Fruits of procrastination, part II...

Ah, procrastination. Ain't nothing like it. Last year it was online paper dolls. This year it is writing your name in cappuccino foam! Or in a bowl of vegetable soup (see pictures). The website is called ImageChef, and allows you to write messages on all sorts of images. Or to write messages using images (like your name in flowers).

Guaranteed to make you laugh yourself silly, and take up oodles of precious time you should be dedicating to your novel. Don't say I didn't warn you.....

www.imagechef.com

Tortoise pace....

Oh my. I'm way behind on word count. So much so that I have started using 'fillers' to pad my word count. Last November, around this point, I encountered the same problem. My solution last year was to write an entire episode of House (the medical drama) into my story. It was fun and took my story into some bizarre territory.

But I can't use the same thing this year. I needed something new and different, and I've come up with something fantastic. I have a scientist with a compulsion to read all ingredient lists. It doesn't matter what the product is: cereal, canned spaghetti, motor oil, shampoo, toothpaste. He's got to read them all. And so he does. And boy, does it take lots and lots of words to go through all those ingredients. Whenever I need an extra 200 words or so, I just go to my cupboard and grab anything (the more processed the better). Who knew there were so many things in mayonnaise? And I'm learning a lot about processed food. Did you know that table salt contains sugar? I'm serious. And that many brands of vitamins use crushed clam shells (?!!) as a source of calcium carbonate? I don't even want to go into what I discovered about some of my favourite foods. So I'll stop while I'm ahead (for a change).

Onwards and upwards....

A word on coffee...

Okay, writing going along, um, not exactly smoothly, but it is going. The only thing really getting me through this month is coffee. Now, I'm usually an espresso girl, but I've come across another type of coffee that makes my soul sing. It is Turkish coffee. Homemade. In one of those strange little pots with a long handle. How can I have lived all these years on this earth and not known about this stuff? The secret is in the coffee (should have cardamom ground into it), and of course the technique. Oh, and the tablespoon or so of sugar that you add for each cup. It takes a good 15 minutes to make a cup of the stuff, and the anticipation is enough to make a grown writer weep. Well, at least it makes me weep. Excellent caffeine hit. Excellent procrastination tool. You just can't go wrong with the stuff!

Day 3 already?!

Time is flying too quickly. Didn't get nearly as much done as I'd planned, and I believe there's a crack or a tiny hole in my coffee cup because my espresso disappeared a little too quickly this morning. I know I didn't drink it that fast. Or at least I don't think I did...

First day......s-l-o-w

Well, got off to a rather slow start with nanowrimo today. Not a whole lot of actual writing getting done. But lots of organizing. Making of file folders. A few flow charts. A scene outline. I decided to go with an outline this year to keep me focused. Nothing too specific, but a general road map of where I'd like to get to.

Of course the procrastination fairy was biting at my heels, urging me to run out and buy 'necessaries' like multi-colored highlighters, a new ergonomic chair, maybe some fresh roasted chestnuts. But I said no way. Although the chestnuts sounded yummy.