Guest blog by Kipper

It’s been a weird few days. First the human was gone overnight again, but luckily the magic food giver continued to turn and feed me. She gave me some extra treats before she left for some reason. When she came back the next night, she did a pretty good job of staying still on the couch so I could sleep on her, right by her face, just like she likes it. Sometimes she pretends she doesn’t by repeatedly pushing me away, but she eventually gives up, so I know she likes it.

Yesterday she got up and left pretty quickly. She came back with some big bags of heavy books. More stuff for me to hide behind! The house was getting great like that. Stuff was everywhere making it lots of fun to lurk around. Later though, everything went nuts.

She started moving all my great stuff around. She stacked up lots of boxes in the living room and picked up all my toys. Then she took out the dreaded loud machine. I don’t usually mind loud noises, but I hate that thing so much. She hadn’t used it in awhile, so I thought she had figured out how much I don’t like it. No such luck. She pushed it all over the house. I took refuge on the window sill, hoping the blinds would save me. When she finally stopped, she didn’t even put the machine away. She left it right by the door to the kitchen so I had to keep walking past it.

All night the boxes were still in the living room. Most of the morning she did a pretty good job of being a bed for me again. Then she went crazy again. She picked up all the boxes and started breaking them into flat pieces. It was weird behavior. I was really confused and a little afraid. I stood in the corner by the door she goes through to leave me. She picked up a giant box full of those other boxes and came my way. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I’d had enough of this. I pretended to get out of her way. When she opened the door, I made a break for it. Last time I did that I made it as far as the stairs and froze. With a little prodding I came back inside. This time though, I ran off the stairs and ran back behind the car. The human yelled my name, but then then she got quiet.

I was a little freaked out with all this new stuff to look at. I was especially curious about a smell over in the corner. I noticed the human walking very quietly to see what I was doing. She very sweetly tried to call my name. I paid her no mind though and continued my exploration. She disappeared. When I saw her re-appear on the other side of the car, I hid and went the other way around the car. She went back into the house for a minute. When she came back to stand by the car, I ran back on the porch. I was about to run off the other end of the porch, but the door to the house was propped open as well. Tough decisions. Exploring the things I look at through the window or the comforts of my home. I almost ran off to explore but the human called my name from the other end of the porch. She put down a can. I recognized that as the place the food comes from. Dirty tricks! I had to go after it. She picked it up and in my trepidations, I ran inside the house.

Once inside, she gave me a small spoon of the food. Sigh. I’m such a sucker for the food. Here I thought she was trying to apologize, but I was wrong. Shortly after that, she ran the loud machine where the boxes had been on the rug. Gah!

Ah, well. She’s back on the couch now, so I’m on her chest again about to go to sleep. She should really never do anything else but this.

So, um, yeah…

That would be a big zero words today. I was otherwise occupied. I’m not entirely sure this is going to happen this year… I’m not giving up, just not sure about it.

20,712

Um, so, it’s a little better, right? In fact, an order of magnitude better than yesterday’s 43 words. I wrote 457 words on the novel today. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve stooped to. A pro/con list. In my novel. I have no idea why.

That puts me 2621 behind. I’m not sure I can recover from that. I suppose my best bet is to recalculate a new target pace for the amount remaining.

20,255

I don’t think I can write today. My mind is elsewhere and I’d rather focus on more mindless things. I won’t go into the details, but most of you know them. (And I am trying to think positively, but that doesn’t mean I can write.) I’m sure I’ll resume tomorrow. I just need a day off. I wrote only a short paragraph. It sucked more than usual.

20212

I skipped out on the write-in tonight in favor of watching the Seahawks destroy the 49ers in Monday Night Football. It was already close to 7 by the time I’d finished all the stuff I needed to do at home anyway. Yay for DVR’s! I would pause periodically to write, then I’d watch the game for awhile and fast forward the commercials and between certain plays. Once I got live again, I’d pause and repeat. Of course, my most effective writing came at the latest part of the evening well after the game ended. I hit an easy part again. I’m nearing the end of that though. I’m leaving a little bit so I can start with that next time.

But, the good news is I broke 20,000 by writing 1755 words today. Overall, I’ve done a much better job of meeting target during the week this year compared to last.

I basically need to stay on pace. I don’t think I’m capable of huge getting ahead or huge catching up if I fall behind. It’s too intimidating and I just can’t write very much per day. It sprains my small and weak imagination.

18457

Yep, I’m sticking right to pace. I wrote exactly 1700 words today. I’m still glad I went to the Commons even though it wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped. It was like pulling teeth to get words today. I didn’t know what should happen in the story. I know a lot of what has to happen later, and I know a few of the “reveals” that have to happen, I’m just not sure of the interim bits.

I notice I’ve really done a lot of creating mystery in the story. Unfortunately, I’m creating the mystery without knowing the answer first. I have to figure it out on my own as I write. A little backwards, I realize. I’m not sure how it started, but I have several of them ongoing right now. Some of the answers I’ve come up with are surprisingly good. Some are reaching. A lot.

Anyway, I’m feeling pretty good about where I am right now. I do wish I’d been able to work out some more back story for some of the characters I’ve introduced more recently, but it’s not to bad to work this way. I still wish I had a bigger word count. Tomorrow I should break 20,000! -crosses fingers-

Regarding Third Place

It is, however a good place to randomly run into friends unexpectedly.

I wrote 614 words while there, though some of those words were more brainstorming of future events. Only a few sentences were in that category. I had to get some of those revelations out because I kept being worried I’d forget them or accidently go in a different direction.

I did get inspired while there to make beef stew. It’s currently simmering. I want it now…

Note to self

Third Place Commons is not a good destination for me to go to write. At least not by myself. I am thinking of almost nothing on how to continue my story and am too distracted by all the conversation and activity. Blech. Shoulda stayed closer to home…

16757

I caught up from the deficit I created for myself on Thursday. I wrote a little bit throughout the day, but most of it was this evening.

With 2152 words today, that takes over from yesterday as second most words in a day. I’m now all of 90 words ahead of overall pace, but at least it’s ‘ahead’.

I think I need to go somewhere to write tomorrow that isn’t my house. I’ve had a lot of success with that the two times I’ve done it.

Things that aren’t writing

I attended the Seattle contingent of the Wold Wide Flash Mob today. It’s a full geocaching event in 15 minutes. It was complete insanity and chaos, and I had a blast. I didn’t think they’d hold it right in front of the ticket booth. That part seemed kind of weird, but it did lead to the weirdest looks from the muggles nearby. It was a huge group. Can’t wait to hear the totals. There were well over 100 in attendance. So far there are 76 “attended” logs for individuals or groups. They’ve been coming in steadily all day. I think the organizer is going to post an official total based on the physical event logs soon. Those list number of people per log. A lot of the Groundspeak crew showed up as well.

The whole set.

While I was at it, I uploaded my work Halloween pics.

Here’s my finished costume: