I tell you, I am so good at finding distractions, especially when I have challenges looming over me. I really had no idea how many distractions I could find until NaNoWriMo! This morning I almost started scrubbing my shower before I reminded myself that I really did NOT have time for that today. Well, this week I have another temptation to deal with (one much more compelling than scrubbing showers!)
There's a new biography out that I've really been looking forward to reading. It's called Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I know, random, right? Well WWII isn't my usual genre, that's for sure, but this one sounded really interesting, and the author is almost as interesting as the story she wrote. Laura Hillenbrand is the author of Seabiscuit, so this is her second biography. (I count a story of a racehorse as a biography, okay?) Laura Hillenbrand also happens to be an extremely ill woman. She's had severe chronic fatigue syndrome from the time that she had a virus when she was in college. She is almost never able to leave her house. And, according to some of the articles I've read, she has such severe weakness and vertigo that she can't even read books anymore. She told one interviewer that she had to skip her morning shower in order to have enough strength to even be interviewed.
This woman is so sick that she's never gotten to meet the subject of her biography, who is, in fact, still alive and in his 90's. They've done dozens of phone interviews, and apparently she has done a remarkable job of remotely researching her topic. I'd never even heard of the man about whom she wrote, but after reading the synopsis I am not sure why he hasn't been a household name to this day - his story is certainly incredible. Louie Zamperini was an American Olympic runner who competed in the Berlin Olympics, met Hitler, and then stole a German flag off the Reich Chancellery! So, yes, it seems that he was a spunky fellow. Which was a good thing, I guess, because in the war, his plane crashed and he was marooned in a raft with two other men for weeks and weeks and weeks, drifting thousands of miles, living on rainwater and bird blood, being strafed by Japanese planes and followed by sharks. The survivors found land only to be taken prisoner by the Japanese, and it gets crazier from there, apparently. The final portion of the book tells of how Mr Zamperini handled the emotional aftermath of this trauma.
The reviews are phenomenal, and I just got an email from Amazon that had this book recommended as one of the ten best of the year.
I remember reading an article that came out soon after they released the movie version of Seabiscuit. In that article, Laura explained that during the course of writing Seabiscuit her health had deteriorated significantly. At the time, she really sounded unsure that she would ever be able to complete another book, and frankly, it sounded like an open question of whether she would even want to, given how much the first one had cost her in terms of her health. So I was very happy to learn that she was successful in writing another book, and one that sounds very well received, too.
And that really makes me want to read it.
(Yesterday I completed 1,940 words, for a total of 22,943. Still working on today.)
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
NaNoWriMo - Days Fourteen and Fifteen
Just jumping over here to do a quick update. Things are still progressing! But I've been spending time writing and sleeping instead of blogging.
The distractions are getting pretty intense right now! Yesterday I was all set to make tons of progress, and I did. But it was painful progress, the kind you have to fight through, because a) I found out there were like 30 new Kindle and Nook books for free on Amazon, and I downloaded a bunch of them and b) I found a new app that allows me to check out ebooks from my library and read them on Paddy (the iPad). Argh. All that free reading just had to come right in the middle of WriMo, didn't it? But still, how cool?!
Despite the lure of free reading, I was able to get in 1,938 words yesterday. And on Sunday, despite having way too much fun with friends, I did get in 685. Plus I have a few more already logged for today, bringing my total up to 21,311. Sooooo close to that halfway point. I need a big week this week, since we have Thanksgiving coming up. If anybody makes plans during the week, don't tell me about them!
P.S. - Even if you don't have an ebook reader, you can still read the Kindle books and library ebooks on your computer. Not my favorite way to read a book, but hey, the price is right, and if the book is good then you'll forget where you're reading it! (Been there, done that) Here's a link to the Kindle Apps for PC, Mac, iPhone/iTouch, iPad, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7. And here's the Barnes and Noble equivalent for their Nook Books. You may as well start collecting some of the free ones now, for the inevitable day when you succumb to the lure of reading digital books! Any books you collect from the Kindle store or the Barnes and Noble store (free or not) will stay in your account forever, and can be read on any or all of those devices, and they even remember where you were when you switch devices. Check a library near you for their digital offerings.
The distractions are getting pretty intense right now! Yesterday I was all set to make tons of progress, and I did. But it was painful progress, the kind you have to fight through, because a) I found out there were like 30 new Kindle and Nook books for free on Amazon, and I downloaded a bunch of them and b) I found a new app that allows me to check out ebooks from my library and read them on Paddy (the iPad). Argh. All that free reading just had to come right in the middle of WriMo, didn't it? But still, how cool?!
Despite the lure of free reading, I was able to get in 1,938 words yesterday. And on Sunday, despite having way too much fun with friends, I did get in 685. Plus I have a few more already logged for today, bringing my total up to 21,311. Sooooo close to that halfway point. I need a big week this week, since we have Thanksgiving coming up. If anybody makes plans during the week, don't tell me about them!
P.S. - Even if you don't have an ebook reader, you can still read the Kindle books and library ebooks on your computer. Not my favorite way to read a book, but hey, the price is right, and if the book is good then you'll forget where you're reading it! (Been there, done that) Here's a link to the Kindle Apps for PC, Mac, iPhone/iTouch, iPad, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7. And here's the Barnes and Noble equivalent for their Nook Books. You may as well start collecting some of the free ones now, for the inevitable day when you succumb to the lure of reading digital books! Any books you collect from the Kindle store or the Barnes and Noble store (free or not) will stay in your account forever, and can be read on any or all of those devices, and they even remember where you were when you switch devices. Check a library near you for their digital offerings.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
NaNoWriMo - Day Thirteen: Write or Die
2,094 words written. 18,280 total. 36% done.
'Nuff said.
Oh, come on, I'm a writer. I could never make a 9 word blog post! So instead of leaving well enough alone, I'll tell you about Write or Die, instead.
Write or Die is an online tool for NaNo writers. It was created by Dr. Wicked, and it was designed to give writers some real, short term consequences for failing to meet the goal for their writing session. Now I know that we writer types are grown-ups (the ones of us who are over 18, anyway) and we should be perfectly capable of disciplining ourselves to meet long-term goals without having to go to crazy lengths to make sure we do our writing for the day. Should being the key word here - reality works a little differently, and it seems that many writers benefit from some extra motivation. Hence, Write or Die.
The idea with Write or Die is that you have to start writing and keep writing until you have met your goal, or face the consequences.
You can pick a word amount and/or time limit, and you can choose from a range of consequence levels:
Normal mode is much more effective, in my book. It starts playing annoying sounds if you pause too long. The only way to stop the sounds is to keep writing. Everyone in my family hates annoying sounds, so keeping them happy would be an extra incentive for me to keep the fingers clicking.
Kamikaze mode is just evil, I think. In Kamikaze mode, if you stop writing for too long, it starts erasing what you already wrote! Horrific! (But very effective.)
And finally, Electric Shock mode . . . doesn't actually work. It's a joke, people. This isn't literally Write or Die - that's just an expression.
I think the idea of Write or Die is fascinating. I've never used it, though, because I just can't commit. What if the doorbell rings? Or the kids need me? Or the kitchen catches on fire? You never know when something is going to come up, and then where would you be?
So, for now, I'm having to power through with the only motivators to which I've been able to commit - my husband (who, it turns out, can be quite the nag) and my friends (less naggy, but also very motivational). So far so good, but it's nice to know I've got options if I need to move up to more dire consequences. Maybe in week 4!
'Nuff said.
Oh, come on, I'm a writer. I could never make a 9 word blog post! So instead of leaving well enough alone, I'll tell you about Write or Die, instead.
Write or Die is an online tool for NaNo writers. It was created by Dr. Wicked, and it was designed to give writers some real, short term consequences for failing to meet the goal for their writing session. Now I know that we writer types are grown-ups (the ones of us who are over 18, anyway) and we should be perfectly capable of disciplining ourselves to meet long-term goals without having to go to crazy lengths to make sure we do our writing for the day. Should being the key word here - reality works a little differently, and it seems that many writers benefit from some extra motivation. Hence, Write or Die.
The idea with Write or Die is that you have to start writing and keep writing until you have met your goal, or face the consequences.
You can pick a word amount and/or time limit, and you can choose from a range of consequence levels:
Gentle mode just displays a pop-up reminder to get back to work. Isn't that sweet? In terms of useful consequences, it's not nearly enough for the hard-core procrastinator, though.
- Gentle
- Normal
- Kamikaze
- Electric Shock(!)
Normal mode is much more effective, in my book. It starts playing annoying sounds if you pause too long. The only way to stop the sounds is to keep writing. Everyone in my family hates annoying sounds, so keeping them happy would be an extra incentive for me to keep the fingers clicking.
Kamikaze mode is just evil, I think. In Kamikaze mode, if you stop writing for too long, it starts erasing what you already wrote! Horrific! (But very effective.)
And finally, Electric Shock mode . . . doesn't actually work. It's a joke, people. This isn't literally Write or Die - that's just an expression.
I think the idea of Write or Die is fascinating. I've never used it, though, because I just can't commit. What if the doorbell rings? Or the kids need me? Or the kitchen catches on fire? You never know when something is going to come up, and then where would you be?
So, for now, I'm having to power through with the only motivators to which I've been able to commit - my husband (who, it turns out, can be quite the nag) and my friends (less naggy, but also very motivational). So far so good, but it's nice to know I've got options if I need to move up to more dire consequences. Maybe in week 4!
Friday, November 12, 2010
NaNoWriMo - Days Eleven and Twelve: I couldn't be a Pantser, could I?
Yesterday was just as busy as I thought it might be, and my flare was no better, either, so I fell asleep after 558 words and no blog entry! I'm not complaining though, because a) I'm so glad I got to go to the Christmas Show with my daughters and my friends, and b) I finally toughed through the worst of the flare, and today I'm much better in a lot of ways, despite having a migraine for the first 12 hours or so. If you'd told me a few years ago that I'd be happy to have a day with "only" a migraine, I'd have thought you were crazy! Isn't life funny? Everything's relative, I guess.
Anyway, to prove that today was better, here I am at 9:14pm, and I've already completed 1934 words today, for a grand total of 16,286. That's 32% of the total, so I'm very close to 1/3 done with the 50,000 word goal.
But enough with the statistics - On to the main topic of this blog post. Maybe you are still wondering what the term "pantser" means? I have to say, it's certainly not something I ever thought I would be. In fact, there was probably a time when I would have said pantsers were foolish and asking for trouble. I would have said it, that is, if I had known what it was! Then NaNoWriMo came and turned everything on its head. Not only did I discover the phrase pantser, AND learn what it meant, but I also came across some strong evidence that I might BE a pantser. Wow.
Okay, okay, before I force you to resort to a Google search out of frustration, I'll get to the point. It seems that most people are either plotters or pantsers. That is, they either outline their writing ahead of time, or they show up at the computer each day and fly by the seat of their pants. Guess which one I am? Oh, yeah, anyone who knows me would be probably say I'm a plotter. Heck, I would say I'm a plotter. Ever since English 101, I've loved outlines. They are awesome! You just organize your thoughts, jot key points in order, jiggle them around a little, and then your hard work is done. From there on out, you can just systematically turn each point into prose and you are golden.
Of course, I've done a lot more non-fiction writing than fiction . . . Still, I would never approach a novel without knowing what it was about. Or would I?
Going into this NaNo project, I had an idea for a story about three weeks before the official start. For NaNo purposes, you are allowed to do all the outlining and organizing you want before the start of November, as long as you don't start the actual writing of the book itself. So I spent the three weeks brainstorming, thinking through storylines, working out plot points, and I didn't have enough time to get it all completed. I had a good idea of where I was going and how, but not nearly to the point of a scene by scene outline. That had me a little nervous, but I didn't have much choice about it.
So, on November 1, 2010, I booted up my laptop, pulled up my barebones outline, and promptly changed the entire audience of my novel before I'd finished the first sentence. My plot and outline were for a children's book. I was writing a children's book, I tell you. But when I started writing that first sentence, I found out that I didn't think I could make this a children's book. The character wanted to be older. So right now, she's older. And so far I've just shown up at the computer every day to see what will come out.
Now, despite how much I like plotting and planning with non-fiction writing, I really shouldn't be surprised by how this has turned out. An honest appraisal of my character would have turned it up in a heartbeat. Fact is, I'm obsessed with planning. I love to research, I love to organize and make plans and set things up. But when it comes time to follow through? Man, I chafe at being held to a schedule. I'm like this in homeschooling too. Every summer I spend weeks researching and ordering and making up schedules. By Christmas, we're lucky if we are still using half of what I planned. The rest has been switched, dropped, or tweaked beyond recognition.
I've decided that's because creativity calls for flexibility. The more creative the endeavor, the more necessity there is for the whims of the muse or the needs of the moment. It is hard to predict the future with creative projects, and that's what planning tries to do.
That said, I still love planning, and I do think there is a place for it, a big place, in my creative "stuff". For example, the more research and planning I do, the more I learn. For me, planning is the place to start, whether it is for homeschool lesson plans or (apparently) a NaNo project. The ideas get to germinate, take root, get ready to sprout up. And then we get to find out what kind of plant they really are. Maybe we thought we were planting radishes, and it was really carrots. Who knew?
It looks like the novel I'm writing now was, in fact carrots, not radishes. So I'm using the basic plot ideas, but changing huge parts of the story, and mainly showing up to see what happens next. Hey, I'm in good company - apparently both Stephen King and Nora Roberts are known pantsers. They do pretty well for themselves.
The worst thing about pantsing is that a lot of what I write might end up needing to be changed. It might be really bad, even need to be deleted outright. But, as I've said before, I don't mind revising at all, so that's probably not such a bad thing for me.
The best part about pantsing is that I get to be just as interested and surprised as the reader. Doesn't that sound like fun?
Anyway, to prove that today was better, here I am at 9:14pm, and I've already completed 1934 words today, for a grand total of 16,286. That's 32% of the total, so I'm very close to 1/3 done with the 50,000 word goal.
But enough with the statistics - On to the main topic of this blog post. Maybe you are still wondering what the term "pantser" means? I have to say, it's certainly not something I ever thought I would be. In fact, there was probably a time when I would have said pantsers were foolish and asking for trouble. I would have said it, that is, if I had known what it was! Then NaNoWriMo came and turned everything on its head. Not only did I discover the phrase pantser, AND learn what it meant, but I also came across some strong evidence that I might BE a pantser. Wow.
Okay, okay, before I force you to resort to a Google search out of frustration, I'll get to the point. It seems that most people are either plotters or pantsers. That is, they either outline their writing ahead of time, or they show up at the computer each day and fly by the seat of their pants. Guess which one I am? Oh, yeah, anyone who knows me would be probably say I'm a plotter. Heck, I would say I'm a plotter. Ever since English 101, I've loved outlines. They are awesome! You just organize your thoughts, jot key points in order, jiggle them around a little, and then your hard work is done. From there on out, you can just systematically turn each point into prose and you are golden.
Of course, I've done a lot more non-fiction writing than fiction . . . Still, I would never approach a novel without knowing what it was about. Or would I?
Going into this NaNo project, I had an idea for a story about three weeks before the official start. For NaNo purposes, you are allowed to do all the outlining and organizing you want before the start of November, as long as you don't start the actual writing of the book itself. So I spent the three weeks brainstorming, thinking through storylines, working out plot points, and I didn't have enough time to get it all completed. I had a good idea of where I was going and how, but not nearly to the point of a scene by scene outline. That had me a little nervous, but I didn't have much choice about it.
So, on November 1, 2010, I booted up my laptop, pulled up my barebones outline, and promptly changed the entire audience of my novel before I'd finished the first sentence. My plot and outline were for a children's book. I was writing a children's book, I tell you. But when I started writing that first sentence, I found out that I didn't think I could make this a children's book. The character wanted to be older. So right now, she's older. And so far I've just shown up at the computer every day to see what will come out.
Now, despite how much I like plotting and planning with non-fiction writing, I really shouldn't be surprised by how this has turned out. An honest appraisal of my character would have turned it up in a heartbeat. Fact is, I'm obsessed with planning. I love to research, I love to organize and make plans and set things up. But when it comes time to follow through? Man, I chafe at being held to a schedule. I'm like this in homeschooling too. Every summer I spend weeks researching and ordering and making up schedules. By Christmas, we're lucky if we are still using half of what I planned. The rest has been switched, dropped, or tweaked beyond recognition.
I've decided that's because creativity calls for flexibility. The more creative the endeavor, the more necessity there is for the whims of the muse or the needs of the moment. It is hard to predict the future with creative projects, and that's what planning tries to do.
That said, I still love planning, and I do think there is a place for it, a big place, in my creative "stuff". For example, the more research and planning I do, the more I learn. For me, planning is the place to start, whether it is for homeschool lesson plans or (apparently) a NaNo project. The ideas get to germinate, take root, get ready to sprout up. And then we get to find out what kind of plant they really are. Maybe we thought we were planting radishes, and it was really carrots. Who knew?
It looks like the novel I'm writing now was, in fact carrots, not radishes. So I'm using the basic plot ideas, but changing huge parts of the story, and mainly showing up to see what happens next. Hey, I'm in good company - apparently both Stephen King and Nora Roberts are known pantsers. They do pretty well for themselves.
The worst thing about pantsing is that a lot of what I write might end up needing to be changed. It might be really bad, even need to be deleted outright. But, as I've said before, I don't mind revising at all, so that's probably not such a bad thing for me.
The best part about pantsing is that I get to be just as interested and surprised as the reader. Doesn't that sound like fun?
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
NaNoWriMo - Day Ten: Good thing I got my quota in yesterday . . .
Wow. Yesterday was something, and today was something else! By late afternoon, I was extremely glad that I had gotten as much done yesterday as I had. Tonight, I got myself started and pushed through more than 50% of my quota (900 words to be exact), and I didn't have to feel bad about turning in early. Usually the most severe part of these unusually strong flares only lasts two-three days, so there is light ahead - I'm banking on it!
You can tell it's bad today, though, because I'm not even tempted to blog a dissertation on some cool NaNoWriMo term. Nope, I'm thinking I need to start the unwinding process and hit the hay. Maybe then I can get a little early morning writing done to make up. It's another really busy day tomorrow, so I have to admit I'm a little nervous about that. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are pretty much free and clear though, despite my crazy cousin's attempts to ensnare me in a plot to attend a drive-in movie in the middle of November. Nice try. Sleep and writing and a heating pad, that's my plan.
You can tell it's bad today, though, because I'm not even tempted to blog a dissertation on some cool NaNoWriMo term. Nope, I'm thinking I need to start the unwinding process and hit the hay. Maybe then I can get a little early morning writing done to make up. It's another really busy day tomorrow, so I have to admit I'm a little nervous about that. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are pretty much free and clear though, despite my crazy cousin's attempts to ensnare me in a plot to attend a drive-in movie in the middle of November. Nice try. Sleep and writing and a heating pad, that's my plan.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
NaNoWriMo - Day Nine: 25%, but I can't believe I got there today
So today I passed the 25% mark of my 50,000 word goal for the month. I wrote 1888 words, for a grand total of 12,894. According to my noveling software (more about that another day) I have the equivalent of about 37 pages of paperback book text.
I can't believe I got those words in, though, because I felt sooo crummy. Let's just say it was not a good evening, and I didn't get started with word 1 until around 9:30. I was seriously tempted to give today a skip, and hope that tomorrow was a better day.
I have found with other goals that the key, for me, is to just get started. Getting going is so much more difficult than keeping going. So the good news is that often, if I can just get started, I can keep going for quite a while. The bad news is, it can be so hard to get started that I just don't.
My carefully honed technique, therefore, is to bargain myself into starting. I'll offer myself a deal. "Self," I'll tell myself, "you don't want to have to make up all these words tomorrow, do you? Even when you are feeling bad you can write for a few minutes. How about this - how about you just do 500 little words? You can knock that out in a half hour or so, and then you can still get a full evening of rest and relaxation in. No further obligation, promise!"
Even though I know that it is all just a dastardly plot to get myself started, and even though I am really hoping that I will write a lot more than 500 words, still, there is a part of me that will often buy the act. I'll think, "You know, I'm really tired tonight, and feeling crummy. I won't feel up to writing it all, but I will get a little bit done, just to keep from losing all my momentum. A little bit won't be too bad to manage." Sucker!!!
On days when I'm lucky, I'll get started and keep right on going. And that's what happened tonight.
I did stop briefly when I got to 63% of my quota, to go check on what Phil was up to. My poor hubby has had to deal with me writing most evenings, and I couldn't help but feel bad that he was being so neglected. I figured he might be getting sick of being ignored in favor of my alphabet soup of a manuscript. A misguided, amateur-hour manuscript he might not even get to read, it's so questionable.
I told him I was trying to decide between writing more or taking a shower. "Write more!" he said. I told him I was close to 70%. "Then get to 80!" he said.
So I guess he's not too sick of it, yet. Or possibly he just wanted to get back to his Blackberry Word Mole game. But either way, he wasn't missing me too much, and I had no more excuses for feeling guilty.
So I got back to it, and knocked out the last big chunk, and I even set a new record for the month. And you know what? I still feel crummy. Very, very crummy, especially since I forgot whether or not I'd taken my pain medicine this evening, so I couldn't take any more just in case. (Like I've said before, my wonky memory makes life more interesting than it has to be.)
But now I feel crummy AND I finished my quota! Which definitely beats the alternative! In the immortal words of London Tipton, "Yay me!"
I can't believe I got those words in, though, because I felt sooo crummy. Let's just say it was not a good evening, and I didn't get started with word 1 until around 9:30. I was seriously tempted to give today a skip, and hope that tomorrow was a better day.
I have found with other goals that the key, for me, is to just get started. Getting going is so much more difficult than keeping going. So the good news is that often, if I can just get started, I can keep going for quite a while. The bad news is, it can be so hard to get started that I just don't.
My carefully honed technique, therefore, is to bargain myself into starting. I'll offer myself a deal. "Self," I'll tell myself, "you don't want to have to make up all these words tomorrow, do you? Even when you are feeling bad you can write for a few minutes. How about this - how about you just do 500 little words? You can knock that out in a half hour or so, and then you can still get a full evening of rest and relaxation in. No further obligation, promise!"
Even though I know that it is all just a dastardly plot to get myself started, and even though I am really hoping that I will write a lot more than 500 words, still, there is a part of me that will often buy the act. I'll think, "You know, I'm really tired tonight, and feeling crummy. I won't feel up to writing it all, but I will get a little bit done, just to keep from losing all my momentum. A little bit won't be too bad to manage." Sucker!!!
On days when I'm lucky, I'll get started and keep right on going. And that's what happened tonight.
I did stop briefly when I got to 63% of my quota, to go check on what Phil was up to. My poor hubby has had to deal with me writing most evenings, and I couldn't help but feel bad that he was being so neglected. I figured he might be getting sick of being ignored in favor of my alphabet soup of a manuscript. A misguided, amateur-hour manuscript he might not even get to read, it's so questionable.
I told him I was trying to decide between writing more or taking a shower. "Write more!" he said. I told him I was close to 70%. "Then get to 80!" he said.
So I guess he's not too sick of it, yet. Or possibly he just wanted to get back to his Blackberry Word Mole game. But either way, he wasn't missing me too much, and I had no more excuses for feeling guilty.
So I got back to it, and knocked out the last big chunk, and I even set a new record for the month. And you know what? I still feel crummy. Very, very crummy, especially since I forgot whether or not I'd taken my pain medicine this evening, so I couldn't take any more just in case. (Like I've said before, my wonky memory makes life more interesting than it has to be.)
But now I feel crummy AND I finished my quota! Which definitely beats the alternative! In the immortal words of London Tipton, "Yay me!"
Monday, November 8, 2010
NaNoWriMo - Day Eight: Resisting the Siren's Call - (Frontierville)
I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook's associated plethora of time-wasting, soul-sucking games like Farmville and Frontierville. I hate them because of all the, you know, time-wasting and soul-sucking. (Admittedly, the jury is still out on the soul-sucking - that's hard to prove in this lifetime, but I have my suspicions. . .)
On the other hand, I also love the games because they are extremely fun, and also because I really, really like to earn things - even so-called "things" of very dubious value. I never got to be a Girl Scout, but if I had been, I'd have collected every single badge I could possibly get my mitts on. I just love completing goals and earning badges and pins and things for my efforts. Even badges made of bytes, like the sort they gave out on my most recent obsession, Frontierville.
By the start of NaNoWriMo's writing-an-entire-novel-in-one-month-craziness, though, I had finally gotten a little tired of the amount of time and energy it took to keep my frontier town thriving. I already had a neglected Farmville account languishing in my rear view mirror, and I'd learned from that experience that once you manage to go a few days without checking in, the game loses most of its allure, and you can suddenly step back and see that it is, in fact, just a silly game that is striving (futilely, in my case) to get you to spend real money for fake stuff.
So it has been several weeks now, since I bid the (fake) frontier farewell and headed off into the sunset. But Week Two of NaNo has been nothing but a big temptation to relapse. See, here you are, staring at the computer screen, and suddenly you can't write another word without your head just exploding, so you click over really quick to check email, and . . . nothing. For like ten minutes at least, your friends haven't sent you a single silly rhyming email designed to drive their sisters crazy (true story) or even a decent chain email threatening death and destruction if not forwarded to 80 friends in the next 14 seconds. Not even an email with cute pictures of kittens!
So there you are, with nothing, and then Facebook starts calling your name. Frontierville is luring you back like a true siren, pulling you away from your novel-writing and towards the terrible dangerous rocks of time-you-don't-have-to-waste. Don't you deserve a break? You have a terrible headache from all that serious writing. Don't you deserve to have some rest and relaxation and good times with your friends, sending and receiving items and earning . . . badges? What about the badges April? How could you forget?
Well so far, much like Odysseus on his great, well, odyssey, I've tied myself to the couch and kept my mouse away from the "Frontierville" button with success. Okay, so Odysseus tied himself to the mast of his ship to avoid answering the sirens' call, which isn't much like a couch at all, and I'm pretty sure Odysseus would have thought a WriMo was a disaster sent by the Greek muses (well, actually, hey - that part might be pretty accurate) but anyway, my POINT is, this is the 21st century. We modern day heroes have to adapt!
And so, at least for now, my Frontierville bookmark is safely tucked away. Just in case, however, I do have a secret weapon if the urge to earn badges becomes too great! How cool is that?!
Words written today: 1,779. Total: 11,006. Badges: None yet, but I can order them in a jiffy if I need them!
On the other hand, I also love the games because they are extremely fun, and also because I really, really like to earn things - even so-called "things" of very dubious value. I never got to be a Girl Scout, but if I had been, I'd have collected every single badge I could possibly get my mitts on. I just love completing goals and earning badges and pins and things for my efforts. Even badges made of bytes, like the sort they gave out on my most recent obsession, Frontierville.
By the start of NaNoWriMo's writing-an-entire-novel-in-one-month-craziness, though, I had finally gotten a little tired of the amount of time and energy it took to keep my frontier town thriving. I already had a neglected Farmville account languishing in my rear view mirror, and I'd learned from that experience that once you manage to go a few days without checking in, the game loses most of its allure, and you can suddenly step back and see that it is, in fact, just a silly game that is striving (futilely, in my case) to get you to spend real money for fake stuff.
So it has been several weeks now, since I bid the (fake) frontier farewell and headed off into the sunset. But Week Two of NaNo has been nothing but a big temptation to relapse. See, here you are, staring at the computer screen, and suddenly you can't write another word without your head just exploding, so you click over really quick to check email, and . . . nothing. For like ten minutes at least, your friends haven't sent you a single silly rhyming email designed to drive their sisters crazy (true story) or even a decent chain email threatening death and destruction if not forwarded to 80 friends in the next 14 seconds. Not even an email with cute pictures of kittens!
So there you are, with nothing, and then Facebook starts calling your name. Frontierville is luring you back like a true siren, pulling you away from your novel-writing and towards the terrible dangerous rocks of time-you-don't-have-to-waste. Don't you deserve a break? You have a terrible headache from all that serious writing. Don't you deserve to have some rest and relaxation and good times with your friends, sending and receiving items and earning . . . badges? What about the badges April? How could you forget?
Well so far, much like Odysseus on his great, well, odyssey, I've tied myself to the couch and kept my mouse away from the "Frontierville" button with success. Okay, so Odysseus tied himself to the mast of his ship to avoid answering the sirens' call, which isn't much like a couch at all, and I'm pretty sure Odysseus would have thought a WriMo was a disaster sent by the Greek muses (well, actually, hey - that part might be pretty accurate) but anyway, my POINT is, this is the 21st century. We modern day heroes have to adapt!
And so, at least for now, my Frontierville bookmark is safely tucked away. Just in case, however, I do have a secret weapon if the urge to earn badges becomes too great! How cool is that?!
Words written today: 1,779. Total: 11,006. Badges: None yet, but I can order them in a jiffy if I need them!
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