Go, my precious! Run for your life!
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The Anti-Thanksgiving
This ‘morning’ I am drinking very strong coffee and right now Fairytale of New York is playing. “It was Christmas Eve, babe / In the drunk tank” is one of the most brilliantly comical lyrics ever penned.
Last night I had drinks and great conversation with a friend, alternating from indoors to out. We ate pizza, played guitar hero (the brilliant PS2 rhythm game), then watched a super cheesy 80’s movie…a fantasy flick with the standard Euro synth pop. (Guess the movie, win a prize.)
Since my early twenties, I’ve had trouble sleeping past 8-9AM. This morning, after waking up earlier to feed the dogs, I slept until 1PM. No idea why, but I had the best sleep I’ve had in years. Strange, but amazing.
As a deliberate move on my part, I have no plans for Thanksgiving, other than whatever happens on-the-fly. If nothing happens, I’ll catch up on writing. I love that post apocalyptic feeling that cities and towns have on holidays, so I might ride my bike downtown later, just to soak up that vibe.
On the last day of work, I went to lunch with another friend (Ricardo) and we ate at Whole Foods. I had some tofu with seasonal glaze, stuffing, wild mushroom gravy and cranberry sauce. There’s something deeply psychological about holiday-oriented foods; that was a really satisfying (if super casual) meal. And, as an aside, whenever someone goes the extra mile and makes vegetarian gravy, I *drink* that shit…it’s one of those things the vegetarians really miss. Or at least Southern vegetarians. (Now if someone would just make vegetarian beef ribs…)
Past the halfway mark
I’ve been diligent lately and–over the last couple of nights–I’ve finally passed up the 50,000 word mark, having written just over 26,000 words of the new novel.
I’m managed to do this while clinging to my frayed social life and taking care of my dog. So some nights, I get home from work at 645pm, walk the dog, relax for a while, write like mad, then go out until 1am. (Sometimes I also write through lunch at work on the following day…a trick I highly recommend for making up your word count.)
It’s been well worth it to hang on to my social life, because periodically I meet someone really cool, or I have one of those classic nights out with a good friend. Both have happened from time to time lately. Yay, social life.
I haven’t been to the gym consistently in a few weeks, which is really unusual for me. So in some ways, I’ll be happy when the novel-in-30-days project is over. Thirteen days to go…and ~24,000 words.
Some progress…
I’m still running behind, but at least I wrote tonight, instead of socializing and slacking. Currently, 9 days into this year’s novel-in-a-month project, I have 12,260 words written. (Supposed to have roughly 15,000 done.) I might be able to get fully back on track if I manage a boring weekend. (Unlikely.)
Tonight I cleaned up a scene in the present, where the protagonist arives back in his home town, and wrote an 8 page scene in the past, where a family pet dies a gruesome death.
Some of this is difficult shit. The modern version of the protagonist is like an imagined, twisted version of me, sans therapy. Much of what he does is just fantasy, delusion or paranoia. Everything that the childhood version remembers is something that I remember. That’s one of the challenges of this novel project for me, but that’s also what makes it cool and worthwhile.
National Novel Writing Month
This year’s novel-in-a-month is underway. I’m calling it His Black Wings. (Working title.)
By the end of the day, I’m supposed to have 11,655 words written. Currently I’m at 8,730…I’m already falling behind. (More coffee, less wine.)
Last year’s novel was easier to write; everything just flowed from beginning to end, for 52,000 words.
This year’s project is more ambitious: It alternates between the troubled main character’s present and past. Some of the scenes just spring to life, while other times I sit here wondering what the next major scene will involve. As soon as I figure that out, I’m rolling along, even if it’s something simple, like “goes to visit his brother.”
I need a few high impact days this week to stay on track.