OTTILT November

First November OTTILT without mention of NaNoWriMo :(

http://ottilt.blogspot.com/2016/11/november.html

OTTILT November

NaNoWriMo, tiny houses, and my hamster:

http://ottilt.blogspot.com/2015/11/november.html

Pic a Day - 11/9 to 11/15

Mon. Nov 9, (first?) pullover hoodie [selfie]

Tues. Nov 10

Wed. Nov 11, Stanley's tired of me talking about tiny houses

Thurs. Nov 12, trees in New Mexico stay green until mid-November, when they realize they should be dropping their leaves, so then fully green and chlorophyll-full leaves drop by the masses just before winter

Fri. Nov 13, script-brainstorming at Whole Foods

Sat. Nov 14, writing NaNo by hand on graph paper

Sun. Nov 15, rainy autumn weekend

OTTILT November

The full month of November! (You'll be surprised that I didn't just put "NaNo" for every single day):

http://ottilt.blogspot.com/2013/12/november.html

Pic a Day - 11/18 to 11/24

 Mon. Nov 18

OTTILT: fitting yourself into artwork

  Tues. Nov 19, when teachers say one-sided study sheets...

OTTILT: teachers letting you work alone

 Wed. Nov 20

OTTILT: hand binoculars

Thurs. Nov 21, this time I get a letter from Pierce Brosnan

OTTILT: Eric Whitacre's virtual choir

Fri. Nov 22

OTTILT: clever Pictionary interpretations

Sat. Nov 23, holiday-themed Wheat Thins

OTTILT: your half birthday

Sun. Nov 24, climate change in action (seriously, this time last year it was just barely getting cold)

OTTILT: snow melting

NaNoWriMo

Somehow I declined to post the single glory of the month of November on the day of its beginning. NaNoWriMo. It's wonderful and it's awesome and it's inspiring and it's motivating (and it's not for English class, sadly enough). NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and the general rule is all participant writers have to write fifty-thousand words for their novel - and there are no criteria for content other than a) it has to be fictional, and b) it has to be your original work that you've written over the month - in thirty days.
It really is fun. This is my third year doing it(on the Young Writers site), and my goal for this year really is 50K. Last year I kept it at 30,000 and I don't remember what it was the year before that(honestly, I'm not even sure if I wrote anything for 2010). It is a great exercise for any and all writers. It keeps you on your toes and within quotas and you're zooming through it like a speed train. There is no room for writer's block, there is no room for editing or pondering the next chapter or the creation of this character: everything is an on-your-feet judgment call.
Last year I wrote what can only barely be considered fictional within semi-autobiographical writings. I created a character, Freddie Halsey, who was just as antisocial as I, and I put her in a Social Skills class for the year and she had to pass the class in order to graduate. I liked the idea at the time, but when I read it now, it really flopped. It just wasn't a compelling narrative. This year I'm writing a dystopian novel, somewhat related to Seeking a Friend for the End of the World in plot (the whole asteroid-will-hit-the-earth-in-a-month-and-all-humanity-will-be-lost type thing), centered around technology, and my main character claims to be the only literate person alive - the early stages of the story focus on the importance of her journaling to her and how it's rumored to be illegal... Anyway, you've likely already lost interest, which is well enough, because that summary was just a ruse. Not a lie, just a devious way of keeping my juicy dystopian fantasy to myself. (If you are interested, add me on Google Plus and I'll send brief excerpts of the story.)
So. NaNoWriMo. If you're a writer, you should think about it. It's fun.