Ms. News Goat

My characters gave up on me today, on this, my second and final day of NaNoWriMo 2006.

I’ve got a lot of things fighting for my attention right now, and as it turns out, I’d rather focus my energies on those. I think maybe it’s like that old trick for when you’re having trouble deciding between two things. Flip a coin between the options. If you feel disappointed with the result, it’s a good indication that you should go the other way—because that gut-level feeling tells you more than all the over-analyzing in the world. I was very undecided about doing NaNoWriMo this year, and I debated it right up until the last minute. But once I decided to do it and started working on it, that’s when I realized it wasn’t really what my gut wanted to do.

Oh well… maybe another year. In the meantime, I’ll be cheering on my husband and all the other NaNoWriMo-ists out there. Best of luck!

So, I give you my final chapter of my 1,819 “novel”:

Felicia and Jake glared at the self-pitying author. “Well?” Felicia prompted, “What’s next?”

No response.

Jake tried a different approach. “Look,” he said softly. “I’m just not sure we’re right for each other. You obviously need some time, and we—well, we need someone who cares about us, who wants to be with us—”

“And someone who knows I’m really a better Tricia!” Felicia interrupted. But Jake’s hard glance stopped her from continuing.

The author was still silent, but Felicia and Jake could see tears filling her eyes.

“No hard feelings, okay?” Jake said. “We’re just going to leave now. Maybe we can hook up some other time…”

Jake took Felicia’s hand, and they quietly slipped out the door, leaving the author sitting there. Alone.

Yes, I suppose Tricia would have been a good name, she thought. Then she gently closed the notebook and fell asleep, exhausted.

It’s November, and that can only mean one thing… it’s time for NaNoWriMo!

This is my second year to participate in National Novel Writing Month. I finished successfully last year. Over the course of the month, I spent more than 72 hours writing 50,372 words. I finished just 2 hours before midnight on November 30th. My eyes and my body ached, and I was sure I had written the worst piece of fiction ever. I wouldn’t have thought I’d sign up for it again…

But here I am.

I think there’s something addictive about it. It’s a challenge. It’s a creative rush. And it’s a lot of fun. Of course, it helps that I re-read my book and realized it’s not that bad. All those things inspired me to sign up again.

Granted, I’m far less prepared than I was last year. At least last year I had a genre and a main character. This year, I’ve got nothing. I had grand plans of trying out new novel-writing software. I wanted to have worked out a plot and characters… or come up with some general plan. But October flew by, and none of those things happened.

So here I am, blank page in front of me, ready to start another adventure…

Wish me luck!

I ran the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon yesterday, and it was great!

After I ran the half-marathon last year, I decided I wanted to try the full marathon. I was very unsure about the whole idea—whether I could do it, whether it was even a healthy thing to do… But I knew if I was going to run a marathon, I wanted it to be the one in Oklahoma City.

The OKC marathon is a very well-coordinated, well-run race. I personally think it’s one of the best things Oklahoma City does, and I’m proud of it. One of the neatest things is that the whole thing is coordinated by volunteers—there are no paid positions. When you’ve got somewhere in the vicinity of 11,000 runners registering for a race, that’s really amazing. I’ve heard the marathon founders speak a couple of times, and they’re very inspiring. They have good hearts and they’re doing it for the right reasons. I think even if I weren’t going to be running the race, I would want to be involved in some way—whether as one of the volunteers or just cheering on the side of the road.

But this year was my year to run the marathon. (more…)

To-Done! recently talked about keeping things clean for less stress. I really like two of his tips:

• Be cleaning constantly.
• Don’t pile.

One of my 43 Things is keeping a clean home. I decided that if my in-laws or the repairman or whoever called to say they were dropping by in half an hour, I didn’t want to worry about what kind of shape the house would be in. (more…)