It May Not Seem Like I'm Doing Anything....

 

NaBloPoMo Post #9 

But I'm Very Busy Inside My Head! 

 

I may have to give up on NaNoWriMo this year. I can't write with Thomas home every day, bless his heart!

I love him to death, but I'm used to having a certain amount of time during the day when I can, at my leisure, sit down to write as the spirit moves me. If Eler Beth isn't at work, she knows I'm writing, either because I tell her I'm going to write, or she sees me at my computer and from my expression or something, she just knows. Unless it's something very important, she doesn't interrupt me.

But Thomas doesn't know the signs, and if I tell him ahead of time, then he forgets -- bless his heart. Even if I'm in our bedroom or on the front porch using the laptop, there's a good chance that he'll pop in (or out, as the case may be) to ask me something or tell me something.

And if he realizes what he's doing, he'll say something like, "Oh! You should have told me you were writing. Want me to go see what Bob is into?"  And then, perversely, I say, "No! I like having you here."  Because I really do, you know. I'll miss him once his thumb is healed, and he goes back to work. 

 And you know, sometimes when you're writing, you just sit and stare at the computer screen for minutes at a time. It doesn't look like you're doing anything, but in your head there is a LOT that is going on. Thomas is the type of person who is almost always moving. There is always some project for him to get into. He has his wine making. Gun season starts this weekend, so he's prepping for that. He surfs the web and watches funny YouTube videos. He works with wood. He bakes squash pies. He is interested in what the kids are into and how they're doing. He'll pull his guitar out and strum on it for awhile -- well, not so much that with a broken thumb, but you get the point. He is never bored, and he never looks like he is doing nothing. The only indication I might ever get that he is even a little close to being bored is if he turns on the TV and starts flipping channels. And even that isn't a true indicator because he might very well be pretty relaxed and just looking to see if there's anything interesting on. 

The thing is that while he's baking pies, surfing the web or working with his wine, etc., he's talking to me. He loves to talk, to socialize, whereas I live inside my head most of the time. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. He keeps me from living in my head too much, and he has learned over the years that he can appreciate sitting back and being quiet sometimes. But these few weeks are giving me some insight into our retirement years. I know that when that time comes, if I have any deadlines to meet, personal or work imposed, I'm going to have to lay down rules, lock doors, and hang "Writing in Progress" signs. 

I guess I'll enjoy his company while I can, because when he is released to go back to work, between that and deer season, I won't see a lot of him. I'll just have to do my writing then. In the meantime, if I don't succeed with NaNoWriMo, then I don't. 

(Ha Ha!! While I was composing this post, he was in and out of the room talking about one thing and another, and he just now said, "I'm going to leave you alone, now, mom." I love that man!!)

Happy blogging everyone!

~ ~ Lori


 

The One That's About Me....

NaBloPoMo Post #2

Let Me Introduce Myself

 

It has occurred to me that since I am cross posting on Blogher I might have some visitors to this dusty old blog who don't know me. So for my second post I'll do a quick introduction. 

I've been blogging since 2005. I started on AOL Journals just for fun, mostly writing about my husband and kids and work. It wasn't long before I had got to know some really nice and talented bloggers with whom I still keep in touch. I was part of a blogging community we called J-Land (Journal Land). We have watched each others kids grow up, shared in good times and bad, said tearful goodbyes to some online friends who have shuffled off this mortal coil, and essentially become close to people all over the world whom I have never and probably will never meet in real life. 

In 2008 AOL let us know that AOL Journals was closing down, and most of us transferred our journals to Blogspot. (See my Archives in my sidebar for the posts made pre-Blogspot.) Not long after that Facebook really exploded and many of us don't blog as often, but have stayed friends  on Facebook. I still keep up with some through their blogs, though.

I am 49 with 50 looming on the horizon. My husband Thomas and I have been married 28 years. We live in Southern Indiana, although I was born and raised in Kentucky and he in Alabama. He is black, and I am white. We both come from rather large, very rural families. 

Our son Andrew is 26, and our daughter Eler Beth is 19. They are the things I am most proud of in my life! We're hoping to add Andrew's girlfriend Alexandria to the family some day soon. But, shh, I'm not supposed to pressure them....

I have worked for a newspaper as a writer and as a layout artist. I have done a lot of clerical and secretarial work. I have been a proofreader, and I've done some ghostwriting. I became a stay-at-home wife and mother and homeschooling mom in 2007. I miss the home schooling, but, you know, once they graduate they don't like it when you still try to give them lessons....

I stay busy, and this month I've really bitten off a mouthful. I'm doing NaNoWriMo AND NaBloPoMo. I'm sort of hoping it will kick-start me out of a writing rut I've been in lately. I hope to meet some new bloggers out of this also, and if you're visiting my blog for the first time, "Welcome!" And I hope you'll come by again.

I hope everynyan is doing well.

~ ~ Lori
 

55,667

That was my final word count when I sent my "novel" in to be verified today. So I made it past the 50,000 word count goal by the end of the month.  I learned a lot and now have a lot of editing and fixing to do. I realized I need to do a bit more research in some areas as well, and, of course, the book will end up being much longer than these 55,000 words. December will be a busy month, but hopefully I'm in the habit now of sitting down and writing almost every day. So even if I have to throw out half of what I wrote this month (or more), it was worth it!

In the Home Stretch

44,000 words and counting....

Tired of Writing

Phew!

I've typed my fingers off today. Got up to over 24,000, so I'm pleased. 

Today was the first day of gun season. Thomas got a big doe this afternoon. It moved past Eler Beth too fast for her to get a shot off, but a few seconds later she heard Thomas' shotgun and saw the deer drop. I'm a bit surprised they got anything with the weather the way it was yesterday and today.  And tomorrow we're supposed to have storms, so I doubt they'll go out. Looks like her next chance will next weekend.

And that's all for tonight folks!

At The Half-Way Point

Well today is the halfway point. I'm a little behind. As of tonight my word count is 21,439, behind by 3,561. But tomorrow will be a good opportunity to make a start on getting caught up.


It's the first day of gun season here in Indiana, so Thomas and Eler Beth will be out all day from 3 in the morning. If they happen to get what they want early in the day, they may be home fairly early, but usually they make a whole day of it on opening day. I do hope they get a couple because my freezer is getting empty!


Anyway, with them gone all day and Andrew at his own place, although he may drop by for a while in the morning, I'll have the whole day to write if I want to. So I'm planning a writing marathon. My daily goal is always 1,667 words, but to catch up I would need to average 1,786 words each day. I want to get at least that tomorrow, but I'd really like to do a 3,000 word day. That would almost get me caught up. Let's hope I find some inspiration throughout the day because I'm kind of at a point in the story that is dragging a bit. I took a detour away from my outline and thought it was going to work, but now I'm not sure and don't know where to go with it.

So here's wishing all of us a good and productive day tomorrow!!

Who Was I Trying To Kid?

First of all, I haven't had time this past weekend to work on my NaNoNovel or to come up with a decent blog post. I did finish editing a short story for someone, so I guess my brain did get some exercise.
 
So will my muse whisper to me tomorrow? I sure hope so.

On another note, I don't know why I thought I would be calm and cool when both my kids became independent or semi-independent. Andrew has his own place and is 24 years old, and I realized this afternoon after he left our house that I was pretty much holding my breath until he called to say he'd gotten home safely. That probably won't end any time soon, will it? 

And now that Eler Beth has her license and is coming and going on her own more often my worry level has gone into full-blown MOM-mode. (And is it bad that I worry about Andrew when he's on the road more than I worry about Eler Beth? She's the better driver and has more common sense. Is that a gender thing?)

Well all my chicks are home safe (and so is the old rooster, haha) so I'm off to bed. It has been a long weekend and a long day. I'll try to get some writing done and come up with something interesting to blog about tomorrow. Or not.

Later!

Beautiful Weather; Stressful Day

I'm not feeling a long blog post tonight, and I haven't written any for NaNoWriMo today. That's okay, I'll make it up. I'm doing pretty well for the first week, anyway. (See sidebar.)

The weather was really beautiful today, but I didn't have much of a chance to enjoy it.  Today was the memorial service for a very dear, elderly friend of ours who died on Tuesday. She was 84 years old and one of the sweetest, happiest, liveliest ladies I know. She thought the world of Andrew and Eler Beth, and they loved her too. I love that my kids have always had good friends of older generations. It's good for the older ones and the younger ones.

Anyway, her service was today, so I was busy shopping and cooking for the gathering afterward. The service was lovely. She and her husband, whose health isn't that good, had been married for 35 years. It was a second marriage for both of them. He is black, and she was white, the oldest mixed-race couple I knew. Both of her sons from her first marriage were there, along with many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and two of his three surviving children were there as well. All together with her own and the steps, she had 5 living children, and 34 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was a lovely woman, and we will miss her.

This evening was busy too, and I am only now getting a chance to stop and make a blog post. I just almost skipped it; decided I didn't care, and I'd just not worry about making it through NaBlo without missing a post. But there's still a little time before midnight, and my perfectionism kicked in, so here I am.  It isn't much of one, but it's all I've got. 

So goodnight for now, and I'll be back tomorrow. Same bat time, same bat station.

At The End Of Day One

Not bad for the first day! My goal was 1,667.

Pep Talks from James Patterson and Rainbow Rowell

NaBloPoMo Post #1

 

Welcome to November 1, 2013, Day One of NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo. I thought I would share the pep talk emails we got from James Patterson and Rainbow Rowell this past week. I enjoyed them and pulled a quote from Rowell that I think I'll use as my signature line for a while.

James Patterson's Pep Talk


Rainbow Rowell's Pep Talk

"That’s not writing, I thought, that’s just piling up words.
But then I thought about how wonderful it would be to have a pile of 50,000 words…" -- Rainbow Rowell, on National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

That Time of Year Again

Last Day of NaBlo and NaNo

Well, November has come to a close. It's hard to believe that December begins tomorrow. Oh well, it means that Spring is just that much closer.

I finished NaNo early, early this morning. (It is titled "Piece of Work", in case you're wondering.) If you've kept up with the word count on my sidebar, you'll have seen that I've updated it in spurts. My plan to do 90 minutes a day was shot pretty early in the month. Surprise, surprise! But I'd do spurts of several thousand words at a time, and so I stayed pretty much on target. My own word count was a bit more than NaNo's official word count after I submitted it, but it's still over 50,000, and that's all that matters. Perhaps they don't count chapter headings.

The last third is absolute drivel. It's going to be embarrassing to read it to do the edit. But I will, because it would hurt too much to leave that wound gaping. I must fix it! Then I'll turn it over to my sisters to get their opinion, like I always do.

So, other than 50,000 words this month, what else happened? Let's see. Eler Beth had a horrible cold but is just about over it. She got a deer on the first day of gun season, and Thomas has goten five since then -- four does and one button buck that is counted as a doe. A friend of ours who is currently out of work will have a freezer full of meat at least for the winter, and so will we and a few family members. I watched and was enchanted with the first season of Sherlock!

We lost Copper, which was very hard. I got a sweet little, prickly hedgehog named Sophia. I wrote some humorous haiku and loony limericks to please my sister, Barbara. I decided I wasn't going to rake (read: have Andrew and Eler Beth rake) my front yard until I was good and ready. (I have gotten good and ready yet.) I got to see Thomas roller skate for the first time in many years. And I lost another 2.6 pounds, bringing me down to 1*0.8. I'll push for two more in December, and then maybe I'll get serious and go for four in January.

Guido suggested I do NaBlo again in December, but I don't think I'd better commit to that, although I would like to commit to doing a bit on my other blogs, perhaps a different blog each week. I will try to post semi-regularly, though. I've been keeping up with my blog reading this month, and I'm very proud of that.

But for now, I will leave you and the month of November with this cute little video via The Office of Letters and Light. This guy could have been writing for me!

NaBloPoMo

I decided I would do NaBloPoMo again this year, as well as NaNoWriMo, mostly because Eler Beth decided she would do it. I figured if I did a blog post every day, first thing in the morning, then wrote on my NaNo for an hour or so, that would be a good way to start the day.

Is anyone else doing either NaNo or NaBlo this year? It's not yet too late to sign up!

"A Page From Miss Litcott's Book" . . .

has reached more than 50,000 words!!!








And I am going to bed. I don't feel well; feel a bit feverish and chilled all at the same time.

I got this Nov-Nov finished this morning and have sent it in to the validator. Its title is no longer Nov-Nov, by the way, but the title you see above. It's good to be done with it for now. I can start editing as soon as I like. But for now -- bed!!

Think Seeing This Every Day Will Spur Me On??

Yes, this is where I am now.



Here it shows what percentage of 50,000 words I've completed, and how many days remain.



I'm going to put one or more on my sidebar or at the top of every entry. It'll either freak me out or spur me on! (I'm glad I've never bitten my nails.)

I'm behind in my daily goals mostly because of Eler Beth being sick. It has been hard to find the right time (read: quiet time) to write. I know, I know, excuses, excuses!

Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear!

It's November 1, the first day of National Novel Writing Month, and the first day of National Blog Posting Month. Oh dear, what have I got myself into?

I had meant to have had my first post written quite early this morning, and I was planning on writing the first 1600 words of my November Novel (which I'm calling "Nov Nov" {get it?... get it?!} as a working title, since it doesn't have a title yet) well before this evening, but I still had the remnants this morning of a two-day headache. Only in the past hour has it subsided enough to think, let alone write.

And as for this blog post, I have no idea what to write about!

Oh, wait, yes I do. Or at least I know one thing I want to write about. In the welcome email from NaNoWriMo there were three bits of advice that I thought were very well done, so I'm going to share them here. The first one told us that it is okay to not know what we're doing: "Write every day, and a book-worthy story will appear even if you're not sure what that story might be right now."

The second bit of advice is worth completely quoting here: "Do not edit as you go. Editing is for December. Think of November as an experiment in pure output. Even it it's hard at first, leave ugly prose and poorly written passages on the page to be cleaned up later. Your inner editor will be very grumpy about this, but your inner editor is a nitpicky jerk who foolishly believes that it is possible to write a brilliant first draft if you write it slowly enough. It isn't. Every book you've ever loved started out as a beautifully flawed first draft. In November, embrace imperfection and see where it takes you." I would like to know how they know my inner editor so well!

And their third piece of advice is to tell everyone you know that you're writing a novel in November because "This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who've had to hear about your novel for the past month. . . The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse."

There was an addendum to #3, and that was that though there will be times we'll want to quit we must stick it out and see it through. "Week Two can be hard. Week Three is much better. Week Four will make you want to yodel. And we're talking the good kind of yodeling here."

Cool, huh?

Martha is participating in NaBlo this month, and Mara is participating in NaNo, so I have some old J-Land friends to keep me company -- and it's good company at that! So please drop by to give them some support and encouragement.

Well, gotta go for now. Nov-Nov is waiting for me!

P.S. Just found out that Betty and Rose are participating in NaBlo too, so please stop by and check out their posts this month.

Falling Back Into Writing

This Sunday Daylight Savings Time will end and we will fall back to Standard Time. I'm going to see if I can "fall back" into writing beginning November 1, too, even if it's only for the month of November.

I have never before officially participated in NaNoWriMo, but this year I am going to do so. (If you are interested in signing up or just want more info, you can click the image on my sidebar.) I have always worked best with a deadline, so being accountable to the NaNoWriMo community, particularly my own regional group, and seeing my word count online, may speed me on to complete 50,000 words in November, and keep me from taking too much time to think but just WRITE instead.

Also to aid that I have joined NaBloPoMo for November, pledging myself to make a blog post every day for that month. (Again, clicking on the image in my sidebar will take you to that web site.) Making myself write something every day will be a good exercise for me.

I have a new idea for a book and have done no more than make a very sketchy outline for it, so it's good timing for me. I'll simply plunge into writing it on Sunday and at the end of the month we'll see what I've come up with. Forcing myself to just write and not edit or re-write until I've completed 50,000 words will be very difficult for me, I know, but it will be good for me.

For the past three nights I've been reading and commenting on blogs -- have visited about 25 in that time period, some that I hadn't visited in many months. I'm going to keep on visiting a few each day. I have really enjoyed that. So maybe the fog is lifting, and the joy of blogging and reading blogs is coming back to me.