During the month of November, I and more than 32,000 other people around the world each completed 50,000 words of fiction. This was just over 19% of the people who signed up. Collectively, according to the NaNoWriMo stats, the word count of everyone who participated and uploaded their writings to the NaNo web site is 2,427,190,537. That’s a lot of words.

It literally took me years to decide to take the NaNo challenge. Tom and I picked up the No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty a long time ago during one of our random book store wanderings. It’s a fun book, and it suggests all kinds of fun indulgences you can expect to treat yourself to during your novel writing month – like a handy stack of snacks next to your writing spot (for energy), getting your spouse to do the dishes, etc. It also promises strange and crazy things like, if you write enough, your characters will start to do unexpected things. I wanted to know how that worked.

Only a few days before November, I was thrutching through a list of possible ideas for a novel, with no particularly appealing prospects, when Tom suggested that I write about a society that doesn’t sleep. He’d started a short story along those lines some time ago, although he had little more than a character and a set up.

I took that idea and over the course of a month developed it into a dreadful, going nowhere story with flat characters who I ultimately didn’t like that much. It’s not that the idea didn’t have potential, (I still think it does) but hey, I haven’t written any fiction in years, if I ever have, and it sucked. That’s OK, and I learned a lot.

I learned that a 50K word novel isn’t really that long, and I shouldn’t have been afraid of running out of story before I hit my goal. I learned that it’s easy for me to make things difficult for my characters. I enjoy it. I learned that I have a nasty habit of qualifying my speech/writing – as in “I learned that I might have a tendency to qualify my speech/writing a little” – which is great for word count, but makes for crappy writing. And I also learned that they weren’t kidding. My characters really did start to do some unexpected things. It works like this: you have this idea for what you think your character is going to do in the next scene, but by the time you get around to writing it, you realize that he/she would actually respond in a completely different way. So, then off you go, shooting down some previously unplanned avenue. It was wonderful.

For the most part, I held off on the snacks, but I did reap the benefits of having my spouse take over many of the household chores… I mean the ones that he usually does anyway. I’m generally terrible at domestic chores. Have I mentioned before that I’m crazy lucky that I married Tom?

So, now that I’m done, I’ve decided to simply close the door on that particular story. No, you can’t read it. I still like the idea, and maybe certain elements will find their way into other NaNo projects in the future, but this particular effort falls into the burn-it-now category. I’m not committing to doing this again next year in any way, but I also wouldn’t say for certain that I would wait a whole year before starting up some other little story. As experiments and projects go, this one was sheer fun.

Part of me is really excited about the challenge, and another part is wondering what the hell the first part is thinking. First of all, it’s not like I don’t have plenty of other projects on the table, or more productive things that I could be doing with my time. Second, 50K is a really big number. Big enough that I can’t really picture it in my head. Third, I’m taking a week off in November to attend a conference, and I’ll be too busy absorbing conference stuff during that week to write much, so I’m already missing a quarter of the time that people have to write. I went to the NaNo forum, and unlike (it seems) many of the people posting there, I don’t feel compelled to write all the time (unless you count journaling, and I don’t). I don’t have a story bursting inside me that needs to be told. In fact, I don’t relate to ANY of the items on the “Are you a serious writer” thread. “Would rather write a scene with two main characters having sex than have it” – are you NUTS?

Wait, what is this about?

National Novel Writing Month is a challenge to devote the time to write 50K words that all point in the same direction. 50K words amounts to a short novel, but apparently, it’s a good goal to shoot for. According to the website, last year, in 2008, they had an all-time high completion rate of 18%, of a total of 119,301 participants from around the world, so it’s difficult, but not impossible. There’s a website where you can enter your word-count, and if you make it to 50K, you win. There aren’t any big prizes on the table, so even though it would be impossibly easy to cheat, there isn’t really any point to it. It’s all about personal satisfaction. And bragging rights, if you’re into that.

That said, I was surprised to find out that the National Best-Seller, Water for Elephants, started out as a NaNoWriMo novel, and the media kit has a decent list of published authors who participate. With nearly 120K participants last year, and growing, at least I have a lot of company in this craziness.

So, why am I doing this?

Well…

Tom and I picked up the No Plot? No Problem! book a few years ago, and there were two things about the event that caught in my head, and have been rubbing around in there since then. The first is: that it’s all about word count, not quality. No one ever has to see what I’ve written (don’t even bother asking to see it – the answer is no), so it’s a great opportunity to try to shake my somewhat overactive personal editor and just type. That sounded like an interesting exercise. You could even take it as personal development, if you wanted to.

The second thing is that these writers talk about having characters come to life and direct the story. That seemed like an interesting experience too. One that might be fun to have.

That’s it. I’m not sure that these two things make up for the vast array of reasons to do something else with my time in November, but I pushed the little button. I might as well enjoy the ride.

Flowers by a barn at Trapps Family Lodge

When I asked Tom what he remembered of foliage season in VT, he said that he mostly remembered October as being rainy and grey. Sure enough, it rained every single day that we were there. Fortunately, the clouds broke enough on a couple of days that I was able to get out and see what the wash of color looked like in the sun. It was amazing.

The Sierra gets color too. I’d say that we are near peak now – several weeks after the VT foliage passed its prime. The gullies fill with gold, and here and there a bright yellow big leaf maple, or a rosy dogwood, flashes in the sunshine. Le Conte gully, in particular, is full of these small bushes that turn a brilliant shade of yellow in the fall. Stavast has a painting called Golden Armada, and I’m convinced that these are Golden Armada bushes, whatever those are. One of my rescuers recently told me that when they airlifted me out of Le Conte Gully three years ago, the rotor from the helicopter picked up a tornado of golden leaves, rising up into the air around me. Would have been cool to see.

More foliage at Trapps

Stowe Church

As always, vacation is just a bit too short. The day our departure flight was scheduled was to be the first sunny day that week, and we missed out on getting to sail in a race with Denis aboard his J-24. It’s not that I don’t love Yosemite, and being in the Sierra, but vacation is always good.

Celebrating our Anniversary atop Mt Tyndall

Theresa with Mt. Tyndall in the background

The next morning, we left our overnight gear in place, and Tom wordlessly stuffed most of what we would need for the day into his pack, leaving me with a blessedly light pack. The steep grade to Shepherd’s Pass seems intimidating, but even at my relatively slow pace, we managed to get to Shepherd’s Pass about an hour after leaving camp. Tom would have been there much faster, but we cleverly arranged for him to carry the camera so that he could entertain himself by stopping to take pictures, and so match my pace.

Pika! My first true sighting.

We made it to the summit at around 11:30, and had it to ourselves. The views from the tippy top of mountains is exquisite. We lounged there for a while under clear blue skies, read and signed the summit register, had a bit to eat, took our summit photos, and a short nap. More food and napping was in order when we returned to the lake close to the Pass, and we still made it down in time to relax for a while (more napping) before dinner.

At first glance, the high mountains seem like a harsh and barren place, all rock and no life, so I was surprised at the number of wildflowers that we saw up above Shepherd’s Pass. As we descended from Mt. Tyndall, Tom stopped several times to take pictures of the Alpine Gold, and we remarked on several plants that seem to have been dug up for food. As we hiked down from our campsite on the third day, we chatted briefly with a guy who had been up at Shepherd’s Pass doing a mammal survey. They’d seen pikas, 2 kinds of squirrels and a many many marmots. Life is amazing.

]]> http://LifeInYosemite.com/anniversary-vacation-mt-tyndall-1582/feed 0 http://LifeInYosemite.com/goal-games-1531 http://LifeInYosemite.com/goal-games-1531#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:57:00 +0000 Theresa http://LifeInYosemite.com/?p=1531

Getting things started

The goals change from week to week (failing to set them Sunday night constitutes failing at a goal for the week), but generally fall into a couple of different categories. Fitness is a big one for me. Computer and web projects are a big one for Tom. But, we do a bit of mixing and matching, and there are always more goals and projects than there is time. This seems, so far at least, to be keeping me focused and realistic.

I took the day off on Friday for my birthday (Saturday), and Tom and I left Thursday night after work for a quick backpacking trip. We saw many things, had great adventures, and hiked out Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon we drove into the Bay Area for a friend’s memorial service on Sunday. We talked about goal-setting, and listened to the first bit of Unaccustomed Earth on the drive. That evening, our friends who graciously opened their house to us, treated me/us to a birthday dinner at Plearn, a local Thai restaurant. Really delicious non-European food and the good company of friends is such a treat.

The service on Sunday was beautiful, and touching. The stories celebrating such a remarkable man went on and on. I’m still processing – and just remembering.

Afterwards, we picked up a bed frame at Ikea that we had been eyeing for some time, and then drove to San Jose to meet up with Tom’s family, pick up the car we’d lent, and eat some pizza at a place nearby, Amicis, that serves gluten-free, and vegan options.

Monday morning, we had brunch with yet another friend before making the long drive back to Yosemite, pausing for a bear jam along the way.

I’m back on a frequent-post kick, so expect to hear more detailed stories unfold over the next few days. I’ve had a lot to think about.

Durum wheat

by Lisa Martin-Demoor

Memory at its finest lacks corroboration
—no photographs, no diaries—
nothing to pin the past on the present with, to make it stick.
Just because you’ve got this idea
of red fields stretching along the tertiary roads
of Saskatchewan, like blazing, contained fires —
just because somewhere in your memory
there’s a rust-coloured pulse
taking its place among canola yellow
and flax fields the huddled blue of morning azures—
just because you want to
doesn’t mean you can
build a home for that old, peculiar ghost.

Someone tells you you’ve imagined it,
that gash across the ripe belly of summer,
and for a year, maybe two, you believe them.
Maybe you did invent it, maybe as you leaned,
to escape the heat, out the Pontiac’s backseat window
you just remembered it that way
because you preferred the better version.

Someone tells you this.
But what can they know of faith?
To ask you to leave behind this insignificance.
This innocence that can’t be proved: what the child saw
of the fields as she passed by, expecting nothing.

You have to go there while there’s still time.
Back to the red flag of that field, blazing in the wind.
While you’re still young enough to remember
a flame planted along a road. While you’re still
seeing more than there is to see.

“Durum wheat” by Lisa Martin-Demoor, from One Crow Sorrow. © Brindle & Glass, 2008.

Bliss is a place with plenty of Kleenex and cold meds

Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner

Weiner summarizes the revelations on bliss in the Epilogue: “Money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important. So are friends. Envy is toxic. So is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude,” and “It’s not the elements that matter so much as how they’re arranged and in which proportions.”

I thought that this book was going to provide some Answers, but really for someone like me who is happy and therefore doesn’t think too much about it, the Geography/travelogue part was ultimately much more interesting than the Bliss part.

TwtrCon

I caught the cold, I think, on my trip last weekend to the Bay Area for TwtrCon – a conference just about Twitter. I’ve been feeling a little funky and headachy ever since, but not really bed-ridden until this weekend.

TwtrCon was wonderfully interesting though. I get a lot of people asking me to explain Twitter – people who have heard all the buzz, maybe signed up for an account, and ultimately just don’t/didn’t get it. I wonder about the statistics that we all hear about how Twitter is expanding as a platform, and then if those numbers are just artificially high because of all the abandoned or semi-abandoned accounts floating around out there.

Tom has written down a bunch of his thoughts about Twitter – how he uses it and ways that it can be used. I keep thinking that maybe I will too, someday. Not today.

I got a bunch of wonderful ideas about Twitter from TwtrCon, and learned about some of the many interesting tools that people are developing as a way to keep score – figure out whether you are using the platform in a way that helps and influences people. That’s important from a corporate perspective. From a personal perspective, for my own Twitter account, I’m not sure it matters much to me.

I also really liked TwtrCon just as a conference. It was relatively small – attendance was sold out at 200 attendees, and there was only one session going on at a time, which meant that instead of scurrying between rooms and topics, I could set up my computer, relax, and enjoy the presentations.

During lunch the organizers did something that I’ve never seen at a conference before. There was a white-board set up near the registration table where people could propose and offer to moderate a topic for a lunch table discussion. I sat down at the Analytics table. Eric Pratum from Spring Creek Group moderated – sparking some interesting conversation with a few well-placed questions, and I had the good fortune of sitting down next to Christopher Peri, of PeriVision, who is coming up with some interesting ways in measuring the quality rather than the quantity of Twitter followers. Great stuff. After the sessions ended, I also had an interesting conversation with Shanan from TiVo – she said that her biggest take-away from the conference was that we are all still experimenting and that no one has THE answer for how to use Twitter just yet.

It’s a versatile tool – and like happiness, I suspect that the summary is that it’s “not the elements that matter so much as how they are arranged and in which proportions.”

Family Time

I nice consequence of my time in the Bay Area was getting to spend time with my bro and his girlfriend in San Jose. They generously allowed me to crash out on their floor as a cost-saving measure. AH and I are different in a lot of ways, but I always find that he has interesting things going on in his life. Rockin’ out to Rock Band was fun too – an addition started at my other brother’s house over the holidays. AH figured out how to set it up so that you can’t fail out, and I had a wonderful time missing notes and eliciting boos from the fictional digital audience. I guess it’s a little like my current approach to the piano. I’m most interested in stuff that is much too hard for me.

Audio Books – Mrs. Kimble

Mrs Kimble by Jennifer Haigh

Mrs. Kimble is about three different women who are all married at one point or another to the same Mr. Kimble. There’s Bertie, the first wife, the alcoholic mother of Charlie and Jody. Joan, the former reporter who is fighting breast cancer, and finally Dinah, the tennis player who blossoms from a self-conscious girl with a birthmark on her face, into a strong, beautiful woman.

Ken Kimble reminds me a bit of the protagonist in Sommerset Maughm’s book, The Moon and Sixpence, Charles Strickland, except without out the genius for artwork. The two characters share that peculiar lack of interest in people and the consequences of their actions on others. It’s amazing that Haigh was able to create this character, Ken, to be so repulsive, and yet understandably attractive at the same time.

The women in the book are interesting too. They are so different from each other – and so different in their responses to his self-centeredness. While the book didn’t blow me over in amazement, it will probably generate some good conversation at Book Club.

Envelopes and other things I’ve saved

This post is starting to remind me of something that a good college friend once told me. He admonished me for saving up all my news and sending him one long letter instead of several shorter ones. He told me, that it’s really all about the envelopes. The thrill of receiving mail comes by the envelope, by opening the mail box and finding something personal in there. The number of pages in that envelope was secondary, and he encouraged me to write less, but more often.

It seems to be a character flaw that I haven’t corrected even after all these years.

Other things I’ve wanted to write down, and just haven’t gotten around to include:

Taking pictures for Community Safety Day and the interesting conversations that I had. The new backpacking gear that Tom and I have accumulated and our plans for taking it out for a test spin. Buying a guest book and the process of turning our house into a vacation rental property. Twitter. Somewhat sheepishly following Neil Gaiman and other celebrities on Twitter. Being free, my renewed interest in Michel Foucault, and Tom’s story of meeting the great philosopher in person. Google Voice, Google Wave, and switching the default search engine on my search bar to Bing. Climbing conversations and visits from friends… and more.

I should probably start trying to set aside time to write these down on a daily basis again. I enjoyed the process, and I miss it, and I seem to be accumulating ideas. That doesn’t even count the various little interesting things I find on a daily basis on the internet. It’s not even like I’m saving stamps or envelopes.

In addition to the big things (Easter, Earth Day etc.) There were a bunch of interesting things going on to distinguish the month (as if the beginning of wildflower season wasn’t distinction enough around here). I don’t know if they are interesting enough to actually get me to participate – which is probably why it took me so long to mention them – but definitely interesting enough to get my head going around a bit. Helping out with the Yosemite Sentinel brings a lot of these random events to the surface, and is one of the most rewarding things about working on it.

April is Poetry Month!

I usually think of poetry readings as one of those ‘city things’ that I used to do when I live in Berkeley, but the public libraries in Wawona and Mariposa are doing special poetry events this month in celebration including compiling a local 2009 anthology of poems. Personally, I’ve been treating myself by reading the poem of the day published on The Writer’s Almanac.

Everyone! Please submit your original poetry, art, photography, songs, and
stories for display at the Mariposa County Library during the month of
April. All entries will be included in our 2009 anthology. All participants
will receive a copy of our book! Entries should be suitable for all ages.

WAWONA BASSETT MEMORIAL LIBRARY: As T. S. Eliot stated, Is April indeed the
“cruelest month”? Find out for sure Weds. 4/15 from 6 – 7p.m. at your
library. T.S. Eliot and the month of April will be our subject. Then,
Sat. 4/25 from 1-2 p.m. we will dig Kenneth Patchen and the SF Beats. All
are welcome to join our verbal feast, or poetry potluck, and bring some
verse to share.

MAIRPOSA: Cowboy Poetry: Come celebrate the 8th Annual Cowboy Poetry Week
at the Mariposa Library on Thursday, April 23 from 3:30–4:30 p.m. Cowboy
Poet Wendy Brown-Barry will be performing and giving suggestions on how to
write your own Cowboy Poetry.

April is Script Frenzy Month

Script Frenzy is a writing challenge, similar to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), to complete 100 pages of a script, be it screenplays, regular stage plays, or graphic novels, in a month. Specifically, the month of April.

I haven’t even read that many screenplays, so it’s hard for me to imagine just exactly how this would go, but after discovering the rewards of the 40 day blog challenge that I set for myself over Lent this year, it’s easy for me to imagine how rewarding participating in this type of challenge could be. Mostly, though, it got me to think some more about NaNoWriMo – a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Tom and I randomly came across Chris Baty’s book, No Plot? No Problem! while wandering happily through the book store a few years ago, and it has been kicking quietly in the back of my mind ever since.

I doubt there is any question that writing obsessively for a month would change my perspective on, and relationship to writing, but there are so many other things that I could happily obsess over for a month, that I’m finding it hard to commit.

Other Goings Ons

Wranger’s Reunion
In addition to being the Earth Day Celebration in Yosemite (a subject that deserves its own space), this last weekend was the annual Yosemite Wrangler’s Reunion. Wranglers (guides and packers) from NPS, DNC or Curry Company gathered together to hang out and swap stories in Mariposa last Sunday, as they have been (and this is the amazing part) since 1951.

El Portal Spring Fling
Not sure if I want to make a whole day of it, but I bet this one is fun… maybe combine it with another visit to Hite Cove to look for Fairy Lanterns.

April 25th 2009 8am-Midnight. Events throughout the day include Lion’s Club pancake breakfast 7-10am, Spring Run-Off 8am, registration at 7am, town photo 9:30am, flea market/arts and crafts all day an amazing variety of food vendors serving lunch, dinner and late night snacks, and YEA and their famous beverage service. Music Starts at 4pm ($15-20 Sliding Scale after 5pm). Performers include Dogon Lights (with members of Hamsa Lila featuring Yacuba Diarra from Burkina Faso and Tmomo from Giunea), Something Different (Live Rock/Electronica), Hometown Zeroes (Hometown Heroes), Rob I (Breaks and Dubstep), The Akoustic 2 (Country/Comedy), and the Local Music Showcase. Please NO OUTSIDE BEVERAGES. Volunteers are needed. Free admission available to volunteers.

Annual Day Care Benefit Center
May 9th is yet another El Portal party, from 5:30 until late, this time benefiting the local Day Care Center. This is, I’m told, the Day Care Center’s main fund-raising event for the year. Raffle prizes include an iPod, dinner for two at The Ahwahnee and a painting by local artist, Penny Otwell.

Up From Out of In Under

I lately lost a preposition:
It hid, I thought, beneath my chair.
And angrily I cried: “Perdition!
Up from out of in under there!”

Correctness is my vade mecum,
And straggling phrases I abhor;
And yet I wondered: “What should he come
Up from out of in under for?”

-Morris Bishop (who would have turned 116 years old today)
poem published in 1947 in The New Yorker