What Dawn's working on: September 2011 edition

Time to take up a new language. How many German speakers do I know? If you're out there, Du bist genial! Lassen Sie uns die Praxis gemeinsam! (Google Translate to the rescue.) Or if you want to go bold and learn German along with me, call or email. We'll be language buddies.

... or Skype or Facebook or G+ hangout or tweet or... Few excuses for not getting Deutsch with me are going to stand up to scrutiny in the age of the interwebs. I'm starting out as of this week, so if you know nothing about German except what you heard playing Castle Wolfenstein, we're on even footing. (No, I don't understand the German sentence I used in the first paragraph.)

"Sprechen sie Deutsch?"
"No, I don't sprechen sie Deutsch."
- Stalag 17
(Watch the "sprechen sie Deutsch" scene.)

It's called "FinallyWrites" because I seem never get around to it.

My primary manuscript is progressing. Yea! Here're how my latest works are faring:

Rhombus (temporary project title)

young adult fiction
novel

Stage: first draft
14 of 22 chapters (64%)

Gang

drama
teleplay

Stage: outlining (22%)

Then a Bridge

horror & supernatural
novel

Stage: brainstorm (10%)

untitled project

we'll see in November
NaNoWriMo speed writing

Stage: mulling it over (0%)

The second stage in NaNoWriMo prep, after 100% "mulling" completion, is "store up extra Halloween candy for month-long desk snacking." I'm very focused during the second stage.

I'd like to put a little chart, like the ones above, in my sidebar over there to the right, beneath the picture of my fountain pen grasped by my stubby thumb ("it's not fat; it's big-boned"); but I made the column so slim that the progress meters don't look good there. Playing around with the layout might make for a useful distraction on my next slow writing day, a guaranteed way to not advance in any of the progress bars above.