Check back here on December 10th to find out the answer!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Nano Week 2 - Dull, Dreary, Disasterous... oh and fromage.
What can I say about week 2? Other than thank god it's over....The second week of Nano always seems to be a problem for me because writing a novel has lost a little of it's luster by then. Your main characters have been introduced, your setting is set and your caffeine reserves are still probably pretty full. Not mine, mind you, because let's be honest, mine are never full. Even if I have a full XL tea, 1 bag in with milk from Tim Horton's in my hand I will still order another one if someone goes on a run to Tim's. To put it another way, people at my Tim Horton's know my name, some of them recognize my voice from thousands of other Burlingtonians and for the rest I have a code word. Yes you heard me correctly, a code word.
It's also the week when your friends stop looking at you with respect and admiration for writing a novel in a month. Instead it's replaced with a peculiar look that I have termed 'mishegoss' (It's a yiddish phrase that means bizzare, confusing or crazy actions). So many people are inordinately confused with the idea of writing a novel in a month and the term crazy is used far too freely for my liking. Thousands of people from all around the world do this every year, so is it really crazy? Who knows. Although for most of the people in my life I want to point out that writing a novel in a month was not the tipping point for me to go from sane to crazy. However, sane people are trusted more than lunatics so I hold my tongue and bide my time.
Week 2 is also full of some pretty boring dialogue, basically the literary equivalent of watching grass grow or paint dry. It's horrible to read and excruciating to write but it's necessary to further the plot along. Even roller coasters need that build up before you're screaming your head off in excitement or perhaps terror. My boring part was a new co-worker being lead around her new place of work, shown her new office and introduced to her new boss. I became so bored writing it that I had the boss throw an impromptu tea party on her desk. I didn't invite the mad hatter but I thought about it seriously for far longer than I want to admit.
Then on Thursday something horrible happened followed by something wonderful on Friday. Thursday night saw me staying up quite late working, at 2am I realized that I was too tired to 1. Shower 2. Write Thursday's 1667 words. So I went to sleep feeling guilty. But as I showered Friday morning I realized that it wasn't that bad, I was only 3334 words behind, which I could easily make up after work by sitting in my Tim Horton's drinking tea after tea until I finished. Instead I started writing at my desk at 5:36pm and I didn't finish until 9:03pm! Not only did I catch up on the words I was behind but I wrote a full day ahead.
Of course if my stomach hadn't been disturbingly vocal I probably would have kept writing for even longer. But it's pretty creepy to be sitting in a silent office listening to your own growling stomach monster, especially when the growls start sounding like words, French words like 'Fromage' and 'BonBon'.
Stay tuned for Week 3 - Finally hitting 25,000 words or 'Yay me, I'm half way done!'
--Heather
Friday, November 5, 2010
My nanowrimo journey continues...
A brief recap - Nanowrimo is national novel writing month. 30 days of literary abandon designed to get you to write a 50,000 word novel. It's free, fun and incredibly challenging. Week 1 - It's a few days in and I've managed to not only keep up with my daily word goal but surpass it slighty every day. Yesterday for example I wrote a whole extra hundred and fourteen words. Which doesn't seem like a lot, but when you force yourself to write 1667 words every day, any extra that you can stretch out is like icing on your literary cake.
Last year I wrote a novel set in medieval times with sorcerers, dragons, grog and mead. But for this year's literary adventure I decided wanted something a little more modern and since my attention span for non-fiction literature is next to nothing, I started writing a novel about spies. Spies with super powers. :)
It's funny what happens when you start out an on epic writing journey. You excitedly type out the beginning of your novel, everything is new: the characters, setting and even the plot. There's a vague idea or a detailed plan in your head of where everything is going to go, what's going to happen, who's going to die from a mysterious shovel related death and who's going to fall in love. But as you actually start to write it things seem to change randomly without you knowing about it. For instance, last night I had a little epiphany. My main character who's point of view I have been writing from for over 10,000 words is not in fact the centre of my novel universe. Her new friend Temperance is. That little discovery made me want to jump up and down in excitement and cry big salty tears. On the one hand my novel seemed to have new life but on the other I had spent over 10,000 words writing in the wrong direction.
But nanowrimo isn't about going back to the beginning and starting over (thank god), it's about powering on until the end because the only way to get to the end of your novel is through it. So today I'm going to write from Temperance's point of view, flush out her background and maybe put in some interesting dialogue about how she got her special spy code name.
Stay tuned, an update of week 2 is coming soon...
--Heather
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Nanowrimo: The adventure starts Nov. 1st!
So you remember that movie, Bucket List? Characters created a list of all the different things they wanted to do before they kicked the bucket. Included on my own personal list are the following:
Oh yes you can!
November is National Novel Writing Month, a fun, fly by the seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by midnight on November 30th. By setting a ridiculous deadline you worry about quantity not quality. This approach forces you to take risks, lower your expectations and push yourself further than you probably ever thought possible.
Let’s not kid ourselves though, you will be writing a lot of crap. All of us do. But there is a sense of freedom that comes by simply grabbing an idea and running with it no matter what the costs, to spend the month creating with literary abandon.
Writing a novel in a month is by no means easy. It means late nights, carpel tunnel syndrome and spending more on coffee in a month then you normally spend on gas. But the sense of accomplishment you get at the end is near euphoric. It’s something everyone should experience.
Nanowrimo brings together writers from all over the world, all focused on the same crazy goal. In 2009 over a hundred and fifty thousand participants started vigorously writing their novels on November 1st; astonishingly over thirty two thousand crossed the finish line on November 30th. I was one of those proud few.
Need more to convince you? Another great reason to participate is that you’re not alone. Nanowrimo’s online community has forums specially designed to help you in your journey, a procrastination station to distract you when you need it and weekly pep talks written by bestselling authors to get you through the tough spots.
Sure there are many reasons not to do it. You think you don’t have the time, the energy or the creativity to write a novel. But why not try? You’ll never know what you can accomplish until you pick up that pen and start writing.
Ready to begin? Shoot me an email at heather@creativeburlington.ca, I’d love to hear from local folks that are as crazy as I am, or at least ones planning to write a novel this November. To become an official participant of National Novel Writing Month 2010, visit www.nanowrimo.org and sign up. And remember, crazy loves company.
- Learn how to ice sculpt
- Create a crop circle
- Write a Novel
Oh yes you can!
November is National Novel Writing Month, a fun, fly by the seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by midnight on November 30th. By setting a ridiculous deadline you worry about quantity not quality. This approach forces you to take risks, lower your expectations and push yourself further than you probably ever thought possible.
Let’s not kid ourselves though, you will be writing a lot of crap. All of us do. But there is a sense of freedom that comes by simply grabbing an idea and running with it no matter what the costs, to spend the month creating with literary abandon.
Writing a novel in a month is by no means easy. It means late nights, carpel tunnel syndrome and spending more on coffee in a month then you normally spend on gas. But the sense of accomplishment you get at the end is near euphoric. It’s something everyone should experience.
Nanowrimo brings together writers from all over the world, all focused on the same crazy goal. In 2009 over a hundred and fifty thousand participants started vigorously writing their novels on November 1st; astonishingly over thirty two thousand crossed the finish line on November 30th. I was one of those proud few.
Need more to convince you? Another great reason to participate is that you’re not alone. Nanowrimo’s online community has forums specially designed to help you in your journey, a procrastination station to distract you when you need it and weekly pep talks written by bestselling authors to get you through the tough spots.
Sure there are many reasons not to do it. You think you don’t have the time, the energy or the creativity to write a novel. But why not try? You’ll never know what you can accomplish until you pick up that pen and start writing.
Ready to begin? Shoot me an email at heather@creativeburlington.ca, I’d love to hear from local folks that are as crazy as I am, or at least ones planning to write a novel this November. To become an official participant of National Novel Writing Month 2010, visit www.nanowrimo.org and sign up. And remember, crazy loves company.
Downtown Dining - It's Wrap Up Time Folks!
If you don’t know what Downtown Dining is...then it’s sadly time for you to leave the rock that you’ve been living under. Sunshine and a fabulous summer event await you.
Every year Creative Burlington, along with a group of generous and talented restaurateurs present Downtown Dining: Burlington’s only walking restaurant tour. Guests stroll the beautiful streets of Burlington, stopping at five different establishments: enjoying a sampling of fine cuisine and alcoholic drinks at each. Musical members of Creative Burlington from all different genres entertain the crowds adding to the delightful atmosphere that has been perfected over the years.
This year was touted as one of our best years’ ever, with guests and partners alike praising the virtue of our organizational skills. It also helped that I had wisely sacrificed several Twinkies the morning of the event to the rain gods, making sure that while the rain did come, it appeared after everyone was safely at their final restaurant. Never under estimate the power of a good Twinkie sacrifice.
We also had a record number of ticket purchasers who became new members. While I’m not going to twist anyone’s arm, not hard anyway, everyone should do it. It saves you 15% on every ticket, you get all the great member benefits including your very own subscription to Artworks magazine and you make the staff happy. Staff meetings are always much more fun when we can do the “New Member” dance.
Of course there were problems to contend with this year too. Our website server going down the day that ticket sales launched and the resulting headache from me banging my head against a brick wall of customer support. But it wasn’t anything that few Advil and several creatively worded emails couldn’t fix.
On to the thank yous.
Creative Burlington would like to thank all of our restaurant partners, for their generosity, support and investment in the arts. We couldn’t do it without them, and we love each and every one of them for all that they do for us. Here's the official list: Big Tomato, The Dicken's, Di Mario's Trattoria, Downtown Bistro & Grill, Emma's Back Porch/ Water Street Cooker, La Costa Nuova, Latitude,The Martini House, My Thai by the Lake, Paradiso, Pepperwood, Queen's Head, Red Canoe Bistro, Rude Native Bistro, SB Prime Steakhouse. Next on the thank you list are the companies who brought music to the people by sponsoring Downtown Dining’s entertainers. Bringing an art form to the community is a unique and fulfilling experience, thank you for giving our musicians that opportunity.
A final big thanks to the staff, volunteers and tour guides. I’m happy to report that Downtown Dining raised $25,000! That money is invested in our efforts to support the arts through education and promotion. Speaking of which - watch out for details on our celebration of the arts: Creative Burlington’s first annual Arts Recognition Awards. More on that later though.
For now, make sure you save the date for next year’s event: July 10th, 2011. It’s Downtown Dining’s 10th anniversary and we couldn’t be prouder.
Every year Creative Burlington, along with a group of generous and talented restaurateurs present Downtown Dining: Burlington’s only walking restaurant tour. Guests stroll the beautiful streets of Burlington, stopping at five different establishments: enjoying a sampling of fine cuisine and alcoholic drinks at each. Musical members of Creative Burlington from all different genres entertain the crowds adding to the delightful atmosphere that has been perfected over the years.
This year was touted as one of our best years’ ever, with guests and partners alike praising the virtue of our organizational skills. It also helped that I had wisely sacrificed several Twinkies the morning of the event to the rain gods, making sure that while the rain did come, it appeared after everyone was safely at their final restaurant. Never under estimate the power of a good Twinkie sacrifice.
We also had a record number of ticket purchasers who became new members. While I’m not going to twist anyone’s arm, not hard anyway, everyone should do it. It saves you 15% on every ticket, you get all the great member benefits including your very own subscription to Artworks magazine and you make the staff happy. Staff meetings are always much more fun when we can do the “New Member” dance.
Of course there were problems to contend with this year too. Our website server going down the day that ticket sales launched and the resulting headache from me banging my head against a brick wall of customer support. But it wasn’t anything that few Advil and several creatively worded emails couldn’t fix.
On to the thank yous.
Creative Burlington would like to thank all of our restaurant partners, for their generosity, support and investment in the arts. We couldn’t do it without them, and we love each and every one of them for all that they do for us. Here's the official list: Big Tomato, The Dicken's, Di Mario's Trattoria, Downtown Bistro & Grill, Emma's Back Porch/ Water Street Cooker, La Costa Nuova, Latitude,The Martini House, My Thai by the Lake, Paradiso, Pepperwood, Queen's Head, Red Canoe Bistro, Rude Native Bistro, SB Prime Steakhouse. Next on the thank you list are the companies who brought music to the people by sponsoring Downtown Dining’s entertainers. Bringing an art form to the community is a unique and fulfilling experience, thank you for giving our musicians that opportunity.
A final big thanks to the staff, volunteers and tour guides. I’m happy to report that Downtown Dining raised $25,000! That money is invested in our efforts to support the arts through education and promotion. Speaking of which - watch out for details on our celebration of the arts: Creative Burlington’s first annual Arts Recognition Awards. More on that later though.
For now, make sure you save the date for next year’s event: July 10th, 2011. It’s Downtown Dining’s 10th anniversary and we couldn’t be prouder.
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