Matt Jones’ Neighborhood

Forgot to update yesterday. But I guess now that I'm caught up, the drama of the daily struggle has lessened and the only jucy thing remaining is what story elements I will choose to divulge. (Am I sounding like a writer yet? ^__^) Also, being caught up makes it a cinch to hit my NaNo quota. After breaking myself in at 3,000+ words a day, the regular 1670 goes by quick. My current word count is 17,138 (and it's the end of chapter 4) - I'm actually above quota!

I absolutely hated everything I wrote yesterday, so the hard part was to NOT go back and redo it all - because that would kill my word count. I was on the verge of needing to type with my monitor off. Yesterday saw some boring real world type stuff - parts of town, introducing the classroom setting. Bleh. (probably why I hated it - I'm bad at that stuff. Hence the fantasy writing.)

Better stuff today: some foreshadowing (some of it for the story this is prequel to, though it may come out at the very end of this book as part of a subplot) including a crazy mysterious man shouting "RUE" amidst his mumbling; Two houses, two conservatories, and secret stuff going on in both. My Main Character is quite perplexed.

Whew! I caught up (13,407 words)! [hoorah! hoorah! - the crowd of one in my apartment goes wild!] And I just barely made it. Okay, I sort of cheated, but not really. I'd written a couple hundred words in Michigan on the first day, but decided I didn't like it as the beginning of my story.  I put it aside, and started again when I got home and could concentrate better. Today I got to exactly the spot where that bit could go in, so TaDa! So, "cheating" in that I copied and pasted, and only made a few quick changes to make it fit (now that there were more people in the scene than the way I'd first written it). But definitely NOT cheating because I did write it for this story and in the month of NaNo. I just did it so quick it felt like cheating (it was about 7 minutes to midnight when I realised I was precisely AT the setup for the scene), but I'd always intended to see if the snippet could go back in. I mean, if anything, I've actually been shortchanging myself on my word count all this time, 'cause no one ever said you had to write the thing in order.

In the story today: My MC caught the local shop owner gossiping about her and decided to listen in. And she also heard there's a new boy in town who apparently thinks my MC is pretty. Then he walked in and caught her eavesdropping!

I am 1/5th the way through! More than 20%! I passed today's NaNo catch-up goal (10,000 words) with over an hour to spare, and surpassed it (10,578) with half an hour to spare. I'll catch up tomorrow for sure! I'm only stopping now because my MC is going to bed, too, so it seemed like a good spot.

In the story today: Apparently my MC has a revered ancestor named Quinlin Hart and her mother was having a bit of a salamander problem - the magic kind that are made of fire. It lost its tail, but it'll grow back....

...Don't know when my main plot will kick in. Not that I know what that is yet. Maybe tomorrow it will reveal itself. She's gonna catch some unsettling gossip about herself. And there's someone new in town. Now if only I knew what that gossip was...

Didn't quite hit my double quota before midnight like I needed to catch up for nanowrimo, but I should get there before I go to bed tonight. Currently at 6,120. Need to get to 6,668 before I go to sleep. (Though I really should be at 10,002 if I were caught up.)

In the story today: a gnome named Hollaby, a gnomide (that's a female gnome), an injured rabbit who got some healing and is now being chased by a kunal trow flying about on a bulrush. But the rabbit's in good hands in my main character's saddlebag....

I wrote over 3300 words for NaNo today, but I'm still 5,000 behind due to my late start! But if I can write double the daily quota for the next three days I should catch up.

In the story so far: a shapeshifting woman, a very dark cavern, and a garden built by gnomes out of rock, moss, and non-native plants....

I spent the first few days of November at my mom's in Michigan, where there was only dial up internet, no cell phone signal, and adorable nephews to distract me. So I'm getting a late start on my writing. The daily quota (if you write every day) is 1,667 words. I'm about 7,000 behind.

Here I go!

I haven't been writing nearly enough over the past year or two, as my sparse blog can attest. I mean, I've been thinking about my writing a lot for months now, but mostly in terms of research for my big ole epic young adult fantasy series. But nothing that I've really been writing down.

So a couple months ago I decided that it was time I finally attempt NaNoWriMo. I've known about this crazy thing for years. Even bought the book way back when. But never really gave it a good shot. Too busy, to dried up of ideas, too much of a first draft perfectionist.

But this year is the year. With all the research I'd been doing I hit upon the perfect idea of what to write about. Okay, I still have no plot, just like my epic has no real plot. But while that is a hindrance for the epic, it is not a problem for NaNo (in fact the NaNo book was purchased for just that reason, what with its title of 'No Plot, No Problem'.

I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to come up with the back story for one of my minor, yet key, characters. I know where the story it has to end up, and I know a few things that need to be included. But other than that, not only is the storyline fair game, it is totally unnecessary to my larger ideas. So I don't need to worry about getting locked into something or messing things up. If I just come up with one tiny bit of a useful event or one clever description of something, it will have been worth it.

It may even help me to knock out some of that perfectionism I get when I write. I'm the type of writer that seems to have trouble concentrating during the revision process, so I tend to try to get it perfect the first time 'round. I often won't move on in my first draft until each sentence is perfect. How liberating to say: "It doesn't matter how crappy this is!" In fact, the crappier the better! Since the single goal of NaNo is word count and word count alone, I can write crappy lengthy wordy sentences - on purpose!

So last night, as I was posting a little update to my facebook status, it occurred to me that it might be nice to use NaNo as an excuse to make friends with my lonely vox once again. I'm going to try to put my NaNo updates here every day, though they may only be copied straight off my facebook... But since you probably can't see my facebook, I figured you wouldn't mind.

So, wish me luck!

(p.s. I'm going to go ahead and be a dork with my first couple updates and put them in seperate posts, since they were seperate days. And I'm going to lie about the dates, too since they were really posted to facebook earlier...because I can. I can and I feel like it. ...*thpppttt*)

In the past I've posted a mini collection of Chirstmas songs and a few Valentine's day songs. So I thought it was time I post a Halloween collection. Got a few classics here, you'll no doubt love to hear yet again - since they never get old, really. Then the nice, melancholic, beautiful, and haunting Samhain Night by Loreena McKennitt.

Samain Night

Loreena McKennitt

And finally, in juxtaposition to my Christmas upload of Louie Armstron reciting The Night Before Christmas to Pachelbel's Canon, for Halloween I've got The Raven, as spooklliy read by John Carradine to some creepy pipe organs. ^__^ Gotta love it!

The Raven

John Carradine

love-love. Lindsay

Many of us have music we feel makes up the soundtrack of our lives. Even my father knows precisely what music would play in the film based on his life. I, myself, have had many random songs that represent whole swathes of my mundane experiences, simply because I loved them at those times. But I also have had a few I've purposely elevated into mantras; music that I not only love, but that says something I really need to keep in my head as I go through tougher times or times of change. I've even posted about one before.

But for the better part of the past year, there has been an entire library of these mantra songs accumulating from one single band. As electronica, VNV Nation's sound may not be for everyone (and indeed there are a handful of their songs that are so violently house-music-y and slightly repetitive that I never listen to them a second time), but many of their songs are flabbergastingly inspiring and beautiful. For me, since I like electronic music when it is as intricate as a symphony or has compelling bridges and change-ups (or whatever the proper music terms are for these variations in the music), I find much of the music inspiring in its own right, but the lyrics push it beyond a lot of music today. The band's very name speaks to their view of a grander scale - the VNV standing for Victory, Not Vengeance.

Their songs capture every part of the human journey, from those times we feel lost or insignificant to the times we struggle to better ourselves and our world and reach to whatever lies beyond. And it is these that I am continually trying to remind myself to heed, to live by, to embrace in my own journey. Suffice it to say that I could narrate an entire film - beginning, middle, plot twist, and end - with VNV's music, and it would be a story with which many, many people could identify.

So I felt it was high time I share some of these. A few snatches of lyrics and a few songs that continue to blow me away, to bring tears to my eyes, and to inspire me, not only to feel differently about my life, but to seek the light. I hope they inspire you, too.

"And if rain brings winds of change, let it rain on us forever." ~Solitary

"I don't want you to change, for all the hurt you feel. This world is just illusion, trying to change you." ~Illusion

"Lay down your greastest burden
Relinquish that which has control of you
And let yourself through

Though it seems the past and future look the same
Suffice to say you're still here

Though the past, the unwanted memories, are holding onto you
All the power in the universe conspires to carry you." ~Carry You

"We possess the power
If this should start to fall apart
to mend divides, to change the world
to reach the farthest star
If we should stay silent
if fear should win our hearts,
our light will have long diminished
before it reaches the farthest star." ~The Farthest Star

"Forget your fears. And want no more.
At first light lay proud foundations.
Sense the greatness that before you unfolds.
Seek no more for hollow answers.
Answers that lay within you all along.
Farewell to dawns seen through saddened eyes.
Farewell to pasts to sorrows chained.
Forget your fears and want no more.
You will be strong and want no more.
You'll be adored. You will have everything.
You will be strong and want no more.
Forget your fears. You will have everything.
And want no more." ~Firstlight / Arclight / Lastlight

Endless Skies

VNV Nation

"How many years since you found yourself
Staring at an endless sky?

Unaware of yourself
Who you are and where you're going
Only living
Only breathing
Losing all sense of time

The most fragile of things
Captivates and embraces you
Surrender and be witness
To this rarest of moments

You live within the sense
Of the order of things
What is truth
What is important
What defines you

No need to fear
No need to worry
About years that passed
About time you lost

Live seconds as a lifetime
Time it does not matter
You live within the sense
Of the stillness of time" ~Endless Skies

"Before me plays the endless film
Relentless splinters I recall

Arena

VNV Nation

Each living thing breathes life
Only sentiment remains
To liquid born, from patterns formed
The sand descends with blind intent
Where the river takes me will in time be revealed

I cannot turn my feelings down
Beyond my means to turn my thoughts around
Expressed in every word I will ever speak
Brighter than all the stars combined
More than the waters, earth and sky
All that I wish and all that I dream

Above the waves with my hands raised
Dare the wind, lay claim to me
Knowing somehow none could take me
Watching the sun come up in vain
The only reason I can find why I remained
The need to leave the point I came to again and again

It didn't matter how hard I tried
It took so long to claim that I knew how
Or what it meant to let go of this
To ever say goodbye
Call it destiny, call it fate
Chose my direction, running forward
Each life to learn anew, whatever may come

I cannot turn my feelings down
Beyond my means to turn my thoughts around
Expressed in every word I will ever speak
Brighter than all the stars combined
More than the waters, earth and sky
All that I wish and all that I dream
No creed on earth can replace or provide
In my darkest hour, the comfort I'd feel
Leading me to see I can be more than I expect of me
My beginning and my end
The first and last air that I breathe
More than the sum of everything that I will ever be." ~Arena

Perpetual

VNV Nation

"Find it in you, raise your eyes
Look beyond the place you stand
Towards the furthest reaches
And to the smallest of things
The sound you are hearing
Is the symphony of what we are
Revelation will not come
With heart and mind closed and divided

No need of sun to light the way
Across the ages, we have reigned as we endured
Through the storm fronts we will ever surely pass
To stand as never ending light

Throw away the mantle
Awake from your uncertain hesitation
No way to describe or equate the feeling
No end to what is at your command
A million thoughts run through you
Concentric circles, ever greater
But you have always known
That this is not all there is
To your questions there'll be answers

Let there be, let there always be
Never ending light" ~Perpetual