NaBloPoMo thoughts

I'm not sure what the Pillsbury dough boy has to do with it, but today is the last day of National Blog Posting Month. I have thoroughly enjoyed the month and found many wonderful new blogs and blogging friends through it. I have found it is not so easy to post something worth reading every day. On the other hand, participating in the event has allowed me to experiment with posting in ways that I might not have otherwise and not to worry about whether anyone is reading.

I am happy to report that Katie (see yesterday's post) did indeed finish her NaNoWriMo novel and said my NanoRhino helped. She really helped me enormously, too, and I thank her for that.

Today is also the last day of my most recent crazy-round-the-clock work schedule, and I look forward to having a little more time for practicing next week, and for art and reading. And perhaps twiddling my thumbs for a bit. Christmas is upon us, but we've decided to keep it very simple this year.

Unfortunately my flute/cello group will not be playing our regular holiday party this year. The sponsoring organization has decided they need the space we would ordinarily take up for more party-goers. They did invite us to attend as guests, but that is not the same! We will probably play at a nursing home instead, but we have a two-hour program of music and will have to cut a lot to play our usual 45 to 60 minute program for a nursing home. I love playing Christmas music and hate to cut any of these pieces! One year we had five performances during the holiday season, including New Year's Eve performances in two different towns, but perhaps that was excessive. :-)

There are two fiddler events this weekend, the women's practice session, and a performance of the whole group on Sunday as part of the weekend's Christmas parade and activities (we start early). However, it will be just fiddle tunes, no Christmas fiddling tunes, unless we learn some really quick!

Have a good weekend!

NaNoRhino

This NaNoRhino is especially for Katie, who also likes to draw, to encourage you to scamper across that 50,000 word finish line before Friday's deadline. Good luck!

Just imagine he is chasing you. I know it doesn't even look like he can stand up straight, but just imagine. I know you can do it!

(The rhino is from this week's Drawspace challenge. )

NaNoDone!

I am very happy to announce that I have crossed the 50,000 word mark and am officially a NaNoWriMo winner! The novel isn't actually done yet. There is still the big concert at the folk music festival and the resolution of the environmental pollution/cartoon animation mystery, but that should be no problem to wrap up, making up chemicals and chemical interactions as I go.

However, I have decided to completely reorganize this novel-like object and start all over again, from a different viewpoint, in a different point in time, and with slightly different characters. The new novel will have sparkling dialogue, creative wordplay, subtle intellectual humor, and a twisting and turning plot that ultimately makes sense and leaves you with a nice fully resolved feeling in the end. My current novel is lacking some of these things! But I can't tell you how happy I am that I participated in NaNoWriMo, and that I made it across the finish line.

Two-Thirds and Merry Christmas in Vegetablese!

Today marks the 2/3 point through NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo. Whoopee!! At this point I am about 70 percent through my novel (word-count-wise, not in the sense that it has any relationship to anything you might actually want to read), just slightly ahead of schedule. I am hoping to finish it over the weekend so that I will have the remaining week in November to write some coherent blog posts--because I probably will only have the energy to write about three posts in December. :-)

No Plot, No Problem, the guide to NaNoWriMo, suggests that, this week, participants draw colorful and detailed maps of the settings for their novels: perhaps the city where the action takes place, or the layout of a house or other building. Sounds like fun, and useful, too, and I will try to find time to do it.

Rallentando mentioned the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra in a recent post. Thanks to Donna's suggestion, I was able to find several Vienna Vegetable Orchestra clips on YouTube. The orchestra members hollow out veggies and play them like recorders or ocarinas, but most of their instruments are not melody instruments, but rhythm-based percussion created by slapping one veggie against another. It's nice, but sounds like a drum circle not an orchestra. Perhaps it is difficult to get the carrots to play in tune with the broccoli.

I came across another guy in Japan who plays tunes on his veggies. I found him very entertaining, and I hope you do too. Here are my favorites:

First, his rendition of Angels We Have Heard on High, on large broccoli ocarina.

Next his Old Castle's Moon on carrot pan-flute. (You will recognize this from the Suzuki books).

Finally, Old Folks at Home, on slide carrot ocarina.

If you like these, there are more at heita3's page.

I could not find anyone playing an instrument made out of a potato. There is a sweet potato ocarina, but it is made out of clay, not a real potato. How disappointing!

Halfway

Halfway through NaBloPoMo, I have run out of things to say, so today's post is a short one (for me) about the effects of nablo and nano.

Visits to my site are way up, according to Sitemeter. Some of this is due to other nablos and nanos visiting my site, but most of it is a result of people searching for information on the movies or cellists and musical groups I have mentioned, and a fair number are people looking for information on how to draw cellos and celery. Yes, people are looking for information on how to draw celery. I am happy to provide that.

The problem with nablo is that I don't have time to write some posts that take a little more time to write, like a thoughtful post on drawing celery and cellos, or playing Scottish fiddle music on the cello, or reviews of two wonderful CDs by Scottish cellists, Seylan Baxter and Christine Hanson. I will write these reviews, but, for now, all I have time to say is that I recommend them both very highly!

As for nanowrimo, I have discovered that I can write a novel if I just sit down and do it. My novel will require a lot of editing, but there is definitely a plot, characters, and even humor in it.

I have met some interesting people in both nablo and nano and am tonight meeting with another nano novelist with whom I have a lot in common. She's even a musician. It is great to talk to her and others about this noveling experience. I am also in touch with a very energetic nano writer and college student, and her enthusiasm helps keep me going.

I feel a little the way I did when the kids were little. This is loads of fun, but could I take a nap, for just a day or two?

Martian Child

My daughter and I went to see Martian Child over the weekend. I don't go to movies very often, but I've been reading No Plot, No Problem (a guide to novel writing for NaNoWriMo), and one of the suggestions was to take a break and watch a television show or go to a movie and think about plot development. My daughter picked the movie, but it turned out to be a great one for my purposes. The protagonist is an author (a very successful one, kind of a science fiction version of J. K. Rowling) who decides to adopt a seven-year-boy who thinks he is from Mars. He's single, a widower, so the movie is all about the connection between the father and his unusual son, without the bother of interaction with a mom or even a nanny. It all works out fine, of course, because this is a movie, and the father writes a novel based on the experience, guaranteed to be a feel-good best-seller.

The real-life book that the real-life movie is based on is "semi-fiction" by [apparently famous] science fiction author David Gerrold who adopted a six-year-old son as a single parent. In real life the Gerrold and his son played a game about pretending to be Martians; the child didn't really believe he was a Martian, as he did in the movie. In real life Gerrold is gay, and the father in his real-life book is gay. I guess introducing the whole issue of gay parenthood would have changed the focus of this movie. Perhaps they could have made his sexual preferences ambiguous, though, instead of making him a widower still grieving over his dead wife. The book was originally a short story, then revised as a novelette.

My NaNoWriMo novel (also more truthfully a novelette, estimated to run only the minimum 150 pages) is "semi-fiction" too. It's based on an experience that happened to me about ten years ago. I am making lots of changes to "novelize" my story, but sometimes truth is so much stranger and more satisfying than fiction, and sometimes I just want to tell the story the way it happened. I have introduced several other characters, and I made myself a proficient cellist in the novel, though I did not take up the cello until a couple of years after the events in the novel took place, and I am not yet as proficient as the narrator of my book. I threw in a harp player for good measure. Adoption was a factor in my real-life experience so one of my characters is an adoptive parent. In my novel, the two main characters, who would not have done this in real life, collaborate to write a musical instead of a novel. I needed to depart from reality a bit and wanted a feel-good ending. :-)

So, it was the perfect movie for me to see, legitimizing the "semi-fiction" novel and allowing me continue merrily on my novelization path. I just hit the halfway mark of 25,000 words and added a word-count widget to the sidebar of this blog so that those who are interested can see how I am doing.

Next, my daughter and I plan to see August Rush, another adoption tale, this time with cello. Hmm, I wonder who will play the cellist when my book is made into a movie....

Nano update

It's hard to believe we're already one week into November. One week into the month of daily blog posting for NaBloPoMo and of writing a 50,000 word novel for NaNoWriMo. That and a Nor'easter will wipe a person out.

Thus far, I have posted to my blog every day (allowing myself a post I didn't quite post until the next day because of the storm), I have written 14,120 words of my novel-like construction (an average of 2,000 words per day), and I have met many interesting bloggers, novel writers, blogger-novelists, blogger-musicians, and blogger-artists.

The NaBloPoMo site is great for getting to know people and finding blogs of interest. About 6,000 bloggers are participating and there are a multitude of special interest groups (including cello bloggers). I have joined groups for people who are doing both the novel and the daily blogs, people who love books, people who love music, people who live in New England and people who live in Massachusetts, people who are creative, and people who sketch. I have a bunch of "friends," some of whom I have actually communicated with. I have checked out many people's blogs and they have checked out mine. It feels like a bustling social, colorful endeavor, and it has been fun meeting people.

(Even if you are not committed to writing a post every day, you might want to visit NaBloPoMo just to see what's happening and maybe find some new blogs of interest. You can still participate, even if you know you're not going to "win." If you are a member of CelloBloggers, you can just use your ning login information.)

Curiously, before November, I always had plenty of ideas about what to blog about, and I blogged frequently, though not quite every day. Some days, I would have to choose between 3 or 4 blogworthy (in my opinion) topics. Since the start of blogwriting month, I have been starting to wonder if I can find enough topics to make it through the month. I'm sure I can, but there is a little stress about this that I didn't expect to feel. I am thinking of starting a notebook of blog ideas, kind of a journal about a journal.

NaNoWriMo is a little different. It is hard to meet people there because the website is very slow, mainly because there are, I have heard, about 100,000 people writing novels this month. All my "writing buddies" on nanowrimo (except for one) are people I met on NaNoBloMo or Drawspace.
Even if you don't talk to your writing buddies, they are good to have because you can compare your word count with theirs, and, if they post an excerpt from their novel, you can read it. It is also possible to go to local gatherings of nano novelists and meet them in person. There is a meeting nearby tonight, and I might stop by on my way to early music rehearsal.

Both nanos have forums where you can read and post to your heart's content when you are not blogging or noveling. On the novel forum, I read the posts of a college student whose self-imposed goal for the month is to write not one, but three novels, and not 50,000 word (about 150 pages), but 100,000 word novels. (And you thought college students went out partying to relieve stress!) She finished her first 100,000 word novel on Monday, I think, about five days into the month. That is a lot of writing. She says she types very fast and she does not go back to edit. She or another fast writer said that they do not pause to think of exactly the right word or turn of phrase; they just plow through the writing. Well, to each his own, but 50,000 words is enough for me. And to me, writing involves a lot of thinking of just the right word to use.

Am I writing a decent novel?, you may ask. Probably not, but I am viewing this as practicing, kind of to figure out what I want to write, and where I want to go from here. It's experimental. I am glad I am doing this, and I have to say that I wouldn't be writing a novel if it weren't for nano. I would have quit the first day, saying this is just too busy a week (every week is) for writing. But, I am committed to aiming at 2,000 words a page. It is not that hard. I've been doing about 1,000 in the morning and another 1,000 in the evening, at one or two sessions in the morning and one or two in the afternoon. In terms of word count, 2000 words a day is really quite achievable, and a draft novel in a month, or even two, is quite doable, so long as you persevere. Of course it will need to be edited, but I usually enjoy that part of writing.

Because I have been so organized about writing this month, I have also been more organized about work and cello practice. Believe it or not, I am practicing more than usual, and also spending more time with family. I may collapse at some point, but, for now, all is well.

NaNo/Blo Fun

Love this notion--posting until the Internet explodes! I am participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) this November, only a day or so away. Why? It just sounds like fun. I enjoy writing and find the social pressures of group writing motivating. Doing this as part of a national and international effort makes writing a novel sound less unrealistic and persistently blogging every day, no matter what, less irrational.

There is already a mini-cellobloggers on NaBloPoMo, thanks to Gottagopractice.

I'm also considering my own add-ons: NaCePraMo (National Cello Practice Month) (practice every day); and NaExOcMo (National Exercise Occasionally Month), the latter because, until this morning, I hadn't been to the gym since July. I'm not saying every day for this one: two or three times a week would be a good start for me. Maybe this is really the most important one--I felt great after my session today, though I did tumble off into a nap shortly afterward.

If you are a more creative musician than I am, you can participate in NaSoAlMo (National Solo Album Month), in which you write and record an entire album in a month. Maybe next year, if my novel does not rocket to the top of the best seller list.

NaNoArtMo, (National Novelist Art Month, though you don' t have to be a novelist to participate) in January, sounds more doable. You only have to create 10 art projects in ten different media in a month and do an "artist date" every week (I don't know what that is). I could only find a link to NaNoArtMo 2007, so don't know if there is a 2008 effort.

If none of these appeal to you, you can always invent your own. Or not. :-)

Forty Cellists

Of the 42,000 writers who have thus far signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMO) and filled in a personal profile, 40 people list cello playing as one of their non-noveling interests. Some of them also blog, but I haven't gone through the list yet to see if any of them are bloggers who blog about the cello. Of the few profiles I have looked at, many are teenagers. Wish I had started my novel-writing and cello-playing when I was a teen!

There are only 13 people listing fiddle or fiddling as an interest. 98 people list flute, and there are 150 violinists. 721 people paint, and 1,920 people draw.

Last year there were 79,000 nano participants so I am guessing a lot of people will be signing up this week, including, probably, another 40 cellists. Cool.

Looking at my blog, you'd think all I did this week was celery-related, but it was in fact a very music-filled week: two cello lessons, an early music rehearsal, two church concert rehearsals, a fiddle session, and, tonight, a fiddle performance. Tomorrow is the first gathering of a new group of women fiddlers, so I am going to have to go to that too.

Meanwhile, I have yet another project to finish up, so will get back to work for now.