FuzzyCo

So my brother sent me an email: some swing dancing friends of his were making an improvised movie and auditions were coming up. I've done lots of different kinds of acting: improv, sketch, conventional theater, radio... but I've never done a movie, and this sounded like a fun way to get that gap on my acting resume filled. Besides Matt and Dallas, I already knew a number of people involved with the film from some swing classes I'd taken at Blue Moon Groove. So sign me up!

Well, I didn't start writing at midnight last night. I was planning to either go out with some friends at 11 or write at midnight, realized I needed a nap either way, lay down on the couch at 9 and woke up at 7:30 AM. Oh, well.

At work, I came up with my title ("No Time for Words" :-) and wrote one paragraph (71 words). When I got home, I realized that paragraph was crap, deleted it, and started over. And now I have one chapter done. Yay! I have a narrator and a hint of another character, and I know how Chapter 2 is going to start, at least. So now I'm off to swing dance practice and get some groceries.

Fellow Chicago Improvisor Steev has a Nanowrimo progress page with fancy animations and everything. (It's morning, so I haven't written anything yet today.)

Well, only three days into it, and I'm already a day behind. I didn't write anything yesterday, and today seemed harder going than the first chapter -- my house seemed a lot more distracting. I think I'm going to need to find a novel buddy to force me go out to a coffee shop or something to really pound out a couple chapters. Anyway, Chapter 2 did just what I wanted, and I know where I want to go with Chapter 3. But now I'm hungry and I need to get ready for a show tonight.

Today was a day of two experiments: typing on a laptop on the train on the way to work (the train came really fast, which is usually a good thing, and there were no seats - 26 words written) and writing at work during lunch (distractions, distractions - 50 words). And stuff kept happening at home. I'm so behind. And what happened yesterday? I can't even remember why I didn't write anything yesterday.

Hey, I made it to 10% of the words I need. Of course, 20% of the time is gone. So I'm right on track to finish this novel... by 2002. Today I tried two more experiments: writing in my Palm on the train (only 160 words - it would probably be effective for notes, but I'm really trying not to plan out where this is going) and staying late at work (this was pretty good - there were very few distracions. Unfortunately, I got hungry and the video capture I was waiting to be done, finished).

So... far... behind. I went to a wedding this past weekend and spent all last night working on a design project for a friend. In the 16 hours in the car, I tried dictating into a tape recorder, but I have yet to transcribe that material, so I have no idea how many words it is.

I got started transcribing the tape I made over the weekend, but I only typed a thousand words and got really sleepy. But I think I might have a bunch of words on that tape -- I wasn't even certain. Also, while the book is mostly autobiographical, to give myself a little bit of creative challenge I made the main character a bass player instead of an improvisor. So, today I took my friend Ben Taylor out to lunch and interviewed him about the Chicago music scene. I got a lot of good notes out of that. But ideas haven't been my problem -- as the transcribing the tape problem high-lights, it's just sitting at the computer (or the lack thereof) that's the real issue.

A little backup crisis at work and a friend in from Michigan meant that today I just got in about an hour more transcribing. There's plenty of tape left. I'm impatient to get through this stuff, because I feel done with it, I just need to do the mechanics of getting it typed in. I want to get back to making up new stuff. (Oh, it's just past midnight, so technically the 15th, so I should be half-way through, but I'm at 17%. Poop.)

I was really hoping to break 10kw tonight, but I'm soooo sleepy.

I finally broke the 10kw barrier (2/3 of the way through the month, but oh well) AND I'm finally done transcribing the stuff I taped a week ago. I think the dread of hearing my own voice on that tape is what has been slowing me down. We'll see if I can get back up to speed now.

I went out swing dancing tonight, because it was "graduation night" from the class I just took. Got home late and I'm ready to collapse, but I had to type something so I don't hate myself in the morning. (as much -- so. far. behind.)

I'm right on track to finish this 20,000 word story by the end of the month. What? FIFTY thousand words? Oops.

I know that many people are using this holiday long weekend to catch up. What am I doing? Flying to New York to do a show and party with all my friends there. We'll see how much I can write on the plane. (I won't update this until Monday, regardless of how much I do or don't write.)

Well, New York was fun -- too fun for getting any work done on the novel. I wrote some in the airport and the plane on the way out, and I got a thousand words or so written on Saturday afternoon, and then a bit on the train into the city this morning (we got into Chicago at 7:30 this morning). I'm almost exactly 1/3 of the way through the novel and there's only a few days left and so.... I'm giving up. On the one hand, I found some bills I had neglected to pay and the dining room is a disaster and on the other, I've got some exciting things coming up in my usual artform (Improv), so I don't feel bad at all about stopping here. I don't think I've written 16,000 words on a single topic ever before in my life.

A friend of mine had a computer disaster and lost her first 10,000 words near the middle of the month and decided that her personal WriMo would be Nov. 15 - Dec. 15. She knew how slowly I was going and invited me to join her. I won't be. I was fine with the artificiality of the deadlines and doing the thing for the thing itself. My novel is really bad and I don't feel any need to keep working on it now that I've realized I won't make it to 50kw. Maybe next year.

P.S. For no particular reason, I've been listening to The Nortec Collective's The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 1 over and over as I was writing. It's a great album! I'm listening to it right now as I write this wrap-up.