back on track, gaining momentum

Started writing again, finally. It took a "word war" to get started again. Learned about this simple motivational technique from NANWRIMO. Get together with another writer friend (N.L.) choose how long you plan to write (we tried 10 minutes for starters), and then - race to see who can type the most words in the given time period. For our first word war, I only managed a painful 220 words (N.L. achieved over 500, and what she shared was good writing, too). I fared a little better in our next word war, which was 25 minutes, 620 words. Provided enough inspiration to start writing on my own again. I typed over 1000 words last night.

I do have another motivation, though. My stepdaughter asked to read my book. I warned her it wasn't finished yet, and parts of it were still really rough. But she blazed through the first 200 pages in one day, and has devoured the subsequent 80 pages I fed her (the rough draft from November). So now I am scrambling to get more written. She's had a couple suggestions for changes (one I liked immediately: it opens up more possibilities for a sequel), but for the most part she seems to really like my book. At least, she says she does. And as fast as she's reading it, it's not boring her. Another good sign: she's the target age I'm writing for.
Enough blog writing. Gotta save the words for the real stuff.

Busy moms finding time to write

Well, I actually opened the Word document that accumulated over 38,000 words in November... scrolled to the end of it, looked at the last thing I wrote, and sighed. I told myself "Just write one sentence. You can DO it! Just one little sentence!"
But I failed, yet again, to even accomplish something as trivial as an average 12 word sentence.
Okay, so this week I'm blaming it on the arrival of my stepdaughter and getting her room set up and getting her started at the Junior High. She has decided to try living with us again, brave soul. Within less than a day of her arrival, she got me sucked into this new series she's reading about vampires. (Yes, I am a believing, born again, Bible-thumping Christian, but I do have a weakness for vampire stories).

Twilight is a love story between a vampire and a high school girl. The thing that makes it really intriguing (and also a best seller, I think) is the vampire both loves the girl and lusts after her blood. So there is a constant tension in their relationship. The book itself was about average as far as writing quality, but the writer part of me was actually more interested in the author's statement of how she came write the book. She is also a mother with small children – three boys, in her case. She said she wrote every night after she put them to bed, and the rest of the day she kept a notebook at her side constantly so as ideas occurred she could jot them down. She finished the book in 6 months, and it's no small book – 500 pages. I wouldn't have thought it possible for a mother of small children, if I hadn't just successfully written 38,000 words in one month. (At that rate, I could write a 500 page book in four months!)

But, the bottom line is, as fun as it is to come up with ideas, it ain't going to amount to much unless I start WRITING. Put the butt in the chair and keep it there until something gets done.