After three years in a 3rd floor walk-up apartment with two mid-sized dogs who like to thump around a lot and crash into walls, we’re finally moving to a house with a fenced-in yard! I have been extremely looking forward to this move for roughly eighteen months.
We actually tried to move last year; even went so far as to give notice at our apartment complex, and then chickened out early on after looking at a few particularly unsavory houses and deciding we might as well stay put. I tried to tell myself I liked where I was, but really, I was sick of living in an apartment. It’s one thing to do that in a big exciting city when it’s the only real option, but in Garner, NC you really have no excuse not to have a big ol’ backyard and a garage and a bunch of outdoor space to call your own. There’s just so much of it everywhere and the rents are so reasonable. And this may surprise you, but apartment living in Garner is just not that glamorous.
So when the time rolled around we gave our notice again, but this time we meant it. Our lease was up during the summer, but I started house hunting in around, oh say February. This was hard to do, because people are not generally advertising their rental houses six months before they’re going to be available. I would call real estate agents and let them know when I was looking to move, and they would laugh at me, tell me to call them back in five and a half months, and hang up.
It is scary giving notice that you will not be renewing your current lease without having a firm idea of where you’ll be living next. I worried that we wouldn’t find anything again and would decide in desperation to stick it out in the apartment for another year, only to be told that it had already been rented out from under us, and that we had to move.
But! Instead, we found the cutest house.
We started moving a few things in last weekend, and at one point I couldn’t resist showing the dogs their new digs. For months I had fantasized about being able to boot them out the door and into a yard where they could run and play, without having to worry that Sophie would bolt into the woods for no discernable reason, as is her wont. It can take hours to corrall her back once she gets loose, and the whole time she dances around just out of reach as you scream her name she’s giving you this big droopy and yet strangely vacant stare and having the best time ever. It’s completely infuriating.
Of course, the first thing Sophie DID do when I let her out in the yard was run around to the side of the house and nudge the not-quite-locked gate open with her nose.
That small instant of panic aside, once I’d firmly locked the gate, it was the moment I’d been waiting for, and it was wonderful. The dogs sniffed cautiously, then leapt around with joy and took off running across the wide open expanse of grass…until they reached the eight foot high fence. It was magical. It felt like the ending to that movie Born Free, except for their not being free, or lions.
It was not easy. In fact, it was really really hard. Especially because I had 46,000 words to write during ten days which included the Thanksgiving holiday and during which I had family visiting for a (delightful!) week.
But I got it done, thanks in part to WriteorDie.com , a site which helped me to learn that I am capable of writing approximately 1,200 words in 17 minutes. I am pretty proud of that fact. I’m not saying they were 1,200 of the best words I’ve ever written, but still. That’s some speedy writing.
So, I finished my NaNo novel for 2010 too, by pulling it out in the last few days, and that was an accomplishment.
It’s funny, I am not a particularly competitive person in general, but when it comes to certain things, such as exercising, or making writing deadlines, (situations where you are competitive against yourself) I am a howling BEAST and I REFUSE TO FAIL.
I guess I am pretty stubborn after all. Brian could very likely soliloquize at length about this observation, but I am not going to give him the opportunity.
I’m in the thick of my second National Novel Writing Month this November, and I’m simultaneously having the best and worst time ever, which is pretty much how this project seems to be destined to go.
But really, this year has been a great learning experience for me as a writer– and I feel like I am learning different things from what I learned last year, which is especially rewarding as a second-year participant. In a nutshell, here is what I have learned so far:
1) I am not ready to write a memoir yet. I started out writing one, which is against the rules of NaNo anyway, and started to run out of steam after around 3,000 words. I think it had something to do with the fact that I had no plot. Anyway, I still want to write about what I was writing the memoir about, but I think it’s going to have to wait. It’s just more fun to make stuff up, and NaNoWriMo is all about the fun.
So, I started over on Day 7, which I didn’t think was such a big deal because last year I only LEARNED about NaNo around November 6th, and didn’t really get going until around the 7th-8th. So, I figured that was fine, and I came up with a novel plot that I loved and was really excited about and then around 14,000 words in, around, oh, November 17th or so, I realized that:
2) I can’t write a novel that is too plotted out, because then I have no room to play around and improvise and do those little riffs that are so enjoyable and take you in new directions and that are what makes writing fun and actually good. My novel was feeling stilted and running out of steam already, and this was why. Around the time I realized that, I also realized that
3) My main character was not honest with herself, and I hated her for it. She was in denial about every major relationship of her life, she was whiny, she was lame, and she limped blandly from plot point to plot point, and I was going to lose my mind if I didn’t dump her. I learned that when I don’t respect my characters, because they are not real, and honest with themselves, I can’t write about them. I learned this because:
4) Last Wednesday night the 17th, I opened up my novel from last year. I’m not sure why, but something in my told me that I needed to do that. I honestly hadn’t read it since I finished it last November. So it had been a whole year since I’d even opened the file. I sat down and read the whole thing in an evening, and discovered that actually, it wasn’t horrible, as I’d been convinced it was when I wrote it last year. I was so sure that it was a putrid piece of garbage that I never really wanted to read it again, and when I actually did, I was pleasantly surprised. Really and truly pleasantly surprised. It was really not that bad; in fact, it was relatively entertaining and even made me laugh in certain spots, which is not easy to do.
This made me feel a lot of feelings. It made me realize that what I didn’t like about my novel this year was that the main character wasn’t genuine. It made me realize that when I think I am writing horribly, I am not actually writing horribly. It made me feel sad that I have such a low opinion of my writing that after writing my novel last year I hid it away and didn’t even bother looking at it. It’s sat there for a year, without being touched, when I could have been editing it and working on it and feeling good about it. So, that’s kind of too bad.
Anyway, I need to get over being so secretive about my fiction writing. I need to actually show it to other people so they can help me figure out how to make it better. If anyone wants to read my novel from last year, send me a note to molly.schoemann@gmail.com or leave me a comment and I’ll send it to you. It’s really kind of not that bad.
All right, back to this year’s novel. I have 46,000 words to write in 10 days. Let’s see how that goes, shall we?
After reading several articles about people who are wearing fewer items of clothing, or even going a year without buying any clothing, I was inspired to clean out my closet.
I went through my wardrobe with brutal honesty and precision, and ended up getting rid of about 1/3 of my clothes.
I don’t miss them! Because the clothes I got rid of– I hadn’t worn many of them for six months to a year. They were the clothes I pawed past each time I opened my dresser drawer looking for an outfit. The shirts that looked nice but that I needed to wear a particularly uncomfortable bra with. The skirts I never wore, but that someday I would be in the mood for. The jeans I didn’t really like anymore, but that I might like someday. Basically, they were the clothes I didn’t think I should get rid of, because they were in great shape– because I never wore them.
Now they’re gone! When I open my drawers (which also open much easier now that they are not stuffed to the brim), I like 99% of the clothes I find in them. It’s a great feeling. I have fewer clothes than ever before– but I feel as though I have more clothes than ever before: because I like all of the clothes I have. I think actually appreciate each item of clothing more now, because it’s part of a smaller, sparer collection.
The last item of clothing I bought was in late July. Although I tend to buy clothes in a thrift shop rather than retail, I still figure I’ll give myself 6 months of buying no new clothing of any kind, and see how if feels. After all, I don’t NEED any more clothes. I have plenty of clothes right now; enough to last me through at least six months; possible an entire year. If I can make it that long more’s the better.
So far, getting rid of 1/3 of my clothes is one of the most practical, satisfying things I’ve done in a long time.
One of the reasons dogs are great is that they are made ebulliently happy by walking around.
It’s something we have in common! No wonder I love dogs.
Dogs are the best.
Akie, Jillian and I discussed Astrology in this week’s Perpetual Post. It’s astrologicalicious!
MOLLY SCHOEMANN: I want to cast astrology aside scornfully, but it seems like every time the subject comes up, someone else I love and respect confesses that they are interested in it, and I feel a renewed justification in being curious.
It’s not that I spend that much time thinking about astrology; I don’t even know off the top of my head what the dates are for every sign. (In fact I am always simultaneously impressed and alarmed at those people who CAN say things like, “Your birthday is August 27th? So you’re a Virgo then, hmm…”) Nor do I really pay attention to people’s birthdays being on the cusp or whether their moons are in the house of something or other.
Really, the only time I pay much attention to astrology is to match up my sign with the sign of the boy I’m interested in and/or dating. Now that I have settled down and become engaged to a Scorpio I don’t do much astrologizing, having spent a slow afternoon at work a few years ago reading every account I could find about what Scorpios are like and whether they are a good match with a Taurus. Most sources claim that they are, because they’re kind of opposites but both really intense or something like that. As About.com states, “Scorpio has intuitive powers and Taurus is master of the 3-D physical world — as a team they can experiment in bringing visions into form.” Exactly! That pretty much describes an average Sunday morning in our house.
There are those who claim that the problem with astrology is that you can read any horoscope, whether or not it’s your own, and find ways to relate to it, and pick things out of it that you think can be applied to your own life. This is probably true for me. I can relate to the 10pm weatherman; I can find something that applies to my own life in an online recipe for chutney. I guess you could say I have boundary issues. So in that way I am a perfect candidate to find astrology both extremely compelling and extremely full of lies.
Still, I love people who are openly excited about astrology and enjoy discussing it, even if they do so with a dose of deprecation. Talking to someone like that about astrology is like finding a kindred spirit who isn’t afraid to get raunchy while telling you why she broke up with her ex. It lets you settle into a certain comfort zone and it increases your expectations for the depth of the conversation. You know you are in for a good time when you find someone who you love and respect but who is also not afraid to look you in the eye and say something like “The way you just stirred your coffee is SO like a Taurus! Your moon must be in the house of Saturn this week.”
One of my best friends will confess an intense interest in astrology when pressed, but she knows how admitting that sounds to some, and she’s not afraid to use that fact to her advantage. One night she got out of a bad date early by discussing her love of astrology. “I’m a Pisces,” she told the guy. “We tend to be needy and emotional—and we’re also very demanding.” Needless to say, she never heard from him again. Their love must not have been in the stars! Score one for astrology.
Pumpkin Cheesecake? Check. Cranberry-Pecan Upside Down Cake? Check. Slightly inflated self-esteem from my sophisticated Thanksgiving dessert repertoire? Check.
Let’s just hope they travel well. We’ve got a 90 minute drive tomorrow with a big hairy dog.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
-Molly
PS: email me if you want either recipe, they both turned out very tasty!
Quick! I need a good man’s name for the guy in my novel.
It needs to be kind of old-fashioned, but also kind of rakish and sexy. Think Neo-Post Gothic Satirical Romance hero’s name. Also, like most men in that genre which I just made up, he’s kind of a bad guy too.
Names I’ve had so far but that just aren’t right:
William
Langdon
Carson
Alistair
Jasper
I’m on Jasper right now, and it’s not bad, but I feel like it could use more oomph. And I want to avoid a) names of boys I’ve known in my life, not that you guys know what those names are, and b) names that end in ‘s’, because I’m never sure how the possessive works with those names. It just always looks weird.
Also, the heroine’s name is Clara. So if it goes well with that name, more the better.
No you don’t want to read my novel, trust me.
Thanx for your help!
LOL.
As some of you may know, this month I am participating in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.
This means that I am attempting to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.
What!
I only learned about the existence of NaNoWriMo last Friday. And I only really started my novel…today. So far I have just under 2,000 words. But I’m sallying forth! It’s a really neat idea, and awesome website and what appears to be a kickass community of other crazy writers. It feels very exciting to be working on this giant project at the same time as all these other equally enthusiastic and terrified writers, and it makes you feel much less alone to know that everyone else is struggling toward the same goal as you, just in all sorts of different ways.
But what I like best about the idea of NaNoWriMo is that it gives you a hard and fast deadline and goal, and urges you to just WRITE WRITE WRITE and not worry about it. You can edit later, you can freak out later, you can criticize and judge every little sentence you write and word you choose…LATER! For now, just write write write. While reminds me of how I used to feel when I was younger and the only thing I ever wanted to do was have peace and quiet and time alone at the computer so I could write and enjoy every minute of it.
So far it’s been pretty freaking awesome! But I might be a little scarce on the blog over the next 2 weeks. Now you know why! And if you’re doing NaNoWriMo too, look me up! My username is Couriernew.
I Heard Tell 