Setbacks

It is hard when you hit your first setback, or your second.  It is even hard when you hit your third setback.   I cannot pretend to comprehend what setback I am on at this point.  I thought I couldn't write 50,000 words, I knew for sure I couldn't do it in a month.  I thought I would never come up with an idea for a second, or a third novel.  I thought I would not be able to edit, or add enough to make a novel that was actually readable.  Guess what?  I am doing it one step at a time.

My current setback:  Lack of motivation.  I admit it, I had an off week.  I wanted to clean my house,and spend time with my kids.  There was no draw to the computer calling me to the characters that I alone have created.  I didn't have ideas running through my head of new scenes to add, or insightful ideas.  I felt tired, drained, and literally exhausted.

The good news is I have vowed to once again get back on the editing wagon, and get this done so I can be ready to start my second novel in November!

Hide your veggies

I admit it, I read a lot.  Books, magazines, cereal boxes, shampoo bottles, websites you name it.  I am a sucker for the written word.  Often, I am struck by something that is insightful, or brilliant and it inspires me to add an idea to my endless list of things I want to write about.  Today, however, I am struck not by brilliance, but by ridiculous ideas that don't work.

I am lazily flipping through one of my parenting magazines and I come across yet another article announcing I CAN get my children to eat more veggies if I turn them into smiley faces, hearts, or dinosaurs.  Somehow if I put my daughters peas in the shape of a smiley face she will miraculously forget that she hates peas, and eat them.  Why, because they are smiling at her of course!   I think my favorite example of this ridiculousness is a salad with red pepper in the shape of a heart.  It is still a salad, and unless my child is really, really flexible she still won't eat it...sorry.

I don't want to be misunderstood, my kids eat veggies.  I serve fruit and vegetables at (almost) every meal.  They even like a lot of different kinds, but even I struggle to get them to eat enough of them, who doesn't??   

I offer this as an alternative idea, just keep offering your kids veggies as they are.  Don't oil, cheese and butter them up until they are not worth it anymore.  If you want to use fun shapes, great!  But be honest with them they ARE vegetables, and the have to eat them.  More importantly, teach by example.  Are you getting your 10 servings of veggies a day? 

I'm just saying.....

On the coat tails of Nanowrimo

Last year, I took on what I thought to be the daunting task of participating in Nanowrimo.  Basically, you write 50,000 words in the month of November.  It serves as a push to get your novel started, and you are surrounded by the support of other Nanowrimoers when you need help. 

As November approached I was nervous to say the least, I didn't know where to start, or the story I was going to tell.  I wasn't even sure that I had the capabilities to write a novel. So Basically, I threw caution to the wind and started typing.   A mere 10 days later I was 50,000 words in and baffled that the story was actually interesting.  I owe this, for the most part, to Tania who challenged me to write offs, and always encouraged me to "type on" when I was feeling discouraged.  Only ten days later I had made it through.  10 days!  I thought to myself, "the hard part is over, time for adding and editing."  I could not have been more wrong.

I find it is best to take a break from your work before editing.  Let the words rest and take a moment to seperate yourself from the story before you take on the huge task of ripping apart every single sentence that you painstakingly created.   Before long you are surrounded by too many "ly abverbs" and sentence fragments that you need to keep but don't know exactly how to fix them.  Fixing those errors does not even include adding in transition areas, and core parts of the story you need to make your novel polished not to mention readable. I myself, am now knee deep in the crap they call editing, and I have a LONG way to go, but I have to admit I am secretly loving every minute of it.   

My official goal is to be at least halfway done editing my first novel before starting Nano again this year to start my second.   I guess I better get going!

Not another title

Did anyone realize that it would take an hour to start this blog?  No, I know what you are thinking I am not technologically challenged.  It takes longer than expected to come up with an appropriate blog name.  Does anyone know exactly what they are going to blog about for the next week, month, or year?  If you do I am impressed, but my ever changing thoughts end up in my blog.  I cannot possibly stick to one topic.  One day I am rambling about the impossibilities of adding a section to my book, and the next I am ranting about the drive to work.  It is all these little thoughts that make up the best of my blogs.  And so I begin....