NaNoWriMo - Week 1

Whew, ten days done, and twenty to go. That means that I should be about 1/3 of the way through my novel, which I am not. I am currently about 3k behind, which is not too bad. I've been much farther behind at this point in the month and still won.

My story is going okay, though I've sort of hit a wall. My story so far as been dark realistic fiction, veering sharply into literary fiction. Literary fiction can be great, but it is a PAIN to write. You have to know your characters really well, and sometimes it can just get to be too much work, especially for NaNoWriMo.

I don't know exactly where I am going to go from here, but my main plan is to change things up a bunch. I am considering jumping forward in time (maybe as much as ten or twenty years), and even switching up the genre (heading for more of a fantasy vibe). I would never do this if I expected anyone to read it, but since that is not really why I do NaNo, it should be fine. I'll update you next week on what I actually decided to do.

I would love to go to some Write Ins this year (write ins are usually held at coffee shops or other public places, and are where a bunch of local NaNoers come to hang out and write together), though I don't know whether or not that will work out. I have never gone to any local events in the past two years I have done NaNo, but I would love to meet some of the people I see so much online. I try to keep pretty active on the Bellingham forums on nanowrimo.org, and I do think that the personal connection can be really motivating.

If you are doing NaNoWriMo, and you want to be friends with me on the site, my name is Daisy512. Feel free to nanomail me, or send to a buddy request.

NaNoWriMo: Week 0 {Everybody Panic!!!}

I had about five posts I've been meaning to write and post this week, but this is the first time I've even opened up Blogger since Sunday. Sorry! Life has been CRAZY, and it's not looking like it's going to slow down any time soon. I only have about ten minutes to write right now before my grandmother comes to take us to lunch for my sister's birthday. As soon as we get back from that, I will have less then an hour to get all costumed up before heading to a local park to do a Lord of the Rings photo shoot, since we might not have a chance to get any good pictures on Thursday.

Some of the other LOTR people will be coming back to our house after that to participate in a discussion of the Joy Luck Club, which I am hosting, and apparently leading as well, though I have not even looked at any discussion questions yet.

That's just this afternoon. Anyway, I doubt you want to hear about how busy my life is, but at least you have some idea of why the blog has been a little quite, and will probably stay that way.

So, this is going to be be NaNoUpdate number 1. Normally, they will go up on Saturdays, but I forgot to write a post last Saturday. I don't have a lot to say this time, other then that I have hit the panic stage. If you have done NaNo multiple times, you might know what I mean.

Every December I swear that I will never put myself through the torture of NaNo again. In mid September of the following year, I begin to remember how much fun NaNo was, and start getting excited to do it again. On about Oct. 28 or 29, I suddenly remember just how hard and stressful NaNo can be. At this point, I've already told tons of people I'm doing it, and I often have even done a little planning, so I can't back out.

I just hit that panic stage. I've done very little planning this year, less then ever before. I do have two wins (out of two tries) under my belt, so that helps, but such rational thoughts don't do much good against that late October panic.

I have only TWO days left until NaNoWriMo, and they will be completely filled with an insane ammount of STUFF. In fact, the first time I will realiztically have to sit down and relax will be Friday morning. Friday, November 1st. Maybe I should just give up on the idea of relaxation until December. :)

How is your NaNo planning going? Do you get that late October panic too? Do you feel ready to tackle this novel (what a ridiculous question)? Also, if you are a NaNoer, feel free to add me as a buddy! My username is Daisy512 on the site.

Homeschool Friday: October 21-25, 2013 {Week 8} + Life Update

I'm sorry this post is so late! I'm going to quickly go over school stuff here:

School Stuff
School didn't go super well this week. With being sick and busy, a lot didn't get done. In history, I read 20 pages out of my textbook, did a bunch of mini bios on important people from the reading, did a map, and added some dates to my timeline. That was everything I had wanted to get done for the week. For math, I was supposed to do five lessons, but only did three. Also, in science, I did two of the three I had hoped to do. In Spanish, I got almost all of it done, and in Latin, I only did about half a week's worth.

So, school didn't go too well, but I need to make some allowances. This was certainly the busiest week of the school year so far, and I was feeling pretty crappy for a lot of it. On that note, here is the promised Life Update:

Life Update
On Monday, I felt terrible, and skipped dance, though I did still volunteer at the library (mostly because I was able to choose tasks where I could sit the whole time. In dance, that's not really an option).

Tuesday, we hosted the current events discussion group, where we talked about (and voted on) many of the local ballot issues this election.

Wednesday, I went to park day, and got to see a friend I don't see too much any more, as well as her new puppy.

Thursday, I was feeling somewhat better, and I spent the afternoon at a friend's house, helping them decorate from their annual Halloween party. The family has two boys about the age of my sister and I, and we split into teams, Isabelle with the younger boy, and I was with the older. I may need to go back before the 31st though, since the project we were working on (which is a HUGE project) was not done when I left, and I think they might need help finishing. I'd say what it is, but I know some friends of mine read here, and I don't want to ruin the surprise before the party. :)

Friday, I went with some friends to the Washington State corn maze, which was amazing. It is 12 acres, and in the shape of WA. All the paths through it are major highways. We had maps, and went around looking for landmarks, which all had mini versions in the corn maze. We found the Grand Cooley Dam, the Space Needle, and the Peace Arch. Almost every town had a sign, and we found many, including Bellingham, Ferndale, Blaine, Concrete, Mt. Vernon, and many more on the East Side.

Saturday (yesterday), my Mom and I went to see the Joy Luck Club at a local theater. It was an amazing performance, and very true to the book.

Today is my sister's 12th birthday, and we are rushing around trying to prepare for all the celebrations, and to host choir at our house this afternoon as well!

So, that's why I didn't too much school done. I mostly feel better now, though there is a pesky cough that doesn't want to go away.

Homeschool Fridays: October 14-18, 2013 {Week 7}

It's Friday again, and that means it's time for another school update. I have mixed feeling about how this week went as a whole, but I think it didn't go too badly, school wise. I have been feeling pretty icky for a lot of the week, so that has not helped my productivity in general. I've had a lot of chest congestion for several weeks, and a runny nose for about a week. Over the past few days, my eyes have gotten really sore, and I've developed a headache and a sore throat. I was originally thinking allergies, but maybe it was just a really long start to a cold? Time will tell, I suppose.

Anyway, back to school. Here is the breakdown:

History
I don't feel like I did super well with history this week. I have read a really long section out of my textbook about Byzantium, and I did a bunch of those little mini bio things I've talked about before. I was also supposed to do a map of the Kiev Rus in the early middle ages, but I did not do that. It shouldn't take very long though, so I'm hoping to do that after I finish writing here.

Earth Science
I finished the chapter on renewable and nonrenewable energy sources, and started the one of plate tectonics. I only got two sections done, though I was hoping to do three.

English and Rhetoric
In English, I finished the chapter on verbs. In Rhetoric, the chapter wasn't all that long in terms of the number of pages to read, or exercises to do, but the exercises were all quite long and involved a lot of research and writing, which is partly why I only finished about half of it.

Spanish
In Spanish this week, I have had to find more time to work on it with my mom, since it is really focusing on having simple conversations, and learning conversational language.

Math
I'm not thrilled with how I did in math this week. I was supposed to completely finish the chapter on quadratic equations yesterday, and then take the test today, but I only got through three of the lessons for this week.

So there you have it. I ended up with a small amount left over in each subject, but I think I need to realize that some weeks are just going to end up like this. Overall this year, I've done relatively well, especially considering I do have a pretty heavy workload. I should be able to absorb this work back into the schedule, so long as every week isn't like this. :)

Homeschool Friday: Sept. 9-13, 2013

This is the first week in my new HF series. I'm going to quickly go over each school subject, and talk about what I've done, and what I hope to do next week. Just so you know, most weeks will have much longer posts. I'm heading to a friends' house for a sleep over in a few hours, so I don't have a lot of time. I also didn't do too much in school this week, so this post is going to be more about goals. Also, which subjects I cover will change week to week, depending on if I did anything interesting. I'm not including English this week, for example, because all I did was two lesson on paragraphs in the book. Not interesting.


History
For history this week, I did a map of the Barbarian Kingdoms, and did some research on some of the tribes (the Burgundians, the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, ect.). I also started reading the introduction to Beowulf. My goal for next week: Finish Beowulf.

Earth Science
I didn't get as much done here as I would have liked. I am going over the different types of Earth Science (Geology, Astronomy, Meteorology, ect.), but I only did about half of what I would have liked. My goal for next week is to do four lessons (a lot, but doable).

Spanish
This was my very first week of Spanish, and I only did some basic stuff. I learned some phrases like "Hello" "Goodbye" "How are you?" "My name is..." and the numbers. Next week should be more of the same.

Other Subjects
I did one lesson out of my Rhetoric book, which was quite interesting (it was about the four idols of Francis Bacon). I actually hope to write a blog post about it soon. Latin has been a struggle to find time to do, but I hope to dedicate more time to it next week. I got a bit stuck on one math lesson this week, so I didn't do as much as I would have liked, but I think I just need to watch the lesson again, and give the problems another try. My goal is to do five lessons next week.


Well, there you go. Is this boring, or do you find it interesting? I would like to know. Also, I know I've been talking about lesson and things with out explaining what curriculum it is, which might be confusing if you're actually trying to follow it (are you?). My goal is that every week to talk about he curriculum for one subject, along with everything else.

I've got to go attempt to get some school done before heading off for a fun party at my friend's house (the goal is to watch all the LOTR movies in a little less then 24 hours, and hopefully have time to sleep and eat. Impossible? Time will tell.).

Camp NaNoWriMo Week One Update, plus Random Blog Stuff

I'm sorry this post is a day late, but life is CRAZY. For Camp NaNo, I am currently coming in at 5000 words, which is half of what my goal was to be at by this point. There are numerous reasons for this, the biggest one being that my life got a whole lot busier this week. Two stained glass classes and a print making class are all starting and they all mean several hours out of the house. That cuts in to my school time, and the end result is that I have less time to do things like write and play games and stuff like that. Another reason is that NaNoWriMo takes a LOT of self discipline, even with a smaller word count goal. I am realizing that while one month is a stretch, two might just not be possible.

Now, don't get me wrong here, I have by no means given up on Camp NaNoWriMo this month. I hope to get as close to my goal as possible, but I am realizing that that might not be something that happens, and that is okay. I am the kind of person who gets stressed out by things like this that are not getting done the way I want them to, so I am having to let go of this a bit, and make it less of a priority.


Moving on the "Random Blog Stuff," I have several updates about the blog. First of all, I have added my Shelfari book shelf to the right side bar. It has the books that I am currently reading on it, which will mean that it will probably have two or three most of the time. If you keep track of it, you will likely see a book show up on there, and then the review of the book will get posted a few weeks later, or maybe sooner.

Also, I have been pretty bad about making sure all the book titles in my posts link to their Amazon pages, so I hope to spend a few hours going through and updating my old posts soon. I also hope to get the pages along the top updated, and have my "Writing in Books" post up there, since I refer to it so often.

That's it for today. Just a basic update. :)

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2013: Week 0 Update

It is Tuesday, April 2nd, which means that it is time for my Camp NaNoWriMo update for the week. Really, I do not have a whole lot to say. My goal for the month is 30,000 words, and I am currently on track to meet that goal. I have not yet written anything today, and my word count is 1,042 words.

I did no planning at all before yesterday morning, and so far the story is going fine. I have a few ideas, and a few characters, and we will have to see what happens from there. Maybe it will go off in some crazy direction and end up being nearly plotless. That would be fine. I am not doing this to have a great story at the end. I am doing it to have some story and the end, and some more writing experience under my belt.

I am not sure what my posts will look like for the rest of the month, but I can promise that there will be a Camp NaNoWriMo update every Tuesday. I will try to keep up with Homeschool Fridays, but with writing and school, I can not promise that they will happen for the next few weeks. I will try to review books and movies as I watch or read them, but those reviews will probably be pretty short.

I do have some posts already written, mostly the Banned Books series that I am transferring from my other blog, so that is mostly what will be going up this month. 

So, expect one or two posts a week, and come back in May for a real blog again. :)