Music: The Piano Guys

The stuff that's on the radio these days is so full of autotune and crazy instruments that sometimes, you just have to take a step back and see the bigger talents in the world, found in the simpler things.

I give you, The Piano Guys

Only a Writer Will Understand

Thanks to an old friend, I have discovered the...joy? frustration? wonder? of NaNoWriMo.

If you're like me, you have absolutely no idea what that means. If you're also like me, you'll Google it to find out.

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, which is the month of November. It's basically a donation based organization that helps to encourage writers of all ages to write. The object is to pen a 50,000 word novel in a month. They provide published author encouragements and tips of the trade. They give you a word count tool to keep track of how much you're writing and how much you need to continue writing in order to reach the goal of 50,000 words.

In case you're wondering, particularly if you aren't a writer, this task is INSANE. I just reached page 56 on Microsoft word and I'm not even at 40,000 words yet. And that's with a story that I already had started before NaNoWriMo began.

But the bottom line of this crazy feat is that you can write, no matter what you do for a living, how many kids you have, or whatever else might be going on in your life. If you MAKE time to write, you can DO it.

This is only the second story that I've written that has stuck with me. I finished my first a couple years ago. I'm not a GOOD writer, but I'm capable of doing the deed. And I like to pretend I have the basic concepts down and if I applied myself enough, I could make something of it.

I'm a little delusional.

But my small tangent in regard to all of this is that I've reached a point in my story where I'm just writing and writing, not thinking too much about where things are supposed to go and how they're supposed to end up. I'm what the writing world calls a "plotter" where I plan out everything that is going to happen and write it all one scene at a time.

Yet today, I find myself a "pantser", flying by the seat of my pants as my characters are going a totally different direction from how I have things planned out. I don't know exactly how it happened, but it's almost like they have a life of their own, deciding how things are going to happen in their lives without my consent.

If you aren't a writer, you probably think I sound nuts. Which is okay. I think I sound a little nuts too. But it's true nonetheless.

I guess we'll see what happens? Sounds kind of like I have to revamp the rest of the book...yay.

Painting: Final (Bathroom)

I have become terrible at upkeeping this blog! Lo siento... :(

We finished the bathroom! We actually wrapped up a few weeks ago, but clearly I had yet to post anything. The biggest lesson I learned is that I am not a very good painter. But at least my concept turned out really cute. 

See for yourself.