TC Larson

Stories and Mischief

Establishing Patterns: finishing one routine and beginning another

5
Nov

Habits and routines are not my favorite things. Morning coffee is an exception to that, as well as finding my car keys. Other than those things, I have to work purposefully to establish routines to accomplish different goals — although, come to think of it, late evening snacking seems to come pretty easily. <– see! that’s the thing about habits and routines. If you’re not careful, you’re creating a pattern you didn’t even mean to create and you’d better hope it’s a good one because breaking it once you’ve made it? Well that’s almost as hard as making a new one.

 

 

Fall is a time when it becomes easier for me to turn over a new leaf when it comes to habits. School starts and we have all the best intentions of making our lunches the evening before, hanging up our coats and putting away our bags, exercising right away when we arrive home, you know the drill.

 

This fall, however, it’s been a little different because we’re in the process (the looooong process) of redoing our lower level. The amount of brain power and time it’s taking has really surprised me. That in addition to some different commitments for the kids and my aspirations of establishing certain good habits has been waylaid.

 

However, I’ve only misplaced my keys once and yesterday was the first time I drove away from the house without my purse. So I say we’re breaking even.

 

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One thing I did stick with this fall was a challenge from Get Messy to create something every day from Sept 9 to Oct 27. It wasn’t always pretty and not all my pages feel complete, but the energy was there and I showed up to the page for 48 days. Some of the pages I was quite proud of, some felt more like backgrounds that I should return to later, others were plain or ugly. But they exist because I put paint on the page.

 

 

In the middle of that, I took a risk and registered for my first writing class at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. The Loft is well known for being a hub of literary activity and they offer workships and classes for all different genres and levels.

 

Here’s the view walking up the main stairs to my classroom:

 

 

The class I took was for children’s fiction. It was every Thursday at 6p for six weeks. People, that’s a big commitment for a busy family. It took me 25 minutes on a good day just to get parked and yes, I was the student who rolled in a few minutes late to every single class. But I showed up, and discovered that I knew more than I realized I did. And I prioritized an investment in myself in the midst of a busy life season, which felt really good even if it was inconceninet. Sometimes those are the things that show us where our passion really is.

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The next crazy habit I’m trying to is take up National Novel Writing Month this November. It’s called NaNoWriMo or NaNo for short.

You’ve probably heard of this madness. Every day of November you try to write. The standard prefab goal is to write 1000/day for 50,000 words in the month to “win” NaNo. But you can set a goal of whatever kind suits you. And their website will help you track your progress, give you achievement awards and peptalks from lots of authors.

This is a pretty natural melding of the two above scenarios of the writing class and the season of habit. There’s something magical about making the commitment to show up, even just showing up for yourself, if that makes sense. The willingness to put your own interests into the mix, placing your own interests into the collective pool of worthy activities? That can feel like an act of rebellion, especially, dare I say? for women and particularly for moms. (Don’t worry, Guys, I see you too. But this is a moment for the ladies.)

Showing up to the page

So I’m gonna try to make a sh***y first draft, as Anne Lamont would tell me to do. I’m gonna put my butt in a chair and write. It may not be good (let’s just say it, I’ll be happy if it’s mostly coherent). Heck, it doesn’t have to be good. It just has to be out of my head and on the page. Only then do we have something to work with. Up to that point it’s all theoretical.

I hope to give some periodic updates here so if you’d like to hear some of the story, be sure to stop back or subscribe to make it even easier for you.

Your turn! What kinds of habits are you cultivating or working towards right now? What time of year is easiest for you to start fresh? And what’s stopping you from prioritizing your own interests or dreams right now?

Oops! I almost forgot to share the flip thru of my most recent handmade journal, the one for the Season of Habit. The upload is giving me the business, so I’ll include the link below, and until later, thanks so much for reading.

Final NaNo Excerpt: A Long Distance Argument

26
Nov

I must concede NaNo this year. Yes, the same way I conceded last year. Don’t rub it in. There’s just no way for me to make up the difference in four days between where I am and 50,000. Not unless I totally cheat, which I’m trying not to do since it won’t really feel good to hit that 50k mark and know that it isn’t all new material generated during this month. Maybe I’m being a stickler but that’s how imma gonna do it. Then when I DO win, sometime in the future, I’ll know it was fair and square.

P.S. Why on earth do they organize this thing during the month of November? Why not a month with no national holidays, or some throw-away winter month when it’s way too awful outside to do anything so everyone’s holed up indoors? Maybe this is how they weed out the wanna-be’s from the truly committed. Well if I had made time to win, the rest of my life would have suffered so I had to let it go. It wasn’t easy, and there’s definitely a sense of losing rather than winning. But isn’t that a funny game I’m playing with myself? I don’t actually WIN something if I hit 50k. They don’t give out winning treasure boxes with trinkets inside, or anything more than a badge you can use on your website to say you “won.”

Even though I’m a loser (in the NaNo sense) I still want to put up a final excerpt from the WIP. This will be my last one for November, so I’m going to leave you with a scene between two characters who are trying to navigate a long distance friendship-with-potential…and finding it challenging. Have a wonderful evening, and as always, thanks for reading.

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DTS_Photography_Movie1[1]

Abby heard the phone ringing in her dorm room just as she stepped onto her floor. She ran down the hall, silently praying her roommate hadn’t been her normal vigilant self and locked the door again. She got into the room and snatched up the receiver on the clunky school-issued phone.

“Hello, hello?” she practically yelled.

“Whoa, hello to you too. That’s the angriest greeting I’ve ever heard. ”

She let her backpack slide to the floor and she pulled out the hard wooden chair from the desk. “Sorry, I just barely made it to answer the phone. I’m not mad.”

Jay chuckled on the other end of the line. “I know you’re not. Unless you are, but I think I’m starting to be able to pick up on that over the phone even. It’s easy to tell when we’re in person.”

“It is not.”

“Oh really? So you can see yourself when that vein puffs out on your forehead?”

“It does? I never knew that.”

“See? One more reason to keep me around: self discovery.”

Abby smiled into the phone. “Okay, I guess I’ll keep you. But I’m not even keeping you around ‘cause you’re never around.”

“This long distance thing is starting to get on my nerves, too,” he agreed. “Bur think of it as being the best of both worlds. You have a devoted admirer who is extremely understanding of your long study hours and the way you go out with your friends. If I was closer I might not be so easy to live with.”

“You do like to play more than I do. Well, not more,” she corrected herself, “But more than I’m able to play. This study load is heavy and I don’t even know exactly how well I’m doing.”

“You did great on your last test, didn’t you?”

“Sure but that was a pretty limited scope. I know how to study, but it’s different than knowing your overall grade.”

“You’re too picky. You think you should get 100% on all your tests, but Abby, nobody gets that.”

She picked up a pen and started doodling. “I know.”

“But you don’t really know. You still think you should be able to. Maybe you should talk to some of your professors and see what they say? Not about the grade on a test, but overall how you’re doing. They’ve got to be able to tell if someone’s cut out for nursing.”

She doodled a stethoscope and he waited.

“What would I do if I asked and they said I’m not cut out for it? I don’t know what I would do. It’s the only thing I’ve ever pictured myself doing. I don’t have a plan B.”

“You won’t need one. You’re the studyingest person I ever saw, and you’re definitely putting in the time. It was only a suggestion. You already know it’s what you want to do. If you talked to them, they’d probably just tell you to let up a little, go have some fun with that cute guy who keeps calling you.”

“Which one?” she quipped.

“Ouch.”

“I’m joking,” she said . “Youre the only cute one. The others are just muscle-y.”

“Not funny.”

“Although there was that one with the convertible. That was fun.”

“Okay, that’s it. I’m coming down there.”

She smiled. “You can’t come down here. You’ve got to do your thing and I’ve got to do mine. Remember? That’s what we decided. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. Don’t make this an issue, ‘cause things are good. We’re good. We’re friends, we date once in a while, that’s working for us, isn’t it?”

“Is it working for you?” Jay asked.

Abby paused, unsure how to — “I’m so busy, Jay. It’s so busy and there’s so much studying. It’s an unreal amount of studying. I don’t know how I’m gonna do it. And if you were here, it would just be another distraction. A good one,” she hurried to add, “But it would make me feel guilty and I hate feeling guilty.”

“Why would you feel guilty? I wouldn’t come if I didn’t want to.”

“I know, but I’d feel guilty that you’d come all this way only to be practically ignored. And you wouldn’t be happy here,” she continued. “You’d be wandering around waiting for me to get done with class, but when I get done with class, I go to the library or the lab or a study group. We wouldn’t see each other much more than we do now.”

“So we wait.”

“I think so,” she answered quietly.

There was a long pause on the line. Abby spoke up. “Jay?”

Pause.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for wanting to be here.”

“Mm-hmm,” he said.

“Jay?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for being my friend.”

“I love being friends with you, Windy Gail. But you want to know something?”

“What?”

Jay steeled himself. “When the time is finally right, I don’t want us to be friends anymore.”

Abby felt the blood drain from her head. “What do you mean? You don’t want to be friends. There’s an expiration date on being friends?”

“Nope, that’s not what I mean.”

Even though she could barely hear the sound coming from the phone anymore, her ears were ringing so much, she had to ask. “What do you mean?”

“I think we’d be even better friends if we were more than friends.”

“Jay, I can’t even think about that right now…”

He stopped her. “I know. And like I said, I love being friends. That’s good enough for now. But that won’t always be good enough. I think we’re made for more than being just friends. And I’m willing to wait it out to see what that looks like.”

She felt her voice get stuck behind her teeth and couldn’t will it loose.

“Are you still there?” he asked after a long minute.

“Yeah. But Jay? Don’t take this the wrong way.”

“What?” he demanded.

“See? You’re already getting mad. Just listen for a second.”

“I’m listening.”

“It’s just that I don’t want you hanging on for something that may or may not happen.”

He asked slowly, “What do you mean?”

She hesitated. “I don’t know if I can be what you want me to be.”

“I don’t want you to be anything you’re not.”

“Maybe you do.”

Jay huffed into the phone. “Listen, I haven’t asked for anything from you. I don’t expect you to call me, which is good because you don’t. I don’t expect you to come home any more than you do to see your family, I don’t expect to get any extra time at Christmas. I haven’t asked for anything from you. How can you say that?”

“I feel it.”

“You feel it?” he virtually shouted into the phone. “You feel it? Since when did you become all feely? You’ve hardly ever said anything about how you feel before.”

“I’m trying something new,” she shot back.

“You could have tried it before we’re having this conversation.”

“What conversation is that? The one where you tell me what my life is going to look like, according to your plans for it? You don’t get to make sweeping edicts, Jay. You’re not the god of camp over here. People may follow you blindly over there, but that’s not real life. That’s not how we’re going to work. Ever.

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End of excerpt.

Whew, that was intense. I’m going to go decompress. You have a good night, and I hope to see you here in the future.

NaNoWriMo Week Three

19
Nov

Grand plans are so fun to make, aren’t they? We dream about what our life will be like, we schedule events and make arrangements around our calendars. And then some monkey comes along with a basket of wrenches and starts chucking them at us, totally messing up all the work we did.

Thus is posting about Nano on a weekly basis.

I seem to be missing a week.

And the thing is only a month long, so missing one week pretty much assures me of a failing grade.

But here I am, a girl with a work in progress, standing in front of you, asking you to love what she wrote.

I will inform you that I have indeed been working on the novel, and have been making s l o w progress. Any progress still counts as progress. And we’ve learned more about our antagonist, though we still need to dig deeper there. I did promise an excerpt, so I’ll include that if you promise not to judge me too harshly for typos, run-on sentences or thoughts that trail off. Once in a while I type with the letters turned white, just for a short burst of 15 minutes or so and in those times it is revealed how many spelling mistakes (amongst other mistakes) I make on a regular basis.

I’m stalling now, aren’t I?

Okay, with no more preamble allowed, here’s this week’s excerpt, where we get to spend a little time with Daryl, our antagonist.

DeathtoStock_SlowDown4[1]

 

About four hours south on I-35, Darryl Johnson sipped a latte in his kitchen while he cooled off from his jog around Lake of the Isles. He had his laptop open on the marble countertop of the center island, and stretched his quads while he checked stocks. Next to his computer, there was a newspaper laid open to a center, full page advertisement. Advertisement wasn’t exactly right, but that’s who he’d worked with to get it in the Grand Rapid Gazette. He had thought about simply putting it in the smaller county paper, but that served about 10 townships and while it would certainly be read by the people he was targeting, it didn’t carry the same psychological punch he was going for.

One should always go for the psychological punch when there was one available. His many years in court had taught him that.

His wife entered the kitchen and gave him a glancing kiss as she headed to the refrigerator.

“Are you going into the office after you clean up?” she asked as she placed kale, rice milk, strawberries and chia seeds on the counter. “I’ll have time to get your shirts from the cleaners. I’ll be stopping at the dry cleaners if you have anything over there. But I won’t be coming back straight from there, so if you need them for something today, you’ll need to go over there. If you do, ask for my things as well, and let me know so I don’t waste a trip.”

She put the ingredients into a small processor and churned them up. Darryl waited to answer.

Once she had blended her smoothie she poured it into a tall glass and Darryl told her he wouldn’t need the shirts.

“I’m headed up north today, I think,” he mentioned.

She arched an eyebrow. “Oh really? Are you staying overnight? We have plans tomorrow night, you know.”

“No, I’m just going up for the day. I want to meet with a couple people on the homeowner’s association board. They’ll want to gloat over the ad and plan next steps. Then there’s the county to meet with as well. I’ve got a couple appointments with different people there. I probably won’t be back until late.”

“I have my yoga class after work and tonight’s my wine and book club. I think we’re pairing different white wine with a Jane Austen book, I don’t remember which. So I’ll be out anyway.”

She leaned over to the newspaper that lay open next to Darryl.

“What are you scheming now?” she asked mildly.

“It’s not scheming, Lisa. It’s just knowing what you want and seeing the steps it will take to accomplish that goal. Scheming sounds underhanded. This is actually noble. Save the earth and all that.”

“Mmm-hmm,” she answered, straw in her mouth as she sipped her smoothie.

Darryl returned to another quad stretch by bending his knee so he could grab his foot behind him and pulling it towards his back. He wasn’t very limber so this one always hurt a bit.

“Well, you go save the earth, if that’s what gets the job done. And don’t forget we were going to go car shopping soon. It’s time to get rid of that old Audi you call a vehicle. You can’t keep driving a car until it rusts out around you.”

“There’s no rust,” he grunted.

“No rust,” Lisa scoffed. “You just won’t see it. In your mind, that car looks exactly the same as it did when you got it in law school. Trust me, there’s rust. You don’t have to really get rid of it, but you need something that’s a little more suitable for the position you have, the position you’ve had, I should remind you, for a while now. It looks shoddy, and what do clients think when their big-shot lawyer shows up in that rust bucket?”

“Well, since you’re from California, you might not get this, but here in Minnesota, people would probably think I was a down-to-earth guy, someone who wasn’t ‘too big for my britches’, they’d think.”

“Ahh, I see. The whole “successful but grounded” idea? What is it with Midwesterners that they can’t allow themselves to enjoy success?”

Darryl held out his hand for the smoothie and she handed it to him. He stirred it with her straw and answered, “They think it’s arrogant, and probably think God’s going to punish them or something. There are a lot of church folks here, you know.”

“Oh I know. Give me back my smoothie.”

He finished his sip, pulled a face and handed it back to her. “How can you drink that sludge?”

“This, my dear, is the perfect blend of nutrients, gut healthy bacteria, and antioxidents. If I keep drinking this, I’ll never age another day.”

“Maybe, if you don’t keel over from the taste.”

“You get used to it,” she said. “Now I have to get going. You can finish what’s left in the blender, then throw it in the dishwasher would you? Thanks,” she called over her shoulder as she walked down the hall.

***

Not the most pivotal moment, but we get to hear a little about the antagonist and a couple things that inform his perspective. I think it’s good when there’s a part of an antagonist you can relate to. What do you like in a good villain?

 

 

Denied

13
Dec

English: Access Denied

English: Access Denied (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After NaNoWriMo I happened across a literary agency that was having a contest. People were supposed to enter the first 500 words of their NaNo work and the prize was a professional critique of the work.

It sounded easy. I mean, how many other people could have come across the website and contest?

I never did find out what my odds were but no matter what they were, I didn’t win.

It’s fine.

There are other contests I haven’t won; a couple of them anyway.

I’m not dwelling on it though. Here’s why:

I don’t need a contest to validate my passion for writing. I don’t need someone else to tell me that its okay for me to write. Someone else’s opinion of my writing is based on so many factors that I don’t need to be disappointed if they don’t dig what I write. If you asked me to read some erotic, violent apocalyptic sci-fi story, I wouldn’t enjoy it. It would be hard for me to see past the details and analyze the writing for its merit. Conversely, if someone is into the aforementioned genre, it would be hard for that person to appreciate a quiet novel about four moms trying to figure out how to be friends and feed their families (yes, that’s my NaNo Work In Progress novel).

The point is, if you want to write, do it.

Don’t wait for someone else to tell you its okay for you to write.

You don’t need someone else to validate the thing that drives you to write or create.

If you want to write, do it. And do it now. Don’t wait for someone to give you permission. Don’t wait for your life to settle down or for that long-standing issue to be resolved. If you wait, it won’t happen. You won’t ever be given any more time than you have now, there’s no squeezing another hour out of 24. Trust yourself. Trust your instincts. You have something to share and even if it takes many attempts and a lot of rejection, only you can write what you can write. No one else can do it, so don’t leave the rest of us hangin’.  Go find the time and make it happen.

 

Welcome Back, Mommy

3
Dec

december greenery

december greenery (Photo credit: postbear)

It is now December and National Novel Writing Month is complete. (Did I mention I made it to 50,000 words? I did mention it? Oh. Right. Sorry to bring it up again…but did you know how hard that was? I finished almost a whole novel!) Now it is time to reintroduce myself to my children and husband.

So far it has had mixed results.

Last night I was whistling. I whistle. I know this is not a common habit these days, but sometimes I do it without realizing it. My middle son does it too. He got in trouble at school for whistling a tune in the hallway, and I just wanted to explain to the teacher that he only does it when he’s happy, so it was a good thing that he was whistling. I don’t think she’d agree.

Whistle!

Whistle! (Photo credit: castle79)

Back to last night — I was whistling in the kitchen. I hit an impressively high note, and I looked over to see my husband covering his ears. Perhaps it was too loud? The funny thing was that he looked to my oldest son for validation, and my son said he didn’t even hear it. I managed not to laugh in my tiny moment of victory. You’d think that was enough annoyance, but there’s more.

I also sing.

Usually this gets my kids in a twist because they don’t like me singing along with music. But last night there was no music, so I was making my own. I have an amazing talent to be able to mimic other singers (okay, maybe it’s not so amazing and I might not sound exactly like them, but it’s still fun. Try it and you’ll be hooked, especially if you try to convince everyone around you that if you just had the connections you could have been that person on the radio). The song I was singing was in the tradition of Ethel Merman, and I forgot that my husband was on call this weekend. Suddenly he evacuated the area and I found out later that he was trying to take a work phone call and couldn’t hear because I was singing so loudly. Whoops.

Here’s a video of one of Ethel Merman’s last performances, in case you’re curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s62MrU8mHx4

The kids seem to be taking it better. I played an attacking game with one son last night, played a chasing game with my daughter, and body-slammed my eight-year-old in a wrestling match. These were all met with happy squeals and laughter that lasts so long it leads to the hiccups. Clearly, their regular mommy is back. (Don’t worry, no one gets hurt…usually. This is just one way we play.)

NaNo was great and I’m looking forward to finishing the two chapters that remain until the novel is complete. But it’s also fun to have mental energy to be more present with my family. That’s why I don’t write a novel in a month every month! No one around me could stand it, except my long-suffering husband, who might be hoping I get another project idea so I can go back to the quieter version of myself. The odd are not in his favor.

Screenshot of Ethel Merman from the trailer fo...

We Have a Winner: I Finished My First NaNoWriMo

30
Nov

Winner badge 180x180

Boom. Booya. Kachow. Kazaam. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

50,000 words in 30 days (or just under 30 days). Right now the novel stands at roughly 180 pages. The story is not quite done, but I passed the 50K mark late last night.

It. Was. Fabulous.

I’ve tried to explain to people about what I’ve been working on this month, and I admit that before this year, I would not have understood the appeal. When you inflict an arbitrary deadline on yourself, it is hard to help people understand how compelling this deadline pressure feels. I tried to explain that if you make it to 50K words you “win” but when they ask what you win and I say, somewhat sheepishly that you don’t actually win anything, their expression of confusion is understandable. Until a person feels that irrespresible urge to write, how could they empathize?

I’d love to hear from any fellow Nano-ers out there. You get what I mean about it. How did it end up for you? Are you going to finish? Scratch that — of course you’re going to finish! You can do it! Don’t give up, crank it out, let your fingers fly with no pause for correct spelling or fixing ANY mistakes. Let me know how you feel when you finish. (It is still sinking in for me, and because I have a couple more chapters I want to write, the novel doesn’t feel done yet, but it is close.) I commend anyone who sets a goal for themselves and achieves it. It is no small feat. Go go Na-No!

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The Final Push to Complete NaNoWriMo

25
Nov

Galeries Lafayette - christmas decorations

Galeries Lafayette – christmas decorations (Photo credit: whale05)

This will have to be a quick update because all my word-power needs to be channeled into my efforts to finish NaNoWriMo, a.k.a. National Novel Writing Month. Maybe I’ll tell you about the project I’m working on for it?

The story is roughly (and I mean roughly) based on experiences from my real life, so it is a realistic fiction set in small town Minnesota. It follows the lives of four women — four moms with young kids — who are a part of a mom’s group. They form a co-op that makes and delivers meals to each other each week.

What it is really about is the development of these relationships and how they respond to challenges that arise. Will they stick together or decide that friendships (and the meal co-op) are too much work?

I’m sprinkling in recipes for a little fun, since the story has a cooking element to it.

There you have it, the dry bones of the story. But the characters are what make it, and I think there are some people everyone can identify with. I still need a really catchy title, so if anything springs into your mind, PLEASE comment and help me out!

I look forward to returning to “real-life” once I get this done. I did pull out some Christmas decorations but haven’t taken the time to put them up yet. Every free moment I have feels like it should go to writing. It is intense but it is a limited intensity, since it is only this month. So far, my husband is still speaking to me, so that’s good.

Until the end of the month, I hope you’ll forgive very light, short posts, if I’m able to do them at all. After that, I hope to keep things updated every couple days (I don’t want you to get sick of the blog, but I don’t want you to forget about it either!). And please allow me to take this moment to thank anyone who is a recent follower…or a long-time follower. I appreciate your clicks!

Off to go create some havoc in the lives of four make-believe women! Wish me luck!

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The setup for NaNoWriMo at home, if I need to ...

Writers Can Be Friends

21
Nov

At first, it may seem that writers cannot be friends with other writers. We are told that publishing houses take fewer chances on new authors and their slush piles (we keep hearing) that tower in corners of intern’s closet offices. Add to that the element of envy and it would seem that it is every man for herself out there.

Except that it doesn’t have to be.

Russell Crowe at the Picadilly Circus, London ...

Russell Crowe at the Picadilly Circus, London while filming A Good Year (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Did you ever see the movie, A Beautiful Mind, with Russell Crowe? There’s a great part when he had a  mathematical breakthrough in a bar and realized that if he and his friends worked together they could all achieve something for themselves that would not have to put them in competition with one another. Rather than all going after the one bombshell girl, if they ignored her, they could all get dates. It was a win-win.

I think of writing like that.If we as writers support each other (especially now in the age of platforms and internet marketing and promotion) we can all achieve what we desire — to be published — without taking anything away from another writer. The market is deep and wide, with plenty of niches for everyone. Your success doesn’t have to threaten me or diminish my chances.

When I started my first novel (don’t sweat it, I’m only now writing a second one as a NaNo challenge. It’s not like I’ve written five or had even one published – nope, not yet. But it could happen!) through a series of “happy coincidences” I was put in contact with a woman who had established her career as a writer. Her encouragement helped me feel validated as a writer. It was as if I needed to hear from someone who had experience in the field in order to feel like I wasn’t play-acting.

She didn’t have to do much (she didn’t have to do anything!) to make a difference to me, I would have been thrilled with one kind word, but she went above and beyond, even shared personal contacts. To a fledgling writer, her words of encouragement went a long way. I wouldn’t go so far as to call her a friend, we don’t go out for coffee or send each other birthday cards, but she helped me feel like maybe I wasn’t just chasing an ill-founded dream, like maybe there was a chance that I was onto something real. Here’s her website: http://www.nancyjosullivan.com/ and her books are out there in bookstores and can easily be found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Nancy-Jo-Sullivan/e/B001H9TLN0

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An unanticipated benefit of NaNo has been getting in contact with other writers who are out there working at their craft. No matter their experience or “success”, they are out there putting in the time each day during the month of November. Maybe they are working with more intensity than they would otherwise (some days those word count meters don’t seem to budge n matter how long I’ve sat at the computer!) but they are investing the time and creative energy. Knowing that other people are out there makes it seem like I’m merely writing in a next-door room rather than all alone.

So write on, fellow authors. We may not be published, we may not win NaNo, but that does not mean we aren’t writers. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and thanks for the encouragement you are to me.

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That Didn’t Go the Way I Planned

19
Nov

Booo!

Booo! (Photo credit: Steve B, UK)

An alternate title for this post is “The Lack of Writing was Monumental.”

I had all these writing plans for this weekend. They were all very reasonable and responsible, conscientious even. And they all seemed to go in the crapper (excuse me very much).

Booo hoo, waaaahhh for me, right? I know, I’m pathetic. I shouldn’t get to be discouraged when I have so many good things that were my distractions: my kids, friends, church, birthday parties, and family. But the writing…

Ah, the writing.

I’ve never been a big drinker, and I’ve never grown addicted to cigarettes or any other chemical (do fountain Diet Cokes count? I’m sure they must.), but the desire to write is how I imagine a low-grade addiction must be; an impulse or hankering that seems to grow the longer you deny it.

Have you ever had a project you couldn’t wait to get home to?

Maybe you decided to paint the bedroom. You picked out a color you love, you’ve got everything prepped and taped, and all that needs to happen now is to change into your grubby clothes and get to it?

That is a good example of writing for me. I often feel that when I sit down, I finally get to apply a coat of paint and get rid of that boring off-white, replace it with a deep red or rich, buttery yellow.

Even though I am discouraged tonight, and I might have to face the grim reality that it is unlikely I will be able to make up the 10,000 words I am behind schedule, I’m not going to walk away from the project. I’m not going to put the dresser back against the wall. I can admit that I might not end on time, but I can still work through the whole story and let the characters have their say.

Any Nano-ers or writers out there, how are your writing projects coming? How are you giving yourself permission to not become a hermit? I hope you’re having all kinds of breakthroughs and moments of brilliance. And if it didn’t happen today, there’s always tomorrow morning at o’dark hundred. That’s what I’ll be doing before the sun comes up (but that’s not saying much — I’m in Minnesota and sunrise isn’t until 6:30 or so right now).

Happy writing!

Not Everyone Can Be A Techie

17
Nov

  All I can say about this is that if I was a true techie I would know how to paste this colorful NaNo thingy onto a sidebar on my blog. But I don’t know how, so that confirms any suspicions you might have had. Further evidence: My date-of-post is all smushed in with the title of each post. Plus, I can’t figure out how to get rid of the “edit” word in the title area of each and every single stinking one of my posts! I hope someone’s not going to be a smarty pants and click the dangling “edit” just to spite me, although if they did, I would deserve it.

No more for tonight, I must sleep so my unconscious mind can prepare for tomorrow morning bright and early. I didn’t make my word count goal, but I know I have more time this weekend than I might otherwise (or at least it looks that way now.. with kids you just never know).  Here’s wishing you all a bright and shining tomorrow.

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