Why November is a crazy busy month

We had a great Thanksgiving. I loved going home for the holiday, which happens to be my favorite. I loved watching the Packers beat the Lions. I loved playing Scrabble and Chinese checkers with my mom and kids. It was just an all-around great few days. An ideal Thanksgiving weekend (except for a very bad cold).

I think I like Thanksgiving best as a holiday because, other than the food logistics, it's a restful holiday during which we take time to remember God's goodness and thank Him for it. Even though it is followed by the potentially stressful Black Friday, this year I stayed in bed and didn't even acknowledge Black Friday's existence other than to request my husband pick up a couple of things for me while he was out.

However, November as a whole has not been stress-free. This month is Nanowrimo. Also, it's PiBoIdMo. Also, I made it into the panel for the First Five Pages Workshop on the Adventures in YA and Children's Publishing site. Also, Examiner.com has been reminding me to submit faithfully.

Then, on top of my normally busy life, I got really sick.

So as November ends, I'm making some quality decisions. I do not plan (at this time) to participate in Nanowrimo next year. It was too hard on both myself and my family. Burning the candle at both ends resulted in becoming sick. I will not do that again. I do plan (at this time) to be part of PiBoIdMo. It's not overwhelming to come up with 30 picture book ideas during the month, and these ideas make great springboards for the following year. I'd also like to use this coming year to finish and polish my two novels and work on some nonfiction ideas for picture books.

So what are your plans for 2011?

Nanowrimo day 7: on the front lines

Nanowrimo day 7 is almost at an end. At this point, we are almost one fourth of the way through the month, and, hopefully, that far through our 50k word goal. Personally, I hit some snags this weekend. Besides housing and feeding ten teenagers (in addition to my own) and a couple of chaperones at my house this weekend, I had to catch up with grading and life in general. I wouldn't have missed a bit of it, but I did have to sacrifice a little of the word quota buffer I'd built up because I was so tired. 

As a result, I am 700 words behind my absolute minimum for today and 2800 words behind my aggressive goal. 

How about you? Where are you in your Nanowrimo journey? 

Vote on my Nanonovel cover

Just for kicks, here are some of my Nanonovel covers for this year's book. Vote for the one you like the best.

Choice A

Choice B

Nanowrimo day 3

It's day three of the writing event of the year (at least for me) which is known as Nanowrimo.

Here's my take on it right now: I already feel like quitting. (Not that I would, you understand. I'll make it to the 50k unless something bizarre happens.) And it's not that I'm discouraged. Mostly it's just that I'm lazy. I'm tired because I've been taking from sleep time to keep my word quota going, but that won't last much longer. At some point, I'll have to get a decent night's sleep.

So forgive me if this is short. I'm over 3400 words and am hoping to add another 2k to it today.

Happy writing.