BulgingButtons

Not bad for a fat girl


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Go For It!

images.jpegIt sounds like a good idea, right? Identify your goal and hop to it. Go out there and grab hold of your dreams! That’s the American Way, isn’t it? Is it? I’m not sure.

I’m not sure of a lot of things. Like, for instance, what exactly my “goal” is at this particular point in my life.

I have goals, certainly. I have many of them, some large, some miniscule. So I suppose my question is how do I prioritize them? How do I decide WHICH goal is the “go out there and get it!” goal? Or are there multiples of those? In which case, the new question becomes, how on earth do I go out and conquer all that stuff????

Well, I’m a firm believer in divide and conquer, so there’s that. But then we go back to the prioritizing issue. What to tackle first?

When paying down debt there are two main schools of thought. The first states that you should allocate the majority of your efforts to eliminating the debt with the highest interest rate first, then tackle the next highest and so on. The second one suggests that you go after the smallest debt first, then the next smallest amount and so on, leaving the largest debt for last.

Both methods have their pros and cons, and both methods, if applied faithfully, will get you out of debt eventually. So what’s the right answer? I don’t know, but fortunately getting out of debt is one goal that I achieved several years ago, so I don’t have to worry about it. (By the way, I used the small amount first method, it helped me feel successful and empowered by the process).

Maybe I can use the same method with my goals. Maybe I should start with “baby steps” as Flylady says. Or, as my father used to put it, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” For now I will keep stepping to get my daily fitbit steps, I will keep working at revising my novel, I will keep sharing my writing with you all and my writing partners, and I will keep working to tackle the clutter that’s been invading my home bit by bit. I will also keep being the best teacher, mother, daughter, and partner I can be. That’s not too many goals, is it? Wish me luck, and if you have any advice, I’d love to hear it.

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The Dangers of Procrastination and Amazon One Click

I am now the proud new owner of several novels that I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to read. It’s all one click’s fault. Well, no, maybe it isn’t. It’s all Twitter’s fault. Nope. Not it either. Oh my gosh, it’s all my own fault.

You see, I was happily working on my latest novel for NaNoWriMo when I felt the need to look at my phone. I know. I shouldn’t have done it, however, I did.

twitterThere, by the little Twitter bird was a red circle, meaning that I just HAD to click on it to see what was new in the Twit-o-sphere. Well, reading Twitter is like eating potato chips. You can’t read just one tweet, you have to scroll down and read 47 of them, at least. And in that 47, if you’re actually following people who are of interest to you, there are several clicks that take you other places. Places like novelists’ websites, where they gush about other novelists’ new books, and tell you things like, “hey, read this book, it’s on sale for just $1.99 and it’s fabulous!”

Well, how can I NOT read this fabulous book endorsed by this fabulous author when it’s only $1.99? I do read a lot on Overdrive, which makes MOST of my reading free, but I also can’t resist a deal, and authors still get something when I buy a $1.99 book, so there’s that.images

Well, one click leads to another click which then leads to another click, and before you know it I have several new books downloaded. Swell.

Now I’m not unhappy about this. I didn’t spend a ton of money, and as I said, I’m not opposed to authors earning a little something from their writing, not at all. I’m just saying that those evil geniuses over at Amazon know what they’re doing. Sigh. I just hope that someday they’ll be doing the same thing for me and my books.

 


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To Nano or Not to Nano? 2016 Version

NaNoWriMo is coming up… soon. Before we know it November 1 will be on the calendar and National Novel Writing Month will be upon us. It’s a beautiful thing, this challenge to write a novel in 30 days, and it can be done. I know. I’ve done it.

Well, sort of. I’ve written a draft of a novel. The whole thing, beginning, middle, and end. There are characters, settings, conflicts a plenty, and even a resolution. But is it done? Not be a long shot.

When did I write this manuscript? crest-bda7b7a6e1b57bb9fb8ce9772b8faafb

2013.

Gulp.

Yes, it’s been three years. It was a glorious time, really. The ideas were flowing, the words jumped out of my head and through my fingertips onto the screen. Not all days were like that, but overall it worked! I tracked my progress diligently, and worked hard to deliver those 1,600 words per day. Some days I didn’t make it, but other days made up for it. By the end of the month I did it. I finished!

Now I’m in revisions. Still. To be fair, I didn’t touch it for a long time, but also to be fair, I’ve been really slow about revising. Good thing I belong to a terrific writing group which forces me to bring material for review from time to time, or I might not be working on it at all. So why do I keep doing it?

First of all, at this point I have a lot of time invested in it. Sure, I haven’t worked on it every minute of the past three years, but it’s been part of my life for that length of time. I’d hate to just cut it loose and say that it doesn’t matter.

Secondly, and more importantly, I think there’s something to the story. Each time I work on it I’m surprised by how much I actually like the story. My writing group is encouraging (and they are NOT a smile and nod type of group, they tell it like it is), and frankly if I can figure out a little bit of a plot hole I think I could be done with it soon(ish).

The problem is that plot hole seems like a canyon at the moment. When I wrote the draft it all made sense, but when I reread that section (a very pivotal scene) I realized that the motivation for the characters actions was completely missing. The action simply doesn’t make sense without some type of explanation, and silly me, I forgot to include it. At the time I know why he did what he did, but now for the life of me I can’t remember, and it’s causing a problem. I need to figure it out so I can move on!

All that leads me to November. Am I ready to start a new project? I have ideas, and I think I could commit the time, especially now that the boy is in college. It might be the spark I need to get me going creatively, and maybe as a result I’ll come up with a stellar solution to the plot hole in manuscript number one. Maybe.

What do you think? Is this a challenge I should face or a burden I’ll regret?