In My Copious Free Time

Going for the world record

How long can you say you are writing a book without actually doing any writing? I don't know if there's a category in Guinness for this, but if there is, I'm thinking I qualify.

*pause...breathe*

Okay, so that's a slight exaggeration. But still, I have this really good idea. I've been doing my research. Bits and pieces of it come to me and I've done a not-half-ass job of capturing those thoughts. I just haven't written anything beyond the first paragraph.

Part of the problem is that I am just swamped with work, and very little of it is mindless or routine. It's mentally taxing, so a lot of days I feel like I don't have two brain cells left to rub together. I know this will change, and I'm not complaining. If I didn't love my job, I wouldn't do it. But what I do need to do is figure out some when I can get some serious me time to compensate for this, some time to just breathe and regroup and then some additional time to write. One of the many Jennifers I know mentioned she's going on an Omega Rejuvenation Retreat, and that might be just the thing I need, though at a different time because I don't think it would be beneficial for me to go as part of a gathering of friends.

So I'm mentally bookmarking this idea to revisit in a few weeks when I can really think about my calendar and my needs.

Did I say I love my job?

Today is massage day at the office.

The stupidest idea I ever had

National Novel Writing Month

I've been thinking about this a lot over the last two weeks, and dog help me, I think I'm actually going to do it. I've been writing a lot* lately. No, I don't mean the crapola you see before you. Actual writing. It's part of my secret life, the private me that I reveal to almost no one.

But it's time to let a little bit of the secret out. Beginning 1 November, I'm going to write a novel. I have to write 50,000 words by 30 November to "win." That's 1,666 words every day, with an extra 20 words one day to top it off. In the two weeks I've been considering NaNoWriMo, I haven't let myself do the actual math until just this moment. Whenever I think about it, I feel varying degrees of dauntedness. But thinking about 1,666 words every day buries the needle on the daunt-o-meter. Right now I will ignore the not insignificant number of days I have work travel in November. Or the major national holiday.

The good news is that I have an idea. Actually, I have two ideas. And they are, at least in my daunt-addled brain, not bad ideas. Not bad at all.

*"A lot" is a relative term.