Nanawrimo, commitment

Doing this!

If you don't know what it is, look here.

I am committed.

I may continue to be here only for poetry. Or I might get inspired to share more.

I may share some here.

I am more than excited.

I kept saying, quietly to myself, I will start writing any day.
I said, quietly to myself, I will start by writing on the blog.  Anyone still coming here knows this not true.

Then, one day, the catalog for adult school fall courses came in the mail.

I flipped through it, not thinking of anything in particular to take.  Just the idea of having something else besides the new job to occupy my time.

Then, I saw it ... a writing course, then another, and another.

It took a long time to decide which course to take.  I will admit the deciding finally came down to Thursday night instead of Tuesday night because Tuesday is trivia night.

Yes, priorities.

In any case, I rationalized that I needed to start somewhere. As I have been trouble deciding what it is that I want to write - is it fiction, historical fiction or a memoir.

I have shied away from memoir this entire time. But the memoir class is on Thursdays.  Tomorrow will be the last class in fact.

The cons first: it's 2 1/2 hours long. I admit I am sometimes (read possibly always) a bad student because I am a teacher. I am critical of others' teaching styles, particularly when said styles are not very effective.  I am the kind of teacher who likes to think, at least, that I am listening to the wants and needs of my students and making some attempt to meet those needs.

So long class with terrible or even mediocre teacher: bad news.

On the plus side: not on trivia night!

Other pros: only four classes which end just as nanowrimo starts!

Also a pro - I needed a reason to write beyond myself because I was not self motivating.

So, after class one, I wrote the first chapter, or at least the first part of the chapter! After class two, I wrote an outline for the book!

After class three, I was riding a little magic carpet (I got to read my tiny little first part of the chapter, and it didn't suck).

After class four: skies the limit. Writing every day.  Getting at least 1600 words in per day; or maybe more like 1000 words per day M-F and more on the weekends.

The point is, bad class still helped me because it got me writing, got me thinking about the outline of the chapters and helped me to figure out what kind of a feedback group I would like to form.

There are treasures everywhere, even in the field of gopher holes.  Ok, that might not make sense, but someday I will write about that, too.

Happy writing to all those participating.