NaNo planning

Only two more days before NaNo really kicks off. I've been doing some research in the last few days, which I should be wrapping up now that writing time draws near. By now, I know where the family has moved to, what the secondary characters are like and why Christopher collects frogs, for example. How? Like this:

• Writing down unanswered questions about my characters and story. Somehow, reviewing my notes or just thinking of these little unsolved problems usually makes an answer or solution pop up in my head.


• Sketching. Oh, how I wished I could actually sketch or draw decently... but I can't. I settled for a rough map of the family home.


• Talking to others. Some people have good input just by thinking out loud. Even if these elements don't end up literally in the story, they often put me on track for other ideas.


• Finding pictures of random people or items that remind me of my characters. Flickr or Google Images are great for this.


• Finding theme songs for the story or for specific characters. Could be either songs they would listen to, or songs that remind me of them.


• Wiki research on important story themes. For example, I have looked up information on autism, frogs, and schools the kids could go to. Sometimes this leads to dead-end tracks, but after a long while of ploughing through information, I found a few awesome links between subjects that are really helping me answer story questions. I bookmark good finds and take notes of resulting ideas.


• Keeping a notebook and pen beside my pillow at night. Good ideas seem to pop up around or after midnight, before I fall asleep. It would be a shame not to write them down immediately. This way, my novel is also the first thing I think about in the morning when I see the notebook from 10cms distance.

There's still some things I should sort out before I start the actual writing. One of them is immerge myself into schools. What classes does Storm take and for how many hours a week? What is Kody majoring in? I also need to think up some individual scenes and find a good starting point. I'm not over-planning though, to leave enough room for the actual fun of writing and seeing where the story goes.

7. Eat a piece of fruit each day

If I don't conciously think about it every once in a while, I just forget about fruits. I drink a lot of juice, but since that's not quite the same and I'm trying to stay healthy, one serving of fruit each day seemed like a good goal. Apples and bananas are absolute favorites, whereas kiwi's don't get into this household - they make me choke. Did you know fruit allergies existed? Well, they do. My father has them and I had them as a child. Eating any fresh fruits would just really make our throats and mouths itch and, in bad cases, result in breathing problems and asthma-like situations. But with the years, both of us seem to gradually grow over it. Kiwi's and plums are still a no-go for me, but the amount of apples I had over the years seems to have made me resistant somehow. They're not bugging me anymore. Bananas are usually pretty good, though I still prefer to have some water after I had one. Today I picked up a nice box of strawberries. Cleaned them, chopped them, sprinkled some sugar on them and ready to go. Yummy! I might actually be able to keep this habit up.

83. Take part in NaNoWriMo and finish it

Presenting my biggest and most exciting project of the moment: I'm going to write a book in a month. What? Yes. That's the idea of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It's an annual event where tens of thousands of people across the whole world (it stopped to be national a long while ago, I guess) write like crazy during the month of November. The purpose is to write 50,000 words. It doesn't matter if that's an utterly crappy story, the manual of a microwave oven, or 50,000 times the word 'hello'. Nobody will read your scribbles unless you show them to someone. That means it's unsure whether you'll actually be writing a 'good book', but hey, how many people are planning on writing one and never getting around to do it? That's where NaNoWriMo comes in.

NaNo is about letting your creativity flow freely. It's about creating a first draft and not stopping after every ten words to edit and correct them. That's what December is good for. You are allowed to think of a plot, setting and characters ahead of time, take notes, create, invent and do exercises as much as you want (October is great for this). Just don't start the actual writing until Midnight, November 1st. On the website, http://www.nanowrimo.org/, there is a huge forum full of tips and tricks, games, jokes, literary analysis and exciting ideas. It's also encouraged to buddy up with some fellow writers and share your experiences. People who have participated in the NaNo madness before are offering their help to newer writers who don't know where to start.

With little over a week to go before the real writing can kick off, I'm excited to start. Somehow I have this blind confidence in thinking this shouldn't be as hard as some people make it seem. With 2,500 words per day (and that's only a few pages), I should hit 50k by November 20th, leaving enough time to say my goodbyes here, prepare, pack my bags and undertake my journey home.

I guess by now you'll be wondering what I plan on writing about. Well, I've thought up a few characters that I'm still developing, a rough story outline and a few funny details. I'll be writing in the Young Adult genre and the title is Storm's Embrace. Here's a tentative plot synopsis:

17-year-old Storm Lancey is an introverted girl who has just moved to a new town and has a hard time finding her place there. She struggles with self-acceptance while living with her frog-collecting, autistic, 15-year-old brother Christopher and colorful, ever-dating mother. When she signs up for a theatre club and rehearses for Romeo & Juliet, fellow actor Kody becomes her best friend and she starts to secretly admire and develop a crush on her rival actress, Tess. Will Storm find her way to deal with things, or will they only take a turn for the worst?

For those of you who think Alamala inspired me to put in Romeo & Juliet: I was actually already planning on doing that. But that play seems to be everywhere these days. I don't believe in coincidences anymore so I'm only getting more inspired by it showing up everywhere.

And then there's banners. There's this thread on the NaNo forums about people who know their way with Photoshop where anyone can leave their request for a signature banner, with hints about what it should look like and what text you would want in it. Low and behold, somebody actually took my request and made mine! This is how my novel is visualized:

This posts consists of 615 words. Those 50k are going to be a breeze, I tell ya.

Inspirational

Yeah, I'm enjoying having this list up. It's a good feeling to have made up your mind about what's important to you, and actually shoot for those things. It's also fun to ask friends about which point on the list they find the most surprising, and even more to see them inspired to jot down goals of their own. I ran across a great quote today that sums it up perfectly:

Goals are dreams with deadlines. (Diana Scharf Hunt)

Or, as one of my friends puts it, it's about 'dreaming out loud'. You'll discover your dreams can actually come true when you turn them into goals.

26. Go see a theatre show/play

Yesterday I went to see a piece of street theatre. It's from a company named Alamala, which is the pride and joy of a friend of mine, Pato. They did a, well, quite unusual version of Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet". Alamala consists of three guys who together impersonated all characters in the play. Needless to say the guy with the wig playing Juliet was hilarious. As was Pato with his cheesy blonde wig as Romeo. The funniest parts were probably the ones where the guys themselves couldn't stop laughing over the improvised lines their co-actors put in. The fact that Mercutio used Chilean swear words and Romeo was sent an e-mail concerning Juliet's death somehow weren't the strangest details in all of it.

Street theatre is low budget so there were few props, which means it all came down to the strange moves and funny faces the actors pulled off. And believe me, Pato has some funny faces. It gathered quite a crowd, after all it was a Friday night in early spring and some of the curious tourists stayed around to watch the play. I went with a friend and his sister. Afterwards, we went for a sandwich in an American-looking place. We left when live funk music started with this lady singing about how she was an angel that had fallen from the skies because her wings were too heavy. A nice little night out, all in all - and one to scratch off the list.

Tomorrow Starts Today

So here it is, the Master List [tm]. I fell in love with this concept of listing 101 things you want to do in 1001 days, and it's actually proving very helpful in finding the things that are important to me. 1001 days is about 2,75 years. That means that I'll be 30 by the time this mission is over. In a way, it's like a list of things you want to do before turning 30, too. Or things to do before you die. Because by now I know life is too short to just let it fly by, postponing dreams and wishes for tomorrow - there may not be a tomorrow. I'm not exactly a fan of "live every day as if it were your last" or "you should try anything in life", because they imply some sort of irresponsibility. But this list gives a longer time span and thus forces you to look into the future. A realistic future.

All 101 ideas on this list are actually things I plan on doing in the next few years. From something small like baking a pie or going to a concert, to big plans like buying a house or get my driver's licence: there is nothing on this list that I couldn't or wouldn't actually want to accomplish within the given time span. I plan to keep up with my progress on this blog, so feel free to check in every once in a while to see how it's going. And if you feel inspired, why not make your own?

Oh, when I started to make the list, these were the first three things that came to mind:

1. Dye my hair in a colour I haven't tried before
2. Buy a house
3. Have a son

Priorities? Where? XD

See you soon!

The List

The List of 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days

Start: Thursday, October 18th, 2007
End: Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Bold: in progress
Strikethrough: finished

Most items that are in progress or finished will be linked to a post with more information.

Body, Health & Style
1. Dye my hair in a colour I haven't tried before
2. Cook a 'good' meal once a month (fresh, healthy, three-course meal) (1/33)
3. Go jogging once a week (2/143)
4. Get neck problems checked
5. Experiment with clothes styling, hair and make-up
6. Keep weight below 60kgs (yes I'm short, and eventual pregnancy is excluded)
7. Eat a piece of fruit each day
8. For 24 hours only drink water and fresh juices, don't eat anything (being ill doesn't count)

Charity
9. Do a big cleanout and give away anything I don't need anymore
10. Volunteer with children/elderly people/in a hospital/...
11. Give away something very personal/emotionally valuable to someone who needs it more
12. Get myself sponsored for a task or bet and donate rewards to charity
13. Clean the bulk of my stuffed animals and toys and donate them to a hospital
14. Do 5 random acts of kindness for total strangers (0/5)

Creativity & Arts
15. Make a painting and put it up on the bedroom wall
16. Write and compose three songs (0/3)
17. Take as many pictures possible, store them, back them up and make nice stuff out of them (albums, collages, posters, gifts,...)
18. Learn how to tune a guitar and start playing again
19. Take a course to develop a creative side of mine
20. Produce a truthful self-portrait (can be creative in its form)

Culture & Education
21. Learn to dance salsa
22. Recover my French knowledge
23. Learn Finnish
24. Learn more about autism
25. Visit the Anne Frank-house
26. Go see a theatre show/play
27. Watch 10 movies that I haven't seen before (3/10)
28. See 'Forrest Gump' again

Dares
29. Get a piercing (or a small tattoo)
30. Ask for condoms at a pharmacy
31. Say goodbye to my lucky coin
32. Sing a song on a big stage with band support
33. Feature on a tv-show
34. Get my legs waxed
35. Learn how to politely say 'no' and turn people down when it gets a little too much
36. Learn how to fix a flat bike tyre
37. Go skiing or snowboarding (on real snow, not SnowWorld)
38. Buy a sex toy
39. Start liking olives
40. Taste a herring (the Dutch way – raw, with onions, held by its tail)
41. Make friends with an emo guy (virtual doesn't count)

Family, Friends & Loved Ones
42. Organize something spectacular for my parents
43. Invite a group of friends to my home for a fun day with a specific theme
44. Send a letter with pictures and/or presents to my Foster child
45. Respond to Grandpa's letters within two weeks
46. Visit my old college and teachers
47. Visit Chris in England again
48. Have professional pictures taken of the whole family
49. Make a copy of the dvd depicting my childhood and give it back to my parents

Fun Times
50. Visit 3 countries I haven't been to before (0/3)
51. Go camping
52. Go to DisneyWorld
53. Go to Barcelona again
54. Go to 3 concerts of bands I haven't seen before (1/3)
55. Go out dancing/clubbing/… once a month (0/33)
56. Go swimming in the sea once a year (0/3)
57. Go horseback riding again
58. Celebrate New Year's with friends
59. Go to the sauna once a year (0/3)
60. Climb a (new) hill and enjoy the view
61. Have a romantic picnic in the park with someone I'm in love with
62. Go to the Vondelpark again
63. Have a big multi-course meal at the Hard Rock Café
64. Bake a pie for a birthday (mine or somebody else's)
65. Get really drunk (tipsy doesn't count)
66. Go to a Matchbox Twenty concert
67. Do a chocolate making workshop
68. Laugh so hard and so long you think you'll never get out of it again
69. Stay in bed out of self-pity a whole day with a book, a pot of tea and a plate of cookies
70. Do something fun with my teen cousins
71. Celebrate my 30th birthday in a special way

Major Adult Projects
72. Buy a house
73. Have a son
74. Think about what my funeral should look like and put that in a will
75. Pay off my student loans
76. Get my driver's licence

Reading & Writing
77. Write a book and have it published
78. Become a paid columnist for a magazine or website
79. Read a book a month (10/33)
80. Reply to all e-mails within two weeks
81. Arm a professional freelance website
82. Live off writing/editing in a job where I feel at home
83. Take part in NaNoWriMo and finish it
84. Document my time and experiences in Chile
85. Read Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' again

Spirituality, Religion & Peace of Mind
86. Get baptized
87. Spend one week a year without any computer or internet access (0/3)
88. Find a church where I feel at home and go there weekly
89. Develop my spiritual side/sixth sense
90. Take a long walk in the forest by myself
91. Go to the EO Youth Day (annual massive evangelical youth/music event)
92. Take every opportunity that arises to talk about God and my faith without feeling ashamed
93. Be at home in silence a whole day – no radio, tv, music, phone or company
94. Get up ridiculously early to see the sunrise

Want To Buy & Trade
95. Buy a good mattress
96. Wear a new ring
97. Buy a dress and actually wear it
98. Buy a bouquet of flowers in season's colours at the start of each season (0/11)
99. Buy a pair of nice, good looking, perfect-for-walking boots
100. Trade a personal item (shirt, book, cd,...) for someone else's
101. Buy a nice lapis lazuli cross and wear it on a necklace