Category: Meilo’s World

Goal Update 11/23

I don’t think I’ve mentioned anything about this at all on here, but back in March, I started wearing an orthotic to help realign my jaw. My teeth don’t line up properly, and never have, so I’ve just adapted, which caused TMJ pain, jaw popping and clicking, jaw clenching, enamel wear, and noticable wear on the jaw joint via CT scan. After wearing this hunk of acrylic in my mouth 24/7 for six months, with weekly adjustments, my dentist proclaimed me stable in September, and last week I finally got to see my orthodontist. After a small little hiccup due to not wearing the thing during the day (which I was told I didn’t have to do!), I’m cleared to get braces. The week before Christmas.

I am both excited (I don’t have to wear this orthotic anymore! One step closer to fixing my goddamn teeth/jaw issues!) and… well, I’ve had braces before. I know what’s coming. But I survived it the first time, I can do it again.

And I’ve had people ask, but no, I can’t get Invisalign. I’ve seen the models of my teeth, and I can feel the fact that none of my teeth touch. Metal braces with rubber bands are gonna be my only option, and in reality, the quickest and cheapest option anyway.

Back to the important stuff.

Goal 1) HTWAN story

  • My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
  • Where I planned to be: 44440 total words
  • Where I am: 42772 total words
  • On Target or Behind: Behind

How’s It Going:
Great, actually. I’m still technically behind on my goal, but I’m pretty much ignoring it at this point. I wrote 1245 words this week; that’s better than each of the last three weeks. I’m not gonna complain. The ending is… very near.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

  • My Goal: 1 Lesson per month, 3 scenes per day for Lesson 20
  • Where I planned to be: 27 scenes in
  • Where I am: Finished with Lesson 20!
  • On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
IT’S MUH-FUCKIN TYPE-IN TIME.

-Jimmy voice- Ooo-wee, ooo-wee!

Why I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year (or any year in the forseeable future)

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. That’s National Novel Writing Month, for the uncultured swine uninitiated. For most of my writerly friends, today is a time of fierce planning and preparation (because procrastination is an almost universal writer trait), excitement, and a little bit of fear.

For me, though, today is just another Thursday. Yes, it also happens to be Halloween, but I’ve got homework to do, and work in the morning. I need sleep.

I’ll be honest– my experience with NaNo has never been pretty. Even the one year I won… Holly Lisle has a nice succinct phrase for what it’s like for me trying to do NaNo, and that is “writing to failure”. That’s essentially writing so much to the point it isn’t fun anymore, it’s just work; grueling, awful, headache-inducing work. I’m not comfortable writing upwards of 1500 words a day, every day, for a freaking month. And that goes doubly for trying to do 2500 words a day just to get weekends off.

This is why I was having long periods of “nope, fuck that” whenever I thought about writing.

But I know there are a lot of people who write more/faster than me, who enjoy the rush, who actually get something possibly useable out of it. People who actually have fun with it. To those people, I say good luck. If you’re thinking about participating, do it. I’m not the kind of guy to shit on someone else’s parade just because I don’t like it.

But NaNo is just not for me. I have accepted this, and I will move on.

Goal Update 10/19

Well. Happy late birthday to me. I’m 28 as of yesterday, and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this here yet, but my ultimate goal is to have SKoS published before I turn 30.

That’s only 2 years from now. And based on my history so far, it’s also not a lot of time.

I’m really hoping I can stick to my goals and have the revision done by the end of the year, so I can do… all the other stuff I need to do with it before publishing, hopefully sometime next year, if I can swing it. Picking a title, making the cover, writing copy, getting the manuscript edited, formatting, figuring out where and how to sell it, and what is marketing? we just don’t know…

My biggest problem will be the money, though. I need to get this blog a real domain name, and hosting. Even if I went through WordPress itself, I’d have to pay a year at a time. Not cheap. I’d also really like to send SKoS off to a professional editor, but that is… really expensive. So, if anyone reading my blog would like to help out, Support Me on Ko-fi, if you can (please don’t put yourself out if you can’t afford it… trust me, I know what it’s like.) I would really appreciate it and be forever grateful, even if it’s only the minimum donation.

Goal 1) HTWAN story

  • My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
  • Where I planned to be: 36865 total words
  • Where I am: 37306 total words
  • On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I feel like I’m dragging. Thursday went a little better than the beginning of the week, but I’m not really digging what I’m getting here. It seems clunky and awkward. Might have something to do with still not knowing how to end this thing. I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a ravine, and I can see the other side, but there is a daunting, yawning chasm between here and there, and the only way across is a tightrope.

And for anyone who doesn’t know me, my balance is shit.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

  • My Goal: 1 lesson per month; 5 scenes per day for Lesson 18; Lesson 19 by 11/2, 5 scenes per day
  • Where I planned to be: Finished with Lesson 18
  • Where I am: Finished with Lesson 18; 5 scenes into Lesson 19
  • On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I’m slowly getting there. We’re in the home stretch. 3 more lessons.

Lesson 19 is gonna be brutal. Not nearly as bad as 17 (do not get me started about Lesson 17…), but not the relative cakewalk of 18. I may have to work extra days if I wanna get this one done by Nov 2. Worst case, if I only do 3 scenes per day, I’ll have to work 5 days a week. If I can swing it, I’ll try for 5 in a day to keep my working days down. I still have school and the day job to contend with, after all.

But I am so, so, so tired of looking through all these freaking papers. But I know I’m close. That’s what keeps me going.

SOFW Progress – Week 12

Late update is late. I had my sinus surgery on Friday and everything went well. But my writing may suffer this week; I’m having a hard time seeing anything with my eyes watering all the time! Not to mention the painkillers they give me never work, so I’m surviving on alternating rounds of ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Which at least helps somewhat, but weirdly enough all my upper teeth hurt constantly. :/

1) Write 19,695 words of my HTWAN project.

  • My Goal: 505 WPD, 1515 WPW
  • Where I planned to be on Day 84: 18180 new words
  • Where I am on Day 84: 18226 new words
  • On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
AMAZING. Idk what happened this week, but the ideas are coming super easy, the words are flowing, and I am on the ball. Everything is rosy right now and I’m going to enjoy it while I can.

2) Finish Lesson 17 of HTRYN on Some Kind of Savior.

  • My Goal: 1 scene PD, 2 scenes PW
  • Where I planned to be on Day 84: 23 scenes finished
  • Where I am on Day 84: 23 scenes finished
  • On Target or Behind: Finished!

How’s It Going:
I touched on this when I completed this goal, but this is still going to need a lot of work. But now I can move on.