No, I will probably not manage to post more often. I will probably get "too busy" with life and two more years down the road be in the same situation. But today I am trying again, today I am rising up again to the public humiliation of saying I am a writer, would you like to see my writing? I might not be very good, or even here next week, but today I am brave. So there.
Last month I went to a teacher's conference and had people notice my journaling, and got excited over the idea and someone suggested I start a blog...
Last month I decided at the last moment to publicly announce my progress in the NaNoWriMo challenge...
And this month I'm hoping to set a goal of writing about 2500 words a week. Whether I'm posting that work here or not, I haven't really decided.
The NaNoWriMo challenge is to write 1667 words a day for 30 days. I managed to get 36338 of the 50000 words completed before I said uncle. But those were 36338 words to a story I have had in my heart since 2009 that have never been written down before, and that is what is amazing about NOT accomplishing a goal. I set out to do something and I didn't make it but I got further than I ever had before.
1667 words a day was a lot, and not something I felt I could maintain, as a challenge it felt right, but I'm not a regular writer anymore so it was a struggle. But what if I aimed for about 500 words a day, and allowed myself to not feel pressured to write everyday? How would NaNo go next year if I wasn't so rusty?
36338 of 50000 words is 72.68%, that's like a C grade baby. And C's earn degrees. So, now I have a baseline for data comparison. Next year I could try again and see if I get better or worse, but the goal of trying to write a little bit everyday before then could make a big difference instead of just waiting and doing nothing to prepare like I did the first time.
I started journaling in 2007 after attempting the first time to read this book...
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/615570.The_Artist_s_Way" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Artist's Way" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1440952332l/615570._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/615570.The_Artist_s_Way">The Artist's Way</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13229.Julia_Cameron">Julia Cameron</a><br/> My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/146910017">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br /> In 2007 I started this book (and journaling) I didn't finish the book but while reading it now (in 2016) I did finish my 15th journal. It was interesting to go back and remember what it was like 9 years ago when I decided to live a more creative life. The god thing still bugs me, but I guess it is like the Secret like that, what you put out is what you get back. Now that I have read the entire book I can move on with life. <br/><br/> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4121833-bea-elwood">View all my reviews</a>
And my journals have grown into something I am really proud of, something other people ask me questions about and feel inspired by, so what if I wanted to blog about that? What if this was my next public display of my attempt to live a more creative life?
Who knows? but this was about 500 words so I at least made my writing goal today...
Okay a couple of questions or issues to fix in the future... how come the blue text link to my goodreads review looks like that? I was hoping it would be more like the image I tried to copy but (and this is second) how come I can't crop this image???
