Book Impressions

Schuyler's Monster by Rob Rummel-Hudson
Interesting, but kind of whiny. I feel for him and his family having to deal with such a tough situation, but I couldn't get behind some of the things that he did in response to the situation. Having worked closely with many special needs kids through teaching and nannying, I am always interested in personal stories about dealing with people going through things.He did do a good job of describing how heartbreaking his situation is, but then he just reiterated it over and over and over.

Nothing to Envy Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
I have a huge fascination with North Korea--partly because of the mystery surrounding it, partly because of what I learned about it in my Asian Studies class when I studied in Japan. This book did not disappoint at all, and I have a feeling that the people whose lives I read about will stick with me for a very long time. Also, I almost always think about North Korea whenever people complain about America. Seriously, with all of our imperfections, we have it DAMN GOOD here.

Escape from Camp 14
An amazing story about a boy who was born, raised, and then escaped from a North Korean Labor Camp. In many ways this book is sadder than "Nothing to Envy," but in other ways, more amazing.

The Wilder Life
While I enjoyed the tidbits about Laura Ingalls Wilder's life that I learned without having to do the actual research myself, the book itself kind of fell flat. Not as dramatic or funny as I had hoped to find it. 

The Chocolate Money
I got this from the library after seeing a review of it, and it pretty much was what I expected. Not nearly as shocking or interesting as it could have been, and the main character was a little too Holden Caulfield for me.

The Year of Magical Thinking
Kind of boring and a little too Lit-fic and not enough memoir for me. However, I see this being incredibly good for anyone who is dealing with the loss of a spouse or adult child, or who is familiar with Joan Didion's other writings. For me though, it just made it harder to sleep at night for fear of my husband or baby suddenly dying.

Nanowrimo Winner

I did it! I got to 50051 words at about 2 a.m. on Nov. 30. I hugged the 1,666 words per day goal pretty well, falling off the wagon a little bit around Thanksgiving but then managing to make it up in with a few late nights. I only had 4 days in which I didn't write anything, and my all time high was 4,092 words when I was trying to catch up after a few days of not writing. My story surprised me, it made me laugh and cry, and reminded me of things I hadn't thought about in years. In the end, I actually really like and and can't wait to edit it.  I feel like there is so much potential there!

Hurdles this Month:

Writing in a vacuum
Most of my past nano victories were accomplished in the presence of my fellow nano-ers. I haven't gotten involved with the San Antoni Nano community for a lot of reasons, mostly personal, but I think that writing alone with hardly any contact with other writers did make it more challenging.

Unsupportive Significant Other
At one point this month my husband said that my novel sounded "Completely uninteresting and not something that I would ever read." Ouch. He later apologized, but that quote stuck with me and struck me to tears several times, particularly at moments when the words just didn't want to flow.

Living like a Grown-up
Now that I have a baby who wakes up at 7 a.m. every day and a husband who is at school/work for 12 hours a day, I can't pull all-nighters or have a whacked-out schedule. I couldn't just skip my usual activities (like feeding baby, changing diapers, etc) like I could skip class in college. I had to actually schedule my writing time and not goof off during my allocated writing time. It was HARD!!!! However, I think it is good practice for me, since I am a stay at home mom, to carve out time for my writing every day. I think it's been great for my self-satisfaction and I hope to continue writing daily well past the end of November.

Wouldn't have Finished Without: 

The Outline
Oh god, the outline. I can't believe I've done Nano so many times without it!!! It was truly a lifesaver, except that I left it at my parent's house when I came back home after Thanksgiving. I cried when I realized that I'd left it, but luckily I had a copy saved to my dropbox. I didn't have all my handwritten notes I'd made on the outline, but at least I still had a plan. Whenever I got stuck I could glance at my outline and think, "Okay, what's supposed to happen next?"


The Nano Forums
 In particular the "Scene Unstickers" thread and the Reference Desk forum. (Though it seemed much more politically correct, and thus lame, this year...) The forums offered a welcome mix of inspiration and distraction when I needed it!

Staying Strictly on Schedule
I did crazy good with sticking to my minimum wordcount per day, and made my slow and steady climb towards the finishing. It was different from my past years, and honestly I think easier than my usual motto of "No minute like the last minute."

Story within a Story
A big part of my story is a girl watching anime for the first time with her sister, so whenever I got stuck I would write a synopsis of whatever episode they were watching of the main anime (Hachi Hachi Neko--invented by me) and get my imagination started up again. It was a nice break from the reality of realistic fiction main story. 

Change in POV
 I got stuck about three chapters in. I felt like the story was flat and too distant from the audience, so I switched from 3rd person to 1st person POV. What a change! Several of the anecdotes in the novel are based on things that actually happened in my life, and with the first person narrator I was able to really get in there and describe how my main character felt about what was happening, rather than just describing the events as they happened.