Open Mike

21 days into Novemeber, and I'm woefully behind on my goal of finishing my book by the end of the month. I've managed to crank out 21,000+ words and 10 chapters, but I still haven't made it to the end.

I figure if I write a chapter a day for the next 10 day, I might make it. But that's a big might, because I've just reached another one of those awful bogged down and discouraged places, where I'm pretty sure my book sucks. Where I feel like every single book I happen to pick up, or hear about, or suddenly remember from freshman year of high school English class, has already done what I'm doing, or at least part of it.

I keep thinking of that Bare Naked Ladies song, "It's All Been Done." It's not like I've stumbled across another story exactly like mine. But whenever I come across similar elements or themes, I start to panic. Heck, I'll be honest, I start to panic if I come across a story that has a character with the same name as one of mine.

Then I start to worry that my story is too over the top, my writing is too wordy (yes it is, but I'm working on it) and that this is bound to suck.

But you know what, I'm not giving up. I happen to love this story, and I love my characters. They've been growing a lot over the past 6 months, and I want to see what happens with them.

The first novel I attempted to write will never be seen by another human in my lifetime. But this one, I'm putting out there. I will finish it, revise it, query it and receive a bunch of rejections. I'll show it to friends and fellow writers for input and I'll cringe as they point out obvious flaws, or give me a half-hearted compliment.

But I'm working on the theory that everyone has to start somewhere. It's taken this long for me to just start. But I'm doing it. I'm getting up there on stage with this thing, ready to take the boos. Hoping someone will sing along. Or to eventually get a hit.

It's November Again. . .

This is my obligatory NaNoWriMo post. Thanks to a friend with a GREAT suggestion, I'm not actually doing NaNoWriMo. No offense to those who are diligently preparing to crank out their 50,000 words, but what I've come to realize is that as a writer, I'm already too wordy. I don't need any further incentive to pad my word count.
So thanks to my friend and fellow writer, Vicky G. who is also halfway through writing a book, I'll be doing FiNoWriMo, with the goal of actually finishing the first draft of my WIP by the end of November. This is just about as daunting, but more likely to help me focus and not go off on lengthy tangents that I end up cutting three days later.
Oh yeah, also, November is the month when I'll be doing all my tax classes, and skills classes, and maybe a certification exam too. Should be a piece of cake.

Satisfaction

Thinking about things that are "worth it" as opposed to things that are not. A list.

Worth it:

DVR
Big Screen TV
Growing Own Tomatos
Homemade Truffles
Homemade Pumpkin Leek Soup.
Blueberry Picking



Not Worth it:

High-Efficiency Front-Load Washer (any savings of reduced water use are compromised by excessive need to run cleaning cycles to prevent horrid odors)
Homemade Chocolate Covered Cherries.
Homemade Yogurt (because no one but me will eat it)
Extreme Couponing (Casual Couponing will have to do)
Nook E-reader (where to start. I can't take it in the bathtub. Tech problems getting the library books to download. Major wait list for e-library books. Starts up too slowly--i.e. it takes longer than opening a book.)

Concord Grapes

It's been so long since I've posted, I bet you thought I'd stopped wasting time! Wrong. I have been a little busy between squeezing all our summer fun into the one month of summer when I could actually walk, and then going right into the paperwork deluge of back-to-school. But I've still managed to find time to learn about the world via the internet. For example, The Lion of Gripsholms Castle

Which then led me to a facebook page and before I knew it I was teaching my son the basics of photoshopping a picture.

I really hope you click through to the link, because it illustrates perfectly the whole focus and direction of this blog, and maybe even my life. Very simply put, I'm just on a mission to laugh hysterically on a daily basis.

I should point out that when I attempted to share this gem with my children they were mildly amused, but did not almost pass out laughing like I did. I'm choosing to attribute this to the fact that they watch so many cartoons that they have no idea what real animals look like. It is in no way a reflection on my own maturity level.

To sum up the highlights of my past few months:
Vacation
Internet discovery of Lion of Gripsholms Castle
Vacation to Toronto
Kids back to school
MCR concert
Germs back home from school
And Today, Concord Grapes

I wish I could pick them in my own backyard every day, like I did after school when I was a kid. Wish I could read a whole book every day like I did back then too. Although I don't miss riding the school bus. Tradeoffs.