tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64126509046100239152011-10-29T11:55:14.070-07:00NaNoWriMo 2008 - Ananda Daydream's fifth attemptMelissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-48514322947440812582008-11-30T18:22:00.000-08:002008-11-30T18:34:50.830-08:00

...of NaNoWriMo November, anyway. Obviously not of the story, once again I leave it on a cliff-hanger! But at least that provides me with more motivation to come back to it later. Which, yes, I will.I WIN!!! I was determined not to fail this year, since I won last year there was no reason I shouldn't make it work this year, and it really was easier this time I think. I had a few motivational

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-22803343797792462232008-11-30T18:18:00.000-08:002008-11-30T18:21:22.294-08:00

[I win!!! This last chunk marks 50,036 words. In a month.]        There were more rooms that I took to be guest rooms, mainly because of the lack of personal touches. Or, rather, of the difference between those personal touches. The same overall feeling that had dominated the villa was in each of these rooms. One was done in shades of deep purple and dark woods, but with golden highlights to

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-328876386051553282008-11-29T23:03:00.000-08:002008-11-29T23:07:12.904-08:00

[A second Thanksgiving dinner last night made me sleep kind of a lot. End of the month, numbering system no longer matters. 3k words in one day woooo!]        The next portrait was another one of the couple, looking maybe a little older. Actually... the man didn't look any different, but the girl looked a little more grown-up, her expression was a little quieter, a little more demure. She was

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-16264225585558627752008-11-29T20:22:00.000-08:002008-11-29T20:24:54.759-08:00

48612 lab.drwicked.com^ That site is AMAZING, I wish I'd known about it in past years. I have a major problem with getting sidetracked (hi! I'm posting on my blog instead of chipping away at my word count!), and that site won't let you do it. It's like NaNoWriMo in ultra-condensed form. And with more threats!...which I will need. I have twenty-four and a half hours to get another... five

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-34349974914140161932008-11-27T19:58:00.000-08:002008-11-27T20:03:05.919-08:00

        I stepped out on to the terrace, mincing my way carefully between the jungle of plant life. The thin layer of marble tiles that comprised the floor was thin and cracked in places, a few of the stones slightly out of place, revealing some dark material that must have been an adhesive. The rooftop patio was maybe ten feet by fifteen or twenty, but that was a pretty rough guess. Potted

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-88047752652588916552008-11-25T23:03:00.000-08:002008-11-25T23:06:48.075-08:00

I tried to line up a shot of some of the more elaborate bottles, but the light was far too low. I was going to have to clear some of the vines off the windows, if I was to do any serious picture-taking in this place.        My stomach growled violently at me then, and a glance at my cell phone showed it was about noon. Glad some part of my body was still properly aware of time passing... the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-18349456429767612652008-11-24T21:45:00.000-08:002008-11-24T21:48:03.399-08:00

        Time-darkened ivory walls lay like aged drawing paper behind the dark ink line work of iron curlicues and leaves and vines. In the top right corner of the frame, where the leaves were most densely packed together, a golden bird peeked its head out from behind a particularly large leaf. Bright gemstone eyes (diamond?) glittered dully in the diffuse light, and its long, gracefully curling

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-34862888892829076942008-11-23T18:55:00.001-08:002008-11-23T19:07:29.603-08:00

Sorting out architecture in your head is freaking hard. My sketchbook has a few more pages filled now... and I'm still not sure I'm happy with it, but at least I'm pretty sure it's all physically possible now! ugh.Before you think that my vine-covered walls are completely ridiculous, this was actually my jumping-off point. I had a general idea of what I wanted, but googled for references, and

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-30177408313378045292008-11-23T18:50:00.000-08:002008-11-23T18:54:57.378-08:00

        I stepped softly on the floor, feeling as hesitant as I would on freshly-fallen snow, not wanting to disturb it any more than I had to. I almost hesitated to breathe, not wanting to push away anything that was a part of this strange place. I lifted my camera to my eye, looking through to check the light levels. Pretty dim... I doubted I'd be able to get a clear shot if I held the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-69892421224927406862008-11-22T21:36:00.000-08:002008-11-22T21:42:05.323-08:00

        Saturday morning, I woke up incredibly early. Actually, I woke up several times - my subconscious knew my plan for the day, and I was so eager to get an early start that I had a lot of false alarms. At 5:30, though, the sun was finally rising, so I rolled out of bed and into the shower. I felt pretty bleary, since I had barely slept the night before, but the shower woke me up a bit,

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-6195161978224712152008-11-21T19:04:00.000-08:002008-11-21T19:09:52.312-08:00

        It must have been a good five minutes before I could steel myself to go anywhere near those chemicals again. I still couldn't get the stinging scent out of my nose, but, I could breathe at least. I took a few last deep breaths of fresh air, and turned the sharp corners of the short hallway back into the dark room. I decided that this was the last shot I'd do prints of that night, so I

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-81304327129859063452008-11-20T19:24:00.000-08:002008-11-20T19:26:47.263-08:00

        Work seemed to drag on forever the next day. It really shouldn't have, I was only there for maybe four and a half hours before everything that needed done was finished, and I was shooed out of the office. My co-workers had noticed how antsy I'd been the whole day, so there had been all sorts of jokes about me having a hot date that night. I just laughed and said that yeah, I was

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-65320925144084674812008-11-19T21:40:00.001-08:002008-11-19T21:46:45.691-08:00

[Day 18 I took a day off due to a migraine, but hell if I'm going to make my post numbers all wonky halfway through! That, plus the peculiarities of word counters got made up for today, so it's a beast of a post. I have no idea how much I actually wrote.]This was the one part of developing and processing that I actually enjoyed every bit as much as taking the photos and having the final prints.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-29191170925678553172008-11-19T19:08:00.000-08:002008-11-19T19:19:31.710-08:00

No, the interwebs didn't break - I took a day off yesterday. I had a migraine that refused to let up, for a good 24 hours, and it was hard to keep my eyes open without puking, so... I rested on my word-count laurels, and slept a lot.Unfortunately for me, that buffer isn't *quite* as big as I'd hoped. I was a good 2400 words ahead, which means that even with the day off, I still had, what, 800

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-61527007204685469612008-11-17T21:14:00.000-08:002008-11-17T21:18:33.820-08:00

        It didn't take me all that long to get back to the Mayhew's, I was back in time to throw on some fresh clothes and join everyone for dinner. It took a little over an hour to find my way to the road I knew ran perpendicular to the one the Mayhew's were on, and once I reached it, it was hardly another hour before I was back. Sweaty and with sticks in my hair, but I'd made it.        "You

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-16752746196632036642008-11-16T18:33:00.000-08:002008-11-16T18:36:13.340-08:00

        The windows were set higher up on the walls than I had first realized. It was hard to get right up to them, but the one I did, even standing on tip-toes I could barely see inside. Lace curtains hung in front of the window, and it was so darkly shadowed that I couldn't make out anything beyond what might have been a wood chair right in front of the window. Frustrated, I tried vainly to

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-87874940873445149942008-11-15T20:41:00.000-08:002008-11-15T20:45:34.108-08:00

        I started backing my way out of the entryway, thinking I'd take a walk around the house, and see if there were any side or back doors, that might be less formidable to wiggle loose. The lock on this one looked as un-corroded as the door knocker and handle, and I'd never actually tried to pick a lock before. My camera bumped heavily against my side as I stumbled on a crumbling step---

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-69856798368923687392008-11-14T20:38:00.000-08:002008-11-14T20:49:26.925-08:00

Don't get too excited, it's a pretty poor illustration - but I wanted a sketch of the house on here, just to give you a better idea of the layout. Architecture is not exactly something I'm really knowledgeable about. I did about half a dozen sketches, and borrowed heavy inspiration from pictures here and here. I was so psyched to discover that my idea for an Italian-style villa built around

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-59231190955641562922008-11-14T20:35:00.000-08:002008-11-14T20:37:58.995-08:00

        And then I saw what the path had been leading towards.        It was a house, half-hidden behind vines and overgrown gardens. But it wasn't the quaint little cottage you would expect to find in the woods like this, it was... an Italian villa, more than anything. There was a tall central square tower, with a tunnel of trellises leading up to it, presumably to the front door. To one side

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-999985818010416282008-11-13T18:23:00.000-08:002008-11-13T18:29:27.140-08:00

I did not skip out on my wordcount yesterday, as the NaNo calender would have you believe. I just wrote it all after midnight, Tom and I were watching a movie. ^^;; But I didn't let myself go to sleep until I had written my quota, so it's all good. I think I'm actually a full day's ahead on writing, without having even tried to get there, but I'm refusing to let myself fall back on that cushion

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-86297489746043376972008-11-13T18:18:00.000-08:002008-11-13T18:21:28.072-08:00

        I followed the creek bed for maybe an hour or so, out of necessity as much as desire, since the banks alongside it looked more and more forbidding as I went on. I knew it would flatten out once I got down to the lake front, but the more the thought lingered in my mind, the less I wanted to make that trip that afternoon. I'd used up more than half of the film I had with me already. (I

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-58506727831867066952008-11-12T22:45:00.000-08:002008-11-12T22:47:58.223-08:00

While I was back at the house, I had seen Mr. Mayhew out in the yard, heading for the barn. I stopped him and had him point out to me what general direction the creek was in. He reassured me that I couldn't get too lost in the woods, they weren't more than a mile or two across, so it would always be less than that distance to the creek, which would itself lead me to roads every half-mile or so.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-86119298298409114912008-11-11T20:59:00.000-08:002008-11-11T21:03:09.002-08:00

        I went to the dark room after work every day the rest of that week, processing film. Once that was done, and my film had dried, I cut up each strip and slid the negatives into plastic sleeves, in a fresh new binder I'd bought for the summer. I decided to wait until next week to start running off contact sheets and doing prints, and took the binder full of negatives back to the Mayhew's

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-19934671641242187522008-11-10T21:35:00.000-08:002008-11-10T21:49:24.887-08:00

So while I was busy not falling last night, I fairly literally had a 2am revelation on my story.Actually, I'd been trying (and failing) to think of a title. The few NaNos I have actually managed to title, I was really, really happy with the titles, they really encapsulated what I was going for. (Even though I never quite got to that point in the first NaNo I attempted, ha.)So I was trying to

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-26490219337211804552008-11-10T21:29:00.000-08:002008-11-10T21:32:40.149-08:00

        The following Monday night, as I unloaded some more used film from my pocket, I realized I had a pretty large pile of film canisters growing. There had to be close to a dozen...and I was going to have to develop them all. I sighed heavily, and threw a half-dozen into a backpack (along with myy developing supplies) to take with me to campus the next day. I'd been told the dark room

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-30812519430212364072008-11-09T20:18:00.000-08:002008-11-09T20:22:41.384-08:00

        "Dillon, get off of there!"        "You're gonna break it!"        "No I wo-o-on't!"        "Yes, you will, Dillon, we haven't put anything under that section yet, it can't hold any weight."        There was a sharp cracking sound, which was met by two cries of dismay and one of abject terror. I hurried forward anxiously, still unable to see the fort, but following the direction of the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-70777568074518320232008-11-08T20:28:00.000-08:002008-11-08T20:40:25.914-08:00

        I walked along toward the back of the house, noting the way the dew clung to every small thing, glistening, sparkling where the light caught it. I tried to think of how I could capture that delicacy - I had my zoom lens with me this time, but I wanted something different than dew clinging to grass blades, that wasn't it. I took a few pictures of the dew beading on rose petals, much

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-36408947701410775822008-11-07T21:09:00.000-08:002008-11-07T21:24:43.418-08:00

This feels very strange to me. I think I've only had...two days so far, where I've had to battle my way up to the wordcount. And one of those days was election day, which I'm pretty sure distracted eeeeverybody.But I've had an awful lot of days where it didn't feel hard at all to hit another 1,667 words - in fact I've gone over that several times without even really noticing. Given that it's

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-64500662437939633032008-11-07T21:02:00.000-08:002008-11-07T21:06:19.974-08:00

        Mrs. Mayhew's voice echoed up the staircase. "Caaaa-leb! Your mother's on the phone!"        "Awwww, again??" he groaned. "I just talked to her after school..." His footsteps on the stairs reverberated as loud as thunder through the old walls as he headed downstairs. (There was, of course, a phone in my room, but each of the rental rooms was on a different line from the main house,

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-42696627061938863752008-11-06T17:46:00.000-08:002008-11-06T18:01:30.806-08:00

        After dinner that night, Caleb followed me up to my room, shooting rubberbands stealthily (so he apparently thought) at my back. Fortunately for him, I'd always been a terrible shot with rubberbands, so he was safe from retaliation in that form. I grabbed my digital camera from the dresser and plopped onto the bed, turning it on and flipping through the day's shots, culling out the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-12415471295501557322008-11-05T22:11:00.000-08:002008-11-05T22:13:20.911-08:00

        I hadn't been up truly early in the morning in--- well, only a year, really, I'd had to get up at 5:30 through most of high school. (Two teenage girls and only one bathroom in the house is never a pleasant experience.) But even then, I hadn't really been able to enjoy an early morning, and I really wanted to get back into that habit for the summer. There's nothing more beautiful, and

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-7617274440540557192008-11-04T22:14:00.000-08:002008-11-04T22:17:23.357-08:00

        At five o'clock on the dot, the lights were turned off and my fellow officeworkers headed for the elevator en masse. Everyone else seemed to know each other - which I'd picked up on during the day, but most of the time I was on my own in the back room with the files, so it was only at this point that I heard all of the teasing and joking in full. Each person (myself included) seemed to

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-62162368401444047192008-11-03T20:16:00.000-08:002008-11-03T20:22:19.917-08:00

My hair has always had a wave to it, but cutting it short last summer made it more noticeable. A few months ago I decided to be creative, and cut it at on angle, leaving it longer by my face and shorter at the back of my neck - which I really liked, not only because it was something different, but also because it was very practical. I've always hated having my hair getting in my way, and it

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-13945863713801069182008-11-02T17:06:00.000-08:002008-11-02T17:11:10.063-08:00

Cameo mention of my photo prof/video prof/advisor, wooooo. This chick is so definitely in Fredonia. ...well, so far, anyway, we'll see what happens when I settle on the surroundings of the abandoned house.I am - for the moment - slightly ahead of where my wordcount should be. (God I'm so scared to say that, I'm terrified I'll jinx something!) There *is* a graph that's supposed to be over in

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-81899215236233950932008-11-02T16:59:00.000-08:002008-11-02T17:02:30.437-08:00

        Dinner smelled amazing - and tasted just as wonderful. I was still a little in shock at how immediately and how warmly the Mayhews adopted me, I honestly hardly felt I was renting an apartment, it was much more like I was distant family visiting for the summer. Heck, maybe I was and no-one had ever told me, I would spend my summer unveiling small clues as to a family history that had

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-89928556043895743692008-11-01T23:59:00.000-07:002008-11-01T21:40:51.635-07:00

        "Are you sure you don't need anything from the store, honey? You have an extra towel, right? Enough blankets?"        "Mom, it's summer, I don't need any more blankets."        "But towels? Oh and what about---"        "Mom!" I broke in, laughing. "I just survived a year in a dorm, and there's a real kitchen and a real bathroom and real furniture here. I have more than enough to get

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-35799637226136211812008-11-01T21:49:00.001-07:002008-11-01T21:54:32.550-07:00

So I'd gotten a good two-page start on the novel on my lunch break at work today, when I realized... MY MAIN CHARACTER DID NOT HAVE A NAME. For all this fretting I've been doing over her, I DIDN'T KNOW HER FREAKING NAME. siiiiigh. My coworkers suggested I name her Casey, or Cass, or something along those lines, given that there's so many random commonalities between her and my coworker Casey. (

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-72800849746511578562008-10-27T22:00:00.000-07:002008-10-27T22:19:26.195-07:00

SUGGESTIONS WELCOME like you would not believe. My main character needs to not be me, therefore, I need input from people besides me. ;)So here's the plan, so far. Main character is a girl, I'm pretty sure she's in college. She is a photographer - but views it more as a technicality, an interest, she's not exactly a passionate artist (but doesn't see that as an issue or anything, until farther

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-29578602993497783262008-10-19T20:36:00.000-07:002008-10-19T20:54:32.910-07:00

...was not made by me. Though I'm sure I could have made something just as pretty, Blogger's back-end code has gotten much more complicated, and I really don't want to delve into the headache of making code work. It's all I can do to tweak the xml and css and whatever the hell else is in there to what I want. I still can't get it through my head that line breaks are now br/ instead of /br. gah.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6412650904610023915.post-2416039960924162932008-10-19T13:13:00.000-07:002008-10-19T13:21:05.674-07:00

...to, hopefully, a new novel. Or the start of one, anyway, lord knows I have yet to finish a single one I cranked out in a November. I came close last year...but Revision January made me see the giant chunks that were missing from the storyline. They're big enough chunks that I've actually considered working on that novel for *this* NaNo, in hopes of actually finishing it. It feels a little

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14842641898726457284noreply@blogger.com0