I'm going to find out today if it's true that the day after Thanksgiving is really the biggest shopping day of the year. Translation: I'm going shopping today. Really I'm just going out to lunch with my mom, stopping by Barnes and Noble, of course (40% off coupon! Can't beat that!) and maybe a few other places. It's cold out and later, so maybe there won't be such a big crowd. What's wrong with crowds anyway? (ahem)
How was everyone else's Thanksgiving?? Did you eat all the turkey and pie you wanted? Do you feel like you don't have to eat ever again? (I do) Are you going shopping today too? Do you realize what this means??? Christmas is just around the corner and it's time to start shopping for Christmas!! OOh goodie!! That's fun shopping, isn't it?
So I got laid off from my writing job!! Can you believe it!! The economy really does suck! Budget cutbacks and whatever... but it's all good, cuz only a week later I've managed to find myself another job! Something totally new, totally Not writing, something I have absolutely no experience in: I'm now a server at a restaurant!
I don't know the rules for blogging, but I have this automatic tendency to stay as inconspicuous and unspecific about things as possible. So if you're wondering Which restaurant, message me.
So I don't actually start my new job until tomorrow night and I'll begin as a hostess since I don't have my food handler's permit yet. I feel like that's a real comfortable way of smoothing into the job, rather than jumping in and waiting tables...not that they don't train you anyway...
Um, yeah. Exciting. Well, it's the last weekend of NaNoWriMo...I think I did a total of 805 words...pathetic, I know. But that's 805 I didn't have before...right? Over this weekend I'm going to bust out a bunch of words. I've got no school papers (that 16 pager for film class is finished!) I've got no finals to worry about! (film final is Monday, but it's open book) So that leaves my novel! I'm determined, at least, to finish it. It has to be finished. Even if it's complete garbage. I will finish. Lets see what happens now that I won't be writing for work anymore!! Maybe with the lack of classes I will be able to get it all done before the end of the year. We'll see...
Cheers! Write on! Enjoy the shopping day! Put up those Christmas decors! Have a great time!! :)
Friday, November 28, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Procrastination in Words.
I've been doing a lot of thinking and what if I didn't do writing for work at all. Is that a confusing sentence? Okay. So my paid jobs are journalism and writing assistant. What if they weren't? What if I didn't write at all for work! Lets face it, all of my writing energies are spent on my jobs (and my personal journal, I know) rather than the thing I really want to be working on, my novel. And maybe I'm just making excuses here, but what if I found a job that had nothing at all to do with writing? Something not in an office behind a desk, either. Which just makes me miss B&N even more. But if all that were true, would I have my novel finished by now?
What if my job didn't involve books either? Something completely outside of the whole literary world. A mild stretch for myself, don't you think? I love the questions and possibilities...
In other news, I have a car!! My amazing family chipped in and helped me out and found me a 93 Honda with ridiculously low mileage! I'm very excited about that! Especially with the approaching winter. Now, I'm not anti-bike all of a sudden, of course. I assume I will still bike to places just for fun, but I think a car is a major requirement if you have kids. Especially kids in school. And, if you've noticed, gas prices have dropped significantly! Talk about great timing!
It's going to be weird. A whole change of lifestyle. I'll have to keep reminding myself I can go out now whenever I want and take the kids with me wherever I want. WoW! Now we'll have our 'outing' days again, where once or twice a week we'll go somewhere fun after school! (Barnes and Noble) My kids love the kids section...Okay, I love the kids section, of course! Or anywhere else. We've gotten into bowling lately. The kids love that too. No more borrowing the family car and having to time schedules appropriately. I'll have to rearrange my mornings also. Things will definitely be different and interesting.
The school term is coming to an end, which means it's getting to be that time again: choosing a new class schedule and reforming my life schedule, at least a little bit. No more math class every single day and no more film class, which I'm very excited about. I'm not big on watching movies, why did I ever think I would enjoy analyzing movies? Well, I don't think I did think I'd actually enjoy it, it just fulfilled two requirements at the same time. I have a 10-12 page paper due Monday on a film of my choice (Seabiscuit) I get to analyze that a whole bunch. (I only really started writing it up last night...talk about procrastination...)
Okay, so I've been reading the book instead and analyzing the differences between the book and the movie... not at all part of the assignment. But the book is so captivating! And speaking of the book, I think I'll go read that now, I want to finish it before the assignment's due...ridiculous. It's the only real cause of my procrastination.
Have a Supergood rest of the weekend!
What if my job didn't involve books either? Something completely outside of the whole literary world. A mild stretch for myself, don't you think? I love the questions and possibilities...
In other news, I have a car!! My amazing family chipped in and helped me out and found me a 93 Honda with ridiculously low mileage! I'm very excited about that! Especially with the approaching winter. Now, I'm not anti-bike all of a sudden, of course. I assume I will still bike to places just for fun, but I think a car is a major requirement if you have kids. Especially kids in school. And, if you've noticed, gas prices have dropped significantly! Talk about great timing!
It's going to be weird. A whole change of lifestyle. I'll have to keep reminding myself I can go out now whenever I want and take the kids with me wherever I want. WoW! Now we'll have our 'outing' days again, where once or twice a week we'll go somewhere fun after school! (Barnes and Noble) My kids love the kids section...Okay, I love the kids section, of course! Or anywhere else. We've gotten into bowling lately. The kids love that too. No more borrowing the family car and having to time schedules appropriately. I'll have to rearrange my mornings also. Things will definitely be different and interesting.
The school term is coming to an end, which means it's getting to be that time again: choosing a new class schedule and reforming my life schedule, at least a little bit. No more math class every single day and no more film class, which I'm very excited about. I'm not big on watching movies, why did I ever think I would enjoy analyzing movies? Well, I don't think I did think I'd actually enjoy it, it just fulfilled two requirements at the same time. I have a 10-12 page paper due Monday on a film of my choice (Seabiscuit) I get to analyze that a whole bunch. (I only really started writing it up last night...talk about procrastination...)
Okay, so I've been reading the book instead and analyzing the differences between the book and the movie... not at all part of the assignment. But the book is so captivating! And speaking of the book, I think I'll go read that now, I want to finish it before the assignment's due...ridiculous. It's the only real cause of my procrastination.
Have a Supergood rest of the weekend!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Titles. Word Counts. Epiphanies.
I had an incredible epiphany Monday night.
Monday night was the book signing for Emily Wing Smith's debut novel! She is awesome, her book is awesome, and the signing was awesome! Sara Zarr was there as well, though not to sign books. It was sweet!
I was standing in line, chatting with Sara, admiring all of the books surrounding me, waiting for my turn to see Emily when from out of nowhere the title of my book flies into my head and nests itself into my brain! It was amazing!
I love good titles. I love titles with double meanings and depth and weight. Like Without Reservations, brilliant title, in it's own right! But when it comes to my poetry and my novels, my personal stuff, titles escape me. I just don't really bother with them unless they appear on their own, or are required by a professor. I figure as far as any novel goes, if it makes it to the editor or to an agent, they will change the title anyway, so why bother?
This title appeared all on its own. It was really quite remarkable. Okay, so it's a title that has been lingering in my mind since Vegas. I first applied it to the poem I'd written there, and I really liked it for the poem, it fit perfect. It didn't occur to me one bit to connect it to my novel at all.
Until the book signing. And it was just Wham! That works! That's Perfect! I love it! I don't even know what made the two connect...I guess that's the bliss of epiphanies, you don't know how they happen they just do happen. And when you least expect them to.
All of a sudden I was shouting and waving my arms, "Oh my gosh! I have a title for my novel!" Like time and the space around me warped and -- it was so cool!!
So anyway. I've been riding on that all week. It just makes my book seem so much more real and more ...Real! I mean, I'm half way through! It has a title...the two just go perfect! It's as though I wouldn't have ever found a title until I made it to the halfway mark, and now I have and it's there and I just really have to finish it all now!
(((Only I spend my time updating blogs rather than adding new words...hmm)))
But I've come to the realization that this is not a novel to be rushed. I will by all means consistantly work on it, but I know once I've hit that 50,000 word mark I've only really just begun! The rewrites and the things to add to it and the things to take out will take care and time and patience.
But I'm on my way!! : )
Monday night was the book signing for Emily Wing Smith's debut novel! She is awesome, her book is awesome, and the signing was awesome! Sara Zarr was there as well, though not to sign books. It was sweet!
I was standing in line, chatting with Sara, admiring all of the books surrounding me, waiting for my turn to see Emily when from out of nowhere the title of my book flies into my head and nests itself into my brain! It was amazing!
I love good titles. I love titles with double meanings and depth and weight. Like Without Reservations, brilliant title, in it's own right! But when it comes to my poetry and my novels, my personal stuff, titles escape me. I just don't really bother with them unless they appear on their own, or are required by a professor. I figure as far as any novel goes, if it makes it to the editor or to an agent, they will change the title anyway, so why bother?
This title appeared all on its own. It was really quite remarkable. Okay, so it's a title that has been lingering in my mind since Vegas. I first applied it to the poem I'd written there, and I really liked it for the poem, it fit perfect. It didn't occur to me one bit to connect it to my novel at all.
Until the book signing. And it was just Wham! That works! That's Perfect! I love it! I don't even know what made the two connect...I guess that's the bliss of epiphanies, you don't know how they happen they just do happen. And when you least expect them to.
All of a sudden I was shouting and waving my arms, "Oh my gosh! I have a title for my novel!" Like time and the space around me warped and -- it was so cool!!
So anyway. I've been riding on that all week. It just makes my book seem so much more real and more ...Real! I mean, I'm half way through! It has a title...the two just go perfect! It's as though I wouldn't have ever found a title until I made it to the halfway mark, and now I have and it's there and I just really have to finish it all now!
(((Only I spend my time updating blogs rather than adding new words...hmm)))
But I've come to the realization that this is not a novel to be rushed. I will by all means consistantly work on it, but I know once I've hit that 50,000 word mark I've only really just begun! The rewrites and the things to add to it and the things to take out will take care and time and patience.
But I'm on my way!! : )
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Bowling Silliness
I went bowling last night with a group of friends. I swear I've never had more fun bowling in my whole life. And I have been bowling a lot throughout the years. We bowled three games in a row and agreed that the first was a warm up and the second was more for reals. Unfortunately, as they say, if it were golf, I'd be a pro... The first string I ended in the 80's and the second was just pathetic at 55. I have this habit of putting a tremendous spin on the ball so it starts out okay but then veers off into the gutter. It sucks.
But the point is, that third and last game. What a flippin' blast! One person in the group had this crazy idea to just bowl silly. We rotated so each person got to pick a way to bowl and then the rest had to follow that way, like eyes closed, spin five times and then bowl, bowl backwards, bowl under one leg, etc. It was So Hilarious!
I have to say, it was completely (well, almost completely) out of my comfort zone. I don't do silly very well, really. I'm pretty mellow, I think. But last night was wild. It's just awesome to be that crazy now and then. I know what I'm doing with my kids this week for fun. There's a place right by me for bowling and it's just cool. What a way to kick off the weekend!
The rest of my weekend is pretty unplanned. I've got a 15% off at B&N so I'm going to hit that up after work for sure and then, who knows. I might go to Baxter's tonight for the open mike, but I dunno. It depends on if I get this one poem down or not, it's been coming to me over a span of days.
My novel makes me happy. I worked on it yesterday and laid down over 700 words in about an hour. So what I really need to do (again. and yes, I'm well aware of my repeating myself) is sit down for two hours everyday and just flippin' write! I'm going to put that in today for sure.
And, my novel is now over 25,000 words!! Yippee! That 700 put me over! I'm so excited! Now that's 25,000 from March to now - not NaNoWriMo related. I just need another 25,000 ... roughly.
Ooh! I'm putting a plug in for those who can make it, Emily Wing Smith (one of my favorite local YA/teen authors) is having a book signing/release party for her novel, The Way He Lived, this Monday night (Nov. 10) at The Kings English Bookshop (1511 South 1500 East, SLC) I can't wait! (Check out her blog - a link to it is to the right of this post :)
Hope your weekend proves as equal fun. Take time out to be downright Silly!!
It's been too long since I've laughed that hard.
But the point is, that third and last game. What a flippin' blast! One person in the group had this crazy idea to just bowl silly. We rotated so each person got to pick a way to bowl and then the rest had to follow that way, like eyes closed, spin five times and then bowl, bowl backwards, bowl under one leg, etc. It was So Hilarious!
I have to say, it was completely (well, almost completely) out of my comfort zone. I don't do silly very well, really. I'm pretty mellow, I think. But last night was wild. It's just awesome to be that crazy now and then. I know what I'm doing with my kids this week for fun. There's a place right by me for bowling and it's just cool. What a way to kick off the weekend!
The rest of my weekend is pretty unplanned. I've got a 15% off at B&N so I'm going to hit that up after work for sure and then, who knows. I might go to Baxter's tonight for the open mike, but I dunno. It depends on if I get this one poem down or not, it's been coming to me over a span of days.
My novel makes me happy. I worked on it yesterday and laid down over 700 words in about an hour. So what I really need to do (again. and yes, I'm well aware of my repeating myself) is sit down for two hours everyday and just flippin' write! I'm going to put that in today for sure.
And, my novel is now over 25,000 words!! Yippee! That 700 put me over! I'm so excited! Now that's 25,000 from March to now - not NaNoWriMo related. I just need another 25,000 ... roughly.
Ooh! I'm putting a plug in for those who can make it, Emily Wing Smith (one of my favorite local YA/teen authors) is having a book signing/release party for her novel, The Way He Lived, this Monday night (Nov. 10) at The Kings English Bookshop (1511 South 1500 East, SLC) I can't wait! (Check out her blog - a link to it is to the right of this post :)
Hope your weekend proves as equal fun. Take time out to be downright Silly!!
It's been too long since I've laughed that hard.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Autumn Changes
Who else is totally stoked that Obama won! And what a speech! Just the contrast between him and that guy we have in there currently (dare I say his name!) Honestly! What a difference. But I'll suppose we already know all that. I wish he could go into office right away. But soon enough, right?
The weather intrigues me. Yesterday the earth was blanketed in snow and today it's back to where it was before yesterday. Is that a sign of things to come? Not really, though, right? Things tomorrow will never be as they were today - hence a world of incessant change. And I ask, what are the constants? We create things that we think may be constant, and for a little bit they are, yet time allots for so much... in such cases, it's nice to feel like we'll finally have someone in office who knows what to do with those changes. He seems like such a good choice, so much potential, but is he? It's really an interesting concept...politics...
Okay, I will stop speaking in abstract riddles, or maybe just nonsense.
Is it just me or did this week pass by rather quickly...? I'll post something more on Saturday, but for now this is as much as I can reasonably lay out.
To those who are writers, lose yourself in writing. Write free and long and let nothing stand in your way as distraction.
The weather intrigues me. Yesterday the earth was blanketed in snow and today it's back to where it was before yesterday. Is that a sign of things to come? Not really, though, right? Things tomorrow will never be as they were today - hence a world of incessant change. And I ask, what are the constants? We create things that we think may be constant, and for a little bit they are, yet time allots for so much... in such cases, it's nice to feel like we'll finally have someone in office who knows what to do with those changes. He seems like such a good choice, so much potential, but is he? It's really an interesting concept...politics...
Okay, I will stop speaking in abstract riddles, or maybe just nonsense.
Is it just me or did this week pass by rather quickly...? I'll post something more on Saturday, but for now this is as much as I can reasonably lay out.
To those who are writers, lose yourself in writing. Write free and long and let nothing stand in your way as distraction.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Marilyn Monroe and the Fountains at Bellagio
What a weekend! And how was everyone else's Halloween??
Cuz mine Rocked! I Happened to be in Las Vegas for Halloween! Whooweey! It was Crazy! Okay, fine, this is me we're talking about...it wasn't That crazy... but I had fun, that's for sure. I gave a concierge a Haiku! (long story :) And I dressed up, of course. And I ate ice cream and watched the fountains at Bellagio, only I wasn't dressed up as Marilyn (another long story) and I walked the strip and ... I swear I've never been SO sore from walking in my life.
The whole reason for going to Vegas was for work, a big training conference which was also really cool. I got to be tech support - me? - yeah, it was super easier than I thought (I know little-to-nothing about tech anything, so it was cool) and outside of the conference we got to have free reign in Vegas.
I walked the strip twice, had my first Ever taxi ride (I'm really sure it was my first anyway), went to Shark Reef (the aquarium at Mandalay Bay), went to the Mix (at the very top of Mandalay Bay, overlooking all of Vegas and a lot of Nevada), went to the mall, got my hair cut (they really know how to do it in Vegas!), and a whole lotta bunch of stuff. I even wrote a new poem, which I got to read at the cafe when I got home late Saturday night.
Baxter's had this killer Halloween party All day Saturday! I made it for the end, and that was really awesome.
So Vegas is over, time to mellow out, chill, get back in the real world...the real world doesn't seem so pretty this side of Vegas...
OOH!! (See, this is how into it I am...) IT'S NANOWRIMO!! Are You Ready?? Did you already start? Do you not even know what I'm talking about? I'll just say it's Day 3 and I've only put in 67 words so far! That Sucks! But it's 67 I may have not put in otherwise right then, right? And remember - I have to remember, they're supposed to be trash. They don't have to be good. Words Words Words, any words.
But honestly, I'm being realistic with myself this time around with NaNoWriMo.
My goal: 25,000 new words in my already started novel. I have 24,354 right now, add another 25,000 and a hand full more and I'll be at my 50,000. I already have my scenes laid out and it's all there, it's just a matter now of sitting down and punching them onto the page. 850 a day.
That's the real goal. And it's manageable. I Can Do It....right? YES.
I'm going to do what Eric said, the only way to really get it done - alot a time everyday, my time to write, and sit down and do it, when I'm most fresh and most ready to write. ...the only trouble with that, realistically, is I don't really know when that time is yet. Eric says in the morning, earlier than when the kids get up, only I'm not a morning person. And, yes, if I went to bed earlier I would become a morning person... life changing habits... interesting, isn't it? I don't have a lot of time to figure it out, so I better decide Today. (I should have decided last week - isn't that what we tend to tell ourselves?) but today is still good. I'll see what works and go with it.
Write On!! :)
Cuz mine Rocked! I Happened to be in Las Vegas for Halloween! Whooweey! It was Crazy! Okay, fine, this is me we're talking about...it wasn't That crazy... but I had fun, that's for sure. I gave a concierge a Haiku! (long story :) And I dressed up, of course. And I ate ice cream and watched the fountains at Bellagio, only I wasn't dressed up as Marilyn (another long story) and I walked the strip and ... I swear I've never been SO sore from walking in my life.
The whole reason for going to Vegas was for work, a big training conference which was also really cool. I got to be tech support - me? - yeah, it was super easier than I thought (I know little-to-nothing about tech anything, so it was cool) and outside of the conference we got to have free reign in Vegas.
I walked the strip twice, had my first Ever taxi ride (I'm really sure it was my first anyway), went to Shark Reef (the aquarium at Mandalay Bay), went to the Mix (at the very top of Mandalay Bay, overlooking all of Vegas and a lot of Nevada), went to the mall, got my hair cut (they really know how to do it in Vegas!), and a whole lotta bunch of stuff. I even wrote a new poem, which I got to read at the cafe when I got home late Saturday night.
Baxter's had this killer Halloween party All day Saturday! I made it for the end, and that was really awesome.
So Vegas is over, time to mellow out, chill, get back in the real world...the real world doesn't seem so pretty this side of Vegas...
OOH!! (See, this is how into it I am...) IT'S NANOWRIMO!! Are You Ready?? Did you already start? Do you not even know what I'm talking about? I'll just say it's Day 3 and I've only put in 67 words so far! That Sucks! But it's 67 I may have not put in otherwise right then, right? And remember - I have to remember, they're supposed to be trash. They don't have to be good. Words Words Words, any words.
But honestly, I'm being realistic with myself this time around with NaNoWriMo.
My goal: 25,000 new words in my already started novel. I have 24,354 right now, add another 25,000 and a hand full more and I'll be at my 50,000. I already have my scenes laid out and it's all there, it's just a matter now of sitting down and punching them onto the page. 850 a day.
That's the real goal. And it's manageable. I Can Do It....right? YES.
I'm going to do what Eric said, the only way to really get it done - alot a time everyday, my time to write, and sit down and do it, when I'm most fresh and most ready to write. ...the only trouble with that, realistically, is I don't really know when that time is yet. Eric says in the morning, earlier than when the kids get up, only I'm not a morning person. And, yes, if I went to bed earlier I would become a morning person... life changing habits... interesting, isn't it? I don't have a lot of time to figure it out, so I better decide Today. (I should have decided last week - isn't that what we tend to tell ourselves?) but today is still good. I'll see what works and go with it.
Write On!! :)
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