What has everyone been doing?

So September is upon us.  The great month of "I should be coming up with at least a little plot before I feel rushed in October," or "wow, where did the year go?  Looks like it's about time to pull another novel out of my butt."  Or then again, it may be the time to just crawl under your desk and cry, realizing you're about ready to do the stupidest thing you've ever done, ALL OVER AGAIN! 

So what has everyone been up to the past ten months?  Anyone have anything life altering happen?  Anyone get their book published? 

Me?  I've been pulling my 2008 novel in and out of various states of revision.  I won NaNoEdMo, having only written 60 pages...  And of course I've been planning for Nano again (the next two Nanos actually).  Besides that, nothing interesting.

So share with us all as you wander through the dead halls of the UtahWrimos forum, what has been going on? 

How in the hell did I get here?

I had a strange dream about someone writing a novel.  One level stranger than that: the dream was about having a dream about someone writing a novel.  Except, in the novel, the "author" is writing a screenplay and various notes about it.  If you've read Adios, Scheherazade, you'll get the idea.

So, the screenplay is about a con-woman and the antagonist is a cop and the screenwriter can't get beyond the first scene without inserting a long note about how he's not going to let them "meet cute", followed by a diatribe against the whole notion of meeting cute, ending in a curse on Preston Sturges.

But in the novel, of course, the screenwriter is the protagonist and the director is some sort of antagonist and the con-woman morphs into a production assistant (or maybe actress).

So, in the outer dream I woke up and I thought "this is a pretty good idea for a novel, maybe NaNoWrimo."  I dreamed that I started to write it a little and it sort of sucked.

Then I woke up and I still thought this might be a pretty good idea for a NaNoWriMo novel and I wandered off to the site and signed up and even gave them some money before I realized that it was just an idea and probably a bad one -- it was looking pretty bad in the outer dream. 

Before I could get myself stopped, I'd read four books on screenwriting -- two very bad and one nothing but gossip, and one pretty good -- and downloaded some scripting software and seriously given some thought to writing a screenplay and making a movie (just back from checking out Extreme DV at Used Car Prices).  If this keeps up, I may have to go back on the meds.

The name of the proposed novel is Note to Self  but I'm thinking it stinks and I don't want to do it anymore.

Not sure if I want to mess with NaNoWriMo this year.  Tried it in 2002 and got about 20,000 words of a caper novel done.  Stealing a cheetah from Hogle Zoo.  Well, not stealing exactly: exchanging two cheetahs without anyone knowing you did it.

I've been editing like crazy, submitting several books and articles--no takers--, and I had a baby five weeks ago.

I'm desperately trying to finish up some side work so that I have evenings and such free in November. :/

I'm actually outlining before November this time around. I'm totally going to finish this time.

I've been trying to decide which one of my half finished plot outlines I want to mangle this year.

I'm actually outlining before November this time around. I'm totally going to finish this time.

Good on ya!  I tried that this year, too, but I haven't finished my outline yet.