I think it's official.

I am NOT in the mood to do my NaNoWriMo novel.

In fact, I am in what Chris Baty (originator of the concept) sent out in the mass e-mail as the "Week of Fatigue." I know it's bad to quote e-mail, but given that 5,000 people received this, I'm not so worried that I'm revealing public secrets or anything, and what he said perfectly goes along with what I'm feeling today:

"The Week of Fatigue is the low point of National Novel Writing Month. It's the dastardly seven-day period when the kick-off adrenaline wanes, workloads increase, and downtime becomes a sweet and distant memory.

And on top of that, you've hit a fork in your novel. You've wrapped up the exposition and introduced all the characters. And now something book-like has to happen. Someone needs to fall in love. Or get amnesia. Or go on a road trip. But who? And how?"

I have to say that I'm amazed it took a whopping nine days for this to happen to me, since my usual fadeout of boredom happens on say, Day Two usually. In fact, my knowing how I flake out on personal writing that I can't finish up in two days (I always figured if I ever did write a book, it'd be of old newspaper columns or something similar) is why I waited until the dead last day to sign up for this-- because I figured I'd bomb out. I kept telling myself throughout October that I'd bomb out and I really shouldn't sign up for this. But well, obviously I didn't listen to myself.

It makes it easier in some ways to know that I've got over 21,000 words and am ahead of schedule, so I know I can slack. This is the kind of thing the similarly-speedy Josh and I have been saying on chat for awhile: that unlike most other folks, we're trying to be fast because we know we'll slow down later. We've been having a vague competition about it, with me winning all the time so far (what can I say, newspaper training, plus no school or SO to distract me)! A slight motivating factor is to er, keep ahead of him because that's fun ;) He's been catching up to me, though. But then he said today he deleted 2,000 words, so I feel a little pressure off me... okay, not really. I fear that I may take it TOO easy and end up behind. The fact that today's a do-nothing Sunday that allows me all day to do nothing without the pressure that I'm running out of time to work before a TV show comes on doesn't help much either.

And today just looks so yucky outside. It's not actually raining, but it's that yucky white/gray blurry cloud thing that normally gives me a headache to look at and it's windy and reminds me that yeah, winter's coming, and it's going to suck.

At any rate, it's much more fun say, writing e-mail and writing this and reading people's old journal entries then like, actual thinking...

It's 2 p.m. I should stop doing this and at least write a few token paragraphs, right? I finished Chapter 5, I could send that out to people. Or just do something, ANYTHING.

At least the Girl Scouts have departed, as far as I can tell from the empty living room.

Incidentally, I feel like a maroon- finally noticing that I dated the first entry in here with 11/11, when it was really on 11/9. I got used to typing 11/11 on all the pages I was laying out on Friday. Ooops.

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The night update:

Still not in the mood to write the novel and have been dragging ass on it all day, though I do have some more added on, at least a beginning of Chapter 6. Unfortunately, I realized today that I have to set it in a karaoke bar. Logically, ain't no other way to get her singing in a public venue for the first time so she'll run into The Ex and his friends. But on the other hand... I have to write about a karaoke bar. Waaaaaah! I don't wanna!

Josh, incidentally, is nearly at my word count despite cutting 2000 words. Pooh!

I was wrong about the Girl Scouts leaving- they, as well as umpteen other friends of the roommate's, have been coming in and out all day. I hate to bitch about that, and I normally don't, but four days of near strangers in the place and trying to avoid them gets tiring. Normally it's like, two.

I actually got off the phone with Mom tonight in a mere 45 minutes- her normal minimum is an hour- but that was because 45 minutes into the conversation a Harry Potter movie special came on.

The conversation was its usual thrill, in which I found out:

(a) My aunt (Mom's sister) and the rest of the family desperately want to get rid of their foreign exchange student, who's bulimic (her mother is in denial, plus is claiming the girl "loves" it at their house), not talking to any of them, has a weird online "friendship" with an 35-year-old ex-teacher of hers, admittedly cheats in school, etc. I've met the girl, and she seems nice, so it's sad that the whole thing has pretty much gone to hell. But knowing my aunt, who's not exactly Ms. Warm and Empathic by any means, and is also claiming they don't have as much money this year (hard to tell- they're the last of the yuppies), she would not want to try to deal with this at all, and thus she's trying to boot her by Thanksgiving. Sigh.

(b) My mom volunteered at some charity event, and it turned out her evil bitch ex-employer was running it this year. Evil bitch refused to pay for meals for the volunteers this year, and Mom was all in a lather that she didn't get fed and that evil bitch treated her like crap, blah blah blah. I'm like, you were surprised to hear this? Mom only worked for evil bitch and her husband for a month because they treated her like crap and did stuff like made her come in to work on Thanksgiving- when there was NO work to do- and dust the keyboards.

(c) I found out that Mom had apparently signed me up for some odd phone deal where I now get the long-distance billed for me separately, just because Mom didn't want me to pay an extra $1.50 to have it put on one bill. What. The. Hell? And getting two phone bills now, the joy. And they're both high from calling Mom. Joy.

It's always fun to call home. Not.

Anyway, she let me off the phone to go watch the Katie Couric Harry Potter special. Which starts out vomitously, with Katie claiming she's been "assigned" to go ask random Brits where Platform 9 3/4 is. They all say no and look at her like she's an idiot until predictably, she finds some kids. Basically, she pretends that HP is real and that "Professor McGonasomething" sent her a one-day muggle pass to Hogwarts. It's just too cutesy for words. Come on, hermits probably know about Harry Potter by now, and this is for the fans, who ALREADY KNOW THIS STUFF.

First off is an interview with Chris Columbus, which is actually pretty good and entertaining, but one has to wonder about her asking him if the movie'll be like Home Alone with Harry screaming and he says no, and then they cut to a clip of the three kids screaming.

The next part was some poor sick kid who won an essay contest or something; I refused to watch that one. Filler much?

Finally they get to the meet-the-kids. We find out that Rupert (Ron) (a) made a goofy videotape in which he rapped for the part, (b) has five siblings, and (c) Ron's his favorite character. Emma (Hermione), however, thinks H is "bossy and I hate her." Katie makes Rupert eat a booger-flavored bean, which he says is horrible, then offers him a vomit one to wash it down with. What a sick, sick woman!

Next is a two-minute sequence featuring "the real Harry Potter", a cheerful middle-aged black principal who raises eyebrows whenever he orders pizza. "Harry Potter. Like the book." (pause) "Yes, it really is."

Really, can we stretch this long enough?

Finally, we get to the Harry interview, which goes well, he's a cute kid, they talk about casting him, Harry shows off his toys and tells Katie she might be cursed if she wears his hat (score one for him), Emma tells about sticking kick me signs to Dan's back and him not noticing, Katie raises the specter of Macauley in front of Chris (you know, I wouldn't blame that one on movies so much as his nutty parents), who says he wants to make sure Michael Jackson doesn't invite Dan over for a weekend. EW!

The show ends with Katie harassing people on the street again, with all of them ignoring her ass. "Sir, can I interrupt your cell phone call?" Sheesh. Nice to know there's one country where everyone's not trying to get on camera, I guess.

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