Draha is moving along nicely

and all is right with the world! The outline is still going very well. Things are coming to me more quickly now, which is great! A new character is appearing on the scene and I couldn't be happier about it. I love when new characters just happen! I'm really glad I decided to go back to it instead of working on something new.

I really think this story can go somewhere. I was telling a friend about it and she really liked the concept. Since she's getting her Master's in English, I am going to trust her opinion!

first gloves

This is my very first pair of fingerless gloves! I'm so proud of the way they came out. The yarn was Patons Classic Merino, dyed with Kool Aid: Blue Raspberry, Strawberry, and Cherry. The striping happened all by itself, which was totally cool. The pattern is called Knucks. You're supposed to embroider letters on the knuckles to simulate knuckle tattoos, but I haven't decided if I want to do that. I'd also have to really think about what I want them to say. But anyway, here they are!

Stage Managing Adventures: First rehearsals

Well, this cast is simply amazing. We had one read through, one walk through and a stage rehearsal last week and they all went very well. We have a couple of people who are already comfortable with the script enough to put the book down for awhile. It's great to see how serious everyone is about this, but also how much fun they are having. After my last experience with theatre, it's nice to see people having fun again. Not that we didn't have fun during Quilters, but it's just a totally different vibe this time. Everyone is getting comfortable with each other and they seem to really like each other, which is great. It's such a funny, crazy, interesting play, so it's good that they are enjoying the experience. The audience always knows when the actors are enjoying themselves.

My favorite part of theatre is getting to meet new people each time, and this play is full of new people! I'm also having a great time getting to know everyone.

feeling better

I'm feeling so much better about NaNo now.  I really think I made the best decision for me right now.  I've been really working on the Draha outline since I decided to go back to it and it's going really well.  I love this story and I love the world.  World building is something I never thought I would enjoy or do well, but I was wrong, at least on the first count.  We'll see if I was wrong about the second part - I hope I was!

More on the progress later...

Stage Manager Adventures: Auditions

Well, we had auditions for "Duck Hunter Shoots Angel" this weekend and they were pretty successful, if I do say so myself.  We were able to cast the show, which is always good.  Having met the cast, I can say it's going to be a fun group.  There are a few people I've worked with before and a few new people, so that's always a good mix.  One thing I love about theatre is that you get to meet at least one new person every time you're involved with a show.  This time, I'm working with 5 new people!  Well, 6 if you count the director.

Last night I made a contact list and sent it, along with the rehearsal schedule, to the cast.  I'm meeting one cast member at the theatre tonight to hand off his script.  Our first rehearsal is Tuesday.

I had the difficult job of contacting the people who didn't get parts, which is never fun.  The sad thing is, they were all good.  Really good.  But when you have 20 people auditioning for 7 roles, it never works out for everyone.  Someone has to get disappointed.

So anyway, that's the beginning of my Stage Manager Adventure, I suppose.  I can't wait to see what else is going to happen!

Wow - Day 10 already?

Yeah, I've pretty much failed this year's attempt, I think.  There's just so much going on - and the story I was writing went nowhere fast, and all I want to do is work on Draha.  I want to finish that outline and get to the good part - the writing!

So this year, I'm not following the NaNo rules.  I'm going back to the outline and working on it every day.  If I can finish it by the end of the month, I've won my own personal challenge.  If not, I'll keep working on it.  The NaNo story wasn't a horrible concept, but it's just not right for right now.  Draha seems to be crowding my brain so much that it's difficult to write anything else.  I'll come back to the other stories later.

NaNoWriMo: Day 1

Current wordcount: 1700
Time spent writing: 1 hour
Current mood: Annoyed

The NaNo site is driving me nuts.  When it comes up, it's really slow but most of the time, it isn't even coming up.  I think they must be having some serious problems right now.  Hopefully they will get those fixed.

We had our kickoff party today and it was great.  I made goodie bags for all the participants in the region.  They were colorful and bright, and contained little notebooks, pencils, some sugary treats and the NaNo stickers.  Normally I would put more stuff in the bags but I've been so busy I didn't have a lot of time to get them together. 

So today's writing went relatively well, although I'm not exactly happy with the content.  I'll probably end up deleting half of the stuff I wrote today, but there are a few good things in there I can use for later.  This month is always an exercise in restraint for me because the thing I want to do most is to just delete all the stuff I think is crap and start over, but if I keep doing that, I never get anywhere.  I had that problem with Draha the first time I started it, which is why I'm doing the insanely detailed outline before starting over.  So yeah, the story should be interesting and fun to write. 

One thing I'm finding difficult this time is shifting gears.  I've been working on that crazy Draha outline for so long and have been so focused on that world that I'm finding it difficult to leave it and come back to the "real world" where this book is set.  Hopefully that will go away soon, because I want to finish this story.  I think it could be really cute.