gohlkusmaximus.com » Imagine a Novel Weblog

402 posts in 10 1/2 years…

Gohlkus Maximus — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:31:14 +0000

or about 3.2 posts per month. That seems right.

(And this is after importing my NaNoWriMo blog entries and my “Unfinished Thoughts” from my abortive tumblelog at gohlkus.wordpress.com.)

I need an infinite number of hours and monkeys

Gohlkus Maximus — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 20:51:43 +0000

Because I haven’t done laundry in a while, and was sweaty from biking, I changed into my NaNoWriMo shirt yesterday immediately before my East Bay for Democracy (DFA) meetup. Subsequent conversations make it likely that I might throw my hat into the ring again for NaNoWriMo 2004.

I like the format for this blog so much better than the one I use for my main blog. I should change the formatting of the main one. (Of course, I haven’t made time to update that blog in six weeks; what makes me think I’m going to reformat the whole thing?) I need an infinite number of hours and monkeys.

Despite what I said in my last NaNoWriMo entry, I think November is actually a good time to write a novel–especially if you don’t plan to travel anywhere over the long Thanksgiving weekend. I think I’ll start spurring my subconscious to come up with characters.

[Note: a form of this blog entry originally appeared in my November 2002 NaNoWriMo blog, "Notes on the Text." I've now moved all of those entries into the "Imagine a Novel Weblog" category of this blog.]

stewing in my subconscious

Gohlkus Maximus — Thu, 20 Feb 2003 10:51:37 +0000

This update is simply to note that I haven’t written any NaNoWriMo blog entries in a great while. Also, I haven’t worked on the novel since November. It’s stewing. Yeah, that’s it: it’s stewing in my subconscious.

New political developments threaten daily to make the novel obsolete, a problem I will have to tackle when I return to writing.

It also occurs to me that November is a terrible month in which to attempt to write an entire novel. The first and most obvious strike against November is that it only contains 30 days. Second, it contains Thanksgiving—many people travel for Thanksgiving. At the very least, they’re probably spending several hours on Thursday dealing with a large meal, family, friends, or even all three. Third, the beginning of November is almost always the craziest time of year for anyone who participates (beyond simply voting) in this country’s system of electing its representative officials. Even if that represents only a small percentage of the population, it’s still quite significant to them. In contrast, January beats November hands-down for all of the above reasons. It’s 31 days long—the maximum. It doesn’t typically feature an election. Best, it usually contains two holidays (New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Day) that don’t feature quite as much travel as Thanksgiving. (This is not to minimize the importance of Martin Luther King Day, of course.)

44,968 words in the next 10 hours and 12 minutes

Gohlkus Maximus — Sat, 30 Nov 2002 20:48:07 +0000

Unless I can write 44,968 words in the next 10 hours and 12 minutes, which I won’t, my NaNoWriMo experience will end in failure.

I haven’t entirely lost interest in finishing this novel. I think NaNoWriMo spurred me to actually start writing and to be excited about it. For many reasons, though, the main one being time (more accurately, my less-than-optimal use of it), I wasn’t able to write 50,000 words this month.

Maybe next year I’ll be in a stable enough situation that 50,000 words in a month is a realistic goal. It just wasn’t, this year.

[Note: this blog entry originally appeared in my November 2002 NaNoWriMo blog, "Notes on the Text." I've now moved all of those entries into the "Imagine a Novel Weblog" category of this blog.]

fear and sleep: equal culprits

Gohlkus Maximus — Tue, 12 Nov 2002 08:40:04 +0000

Well, hello. I have written 5,032 words so far. I should have written 18,333 by the end of the 11th. I am merely 8 days behind the projected pace, after 11 days, but am now making an attempt to catch up. That, plus freelance work, will keep these weblog entries brief.

I was pretty burned out after working so hard Saturday and Tuesday on election-related stuff (mostly calling people to get them to vote). I couldn’t really bring myself to open up the Appleworks file and write. Fear and sleep were equal culprits.

This is very typical of me. I’ll probably finish. I can already tell Thanksgiving will be a sprint.

[Note: this blog entry originally appeared in my November 2002 NaNoWriMo blog, "Notes on the Text." I've now moved all of those entries into the "Imagine a Novel Weblog" category of this blog.]

procrastination has always worked well

Gohlkus Maximus — Mon, 04 Nov 2002 11:19:31 +0000

Again, I have failed to get to bed at any reasonable hour tonight. Unfortunately, I didn’t even quite keep up with the pace—I’m only at 4105 (out of 5000, where I should be after 3 days). I’ll catch up this week or over the weekend. Or over Thanksgiving weekend, perhaps. Procrastination has always worked well for me. I’m actually giving my subconscious time to stew over the characters and situations I’ve come up with so far, so that I can generate some stunningly original inspirations out of seemingly nowhere in a week or two. That’s it.

[Note: this blog entry originally appeared in my November 2002 NaNoWriMo blog, "Notes on the Text." I've now moved all of those entries into the "Imagine a Novel Weblog" category of this blog.]

sacrificed a couple hours of sleep

Gohlkus Maximus — Sun, 03 Nov 2002 10:19:37 +0000

Well, I sacrificed a couple hours of sleep to get back on pace after two days of writing, if only temporarily. I have no plans to write much else today, Sunday, however.

Writing some dialogue on the BART Saturday worked pretty well, in retrospect. I’ll continue to use those moments productively. (Hell, even that’s justification enough to do this.)

[Note: this blog entry originally appeared in my November 2002 NaNoWriMo blog, "Notes on the Text." I've now moved all of those entries into the "Imagine a Novel Weblog" category of this blog. Additionally, I said "the BART" -- ha!]