Well, it is the beta version

The Typealizer diagnosed my blog as belonging to an ESFP: The Performers

“The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead – they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation – qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.”

Er. Interesting, except I’m an INTJ so this is pretty much total opposite. But hey, it’s free and it’s the beta version. Typealize your blog!

Writer Myth #110: “I’ll have more time when…”

People thought I was nuts, writing novels with infants under foot, then toddlers. “You’ll have more time when they’re older,” people said to me. Ha. I knew that was a Writer Myth. When you have an infant, maybe you only get 5 hours of sleep on a good night, but they nap twice a day and go to bed early. That’s prime writing time, right there. Assuming you can stay awake, which I managed to do more often than not assisted by the power of caffeine and the astounding cost of raising small people. (Writing time is money when it’s what you get paid for.)

I wrote through colic, through growth spurts, through toddler tantrums, through sleep deprivation I look back on and wonder how I survived. Because I knew I would not have more than 24 hours in a day when the kids got older. And more of those hours would not be mine.

And now, behold, they are older. The oldest takes a short nap, and goes to bed late and gets up long before sunrise. In between brief bouts of sleep, I have two small people who need assistance with shoelaces, zippers, hairbrushes, and who continually thirst for knowledge and burst to show me their creations.

The oldest wants to learn biology and natural science. She checks out nonfiction books from the library on all kinds of animals and wildlife. She asks endless questions. She watches educational movies. Her set hours of school are a thimble of liquid to a curious child who wants to drink the ocean of knowledge dry.

They need challenges. They need trips to the library, educational activities and ventures, praise for all the things they did right and gritted teeth and a silent count to one hundred for the equal number of things they did to shred my sanity.

They’re older, and I do not have more time to write. But I knew this. And if you’re a writer, you should, too. You don’t get more than 24 hours in a day, ever.

You don’t get more time when the kids are older, or after they’re gone to college or married or whatever. You don’t get more time after that promotion or that move or after you get your degree or your spouse does. These are just endless ways to live in the future instead of the present.

In the present, you can write. Maybe not as much or as well as you’d like. But it’s what you have now, and you can make the most of it. I’m not writing as much or as well as I’d like, but I’m writing as much and as well as I can. If I take advantage of my opportunities, I’ll get a lot further than I would if I just waited for some ideal future that never comes. You will, too. If you’re far, far short of your NaNo goal, don’t give up. Keep writing. One paragraph or one page a day if it’s all you can do. Eventually you’ll get to The End.

If your Snark is a Boojum, beware!

“In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away—
For the Snark *was* a Boojum, you see.” – Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark

I haven’t softly and suddenly vanished away, but no time or brain cells for blogging. I have to steal time to brush my teeth around here. But go read Lewis Carroll, he’s a genius.

 

Turkey and NaNo: forks and hope

“To seek it with thimbles, to seek it with care;
To pursue it with forks and hope;
To threaten its life with a railway-share;
To charm it with smiles and soap!

“For the Snark’s a peculiar creature, that won’t
Be caught in a commonplace way.
Do all that you know, and try all that you don’t:
Not a chance must be wasted to-day!

I’m pretty sure Lewis Carroll was talking about the story here. I’ve never taken his Symbolic Logic and applied it to the Hunting of the Snark to see what the answer to this logic puzzle really is, but this is so appropriate for writers. You pursue the story, charm it, threaten it, do all that you know and try all that you don’t.

And that is why turkey and NaNoWriMo go so well together. Off to pursue mine with forks and hope…