So, here is life outside the novel, and I can honesty say I don't miss writing the novel at all. Not this year's novel.
This years novel was the one I dind't want to talk about with people. Well, I did in the beginning when everything was sweet and nice and ideas were hitting me in the face. But after week one the clouds rolled themselves on in and i just felt trapped. I tried killing off a character and that didn't help. I had the MC buy an illeagle monkey and that was interesting, but it didn't work out either. When asked I would tell family and friends that i was mad at my characters and they would all look at me doubfuonded and said, you know, you are the writer here.
Last year, I wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere hidden and dark and silent of everything, but with some fresh air and hide with my novel to make it perfect. But, I also became very ill, for almost the whole month of December, and then there was Christmas and New Years and the death of my grandfather. I only worked at work about 10 or 13 days last December. And no, I wish I could say i was able to just hide in bed with my novel and edit it until a publisher swooped in and said they would publish the book and make me lots of money. No, I was so sick, the days I wasn't at work I was either at the doctor or sleeping. Or, at the funeral. And there was that one weekend before I new just how sick i was, that the husband and I painted the entryway to our house. I was not feeling well when we picked out the paint on Friday night and not feeling too much better the next day. That Sunday, the painting all done and the pictures back in their places on the wall, I had lost my voice and was in bed.
Maybe that novel will never see the light of day, but I got it done. I hope it's not my last year doing NaNoWriMo, but I feel that it might have been. Time to move in to actually fixing the writing and not just writing. Of course, it's a great exercise in finding the time to write.
This December, I find myself looking at life and think it's funny where we find ourselves sometimes. I won't go into details here about family things that are going on because this is not the place, but when visiting home for the Thanksgiving holiday and remaining in Roanoke, VA for an extended stay for this family reason, I couldn't help but think, it's just funny, or ironic, but that's not the right word for it either.
Picture yourself before you found out you landed that great job or before you moved to another state or went to college. How much that changed your life. Then, about the day before you found out a loved one had passed, or your beloved dog or cat, or goldfish, i don't care. It changes you in a way that you can't go back and be that same person. And last Monday, was one of those strange events. I never thought I would find myself where I was, sitting in room with people I had seen before, and some I hadn't, explaining something I never thought I would have to.
Or when I came back to work and found out about the layoffs going on and looked around at all the men and woman I have worked with for the past two years. This our second layoff we had to survive and the boss asking for more "volunteers."
This post has nothing to do about writing, but about other things that I have found to write about. I am still too upset to even try to put into words the news I received today, and while it's not tragic, it's upsetting and nerve wracking and the kind of news where i wanted to throw up or cry or scream, but i could not because I was in the clothing section of Target when I got the news.
On to more pleasant things, and writing related, I am getting a story published! When I got the email from the publisher, i had to re-read it about ten times (not kidding there) because I wanted to make sure i really seeing what I was seeing. That I was getting paid for a story and that it would be in print. And that people I don't know may read something I wrote and know about me and my little dog. It was scary and exciting and liberating all at the same time.
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