NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 12 Update
We're nearly at the half way point for NaNoWriMo and I'm not as far along as I hoped to be by this point, but I'm still confident I'll get a lot more words written in the next few days. I'm still writing by hand and then transcribing. The transcribing is a bit of a pain, but totally worth it because when I'm writing long hand the words are just flowing. I'm sorta hooked.
In the Library -Red Writing Hood Prompt
This week's writing prompt from Write on Edge concerned conversation. The task involved writing dialogue "between two people/characters. Using surroundings, body language, visual cues and blocking, in addition to the spoken words" I needed to show you who they were with out saying so. Not sure how I did-but this is actually a part of a scene in my WIP-that I've wanted to write for a while-but hadn't.
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“What?” I couldn’t have heard correctly.
“I’m sorry. This wasn’t supposed to happen.” He ran his fingers through his disheveled hair.
I shook my head. Wishing I had gone when I had the chance. Wishing…Wishing was for fools I decided.
“Look. I…I just won’t believe it.” I said, shutting my eyes.
“You have to. Yo
u must.” Closing yourself off won’t make things better. “Please look at me?”
I dropped my books, to cover my ears, wanting to block out the pleading in his voice. My hours of research echoed in muffled tones when they landed. I pressed harder and willed my eyes to only see the dark.
“The dark. The dark. The dark.” I chanted to myself.
“Please…Please give me a chance.”
I wanted to ignore him. I curled myself into a ball on the floor besides the books with their thousand year histories. Wishing I could melt into one of the cracks in the marble floor.
“It’s what he wants.”
“What he wants? What about what I want?” I glowered. “No one ever, not ever has asked me if I wanted all of this!” I barked waving my arms across the library. “At least you had a choice. You could decide if you wanted to fall on the sword or not. Where was my choice?”
His shoulders slumped. “There’s more you need to know.”
“I don’t want to know. “ I said as I went about stacking the books the scent of them no longer comforting.
He grabbed my hand and raised my chin to look me in the eyes. He looked about as bad as I felt I surmised. “Will you let me try to be a friend to you?”
“A friend? What about the prophecy?”
“It’s just another story in a book.”
NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 9 - Update
Ohmygosh! Can you tell I've not slept in a bit? Okay-I exaggerate. I've slept...some. Truth be told I can't sleep. My brain won't shut off. My writing has been flowing and it's all because of my husband...Read on for the deets.Tuesday I began writing longhand-advice my husband has been giving me for years-which I totally ignored (sorry Hun).He said, 'You think better when you're actually using your hands" He says when ever he's working with his hands he could think better. His mind would clear and ideas or solutions to problems would come to him.I was all like-"Well I'm using my hands when I type..." Which would get me a much deserved eye roll and a tsk about how I never listen to him.Turns out-the man was on to something!On Tuesday I stumbled across this article from 'The Guardian', Why creative writing is better with a pen...and so I pulled out one of my gazillion notebook-journal things and had at it.I absolutely love it!The ideas flow. I'm not distracted at all by things like, oh...I dunno Facebook! In one hour I've been writing an average of a thousand words.
Go Me! love and journals, and pens,nicóle
Eight A.M. Angelus- Red Writing Hood Prompt 8:00
This is the first time I've completed a writing prompt-and shared it. I figured it was about time. This week the prompt on Red Writing Hood was to write about my version of 8:00 -AM or PM, fiction or creative nonfiction- in 200 words or less.
Here it is...Exactly 200 words. Sharing my creative writing makes me nervous-sweaty palms and all.
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I was waiting for it like I always do. It’s become an addiction I know. At first I would lay in bed waiting for the first gong to emanate from the belfry; by the second I was usually at my window waiting for it. The second ringing of the bell only two hours after the first Angelus of the morning was strange. What was stranger still was-no one else seemed to notice.
Now I don’t even bother waiting in bed-no one cares what time I wake or don’t wake, which is convenient because they also don’t notice my disappearance every day at the same time.
I held my breath waiting for the seventh carillon to emanate from the tower. The skin on my arms rose up in goose-flesh as the vibrations hit me. Then came the eighth chime, to my ears it always sounded different than the others before it. It’s melody echoing off the walls only to lay itself at my feet.
That’s when it happened. I exhaled feeling the relief I always did. Seeing him meant I wasn’t crazy, and the drugs they think I take really are unnecessary.
He was on time. That was all that mattered.
NaNoWriMo 2011 - Progress Update - Days 1 & 2
You know that saying, "God laughs when we make plans."? I totally believe he's having a major laugh at me, the kind of chuckle that makes your belly jiggle.November has been insane!I've not had an opportunity to write a single word.Here's the edited version as to why: Sick kids, someone attempted to break into my house-the resulting upheaval to home proved very time consuming, dentist visits, and other things that sucked my time away that are rather mundane and not at all as exciting as my father-in-law discovering someone in the act of violating our home.Ick.I'm hoping to get at least 3 thousand words in tonight. Which means I won't go to sleep until I have at least three thousand words of something.
But I do want to take this opportunity to thank Virginia from That Bald Chick for being the best cheerleader EVER! love & life being crazy,nicóle
Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst
I was reminded yesterday how fragile life really is.In a heartbeat things can change.
Which got me to thinking about sad things, but things that as a parent, one must think about and prepare for; the most important being, what would happen to my children should I pass from this life?Morbid I know...Of course the first thing to do his "hope for the best, but plan for the worst." One of the first things to do when planning for such a catastrophe is to get life insurance. Thank fully my husband and I have insurance through the Air Force. A while back I wondered if it would be enough and found I had no answer to this question. My first instinct was, although it's a sizable amount, I don't think it would be sufficient. When I’m in doubt about something I Google it and I discovered that for life insurance one should have enough coverage to pay off any expenses or debts, then enough for you dependents to live off of. I found this handy insurance calculator that was very helpful and through my research found many companies offer an online life insurance quote as well as companies who provide insurance with no medical exam.As I mentioned before, my husband and I are lucky, we’ve got some life insurance through the military, and we’re also members of a great company called USAA which only serves the military and their families and is the company we use for all of our financial planning.It’s hard to think about these things, making wills, planning for the inevitable, but it’s something that we as parents must do.
Fall Back: Daylight Savings Time 2011
Is it me? Am I the only one who thinks it strange Day Light Savings Time will occur after Halloween this year? We will change our clocks back next Sunday, November 6, 2011.
To be perfectly honest, the whole changing of the clocks thing is sorta weird in a way. I mean, in the fall we drop back an hour and in the Spring we jump forward a whole hour. Where does this hour go? We don't suddenly go from 24 to 23 hours in a day or from having 24 hours to suddenly miracle of miracles having 25 hours? It's like traveling to the other side of the world, you can loose a whole day. I've heard people say "you get it back" when you return...But what happens to my time while I'm there?
I'm telling you...It boggles the mind!
It got me thinking. What would I actually do with an hour extra a day. If I had one extra hour a day to do with it what-ever I liked here is how I'd spend them...
- Kissing my husband.
- Kissing my my boys.
- Writing.
- Reading.
- Eating chocolate. (In this world where I've an extra hour, there is also no such thing as fat or calories.)
- Listening to my grandmother tell me stories about her childhood.
- Swimming in the ocean.
- Dancing.
- Praying/meditating.
- Taking pretty pictures of things in magical places.
- Thrift-ing.
- Visiting with friends I've not seen in forever or haven't had the "time" to see in a while.
- Listening to music.
- Visiting a museum.
- Kissing. (Yes I know this is already on the list, but it's worth repeating I think.)
I would not, under any circumstances spend my extra hour turning back clocks like this lady who has the largest collection of clocks on the planet!For the record: "Daylight Saving Time (United States) began Sunday, March 13, 2011, and ends Sunday, November 6, 2011. Except Arizona and Hawaii. Move your clocks ahead 1 hour in spring and back 1 hour in fall ('Spring forward, fall back')." <---I garnered this wisdom from Google.love & changing time,nicóle
photo: http://saracharlotte95.tumblr.com