Monster Grump.

Hello, Reader. I've been in a total grump slump since Sunday night. I keep saying I have no idea why, but now that I think about it, it's pretty obvious:

1. I saw my parents for a few hours on Saturday and now I miss them.

2. I'm worried about my family. Most of them live in Connecticut and are currently without power. They are very cold and this makes me sad.

3. There is STILL SNOW ON THE GROUND from the storm over the weekend. I like winter (mostly) but...it's just. I can't. It's too soon! Too soon I say!

4. I'm in a Rivendell chapter in my novel. It's one of those, everyone needs to recover and figure out what the Hell they're going to do now. That's means lots of Conversations and emotional shifts. No exciting chase scenes or zexy, flirtatious scenes or anything else that's super exciting to write. Instead it's all difficult groundwork for the rest of the story and you guys it's soooo haaaaaaaard.

5. There was nothing to eat for breakfast, so I had a couple leftover Hershey bars dipped in peanut butter. Someone save me from myself!!! 

I have yoga class in an hour. Thanks to some show-off, we'll be doing a handstand workshop. I hate handstands. I took dance class starting at seven or eight years old and continued to dance through college. And how did I get into dance in the first place? Because I sucked so bad at gymnastics and every girl in my elementary school did gymnastics.

Basically anytime my butt has to change places with my head, I have problems. Go figure. So this class will either readjust my mood for the better and leave me feeling very zen, or will magnify my grump slump tenfold.

In other news, happy first day of NaNoWriMo. I signed up, but really only so I can reap the benefits of the word counter chart things and all the momentum. I'm desperately hoping to finish my rewrite of The Charmed Bracelet by the end of the year, so that means I need to make a real push through November. If any of you are going to participate, I hope you friend me! I'm JenniferWriter.

Okay, time to head back to Rivendell. The only true cure for a grump slump (for me, anyway) is progress and productivity.

NaNoWriMo: Waiting in the Foyer

Day 2 is considerably harder than day 1. It doesn't help that the NaNoWriMo site is informing me that I'm already TWO DAYS BEHIND SCHEDULE. I think this is taking into account that I've only been sitting at my desk for fifteen minutes and therefore haven't written anything today. Plus yesterday I fell a few hundred words short of the daily goal.

Yeesh!

I feel like yesterday I opened the door to this novel which was nerve wracking but direct. There's the door. Open it. Now I'm standing awkwardly in the foyer. What now? Play with the bouquet on the table? Count the umbrellas in the umbrella stand? Fix my hair in the mirror?

All I know is that last night, Husband plied me with the last of the Halloween candy and Tesco tea. Tonight he's trying rum. By the end of the month, I'll have moved on to actual poison, having tried out all the domestic varieties.

NaNoWriMo: Ready? (No!) Set? (No!!)...Go! (Oh sh*t)

All right, Reader. Now is the time. The time I stop making excuses. Stop being scared. Stop judging my writing before I can get a story down on paper. I have a very limited idea of the plot at the moment and the working title Heartwood.

It should be noted that I've already fallen short of one NaNo promise: I had planned to drive up to The Flying Pig Bookstore for a kickoff write-in. However, I have a sick laptop and while the co-owner and fellow NaNo participant Elizabeth offered to bring me a spare to borrow (how nice is that!?), I couldn't confirm that she had remembered because the NaNoWriMo site has been down all evening. So rather than drive an hour just to possibly write by hand (very demoralizing), I thought I'd better stay home. Hate to start off on a sour note of empty promises, but there it is.

Now, with tea in hand, it's time to bid you good night and write like my life depended on it (and not just my pride!). I'll be keeping you posted on my progress, if for no other reason than to shame myself into writing as fast as my weak little wrists will allow!

Onward, stubby fingers!