Adventures in CPAP-Land!

So sleeping with the silly thing is working out okay. I do in general feel more rested, though I'm finding that I'm also stiffer when I wake up. Apparently being able to toss and turn kept me more limber. *laughs*

I have, however, developed a weird habit... I will wake up in the middle of the night, decide that it's almost time to get up, so I turn the CPAP off and remove the mask. So far I've done this a few times. The problem is, I don't always remember actually making the decision, and it's usually not time for me to get up. Like this morning. I must have woken up and decided to take it off- because hubby wasn't home so he didn't remove it from me, the machine was off and the mask where I always put it. Laying there, I remember thinking about how the alarm would be going off soon and I would have to get up.

Sasha heard me and started wandering the bed in search of attention. At which point I moved around to annoy her. Thus I looked at the clock - 3 am. Hmm. Not getting up for another 3 hours or so. I actually thought about not putting the mask on, luckily better sense prevailed and I did get the CPAP going again and went back to sleep.

What amuses me is that I'm not just tearing it off while I'm asleep. I actually wake up just enough to decide I don't want it on anymore, carefully take it off and put it on the nightstand (which is a little bit a stretch), and go back to sleep. Silly brain. Apparently it doesn't appreciate the improved air flow (and thus oxygen it receives).


And just for kicks:

I am not a Pro-Writer

I write that because now I'm going to write about writing and NaNo. *grins*

A person on my FL wrote a post about writing and NaNo that resonated with me, and helped spur me to write this post. There are people out there who judge NaNoers badly, who think that the 50K words they pump out in a month is crap. Well, to that end they may be right- it may be crap, but that doesn't mean that in the end it's not editable, correctable, publishable crap! The point is that words get written! A story is told. Participating, and trying, that's the success.

Winning feels good, don't get me wrong. But even just trying, sitting down, and beginning a story that you want to tell, that's a success. Deciding to try. That's where it starts.

In addition, I'm a big fan of surprises that come up when writing. The best example I have of this is one I mention, a lot. It's from last year's NaNo, my poor heroine had to deal with a sudden plague that showed up and wiped out 1/3 to 1/2 of the population. It wasn't planned for, but afterwards I saw how well it worked. So I was thrilled.

Then there's the 'my characters just won't behave!' complaint. To which I kind of call bull. I read a great post awhile back by ilona_andrews on the subject. Basically people like to take the easy way out, writers are people. (really!) The characters they create can also have this 'easy way out' tendency that helps them avoid working too hard. Which means they may never reach the plot points you need them to get to, or deal with the situation that you need them to deal with so they can grow. Plus, when I hear that complaint in the back of my mind I latch onto the idea of 'but you're creating this character!'

Stories can take twists and turns you didn't expect, that's a given. Characters may seem to run off and do things you weren't planning. At which point Ilona, and I agree with this, suggests finding out why. Why is the character trying to go off and do X, Y or Z? Are they just trying to avoid D and E? Well, is the story better this way? If no, wrangle them back and make them do what you need them to do. Don't be afraid of letting your character endure hard times, to have to make tough decisions, and most of all- to be wrong.

I fully admit, I have a problem with that last part. *grins* But I'm working on it.

My favorite NaNoism of the day... so far.
Sentences that don't make any sense... even looking for typos:
Raenavia stopped at the edge of the road and looked left and right down in.