I’ve had one crazy week. Last Friday, I received an official “You’re hired!” email from a new employer. At 8:10 am on Monday I got a frantic phone call stating, “You’re not even in the system yet, but we need your help so can you be here at 8:30?” On my drive to job A from job B, I realized that this was it: I would be working seven days a week most weeks until the summer.
On Thursday, I signed up for a *free* creative writing course. That’s right. FREE! Not only that, but it’s set up like a master’s degree class. Free class that is at my level and will help me hone my craft? There is no way I was turning that down. My first paper is due December 5. Wish me luck. 😉
Friday evening was spent coercing my little person to help me bring in the Christmas decorations while it was still fairly warm and dry. Christmas is my absolute favorite and we went to Florida last year, so there was no tree, no decorations, no gingerbread house. But don’t worry… I’m making up for it this year.
Which brings me to today. Saturday. Normally, I would’ve spent the day at work, came home, made dinner, family time, etc. before sitting down for an hour of writing. But instead I took a vacation day and traveled with the fam to a swim meet. More specifically, a gargantuan eight hour event with a couple hundred swimmers.
It was fun. My little miss is getting more competitive and hubby more involved. We have a great swim family and I had a nice conversation with a swim mom friend.
So why am I telling you this?
Because I haven’t written for Nano this week. Not a word.
And I was getting discouraged. There’s only twelve days left, and I’m not even at the halfway mark. As the days without writing piled on, I became more certain of my pending doom in the Nano world.
Since I’ve been social with the North Central Ohio NanoWriMo group, I was imaging their utter disappointment. Like burning me at the stake as a sacrifice to the Nano gods at the TGIO party.
They say that inspiration comes at random times and from unexpected places. They’re right. There’s a swim mom acquaintance that I exchange pleasantries with at every invitational we both attend. Her daughter swims with Little Miss in the summer and on an opposing team in the winter season. The last time I saw her I noticed she was wearing a NanoWriMo shirt. Our conversation had already ended, but I made a mental note to ask her the next time I saw her.
Today was that day! She seemed surprised that I asked and told me that she was, in fact, participating. We talked word counts, writing environments, and our novels. She’s writing a medical thriller… I think I might sign up to beta read when she’s ready for that.
So now I’m at home, listening to inspirational music, and working on my word count. In the world of writing, you have to do the same thing all those swimmers do:
Just Keep Swimming Writing.
Words from Emma Woods 