Trader Joe’s Candy-Cane Joe-Joes (like Oreos with ground up candy-canes) are GOOD. I don’t even really like candy-canes, but I like these cookies. I’m hoping Lala won’t read this blog and go eat them all before I get home.
Tomorrow I am going to go to the local spinning guild with Janine. Uh-huh.
OH MY GOD. Words will NOT come to me today. Earlier, while I was working on the NaNo novel, I would place a word on the page and then I would think GAH. Then I would put a word next to it and think GAK. It wasn’t even The Editor, really. I don’t actually struggle too much with that editor-brain that makes you want to rewrite and not move forward. I’m happy leaving crap sentences on the page, knowing I can go back and fix ’em later. I like the fixing part.
This was just my brain not really knowing where I was going next, not trusting my outline which feels as thin as onion paper (why didn’t I think of THAT earlier, huh?), and balking. My brain was saying, "Nope, I can’t see what’s on the floor in here. It’s dark. I will NOT take another step. Forget it."
So I would force a word down and then another. Maybe someday I’ll find words to put next to those, to make them not suck so much. I dunno.
All I know is that tomorrow is for spinning, followed by knitting at Janine’s house, and apparently it’s MUCH easier to write about not being able to write than it is to actually not be able to.
I’m thinking you could have written a novel about an aspiring novelist who can’t find the words to put down on paper. Then, when you can find the words, you write them, but when you can’t, you just do long monologues where the protagonist talks about how he can’t find his muse.
Hey, come to think of it. Maybe I should get to work on that one myself!
Keep writing, Rach! You can do it!
According to the guy who wrote the (literal) book on NaNo, this is perfectly normal for this stage in the process. He suggests really mixing it up and changing things, or doing something that inspires you, or just writing any damn thing in your head…..
Good luck!
Sounds like you need some ninjas to get things moving again. Alpaca-herding retired ninjas maybe?
As there are few pieces of music that cannot be immeasurably improved by the judicious addition of a little cowbell, there are few literary efforts that cannot benefit from an explosion. Possibly even an exploding cowbell.
You’re welcome.
all good thoughts to you and your writing.
eh…don’t speak anymore of the candycane jo-jo’s, i haven’t stocked up yet. and somebody told about how good the bitty peanut butter crackers are there, and now i can’t get them any longer.
shhh 😉
Hiya, just wanted to tell you that Vivian-the-cutest-baby-in-town has been (for hours!)trying out the silly faces that you and Lala were making at her yesterday at Janine’s house. I think she has a crush on you guys.
After you do NaNo for a while, it feels like you’ve burned off the top layer of your brainmeats. You know, the part where the words come from? I was also writing songs to record at the time I was doing my first NaNo, and I would try to talk to people and just grunting would come out.
When you get stuck, it’s totally legal to start putting down words on the page like “Oh my god I am stuck I don’t know what to do, how am I ever going to get to 50,000? One two three” etc. Or you could do research for a part of the novel further down the line you already know is going to happen, and it might give you an idea for the middle bits you’re stuck on. Works every time, for me. Also, I’m answering your email. Right now, even!
Oh! Those cookies! I will not normally get out of bed for any cookie that comes in a box, but those! I assume they’re seasonal and I will be filling my freezer. I should stop telling people about them….