NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, kicks off November first. For those of you thinking about writing a novel, this may be the push you need. To quote Thomas Edison, "writing is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration."
Okay, so Edison was talking about genius, not writing, but writing fits just as nicely. When I'm editing my early drafts, I can't distinguish between scenes I wrote while truly inspired and those I wrote while glancing at the clock every ten seconds, wishing these darn characters would hurry up and do whatever they need to do so I could go read/watch TV/be lazy. You would think the inspired passages would stand out but they don't. Or maybe I wasn't quite as inspired as I thought at the time.
So, if writing a novel is on your bucket list, there's no time like the present. Sign up, and start sweating!
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Games and Whatnot
I finally decided to connect my laptop to the Internet after months of leaving it in isolation. My impetus for this brave decision? I wanted to play games online and needed to download the necessary software.
Since I figured I should be somewhat productive, I also updated a bunch of programs already installed. Happily, my word processor had a new version out and after I upgraded my spell-check worked again. It has been broken since earlier this year, probably the result of some self-preservation mechanism kicking in given how atrocious my spelling can be when writing a first draft.
I'm sure you're wondering whether there's a moral to this story and, yes, surprisingly there are two. First, never underestimate the value of playing games when you could be accomplishing something inherently useful. Second, when something breaks on your computer, don't waste your time trying to fix it by combing through the millions of incoherent articles available online, futilely importing language libraries, and pounding on your keyboard in a last-ditch effort to jar something back in place. If you procrastinate long enough, the problem will eventually fix itself.
Unfortunately, procrastinating until someone else codes a fix doesn't work so well with plot holes, weak character development, and grammar nightmares, but that's okay. Never underestimate the healing power of games.
Since I figured I should be somewhat productive, I also updated a bunch of programs already installed. Happily, my word processor had a new version out and after I upgraded my spell-check worked again. It has been broken since earlier this year, probably the result of some self-preservation mechanism kicking in given how atrocious my spelling can be when writing a first draft.
I'm sure you're wondering whether there's a moral to this story and, yes, surprisingly there are two. First, never underestimate the value of playing games when you could be accomplishing something inherently useful. Second, when something breaks on your computer, don't waste your time trying to fix it by combing through the millions of incoherent articles available online, futilely importing language libraries, and pounding on your keyboard in a last-ditch effort to jar something back in place. If you procrastinate long enough, the problem will eventually fix itself.
Unfortunately, procrastinating until someone else codes a fix doesn't work so well with plot holes, weak character development, and grammar nightmares, but that's okay. Never underestimate the healing power of games.
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