Has anyone missed me? Okay, so it's only been about a month, actually less, since I blogged. So why anyone would notice my short absence in the cyber world is beyond me... but to be honest... I've missed me! Hahaha!
I feel like I have been away much longer than I have. But I can explain that. The reasons are two fold:
1. I didn't really think I had anything to report on for the last little while until I uploaded my pictures from my phone and realized that I am actually rather far behind!
2. My sister-in-law Jessica sent me a text a couple days before the 1st of July saying that she had been reading a book by the creator of the NaNoWriMo competition. (I think I have mentioned this before, but it is a writing competition in November. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words in one month. That doesn't sound hard, but trust me, it is! I have never actually done the competition, but I have thought about it a few times. There is no real reward if you complete it except being entered into the 50K hall of fame, if you will. And if you don't make it, well, you have written a heck of a lot more than you would have otherwise!) Anyway, Jess had been reading this book and was feeling super motivated and wanted to try it the upcoming month (July) and wanted to know if I would do it with her. If I said no, she asked if I would at least hassle her about it. Having someone to answer to helps a lot. But what helps even more is having competition. I was unsure if I wanted to do it... like I said, 50K is a lot. For the month of July if you were to write every single day (which I don't know too many people that can do that) you would need to write 1612.90 words each and every day. More reasonable however, is if you take out weekends. That leaves you only 23 days to accomplish your goal. That alone takes you up to 2713.91 words per day. Over a thousand more. And even writing 5 days a week may be more than you can manage some weeks, which obviously bumps your words per day up quite drastically. 22 days (just one day less) = 2272.72. 21 days = 2380.95. You get the picture.
Well, I was still undecided until July 1st when I pulled out my laptop and set to work. I had been debating whether to start fresh with a new book idea (not giving up on my original, just setting it aside for a bit,) but I decided to stick with the original. Otherwise, would I ever finish it? I hadn't worked on it in over a month at this point. I had been stuck trying to decide what I should do next. The first few paragraphs were really forced. I can admit that. It was pretty painful. But forcing myself through that first section after being stalled for so long suddenly jump started the plot again and before I knew it, I was racing away.
Can I just tell you how good that feels? Nicia, who has been reading along and giving me feedback, once asked me how it was possible that I didn't know what was coming next. The truth is, I really don't. I usually have pieces of a big puzzle, but it's almost like trying to put it together without seeing the picture on the box. Often I am not sure what it is I am making until I string a few pieces together. Once that happens, I feel like I am standing in the dark with a glow in the dark rope. Holding to one end, I cast out as far as I can. Then I write out the plot up to where the rope ends, or where the light leads me. Then I am left in the dark again until I can cast the rope out a little further. It's an exciting process. I also told Jessica once that I don't like planning things out too far ahead with too much concrete because sometimes I feel like I will pave myself a path and if I stick to that path, I will find myself at the end looking back and realizing that what I thought was a straight shot actually veered me way off course and I am not where I wanted to be. So instead, I take it stepping stone by stepping stone.
Anyway, back to the point. Once I started writing, I decided that yes, I was going to take this challenge and I was going to meet it. Admittedly, almost everything else has fallen to the wayside. Dishes, cleaning the house, laundry, etc. I can only write when P is asleep, so my time is limited. That nap time is usually my time to do the household stuff or blog. I guess what I am getting at is please don't come visit until this month is over. Haha. And of course, I also teach piano (I am up to 5 lessons now - sweet!) and that takes time out of writing as well. As I predicted, I have not been able to write 5 days a week solidly every week. And each day the number of words I have written varies greatly. Some days I have managed over 5,000. Others, like two days ago, 500. So far the numbers have balanced out to keep me on track. I am down to about 10 days left with 8,900 words to go. I am SO going to do it!
I know this probably sounds like a stupid thing to be so excited about. I think Ryan is a little annoyed with it too, but you know what? I have almost doubled what I had written before the month started. To put that in perspective, I started the book last September. I didn't work on it constantly, but still. I have written just as much in one month as I did in 9 months before that. And that my friends is amazing. I still don't know how this book is going to end, but I can now say that there is an end in sight. My goal, which I wasn't even willing to make one before, is to finish the book by the year mark. That gives me two months. I definitely think it is doable. I am really excited about it. I know there is still a lot of work to do on it, but if nothing else, I can actually say that I wrote a book! And Jessica was totally right. Competition is a great motivator. I don't know how Jessica did with it, but truthfully, I stopped worrying about that about a week into the month and just focused on my own goal of reaching that 50,000 words.
So that's where I have been. Like I said, I doubt anyone noticed my absence, but I did. Haha. Hopefully I will get caught up soon. That's what Sundays are for. :) Even though Sundays would be ideal to work on my book, I decided against that a while ago.
And just in case anyone is interested... the word count for this post is 1,234.
