NaNoWriMo "am I going to die?"

I won!

2009-12-04T06:10:00.000-08:00

Nanowrimo is over! (shoo!)

her is my web badge!

I am going to continue to update this blog with personal notes, nerd jokes, and other random stuff. So keep checking back!

Eating Literary Dust, Trudgeing Along, Book Excerpt, other crap :)

2009-11-09T07:28:00.001-08:00

Hi again,

Funny how a guy loses all his steam in like 5 seconds. Yep thats me, I had to spend all of one day catching up, and then I thought I had lost allot of it PANIC!

But I'm trying to get back on track! Partially because I am tired of eating Anna's Literary Dust. What kind of a jerk are you, to have a good long writing spurt just before my literary determination fails? I mean thats just really mean of you to leave me on the starting line while you pass the 20,000 word mark. Yup I'm pretty mad at you write now.

JK, Congratulations your doing great! You have made me want to work harder! As I think I will.

Anyways here is a small excerpt of my writing, enjoy, or don't.

From Chapter 4

There is nothing like seeing a new face, it is as though you were united with an old friend, but yet you are not. The face itself wasn’t strange as much as it’s features, it seemed familiar.

At this point in the story, a movie picture would have our protagonist suddenly recognize the face, as that of his father, who he had not seen since his childhood. The movie would probably end with them walking slowly away in each others arms, the sun would (appropriately) be rising in the background. Yo-Yo Ma would be playing gently “Simple Gifts” as accompanied by Allison Crouse. The problem is that even if Yo-Yo Ma had the inclination to take Allison Crouse to the top of a mountain and perform for free (yours truly would be unable to pay them). They would have realized that the face did not belong to James’s long lost father, or to anyone he could recognize.

In fact the face was one which no one in this world would recognize. It did not in fact belong to this world, though it did look very like a face this world would hold. But it was not.

Writing (like crap) and loving it!

2009-11-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

Yup, my writing right now stinks, but I love it anyway!

I started five days ago with the goal of just getting it done. I accomplished my goal on the first night, after that I wrote, but fell WAY behind. But I am catching up! I think that at this rate I should be totally done by the end of the month, hopefully.

Well wish me luck!

John Lewis Sims

NaNoWriMo with a' full head of steam! (along with some chocolate and a season of 24 :))

2009-10-31T17:25:00.000-07:00

Just got back from our Halloween Party, and I'm ready to go! Some of you guys might be doing this to, but my plan is to stay up until midnight on the first and last day of NaNoWriMo. So the fun (or pain) begins in a little less than five hours! I plan to have some hot drinks on hand, along with some Halloween left-overs, and watch what I can of 24 (season 7).

if you guys stay up than text me on my phone (806-638-9798) or skype (john.sims84) or gmail (jlhasastupidusername) or fb (jlsims) I'll be there!

I'm still happy with the clouds people idea. I think I could write allot about it. Good luck to all of you guys who are in this adventure with me!

Happy Halloween/Writing!

John Lewis Sims

Cloud People, & Halloween...

2009-10-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the night! I plan to stay up till midnight to get mt 1666(.666) words done!

I now have an idea!

Setting: Our world, in a random city.

Characters: Nari a cloud person, and Randy a normal person :)

Plot: Nari falls from his land by a random natural freak accident. The book is spent returning Nari home.

Simple, billowy, finishable and over all something I could write 175 pages on. (I hope)

Thanks for Reading!

John Lewis Sims

Count Down to NaNoWriMo (Yikes!)

2009-10-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

Three days until NaNoWriMo, and I don't even have a plot (gulp) :O. I have had several Ideas, but nothing I could write 175 pages on...

Idea 1 is...

As I don't have allot of time for character drafting, take characters that are in the open domain, and see what happens.

Pros: Very little brain power is needed, just take those characters (such as Captain Nemo and Odysseus) and repeat lines that they say in their respective books over and over and over.

Cons: I would look really cheep.

Idea 2...

Draft 1 character fully. Stick him in some huge mess (like in Kafka's Metamorphosis, cool book :)) and try to 1 kill him off in 174 pages (a slow death) or 2 get him out of the mess.

Pros: I have a character to play the story off of so I don't have nothing. I can get my drafting over with quickly.

Cons: I lose a whole day drafting, that I could spend on procrastinating. Plus all I have is one character, I am stuck writing 175 pages about 1 guy and how he dies.

Idea 3...

Write down 20-30 of my favorite names (ie Bob, Jane, Fred). Write down 15-20 of my favorite openings (ie rage the ruinous wrath of Achilles, once upon a time, or so-and-so awoke to find that had turned into vermin). Stick the names in a hat and draw one, do the same with the openings.

Pros: No thinking is involved, I get my first idea quickly and don't have to spend alot of time drafting

Cons: Somehow "Rage the ruinous wrath of Fred" doesn't strike me as the best opening.

Lastly Idea 4...

A young business man who is obsessed with the material (wealth, power, fame, his job) gets stuck in the wilderness with an old black women who owns nothing (and doesn't want to). I could pull some great dialog from those two characters.

Pros: Lots of dialog meaning that I could wind up with a great story that carries a great message.

Cons: I am not the best with writing dialog. Depending on how motivated I am, I could wind up with my two characters sitting across from one another discussing turnips (or something sappy like that).

Oh well I'm sure I'll come up with something, someday, somhow :'-( (soft sobs of desperation followed by a loud zap, as my tears fry my computer)

*Sniffs*

John Lewis Sims

Death by NaNoWriMo "Prelude: Details..."

2009-10-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

I consider myself to be a detail person, and as NaNoWriMo doesn't exactly allow for details I may as well have some fun now.

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

Participants: 120,000

Finishers: 20,000

Goal: 50,000 words

Time: 30 days

Daily: 1666 words

The largest paper I have ever written was 1500 (and that was in four weeks).

Ok I've had my fun :)

John Lewis Sims

Death by NaNoWriMo "Prelude: The First Temptation"

2009-10-26T19:16:00.001-07:00

And probably not the last happened five seconds after pressing the "Publish Post" button. I kind of thought that after I pressed the shiny orange button that things would get easier. It wasn't. Getting to the end of anything for me, (so far at least) has been hard. From reading, to Super Mario Land, to finishing football 2-a-days.

I got up from the computer to realize that I had all of ten minites to throw on my football gear and get on the road to football (no simple task I can tell you). I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom strung my belt, threw on some pads, and ran like High Ho Silver to the car. "Sweet! we have 20 minutes!" I thought as the car went into reverse and backed out of the driveway. "Man, am I glad that we only have to watch game film today!" I said as the car sped past the fields". "Crap!" I said as the car rolled to a stop at the field and I found all the team stretching and throwing on their pads instead of pre-pareing to watch game film.

Game film has been (and all ways will be) the Oasis in the desert of football. All that you have to do is watch some guys you have never met, play some other guys you have never met. The fun part is that you can spend the whole time laughing at their mistakes and try to force the idea of "Oh I did that last game." from coming to the top of your mind.

So you can understand my disappointment at not having game film. The rest of practice wasn't so bad, after stretches we ran around the obstacle course a while and talked about the failures of NFL players and teams. A thought hit me in the middle of practice (yes the post does have something to do with writing a novel) maybe game film is kind of like writing. The point of film is to learn from others failures. My point in watching game has been to laugh at the stupid kid who couldn't catch the ball. So when I go onto the field I drop the ball like "that stupid kid" did and tell my self "oh its ok tomorrow is another day and at least you aren't as bad as (fill in the blank)".

The point of all this being that I give treat myself different tan I do others. Especially in writing, I think "wow that guy wrote something really stupid, I'd never do that. Maybe I want to quit ore and more because I don't criticize myself not at all and others way to much. So I feel justified in quiting instead of ending with a story that is really bad.

Just a thought.

John Lewis Sims

Death by NaNoWriMo "Prelude: Why I Have to Try"

2009-10-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

"NaNoWriMo, wow what a nerdy name." I muttered as I checked my Facebook for the third time that mourning. "What a lot of work for nothing." I sip some more coffee and return to the post, hesitantly. My eyes scan the screen another time (I was bored with facebook, you-tube, gmail ect.). For writers that are participating in NaNoWriMo this year, these blog posts are worth checking out. (not me haha). "I keep telling myself, I'm not going to make an idiot of myself." For some unexplainable reason I kept reading. The post talked on about getting your work done on a schedule for getting your work done. Pfffff (the thought I had kept in my head manifested its self as droplets of spit that settled on my computer) Like they're really going to get it done! Most of them will probably write out some crap about some chick and dude falling in love and then the writers will loose their steam and sputter to a complete stop. I got up from the computer in disgust, well I'm not going to be made an idiot! "The easy way to not look stupid is to never try" I told myself. I slammed the computer screen and slowly went to change into my football gear.

I had been in football for a year. We had lost most of our games and I spent most of my pre-practice time fearing humiliation. Thoughtsof "gosh I hope that kid doesn't cream me again, looked like an idiot" and "gosh I hope this goes quickly I wana get home fast" swirled through my head as I slowly pull on my wrist coach, and head towards the door carrying my pads and helmet.

In the car I remember times in the past I had tried to write. As I remembered book after book after book that I was sure I wanted to write and failed at writing, one word came to mind, "Failure". That was my carrier as a writer five failed attempts at a book, several notebooks that had random notes that were now unreadable, and one "B" in the 9th grade. "I wish I could write." "I wish I was determined" "I wish I never had to write" "I wish I could get away from doing hard things".

Practice was cold and hard. We spent most of the day running back and forth chasing the ball and pretending to hit the kid who cought it. "I'm glad I have Friday off, and we only have two weeks of this left." Coach gave us a speech in the middle of practice on giving a hundred percent and getting it over with. It must have worked because the rest of practice went smoothly. I lined up in my usual position on defense (aka a hitting dummy) and prepared to chase "that fast kid" across the field. I got ready for the ball to be snapped. "down!" "snap the dang ball! my legs groan" "set" "come on!" "hut!" "its about time!". I fire into the kid across from me and fall on my face. "crap!" the guys start laughing as "the quarter back" effortlessly lobs the ball towards "that fast kid" and scores with little or no effort. *sigh* another day of practice over.

In the car my tired mind is still thinking about what I had read that mourning. NaNoWriMo, my writing assignment, and the weeks math homework that I had just finished. I reach in my pocket for my ipod and before I feel the cold metal I withdraw my hand. "I'm bored". Slowly for some unexplainable reason, tears start trickling out of my eyes. "I have everything I want, why do I cry?" slowly it hits me "I'm not happy" I have everything I want music, movies, friends, a cell phone, cash, a debit card, a Facebook account but I'm still not satisfied. The tears keep flowing down my cheeks, this is crazy.

I had called myself a "Christian" for a while, and I had always been able to give the "right" answer. A month ago I began reading my Bible again and that seamed to keep me from being depressed. Until now, I had been happy with getting a passing 75% with little effort and had felt pretty decent. But this was different, I felt depressed anyway.

I thought back to a conversation I had with my dad about carriers. The conversation started with the normal Socratic question "why do we work?". I answered with my "good kid" answer "to feed our families" the rest of the conversation dealt with understanding what we enjoy about certain jobs and find what God created us to enjoy in life. At the end of the discussion I realized that I had no idea what made me happy. At first I thought "hmmmm thats interesting". It later motivated me to make a list of times I was happy in the past and from that figure out why those events made me happy.

In my head I ran over that list. It slowly dawned on me that 90% of the times I was happy was after I had finished doing learning or working. Gosh, why hadn't I seen this before! I am not happy with having everything I want! I'm happy when I serve or I learn or I finish something hard. I am happy when I accomplish.

I had known this before then or at least I thought I knew it. But it had never really hit me hard enough for me to want to do something about it. I had been happy before because dad was home enough to stay on my back and make me do my best so consequently I was depressed allot less often. Football helped some as well because coach physicly forced me to leave my comfort zone and accomplish stuff that I was sure I couldn't do. But now that football was ending I had become more and more depressed.

I need to work harder. That is the simple truth of the matter. I cannot give 20% and expect to be happy at the end of the day. I need to be working, serving, and living like Christ died for me! I don't know what all this my involve, at the beginning of the year it was football before that it was the reading and learning involved in school, before that it was dad pushing me to accomplish goals of different kinds. Now, for a start I think that its NaNoWriMo. An Impossible goal (for me at least) of writing 750 pages.

The change starts here. It wont a be easy, and determination will not always be there. But I would rather give my best and be satisfied at the end of the day, than give the 20% and stay depressed.

Thanks for reading. The fact that you did makes me feel like I have friends. I plan to post my work to this blog and occasionally on facebook.

Thanks Again!

John Lewis Sims