D'oh! You Threw Off My Groove..

All right, I know I can't really get by with blaming anyone else for my giving up on NaNo.  I have to say, though, that despite the fact I won't be winning this year, I do feel quite proud of myself for having written over 20,000 words in a week and a half. If nothing else, that has given me the boost that I needed.

When my husband first went to work as a bus driver, there was no hope of any kind of stability as far as his working hours were concerned. He would find out at 5 pm any given day what he would be working the next day. It could be anything between 3 am and well after midnight, everything in between, and it was never the same thing twice in a row. Several years of senority building later, he finally begin getting halfway decent, regular schedules. So what happened then? They went and made him a trainer. Now he's working with the new greeny drivers, which means, by default, he's back to working extra-board sorts of hours. The only difference, and saving grace, is that as the trainer he gets to decide what sort of chaotic the hours are.

Which, thanks the the downhill effect, means that my life, housekeeping duties, and job as Mom now have no guarantee of any sort of regularity. I literally, have no way to plan a set time to write each day. Makes it really hard when you have to capture a few minutes between Shorty going to sleep and my falling into a welcome coma. Naps are a thing of the past, and putting a movie on doesn't help because I end up watching the movie, too.

*sigh*

What's that song by Louis Armstong? "There must be a way..."

Bad Choice of Words, Honey!

I was lamenting to my husband today that NaNo has gotten away from me over the last couple of days.  Things being as they are, writing has not been as high on my priority list as it was supposed to be when the month started. Sitting on the bed together this morning, I told him:

"I'd need 10,000 words today to catch up."

"What's the most you've ever written in a day?" he asked.

"About 6,000," I answered.

"So you'd have to, like, sit and type all day long to catch up, huh?"

"Yep," I said. "If that's the only thing I did all day, I might have half a chance."

"Well, honey," my darling husband said to me, "It wouldn't be the first time you did nothing all day."

The funeral will be Saturday at 2:00.

The Spirit Is Willing, Doesn't That Count?

I would love to pull an all nighter tonight. I think it would be great to sit up, in the living room, in my favorite chair - turn off all the lamps and type by the light of my screen. Someone on the NaNoWriMo site suggested buying one of those glow-stick things, shaking it till it glows and writing till it goes out (presumably several hours later) That just seems like the kind of thing that I would have done....

...when I was younger....

... back in the late Jurassic Period...

When did I get too old for adventure?  Maybe it would help if I got a hotel room, then I wouldn't feel like I had to keep one ear open for anyone who might need me in the middle of the night.

No, that wouldn't work - who in their right mind would waste a perfectly comfortable hotel room with no distractions by staying awake??? Not this little red hen, that's for sure!

As if NaNo wasn't enough of a challenge, I had to go and make my writing life harder, by...

....are you ready for this?...

...going cold turkey - no more soda! No more caffiene, no more carbonation, no more nothin'! Yeah, I'm an idiot.

So I can't even run over the the store for a two liter of Cherry Coke to help this all-night write take place. Good, healthy intentions -  lousy blasted timing.

Is there really a point to this rant?  I don't think so. I think it's my version of withdrawls.

Oh, by the way - if you're going to quit soda cold turkey, take my advice - do not substitute 64 ounces of fruit juice!  It will help keep you awake, that's for sure, just not in the way you were hoping!!

The Blessings of a Supportive Spouse

My darling, dear husband took the Short One off my hands completely for the day! (Shorty wasn't so hot on the idea, until Dad took him to a new park - then it was the best idea ever.)

It was a wee bit agonizing, but with the room to 'float' (my word for daydream with no distractions) I was able to get over a hurdle and bang out 4,000+ words.

I've had to get very mean with my I.E. (inner editor). I bound and gagged, then threw her in the closet, but she still kept shouting things at me. "Page two still STINKS - go back and fix it, you numbskull!"  Finally to appease her, I turned one of my major characters into a big jerk and made him leave his wife. "Good job! Now she can marry the handsome prince at the end."  (Dont' be too mad - I was going to kill him off at first!) 

So -  at the moment, my word count stands at just under 14,000 words. Not where I'd hoped to be, but a darn sight farther than I was this morning!  The goal is still very reachable, even if the stretching does get a little uncomfortable.

Must Be On The Right Track, Everythings Going Wrong!

Well, it took six days for me to get behind.  I'm down, but not out  - this isn't that kind of whine.

It's this kind:

How come when you are doing something that is important everything under the sun happens to prevent you, or at least discourage you, from doing that important thing?  (Yes, I know that's a run on sentence - stop editing!)  Seriously - it happens to me every single time something good is coming. It's the calm before the storm, only in reverse. And it's really, really annoying!

NaNoWriMo started on the 1st of the month - and here's what's been happening in that last week:

Shorty and I saw the doctor - we both have had the respiratory flu, and now we have the stomach flu to go along with.  I'm just coughing a lot and mildly nauseated. Danny, on the other hand, has been puking up his heels every evening. It's a little hard to write and hold a little boy who's guts refuse to stay put. (How I can actually DO that is a whole other topic - God gives mothers superpowers, I just know it!)

My husband and I ended up in a huge argument that lasted all day and part of the next. It was stupid. I was right, he was a jerk. (yeah, okay, so that's not really true - it was six of one, half dozen of the other. Hey, I never claimed to be perfect.)  I can't write when I'm mad - it just comes out as bad words and complaining.

I sprained my thumb somehow. At least I think I did - I was standing in a second hand shop today and my hand went into this massive cramp.  That five hours ago - and I still can't move my left thumb without excruciating pain. Happily it's just my thumb, but that's my space-bar digit, so it slows down the typing a bit.

My nephew (you know the one with the three kids that went on the cross-country adventure with me?) had another crisis. So I spent a while in tears. That's always conducive to writing - if you're working on a Shakespearian tragedy, but not for my current work in progress.

Add to this all a dog that has to be taken out once in a while, a cat that likes to sit on my keyboard and tries to escape every time I take the dog out, having to run interference between dog and boy, dad and boy, boy and anything that might possibly bruise him, dog and anything that might bruise me and the presence of a very necessary bottle of nasty tasting cough syrup and box of kleenex...  well, you get the picture.

Once I did sit down to write this evening, with the boy in bed, the dog on the couch and the cat sprawled all over the living room floor - I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the king to the place he needs to be to meet the heroine of the story. He's very nice, but he's very reserved, not the kind of guy to jump off the page and talk to me. What does he need, anyway, an engraved invitation?  Where are my voices???  I have no voices in my head - and that, for a writer, is frightening!

exxxxxhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllle.

I ought to just go to bed, get a good night's sleep, and start fresh in the morning. Oh, wait - that won't work. I have to pick my husband up from work at 11 pm. And tomorrow, he works a ten hour shift starting early, so it'll be poor sick me, poor sick, bored little boy, ADHD dog, and escape artist cat all day long.

I should be at 10,000 words. I'm sitting at 7,440. That's not too shabby, all things considered.

I shall overcome.

No, maybe not - but I shall write!

The Race Is Long...

The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

-Baz Luhrmann

I am not very good at competition. I'd walk a mile around the other way to avoid confrontation. So when I looked at the tallies of everyone on my NaNoWriMo buddy list today, and found myself squarely in the middle of the pack, I felt a moment of despair and avoidance sweep over me.

But this isn't a competition. NaNoWriMo is not about who can get the most words, or get there the fastest. It's about challenging yourself with a goal - one that thousands of people share for themselves as well.

That's what I love about it, and about this group of people who have let me be their buddy. I'm cheering them on (Way to go Nicole, Cheri and LT!! over the 5,000 mark!) and I know they're rooting for me as well. There are people I haven't even met who are arranging write-ins and get togethers to encourage other people they've never met either. We all have a common goal, and though we have to achieve it separately, we're all wanting to help urge others forward with us. How awesome is that?!!

There are few other places on the face of the world I've felt this kind of comraderie, and one is within the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We all have the common goal of getting to Heaven, and though we have to achieve it separately, don't we all feel the need to help urge others to reach their goal of paradise as well?

If only everything in life could be such a vast network of cooperation and support! Can you just imagine what the world would be like then?

And They're Off!!

I knew it! I just knew it!


NaNoWriMo is going to be good for me!


The first day of NaNo is well underway, and I've exceeded my goal by 100 words.  Count for today? 2,101 words!


Yay NaNo!  Yay Me!!  Yayyyy - WORDS!