What’s the difference between Art Month and NaNoWriMo?

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Nuchtchas

With NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) you have an average of something just over 1600 words a day, but if you plan ahead and write more in some days you can skip a day or two, like I skipped over a week when I was away in Florida.

With Art Month you have to create EVERY day so there is no working to get ahead or days off. So if your day gets away from you then your staying up late and drawing.

Though I have to say once I stop and force myself to create part if the world goes away and I get into this nice state if mind. That’s what this us all about.

the other difference is that this isn’t national or international yet, it’s just me :(

(if there are typos please excuse I wrote this on my iPod touch)

Zombie Love

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Nuchtchas

Valentines day was always a drag. If you were with someone there was the pressure to get it right, to make them happy and to just not fuck it up. If you were alone you spent the night alone at home wondering why you were such a loser. This year Neil had planned to be different. He met a girl on new years, she was sweet, cute, fun to be around, but what he thought was a drunken one night stand ended up having more of a last impression.

See that was the night Neil died.

His one night stand had brought him back to her place and they had a great time. He had never been with anyone as adventurous as she. When he woke up with nail marks across his back and bite marks on his neck he thought they were cool badges of sexual prowess. What he found out later, when he puked up his big mac and started craving raw meat that he had gotten more then an STD.

Yep, Neil was a Zombie now, he wanted to eat human flesh, he craved brains and still was only making minimum wage.

Having just a month and a half to his new life as an Undead American Neil was still trying to figure out the nuances of zombie life, and he never understood women to begin with. Still, he was trying and try he would.

He knocked on her door, smiled a yellow smile back at her when she opened the door and held up the skull of a person he killed earlier. The top of the scull was carefully cut out in the shape of a heart to expose the brain for easy eating access.

A soft blush of green crossed her gray cheeks and she swung the door open wider to let him in.

Thanks to @scarredsoul for prompting me to do this

NaNoWriMo is over! YAY!

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Nuchtchas

As I stated before, this year I participated in NaNoWriMo. Now I’m here to say that I’ve won, I won and I’m thrilled with myself.

NaNoWriMo was a great experience and I am so glad I did it. For years people have tried to talk me into it and this year I was so happy to tell them I was doing it. I dared, and was dared back by @anechoic_chambe and again I am so glad for that little push, it helped keep me in the game. Also, I am happy to report that both of us won, so I am really glad I pushed her too. I met some wonderful people through the process by communicating with other NaNos in my area. Here in the Valley we had write ins and stuff on the forums and games and while the write ins weren’t as productive as sitting down at home without distraction and writing, I did find that it kept me writing. Talking about our novels at the write ins gave me ideas for writing. I also met someone who lives relatively close to me and is a twitter addict like me and who happened to my my NaNo Nemisis. On twitter she is known as @AuroraLee and basically she and I were neck and neck most of the month, every time she passed me I worked harder to pass her, and she then in turn worked to pass me. My novel was about 53K words, her’s will be 150K so eventually she passed me. I think had I more words she might have gotten more words then she did, as it was she made her personal goal of 75K and ended Nano with over 80K words, so she rocked any how. The healthy competition was great. There was some more competition with writing an apple as a weapon into our stories that everyone in our area was challenged to do and the write all night event we had some crazy word wars, and that was great. My novel was finished by then so I wrote a 6K plus short story set in the ShadowRun world.

I had so much fun it looks like I will be joining the writing group that sprang out of last year’s Nano so I will continue to see all of those great people. Also, more reasons for me to bake (I made filled cupcakes for two of the events and they were awesome. Sorry, no pics)

I also want to find or create something similar to the writing group but an art group, art club really. A set time and place to meet people to paint or draw, I am really excited about that. It will take a lot of work and planning and most likely won’t happen until the new year, but that’s just fine.

Also, I want to do my 40 days of Daily Creativity again this year. Meaning, I will take on my task of creating something (painting or drawing) every day of lent. I would love to start something like NaNoWriMo but for art, though if I picked March (which it turns out is National Youth Month) it is right before April which is ScriptFrenzy and people might not want to do it right before then… if I picked April then the same issue… though honestly I am really drawn (no pun intended) to March. It’s a good time I think… hmmm so many ideas, so much I want to do.

Also, there is a secret project that people have been pushing and prodding me to do for the last two years or so, that I think I have firmly decided to do… more info on that later. Oh and this secret project might let you read that ShadowRun Story :P

Thank you everyone in my area, thank you everyone on twitter and facebook for the support and encouragement.

Most importantly though, thank you to my husband who has made some great sacrifices (mostly time with me) through out this whole month and has been very supportive. He is great and I really love how wonderful he was all month with me slacking on stuff so I can get my word count in or for being a bit of a shut in so I can write and losing me Monday nights for write ins and the other events. Love you.

My Stats for the month. Total words, Novel and Short story were over 60K

NaNoWriMo

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Nuchtchas

Haven’t seen much from me have you? Nope, why? I’ve been busy and I decided to do NaNoWriMo this year, my first year ever. What’s NaNoWriMo you say? NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November wannabe writers use the month to prove to themselves that they can indeed write a novel. The goal is to write 50k words in the thirty days. Now it most likely won’t be your best piece of work and you may need more then 50k to tell the story but it’s a good start. December (or whenever you finish) is when you can edit the novel and start on your second draft (Just because you wrote 50k doesn’t mean they are good or that anyone wants to read them) So far I have found the energy around NaNo very helpful and I’m doing something I have always wanted to do. I’m not a writer, I just do this as a hobby but now I’m proving to myself that if I wanted to write more, I could. I’m already pretty far ahead which is funny because this may be one of the busiest Novembers ever.

Some people doing this I see are also posting to their blog everyday, I can’t imagine that. My ML told me she is also participating in BlogMo, national blog writing month, ack, no thanks.

I have also made myself a NaNoWriMo cheerleader, I want to give a lot of support to everyone working on their novels. I think it’s a great thing to know you are right there with other people in the struggle and I know when I am cheered on it helps, plus I like being cheery.

See you next month.

Creative Non-Fiction Drabble: Clueless Concert Chicks

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Nuchtchas

Traffic was thick as usual as she directed her Saturn down Southern State Parkway. Leaving later from work often meant the traffic was less but as it was summer there were just more cars heading out east towards the beaches. It didn’t help that she lived in the same direction.

Her cell phone buzzed in her pocket, still on silent mode from work. Popping in the hand’s free into her hear with one hand and flicking the cell open with the other before shifting down to second yet again due to the idiots who slowed down to a snails pace anytime they saw a cop on the side of the road. Bonehead moves like that just added to the congestion. “Hello,” She said into the handsfree not having looked at the caller ID, she needed her eyes on the road, needed to spot the sudden break lights ahead.

“Hey,” Her roommate said over the line,” So we’re going to the Sting concert tonight.” Hearing the giggle of her roommate’s friend she knew who “we” referred to. Originally the tickets were for the friend and her mother, something must have happened. “So we’re on the train on our way and we realized something… we can’t think of a single song of his. What does he sing?”

A shudder passed through her body, it burned that two people who had no appreciation for good music were not only going to see a musician she grew up listening to and loving but they were clueless. Sting wasn’t just some musician, he was part of pop culture, how could anyone not know his music. “Well you know he’s originally from The Police.” She said rubbing her temples with one hand before shifting back up to third and then to fourth, thankful she was moving at least. Her windows were down and the breeze was welcomed.

“Oh yeah?” Her roommate asked and then there was a long pause. “Yeah we don’t know any Police songs either.”

Rather then beat her head against the steering wheel she took a few deep breaths and smiled before bellowing at the top of her lungs “ROXANNE!!!!!!!!!!!!”