An Honest Fox.

So.  Remember when I rocked the failboat and tried my hand at the 3-Day Novel Contest?  Remember what I learned from that experience?

Divine intervention will not come to you.  No matter how many good deeds you have done in your life, no matter how much you pray for it, it will not come.

It took me a while to remember.  This became more clear as I reflected on my professional discontent.

Happiness is an interesting thing.  People can bring it into your life, for sure, but only momentarily.  Happiness won’t last unless you make an effort.  There are a few adages, in various word arrangements, that reflect on the fact that only you can make yourself happy.  Other people, puppies, rainbows, sex and sun-shiny days just serve as (fun) distractions.  If you’re unhappy, you’ll get back to being unhappy unless you make the change.

I’ve believed this for years, but I don’t always practice it.  Why?  Why would I allow myself another day of “FML?”  Yeah, I don’t know either, so I won’t.  (Yes kids, things will make me sad/distressed/afraid/etc, but I don’t want to be unhappy.)

So!  As I’ve done before, I vow to do things to make me happy.  Walks, writing, eating better, etcetcetc – the things you’ve come to expect of me.  As I’ve done before, I’m tracking my progress on a public forum.  As I have not done before, I’m advertising this fact to everyone I know through this blog and its update on Facebook and Twitter.  The more people I feel held accountable by (whether you read this and that or ignore it all completely, I will know that I’ve posted this, I will know that you could be reading it, and I will feel guilty if I let it all slip by the wayside because it’s not just me anymore), the more likely I will be to maintain a schedule.

In partnership with the wonderful world of The Northlands, I present to you:

An Honest Fox.

It’s been a great start so far – let’s hope I can keep it up!

Tiësto (feat. Tegan and Sara) – Feel It In My Bones

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Oh.  And folks?  While you’re checking out my thread on The Northlands (NL), you should explore the whole forum.  Then join up!  There are some pretty amazing people there who are doing some pretty amazing things.

The 3-Day Novel Contest

(Image © Bill Watterson)

Or.  How The 3-Day Novel Contest (3DNC) kicked my ass.

I had a rough outline.  It was character driven.  This, I found, is great until your characters begin to deflate and decide that all they really need are two dimensions, not three.  Needless to say, I followed suit and deflated a bit myself.  Saturday was a bad day for my ego.

This experience, however, was invaluable.  Here is what I learned:

• Divine intervention will not come to you.  No matter how many good deeds you have done in your life, no matter how much you pray for it, it will not come.  Writing is about work.  I was foolish and, though I did have that outline, did not “train” for this, opting instead to sit down and wait to be inspired by a Muse (á la Richard Madoc).
• Reading #3DNC tweets (from people who seem to have written 20K words in a half hour) after you have discovered your inability to sit down and hammer out a 72-hour novel (or to even write 5 words in that same half hour) will prompt you to seek copious amounts of alcohol.
• Things really are better in the morning.  While Saturday saw me consider flinging my notebook across the room, I accepted my failure on Sunday and sat down to work on something else instead.

I would have liked to have finished what I started, but I am happy to have been put in my place.  I did decide that since I had already allotted the weekend to writing I might as well sit down and write.  I dusted off an idea I had back in May and am pleased to admit that though my start is infinitesimal it is a start all the same!

I have to start cross training.  NaNoWriMo is coming up!

ELO – Mr. Blue Sky

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Four simple goals.

(Image © A Beautiful Mess)

So.  K has been advertising a trend in her world of blogdom.  It is about goals.  The (brilliant) originator of this trend is Elsie of A Beautiful Mess (Elsie’s 4 simple goals.)

I have goals.

1) I want to finish a piece of writing.  Not a blog, but a piece of (preferably fictional) writing.  I would like it to be more than one page in length, but finished is finished.  (This is my goal for the 3-Day Novel Contest, akshully.)

2) I want to write a book review a month.  Not necessarily for Books & Co., but it would be awesome to see my writing posted to the webpage again!  That, and it would be awesome to have something new to post here every month.

3) I will go with the culinary theme and share my desire to be more of a kitchen aficionado.   I would particularly like to be more involved in meal planning (for more from the talented Michelle of DohDums, please click this sentence) and, as such, save money on grocery bills.  I am organized in so much of my life, I would like to see that carry through to this aspect of my domestic life.

4) I want to walk more.  I walked a lot in the early summer.  At least five days a week for several months, but I got lazy when I was letting the new tatt heal and stopped the walking.  This is something that is as good for my soul as it is my body and I need to pick it up again.

That’s it, kids.  Those are my goals for the year.  As the rules for this blog dictate, I will keep you up to date on my progress!

My Darkest Days – Pornstar Dancing

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ph34r

Writing scares me.

I have these ideas, you see.  (Well.  More like questions, actually.  I have questions that I need answered.)  Ideas that intimidate me because there is no way that what I write can ever be what I see.  Y’know?

I was reading The Writer the other day and it mentions (as do others) that this is a common problem.  One of those writer’s block issues: the voices in your head won’t stfu, but when you sit down to write nothing comes out.  They mention that this is the perfect time for the nonsensical “first thoughts” writing just to get the garbage out, before moving on to something a bit more substantial.  Good idea.  (I think that’s why I blog, akshully.)

Still.  Writing scares me.

(This is where things get a bit emo.)

It’s failure.  I don’t like it.  I don’t want to do it.  I’m so jazzed by the idea of writing and I lovelovelove doing it – I love that work-out feeling I get afterwards (I’ve never run a marathon, but I expect it’s akin to that feeling of OMGIRTEHAWESUM).  I have no career aspirations, folks.  I’d love to have a job wherein I make a bit more than $10/hr and have some health benefits, but it doesn’t really bother me that much not to have it.  Writing is what I want to do, but I avoid it like the plague.  Writing is what I enjoy, but I find myself baking cookies and cleaning toilets rather than slinging ink.  Weird, right?  The sheer enjoyment of the Art is worth considerably more than it’s end game (publishing) is, imo.  (Of course, it would be pretty nifty to have an ISBN.)  Writing is the career I choose.  Not to pay the bills (’cause we all know that’s just silly), but the career that makes me happy (and/or suicidal, depending on the day).

Hm.

I have a new goal.  Curious?  I used to joke about wanting to be Stephen King, which basically meant that I think it would be awesome to be able to quit my day job and have a lucrative writing career.  I have decided to lower my expectations and allow myself to be a bit more titillated by the ecstasy of writing.  I have decided that my new goal in life (yes.  This is it.  This is my whole life’s goal, right here) is to produce a short story that will appear in an anthology containing a work of Charles de Lint and/or Neil Gaiman (the and is preferred, but not necessary).  I would be over the freaking moon.

In other news: I sent my registration form, and fee, for the 3-Day Novel Contest out today.  Whether I want to, or not, I will be writing very shortly.  (It’s a great kick-start, I think.  And C is right, if I actually pay to do this and not just use it as a personal challenge, I am much more likely to strive to complete it with everything I am.  I’m a cheap Scot, I won’t waste that coin.)

Hoobastank – Can I Buy You A Drink?

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There is no cure for curiosity.

So.  Saturday was not a terribly busy day at work.  Well.  The afternoon wasn’t, anyway.

This lack of busy-ness, I think, is what spawned my (wonderful, fantastic and altogether phenomenal) coworker to wander off to tidy the “community board” (wherein people pin up their local events and/or anynumberofweirdnewage services) at the back of the store.  She returned with a brochure.  Not just any brochure, but one outlining something she was convinced that I should show great interest in.

[Drumroll]

The 3-Day Novel Contest.

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I scoffed, to be honest.  I haven’t produced anything more substantial than a blogged review of a local event in, oh, a year?  Two years, is a bit more apt, I think.  (Maybe.)  Anyway!  Long time, guys.  Long time.

But.

I’ve, since, spent some time thinking about it and I’ve decided that I really like the idea.  I’ve even been entertaining possible plots!  I realize that this is not an event to take lightly.  If I go forth in attempt to conquer this beastie I need to train.  Which, to be honest, I need to do anyway!  (And I have a project idea, so it’s doubly beneficial.)  I’d need to make necessary arrangements for success (read: quit work, take up laudanum consumption, and move to Siberia for a weekend).  I should probably consider introversion, too.

What do you think?  Have any of you cats completed this contest?  How was it?  Well worth the blood, sweat and tears?

At the very least, I have decided that Books & Co. needs to have a 3-Day Novel Contest display.  Because we have some awesome writing self-help books and it would be a wicked reason to showcase them!

Food for thought.

Savage Garden – To The Moon & Back

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