writing 1 Comment

NaNoWriMo: Day One

I don’t know about this. I’m sure I’ll get back into the swing of things soon, but I only managed to write about 800 words tonight. I was still remembering how my plot worked, though, and looking through my copious notes (thank goodness I took plenty) to remember what subplots I was setting up and what my characters’ motivations were.

I read an interesting and helpful character development exercise on one of the NaNoWriMo message boards, which was in turn ganked from a Harry Potter role-playing message board:

The BEEP test is a form of character development, using the following four things: Boggart, Expecto Patronum, Mirror of Erised, and Pensieve.

1) Boggart – What would your character’s Boggart turn into? This is your character’s worst fear; nothing can define a character like their weaknesses. They are what make us human. (And nobody likes a Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu)

2) Expecto Patronum – What would your character’s Patronus be? What protects them? What might they think of to conjure a patronus? This is a character’s strength.

3) Mirror of Erised – What would you see in the mirror? Your character’s deepest, most secret desires.

4) Pensieve – What memories would your chaarcter put into the Pensieve? What recollections are their most treasured? Their most private? The most burdensome?

That actually helped me decide how to develop my main character, as he needs some serious development. Getting into the thick of the plot is going to be interesting, too, as I just read my whacked-out web of plots and who’s-deceiving-whom. I also need to work on my writing style, as I find it to be much more laborious than my standard blogging style, which I kind of like better.

I hope I can do this… and even if I don’t get my 50,000 words in a month, no biggie. At least I got my finally story back out of mothballs.

writing

NaNoWriMo

Well, I did it. I joined up for National Novel Writing Month. I’m starting with 17,180 words, so my goal by the end of the month is 70,000 words total.

This story has been sitting dormant for a couple years now, and NaNoWriMo is as good an excuse as any to get going on it again.

…Just so long as I get my Mom’s birthday present done before the end of November, too. Yeesh… I’ve got my free time pretty much tied up, eh?

politics 1 Comment

Getting Involved

I wish I would have snagged Waggoner’s quotable from his IM away message yesterday. It went something along the lines of “All you liberals who didn’t get what you wanted out of the election need to quit whining and stop being as narrow-minded as you accuse conservatives of being.” He also expressed an intolerance for people who only get involved in politics once every four years.

I can appreciate where he’s coming from, truly. We liberals are being a touch… what’s the word? Defeatist? Melodramatic? That’s not quite what I’m looking for. We’re assuming the worst and planning for our nation to go to hell in a handbasket within the next four years. As the more tolerant of the two major political parties, generally, we owe it to ourselves (perhaps against our better judgement) to be open-minded about Dubya’s second term. Everything might not entirely go to shit, and I hope to God that we’ll get out of Iraq within the remainder of this administration.

(How long did Vietnam last again? Nearly 20 years, I believe. I’m sure we’ll be out by then.)

As for Brian’s second statement: as a person who hasn’t been politically active until recently, that sentiment really bothered me. One would hope that a vital election such as this would spur those of us who weren’t involved to become more involved; one would also hope that the politically-minded would be glad that more citizens were interested in the workings of their government, and would welcome them to the fold, be they Democrat, Republican, or Independent. Instead, I get the same kind of reception that new Indians fans got in the mid-90’s: Where were you before this got interesting? Go home!

I personally think that, if Michael Moore and John Kerry and even (gulp) the Evangelical Christians can get people this involved in this election, at least some of those people are going to remain politically and socially active—myself included. I was quite the cynic during most of college, but social injustices began to catch my attention. I was still skeptical about the validity of the political process up until this election. Now, though, I realize that, even though the system isn’t perfect, it’s all we’ve got.

I used to say that those who didn’t vote couldn’t complain about the president; and I took that to heart and remained complacent about politics. That was before 9/11, though, and before Bush invaded Iraq completely unprovoked as part of a War On Terror. Now, I no longer consider myself complacent. Now, I will vote whenever I feel strongly about an issue. Now, I give myself permission to rant about our leader, having voted for his opponent.

Now I’m pissed. Righteously so.