I just realized I had forgotten to update my word count on the Nanowrimo website.
Can't have that.
So I proceeded to add up what I'd written this afternoon. Part of it was finishing up one chapter and the rest was well into another chapter. I added up all the words and they totalled 1,960.
THAT'S THE YEAR I WAS BORN!
How freakin' weird is THAT?
Saturday, November 5, 2011
The War of Art
Do you feel uncomfortable calling yourself a writer? Or a painter? Or whatever creative activity it is you want to try but you're numb with indecisiveness and paralyzed with fear?
That's my hand up in the air, waving furiously. Yours too?
Then you need to read the book I'm reading. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (author of The Legend of Bagger Vance) is the best, skinniest, smartest smack in the face I've ever had the pleasure of reading. It's like a cuff upside the head. It's like Cher in Moonstruck slapping Nicholas Cage in the face and yelling
"SNAP OUT OF IT!"
I was angsting, as usual, at my writers' group meeting when my friend Dawn suddenly stood up and said, "I have a book you need to read," and she went and fetched The War of Art.
Wow, Dawn, I owe you big, my friend. This was exactly the common sense kick in the arse I so desperately needed.
The point of the book is that we human beings constantly battle Resistance, a soul-sucking internal device that stops us from doing the creative things we were born to do. This tiny tome is not a typical self-help book, which I would loathe. This is just straight talk from someone who knows what he's talking about.
Here's one of my favourite sections, entitled Resistance and Self-Doubt:
"Self-doubt can be an ally. This is because it serves as an indicator of aspiration. It reflects love, love of something we dream of doing, and desire, desire to do it. If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), 'Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?' chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death."
Friday, November 4, 2011
6,525 words
Good morning!
Thank gawd it's Friday. I feel that TGIF in the very marrow of my bones. One more day of working all day and writing half the night then I get to sleep in. Wow, am I looking forward to that.
I knew fitting Nanowrimo into my schedule was going to be hard on this old bird and I was right. The writing itself isn't hard – it's the pervading fatigue that's hard. Oh well. Enough whining. I get to sleep in tomorrow. I'm looking forward to writing in the daytime, not sitting hunched over my laptop until after 10 o'clock at night, then lying sleepless staring at the ceiling, too wound up and senseless to fall unconscious.
When I did sleep last night, man, did I sleep. I had the weirdest dream, too. I dreamt my friend, Vic, was trying to talk some sense into me about something. (Probably Nanowrimo!) Obviously I wasn't listening so, to get my attention, she threw water in my face. When that didn't work, she poured a pot full of cold Campbell's Chunky Chicken Soup on my head.
Oh. Talk about gross. It was slimy and, yes, chunky and you could have eaten the potato pieces off my head with a fork. I was SO MAD in my dream. There was soup all over the house! Soup pieces in the bathtub as I tried to clean up. Soup in my parents' bed (don't ask me why it was my parents' bed - hopefully this wasn't a Freudian dream). I had to strip their bed and wash it, wash the floors, wash my clothes. I woke up pissed off and exhausted from all the work.
Wait'll I see that Vic. She's in BIG trouble.
Thank gawd it's Friday. I feel that TGIF in the very marrow of my bones. One more day of working all day and writing half the night then I get to sleep in. Wow, am I looking forward to that.
I knew fitting Nanowrimo into my schedule was going to be hard on this old bird and I was right. The writing itself isn't hard – it's the pervading fatigue that's hard. Oh well. Enough whining. I get to sleep in tomorrow. I'm looking forward to writing in the daytime, not sitting hunched over my laptop until after 10 o'clock at night, then lying sleepless staring at the ceiling, too wound up and senseless to fall unconscious.
When I did sleep last night, man, did I sleep. I had the weirdest dream, too. I dreamt my friend, Vic, was trying to talk some sense into me about something. (Probably Nanowrimo!) Obviously I wasn't listening so, to get my attention, she threw water in my face. When that didn't work, she poured a pot full of cold Campbell's Chunky Chicken Soup on my head.
Oh. Talk about gross. It was slimy and, yes, chunky and you could have eaten the potato pieces off my head with a fork. I was SO MAD in my dream. There was soup all over the house! Soup pieces in the bathtub as I tried to clean up. Soup in my parents' bed (don't ask me why it was my parents' bed - hopefully this wasn't a Freudian dream). I had to strip their bed and wash it, wash the floors, wash my clothes. I woke up pissed off and exhausted from all the work.
Wait'll I see that Vic. She's in BIG trouble.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
4,157 words
No wooting tonight. Too tired to woot.
Still, I got another chapter done. I didn't feel like it, I swear each word was torture tonight, but the Nanowrimo pledge was pushing me forward and I managed to get the daily minimum done.
So far I'm pleased with what I'm writing.
To me it's not about the word count – it's all about continuing to write the very best that I can. The chapter I wrote tonight was a tough one to write and I think tomorrow's chapter will be even tougher. These are hard times for my heroine, the poor beleaguered Weezie Polk. It is, after all, always darkest before the dawn and Weezie's dawn is still a long way off. It's getting closer though. I have hope that soon the tide will turn and I'm getting more excited for her every day.
Get well wishes to the girls in my writing group. Poor Sasha and Dawn are down for the count and dear Paula is nursing her sick husband back from a frightening health ordeal. Linda is the only one of us currently joining me in this Nanowrimo insanity and I thank my stars that she is. Linda is ball of positive energy and the more I know her, the more I appreciate her. Take care Paula, Dawn and Sasha and good writing vibes to the unstoppable Mizz Linda.
I'd also like to say thank you to my other bloggy friends who pop by occasionally with cheery words of encouragement. It's fantastic to have you in my corner.
Kisses to you all.
P.S. My bloggy friend Denise (better known to you all as L'Aussie Writer) kindly asked me to guest over at her Romantic Friday Writers website. The topic was Friday Flash and, even though I haven't written a Flash for some time, there's nothing that warms my heart more. You can check it out HERE. Thanks Denise! Such an honour!
Still, I got another chapter done. I didn't feel like it, I swear each word was torture tonight, but the Nanowrimo pledge was pushing me forward and I managed to get the daily minimum done.
So far I'm pleased with what I'm writing.
To me it's not about the word count – it's all about continuing to write the very best that I can. The chapter I wrote tonight was a tough one to write and I think tomorrow's chapter will be even tougher. These are hard times for my heroine, the poor beleaguered Weezie Polk. It is, after all, always darkest before the dawn and Weezie's dawn is still a long way off. It's getting closer though. I have hope that soon the tide will turn and I'm getting more excited for her every day.
Get well wishes to the girls in my writing group. Poor Sasha and Dawn are down for the count and dear Paula is nursing her sick husband back from a frightening health ordeal. Linda is the only one of us currently joining me in this Nanowrimo insanity and I thank my stars that she is. Linda is ball of positive energy and the more I know her, the more I appreciate her. Take care Paula, Dawn and Sasha and good writing vibes to the unstoppable Mizz Linda.
I'd also like to say thank you to my other bloggy friends who pop by occasionally with cheery words of encouragement. It's fantastic to have you in my corner.
Kisses to you all.
P.S. My bloggy friend Denise (better known to you all as L'Aussie Writer) kindly asked me to guest over at her Romantic Friday Writers website. The topic was Friday Flash and, even though I haven't written a Flash for some time, there's nothing that warms my heart more. You can check it out HERE. Thanks Denise! Such an honour!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
2,745 words!
CATHY OLLIFFE-WEBSTER IS IN DA HOUSE!
Can't talk now. Am wooting around the kitchen... look at me woot, shaking my thang. See that thang? I got some junk in my trunk, baby, and it's shaking, look at that thang shake!
FIRST day of National Novel Writing Month is DONE and I have slammed 2,745 words down on that keyboard, surpassing my goal of 2,000 words. THIS, in spite of a busy day at the office!
I got involved with NaNo at the last minute, only because a couple of other girls in my writers' group (we are all girls, even though we're as old as Alan Davidson's fez, and we always will be) were signed up and I thought, yes, this is what I need to get my novel finished. A primo kick in the ass deadline with tons of moral support.
So far, so good.
Like a recovering alcoholic, I am taking this 50,000 word challenge one day at a time.
And today was sooooooooooooooo suwheet ...
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