I do the tough stuff when I have the most oomph. Putting off the hard work until you cant avoid it squanders your energy. So what if you dont complete it? You got started. My motto is SESO. Start early; start often. I’m forever at square one but i make consistent progress. It’s smarter to do the difficult or unpleasant work when you have the most to give .

SESO: Start Early; Start Often.

Go on… start eating…

It’s drizzling. The lights of the empty parking lot glisten against wet pavement. At 4:30 in the morning everything is alone.

My friend at age 54 just met the love of her life. Another friend is involved with a born-again mechanical engineer. She is bisexual, searching for God, trying to explain to her lover how running from hell isn’t a good enough reason to convert.

My husband-no-longer tries to be nice and fails.

In my kayak, I plough toward the middle of the bay. I’m alone. Cold waves beam the hull. Hips roll too far. A quick slap of the paddle blade and I’m righted.

I feel quietly better.

"sorry..."

Okay, I haven’t written in a long time. I’m a naughty blogger and I should be punished.

My schedule and my dog’s continual digestive issues make life challenging.  I’m forever saying, “It’s not me. Honest. It’s the dog.”

More soon. Honest.

Organization and productivity are two subjects about which I research, write and teach. They represent my greatest achievements and worst nightmares. I know what it feels like to battle procrastination. I understand creating order and then losing it.  I respect habit patterns as worthy opponents. Mostly I just know what it feels like suck at something I should have nailed.

I’m always researching topics on behavior change and lifestyle improvement. The results will be posted here on a weekly basis. The goal is to be practical, entertaining, and pithy. 

Comments are welcome. Try to keep them clean; my daughters read this.

There are currently about a billion blogs in the net’verse already covering these topics. So what makes this one different?

Hmmmmm.

Lower case posting titles. Edgy.

• type nanwrimo with no caps. don’t like caps.
• avoid chocolate. End the month wearing the same saize pants.
• write an outline. I’m not freeform enough to work well without one.
• write 1600 words a day. I’ve tried nano a variety of ways and this seems to be the most successful.
• donate earlier. It’s a good cause; i won’t wait until the end to do it.
• pump iron. Nothing to do with writing, I just want to.

1. Jeans that reveal butts when seated or squatted.
2. Dogs pooping. Dog shouldnt poop at all.
3. People advising about weight loss.
4. Laugh tracks.
5. Celebrity without skill, talent, or honor.
6. Litter.
7. Anyone who doesnt think I’m adorable.
8. People who don’t like animals.
9. Mucous
10. Did I mention dog poop? Add cat poop to that. Poop in general.

I’m sure I’ll think of many others.

Then there was the featherless Cockatiel named Oscar. A victim of feather and beak disease, she looks like a walking version of one of those fryers in the poultry freezer. Oscar is 13 years old and happily serves as a mascot for an animal shelter. She snuggles against her owners neck. She loves to be stroked. I want her too.

If someone else would clean up aftern them, I’d have a dozen pets. One husband, two daughters, a dozen pets and someone to handle the pooper scooper in the back yard. And an indoor lap pool. And a wife. My husband and I both need a wife.

write at a specific time every morning. 9:30 AM, 3K words a day until I catch up.

Sing my theme song:
Just what made that little black ant,
think she could move a rubber tree plant.
Everyone knows an ant can’t, move a rubber tree plant.
But she’s got High Hopes, She’s got…

OK, I’ll drop the theme song.

Dawn

IC: You can’t write.
ME: Big Deal.
IC: You need an outline.
ME: So What.
IC: This book idea sucks.
ME: Who Cares?

Those are three of my most common two-word responses. I have a few others that I use less often when the Inner Critic is more ….uh… unpleasant.

Regarding NaNoWriMo, after a very slow start I’m finally catching up. I need to get ahead of the game because of weekend travel plans. I”m going to Fargo. Yes, Fargo. As in North Dakota.

IC: You’ll never catch up.
ME: Your Mother.

Dawn

Did my book sell last year? No. Did the agents and publishers swoon over my pitch? No. So why should I do what I did?

Thus, I have made the decision to plunge into the void. What the heck, it’s month out of my life. If it doesn’t work, I haven’t lost much.

NO OUTLINE NO PROBLEM.

Gulp.

The plan today is to ready the battle field by clearing my desk. That’ll take about five hours. My tendonitis is already kicking in so I’ll prep the Dragon Voice Active software as well. Last year i had to do it in the middle of the month. Ugly. This year I’ll face reality and plan for it. Lord, sometimes being human is a big pain.

Tomorrow I get the microphone repaired and develop the next Write Now podcast. The podcasts help me focus so it’s a labor of love. It’s also a great distraction from writing… ha.

Two days to go.

Dawn

Got that out of my system.

Think about yourself for a minute. (Not difficult for most of us…) Every experience in life combines to create who you are today: your pain, your sins, weight gain, acne, that time you vomited on your date. Everything. Not just the pretty stuff.

Same with your novel. Everything you write — even the overwrought purple prose — puts you this much closer to the ultimate goal.

Glory comes to those who dare. But sometimes you have to dare many times before the glory can happen.

NaNo starts in a week. Do you dare?

-dawn

Our first was yesterday. And OUCH, I remembered why I’ve been avoiding this for a few months. Writing SUCKS.

I’ve written several books. I’m a pretty fair writer. I know what it takes to get something produced and published. You’d think that I could flush out some copy without feeling like a big fake.

Not so. Oh well.

At one point in my life, I decided that my purpose on this Earth was to be an example of someone who feels all the fear, insecurity, dorkiness, and ambivalence that everyone else feels, but who goes for it anyway.

So what if writing is hard? Everything easy was once hard. I can do hard.

Next week I’ll slap out a rough outline for my upcoming NaNo 50K push.

Onward. -Dawn

I kept the podcasts up from last year because folks find them to be useful writing tools, not just during NaNoWriMo. But I’ve had requests for a few more. So I”ll be adding some new podcasts in next few weeks, once I get my ducks in a row.

Currently I’m finishing up some articles being pitched to a few mags. But i will start crafting a brief outline of the new novel a few days before NaNo actually starts.

Agh, the time is drawing near. Agh, I say.

Dawn

Well, I’d pretty much hosed this blog until last week. I was standing around the kitchen thinking about food when suddenly (smack on the forehead), I remembered that I’m a writer!

For the maybe two people who read my blog entries last year and wondered what the hell happened, here’s the short version:

Last October I decided to write the Great American Novel. During the November NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, www.nanowrimo.com) project, I pounded out 50k.

I continued refining the book until March 3rd when I pitched a fine synopsis package at a writers conference. One editor basically blew me off; the other listened politely and told me that because the novel was a coming-of-age story (17+ readership) set in the disco era (40+ readership), Barnes and Noble wouldn’t know how to shelve it and thus it was doomed from the getgo.

So how did I, a successful nonfiction writer who produces books on goal-setting and stress management, react to this negative feedback?

I ordered cheesecake and stopped writing. I took one editor’s opinion (the woman who blew me off doesn’t count) and let it completely define my future as a novelist.

Say it with me, people: stupid.

Well, I’m not a writer who whines and sits, I’m a writer who whines and writes. Clearly it’s time to get busy again.

Anais Nin says that your world shrinks or expands according to your courage. Since my budding courage tends to flower when I strategize properly, I’ll start the new book by gathering support. First, I’ll reconnect with my best writing friend, Lorna. She stuck with me last year until I crawled under a rock. Second, I’ll teach a writing class at the college with NaNoWriMo as the guiding theme. That’ll provide plenty of courageous, energetic students writing alongside of me. And last, I’ll keep up this blog while recording a few more WriteNow sittings. Will you write with me as well? (Less the cheesecake. That’s just my thing.) See you at the keyboard. –Dawn