NaNoWriMo/OVFF prep

Hey, Allison has a brand new spankin' online journal! Do check it out.

Today's artwork was provided by my 5-year-old niece Annie. The picture at the top is a drawing of Sara, and one below is a self-portrait. The clothing and hair is accurate to life (Ruth says it's what the girls were wearing that day).

You'll all be relieved to hear that my Blatherings will probably start getting shorter for the next while as I frantically finish NaNoWriMo prep, some other writing projects due this week, and prep for OVFF on the weekend. Looks like I'll be performing in Andrea's & Graham's concert, the Pegasus Awards concert (helping Daniel & Melissa Glasser perform Dark Man and The Lady), and recording stuff for Andrea's upcoming CD. Sadly, neither Allison nor Jodi will be attending OVFF this year. :-(

For those of you who have been tempted by the idea of writing a 50,000 novel in thirty days (I know you're out there) in NaNoWriMo, it's not too late! Sign-up is free, there's no obligation, and you can back out anytime. You don't even have to idiotically put your neck out on the line and tell everyone about your commitment, like I'm doing.

Plus I just got my first NaNoWriMo newsletter, and it looks like they're offering free NaNoWriMo stickers and pencils to all participants (and if that isn't incentive enough to write a novel in a month, what is?). The site will also be offering an optional escalating word count tally and novel excerpt post for those who want to make their efforts public. I plan to post my word count tally but not excerpts.

The NaNoWriMo site added a message board this year, where you can get advice from old pros, find out better ways to procrastinate, get recommendations for good background music, etc. Lots of entertaining reading, though one of the earliest pieces of advice from experienced types was "Don't spend so much time reading the message board!" There's also a private messaging facility which I've been using to contact people I want to interview for my NaNoWriMo article. I've also been getting some private messages from people who recognize my name from other online projects, like the following:

Does this mean no more "Waiting for Frodo" in November? :-)


One of the things that appealed to me about this insane worldwide project is the tongue-in-cheek writing by the creator throughout the site. Here's an excerpt from a little last-minute pep speech on the main page:


Ok, now get back to your sweet, succulent, novel-free lifestyles. Spend time with loved ones! Gaze emptily at walls and park benches! Share a final Pabst with your buddies at the dive bar! Go dancing! Prank call your boss! Build a hobo encampment in your backyard! Buy a monkey and teach it to kickbox!


:-)

Check out NaNoWriMo at www.nanowrimo.org.





Links/News:

One year ago, I talked about buffet strategies.

Five years ago, I updated the short-lived Urban Tapestry comic (sorry, no longer online).