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a crisis in the making
By heather | October 29, 2007
I had a great entry for today about this past weekend, but it requires the pictures I took this weekend. Maybe tomorrow, because I was too lazy to upload them yesterday. That’s the great thing about a blog, rather than a newsy site - it’s news when I say it is. So this past weekend gets reported…tomorrow…maybe. Did I mention Alex did great on the airplane ride we took 2 months ago?
Instead, I’m going to talk about my hare-brained idea to be a freelance writer. My friend Megan (and also my birthday buddy) sent me this site - NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo challenges you to churn out a novel during the month of November. 175 pages, 50,000 words. I’m signing up.
Back when I was having my pre-midlife/post-baby crisis I decided that I was going to be a freelance writer. I’m not sure why. I read lots of quotes about doing what you wanted to do and not wasting your life smothered under a mattress of bills and obligations.
I felt the call of the open road and briefly contemplated becoming a white water rafting guide. If you know me at all you understand I was in a bad way because to me, camping is a hotel without room service.
I leafed through magazines and a lot of the time thought "Well duh I could have told you that" as I read. I bought books on how to make money freelancing, I generated article ideas, then realized it was probably a bad idea to try and write for money (and with deadlines) while working full time with a new baby. I moved on to researching franchises (another idea that is now dead in the water) and that was about the time I started this blog. It was less pressure and requires no research! I can’t be wrong!
I still like the idea of working for myself. Eventually I’d like to be able to set my own schedule and not really answer to anyone. I like to write. I also like to eat, however it doesn’t mean it should be my job. NaNoWriMo is a chance to see if writing should be my job. Plus, I could be just like that girl who was just walking down the street and now makes a gazillion dollars as a model, except fatter, when some publisher reads my novel and decides it MUST. BE. PUBLISHED.
Now for the caveats. Seeing as how I function best when I get my full 11 hours of sleep I don’t plan to stay up late to write unless I’m really in the mood. And my formerly "of course he sleeps through the night, doesn’t yours?" baby who’s now decided that 2am is the ideal time for a visit from mommy and not just a drop-in-to-say-hi but a-stay-for-tea kind of visit means that I probably won’t even write everyday. I don’t know if I’ll actually finish but I will at least make the effort, and I have an idea of what my novel will be about. Half the battle no?
To put the pressure on myself to at least write something, I’m going to post a link to the site so if you have some spare time (and who doesn’t? har) you can follow along. The owners of NaNoWriMo promise that you’ll write a lot of crap under pressure, but I do that anyway here. It may be a long shot, but this way the next time I have a personal self-worth crisis, I’ll know what to rule out. Anyone else in?
Topics: work, writing challenges |