Hey there. So I'm watching Slither with my best friend but I've got NaNo on the brain! Ah! Less than four hours. Anyway, back to the topic. I was just wondering what some of your traditions, rituals and whatever else you guys do before, after, during NaNo.
For myself, I listen to songs to help me get ideas for my story.
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“A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.”---Denis Waitley
6,133 / 50,000
Oct 31, 2009 - 20 12
I'm about to go take a nap and hope it inspires my NaNo Novel this year. I'm still clueless what to write... and I really don't want to go with last night's dream. It had everything... love, romance, sex (well: implied. my dreams are PG-13 or -17), murder mystery... on the other hand it was quite disturbing too.
My only "tradition/ritual" really is that I get a writing token. Something to look at for inspiration. Or wear. I bought a really cool necklace today, jade beads and a tiger eye chinese lion. But I think finding an "inspiration piece" before I have my novel idea is counterproductive. I'm also not sure how much of that was "oooh, it inspires me!" or how much was just "oooh, pretty!!" I kinda suspect the latter.
----------Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.
- Isaac Asimov
36,649 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 10 26
I like to watch "writing" movies. I watched Shakespeare in Love last week, which kind of counts! I also like talking to my friends from my old newspaper, which isn't really a tradition so much as an everyday thing. They just won a couple Pacemakers last night so they are pretty excitable right now. :) That excitement can be contagious!
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Nov 3, 2009 - 23 18
Headphones
----------Jump drives
SWIMMING TO COLORADO 2008
INCOHERENT FEET 2007 (won)
MORONIC HANDS 2006 (won)
RUDE HAIR 2005 (won)
30,324 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 02 16
I found myself a pair of these cute stripey convertible mitten things - y'know, the mitten part folds back and they're fingerless gloves? I bought them on a whim last month and it just hit me a few days before the end of October that they are perfect 'writer's gloves' that are also pretty to look at. They're not at all warm so I would never wear them as functional gloves, but that's fine for writing indoors! So those are my current writing talisman.
Another thing I like to do is draw pictures of my characters once I start getting an idea of what they're like, because it helps me visualize them and fill in the details. I have also been known to make sims out of my characters, just for fun.
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Nov 5, 2009 - 23 47
Every time I sit down to write I pour myself a nice deep mug of hot green tea and set up the snacks around my desk (chocolate is always best!) so I won't have to go far, then I set up the notebooks I have all my character notes in and put on my headphones and turn on my playlist on very very quiet.
----------This year I've also found a need to pin my hair back out of my face before starting and to wrap up in a blanket. It's important to keep warm and cozy so the arm muscles don't suddenly lock up!
It's elementary, my dear Watson.