First off, I'm starting to feel like posting a daily update on my blog is a little redundant given the running daily wordcount totals in my sidebar and my twitter account (which totally wasn't created for the sole purpose of NaNoWriMo). I also feel like it's probably going to get old very, very quickly. So, after today, I'll be limiting the blog posts to weekly updates, starting this Saturday.

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So today I learned that, if I put my mind to it (and don't overestimate myself), my goals are totally achievable, but I might have to sacrifice sleep for them. I also learned that EM waves in Linear, Isotropic, Homogeneous materials involve more algebraic acrobatics than I expected and get very messy, but that's got nothing to do with Fifteen Dinners and I'm probably only mentioning it because I'm super-tired.

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Dear Princess Celestia,

I know I haven't addressed the last two updates to you, but I feel like today I learned something really valuable about writing. So... here goes:

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Today went kinda slowly—by which I mean today started off really, really well and then around lunchtime slowed to a crawl. A mere 2,700 words written today means I've finished Chapter 2, but starting tomorrow I've got to balance NaNoWriMo against uni work.

DAY 2 UPDATE: 7,749 words written, which really bugs me because it's one off a nice round number but I feel like I'd be cheating writing just one more. An early start tomorrow should see me hitting 10k by lunchtime, if I'm lucky!

So, it's that time of year again.

I haven't updated anything in quite a while on here and, in a way, this blog is an apology in advance—because this next month is going to be even more nothingness on the Plans Change front. Sorry, but I've got 50,000 words to write.

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Dear Princess Celestia,

Lately I've been having a lot of trouble with one-shots, and short stories in general. I think it's been all the failed attempts to read James Joyce lately, though it could also be my own delusions of grandeur, but in the last few months every short story I've sat down to write has been in some way artistic, and I say that with all the scorn I can muster.

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Dear Princess Luna,

Today I learned the importance of flexibility in one’s character planning. All my life I've been aware of how a character can take on a life of their own and how this can sometimes cause more than a little tension when they begin to do things that you did not even begin to plan for—I once had a character decide, without any real planning on my part, that she was actually a witch, forcing me to invent a whole coven of witches to continue the story!

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Dear Princess Celestia,

I have often worried that, when I finish a writing session, I can find it difficult to sit back down and start again when the time comes for the next session. Today I found a way around that problem that seems to work with reasonable consistency.

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Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned that writing in the second person is surprisingly addictive. It's weirdly jarring at first, but once you've given it a try once it opens up huge realms of possibilities for stories that simply wouldn't work in any other narrative voice. I'm not just talking about power fantasies, or indeed fantasies of any other kind, but rather an entirely different approach to immersion.

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Dear Princess Celestia,

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