On Weather and Writing

I've been intermittently watching the newscasts about Sandy, the scary and unpredictable super storm hitting the eastern seaboard even as I write this. 

It's amazing that three separate weather systems have converged to birth such a storm.  According to the news I've heard, never in recorded history has a nor'easter, a tropical storm, and a hurricane come together to form one immense weather event.  In a way that's so frightening, I can hardly stand it, but on the other hand, it's also very compelling to watch Nature at her most powerful.  Comparatively, we're just wee little humans at the end of the day, aren't we?

Stay safe, people.  I hope you all have a place to hunker down...

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In between storm updates, I've been working on research and chapter outlines for the start of NaNo on Thursday.  I'm trying a new writing thing this year; at this point it's fifty-fifty how I feel about it.  I'm doing a story outline, a chapter synopsis, then an outline of each scene within the chapter.  And holy crap, I feel like I've already written half the bloody book before I've even started!  I don't know how far I will take this--so far I've spent the whole afternoon outlining the basics of four chapters.  Frankly, being a true **pantser, this is way more work than I'm interested in doing, but I'll persevere just to see if it makes any difference in the long run.

A particular defect I see to doing this outline business is I fear the sudden bursts of illumination that I usually get **writing by the seat of my pants, will get buried under outline details or lost in the forethoughts.  Time will tell.

There's one cool thing I've done in this preparation process that has been really helpful: I went on a quest to find pictures of my main characters.  I spent some time last week searching the internet to score the perfect face for each one.  I have now attached the photo to the character back story files, and honestly, that little trick has already done wonders in getting to know my "people."  (Huh.  Either I'm having a deja vu moment, or I've already written about this.  It seems familiar...and isn't that a weird sensation?)

Anyway.

Here is my main man, Daniel Valentine...I looked at dozens and dozens of faces and couldn't find him.  Almost giving up, I decided to go one more round.  And there he was...

 

 

This is my main woman, Lily Chareau...and this is totally, exactly, how I imagined her...

 

Lily's best friend, and a key player in the story, Katy Montgomery...I knew she had a long, thick braid, but I didn't know she was so incredibly cute...

 

And Wink, another main guy to the story, and someone who could mean much to Katy... 



 

...assuming she survives Jude, the very, very bad boy with his personal and deadly agenda...
 

 

And there you go, the faces I have put on my characters.  Seeing them in real life--so to speak--has really helped me get inside their heads, know them better.  So, regardless how the outline experiment goes, I will definitely be using this character photo technique again, for sure.

 

Besides, if nothing else, I can drool.  A lot.  While I'm working, of course...

 

 

Tidbits...

After last week's Great American Printer Toss of 2012, I jumped out of bed, eager to start the day.  I've been waiting for the new sales at Costco--beginning today--because they had a really cool printer at a super price and I'm obviously in the market.

The weather was really nice this morning, warm and sunny, so the boys and I had a great walk along the river, then it was off to Costco, fingers crossed the printer was as good in person as it looked on paper.  Hooray, it was!!  And I couldn't believe at what a bargain.

Though I wanted to dash home immediately and set it up, I had to first stop at Home Depot for some little pots of white paint to test the color on the gouged bathroom wall, plus I had an idea for fixing the sagging pole and/or replacing it with something that might work better.  The possible solution came to me out of a cloud of Lambrusco last night--and thank you, clever Italian wine makers, for befuddling my brain and allowing the surviving little gray cells to get creative.

I got a bit sidetracked at HD because they had the most glorious supply of new plants and I just couldn't resist getting a few.  Okay, more than a few, but whatever.  Once I finish the bathroom--hopefully this year--I can do some planting and digging, connecting with the earth, calming my soul, reveling in beauty and blossom.

Here's a photo of one, called Silene.  I'm not familiar with this plant, but it captivated me from across the parking lot, along with several other people, who like me, went straight to the display to see what it was.  I really like what it's called, too.  Can't you picture a woman with that name?  Silene.  In my mind though she isn't all pink and dainty like this...

When my day started, the weather was Spring at its best:  warm, with fluffy clouds, blue skies...

Two hours later, when we got home, Spring at its worst was rolling across the Valley in a series of thunderstorms, high winds, lashing rain.  Guess it's a good thing that my immediate chores are indoors today...

So, I unload the car, put all the plants outside in the back, then haul the printer up the stairs and begin to unpack.  I'm only vaguely nervous that my expectations will be dashed, and that's based on some research I did over the weekend on this particular model.  There were 98% five-star ratings, and 2% hate-it-with-a-passion ratings.  I pretty much figured that after the POS I joyfully destroyed, the new printer would have to be the worst thing ever made to even come close.

In under an hour, I had it hooked up, wireless going strong, printing like a dream, paper and photos.  What a joy...it's quiet, efficient and cool.  I can't wait to get back to the make-my-own postcards plan--after the bathroom is finished, of course.

And speaking of that.  I need to get to work; it's now Day Six of my one day project.  Though at least now I can dream of other things while I work: digging, planting, flowers; printing, postcards, a solid piece of equipment.  Nice...