NaNoWriMo 2010!

Success! I even finished with more time to spare than I did last year. I always love doing NaNoWriMo, but it's such a wonderful sigh of relief when it's over. I actually have free time again. I might post a review of a movie soon.

Day 3

No writing today. Too busy. This is when my head-start comes in handy.

Day 2

So, I was just going back over what I've written so far and got so distracted by what I had written in one scene that I forgot that I was formatting it. That's a good sign that I'm writing something I would enjoy, right?

I went to the doctor today and couldn't go to school since I was trying to rest from being sick, but of course I didn't get any writing done with all of that extra time. Even though I didn't start writing until 9 at night, I've still managed to keep my lead on the daily word count, but only just. Hopefully, I'll pull even farther ahead with my buffer tomorrow.

Now with chapter 2 out of the way, I'm finally getting to the wild, unplanned frontier of my main story arc. I feel like a pioneer wandering out into the wilderness, armed only with a flashlight and a vague map that has landmasses shaped like food stains, "Here there be plot bunnies" marked in blank spots, and lakes that vaguely resemble character deaths. This should be fun.

5911 words (1855 words ahead of last year)!

Day 1

Day one for NaNoWriMo is drawing to a close. It's been a productive day writing so far. It's all I've done this afternoon since I'm determined to get ahead in the very likely case that I won't be able to write some days. I'm 2548 words ahead of the minimum for the day, which gives me about a day and a half in case something happens. I'm also 1177 words ahead of where I was at the end of the day last year, so that's an improvement.

I've finished the prologue and chapter one, so I think I've (somewhat) set up the backstory and I've started my plot on the event that sets off the main course of events.

Let's see where this goes from here.

4215 words!

7 hours to go...

Just a little over 6 hours to go until NaNoWriMo 2010!

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. All throughout the month of November, several hundred thousand people--writers and non-writers alike--get together while still crazed on sugar from Halloween candy and write 50,000 words in 30 days. If you know me, you've probably seen my NaNoWriMo winner shirt from last year. It doesn't matter what's going on in November, it's not November without this event for me now.

I might give you updates on my story occasionally through the month here. It all depends on how utterly exhausted I am after writing, working on my thesis, and all that other stuff.

Wish me luck!

Harry Potter and World-Building

The Harry Potter series will always hold a special place in my heart. I've read the first five books more times than I can count on two hands and a foot, and the last two a handful of times each. In my (relatively short) lifetime, I've only come across one other series that even made me want to reread all of them. Something tells me this is a phenomenon that happens only rarely, and only with those books that really mean something to us.

There are many amazing things about these books that people have written whole books (and theses!) on. But there's one aspect that I've been thinking about recently that I want to talk about. The Harry Potter series exhibits some of the best world-building that I've ever read.

I have had an unusual first encounter with this series. I was around six years old. I had been reading fairly well since kindergarten, and the reading level of the first book was simple enough so that I could read it on my own. Of course, my mom was reading the book to me so that she could explain and edit the story if needed (My memory is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure she glossed over the "dueling" scene that had Harry wandering out at night to fight Malfoy. That scene scared me when I read it on my own later).

I remember looking at the cover, staring at this kid so much older than me in this magical world. I wanted to see this magic, but so far all we had seen was a rude cousin and a zoo that only hinted at anything magical. I wanted to read about the amazing things. So one day I picked up the book on my own and started reading in the middle of the book (awful of me, I know). It was a scene that had Harry and Ron talking. But strangely enough, I imagined them as these two young boys, talking on a playground next to the brick wall of the school. Where was the magical world?

I had skipped right over it. What I had missed were the chapters that so wonderfully and quickly set up this whole new world right in our own. Because I skipped over this, all I saw were two little boys barely older than me talking on the playground, the best setting I could come up with on my own with my first grader mind. But when my mom read it to me that night, and I got the story properly, I was taken to a world I never would have been able to imagine. And there was no going back after that.

I think it's because this magical world does have clear ties with the normal world that make it all the more believable. Who hasn't seen a locked, unmarked door and wondered what was behind it? Who hasn't seen something ordinary and imagined some fantastic idea behind it? Or the train station through the solid brick wall? This series fueled my imagination for my entire childhood.

I think it's time for a rereading.

To Utah!

Behold! A picture blog to feast your eyes upon!

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On our way to the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport!

The Dallas Airport. Very modern looking.

Ogden: Home of this sign.

Also home to this Mormon thing and a collection of painted horses.

A theater themed like ancient Egypt. Can't get much cooler than that.

My water had a strawberry in it. Imagine that. Much better than a lemon, that's for sure.

Something was on fire. We spent the drive theorizing what it was.

Here you go, history nuts. The monument at Promontory Point.

If train A leaves the West traveling 100 MPH and train B leaves the East traveling at 100 MPH in a winding, curving fashion and the distance between the two is a whole continent, how far from the East will it be when the two trains meet?

Salt Lake. It smelled really nasty. This is how I think the moon would look if it had water on it.

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For those of you who follow me on facebook, I'll be uploading more pictures with people in them there.