My Life AND My Ideas: Yeah, about that "Once a Week" Thing.

On the plus side, I'm still posting more often than Websnark. But the main reason for the lack of updates was Nanowrimo, AKA National Novel Writing Month. Writing 58,000 words in 30 days does tend to cut into other types of writing. But it's been a rough month anyway. There were trips to Chicago, I actually got some semblance of a life on Tuesday nights at least, even if said life and semblance mostly involves bar trivia nights, and my work got, well, tricky. Notably, I lost a week doing inventory, and heaving boxes around while counting tens of thousands of little metal and/or plastic thingies does not inspire.

There have been other downsides. My cat has been, well not sick exactly, but something worse. It involves words like "anal glands," "sedation needed," "Urinary Tract Infection," and "$700." And he's still rubbing his butt on the carpet. I also had to figure out some new ideas for insurance; my current one was too expensive. On the plus side, I think I found one that'll save me quite a bit a year. So there's that.

As for the Nanowrimo, it went well enough. I experimented with a first person perspective by making this year's project a journal for one of the characters. So it's all her voice. On the other hand, this means that I could do almost none of the dialogue that I find is my strength. That's not too surprising; after all, as much as I like writing, I'd rather do something visual like television, movies, or video games. But that requires artistic skills, technological abilities, actors, artists, and/or a budget. Anyway, this Nano ended up having some trouble with voices with other characters besides the main one. I especially noticed that I have a trouble making love interests, especially male ones. On the other hand, a female love interest proved surprisingly easy. I could even make children's novels around one of them (if there was a market for children's books about a lesbian demon, albeit an adorable one.) Nonetheless, I think I'm going to try to set up dialogue for each character. I like the idea of using "auditions" for new characters, giving them a chance to reveal some back-story and their voice even without in-story dialogue. Crazy? Maybe, but what in my life isn't insane?