Sunday, November 1, 2009

What have I done???

Oh My Goddess! What have I done?! What insanity possessed me the other night? Can I blame it on the moon? The lateness of the hour (it was midnight after all!)? What possessed my foggy little brain to commit to something like this? Something so terrifying?

So now you’re all sitting around wondering “what the hell did Spot do?”. Did she finally fall off the deep end and hold the pillow over hubby’s face because he wouldn’t quit snoring? Did she sleepwalk into the kitchen and eat all the cookies? Buy a baby off the black market? What did she do? Um…let me just assure you if was none of the above. It was far worse. (yes, worse than murdering my hubby, I mean people do stuff like that all the time, right?) I signed up for…wait for it…NaNoWriMo.




What was I thinking??? All I can say in my defense was that it was midnight and for some reason I was feeling confident that I do have a novel just waiting inside me. And that if I didn’t do something drastic, it might never get out. I’d just keep procrastinating and saying I didn’t have time.

For those of you who haven’t joined “the cult” as Jessica (who did not add me to her blogroll but whatever) called it, the concept is deceptively simple. You begin anytime after midnight on November 1st (today people!). And end on or before midnight on November 30th (29 short days away). You must write 50,000 words. No, no prizes (although you do get a cool web badge and some bragging rights). Nobody even reads your novel unless you let them by posting excerpts. You are not supposed to edit, just spew forth words. (Kind of like mind vomit through your fingers). The idea is just to get yourself going through the sheer volume of writing you’re producing. Doesn’t sound bad, right? Well it didn’t at midnight Friday night anyway.

But this morning, I’m sitting here staring at the blank piece of paper on the screen in front of me in abject terror. Seriously, I’m nauseous. And my head hurts. And I think I might vomit or hyperventilate. Or both. Which would be really messy. And I might choke. I have stage fright I(or writer fright) in the worst way. I’m petrified that the words might not come.

And if you break it down…50,000 words in 30 days comes out to roughly 1666 words a day. Which might not seem like much…but considering The Spell is 2233 words and took days to write, it’s a lot of pressure. Besides, there will be days I can’t write. Like Thanksgiving. Who the hell picked November??? November is a busy month. Why not March. Nothing happens in March and there are still 30 days.

Oh my…I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this. Alright…I have to at least try. I’ll be back….

****

I’m baaaacccckkk! And guess what? I deed it (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose. Because that's how it sounded when I said it.)! I really did. I gave myself two hours of uninterrupted time to start my novel and write my 1666 (give or take) words and I just jumped right in. And wrote. And wrote some more. And then some more. Until I finally stopped at 2253 words. I know right?! I’m feeling pretty awesome right now. I might even write some more later, because the story just started flowing and I could see the whole thing in my head. And if Sean hadn’t come in to get jeans out of the closet and made me lose my train of thought…I might have been able to keep going. But maybe not.

So anyway…I’m off to do those mundane everyday tasks that I’m going to have to do at least until I finish this novel and sell it and become rich and famous. Or con someone else into doing them. Hope you all had a great Halloween!
And any encouragement you’d like to send my way on this whole NaNoWriMo thing will be greatly appreciated!!

Do you think I can call myself a writer yet?
♥Spot

15 comments:

  1. ABSO-SMURFLY!!!

    You is a good writah!!

    SPOT - SPOT, SHE'S THE ONE ... WHEN SHE GETS TIRED WE'LL KICK HER BUM!!

    okay ... so glee club wasn't really my thing.

    Seriously - you can do this ... I'm jealous.

    D

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  2. Spot I thought perhaps you had already decided to do the nanowrimo. Piece of cake. You already have a head start on tomorrow. I bet it comes out great too. Remember, NO EDITING! Just write. So cool you are doing this. Maybe next year for me as I am totally too busy now. I cant wait to hear you have your 50k words. I guestimate you will be at 25k by next monday. You can sooooo do this thing and yes you ARE A WRITER ALREADY!

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  3. Hey - if anyone can ace this thing, it's you! We all look forward to your daily posts, and you impress the heck out of us with your musings and stories, so write on, Spotspeare.

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  4. YAY! Good for you! See? The hardest part is over...you've gotten started....broken the proverbial cherry, as it were.

    Piece of cake! (God, am I hungry or what??!)

    I see you put Kindle on your sidebar...have you submitted your blog yet?

    Hmmmmm? Since you're on this signing-up streak anyway??

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  5. I didn't think you had done enough self-promotion begging...I think you're well over the mark now.

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  6. I think it's an awesome idea! Good Luck! I'm glad you decided to do it!

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  7. Danica~ I am very glad to have you in my corner to kick my bum! Because at some point in time I will most likely hit the whiney "I don't wanna do this anymore stage. And you can crack the whip!

    Mark~ I do wish you had time to do this with me! So far Jessica (booshy) is the only one I know (you know, from blogging) who's doing it as well. I hope I get caught up in it enough to be as productive as your guesstimation. That would be awesome!

    Cynica~ hehe. Spotspeare. Looovee it! It's very encouraging to know there are people who tune in daily to read my ramblings.

    Kathryn~ I have not submitted my blog to kindle. I don't even have the first idea about how to do so! I put that on the sidebar for you after writing my review on yours!

    Jessica~ Haha. Self promotion? Begging? What? Haha. I think writers have to be shameless self promoters! Just wait til we finish our novels and start marketing those. Lol.

    Lulu~ Thank you dear. Remember that when you're home visiting and I'm ignoring you to write. Mmmmk?

    ***Thank you to all of you for your continued support and encouragement. I intend to keep doing the blog daily (if possible) because it's fun and completely different from writing the novel. Plus, I'd miss you guys!

    ♥Spot

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  8. I know you can do it, you've proved that already. Can't we have a sneak peek at the title at least? jk.. I'm so excited for you!

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  9. Heather~ I don't have a title yet! I have a basic idea and almost a first chapter. But you can be sure I will be posting tidbits on here. Thanks! I think I'm excited too. But still a bit overwhelmed.

    Whispering~ Thanks so much for the encouragement and well wishes!

    ♥Spot

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  10. I'm seriously in awe of you.

    You DEEEEED it! And you will keep on doing it!

    I really was pretty terrified for a minute there that you would choke on your vomit while hyperventilating, so I'm SO GLAD there was an addendum to this post.

    I should really try this. Maybe next year. It's such a cool idea.

    Congratulations!

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  11. JD~ thanks! I really was pretty scared about the whole choking thing too. So whew! Dodged a potential bullet there. You should for sure try this because you are hilarious. And you have great hair. I'm not sure how that would help, but I bet it would. Thanks for commenting!

    ♥Spot

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  12. Aww I'm so glad that someone else I know has signed up to do it :o) and I'm glad you got a good start on it

    I'm ashamed to say I didnt manage it as I've only just got back off a weeks break. But I have got a basic Idea of what its going to be about. And I have a main character. And a bad guy. :o) So its not all bad lol

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  13. Congrats on the giant commitment, Spot! =) Seriously, I'm proud of you. Based on reading The Spell, I think you're going to do pretty okay in the novel-writing arena. Good luck! =)
    Mindy
    www.thesuburbanlife.com

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  14. Sparky~ Hey what is your NaNoWriMo name? Add me as a buddy? I'm princess.spot. Too original, I know!

    Mindy~ Thanks so much for the support! And the compliment!

    ♥Spot

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