5300 and counting

Today I have woven
words into a day--
the words I wrote to
the ghost child of my fancy
with the words I spoke to
the love child of my heart.

Today: 850 words for a total of 4350(ish)

Stephanie Bearce is always stepping in to save my life. She can't help it; it's just one of the super-human things she does as part of her quotidian.

Most recently, she came into my home and cleared out the piles of STUFF that I was too horrified to even acknowledge were taking up space. (Stephanie sang and whistled and kept my daughter entertained; I kept ducking downstairs to inject black coffee into my system.)

Then--AFTER saving my life that way, she saved it again by saying, "Before I leave, let's look at that novel manuscript you brought to the retreat." I fumbled about trying to find which computer my outline and plot summary might be stored on. She sat back and got comfortable, paying not a bit attention to my dithering. She read the summary on the computer screen, made a number of insanely cogent comments, and then went off to put the finishing touches on world peace.

And now (third time's the charm, after all) the manuscript we talked about that day is saving my life again. As I may have mentioned earlier, I need a complete novel ms. for LA in Aug. Guess which one I'm working on? Right. The one I dithered about that day with Stephanie. It now has about 4350 messy, incoherent, life-saving words.

Thanks, lady.

3500 words so far

Okay, I completely admit that I did not actually write 3500 words today. After all, I had to teach my 9-year-old to wash her own laundry.

She was so excited she popped in every 4.5 minutes to insist that the wash cycle was really done this time.

Hmm. Well. We're working on long-term benefits here.

BUT--I do currently have 3500 words of sloppy copy, about half of which are new today, and half of which have been in a mummified state for over a year.

And there are two people who are almost entirely responsible for the Unwrapping of Undead Words: Linda Sue Parks (see yesterday's post) and Stephanie Bearce (see tomorrow's post).

Oh yeah. There is one more person.
Me.

To Do List: Groceries, Post Office, Write a Novel in July

Today I got an email from Linda Sue Parks that mentioned, among other things, that when I go to the SCBWI National Conference in LA in August, I . . .

" . . . MUST BRING A MANUSCRIPT. The requirement was a completed draft of a novel that you want to revise."

Oops.

Guess I forgot to read the fine print when I rushed to sign up for the award-winning novelist's Master's Class. I actually don't have a completed draft of a novel. I do have brilliant bits and pieces of three or four novels-to-be. Um, but, see--I can't seem to complete even one actual novel. Instead, I write long, plot-challenged picture books and short, heart-wrenching poems.

(My best friend in graduate school called me the most constipated writer she'd ever met. No, I won't tell you what my worst enemies called me. I've blocked that information; not even therapy can get to it.)

Fortunately, I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last November. Of course, since I teach and have kids and, well, celebrate Thanksgiving, I didn't even have time to read the Encouraging Emails sent out during the actual NaNoWriMo, much less come up with 50,000 words of sloppy copy.

So, I'm declaring July to be LyNoWriMo: Lynnea's Novel Writing Month. This afternoon, I printed out all the Encouraging Emails I archived last fall.

The first one said, "Tell everyone you know you're writing a novel in November. Seriously. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse."

So, here goes: Everyone I know--listen up, please. I'm writing a novel--not in November, but in July.

I've even started a blog about it.