NaNoWriMo and sucking at character development

I don’t know if I’m jinxing myself here, but it’s been a pretty good month in the blogging sense and I’m rather proud. I’ve been posting regularly-ish and I have a surprising amount of visitors each day! Thanks y’all!

I’m thinking ahead to November which is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in a single month. It doesn’t need to make sense, or be particularly good, but it’s a great way to just write without thinking about it. I have been participating in NaNoWriMo every year for several years. I first heard about it from Amity over at my fav blog and it’s been a really liberating experience ever since.

I have a million novels in my head, many based off of my own life. But I have a problem. I pretty much suck at character and plot development. You’d think it’d be easy, considering it all happened in real life already, but it’s not. I find myself writing chronologically, and describing every single little tiny minute detail because for me, it’s more about recording the event for posterity than making it interesting for potential readers.

I’ve had a really interesting life, and at least some parts of it could make for a really interesting story, but I hate writing pain and heartbreak. I just want to write the fun stuff. So I do…every November…50,000 words of it. But something amazing happens after 50,000 words of kitties and bunnies and rainbows. You get sick of it. Suddenly you want to write about hangovers and stupid things said and embarrassing moments and painful breakups and loss. You want to get it out because, at least in my case, it actually happened and it’s not doing any good sitting inside. You realize that the time you walked from a bar in a mall in the third world two stories up without your shoes and then broke down crying only to have the guy you desperately wanted to impress come fish you out of the women’s bathroom drunk might be funny to some people, and it might display something really personal but insightful into the character development of you… yes that actually happened.

So I discovered that every year a group of NaNoWriMo-ers meet at our bakery to write like mad. I plan to join them this year.

And I plan to post the results right here.

(if you google really really hard you might just find an old NaNoWriMo novel of mine floating around the interwebs)

Can you tell I love ee cummings?

This was shared with me this morning and it made me feel very grateful so I thought I’d share it here! Beautiful. Can you tell I love ee cummings?

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-ee cummings

Not too much to say

Today has been a rather ordinary one, save the 87 degree weather which was, dare I say it, awesome. I overslept and missed class this morning. Which is ok I guess. I didn’t really feel like going and I didn’t feel it was particularly necessary. On the subject of school. I am doing a *gasp* undergrad double major in Business (minor Entrepreneurship) and Spanish (minor French…?) at Queen’s University of Charlotte. Ironically, I’ve always wanted to go there, but wasn’t accepted before. Oh well, no matter, now I’m rocking it and kicking butt in school. I’ve received the President’s merit scholarship this semester, which was really exciting. I’m doing several research projects at the moment. I’ve already completed one about syncretic religions in Latin America, which is a topic I really love. I also did one on the development of socialism in Venezuela, which was almost as fun. Now I’m doing on the rules of accentuation (HELP Amity, Spanish teacher extraordinaire of http://amity.beane.org) and I have to choose a topic for my final presentation in one of my classes. It must have something to do with Lain America. Those are the only requirements. I have absolutely no idea what topic to pick, which is why my professor Dr. Galleno has requested that I not come to class on Wednesday, but rather spend the entire day in the library deciding on a topic so I can submit the outline by Friday. I absolutely love my classes, but am really happy that it’s nearly the end of the semester!

In other news, I missed flamenco class today, but it was for a good cause. I’ve launched a new website. www.cltflamenco.com and it looks wonderful, if I do say so myself.

That’s all for today folks. See ya later!

With up so floating many bells down.

Someone just asked me what this means. Here’s the answer

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t he danced his did.

…Women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed (but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone’s any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
with by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men (both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain

-e.e. cummings