same_sky | Whee!

I'm gonna write a book.

I actually got up this morning thinking that it was time to get myself back in gear. I've now had three weeks off, and I've had plenty of time to relax and breathe again. Just before I started working at the store this spring, I posted a bunch of goals. One of them was to write, one to work on my techie skills, and one to dedicate more time to learning Swedish. I really meant it, too, but then i started working and had less time (and no energy) for such pursuits. I was dedicating myself to developing a Plan today, and fate melodramatically intervened. Or maybe the melodrama was all in my head. Either way.

Thanks to my link-clicking habits, I've now stumbled on NaNoWriMo via

stephbairey. I was skeptical at first but now I'm enthused. So what if I couldn't take 26 pictures in the month of July--I know I can write 50,000 words in November! Surely so! M is also quite excited about the idea.. we both have a few writing plans on the back burner, but it's so hard to get started. Having a deadline is GREAT for me. I procrastinate wildly, but without a deadline, procrastinating turns out to mean procrastinating forever. I did some of my best work in school when I started it the night before.

Go look. Anyone else inspired? Carrie? :) Sounds like something you might like.. we tend to be enthused over similar projects. ;)

In any case, I really am going to try to do this and hopefully not lose sight of the excitement of it all by November. It's such a neat idea. So what if 90% of it is crap? I'll always be able to edit it down.. I've been told that I have a talent for revision. So as long as I have something to work with, I should be fine. :) Nifty. And to think I almost didn't click on the link, habit or not.. The link said "NaNoWriMo" and it's from someone living in Hawaii.. It was a long random word with lots of vowels.. I figured it would be of limited interest to us Mainlanders.. hehe. :)

Hmm.. and now that I think about it.. if I'm going to be spending my time in November writing, I actually have another deadline for this month.. I need to get some of the other little projects I've been thinking on done. Web stuff and such. I'm off to make plans..

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.oO I've heard of NaNoWriMo -- I bet you will have a great time with that! I'm not sure if I have 50,000 words in me let alone in one month ;-) The closest thing I've ever done to any kind of writing project was a couple of collaborative fan-fiction writing stints (known as "wars" off all things) that happened sorta in real-time. It was great fun but I haven't felt nearly that creative in years...

Will you be letting anyone read what you write? :)

It sounds like a lot of fun if I don't let myself think of the rate of failure and the actual amount of effort that shall be expended. :) And if I could think of a plot..

I don't know if I'll be letting anyone read it. I guess that first of all, I'll have to see if I'm producing anything else than crap, and secondly, I'll have to come up with some sort of private, closed system if I do want to share it.. in the unlikely event that I'll ever want to publish this beauty. :)

Fun, huh? :) I'm looking forward to it too. I have no idea where I'll find the time, but what the heck, I've always planned on writing a book (ebooks don't count, those are just article digests) so here I go! Even my husband is going to give it a shot.

Just FYI, there's no letter R in the hawaiian language, so NaNoWriMo couldn't be a hawaiian word. :)

Okies. :) I just saw a lot of vowels and a reasonably long word, really. I do think this could be a lot of fun, though. :)

Excellent idea!! I'd love to do something like this too. I've got my modem on my lap and if I can work out how to connect it I may find myself surfing online many a night and writing a book is surely something I can focus my energies on. Thing is, I'm not good with creative writing any more. It's got to be real. And dry. And I can't see why anyone would be interested in what I've got to ramble about. As I said once before, I can't see my angle. But we'll see. Good on you I can't wait to read it!

You should! You can be crazy just like M and me. We can spend our time complaining together about writing instead of actually writing! Besides.. think of the cool value of mentioning that you wrote a book!

Misery loves company.. :)

That is VERY true. Okay, you're on. We'll see if we can out-crazy each other and go mad with writers block together :)

Every year I think I should participate and every year I find an excuse not to do it. Last year I was seriously working on a novel that I wanted to be good so I concentrated all my efforts on that. Then my interest kind of fizzled and I only got 9 chapters written down. If I could just think of the next plot piece I could finish. I re-read it a few months ago and some of it was really good (though a lot of it was crap).

It looks like we will be moving on November 15 or thereabouts so I don't know if I should commit to such a big project this year. But maybe I should. I have lots of words in me so I bet I could do it even with a few days taken out of the mix. Hmmmmm. I think I will do it if I can think of a decent plot and get it kind of mapped out in my head or on notecards. I read a really interesting method of plotting a book over on Holly Lisle's writer workshop--just come up with X amount of characters and write down X amount of events for each of them on notecards and then try to fit them all together. It made more sense when she explained it.

Also, I keep meaning to reply about our future bi-lingual children. We do plan to teach them both English and Swedish. I guess we will do OPOL since I don't feel like I speak Swedish well enough to always do the minority language in the home. I think it will be really tough since they won't have anyone but Mike to speak Swedish to, but hopefully it will work. We are already planning on getting a region free DVD player so we can order Swedish stuff for the kids and we'll order lots of Swedish books as well. I was thinking we need to get a Swedish au-pair, but I guess we probably won't be in that income bracket *lol*. Then I was thinking we could get a Swedish foreign exchange student but then I realized that there is no way I want to be responsible for a teenager for a year. I think foreign exchange students are usually pretty nice and studious, but sometimes they are really really wild.

Wow. This could have been a post of it's own. I don't think I've ever made such a long reply to anyone before.

I feel all kinds of special. ;)

We tend to like the same sort of projects so I naturally thought of you. (I even have a graphic started for the shades-of-me thing.. dunno if I'll finish it, though. I should learn to follow through..) I thought you were moving sometime next month or so, so I wasn't sure if you would want to do it or not. You could always scribble words by hand on the plane.. hehe. ;) I was reading about

nanowriwe as well yesterday.. sort of a warmup to the November fun. It's a week-long challenge, 40,000 words, but you can use previous materials. If I was completely crazy and had a lot of material already I would join it too, but I haven't yet thought of a plot for my month-long project, so I should probably refrain. :)

I believe we're going to do OPOL as well. It's really the driving force behind my learn-Swedish plans.. but I don't see myself good enough to do the minority language at home either. A Swedish au-pair, now, that would be swell even though it'll never happen, I'm sure.

Whee!

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