NaBloPoMo is here

Check it out: I'm blogging two days in a row! The NaBloPoMo wind is at my back. :) I'm excited that Rena and Shannon are doing it with me, and I think more of you should join in.

So, to celebrate my month of blogging, I've given A Blog Of One's Own a face lift, as you can see. A big shout out goes to Rena for turning me on to Aqua Poppy. Her designs are so easy to implement that I now have a hankering to change the blog's look all the time. I think I'll keep this through the month and then shop around for something festive for the holidays.

My weekend was filled with happiness at Todd's return. He's been out of town on business for the last two weeks, and I am thrilled to have him back. I'm disappointed that he has to fly back to Dayton, Ohio in the middle of this week, but I'm soaking him up as much as I can in the meantime. It was also really fun to see the kids again, who I haven't seen since he headed out. We spent a little of Halloween with them carving Jack-O-Lanterns.

Yesterday was supposed to be all about work for Todd and homework for me, but we got a very slow start to the productive portion of the day. Some work got done, but there is — sadly — plenty more to do.

NaBloPoMo's A-Comin'

So I had it in my head that National Blog Posting Month was always November. I think the NaBloPoMo people are trying to out blog the Blog 365 people, though, by making NaBloPoMo a yearly challenge in bite-sized pieces. Basically, it appears as though every month is now a national blog posting month. Why post every day for a month once when you can do it 12 times in a row?

Since 2009 is The Year I Sucked As A Blogger, obviously I haven't been posting every day. The big question, though, is can I do it every day in November? I want to, and I want to peer pressure you into doing it, too. Most of us did it in 2007, and it was so much fun! It'll be easier to achieve if we're all in it together.

Who's ready to commit?

The Close of ToBloPoMo

That's it, my friends. Today is the last day of ToBloPoMo, and I'm happy that I succeeded with my post-a-day goal. There were times that I posted late, put up something lame, or struggled for something to say, but I still made it through.

As I knew I would, I really liked posting regularly again. I wish I could promise to keep it up, but I don't realistically believe it will happen. I'm taking on a big new challenge at work this week, and fall classes begin next week. Together, those two challenges are going to be tough enough without the added pressure to post every day. Depending on how things are going, maybe I'll take on NaBloPoMo, but we'll have to wait and see on that one. Until then, I'll be here posting irregularly. :)

ToBloPoMo

Or, Tori’s Blog Posting Month, for those of you not in the know.

That’s what August will be. I posted every single day — sometimes twice! — in 2008, so I know I can do it. It’s surprising how quickly not posting every day turned into not posting much at all, and having to really wrack my brain to think of what to post at all. When I did Blog 365, blogging just became part of my day. I miss sharing my life with all of you so regularly and thoughtfully, so I’m going to do a mini version of it all throughout August.

Who wants to join me in the sharing of minutiae?

NaBloPoMo

Today, being November 1st, is the beginning of another round of National Blog Posting Month (or NaBloPoMo for those of you in the know). As someone who has made it 5/6 of the way through Blog 365, let me say: it's actually not that tough to post every day. Anyone who has been reading knows that I occasionally revert to pictures of Camilla or post a youtube video with no commentary. Overall, though, it's really fun and pretty satisfying to be putting something out there every day.

All this is to say that I encourage all of you to give NaBloPoMo a go!

A Novel Idea

So I found myself in a bit of a blogging slump at the end of last week (so I’m playing catch up now). And, I figure: what better way to work myself out of a writing slump than with a giant writing project! A few days ago I got the first email from the NaNoWriMo people. National Novel Writing Month isn’t until November, but they’re wise to send out a pep talk early and give us all time to talk ourselves in to trying for 50,000 words in 30 days again.

I’ve decided not to abandon last year’s novel and just keep going. I’ve worked on it (extremely sporadically) throughout the year, and I like some of the characters I’ve concocted and the messes they’ve gotten themselves into (pause for a debate about the idea of characters taking on lives of their own and surprising their authors). I didn’t make it to 50,000 words last November and am somewhat doubtful that I’ll get there this year, but I like the external prompt to revisit the work and pick it up again.

Anyone else who wants to participate should let me know. We can be NaNoWriMo friends and be each others' cheerleaders.

Anyone out there care about business?

We have all manner of business writing positions available in my group right now (blogger, web editor, speech writer, you name it). If anyone reading this wants to hear more or knows of anyone who might want to hear more, shoot me an email or leave a comment.

One Word

I just stumbled upon a great site for when you want to prompt your creativity a bit or need to find a way around writer's block. One Word gives you just that: a single word and sixty seconds in which to write whatever comes to mind. If you check it out you can read what I wrote prompted by the word "wade."

Urban Poetry

Today's New York Times reports that the subway poetry, which has been present for fifteen years, is going the way of the dodo bird. I’m sure there are great quotes from history, science, and literature that deserve to be read, too, but I’ll miss the poetry. As a society, we don’t read or write much of it and as an individual I don’t either. My work haikus are the extent of my poetry creation in the last two years. I liked that this was one way it stayed present in the lives of New Yorkers.

M.T.A. Derails Poetry

By ROBIN POGREBIN
Published: April 30, 2008

Those poems on the subways are going the way of the No. 9 line — that is, coming to an end after 15 years. Poems may still be posted now and then, but mostly the quotations seen on subways and buses will pertain to a number of different subjects, including history, philosophy, literature and science. “We’re expanding the breadth of the program to include other areas,” said Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “Fifteen years is a long time. We had an opportunity to diversify things a little.” The content — formerly selected by the Poetry Society of America, which started it in 1992 — will now be determined by the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Alice Quinn, executive director of the Poetry Society, said she would try to find a new sponsor, adding, “We’re going to try to keep poetry in the public eye.”

And just a little inside joke for Rena: You know, they killed the 9 train because it was notorious for skipping stops. :)

Blog weariness

I think I’m going to take a break from the blog. It’s been fun while it lasted, but trying to keep up with it every day is simply too much. I think trying for Blog 365 was a mistake, because I feel a lot of pressure to post something every day. I can’t always get to it, and then I feel like a failure. I started on this as a way to keep in touch with people, but it now feels like more of an obligation than anything else.

Suckahs! It’s April Fool’s Day. I love blogging and will be here posting daily for the rest of time (or until I really and truly feel the way I claimed I did above).

Ass in Seat

I've recently--with Tina and Laura's help--decided to get back on the writing wagon and pick up my NaNoWriMo story where I left off in November. I've been ignoring it for the last few months. A good writer would either have been writing (obviously) or at least letting the story percolate so that brilliant passages (or at least the seeds of them) would spring forth when she started writing again. I have used my time less wisely, though, and found that I'd forgotten character's names, forgotten plot points, and generally lost track of the nuances of my story.

Today I reread all of November's writing and recognized how much work there was to do to make this something to be proud of. The more I looked at it, the more it looked like a steaming pile of poop, which made it even harder to get back in the game.

Todd says the trick to writing is to get your ass in the seat. There are always distractions, reasons to procrastinate, and other ways to spend your time. If you just get your ass in the seat for long enough, though, you'll produce. I spent most of my writing time today working on plot-related notes to myself. I think I need greater structure to my story to keep me going. The aimless wandering and character sketches I worked on during NaNoWriMo aren't going to cut it forever.

Creative Complaining

If you’re anything like me, you complain at and about work. Ok, maybe Rena doesn’t because A) only Austin is there to listen and B) it’s hard to complain about the boss when the boss is you. But the rest of you, surely, have gripes. I know Dorrie does. :) I am definitely not going to start spewing my work frustrations here; I think one of the most prevalent follies of bloggers and Facebookers is saying all sorts of shit about work and not expecting to get busted when their boss inevitably stumbles across their blog. Side note: is it creepy to everyone else that your boss might be googling you? Anyway...

My coworker, good friend, and complaint volleying partner recently suggested that we start exchanging frustrations in the form of poems. As she pointed out, our complaints are often just rehashes of things we’ve said before. By putting them in poem-form, we’re prompted to be a little creative, at least.

This suggestion reminded me of two things. It strikes me as funny that while neither my work at McGraw-Hill nor my job here at the School has anything at all to do with poetry, but I’m prompted to craft poems for each nonetheless. At MH, every birthday or going away party was cause to plagiarize/satirize/pay homage to (and every now and then write original) poems, songs, and even the occasional biblical verse. Collections of these poems became part of our English group culture. At Ben’s and my shared going away party, for instance, we were treated to our friends singing new lyrics to famous jail-break-themed songs.

But, more immediately, I was reminded of the time Josh sent me a wonderful, hilarious haiku about how and why working at McGraw-Hill was NOT the cat’s pajamas. Sadly, that has been lost to the annals and neither Josh nor I can find it.

I don’t want my latest creations to meet the same fate, so I offer them up here. I think they’re innocuous enough that I won’t get fired if my boss does, in fact, google me.

About my ever annoying and work-dodging coworker:
Please, figure something
Out for yourself. You're not dumb
Despite how you act

My coworker’s response:
Me, I overheard
Just enough this afternoon
To share this feeling

About the same jackass (written by my coworker):
plans for my weekend:
avoid awkwardly smug men
who e-date from work

About a nice but space-invading and halitosis-suffering coworker:
Sweater vests. Coffee.
Why stand so damn close to me?
Please, invest in mints.

Colon: Personified

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

As always, with all these quizzes and anything astrological, I end up sounding like no fun whatsoever. But lists really can be fun!

My love of punctuation continues unabated nonetheless...

Inspired

I had dinner with Anne (Hi Anne!) earlier this week, and as I walked, slip-sliding my way back to the subway in shoes not meant for snow and ice, I thought about how impressive so many of my friends are. This rumination was prompted by the long talk Anne and I had about a new writing project she’s embarking upon, but the more I thought the more I realized that just about everyone I know is working on something wonderful. Whether it’s Anne and her writing; Laura’s political campaigning; Jen, Rena, Drew, and Veronica starting their own businesses; Tina’s world travels; Shannon’s performances; or one of the many other things my friends are doing, I feel both proud to know so many creative and ambitious people and inspired by them.

I’m not joining the ranks of entrepreneurs or actresses, but it’s amazing to see people following their passions. And, to follow in many of your footsteps, I’m trying to set aside one night a week for my own creative work (mostly writing, though I like to think that the sky’s the limit in terms of future projects). It’s impossible to find the time and all about making the time, which is what I’m trying to do. And this fall will, one way or another, come hell or high water, find me in Europe on a proper vacation. I’ll also be knocking on doors—or hopefully something less intrusive and annoying—for the democratic presidential nominee once this never-ending primary season is over.

So, thanks to all of you for getting me motivated!

Giving Thanks

Not original, I know, but today's post is all about what I'm thankful for. Instead of saying friends, family, and health (which is all, of course, true), I'm saying today that I'm thankful for creation. Don't worry, I'm not going all Intelligent Design on you guys. Really, I'm thankful for feeling more creative for the last few months. There was a time when I was constantly working on a writing project, making pottery, learning what a crimping bead was so I could make my own jewelry, or doing something else fun and creative. I've been out of that mode for a while now, and without even realizing it, I was completely missing it.

Thanks to the encouragement of some friends and National Novel Writing Month, I've been doing far and away more writing in the last two months than I've done in the last two years. And even though NaNoWriMo has been a dismal failure in terms of word count (I'm thousands and thousands of words behind where I should be), I still consider it a personal success.

Now I need to collapse into a food coma.

Twelve Words

In the midst of obsessing about how many words I'm up to on my regular old novel writing, it was a nice change of pace to be as absolutely concise as possible. Here's my twelve word novel. If I'm lucky and the Powers That Be at On the Media love it, they might read it on the air next weekend.


This place and this man weren't what she'd expected. She missed home.

12-Word Novel

I was listening to On the Media this morning on NPR when the two hosts sent a shout out to all of us participating in NaNoWriMo. It was pretty exciting to hear, especially since it's taking more and more to motivate as I fall further and further behind. They put out a very interesting challenge to the would-be writers listening: rather than writing a long novel, write a very, very short one--12 words or fewer. I haven't written my 12-worder yet, but I'll post it tomorrow if I come up with something good. In the meantime, here are a couple of my favorite entries so far.


In the army, George discovered he was a coward. He told nobody.
--Leon Freilich

The children wept as mother shuddered. Father was the whiskey man again.
--James Lavin

Sit. This will take a while. You see, your mother is dead.
--Todd V.

Obituary; first five words free? She thought. "Charles dead. Yacht for Sale."
--Angela Stucker

13,142

That's how many words I have written for National Novel Writing Month. And since I haven't done anything exciting in the last 24 hours to write about instead, I'm going to talk about writing a book in a month.

First of all, it's hard! I'm trying to get up early and write before work. Despite how very, very difficult it is for me to drag my lazy ass out of bed in the morning, I find that if I can manage it, I'm more productive then than I am in the evenings. And since I can't always be guaranteed a slow day at work in which to novel, forcing myself to become an early riser seems like my best chance for success.

I'm also really intrigued by how organic this process is. National Novel Writing Month focuses exclusively on quantity and output. There is no quality control and the NaNoWriMo powers-that-be actively encourage writers not to edit at this point. As they say, that's what December is for. Because I'm striving for a lot of mediocre writing instead of a smaller amount of polished, thoughtful prose, my novel is progressing in unexpected ways. I'm following tangents and writing disembodied scenes without any connective tissue. I'm surprised at which parts are coming very naturally and which characters refuse to materialize, regardless of how central they're supposed to be. My protagonist is a mere specter, while secondary characters' back stories are flowing right out of me.

And finally, I'm grateful for the friends going through this with me. Sharing all my bad writing on a regular basis--and seeing what others are coming up with, too--creates a feeling of accountability and much-needed motivation for me. It would be easy to give up if I were doing this in isolation (as most writers work all the time), and I'm glad to have the moral support of my fellow NaNoWriMo-ers.

NaBloPoMo Day 1

Good luck to all my fellow NaBloPoMo-ers out there! I'm trying to stock pile ideas of interesting things to write about this month, but there's no guarantee I won't resort to telling you about what I had for lunch at some point.

Laura and Tina have convinced me to also give NaWriNoMo a try this year, too. In the next 30 days, I'm supposed to write a 175 page or 50,000 word novel. So far I have 437 words and only half a clue what it is I'm writing. Plot, characters, and arc are all a bit fuzzy at this point. My hope is that all will emerge soon, or these are going to be 175 painful pages.

In the meantime, I'd like to point out that whoever decided NaBloPoMO and NaNoWriMo should take place in the same month is mean, mean, mean.