So, I thought I only started doing that trick about three NaNos ago, 'round about 2008 when a certain TV show with not one but two characters with "van der" last names appeared.  So, I just went searching through my past NaNovels.  Although 2003's novel had a "van" and 2004's novel had a "van de", I am happy to report that 2005, 2006, and 2007 had nothing of the sort.  2008 and on have a van der something.

I'm such a Dutch character will make it into this year's NaNovel, too!

I had a 5K day today--very rare for me. And very hard for me to accomplish! But that's not the best part. I had several revelations today, and for the first time since I started it, I *like* my novel!!!!

So, apparently, my MC has been accused of murder...and it's up to her to use her psychic abilities to find the real killer!!!

Ummm, such an intriguing plot, but sooooooooooo out of my league!!!!

So, I spent the day writing with the goal of a bare economy of words. Use the least amount of words as possible!

Now, I am trying to do the opposite and finding it somewhat hard to switch gears. What would have been "Miniature, standard, and giant schnauzers..." earlier, was that initially tonight. But now it's "Miniature schnauzers, standard schnauzers, and giant schnauzers..."

And, why yes, both of my dogs made it into my novel (with aliases, natch!--natch--of course--would be "of course" in my novel!) within the first 500 (which would be five hundred) words. Write what you know, right? All I know is that Brittany is unfortunately named (but she does have two middle names and a three-word last name; I'm pretty sure I've had a character with the last name "van der Something" in my last four NaNovels!) and has two dogs. And is psychic. And is having a bad week.

But that's all I know...

Yet. *g*

Okay, back to it!!!!

So, I just decided to start writing and see where it took me. My freakin' MC just named herself Brittany.

This does not bode well for the month...

That's how many words I wrote today. And they were all for my job and do not count for NaNo. Not to mention the 3400 I edited today.

Ugh. I've been writing for 10 hours, and now I need to turn my attention to NaNo, and I STILL don't have an idea other than the nebulous "something paranormal." Argh!

Story idea?

So, I've been dealing with a lot of supernatural for the last year. Embracing it.

Between school(s), the military, and other (ahem) circumstances, I've moved around. A lot. My first significant record at a place was 13 months. And when I achieved that, it was a Huge Deal. Prior to that, 10 days to 12 months, with the 12 months being rare. (I count any residence as a place at which I've received mail, and yes, I received mail at the 10-day place). Then, I actually lived at a place for 18 months. Whoo hoo! Go me! Then, living three-and-a-half years at the last place (even if the last 3 months I technically didn't live there thanks to a break-in), was a Serious Accomplishment.

When we bought our house, people were skeptical we'd keep it long based on my history of moving--which is BS because my other moves were about circumstance--I HATE moving and tearing up roots. So, anyway, I was obsessing earlier today (out of nowhere) about my last house, and as horrible as it was at the end, I was thinking how proud I was to have lasted 18 months there.

Well, a few minutes ago, I all of a sudden had this voice inside my head tell me to calculate how long I've lived here. I can't describe it better than that. It wasn't a distinct voice, or anything like that, but something inside my head told me to calculate.

So, I did. As of today, I have lived in this house exactly one day longer than my previous record. Was it subconscious? Is it because I used to be so obsessed with how long I lived in a place that this is ingrained in my brain? Or was it something else--telling me to realize that I can relax in this house, because it's not going anywhere (my history plus Michigan economy = not relaxing)?

Either way--the brain is an AMAZING thing (which it is) or there are "other" entities out there watching over us. I haven't thought about how long I've lived in a place for AGES and yet TODAY something tells me to calculate, and it turns out to be ONE day longer than my previous record?

So, how does this relate to my novel? Like I said, the supernatural has been in the forefront for me this year, more than ever. The last several (four? five? six?) novels I've read were written by a psychic medium. There's other personal stuff I won't get into.

I've been wondering all day what I was going to write about, and suddenly, I knew I was going to write about the supernatural. I don't know what, or how, but I do know why.

In the off-season, my husband bought me a new monitor to put next to my laptop monitor so I'd have twice the monitor space. It's been fantastic for multitasking! (I live for multitasking...). Usually, the colors aren't so different between the two monitors, but dude! (forgive this child of the 80s), my blog doesn't look REMOTELY the same across the two! I'd fairly like to kill myself over how it looks on the big screen monitor...and I can only apologize to those of you who've had to look at that particular color scheme since I implemented this scheme. Of course, I don't care enough to redo the template, so deal. *g* I'm just thankful my blog only has, like, (again...child of the 80s...it's, like, you know...), two readers!

Anyway...happy NaNoWriMo 2010!

The NaNo site relaunched today, so I'm relaunching this blog as well!

Are YOU ready?