National Novel Writing Month...

…and so it begins.

November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo, to those who participate. Its main goal, for writers, all around the country, is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days! I am already 2 days behind…sort of. 

My only problem or question, (to myself), do I want to participate this year? In the last four years, I have only finished one novel and it is still sitting on my desk collecting dust… (Editing cost a fortune, at least for me it does, retirement does that, sometimes, I mean, I’ve given up Lobster, caviar and Champagne and now only eat beans, beer and PB&J sandwiches for dinner, now). In 2015, I started a new novel but only completed 12k words. It sat around, (in my computer), for an entire year waiting for me to finish. 

In 2016, I started writing, again. I finished, in November with 25k words, total. What I feel so bad about, I have been day dreaming, night dreaming, thinking about my novel just about every day as to, how do I defeat this writers block? How do I have the two main characters interact? This conflict, with me, has been going on since the end of last year’s NaNoWriMo.

Do I wish to participate? Probably not. Well…maybe so. I can say, and I really feel it, I really need to WRITE this novel, finish this novel! However, where did my passion disappear too?  

Many, many years ago, I really did have a passion for writing. However, I would have to lock myself in my room, (I had two young children, annoying children, always wanting to play children and yes, and I did play with them more often than not – after I finished writing). I managed to finish three books during those turbulent times, only to have them published during the last three years. 

Do I want to participate…? I am going to write. I am going to write 50,000 words, during November – or longer. I am going to finish this novel. I have to see how my resolve is, find my muse again, and find my passion, for writing. I miss it, with a passion.

 

Way back then, I would drink and knock out a few thousand words a day. My drinking, gin, vodka and scotch days are over now. I just drink beer, but that doesn’t seem to help. Coffee seems to be my only help (hope?), and I have a few bags of coffee to get me through the month of November. 

The light is on, tomorrow I will get my bearings and…I will WRITE! 50,000 words or else!  And, now that I think about it, try my best to keep this cat off of my lap as I write. He’s so cute, sleeping on my lap. Geez…

Resolutions – substitutions; Just say no to Resolutions

It’s that time of the year again, time for Resolutions. I have posted many times that I do not make resolutions; I just plan and do the deeds. However, I say this every year and I do make a list of things that I have to do to keep my sanity, especially in the realm of writing.

I have been writing, but only posting to my blog. Why you ask? I gotta stop drinking, procrastinating and going onto Facebook, and watching sports, and…but I digress.

I am not going to get caught up in the hype of resolutions, on the first day of January. Besides, I think all resolutions are a precursor to failure. However, I personally find that there really isn’t anything wrong with failure, failure means, you at least tried.

What I am going to do, try and maybe fail, and or, try and succeed, well, there are a bunch of things that I must do for the year of 2017 and beyond. I really have to finish all of the below because, I am tired of eating PB&J every day, with water. I really miss eating steak, salmon, caviar, champagne…even though I am a vegetarian, I still miss em all.

My goals for 2017:

Finish the novel I started for NaNoWriMo, by at least by the end February, or at least sometime this year, “Marooned”. I am into about 10k words (that took me six days to write 10k words), and would love to end with at least, 60k – 70k+ words. I have had a cover created, which has inspired me to write the story, all of which is glued to a tiny portion of my brain.

 I have finished two books in my “fictional autobiography” series. Now I need to edit them and find someone to read them, for clarity. There are four more in the series to write. The main thing is to find a publisher. I would love to have this series published the old-fashioned, traditional, way. Self-publishing is not out of the question.

In past couple of months, I have come up a few new story lines, Time Sleeper, Day Runner, Comic Con and Surf's Up. My plate is getting full, and I am hungry.

I started writing a new book of poetry, Haikus. The Haiku’s are in regard to the seasons.  I was taking pictures of nature, in the spring, summer, fall and winter. I think I have all the pictures I need. Of course, a few more won’t hurt, and I have written over a hundred and fleshed out many more haiku’s. However, I have over 500 pictures, which is about the amount I would need to finish writing.

In addition, I have finished two screenplays. Now that I found out about Amazon Storywriter, it should help me focus on my story with features such as auto-formatting, import/export of my favorite file formats. They have also announced that they are now welcoming online submissions of drama series projects and are offering new expansions to their open-door submission policy.

A new Web site! I took the last one down three or so years ago. My goal is to get one up and running in the next couple of months.

On 3x5 cards, I have written out 42 stories. Most of them I wrote over 30 years or so ago. It’s time to outline those stories and get productive this years.

I have so many other goals to accomplish this year, and as of the first of January, I can’t think of any resolutions.

13 hours!

I had a dream this morning and they usually end up as a Sci-Fi story I want to write. After I woke up, fed the cats, made coffee, breakfast and read all of my emails, I thought I would flesh out my story. So I decided to go out and walk my three mile route and come up a story line.

When I got back I had the story laid out…in my mind. I was planning to write today, I have a bunch of things I wanted to get out and finished, let’s say, at least 2000 words worth. However, nothing happened at all with all of those thoughts I had, Nothing, nada, zilch, nope…Nothing!

Why you ask? I watched all 13 hours of the New Netflix series, “Luke Cage”. Thirteen hours! I watched six episodes last night and I was up until 1 am. Then when I finished with most of the things I needed to do, today, I hit up Netflix, again, and finished the rest of the series. Thirteen hours!

The good thing, though, I never let the idea out of my head. I don’t have a title, yet, but I know I will think of something sooner or later, so it’s “untitled – 10/2016”. I better outline it so I don’t forget.

When I get up tomorrow, I hope to find some motivation to keep my butt in this chair, in front of this computer and finish the novel I am working on now by at least November when the NaNoWriMo starts. That’s because I have another novel I want to start.

I am going to have to break some of these plates I have piled up over there in the sink. Because my plates are getting full and its getting hard to keep up. Fingers crossed… procrastinating? 

Dreaming...

Dreaming…

My father, many, many years ago, labeled me a “Dreamer”. I made the mistake of sitting around and dreamt about everything that popped into my mind; usually my dreams were of science fiction. I watched as many SF movies as I could, considering; going to a movie, in those days was only 25 cents. Those dreams, though, got me to write science fiction stories. I don’t regret those dreams.

In recent years, I still dreamt bad and good, more on the bad later. However, for instant, I have always had that dream I would win 10 million dollars, still hasn’t happen, but I keep that dream in the back corner of my mind. I do remember seeing a computer, at Best Buy, and told myself, that was the computer I wanted! I had never seen a one piece computer before and it was the...one.

Nearly 10 years ago, I started doing surveys’ online and for a long time I never won anything. I would just accumulate points in order to get gift cards, and that was fine, ten bucks here, ten bucks there…I purchased a ton of Apple gift cards and music. Six years ago, I got an email from an unknown person; the note read that I had won a computer. I kind of ignored the note for a couple of days, then, I got another email from the same person.

So, the note said, call this person to verify who I am. I did one better and Googled the company and asked for that person. She told me that I indeed won a computer, the one I had seen at Best Buy, the year before. She mentioned to me that she wished that more people would call.

Anyway, in the years following, I have won more gift cards and a 55-inch Sony flat screen Boob tube, and more gift cards. However, as of today, I have not won anything in the Lottery, still dreaming about that though. And, I am still dreaming about my perfect, dream woman – not really, but it pops up every now and then.

The Bad, well, not all that bad. I remember dreaming about having a crash while I was driving and it had happened a few times in my adult life. Years ago, I remember dreaming about my brother and I heard him screaming, “Freddy, Help me, Help me!” A few days later, I heard he was in New York; he had been attacked and was in the hospital. I also remember a friend, who lives in Boston told me she was flying to Chicago the next day. That night, for whatever reason, I dreamt about a plane crashing. The next day was 9/11.

Not all of my dreams have been that bad or devastating. One thing, or dream I have, more often than not, as I am washing the dishes, (yes, I still wash my dishes by hand, even though I have a dishwasher), I always, as I am washing one particular knife, a large butcher knife, think that I might drop that thing on my foot. That has been going on as long as I have had that butcher knife and or have been washing the dishes.

Today it happened. I dropped a knife onto my foot. Now I won’t have to think about that anymore, because it happened and it’s over. I am just thankful that it was a butter knife!