*also*

I wanted to include this song in the playlist at the bottom of the screen, but I cannot find a link to it in any form but video, so I'll embed it here for your enjoyment.

Yes, I know The Beatles did it first and different.  Don't worry; I may be mostly musically illiterate, but not by that kind of margin.

NaNo Badges

Introducing...*drum roll*...

NaNoWriMo Merit Badges!

*tada*

I bought these a little while ago and have already earned some for my novel.  I pinned them all to my wrist warmers (because I generally wear those when I type on my computer, and I like to think that their presence adds good energies to my writing) and have been taking them off and pinning them to my purse as I earn them.

NaNo-Socializing:  I earned this before NaNoWriMo even began when I attended the Ottowa County/Grand Rapids regional NaNoWriMo kick-off party in Holland (the Michigan one, not the Europe one).  It was so much fun to meet other people who were going to be spending their November the same way I am. I earned the badge again when last Friday when I attended an East Grand Rapids write-in with three other writers and a NaNo-mom.  Also a really good time.  I'm excited for the next one.

Padding the Word Count:  I've already earned this badge a couple times by adding unnecessary elements, such as essays and short stories that I wrote for my classes, to my novel to boost my word count on especially imagination-starved days.  The first instance of this is still my favorite example of "word padding" thus far: when my main[ish] character Agatha, who is about as promiscuous as Marian the Librarian, danced around her apartment in her underwear to the song "Take it Off" by Ke$ha.  I included all the lyrics.  Every last word.

Secret Novelist:  I earned this badge by working on my novel during biology class.  It was a lot easier than you think, and probably had fewer consequences than you would expect.  We were watching a movie on industrialized farming in the United States, so I just pulled out my laptop and started typing.  During one of the scenes I wrote during those two hours, Agatha went on a rant about vegetarian sustainability.  And we just took the test on the unit, and I felt very comfortable with the material that was covered in that movie, even without having watched it.

Master Procrastinator:  I earned this badge last Thursday when, after classes ended at 1:30, I went on a 2.5 hour Meijer trip, made dinner for four people, served an unnecessary dessert of cinnamon rolls, and cleaned the bathtub drain before finally starting on my novel at 7:45.

Life-imitating Art: This one came when, strapped for ideas for characters, I constructed one out of the worst parts of me and all of my high school and college friends.

NaNo Bucks

Herein sits a list of the donation/wager standings to date:

Straight-up donations:

• $35 -- Thanks to my mom and my best buddy, Cari!

Wagers:

1. Ben - He'll donate $30 if I get the 1,667 daily word goal every day, but I'll owe him $5 for every day I miss (not to exceed $30)
   
2. Katri - $0.50 on every 1K words
   
3. Kathy - $1 for every 1K words, plus a free bonus $25 if I write 1K words specifically about the movie Staying Alive.  (I'm going to have to get a copy and watch it, probably...)

Also, more of my friends than I thought are doing NaNoWriMo this year.  Two of my housemates, and at least one of our mutual friends (though I haven't found his username on the website yet, so I can't check in on his progress.)  Plus, as the scoreboard currently shows, I'm 8% over Chris Baty, the Executive Director of The Office of Letters and Light.  So, booyah.

For those of you who try to avoid giving money to strangers, you can go here to find how OLL uses donations (an exercise in patience, since their servers have been struggling to keep up with the demand for bandwidth).  Most of the money is needed for operating costs, like salaries, server upkeep, etc.

Thanks for all your support!  Current wordcount = 5,988
And my main character spent most of the last chapter dancing around her apartment in her underwear to Ke$ha.  I wish I could say that I planned that.  This book is chock full of surprises...

<3 spadeALLcross