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Four weeks ago, I talked about doing it. I really did. And when I thought about completing NaNoWriMo, I kept thinking that if I were to complete it? I’d probably finish on the 30th with 30,000 words or so.

At about 4 AM, I can now effectively say that I earned this: Yup, I got 50,376 according to their count. My word count, though, is interesting…

See, when I started writing the stories, I started an Excel spreadsheet to track my word count. To give you an idea of how it worked, each row would total up for words for the story and each column would total up for words for the day. And I updated the total overall words off of each, just to confirm, seeing it was just a summation formula. When I’d start writing on a story for the day, I’d set up a formula in the day of the row for a story. The first day, it wouldn’t be a formula, but it’d be just the word count as I updated it on the story. But when I’d come back the next day? It would be a simple formula of “=X-Total Word Count From Yesterday.” So if you look at “Tonic and Gin,” the first story I started, on November 2nd, the formula was “=X-1343″ and I’d see my word count grow until it would hit Midnight, and I’d total those two and start it again. At the end of the day, I’d turn the formula into a solid number, just to make sure I didn’t mess anything up.

And that’s how I kept at it for the month. I would start writing some nights at 10 or 11 PM and then stop my word count at midnight for the day, and start an hour and a half or two of writing for the next day. And if I did that? I’d get my word count each day, and when I’d finish, I’d have double the words I needed. And I felt pretty good about those days, I honestly did. But, what I did add for your easy reading, is italics to each day that I didn’t make word count. And you can see what days I started each story and stopped. A nice little way to see how much got done each day…

Finally, now what?

Well, first of all, I neglected spending a lot of time with Sarah, so I’ll be making up a lot of that. And I’ll be playing some more guitar, seeing I spent a lot of time here in front of my computer writing.

But what will I do with Dancing With Your Echo: A Collection of Short Tales on Life and Living, as I’m calling it now?

Well, I believe in a lot of the stories and the ideas in the collection as a whole. I’d like to take some time to develop them a little better and clear up the descriptions and characters without any sort of restrictions. And I believe in the Stephen King method: just leave it for a while. So with that in mind, I’m not going to touch this again till sometime around the middle or end of January. And at that point, well, I’m not going to be the one touching it. I’d like to have a few friends read it and read it critically for plot holes, continuity, order, and just all around general editing. And from there, I’ll spend my time editing, rather than writing for the next few months on somewhat of a normal production schedule.

Will I ever do NaNoWriMo again?

I think I will. I think I’ll take 2009 off from it, though. If I do NaNoWriMo again, I’ll do it only in even years or every few years and use the odd years and other years in-between to edit my work. Because I learned very well long ago that the secret to writing isn’t as much writing but about how you can edit it and clean it up. You can write whatever you want, but its not good till you edit it (Thank you, Professor Wallace).

So thanks friends for the moral support there, and if you’d be interested in helping me at all with the editing process, let me know, and when I’m ready to pick it up in a few months? We’ll talk more about it…

Now? Just time to get out and enjoy the snow that was falling while I wrote my last few hundred…

After all of my slaving in the kitchen on Thursday for our Thanksgiving dinner, I meant to jump in with a few thoughts on the evening. But, in my quest to make NaNoWriMo wordcount for the evening, well, I didn’t get around to it. Thusly, here are those thoughts today:

1) No matter what, no matter how expensive it might be, in 2009 we’re getting a fresh turkey and not a frozen one. I’m not spending half a day or so thawing a damn turkey next year.
2) Sure, I’ll wake up at 6am on Thanksgiving Day in 2009, but when I do that, mark my words, the damn turkey will be stuffed and in the oven at 8 or 9AM and out of the oven for a late lunch at 2PM
3) I don’t care what the turkey temps out at, I am cooking that thing until the breast meat is so dry that I need to make extra gravy packets to make it edible. Next year, I will not undercook the turkey!

And that, my friends, is the summation of my thoughts. I hope that each and every one of you had great Thanksgivings in your own right, and that you could spend it with friends, family, or anyone at all…

My alarm went off this morning at 6:15 AM like it would on any normal morning. Well, not really, seeing my alarm clock is about seven minutes fast, so it was more like 6:08 AM. But that’s when it would have normally gone off. And even though I didn’t have to be up for work, meaning out the door for the bus by 6:55 AM or ready to drive in at 7:40 AM, I had something almost as important.

Today, I am in charge of Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday night, we bought our turkey: a fourteen-and-a-half pound frozen Butterball. A bit big, but the price was right and I was proud of the deal. And after sitting in the fridge since then and not dethawing, its coming down to me this morning.

So as I struggled to shut off my ancient alarm that I bought my Freshman year at UCF that I always keep across the room to help wake me up, as loud as it is, I thought about how everything is different since I first bought that alarm clock in 2001. Yes, seriously. It just wasn’t shutting off this morning, and the shrill sounds started blending into the word “Rem-em-ber.” Three parts. “Rem-em-ber.”

As I pulled the turkey out of the refrigerator in my fuzzy monkey slippers and started the cold water bath, it was really sinking in… This is the first Thanksgiving that Sarah and I have as a married couple alone. Last year it was a giant dinner with my parents, sister, in-laws, sister-in-law and her (then boyfriend, now) fianceé, and family friends. The year before that we did two separate dinners: one at my parents with my sister and then drove back across the state to my (then not yet) in-laws. But this year? There would be noone coming. There was no reason to have a turkey or stuffing or mashed potatoes or garlic rolls or even my individual serving of green bean casserole (because Sarah doesn’t like mushrooms). When you’re two folks, you could just get a pound or two of shaved turkey breast, a box of Stove Top, a tray of the Simply Potatoes mashed, and that’s it. Or heck, even a Lean Cuisine with all of that in it and you’ve got less to worry about.

But this was our Thanksgiving. And with that, we had a lot to be thankful for…

We’ve moved 1,000 miles away from our families and our friends, without me having a job, into a town where we knew noone and nothing about, with a completely blank slate for the future, and after all of that?

My wife’s doing great with school, I found a job fast and have amazing co-workers, we enjoy where we live, and have had great weather and a great time exploring, and even though family is so far away, there are cell phones, the internet, and planes that go to the Bloomington/Normal airport, just over an hour away.

So as I look into the bright sun that I know has already risen over my family and friends whom I’ve left behind on the east coast, I just want to let you know that I’m thankful for all of you today as well. I haven’t said it, and I don’t get to talk to you all as often as I’d like, but many of you have helped me remain sane just by reaching out to me since the move, and I’m glad that even if I’m away and gone, I still have some of the greatest friends out there.

Because I’m lucky enough to know something that’s one of the greatest truths to life: That in the end? The love you make is equal to the love you take. Exactly as it closed out Abby Road.

Enjoy your Thanksgivings and when you break that wishbone, have just one wish. That you all know how much love I feel for you because I’m thankful for all of the love I get from each and every one of you…

Since moving from Florida to the mid-west, I’ve got to simply say that most of the changes that I’ve been noticing or thinking about haven’t been as big as one might think. As a whole, it was a very easy adaptation. Sure, we’re looking at 1,000 miles, but even still, that’s not as far as we really know it to be. Just like when you start walking and find out that you actually walked about five or six miles when you think that you were only walking two or three miles. Or maybe that’s reversed? I couldn’t really tell you.

So here’s a short list of things that I’ve noticed:

1) Autumn is really beautiful. Florida, you honestly don’t know what you’re missing. Sure, the leaves are all over the place, but the copper and golden piles of leaves are extraordinarily beautiful. There’s something that mesmerizes me when I’m out in the car with Sarah and I notice the swirls of leaves around the wheels of cars. Thankfully, I’m not driving when I’m watching them. Its sort of like the plastic bag in the wind scene from American Beauty.
2) Cold weather has more fashion. Of course this could be argued, but here’s my sole point. In Florida or other hot and humid climates, you have to be conscious of the type of fabric, the layering of items, the sleeve length, and the color. Why? Well, would you really want to wear a wool muscle shirt that was white? Or how about a long sleeve thin black linen shirt? Unfathomable. Granted, you can’t wear one year round up here, but in a place like Florida, you only really need two or three jackets. Now? I can’t count how many sweaters and jackets that I have. Because I’ll wear layers.
3) Temperature is half a state of mind. Don’t get me wrong, when I walk to the bus in another month and its snowing, I’ll be saying that I’m freezing outside. But there’s something else about the temperatures leading down to the freezing point. See, in Florida when you hear that its 50 outside, I know people who reach for the sweatshirts. Here? That’s a nice day and a good high temp. And all you need is maybe a long sleeve shirt, if you’re really concerned. And its also funny for me to look at the forecasts because in Florida? I was used to it saying 37 in the morning with a midday high at 65 or so. Sometimes? That 37 might be the high for the day. Its just like the other day when someone asked me how the weather was and I replied, “Well today started off cold, I mean it was about 14 or so when I walked to the bus, but it’s warmed up to be a nice day! Its a beautiful 22 degrees outside!” And all of that with a smile.

I’m adjusting to it for sure. A light sweatshirt out in the 38 degree weather, some nice fingerless convertable mitten-gloves (one of the greatest inventions ever, if you ask me), and a good jacket for when it gets colder and I’m good. Doesn’t take much. Layers and fashion.

So even though when I went to Curtis Orchards yesterday and the guy noticed “UCF Knights” on my waffle knit henley and thought I was suffering? I smiled back and told him, “At least there’s seasons up here. Florida? All of that heat is just too much for me.” We laughed and talked about it for a little bit, and like most of the folks whom I explain it to? They get it.

That’s right, its all in the mind. If you can just think about it and not let it get to you? You’re perfectly fine. That’s why I enjoy this all so much: its an adventure and there’s no reason to get irritated or complain about the weather, its all a new and wonderful experience.

So enjoy today, friends… Today’s high is 38, and it’ll be a beautiful day!

Its hard for me to believe that the biggest joke in the music business will finally be a reality. For so many years, if you wanted to talk about something a giant unlikely pipe dream, it was what Axl Rose kept talking about. And not the thought of actual Chinese democracy, but Chinese Democracy. Yeah, the album that’s been talked about for oh so freaking many years since 1991 is finally a reality today and really in stores.

And Dr. Pepper is giving everyone in America a free Dr. Pepper. So, consider this Sunday Share that little reminder: Go to Dr. Pepper.com and get yours now!

Now, for something just a little more than that. See, I’ve been really listening to this album. There have been leaks of it all over the internet for the past half a week or so, plus the MySpace stream. And so I wanted to get a good idea of what we’ve been talking about for so long and waiting for. So, I’ve got a few suggestions if you decide that you actually do want to listen to this album:

1) Clear your mind of any preconceived notions. If you keep thinking of “Paradise City” and “Sweet Child” and “Welcome to the Jungle” and then listen to this album? You’ll feel like you’re missing something and you’ll get tired of this album. If you want to listen to this album like that, you need to listen to the full album Appetite for Destruction first, then wait 20-30 minutes, just for a reminder of how Gun’s ‘N’ Roses sounded, and not the radio melt-down we all think of.
2) Listen to the whole album from start to finish in one sitting. Give yourself a half a day or so, then do that again. Don’t listen to individual tracks. You need to listen to the whole album to get the idea of what the album is. Especially with this album. And when you listen to other G’N'R first, it helps when you listen to this album.
3) Don’t read what the critics have to say. Don’t listen to what anyone else has to say about this album. Make your own damn opinion whether you like it or not.

I will say this, and this is the general consensus between my friend Zach and I in listening to this album and really thinking about it:
This is an album that when you finish listening to it, you feel like you should like it. You feel like you’re supposed to like it. You feel like its good, but at the same time, something feels like its missing, and you wonder maybe if you like it because you’re glad it finally came out. But one thing is for sure: That its long overdue and that its worth the listen.
At the same time, though, its like listening to Aerosmith’s Pump then Nine Lives. There was Permanent Vacation and Get A Grip between these albums, and while you can hear how Pump and Nine Lives are the same band, there’s some progression between the two missing.
Maybe that’s what it was with G’N'R in the quest up to what we’re hearing as Chinese Democracy: Maybe we’re missing all of the demos that come between what was started and what we hear. And in those demos, we’d see the progression.

But, we won’t know. And until then? We’ll just have to drink that free Dr. Pepper and think about it, I guess…

By all means, though, please let me know what you think of the album if you do listen to it. I’m curious to hear the opinions of others…

I’d like to take a quick break from working on my NaNoWriMo to pass along some internet congratulations to an old friend…

My friend Karen (who took my promo pictures a year or so ago with Mikey D in Orlando) and her husband Adrian just had their son tonight! And knowing the talented family that little Zachary Jacob Ziemkowski was born into? Well, the kid’s got some great parents.

Mazel Tov, Karen and Adrian!

I realize with each and every passing open mic that I play up here, I’m doing one thing wrong: I’m not practicing and not getting any better. Sounds weird, doesn’t it?

In truth, whenever I played live back in Orlando, a month or two of prep went into it. For open mic nights? Maybe not as much, but I was playing 3-4 times a week at a half an hour a time. When I prepare nowadays, I only practice the night of, for a half an hour or so earlier in the evening, just running over my setlist or a song or two. I don’t play scales, I don’t warm up my voice, I just strum a few chords.

Its not advancement, its just abiding. And its something that needs to change.

Thusly, when I practiced this set for the first time last week, I felt like it might be good. I was playing on my 12-string acoustic, and decided I’d do a flashback of the covers that I’d wanted to play with a few classics. So the setlist was as follows:

Echo
Heaven - Bryan Adams
Running Back to You
Driving With the Brakes On - Del Amitri
Trying So Hard
I Remember You - Skid Row

Not exactly what people are used to seeing from me, especially all of the throwback covers. But as a whole, it was a set that I felt mostly comfortable playing. Even on my 12-string.

That being said, comfort doesn’t beget the best of nights sometimes. For me, tonight, practice would have been my ally. Both “Heaven” and “Driving With the Brakes On” felt a bit monotone and unspirited, and some practice could have helped me with them. I cut out “Trying So Hard” and my voice was all over the place on “Running Back To You.” And on the Skid Row cover? Well, even if Jeremy gave me props for even attempting it, to say that my voice was all over the place would be a lie. I fucked it up, and fucked it up hard core. And I’ll be the first one to say that. Its a hard song, and old habits of trying to go high like Sebastian Bach just don’t die easily.

Practice. It’s the root to it all.

That being said, I think its about time that I get back to my roots on it, finish off writing for NaNoWriMo and maybe get back into some practicing as the weather cools down, and from there? Maybe I’ll find myself on the stage again in better shoes next time…

I used to really watch Ace of Cakes religiously. Wouldn’t miss a new episode, and when it was on? Had to watch it. Seriously.

Now that we don’t have a DVR, missing it is more common. And every so often I’ll catch it. But, I’ve got to say that its a lot more entertaining to read about the disasters.

CakeWrecks Blog

Yup, for 6 days a week, they post the worst of the worst cakes out there. Horrible designs, misspellings, ones that look nothing like they should. And then on the seventh day? They post the amazing ones. Sundays are always a joy to read to see the amazing designs. Always leaves me smiling.

Oh yeah, I’d write more but I should probably get back to the whole NaNoWriMo thing… I’m just a liiiiiiittle bit behind on word count, as you can see in the right hand tool bar on my site (if you’re not reading this on a feed)…

And today was no exception to that rule. Matter of fact, not only did I enjoy it, but I had a better than average Wednesday.

Wednesdays are the one day a week at work that I treat myself to a lunch out. I donate plasma twice a week–usually Tuesday and Saturday–and with some of the money on Wednesday, I head over to Lil’ Porgy’s BBQ just a few blocks over from work. Their Wednesday special? BBQ Beef Sandwich. All menu items come with fries, so I just get a jumbo (44oz) sweet tea, have my sandwich with their mixed sauce–essentially their mild and hot together, so its a medium with a sweet kick–and call it a meal for a damage of $6.65. And that, my friends, can’t really be beat. For one meal a week? Its a nice little treat and something to look forward to. And seeing that I always take a jog Wednesday evening, I don’t feel as bad to indulge like this once a week. Because I do balance my diet and exercise regularly, indulging once a week isn’t a bad thing.

But the thing about ordering out is interesting. Even with it being right by work and even with their service being lightning fast? I always call in my order as I get in the car, just to ensure that its ready for me as soon as I pay. Helps me get in and out of there just a little bit faster.

Today, after I called it in, I sat in the car for a few seconds before leaving. The weather was absolutely dreary outside, with a high just around 50 and a rain all day. So I figured I’d see what sort of news I could find for a minute before leaving to pick up my sandwich. Sure, I only have half an hour to eat as my lunch, but if I’m killing a minute or two at the front end, no real big deal.

So I flipped through my presets up here and landed on WPGU 107.1, the university’s radio station. The guy on the radio announced, “Alright, we’re going to give away a free lunch now at Strawberry Fields to whomever can call in and tell us the name of this song and who the performer is. You ready?”

I punched in the number just in case I knew it. WPGU plays some fairly eclectic stuff, seeing they’re a college station, and while most of it is the indie stuff so far off the dial that I don’t listen to it? Some of the songs I do know, so I made them a preset. Its about a 50/50, honestly.

Barely halfway through the second chord of the song, I dialed in. The guy picked up on the fourth chord, and I had turned my radio down because I know how there’s that “feedback/weird delay” when you have it loud.
“WPGU, hello?”
“I’d like to identify the song and artist.”
“Alright, go ahead.”
Just as John Popper started singing the first line, the words were out of my mouth: “Blues Traveler’s ‘Run Around.’”
“You’ve got it. Congratulations!”

A free lunch. I’ll have to pick it up early next week sometime, but not bad, eh?

And then, I drove off and got my lunch. Of course, when I got to Lil’ Porgy’s? Well, they had taken my order but not filled it. The woman, knowing that I’m all of about 3-4 weeks a regular with this order and this time? Comped me my sweet tea for their error!

So not only did I get my BBQ fix for the week, but I’ve got a free lunch coming to boot.

And people say Wednesday sucks… Hah!

Don’t forget anyone who stood up for our country in any fashion today and each and every day: Even if afterwards they sat, rolled over, were given a Milkbone, and a belly rub…

Well folks, I won’t lie in saying that I’m a few thousand words behind where I should be if I were keeping the right pace on NaNoWriMo, but I’ve had good excuses… I mean, I’ve been jogging, and I’ve had family visiting, and uh…

I’ve been watching Shiba Inu puppies!

Yup, puppies. Puppy cam makes everything better. :) Thanks Diana for sharing that one with me on Friday…

I’ve watched as the numbers came in tonight. I’ve been hoping for this moment and waiting till I could go to sleep at night and know that when Bush leaves the White House and packs all of his bags from Washington in January that the candidate I’ve been supporting would be the individual taking his place.

Tonight, I was able to watch that happen and become a reality. Congratulations, Senator–now President-Elect–Barack Obama. This moment was a moment that has changed the course of history, no matter the course of your presidency.

All I have to say is this: I don’t care which side you voted for this election. I have a good number of friends on each side of the aisle. But now that its all said and done, we all are still Americans. And we all have one thing in common: Hope.

Sure, hope was Obama’s brand name, but to all McCain supporters, you hoped just as much for your candidate to win and to lead this country in a new direction.

I just ask this one thing now: I ask that everyone just keeps that hope. That’s what built our country and that’s what’ll continue to build our country through these tumultuous times.

Hope.

I was going to say something when I woke up, but my alarm goes off at about 6am Central Time. For some folks who get early starts on their day over on the East Coast, well, it might have been too late. So, here it goes:

If you haven’t already early voted, please vote today. I don’t give a fuck if you vote for McCain or Obama. I just want you to go out and vote today. On Sunday night’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow said something that I felt was perfect about the election… I transcribed this from the November 2, 2008 podcast because no transcription was online.

…If you have early voted already, how much did it cost you to vote? An hour? Two, three, four, five, six hours? I got online at the South Florida Sun Sentinel website to check out the wait times for early voting there. They did not list a single voting site in Broward County Florida with less than a two hour estimated wait time…

…This is a poll tax. How much do you get paid for an hour of work? Do you have the kind of job that would be delighted to give you an hour, a half day, a whole day off work because you were waiting in line at your precinct? Even if it won’t cost you your job, can you afford to not work those hours? Are you elderly or disabled? Do you not have the physical stamina for that kind of exertion? This is a poll tax…

…After the 2004 election, Democrats commissioned a poll in Ohio that found that as many as 129,000 voters got tired of waiting in the long lines in Cleveland and Columbus and elsewhere in Ohio. A 129,000 Ohio residents: who wanted to vote but couldn’t afford to. They couldn’t afford multiple hours to wait in line. That’s 10,000 more votes than the margin by which Kerry lost that state and lost the election, giving Bush another four years.

It’s one thing to worry about the vote being stolen about whether or not our votes really get counted right. It’s one thing to worry about partisan Republican efforts to purge voters off the rolls that rightfully belong there. Those things are worth worrying about.

But the lines at voting places? There’s no wondering about that.

If you are confronted with a long line on Election Day your country needs you, to commit to stand in it. If you are an employer and your employees are late to work on Tuesday or have to leave early in order to vote? Your country needs you to cut them some slack. If you are an elections official? Your country needs you to have contingency plans for your contingency plans and frankly? Probably a stockpile of paper ballots under lock and key to turn to if the lines are so long as to be disenfranchising. And if you are a politician? Your country needs you to abolish this poll tax. To make the right to vote equally available to every American, regardless of our ability to pay. Whether that payment is in cash or in time.

No matter who gets elected, it is time to fix this election system once and for all. Too many people bled for this right for us to see it squandered.

So what do I want this to mean? I want this to be exactly the line I bolded. This is about doing your damn patriotic duty and standing there. If it means you’re late going or coming from lunch, leaving work early, or getting in to work late? Just do it.

My friends, this election is the election where myself and a lot of my peers are graduating or looking for a job in these hard times. They’re the ones where my friends who have been working for a few years are starting to look at their soon-retiring parents and wondering if they’ll be able to have enough money for their futures and if they’ll have a good life ahead that they had been saving for.

Its not too late for our parents and its not too late for us now. Even if your candidate doesn’t win, you spoke up. And that’s the heart of what our country is.

In 1773 a group of men spoke up because they didn’t like what was going on and they threw tea off of ships. And then we held all truths to be self evident that all men were created equal. In 1939, one man stood up as Britain stood facing its darkest hour, and then in 1941 in a day that will live in all infamy, America didn’t let the world go quietly into that night. And in the 1960’s, not only did one man have a dream, but another man said something which should ring true in our heads:

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

On today, November 4th, 2008, you can go and vote for your country.

It’s funny to think of writing a blog about writing. Sort of like when Goob filled in for me and wrote his article on writing. But this time, its my own unique little spin on things.

You see, this post is about something that comes up every November:

NaNoWriMo
What is that? Try National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short, or NaNo for shorter. And in the whole month of November, from midnight local time to midnight local time on the first and last days, if you sign up you have 50,000 words to meet.

Does 50,000 sound like a lot? Just think of that in pennies. Or in dollars. Or in minutes. Why, the month of November has 43,200 minutes alone! That means you’re writing a word a minute almost, and that doesn’t include the fact that if you get at least 4 hours of sleep a night, you’ve just wasted 7,200 minutes of your month and almost 10,000 words.

Okay, so not a word a minute, but you get the drift of how many it is. We see numbers like that and sometimes forget. Its daunting to think about so many words, and especially under a time frame that feels constrained like that. And to think that this is the 10th year that people are doing just that.

What’s the reward? Just a sense of accomplishment that as we all joke about writing a book in our lifetimes, you would have actually been able to say, “Yes, yes I did.”

And me? I’ll be joining the crazy ranks of NaNoWriMo this year… And if you’re on there too, friends, please feel free to add me. It’d be nice to keep track of everyone’s status as the month continues.

So why? Honestly why? For me, that answer comes in two parts…

Back when I was at UCF, I remember distinctively always wanting to participate in NaNo. I always saw when it came up, but I was so busy with other writings and school work and classwork. I had friends who attempted to do both, and some actually succeeded. I always looked at them with envy. I couldn’t believe how well they could juggle it when I was juggling just getting by with my grades.

And then, there’s a funny social aspect to that. You see, being new to the Champaign-Urbana area, I don’t really know anyone. So why would an event that’s so individual and introverted as writing a novel be something that’s social? Well, think of it as a club. A sadistic club for individuals all driven for the same exact goal with their own different paths to getting there.

With the fact of joining a group like this, it allows me to meet and network with other individuals who are also shooting for that same magical number of 50,000 words. And it helps you not feel so alone. It’s one thing to sit down at home behind a keyboard and just start typing and another thing to sit down at a coffee shop with five to ten other folks, pounding away on a keyboard. While a lot of work might not get done, to be able to lift your head up and say “Hey, I’ve got a character in an awkward situation, what do you think?” and get immediate feedback? Something completely different.

The biggest part, though, is just knowing that you’re not alone. Online when you’re on the NaNo site, despite there being message boards all over for it for places across the United States and even over seas? There are over 100,000 people registered according to their count. Incredible. And it hits home even more when you can walk into a room and have a table with the sign “Write-In” on it. Because then, you feel like you’re really not alone.

So what am I going to write about? That’s the next question that would be logical.

I’ve had an idea that’s crossed my mind from time to time. See, all of the songs I’ve written? They’re compressed down from random stories in my life in some form or another. Sure, not all of them have a story behind them, but there’s some derivative of a story in the way they were written or the way that I wrote them or thought them out. And that’s what a good song should do: it should tell a story that takes up a few minutes of your life and makes you feel like you’re travelling through that time and space. And then when it ends and it leaves you where you started but you feel just that little bit different? That’s the sign of doing it right.

So, what does the title have to do with any of this? On average if you’re going to write 50,000 words in a month? You’d better be writing that many a day. And to give you an idea of how long that is?

This post is about half that.

Now if I’m quiet this month with short Sunday Shares’, you’ll understand.

Also, if you’re viewing this or any entry on my website, on my right sidebar I’ve got a counter that I’ll be updating with my word count, so stop by from time to time and leave some words of encouragement…

• Twitter: AdamJCohen

  • 
  • @sun_dazed I was getting all of mine just fine... :) about 6 minutes ago from txt
  • @brianjsmith It'd be a long long bus ride for me, buddy. One of these days, though... One of these days... about 1 hour ago from txt
  • thinks that Nigerian phishing e-mails about United Postal Service mail I'm sending *ON* December 25th are hilarious... about 2 hours ago from web
  • @brianjsmith Yup, I know it. Just like a man's gotta have his Coca Cola... about 2 hours ago from txt
  • looks at his Cup O Noodles and apple and longs for Lil Porgies... Le sigh. about 3 hours ago from web

About The Site


Thanks for stopping by, folks! My name is Adam J. Cohen, and I'm a guitarist/songwriter in Champaign, IL, recently relocated from Orlando, FL where I'm a UCF grad. Here, you'll find vignettes on my life, setlists from open mics and reviews, and whatever else crosses my mind. Enjoy!

NaNoWriMo '08 WordCount

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