... get back up on that horse .... or ... i wrote a 50k novel and now i'm back to my regularly scheduled life ....

i just spent the month of november writing a novel ... fifty thousand words .... it was an interesting exercise in perseverance and procrastination ..... i probably learned more about my extraordinary procrastination skills than i did about my potential as a writer or a novelist .... 

i am completely behind in life! if anyone asks if i've done x, y or z ... i just say no, i was writing a book .... and it's kind of a lie ... i was writing a book ... but it didn't really interfere with what i had to do ... it was just a nice excuse to not do some stuff .... like clean out my desk (oh.my.gawrsh.frightening) ... or keep up with laundry ... or do any sort of christmas prep  .... first thing i need to do is take down my thanksgiving decorations ... oh wait, i didn't put any out .... 

so today, my first nano free day in a month .... i got going .... my best accomplishment (well, besides not getting lost going to my kids' basketball games that was so far away in the rain that i thought i should have had a suitcase) ... my best accomplishment is the 18 ornaments i doodled for christmas gifts ....i just did them tonight while i was watching dvr'd GLEE ... oh! i! love!that!show! ......makes me want to sing and dance ..... so ... ornaments ....doodled on them .... inexpensive, easy, fast, personalized .... some, i'll give as is ... others, i'll put in a box with some kisses or peppermints or something festive ....i want to say with something i'll bake, but we all know i won't be baking anything to give away ... if i bake, we keep it and eat it ..... 

so my christmas prep has officially begun .... tomorrow i'll show you my orange christmas tree.... girl.beck.artist put it up and decorated it with little.e.beck.artist and grandma.artist too .... i couldn't be in charge of that because .. wait for it ... i was writing a novel ....i'm gonna be throwing that in for a good long time ... oh ... i was writing a novel .... makes me a bit giddy still to think about ... 

wait ... so sidetracked ... next blog post will be my orangeliscious christmas tree and some other christmasy artsy joy ... ok? 

what holiday happiness are you up to ... don't want to start working on holidays? why don't you write a novel instead ... it's like a free pass .... 

....done ....

i'm a nanowrimo kind o' gal ... 

i signed up for national novel writing month ... said i would write fifty thousand words in the already much too busy month of november .... and now i'm done ... i did it ... 50k and a pretty good story, i hope .... i have a load and a half of editing to do .... but i'm going to wait and do that in january .... for now, i need to catch up on all the little bits of life where i have fallen behind .... well worth the falling behind though! 

... and ... fyi .... i never typed a dot dot dot of an ellipse in the whole novel.... i used traditional punctuation and capitalization ... more or less .... who knew i had that in me? not i .... 

hope your thanksgiving was full of happiness and pie .... 

thankfulness ....

.... how was your thanksgiving? ours was lovely ... right in the middle of pie week is a perfect spot for thanksgiving .... 

the pies above are pie 4, 5 and 6 for the week ....little.e.beck.artist labeled them ... there are getting to be so many that you don't want to get mixed up .....

little.e.beck.artist interviewed everyone today before dinner for her blessing ... she didn't want to leave out any points of view ... this is the prayer she read before dinner ... 

GOD I am thankful for our blessings and:

art

music

Dixie and 

other animals

you and your creashons

the people that help us learn

wii

mommys and daddys

pie

green beans and

bacon

basketball

cousins

good health

young ones

cookies

friends and family

shelter

and all the other things in life

Amean

did you count your blessings today? what are some of your favorites?

formal declaration of pie week ....

thanksgiving is just one day .... though i am very thankful for thanksgiving and all the things i am supposed to be thankful for, i would like to be thanksgiving to be more ... to be even better .... i would like to put thanksgiving to be in the middle of pie week.... 

from this day forward, the week surrounding thanksgiving should be known as pie week.... everyone celebrating pie week (and really, you all should be) needs to make a pie plan.... 

e.beck.artist pie plan:

tuesday.... blueberry pie a la mode .... an e favorite but not a family favorite ... slowly gathering momentum (pictured above, big hit)

wednesday .... cherry pie at dinner ... mr.e.beck.artist's favorite-ish ..... and the baking of a chocolate pie that girl.beck.artist is VERY anxious to make ... no waiting until thursday to bake it .... not sure if we will wait to eat it or eat it wedn... the plan is clearly fluid .... 

thursday .... the pinnacle of pie week .... pumpkin pie, a fan favorite, and chess pie  .... and perhaps that chocolate pie .... 

friday ... mandatory pie for breakfast ... all except mr.e.beck.artist ... he's just not a dessert for breakfast kind of guy ..... apple pie at dinner time .....

saturday .... have the ingredients to make a second pumpkin pie or a second chess pie .... i vote pumpkin ... 

sunday .... will there be leftovers? hope so ....

in case you are keeping count,  seven pies ... and there will be seven people in the house during this time frame (hi mom, hi dad) ..... 

and you? are you just having a thanksgiving dinner? or are you all about the pie?

this and that and 38074

it is november 22nd .... i have 8 days of writing left in my grand effort to get a fifty thousand word novel knocked out in november ... why am i doing this? because the nanowrimo website told me to .... i wrote seven thousand words this weekend ... i am ahead of schedule ... 50k divided by 30 days equals approx. 1667 words a day .... that's the schedule i'm ahead of ... i'm just over 38K right now .... it just seems oh-so-very-doable now ... i'm so there ... i have no worries about not finishing ... i had some concerns about running out of story before i got to 50k ... but i outlined the rest of it and i think i'll get to 50k before i get through the book ... so, like, that means i should get extra credit or something, right? ... i'd also like extra credit for still having a good attitude ... who's passing out brownie points? 

my nano page is here ... click on home to read up on all things nano ....

this photo below is my joy of the day ... the whole family's joy of the day actually .....

girl.beck.artist and i did a target run today ... reckless spending in the dollar spot got us this adorable sweatshirt for the dog ... 

the picture above is so that you can see dixie.dog.beck.artist's pocket.... apparently everyone needs a pocket ... cell phone? mad money? tiny dog treat? so far the pockets (there are two!) remain empty ... 

i'm now going to sketch some snowmen ... i have a christmas gift notion that i really must get a jump on ... or save for xmas 2010! 

i believe my family is serving five pies for seven people at thanksgiving dinner ... but don't you need everyone's favorite? what's your thanksgiving plan ... or really, what's your pie plan? that's the most important bit .... 

30648 ...

i'm past the three fifths mark ... i'm past 60 percent ... i'm past the point of saying never mind and giving up ...i've reached the point of no return ... i'm in it to win it ... i will have fifty thousand words written down by the end of november ... can i hear a yippee?

here's the interesting thing ... life is slipping into the book ... 

girl.beck.artist was having prime number problems ... there's now a riff on prime numbers in my book... 

nephew.beck.artist gets stung by his second bee in that many weeks and swells up like a balloon .... trip to the er  .... and fodder for some nanowrimo writing .... 

my pottery teacher dyes her hair fabulous orange or pink or green ... so does a teacher in the book .... 

the dead armadillo from my childhood is now dead in chapter three with a repeat mention in chapter four .... 

i'm writing fiction, but you pretty much can't mention a thing to me lest it show in the days writing .... 

i believe i am painting in the morning with allison .... so there's potential for a blog post with a photo .... or , maybe some one in my book needs a day of painting ... we'll see .... 

stay busy ... it's good for you ....

25090 .... and counting ....

today is the fifteenth ... halfway through the month of november .... and half way through the national novel writing month challenge .... i was behind ... but now i am back on track after an evening of plowing through writer's bad attitude (akin to writer's block, but not writer's block) .... i am so so so so so so so so so so so so very happy i just can't even stand it..... i do believe i really am going to be able to pull this off .... fifty thousand words in a month ....

i have "stickies" on my computer .... it is a program that makes electronic post it notes ... my desktop, like my life, is cluttered with post it notes ... one post it note on my desk top is a nano recap .. so i can track my numbers ... when i got to what milemark .... 

here ... look: 

4525 at the end of day 1 ... about three hours of work

5943 at lunch on day 2

6846 on day two at 1.30

7483 just before bedtime on day 2

8030 on day three .... before going to 9.30 tennis ... GREAT morning ....

9217 on day three before the kids got home (after tennis, lunch out, and grocery shopping)

10374 before pottery on day four

10808 at 9pm end of day 4 ... yawn ....

11o32 , start of day five, after dog walk, before tennis

 

12229 after dinner, friend died in real life, a tank of fish died in my writing .... so i could be dramatic and sad ...day five

12848 before going out to dinner on day six.

13795 on day seven afternoon after gala setup , before nap, shower and big ole' party .... 

day 8 ...no writing ... exhausted

day 9 ... a bit of writing before dinner ... while d and s cooked! ... 14343

day 10... morning got to 15K finally .... 15168

day 10 after dinner got to 16890

day 11.... before dinner got to 18082 

day 12 .... 19064 ... julia and sophie made dinner while i wrote .... 

day 13 ... 19203

day 14 .... after breadfast, 21123

day 14 ... at noon ...21755 ... felt great doing it at the kitchen counter with the family around ....

day 15 before dinner .... 23134

day 15 .... intermittently helping with dinner ... 23802 ... quesadillas ... yum .....

9 o'clock ...day 15 ... 25090 ... made everyone stand up and do the happy dance with me ....

 tra la la .... i'm writing a book ... what have you got going on?

21,755

today, i reached thursday's then friday's word counts ..... i've written for much of the morning at the kitchen counter as my favorite people swirl around me in buys day activities ..... this is my break from nanowrimo writing, a bit of blog writing ..... 

i just went down to my studio to supervise little.e.beck.artist as she tried to figure out what base to put her coffee filter teepees on .... the box top, the wooden board and a tray were all rejected... she chose an 18 by 18 canvas .... she's currently painting it green except for where they dug out the grass and that part has to be brown for the dirt cause you don't have grass in your teepee and you don't build a fire in the grass either ....  

i was clearing a spot for her on my studio table and had trouble...you know how messy i can get ....so messy ...the last canvas i painted had dried attached to my table top ... or attached to the paper that covers my table ... i had to rip it up and recover the table.... an instance of what should be a small job turning into a bigger job than you want .... 

but that canvas i ripped up was gorgeous blue yumminess .... if i hit my 25 thousand word mark tomorrow, i am going to paint on monday to reward myself ..... rah .... 

hope your weekend is happiness and sunshine and artsy fun .....

this and that and 18082 words....

today is veteran's day in the grand old u. s. of a...... and my kids were in a veteran's day assembly .... so i started my day watching little.e.beck.artist speaking on stage ... girl.beck.artist played patriotic songs on her saxophone ... and boy.beck.artist was doing his loud percussion thing, as well as being a stage manager and having a speaking part .... 

from the veteran's day assembly i went to pottery .... 

i picked up these .... above and below are two bowls that i blew bubbles on ... i had put soap in the underglaze and then used a straw to make bubbles .... the top one looks fab in real life ... this bottom one looks a bit on the wonky lopsided side ... but is still pretty ....

i picked up these pears too .... i made them for mr.e.beck.artist's parents for christmas .... the colors work for them ... a blue pear wouldn't suit them as well .... 

and lastly ..... i made a dozen small bowls ... i blew up balloons .. a dozen of them ...and then put them on top of yogurt cups and the like .... then draped some textured clay over them .... when they are dried and flipped over they'll be kind of free form ... if they work out , they can either be teacher gifts or girlfriend gifts ... i thought it would be fun to give them away with a bag of candy .... cause it would be a perfect little candy bowl ....

and then a nano update (nanowrimo, google it if you don't know what i'm talking about!) ... i'm feeling really encouraged ... my two girls enjoy reading what i've written .... which gives me hope that it it's not just me i'm amusing ... at least i'm amusing them too ... i'm just over 18, ooo words in my quest for 50 thousand words in the 30 days of november .... 

the whole novel writing thing is an interesting commitment .... i didn't get my word goal done yet for today ...i'm about 300 off (i bet this post is more than 300 words) ....instead of pressing on and finishing my word goal for the day, i stopped and made a great dinner for my family ... i'd been making not as great ones for quite a few days in a row ... apparently i can't get it all done .... something falls by the wayside every day! ... but ... there's always december, right!!

i have some christmas paintings in my head that i need to get going on .... if i don't do them soon, i certainly won't get them done before THIS christmas ... 

what are you busy with these days?

...13795 .....

i'm still working away at my nano writing .... the weekend was a bump in the road ... too many responsibilities and not much writing ... but luckily, last week i got myself ahead of the game in projected word counts .... so ... i'm still ahead .. and on track ... but not way ahead ... i'll try to remedy that this week early, cause next weekend seems like it will bring about the same lack of minutes to write.... 

i've been a good reader lately ... finding some new favorite blog spots ... 

here's a great article ....i'll be curious to see how many of you FIT this topic ... i know quite a few of you who do ..... 

here's another site i've been reading back articles on .....

and its companion site ......

and here's one more ... an old fave with a new name .... happy reading ... and writing (if you are so inclined) ... and art .... i have a plan to paint this week .....

happy week to you!

10,374...

i sat down to work on my nano novel ... but decided to give you some quick bloggage first .... 

i've broken the 10K wordage .... a couple days ahead of time even .... 

my oldest child, girl.beck.artist, comes home from school and first thing asks me my word count and then asks if she can read a bit of it ... it makes me completely and totally nervous to let her read it ... but so far she likes it .... 

i've learned something about myself in my four days of novel writing endeavor: i do not need an m (as you can see above) ... but i do need diet coke .... my m has been missing for ages ... i no longer miss it ... i had cut way back on diet coke and my caffeine addiction ... but i've amped it way back up in these four days ... i really, really, really, really like diet coke .... so there .... 

and... above is another page of the journal due in early december ... tra la la ... life goes barreling along ...

freak? or freaking happy?

i am so freaking happy i don't even know what to do with myself .... 

i've signed up for this write a novel in a flurry of novemberness and i thought i was going to go crazy or kill myself... come to find out, three days into it, i am crazy happy .... i feel smart and strong and organized and yippeeee ... if you've never tried yippeee, you should .... 

somehow, having such a big goal, to write 50 thousand words in a month, and promising myself to not let it make me fail in any other parts of my life, is not just working, it's invigorating.... i've done loads of laundry, played tennis, exercised, walked the dog, made meals for my family (nutritious and delicious, if you don't poll the youngest) ... and written almost 10 thousand words ... and re done my novel outline TWICE .... today felt good cause i didn't change the outline ... i'm sticking with what i have ....

there are only two things that have slid down the list of things i do in a day ... watching tv and wasting time on my computer .... 

today at tennis, a pal asked if i'd seen vampire diaries this week .... i said no, i've quit watching tv ... are you kidding me? i love tv ... i have loads of shows i follow in the evening .... i don't watch any tv til 8, but my evenings are tvful .... and then computer time? i turn off email and safari when i'm typing my story ..... so i don't get too distracted ... no online  sudoku ... no endless blog surfing (though i've been haunting some writer blogs and nanowrimo stuff .....)

so, with the promise of not neglecting other parts of my life, i still have pottery tomorrow ... i still have some canvas ideas in my head that need to get painted .... i still need to blog ... if not for the multitudes of faithful followers, then at least for my mom and the few others of you that there are (yes, i know YOU are one of my faithful) .....

the pics in this blog post are in a journal i'm working on .... with a submarine (bizarrely) theme .... 

i think the old adage of the more you try to do, the better able you are to do it ... incredible motivation helps too ... i'm way motivated .... in fact ... my next blog post, i'll give you some info on the book i'm writing .... so i don't have to speak about it all abstractly ... ok? 

as of day three at 6.22, i am on word 9217 ... so close to 10 percent of my goal .... here's my nanowrimo link if you want to follow me there .... tra la la ... 

4524......

.... 4524 words on day one of national novel writing month .... so i had a good start yesterday .... 

today, i am writing from 9.30 to 11 ... i think an hour and a half is how long i need for the 1667 words that i need to do each day ... so i'm doing it by appointment ... setting up my time for each day ahead of time (and crossing my fingers that life follows the plan!) .... you can check up on my progress at this nanowrimo page .....

my weekend was exciting ... i was really intent on getting a grand start to my novel .... mr.e.beck.artist is being very supportive, giving me all the more incentive to not just successfully write 50k but also to write something remotely worth while .... so ... my relaxing build up to nano kickoff included a trip to the ER after the-great-pumpkin-carving-incident ... and then gaggles of girls spending the night on halloween .... 

in hindsight, the sugar buzz might have helped me hit the good numbers in my writing ... good think i walked that extra mile this morning ....

as i write this, it is 9.10 ... so i have 2

0 minutes to do the dishes, switch washer to dryer, fold the dryer load, start a new load, and take a shower .... so ... maybe i won't take my shower yet .... interestingly, i walked an extra mile this morning ... i think it was some passive aggressive procrastination .... not sure .... i'll letcha know in .... um, 18 minutes now .... 

so, on top of the novel that i am writing this month, i have a journal project due in the first week or so of december ... and here are two pages i have going for that .... i think i'm going to color them ... crayons, craypas, color pencil, watercolor wash, marker ... not sure how i'm coloring them yet .... when i know, i'll tell you ! ... it might not be til december, huh? 

12 minutes til i'm meant to be sitting and writing ... gotta go .... 

what are you doing today?