Month: September 2007

Days Thirteen and Fourteen: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

Day Thirteen I eked out 360 words while at the Rockies baseball game. I wasn’t all that surprised to read them today and discover that all but maybe 34 of those words stink. But hey, I was trying to keep with the program.

Day Fourteen went much better and although I was practically in tears at one point, declaring that I hated my book, I kept writing and exceeded my goal. Who knows how many of those are keepers, though. At this point, I don’t care. I stopped at a good point so I’ll have momentum tomorrow and I can only hope that momentum doesn’t steer me right into a slag heap. Or the literary equivalent.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
18,206 / 38,000
(47.9%)

Day Ten: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 4 Comments

Probably only half these words are any good but I consider them all gold at this point because I’ve fulfilled my promise to myself and this project despite being quite tired from the hours of busting sod today plus the drive to Boulder for a summer camp reunion/potluck for Wildebeest and Zebu plus the knowledge that in about ten hours I’ll be headed back to Boulder for my weekly appointment.

Last week I saw two bald eagles circling just as I hit the Boulder city limits. Maybe they’ll be there to escort me tomorrow, too. A woman can dream.

And that’s what I hope to be doing very soon.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
16,324 / 38,000
(43.0%)

Day Nine: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 1 Comment

Not only did I achieve my word count today but also made great progress on my sod-busting project in my front lawn. I reached the sidewalk! It was dark by the time I got there which helps explain why I didn’t notice where I was stepping. My nose figured it out pretty quickly, though; a little treat left by some dog. Those shoes are spending the night in the garage.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
15,970 / 38,000
(42.0%)

Day Eight: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 14 Comments

I’m happy with today’s words but am a little leery of what’s coming tomorrow since I didn’t leave myself in the best jumping-off position. Maybe the Fairies of Enlightenment will pay me a visit in the nighttime. If you see any fluttering nearby could you please send a few my way?

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
15,386 / 38,000
(40.5%)

Day Seven: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

I’m especially proud of these words today, not because they’re extraordinarily good (although I guess there’s a chance they are) but because my running/honking/walking experience earlier today left me with an enormous headache. The good news is it subsided (all hail the neti pot) and I was able to look at a computer screen long enough to create some new stuff.

Hope all the rest of you are making progress, too.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
14,709 / 38,000
(38.7%)

It was my race and I honked ’cause I had to

/ Tracy Abell / 39 Comments

I just got home after running a three-mile race. I haven’t run in a month because every time I ran I got a horrific headache from sinuses plugged with pollen (my medical diagnosis). I even stopped running the trails out in the open space to avoid getting coated in yellow pollen and just ran the streets but still felt mighty shitty when I finished. And where’s the fun in that?! So for the past month I’ve focused on hooping and feeling groovy in my living room every morning.  Pollen-free!

Well, Zippy and Wildebeest ran this same race last year and planned to do it this year but then got free tickets to the Broncos game so they opted out. I didn’t think I wanted to run but yesterday my neighbor called to say she wanted to sponsor me.  Wow!  A sponsorship!  I felt very NASCAR (or something).

So I went down and signed up the race which is for  a really good cause. The Second Wind Fund was established to prevent teen suicide after four local high school students committed suicide in a nine-month period during 2001-2002.  This is serious stuff and now that I have my own hormonally-challenged teen, I figured I could stagger around a three-mile loop to support those efforts.

Oh my.

My exercise-induced asthma was so bad today that people ran alongside me asking if I was okay.  I was practically honking.  One man asked if I was all right and I gasped that I was fine, thanks, and he nodded and ran ahead.  After a few more steps, though, he stopped and turned and asked me again if I was all right.  Very kind of him, I know.  But then when the teenage girl asked and the older man asked and all those other runners ran past staring at me, I started to feel like a freak show.   With a really annoying soundtrack.

So I walked.  In a three-mile race.  I didn’t just walk once, I think I walked four different times (I can’t figure out how to get the splits off my watch and Zebu isn’t here to help).  Honking away the entire time.

When I crossed the finish line, I got a bottle of water and found an out-of-the-way place to cool down and stretch.  And I had myself a good cleansing cry.  Truly, it felt good and productive to get that frustration and embarrassment and disappointment out of my system.

HONK!

    
                                              
 

Day Six: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

Did it again. Feels good to have six days of work behind me. This disciplined approach works pretty well.

I should send Jo chocolate or maybe coffee. Didn’t she recently join the ranks of the coffee addicts? HA.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
14,188 / 38,000
(37.3%)

Day Five: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

Another good day! I think today’s key to success was giving myself permission to over-write. I told myself not to worry about final word count and pacing so much as just telling the story now so that when it’s finished (remember, Tracy, the goal isn’t to agonize but to complete this book!) I can go back and slash the extra debris. This approach saved me from that horrible creeping paralysis that sends me into a complete panic each time it comes a callin’.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
13,744 / 38,000
(36.2%)

I’m so grateful for Keith Olbermann

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

MSNBC Countdown’s Keith Olbermann: Special Comment for 9/20/07. A stunning denunciation of Bush’s cowardice and hypocrisy. Here is an excerpt:

“…Mr. Bush, you have hidden behind the General’s skirts, and today you have hidden behind the skirts of ‘the last question’ at a news conference, to indicate once again that your presidency has been about the tilted playing field, about no rules for your party in terms of character assassination and changing the fabric of our nation, and no right for your opponents or critics to as much as respond.

That, Sir, is not only unAmerican — it is dictatorial.

And in pimping General David Petraeus, Sir, in violation of everything this country has been assiduously and vigilantly against for 220 years, you have tried to blur the gleaming radioactive line between the military and the political, and to portray your party as the one associated with the military, and your opponents as the ones somehow antithetical to it. You did it again today, Sir, and you need to know how history will judge the line you just crossed.”

Day Four: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 44 Comments

The work was fine today but not so much in the way I’d anticipated. I ended up adding fewer than my 400-word goal but that’s okay for two reasons: One, my count was more than 400 yesterday and combined with today’s word count I’m still on schedule for my final goal. Two, I figured out all sorts of stuff about the story and wrote three pages of notes.

I finally know the story with G’s mother! She’s not dead! She’s alive, she’s alive!
I understand why Mr. E is such a prickly personality when he’s around T.
I realized which character is the real rat bastard of the story.

Best of all, I found some needed inspiration while reading I’M A LEBOWSKI, YOU’RE A LEBOWSKI: LIFE, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, AND WHAT HAVE YOU (a fan book written for those of us who can’t get enough of the Coen brothers’ movie). It’s not rocket science but it was the perfect time for this particular slap upside my head (plus it came from an interview with the real-life Dude who inspired the character and movie). So what is the Dude’s explanation for the cult success of THE BIG LEBOWSKI? He points out that in all great comedy the situation gets progressively worse for the character(s).

Doh.

Apparently Joel Coen writes a scene and makes it as difficult as he possibly can for the character. Then Ethan Coen rewrites it, making it worse. And then Joel makes it worse again.

Thanks. That had not occurred to me, Dude.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
13,113 / 38,000
(34.5%)

Day Three: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

A pattern is emerging: First day was ugh, second was fine, third was ugh again.

According to my complex analysis, tomorrow should be another fine writing day. That is a relief. I don’t think I could take two days in a row of crying out in a fit of self-loathing as I slam all fingers onto the keyboard, momentarily sending the display into a quivering spasm of random chaos.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
12,839 / 38,000
(33.8%)

Day Two: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 21 Comments

Today was a bit easier. A couple days ago I realized I need to compress this book’s time-line but it stressed me because I wasn’t sure how to do that. And I sure didn’t want to tackle that dilemma today when I’m trying to get in the habit of adding words every day rather than slash a couple thousand in one sitting.

So I pulled a Scarlett O’Hara and told myself I’d worry about that issue tomorrow. And then I just kind of picked a jumping off point and started writing. Those words came pretty easily. In fact, I might go add some more right now.

As of this moment, I have at least 469 more words in my story.

Hope the day was productive for you, too, my writing comrades.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
12,277 / 38,000
(32.3%)

Day One: JoNoWriMo+1.5

/ Tracy Abell / 35 Comments

Made my 400-word goal. Just barely. Ugh. Hope the next 74 days aren’t filled with such insecurity and angst. I felt so adrift in the story it was unnerving but I wrote my word count and now hope for an epiphany that will keep me on track for tomorrow.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
11,808 / 38,000
(31.1%)

Hooping Again

/ Tracy Abell / 14 Comments

I’m so happy because I’ve felt well enough to hoop the past two mornings.  Yesterday I was a bit tentative because I didn’t feel 100% but this morning I had such a grin on my face when I started dancing and twirling to the music.  (I’d like to bottle that feeling and take a whiff or two throughout the day so as to remember not to get stressed about the small stuff).

I’ve gotten much more coordinated than when I started but I’m still somewhat stiff and sometimes feel a bit like Frankenstein as I move about my living room.  But as I alternate between fluid movement and heavy clomping, I’m slowly internalizing one of life’s basic truths: whatever it is I’m trying to do, I’m always much more successful when I relax into it.  Which, of course, makes me think of the writing process (because don’t all roads lead there?!)   So here it is:

MY SUPER-SECRET NUMBER ONE ABSOLUTE MUST-HAVE HOOPING REVELATION:

       

        Don’t fight the hoop, don’t fight the words
Just move with it, groove with it,
And you’ll end up where you need to be.

                                            
                                 

All Over the Map

/ Tracy Abell / 97 Comments

I haven’t posted in forever despite having all sorts of stuff to say. So even though some of this deserves a post of its own, I’m settling for the mish-mash approach:

1) Finished LOUISIANA’S SONG by

[info]mountainmist

.  I’m in awe of her ability to juggle so many characters without any of them coming across as mannequins.  Lyrical writing and vivid imagery plus the ending was just perfect.  Hooray, Kerry Madden!

2)  Finished A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT by 

[info]lurban

.  Read the ending while in my parked car during a rainstorm that interrupted my son’s outdoor basketball practice.  After reading the last page I closed the book and thought, “I have to call Linda right now.”  Then I remembered that although I “know” Linda in an online capacity, I don’t know her know her, much less have her phone number.  But I just wanted to talk to her and tell her how much I loved her book.  I crack up every time I imagine “Istanbul” (Not Constantinople)” on the organ.

3)  Zebu and I started discussing the name “Bernadette” as a possible character’s name and discovered we were reading the same book.  His teacher is reading SO B. IT by Sarah Weeks to his class and I read it to myself.   Much to like in this book, including the character Bernadette.

4)  The last week held some intensely difficult parenting moments, the kind that made me wish I lived alone in a tree fort.  We’ve had some rough times over the years but this was bad in a whole new way.  Fortunately, some friends talked me through it and we’re doing better here on the home front.  May I just say that boy hormones are not much fun?

5)  My WIP is creeping along.  Not going great guns but am making slight progress and still like what I’m creating.  I’m looking forward to the discipline of[info]jonowrimo.

6)  I continue to love my hoop and all things hooping.  Days are always much brighter when I can hoop so I jump out of bed (okay, maybe it’s more of an ooze) and get dressed in the stretch pants and lycra shirt that facilitate hooping success (tight fit is key) and then hoop for thirty minutes.  I can now walk, twirl, and dance as I hoop – in both directions!  I sometimes still look a bit stiff and Frankenstein-ish as I walk about but am learning to relax.

7)  I sold my little piece to the SCBWI Bulletin.  It’s an article on exercises for crossing the mid line so as to stimulate both halves of your brain and jump-start creativity and it, of course, includes HOOPING!

8)  I wrote and submitted a short essay to a national magazine which makes me feel good because now I have a reason to watch the mailbox again.

9)  I haven’t commented on many LJs in the past week or so but have read many of them.  Sorry for not responding but sometimes I just can’t muster the energy to write anything.  The emotional turmoil I mentioned (Item 4) rendered me useless, so I apologize for dropping out of the loop.  I did appreciate escaping in to your lives, though, so thanks for letting me in.

10)  After eight years of helping feed the homeless and working poor, Wildebeest has decided he’d like to switch his volunteer efforts to cats and dogs.  We’re trying to get him set up with one of the local animal shelters.

11)  Here’s to everyone having a good week.