Hitting the Books

I have hit the lofty heights of 20,000 words as of 3 a.m. Woohoo!!! At this rate I shall be half done by Tuesday!

Now I have to go finish packing ‘cuz I’m heading out to WV tomorrow. Hope I can keep up the 2,000 a night whilst out there.

Happy writing to all of you!

I did it. I got up the oomph to attempt NaNoWriMo again. I faltered a bit coming out of the starting gate. I originally started working on a book that I had only two scenes written in, and I thought if I didn’t count them in the word count it would be okay. But I still felt guilty since there’s not supposed to be any story written, so I started another one later that day. Despite that blurp, I’ve managed to meet my 2,000 word goal the past three nights. (Or rather mornings. Very early mornings. I tend to do my writing between 11pm and 2am.) I figure if I aim for 2,000 a day, I should have words to spare (since I’m not sure how NaNo’s counting and Word’s counting differ) by the 30th. Lord willin’ and the crik don’t rise.

Well, the only reason I have a moment to post is because I’m waiting for bread dough to rise before plopping myself in front of my laptop for this evening’s session. Don’t want to be interrupted by beeping timers.

Good luck to those of you who are also trying!

TTFNNWM (that’s Typie-Typing for NaNoWriMo)

Yup, NaNoWriMo is just around the corner.

That mad, wild, crazy time when billions and billions (okay, well, just lots and lots–last year 79,000+) of writers, aspiring writers, and plain ol’ lunatics attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. That’s from midnight November 1st to 11:59pm November 30th. From scratch (sorta–background info, character sketches, etc., are allowed).

I did my darndest in 2005, but life got in the way.

I was going to last year, but procrastinated too long.

So the question is, do I try again this year? Or just assume that having a Punkin underfoot will make it an Impossible Dream (To dream the impossible scene, to write the unwriteable book, to try when your arms are too weary, to type with a Punkin underfoot… Sorry–random “Man of La Mancha” moment.)

That is my dilemma. I’m having a rough enough time right now with health issues on top of the usual full plate. Do I really want to add one more thing?

I think I do. I mean, even if I only write 25 pages worth of story, that’s still 25 pages more than I had November 1st. Right?

Write!

You know how all those writing books say “If you want to be a real writer, you have to write every day”? Well, most of my life I’ve ignored that axiom. I’ve always been a fits and starts type writer. Nothing for months, then 4 or 5 hours a day for a few weeks. Rinse and repeat.

Well, a few weeks ago, my Muse came knocking for the first time in months. So I did my normal write until all hours of the night, every night routine. Except now I’ve got a toddler who likes to go to bed at 8:30. Great–the rest of the evening is free for writing. However, the Punkin likes to get up at 7-7:30 in the morning. Not so good when Mama only collapsed onto her pillow at 3 a.m. And sometimes the Punkin comes wandering in at 0 dark thirty (i.e., 5:30) wanting a diaper change. Double plus un-good.

So, I decided to be a (somewhat) good girl and write from 10-12, then try to be asleep by 1 a.m. And that worked really well. I was flying along, getting tons of stuff accomplished on my massive rewriting campaign. I was rather surprised–gee, maybe this every day business had something to it after all.

But then I missed a day, and then another. I was too tired, or too busy, or just not in the mood. My muse doesn’t like being ignored, and so she’s gone off now. And I’m left wondering if I had spent just a few pages every day with her, maybe she’d still be here.

Between attempting to keep three blogs going, a quilt designing business, writing, raising a kid, keeping a husband, dancing, church, extended family, something of a social life, etc., I just don’t have large chunks of time anymore. And I’ve always been a large-chunk-of-time person, whether it’s for writing, or designing, or sewing. As the song says, “With me it’s all or nuttin’.” Nor can I keep up this 4-5 interrupted hours of sleep a night. Yup, the old grey mare, she ain’t what she used to be.

The question I’m coming up against is this: do I really want to be a writer? For that matter, do I want my quilt business to take off? If so, I need to become quite a bit more disciplined, to take what time I can when I can instead of waiting for those nonexistent large chunks of time (and not squander my little chunks playing Mah Jong, Free Cell, or Minesweeper. Or getting lost in Wikipedia.). And it needs to be every day.

Well, I’ve bitten the bullet and posted the first chapter of my newly reborn historical romance now fantasy. I’d really love, and need, some comments and critiques (though at the same time I’m scared to hear them) as I’ve lost any sort of objectivity concerning this piece (after 15 years it’s hard to be impartial).

If you like what you read and are interested in reading the rest of the book, just drop me an email at info@hittingthebooks.com–I’d be more than happy to have your input on the whole shebang.