The Return of NOvember

Last December, when I was deciding on my writer word for 2021, "discipline" felt like a good choice. After the mess of 2020, I thought that imposing a sense of order on the new year would make all the difference. And it did. For about 2 weeks.

As it turns out, discipline was not a great word for me this year. I should have gone with "patience" or "leeway" (as in giving myself a lot of it). Because, as you know, things were still challenging in 2021. Thank goodness much of the political furor died down, at least temporarily, but the world is still messy. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who ate too much chocolate and streamed too many shows.

But I'm not throwing in the 2021 towel just yet! Hence the return of NOvember. "No" often gets a bad wrap as a punitive word with negative energy behind it. But it can be such a helpful tool. So I've decided to buckle down in NOvember and say No as often as possible. 

Of course, the phrasing of the question make all the difference. If I ask myself if I should have salad instead of fries, instead of the other way around, that rather defeats the purpose. So, here's a more helpful list of my November questions:

• Is (fill in the blank) a good use of my time and/or money?
• Does (fill in the blank) bring me closer to my goals?
• Will (fill in the blank) make me happy?
• Does (fill in the blank) serve me?

Anyway, you get the gist. Hopefully by the time December's season of excess rolls around, I'll feel like I've earned a few indulgent yeses. 

What does November have in store for you?

And good luck to anyone on the NaNoWriMo wagon this year! You can do it!!

Happy Halloween! How's Your Outline?

Happy Halloween, also known as the last day of sanity before the crazy business that is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I tried, and sort of completed, NaNo for the first and only time five years ago. I say sort of, because I ended up with the required 50,000 words, but they were evenly split between two projects that have never since seen the light of day.

Because five years is long enough for me to forget about the dual pains of carpal tunnel syndrome and rampant feelings of inadequacy, I've decided to try it again. I have higher hopes--and a better outline--this year. My first novel Passing Through (see the I Wrote It tab above) was published almost two years ago, so it's high time I get cracking on the sequel. I've done as much plotting as my pantser self can handle, and tomorrow I will jump in and try make sense of it all.

(Wait... Does NaNo require that things make sense? I don't think so. Whew. That's a relief.) 

In my defense, I have completed drafts of a couple of other manuscripts in the last two years, but the inescapable fact is that I am one of those slow and methodical turtle writers. I know NaNo won't cure me in the long term, but if all goes as planned, it will kick me into higher gear, at least for 30 days.

Maybe I will drop in here at the blog to update my progress, and maybe I will just let things ride until December. Good luck to all the NaNo'ers out there! I hope we all cross that 50,000 word finish line!

--Jenny