Writing challenge updates and funny video

Another filled up day. I really need a long sleep. 🙂 This means, of course, my writing got nearly nowhere today.

I didn’t get any NaNoWriMo writing done yet, so my word total is still zero. This is going to be a problem for me, although as a NaNo Rebel I don’t need 50K words to finish the novel I’m writing.

PiBoIdMo I gained two more ideas, making 12 so far.

For today’s National Blog Posting Month post I would like to share this video I found. It is so funny, mostly about cats but you will see a few dogs there, too.

Tell me what you think.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Caregiver Stress Management; challenge updates

Hi All, I hope you had a great day. This is a short post in my effort to do my post for the day.

I participated in a Caregiver Stress Management workshop this afternoon with a friend, one of my daughters, and several other ladies. It was worth it, although I left feeling more stressed than when I went in. So then, why would I feel it’s worth it? Because it pointed out to me that I am not handling my life situation (caregiving and everything else) as well as I thought I was.

Oh I’m doing what I need to do to be sure things are running smoothly here at my dad’s, and I am treating him with love and respect (because I love and respect him), and he is not neglected in any way. What I am not handling well is caring for myself, mainly in that I don’t organize my time well – which has always been a problem for me. The hang-up is I can’t stick to a schedule very well or for very long. On my respite time what I want to do is write. And walk. And read. And nap. Then I feel guilty about doing my own thing … resulting in not getting much done at all and I feel guilty about that! We are blessed to have lots of help here, and I feel guilty about that. There’s more, but … if I were to tell you, then … you guessed it! … I’d feel guilty about that!

On to NaNoWriMo report … zero words written. 😦 I’m still hoping and looking forward to after tomorrow to change the nothing total. I’m having a busy first half of the week.

Day 5 of PiBoIdMo: I wrote one idea today for a total of 10. I could likely come up with more but I stopped at the requirement this time since I am very tired and hoping someone will soon ‘retire’ so I can get some sleep myself.

This wraps up my post for today in NaBloPoMo!

Did you do anything fun or educational recently that helped you realize something important?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Challenge updates: NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo

My writing challenges update:

NaNoWriMo: I am not doing well when you look at my link (at top of page), but I am thinking about it. That’s a start, isn’t it? 🙂 So far … zero words written.

PiBoIdMo: It’s day four and I have 9 ideas so far. Tara Lazar has fabulous guests again who have fabulous suggestions to help us with our picture book idea writing. I feel good about it this year.

NaBloPoMo: As you may have noticed, so far I am keeping up with daily blog posts.

Health: The first part of this week is busy for me in other ways, so my writing time is chopped up. Monday – an information education session called Understanding Dementia. It was very helpful, some of it new info for me. Tuesday – a Caregiver Stress Management workshop, which I expect to be more of what I need to hear. Wednesday I have three appointments for myself, including with my naturopath and my reflexologist. They have helped me with health issues, and aided me in regaining and maintaining my health – very important to me. I have to be well in order to better take care of others. It looks as if I will have Thursday and Friday for writing. All this takes place when I have someone present for my respite time. It probably won’t be uninterrupted, though.

Writing: I went through a blah spell with my writing, low on inspiration and energy for it. In early Spring one of my daughters got me into a game to play on my iPhone and it has turned into a vehicle of inspiration for my writing. Each day when I ‘visit’ my ‘neighbours’ I leave a little blurb of 120 characters or less. The response has been generally good, and that has served to keep me going. I found it has even released my creative thinking so that now I’m into these writing challenges it could be of help. My wheels didn’t rust or seize up during the slow time. 🙂 In fact, I am seriously thinking about a story book I can write from what I have been posting there. One never knows from where will come the next inspiration.

That’s all for now. I will post something tomorrow.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

I’m participating in NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo 2013!

November is again a busy writing month for me. I signed up for National Novel Writing Month for my fourth year, and Picture Book Idea Month for my third year – having passed on it in 2012. I am going to make an honest attempt to do both again even though my life situation (caregiving) has not changed.

After midnight last night a thought came into my mind, then an idea was taking shape, then the thought became the title, and before I went to bed I had a rough ‘rough draft’ of a story for a picture book. Day one accomplished for PiBoIdMo!

Not so for NaNoWriMo, I regret to say, as I have not written a word there yet. I am still writing the novel I began in NaNo 2010, since I’ve worked on it only during the last three Novembers. My word count is a combined total of 123,900 – give or take a few words. When I stopped near midnight of November 30’12 it was at a place one would call a “cliffhanger”, and was a bit exasperating to my sister who read it all after NaNo had ended last year. 😉 She was not happy with where I stopped and told me emphatically I had to finish the story! Even I am not sure what is going to happen next, but my characters will gradually let me know when I get into it again … which should have been today, but that’s not happening!

If you are asking, ” What is she talking about?!” I will briefly explain.

NaNoWriMo – or National Novel Writing Month – is the worldwide challenge to write a novel (really a novella) of 50,000 words in 30 days. You have to start with a fresh idea to ‘win’, but there are many who are NaNo Rebels, which is perfectly fine, too. I won (reached the goal of 50k) the first year but the next two years I participated as a Rebel in order to add to the novel I had begun and want to finish. This year I am doing the same.

If you are interested in checking out NaNoWriMo, click here. If you are taking part in it this year, let me know if you want a buddy.

PiBoIdMo – or Picture Book Idea Month – is the brainchild of Tara Lazar which she started in 2009. It is quickly becoming the widely known challenge to write a picture book idea a day during the 30 days of November. It’s for those writers who don’t want to take on creating a novel but would enjoy participating in a book writing challenge. Some of us do both. 🙂 Each day you write something … anything … a title, the name of a character, an idea for a story, or even a whole draft if it works out for you, so at the end you should have at least 30 ideas for picture books! Cool, huh? I think so! Oh, and there are super guest posts, lots of writing genius shared, and even prizes! I love that I end up with so many ideas for PB’s, even if I ‘win’ nothing. It is sort of like a conference but with so much added.

If you are interested in signing up for – or checking out – PiBoIdMo, click here. Registration closes SOON, so hurry!

Now I must create a new page for my NaNo updates so if you want to keep track of what I am managing to do you can read it there. Click on the NaNoWriMo updates (2013) link at the top of the page. Besides, if you want to cheer me on, Heaven knows I need it! 🙂 It may be crazy for me to be taking this on since I am behind in reading, reviewing, interviewing, but sometimes I need a change of pace to get refreshed and inspired anew. At least, I hope that’s what will happen! 🙂

Are you participating in either of the above challenges?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

New year, new plans, blog updates

How did a new year get here so quickly! Already I am having to adjust to writing new numbers .. 2 0 1 2 .. and hoping I don’t make some dumb dating mistakes. (dating on paper – cheques, letters – to clarify that meaning. 🙂 ) This set of numbers seems odd to realize, though. And there are those who believe this year will bring monumental change .. world ending? oh, who knows! Does it really matter whether we even know when it’s coming or not? It ends when it ends, there is nothing we can do about it. If we worry about having time to make things right with God or someone else, then it’s best not to wait .. do it now! Personally, I’m not worried. I’ll just keep living my life and trusting God through it all.

But I do have new plans, or maybe it is just an amped up version of the old plans. Reading and writing. Writing and reading. I have signed up for #MOP (Month of Poetry) which means I am to write a poem a day this month, and I also signed up for 12×12 in 2012 so that the story ideas I compiled in November the last two years through PiBoIdMo can be shaped into story books .. twelve of them! One a month. Hopefully, I can expound upon those two writing ventures in later posts, as time allows.

In case you didn’t notice, I updated my blog pages a bit, too. And I hope to find a better theme for my blog, one that will accommodate the extra badges I want and should put up. Not all of them will show right now so there must be a limit on this theme. Eventually, I will get ‘er done, and I hope you will not mind the in-between time until I get it right.

What are your goals for 2012? Notice I didn’t say resolutions, I seem to fail with those, but maybe you succeed? Do tell!

What are your dreams and plans for this new year? I’d love to hear about them.

Maybe you are already on the road to something new and wonderful? I’m ready to enjoy your story.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

PiBoIdMo is over, but for me it has just begun

PiBoIdMo is the other challenge I took on for the whole month of November. I learned about it in 2010 and first took part in it then … but let me explain …

PiBoIdMo – Picture Book Idea Month – is the brain child of Tara Lazar. Check her out here: http://taralazar.wordpress.com/about/

The challenge is to write an idea a day during the 30 days of November. The idea can be as simple as the name of a character, or the title for a story, or as complete as the whole outline for a story, or something in between. Thirty ideas in thirty days. Sound daunting? I thought so.

In 2010 I did both NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo, and succeeded in both. It was exhilarating, exciting, tiring, fun. This year, I tried both again, and if you read my last post you will know that I didn’t get a win in NaNo, but I’m pleased to say that I did again meet the goal for PiBoIdMo. Yay! I got 40 ideas, maybe more depending on how you count them up.

I didn’t think I could do it. Some days the idea well ran dry, but on some other days I got more than one idea for a story so that by the end I had passed the target. whew!

Again, if you have been following my blog, you will know that life has changed a lot for me. Because of that I really wasn’t sure I could dredge up enough creativity, but I very much wanted to try. And I am so glad I did.

Tara Lazar, if you are reading this … Thank you (again) for a fantastic 2011 PiBoIdMo! 2010 was great, but I don’t know if this one was better or if I was more open to seeing more, but … wowsers!!

Last year I took the pledge, read all the daily posts, commented on some, gleaned a little here and there, completed the challenge, and then I put it all aside. I didn’t even get one story pulled together, so I guess in all actuality I broke the pledge. 😦 Sorry, Tara. (Really I should be apologizing to myself as it is not hurting Tara that I did not follow through, it is my own loss.)

This year I took the pledge, read all the daily posts (and was moved to tears a few times – what was that about??), commented on most, absorbed more this year, completed the challenge, and then … then? Then wow! I had a personal revelation, an awakening in my hopeful heart.

I don’t know ‘where I was’ last year in all of this, but this year… this year! … I realized Tara is making the way for me to move forward as a writer of children’s books. She is giving me all the tools to draw out what I need and what I need to do, and THEN .. after the 30 days were over she didn’t stop there. Just as she had guest bloggers write pre-PiBoIdMo posts this year, she had a few more guest bloggers post for several days afterward. wow! And somewhere in there I got it. I see now.

I took on PiBoIdMo in 2010 for the challenge and fun of it. I learned things, I worked at it, I succeeded in meeting the goal, and I was delighted that I had some nice story ideas that were worth developing … some day. This year, all of the same things but with one major exception. I have to complete by honouring the pledge. And I think I should do it twice .. to include last year, too.

I realized that this is not just fun and games. If I really want to write children’s books then Tara Lazar has handed to me all I need to do just that! duhhh!

This year, I got it, Tara. I understand. That is what the tears were about. That is what PiBoIdMo did for me this year. I am learning how to be the writer I want to become. Thank you.

And one of these days I may just say, “Hello, my name is Lynn, and I am a writer.” One of these days .. 🙂

How about you? Have you had any personal revelations or awakenings lately that have had an impact on you?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

How does a NaNoWriMo novel come to be? (and PiBoIdMo update)

If someone were to judge by my word count, one could conclude that all is lost for me.

My NaNoWriMo total does not look good in light of a remainder of four days in which to write 38155 words. Even so, I can’t say that I agree with that doubt one hundred per cent, because there is still a chance, albeit a slim one. (Does that sound convoluted and writerly enough?)

Have I given up yet? No! Not yet, and I probably won’t until that last stroke of time on November 30. I will keep writing to see how far I can get in those four days.

It isn’t as if I have not been writing, it’s just not down on paper yet. You writers know what I mean. 🙂

This year I have a sketchy outline .. if it can be called an outline – more a list of ideas – a rough plan of where my story is going. I didn’t even have that until 7000 words in – page 24 of my notes – written in long hand, not on computer. My characters have become more complicated, my plot has thickened, and the loose ends are starting to have some meaning to them. Starting, you ask? Well, yes. How do I explain? …

When I began writing this novel for NaNo 2010, I started with nothing. Truly nothing. I prayed. The first line of my story is: I’m not even sure what I’m doing, but here I go anyway. So began my novel, with the main character adopting that line as her beginnings in my evolving story. (I use the word ‘novel’ rather loosely as I have never written one before and that is the goal of NaNo .. to write a 50000 word novel, or the beginnings of a longer one.)

With that first line the character took over, fleshed out as we went along, became a real person in my creative mind. She has a mother, a best friend, a boyfriend, a mystery person to learn about, a ‘treasure’ to research and find, and a whole set of emotions, fears, desires, irritations, and challenges to keep her going. Plus, there is a little humour woven in which makes it more real. (What is life without humour?) And did I mention? .. there is an undercurrent of the paranormal in the mix.

When I stopped writing at just before midnight on November 30, 2010, my characters (the list had grown by three more essential ones) had complicated the plot considerably. It had become exciting to write this story. In fact, whenever one particular character appeared in a scene I would get chills right down my spine every time! What’s with that? And the personalities were developing so that I had quite an assortment interacting with one another. It was amazing to me!

When I stopped writing … I set them all aside. I had three different conflicts to resolve. I had a vague idea of where the story was going, but no clear direction of how to get there.

I left the story untouched, read it through months later and was amazed – not because I thought it was genius (which I didn’t), but because it came out of my imagination. With a pen and a large binder full of paper this whole adventure appeared. That is amazing to me.

I put it away.

Then entered NaNoWriMo 2011. Another large binder full of paper, the desire to finish what I had started last year, but …

I found it was so difficult to pick up and keep going with this story. I chose to do that, though, because I really want to see how this story will turn out before I start creating a new one. Only this time it is not flowing the way it did last year. This time it is a struggle. But .. more has come to light, my main character has a summer job now, the intensity is growing, the twists and turns add depth and drama. I seem to be going deeper into conflict, which means it will be more challenging to find my way out .. to help my characters find satisfactory resolutions.

But, you know .. I love it! Is this what it means to be a writer?

Learning as I go, I know that I have to work out my time line so that things connect and not remain disjointed. Therein lies the biggest challenge for me, equal to sorting out the small details to make it all work. Hopefully, that will all come together in the editing.

I know this novel may never go anywhere, but I can dream, can’t I? Maybe it will be of interest to someone. Maybe it has to wait its time before being picked up. But .. I digress ..

I have a story to complete in four days! I have mysteries to solve, people’s lives to sort out, justice to be served. Yes, and a treasure to find. Even I don’t yet know for sure where it is. I have to write!

This is a fitting place to end this post, but I want to add that I am also participating in PiBoIdMo this year, as I did last year. I have been trying to come up with an idea a day for picture books. That is another challenge, and a fun one. I haven’t found one every day, but almost, and on some days I came up with more than one. By the end of this month my total should be 30 ideas, one for each of the 30 days of November. Right now I stand at 37 ideas .. so really, I have already won! 🙂 I am learning even more this year about writing for children, and I love it. Thanks to Tara Lazar, a creative spirit and author of children’s books. ( http://taralazar.wordpress.com/ )

I have much do to, but .. first I must write!

Any comments? If you are a writer, what do you most love about the process?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂