(no subject)
Work stuff has settled down slightly. Anticipated schedule additions have either failed to come through on the clients' ends or have been shunted off to someone else once my boss pointed out to higher-ups that from mid-October to early-December, I'm on the road part or all of 7 out of 8 weeks and there might be a melt-down imminent if something didn't change. Love having a boss who sticks up for you when you need it, even if the ultimate reason behind it is that there are course updates to be done in the next two weeks for which I am the only qualified instructor, and me not doing them means them not happening.
Still, load off my mind and all that.
Did my first writing for NaNo last night, at our Write-In at the Panera Bread in Ledgewood. 8 of us total including our Municipal Liaison; four folks I knew from last year (and with whom I keep in touch throughout the year) and three completely new faces. Nice mix. Lots of laughter. When I arrived, I told the gang that I absolutely had to write, as I'd done 0 words to date, and that they were free to beat me up if I did not write. John mistook a cardboard poster tube for, in his words, "one of those Vuvu-thingies from the World Cup," which led to threats to beat me with the NaNoVuvuzela of Doom.
Still, managed 1300-ish words. Nice start, although I'm still three days behind schedule. It's amazing how one can struggle with a section of a manuscript for so long (in my case, the entries in Jeanne Montgomery's diary that Garrett needs to read in order to figure out part of what's really going on at Croton College) and then you sit down amongst a group of writers, and someone says "okay, 10 minute word war" and you're off and running. Yes, these words will need tweaking, but I actually feel as though I can meet my goal of using NaNo this year to finish this first draft of AMBERGRIN HALL, which has been in-process intermittently for ... more than 10 years now? Technically, since 1992 if I want to go back to when that first snippet was written, the snippet that 10 years or so ago became the first chapter of the novel.
I'm hoping tonight can be as productive. I'm having computer connecting to the internet problems at home which we have now determined are not originating from my laptop, and do not seem to be originating from my ethernet cables I've tried, and so the problem must be with the modem. I'm going to do a final test of it tonight, and if it doesn't work then tomorrow after work I will be visiting the Cablevision office near home to get a modem.
Still, load off my mind and all that.
Did my first writing for NaNo last night, at our Write-In at the Panera Bread in Ledgewood. 8 of us total including our Municipal Liaison; four folks I knew from last year (and with whom I keep in touch throughout the year) and three completely new faces. Nice mix. Lots of laughter. When I arrived, I told the gang that I absolutely had to write, as I'd done 0 words to date, and that they were free to beat me up if I did not write. John mistook a cardboard poster tube for, in his words, "one of those Vuvu-thingies from the World Cup," which led to threats to beat me with the NaNoVuvuzela of Doom.
Still, managed 1300-ish words. Nice start, although I'm still three days behind schedule. It's amazing how one can struggle with a section of a manuscript for so long (in my case, the entries in Jeanne Montgomery's diary that Garrett needs to read in order to figure out part of what's really going on at Croton College) and then you sit down amongst a group of writers, and someone says "okay, 10 minute word war" and you're off and running. Yes, these words will need tweaking, but I actually feel as though I can meet my goal of using NaNo this year to finish this first draft of AMBERGRIN HALL, which has been in-process intermittently for ... more than 10 years now? Technically, since 1992 if I want to go back to when that first snippet was written, the snippet that 10 years or so ago became the first chapter of the novel.
I'm hoping tonight can be as productive. I'm having computer connecting to the internet problems at home which we have now determined are not originating from my laptop, and do not seem to be originating from my ethernet cables I've tried, and so the problem must be with the modem. I'm going to do a final test of it tonight, and if it doesn't work then tomorrow after work I will be visiting the Cablevision office near home to get a modem.