
So…National Novel Writing Month 2009 is over. And I feel like: a) I wish I could do it all over again next month, and b) next November can’t take long enough coming around.
I finished my story!
I finished my story!

Clocking in a 52,099 words, including “The End”, my tale consists of 26 chapters, 202 pages, and 227,797 characters. Not bad for a month’s work, wouldn’t you agree? I don’t think I’ve ever written in such a…runaway, insanely, rabid way. And I have to say that I’m not a little bit tired.
Let me brag on someone else, though.
My sister, known to some of you as Caeli, and to some as Kay, also finished NaNo this year—on her first try. It took me three years to do this, and she knocks it out in year one. Totally not fair.
And as if that weren’t enough, she wrote almost the entire 50,000+ word monster by hand. As in, with a real pen on real paper. No wimpy word processor for her. She wrote a novel, in a month, longhand.
And as if that weren’t enough, she wrote almost the entire 50,000+ word monster by hand. As in, with a real pen on real paper. No wimpy word processor for her. She wrote a novel, in a month, longhand.
*Self-satisfied sigh* Guess she takes after her big sister…LOL. No, actually, I tried to do NaNo longhand in both ’07 and ’08. Talk about your belly flop—I think the most words I managed to rack up was somewhere around 800. Not particularly impressive. But Cae managed it beautifully.
We should probably both apologize and adoringly thank our family for this month…I don’t know how many lunch time conversations became overrun with discussions on which character should do what; or how many times Mom or Dad came into the room to find us pacing in circles around each other, bouncing rapid-fire ideas off each others’ heads.

You know the old movie White Christmas, with Bing Crosby and Danny Kay? Yeah, of course you do. It is that time of year, after all…Well, if you know much of the movie by heart like our family does, you’ll know that when Bing and Danny meet the two sisters who are to become the love interests for the movie, the girls are on stage as a singing act, performing a song called
“Sisters”.
Sisters, sisters
There were never such devoted sisters
Never had to have a chaperone
No sir!
I’m here to keep my eye on her
Sharing, caring
Every little thing that we are wearing
When a certain gentleman arrived from Rome
She wore the dress,
And I stayed home
All kinds of weather
We stick together
The same in the rain or sun
Two different faces
But in tight places
We act and think as one
Lord help the mister
Who comes between me and my sister
And Lord help the sister
Who comes between me and my man!
There were never such devoted sisters
Never had to have a chaperone
No sir!
I’m here to keep my eye on her
Sharing, caring
Every little thing that we are wearing
When a certain gentleman arrived from Rome
She wore the dress,
And I stayed home
All kinds of weather
We stick together
The same in the rain or sun
Two different faces
But in tight places
We act and think as one
Lord help the mister
Who comes between me and my sister
And Lord help the sister
Who comes between me and my man!
Just for the record, Cae hates that song. I sing it to annoy her. But really, I think it’s pretty fitting.
So I was wondering if I could rewrite that song to be even more fitting, especially after NaNo…And here’s what I came up with:
So I was wondering if I could rewrite that song to be even more fitting, especially after NaNo…And here’s what I came up with:
Sisters, sisters
There were never such devoted sisters
Never had to have a chaperone
No sir!
I’m here to keep my eye on her
Thinking, fighting
How to do the stories that we’re writing
When a certain idea arrives for both
We have to toss a coin to see
Who needs it most
All kinds of writing
When plots aren’t biting
When stories flow like rain
Two different faces
But in tight places
We write and think the same (ah-huh…)
Lord help the mister
Who comes between me and my sister
And Lord help the sister
Who comes between me and my pen!
OK…that was pretty sorry. But it’s been a long month…I’m just a little wrote out. LOL
Anyway, this was just a post to brag on myself and my longhand dynamo sister (who’s going to strangle me for posting this…). We finished NaNoWriMo 2009! Cheers and hugs all around, pass the tissue, open the Ginger Ale…all that good stuff.
Happy NaNo, everyone—see you next year.
~Trav
There were never such devoted sisters
Never had to have a chaperone
No sir!
I’m here to keep my eye on her
Thinking, fighting
How to do the stories that we’re writing
When a certain idea arrives for both
We have to toss a coin to see
Who needs it most
All kinds of writing
When plots aren’t biting
When stories flow like rain
Two different faces
But in tight places
We write and think the same (ah-huh…)
Lord help the mister
Who comes between me and my sister
And Lord help the sister
Who comes between me and my pen!
OK…that was pretty sorry. But it’s been a long month…I’m just a little wrote out. LOL
Anyway, this was just a post to brag on myself and my longhand dynamo sister (who’s going to strangle me for posting this…). We finished NaNoWriMo 2009! Cheers and hugs all around, pass the tissue, open the Ginger Ale…all that good stuff.
Happy NaNo, everyone—see you next year.
~Trav










Everything—from the smallest nano-cell in your DNA, to the largest galaxy out there—follows these rules. They operate on a regulated system that baffles leading scientists in its complexity. There is no room for chaos in such complex systems as the blood-clotting mechanism, the process of photosynthesis, or the pupal transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly. “Random” simply doesn’t cut it.
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And it also make me think about Heaven – the greatest reunion ever! Maybe something more along the lines of the final scenes in Lewis’ The Last Battle, where all the old heroes of the past are reunited, and old friends find each other again.
