Special congratulations to Miss Moppet, who suffers from a rare NaNoWriMo curse which causes the entire universe to conspire against her in November. The curse is, happily, no match for Miss Moppet's creative powers and insomniac tendencies, and she emerges victorious--with extremely fabulous eyeshadow this year.
Here she is at a celebratory brunch, sparkling with creative genius. Of course, all NaNoWriMo "novels" are piles of literary garbage on the First of December, but the act of participating tends to spark all kinds of whimsy and creative impulses. In Miss M's case, her brain started kicking out all sorts of clever names--for characters and for eyeshadow palettes. And what does eyeshadow have to do with NaNoWriMo? Sparkles, of course! Last year, a friend came up with a motivational treat to reward Miss M for a word count milestone: sparkly cupcakes. The sparkles remind us writers that even if we have an idea that seems silly or stupid (like, um, sparkly vampires?), there's no harm in writing about it anyway--and who knows? That silly idea could "spark" an enormous following if enough other people like it. At the very least, it will almost certainly lead to more creative ideas and inspirations.
Miss Moppet went on a naming spree this year that began with the first two characters in her NaNo draft, Flux Fluoxetine and Tess Turducken, which came to her in a dream. (How else?) Along with the string of hilarious character names that followed came a slew of names for eye makeup looks. Here are a few highlights:
"A Midsummer Night's Gleam"
"Bellini in a Bottle"
"Key Lime Sigh"
"Sunset over Lake Michigan"
Loves it! I participated in NaNoWriMo last year and came up with a delightful story that I sketched out and developed further over the next few months. It's a project I hope to pick up again once the Pregnancy Brain wears off... perhaps in the late summer of 2011, when I hope and wish and pray that my baby will sleep through most of the nights and I can have my wits back.
While other writers did NaNoWriMo this year, I just kept growing my baby. I can only have one major priority at this moment in my life, but I did take advantage of the writerly event to attend one of the meetings, check in on others' progress, and leech some of the creative spirit of the month to complete a short piece for the Literary Lab's next Genre Wars anthology. Meanwhile, I grew a baby. My husband, Mr. G, has made me feel like a winner for the past eight months for carrying this baby around, nurturing her growth, and preparing our home for her debut this winter. Below is a picture of us getting ready for Mr. G's work holiday party. With sparkles.
While other writers did NaNoWriMo this year, I just kept growing my baby. I can only have one major priority at this moment in my life, but I did take advantage of the writerly event to attend one of the meetings, check in on others' progress, and leech some of the creative spirit of the month to complete a short piece for the Literary Lab's next Genre Wars anthology. Meanwhile, I grew a baby. My husband, Mr. G, has made me feel like a winner for the past eight months for carrying this baby around, nurturing her growth, and preparing our home for her debut this winter. Below is a picture of us getting ready for Mr. G's work holiday party. With sparkles.
And because Baby G is a winner this month for getting her act together and finally putting her head down, here is a video of her dancing to her favorite song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Does this count as a belly dance? I wanted to post one of those this month, but these days Baby G seems to have a lot more energy than her mother. Oh well.
Congratulations also to the following NaNoWriMo winners:
Meika, who is still Waiting on the Muse
Anastasia at Labotomy of a Writer
Summer ...and this time, concentrate! (That's the name of her blog, not a tip from me!)
Carol with her Random Writings
Dominique en Violet
John Smith, which is just a pen name
Erica at laugh.write.play
Who else is a NaNoWriMo winner? Don't be shy! Post a comment with a link to your own blog so we can all bask in your sparkly success.
