Now, I've got to be 100% honest and say that this post has not been inspired by me but by fellow Dietgirl fan and LighterLifer, Sandra kiwirevo.livejournal.com/ whose blog I caught up with this afternoon when I should be clearing out my loft ready for the final push (I had to switch painters as the first lot have done a crap job!). I am so easily distracted.
Anyway, Sandra has signed herself up for National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo - www.nanowrimo.org, which kicks off on November 1 2007.
In short, you agree to write 50,000 words by the end of the month, which should be more than enough copy to submit to an agent or a publisher.
My expert friend introduced me to nanowrimo two years ago and I thought it was such a great idea for those of us who respond to deadlines. I have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. My expert friend and I used to live near each other and both work from home so we based ourselves first in Cafe Nero and then in Starbucks, directly opposite, which had huge windows onto the street. I used my husband's old PC laptop, which had a battery life of about three minutes and surprise, surprise, I gave up after about five days. My expert friend continued! I also had a work crisis, which provided the perfect excuse to stop. I realise if I had been really committed, I would have done 50,000 words.
Fast forward a year and I roped in my mother! We have had an idea for a novel for AGES and decided we'd try a two hander. Guess what? I dropped out and blamed whatever it was that I could. I think the cloud of depression was hovering pretty low, which may be the reason.
So, THIS year, and what? The house will be more or less ready. I've even got my own work/writing space. My mother will be here from November 3rd. Could this be the year I actually finish something? After all, Chris (livelifelighter.blogspot.com) - massive welcome back, by the way - is always commenting that I write TOO much! One of my goals in Foundation was to write a book. I never wrote the goal down, of course, but we discussed it in class. Like Foundation, which I never thought I would finish, I was too afraid to commit to another goal that I thought I would fail to achieve.
I know I am really messing around with Route to Management BUT I haven't given up, I really haven't and however much my crooked thinking is trying desperately hard (and sometimes with success) to trip me up and sabotage my efforts, I am hanging on in there. I still can't get my head round the fact that I have lost the weight. And most of the time, I really don't feel any different. The point of me saying this is that LighterLife could be something I could succeed at (there will be gasps of frustration, I know but you know what I mean);if I can nail Route to Management, I might have done something that I never thought I could. And I need to translate that feeling into other areas of my life. I can't let the old patterns of quitting (or crooked thinking) when the going gets tough. I need to sit it out, ride the storm and let the feelings pass - be they addictive cravings for food, feelings of being totally overwhelmed. I need to start accessing my adult state on a regular basis. LighterLife has given me a glimpse of who that adult is.
So, fellow bloggers - if you think you've got it in you (and my guess is, as a blogger and a LighterLifer you have) - why not check out National Novel Writing Month www.nanowrimo.org?
Happy writing and big thanks to Sandra for reminding me.
I actually wrote a book once! I submitted it to agents and whilst sadly no-one offered me a book deal for an obscene amount of money, I got some nice comments and one agent asked me to look at a couple of points and re-submit. But! I had saved the book to a disc and password protected it - and I forgot the password! I still have the disc but to this day have been unable to get back into the file. I try to find this funny rather than unbelievably frustrating!
love
Peridot x
Posted by: Peridot | October 29, 2007 at 10:37 AM