November 5th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! NaNoWriMo this time around was a mistake. Unless some miracle occurs, which I seriously doubt, I will not be able to get to 50K this time around. The ideas are there, bursts of inspiration, but I just can’t seem to hold on to them long enough to make them into full scenes on paper (computer screen). Even writing this simple blog the last few weeks has been a struggle, and I don’t know why.

It’s very frustrating. I sit down, start to write, and, for the lack of a better explanation, a slight headache starts behind my eyes. It doesn’t really hurt, but it is annoying and distracting enough that I cannot focus. Then my mind starts to wander.

I have figured out where it is wandering to, but I will not let it go there, not yet. I need to finish what’s started before I start another project. It’s funny, I have described writing like my characters are having a press conference in my head, and the one yelling the loudest gets called upon. However, in the past, once I call upon one, the others back off until the story is finished. At the moment, they are not playing nicely in the sandbox, and I don’t know how to reign them in.

It’s bad enough I have two stories going right now, there is no way I can let another one, or two, intrude. When I write, the story completely surrounds me. I am physically there, experiencing what my characters are experiencing, hearing, seeing, smelling, etc. If I can’t get to the state of complete submersion, it’s like I sitting on the couch rapidly flipping through the TV channels with the remote.

Actually, that’s not quite right. It’s more like I’m sitting on the couch and someone else is flipping through the channels. I see something I like, but they’ve already flipped to the next channel. If you have every experienced this, you know how annoying it can be.

Now that I have convinced you I’m a total nut job, I will let my insane version of writer’s block rest and tell you what I did yesterday – which will explain all the whacky photos accompanying today’s blog. Dani, my youngest is in driver’s ed. (Btw, she passed her written exam on Monday, but won’t be doing her road training until April, so, for the moment, y’all are safe.) Anyway, she had this assignment where she needed to photograph Officer Flat Stanley with various road signs.

So yesterday afternoon and into the early evening, Dani and I went gallivanting all over our town, plus three or four other towns, covered two different counties, and traipsed almost fifty miles collecting pictures of this silly paper doll in front of road signs. I was pulling off in weird places, blocking traffic a time or two, backed up on one road, K-turned on another, and made more than one (probably illegal) Uie in the middle of a road.

By the time we got home last night, we were whooped. All totaled, we collected 192 pictures. She did not need that many for the assignment, and honestly, we did not realize we took that many photos. She did use over a hundred for her PowerPoint presentation. Some of the photos needed to be scrapped because Stanley was being a ham. He came out clear, but you couldn’t see the road sign behind him clearly.

A lot of the parents were complaining about the assignment because it was more of an assignment for them than it was for their child. Honestly it was, but Dani and I got to spend almost two hours together, alone, and most of the time was spent laughing, so I think it was time well spent.

Okay, I only have an hour before I have to go to “work”. RV has a few watches that need batteries, so we have to hit the jewelry store, and then she needs to return something to Kohl’s. It’s going to be a tough day, but someone’s gotta do it. LOL.

I hope you have a super day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

The countdown has begun…

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.