I am a writer...

It's become more and more evident.
This mom is a writer. I always wanted to be. But never thought it would matter.

Somewhere deep inside there's that voice that tells you if you're not published, you're not a writer.
This is no longer the case for me.

I'm a writer. It's not all I am. I'm a singer. A worshipper. A dancer. A mom. A Wife.

but it's fun to think that if someone asks what I do -- I can tell them, "I write."

It really became clear that I should and could make this distinction when I finished my NaNoWriMo novel. I did. I wrote the final scene (first draft) (First drafts suck) the night before Thanksgiving. I was really quite glad for the hubbub of Thanksgiving. We had so much fun!!!

BUT -- the next day. The Friday after.
There was a funk.

It's much like the "After Christmas blues" I would get when I was a teenager. I loved Christmas. I loved the build up. The decorating. The anticipation. The joy. The music. That's changed as I've gotten older and a bit more disillusioned, I'm afraid to admit.

After Christmas was over and done with came the blues. The feeling of "now what?"

That's how it's been both times I've finished my manuscripts. The sudden -- "Now What?" of my brain. The sudden fact that I had nothing pressing on my thoughts. During the writing process I was always plotting. If not plotting then my characters were somewhere in my brain. Talking to me. Telling me how to handle the next scene.

There will be rewrites, of course, but you can't do that when you're in the "Now What?" stage of the process. Being in this stage of the process is also a very bad time to have someone lamblast your writing. Even though I know it's all part of the process. It's still not good on the "after book funk". Or would it be the "Post-novel blues"?

Either way, it's confirmed to me that I'm a writer.
It's good to have this process ... to be able to look at it and recognize it as such.
Moving on is important for the next phase or the next novel.
One day I'll learn what to do after the novel is finished.
Because I hope there will be many more in my future.
There has to be, because I'm a writer.

Writing and Focus (or lack of it)

Well, I'm way over due for a blogger update. Sorry about that. I know - I'm blogging without obligation - it says so somewhere on my sidebar. I had originally thought that I would blog about the life of NaNo. And those plans fell through as writing, PLUS life, just took all my spare time.

Today I'm not feeling well - so i'm not entirely sure how much of this blog post will make sense.
I may have to edit it after the haze clears. :-)

It started out well. I had a crazy plot, and some good characters.
I'm a sucker for good characters.
I had the beginning of my story already in my head. That was the easy part.
Then the middle part hit.
Good grief. That was not easy.
Nor was it, turns out, fun.

One bit of a blessing that came about in the midst of this, was the word count battle between a lady in New York -- MercOne. The word count happened by accident and we both had more fun with it than I think either of us thought we would.

Chiding each other with faux frustrations but genuine cheers.

Today I reached the official mark of 50,000 words. I'm not done with my story. I've got 15 more days or so to finish it. The fact that it's nearly done, thrills me.Though, I know once I reread it later, say in December, to begin to edit it, I might wonder what the heck I was thinking.

To be honest, I love to write.
I always have.
But having Merc there to constantly get ahead of me in word count, urged me to keep going. Her being 3,000+ words ahead of me during a few days really ... I was glad for her..

but it IRKED me.

She was sick.
She wrote a drinking song for me.
Still got ahead of me in word count.
And she was sick.

And working.

and that motivated me to kill my inner editor -- that voice that says "Edit now" or whispers "plot flaw". MercOne motivated me because her 3,000k and plus word count mocked me.

So I pushed on.
writing little bit by little bit.
I had to eat her lead like you would eat an elephant. Bite by bite..or in this case..word by word.

She helped me get past the "middle of the story" blues.
She kept me going ....

Really - I couldn't have asked for a better writing buddy.

So thank you, MercOne!!
You have my undying gratitude and probably a place in my book, after I rewrite it. :-)

As if I didn't have enough to do....

As some of you know, I've always loved to write.
Which is one reason this blog has been such a draw for me. I'm not sure I would have stuck with it, if not for the awesome Bloggy friends who faithfully leave comments, though.

One thing I know, A writer likes to have feedback.

When I finished my recent first draft, giving it to my Beta Readers, my writing passion did not stop. I knew I was going to write a sequel...but mostly, I started rummaging through the "Flair" on Facebook.

I love flair.
For me, It's like popping bubble wrap. Which is good - because I don't have any bubble wrap.
My kids love stomping on bubble wrap ... so it doesn't last long enough to be therapeutic.

In my rummaging of the Flair buttons..I searched for things like "writing" and "pen" and "author" -- looking for the most fun ones, I could find. Of course, I also search for "Bones" (the tv show) and random words that just pop up into my brain. Which could be scary. Especially if I was thinking of my brother, at the time. He can be -- well... a donkey meanie head.

There is no flair for that.
I've checked.

In my searching I kept finding some of the funniest flair that also had "nanowrimo" written on them. So I googled it. HEre...I"ll save you the hassle. Link for your convenience. The goal is to write 50,000 words -- in the form of a novel -- over the month of November.

I'm signed up.
I'm ComfyDenim (no surprise there) -- and I'm a First time WriMo.
My Genre is Fantasy.
Nice to meet you. Another link for your convenience.

I was struggling with my book that is in the editing process. It would be pretty cliched.
My awesome friend pointed out that they got to be cliches -- not because they were unpopular.

And one day I was trying to catch a few zzzz's while Bubbles napped, my cliche filled plot line jumped into my head and I was thrilled.

I've jumped into this who experience with both feet and am dragging the kids with me.
I've apologized to the Professor in advance -- and am gearing up to write my cliche filled NaNovel...with the goal being to have fun and create the skeleton of a novel. Flesh can be added later.

I love The Professor and A&E Mom because they listen most kindly to my crazed plot ramblings.
They don't think too much if I tell them, "An assassin walked into my story today and he seems pretty set on staying."

My kids are repeating everything multiple times at me to get my attention - and probably prepare all of us for the even-more-distracted-than-normal Mom in November.

I'm looking at a pile of laundry and ungraded school papers and thinking -- I really didn't need anything else to do -- but now that the plot bunny has bitten me and I've met my characters...It's a loss.

I'm going to have to learn how to multitask like I've never done before.

It should be fun.

They have sporks.
And flair.