Meg's Diary

Zero

Greetings diary readers! Sorry for the recent lack of updates. I’ve been busy finishing (and handing in—ALLELUIAH) my revision of BEING NIKKI, as well as traveling back to Key West from Indiana (I got to use the brand new Indianapolis airport—on the first day it opened! There was a band! And free wi-fi! And the burgers from the new TGIF were heaven).

Anyway, due to all this, my word count for NaNoWriMo is still ZERO. I plan to remedy this soon, but I am seriously doubting I’ll be able to catch up with any of you. But that’s okay. IT’S NOT A COMPETITION. It’s a challenge.

For those of you who are participating in NaNoWriMo, I appreciate all the thank you notes for the pep talk I sent you. I know not all of you are like me—people who think about cheating on their work-in-progress with a new WIP when the going gets tough. I can’t even tell you how many new ideas for books I came up with while I was working on BEING NIKKI.

But when you’re in the middle of your WIP (around the 30,000 mark for me) it can be hard sometimes to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The idea of just starting a whole new book begins to seem awfully tempting.

Which is why I have this blue plastic milk crate full of half finished stories (not to mention a hard drive full of them, after I finally got a computer and stopped typing my stories on old pieces of notebook paper). It’s embarrassing, really.

Oh my God, I went to take a picture of the milk crate for this entry, and I opened the dusty cupboard where I keep it, and I found it like this: filled with old notebooks and photo albums instead! I freaked out and screamed, “WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MILK CRATE???” and HWSNBNITB said, “Calm down. I moved everything in it to a waterproof bin in case of a hurricane”

Isn’t he awesome?

So I wanted to let everyone know (those of you who might be like me, and are considering cheating on your WIP) that you’re not alone.

But there’s nothing worse than an abandoned story! I feel so bad for mine! They’re worse than the stories I finished that never got published, because at least I know how those turned out. I don’t even remember how any of these the half-finished stories were supposed to go, such as—

…the historical romance about the feisty Southern belle who secretly worked for the Underground railroad.

I am not kidding you, it’s 150 pages of diary format and her name is Blue Belle. BLUE BELLE! Ugh.

…the one about the feisty art historian who is trying to keep the Nazis from finding out about the Lascaux cave paintings while having a romance with a member of the French resistance.

Apparently I was more interested in the feisty art historian’s wardrobe than the story because I drew a lot of pictures of her clothes (and I was in my twenties when I wrote this). Also, what were the Nazis going to DO to the Lascaux cave paintings if they found them that was so bad? I have no idea now. But apparently something REALLY REALLY BAD. They had to be stopped! 250 pages worth of stopped!

…the one about the feisty pickpocket who ends up snowed in with a distrustful but totally hot physician in 1870s Minnesota.

Feisty! 250 pages worth of feisty!

Okay, maybe it’s just as well I didn’t finish any of them. But seriously, it’s sad I don’t know what was supposed to happen in them (mainly because I ditched them for other stories I didn’t finish either). Because maybe they would have turned out okay.

So don’t be like me! Finish your stories! Otherwise you’ll just have a dumb milk crate (or waterproof plastic bin, or hard drive) filled with half-finished stories no one, not even you, knows the ending to.

(On the other hand, if your story REALLY isn’t going anywhere, and you aren’t contractually obligated to finish it–go ahead and give up if you get a better idea! Seriously, I am all for quitting. Because sometimes the only way you can make time for the stuff at which you’re REALLY going to be successful is to quit the stuff that just isn’t doing it for you…such as, a story about a feisty art historian who is trying to save the Lascaux cave paintings from the Nazis.)

You might be wondering how I’m spending my time not working on my NaNoWriMo story now that I’m done with my revision. Well, the usual way: watching TV (and the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam, when it’s on) of course!

I have so much TV to catch up on, such as Lipstick Jungle (which got cancelled, which at first I was sad about, because how many shows about smart, creative business women are there? But then seeing how the last episode ended and what’s coming up in the next episode, now I’m not so sure it’s a bad thing, because how crappy was what they did to Victory? And the whole Nicco-baby story line is icky).

And then there’s Friday Night Lights (this is sad, but I had no idea I got Channel 101, but I do! Yay!). And I don’t care what anyone says, I love KATH AND KIM. It’s like cotton candy for my brain…bad for me, not at all filling, but so fun and yummy!

Plus it stars two of my favorite people, Molly Shannon and Selma Blair! I’d watch them do anything, even just sit there and brush their hair.

And, you guys, seriously, what is TLC, The Discovery Channel, and BBC America DOING with shows like My Fake Baby, Britain’s Youngest Grannies, and My Shocking Story (just to name a few)? Are they trying to stop my writing career cold in its tracks? Why do they have to keep putting on these deliciously grotesque shows that I CAN’T STOP WATCHING (and neither can my girlfriends because we have to call each other afterwards and freak out about them)?

Anyway now, for your entertainment, I present two of my favorite things (stories that, THANK GOD, their creators finished) together for the first time: South Park and High School Musical. I apologize for this in advance and can only say–if I could be anyone besides me, it would be Trey Parker and Matt Stone because I think they have more fun than anyone in the whole world:

More later.

Much love,

Meg

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