Alright, here I am, wearily skulking back to the internets to face the music. I have completely dropped the ball. Well, not completely. Mostly. Almost entirely. Enough that the prospect of catching up would require me to take off work for the rest of the month, an impossibility in my claustrophobic financial sphere. It's official: I suck. Yep. That's me.
In my defense, I do have some strong reasons why I could not keep up with NaNoWriMo: 1) laundry, 2) dishes, 3) Maddie, 4) grocery shopping, 5) impending holidays, 6) chaos in the workplace requiring additional hours of service. All of which add up to the actual Number One reason, which is sanity. Mine and Greg's. His lifestyle changes require the little details of life - the laundry, the dishes - to be if not "normal" for us, then at least manageable, or at the very least, in a state which does not require intervention by the Health Department. The slackitude on my part has been egregious since the beginning of NaNoWriMo, and while I hate the idea of - yet again! - leaving a creative project unfinished, I hate the idea of losing my boyfriend even more.
I DID IT TO SAVE THE CHILDREN, OKAY?
So I'm not quitting, per se. I'm just... extending the deadline. And you know what? I'm the boss of me, so I can do that. True, I won't be showered with the flowers and the signs in the yard and the apocalyptic congratulations party at the end of the month thrown by the millions of supporters worldwide chanting my name in unison, but... Woe, the grief...
Two things: a) I write the best when I am allowed to do so at my own pace, at times in which I feel truly inspired. b) Trying to write outside of those parameters equals guaranteed boredom, not only for myself, who yawns at the drollness of my own mediocrity, but for anyone who has the misfortune of reading such drivel. Again, I DID IT TO SAVE THE CHILDREN.
And one more thing: This gives me time to unleash the inner editor, so dutifully repressed for the last few weeks, and allow her full access to edit and perhaps develop a few of the ideas I'd only touched upon during the vomitous purging that is NaNo. Perhaps something will come of this after all.
In the meantime, I have exactly 2 1/2 hours to do the grocery shopping and the Xmas basket-creating for the upcoming holiday extravaganza we are hosting for Greg's family on Sunday.
This, people, is where I truly shine.
Posted by stephanie at November 22, 2006 07:54 AMDon't be so hard on yourself for not finishing NaNo. You still have time left. You could purge out those few thousand words still! And if it makes you feel any better, I only got up to about 5,000 last year.
xoxo
jack
Have a fantastic time with Greg's family! Yes, being with people is where you truly shine.
Much love always,
Mom