Nano Shenanigans...

I was a grumbling, snarling, very cranky and bad-tempered Bear yesterday.

For one thing, I felt like crap. Don't ask me why. I just... didn't want to do anything and I scared the Husbandly One to death when he tried to pop a bit of chocolate in my mouth (to appease the Bear, you see) and... I didn't want any.

Yeah, I know, some of you are probably wondering why he didn't take me to the emergency room. Auntie, especially Auntie the Bear, refusing chocolate? Unheard of!

He thought about it, believe me.

Wanna know how bad I was yesterday? Everybody is avoiding me today. And I'm not the least bit bear-like today!!

*sigh*

For another, yesterday was the first day of NaNoWriMo, and everything I started was absolute crap. No, really, I mean it, it was absolute, unadulterated crap. Y'all, I was seriously considering throwing up my hands and abandoning the writing gig completely. Seriously. You know, turn in my resignation to the Gods of Writing, give the Muse a pink slip, the whole nine yards. I was TIRED of it all, and I was also tired of sitting and staring at a blank screen for what felt like hours on end, then when I finally got going... someone would come in to talk to me and completely blow my train of thought, and... I couldn't get it back again.

It was driving me NUTS!!

I'm afraid I got very... snarly. I actually snarled at THO when he came in to tell me how awful the UT Longhorns football game was going, and he was giving up watching it, and he wouldn't read my signals, or couldn't see the fact that I was working on something and didn't want to be disturbed, and I finally snapped something like, "I'm so happy for them," or something equally horrible.

It was not a good night.

Finally, near midnight, something finally stirred in my sluggish brain, and I finally got 1, 210 words written, which was way under what I wanted to write, but hey, it's a beginning, and the story doesn't make me want to vomit, though it does make me wince a bit, and oh, gods, do I want to go back and edit, but it's not allowed, and...

I will not be a Bear today, I will not be a Bear today, I will not be a Bear today...

Because I'm curious...

Okay, so the Impossible Son and I are working our way through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and as I'm reading out loud to him, I came across a line a few weeks ago that I have been meaning to ask about.

Okay, so here it is. In Chapter 12, which is entitled "Professor Umbridge," on page 248 of the U. S. edition, I came across this line...

"There had been a previous occasion when Harry, expecting to be caned by Professor McGonagall, had instead been appointed by her to the Gryffindor Quidditch Team."

O_O!!!

Caned???

So I went back and checked Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (man, I hate that title, it pisses me off every time I see it), and I found this little snippet...

"Professor McGonagall stopped outside a classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside.

'Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?'

Wood? thought Harry, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on him?"

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone page 130

The first, fifth, and seventh books are the only ones I don't have Bloomsbury editions for, so I'm asking those of you who have them... is it the same? The Impossible One said, "Caned? What's 'caned' mean? She would hit him with a candy cane? Or an old lady walking cane?"

Well, that took some thinking! You know, "Must... not... give... BDSM explanations... to child...ERK!" Though, you know, the mental image of Professor McGonagall whacking Harry Potter over the head with a candy cane (the Impossible Son's explanation when I asked him what he thought it meant) nearly made me inhale my iced tea! Especially the way Mr. Manzie verbally illustrated it, by whacking his Chimchar over the head with a pencil (imaginary candy cane) and saying, "BAD Harry Potter! BAD Harry Potter!! No more flying for you!"

Oh dear!

As y'all can see, my equilibrium is somewhat re-established, and when I told my family how close I came to Giving Up Writing Forever, their individual expressions of horror were something to behold, and for some odd reason, reminded me disturbingly of when I was a kid and my parents were trying to quit smoking. My sisters and I would put up with it for about a week, and then we'd beg them to start smoking again.

THO said, "I may not always understand what you're going through, but I'll always support you in this. Just... what can I do to cheer you up when you get so... grumpy?" He was being diplomatic and tactful. Believe me.

"Um... stop trying to cheer me up?" I said with a smile. "Really, when I'm grumpy because I'm having a hard time working through a plot, because my characters won't cooperate, or because I've written myself into a corner, or for whatever reason, I don't need to be cheered up. I need to be distracted or just plain left alone. If I'm unhappy because of anything else, by all means, cheer me up, but if it's my writing... it's better to leave me alone. Make sure I have water, or tea, and then tiptoe out quietly and let me get on with it."

Really, someone needs to write a manual entitled, "The Care and Feeding of Writers: A Manual for Spouses, Partners, and Those That Love Them in Spite of Themselves." I'm sure THO would be first in line to buy one!

Speaking of which, I've been sitting here trying to think of extremely annoying songs. I'm working on my NaNo fic, and my character has a hangover. I'm trying to think of the last song you'd ever want to have blasting out of your phone as a ringtone if you've got the Hangover from Hell. So far, I've got the Dropkick Murphys and "I'm Shipping Up to Boston," which gives me fond, fond memories. Ah, the joys of retaliating against neighbors listening to THEIR obnoxiously loud ethnic music with MY obnoxiously loud ethnic music. Anyway, beyond that, I'm stuck. I mean, I guess I could make it something by Megadeth, or some equivalent, but... hmmmm... I must continue to ponder.

I'm up to 3, 735 words so far. Wanna know what the hardest part of doing the NaNoWriMo is? NOT going back to edit. Usually, I edit as I go along, then run back and fix awkward phrasing, or re-write something that doesn't fit... and we're not supposed to do that.

It's driving me nuts.

Okay, I'm rambling now, so, I need to toddle off to bed. But I did want to ask my question while I could!