There's something about the combination of good food and friends that makes life seem full. Even after spending five hours cooking today, I feel content. My feet are sore, and I'm exhausted, but it's so worth it to invite friends into your home and spend an evening watching your children play together.
My oldest, best friend and I have been through so many things: first days of school, slumber parties, losses of virginity, graduations, and now motherhood. It's truly been a blessing to share so many wonderful moments of my life with her. Even simple things, like a dinner at home, can be so rich. I'm so thankful that I have friends that, even after all these years, can make me laugh so hard my cheeks hurt.
Watching our children play on my living room floor, I couldn't help but wonder if our children will cherish these early days of play together as they nurture a life-long friendship of their own. It may not happen, but I truly hope it does. I feel like the only thing that could make my friendship more whole would be to see that camaraderie passed down to my child. An inheritance of friendship would be a lovely legacy. It might not be able to buy him his dinner, but I guarantee it will leave him feeling more full.
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Just write
I reached the halfway mark. Over 25k words written so far this month. The novel is taking on a life of its own, each conversation leading my characters on a path I hadn't expected. That's the true beauty of crafting a novel. You're really just the conduit. The words move through you, creating their own story. The end result is always a beautiful surprise.
It's one of the reasons I love NaNoWriMo so much. The strict word count goal forces you to write without overthinking, pushing the edits off until you have a complete first draft. It gives the story a chance to evolve without my overly analytical mind dissecting each sentence to death.
Sure, it's a challenge. 50k in a month seems like an unattainable goal, especially on that first day, when your word count sits at a pathetic 1667. 50k seems so far away then, but each day brings you closer and closer, until you find yourself on day thirteen, looking 30k right in the face. Then, the end goal doesn't seem so far away. You can begin to see it on the horizon, looming just out of your reach.
And the story! By now, your characters have personalities, dreams, goals, and habits, either good or bad. Relationships have been built or broken. Some may have even met an untimely literary end, but they all seem so real. You begin to write scenes while you're in the shower or cooking breakfast or sitting at a traffic light. The flow of words, now started, never lets up. You become that crazy person in the grocery store, talking to yourself as you work through a bit of tricky dialogue.
It's easy to lose sight of the thrill that comes with crafting a new novel. Edits and query letters can drain the fun out of writing, but you can always find it again. Just sit down and write.
It's one of the reasons I love NaNoWriMo so much. The strict word count goal forces you to write without overthinking, pushing the edits off until you have a complete first draft. It gives the story a chance to evolve without my overly analytical mind dissecting each sentence to death.
Sure, it's a challenge. 50k in a month seems like an unattainable goal, especially on that first day, when your word count sits at a pathetic 1667. 50k seems so far away then, but each day brings you closer and closer, until you find yourself on day thirteen, looking 30k right in the face. Then, the end goal doesn't seem so far away. You can begin to see it on the horizon, looming just out of your reach.
And the story! By now, your characters have personalities, dreams, goals, and habits, either good or bad. Relationships have been built or broken. Some may have even met an untimely literary end, but they all seem so real. You begin to write scenes while you're in the shower or cooking breakfast or sitting at a traffic light. The flow of words, now started, never lets up. You become that crazy person in the grocery store, talking to yourself as you work through a bit of tricky dialogue.
It's easy to lose sight of the thrill that comes with crafting a new novel. Edits and query letters can drain the fun out of writing, but you can always find it again. Just sit down and write.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Nanowrimo
Oh, November, how I love the frantic creativity you bring every year.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with it, November is National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo for short. The goal is to write fifty thousand words in a month. Sounds crazy, right? It is, a little, but it's also a challenge that I can't pass up.
I work well under a deadline. The only problem is, self-imposed ones never get me anywhere. I blow them off. Nanowrimo gives me a community filled with other crazy writes that are all struggling to meet the same deadlines.
I have a good feeling about my novel this year. We're nine days into the challenge, and I've written over twenty one thousand words. I'm almost halfway there already. It's a pretty great feeling. Even better is knowing that I still have so much story percolating in my brain. I'm almost halfway through the word count goal, but my story is just getting started. I'm excited that my idea well isn't even close to dry for this novel.
I think I'm going to exceed the word goal for the first time since I started doing this competition years ago. I've "won" twice before, reaching the fifty thousand by the skin of my teeth. I think this years's going to be different. I think I might have a full rough draft by the time November 30 rolls around.
And then the edits can begin. *sigh* I'm not even done editing the first MS yet, and I'll have another one in the queue. Guess I should get back to work!
For those of you that are unfamiliar with it, November is National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo for short. The goal is to write fifty thousand words in a month. Sounds crazy, right? It is, a little, but it's also a challenge that I can't pass up.
I work well under a deadline. The only problem is, self-imposed ones never get me anywhere. I blow them off. Nanowrimo gives me a community filled with other crazy writes that are all struggling to meet the same deadlines.
I have a good feeling about my novel this year. We're nine days into the challenge, and I've written over twenty one thousand words. I'm almost halfway there already. It's a pretty great feeling. Even better is knowing that I still have so much story percolating in my brain. I'm almost halfway through the word count goal, but my story is just getting started. I'm excited that my idea well isn't even close to dry for this novel.
I think I'm going to exceed the word goal for the first time since I started doing this competition years ago. I've "won" twice before, reaching the fifty thousand by the skin of my teeth. I think this years's going to be different. I think I might have a full rough draft by the time November 30 rolls around.
And then the edits can begin. *sigh* I'm not even done editing the first MS yet, and I'll have another one in the queue. Guess I should get back to work!
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