The World in Tonevision

I am now officially a winner! :-)

 Lo and behold, my prize:

Yes, indeed. A lovely pink web-badge. Well worth slaving away for the better part of a month, no?

It has been amazing fun, and the sense of achievement after surpassing the 50 000 word requirement today is completely out of proportion with the fact that large parts of the book is, for lack of a better word, tripe. Now, I don't mean to knock tripe, I actually like it in polish flaki soup for instance, but it's not like I'd pay money for a book on it. If you get my drift.

But I must say, the output improved tremendously towards the end of the writing process, and the fun I had assembling the different storylines into something resembling a unified story was amazing! At the moment I feel like it might actually be worth sitting down and editing the thing. I might actually do it. The aim of course being to write, in the words of Nanowrimo founder Chris Baty "something that won't make people vomit". Friends and family beware if you get a rectangular, flat and sort of stinky christmas-present this year...

Anyhow, it is done, finished, over with, and I can absolutely recommend it to anyone thinking about taking up the challenge next year. Yay!

*toasting self in champagne flavoured soda*

Efficiency - or the art of not overthinking it

We're in the process of moving house this week. Something I don't exactly love at the best of times, but which is just ridiculously taxing when you're 8 months pregnant, big as a house, working and writing a novel at the same time. But we had movers, so the moving of boxes was as painless and efficient as one could wish for. Due to a temporary lapse of judgement on my part I said "yes, why not?" when they suggested starting the move at 6am tuesday morning rather than ten, which was great for the moving van finding a parking space and for finishing early but not as great for staying on good terms with the neighbours in the place we were moving out from. It was too late by the time I thought of that. But, then again, what can they do? Kick us out? Ha.

Now that the boxes are all moved, all we need to do is to get some furniture (only a sofa, dining room table, bed, cot, six or seven bookshelves, and ten or so other things, nothing much really) from ikea, assemble them (easy-peasy!), and we're officially moved in!

As for electrical goods, we needed a washing machine, a microwave oven after a Very Bad Popcorn Incident with the previous one, and a TV. The latter feels a bit spoilt as I already own a very nice, comfortably lumpy TV with inbuilt quality control (that is, you turn it on, it turns itself off, you turn it on again, it turns itself off again and so on 3-15 times depending on room temperature, as if to say "are you positive you really need to be watching TV at this particular point in time" - which, let's face it, you very rarely really need). But my partner for some reason felt like this was a bit of a nuisance rather than an advantage, so I succumbed and we decided to get one of them fancy new flatscreens that don't take up a whole room to themselves either.

And this is where it gets efficent: due to being tired and pressed for time plus getting a little lost on the way there, we only arrived at the electrical goods store at 19.54 this evening. It closes at 20.00. In those six minutes, we purchased a washing machine, TV and a microwave oven. That's two minutes per purchase. One could argue that it doesn't bode well for the quality control that I haven't even seen the microwave oven, but only said to the helpful clerk that "and lastly, I'll take the cheapest microwave oven you have", but really. Why spend time poring over a decision that you don't really care about? If the TV will show soccer matches, John will be happy. If the micro nukes my oatmeal porridge and pops my popcorn, I don't much care what extra special pizza functions it can oven. And as long as my socks get clean, a washing machine is pretty much a washing machine to me.

I notice a pattern here, the two times in my life I have purchased a vacuum cleaner I have invariably bought the cheapest one available and left the shop within five minutes of entering. It works for me.

Ironically, I can spend hours and hours in almost any bookstore deciding which 10 euro book to buy, and then beat myself up for a long time if I didn't buy the one I should have bought. I suppose it's a matter of choosing one's battles.

NaNoWriMo write-in

Seven days into the NaNoWriMo project, and it's starting to get interesting! The writing itself is one thing. That is interesting,for sure, although whether it's interesting good or interesting bad, I'm hard pressed to tell you at this point. Same goes for the "so, what's the book about?" question. Can't really tell you, and it is can't, not won't. I am following the no plot, no problem - philosophy and started on the first day without even the first idea who my main character would be. Now I've gotten to know her and six or so other characters, and what the story is remains to be seen. Let's just hope there is one.

Apart from the writing itself, it is also starting to get sociable. Over the last week, I've been to no less than three write-ins. One with my writing group, Sjåherresåde!, that I meet to write with biweekly anyway, one with my very good friend Helena who I have also been able to trick into this madness, and one with other NaNoWriMo writers from the Oslo area in Litteraturhuset (as seen in pic below). Nerding together is certainly a very good thing, and something I have been doing too little of. Turns out there are plenty of other people like me out there, and they're friendly, as well. Happy days!

13681 words down, 36319 to go!

Sunday photo walk

After what seems like decades of rain, finally some sun today - perfect for a photowalk with Helena, giving my new lens (the old one having had an unfortunate meeting with the pavement that awful monday morning of the glucose tolerance test) its first proper testrun. The botanical gardens are never a bad place to go in fall, and the lens works splendidly.
 

Apart from getting aquainted with my new lens and enjoying the sun and the company plus keeping me occupied the last day before Nanowrimo, the walk was useful in finding nice places to go out in my new neighbourhood - only two weeks before we move to Grønland now! I must say, the opportunities for homemade cake in quaint surroundings seem abundant - much better than expected! The area also seems stroller-friendly, which is probably the kind of thing I will care about shortly.

Sleep hygiene

is what I am currently performing. It's 3.30 on a sunday morning, and I can assure you it's not like I'm just home from a mad night out or anything. No such luck, I did sleep for three hours or so before the baby decided it was time to have a little swim in the belly, my legs decided it was time to start twitching, some neighbours decided it was time to ramble drunkenly up the stairs, and eventually I myself decided it was time to get up and do something else instead of just savouring the hassle of not being able to go back to sleep.

Something else has thus far consisted of trawling the web for sleep advice for pregnant women, of which there is plenty to be had, all of outstanding quality.

• "Cut down on alcoholic beverages" - Ya think?
• "Have a hot bath" - erm. The last time I checked I'm not allowed to have hot ones?
• "Nap"/"Whatever you do, don't nap" - these pieces of advice both sound very reasonable to me, although maybe not too useful when seen under one.
• "Have a going-to-bed ritual. One example could be brushing your teeth" Brilliant advice, never thougtht of that! Must try. Where can one purchase a toothbrush?
• "Don't look at the time if you can't sleep. Oh, and never stay in bed for more than 20 minutes if you are unable to go back to sleep." Will try. I guess that means the next time I wake up in the middle of the night I should just count to 1.200 before getting out of bed?

My favourite bit of advice is the recurring cheery suggestion at the bottom of all the lists that sleeping in spurts in the third trimester is an excellent opportunity to get used to the altered sleeping patterns that will descend on the household when the baby arrives anyway, and should be cherished. Hooray.

Oh well. NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, so at least I will be able to use the sleepless hours for something constructive.

NaNoWriMo: the next stupid big project

To-do list for November:

1. Move house
2. Write novel
3. Stay sane and healthy and get ready for maternity leave.

The third item follows from the first two, I suppose.

The first one is straightforward enough when boiled down to a point on a numbered list, but as everyone knows who has actually tried it, in reality those two little words contain quite a lot of work. On the positive side 1), we now have somewhere new to move to, and it is an absolutely lovely place (before you get your knickers in a twist, we don't own it, we're only renting. But it has a bathtub, a dishwasher, a balcony and room for a washing machine, all high on my list of the ultimate luxuries that life has so far denied me). On the positive side 2) I can't really carry anything much or even wash down the house, so I'll have to have someone else do those bits and my conscience will still be reasonably clear. There is, however, the issue of packing my (30? 40? 50?) dresses, my meters and meters of books and disassembling my bookshelves etcetera, the gruelling choices of what to throw out and what to leave behind, the inevitable visits to IKEA (tough even on people not dragging another person around on their belly), dealing with the broadband supplier, insurance provider, and so on and so on.

With this in mind, writing a novel in a month might not sound like the sharpest idea. Nevertheless, after reading No plot, No problem? Writing a novel in 30 days over my holidays this summer, the idea of joining NaNoWriMo and writing a novel in November has been growing to the size of an obsession in my mind. At this point I can't not try, and for good measure I have even been talking a few of my friends into doing it, making the point of no return nothing but a small light on the horizon behind me. What will it be about? Don't know. Do I have a chance in hell of actually completing the project? Don't know. But it will at least give me something else to focus on than my growing worries about childbirth and irritation at not being able to fit into anything remotely decent looking any more. There certainly is that.