend before
that we had pecan, and pumpkin the weekend before that.
The very expensive but extremely thorough housepainters seem to have gotten
at least most of the painting done before it gets too cold to work
(hope hope), and the house no longer looks nearly as haunted.
The not nearly as expensive leaf guys came and did things with leaves, so
the yard isn't nearly as pretty, but there are still yellow leaves falling,
so it's prettying up fast again.
What else what else what else?
M and I were both very thankful, in our going around the table being
thankful for things, that I'm not all depressed this Thanksgiving like I
was a year ago.
The weblog a year ago doesn't really show it I don't think, except for a
hint here and there, but things were actually pretty bad.
Weblog-wise I hid all this under incessant talk about Second Life, which
was also a very nice distraction from being depressed.
(In fact Thanksgiving this year was my first "rezday anniversary", and I
got various nice congratulations on having been inworld for a year from
various folks in SL).
The kids, upon being questioned, seem not to have noticed anything
particularly worrying going on back then, so we (I) seem to have
avoided traumatizing them or anything, which is nice.
It's still so very odd to me.
I was bad then, I'm better now (touch wood), and I don't know the why
of either one.
The therapist and I suspect "something organic", but that's not amazingly
comforting, 'cause organic stuff happens all the time.
On the other hand when I do have the occasional small relapse, I can say
to myself "oh, just that again", and it goes away, and somehow being
despressed isn't, well, all that depressing.
If that makes any sense.
*8)
