What a few minutes here and there can do

November and NaNoWriMo are over. I didn't make it 50,000 words, but then again, I didn't think I would. Not being pessimistic there, just didn't really have 50,000 more words that I needed to write on this draft of my novel.

I did get to about 35,000 and that's more than I thought I needed. (Maybe I could have gotten that 50,000 after all) What I wanted out of the month was to challenge myself to write more that I usually did. To see if I could "find time" in the day to get more done than I was used to doing.

And I did. I knew that in order to come close to 50,000 words I was going to have to write pretty much every day and not just on my Thursday writing day. So I began writing in the morning while the kids were still asleep and then again in the early afternoon when the baby took a nap.

I got 35,000 words out of that. My goal now is to keep with it. So far so good. I'm about 30 pages from the end of this draft (going back and incorporating a new thread that changes everything) and that's my December goal--to be done with this revision so that I can begin revising again. (Ain't writing great!)

I'll keep you posted.

When Babies Take Naps at 5pm...

Moms have to drink coffee because they're got to be up til 2. It's my own fault really. But this exercise in staying up and being focused--and actually opening the laptop and writing this post might be blowing my "I can't write after 11pm" excuse.

We shall see.,.

I've been doing the NaNoWriMo challenge and having some decent success. I've gotten about 13,000 words written in 10 days, which doesn't really seem like that much I guess, but when you figure that usually takes me more than a month to get that done, I feel like I'm trucking right along.

Because it's a daily writing challenge (50,000 in 30 days) it's gotten me  to alter my usual writing schedule. I usually only write on Thursday. My wonderful husband takes Thursday off, stays with the kids, and I go into his office and spend the day writing. This is wonderful because it gives me hours at a time to review and edit and read through parts that I need that sort of uninterrupted time.

I had let myself believe that with three kids at home all day (I home school) there was no way I could write everyday and I let myself off the hook, so to speak.

But taking this NaNoWriMo challenge calls for more than just Thursdays. So I decided to throw housework to the wind and write everyday.

I have to be ready to roll at the drop of a nap (I write when the baby sleeps and there's no set schedule for that.) It also means I have to toss my excuses out the window.

I can't write if there's a mess in the kitchen.
I can't write if there's laundry to do.
I can't write if the floor needs to be vacuumed.
I can't write if we're not done with lessons.
I can't write if my favorite cooking show is on.

But you know what, it turns out that I can.

I can actually clean later. We can do math after 3pm. I can watch TV some other time. (I probably wasn't going to remember that recipe anyway.)

They say it takes 30 days to make something a habit. We'll see come December 1st.

Until then, I'm off to write...the laundry will wait.

Write now!

Hi writers.

Especially those with a great idea rolling around in their head and NO words on the page! Check out this site and get started.  National Novel Writng Month. It's FREE and easy to sign up and full of advice and pep talks, forums to talk to other writers in your area, a word count ticker, and all other manner of items to help you GET STARTED!

Stop going on about not having enough free time to write. Who has free time? Who are these people?

Write now!  Offical start is November 1st. But you can go on now and get signed up.

So go on.....

Old School

The other night, Sabrina the Teenage Witch was on tv and there was a scene where Sabrina was in her room talking on the phone to her boyfriend. My 10 year old daughter, with puzzled look on her face said, "What is that thing she's talking on?"

I turned to look at the tv expecting some strange contraption and there is was: an old school 1980's phone.

I said, "That's a telephone. That's what they used to look like."

She said, still puzzled, "Did they take those to school with them?"

"No," I said. "People used to go around with no phone on them at all. If you wanted to talk to someone on the phone, you called their house."

"What if they weren't home?" she asked.

"Then you didn't talk to them on the phone," I said.

"Oh," she said. "Weird."

Later I retold this to some friends of mine and we got a good chuckle, imagining a backpack with the base tucked inside and the handset with curled up cord coming out through the unzipped top of the pack.

Ah, the world as our kids know it.

Report From Cloud Nine

I'm thrilled to announce that my short story collection Somewhere Between What Was and What Will Be (or What Is--as quick witted friend Bill Spencer joked) is slated for publication in the fall of 2012 from Press 53.

I'm excited to be attending Press 53's annual Wine & Words Festival tonight (Oct 22n) where Kevin Watson will be announcing the winners of their annual Open Awards Contest and debuting the 2012 Open Awards Anthology. A couple of my friends-- Debbie Daniel and Kristen Sherman--were finalist in areas of that contest Congrats!

I've been a fan of Press 53 for some time and I'm honored to soon be one of the authors in their house. Many thanks!

In other news, you may know about this site, but if not, I happened upon a contest site called Just a Contest that lists all manner of competition in many different categories. Take a look at that.

I was pleased to see my old friends Saturday Writers have a contest listed there. Check them out and pass that on to your friends.

The weather is getting chilly and for this warmblooded creature, that means outdoor activities are about to get limited. So I'll be taking that indoor time to write and check out that contest site. I hope you will too.

Keeping the Morning Glories off my Desk

The morning glories look so pretty, the way they have crept up the tomato stakes, covered over the low lying zucchini, and are now making advance up the porch railing. The white and purple blooms of neglect make it easy to shrug my shoulders and pretend I meant it that way.

It's been too hot to weed, too hot to cook, too hot to care that it's all going to waste. But it's been just the right temperature to stay inside in the a/c and write. Just perfect for haunting the publishing sites for submission deadlines and contest dates.

So, yeah--I've harvested a total of two green peppers, five tomatoes, and one big fat zucchini from garden that has yielded much much more to the ground, but I've been writing, submitting, entering, getting rejected--and yes, getting published too.

My garden is a bust, but the writing this season has been good. I've nothing to can for the winter, but plenty to chew on none the less.