Tartar in As Little As Two Weeks
Nov. 23rd, 2005 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI worked half a day catching up nicely on some things at work, but also learning about more bugs in the system, and some of them are new, not just newly discovered. I'm reminded of the first lines of a song by Richard and Linda Thompson: "This old house is falling down around my ears. I'm drowning in a river of my own tears." I don't suppose it's quite that bad yet.
Then I came home and wrote some and then went to the dentist for a cleaning. It's been three months since my last visit, which was my first visit in over a decade. So the exciting part of the visit was when they measured my gum health and I got to see how it compared to my last visit.
(Drumroll please.)
Better! I have problems in all the same areas, but the problems are much smaller.
Then I got personal tutoring in how to brush and floss again. I think I'll start brushing longer and softer than before. Softer anyway.
I was told that plaque can turn to tarter in as little as two weeks. I found this to be dangerous news. So long as you brush and floss once a week, you'll be safe, right? Perhaps that was not the message I was supposed to be receiving! Still, this news may motivate me to be extremely thorough at least once a week, which would be a good thing.
Then back for more writing and to make a pumpkin pie.
Nanowrimo Update
Today I wrote just over 2,000 words, which puts me almost two days ahead, which is good, because I'm probably about to lose the next three days. And I passed the 40,000-word mark, which means I got to put another star on my sticker! Four stars is very pretty.
I achieved this tremendous volume by writing two aborted scenes plus a scene on Bubba's gun, two scenes involving Fluffy and the mailman, a list of the cast of characters, a recipe for macaroni and cheese made with only ingredients that don't require refrigeration, a round of the poetry game, and the scene excerpted at the end of this entry.
With my "novel," I'm going to follow the advice of Chris Baty in his book about NaNoWriMo (No Plot? No Problem!) to make sure to end the story by the end of the month. I might not quite make the 49,999th and 50,000th words "The" and "End," but that's my goal. He says that it's much more motivating to go back to a story that's wrapped up but could use some more scenes in the middle than it is to still be figuring out the ending later. (Also, I've been out of ideas the entire time, and now is no exception!)
So for the past couple of days I've been trying to think about the loose ends that need to be tied up, and the things readers will be wondering about. For example, will Heather move on to yet another city? (This would be a perfect set-up for a sequel. A fan-fiction sequel; I am out of ideas.) Or will something about the city or her friends or her job suck her in and make her stay? I've decided she's going to move. Will the boyfriend move with her? I don't know. I think he might get dumped.
Tying up the loose ends is not very exciting to me, though, for some reason. Today I was really tempted to have something huge and ridiculous happen. And I had just read this advice from, again, Chris Baty (the founder): "Remember, above all else, that your novel is not a self-improvement campaign. Your novel is a spastic jubilant hoe-down set to your favorite music, a thirty day visit to a candy store where everything is free and nothing is fattening. When thinking about possible inclusions for your novel, always grab the guilty pleasures over the bran flakes. Write your joy and good things will follow."
Um, so, I gave in to my apocalyptic self and wrote the following:
Then I came home and wrote some and then went to the dentist for a cleaning. It's been three months since my last visit, which was my first visit in over a decade. So the exciting part of the visit was when they measured my gum health and I got to see how it compared to my last visit.
(Drumroll please.)
Better! I have problems in all the same areas, but the problems are much smaller.
Then I got personal tutoring in how to brush and floss again. I think I'll start brushing longer and softer than before. Softer anyway.
I was told that plaque can turn to tarter in as little as two weeks. I found this to be dangerous news. So long as you brush and floss once a week, you'll be safe, right? Perhaps that was not the message I was supposed to be receiving! Still, this news may motivate me to be extremely thorough at least once a week, which would be a good thing.
Then back for more writing and to make a pumpkin pie.
Nanowrimo Update
Today I wrote just over 2,000 words, which puts me almost two days ahead, which is good, because I'm probably about to lose the next three days. And I passed the 40,000-word mark, which means I got to put another star on my sticker! Four stars is very pretty.
I achieved this tremendous volume by writing two aborted scenes plus a scene on Bubba's gun, two scenes involving Fluffy and the mailman, a list of the cast of characters, a recipe for macaroni and cheese made with only ingredients that don't require refrigeration, a round of the poetry game, and the scene excerpted at the end of this entry.
With my "novel," I'm going to follow the advice of Chris Baty in his book about NaNoWriMo (No Plot? No Problem!) to make sure to end the story by the end of the month. I might not quite make the 49,999th and 50,000th words "The" and "End," but that's my goal. He says that it's much more motivating to go back to a story that's wrapped up but could use some more scenes in the middle than it is to still be figuring out the ending later. (Also, I've been out of ideas the entire time, and now is no exception!)
So for the past couple of days I've been trying to think about the loose ends that need to be tied up, and the things readers will be wondering about. For example, will Heather move on to yet another city? (This would be a perfect set-up for a sequel. A fan-fiction sequel; I am out of ideas.) Or will something about the city or her friends or her job suck her in and make her stay? I've decided she's going to move. Will the boyfriend move with her? I don't know. I think he might get dumped.
Tying up the loose ends is not very exciting to me, though, for some reason. Today I was really tempted to have something huge and ridiculous happen. And I had just read this advice from, again, Chris Baty (the founder): "Remember, above all else, that your novel is not a self-improvement campaign. Your novel is a spastic jubilant hoe-down set to your favorite music, a thirty day visit to a candy store where everything is free and nothing is fattening. When thinking about possible inclusions for your novel, always grab the guilty pleasures over the bran flakes. Write your joy and good things will follow."
Um, so, I gave in to my apocalyptic self and wrote the following:
In Which Hyenas Swarm the Planet with Nuclear Powered Grenades
Just kidding.
Except that maybe genetically enhanced hyenas really did escape from the lab and begin demanding their own sovereign state within appropriate territory. If so, they might be working closely with the United Nations and the Nature Conservancy to select a territory that is appropriate both environmentally and politically. In return, the hyenas might offer to pay the host countries funds adequate to cover relocation expenses for those who chose to move out of their country, though current human residents would be welcome to stay so long as they lived by the laws of the hyena.
The hyena group would build an economy based on hand crafts, tourism, and stock brokering.
No, no, just kidding. Really.