Posts tagged ‘NaNoWriMo’

Only The Good Friday #5 Optimism Wins Today
| November 21, 2008 | 6:44 pm

So is this really an exorcise in optimism for me, or what? Lately it seems like my week is going along fine and then Friday arrives and bam. One negative thing after another. Or is it all in my head? Is it the thought of writing about “Only the Good” that gets me focusing on the bad? Well, I am a contrary soul, so it wouldn’t surprise me a bit. But I am also one stubborn bitch, and there is no way some silly little psychological twitch is gonna get its way. It’s Only the Good in Thorne’s World today.

If you’ve been popping in now and then you all know that I’m writing a novel. This is my second consecutive year participating in National Novel Writing Month. There is an awful lot of good in this. On a good energy level, I’m psychically hooked up with about 130,000 other people worldwide who have all decided to put aside their fears, (or at least throw their Inner Editors into a cage with bread and water) and write. Not just think about writing, not just talk about writing, or wish we could find the time to write; but actually writing.
As for NaNoWriMo itself, it is such a good thing on soooo many levels. The Office of Letters and Light is the place where participants and good hearted lovers of writing and education can make donations, or purchace cool NaNo stuff to helpthe cause. Along with running the website and servers for NaNoWriMo every year for 10 years now, it also supports The Young Writers Program, which “provides kids and teens with a month-long language arts experience that improves self-esteem, teaches perseverance, and radically alters their relationship to writing and literature.” In 2007, over 14,000 kids and teens in 366 classrooms worldwide took part in National Novel Writing Month’s Young Writers Program. I think that is something GOOD!

So here’s the concept for Only The Good Friday. Shelly at This Eclectic Life says:

We are living in some pretty negative times, aren’t we? You can’t pick up a newspaper or turn on the television without hearing more bad news about the economy, the war, the stock market, the political candidates. I think that many of us are living in a state of fear (though I’m in the state of Texas).

Fear feeds upon itself
. It’s like a contagious virus. I’m tired of adding to it. I want to start another kind of “virus.”

You see, I think that optimism can be contagious, too. If we consciously try to look at the good in the world around us, it will become easier to see.

Thorne’s words on Only the Good:

I really like this idea. Any of you regulars who have peeked in on Thorne’s World once in awhile over the last year know that between my political activism and blogging, and some pretty heavy personal life stuff, I kinda crashed. Well; no “kinda” about it. The world and life pretty much kicked my ass into a sever depression that I have been trying to pull out of for the last several months. It’s rough for me once I hit the blog, because I seem to have gotten caught up in everything that’s wrong, and when I check in online I still see so much that outrages or upsets me that I have a bit of a hard time keeping to my resolve to try to stay a little calm and happy and out of the outrage and anger and sadness. Shelly’s meme is so GOOD for me!! No matter what’s going on, on Fridays at least I can say to myself “Turn it around, woman! What can you say-think-write-feel-do today that is good?! Positive! Hopeful!!”
Won’t you join us?? Help spread the good love for Only The Good Friday!

Only the Good Fridays #4
| November 15, 2008 | 5:51 am

Okay, I can’t help it. Shelly, over at This Eclectic Life posted this for her Only The Good Friday meme. I have a bit of personal good to post, and I’ll get to it in a minute, but this video made my night, so I simply have to post it here. The Righteous Mothers. Yeah. These women RAWK!
And unlike our modest Shelly, I WILL join them in solidarity! (Yeah, yeah… any excuse to get naked. LOL)

Old Fat Naked Women for Peace, UNITE!!!

So, it may anticlimactic after that, but I have a couple things for OtGF. First though, let’s talk about this wonderful woman Shelly, and the concept for Only The Good Friday. Shelly says:

We are living in some pretty negative times, aren’t we? You can’t pick up a newspaper or turn on the television without hearing more bad news about the economy, the war, the stock market, the political candidates. I think that many of us are living in a state of fear (though I’m in the state of Texas).

Fear feeds upon itself
. It’s like a contagious virus. I’m tired of adding to it. I want to start another kind of “virus.”

You see, I think that optimism can be contagious, too. If we consciously try to look at the good in the world around us, it will become easier to see.

I really like this idea. Any of you regulars who have peeked in on Thorne’s World once in awhile over the last year know that between my political activism and blogging, and some pretty heavy personal life stuff, I kinda crashed. Well; no “kinda” about it. The world and life pretty much kicked my ass into a sever depression that I have been trying to pull out of for the last several months. It’s rough for me once I hit the blog, because I seem to have gotten caught up in everything that’s wrong, and when I check in online I still see so much that outrages or upsets me that I have a bit of a hard time keeping to my resolve to try to stay a little calm and happy and out of the outrage and anger and sadness. Shelly’s meme is so GOOD for me!! No matter what’s going on, on Fridays at least I can say to myself “Turn it around, woman! What can you say-think-write-feel-do today that is good?! Positive! Hopeful!!”
Won’t you join us?? Help spread the good love for Only The Good Friday!

So, here’s a bit of my good.

Thornie got a car!!! Woo Hoo!!! It’s a cute little thing, too! A lil gold Dodge Daytona hatchback with only 54K original miles! It’s in pretty good shape; only one lil doing on the front left quarter panel, runs great, clean interior and it’s mine! yay! I’m mobile again finally!! This is soooo GOOD!!!

More personal good is that I finally hit 20K words tonight for NaNoWriMo! Yay, me! I’ve been running a bit behind and I still am a couple thou down on my word count, but I’m feeling fine and plan to knock out another 2K or so tonight. Have coffee will write!

Another bit of good was left by Aaron, who took the time to comment on my post entitled Labor On, and thanks to a nifty (good) little gadget called Comment Luv, I was led back to his last post entitled Perception is Reality. It’s a really GOOD post. Go check him out.

The last bit of good I have time to post is the absolute best. (I have to get back to writing my novel). Shelly. She is my big GOOD today. She is an incredible writer and storyteller, an humorous and fun blogger, and a beautiful red haired woman, but all these are secondary at best to the simple fact that she is a precious person. She has a huge heart and a bright spirit, and I adore her beyond measure.
Shelly, I love you. Thank you for all you do, for your love and concern and support this past year. Thank you for being you!

NaNo One-Liners
| November 11, 2008 | 7:31 am

Okay!! There are a few really good ones here and there, but so far these are my favorite lines from some of the novel excerpts of my NanoWriMo friends.
1)

He prayed for forgiveness, he prayed for his friends, he prayed for resurrection, and finally he prayed that he might have the nerve to look the Cardinal in the eye tomorrow and put a bullet in his forehead.

2)

Sometimes I dream that in the darkness you weave yourselves without hands to ply you, undoing your plaits by dawn.

And in a bit of hubris I offer my own favorite line from my novel:

Even these men who mock her beauty in fearful and judging words shift on their feet, jiggle a leg or pull at their trousers to hide the shapes of their stiffening cocks.