Chaos Attraction

November Recap

2006-12-01, 9:58 a.m.

Well, it's another month, another Holidailies, another end of NaNoWriMo. The sad thing is I haven't updated this journal much in the last few months. I think I am in the habit of updating whenever Family Drama is occurring, and things have been surprisingly peaceful of late, all things considered. (Which, of course, makes me start looking around for the other shoe to drop.)

Thanksgiving weekend was pretty good, all things considered. Went to San Francisco with the nice relatives on Black Friday and it was surprisingly calm, all things considered. The streets were pretty packed, but there were many cops and they had it all in hand. We had to drive out of town to find somewhere to eat (2 1/2 hour wait!), but other than that, things were good. I just wish Mom would stop bitching about how people don't pay enough attention to her the second we drive away from that side of the family. Oh, come on, it sure as hell beats the relatives that evilly scrutinize everything you do.

And speaking of, the day after that we went to the Harvest Festival with Mauricio and my cousin-in-law Laurie. Happily, I think she's About Had Enough of my cousin, and I am ah, hoping that works out. It was good to hang out with her behind the PITAS (aforementioned evil relatives)'s backs, though they did call my mom at one point while we were at the show and it set everyone off in a panic. Turns out they were calling to ask if it was okay to tell Dad that Grandpa died. We were flabbergasted they'd think that was an appropriate topic of conversation in the first place (though I suppose it's a step up from just plain blabbing it without asking). Mom said, "HELL NO."

And on Sunday Mauricio and Mom and I went to a train show. That was something we did with Dad all the time, so it was rather weird to be back at one again, without him. I figured we'd be out of it in a few hours because there was really only one room of shopping and one of train setups, and I really didn't think Mom was going to go off and buy more trains when neither of us has done anything with our train setup since Dad got sick. But she did, and apparently had a good time shopping, too.

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This year's NaNo novel was pretty difficult in a lot of ways.

1. I normally write an outline of my entire plot. I didn't have one this year, because it was more along the lines of, "I have these two characters in mind and I want to explore their relationship, and I kind of have these scenes in mind...", but no actual PLOT. It meanders around like it's kinda drunk.

2. Unfortunately, I REALLY wanted to write about characters who have aspects of their lives that I know nothing about. They work in jobs I can't find out much about, in a big city that I haven't been to in quite awhile and can't remember much about how to describe it, and the jobs HAVE to be located in a big city that isn't San Francisco (i.e. the one Big City I've had any regular exposure to). Um, yeah. That's a pain.

So I'm surprised I finished AT ALL. If I hadn't done this as a NaNo project, it wouldn't have, I know that. I'm not sure if I will- or can- do anything with this one, given the problems in #2. God knows this one has a lot of filler to get me to word count, and the plot is weak. But still, I managed to accomplish SOMETHING, even if it's nigh-unusable.

I am thinking that since the only way I EVER get a big project done is during NaNo, and since my attention span seems to last for about six weeks at the max, I will do another NaNo in January (a.k.a. The Crappiest Time Of The Year), trying to rewrite the novel I have been doing all year and stalled out on.


I should be fairly busy this weekend. Local craft fairs are all on, there's a film festival and an improv show going on this weekend, and I'm taking a craft class at the CC that should help me make an interesting gift for someone. Heh heh heh.


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