Burnout

This has been a really slow week for me, creatively. The only two things I’ve done are to go scrapbooking with my wonderful Crazy Crop friends, and to write a section of a textbook for the course I teach. Writing a section of a textbook sounds like an accomplishment – except that I took most of it from a handout I wrote almost four years ago. So it was basically just editing.

Anyway, I’m sitting here with my feet up, wondering why I’m so unmotivated. I haven’t been overwhelmed with extra work, and my paperwork for school is pretty much caught up. But when I sit down to do something, all I can think about is how tired I am. What’s the deal?

It could be that I overextended myself, trying to write 1143 words a day while working two jobs, and taking care of mom’s needs. Or it could be that I’ve been wasting time, playing too much “Wheel of Fortune” on facebook. Whatever, I didn’t get enough sleep, so now that I have time to sleep, I can’t.

Whatever. I need to get back to work. I need to wake up. So I need to get moving. I should put my coat on right now and go for a walk.

I will. Right after I wake up from my nap.

March Madness

It’s mid-March, and a lot of people are glued to their televisions wondering whether or not their people will prevail. Will they overcome their obstacles and succeed? Or will adversity overtake them?

No, I’m not talking about baseball. I’m talking about the disasters in Japan. My cousins, aunts and uncles are experiencing madness right now. They were far enough away from the earthquake in Sendai that although they felt (and continue to feel) aftershocks, they were safe. They were far enough that the tsunami did not sweep away their communities. And so far, the nuclear threat has not reached them.

But there are hardships. The trains are not running according to their normally super-precise schedules, and electricity is being conserved via planned blackouts. Supplies are running out, even for those not living in the areas affected by the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power problems.

I know there are ways to help the general public. There are all sorts of organizations to which I can donate money. And there are groups heading over there to help out. One of the GVSU groups I belong to is hosting a fund raiser for relief efforts. And I’ve been in contact with my cousins. If any of them mentions a need I can fill, I’ll be all over it.

But most of all, I’m on my knees each morning and evening. There is only One who can keep them safe, and I’m appealing to Him. Please join me.

Success!!!

I just finished writing a paragraph. It’s not a particularly well-written paragraph, but it’s got all the essentials – a subject, a verb, and all the punctuation I’m always hounding my students about.

What makes this particular paragraph special is that it brought my total word count in my new story to 32,000 words. I started the story on Saturday, February 12, so for the past 28 days I have written at least 1143 words EACH DAY. My room is a mess, and if it weren’t for my hubby I would have no clean clothes to wear, and I would have eaten cereal every day except for those times when I ate out. I was on a mission to meet this goal, and I have succeeded.

Now the work begins.

These 32,000 words take me a little over a third of the way through the story I want to tell. And so I must keep going. But I don’t have the ambition to challenge myself to continue writing at this pace. I’m not sure it would be healthy if I did. I can live with a certain level of mess, but even I have my limits. So I guess I’ll do some spring cleaning, and hopefully get back to this story and finish it.

As soon as I finish the two other stories I’ve got brewing.

NaNo, Week Three

Okay, I’ve been at this for three solid weeks. Somehow, I’ve been able to keep up my daily average of 1143 words per day. There are some days, like yesterday, when I’m so tired I simply sit back in my recliner and let my fingers type what I’m thinking. I don’t even look. Anything to get the word count up there.

So far I have the two main characters getting to know each other and becoming very attracted to each other. I’ve laid the groundwork for a mystery. It’s not a mystery book per se, but something that goes wrong, and the two main characters try to find out who caused it. I’ve tried to set up several scenarios that point to someone who might have done it, but hopefully it will come out that someone totally unexpected was the villain.

I’m not quite sure where this story is leading. I had an outline all made out, but somehow the characters are starting to lead me in another direction. I know this will end happily, I’m not sure how it will get there. It may take a while, though.

I am really bleary-eyed right now from lack of sleep. I’ll have to take a nap.

As soon as I write my 1143 words.