Wherever possible I've started NaNo at midnight, staying up ridiculously late
with copious amounts of sugar and a selection of films to keep me up (The Sound
of Music and Tinkerbell among some of the recent years' viewing material). I've
not done that this year, so I feel as though I'm behind, even though it's only
just started and I'm not technically behind yet.
I'm used to having my target for the day down before bed, whereas today I had
to hammer out as much as I could as soon as I woke up. It's a slightly different
approach to before but I'm sure I'll make it work for me.
So far I'm at 1,768 words and I'm planning at least another hour of writing later on, possibly with a few word wars thrown in for good measure. I probably won't reach my 10,000 word target that I usually have on the first day of NaNo, but I'm okay with that. I'm going to take it slow and steady this year and help out the people I've signed up to mentor (you only get one first NaNo after all).
I've also not done as much concrete planning as I've done in the past.
Normally I write pages and pages of notes before I get started, but this year
I've not written down as much. I've been carrying around a lot of ideas with me
and I have a whole bunch of scenes in my head.
Normally I'm a very linear writer but I have a funny feeling I might end up
jumping around a bit from one scene to another. I'm using ywriter rather than
Word which should help with that.
Aside from NaNo stuff, I've been doing most of my Christmas shopping this
week. Last Sunday I went onto Amazon and ordered most of Mr Click's main
presents (as well as something for my step-dad, which I think he'll appreciate),
then during a drip to Glasgow I found a present for my Nan too. I'm very
impressed as I seem to have gone from feeling completely disorganised to almost
ready. I've got maybe three big presents left to get, then it's just small
things and stocking fillers.
Yesterday we started our traditional movie countdown to Christmas. Halloween
(or NaNoween as I like to think of it) is always the day when we watch The
Nightmare Before Christmas, since it is set in Halloween Town. We'll be
following this up during the week with some of our Not Quite Christmas films. In
the past we've worked out a schedule for them, but this year we're doing a lucky
dip, picking names out of a hat for the film we're going to watch that day. The first one out of the pot is Paddington. The
only one excused from the lucky dip is Nightmare Before Christmas because
Halloween.
Oh and on the subject of Halloween, I got dressed up for work on Friday.
Not too bad for £2 plus what I managed to drag out of my
wardrobe.
I was going for a creepy doll look, but the mask didn't have a
mouth hole, hence the face paint so I was still in-costume when I took it off to
talk. I did get a toffee apple for my trouble.
We even had trick or treaters this year too. In the last four years no one has shown up, then we got a couple of our neighbours' kids come along. I was woefully unprepared and had to rifle through the kitchen cupboard to let them have a chocolate bar each. Next year I must make sure I have a good stash of sweets in.
Did you dress up for Halloween? Share your photos.
And are you NaNoing this year? Feel free to add me as a buddy on
the site (I'm Caitak on there) and share your progress in the comments.
Happy Halloween! Or NaNoWeen, if you're like me and the 31st of October just means that NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow.
If this instalment of The Return of the King was an episode of Friends it would be called 'The One With All The Endings'. There's an awful lot of them in here. This is the very end of the trilogy. There will be tears.
In the last part of this review the battle in Gondor ended, so Aragorn and the gang headed to the Gates of Mordor to challenge the big boss himself. Oh and Sam rescued Frodo from the orcs and they headed up towards Mount Doom for the final bit of the quest.
Here's what happens next.
307. Oh look. Gollum didn't die after all. He decided to just head straight to the Cracks of Doom to wait for Frodo and get the Ring back there.
308. And there's another battle going on outside the gates. It's like the whole of Middle-earth is fighting about one thing or another.
309. I love that the moth shows up right in front of Gandalf and then the Eagles show up. It's a nice little call back to the first film (and to the end of the first Hobbit film now as well).
310. It's Elrond and Isildur all over again!
311. Frodo's just like, 'nah, actually I think I'm going to keep it'.
312. That chain is not very strong if he can just snap if off the Ring. They should maybe have tried something a little bit sturdier considering how important it was not to lose the Ring.
313. Gollum's got a good sense of direction, he was able to locate Frodo and his hand in order to bite off the finger with the Ring on it.
314. Okay, I do feel kind of sorry for Gollum at this next bit. He's waited so long to get the Ring back and then he just gets a bit carried away with the gloating and celebration.
315. I like that the Ring sits on that little bit of solid lava for a moment before it finally sinks into it and breaks up.
316. It's kind of funny how the Ring is destroyed and all the orcs and other creatures just kind of run away.
317. Also, it makes me laugh how the Eye of Sauron kind of looks from side to side as the tower topples over.
318. And then that moment where everyone cheers and celebrates before realising that actually that probably means Frodo has died because Mordor is sort of destroying itself and the massive volcano the Hobbit was in is erupting.
319. Frodo seems to be feeling a little bit more like his old self again at least. Even if they didn't get off that slope, at least he'd be able to suffer alongside Sam in the end.
320. Sam's face just looks like he's thinking 'Oh, now you can see the Shire.'
321. 'I'm glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things.' Love that line too.
322. The Return of the King Fade to Black Ending #1.
323. Frodo and Sam have now passed out, presumably because of the heat and fumes.
324. I like that Gandalf went with three Eagles to pick them up. I like to think that the third one was in case Gollum had survived too.
325. I also like the way that the background turns into Frodo's pillow in the Houses of Healing. That's just a neat transition.
326. This bit is all sort of dreamlike with the bright light and the weird slow motion talking and laughing. Also, I know you're all pleased to see one another but just what is so funny guys?
327. You know this is a special occasion because Legolas finally has a different outfit.
328. I want to know just what Merry was demonstrating there when he leaps over on Frodo's legs. Perhaps he was showing how they brought down the Oliphaunt.
329. The Return of the King Fade to Black Ending #2.
330. The King has returned. Officially now.
331. He's got the politician way of speaking down anyway. Though the little singsong isn't so political.
332. Legolas is so coy when he looks back over his shoulder.
333. Elrond's like 'Happy Coronation, Man. Here, have my daughter.'
334. I love Arwen's headdress thing.
335. Hehe, the big snog is not so refined and kingly, but even Elrond seems to approve. And Arwen seems very happy. Then again, I'd be giggling if I'd just kissed Viggo Mortensen like that.
336. 'My friends, you bow to no one.' I love how the Hobbits look all confused and surprised and awkward at everyone bowing to them. It's cute.
337. I love how they skip over the return journey by just covering the route over the map.
338. I do sometimes wish they'd done The Scouring of the Shire, but I think that would've stretched this trilogy of films out to a quadrology and that would've meant the story was a little bit thin. I'd rather they leave some stuff out than not have enough to bulk up the story.
339. Go on, Sam. Go for it. I like that he has a quick sip of whatever the Middle-earth equivalent is of Dutch Courage.
340. Oh look, Jackson kid cameo again. They're a bit older there than at Bilbo's party at the beginning, so we know a couple of years have passed since the beginning.
341. This bit is just like the very beginning of the first film, except this time it's Frodo sitting in the study writing, instead of Bilbo. It's a nice way to bookend the story.
342. I like that framed picture on the wall in the background. It's a tree and I imagine it could have the Baggins family line written on it.
343. I've got a funny feeling that this bit might have been filmed quite early on in filming the trilogy because Elijah Wood looks really young compared to some of the scenes we just saw.
344. Bilbo's really aging now. He's really, really wrinkly. He kind of looks like a Podling from The Dark Crystal.
345. Actually, he's a bit Gollum-ish as well. It's the baldy head and sticky out ears I guess.
346. I just want to give Merry and Pippin a hug. They're so sad and upset.
347. 'I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.' Love that line.
348. It's a little bit mean of Frodo not to tell his friends that he was planning to leave.
349. Also, why is he talking in slow motion here.
350. Oh and now I want to hug Sam as well.
351. It's okay, Frodo's hugging them all for me.
352. And Sam even gets a kiss. Lucky Sam.
353. I like that Frodo smiles again when he gets on the boat. That makes this seem less sad and more hopeful of an ending.
354. And that's them off at last. I love this music.
355. And now for a change, let's have a Fade to White Ending.
356. The kids in this scene are the actor's real children as well. I love that this such a family film, that the people making it got their family members involved with it.
357. And it's so perfect that the last words of the film are the same as the in the book. It couldn't have ended more perfectly.
358. I love the end credits here though they go on for around twenty minutes.
359. The sketches are a lovely touch. I've got the 'Art of' books for each of the films and I like to look at the pictures John Howe and Alan Lee drew for the production.
360. 'Into the West' always makes me think of funerals, but it's a beautiful song and the perfect way to end the trilogy.
Friday means that it's time for another Chapter-by-Chapter post. I'm aiming
to keep these going through November, hopefully we've got some short chapters
coming up. All the same, this chapter is insanely long, so I've split it in to
as it was running to well over 2,000 words.
In the last chapter we saw the aftermath of Bella's birthday party boo-boo
when Jasper went crazy with blood lust. It was okay though, because Carlisle is
a doctor so he was able to patch her up. Then Edward took her home to bed.
Today's chapter is number three: The End.
What Happens?
Not a whole lot really! Things are awkward between Bella and
Edward. Oh, and Bella tries out her new camera and scrapbook at last.
Thoughts as I read:
I've had spoilers for this book so I've got a funny feeling I know
what's coming. With a title like 'The End' coming not even a quarter of the way
through the book, I'm fairly certain we're about to witness a Bella/Edward break
up somewhere in the next thirty pages.
As is traditional, the chapter begins with Bella waking up in the
morning. Edward heads out quickly and meets up with her at school.
Edward was waiting for me at school, as usual, but his face
was still wrong. There was something buried in his eyes that I couldn't be sure
of – and it scared me. I didn't want to bring up last night, but I wasn't sure
if avoiding the subject would be worse.
Bella's wondering about how everyone is after the events of the
previous day. I hope she actually gives voice to some of these questions because
I'm wondering much the same thing myself. We have to wait for her to run into
Alice to ask them though. Unfortunately she's off school today because she's had
to go away someplace with Jasper.
Do they have vampire rehab? It sounds like the sort of place
Jasper would end up going. Edward isn't giving away very much information other
than the fact that they were trying to get Jasper to go stay with another little
group of vampires in Denali. So not vampire rehab, but hopefully a group of
vampires who live without trying to drain every human who gets a paper cut in
their vicinity.
The development with Jasper has made things awkward between Bella
and Edward. It's not a huge change really since I usually feel like things are
pretty awkward between them. Bella's realised that Edward is feeling down about
the fact all his family is having to go away and it's mostly because of her.
Well, Alice and Jasper are really the only ones who have gone away because of
her. Emmett and Rosalie might have gone away too but I think that's more because
they just don't age and people will notice if they hang around too long.
That's got me wondering, if a vampire wanted to stay in a place
for a long time, do you think they would have to use some sort of prosthetics to
make it look like they were aging?
While I've been wondering about that, Bella's been thinking about
seeing members of the Cullen family. She can't imagine Alice staying away from
Charlie because there's some sort of weird relationship between her friend and
her father; plus she'll need to go to hospital fairly often, so she'll still see
Carlisle. She just can't go to their house anymore.
How did Jasper cope at school every day then? I mean, surely
people at school got paper cuts and nose bleeds and other injuries that caused
them to bleed. How did he handle those?
The chapter continues giving us a little recap of what happened to
Bella the summer before. We read that book so we can skip past that. Bella
continues wondering about whether it wouldn't be better to just go away with
Edward and let his family all return to their home the way it was before. Apparently this will be better for him than his family being scattered all over
the country. Um, perhaps Edward would rather be at home with some of his family
than halfway across the country with none of his family.
We skip over Bella's time at work and barely a paragraph later
she's on her way home, to find Edward's car parked outside her house. This is
strange because normally he sneaks in through her window. What's even stranger
is that Charlie and Edward are just hanging out watching sports on TV. This is
one of those 'we need to talk' moments.
While she waits for Edward to join her, Bella starts looking at
her birthday presents. She's starting to think that the best place for her to be
is away from his family and suddenly she's feeling quite sad at the thought of
leaving Forks. She's even beginning to appreciate the camera and scrapbook.
Regardless, I snapped a picture of my room. There wasn't
much else I could do tonight – it was too dark outside – and the feeling was
growing stronger, it was almost a compulsion now. I would record everything
about Forks before I had to leave it.
I have a funny feeling that's you're not the one who's going to be
leaving, Bella. She goes on to ramble about how perfect things are right now,
I'm guessing she means before she got the paper cut because things the last few
days haven't exactly been great for her.
All the same, she gets in a little photo session with Edward and
Charlie. Then Edward gets up to go, telling Bella that he won't be stopping
tonight. I have no idea what any of this is actually about. And considering the
fact Bella then goes to bed, I'm surprised that the chapter doesn't end
there.
I actually took a break from reading before continuing on with this book.
It's such a long chapter that I felt the need to fortify myself with a relaxing
bath and a healthy snack so I could keep reading. Anyway, Bella's been taking
more photos and contemplating how much she will miss all the green stuff that
she spent most of the first book complaining about.
Bella's still on another planet thinking about Edward and her vagueness is
making me feel rather ambivalent about the whole story. The writing also feels
kind of clunky:
At lunch, the silence continued. I felt like I was going to
start screaming at any moment, so, to distract myself, I leaned across the
table's invisible line and spoke to Jessica. "Hey, Jess?"
I can't help but think that there might have been a better way of
writing this bit. I mean, I can't exactly talk. I've never had a book published,
let alone one that's been turned into a series of blockbuster hits, but still, I
like to think if I did, I'd manage to edit out any of the really clunky bits
like this.
Serious, this chapter feels like there's an awful lot of nothing
happening right now. This is followed by Bella's friends taking photos with her
camera, using up all her film and then it jumping to the end of the school day.
Honestly, what was the point in that?
We do learn that Edward shows up in photos, which prompts the
usual diversion into how wonderful Edward looks. We've heard it all before so I
don't think we need to go into all that again. Anyway, she flicks through the
pictures and Edward ends up looking colder and colder as she goes. Plus compared
to him, she looks decidedly average. This is yet another nail in the coffin of
Bella remaining mortal. For her and Edward to be happy together she obviously
needs to become a vampire.
Bella works on her scrapbook for a while and even remembers to
send her mum a thank you note, showing that her skills have improved somewhat
since the last book, when she ignored her mum's emails. And so ends another
day.
Since that's how these chapters often end, that seems like a good
place to stop until next week.
It's been two months, almost to the day, since I last shared my progress with
my Nativity. This is because until a couple of weeks ago, that's how long it's
been since I last did any real work on it! You can see why I thought it was a
good idea to start knitting it back in July in order to make sure it was ready
for December.
Last time I shared Joseph he looked something like this:
And that's how he remained for a very long time.
Before I went to Wales I knitted up his arms but didn't get around
to seaming them. Armless Joseph then spent a month and a half hanging out on my
side table with a bunch of balls of yarn and my three completed Wise Men,
waiting for his hands, beard and hairpiece.
I decided to take a break from colouring in and grabbed my
knitting stuff to sew up Joseph's sleeves while we watched Columbo. In the time
it took to watch the whole episode I not only seamed both sleeves, I knitted his
hands, sewed them up, stuffed the arms, sewed the hands in and started preparing
to attach them to Joseph.
When we relocated to the bedroom to watch M*A*S*H I got the arms
sewn on, knitted his beard and made a start to his hairpiece, which I finished
the following night. That's right, in two evenings I managed to get everything
done to finish poor Joseph who has been standing around in pieces ever since
August.
I feel kind of bad.
He's looking pretty good now though:
Now I'm working on the shepherds. The scene in the booklet has two
shepherds so I decided to do them both at the same time since they both use the
same pattern, just in different colours and I figured that if I did them one at
a time I'd get bored doing the second one. I used the same approach with my
chicken family a couple of years ago. It doesn't make the actual knitting any
quicker since you're still doing the same number of stitches in total, but it
forces me to do them both without taking a long break between finishing one and
starting another.
I got both bodies knitted, sewn up and their faces embroidered.
After that it's the robes which I've been working separately; I got one finished
at the weekend and I've been working on the second one while we watch M*A*S*H in
bed. That's the biggest bit to do so hopefully I won't lose momentum after I
finish like I did with Joseph. A week from now I should be starting on some
sheep for the shepherd to look after.
Once the shepherds (and their flock) are done, it's just Mary, the
cradle, the baby, the donkey and possibly an angel to do. I might make an
innkeeper as well if there's time. If not, he can wait til next year. At least
Joseph is finally finished.
The fifth week of the Reading Challenge (a book with a number in the title)
didn't take much work to pick. I have a couple of books on my shelf with numbers
in the title but they're either midway through a series that I didn't want to
read out of order, or the first in a series that I wasn't ready to start reading
yet. Plus I'd committed myself to reading the 'classics' so I went searching on
Amazon and Project Gutenberg for something that might be suitable.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne fitted the bill pretty
nicely. And it was an old book that I'd never read before. Perfect.
This is the story of Pierre Aronnax who, along with his
manservant, Conseil, and harpoonist, Ned Land, join an expedition to find and
kill a mysterious creature which has been terrorising the waters around the
world. When they finally track it down they learn that it's not a narwhal as
they suspected, it's actually the Nautilus, captained by Nemo, whose
intentions for his submersible are not all scientific.
I read Around the World in Eighty Days several months ago
and really enjoyed it, finding the sense of humour in it had aged very well, so
I really looked forward to starting 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It
struggled to find it on Amazon as a free download, so purchased an edition with
illustrations for the grand sum of 40p. It was only after I'd done this that I
found it on Project Gutenberg and realised I could've gotten it for free
instead.
As it happened, I read an awful lot of this book on my phone while
I was out the house, thanks to Project Gutenberg. It meant that I got through
the first half of it very quickly (just two days). Though after that I slowed
down quite a bit during the second half and it took me the rest of the week to
finish it off.
As with Around the World in Eighty Days, I found Verne's
style quite funny. I guess you could almost describe it as being sort of deadpan
and there were moments that I read and found funny though it was unexpected. I
wasn't sure if I was finding humour in things that weren't, or if they were
intended to be taken the way I was reading them. It made it an enjoyable read
though.
The one thing that was a little bit lost on me was all the
descriptions of fish and specific details of marine life. It wasn't quite to the
degree of Moby Dick but I felt like it was approaching it at times.
One of my one complaints about this specific edition I read was
that the illustrations were all clumped together at the end. If I'm buying a
copy for the illustrations, I expect the illustrations to be in the actual text.
I reached the end and then found pictures which referred to things I'd read
about over two hundred pages before. It was weird and kind of pointless. At
least buying this edition did teach me that you can download copies of books
from Project Gutenberg and even get them in the right format for reading on your
Kindle.
Having read this I'm now planning on reading Journey to the
Centre of the Earth at some point. In fact, I've enjoyed the two Verne
books I've read so far so much that I'd like to get them as actual book-books at
some point.
Of course, the correct answer is 'getting a head start on my 50,000 words'
because Sunday sees the start of National Novel Writing Month. That's where you
try to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. That's right,
50,000 words in thirty days, that's roughly 1,667 words per day. More if you've
got a slightly higher target for the month (I'm aiming for 75,000 words which
means I need to get 2,500 words each day).
In honour of this momentous occasion I thought I'd share some useful things
for NaNoWriMo, in no particular order.
Obviously, if you're taking part in NaNoWriMo, the first place you need to go
is to NaNoWriMo.org to register on the site. Commit yourself to your novel, give
it a title, write a synopsis and upload a cover for it. That's pretty much the
first step in the NaNoWriMo addiction programme. While you're there, add me as a buddy.
One of my favourite things about NaNo is the fact that there's this sort of
mass hysteria surrounding it. Everywhere you look online you'll find people
talking about it. NaNo converts are a vocal bunch so as well as joining in on
conversations on the NaNo forums, don't forget to look out for chat on Twitter
and the Facebook group.
You're going to want to decide on your strategy for approaching the month
ahead. This post on the forums is pretty helpful in breaking
down the different word count goals you might go for depending on when you'll
have time to write during the month. I always find the steadily decreasing word
count goal helpful because it takes advantage of the energy spurt you have at
the beginning of the month and factors in the likelihood that your available
time will decrease over the course of the month. You can even print it out, pick
a day each time you sit down to write, cross off that total once you've done it
and then aim for a different one the next day. So long as you cross off each
day, you'll still make it to 50k by the end of the month.
What about when you've got the days when you can write nailed but you still
don't know what you're going to write about?
That's okay, there's a whole forum for that. Head over to the Adoption Society boards where you can adopt everything from a plot, an opening line, a
dying line and even a fellow WriMo to make an appearance in your NaNovel.
And I've just got time for a few more last minute reminders. Back up your work!No seriously. Back. It. Up. Use a pen
drive. Use two pen drives. Email it to yourself. Email it to your mother. Burn
it onto CD. Print it out. Make copies. Nothing will kill your motivation faster
than losing two days worth of work. Don't stop writing.Write something, anything,
every day. The only thing worse than not meeting your word count target is not
writing anything. Remember, if you miss your quota for the day, that's fine.
Check how many words you still have to write, divide it by the number of days
left in the month, and go wild. Don't try making up the difference all in one
day, you'll just depress yourself. Take advantage of days off, weekends,
holidays, whatever. Build up a buffer so you can get away with writing less on a
day. If you miss one day, it makes it a lot easier to miss another day. Don't edit.There is a time and a place for editing. It
is not November. By all mean, go back and reread what you've already written but
don't write anything. Sit on your hands. Write a note to yourself about what
needs to be changed. Move on and start writing something new. NaNo is about
getting that first draft down; it doesn't have to be Shakespeare, it just has to
be there. Editing slows you down and during NaNo you need every second
for writing. So write. Back up your work!Just because it's that important, it
deserves saying twice!
Have you got any tips, tricks, NaNo stories, or pep talks to share? Why not
Guest Blog here during November?
Send me an email at clicksclan@gmail.com and let me
know what you want to write about and I'll slot you in.
