NaNoWriMo - The Middle

This has been one wet, blustery and cold autumn week! Virginia was in the last throes of Tropical Storm IDA, which passed over us. It didn't feel very tropical! It became more of a nor'easter and had all those bone-chilling characteristics. Today is better; sunshiney and pleasant.

The month of NaNoWriMo is nearing its midway point, and I am further behind the corresponding word count midpoint of 25,000 words than I’d like to admit. Still, hope springs eternal and I tell myself there is the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend to use to catch up. This week's published author's pep talk by Maureen Johnson assures us that this "Middle" (as she calls it) is THE place to be. An author's secret paradise where they live in their pajamas and drink carafe after carafe of cold coffee! Hmmm. I'll have to get back to you on that.

It isn’t a matter of writer’s block or a shortage of ideas. Life just seems to get in the way – and when I say life, I am referring mostly to work – and television. Even though I work only the ‘normal’ 40 hour week, the older I get, the more exhausted I am by the end of the day. After spending all day at the computer, the last thing that appeals to me is sitting down in front of another keyboard for three or four hours. Instead, I am enticed by a different type of screen - the television screen. The TV is a kind and gentle friend. The TV requires absolutely nothing of me. It only asks that I sit there and stare at it. It really doesn’t even care if I fall asleep while staring at it; which happens more often than I’d like to admit. And, now it’s hooked me with programming. Always Jeopardy, but that leads into the 8pm show – which on Monday is "Dancing with the Stars". I normally wouldn’t care for this type of show, but they always seem to sign one celebrity that I have at least an obscure interest in. This season it is Kelly Osborne, and I’ll be damned if she hasn’t lasted until the final four! Tuesday is "So You Think You Can Dance", which I began watching during the auditions, and thinking, 'these dancers will never be as good as the ones in Joshua and Katie’s season', and then I stuck around to make sure I was right! Oh, immediately after "Dancing", is the new "Castle" series – part Moonlighting, part Law and Order, part Criminal Minds/Profiler – plus, the guy that plays "Castle" is real easy on the eyes. So, that takes care of Mon, Tues and Wed (the 'results' show). Then comes The Office and Housewives of WhereEver on Thursday, and Say Yes to the Dress and Criminal Minds on Friday!

Reading over this, it quickly becomes apparent that my life is scheduled around TV. OMG, my daughter is right! Okay, self-realization check. Kicking this damn TV habit could only be beneficial to my writing health! So, right here, in black and white, I solemnly swear to turn off my (large, flat-screened) television for the next 16 days...or I until reach 50,000 written words, which ever comes first. Hold me to that, will you?

It's all about Accountability?

Well, it's here. November 1st. The first official day of NaNoWriMo. It feels a bit anti-climactic, tho. I'm all about anticipation. That's probably why I have a poor track record when it comes to finishing projects. This is not a new self-realization, just a confirmation of an old one.

Because the goal is to spend all of my free waking hours writing for the next thirty days, I began yesterday with a trip to the grocery store to stock my fridge with quick and easy items for this week's meals. I judiciously avoided the healthy outer perimeter of the store - with the exception of picking up some butter and premade wild mushroom agnolotti. Focusing on the "made for home consumption fast food section" (the massive freezer area), I filled my basket with chicken and vegetable egg rolls, buffalo chicken wings, cheap pizzas and chocolate covered cream puffs, the latter of which with to bribe and/or reward myself during the grueling process of punching out a minimum of 2,000 words per day. Needless to say, I steered clear of those healthier frozen meal options - you ladies know the ones I mean. If I was going to submit to a month of tribulation, I was also going to indulge myself in the process. It's kind of like the theory that Diet Coke cancels out McDonald's french fries. This rationalization has made me the person I am today!

Back at home, I organized all my notes and research into pretty, pale green, 3-ring notebooks. Then, I gathered and stacked all of the reference books I'll be using for my novel at the end of the dining room table. This took all of ten minutes. Unfortunately, reviewing the notes began to stoke the creative juices. I say unfortunately because the Rules of NaNoWriMo specifically state that word count begins exactly at Midnight on October 31st. So I was left with the challenge of stifling that emotion and figuring out how to spend the rest of the day NOT writing. "That was easy", my Staples button intoned.

I went to Facebook - nothing really happening there; searched for real estate in the mountains of West Virginia (because when I am as rich from my novels as J.K. Rowling is from hers, I want to buy a horse farm there, and I need to be ready!); worked on one of my Snapfish projects that need to be finished by November 6th so I can use a coupon...you get the idea. I had the foolish hope that I could stay awake until midnight, begin writing then, and quickly get a jump on my word count. I fell asleep during a rerun of Saturday Night Live.

Waking at 9:15 am, which was really 8:15 am because of the time change, I had the pleasant sensation that I was given a gift of that extra one hour - not realizing that I had actually slept through it.

With my first cup of coffee, the anticipation phase abruptly ended and the actuality of the challenge hit me in the face. It isn't that I can't meet the goal, it's just that I have an inherent rebellious streak working against me.

I find as I get older I respond a bit more to accountability than I have in the past. As a free-spirited Aquarius, accountability was never a big motivator for me. The rebel in me would rise up the moment I was required to report progress of any sort to someone or something. The "someone" even included myself. I was a dismal failure at Weight Watchers - many times over. This is true even using their online program where one is on a honor system to put in your weekly data. But, I am getting better - at least that's what my piano teacher says. Yes, I'm taking piano lessons to work on my accountability. I don't always meet the weekly goals set by my instructor, but I am making progress in two areas - playing the piano and procrastination.

After a 2nd cup of coffee, and oh, I need to get some of that apple cake my neighbor brought over last night, I'm finally ready to sit down and write. But wait, I need to put some CDs on for mood; that'll do it. Oops, all my CDs are in a box downstairs where they've been since the remodeling last December. I'll have to do down and dig through the box. While I'm going downstairs, I may as well throw in a load of laundry. To do that, I'll need to do some sorting first. That's cool, I can do that pretty quickly.

And now I've written 800 words, all of which don't apply to my daily word count. I wonder if there's a "Criminal Minds" marathon on A&E...