Life. You Know?

I am so tired of adulting. 

You know what I’m talking about: all the responsibilities, obligations and time commitments that go along with being a “grown up” are draining. Add 4 kids to the mix and the adulting requirements increase exponentially. It’s exhausting at the best of time you guys. 

Right now, it’s damn near killing me.

via GIPHY

Last week my husband and MIL loaded up my van with a bunch of cardboard, paper and other recycling and then climbed in to go do those chores and an array of other errands. They drove out of our driveway and were immediately hit by someone who was speeding down the road and had just run/raced the red light two houses away. Right in front of our house. I’d said “see ya later” as they walked out the door and a couple minutes later I hear a massive boom, walk to the front of the house, look out the window, and what do you know? There’s my van (and the other persons car) smashed and in pieces right in front of my house. 

Everyone seems to be just fine I think - they’ve got stiff and sore necks/backs, and my MIL has some seatbelt bruising (her side of the van was impacted) - but other than that ok. 

But -

MY van... The only vehicle we have that accommodates our family of 6. The one I’ve driven every single day (or nearly) for the past 10 1/2 years. The vehicle I was going to need just hours later to take a kid to one of their activities, and then later to take another kid to theirs. 

Since that moment I’ve spent hours on the phone dealing with insurance, and getting a rental, and a host of other things. I spent one afternoon shopping to replace the car seat that was relegated useless after being through a collision. I’ve spent countless hours researching the value of my beloved van and looking for replacements. And now I know I’ll have to spend even more time doing that as my van has been deemed un-fixable and I HAVE to replace it. 

Ugh. 

All this on top of the normal multitudinous daily tasks and responsibilities I take care of every day. 

I’m tired of adulting. And I’m so physically and mentally exhausted that I’ve had no drive to write anything all week. I added maybe 50 words to my NaNo story before I heard the big boom. It sucks and I know that there is no way in hell I’ll come close to 50k words this month. But on the plus side - everyone is okay and I’m getting an unexpected vehicle upgrade. 

via GIPHY

How is your writing going though?? Are you on target to “win” NaNo this year?

Like One Step Forward, Three Steps Back

So another week has come and gone, and some writing has been done. Not a lot, but some. I had one really good morning of writing in the middle of the week where both ideas and words simply flowed. It was great. 

I am at a delicate point in my story so I find myself, not struggling exactly, but being careful in my composition. On one hand I know that I just need to write, to get the words, the story out of my head and onto the page. After all there will be plenty of time to revise and edit, and find the perfect words and way of telling later. On the other hand I still find myself editing as I write which causes a good amount of delay. 

But I’m writing. Which is better than I’ve been doing since last Christmas. 

In fact, I’ve added nearly as much to the story in the past 11 days as I had added in the previous 10 months. 

So whatever else, it’s good I’m writing. 

Writing Report: November 5-11 (2pm) 

Time Spent Writing: 2 hours (+ a good deal of editing time)

Words Written: 1450 

Total Words Added to WIP this month: 2984 

Until next time... happy writing!!

Accountability? Let’s See...

Sunday evening check ins. 

Yeah. This time around at NaNo I am ABSOLUTELY doing this. I’m going to take a few minutes at some point during my Sunday (right now I’m in the middle of cooking dinner for my family) and just check in to let you know how my writing week has gone. 

Because accountability makes a difference. 

Even if I’m the only person who ever reads the post, simply setting a day where I have to post about the week’s efforts - be they successful or epic failures - it makes a difference. It means I have to actually look at what I’ve done, or not done, and report it. 

Because maybe when I share that I’ve had an amazing writing week someone out there will say “That’s great! Keep up the hard work.” Maybe I’ll get a few virtual high fives. 

Because maybe when I report that it’s been a rough week and the results only amounted to a grocery list and a to-do chore list, someone else may tell me “Just keep at it. Every word matters.” They may commiserate, they may offer advice or suggestions or, or, or. 

Or maybe I won’t get any kind of response in return. Except I’ll know. I’ll have been accountable to myself at the least. I’ll be able to look at the writing I’ve accomplish in relation to the amount of time I spent writing, the amount of time I wasted, and all the various things I have to do otherwise. 

I know some weeks will be really good. Some weeks may simply be alright. And some weeks may be really ugly. Whatever the week’s results is okay as long as when Monday rolls around I sit down and keep working on it, keep writing, and keep trying. So... 

Writing Report: November 1-4 (approx 6:30pm) 

Time Spent Writing: approx 4 hours 

Words Written: 1534 on WIP + roughly 600 in blogs

It’s been a busy family weekend with football championships and other kid events going on so I didn’t have as much time to write over the weekend as I would have liked. We went over the family schedule earlier today for the month and it looks like the rest of the month will be better. 

I guess we’ll see how the next week goes.

Stumbling in the Dark

It’s been a pretty dark place around here the past year, in so many ways. And silent. My god the silence - even the crickets haven’t made a peep. I’ve had no inspiration, no ambition, and every time I’ve actually sat at a keyboard to write (since January this year) has resulted in some newly developed but very creative procrastination techniques. 

I’ve done a lot of reading. A lot. A LOT. 

I’ve spent some much needed time with each of my kids. 

I’ve played quite a bit with graphic and cover design. Still not precisely to a level where I’d want to actually charge someone money for my efforts but I’m getting there I think. Slowly. 

I’ve moved the furniture around in my house three times - everything is essentially back to where it was in the first place now - and I’ve probably donated 100lbs of clothes to charity between myself and my four minis. 

But words. 

Words have been hard to come by. I’ve needed something to give me the kick in the ass that would get me back to work, back to writing and so... 

I did the thing again. I signed up and got set up to NaNoWriMo again. 

I guess we’ll see how that goes. 

Fingers crossed... though maybe I shouldn’t cross them, that may just make it even more difficult to type.

You can find me there (if you’re interested) as @LDFerris 😊😊