The Awesomeness That Is November

It's almost October. You know what that means! No, I'm not thinking of my 16th birthday (although October does mean that:P), or Halloween (even though I love Halloween), or Fall (despite it being my favorite month). I mean, we're almost one month closer to November, which means NaNoWriMo!

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place in November. Basically, you try to write a novel, 50,000 words, in 30 days. You can go to the website for the official rules.

This will be my second year:) I attempted it last year, but I didn't find out about NaNo until about a week and a half in, so the odds were not in my favor (hear that Effie?). I only got about 20,000 words. I want to do a lot better this year! Even if I don't get to 50,000. For me, mid-September-October 31st are when I've decided I want to do my NaNo planning. So, I'm very fondly calling these days "NaNo PlaNo" (if anyone else came up with that I would love to know so that I can give them credit for coming up with it). So, for the burning question, the very first question, the question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight (kudos if you recognized the quote): How do you plan?

I'm new to planning. I never have planned out a novel before, but I've decided to for NaNo this year. I looked up a bunch of different techniques, and the Post-it Method has been the most appealing to me:) I'm doing a chapter-by-chapter outline, sort of. I write out chapter number on one sticky note, a synopsis of the chapter on another, and different characters, settings, etc. that are in that chapter. Basically it's like this:

Sticky note in row 1 says:   Chapter 1
Sticky note in row 2 says:   Midnight conspicuously gives Jacory a letter telling him to run when men come after him. She is very vague and mysterious in the letter.
Sticky note in row 3 says:   Introduced:
                                             Characters:           Settings:               Other:
                                              Jacory (Major)    Cardiff (Minor)
                                              Midnight (Major)

Get the idea? I'm also doing a list of all characters with a little description, a list of all the settings, and a character web to show relationships. AND, the best part: IT WILL ALL BE COLOR-CODED!!!!!! The OCD writer's dream!:) Right now, the wall beside me bed is in the process of being covered in hot pink, blue, green, and purple post-its:)

I'll post more about what my NaNo novel is about latter on when I write out an actual synopsis. I can tell you that time travel is involved!:) It's gonna be TOTALLY WICKED!

 

 

During the month of October I'll be posting about planning, but during November the posts are going to be a lot more fun! Thanks to an idea from Brian McBride I'll be posting:

 

Character posts.

Graphics.

Possible play lists.

Snippets.

Cover concepts.

Synopsis.

And fun posts about the world itself!

(Those are his words exactly and he gets all credit for them)

I seriously cannot wait for NaNo! So, tell me:

How do you plan a novel for NaNo? Why?
How does it compare to your regular planning?
If you don't plan, why do you like to do it that way?
Have you ever won NaNo?
Can you name all of the movies/shows/books that I quoted/referred to? :)


Still In Love With The Camera

 We went camping this week. I got to really use my camera for the first time and I am loving it!

 I messed with a couple settings for the picture on the left:)

 I thought the picture of the left was interesting. A fork in the road, but you can only go one way. I had to snap the picture for this one.

 I messed with more settings on the right:)

 I've discovered that my camera hates when the water reflects the sun. If there's a setting to fix that I would love to know about it:)

 Creepy spider web. Ew.

 I love this picture! All the pretty green leaves:) I looked up and decided that I wanted a picture of it:)

 I sat my camera on the handrail of the bridge that crossed the creek. Yes, I am pretty proud of this picture!

 The one on the right is looking straight down off the bridge.

 Another tree shot:) I love pointing the camera straight up and snapping the picture:)

 A natural archway:)

Babbling About Introvertedness

Wow! Two posts in one day! Yeah, I'm trying to redeem myself. Let me know when I'm forgiven.

In light of The Notebook Sisters almost recent posts about introverts here and here (upon looking the posts up to give you links, I realized that they aren't as recent as I though they were) I decided to share my own recent experiences with introvertedness- that's a word, right? I don't think spell check likes that word.

We recently joined a new church. We love it. But, a new church means a new youth group. I only knew two out of fifteen of them (Sarah and Thomas). We'd been going for a couple weeks and we decided to go to youth group on Wednesday night. I was a nervous wreck! It went pretty well over all, although I don't think I said more than two words to any of the teens that I didn't know! When I try to talk in front of a bunch of people, or to someone I don't know, my face gets blood red! It's quite unattractive and embarrassing. As if going to youth group on Wednesdays wasn't nerve wracking enough, we decided to go with them on their back-to-school bash. We went to a water park and an amazing restaurant called Lambert's! Four and a half hours, total, on a bus with people you don't know! I was terrified! To help me out a little bit, I dragged five of my friends with me! That helped a lot! The day went great and I had loads of fun, but I still didn't talk to the people I didn't know. On the way home, though, two of the guys (Matt and Beau) decided they wanted to talk to me! The conversation went a little like this:

Matt: Hey, you in the pink, I don't know you're name.
(that there isn't the greatest way to start a conversation with me. I understand that if you don't know my name you don't really have anything to call me, but I'm not fond of "you in the (shirt color)" references)

Me: I'm Jordan.

Matt: I'm Matt.

Beau: I'm Beau. Sup.
(He did that little upwards nod thing that guys do when they think they're soooo cool. I hate that.)

Me: (At this point I think it's safe to say my face was a red as a tomato! I wasn't sure I could form a reply that wouldn't sound A: rude or B: stupid, so I did what I always do when I'm embarrassed: roll my eyes, turn away, and try to ignore it.)

Beau: (jokingly) Oh, I see how you are then!

Me: I don't say sup. (Finally! Words that weren't completely stupid!)

Matt: (Matt had been sitting back and watching with an amused look on his face since Beau said sup, but he took this time to rejoin the conversation) Well then, what do you say?

(I was stumped! I hadn't made any new friends in like, four years, so I was completely clueless on what to say next! Thankfully, Sarah decided to jump in and save me at this point!)

Sarah: She'll say it to me! Sup, Jordan.

Me: (Grinning stupidly and fighting back a laugh at the thought of their faces when I said it) Sup. (I even added the annoying little nod)

Beau: (jokingly) Oh! Now I really see how you are!

After that I left the conversation and let Sarah explain to them that I'm not used to having to talk to people I don't know (I had been talking to her about that a little while earlier), which led to a conversation the next Wednesday between Matt and I about why I'm not used to talking to people. I blamed introvertedness (which I had to define for him) and homeschooling.

Since then things have gone a lot smoother! I've made friends with almost every one! I am super proud of myself for that! I also joined a band! Our youth pastor, two guys that go to church there, and any of the youth that want to participate are in a praise team:) I play keyboard and sing a little:) It's very fun! And practice is the highlight of my week just about every week! :)

I realize that I just did a ton of talking, so I'll post some pictures and be quiet now:)

Never. Not even when I'm old and grey and thirty! Haha!

I love this quote! It's possibly my favorite quote ever!

 

See you soon! Maybe. Probably not. :P

New Camera:)

Gosh! I promised these pictures like two months ago! I cannot get used to this blogging once a week thing! I tried to get myself to do that. We're seeing how that worked out :P

 I am in love with this camera!:) I have been picture happy ever since I got it:) The first three were taken with a old film filter:) I love it. It makes the pictures look old and little eerie.

 I messed with the brightness and other things in the next two. It made the colors look so vibrant:)

Same old film filter on this one:) It looks like a picture from a silent film or something. 

 

Look! A bunny! I have a ton of pics of rabbits!:) We had some living under our shed this year:)