Tuesday, December 4, 2007

The 'D' word!

Okay, so everyone knows I'm a fan of the three P's and I hate the fourth one. Well now I'm getting to know the D one. Depressed! And let me tell you she's huge. Sitting up there on my shoulders giving me a hard time, all because I blew out of Nano. But that's not all, oh no, she didn't just come on her own, no sir, she's brought a friend. Everyone knows the more the merrier, right? So who'd she bring I hear you ask. Guilt! Yet, she bought the biggest guilt she could find and they're up there having a grand old time at my expense. So here I am feeling depressed and guilty as hell because I didn't get done what I wanted. I can't get motivated and I'm having a party of my own. Yet, it's the good old pity party. I've got the big trip back to Australia, which just quietly is going to put a definite crimp in my online life, but for one month I'll be scrabbling to get online when I can and write when I can. In between all the Christmas events and catching up with friends I'm beginning to think I'm not going to get anything done. So other than the wonderful Devon screaming at from the US, to send her the second chapter of On A Wing And A Prayer, I've only got myself pushing me at the moment. And I can't hear me over Depressed and Guilty partying away on my shoulder. So here's what I did. I signed up for Sven. For those out of the loop on this one it's 70 days of sweat. You have to write between 60,000 and 100,000 words in the 70 days. You have 93 days to the whole event, so for 23 days you can rest, have a meltdown, visit family, whatever you're required to do in your everyday life. There is a whole network of authors doing this. Newbies, like me, and published authors. It has author sponsors who cheer us on and give little inspirational talks, or kick our butts, whatever we need they provide. Except the story, that's up to us. Sounds great, the authors life is a very solitary one after all, so if we can have some buddies online going through the same thing as us, at the same time we won't feel so alone. And with all those people talking they just might drown out Ms. D and Ms. G. The catch? I signed up today. Sven finishes on January 15th, it started on October 15th. I'm late! Very late. But as they say, better late than never. So, I'm writing the rest of On A Wing And A Prayer and I'm not going to be too hard on myself over not finishing Nano or, heaven forbid, not finishing it during Sven. I'm doing it for the moral boost, the friendship of other authors and best of all 'meeting' new people. I even noticed when I signed up that a couple of the authors I've 'met' since I started reviewing are in this. And of course my good buddy Sandie Hudson is doing it, in fact she's been raving about it since before Nano and it's kind of her fault I signed up. I was on her blog and she's got the Sven logo on there and well, I couldn't help it, I clicked and off I went. I read the whole blog site for Sven and was hooked. It probably didn't help that the author sponsors are ones I've been reading for years. I'm such a sucker for a recognisable name. As of tomorrow I'm kicking Ms. D and Ms. G to the curb and getting back in the hot seat. It also helped that when I logged on to check out the latest round for the Karin Tabke One Line Comp my entry was still there. Yep, round 8 and going strong. Now if I could just figure out why..... I really don't know. I'm convinced that the other entries are better than mine, so I've got to be missing something. I don't see why it works and the other ones that get bumped out don't. If someone has the answer I'd love to know what it is. Come on, share. Fine! Don't share, leave me sitting here in the dark biting my nails till next week when round 9 gets announced.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Make it count.

Rachel.C

4 comments:

  1. Hi Rach, don't feel guilty about not winning Nano. You're still a winner with your word count and life does get in the way sometimes. Good luck with Sven. Maybe we can have some of our own Book in a Week or Edit in a week challenges on our RWA Nano page.

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  2. Hi Rachel! Don't worry, it's never to late to sign up with Sven! It's a much more relaxed event than Nano, and I think it's more about a bunch of people encouraging each other than slavishly pursuing wordcounts.

    Please don't feel guilty or depressed. I think we all have times when we're more productive than at other times. You've obviously still been writing even if you didn't meet your Nano target, and maybe you'll be able to speed up when life settles down a bit?

    Love

    WendyPortia [from Sweat70]

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  3. Hey, I thought I told you to stop bushing yourself up over your Karin comp. YOUR STORY IS GOOD!!!!
    As for the other pair of nitwits sitting on your shoulders tell them to take a hike. What do they know about writing? NOTHING!!! You did an amazing job for the days that you could and you will do just as well with Sven.

    Now put your shoulders back, butt in your chair, fingers on keyboard and write. Then say to yourself, "I am a damn good writer. I can do what ever I need to do."

    Good luck with the next round of Karin. My work is now done and I'm off to do HOUSEWORK. YUCK!!!

    Big Hugs
    Sandie

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  4. Why do we beat ourselves up as writers? Nothing kills creativity quicker than guilt and depression...or maybe self-doubt, or procrastination or...you get the point. We all need to relax and do what we love-write! Oh, I'm glad to know that the squeaky wheel does get the oil. SEND CHAPTER THREE! You have a gift for leaving the reader hanging at the end of a chapter. Perfectly fine when you have the entire manuscript. When you only have pieces? Not so much. I need my Trey and Lana fix. Oh, and I have to know what the deal is with Cade and Terri. Help a girl out...send it along!

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