While I scrubbed the bathroom floor on one of those Sundays that necessitated a thorough house cleaning, I heard the front door open, followed by my then-fiance’s voice. “Don’t be mad!” Oh, no. He bought a pickup. (We’d been weighing the idea of getting a cheap-o pickup truck to help with house remodeling projects, to… Continue reading Puppy life
Tag: Creativity
NaNoWriMo: Week 3
Accountability check-in time: I’ve given up calculating my time spent drafting. I pretty much average around an hour a day, but I’m not able to measure the time I spend thinking through issues and ideas for the storyline(s). So, I figured that measuring draft time only gives me a partially accurate amount for total time… Continue reading NaNoWriMo: Week 3
NaNoWriMo: Week 2
Time for another NaNoWriMo accountability check: Still writing every day. Some days I’m more enthusiastic to start than others. Some days I end a session feeling buoyed by the process, and others I just feel tired. As of Nov. 14, I’ve logged 13 hours and 16 minutes (still less than an hour per day drafting).… Continue reading NaNoWriMo: Week 2
NaNoWriMo: Week 1
Seven days into NaNoWriMo, it’s time for a check in. My stats for the past week (shared in attempt to hold myself accountable): I’ve consistently written every day. During the work week, I put in about an hour of work before starting my day job. On weekends, this work takes place at some point in… Continue reading NaNoWriMo: Week 1
NaNoWriMo: Let’s Do This.
For the first time, I’ll be joining thousands of other writers in doing something a little nutty... National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo). This gamified activity is fairly self-explanatory: participants draft an entire novel in the span of a month. For real. A participant “wins” by writing 50,000 words in the form of a novel by… Continue reading NaNoWriMo: Let’s Do This.
Am I wasting my time?
Imposter syndrome strikes many creative types. (I write about my own struggles to overcome this nasty complex in an earlier post, and for additional recommended reading, check out this article on the topic from a favorite resource, The Writer’s Edit.) Imposter syndrome in a nutshell: You’re certain everyone will find out how much of a… Continue reading Am I wasting my time?
You’ve probably got a lot going on–and that’s OK
I drafted this post on the plane while heading home after a trip to visit family, during which I worked my 9-to-5, deliberated on and put in an offer on a house (!?!?!), did some other employment-related tidying up (interpret that as you will)… and spent time with a variety of family. Thing were a… Continue reading You’ve probably got a lot going on–and that’s OK
How do you learn to trust yourself?
The inspiration for this post comes from Dear Sugar podcast episode “How do I find the courage to be my own guide?” and, perhaps more indirectly, from Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. This topic is relevant to so many areas of… Continue reading How do you learn to trust yourself?
All the things I’ve wanted to be
Digging around in old files, I came across an assignment from an undergraduate nonfiction writing class. A lot of the stuff I produced in creative writing classes from age 20-through-24 (basically, all the creative writing classes I ever took) was, uh, not that great, but that's OK - lots of first drafts. This assignment stuck… Continue reading All the things I’ve wanted to be
Want to be an artist? Then do it.
Once upon a time I wanted to be a writer. A writer, in my early-20-something brain, was someone who had a masters of fine arts in creative writing and taught creative writing classes and had a certain lifestyle and I guess wrote some stuff that was all published. To prep myself for the writing part… Continue reading Want to be an artist? Then do it.
Gail Marie Cole 