A Plan Forms

It’s time to get serious. I have been writing on and off quite a bit. I have four or five novels in the works, none of which I’m working on nearly enough and none of which are anywhere close to finished, but they’re all good in their own right and I have goals. I want to be a novelist. I want to write for a living. It’s important to me to get there.

And I’m fat again. It’s mostly not my fault. The weight I gained over the past few years was a direct result of my birth control, but now that I’ve had that removed, I need to take control and lose it. I started out well with that yesterday. I planned a full day of healthy eating and I walked and jogged more than four miles after work. Then I went to a friend’s house and ate this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this morning, I nearly got sick in the shower (if you’ve ever experienced morning sickness, it felt like that) and then a pair of pants that fit me fine last year wouldn’t even come close to buttoning. Yeah. That happened.

But no worries because even before the truffle/cheesecake incident, during my workout, I had formed a plan in my mind. I am going to remedy all my woes.

First, I will go to the gym three times a week to lift weights. On the days I go to the gym, I will do some sort of cardio exercise to round out a full hour and on the days I don’t go, I will do a full hour of cardio. I will also do at least thirty minutes of yoga every day. I will write for a minimum of one hour per day and I will read a book each week. I mean, I started the book review blog before my surgery and I feel like I wrote two great reviews and was on a roll and then … I stopped. And that isn’t OK with me. I have big plans for that blog. It has a theme and a purpose and it’s pretty. It’s time to get serious.

 

 

 

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Bring on the New Year

Yep, I’m doing it. I’m doing the generic New Year’s posting. It’s only right, I guess. Plus, it saves me having to come up with something else to write about for today, and seeing as how the heat in my office is still nill, my brain isn’t interested in working any harder than it has to.

Last New Year’s Eve, Emma and I ate pizza and I was asleep by 10:30. Chris was in Rhode Island for the Navy. I can’t remember if he called at midnight. He may have. That was a whole year ago! This year will be much the same, except Chris is in town, so he’ll be home, too.

And not only am I ending 2009 the same way I ended 2008, I’m starting 2010 the same way I started 2009: at a women’s retreat hosted by Elizabeth Barbour. I’m looking forward to it, especially since this time I know exactly what to expect and can go into the event with a whole new mindset and excitement. I also can’t let it pass that this is the one-year “anniversary” of the beginning of my friendship with fellow blogger and writer Leslee. Happy anniversary, Leslee!

Over the last year, my life hasn’t changed much in any major way. But it has changed in little ways that I think really add up.

I started blogging, which has forced me to really write. A lot. I attempted NaNoWriMo with no success, but the challenge did force me to really buckle down and think and make goals. I have optimism that my writing will take off in 2010 and I’ll work a lot harder at achieving what I’ve always wanted. On the same note, I discovered that I really like Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling made me realize that where my fiction is weakest is in character development. So, I have a new focus. I tried Indian food and Thai food, both for the first time. I’m utterly in love with Indian, but the Thai wasn’t very impressive. I’ve cultivated new friendships with people who live close by, but maintained friendships with people I’ve known forever. I’ve found and been found by old friends on Facebook who I never thought I’d hear from again.

I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions, and I’m not going to change that now. I’m always engaged in an ongoing effort to lose weight and exercise regularly and eat healthy as much as possible. That doesn’t just start on January 1. But I will say that I resolve to do better next year and hopefully reach at least one of my goals before the calendar turns to January 1, 2011.

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It’s Official: I Suck

The old me who will soon be the new me

It’s November 30. With this post, I have completed NaBloPoMo. The irony is, I wasn’t participating. I didn’t even know about it until I think last week when I saw it mentioned on a couple blogs I came across. I didn’t set out this month to post every day, but I did.

I did not, however, complete any of the goals I’ve actually set for myself through the course of the past year. In a month, it will be New Year’s Eve and time to set some resolutions for 2010. Not that I ever set resolutions, but I think this might be my year.

A list of my failures:

• Read a minimum of one book per week.
• Write a minimum of one hour per day.
• Cut WAY back on television (I have cut back a little, but I still fall back on it when I’m tired or bored or lazy).
• Diversify what I cook and eat, and cook something new every week.
• Stay off the computer 90 percent of the time while I’m home.
• Pay off my debt (or at least pay it down).
• Lose the rest of the weight and finally hit goal (I gained back 10 pounds instead).
• Exercise a minimum of one hour per day average, no matter what.
• Win NaNoWriMo (I have fewer than 10,000 words as of November 24).

Yep. I suck. And I wish I could say I really, really tried any one of those things, but honestly, I didn’t. They were always in the back of my mind, but I managed to justify not doing each and every one of them one way or another. This has to stop. I need to stop fearing failure. I need to stop making excuses. I need to just do it (see last Thursday’s post).

I’m not waiting until January 1, 2010. I’m starting now. Today. This is the end or procrastinating and dreaming but never doing. I’m committed and that’s that.

Luckily, there is some good news in all of this: I seem to have moved past my writing block. I have learned to just write. To stop listening to that voice in the back of my head telling me it isn’t good enough. To stop rewriting and just push through. I can revise. I can get feedback. I can do this. It may take longer than 30 days, but it will take less than a year. I vow this to myself. I need it. I am suffocating in my life and getting published, or the prospect of getting published, will give me hope. And if I’m lucky, freedom.

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Weekend Posting

I’ve noticed I have a very small readership on Saturdays and Sundays here. I’ve also noticed a lot of other bloggers use those days for “themes.” Usually, it’s a quote on Sunday or something like that. Leslee at Waiting for the Click on Saturdays posts a poem she wrote and posts a quote on Sunday.

So, I’m going to steal from other bloggers and start posting quotes I like on weekends. Maybe a photo blog on Saturday and a quote on Sunday once I get going with this. This will force me to take more picture, which I really need to do, anyway. I actually have some photos on my camera now from the last couple weekends that I haven’t even uploaded! So … I guess this will start this weekend: Photo(s) on Saturday and a nice quote on Sunday.

Enjoy!

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I’m Gonna Do It!!!

It’s called NanoWriMo, and I’m starting late and far behind, but I’m determined. The goal, should you choose to accept it (and I have) is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

Technically, I should have started November 1, but I didn’t even find out about it until yesterday. I think I’d heard of it before, but never remembered to look it up. Yesterday, I found a blog by a woman who has done this for five years running and I bit the bullet and signed up.

It’s time. I need this.

Apparently, it’s all about goals and deadlines for me. My friend Leslee asked me to write something for her blog, and yesterday I sat down and wrote an 820-word short story. So, I know I can. (Once she posts this on her blog, I will link to it from here so everyone can read it.) I already have a couple novels started, but I haven’t gotten very far with them. Now is my chance.

I’ve decided it doesn’t matter how good the writing is, as long as I finish it. I can go back and revise. And I will send it out to agents once I do that. This is my promise to myself. I can certainly dream that this time next year, I will either have or be on the road to having a published novel.

Wish me luck, and stay tuned for excerpts!

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