A Novel Approach (To Me)

I’m going to spend time tonight on my outline for the 3 Day Novel Contest.  I want a more thorough outline this time.  I have the characters figured out (though I haven’t done anything as formal as character sketches–not sure if I will).

Things are quiet so far on Twitter using the hashtag #3DNC. I wonder if anyone from last year other than Heather and I are going to participate.  Hopefully we see some activity in starting in the next few days before the contest starts.  There is activitiy already on the chat boards through the 3 Day Novel Contest site, but that seems so archaic compared to the experience I had last year on twitter.  Still, I’m creeping the boards…curious to see what people are talking about.

Only 2 more sleeps (unless I choose to sleep Friday night and get up very early–which is a real possibility).

I’ve decided to take my husband away on a short trip for our 16th anniversary (Sept 17th).  I’ve booked a hotel, made arrangements with a few of my girlfriends to farm out my four children and now I’m planning the details.  I think the planning is almost as fun as the trip may turn out to be.  There has only been negative experience in the planning process so far.  The hotel claimed to have the ultimate concierge service…promising an excellent experience. So, not being terribly shy–and feeling I’m already paying too much for the hotel and entitled to a little “excellent” concierge service–I called them up with a few requests.  Here’s how it went:

Me: Could you please arrange to have the hotel “sedan” pick us up at the airport (it appears to be a free service listed on the website).

Concierge: Sure, I’d be happy to arrange that for you Miss Smith (oh, how flattering to be called Miss).  The cost is only $150 each way.

Me: (After a shocked pause).  Ummm, in thinking about it, a Yellow Cab might be fun. I hear they are an experience that should not be missed.

C: Of course, ma’am (No way–did he really just sniff and call me ma’am? Wasn’t I a “miss” just a moment ago). They are $35 and DON’T require a reservation.

Me: Ok, that sounds perfect. Listen, I think it would be nice to take Afternoon Tea in our room.  Could you arrange for it to be waiting for us when we get there?

C: Sorry, it is only served downstairs.

Me: But it’s listed on the website “in-room dining” menu.

C: Oh.

Me: So, is that a no?

C: Yes.

Me: Yes?

C: No. The website is wrong.

Me: Oh.

Me: Ok, this is my last request.  I really hope you can help me with this one. Are you ready?

C: Yes ma’am. (aaak…again with the ma’am)

Me: We are arriving at 1pm but check in is at 3pm.  Could you arrange an early check in for us?

C: Of course, we would love to do that for you (Thank goodness, finally a yes!)  BUT it cannot be guaranteed in advance and is subject to availability.

Me: Oh. So is that a yes or a no?

C: I’ll put a note on your reservation.

I think that was a “no” disguised as a “yes”. I have to say, if that is the best concierge service in NYC, I’m afraid to think what a bad concierge would be like.  By the way, I am going to order Afternoon Tea from the room service menu when I get there…I’ll just bet the website is right and he just didn’t want to follow up to check.

Oh well, I’m not letting that stop me from having fun. I’ve mapped out some walking tours. I’m dying to walk Chinatown and get some authentic dim sum.

I also want to do all the other touristy walking tours (see the Chrysler Building, NYC Library, Central Park, 5th Avenue, etc).  We’ll definately tour Times Square…there are a few pubs I want to check out.

Overall, it promises to be a whirlwind tour and lots of fun. I have our days planned to see as much as we can in the 3 days we are there, but if we want to relax and throw away the schedule and see less, I’m all for that too.

The count down is on!!  Only 8 more sleeps until I enter the weekend of little or no sleep…otherwise known as the 3 Day Novel contest!  I have a very rough outline made and plan to flesh it out a bit more so that I don’t need to worry about spending any time thinking that weekend…I can just write.

I’ve entered this contest a few times.  I’ve tried the approach of sitting down with no idea at all about what I would write.  This can be a wonderful creative exercise and I was amazed at the great, crazy, stupid, weird, odd, and even a little bit wonderful ideas that my brain came up with under pressure.  Especially since I was sleep deprived and hopped up on caffeine (or maybe that was the secret of where all the ideas came from).  I can honestly say though…this is not the best route for me. I spent so much time thinking, that it was very bad for my word count.  I only reached a word count of about 7500 words that weekend.  My goal was 25,000 + words (at least 100 pages), so you can see how badly I failed that year.

Last year I did a bit better. I didn’t write an outline, but I did start with a concept.  I had an idea of the characters and the story I wanted to tell.  I got hung up because one of the characters developed a talent that required research to get some details I needed. Time lost.  Then friends dropped by and guilted me into visiting to let them know how I was doing so far. More time lost. Still, I more than doubled my word count from the prior year.  It was an improvement…and I was happy.  Even better, I made some friends on twitter specifically because of the conversations at #3DNC!

This year, I’m doing a proper outline and I’ll know my characters inside out before I start.  Does that defeat the purpose of the contest? Perhaps…but it is allowed, so I’m not cheating.  The less you do in advance, the more creative you are likely to get.  I guess I’ve decided that I like my creativity up front and that planning ahead is the only way I, personally, can hope to hit the word count. I’m sure that other writer’s don’t have this problem. I admire them.

So far, I have pages of notes already in my moleskin notebook.  (I prefer the standard black lined notebook, but I had to buy red this time because they didn’t have any black left. Luckily, the colour of the notebook doesn’t seem to have hurt my creativity.)  My notebook and I seem to be getting along well so far. LOL!

I’d love to be a finalist in the 3 Day Novel Contest this year, but I’ll settle for getting a story on paper that I can work to revise and complete this year. That’s a win in my books.

I’m finishing up a writing course I’ve been taking.  The instructor has been amazing and I have a few more tools in my belt–so it was money well spent.  I have more to learn (will I ever NOT have more to learn?) and have signed up for another course that starts in November that focuses on the art of writing scenes.  The break will give me time to write, to read the course material, and to participate in the 3 Day Novel Contest!!   I’m so excited!

Well, after an extended vacation, I’m back!

We took the kids camping over the holidays, but I don’t have any pictures up yet.  The weather was great and we had a blast.  I came back for one week at work and then jumped on a plane and headed to Calgary for the weekend to pick up my daughter who was visiting my mom.

We had a great time!  I had hoped to see the “River of Light” event while I was in Calgary but, unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out. I popped over to Heather’s blog and, luckily, she did a great job of capturing the event!

I did get to Banff and visited the Fairmont Hotel.  Now that’s an amazing spot.  I think next time I’ll bring my bathing suit and hit the hot springs!!

Afterwards we did some shopping in Banff and then headed out to do some sight seeing in the area.  We took a drive to Lake Minnewanka (my niece calls it Lake Willy Wonka). Now that’s a beautiful spot!

It’s a glacier fed lake (or so I am told) and I believe it.  That water was COLD! There scuba divers preparing for a dive and they were in full dry suits with layers of clothes underneath.

Yah, so the scuba divers were layering up and what does my daughter say? “Hey, I’m going to go for a swim.”.  What did I say? Something to the effect of “Have you lost your mind?”

Do you see the teeny tiny head in this picture.  That is my daughter swimming and shouting something to the effect of “my arms are getting numb”.  The scuba girl asked me if we were from Ontario.  I said, “yes, how did you know”.  She said “because only someone from Ontario would swim in that lake”.  I’m not sure what she meant by that, exactly. LOL!

Oh, by the way…remember the bikini trauma?  That’s my 15 year old daughter. Feel my pain people…

Just as we were loading back into our minivan–a.k.a. “the tour bus” (and while I was covering my child with as much clothing as I could muster up), we encountered…mountain goats!

The next day we went shopping and we went to the Calgary Tower.  Have I mentioned my fear of heights?  There is a section that is a glass (well, more likely plexi-glass) floor.  Here is the view if you stand on it.

Yep, that’s a loooooooooonnnnnggggg way down!  Did you know that children can smell fear? I know because my daughter smelled mine and made me get on the glass to take a picture.  Did I mention that I’m so afraid of heights that I won’t even get on a ferris wheel?

So, is the smile convincing?  Do I look like I’m having fun? Nope, I didn’t think so.  I was white knuckling it. Still, it is a fun picture.  Good times.