#survived ANOTHER LAYOFF FRIDAY at work which is amazing

[icehot13]

Chapter six of Stillness!

my laptop's charging port has tragically broken, so brought to you by my phone, a bluetooth keyboard, and my fierce determination to ruin konig's life

(CLYDE IS FINALLY HERE, and i love him as much as ever. homeboy is trying his absolute best to pull together a rugby team, and in every verse, he is cursed with meeting huge dudes who have Z E R O ability to play rugby. oh, clyde, how you suffer).

[raisingsupergirl]

NaNoWriMo Part 3: No-Fun November

The November traditions are really coming together for me—Thanksgiving, deer hunting, no-shave November, hibernation. They all just seem to fit. But since starting NaNoWriMo, I've gained a new appreciation for their unity. I mean, just imagine me, a bearded old man sitting in the deer cabin, stoking the flames on the wood stove and whiling away the hours on my next novel. I'm like a redneck Hemingway. Sounds romantic, right? Well, to be honest, I can't for November to be over.

Friends: "We're playing cards tonight. Want to come?"

Me: "Absolutely! … but I can't. I have to write."

Wife: "Can you do something about the leaves in the back yard?"

Me: "Of cou— wait. No. I have to write."

Brother: "Rifle season is this weekend. I'll be at your house at 8 a.m."

Me: "O… okay. But I have to bring my computer."

So Friday, the day in which I would have usually written for 9 hours straight, I worked outside. I split wood. I raked leaves. I grilled steaks. And it was flipping amazing. I woke up before dawn on Saturday, trudged to my deer stand in (literally) freezing temperatures, and watched the sun rise. I watched the squirrels play until about noon, then came back and…

Wrote.

I went back out to the deer stand Saturday night, and then after dinner I… you guessed it. I wrote. Then I didn't even go out hunting Sunday morning (mostly because I was feeling lazy, sleep deprived, and defeated from not even hearing a deer all day Saturday). I sat up in my futon and banged out some words. Deer season was looking a little different than it ever had before, and I couldn't tell if I loved it or hated it.

NaNoWriMo is a commitment. I get it. I got it before I ever started. And like all priorities, it has to go somewhere on the stack. And because of the lofty goal I've set, NaNo priority for me is falling just below breathing and just above showering. And sometimes, honestly, I feel like I'm forgetting to breath. And every other area of my life is starting to feel the strain.

But I'm 1/3 of the way done with my word count and half of the way done with the month (yes, I'm aware that the math doesn't seem to add up, but it'll work out… I think). The growing pains have eased and I've resigned to my self-inflicted no-fun November. But now I've got to start writing IOUs.

What I mean is, the strain of this month will have ripples. It'll affect my wife, my daughters, my friends, my work, my church/youth group, my Mason lodge, and my sanity. Right now, there's not much I can do about it except shoving gauze in the wounds and hoping for the best. But that gauze is coming in the form promises, both to myself and to those in my life who depend on me in one way or another.

That's the way it is with these things. Whether it's a big layoff at work, some medical burden, a social strain, or a hurricane. We make these promises to others and to ourselves: It will get better. We weather the storm. We look to the good times in the past and the better times to come. We know it's all going to work out if we can just endure this temporary challenge. And that's what stage I'm in with NaNo right now: Survival Mode.

With that said, here's my weekly breakdown:

Nov 8—Goal 9,000; Actual: 8 hours, 9,029 words

Nov 9—Goal 0; Actual: 0 hours, 0 words

Nov 10—Goal 0; Actual: 0 hours, 0 words

Nov 11—Goal 1,500; Actual: 2 hours, 1,550 words

Nov 12—Goal 0; Actual: 2 hours, 1,698 words

Nov 13—Goal 0; Actual: 0 hours, 0 words

Nov 14—Goal 2,000; Actual: 2 hours, 2,078 words

For a week 2 total of 14,335 words, and a NaNoWriMo grand total (so far) of 39.5 hours and 39,234 words!

Two weeks down, two more to go. And this next one is going to be big. Like, 30,000 words big. Which means next week's blog may consist of a bunch of random letters and one picture of my emaciated remains. Pray for me. But more importantly, pray for my wife and those others in my life I'm neglecting. Mostly my wife though. Her IOUs are mounting swiftly.