Thursday, November 19, 2009

I May Be In Trouble

I first realized this at the beginning of the week, when immediately after my health screening I spent twenty minutes saying everything I had wanted to say that was smartass-y, only afterward realizing that I had just said them to my boss, and if she had been anyone but my best friend I'd be fired by now. You'll be delighted to know that I'm in excellent shape - I believe they're going to name the Highlander gene after me.

It takes an average of 2,000 words a day to make NaNoWriMo happen, and I am well well short of that. The odd thing is I'm getting much closer as the process goes on. It's getting easier to start a segment, harder to stop until it's done, and my excitement builds the more I get into it and find the shape of the story. It's a lot of fun, writing this novel, so I'm almost certainly doing it wrong. On the other hand, what a fucking coup it would be if I could DO something with it, right?!

I have extra motivation to make progress, as I promised my co-conspirator in the movie biz that I'd shift focus onto the screenplay after NaNoWriMo.

So yeah. Trouble.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Video Games

I might have mentioned this before, but for those to whom it's new, I used to be addicted to video games. They're what I did in high school, and little else. I spent my weekends with Mega Man X and Samus Aran, I admit it. I got a taste of life without the controller in college, and afterward made a concerned effort to put myself away from them. I've slipped every now and then, but I thought I was doing well.

So well that when the holidays came around last year, with people coming by that I hadn't seen in years and myself with a new job, I figured it'd be safe to buy a 360 and a few games to be sociable. Since then I'd been worried that I was relapsing, since my library is mostly narrative-focused, single-player games like Mass Effect and Prince of Persia, and what multiplayer I do play is with select friends only. I don't think I've joined a random game more than three times.

Well, after my spending spree two weeks ago, and Dragon Age: Origins out last week, I may have to shut the hell up. I'd been excited about DA: O for the better part of this year, but I have only put in maybe 12 hours, not enough to get through one of the four big chapters after the introduction. I've had Brutal Legend on for the soundtrack whle doing laundry, I've played Borderlands twice, and Fallout 3 - a game of the year - isn't out of the plastic wrapper yet.

I enjoy them all, and I feel like I will get to them eventually, but after a full work day and some stolen writing time, I just don't have the energy. High school me wouldn't recognize today me.

Monday, November 9, 2009

A Quick Note

I am NOT going to make it through NaNoWriMo successfully, but I will be much closer than last year. I might even have a full story, though absolute garbage.

I'm considering starting a new blog that is made entirely of 50-100 word stories based around my word-a-day mailing list. Not certain yet, but lately I've been giving those emails lip service at best and I think that's a shame, on reflection.

Carry on.