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My cat died over the weekend, the cat I’ve had for 20 years.  I took it hard, but on Monday I went to work and worked half a day before deciding I just couldn’t do it anymore.  I came home and did a little bit of writing on the novel, somewhat half-heartedly.  I clocked 411 words for day 1.  Already in the weeds.

Today I decided to stay home from work to mourn.  I spent most of the day being lazy, convincing myself that it was ok, I had plenty of time to catch up.  Then I happened across NaNoWordSprints and decided to do one, just for half an hour.  In that half an hour I did 1244 words, so I felt pretty good.  It was nice to just let go of everything and disappear into the story.

I did two more sprints, one for 10 minutes and one for 30 minutes.  I was 31 words short of my two day par, so I finished up the scene I was working on and now I’m just slightly over the goal of 1667 words per day x 2 days.  Those sprints really helped.

Can’t wait to see what flows from the keyboard next.

(Pictured: neither my cat nor my keyboard)

©2011 By Cheryl Rushing. All Rights Reserved.

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I only decided to do NaNoWriMo just a few days ago.  I had no plan of what to write or even where to begin to come up with one.  I wasn’t worried.

In the meantime I started poking around in the forums, and even became BB Messenger friends with another writer (she lives in Canada).   She asked “what are you going to write?”  I told her I had no idea.  She suggested checking out the “adoption” forum in NaNo (as in “adopt a plot”, “adopt a character name”, “adopt a title”).   Great advice but nothing really moved me there.

On another forum I asked if anyone was doing NaNo and one of the responses was “genre?” and I responded that I had no idea.  My plan was to open up the laptop on Monday and see what spilled out of my brain.

Sounds like a losing proposition if there ever was one.

Then last night as I was driving home inspiration struck.  It was just a kernel of a story idea, but I decided to hang on to it just in case nothing better came along.

This morning the story idea has grown and grown.  My BBM friend suggested checking out the NaNo forums for help with my plot, so I posted a couple of questions and got some answers that will help with the story.

I’ve just spend the last hour outlining my story and the various characters, and now I am absolutely itching to write it.  When I mentioned to my husband that I don’t want to wait until Monday he said “well, who will know?”

I will!  I want to start now but will wait until the official start time.  In the meantime I will continue to flesh out my outline so that when Monday comes I can get a running start.

Will you be doing NaNoWriMo?  Find me and friend me: cheryl.rushing

©2011 By Cheryl Rushing. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo before but never actually started.  I think I want to try it this year and see how it goes.

Be on the lookout for my updates, and add me as a buddy if you want. 

Username: cheryl.rushing

And away we go!

Related articles

• Stave Off Writer’s Block This November with NaNoWriMo (seattlest.com)
• Write a novel in a month? How?? (ask.metafilter.com)

©2011 By Cheryl Rushing. All Rights Reserved.

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I have ideas.  All the time I have ideas.  I do not, all the time, have paper and pen to write them down with.  So I do this: 

Lightbulb pops on.  “Wow, that’s a great idea.”

“But I’m already in bed, tucked in lights out. ” or “But I’m in the shower.” or “But I’m driving”

Lightbulb begins to go dim.

“I’ll write it down when I have a chance.”  Only the chance comes when the idea is long gone.

I’ve started using the voice note recorder on my Blackberry to help me since it’s handy almost all the time, and hands-free (for the most part).

I used to be worried about not having ideas.  Now that I’ve told myself THIS IS HAPPENING, I have more ideas than I know what to do with.  I just sent 4 ideas to the newsletter editor for my volunteer organization.  Two of those were ideas for theme issues with article and section suggestions.

I’m also up to my ears in article ideas for my profession.  Now I just need to match up an idea with a buyer.  That’s my focus this week.

Hope you are having a great one.

©2011 By Cheryl Rushing. All Rights Reserved.

The past few months she has been offering a series of free teleclasses, and alas! I have signed up for many of them and something always seems to come up.  Sometimes it’s an emergency and sometimes it’s ennui.

The teleclass offered this past Tuesday was on freelance writing success, and I was really interested in it, but unable to attend the class.   I was sick and chose sleeping over attending a class I likely wouldn’t be able to comprehend anyway.

Luckily, Linda records the classes and puts them on her website.  I downloaded this one, and on Friday night when I got home from work I hooked up the wireless headset to the computer and listened to the class while I swept and mopped my house.

I am so glad I listened.  This short teleclass was chock full of really great information, and the question and answer session was even more helpful.  I finished the class feeling positive and excited.  Now that’s a good class.

Check out The Renegade Writer.

©2011 By Cheryl Rushing. All Rights Reserved.

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This is more of a tease than a sneak peek, but I just had an amazing idea and I can’t wait to get started on it.  It’s a businessy sort of idea for writing, and I got the idea from an RSS feed I get for a work-from-home opportunities company.

I’d tell you more, but I want to see if it works first.  I’m really excited about this!

©2011 By Cheryl Rushing. All Rights Reserved.

For the first time in about a month both of my assignment bins are empty.  On the one had it feels good because I finally got all of that work done and not a single assignment slipped through the cracks.

On the other hand, empty inboxes means there is no work right now.  That makes me wonder how long it will be until there is more work.  No amount of work is ever guaranteed.

These assignments are just that – assignments.  Someone somewhere matches up my abilities with something that needs to get done and they send it to me. 

What I need now is to start going out and looking for my own work.  Time to start making this work!

©2011 By Cheryl Rushing. All Rights Reserved.

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I needn’t have worried about writing assignments.  The higher paying site has been sending me 2-3 assignments per day, in addition to the one assignment I am allowed to pick.

In addition, the lower paying website has thrown me at least an assignment per day, and none of them pertain to diet pills.  I’m making a little money there, too.

Right now I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done, but I know that’s more mental than actual.  Life has been busy, and holding down a full time job plus these assignments is not as easy as it seems.

I’m not complaining.  The work pouring in gives me hope that one day this will all be in the past and I can write full time.  That is, after all, the goal.

In other news: on the recommendation of a friend I started reading “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins and I am blown away by it.  I got the books on the Kindle on Thursday, started The Hunger Games on Friday at lunch and finished it at two a.m. Saturday.  I read Catching Fire off between errands on Saturday, finishing it at three a.m. Sunday.  I started Mockingjay Sunday afternoon and had to put it down at 12:30 this morning so I could get some sleep.  I am enjoying every bit.

©2011 By Cheryl Rushing. All Rights Reserved.

It’s been a good week writing-wise.  My two newsletter articles turned into three, and I’m pleased with the way they turned out.  So is the newsletter editor.

The paid blogging site that pays me well has sent me at least one assignment every day this week.  That’s in addition to the single task I am allowed to self-assign each day based on availability.

I got the lastest issue of the Florida Freelance Writers Association newsletter and it had some interesting articles on something I’ve been thinking a lot about.

I can’t recommend FFWA enough.  Of all the writers groups I’ve joined this one has been, by far, the most beneficial, and I’m not even using most of the available resources.  This is a one membership I will be renewing year after year.  If you’re thinking about joining FFWA or the parent association (the Cassell Network of Writers) please let them know that I referred you!

©2011 By Cheryl Rushing. All Rights Reserved.

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I wrote earlier about paid posting issues, and for some reason they’ve cleared themselves up.

The site that pays the least has only thrown me a couple of bones, but the higher paying site has suddenly sent me three assignments in one day. I was wondering why, and then I checked my pagerank and see that it shot up, which is a pleasant surprise.

I asked the editor of a newsletter for a couple of assignments and received them. One article is about an event that I didn’t attend, so I contacted the event organizer and got some additional information and some contacts to call for quotes.

The editor then informed me that this is just a filler piece, the shorter the better. Must remind myself that writing is writing, no matter what.

The second piece needs to be much longer and I don’t have many parameters. I’m a bit lost on where to go with it, and it’s due Friday. I really need to get it written tonight.

Writing is writing, and I got paid for something today, so it’s been a good day.

©2011 By Cheryl Rushing. All Rights Reserved.