Earworms...

I've had a few songs on loop in my head today, in no particular order. It's like a mini playlist set on "random." ;)

One is "Julia" from the Random Colour set. Also, I no longer hear the Horrorpops version when it gets stuck in my head. It's always our cover. :)

Another is "Break on Through to the Other Side" by The Doors. I blame L, who started talking about going to "the other side" when I was about to start my filing.

The third is a Christmas carol, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," which is one of my favourites, and always makes me want to go back to church when I hear it.

( Some of the lyrics )

( Cut for the religiously squeamish. Rambling to do with music and God, but nothing I think that would be considered really offensive. Still, read at your own peril. )

Maybe I'm just too impatient

Okay, let's postulate for a moment. One sends an email that one has spent days thinking about and composing in one's head and worrying about.

How long after sending this email should one wait before giving up on the idea of ever getting an answer?

Let's add to this that the recipient of the email, in theory, checks his email at least once a day, and usually a lot more often than that.

The longer this drags out, the more I'm tempted to throw in the towel. Not that I have intimacy issues and nearly always end up with people who can't communicate properly. No. Not at all. :P

Clearly, instant gratification takes too long for me.

*sigh*

People are complicated.

It's snowing...

Well, in the Saguenay region and Estrie, anyway. Even Bromont. Reports are of something like ten centimeters. I can't find a link.

Makes me want to dig out my snowshoes and run away to Lac-St-Jean.

Birthdays!

I have been remiss, and have missed three birthdays:

caersidi, rdansky, and montecristo have all miraculously aged one year in the space of a day in the last week and a bit.

My apologies for missing the important day, and let me take this opportunity to wish you all many happy returns. :)

:::throws confetti:::

Spam!

Just because I can. ;)

This is a public service announcement:

There is NO "a" in "definitely." The adverb comes from the adjective "definite." Note the lack of "a" at the end of that word too?

Good.

Please, for the love of God, stop spelling it "definatly." That is not a word. It does not exist in the English language. Please stop using it before people come to view it as an acceptable term to use.

I honestly don't understand how native English speakers, who come into regular contact with this word, cannot spell it to save their lives. Exceptions can be made for non-native speakers, but after they've been told a few times how to spell it properly, there's no excuse there anymore either.

That is all. You may now continue with your day.

Screaming characters (NaNoWriMo)

My antagonist began screaming in my head today, on the bus coming home. He snapped, lost it, and started screaming in rage at his victim. Suddenly I understand him better. He still doesn't have a name, and I'm still not sure how my protagonist is going to find him, but it's a start. It also gave me a good way to introduce his motivation later on in the story. Senseless killings may happen all the time, but they don't make for a good murder-mystery.

Someone on the NaNoWriMo Forums, in the mystery forum, specifically, suggested writing your criminal's confession before actually writing the book (whether the criminal confesses in the story or no), in order to get a better idea of how the plot works. I didn't do that, but given the particular nature of what I'm writiing about, the word "confession" triggered that scene in my head, and I think now it might end up being one of the pivotal scenes in the novel. We'll see.

I really, really want this to work this year. This is the first year that I've had a proper idea for the book (rather than a nebulous concept in the back of my mind), with three characters pretty solidly defined and everything. Even if I don't finish the story by the end of November, I want to get my 50,000 words in. So, I'm going to try and put as much as I can on my side this year, and attend the NaNoWriMo meet-ups regularly, haul my ass to the writing jams, and write over my lunch breaks. My first goal is to build up a cushion in my first week (and maybe my second, too), so that when inevitably the crash and burn of week three comes, I won't be too far behind the game.

:::wibble:::

We'll see, I guess.

:::cross-posted to secret_history:::