Who Stole my Irregular Verbs?

Fair warning:  this is a totally random blog post about a crazy topic of purely personal interest.  Any one who's ever visited my home knows I'm an avid reader.  I love falling into other worlds, other lives through the pages of a book, and I've had a long-time love affair with the English language.  Most of all, I love beautifully written fiction where the language is part of the feast.  Over the past few years, I've noticed a disturbing trend.  The wonderful, eclectic, beautifully irregular past tenses of a number of verbs are disappearing from mainstream publishing!  Reading, "I hanged my hat on the hook by the door" makes me cringe.  It's just wrong:  wrong, wrong, wrong! 

In recent books, characters have hanged instead of hung, dreamed instead of dreamt, beholded instead of beheld, weaved instead of wove.   Beholded? Weaved?  Really?  Mrs Gates, my fifth grade teacher, would have made me rewrite my paper if I'd tried such a thing in her class! 

Interestingly, Blogger's spell check believes dreamed is correct, but cautions against beholded and dreamt (it has no opinion on weaved vs. wove).  The proper past tense of dream does depend upon context - 'I dreamt a lovely dream last night while sleeping', but 'dreamed of being a ballerina as a child'.  The lovely textual and contextual nuances of irregular verbs!  I find myself wondering, is this breakdown in the beauty and intricacy of the English language due to the tyranny of faulty spellcheck programs?  Of programers who didn't pay quite enough attention to their English teachers way back when?

I decided to try to find an answer and did a search "why are irregular verb past tenses disappearing?" I found several blog references to a Harvard study trying to mathematically model the regularization of irregular verbs based upon their frequency of usage.  Basically, the more often a particular verb is used, especially in its past tense, the less likely it is to be regularized.

That said, the study apparently gave 'be/was' and 'have/had' half-lives of 38,000 years!  Meanwhile they gave less commonly used irregular verbs, such as 'dive/dove' a half-life of 700 years.  What the blog post doesn't say is when the count started, because I hate to say it, but I've seen 'dived' in at least one of the books I've read recently (and Blogger's spell check accepted it, even if Mrs. Gates wouldn't have).  I wonder if the study looked at the potential for incompletely designed spell checks to regularize irregular verbs more quickly?  Also, I wasn't able to find a link to the original study, so I can't say that I've actually read it myself. 

So I wonder, am I the only one who 'corrects' the past tense of irregular verbs as she reads?  I find I enjoy my reading far more if I substitute my favorite irregular tenses for the regularized versions appearing on the page. 

While 'researching' this topic over the weekend, I did find a wonderful list of English Irregular Verbs.   Don't worry if you don't see your favorite irregular verb on the list.   While this is the most comprehensive list I've found, it seems that none of the lists are truly complete.  If you look at multiple lists of irregular verbs, you'll likely find yours among them. 

Please Write Me this November

I just received an email with the title of this post as the subject line.  The email was from "Your Novel  at nanowrimo_loves_you@nanowrimo.org".  Yep,  it's that time of year again!  November is National Novel Writing Month and Nanowrimo is back to challenge us to write our novel with their excellent support and encouragement.  Here's the rest of the letter:

Dear Burgeoning Novelist,

I'm writing to tell you I need you. That's right, I've been swirling around in the breathtaking labyrinths of your unconscious mind for a while now, and I'm itching to leap into the world. The only way I can come out, though, is if you commit to writing me in November.

So, if you haven't already, please sign in for 2013 NaNoWriMo and create me. For inspiration, just read Abby's story in our 2012 Annual Report. Abby's novel was such a powerful force that she faced down naysayers, found a way to write while juggling a busy life, and then crossed the finish line on the shoulders of NaNo's amazing community.

I know we'll write a gobsmacking, mind-bending story as well, so please commit to writing me in the following ways.

  Start prepping with a NaNo notebook—just released! We have so much to decide. Who is our protagonist? What sorts of wicked plans are our tales' rapscallions hatching? Sure, I've been swimming among the stories in your unconscious depths, but we have to start working to get 'em all out onto the page.

So let's get in the noveling mood. Check out these NaNo Prep resources to get primed:

• 10 Reasons You Should Do NaNoWriMo
• Inside the Mind of a Planner
• Pantser? Planner? Percolator?

Above all, please just write me. November is a grand celebration of everyone's amazing creative powers, so let's plunge into NaNo's rollicking mayhem and give light to a riveting story.

With rip-roaring wishes,

Your 2013 NaNo Novel

Word count: Ready to go...

As you can already guess, I'm in.   What I'm wondering is who's willing to join me?  Anyone up for a month-long bout of noveling insanity?  While I can't say that I've ever managed to write a gobsmacking, mind-bending (at least in the positive sense) story, I can say from experience that it's a wild ride.

50,028 Words and the Night of Writing Dangerously

Back in early September, I made all sorts of grandiose plans for November.  Here in November, I've been scrambling to keep up.

One of those plans I made involved Nanowrimo.  As you may know, November is National Novel Writing Month, and the folks over at Nanowrimo challenge each and every one of you to write a novel over the 30 days of November.   

I find myself looking forward to Nanowrimo eleven months out of the year.  Nanowrimo.org is hands-down the best support network for aspiring writers I have ever found.  For thirty days, they provide every encouragement to simply write.  Pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, internal editor silenced – with duct tape if necessary – letting the words flow.

This is my fourth year participating.  While the goal for Nanorwrimo is 50,000 words in 30 days, this year I decided to up my personal ante.  My goal was and is to actually FINISH my story this time around.  I will not feel I have won if my characters don’t make it to their own finish line, whatever form that might take.  And so I decided to take drastic measures. 

The collage for my fundraising page

That's where the Night of Writing Dangerously comes into my story.  The wonderful folks who sponsor Nanowrimo host a gala fundraiser event in San Francisco every year during November.  That's what I want to do, I thought to myself.  If I could reach 50,000 words before I left that ballroom, not only would I get to ring the winners’ bell to the acclaim of my peers, but I'd also give my characters twelve additional days to make their way through whatever my story has thrown at them before we’re all dumped into the cold, cruel, Nanowrimo-less world of December. 

So I put together my fundraising page and contacted some of my nearest and dearest and raised enough to attend and to drag my amazing husband along with me.  And I bought our plane tickets. 

Uh, oh!  Problems ahead

Fast forward to November 10.  It's just over one week until the Night of Writing Dangerously, and I'd managed to write exactly 8,709 words.  That meant I was 7,907 words behind the recommended pace to finish by November 30th, forget about November 18th.  Ouch!  I wasn't sure I could catch up by then, let alone by by November 18th.  I nearly threw in the towel. 

But my mom, mother-in-law, sister, aunt and best friends had all pledged.  I didn't want to go back to them and say, well I tried, but I gave up.  Even if they'd understand.  I wanted to at least put in a good showing.  More, I wanted to have something awesome to share.  So I decided to give it my all.

So I wrote, and I wrote, cramming writing into every little bit of time I could squeeze from my schedule.  By the time I arrived in San Fransisco around midnight Friday night/Saturday morning, my word count stood at 25,659.  I had written just shy of 4,000 words that day; one of my best ever single-day counts in four years of participation.  I was still behind, but I figured I could at least catch up with the recommended daily word count before the end of the weekend.  And I hadn't given up!

what I saw of San Francisco

Then something miraculous began to happen.  In between short jaunts out to see snippets of the city, I continued writing and my story came alive!  By Saturday evening, I'd increased my word count to 34,096.  I wrote another 2,000 words before joining other Nanowrimos for breakfast at a local diner on Sunday.  By the time we had to dress for the event, my word count stood at 42,015.

 But I still had nearly 8,000 words to go, and only five hours during which to write if I wanted to "win" that night. 

The way the night works is from 4-5pm there's cocktail hour, with an open bar.  Joe and I showed up late, because more than one drink and my literary hopes would have certainly been dashed for the night.  At 5pm, doors to the ballroom itself opened and everyone scurried in to find their seats.

The Julia Morgan ballroom turned writers' haven

It was the funniest thing to see, everyone in their Noir themed gala finery, sitting down and whipping out their laptops.  Everyone else at our table were from the local area and knew eachother, and none of them were trying to go for the bell.  But they were very encouraging when they found out I was, and how far I still had to go.  I'd barely sat down before the bell rang for the first time and everyone burst into applause. It was Chris, one of the writers I'd met at breakfast that morning.  He'd been at 47,000+ words at that time. 

There were speeches and word sprints (where you try to write as fast as you can for a specific period of time) and raffle drawings and all sorts of other fun and interesting things and I can't tell you about any of them; I was trying to focus so hard on writing.  I did help myself to the candy bar, and spent the evening hopped up on cinnamon jelly beans, which seemed to work even better than chocolate to my amazement.  At some point, Joe went out to the buffet and brought back dinner for me.  Later in the evening he delivered a German chocolate cupcake, and at 10pm, a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie and milk.  And still I wrote (do you see a theme here?)

At 10:32pm, less than half an hour left before the evening ended, I checked my word count once again. There were the numbers I'd been hoping for: 50,028.  For a moment I simply stared at the screen.  Then I started to vibrate.  Then Joe asked me what was wrong.  I couldn't speak, so I pointed, not quite believing what it said.  He looked at my screen, grabbed my hand and literally dragged me to the front of the room.  There, a very kind woman put together my crown. Where else do fully grown adults wander around proudly wearing paper crowns?  Then I got to ring the bell.  It was large, and my hands were so numb from all the typing I had to hold it with both hands.  And the room applauded. 

Some of my writing from last night is truthfully quite awful, I am sure.  I haven't even opened my document to look at it since Sunday.  Tomorrow morning, I think, is soon enough.  To reach my word count, I'd turned the automatic spell check off, so I wouldn't be distracted by the red corrections.  I expect my entire screen to bleed red when I turn spell check back on. 

But the amazing thing is, I truly like my story!  It's ungainly, and awkward and needs a huge amount of revision, but I'm more than two thirds of the way through the plot and it's fun!  I have never made it so far into the plot in any of my other previous novels.  And now I have another twelve days (ten now as I took the past two days off) to finish the first, horribly rough draft of Jane's, my 13 year old protagonist's, story. 

I'm still stunned that I actually did it!  On Sunday I wrote 15,932 words.  To give you something to compare it to that's roughly equivalent to about 59 pages in a trade paperback.  Even today I'm still stunned and walking on air every time I think about it.  I did something I truly thought couldn't be done.  I thought I'd lost my opportunity when my word count slipped so low last week.





If you're curious about my story, you can check out the plot synopsis I wrote on November 1st on my Nanowrimo page.  The story has definitely morphed since then, but that's where it started.

Saturday again, funny how that works...

It's Saturday again, and I'm sitting here trying to think of what exactly I've accomplished this week.  Despite running full tilt most of the week, I cannot honestly recall a single thing I've actually accomplished.  Which makes it really hard to write a blog post. 

Now I remember, it's been a maintenance sort of week, including rehanging the door to a refrigerator so it would seal correctly, adjusting a storm door's pistons, raking more leaves than one yard should truly have and replacing all of a toilet's inner parts (the toilet was clean; it just wouldn't stop running) amongst other things.  The last is something that I'm pretty sure you're never supposed to mention on a blog; toilets being about as non-sexy a subject as I think you can get.  But I have to say that I was as proud of that toilet when it actually flushed without leaking as any bead work I've completed in the past several years.

 I had my fair share of mishaps - including a column of water hitting the ceiling at one point.  Who knew toilets had so much water pressure?  The instructions told me to take off a valve cap, hold a cup over the top to prevent splashing and turn the water on to clear the pipe of debris.  I read it as 'set' a cup over the top, especially since I had to reach down and around to turn the shut-off valve.  As soon as I turned on the water said plastic cup shot to the ceiling.  Oops! 

Turn the water back off, fast while trying not to panic and trying to stem the column of water with my other hand.  Fast forward a little - the bathroom's mopped, I'm still soaked as are my instructions, but I've made it all the way to the last step.  I put the valve cap back in place and prepared to turn the water on, cringing.  Waters on.  Nothing happened.  Huh.  Good on the one hand; no new fountains or leaks is generally a good thing.  But bad because at this point, the tank was supposed to start filling.  Nope, no water.  Turn the water off, take the cap off, put it back on, turn the water on; still nothing.

Breaking down, I called the 1-800 number on the repair kit I purchased.  I ended up speaking to an amazingly personable tech who 1) was impressed that I'd read the instructions, 2) never talked down to me like I was an imbecile for not being able to figure it out myself, 3) provided the solution and 4) was willing to stay on the line until we'd flushed the toilet several times, insuring it actually worked. Kudos to Fluidmaster - you have great employees!  And I'm pleased to report that a day later, it still works! 

In other news, I finished out Nanowrimo at 56,077 words, but my poor characters are still languishing in the final two thirds of the book.  More early morning writing sessions for me.  Just got back from the TGIO (thank goodness its over) party down at the Seattle Center happy to know I'm not the only one still writing.  Though I've only written 1,000 words since November 30. 

And for those of you who have made it this far, I promise that my next blog post will actually be about beads, beaders and other bead related subjects.  Tomorrow is the NW Seedbeaders meeting and I've been tagged as responsible for photographing the challenge pieces and project ideas for next year.  So I'll have lots of fun stuff to share very shortly. 

And I still have several personal UFOs I need to finish before the new year as well.   So I promise, no more weirdness for a while (at least I sure hope so!)

Synchronicity and Cross Training

For me, November is National Novel Writing Month and Nanowrimo with its challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.  I'm an avid reader, always have been.  Give me a choice between watching tv and reading a book, I'll take reading any day.  And of course, I've always thought it would be great fun to write my own story.  So for the past two years, I've put aside both books and tv during the month of November to try and do just that. 

Frankly, I'm a horrid fiction writer.  I get bogged down very quickly in the story, and have yet to make it past the half way point in either of my novels despite reaching the 50,000 word goal by November 30th.  But here it is October and I'm gearing up for my third attempt.  Why you ask?  Good question, I've been asking myself that too.

Easiest answer - the only way I have any chance of writing a decent story is to put words to paper and Nano gives me a wonderful, built-in excuse to do so.  Also, it's fun - more than I would have expected.  Instead of living in someone else's world, with someone else's characters and choices, I get to make my own.  Anything can happen when I put pen to paper.  (Unfortunately not enough does or I wouldn't end up stuck mid-story).  And there's an amazing comraderie to the event - meeting at coffee shops for write-ins and sharing plot snippets and problems interspersed with furious bouts of typing.

Since I'd like to give myself the best possible chance of actually finishing my story this year, I signed up for a plot writing workshop by Renda Dodge, author and managing editor of Pink Fish Press.  So yesterday a friend and I made the trek up I-5 through the early morning fog to catch the Mukilteo ferry over to Whidbey Island for her last workshop before November.  Walking into the room at the Coupeville library, the excitement was palpable.  Her workshop offered such a feast of information that I felt like a glutton trying to drink it all in. 

Fantastic Workbook!

Now my head is swimming with ideas and plots and plans.  Lucky for me, Renda has published The Indie Writer's Workshop.  If you've ever considered writing your own novel, you want this book in your library.  Renda has created a fun, comprehensive, easy-to-read and to use wookbook that is going to be my new best friend over the next month and a half.

At this point, I doubt I will ever show my fiction to another living soul.  But oddly enough, I've found it's a rather effective form of cross-training.  Committing to and following through on my first Nanowrimo challenge is what gave me the courage and confidence to tackle my non-fiction book project.  It's also how I first discovered CreateSpace (they're one of Nanowrimo's sponsors) and the new world of self-publishing. 

Next month, I'll once again be going completely outside of my personal creative box for some artistic cross-training of the literary variety.  And I invite any of you who are at all interested in trying your hand at writing a novel to join me!