Despite both my girls getting horribly (and disgustingly) ill over the last few days, while working and homeschooling and holiday shopping and making sure my house isn’t buried under a mountain of dirty laundry and dishes I managed to hit the 50k word goal. My novel isn’t finished…I have a bit more to go, but I think I will manage to fill in the holes I left as I edit in December. Then comes the next big challenge – seeking out a literary agent and shopping my book around.

I have toyed with the idea of submitting to an e-pub…but have decided I will hold off just a bit and see what comes of the traditional method first. All of this is new to me and I look forward (and kind of dread) the whole process. I know I have a long road ahead, but I’m further down the path than I have ever been before – and it’s all due to NaNoWriMo.

So stay tuned as I start to bring back Monday Muse posts, more reviews of DisneyWorld, Homeschool ideas, and general cool stuff including a post of meeting my idol, The Pioneer Woman herself!

And yes, very soon now I will update that header.

So I gotta take that short little green Jedi Master’s advice and get to it it  – not try to make my goal, but do it.

It’s crunch time for NaNo writers everywhere, the last 3 days are upon us. After pulling an all-nighter with an upchucking six year old, working on my novel was far from easy, but I managed to kick out a little over 1k this evening while she chilled on the couch and watched lots and lots and LOTS of t.v.

Tomorrow morning I am meeting my NaNo buddy for a writing cram session – she is already in the 60,000 range and already a winner, but wants to actually finish her novel. I know my won’t be finished at 50k, but I’ll start with that goal first.

So amidst the present shopping, tree trimming, obligatory visits to relatives and loads and loads of puke encrusted laundry I will be earning my NaNo’s winner badge.

I am a Jedi.

So I’ll get that kind of writing done any time of day, the blogging and message board post kind – but the “real” writing – the story development/world building/dialogue and character stuff  writing – that needs more focus and attention and I just can’t do it when I have my Mama hat on.

But I also learned that if you make the time, the story will come, and the more you write, the more story there is! I don’t feel like as I get more words on paper I am running out of things to write about. Instead, as I write the scenes in my head more scenes branch off and connect and fuel more stuff to write about!

One not so important yet still significant thing I have decided while writing this novel is that I will try to avoid making all my heroines redheads (I have an overwhelming affinity for this breed, as you may have noticed). In my NaNo novel, for example, the main character has black hair. However,  I will grant one concession to my…vanity, I guess you could call it – or maybe self-indulgement is a better word (even though I’m not sure that’s a real word at all): in each story I create, all my heroines shall be bootylicious…that’s right – they will be blessed (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) with more than their fair share of junk in the trunk.

It will be my trademark; readers everywhere will say, “Oh, her - I love her books, all the female leads have big butts!” My book tours will be full of me autographing crazed fans’ backsides (ok, maybe not).

Well, hopefully they will love my books for many other reasons, but you get the idea.

And the men in my books – they will L-O-V-E their ladies with the lushly rounded bottoms. I think a preference for a bountiful booty is an endearing quality in a man, don’t you? Instantly ups the hero on the likability scale.

So tell me, is there any one thing about you personally that you can’t help but include in your characters?

One of the hand-outs she created was a stream of consciousness instructional “lecture” on how to just let go and create. I am totally stealing her words and applying them to my writing, it has given me the little inspirational boost I needed today, I hope it does the same for you!

Send your inner professor to the hall for there is no judge here – no grade – no critique – only you and your pen and your paper and your process and whatever you might discover along the way.

Pretty awesome huh? It looks even better in her unique doodle-y design:

Her advice might have originally been intended for hand crafting your own lettering designs, but it can so easily be applied to any art…so take her words to heart, send your inner professor out the door and create something!

Thanks for the dose of inspiration Miss Aimee!

Trying to squeeze NaNo writing time into my day just isn’t happening, so I end up having to make my day last longer, and have been up writing most nights til the clock rolls over on a new day. This is starting to mess with my cognitive abilities I fear, after all – I’m getting older, I can’t knock out a week of all-nighters like in my old college days.

I have had a killer headache for the better part of 2 days and it’s what I blame for the following: in the middle of a scene I was writing just now I had to stop and do a homonym word check, because my former English teacher self just couldn’t remember the answer…and here is what the Google told me:

faun or fawn? Do not confuse the spelling of faun and fawn, which sound similar. A faun is a mythological being depicted as part man and part goat; a fawn is a young deer. Fawn is also an adjective and noun referring to a pale yellowish brown color, as in a fawn jacket, or a verb meaning “try to win favor” or “attempt to please somebody,” as in fawning over the celebrities he interviews.

Miss A is convinced that the Google knows everything…she might be right. Long live the Google.

And in case you’re wondering, “fawn” was the word I needed…no Mr. Tumnus-like dudes hopping around in my story.

Not yet anyways.

If I get a little more over-tired, anything is possible.

Anybody have some good headache remedy suggestions? Or want to send a massage therapist to my house?

I am a fly by the seat of my pants kind of writer – and this story is taking me in all kinds of places I wasn’t expecting. It’s exciting – and only happening because I am making an effort to write every day.

SO that’s it really – I want to teach myself some discipline – to get into the habit – to make it a priority – to have it be a part of my life like I know it should. And the freedom of NaNo – the wild crazy literary abandon that seems to come with this project, is incredibly inspiring and just plain good for the soul.
If I end up getting a book ready to submit at the end of this, it will be icing on my cake.

But, as I said this isn’t a post about Nano (or wasn’t supposed to be at least).

Over at my idol’s website (you know the one…PW herself) a longtime homeschool contributor OMSH (Oh My Stinking Heck) ran a wonderful post about the writing activities she has her first grader do. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to try tbis with Miss A. I say “try” because Miss A can be extremely difficult when I ask her to just try something and see how it goes. She likes structure and order and a clear list of expectations (personally, I think so she can know exactly what to complain about). So I was worried how she would react when I handed her a blank page and told her to just go for it.

The activity is to draw a picture of anything your little heart desires, then write a few lines talking about the picture. I told Aishtyn I would not be checking her spelling, to just write the words as best she could and it could be like a mystery for me to solve if they weren’t “just right.”

I have to say, she did awesome! She was thrilled when I could actually read 99% of what she had written. I’d love to show you her first effort, but my scanner is still in limbo until the husband re-intalls everything (remember my terrible horrible no good very bad day?) As soon as it’s up and running, I’ll add it in. Or maybe I’ll just take a picture of it and add it that way.

The activity sheets are available for FREE at this very cool little site (where a variety of other cool writing pages are also available). I am adding this to my weekly homeschool repertoire: along with Fractions Friday, we will now have FreeWrite Friday. I look forward to all the wonderful glimpses into Miss A’s mind…and the improvement in her reading and writing too of course!

Thanks again to OMSH for such a great idea!

ETA: Here it is, Miss A’s first Friday FreeWrite

“This is me on the viper. My first time. What is it like? said me.”

(On the last day our local theme park was open, she was finally tall enough to ride some of the bigger rollercoasters, it was a great way to end the season!)

-my heroine performs the Big Mac rap for a man who reminds her of some cross breed of Hagrid and Laura Ingalls’ father

- while a new friend helps the heroine figure out how to put on the array of clothing required in the 1880′s, a heated argument about the pros and cons of woolen underwear ensues…and my heroine ultimately chooses to go commando

- during a scene in which an argument takes place in a dining room (ball room, maybe?) I mention striding across a parquet floor…now I need to go and see if a parquet floor is actually what I think it is, and if they even existed in estate homes in the time and locale I have  found myself in

I did manage to log 7miles on the treadmill while Lil’ G napped and Miss A played dress up and watched  some library DVD of Hannah Montana and Zach and Cody for the umpteenth time.

Today, amidst laundry, dishes, getting the rest of the Halloween decorations put away, starting Miss A’s science fair project with her and keeping Lil’ G from turning all the knobs of the stove on (her new favorite) I am hoping to whip out at least 2k.

I know to do this it will have to be done in fits and starts, so my plan is to engage in scene sprinting. I don’t know if this term has been around, but I just kind of made it up, something I would have my kids do once upon a time when I was a high school English teacher.

The concept of scene sprints is simple: take all the little half formed scenes floating around your brain and get ‘em out, maybe you write a sentence, maybe a paragraph, maybe a page  – as soon as the words stop flowing move on to the next scene in your head. Later, when the mood strikes, you can go back and flesh the scenes out. It’s kind of like a mental clean sweep – get those scenes out of the way to make room for new ones…all while beefing up your word count.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

It’s been a craptastic day…how was yours? I lost my phone in our local Sam’s Club this afternoon  – I know, because I paused in the milk aisle to post a friend about this weekend’s Bunco, so I had it then – but could not find it when I arrived home. Awesome sauce with a side of sucks out loud.

No luck on finding the phone so far  – I suspended service to it, so if someone found it and was planning a reunion with the family back in Siberia on my dime …well, sucks to your ass-mar dude.

We’ll hold out for a few days and pray it shows up – it’s not so much a cost issue – we are eligible for an upgrade with our phone co.   – but sheesh I dread re-entering all my contact info!

And I just wanna give a shout out to my man…do you know what he said when he found out I lost my phone?

Not:  “I can’t believe that woman.”

Not: “I’m going to kill that woman.”

Not: “Why did I marry this woman.”

Nope.

He said: “I really love that woman.”

And he told me so as soon as he saw me.

Yes, I know I’m lucky.

I’ll try not to lose HIM in Sam’s Club

Now, pardon me, I’m getting back to my novel before the candy high/ wine buzz wears off.

One thing’s for sure, I won’t get interrupted by any phone calls.

So I was delighted to discover an on-line source for my “sugar.” Ok, I confess, I didn’t discover it…props to the Queen of Hearts for telling me about it (Thanks Sharon!). I’m talking about Pandora, an on-line personalized radio station. At first I was skeptical, there had to be some kind of annoying or expensive catch…but nope – from what I can tell so far, it is as easy as pie to use and even tastier.

They created a  station for me (just type in a fav song or artist), and I left the site running in the background as I typed away. It was awesome! It really was like someone had peeked in my mind and put together a radio station just for me. I heard many favorites, and many songs I love but forgot about, havent’ heard in forever, and songs I had never heard before that grew on me right away.

I had typed in Tori Amos, and got stuff from her but also songs from Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, Cowboy Junkies, Sarah Mclachlan and others – it was a truly great mix (for me anyway, the husband would have been gagging).

There was a Faith Hill perfume commercial that popped on every 5th song or so, but there was an option to mute it out,  so that was hardly a problem.

I am totally sold on Pandora, so if you’ll excuse me, I need to get my spoonful of it and start writing. I gotta crank out 500 words before Lil’ G wakes up.

ETA: They also make cool little widgets, check mine out in the sidebar under Groovin’ Mama.