obligatory report
7844 words, roughly 25 pages in double-spaced, 12 pt times new roman.
the male main character and female main character have met for the first time in the novel, although it is clear that it’s not their first meeting and that they know each other very casually already.
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hard work is its own reward
ha! what kind of nutjob workaholic came up with that pithy phrase? i am trying to think up various rewards for milestones achieved in my nanowrimo project. these are the milestones i hope to celebrate, but i’m not sure what i want as rewards.
- 5,000 – i didn’t have a reward ready but i got excited about it. heh. seppo gave me a kiss. it was fantastic. let’s hope this doesn’t indicate a pattern of denial when i’m not at my milestones though. hrm. oh wait! i took a break to re-read Love Story, by Erich Segal. that’s a pretty dang good reward.
- 10,000 – hitting 5 digits is big.
- 17,000
- 25,000 – halfway victory dance? maybe a nice dinner out.
- 35,000 – should be at the climactic point of book
- 40,000 – the supposed downward slope
- 50,000 – yay! something big. i am not sure what. maybe an expensive present that i’d never ever buy for myself?
i sure hope i finish. maybe i should think of some horribly awful punishment should i fail to meet the final deadline. hrm.
trending downward
i just had a $1.75 bbq pork vietnamese sandwich. it was tasty. 😀
my favorite italian restaurant
seppo and i met max, lynn, and colin for dinner last night at a restaurant near max & lynn’s house. it’s the second time i’ve been there, and i was impressed enough last night to declare that it’s my favorite italian place. and boy, do i love italian. i admit it’s not really traditional italian, so purists may not like it.
i had a fall vegetable soup (shared with seppo), followed by a tagliolini something or another that was… i mean, the flavor was indescribeably good. and let me say, i’ve had some damn good pasta in the past. homemade stuff, out of the kitchen of a friend’s elderly grandma from the “old country” with sauce that’s been simmering all day, that kind of good. it had some bacon and some tomato (cooked up into a very small amount of thick sauce) and maybe mushrooms, with some cheese, and a touch of stewed? jalapenos, just enough to let you know there was something different, but not enough for you to notice it was spicy in any way. i know, weird. but it was just so incredible.
seppo had a chicken dish, which was quite tasty, but nothing to daydream about. but the potatoes that came with them! i had never had such delicate, fluffy, creamy, yet crispy potatoes in my life. i mean, i know this entire post is going to sound like a huge exaggeration because of the extreme adjectives i keep using, but i really can’t describe it any other way. i had never tasted potatoes that tasted so great while tasting exactly like potatoes (and not dressed up so much that you don’t even really taste the potato, because it’s just the carrier for the other flavors). man, they reminded me of the best gnocchi i ever had. heh.
anyway, the dinner was great. the company was good, the ambience was just the right — quiet enough to chat, but loud enough that you don’t feel like you are breaking some sacred silence, the waitstaff was very professional yet friendly without being intrusive or snooty in any way, the decor is elegant yet cozy, and the lighting made everyone look gorgeous. 😀
and the cost? $25/person including a 20% tip. i was shocked both times. for the food and ambience and service, i would have expected to pay easily 2-4 times that before tip, even without alcohol. bay wolf is well-celebrated as second only to alice waters’ chez panisse in the area (french laundry is too far to consider local for me), but this small, unassuming restaurant totally blows it out of the water for me. yes, i know they are in different categories, but whoever heard of aperto?
i’ve had their chocolate souffle before, and i thought about it for two solid weeks afterwards.
eta: i’ve eaten at Oliveto’s before, which was FAR more expensive and much more highly rated, but eating there never shocked with how good things tasted. last night, when i took the first bite of my entree, i made that stupid phony-looking face that people make when tv chefs make them taste something that’s supposed to taste fantastic, except it was for real: a combo of stupefaction and delight. i may even have gasped. heh.
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nanowrimo status
2662 words! i think i am either at the end of chapter one, or the break in the middle of chapter one, depending on how i want it to go.
so far, i’ve introduced the major woman character along with her basic stats, her current circumstances, her motives, and some of her personality traits, three minor supporting characters, and the very first major plot point. yay!
bay wolf
we went to bay wolf last night for dinner. we were seated promptly, treated courteously, and had a very tasty meal. we had a duck liver flan appetizer that was extremely silky and airy, followed by pork loin for seppo and more duck for me. the duck was indeed delicious, as i had read it would be. for dessert, seppo had a persimmon pudding and i had a chocolate souffle cake and a small pot of earl grey. the consistency of the cake was amazingly similar to the duck liver flan, very airy and smooth. seppo commented that the cake was exactly like the alton brownies that i make. heh. all in all, a great meal for a very good/reasonable price, although i think i was expecting to be more awed. i think i would like to go back during a different season, maybe in the summer when the veggies and fruits are drastically different from those that are in season right now.
i spent a little time last night starting the nanowrimo onemola (one month late) last night, after midnight. i am up to 472 words. i’ll need to have three more bursts of writing today. i’ll squeeze one in during lunch.
some of seppo’s presents shipped! yay. now i will proceed to torture him for almost a month.
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update: i snuck in a 15 minute writing session, and am now up to 892 words. yay.
update #2: after lunch break, 1400 words.
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did i say 1400? i meant 1594. woo!
nanowrimo progress meters
i added a meter on the right, under my profile. it’s functional, but i’m not sure how i feel about the way it fits into the look of my website. this link is yet another way i am keeping track of my progress. let’s see how it looks.
silly novelist, charts are for twits
being a twit, i have created a spreadsheet with two charts that will mark the progress of my novel throughout the month of December. one chart tracks the total-to-date word count against the expected progress. the other chart tracks my daily word count against the daily word target.
yoinks.
i am quite excited, but i need to flesh out my characters more. seppo gave me a really good character trait for my male lead yesterday. i need more of those things that will flesh out the characters. with a solid handle on my characters and a skeleton for a plot, i am hoping to be surprised by the twists and turns that they will take me through in the coming month.
adage in action
i did not cry over it, but i spilled milk at work today. it was a spectacular display of copious amounts of liquid in motion. the graceful arc it made as it flew through the air nearly brought a tear to my eyes as i stood there, coffee cup sitting next to me, hands still shaking a milk jug that was no longer there.
ok, so i just cracked up.
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two evenings from now, i shall embark on a month-long journey into bad prose. my bad prose. a couple of things:
- most likely, i will not let anyone read anything until i am done writing, and possibly not until i am done editing.
- i will not allow myself to do any real editing as i write. the analogy is to running a marathon: just because you think you could have run a part of it faster, it doesn’t mean you should go back and run it again. just focus on what is ahead.
- as such, if i do let anyone read any portions, it will not be for constructive criticism, only showers of encouragement to get me through the finish line. remember, quantity, not quality! 🙂 afterwards, i will be open for plenty of constructive criticism.
- i may be a bad friend this month. please forgive me. i will make it up to you, i swear.
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my sister is coming to the US to visit our mom & brothers in atlanta on december 2nd. she’s going to stop by on the way back to korea, from january 13th to 18th. yay! i will get to see her and my two nieces again. seppo will be meeting the little one for the first time. i have to make sure mobi is not going to eat my sister’s young.