Sorry this is a little late—Jane had to be dropped off early for her robotics class programming-extra this morning (yes, you did hear a touch of maternal pride just then) and I’m working a split-shift today at the library, starting with my Short Story group (we did “Walter Mitty,” about which you may hear more later) which is held at the branch farthest from the school, and ending at 8pm tonight, which, thanks to the time change and the crazy busy that generally happens on Monday, will feel like midnight.
And what with one thing and another, I hadn’t actually started/conceptualized/remembered this post until after I clocked out for a very late lunch/early dinner.
But I have time now. So here ’tis:
Unless you’re doing a Nano, when this is considered creative freedom and also only three words . . .
It is day four of my unofficial Half-Nano, and I have so far come down with a virus that wasn’t strep, napped for a collective nine hours over three days, cleaned out the room formerly known as the kids’ playroom in prep for its transformation into the bedroom known as Janie’s, helped sort two bookcases of children’s books into three four five categories*, shopped for paint/painting paraphernalia for the kids’ newly designated bedrooms,** changed every clock in the house at least once (sometimes more than twice) for the time change, did two loads of laundry and folded three,*** gone grocery shopping, emptied three garbage cans, changed the kitty litter, and did the usual blogstuff.
It’s amazing how much I can accomplish during these writing marathons that in no way contributes to my word count . . .
But I’ve also managed, at the time of this posting, to get down almost three thousand of the little buggers. I still have more than half of today’s goal still to do, which may not happen. . . but that’s okay.
Really.
Some of you who have been hanging around here for a while might assume yanking 800 daily words of loosely connected sentences out of my let’s-call-it-imagination-please wouldn’t be any trouble for me, but the first few days of a Nano are always a little difficult, until I can garrote my inner critic and remind myself that 25,000/50,000 words aren’t that big a deal, no one is expecting a Booker Prize-quality first draft^, that “???” is an acceptable temporary substitute for research, and that sidebar notes/questions/primal screams are not only acceptable ways to placate the inner perfectionist^^ before she can reach the emergency brakes, but totally count towards the daily goal.
My plan (stop laughing) is to catch up—or even pull ahead—starting Friday, when I will be schlepping myself, writing materials, a short stack of books, comfortable clothes, and a crockpot full of raw turkey to a WiFi-less cabin about an hour away to relax with a small group of friends over the long weekend.
Unfortunately, posts don’t count, because my sense of fair play pops up in unexpected places and them’s my rules. So I’m gonna wrap this up and forge on.
How do you Nano?
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*a) Jane’s Keepers
b)Sunny’s Keepers
c)Library Donations
d)Books no one wants to read but we can’t just give up Family heirlooms
e)Susan Boynton board books for my youngest nephew (see “Pile d), exception to”)
**Post forthcoming because the story of Watson, Janie, Sunny, and I visiting an unsuspecting Lowe’s is too good for a mere footnote.
***Because my primary motivation for folding clean clothes is needing the basket for more clean clothes. I’m not particularly proud of this, but I don’t particularly see it as a moral failing, either.
^Or even a coherent plot, except this month, I decided to work on an actual pre-Nano WIP in the hopes that momentum will be maintained and a couple of sticking points will come unstuck.
^^She’s buried deep, but she’s in there.
Earful of Cider 