AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

nanowrimo day 19 fuzzy brain edition

Today's writing prompt:
Today is all about LOVE. Write about a luxurious, lascivious and licentious day (or moment) with your favorite person (or two!). Who says there must be plot before sex after all?

There are 11 days until nanowrimo is over. Like counting the days till Christmas for crafters, this is a count that can strike fear in the unprepared. There are days that are lost to writing (yeah, Thanksgiving!) and days that are gained (boo, Black Friday!), and I can only hope to achieve monumental victory through perseverance and sex scenes.

Yes, my plot is mostly talking to itself in the corner. I write dialog and I write action, but neither of those come easily in terms of time spent. So, I'm looking at the days I have left and wondering how much of a hermit I can be for at least one or two of them.

My ML (Anna) wrote 15K in a single day to finish one year. I'm not sure I'm that dedicated, but I am going to try. Of course, that requires that I have made it to 35K before the 28th (because writing 15K on a work day just won't be happening).

And because my brain is too fuzzy to come up with a nice way to end the post, another literal video!
 

nanowrimo day 18 ...

Today's writing prompt:
Something simple: Write a scene including a persnickety character.

My yarn order came in, so I will be able to start (yeah commute knitting) a Harry Potter school vest for my hubby! There is no way I can have it done before the movie on Sunday, but there is always 7.2. 

nanowrimo day 17 the need for speed

Today's writing prompt:
It's your birthday and you have been given the most fantabulous present ever!

For those not following NaNoWriMo on twitter:
20 English Words that Should Make a Comeback

For those who are procrastinating on their story (and shame on us):
 

And for all of my friends who have passed the bar (in the last few years):
 

And for knitters (found via the LJ Knitting Community)

I need to make this hat! Badly! Does anyone want a brain hat?

Back to writing for me!

[10 Tuesday] going to the movies

Today's writing prompt:
"Mom? Can you pick me up? I'm at the hospital."

I'm not sure if anyone is actually using the writing prompts, but I like making them. They help me get my creative juices flowing.

This week's 10 on Tuesday topic is about movies I'd like to see in the theater. It's good, because there are at least 2 movies coming out in the next few weeks that I want to see.

1. Harry Potter. I didn't like what they did in the last movie, because I felt like they gutted the plot. There might be more of it there, but we haven't rewatched the last movie yet. I feel like I need to see this through.

2. Tangled. I love the ads I've seen and I love fairy tale retellings. Rapunzel looks like she has a lot of spunk, which is a lovely change from the often insipid women seen in fairy tales.

3. Of course, I don't need to see new movies in the theaters. I would be happy to see Princess Bride in the theater.

4. Or Dorkness Rising. Nope. It is not good theater. Heck, it isn't even good acting necessarily, but it is very quotable and completely hits the geek funny bone over and over again.

5. It would be a lot of fun to have a chick flick night with all of my friends (or at least the womanly half of my friends) in the theater. We could watch things like Ever After and Never Been Kissed and Four Wives Club and maybe something new to me, because my movies are like my books. New ones are few and far between.

6. In terms of probably the silliest thing I would want to see might be Robin saying, "These are really ugly shoes." Heck, probably any of the Muppet Classic Theater, because they are fun and pretty short. I also really liked the Gotta Get that Name song, because I'm the simple, happy weasel.

7. I wanted to see the Last Airbender movie, but never got around to it. I think that one is still on the list, though I will obviously be seeing it on Netflix eventually.

8. Star Trek. I liked the last movie, and rewatch it fairly regularly. I would happily see it in the theater again for the special comraderie that is mostly achieved when watching a geek show with tons of other geeks. That is one of the reasons why opening night is often so fun.

9. Musicals. Sondheim has my particular brand of mental written all over his works (didn't you know that Sweeney Todd is a Thanksgiving musical? It is all about food!), but I would love to see a movie version of Avenue Q.

10. A concert. It would be great to have a 100 people who love to sing all doing a sing along of Handel's Messiah or some other known work in a movie theater. The acoustics are usually pretty good and the screen can have both the image of an orchestra playing and the words on the screen like in karaoke. It would be a lot of fun.

nanowrimo day 15 w00t!

Today's writing prompt:
The phone rang and I flipped it open, "Yes, this is [name]."

"Hello, this is the Dr. MacKenzi's office. Your test results came in. Do you have time to meet the Dr. this afternoon? He has cleared a spot at 3 p.m."

My throat felt dry and I slumped down onto a stiff wooden chair, "Ye-yes, I can make it then."

It's the half way mark!

That is all.  I have writing to do. 

nanowrimo day 14 not quite halfway there

Today's writing prompt:
You are an everyday Joe or Jill. What is the strangest thing that could happen to you? What if it is a paranormal event? Do you develop powers or are discovered by someone with some mystic powers? Are you given a lot of money? Or maybe you have a skill that you had never realized was actually useful. What will you do with your new found money/inheritance/skill/what have you?

I am still working on nanowrimo. I had a hard weekend without too much word count to show for it. I have moved away from my main character and I am working on back story for one of the other characters. I am not sure I want the point of view character to be the first one I started with, and instead I might want to write from one of the other character's point of view. It's not something I have to decide now as long as I keep writing then some of it will be useful when I rewrite it later.

One of the stories I enjoyed reading was Sorcery and Cecelia, and a second story in a similar vein was The Wild Swans. The first is written as an application of the letter game. It means the point of view changes each chapter. The Wild Swans is two stories written in alternating chapters. I have this idea that my story might be more interesting if I alternate the points of view of each character until they are in the same location. Like I said, it is nothing I truly need to decide now as long as I keep on writing.

nanowrimo day 13 too much fun

Today's writing prompt:
Mankind is colonizing a new planet. Where is the planet? Is there terraforming or other changes being made? Who is going? How was this planet chosen? What unknown dangers will the colonists face after they get there?

Today was too much fun. First was breakfast, dog walking and raking, which doesn't sound exciting but given that there is only one more yard waste pickup for the year seeing part of the yard being leaf free was pretty amazing. Later, my friends, Chris and I all went to Pandemonium's anniversary sale. I bought Seeker's Mask, which I should now check and make sure it was the one I needed. Then we ate at Tavern on the Square (Bananas Foster pancakes are full of deliciousness).

Then there was Patience. It was the last show and the energy was high. I got to see people who I hadn't seen for months: some since I last did Pirates and  Iolanthe, others since Mikado and Sweeney Todd. It was laugh out loud funny, especially all of the girlish laments as they pined for one poet after another. Think of absolutely nothing at all indeed. While nothing was better than John as Lady Jane, the latest Jane was excellent. She had a lot of presence and was fun to watch. 

Of course, watching a show has an unfortunate side effect of making me want to be in another show. Maybe I can be in another show and bring Victor with me, who can like Bowser before him, become a greenroom mascot for the show...

Probably not.

nanowrimo day 12 almost tpk

Today's writing prompt:
Taken almost completely from tonight's game session - You and some friends are exploring an old ruin when you open a door and see a group of fighters ready to take you on. What do you do? Do you fight them or run? What if they get reinforcements? And how do you deal with a friend betraying you to the other side.

(Left deliberately vague, so you can use this for more than a recap of our D&D session.)

Yup, tonight we had an almost total party kill. All that was left was Graargh (a half orc fighter) and Sam Twiceborn (a gnomish wizard). We could count our remaining hit points on our hands and have fingers left (14 total for 2 people).

Once we got home, I walked Victor who apparently had a peeing and pooping day, so I shouldn't have been surprised by another round of peeing and pooping even though it was really late. Now to bed. There is nanowrimo and Patience tomorrow, and nanowrimo and singing on Sunday.

nanowrimo day 11 - happy birthday edition

Today's writing prompt:
It's your birthday and you are at a huge dinner with all of your friends when hugely embarrassing things start happening to you. What are your friends doing and saying? What strange gifts do you receive? And do you get drunk enough to not remember it all in the morning?

I wouldn't say that I got any writing done today, but I did wrap my hubby's birthday presents, have dinner out (and dessert), walk the dog twice (kind of cursory, because he got play outside time with my hubby who was home today), and various other useful things. I have the best husband in the world, and I loved spending time with him today!

I have a lot of things to do between now and the end of the month and then another whole pile of things between the end of the month and mid-December. Right now, I am mostly making coffee cuffs for a holiday bazaar at the end of the month. Yup, coffee cuffs. People buy them, because it helps them feel like they are being green, and to a certain extent it is true. Of course, it is more green to buy a reusable container than a coffee cuff, but the cuff is an easier step. Also some reusable containers lack insulating properties, leaving you wanting something to protect your hands. They can be cute, functional and great stocking stuffers for people who don't want to pay more than $10-15 dollars for an item (my favorite among the hand knit and crocheted ones, other than mine are these ones on Etsy).

I also, possibly stupidly, am thinking of knitting small things for gifts. While a pair of socks might take me two to three weeks if I only concentrate on it, there are some other things I can knit that should be fun and a little bit quicker!

nanowrimo day 10 - a short one

Today's writing prompt:
You are the lead singer in a rock band, finally clean after a long haul, when your old dealer finds you and tries to get you on the drugs again. What was your drug of choice? What's your dealer like? Do you have anyone to bail you out?

I know I am going to fail.

I don't care.

I am going to write every day even if it is only for 30 minutes.

I might not finish my story today, but I will finish it.

When I am have finished it, I will edit it.

I will rewrite it.

I will learn better ways to show not tell.

I will be active.

And maybe someday I will be a published author (unless Teen Ink counts).

I promise not to be a shithead.