***Prepping up***
This was the first weekend I spent a significant time writing. I drove down and stayed at the coffeeshop both Saturday and Sunday jotting down notes, journalizing, and reviewing my ideas for NaNoWriMo.

Scheduling occupied the lion's share of time. Specifically, I calcuated how many words I needed to aim for weekly as opposed to daily, what were the writing days (usually nights); and the time slots in each day. I discovered a significant (well, sorta) glitch: R. was on vacation from Monday, November 1st through Sunday, November 7th. That meant couple time during those evenings and weekend. I believe, though, I came up with a workaround. (And, yes, we spoke about it. Pouting and sulking does affect me. And the couch is very uncomfortable.)

Another situ is deciding which idea to work on during November. I've narrowed down from six to two but was stumped. Do I want to pursue the idea of what happens to the main character after he's swallowed by the dragon (DT)? Or the character who's the chess piece/salvation for returning gods (PP)? Both ideas have good strengths and weaknesses. I've given myself until the 21st of this month to come with a solution. (See private writing journal as to why that specific date.)

I spent some time in the NaNoWriMo forums as well to see how my fellow participants were gearing up. Many, especially the returnees, had posted intriguing ideas and I found the following especially intriguing:

Someone calculated that one can meet the 50k word goal by writing 98 words per hour (after considering sleep.) Though I (and other participants) found executing the idea to be obviously impossible, I found the figure psychologically soothing.

Fillers were intriguing. Besides the common ones liked flashbacks, dream sequences, and lots of inane dialogue, there were the more unique ones like novel-related blog entries. My favorite was one writer whose two main characters met a fortune teller who did a reading for each one. At 9-12 cards each with a paragraph (at least) to describe each card, I could see the writer filling up a dozen pages quickly. Even better, the readings were related to the plot. Kewl!

All work and no play makes Joel a bored boy, though. I spent some time in the Forward Motion chatroom where I convinced a newbie to join NaNoWriMo. And I talked to several regulars in the coffeeshop. One is an aspiring film-maker. We spend a considerable length of time on our arts.

Overall, a productive weekend.

- posted by Unknown @ Monday, October 18, 2004