NaNo Brain

I think I've got NaNo Brain.  It's one of those functional disorders where you look perfectly normal and you can blend in with regular people.  It's not even debilitating.  It's just annoying.  Any time anyone asks me how I'm doing, my first thought is "I'm behind".  Or when they ask me what I've been up to and I answer with "It's November" as if that explains it all.  Because, you see, ever since November 1st, all I can think about is NaNoWriMo. 

That's a bit of an exaggeration.  I do think about other things, but NaNo is at the forefront of everything else.  I think about my word count constantly.  When I'm doing something else, I'm thinking about how I'm going to get more words out later.  I could be having a conversation with you, and the whole time I'm plotting my next scene.  (Which may be why the few conversations I've had this month end up with the other person staring at me funny.) 

I've been so focused on NaNo, I even suspended my querying.  Not by conscious thought, but when I look back at the last query I sent out, I realize, somewhere along the way, that important task fell through the cracks.  (Or rather fell through the crack in my head.)

I should be over this by December 1st.  Please, god, let me be over this by then.  I need to become a normal human again.  (Okay... as normal as I ever was.)  I need to be able to hold a conversation with my friends and family.  I'd like to watch an entire program without feeling guilty that I haven't met my word count yet.

Until then, I'll just keep motoring along.  Having NaNo Brain isn't really so awful as long as there's an end in the foreseeable future. 

And if you see me next month, still talking to myself in public and mumbling about word counts, call a professional.  By then, I'll need one.  ;o)

Bad Monkey

I'll be a better blogger once November is over.  Promise.

So, what's up in your world?  Any news about anything?

 *All images deleted to avoid any chance of copyright infringement*

I'm a Slug

Okay, I admit it.  I spent yesterday on the couch being a total slug.  I didn't write.  I didn't read.  I just lay there, watching TV and occasionally doing a few rows of crochet. 

I wanted to write.  Hell, I'm way behind on my NaNo words, and even if I forget that, I am writing a book.  If NaNo didn't exist, I'd still want to be working toward THE END.  I even tried to tell myself to forget about NaNoWriMo and just get the words out.  Nada.  I told myself to forget how behind I was - you know, to take the pressure off.  Zilch.

So I was a slug. 

I did think about writing.  You don't want to know what I was thinking.  I must be at that point - you know the one.  The self-doubt point.  :shrug:  I've been here so many times they ought to name a street after me. 

Hubs is being supportive by telling me I don't need to worry about this.  That I don't need to hold myself to some arbitrary deadline.  I should just relax and let the words come when they will.  I understand.  He deals with deadlines and pressures in his day job, and he'd do anything to take that off my shoulders.  I get it.

I still feel like a slug.  Here I am without any outside deadlines or pressures.  I have no agent.  I have no contracts. (Which is pressure enough, if you ask me.)  No one cares if I ever finish another book.  I could chuck the whole idea and the world wouldn't be the wiser - well, except for the 59 people who stop by here on a regular basis.  :waves:

Don't worry, I'm not chucking anything.  I won't even drown my sorrows in beer - like my fellow slugs over there at the slug pub*.  I'll just keep motoring along.  Yesterday I was a slug.  Today I'm going to be a slug with sore fingers because I will write today, even if writing each word is like pulling impossibly long slivers from my fingertips with rusty tweezers.

* that picture is of a beer trap (aka slug pub) for ridding yourself of the pesky slugs in your garden.  They love beer.  They drink, they drown, they die.  :shudder:  Thank goodness I'm not really a slug.

 *All images deleted to avoid any chance of copyright infringement*

Busy Writing

So here's a couple pictures...

This is the sun set off Cedar Key, FL - taken back in 2001. 

And this was taken around the same time on the other side of the peninsula - near Indian Harbor Beach.

Enjoy.  And have a great night. 

Ramblings

November 11th... It's snowing.  Gack.  Both Husband and Daughter have the day off work.  I gave her the day off school.  So maybe I can get some of my own work done today.  Lord knows, I didn't write a damn word on my novel yesterday.  I did write a boatload of stuff for Daughter's college application process, if that counts - which it doesn't. 

She's officially applied to CSU, btw, but now I have to complete all this paperwork - explaining and detailing our homeschool process, the classes, the student herself...  I wonder if public school teachers have to jump through this many hoops for each of their students.  Bleh.  Of course, I have to fill out both the counselor and the teacher portions of the paperwork, plus whatever the school district would normally present. 

Why oh why does NaNo fall in November of all months?  Why couldn't it have been in July when I was fairly free of other sundry things?  But no, NaNo has to fall on the month when we set the clocks back, the month when I have schooly type things to do, the month when the leaves fell the hardest, the month when the snow-shoveling begins, the month when the temperatures drop enough to make my bones ache...  Arrgghh. 

On the upside, my neighbor came over yesterday and divested me of a lot of the clutter our landlady had in this house.  This place came furnished and decorated - that place didn't - so the landlady allowed us to move to stuff around between the two properties.  I finally got that native american print out of my living room.  Neighbor gal loves it, but I just thought it was creepy, so yay.

Got anything to ramble about?  Feel free to post whatever in the comments.  (As long as it follows the blog rules about not being spammy, nasty, snarky or snerty.)

Got a Little Cheese?

'Cuz I'm bringing the whine. 

I write.  I crochet.  I read.  All three are activities that require the use of my hands. 

Add to those the fact that in my car accident, my left hand got messed up by broken glass - to the point where I almost completely severed the tendon to my middle finger (yeah, yeah - it almost made signaling other drivers impossible). 

So, I guess what I'm whining about today is that my hands friggin' hurt.  Not bad enough that I need massive opiates, but enough that I shall once again sing the praises of my favorite non-writing NaNo tool... 

Aspercreme!  

If you don't have some, pick some up.  I wouldn't be writing this post if I hadn't slathered my hands in it when I got up.  Gotta keep those digits in working order, doncha know. 

Okay, now that the whining's over, go write something already.  ;o)

Peace out.

D'oh

Last night as I was lying in bed, I realized I painted myself into a corner with the words I wrote over the weekend.  As such, I committed the cardinal sin of NaNoWriMo and went back through the first few chapters, fixing a sticky point and giving myself a new path to walk down.

I'm back on track now.  Unfortunately, it's been so long since I wrote new words, I'm reaching about an hour's worth before my hands go numb.  Bleh.  I'll be in fighting form as soon as I get used to writing again.  I'm still behind, but after checking last year's numbers, I'm not worried.

November 2009 - 45000 words, half of which were written in the last ten days.  I guess I just work well as a crammer.  Lord knows that's how I passed half my college classes.  LOL

How are things going in your world?  Are you a crammer or do you prefer to be prepared throughout the process?