I’m thinking about life.
November isn’t turning out like I expected when I decided to try NaNoWriMo after all. It’s Day 10, and so far, I’ve written 4,214 words on my novel. I had hoped for 2,000 words a day. I thought that adding to my personal goal with anything I write on my blogs would make up the difference, but so far I have only written 1,114 words on my blogs, for a grand total of 5,328 words.
But you never know. Today my headache is finally gone. Calloo! Callay! And all the odd days off in November are starting up. I have Veteran’s Day off, then Friday, then Sunday and Monday (for working the previous Sunday). On Thanksgiving weekend, I’m working Saturday, but I get Wednesday off to make up for it, and I’m taking the last day of November off to attempt a last blitz on NaNoWriMo. My son will be with his Dad for Thanksgiving, so I will have no excuses not to do some writing.
My headaches have been something of a puzzle. After being completely under control for years now, why are they suddenly acting up? They haven’t been very severe, but so persistent. I have an appointment with a neurologist in a couple of weeks to begin finding some answers. It will be interesting to see if they stay away until then. I’m not sure if “headaches” are really the problem, or if it’s a symptom of another problem.
Then there are the hassles from my husband over visitation logistics. We were best friends for at least 15 years. We both love our son. Why can’t we just talk with each other about what times are good for each of us? I don’t know, and it can absorb far more of my attention than I want it to. I wish I had my husband and family and best friend back — yet I am surely enjoying this life of doing what I am interested in without worrying about whether it’s taking too much time from anyone else.
Today I learned that I was not accepted for ALSC’s Bill Morris Seminar in January. But the nice part is that I have no more assignments of books to read. I’ve finished the reading for the online Newbery class I was taking (It was wonderful!), and now I’m very curious if I could read lots of books that were published this year, if I might be able to guess next year’s winner.
What am I trying to say with all this rambling? Well, that life is full and interesting. Two of my best days this past month were when I had headaches — but I went hiking anyway, and walked in the glorious, gorgeous, incredibly beautiful Autumn woods and took some wonderful pictures. Somehow surrounded by majestic beauty, everything falls into perspective.
One of the cool things about NaNoWriMo is that it looks like a whole lot of people who do it don’t meet the goal of 50,000 words. So that is NOT failure, by any means! But the fact is, 4,214 words toward my novel is 4,214 words that weren’t written before, and that is a wonderful thing.
I learned so much in the Newbery class, and read so many incredibly good books. I’m excited about posting reviews of them and getting my website caught up — and then beginning to put in place some of the suggestions from the Kidlitosphere conference (which I attended the day before the latest headache started) and building community and making a better blog, and making connections.
I was excited when Nina Lindsay of School Library Journal’s Heavy Medal blog visited our Newbery class and recognized me as a frequent commenter on her blog. Community and connections! That’s the sort of thing they encouraged at the Kidlitosphere conference — and I want to get around to following more of my fellow conference attenders’ blogs.
When I did look at some of them, I found that some are doing NaNoWriMo! So I added them as Buddies on that site. (And I am down as SondySue on that site, so feel free to add me, if you’re reading my blog!) It’s all about Connection…
So, this is my plan for my big day off tomorrow: Post several reviews of Newbery winners, spend at least an hour on my novel, rake some leaves if it’s not raining, and put up some pictures.
Can I do all that in one day? Well, if not, that’s okay, too. Life is full and interesting, and headaches & hassles really can’t stop that.
I’m excited that I’ve found something I’m passionate about: Books and what makes them great. And writing books. And sharing great books with children. And talking about great books.
And even more exciting is that I’m making more and more connections with other people who share my passions and find what I have to say interesting. (And lucky me, it’s even related to my job!)
And meanwhile, I’ve joined a new small group at church and am making good friends, and I live in a place where fabulous hiking is close at hand, and I have a homey “new” place and I’m getting settled in.
Life is good!
That’s very true that not writing 50,000 words is not failure. Have you read No Plot? No Problem!, the NaNo founder Chris Baty’s book? In the letter to read at the end of the month he says, “And if you fell a little short of 50,000 but still wrote your heart out, I have a little secret to share: In the course of this great experiment in caffeine consumption, the goal of 50,000 words has been, shall we say, overemphasized. One of the things month-long noveling does is get your sense of scale all out of whack. This is done intentionally, because anyone with a realistic sense of perspective wouldn’t try to write a novel in a month.” He goes on to say, “You put your name out there for the world to see. You risked failure. And just by risking failure, you avoided it entirely.”