Virtual vehicles for the metaverse
I typed the final sentence of the latest chapter, heaved a great sigh of relief, then pulled up the word count. It was exactly 10,000. Weird, huh?
So now that I’ve reached five digits, I have exactly one-fifth of my target word count of fifty thousand. Just repeat what I’ve done four more times, but with different words, and I’m done!
No problem. *shudder*
At this point, I’m beginning to wonder if this was really a smart thing to do. Having signed up for NaNoWriMo six days late, I now have only 22 more days to complete a 50,000 word novel. Well, novella, technically, but as they say on the Nano website, “novel” sounds much more impressive. As you can see by the word count meter on the right, I’m only at about 6,000 words, and my calculator tells me that I need just about 2,000 words per day if I want to reach my goal. It’s not impossible, certainly, but… can I do that and still have some semblance of a plot?
So far I’ve reached my daily quota, but barely, and the I’m hatching the story right off the top of my head, so I absolutely guarantee that this one’s going to be a stinker. But then, at the end of all this, I can boast that I have written a novel. A really painfully, vomit-inducing novel that’s at the same time guaranteed to be the best novel that you have ever read by a guy named “Cubey”.
Break time. I’ll see if I can squeeze out another 2,000 poopie words tomorrow.
In a stunningly stupid move, today I impulsively signed up for National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, for syllable-haters). Their website sums it up best: “National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” It’s an insane writing marathon that sneers at quality in favour of sheer, overwhelming word quantity. The word count is all that matters.
It’s a daunting challenge, made even more so by the fact that I’m several days late off the starting line, and I have no clue what story I could write. I’ve tried writing a novel before, and made it to 20,000 words before realizing just how much trouble I was in, and by 30,000 words, I would rather have chewed my own fingers off than type another word.
So it’s time to pour another steaming mug of rocket fuel coffee, because here I go again!
I have to report that on visiting my local Subway, the Sandwich Artist was willing to tesselate my cheese, rather than overlap. Not only that, but he seemed to appreciate knowing what “tesselation” means. As would I! I can’t help but feel that I’ve truly accomplished something significant today.
Link: An Open Letter to Subway
As you can probably tell from the new “EVENTS!” link on the left and the poll on the right, we at Abbotts Aerodrome are keen to get some group activities happening. For the freefall fans, I’ll start by hosting a weekly skydiving contest on Saturday mornings. You can also look forward to seeing high-speed, timed build-offs, where contestants work to create the best plane/helicopter/jetpack/whatever in 30 minutes.
I got my start in SL hosting events, but back then the Lindens actually gave out L$ to hosts, believe it or not. They’d send you L$500 to organize and host the event, and another L$500 to give out as prize money. These days, I don’t need that kind of incentive to want to bring people to Abbotts. I’d like to get together groups of like-minded aircraft and skydiving afficionados for a bit of cometitive fun.
If you have an idea for an event or if you’d like to host an event yoruself, please feel free to IM your idea to me (Cubey Terra) or Arrekusu Muromachi. Be sure to keep your eye on our new Abbotts Aerodrome Events Calendar to find out what’s going on in Abbotts!