Hillary DePiano.com News and Updates

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Hillary DePiano — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:53:28 +0000

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ugh, so annoyed with myself

Hillary DePiano — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:06:49 +0000

So I told my husband I was going to pull a late night and work on NaNoWriMo. The plan was to stock pile a lot of words and then do my real work tomorrow. So it’s 2 AM and I am really tired and have. . . no words written.

On the plus side, I did a lot of my “real work” tonight so I guess that means I can write tomorrow (though I have a lot more “real work” to do than I thought I did which is mildly depressing). My “let me just finish this thing quick” tonight turned into a whole long night of work.

I must say, the temptation to ignore everything in life but the novel until its done is really really tempting but just not realistic. I hope to finish my writing early tomorrow and then enlist the hubby to help me with some of my other work later in the day but I really hate not accomplishing what I say I am going to, even if its on a small scale. I thought about trying to write some anyway but I am really tired and useless right now so I am thinking that’s a bad plan.

On the plus side, I am a little bit ahead of the goal I set for myself so I am hoping this won’t be this big a set back.

My undoing was the election yesterday. I was all in the zone and would have kept writing all night but I stopped to watch the election stuff and lost my mojo. That and we stayed up way too late anyway watching the speeches. Damn you McBama!

Oh well, tomorrow is another day, right?

election round-up

Hillary DePiano — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:53:25 +0000

So, we have a new president, people! Yay new president smell! And a new White House puppy coming our way which is something we can all get behind!

I cannot speak for everyone but I felt really proud to be an American yesterday and not because the candidate that I voted for won. (On that note, I want to sock people out who say they are proud of America when America agrees with them. That is one of the stupidest things on Earth.) I was proud because voting, which is normally me and the volunteers in an otherwise empty room, was actually crowded with a line snaking around the entire elementary school gym where I vote. I think it took me a total of 45 minutes to vote (I was reading a book so I wasn’t looking at the time). Now where I live a solid 80% of the people on that line were probably voting against Obama, a fact I add because I am reading a lot of negative blog posts saying that all the people on line to vote were Obama people which I don’t think is true.

But it always used to really tick me off when I went to the polls and no one was there. It’s your country people! A lot of us had to fight (women, African Americans, hello!) for the right to vote and you just blow it off. You piss me off.

Well, I should say that you normally piss me off. This year everyone and their mom came out and went to the polls which is the way Democracy is supposed to work. Thank you. Make it a habit, please! I am completely honest when I say that I don’t care if you are voting for the opposite of what I am voting for. I just want you to actually go and vote!

I am really pleased that the election is over because I was really sick of it and I would love to say that everyone will be happy now but by far the most disturbing part of last night is when McCain was giving his speech and his supporters, holding signs that said Country First and We Love America booed the president elect’s name. That was so messed up. If you love America, dipwads, then you support the president regardless of if you voted for him or not. I cannot stand Bush but I wouldn’t freaking boo him. Are you five?

What makes America great is that we are a Democracy. This isn’t some hanging chads nonsense where there is debate over who “really” won. Obama won by an ample margin and, by that Democracy you claim to love so much, that makes him president by will of the majority. Now I know not everyone who supported McCain is like this (I actually just read a really nice post by a die-hard McCain-er who was basically like, “I would have liked McCain as pres better but Obama and his lovely family have my support”) but that kind of stuff is ridiculous. You cannot claim to love the country but selectively decide to only love it when it agrees with you. Jeez! I could rant about this all day. But I won’t, don’t worry.

On another random note, did you know that now that Obama is president, there is now not a single black person in the Senate? Also messed up. However, record numbers of women so I guess its a wash of sorts.

Now, in the aftermath of the election, everyone is reacting differently but there are a few people that are particularly annoying me. These are the people who are all like. . .

OMG! I’m so excited that Obama is president because now he will pay my mortgage and find me a job and end all wars and end racism and make black people rule the world.

Um, no. He is a human being, y’all. He cannot cure all the ills of the world (Oh and before you say it, neither can McCain). I feel like some people are putting him on a pedestal so high that he has no hope of ever meeting their expectations. These people need to calm themselves.

Then there’s these people:

What have they done! They have ruined America. Now we are socialist/Marxism/insert-your-own-ist here. I hope they are satisfied that he will ruin America with his evil ways! I am going to pray so hard for this country I love that Obama is going to ruin.

I am very sorry to report that some of those above were taken word for word from friend’s statuses this morning. My friend reaction is, holy God, lay off the soap operas. A little over dramatic, are we? The one person whose status was about how she was going to pray so hard for the country because she loves her country and her constitution etc etc I read and actually physically laughed out loud at, it was so Drama Queen Extreme.

Let’s be honest, the president doesn’t have that much power. There is no reason to be this dramatic over your backing the wrong horse, people.

The other big problem with this is the whole “What have they done?” aspect. “They”? I think that is the entire problem with America right there. This is not us versus them, people. It’s not you versus me. It’s individual people making their own individual choices about who they think would be the best choice for the country. Sometimes you are going to agree, sometimes not. It’s the will of the majority, not the will of the people you agree with only. If you are thinking us versus them you have already missed the entire point of democracy and should perhaps consider a dictatorship which might be more your speed so no one will disagree with you.

I know this is a long time coming what with the Fox News (and now MSNBC going comically the other direction) and the us/them liberal/conservation Democrat/Republican nonsense but this is all so anti-American I cannot deal with it. When a crazy person carves a “B” in her cheek your reaction should be “LOL crazy person” not “OMG all Republicans are crazy!” By the same token, if some Democratic leaning DJ makes a stupid comment that upsets the Christians or whoever its not “All Liberals are insensitive and hate God” but rather that only that guy is insensitive and hates God. It’s like everyone is gearing up on sides for a war that wouldn’t be happening if people would stop using mob mentality and start acting like one freaking country again.

Everything is part and parcel too. You cannot be against abortion but for gay marriage or you have no political party. It’s stupid.

I really wish we could just get rid of the political party system altogether and just let individuals vote instead of entire parties, but I know we are a long way away from that. I just hate that fact that people on both sides only vote based on the party, not the issues and candidate individually.

As for the people who somehow think we are going to become Socialist, Marxist, Nihilist, whatever, I reserve a particularly large eye roll for you.

So, yeah, there is still a hell of a lot wrong with this country. There is no amount in the world you could pay me to be Obama right now since not only is every wacky skin head in the country going to be after him but he is inheriting one heck of a mess. I don’t just mean the economy and the war and the fact that we are hated abroad but also this division in this country where everyone is either red or blue and no one actually thinks for themselves anymore.

You guys know he wasn’t my top choice for president but, at this point, a little shake up can’t be bad, we are so far down already and I think the fact that he is young and a nice guy will help us greatly in repairing our image. I’m willing to give him a shot.

Besides, if you don’t like what he does in the next four years, we get to start all this stupidity again in 2012.

NaNoWriMo Advanced Word Count Calculator (#nanowrimo)

Hillary DePiano — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:01:42 +0000

I know that some of you out there are as OCD as me when it comes to trying to figure out how far along you are in National Novel Writing Month so I decided to share my own little personal calculator.

I set it up as an .xls file so it will work in Open Office, Microsoft Excel or Google Docs, depending on what you use.

It is very simple. All you do it type in your word count each day and then it calculates your running total, percentage done, whether you are on track to hit 50,000 words at the end of the month etc. It’s a pretty useful little tool that is very simple to use and gives you a lot more info than the little widgets and counters around. It’s also a great way to motivate yourself to stay on track.

If you want to add, share or customize this, please feel free to! I only ask one favor. Please keep my url on the spreasheet as credit so that I at least get some traffic for my work. Or just link to this page!

You can download this calculator here: NaNoWriMo Advanced Word Count Calculator.xls

If you find this tool useful, thanks are appreciated in the comments below. Thanks and happy NaNo-ing!

(Want to be my writing buddy? You can friend me on the NaNo site here. Just make sure that you are logged in before you click.)

Things I learned from NaNoWriMo #12 (#nanowrimo)

Hillary DePiano — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:00:00 +0000

#12 Have fun!

I know, cheesy, right? Not so.

There is something completely ludicrous about proposing to write a book at all, let alone writing an entire book with no plan and in 30 days. Embrace that ridiculousness. It is much easier to write something light and fun in a situation like this than War and Peace so keep that in mind. This isn’t to say that you should steer away from high drama or horror or whatever is your bliss. But make sure that you are writing something that you are enjoying writing, not something that you feel like you should be writing because its good for you or whatever. I have a great idea for this really depressing book about child abuse. I am definitely not even considering that as an option for NaNo.

In the end, NaNo is not about producing good fiction (though sometimes it does). It is about proving to yourself that you can do it, that you can write a book. It doesn’t have to be a good book, that will come later in revisions. All that matters is that you set out to do this near impossible task and accomplished it which is something to be totally proud of.

If a book about crime fighting monkeys is what gets you to 50,000 words while your intellectual allegory about rape stalls you at 5,000 words, go with the monkeys. Pulitzer will forgive you.

We start at midnight tonight. So I have to ask. . . are you in?

So apparently campaigning works. . .

Hillary DePiano — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:10:24 +0000

I have contained myself and not written about the election in many months, so you cannot begrudge me this one little comment.

When this election started, as those of you that read my blog know, I liked McCain and couldn’t stand Obama. But I was still going to vote for Obama, albeit begrudgingly, because I felt like we really needed some serious distance from Bush that McCain couldn’t give us.

Now, here we are a week before the election and McCain has managed to squander all of my goodwill and now I cannot stand him and Obama has managed to raise himself from “eh, I guess he’s OK” to the point where I actually rather like the guy now. I watched him on the Daily Show last night and, even when his jokes were falling flat, I found myself saying, you know, we could do a lot worse than Barry here as president. Do I think he’s the best option we possibly could have had, dear god no, but given the two options we do have, I feel like he’s the better choice. I am not going to get all cult about him and carve a pumpkin but I cannot help but feel like it would be nice to have a president that at least half the country rather likes for a change. I remember that feeling of seeing the president as a little kid and being like “Yay!” instead of “Oh, frigtard’s on the TV again.” Sure, the Republican diehards and the KKK don’t like him, but most of the Republicans are “eh” about McCain anyway because he’s too liberal. And I’m not sure the KKK can be pleased. Unless its with a good rally and lynching with free beer. But how do they drink the beer with those hoods? A question for another day.

Sarah Palin. . . I would prefer if she wasn’t president. I know she isn’t running but since McCain is not exactly a spring chicken, we have to talk about it. I still think that picking her a VP was a really great move on McCain’s part, don’t get me wrong, and I know a lot of Republicans and converted Democrats love her. If nothing else, it got him a ton more media exposure with the SNL routine and other things. But, in the end, she, well, let’s just say I would prefer she wasn’t president and leave it at that. I must say, she really miffed me when she said I’m not a “Real American” because I don’t live in the middle of the country. I know she was just echoing a statement that a lot of people feel but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to kick all of them.

Now I also don’t think its a given Obama is going to win, particularly since I feel like every time the media says he is leading in the polls, one more college aged Democrat says, “Sweet! Then I don’t have to vote now!” and it becomes more likely he’ll lose. I also think that the Bradely effect they keep going on about is true though I suspect it will make more people just not vote rather than vote the other way, but what do I know. My grandparents are not voting at all which, since they were probably going to vote for McCain rather than a black guy, is probably for the best.

Anyway, that is my final thought on the election. I wish we had early voting in NJ so I could get this fool thing over with but, we don’t so I am going to have to do my time on line in the urine smelling elementary school where we do voting on election day which makes me mildly sad but I’ll take it. I can take a little urine smell to exercise my right as an American. Not a “Real American” but, you know, whatever.

Whoever you are voting for, go out and vote!

And I hope wherever you vote it doesn’t smell like pee. . . .

Things I learned from NaNoWriMo #11 (#nanowrimo)

Hillary DePiano — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:00:00 +0000

#11 Write what you like.

Forget about writing what you know. Write what you like. No Plot No Problem suggests writing up a list of your favorite things from the very specific (sassy old people who may be wiser than you might think) to the more general (love triangles, kittens) from books, movies, TV whatever. The stuff on this list is what you will be good at writing. If you get stuck, pick something from that list and throw it into the story. Your love for the topic will be like a cheat sheet for writing about it.

By the same token, don’t write in things you hate. I cannot stand movies where the guy falls in love with another girl right before he is about to get married to the first girl and then decided to just marry the original girl because she is the safe choice. I HATE that. Hence, I would be terrible at writing it because, since I don’t like it, I don’t understand it and thus would not be good at writing it.

Writing what you know is also handy. It is much easier to write about a cubicle monkey if you are one but it can also be creatively stifling if you feel like your character cannot do anything you yourself have experienced. Use your personal experience to get in a good paragraph of description of the main character’s room but don’t let it hold you down if you feel like the room should eat him.

Music to NaNoWriMo by (or for any writing project) #nanowrimo

Hillary DePiano — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:35:25 +0000

I know some people can write no matter what is going on around them, but I like a little music when I’m writing. It blocks out outside sounds and helps me focus on what I am doing.

Some people can listen to normal pop radio while they write but my number one rule for writing music is that I need to not be able to sing along with it. Otherwise, I sing instead of writing which is sort of useless. Here are some suggestions to give you mood music to write to:

Yahoo Launchcast Music Film Scores Station

This is my #1 biggest recommendation. This is hands down my favorite thing to write to. Last year’s NaNo, I pretty much had this station on 24/7. They play a random assortment of music from movies. No words, just instrumentals. It’s all pretty dramatic so it makes writing much easier because it adds importance to whatever you are writing. Sometimes it also affects how you are writing and makes you kick your game up a notch to match the music. It is free and you don’t even need a Yahoo Account to listen to it. There are commercials but they are few and far between. If you write a lot year round, they have a paid version without commercials if you really want, but you don’t really need it. Commercials force you to take breaks which is good for your eyes! (Hot tip: They offer a two week free trial of the commercial free version. I recommend signing up for it for only the last two weeks of NaNo to get that extra kick while you are working the hardest and then cancelling before you are billed.)

Pandora - Build a Station with the keyword Enya

It doesn’t matter if you like Enya but that type of music is awesome to write to. You cannot understand half of what they are saying, it’s all so airy, so you won’t sing along but its dramatic in the same way film score music is. Pandora is commercial free and also is free even if you don’t have an account. The biggest downside to this for me is that here is no way to make Pandora just give you film scores like Yahoo can. Even with the commercials, I still prefer Yahoo to Pandora. That said, Yahoo doesn’t work in Firefox and Pandora does so its nice to have it as an option.

Music in another language

I love Celine Dion. Her music is very dramatic. I also love to sing along to it at the top of my lungs which is counterproductive to writing. My solution? I got some of her import CDs from Canada where she sings in French. Same dramatic Celine style but I can’t sing along because I have no idea what she is saying. If your favorite artist doesn’t record in another language, try out the top pop chart hits of another country. They will likely be the same type of music on the radio here but un-sing-a-long-able. Another great option is Simlish, the language spoken by the characters in the computer game, The Sims. The Sims radio stations in the game have tons of popular songs from all genres translated into Simlish and downloading a few of these can make great background music. World Music is also great for this but if it conflicts with your setting (Asian music for a western cowboy novel) it can mess you up so be aware of that.

So, what do you like to write to?

Things I learned from NaNoWriMo #10 (#nanowrimo)

Hillary DePiano — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:00:00 +0000

#10 Objects in motion tend to stay in motion.

I used to take months off from writing and, when I started again, it took me forever to get started with my book again. When you write a little bit each day, even if only a few words, you are more familiar with your story and its easier to keep going. The more momentum you build by working on the book all the time, the more you will have the momentum to keep going.

Even if its only to write a sentence or two, never take more than a day or two off from the book otherwise you may never pick it back up again.

This is, incidentally, why NaNo is possible. By giving you a compressed time period, they force you to work on the book everyday which gives you the momentum to finish the whole thing in so short a time.

Things I learned from NaNoWriMo #9 (#nanowrimo)

Hillary DePiano — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:00:00 +0000

#9 Don’t wait for the muse.

The best advice I ever read was in a writing book so old that the author recommend that, if you were serious about writing, you really ought get a typewriter (no lie). The advice was that the stuff you write when you are totally inspired, when put side by side with the stuff you wrote when it was very slow going and you forced yourself are the same quality. Sure, writing is easier when you are inspired, but, in the end, if you only wait to write when you are inspired, you will never get anything done.

If you don’t want to write or don’t feel like writing, do it anyway. Take that chance to plod through those scenes you aren’t excited about. As you write them, they will feel terrible. Don’t worry about it. When you go back and read later, they will be better than you remember and you will have moved the plot of your book along which is all that matters.

The muse is a fickle bitch. You don’t need her.

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