Monday, October 29, 2007

Today I wrapped up everything; put it all in a list, and decided what to write each day. I haven't put in on the gmail calendar, so I'll be emailing the document to Wilson. I feel all planned and stuff. Woot.

Research Update

So today I got some more information from my dad about exhibition gymnastics. I figure I'll lay it out here, both as proof and for my own reference.

He didn't do any competition, thought eh team went competitive after he graduated and some of his younger brothers did pretty well. The team just worked out through the year and put on a 2-night show, like the dramatic productions at NHHs near the end. He described it as sort of circus-like, with more of what we would consider acrobatics and showmanship. He outlined a couple of routines:

1. Statuary, which involved a whole lot of silver body paint. The performers would move into a position while the lights were down, and then freeze, usually with someone balancing or in a difficult position, before they were turned back on.
   
2. Ladders, in which the guys would go in between two ladders and hold them up vertically, then girls would climb the sides and do stunts.
   
3. Vaulting, done in choreographed, criss-cross lines.
4. Trampoline stunts, especially one teammate who did a suicide dive: jumping really high and then going down head-first, tucking at the last minute.
   
5. Rings, on which he did a giant routine.
   
6. Dive-rolls, for which you have to get a running start, jump over people, and dive into a roll.
   

I have determined that I should look up an internet site that has good vocab I can use. I definitely want to have Yunkie be the one who does the suicide-dive. I can do somereally neat stuff with that and trust. I've also decided to include another flashback near the end- to Lacy's dad telling everyone that Yunkie will be coming to visit. That way, she can know without the reader knowing at the beginning. Also, I'm changing Alethia's middle name to Cassandra (or Kassandra; I haven't decided), because Sandrilene reminds me too much of Circle of Magic (well, that is where I got it from) and Cassandra fits with the Greek theme of her first name.

Sweet.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Today:

1. Misentity Meeting. Stuff came out, stuff got locked down. I think we have a workable plan of action now.
2. I made a slip for attaching to paper submissions, and fit six or seven of them on a apge.
3. Got some stuff worked out with NaNo- people registered & people friended.
4. I started planning which things to write each day. W00t.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Today, I came up with names for my characters.

The family

1. Alethia Sandrilene Wheeler
2. Questions Patrick Wheeler*
3. Wonder Jimothy Wheeler*
4. Mark & Mary Wheeler

The others

1. Gerrick Hogarty Youngdahl = Yunkie
2. Girl Scout troop member= Molly, Skye, Megan, Amanda, maybe others, & leader = Miss Louise

The town will be called Eropsook Creek, PA.

Also, I came up with some more vingettes, these from girl Scouts:

• camping at skylodge
• Hiking at furnace hills (do I want to bring horses into this?)
• orienteering at camping carousel

*For these first names, I want to translate them to, I think, Arabic

I also thought of making Alethia's older brother into twins. I think that could work more to my advantage.

Then we had a Misentity meeting, and I didn't ahve time to do any more research.

October 18, 2007

First, we had a Misentity meeting.

Then, I went to the library.

Next, I got some books about mythology.

After that, I helped Ms. Duncan look for her keys. It turned out that she loaned them to someone.

Finally, I read the books and took some notes. The following things came of this:

1. Partially becasue there were filing cabinets in the way, and partially becasue it seems hackneyed, I decided to saty a bit away from the greco-Roman tradition, and came away with books about Egypt, Persia, and China. Also, I learn more new stuff thsi way.
2. There was one Egyptian god, Atum, who created himself by speaking his name in the prymordial soup. I think this would be a really cool thign to include when Alethia and Yunkie get to the island. Atum is also Ra, and there is a whole gamut of theogony that I can inlcude if I do this. Yayness!
3. The Persian Rapithwin= Lord of the Noonday Sun and Summer Months. I don't know, I really liked something about this guy. I think I will definitely use him if they end up having to walk part of the way home. And maybe even if they don't.
4. Anjie cam in at the end. She thinks Alethia should go by Lacy. I will have her family call her that, like her brother and parents in the flashback scencs. Otherwise, she will go by her middle name. And in the school flashback scence, she won't correct the pronunciation of her first name, merely state this.

October 16, 2007

I have determined how I will spend the remainder of the month in order to meet my checkpoint. Most of the story ahs been figured out; now, it's just a matter of writing it and putting it all in order. I made a Google calendar for NaNo. So far, all I have on it is word count goals. I filled in everything I could think of on my general calendar for November, because I plan to miss to A-days, and togther, that's 9,000 words to make up. Unfortuantely, it looks like there is only 1 weekend in Novermber when I'll be able to write, and that's the first one. My officail goal for then in 10,000 words, which is typical for NaNo, but I might be able to push out 5,000 each day. I'm going to have to really do all my college stuff then, too, so I don't know.

Some new elements I came up with today:

• The girl's first name will be Alethia, and she will go by her middle name. Thus, I can flash back to people not being able to pronounce her name/wondering who she is on the first day of school.
• Yunkie majored in classical studies, or somethign the like. This links up with Alethia, and it's something that interests me, and it will provide filler- he can retell Greek myths and random stuff.
• Something I'm considering- a vingette about the boy and her brother lying ont he roof of their grandmother's house in ithaca, and girl doesn't like that she can't see the stars. Boy doesn't care. Maybe.
• A dream about dancing muffins.
• I think I might move the whole thing to a small town in Pennsylavnai. Maybe they can stop at a small town in Upstate New York, or in Ithaca. Maybe her dad went to Cornell. But I'm afraid to write about thigns that I don't know, and I do know a little more about Pennsylvania. I can just have them shoot up 83, or whatever.

And now, this is how I will use the rest of my time in October. Because I have the plot mostly figured out, I'm down to research now. These are thigns I need to do.

• Talk to my dad about his high school gymnastics experiences. This will also serve as make-up work for when I was out, since I will have to do it outside of school.
• Information about Greek Diner owners. Would they even have corn muffins? Maybe they stop somewhere else and get corn muffins. Anyway, I need to find out about this sort of thing.
• Girl Scout Handbook. I want this girl to be a scout. especially because I have personal experience with that. I think I have a junior handbook, but I think I also need her to be a little older than 11.
• Maps. Maps, maps, maps. I need to plan this road trip.
• Of course, I need to look up more mythological stuff. I'm by no means an expert. I might go ahead and start woking on some of it today.

Between all this stuff, I should be able to fill up my time, and eventually, my event details on the google calendar, to meet my checkpoint.

I am a little concerned about Misentity. I'll say that. I think I'll be doing a lot of Misentity work in homeroom, because November is the month when I need to be typing constantly, especially since I'll have so little weekend time to make up for word-count lapses.

Anticipatory Post

I will probably be going on a field trip tomorrow, and so will miss class tomorrow. I'll do an appropriate amount of work before the next meeting and log it.

I thought I'd start working on the schedule, and so far, I have figured the following:

1. There are nine A-days in November. Currently, I plan on missing two of them (ach! I know! but at least I do know, this far ahead of time) I will include them in the schedule, though, becasue I'd have to make up classwork for any other class.
   
2. 50,000/9=5555.555555555555555555555555555555555555, or about 5556 words per day.
3. I would have to type 70 words per minute, every minute of every period to make that. It's physically possible, but not a good idea for me to type that fast. So I will have to figure on some outside writing time to win NaNo. I think I can handle that, considering I won last year doing all of it outside CW.

I also sorted out my NaNo account. I know my password (ie, I wrote it down) and I'm affiliated with Maryland (We're taking back the top this year!! WOOO!!!) I might try to attend some regional events this yea, especially becasue , if I do NaNonext year, I might have to be in a different region.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Following is the combined progress of today and the previous class. It doesn't seem like much, but this comes after a lot of discussion, and come on; plot development? We know how I am about that.

• diner- this will be the first stop, but probably after some conversatiopn or something. It's about three in the morning. Suggested inclusion of a scandal about the local diner being bought out, but I might make it the diner Mrs. O'Leary mentioned in Ithaca. Reguardless, it is here that the pioneer conversation takes place, and henceforth, the journey is to Manan Island. Also, they get a sack of corn muffins that is their main food source for the rest of the story.
• Uncle Yunkie is not actually related to the father, but is a friend from high school (or college) gymnastics. They lost toush, but found each other recently, and he is coming for a visit that only the fater know about. He recognizes girl on sight from pics or something she says (not sure)
• There is going to be a scene where Yunkie ltes the girl drive,s that links to a time when her brother cajoled her into going for a spin
• Yunkie is going to bring up video games, ands he will remember a good time playing them with her brother
• butt-cheek planner- this will be somethign that her brother did tyo a kid at school, and she won't think its funny.

There are some other thing s I'm thining about, but not for certian including_

• maybe car breaking down part of the way home, and them having to walk the rest of the way- Originally, I was going to amke aher a hardcore Girl Scout, but that doesn't seem to fit now.
• Something about not being able to see the stars in the city
• the poetry in general. I think I've taken thigns in a different direction.

Monday, October 8, 2007

I want to go outside today with Anji and Sarah, so I'm going to try to work on plot a little more, maybe discuss my ideas with some poeple. I also looked up the farthest east point in Mass- it's Chatham, on Cape Cod. So that's where they're going to go. But then there's this island, Grand Mana, off theMaine coast, and I think it would be better for themto go there. So I don't know.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Toooooooday:

Finish up the essay, and send it off.
Lay more down on the master plan.
Establish NaNo account.

What I accomplished:

Something's still off with NaNo
Ready to send esay, but didn't do it b/c Kim ahdn't gotten back to me yet.
reworked the master plan a bit.

East of Everywhere

The plot, un-chopped up:

It is Friday. Girl runs away from home. Walking down a 23-type road, she is offered a ride by a man who looks like her dad. She takes his offer. They spend the weekend driving around, and she returns home on Sunday night.

Setting: I don’t know. Woodbury, maybe.

Charcterization:
The last thing will be the letter that girl left for her parents, stating her intention to be back before school starts the next week.

Problem: girl has determined that she does not belong in her home. So she packs a backpack and leaves. The first car to pass her on the road is her uncle’s, and he agrees to give her a ride to somewhere. Eventually, girl wants to go east of everywhere. A conversation between the girl and her uncle, about pioneers heading west, spurs her to want to go east all the way east. Then the only way she’ll have to go is west.

The beginning
I) Phone call between uncle and parents says that he is coming for a visit over the weekend
II) Straight girl walking along the road. She gets in car with uncle.
III) We do not meet any of her other family members
IV) (see problem)

The middle
I) Sense of time is lost.
II) Majority of telling is poetry/dream sequences
III) Meet the family- older brother, much-older sister, parents.
IV) Fleshing out of the problem


The end
I) Girl and her uncle get to the nearest point that is very east.
II) Girl decides to go home
III) I don’t know what will happen with the uncle.


Poems that girl will write:
First, they are all about water, sometimes in a scientific way.
Algal blooms
Winding river
Love is the strongest force

Dreams:
I want to have a recurring dream, but I don’t know what about. Rather than the dream ending at the end, I’d have it go the same as before, but then the girl understands anyway/doesn’t care.

This sparks a new list: things I need to research

• where is the farthest-east point in the US? Connecticut?