"...it's, like, better than losing?"

You know, Joe Fox says that The Godfather is the "i-ching, the sum of all wisdom, the answer to any queston..."

Well, I dispute that. To me? It's Bull Durham. There's always a pertinent quote to be culled from that movie.

Anyway: I won! Now, I'm going to have a much deserved movie night with my family, without who's patience I could not even attempt to write 50,000 + words in 30 days. Thank you, Chris Baty and Co. for a wonderful "30 days and nights of literary abandon." This aspiring author totally appreciates what y'all do.


I'll see y'all in a week or so...

More Ignominious Self Aggrandizement

I like big WORDS and I cannot lie...

I'm not exactly tearing up the field, but I'm holding my own.



Staying just a little ahead of the daily goal, my word count is healthy even if my plotline is anemic.

Editing. It's what December is for.

Shameless Fist Pumping

I already put it up over on my Writer's Group blog (Pens and Pages Writer's Group) but I'm going to put it over here, just because I need all the dangling carrots I can get:

(Link broken)


Lot's of Wrimo's swear by it. And I'm not sure I've EVER written like my life depended upon it before. So, yesh (as my Jr. High-er says.)

If I procrastinate again? I'm settin' that sucker to "kamakaze" and throwing some Hail Mary's baby!

Oops I did it again...

I think I'm beating a dead horse with that title...it's been a looooong time since Ms. Spears could be considered an innocent, if flirtatious schoolgirl...

Showing my unhipness aside, I'm doing it again. Hopefully, in about 26 days, that badge'll change to "...2009 WINNER!"

I'm cooking along, with a respectable bank of words right now, suffering a smidge here and there of that form of anxiety particular (it seems) to writers: self-doubt...but I just tell Self Doubt to shove it! Heheheh.

I, For One, Welcome Our New NaNoBot Overlords...

I plugged my manuscript in the 'tester' run of the NaNoWriMo Official Counter...and actually GAINED about 700 words! Woot!

NaNoWriMo has been such a huge educational journey this year. I'm hooked. I'm now officially part of the NaNoBorg and want to assimilate as many closeted writers as I can.

I feel the overarching message in the whole is that I can write every day -- and it can be a raucous, wild, free-wheeling, creative ride, instead of a drudge that I have to do.

Oh, and a side message: Housework is NOT essential. (except for laundry and toilets -- those kiiinda need cleaning on a regular basis.)

Given the choice between scrubbing the tub and writing a chapter...?



Well.... just guess which I will pick? heheheheh.

BLAVIN!

I did it. I signed up for NaNoWriMo. Late -- four days behind, to be exact (that's 6,668 words behind) but am now at 11,956 words. I've closed the gap, all I need to be caught up is a little over 3,000 words. I should be able to accomplish that on a Sunday afternoon.

I put the NaNo participant badges on my page here, proudly, and am trying to figure out how to put a little widget word counter on too. Anyone know how to do that? Anyone, Anyone... Beuller...Beuller...Beull - okay, I'll stop. (Figured it out ;-)

I'm writing a kooky story that I'm making up as I go along -- the characters have already taken on some recognizable signs of life, and I'm surviving and continuing to slap words on the virtual page by completely ignoring my internal editor -- and not being afraid to record the suckiest writing that sucks in order to reach the goal of 50,000 words by midnight, November 30.

It's... exhilarating! It is amazing how much output you can achieve if you simply speed write. And it is all practice -- no pressure...just writing like a kid does, for the pure fun of it!

If you haven't checked it out, and you kind of aspire to writing that novel that you just know exists deep inside your brain, check out the NaNoWriMo -- challenge yourself. You never know what you can do, till you sign up for a contest run on the honor system, with no judges, no monitoring and no monetary prize. It's GREAT!

November approaches...

...and I am chickening out about the whole NaNoWriMo thing. My guy asked me in the car yesterday where (and when) I was planning to take my 'writing sabbatical' this year. And I had no reply. I knew it was coming... I thought I'd like nothing more than another mini-retreat to just marinate in aloneness to prepare for the Month of Speed Novel Writing.

Last year, in the final weekend of October, in preparation for the NaNo, I went and stayed in a little cabin in Ruidoso, NM. It was a productive two days... I made little meals for myself, walked freely around in the (at that time of year) mostly deserted resort town and wrote, wrote, wrote.

But...the thing is, one of my favorite things in trying to cultivate a writing life, is that I like to sabotage myself. (Oh, yes -- right after the 'brown paper packages tied up with string,' is the 'self-sabotage' verse of that song.)

I'm struggling just to get stuff into this blog...to get through a book I'm reading with writing exercises in it...to finish a longer-than-War-and-Peace fic that's been going on since '06... and to try and write something, you know... original... Plus, guitar practice every day, and keeping up with the ever present housework.

Writing, unfortunately, takes a back seat to all the housework. Because housework is unrelenting; because if I don't sit on that proverbial lid and try to at least keep it level it topples over and takes over; because a clean house makes me feel useful; because I want to run away from writing so I won't fail... (oh, hay thar, real excuse!)

Plus, you know, there is a lot of stuff to watch on youtube.

Here's the thing. This book I'm reading, it's called Page after Page [not to be confused with that book by that perky chick who hosted (hosts? I heard she's back...) Trading Spaces] and that book -- if you're prone to self-sabotage or writer's block or any of the myriad of psychic afflictions to which writers are susceptible -- is painful. The author, Heather Sellers, asks incredibly thought-provoking questions (read: self-inflicted mental colonoscopy) of the Writer Inside You. She makes you, in short, examine whether or not you truly, deeply, madly want to write.

And I'm not sure my answer is ...yes. Because if I truly, deeply, madly wanted it, wouldn't I be doing it?

So, yeah... November fast approaches, and I'm running for my life.