I admire those who are heading into the long-awaited event of National Novel Writing Month with a plan. I know several who have been outlining and scheduling and awaiting November first since August. However I, being the great procrastinator that I am, am not one of those people. In fact, as the first of November has approached, I've found my self-confidence dwindling.
Sure, I'm excited to put my writing skills to the test, but as I am all-too-familiar with the evils of writers' block, I know how difficult it will be.
So for the next month, I'll be dedicating this blog to my NaNo experience. Late nights spent pounding out rough paragraphs and piling papers and homework and maybe the occasional meal on top of my needed ~1600 words a day will all be chronicled (sporadically) here. And if anyone wants to offer some uplifting remarks or advice or just a pat on the back, that's perfectly welcome.
1. I still sleep with a teddy bear. 2. I'm proud to call myself a Whovian (translation: Doctor Who fan), but I have yet to see any of the classic series. I want to. If anyone has the DVD's, we should be friends. 3. On that note, I have a tendency to rant and rave about things related to Doctor Who. You were forewarned. 4. I own a fez. 5. I have a massive - and I mean massive - crush on David Tennant.
Seriously.
6. I doodle in class. Often. In fact, I'm pretty sure my music theory notebook has more doodles than notes. (Maybe I should call it a doodlebook?)
7. I cried at the end of Toy Story 3. A lot.
This is my childhood! *blubbers*
8. I first got into writing through fanfiction. My earliest work has long since been burned. The crime? Being suckish. (Also alleged witchcraft.)
9. I fear pool drains. Don't ask me why, because I can't tell you.
Haunts my nightmares...
Quick pallet cleanser!
Ahh...that's better. ^_^
9. My video game of choice is Pokemon. Any generation will do.
10. I still watch House, if only out of sheer habit.
11. I do listen to Lady Gaga. Even if her sense of fashion eludes me.
12. I've read 4/4 Twilight books. Seen 0/4 (5???) movies.
13. Despite my mega-crush on Mr. David Ten-inch Tennant, Matt Smith is my favorite Doctor so far.
14. I someday plan on getting a tattoo.
...or not...
15. I also cried at the end of Marley and Me. The first...and second...and third time I saw it. Dammit, my heart is not made of stone! *sobs*
29. I like watching other people do stupid things.
30. My nerd halloween costume this year? Lord Death from Soul Eater.
It was either this or a T-shirt that said "Error 404: Costume not found."
31. I LOVE nerdy pick-up lines. I wish I were DNA Helicase so I could unzip your genes...
32. I don't wear make-up. Not because I'm trying to make a statement or embrace nature or anything like that. I'm just too lazy to have another thing to do in the morning.
33. I've personified my Muse. She lives under my bed and tends to wake me up at all sorts of ungodly hours of the morning to badger me with ideas I could have used days earlier.
"You can sleep when you're dead!"
34. I make "That's-what-she-said" jokes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too often.
35. I have a "Sad Music" playlist on my i-Pod for those times when I just need to sulk for a bit.
36. I also have a Disney playlist.
And that's the gospel truuuuuth!
37. I sometimes wonder how many hours I've wasted on stumbleupon when I could have been doing something productive with my life.
Stumbleupon: destroying your work ethic since 2001.
38. I have honestly considered naming my firstborn child STORMAGGEDON, DARK LORD OF ALL.
Demons run when Stormaggedon smiles.
39. I have a penchant for taping random stuff to my wall. By the end of the year my "wall of random crap" could easily take over most of my dorm room. (Items so far include: a concert ticket, a monopoly dollar, a Tardis, Pac-Man and breast cancer awareness ribbon.)
Dorm life has been good to me. My roommate isn't insane, my desk is still visible beneath my clutter, and the mini-fridge is stocked with bottled water and Halloween chocolate. Sure, maybe I haven't made my bed in three weeks, and maybe I have to exercise caution whenever I open my closet to avoid an avalanche, but that's nothing new to me.
One that that is new to me is being forced out of bed, out of the dorm and into the cold, unforgiving night air at one in the morning by a shrieking fire alarm. Call me strange, but that's not exactly what I wanted to be doing on a Saturday night.
I was hoping we could have gotten the fire alarm shenanigans out of our systems at seven yesterday morning. The first time this happened.
Saturday morning, we stood shivering outside our dorm, wondering if our bleary-eyed, half-asleep (and in some cases, obviously hungover) suffering was the result of a prank, a malfunction or a wildfire raging through our cluttered dorm rooms. As it turned out, it happened to be the second option: a misfiring fire alarm in one of the ground-floor dorm rooms. Nothing the residents of said room could do about it.
Anyway, back to the narrative.
One in the morning.
One. In. The. Morning.
For the second time, that damn fire alarm went off, and we scurried outside, wrapped in blankets and jackets and Snuggies, shepherded into the courtyard by our equally perturbed RA's. The police were called to investigate the errant alarm system, and we were told the problem had been fixed, so we went back inside. Back to our warm beds to sleep, study or (in my case) read the latest chapter of Soul Eater.
If there is a God of Fire Alarms, he is a vengeful god indeed.
For the next forty or so minutes, the fire alarm continued to blare at five-minute intervals, shrieking in short bursts and then being subdued into sweet silence. Thus far, it's been cooperative since its last outburst, but how long that will last, it's hard to say.
Unless someone finally did the world a service and yanked the offending piece of tech out of the ceiling.
If my roommate's hair straightener catches fire, I swear I will sleep through it.
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