Saturday, November 2, 2002. Entry #192

I got another 2000 words written this morning.

We were in bed about one last night, so I got plenty of sleep and was out of the door by 10 this morning, looking for a café to sit in and catch up a bit.

I never have much luck with cafés. I would dearly love to find one of this little 'writer cafés', with gloomy corners, mismatched cups, and light jazz playing on the radio, but those are few and far between in our modern city.

Most places are well-lit little shops, with uncomfortable chairs and a booming take-out industry. Such was Mythic Coffees, the place I chose to do this morning's writing. In the two hours I wrote, we had lots of families come in for coffee and bagels, muffins and chocolate milk. Supertramp and other 'classic rock' oldies are playing on the radio. Not exactly the ambiance I had in mind.

At least there was one large table with a power outlet and a halfway decent mochaccino. That was all I really needed.

I'm still about 300 words behind where I should be. I hope to get caught up this afternoon or tomorrow morning, when I plan to venture forth again.

It's kind of funny. I had everything planned for my novel this month. By mid-October I had my basic concept outlined, I had some characters in mind, and a general idea of how the plot would go and some specific scenes I would write.

Thursday, with only a few hours until the project got underway, I scrapped it. I still like my idea, but it was going to be a tough slog to make it work. It was a serious book about a clash of cultures following the next ice age, and might really be something.

Unfortunately, I didn't know if I could make it work within the confines of NaNoWriMo. To keep myself writing this novel, I need to amuse myself while I'm doing it. 'Concrete Igloo', as I tentatively called the first project, would be a serious work, requiring serious effort.

So I switched to my new idea, 'Halfway to Dead'. This is much lighter fare, with amusing characters and fun ideas. Much easier to write.

Of course, when I sat down to start it yesterday, I had no idea where to take it. I had fun characters in a neat setting, and a couple scenes in mind, but no plot. With Lisa's help, I think I've got it now.

It's available for your reading pleasure on the left of this page. Just do me a favor. DON'T give me any critiques until after November. I don't want to know. December 1, you can tell me all your criticisms and opinions. If I hear too much of that before then, I may get stuck in a re-writing loop and that's just not the point of the exercise.

On the other hand, if you honestly like it, you can tell me that. Positive reinforcement, you see.

Went to a Halloween party last night.

Our friend Marco decided to theme his party around a popular card game in our crowd - Chez Geek. I was 'Mr. Enthusiastic', a lovely fellow known for going to wherever neat things were happening and exclaiming (in a loud lisp), "That's AWESOME!"

I was so tired that I did little justice to my alter ego. I only got around five hours sleep on either Wednesday or Thursday night, so I was running entirely on fumes. My throat was sore with an impending cold, and every sip of alcohol only served to make me sleepier.

Ah well. We had fun. There was music and dancing and laughter and a lot of food. Nearly everyone at the party was fun, and we met a bunch of new neat people (with the exception of the chippie we've christened 'Taffeta Girl', a bitchy chick who kept changing the music selection to suit her tastes, despite the protesting cries of those who were dancing at the time).

Joel had his digital camera, so you can pop over to his site soon and check out the shots.

NaNoWriMo Update: I got a chance to sit down later and churn out a few more words. I'm now 51 words over my deadline. Woo hoo!

Two Years Ago Today: Quiet evening, where I toss off a quick entry after Lisa is all sweet and nice to me.

Aaaand in 1934: Babe Ruth toured Tokyo, Japan.

Mom Rating: 2 out of 5. Mom is a bit worried that this book is all I'm going to write about this month. It's won't be. There's still Survivor as well.

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Take me home, big fella