NaNoWriMo 2011 Complete!

FINISHED!!! 50,236 according to Word and 50,040 according to NaNoWriMo.

Now to sit on my butt and play Zelda without guilt and eat delicious barbecued pizza made by my handsome husband! Huzzah!

Tomorrow begins the week of house clean-up, holiday decorating, and Nutcracker practicing, rehearsals, and performances!

At some point I will write a wrap-up of NaNoWriMo 2011, but I'm sure you all can appreciate the fact that I'm tired of writing at the moment. But the first draft of the novel is complete, for better or worse. And there's quite a bit of the latter, my inner editor says. But that's okay because for now:

I'VE FINISHED! Ta Da!

Muses, Valkyries, and Free Coffee

In the month of November, there is no halftime. Not for writing. It's a bit upsetting actually. Here I am, just having passed the halfway mark, and there is no marching band with an amazing field show for me. Not one. Maybe they weren't ready, since I am ahead of the game. *Sigh* I guess that playing Ride of the Valkyries last night at symphony rehearsal was my halftime show. At this point, if you haven't already, I suggest you click on the above link so that you can experience the epic-ness with me, and then come back while it's playing for the halftime report with Bob and Ralph!

Because, after all, with any good halftime show, we need a good halftime report. And so here goes: 

BOB: "What an exciting opening half, don't you agree, Ralph?" 

RALPH: "Yes, Bob, I do say that it was. It started out slow, I was a little worried there for the first few plays, I felt like the ball just wasn't going anywhere. But then out of nowhere, it suddenly flew down the field!" 

B: "Those Muses practically handed the game over to Team Sondra, do you think they'll have anything left for the second half?" 

R: "Really, only time will tell. Last year at this time the game was a lot closer, but this year Team Sondra has some hidden talents." 

B: "You know Ralph, to be honest I'm surprised. In fact, I think she took a lot of us by surprise. Up until the last week before the big month, she wasn't even sure she'd be competing."

R: "Excellent point, Bob. But apparently that strategy has been working for her. Last year she came prepared. This year it could have gone either way, and there have been some shockers." 

B: "Certainly. Her characters have taken control of the game at times, leading her in what seems to be a crazy path down the field. Do you think that she can keep up with them and bring it home?" 

R: "Time will only tell. But if she keeps playing like she has during the first half--" 

B: "You mean if The Muses keep handing it over." 

R: "I think Team Sondra deserves some credit. Apparently she's been keeping some of those main scenes and characters on the downlow for years." 

B: "I do have to agree, those were some powerful secret weapons. Now, let's get back to the game and see what happens in the second half!" 

*******

Meanwhile, in other news, Costco had great samples today (oreo cookies being one of them) and McDonald's is offering a free 12 oz coffee all day, every day until Nov. 20th. Score! 

*******

Amusing the Muses

I am hoping I won't jinx myself, but so far I'm cruising right along with my novel. Sometimes I stare at the page for a while wondering what mindless drivel will end up on the paper. Yet several days in a row now, I've been thrown a tidbit by the Writerly Muses. And with each delightful morsel, I find myself eagerly flipping pages as my pencils whittle down to mere nubs. (Good thing I have a steady supply from last Christmas in my office.)

More than once my characters have surprised me or new characters suddenly push their way into my story. One character picked an occupation that I never expected (or even knew existed until it appeared on my paper). Another character blurted out something at a family dinner that sent shockwaves...both through the other characters and within my writing. And then, just as I thought my Writerly Muses had deserted me, they dangled a carrot in front of my proverbial writing donkey and voilà! I was off again.

I took a chance on NanoWriMo this year, starting with only snapshots of scenes and no real direction. I don't think writing this freely will work every time, but it certainly does have a sense of liberation. There are certainly moments that will have to be cut or drastically altered in my rewrites, but for now, I'm excited that this might actually turn into a novel. I'll try not to hold my breath, but between you and me, Dear Reader, I'm excited!!!

NaNoWriMo 2011. It's gonna happen.

November snuck up on me. I was minding my own business when all of a sudden it leapt up and screamed, NOVEMBER 1st! on my calendar. I shouldn't be surprised, really. My dear husband's birthday is on that very day of NaNoWriMo beginnings. And that is perhaps why it didn't so much as sneak up on me as trailed me around for the latter half of October saying, "I'm coming! You can't stop it. November 1st is one day closer!"

I had a big surprise day planned for my husband's birthday this year, so it was with eager trepidation that I awaited the changing of the month: Super-stoked for the big surprise I had for him (flight museum, among other fun activities), yet lacking the time I needed to blast ahead with my word count just out of the gate.

Come November 2nd I already felt exhausted and behind. I guess NaNoWriMo is kicking me in the pants early this year. Does this mean it will be easier at the end? Is this a reverse year? Ha! I think I have to accept the fact that this isn't meant to be a walk in the park. Well, maybe Central Park.

Last year, I received inspiration from the Writerly Muses weeks before. Okay, it was probably only two weeks prior, but an entire story outline came screaming out of nowhere and smacked me in the forehead. It was pretty cool. Not gonna lie. That story left an imprint in my brain. I had plot. I had a main character. I had some conflict ready to battle it out on the paper. I had a story. And with a fervent desire to finish my goal, I had a finished first-draft of a novel by the end of November.

This year it's a bit different. Maybe it's because I'd recently found the time to start revising last year's story and would rather focus on that than a new, un-plotted, un-mapped, un-outlined story. Maybe I'm just feeling overwhelmed in general (car accident, husband working on his master's, the struggle to keep the joy in my musical playing). That's just life though, I suppose.

So I don't have an outline this year. So I really only started with some characters in some very poignant scenes that have been poking me for years to get out on paper. So I am a few hundred words off the target daily goal. This year it's just a new and different approach to NaNoWriMo. Perhaps simply because I don't have an outline I will be able to write more freely? In the past few days, I've already been astonished at things my characters have said and done. One of them chose an occupation I had never anticipated. It's amazing what comes out of nothing, isn't it?

I suppose each day of this month I will approach with some semblance of eager trepidation. If every NaNoWriMo were exactly the same, I'd be bored. This is to get me writing, no matter how I end up doing it.

The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of the November. The means is entirely up to me.

Novel Re-Outlining Complete

It has taken me quite a few months, but I have finally finished re-outlining my NaNoWriMo 2010 novel to see what I actually wrote. Overall, I have to say, I'm pretty pleased. It is amazing to me, first of all, that I even wrote an entire novel in a month. Even more amazing is that fact that it's actually pretty darn coherent.

Now, that's not to say that I don't have lots of editing ahead of me...but it is a pleasant feeling to know that I actually have a decent story with which to work. :)

What will you do with your one wild and precious life?

During college, we had this question posed to us: "What will you do with your one wild and precious life?" It must have been the theme or something because it popped up everywhere. I didn't think much of it until recently, several years after graduation. But now, I find myself asking that question (guess I got something out of that private school tuition after all). What will I do with my one wild and precious life?

The answer? For me, at the moment, it is to live life to the fullest. So, for now, that means spending quality time with people that I love, whether that means learning to SCUBA dive with my husband, driving down to see my brother for his surprise 30th birthday party, flying out to see my grandparents in the midwest. Life is precious, not just yours, but those surrounding you.

What will I do with my wild side? Well, I've heard Africa is pretty wild and fantastic. I think dear husband and I will go on an African safari sometime in the next two years.

For now, that's how I'm interpreting that saying. In another year, it might change again. But for now, we are doing things to help live our life more fully. For us, we cut back on the electronics for a while. Remember how, when we were younger, our parents limited our TV time? (At least mine did...) My husband and I did that for ourselves a month or so ago. An hour a day of a show OR a game, and that was it. Suddenly, movie nights were a treat again, not an everyday occurrence. Don't get me wrong, I think Netflix and Hulu are great, but there comes a point where On Demand is a little too on demand. Where is the line between reality and fantasy?

It's okay to take a break from the electronics. It's okay to step out of your comfort zone. After all, there's always something more interesting to do. In ten years, what will you say when you look back at yourself now? How you sat in front of the TV or computer or spent hours texting and playing games on your phone? Or will you recall instead the time you went out and built a tree fort (by yourself, with your siblings, with your kids) or drove to Wendy's and rolled a die to see what meal you'd end up with or decided to buy a trip to Africa at an auction?

Sometimes sitting at home watching a movie is exactly what is needed. Sometimes catching a one-way flight to a random city is what needed. Laughing until you can't breathe or rescuing an animal or making peace within a troubled relationship or learning a new skill...either way you go, all ways, any way...what way(s) will you choose? What will you do with your one wild and precious life?

Time Management. Now that's a boring title.

Let's face it, we all have time management issues. And if you don't, you're in denial. So what are we to do about this? Let's break it down:

A completely non-exhaustive list of excuses, in no particular order:

1. "I have this really important thing to finish _______  (for work, for school, because the world is about to end next year and I must stock my cupboards with canned food in case I am the only one left in the entire world and am unable to break into the supermarkets...)."

2."I made a New Year's resolution to ______ (diet, exercise, spend more time with people who matter, clean the fish bowl more often, walk the dog, buy a fishing license so that I can fish when the world ends and there's no food in the supermarket because I ate it all...so much for that diet) so I'm avoiding working on that New Year's resolution because it's really hard and I figure I'll just start in two days when it's a new month...again."

3. "But my show is getting really good and there are only 300 more episodes left and I have to finish or I won't know what happened with John's baby and Pamela's mother's son's daughter's first cousin." (Don't you know that it won't matter next year because the world is ending on that one day in December or something? Shouldn't you be getting to the supermarket to buy canned food and batteries?)

4. "I'm waiting ______ (for the mail, my life to be less busy with other stuff that may or may not matter, for the world to end next year)."

5. "Somebody just posted something on ______ (Facebook, Twitter, my forehead), and it's like really super important and pertinent to my life! No, really! Seriously! Didn't you know the end of the world is coming and I have to stock up on all the knowledge about other people's lives and not actually live my own?"

Okay, I'm getting a little cynical. Better stop. All cynicism aside, how many of these resonate with you? *Counts all five fingers on the right hand.* And those are only five off the top of my head. *Sigh*

What are we going to do about this?

How to fix our time management issues, in no particular order:

1. Make a list. Check it twice. Then do stuff on your list and cross things off. Sometimes it's a lot harder than it sounds. Post it notes are also useful. Then you can crumple them up into a little balls and bounce them off people's foreheads into the trash. Or your own forehead.

2. Realize that you need to have priorities in your life, and you need to be one of those priorities. Make time for yourself, but don't get sucked up into four hours of TV watching somebody else's life.

3. Stop procrastinating. Seriously. Just stop. Go to that list you wrote and pick something off of it and do it! Sheesh. We are so terrible at procrastinating, aren't we? Terribly good, that is.

4. Ask yourself this, "Why am I ______ (on Facebook, watching TV, waiting for the mail to arrive)?"

5. Prioritize. Think about things. Do what allows you to have a fulfilling life and enjoy it with those important people who surround you.

New Piano Update in Previous Post

So I updated my previous piano post with the extended version of the story. But apparently, if you are on my e-mail list, you don't get an updated e-mail if I update something. So this is me writing a new blog posting to tell everyone that the previous blog post is now updated. :)

New Piano

The extended version of the story is below, but the cut and dry of it is that I got a piano! And...for those of you who know how I always find spectacular deals, this piano is the epitome of my deal finding because I got this piano:

For FREE!! : D (No, I am not joking. Free!)

This won't be quite as animated as if you were on the phone with  me or in person, but the story goes:

I have been wanting a piano for a while now. I grew up with one. My mom had all us kids take piano lessons when we were young. I think my sister was the only one who actually continued. I quit piano lessons...twice. But I learned enough to play what I want to play! Then in high school I found myself stuck on the piano in jazz band (why in Heaven's name they wanted a CLASSICAL piano-player with only two years of "official" lessons taken back before I had double-digits in my age, I'll never understand.) In any case, in retrospect I suppose I'm glad I did it. Sure helped me understand theory quickly in college, or should I say that if they'd only given me Theory 101 in high school, I would have been a decent jazz player. At least I would have known about a strange thing called chords. (Apparently those are important in jazz...)

During college I was golden. Each practice room  had a piano and of course my parents' piano waited for me at home (even though it needed and still does need to be tuned...hint hint...*ahem*). I'm sure you can see that, a bit like having a dog, I need a piano.

When David and I moved into our apartment after college, we got said dog. But no piano. I was perfectly fine with that because while a dog fit, a piano certainly would not have. (On a side note, if you are wondering why I didn't get a keyboard, I am a piano purist. I refuse to play on keyboards unless I have to and even the weighted ones, while okay, are not the same as having a real piano. Plus, pianos are fine pieces of furniture as well.)

Our next move was to buy our house last year. Having a piano in it wasn't top of my list since a couch for the living room and a fence for the dog and desk for my office were top priority. Then about four months ago I really started to feel the lack of piano. While I don't play much, I appreciate having the ability to sit down and play one of my favorite songs or sing a few songs. Then I started teaching lessons (clarinet, not piano. That would be very silly.). When I teach, I tend to refer to pianos. Not having a piano in my house to refer doesn't work very well, short of drawing up a keyboard and humming the pitches.

It was time to find a piano. Here's the thing about piano-buying: it's intimidating. It's the car of the musical instruments. My sister offered to let me buy her piano, but then there was the whole transporting it via truck three hours. So I started poking around on Craig's List just to see if there was anything closer.

I found a few used pianos within my price range ($200-$400). Yep, that's pretty low. I looked at an upright first. It had original ivory and ebony keys (cool!), but some of the keys were chipped. The piano itself was, at one time, beautiful I'm sure. It had ornate legs and decorations, but it was worn-looking. I battled with myself inside trying to convince myself that I didn't need to be so concerned with outside appearance as with the tone and the feel of the piano. (Sounds like an 8th Grade girl's self-esteem assembly...) I thought and stewed and finally decided that I needed to look at more pianos, especially since I wasn't even sure I wanted a full upright. I never had before. It was just the first one I'd finally pushed myself into seeing.

The next piano I looked at was a spinet. The couple wanted $400. The outside was scratched, the inside pegs were rusted, one of the legs was broken. I felt for that couple, though. They and their young boy were having to move out of their house and into an apartment. There was no heat in the house, walls were half-painted, piles of swept rubble were in the corners. I think they were just trying to get the most they could from their piano. While empathetic, I just couldn't take the piano, but I did let them know that their contact number was incorrect on their listing (area code was off by one number).

It was about this time that I realized I would have to accept the fact that the outside of the piano wouldn't be lovely given the price-range in which I was looking. And when continuing my search, it was also about the time I got frustrated with people who post on Craig's List. I found another piano that looked really nice and the person selling it said that it was in good shape. When I contacted her, she said they were busy this week, how about next? To which I responded in my head, "Why did you post something on Craig's List if you aren't able to sell it the week you've posted?". There were others I contacted too: one said the piano was great except that the keys looked like "human teeth". When I asked him to clarify that, he sent me a picture:

I thought to myself, I don't want my teeth to look like this, and I certainly don't want my piano keys to look like that either! There went that piano. There was another upright that looked nice, but it was gone by the time I contacted him...the next day. Another guy was very terse in his response when I politely inquired about his piano. His disappeared off the listing soon thereafter.

By this point, I was feeling down as I obsessively refreshed the listing every five minutes. Finally, I told myself that I just needed to stop; I was driving myself insane. I busied myself for a good 40 minutes. Then I thought, I'll check again. Just in case.

There was a new listing without a price. I clicked on it anyway and looked at the pictures. It looked like a decent piano, good-looking, nice keys. At that point I figured that they probably wanted offers and that, given that it actually looked like a nice piano, I wouldn't be able to afford it. Just as I was about to click the back button, the word "FREE" caught my eye. "Free?" I asked myself. Then I read the blurb, which said something along the lines of: "Beautiful piano in great condition, FREE to a good home." "Free? FREE?" I practically shouted at my computer then flew into panic mode, frantically trying to locate my phone, "Where's my phone? Where's my phone? WHERE'S MY PHONE?!"

I think I need to get one of those things to locate my phone.

I did find it, then called. This was approximately 25-35 minutes after the person had posted the listing (why oh why had I stopped obsessively checking?). Nobody answered. I left a message. I called back again (just in case). I e-mailed the person (some people check e-mail faster than phone). I called again. I had my husband call. I felt like I was back in high school wondering if I should call that boy that I'd already called fifteen times, just one more time because surely he would want to talk to me on the magic sixteenth call! Unless that said boy was avoiding me or was he actually not home?

The end of the day came. I went to bed and slept terribly. I called again in the morning at an "appropriate" time (10 am). No answer. Left another message saying that I was still interested and that if the person had already given it away, to please contact me so that I knew (a.k.a so I could stop calling every other hour).

I told myself to chill. I consulted the rational side of me. The rational side told me that while it was a holiday (President's day), maybe, just maybe, this person actually had to work. Good theory, rational self. Didn't make me feel that much better, but it did stop me from calling again. I told myself I'd call again tomorrow and every day thereafter.

The evening came. I headed off to rehearsal after a long, moody, no-returned-calls day. On my way to rehearsal, phone on silent, my car rings (ah, the power of bluetooth). I scramble for my phone to see who's calling. It's the unknown number that I know so well!!!!!

Moment of truth:

Hello?

"Congratulations, you were the first caller!"

(More or less).

If you were sitting in the car with me, you would have visually seen this response:

"I WON!!! I WON! I WON! I WON! GAAAAAAH! I'm a winner! I won!" There was a whole lot of bouncing and smiling and probably crying all while driving at 60 mph. Great thinking me. (I was safe.)

While visually and inwardly having a celebration of mass proportions and feeling like I'd just won the ultimate radio-show give away, to the person I simply said,

"Oh really? That's wonderful! I'm so glad."

*Phew* She doesn't know I'm crazy-excited (and maybe a little crazy).

We talked about the piano a little bit. I asked if it had any chipped keys (don't want "human teeth" you know...). She said there weren't any, just that two keys stuck. She had it tuned two years ago. I asked if there were any big scratches. She said no, that it is actually in really good condition. Then I said, "Can I ask why you're giving it away?" She told me that she, herself, got it for free eight years ago, and hadn't really used it. It's just been sitting on an inside wall, and then she ended up getting a weighted keyboard. She asked me where I was coming from...and then we found out that we lived only ten minutes from each other.

Could this be my deal of the century?

I made plans to pick it up the following day. My husband asked some of his friends to help. I waited eagerly all day. Luckily I had a full day so that I wasn't just watching the clock, although I was watching the weather as snowstorms threatened to descend.

But at seven o'clock that night when we picked up the piano, it was so clear you could see all the stars.

We heaved and huffed and didn't drop the piano that I got for free. For FREE! And now it sits in our parlor (yes, I think we should now call it the parlor) and looks like it was meant to be there all along.

The person who I got it from was an Angel. No, seriously, that's her name: Angel.

And that is the story of how I ended up with a beautiful, free piano. It gets tuned, keys unstuck, and pedals adjusted tomorrow.

A bit of this, a bit of that...

I haven't had much time to write recently, but I miss it! So here's a brief update of what I would have liked/might still find the time to write about:

1. Can you BELIEVE that some ... guy ... is going to REWRITE Huckleberry Finn and replace the "N" word with "slave" and "injun'" with "Indian". UGH! As a writer, as an American, as...I don't even know...I'm outraged. So unbelievably (well, maybe believably) OUTRAGED. Grarrr!! Oh, and isn't "Indian" just as offensive as "injun'"? Not to mention that technically it isn't correct, so we should actually replace it with Native American. Would that be offensive too? I will be writing a more lengthy blog about this matter at some later date.

2. What would you do if you won $190 million dollars like the two people who just won Washington State's lotto did?

3. I am quite disgruntled about Facebook changing profile layouts willy-nilly like they tend to do and then forcing the change upon those who do not wish changes to be made.

4. I have some pretty fabulous friends and family. Just saying. While I may not have oodles and oodles of "friends" at every turn, those few friends I do have are very true friends. And that's the way I like it!

5. I had a birthday bonanza extravaganza! It snowed six inches in about five hours on my birthday...which in this area is quite a phenomenon. I rode a mechanical bull. I made a life-sized LIFE game and had a pinata and personal pizzas. It was epic. And legendary. And all things fantastic.

And now, I need to eat a burger, fold some clothes, practice, and start delving into some outlining and rewriting of my novel. 

I will leave you with these thoughts:

~~Remember, stick to your resolutions! Even if you have to get some new adhesive to do so. :)

~~And for those of you who are musically inclined, I made a great joke the other day. My students found it...not nearly as entertaining as I did, though I fail to see why. It's hilarious:

"Learning your scales is the opposite of baseball: You start with the Majors and then move to the minors."

Bwahahahaha! C'mon guys, it's so musically punny! And I thought it up all by myself! Sheesh. :)

Cheers to you all!

And another year has passed into the past.

Where did 2010 go?

I'm not usually one for resolutions. What's the point? In general, people get all hyped up about them and then "conveniently" break them all before the first week of January is even out. So what, then, is the point of them anyhow?

After much deliberation (okay, I'll be honest, I really didn't think about this too long...), I decided that I would like to attempt the resolution thing, but with a spin. Last year was the first year I did it, and I thought that I'd share my method. I wrote down resolutions on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope, sealed it, signed and dated the envelope, and then handed it to my husband. Then, a year later, on Dec. 31st, he opened the envelope, read my resolutions, and told me whether or not he thought I actually completed my goals.

In a way, this method is like a mini time capsule. There are a few rules that come with this approach. Although I feel they are fairly obvious, I will state them anyway:

1. You can write any resolution(s) you want. Just be sure that you are comfortable with whomever you hand it to (a.k.a. the ultimate judge of your resolutions at the end of the year). It might be nice if they're comfortable with you too... Remember, they will be reading whatever you write/wrote. It is important to pick somebody who you don't want to disappoint--someone who will hold you accountable in the end, whether it's a significant other, friend, mother, father, sister, brother, etc. (Recipients: it'd be a really good idea to not lose the envelopes during the course of the year...)

2. Try not to share your resolution(s). Once you've written them down, seal the envelope and put your name and the year on it. For the entire year, you will know what your resolutions are and you will also know that at the end of the year somebody will be telling you whether or not you did them. It's holding you, the resolution-maker, to a higher standard.

3. Be serious. Don't be serious. Have fun with it. Challenge yourself. In the end, they are your resolutions: do with them what you will.

You may think this is silly. I don't care. For me, it actually helped. I wouldn't have made resolutions otherwise; plus, I probably wouldn't have completed them. And for those of you who wondered, one of my resolutions was to do NaNoWriMo and complete it. I'd like to say that I would have done it regardless, but I'm not so sure. However, the thought that David was going to read my resolutions at the end of the year really spurred me on. There was no way I was going to have him shake his head and say that I didn't do it! I did NaNoWriMo for me, first and foremost, but it certainly helped having that hidden resolution because I knew that he would be proud of me and that just made it all the more worthwhile.

The other nice thing is that you have a little cheerleader throughout the year. Every now and then, starting in about March, I would gently remind the people who'd trusted me with their resolutions by saying something like, "Don't forget about your resolutions!" or "There's still time! Whatever it is, you can do it!"

Again, resolutions aren't for everyone. This method isn't for everyone. I'm just sharing something that worked for me and that can be a bit of fun as well. :)

In any case, Happy New Year to you all! Cheers to a prosperous, happy, and wonderful 2011!

(Maybe this year won't disappear quite as quickly as last year...)