Life in an Instant: A Month in Review
I SURVIVED NOVEMBER! IT'S A MIRACLE!
It truly is, though. I managed to finish NaNoWriMo with 50,030 words, and Movember ended with us earning $10.25. Not nearly as much as last year, but we still earned money that will go towards raising awareness.
So, I went a bit crazy on the photos. To my defense, I realized that I haven't done an Instafeed post all month. This warranted needing a month-in-a-glance type post. I learned a lot this month and I plan on posting all about it for the month of December so future writers and fundraisers can learn from my mistakes and triumphs. I also realized that I'm shit with my tablet pen and will be practicing writing with it a lot more in the future to prevent such horribleness from occurring again.
Movember 2012
Jeff ended up winning Man of Movember at my first fundraising event hosted at The Abbey Trappist Pub on the last day of Movember. I was extremely nervous about running this event because it wasn't like the ones I've done for work where I don't know anyone there and I'm leading a team. I was by myself and in front of my friends. To me, it's much more nerve-wracking trying to perform in front of people you know versus strangers. Strangers you'll never see again, friends can change their opinions of you. If you follow me me on the social feeds, you'll already know that I posted about being at the bar and how to find me to register for the event. Well, after 15 minutes of no one stepping up to me and seeing at least 5 other gentlemen with amazing mustaches, I downed my Pear Cider and stepped up to bat. I was SO excited when I learned that one table of four guys (pictures #8-11) came specifically for the event. It truly made my night. Then, they all pointed out a guy at the next table that was rocking the double 'stache on his face and shirt (#7). We had quite a few hiccups (social posting fails, weather fails, and turnout fails), but it was a great night. Jeff got the sash and a mug, and the 2nd and 3rd place winners won mugs, as well. All of the runner-ups got cookies. I was also very stoked to see two of my friends from the Stockton NaNoWriMo group show up and support the cause as well.
Thank you to everyone that helped make that night so incredibly special! The Abbey has expressed interest in trying again next year, so you'll have a chance to join in the fun next November, assuming the apocalypse doesn't occur and we all become zombies or dust.
NaNoWriMo 2012
Just thinking about reaching 50,030 words makes me want a nap desperately. I'M NOT EVEN DONE WITH MY STORY YET! That's the truly crazy part. I was really convinced that I was going to finish the story and run out of words. Luckily, that was not the case. I've got about 7 more chapters to go, and I should be good. I've been getting good reviews on it so far from fanfiction.net. Yes, that's right. If I haven't said this already, this story I'm writing is a fanfic for Harry Potter that I started almost 5 years ago and never finished. To not cheat, I started my word count for NaNo where I left off in the story. If you're as much of an HP nerd as I am and looking for a new story to read, check it out here. It's an alternate universe (AU) story about Hermione and George finding themselves after a series of losses with each other's help. I try to stay as true to canon as possible (this means that I try to follow the guidelines of the original universe).
When I started writing the story, I knew I wanted to do something different. For anyone who reads Hermione/Fred or Hermione/George stories, you'll know that the writers tend to lean towards the Marriage Law themes. In this theme, the Ministry enforces a law that requires wizards between certain ages to marry in order to keep the population of the Wizarding community afloat. The Ministry choses your spouse for you and prevents you from straying from this. I've seen variations where they give you three options, and the loophole is if you are already engaged by the time the law in enforced you don't have to marry who they choose. A great variation of this I found was one where Mr. and Mrs. Weasley have put all of their children in arranged marriages and the kids have to find ways to get out of them. Some are bound by magic, others are able to be sneaky.
The thing I love about fanfiction the most is seeing everyone's different scenarios that they place these characters in. I prefer ones that stick to the character's natural behaviors rather than ones where they're completely different people or original characters are introduced as main characters. Some people are down for that, but it's not exactly my cup of tea.
In my story, I wanted to explore the possibility of Hermione and George forming an emotional connection and furthering their relationship and personal growth because of it. I didn't want the usual themes to be included. This particular pairing isn't one that's explored as much as Hermione and Fred's pairing is. The one aspect of these pairings that I've never seen is where Hermione comes to work for Fred and George's shop, Weasley Wizard Wheezes. It's been a lot of fun writing about their adventures working for each other. Nothing too crazy happens because that's real life. Sometimes, crazy shit just doesn't happen. I mean, it will in future chapters, but not right now. Shit gets REALLY crazy and I can't wait to write it.
So, that's been my month in a glance. Everything summed up in one post. Easy enough when your life has been consumed with donations and writing. What's cool is the fact that I've had the opportunity to make a few new friends along the way. Our NaNoWriMo group had such a blast meeting up that we've decided to continue getting together on our normal days to write and have a good time until we decide we're all sick of it. I don't foresee that happening anytime soon.
We'll, time to get back to the daily grind. Happy December, everyone!
