I sat at my laptop for about 3 hours last night, after spending the prior 3 hours finishing up Patti's latest press release and finalizing the text of her author interview. I stared at the screen. I stared through the screen. I went back and re-read everything written to-date towards NaNo - which is to say, I read the very few pages (like 15-ish?) I've actually written. I re-read my outlining notes for DNA, the piece I'm working on for NaNo. I checked my email, my Facebook and my MySpace. I checked in with my women's group on iVillage. I checked the weather in Scranton for the weekend. And then I stared some more.
Nothing.
About 2 AM, I reached into my work bag and withdrew the notebook I'd used when writing longhand on last week's flight home from MSP. I went back and read through everything I'd handwritten, although I've already transcribed it into my Word document.
And then...I wrote. So apparently, my brain just isn't into the whole typing my story for NaNo bit...but when I put a pen in my hand, it just freaking flowed. I wrote for about an hour, got about 1500 words on paper (I compulsively count words everytime I finish the back and front of a page...part of my anal-ness, I guess)...and then went to bed to salvage a few hours sleep before getting up to come to work this morning.
Not sure what that's all about...my hand'll fall off if I try to write an entire novel longhand, but I guess, for now, with the typing my story completely not working out for me, I'll continue to give it a try! It's funny...I wrote like 4000 words for other stuff - PR, interview, blog posts, etc....last night as well...no problem with typing all of that! Just couldn't do it with fiction.
Weirdness.
Happy Tuesday, ya'll!
Tiffany
P.S. The BAD NEWS on my writing last night is that while reading over what I'd already written, I found a chunk of it to be extremely superfluous - apparently I felt the need to state and restate descriptions - and so I cut a chunk. So my word count is DOWN. Argh, Argh, Argh. In my own crazy mind (and on the spreadsheet I'm now using), I figure I can still "win" at NaNo if I write 2500 or so words per day for the rest of the month and don't strike anything else. But jeez!
Showing posts with label NaNo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NaNo. Show all posts
Where has the week gone?
Published on
Thursday, November 08, 2007
in:
Life
,
NaNo
,
Time to Write
,
Work
Have you all missed me? It's been a hectic week since I last posted on Monday!
On Tuesday, I spent the day at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport - flew a total of 5 hours to spend 4 hours there on the ground! The meeting was a huge success, however - it's the first Joint Leadership Team meeting I moderated as a part of my new position, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Long day, however! Left my house at 6:15 AM before it was light out...got home at 6:45 PM after the sun had already set.
And yes, I know I'm dreadfully behind on NaNo. I'm getting there, though. I promise! I WILL catch up. I'm actually working, still, on building a new schedule for myself to get enough time in to write! I read Maggie Lawson's lecture notes, in their entirety, on the plane to MSP (I wrote on the way back) and with the help of my new Change Coach, Patti, I think I'll be back on track in a jiffy!
On Wednesday, I spent the day at FSU - which is the American Airlines FlagShip University - first presenting as a part of a follow-on training session to new Internal Consultants (weird, because I was now in a position to present to the same people I went through training with initially...guess I can consider myself up to speed with my team now, huh?) and then attending our monthly core team strategic off-site meeting, which was both enjoyable and informative. Three months ago, I felt like I'd never learn enough to be on equal footing with my new team mates - now I really feel integrated! Yahoo!
Last night, I also went to pick up the glider and bed I purchased for what will be my dad's room. Traveling, traveling. Went from far east Fort Worth, where FSU is, to far southwest Fort Worth, where the glider was, to far northwest Fort Worth, where the bed was, back home to kinda-far-east Fort Worth, where I live. And just to hit 4 places in Fort Worth, I drove through a half dozen other towns. This is a crazy area!
Not having such a great time with this latest weather change. My joints are just screaming these days. More on that later...I'm planning a pity party posting for my aches and pains...beware and make sure not to read, haha! Also have a sniffle that will not go away. Dang it.
Oh, well - life's not all that bad - this week is actually falling into place quite well! And so, with that, on to my Thursday Thirteen!
On Tuesday, I spent the day at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport - flew a total of 5 hours to spend 4 hours there on the ground! The meeting was a huge success, however - it's the first Joint Leadership Team meeting I moderated as a part of my new position, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Long day, however! Left my house at 6:15 AM before it was light out...got home at 6:45 PM after the sun had already set.
And yes, I know I'm dreadfully behind on NaNo. I'm getting there, though. I promise! I WILL catch up. I'm actually working, still, on building a new schedule for myself to get enough time in to write! I read Maggie Lawson's lecture notes, in their entirety, on the plane to MSP (I wrote on the way back) and with the help of my new Change Coach, Patti, I think I'll be back on track in a jiffy!
On Wednesday, I spent the day at FSU - which is the American Airlines FlagShip University - first presenting as a part of a follow-on training session to new Internal Consultants (weird, because I was now in a position to present to the same people I went through training with initially...guess I can consider myself up to speed with my team now, huh?) and then attending our monthly core team strategic off-site meeting, which was both enjoyable and informative. Three months ago, I felt like I'd never learn enough to be on equal footing with my new team mates - now I really feel integrated! Yahoo!
Last night, I also went to pick up the glider and bed I purchased for what will be my dad's room. Traveling, traveling. Went from far east Fort Worth, where FSU is, to far southwest Fort Worth, where the glider was, to far northwest Fort Worth, where the bed was, back home to kinda-far-east Fort Worth, where I live. And just to hit 4 places in Fort Worth, I drove through a half dozen other towns. This is a crazy area!
Not having such a great time with this latest weather change. My joints are just screaming these days. More on that later...I'm planning a pity party posting for my aches and pains...beware and make sure not to read, haha! Also have a sniffle that will not go away. Dang it.
Oh, well - life's not all that bad - this week is actually falling into place quite well! And so, with that, on to my Thursday Thirteen!
Too Too Tuesday
Published on
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
in:
NaNo
,
Time to Write
,
Traveling Tuesday
,
Work
No MeMe today - sorry! :-) I didn't find one that I liked with a Tuesday theme. I guess that means I actually have to write something original, huh?
I had a very long day - and it's only 6:45! My alarm went off at 4:25 this morning, and by 6:10, I was on a plane headed to DCA, Ronald Reagan National Airport. This was a tagalong trip for me - since I'm still so new to my team at American, I'm still learning the ropes. I'm about to be permanently assigned as the Internal Consultant to the Joint Leadership Team in San Jose, CA and so today's trip was to see another city's JLT in action. I sat in on a phone call for the Minneapolis JLT a few weeks ago (I'll be covering that city, as well, temporarily, for the next few months) but I wanted to get an idea of how other cities ran their JLTs as well.
I was very impressed with DCA - just like MSP - despite anything the media would have you believe about the horrible relations between American Airlines workgroups, on an airport level, everyone really does play nicely in the sandbox. The meeting wrapped up in just over an hour and the IC and I had a bite to eat before boarding our plane back home. Lots of flying for such a short meeting, but I'm glad to have gone!
I got back just in time to meet my husband at the airport - his flight arrived just minutes before mine, on his way back from visiting family in Kansas. With dinner in the oven, I thought I'd take two minutes to post!
Writing - got a bit done on the plane today, but honestly, not a lot. That's ok...I'm not going to pressure myself this week. Beating myself up for not achieving certain threshholds is not going to make me a better writer...I need to continuously remind myself that I already have a 40+ hour a week job, plus additional sidelines such as judging speech and debate and my Pampered Chef business...it's not like I sit on my butt doing nothing with my time...but I can't help but feel inadequate when I set a writing goal and do not meet it. If only there were more hours in the day, right?
I've got NaNoWriMo on my mind today...Patti is considering working on the sequel to her soon-to-be-released novel, The Daddy Spell, during NaNo and so I've got my own proposed project on my mind. I just posted to my writing board that, with 10 days to go until November, I'm already un-optimistic about succeeding...and that's just a crappy attitude to have, isn't it?? If I go into November with such a crappy attitude, it'll be like a self-fulfilling prophecy and of course I'll fail.
NaNo sets the goal of 50,000 words over the 30 days of November, but I just don't feel like 50k will do justice to the project I have in mind...I'd rather shoot for at least 75k...which would mean 2500 words per day IN ADDITION to everything else I already do and my mother-in-law arriving for the winter and two work trips and, oh yeah, THANKSGIVING! ARGH! But then I think about it like this...if I can set a schedule for just adding on to my NaNo work and actually observe that EVERY SINGLE DAY, it's really not that unrealistic, right!? I've been working on schedule ideas, so I'm just going to go work harder now to get something into place. Perhaps I'll take a little pressure off myself and call it NaNoWriMoMo and do November AND December...now there's a thought...
Anyhow, I'm definitely rambling by now. Hope all is well with my readers!
Tiffany
I had a very long day - and it's only 6:45! My alarm went off at 4:25 this morning, and by 6:10, I was on a plane headed to DCA, Ronald Reagan National Airport. This was a tagalong trip for me - since I'm still so new to my team at American, I'm still learning the ropes. I'm about to be permanently assigned as the Internal Consultant to the Joint Leadership Team in San Jose, CA and so today's trip was to see another city's JLT in action. I sat in on a phone call for the Minneapolis JLT a few weeks ago (I'll be covering that city, as well, temporarily, for the next few months) but I wanted to get an idea of how other cities ran their JLTs as well.
I was very impressed with DCA - just like MSP - despite anything the media would have you believe about the horrible relations between American Airlines workgroups, on an airport level, everyone really does play nicely in the sandbox. The meeting wrapped up in just over an hour and the IC and I had a bite to eat before boarding our plane back home. Lots of flying for such a short meeting, but I'm glad to have gone!
I got back just in time to meet my husband at the airport - his flight arrived just minutes before mine, on his way back from visiting family in Kansas. With dinner in the oven, I thought I'd take two minutes to post!
Writing - got a bit done on the plane today, but honestly, not a lot. That's ok...I'm not going to pressure myself this week. Beating myself up for not achieving certain threshholds is not going to make me a better writer...I need to continuously remind myself that I already have a 40+ hour a week job, plus additional sidelines such as judging speech and debate and my Pampered Chef business...it's not like I sit on my butt doing nothing with my time...but I can't help but feel inadequate when I set a writing goal and do not meet it. If only there were more hours in the day, right?
I've got NaNoWriMo on my mind today...Patti is considering working on the sequel to her soon-to-be-released novel, The Daddy Spell, during NaNo and so I've got my own proposed project on my mind. I just posted to my writing board that, with 10 days to go until November, I'm already un-optimistic about succeeding...and that's just a crappy attitude to have, isn't it?? If I go into November with such a crappy attitude, it'll be like a self-fulfilling prophecy and of course I'll fail.
NaNo sets the goal of 50,000 words over the 30 days of November, but I just don't feel like 50k will do justice to the project I have in mind...I'd rather shoot for at least 75k...which would mean 2500 words per day IN ADDITION to everything else I already do and my mother-in-law arriving for the winter and two work trips and, oh yeah, THANKSGIVING! ARGH! But then I think about it like this...if I can set a schedule for just adding on to my NaNo work and actually observe that EVERY SINGLE DAY, it's really not that unrealistic, right!? I've been working on schedule ideas, so I'm just going to go work harder now to get something into place. Perhaps I'll take a little pressure off myself and call it NaNoWriMoMo and do November AND December...now there's a thought...
Anyhow, I'm definitely rambling by now. Hope all is well with my readers!
Tiffany
