NaNoWriMo Thoughts...

I am sitting here in our living room, a little bleary-eyed behind my laptop, and just 500 words shy of my 50,000 word goal. There are still a few hours still left before the "official" midnight deadline, and so I decided to take a quick break and share some NaNoWriMo thoughts with you. Because there's nothing like a little last minute procrastination :)

First of all, Thanksgiving break really threw me for a loop. If my family and friends were not so dang entertaining and fantastic, and if our Thanksgiving celebration in Virginia wasn't so full of awesome-ness and love (not that it could rival last year, of course), then *maybe* I could have gotten some work done. But they were and it was and so I did zippo for four days straight. Well, not complete zippo. I did manage to squeeze in a couple hundred words of drivel while waiting to take my turn on Sequence (my new favorite game!) and during the long car ride back to New York Saturday night.

{photographic evidence of the Thanksgiving Fun can be seen here}

My punishment for all that fun? Yesterday I locked myself inside for hours upon hours and knocked out about 6,000 words. And today was a grueling day of lots of tedious Day Job tasks sandwiched between short spurts of furious writing. Because my pace has picked up so much, I worry that what I am writing should just be tossed into the garbage pronto. BUT, at least I am getting it on the page. And I am trying not to think about what a nightmare editing will be later.

Also, about 10,000 words ago, I realized that there was no way crossing the 50,000 word finish line would mean a tidy, finished novel for me. I am pretty much smack dab in the middle of my story, and so, beyond November 30th, I will need to carry on in order to really say I wrote a whole book. With that realization, my goal for tonight became more about hitting 50K words and less about actually completing the novel.

Some other random things I've learned during this crazy process:

* it's been good for me to have a daily goal. 50,000 words divided by 30 days works out to be 1,667 words a day. Sometimes I went beyond it, sometimes I was just under it (and sometimes it was Thanksgiving and I did nothing at all), but at least it was some sort of gauge as opposed to just randomly putting words on a page each day.
* keep pushing forward, don't look back. I have never had any success writing fiction before because I always handled it in the same way I write blogs or songs. Inch my way forward a few sentences, go back, clean up, repeat. You can't do that with fiction though (at least I can't) or you (I) will go crazy. If nothing else, this process has taught me the value or just writing. I've had to shelf my inner-perfectionist and let go of the icky, ugly non-perfect parts (ie: the beginning of my story does not AT ALL work with where I am now because the characters and ideas have evolved so much). That kind of stuff makes my inner-perfectionist twitch. But I've had to let it go and know that I can go back and deal with it later.
* what "the pros" say is true: the story *really does* write itself. I (foolishly) thought I knew where my characters were going and that I was in charge of the storyline, but NO. That is not true at all. These characters have minds of their own and places they want/need to go. And so they lead me. I find this absolutely fascinating!
* it's an abolsute mess and that's okay. I've had such a great time doing it! I don't know if this system would work for everyone, and I am not even sure if it "works" for me (am I creating more work for myself later by writing so haphazardly and quickly now?), but at least it got me off my butt this month and doing something I've always wanted to do. So...for that reason alone, I am thankful for the motivation and inspiration NaNoWriMo provided for me this November. I honestly don't know if I would have conquered such a task without the challenge.

Now. Back to work. almost ... there ...!

NaNoWriMo

Which is...? you might ask...well, I haven't developed tourettes, nor am I speaking of some new SoHo-esque neighborhood in New York City.

What it is is a creative project that is currently taking over my life, and giving me a much more productive and interesting November than usual.

Or, more specifically: National Novel Writing Month. Wikipedia describes it as a "creative writing project held annually in November in which participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in one month." Or as found on the official NaNoWriMo website: "a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved."

That's me! For years, I've thought (more than fleetingly) about writing a book. But it always seemed too daunting and I would inevitably lose steam about a page or two in.

So here's the story on how I came to be one of the 140,000+ participants of NaNoWriMo this year: while in Hawaii I realized how incredibly tired I was. Totally emotionally depleted. The wedding planning certainly contributed, but I traced it back even further. Back to before I was even engaged. October of 2008 to be exact. The start of the vocal performance class is where the exhaustion began. I didn't realize how much energy it took out of me until I got some distance. Like 5,000 miles of distance complete with Mai Tais and palm trees. That class kicked. my. butt. And stretched me in ways I'd never been stretched before (which is a good thing). But. Exhausting. Every week I went I was scared. Terrified actually. And fear takes a lot out of a gal.

The class then turned into those long, late night rehearsals which then led to a ten day run of the show. All really, really good stuff that filled my heart at the time (you can read me raving about it here), but still -- wore me out like no other.

And so, while on our honeymoon, I decided that, though I might find myself back in that arena one day (I'm certain the itch will return soon) I needed a little break for now...felt the need to focus on my more quiet artistic desires. The one that kept nagging at me during the honeymoon was writing. Fiction, specifically. Writing a book is something that has been on my List Of Things To Do In Life for the last decade or so, but, like a lot of artistic ideas I've had, I've never done anything about it. In Hawaii though, my brain was suddenly flooded with story ideas, and as I listed them all out in my journal one afternoon in our hotel room in Maui, I thought, this feels more real than usual. I think I might *actually* do this!

Fast forward a few weeks to October in New York when I found out about NaNoWriMo from a friend. All of these story ideas in my head and suddenly a challenge to write an entire novel from start to finish between November 1-30? It all seemed quite serendipitous. This was my chance to actually put into action what I said I was going to do! And it gave me two very important things: a goal (50,000 words in 30 days) and support (me and all the other of thousands of participants this year receive tons of email pep talks and have forums to turn to for inspiration & support).

So...I signed up and I dove in on November 1st! And I've actually been quite surprised with myself throughout the process. So far, I have kept a good pace and am about 35,000 words in now. 35,000!! It's a bit ol' mess but that's okay. For now, it's words on a page. I'll focus on the clean-up later.

I've learned a lot about myself and the writing process over the last 22 days, things I'd like to share on here, but I will wait and do that in another post...this is getting a little lengthy and it's time to get back to work :)

Tidbits & Honeymoon Pics...

We've just returned from a long weekend in Winter Park, FL where we spent three lovely days visiting with my Papa. He turns 92 in a two weeks and so Dan and I decided to go down there to have an early birthday celebration with him. Spending time with my Papa always makes me so happy (I talked here about my experience living with him and my Nana at the beach one summer). It's always been that way with my family. There is something so special about being surrounded by the people who really know you -- the people who's blood and history you share.

Most of our evenings were spent quietly at his apartment just relaxing, sharing stories and "visiting" (with the exception of last night when we ended up at CityWalk in Orlando with an old friend of Dan's who we met up with. Have you seen this place? It's insane! Vegas meets Disney meets Times Square. Somehow the night ended with me on stage of the Rising Star Karaoke Club singing "The First Cut is the Deepest" with a full band behind me -- an unexpected adventure thrown into our quiet, little trip :)

Anyhoo, back to our quiet visits with Papa -- one of things we did one night was share wedding and honeymoon pictures. We did a slideshow from Dan's computer, and some of the pictures I hadn't even seen since they were transferred from his camera to the computer. He got some really incredible photos in Hawaii, especially the night shots (he's got a good camera and an even better eye), and I just have to share :)

So as somewhat of a continuation from the last post, here are a few of those pictures (these are all Maui). He really captured the romantic, magical-ness of Hawaiian Nights in these photos. Aren't they dreamy?






**

And a few from the weekend:

...at a French Bistro in Winter Park...


...Papa's birthday celebration...!


...karaoke time...

Aloha! {the honeymoon}

Although Dan and I both have very long lists of many places around the world that we'd love to visit (high on the list for me right now: Italy and Greece), when it came time to pick our honeymoon destination, it was a fairly easy choice. We wanted a) sun, sand and tropical drinks b) beautiful sunsets to provide the perfect romantic backdrop, and c) tiki torches lit up against a clear and starry sky. That landed us in beautiful, dreamy Hawaii and we couldn't have been happier with our choice.

With six days in Kauai followed by six days in Maui, it was an absolutely lovely honeymoon -- 12 days of soaking up the sun, boat rides, naps on the beach, snorkeling, candle-lit dinners and luaus. Beyond perfect. A dream.

Wedding Thoughts - Part 5 {the reception}

While our guests were cocktail-houring up on the terrace (photos can be seen here), Dan and I stole away for a private photo shoot. It was nice to have some alone time to enjoy our first few minutes of married life together. Some of my favorite shots from that:




We had a few more moments alone together as we waited up on the terrace to be announced. The setting was absolutely breathtaking and I just remember trying to soak it all in, feeling so alive and at peace, as the sounds of our friends and families' laughter filled the air. It was a nice moment.



Finally, it was time for the reception to begin (yay!). We were announced into the tent, which looked spectacular & so magical, had our first dance to Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight, then settled in for the toasts. My dad delivered an absolutely hilarious and touching toast, followed by a few sweet words from my step-dad, George, then toasts from the best man and matron of honor (two people who know how to do funny).




Dinner was a whirlwind of attempting to eat the tasty food while also connecting to and laughing with our dear guests who stopped by our table for a visit (and I loved soaking up all of their lovely comments about the ceremony which, I had to agree, was the best ceremony ever :)

The weather continued to be crisp and Fall-like, and as the sun set behind the Blue Ridge Mountains while we dined, the setting was transformed from beautiful to catch-your-breath gorgeous. (Even these beautiful pictures don't convey how magical it really was).



After dinner we unveiled our big surprise of the evening -- the band!



Anyone who knows me knows that I am a total Beatles nut, and while, admittedly, we initially wondered whether a Beatles tribute band might be a tad over the top for a wedding, we decided to go for it anyway, and were SO GLAD we did! We managed to keep this element hidden from most of our guests and their reactions at the "unveiling" were priceless. The band was unbelievable and we all spent the rest of the night singing our hearts out and dancing up a storm. I've never had so much fun in all my life. I was in heaven! [Live Beatles' music + wedding love + dancing w/ all your favorite people = UTTER, inexplicable JOY].





I could have used another hour or two of music and dancing and laughing with Dan and our guests, but, alas, eventually it was time for the party to end. After all of our goodbyes we made our way down the path towards the getaway car through a sea of sparklers. Magic.



When we reached end of the driveway, I looked back at all the twinkly lights of the sparklers behind us and felt this incredible swell of emotions. It just looked so beautiful, everything all lit up, and I could just feel the outpouring of love coming from everyone, all of these people who meant so much to us. It was one of those electrifying moments in life when you realize that THIS, this is what it's all about. Moments like this. Sigh. It was truly the most amazing day of my life.


{action shot: driving away w/ the wind in our hair. and onto the next adventure -- Hawaii!!}