Some days off

We have Wednesday off in honor of Veteran's Day, and so I took tomorrow and Tuesday off too, just for fun. I have no real agenda for these days, though as anyone who knows me can predict, I do have a long list of things I'd like to get done. That said, in honor of MeMo (MeditationMonth), I am planning to play it by ear, just doing what I want to do when I want to do it. No pressure on myself to complete anything in particular.

Here are some of the things I think I'll feel like doing/hope to get done sometime relatively soon:

Write everyday
Meditate everyday
Make some cool napkin rings for Thanksgiving
Frame some photos to give as gifts
Alter a few pieces of clothing to make them more comfortable/useful
Continue knitting Baby Emma's sweater
Paint the stairs
Work on my Bug room (aka home office)
Rake leaves and winterize the backyard
Make my wedding photo album (5+ years after the fact!)
Try some new recipes
Watch artist-themed movies I have from Netflix (Pollack and Frida, at the moment)

Let's see what the spirit moves me to actually do!

Sunday Scribblings: Interview

My parents and me at my grad school graduation.

I don't know what prompted me to check out Sunday Scribblings just now, but I'm glad I did. The topic is interview, and immediately I thought of a project I have been meaning to do for ages, but that I keep backing away from. I want to interview my parents, on tape, about their childhoods. My dad grew up in Germany during WWII, so clearly he has a lot of important stories that should be recorded. My mom had a less historically significant childhood, but one that I am personally curious about none the less.

Also, I think back to these tapes my brothers and I made of my grandparents when we were kids. Sometimes we would press "record" without telling them, and capture snippits of fights or conversations about mundane details of life, like what's for dinner. After they died, being able to listen to their voices was such a gift for all of us.

I think I shy away from doing this because my family is not a particularly touchy feely one. We don't talk about emotions, or even what's important to us as much as I wish we did. So it's scary. It feels like I'm taking a sailboat into emotionally choppy waters with a crew that has never experiences those waves before.

But as scary as it is, I know it's something I will regret if I don't do. I promise, with this blog as my witness, to get recordings made over the holidays.

Ripped from the headlines....and NaNo update

In my writing classes, I often use news stories as writing prompts. When I read this news story about a murdered woman whose body was identified 55 years after she died, it grabbed my attention as something that could spark a number of fictional stories. (I post this with no disrespect to her family intended.) So if anyone's looking for a writing prompt, consider yourself served.

Yesterday, on day 3 of NaNo, I finished a draft of chapter 2 of my novel in progress. Today I'm going to type it up (I've been writing long hand) so I can send it to my critique group. Then tomorrow, I'll start on chapter 3, hopefully making up for today's lack of freshly written words.

I'm fairly amazed with myself for getting a whole chapter done already! It's challenging to move this quickly though, so I'm glad to take a night off from moving my characters forward. I need a little time to percolate.

And now I'm off to have some tea-- one of the plus sides of cold evenings is an intense craving for tea.

Music and writing

I had an annoying evening last night--my train was delayed because of wet leaves on the tracks (Really MBTA? Wet leaves? You didn't expect wet leaves on the tracks in the fall? Maybe you could, I don't know, CLEAR THE TRACKS OVER THE WEEKEND, LIKE I RAKE MY DAMN YARD?) and a dog that is willfully REFUSING to be trained. (Maybe his name, Rufus, comes from a play on refuse.)

So when I got to my NaNo time, I was not in the mood to write. But it was only day 2, and damn it if I'm giving up that easily. I started writing, and then found myself distracted by Facebook and the web in general. I turned off the computer and took my notebook to my bedroom, where I shut the door to get away from said annoying Rufus. But I could hear him pawing at the door to get in.

My Ipod happened to be nearby, so I plugged in the earbuds and tuned into one of my favorite bands, Iron and Wine. I usually can't write with music, but for whatever reason last night it helped me get in the zone. I think the choice of bands was important--I know Iron and Wine's songs so well that I can appreciate them without listening too hard. Plus, the feel of the music is what I'm trying to get across in my writing, so the tones matched.

I just tried listening to music while doing editing for my day job, but that didn't work. The stuff I'm editing is pretty scientific and complex, and the music was just distracting. My conclusion? Music is a good sometimes accompaniment for my writing.

How about you? Do you listen to music when you write?

(Oh, and I'm not sure who created the adorable image I posted here, so I can't give credit, but I do want to link to a place where you can buy shirts with the image on them.)

NaNoWriMo: Day 1

Here's a short look at NaNo Day 1:

Slept late (thank you daylight savings!)

Went for a long walk with sis-in-law and Rufus (the dog)

Read for a while, and contemplated taking a nap

Got a text from two NaNo buddies (in fact, I met them during last year's NaNo and have become friends)that they were coming over for our write in

Frantically cleaned house and made coffee

Chatted for a while, drank Irish coffees, ate lots of pumpkin bars I had made two days ago

Then wrote 5 pages!

Made a bunch of yummy food: Butternut Squash Pizza, salad, and mixed veggie curry with basmati rice

Ate some of the curry; divvied the rest of the food into tupperware to take for lunches

Wrote 1 more page to reach my daily goal of 6 pages!!

Now off to fold some laundry, and then meditate.

Om and Happy Writing to all!

Good quote

When a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.
~Paul Auster in his novel Brooklyn Follies

Bye Bye October

On this last day of the month, I thought I'd revisit the October to-do list I posted ealier, and see what I actually got done.

Tasks I completed
Finished one of the baby sweaters I'm making for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's babies, in time for the baby shower and the baby's birth! I also ordered the yarn I needed to finish the other baby sweater.

Got the short short "Marriages Mysteries" revised. Waiting for a friend's comments and then will send out.

Got the longer short story "Trying" revised and sent it out.

Sent out my body image essay (still need to get this out to more mags)

Wrote a pitch for the Coupling column of the Boston Globe


Didn't get to:
Write a pitch for an article on simultaneous submissions and find some writing mags where it might find a home.

Write a pitch for Utube's first literary journal, Shape of a Box. (Though I did brainstorm about this and plan to go back to it.)

Extra writing I did that wasn't on my list
Worked on a story titled Obit Artist. It's based on something I started last fall, but then left simmering on the back burner until now. I plan to work on it a bit today in hopes of having a first draft done before WriMo begins tomorrow.

On a personal note, I'm not doing too much for Halloween this year, and I am just fine with that. We'll hand out candy and then head to B's aunt's and uncle's to hang outside with a fire pit and some drinks, watching the kiddies run around. I will leave you with a picture of the pumpkins we and some friends carved earlier in the season:



Also, I grew my very own pumpkin in the yard this year! Picture of the cutey to come...

2010: A Publishing Odyssey, Part II

I plan to listen to Part I of this conference call this weekend (via the download feature on the website). Assuming I like it, I'll call in for Part II on November 4. The calls are supposed to cover the changing world of publishing, so I thought some of my readers might be interested too.

2010: A Publishing Odyssey, Part II

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NaNoWriMo, and also MeMo

As some of you may have gathered from reading this blog or knowing me in real life, I have the teensiest problem handling stress. It's not that I can't keep cool in a stressful situation--those I'm generally fine with. It's that I can't relax when stress levels are at normal, everyday levels. So, basically, I'm stressed whenever I'm not in crisis mode or lying on a beach somewhere. I'm only slightly exaggerating.

I mention this now because I've decided to give myself a lifestyle makeover that includes lots of relaxation in November. What better time, right? Since I'll be trying to write 50,000 words that month? Wait...

This does make sense, I swear. I want to set up a daily or almost daily meditation routine (MeMo= Meditation Month). What has kept me from successfully doing this in the past is finding a dedicated time to fit it in. Most people suggest first thing in the morning, but clearly those people don't realize that if I sit on a cushion with my eyes closed directly after getting out of bed, I will fall asleep. And that's if I make it out of bed on time in the first place.

So my thinking is that for NaNo, I have to say no to lots of the things that normally keep me away from my house until late in the evening. Therefore, I theoretically should be able to set aside an hour before I go to bed to meditate. See, makes sense, right? I even bought a meditation cushion today.

Three more days until I officially break it in... and start NaNo!

Some NaNoWriMo inspired math

Writing 50,000 words (the definition of a novel, according to NaNoWriMo) over the course of a month = writing 1,666.67 words a day.

250 words = a typical type-written, double-spaced page.

Therefore, writing a novel in a month = writing 6.67 pages a day.

Doesn't sound so tough when you break it down, does it?

Words of Wisdom on Writing

Just in time for NaNoWriMo:

"Writing a novel--actually picking the words and filling in paragraphs--is a tremendous pain in the ass. Now that TV's so good and the Internet is an endless forest of ditraction, it's damn near impossible."
Steve Hely, in his novel How I Became a Famous Novelist

[As an aside, I didn't like this book. In fact, I stopped reading it half way. The constact stream of ironic humor kept me at a distance from the narrator, so I never started caring about what happened to him. That said, Brian loved the book, so clearly the voice appeals to some...just not me!]

Break time

I just love this video, which talks about the benefits of sabbaticals. How nice would it be to take a year-long break from all your responsibilities every 7 years or so? Imagine what your mind and body would feel like--during that year, and then for the years after. I feel the tension in my shoulders draining just thinking about it.

I doubt I'll ever have the opportunity to take multiple year-long sabbaticals, but I am hoping to work shorter sabbaticals into my life through writers' retreats/colonies. I will surely show this to my boss(es) when I try to convince them to let me take some extended time off.

Best laid plans... (once again)

OK, whoever created that schedule must have thought she was working with a super human who doesn't need to sleep, or any down time. As if yesterday, I could really: Go to work, commute home, let out the dogs and feed them, go to a 2 hour meeting for the Cultural Council, and then come home and write. Aside from the fact that I left myself no time for dinner, there's no way my little brain could focus on writing after a day like that.

So, my new plan is to write for a few hours tonight, and to write for a few hours each on Saturday and Sunday. Much simpler. Much more pleasant. Much more doable.

When I made this decision this morning (while writing my Artist-Way inspired morning pages), I felt an instant calm wash over me. I enjoyed my writing/reading time on the train for the first time all week. I enjoyed my walk from the train to my office. I felt like I could breath. Is there any better indication of a decision well made? I think not.

Libraries and e-books

After reading this NY Times article on libraries buying and loaning e-books, I'm left with two clashing views. I love libraries. I borrow books just about every week. I read a ton, and if I were to buy every book I read, I'd be broke and have a house that was condemnable due to clutter. And in a broader sense, I think it's only right that literature be available to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for it. In this vein, I don't see why libraries shouldn't buy the rights to e-books and lend them out like they do traditional books.

That said, I know how much work goes into creating a book. Writers deserve to be paid for that work (much more than most published writers are currently paid). I hope to publish a book some day soon. I hope to make money off that book so I can devote more of my time to writing. So I'm sympathetic to the worries of publishers and authors that no one will buy an e-book if they can get it for free from their library. This argument doesn't apply in the same way to print books--when you buy a print book, you get something you can keep on your shelf and lend to a friend. The same is not true when you buy an e-book. So while I sometimes go out and buy books that I read in the library and really loved and want to own, I can't imagine the same would be true for something I read on my computer/Ipod/whatever other devise one might have.

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this debate. Please comment away!

This week's schedule

[Edited on Tuesday: I realize now that this plan is a wee bit too ambitious. I learned this when my body would not get out of bed this morning, which means no spin class for me. I will edit this post throughout the week and add bracketed notes describing how much of the schedule I actually stuck to. This is an important part of learning one's limits--another lesson I seem to need to learn again and again.]

October is slipping away too quickly! (I won't even talk about the fact that it SNOWED here this weekend, making it feel much more like March than October.) It's been a good month, filled with lots of fun social engagements. But, and this seems to be the story of my life, when my social calendar is full, my writing book is empty. Balancing these two needs--the need to feel connected to others and the need to write--is going to be my life's work, it seems. (If only I could ditch the need to work and the need to fulfill what can be lots of other obligations, I'd be all set.)

So, as I always do when life feels too hectic to get a handle on, I need to make a schedule. (I'm also tracking my exercise here, because that's another thing I can't live without if I want to stay sane.)Here goes:

Monday
Exercise: Yoga-pilates class
Writing: Journaling on train in the morning/Revising on computer in the evening
(Also have to fit a PT appointment in the evening, which I go to for chronic headaches)
[Got all of these items done. Whoo!]

Tuesday
Exercise: Spin class
Writing: I have a Cultural Council meeting in the evening. Will probably need to prep for that on the train ride in to work. I plan to go to Starbucks after the meeting to get my journaling/revising time in.
[No spin class, slept late instead.]

Wednesday
Exercise: Run, hopefully before work outside with Rufus (the dog) if the weather is nice.
Writing: Brian has class on Wednesday night, so I plan to take this time alone at home to really pound out some revisions. I'll journal on the train ride into work.

Thursday
Exercise: Nothing formal, some walking to and from the train/various out-of-the-office meetings.
Writing: Journaling on the way into work. Nothing else.
Evening: Volunteer ESL teaching at Unity Church

Friday
Exercise: Yoga class
Writing: Plan to head to a coffee shop to write before meeting some friends for dinner and this Bill Maher show (!).

Saturday
Exercise: Hike with Brian and the dogs
Writing: Will journal post-hike while B studies. Then we'll head to the Boston Book Festival.

Sunday
Exercise: Yoga class in the morning. Then errands. Then I'll head into Boston to work on writing in a coffee shop until book club at 5.

This feels like a good balance of writing and socializing. Let's see if I can pull it off...Wish me luck!

Easton's Cultural Corner

As part of my role on the Cultural Council, I pitched a column to our local newspaper, The Easton Journal, covering cultural issues. They bit, and my first one was printed on Thursday. Check it out here!

Poetry Wheel

A while back, I read somewhere about a poet who rented a booth at a fair and charged a dollar for a poem written on the spot, using a theme or words that the customer offered. Years later, I ran into a similar concept in a NYC subway station--a guy was sitting behind a table with a big sign that read "POEMS". For a donation, he would type up a poem on the spot on his typewriter and give it to you. I participated, and though I can't find the poem he wrote at the moment, I remember it was about a girl in a red coat (the color of coat that I was wearing).

When the Easton Cultural Council (which I am the publicity director for) wanted to come up with an activity we could bring to the town's Fall Festival, those two experiences came to mind. I googled around a bit, and voila! I found a kid-friendly poetry activity: The Poetry Wheel.

Luckily, a friend of one of the Council members had a wheel he made for carnival games at his temple. We borrowed it, and I made some word tags using words I cut out from magazines.



When I first suggested the poetry wheel concept, some members seemed a little hesitant: Would kids really want to write poems at a fair? Wouldn't it be too much like school?

We figured out the answer when, during the first hour of the fair, we got more kids than the three adults manning the booth could handle. We had a line! (Granted, we did offer them candy as a prize after they completed their poem. But even still, 9 out of 10 kids seemed to enjoy the writing part as much as the candy part.)

I just hope one of these budding poets will look back on the Poetry Wheel as one of the things during their childhood that inspired and excited them about writing.

(We also decorated the booth using lanterns made out of soda bottles and tissue paper. We're hoping to bring a lantern walk to Easton, similar to the lantern walk Brian and I participated in in Jamaica Plain for 10+ years.)

More on saying no

If I believed in the universe sending me messages, I would take getting this article in my email box about the freedom that comes from being able to say no as a sign. Especially since it comes on the heals of my post about setting limits.

Along those lines, my friend Shannon just wrote about fitting creative pursuits into her life in a beautifully titled post, Row by Row.

Even if I don't believe the "universe" is sending me this message, I'm picking up on it none the less. Must. Say. No.

30 and Below? Not any more...

I think of myself as someone who's not overly concerned about aging. But I'm starting to wonder if that's just because I'm still relatively young! A few things conspired to make me think about aging: I spent time with four generations of family this weekend, I was incredibly excited when I got carded at my cousins wedding, on the plane ride home I learned that I am not that much younger than People Magazine, and, most relevant to this blog's topic of creative living, I came across this contest for young writers. I clicked on the link announcing the contest and realized I'm too old to participate! Talk about a reality check...

Writerbug regrets that it is impossible, under any circumstances, for her to...

I recently learned of a writing/poetry blog I really like, Book of Kells. Kelli has a post about productivity that I found especially relevent to me and to many of my friends, who are trying to accomplish much--and succeeding, though sometimes at the price of their happiness and sanity.

The post talks about a writer called Edmund Wilson, a very influential book critic in the 1920s. Here's how he dealt with being asked to do too many things: One, he didn't worry about trying to please everyone, which of course is impossible and only distracts you from the things that are important to YOU. And two, he used the following form letters to decline requests:

Edmund Wilson regrets that it is impossible for him without compensation to:

read manuscripts
contribute to books or periodicals
do editorial work
judge literary contests
deliver lectures
address meetings
make after-dinner speeches
broadcast;

Under any circumstances to:

contribute to or take part in symposiums
take part in chain-poems or other collective compositions
contribute manuscripts for sales
donate copies of his books to libraries
autograph books for strangers
supply personal information about himself
supply photographs of himself
allow his name to be used on letter-heads
receive unknown persons who have no apparent business with him.


Pretty awesome, no? What would your list look like, if you had the balls to hand it out?

My list of things I won't do would include:
Stop to hear your schpeel/sign your petition when I am exiting the grocery store

Plan office parties/buy going away presents even if it means that no one else is going to think to do it

Say yes to social engagements that I am not 100% excited about going to. (This already feels impossible, even in my imaginary life. I will ammend to say: "Say yes to social engagements that I am not 100% excited about unless the guilt regarding saying no feels too great." God I'm weak.)

Feel the need to keep friendships going when they don't seem to be nourishing either party

*********
If I could implement these things, I bet my life would feel much more balanced, especially in terms of getting to spend time with the people who really do nourish my soul. At the moment I seem to have many many more friends who I see every few months, than friends I get to see on a regular basis, as often and as much as I would like to.

That said, my priority at the moment is my writing, so some of that is my own doing. (Well, actually, my priority at this very moment is getting over this awful, awful cold, which has pretty much floored me.)

Looking forward to seeing your list!