Random Thoughts

So I'm sick with a wicked cold and totally out of it thanks to Thera Flu. I have about 13 hours to write over 9000 words to win NaNoWriMo. Hopefully they will all make sense. In the absence of the brain power to post anything really earth shattering, I thought I would share some random thoughts and a video that always makes me feel better.

Random Thoughts:
* It really bothers me that we don't use an apostrophe to show ownership when writing its. I know it's is for the contraction it is, but given that we use it for everything else, I think it should match. Plus, it makes me look like an idiot everytime I write it's when I should be writing its and I hate that.

* Every time I hear Love Story by Taylor Swift I wonder if she's actually read The Scarlet Letter?

* I want this:
and this: for Christmas.

* Why don't the Cullens get spray tans? It would make it so much easier for them to blend in, and they're rich enough that they could buy their own booth for their mansion so no one would even know. Plus, it might cover up whatever that stuff is in their skin that sparkles, and then they could go out in the sun.

* I really love the totally pointless What's Up With That? sketch on Saturday Night Live. Jason Sudekis's dancing in the red sweatsuit and curly wig in the background makes me laugh so hard I cry. Gerard Butler is pretty funny in this one too.



Um yeah, and with that, I'm off to try and form some complete sentences and win NaNo. Wish me luck!

Contest Winners!

Here are the winners for my Best YA Books of 2009 contest as chosen by Random Number Generator. You all should have received emails from me, if I don't get a response from you by December 5th, I will choose a new winner.

1st Choice: Meghan from Meghan's Book Blog!
2nd Choice: Pixie from Page Turners
3rd Choice: Yay Reads
4th Choice: Kate from The Neverending Shelf
5th Choice: Jo from Once Upon A Bookcase

Thanks so much for entering! I will be doing more giveaways in the new year!

What NaNoWriMo is Teaching Me

NaNoWriMo has been a really eye-opening and encouraging experience. I've discovered a lot about myself as a writer and as a person. I think I've come a long way towards figuring out what process works best for me (a perfectionist control-freak) to get a working first draft.

Approaching this story like I would a film has made all the difference. I write scenes and leave them open to change. I consider this first draft the same as filming the movie. When making a movie you use the script as a guide, you film everything and then some, and then the real fun comes from sitting down in the editing room and seeing what you have and how it best fits together. Editing is probably one of my favorite things in the world. To me it's where the real storytelling comes in.

I think it also helps that I had a concrete ending when I started. I didn't outline but I knew exactly where my story started, the central conflict, and the whole action packed ending. I had pretty detailed notes on my two main characters too. Writing towards the big finish, and seeing the pieces come together that lead up to it is a lot of fun. Getting to the end is one of the things that's kept me going these past three weeks. Hopefully I'll feel like it was worth it when I finish this week!

Somewhat Surprising Stuff I've Learned About Myself:
1. Despite considering myself a visual person (hello, filmmaker!) when drafting, the only description I tend to write is internal/emotional.

2. I am totally emo. Nothing makes me happier than oodles and oodles of angst (especially angst with kissing!). This shouldn't be surprising to me given that in my past life as a vidder all my vids were heavy on the angst, but somehow it was.

3. I have a limited emotional vocabulary (or okay, a potty mouth). When my characters are upset, they drop F-bombs and I don't even notice. Not even when reading through what I wrote. Although, oddly, my female MC almost always says fricken rather than the F-bomb because that's just the way she talks.

4. Every single day feels like I can't possibly write anything worthwhile, and then I do. For me, I've found that writing is all about courage. You face your fear of failure and wade right back into the mess you made. Every day.

NaNoWriMo Wordle - Week 3

Here's this week's wordle with a total of 35,248 words. It's interesting to see that my character names are beginning to take on much bigger parts (Rain, Chase, and Snake are all characters, not just words) and "something" is finally starting to shrink.



The dreaded "felt" is creeping up. Proof that I am writing stuff down as fast as I can rather than thinking up the best way to say things.

More than anything, I'm just excited I made the weekly goal and got up to 35,000 words! It was a rough week without much writing time and I still managed to pull it off. I guess that means I have no excuses in the future now. I'm finally on the downward slide to the end. Just 15,000 words to go and I know my ending will take up at least 5,000 of those. So exciting! I think I'm going to win NaNo!

Contest Update!

I've received more than 100 entries, (wow!) which means that I will be giving away 5 ARCs to 5 winners! The ARCs I'm giving away are:

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
After by Amy Efaw
Candor by Pam Bachorz

Reminder: The contest ends tomorrow November 22nd at 11:59pm Pacific Time.

Then I begin my long journey through Excel and random number generator! I have a busy week coming up, so I will post the winners after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Good luck!