Off the Beaten Plan

plan: to devise or project the realization or achievement of

Getting Back on Track

to do...done!I haven’t done much reading lately due to my November commitment. I also did absolutely no web design, nor did I do anything, actually, to help support my family. December is also a rocky month, and so my goals are not too high, but I here is a quick list of things that I would like to accomplish and work back into my daily routine.

  • Regular reading of actual books currently purchased and on my bookshelf.
  • Design of real estate website templates for my coworker who then creates the actual sites.
  • Wii Fit exercise – at least 30 minutes/credits per day.
  • Walking – a few times a week with a friend who could use the company, I think.
  • Publication of new Squidoo Lenses. I’ve been nominated for Giant Squidhood, I just need another 40 lenses or so, and could write about…
    • The books I’m going to read.
    • Things I’m learning in my design travels.
    • Life experiences I’ve had and how I’ve dealt with them.
    • My favorite things.
    • My vacation to Prague two years ago.
    • My father’s disease.
    • The tattoo I recently started planning. (Excitement!!)

If I could get a schedule going, where I do X on Monday, and YY on Tuesday, etc, that would be the bomb. Having a schedule is, in my experience, the single best way for me to get things done.

When I went back to school in 2000, I began working the night shift at my job. I had the absolute best job, because I got to work for two hours, and study or read or whatever for the remaining six. My schedule was strict. Beginning at 11 p.m., I would work until midnight, where I would then take one hour to surf the Internet, chat, play games or read. Then from 1 a.m. until I was either done with my homework, or if it was a project I couldn’t complete in one night, until 4 a.m., I would study my ass off. Then from 4 a.m. until my shift was over, I would get to do whatever again – work, play, read, chat, whatever. Do you know what happened to my grades when I started that schedule?

I got A’s everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. It was a wonderous thing, especially since I had never considered myself anything more than a B average student.

So that’s the deal. As I work through December, I’ll keep giving updates. Maybe Monday mornings will be my update days, as Sunday evenings are usually the evenings when I have the least time. :)

Getting Back on Track was published on December 3rd, 2009, with the tags , , , , , , , , , , under the Organization, Planning category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

OMG, TGIO

nano_09_winner_120x240National Novel Writing Month is officially over. I have been participating since 2003, and never have I had such a rough time of it. I would now just like to take a moment to share the things I will, and the things I will not miss now that NaNoWriMo is done with.

I will miss…

  1. All the friendly camaraderie on the forums
  2. Write-ins at Borders & Panera
  3. Hearing about everyone’s novels
  4. Watching word-count bars turn more green

I will not miss…

  1. The awful chairs at Borders
  2. People who like to start drama
  3. Stressing about my word count
  4. Trying to get my character out of jams without being completely implausible

I hit 50,000 words, but my story has not quite finished with me yet, so I keep writing. In NaNo terms, I actually had a really good day yesterday, getting out 2500 words. I’m keeping my NaNoWriMo Report Card running as well, so I can see how many WPD I’m chewing out.

Edit: I was going to post this yesterday. However, in the immediate aftermath of November, I completely shut down. Hopefully I can get back into my regular schedule soon.

OMG, TGIO was published on December 2nd, 2009, with the tags , , , under the Completely Off Topic category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Black Friday = Many Typed Words

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo

Okay, I’m very determined to do lots of writing and very little sleeping or video watching today while I’m home and the kids are at daycare. I want to have a Black day, meaning that if I typed out what I’ve written, I would have many pages of black type.

Cheesy? Perhaps. But I am determined. I will hit at least 5,000 new words today, tomorrow and Sunday. If I don’t, the chances of winning NaNoWriMo this year are non-existent.

Now…if someone could please tell me how can I bribe two coach bus drivers to take I78 to Allentown instead of I76 to Philly, I would be very grateful.

Black Friday = Many Typed Words was published on November 27th, 2009, with the tags , , under the Completely Off Topic category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

November Woes

woeI am having a very rough November. Have I mentioned that before? I’m sorry if I have. I have been on such an emotional roller coaster, and most of it has been down.

My writing performance for NaNoWriMo has been sub-par. I haven’t kept up on my minimum words per day, which is very unusual for me. I watched those close to me succeed wildly with it this year, too, which was another dig to send me down.

I have let this blog suffer, not posting regularly, and now my visitor-ship, never great to begin with, has suffered. I so badly want this to be successful (read: of help to someone, or a group of someones), and it hurts when I know I’m not giving it the attention it deserves.

My health has suffered. I am experiencing more daily pain than ever, from my heel to my back to my shoulder. I need to usually take two ibuprofen in the morning before my shower, and I follow it up with another two acetaminophen when I start my shift at work. I know this isn’t good for me, but how else am I going to make it through my day?

And then there are the other, more random things. I’m unhappy when I’m at work, and I can’t put a finger on why. I’m unhappy at home when I’m with the kids, their normal arguments sending me over the edge. I’m trying to figure out why my son seems to get so agitated about 90 minutes after he goes to bed, and why it’s getting harder and harder to talk him out of these episodes. (Tonight he actually peed on me.)

I know focusing on the negative is only making things worse, but it is so hard to find anything positive right now to focus on. It’s this cloud over my life that I just can’t shake. What will fix it, more exercise? Therapy? A good long talk with a friend? (Which just sets off a whole ‘nother set of negative thoughts I won’t even get into now because it sounds really depressed.)

For the record, it really sounds like I’m just bitching about my life here, and I’m not. I am seriously trying to sort out how I turn this around. Do I need to put happy songs full blast until I can dance this mood away? Do I talk to my boss and give him this random “I’m just sort of not happy and I don’t know why” story? Would talking to my husband be constructive, or would he just hug me because he doesn’t know what to do? Should I be talking to my dad who is an ordained minister and trained to counsel people to a degree?

Or maybe I should just cry it out tonight and start again tomorrow, and see if things get better. I know there’s really nothing that should be holding me back – this is just a bad month, and next month will be better. What goes around, comes around, and if I keep putting positive out there, eventually positive will come back to me. (I firmly believe that, by the way.)

So maybe that’s my solution. Get my positive karma going, and deal with this. I don’t know why I should be upset, so stop dwelling on it. Maybe this will help. Maybe it’s helped already.

November Woes was published on November 25th, 2009, with the tags , , , , , under the Completely Off Topic category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

Home Stretch

Finish LineIt’s nearing the end of November. This is the home stretch for all of us NaNo-ites. We’ve got seven days, not including today, to write the last words to either finish our story or hit that magical number, 50,000 words. For some, they have already surpassed their word count goal, and they’re already to the editing stages. Others have written far more than 50,000, but still have more story to write. And there are people like me who still have about 20,000 words to write, story be damned.

I think the reason that National Novel Writing Month works quite so well is the pressure it puts on a person. Because when you think about it, really – 50,000 words in 30 days? When most participants for the first time are not regular writers? Ack! That’s insane!

But you’re writing with thousands of other people, and there’s a clearly defined goal, and there’s even a website that will hold you accountable and count your words for you. And even if you’re entering the last week with a serious word count deficit, chances are that given enough time, the pressure will get you to finish.

I’m very excited for this last week of NaNo. I have a very supportive husband, more so this year than any previous year, actually. I also have a half-day on Wednesday with daycare available, as well as the day after Thanksgiving when I can simply write my heart out and not think, or do, anything else.

Especially not turn on the television. That’s sure to derail me at this late date.

Home Stretch was published on November 23rd, 2009, with the tags , , , , under the Editorial category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.