I stood beside the grave of a good man
And listened to the bugle’s cry.
Here was a noble life
Full of years and many friends,
And here we laid his body down.
At rest.
But not to sleep.
The part of him that lived
Lives on.
This is not a passing,
But a change.
There was no falling asleep,
But a final awaking.
Not a stumble,
But a swift step to Glory.
In memory of Charlie Mathews (1922-2014)
I know, I know.
I promised a follow-up NaNo post.
Didn’t happen.
I would love to say that I have been so involved in finishing my novel, that I haven’t had time for anything else.
But that didn’t happen either.
In fact, Christmas happened.
Then the sludge that is “Christmas Break Brain” set in, and I couldn’t even write a witty facebook update, much less a book (or a blog post).
So, the unfinished NaNo post has just been sitting on my desktop all this time – occasionally glaring at me for my neglect.
Sigh.
I’ll get to it. I promise.
Eventually.
In the meantime, there’s a new Doodle. Check it out.
Well, it’s over.
It’s done.
I didn’t win NaNoWriMo. I didn’t even meet my personal goal. But I was determined that I was going to make it to 15k this evening, or fall asleep trying.
And I made it.
Cheers all around.
Word Count: 15005
Feeling: Relieved, Exhausted, Ashamed
(Coming soon: What I learned from NaNoWriMo. Stay tuned!)
I took a brief pause in feeling like a heel for not getting any work done on my novel this week – and thereby pretty much ensuring that I wouldn’t meet my NaNo goal – to read a conversation between Nathan Bransford and Sarah McCarry.
The very last comment makes Sarah my favorite person:
Sarah: The best advice I can think of is…that the one thing everyone who finishes a book has in common is that they got it done. The circumstances of people’s lives are so different–I don’t think it’s useful to say “you must write for at least fifteen minutes every day” or “you must achieve a certain word count weekly”…Some people write a book in a year and some people take a decade, or their whole lives; some people write every day and some people don’t write at all for months. There’s no one right way to do it. I think the key is finding the story you want to tell, which no one else can do for you, and finding the best way to work with your own brain…
You can read the entire conversation here.
The world is conspiring against me.
Why on earth did they choose November for this??!!!
Word Count: 13671
Feeling: Frazzled
After a brief wallow in the “Woe is Me” sludge, I finally matched my book up with its genre, worked my way through some major plot catastrophes, and crossed the halfway mark for my (new) word count goal.
And I made cupcakes.
Again.
(I’m noticing a trend here.)
Word Count: 12765
Feeling: Limp
We’ve reached that dark shadowy valley in our journey – that hollow full of cobwebs, where doubt lives and ideas come to die.
We’ve come to the slimy pool of reflection, where we realize that everyone else has about a gazillion more words than we do, and who do we think we are thinking we can write a book anyway?
We wonder if this book will ever be finished, and even if we do finish, we’re afraid it won’t matter. Because we’re pretty sure our book is just a pile of garbage.
We really wish we had more sleep.
Word Count: 11730
Feeling: Drained
Spent quite a bit of time on the phone with my Lil’ Bro today brainstorming about the plot of my novel.
(He is not participating in NaNoWriMo, and is therefore not stressed.)
(He’s also sitting home with a broken foot, and has nothing better to do with his time than to discuss possible ways to destroy the earth with his charming sister.)
Ergo, much more many words.
FINALLY broke 10,000.
Yes!!
Word Count: 11137
Feeling: Triumphant
1,677 words today.
Ha!
Word Count: 8860
Feeling: Rather proud of myself
Aaack!! What happened??!!
I’ll tell you what happened.
Parent/Teacher Conferences happened. (All of my creative talent was used up on conference reports.)
Rescuing a friend’s computer from the brink of crashing happened. (All of my extra time – and not a little creative talent – out the window.)
…there may or may not have been a rather intense bout of Christmas shopping as well…
Word Count: 7183 (still)
Feeling: …Ashamed
Inscriptia 