C. L. Norman

Hey guys. It’s been a while and I thought I’d drop a line and let you know what I am up to.

First off my writing. I am so far behind on NaNoWriMo this year that there is no way I am “winning”. Things were rolling along quite nicely until I got really sick and then the rest of my family one by one fell to the illness as well. When that cleared up and I was finally able to get back to my writing, I found I had slipped back into my procrastinating ways. I am working on getting out of the gutter and on the road again but as is usual at this time of year, work is getting crazier by the day. The kids school activities are getting crazier by the day. Holiday activities are getting crazier by the day. I am getting crazier by the day. Anyway, it is all a bunch of excuses but they are a roadblock to the kinds of habits I am frustratingly unable to cultivate in regards to my writing.

And yes, I am my own worst enemy. I have a cartload of hang-ups and bad habits that stop me from doing what I want. I’m working through them but it is a very slow process.

Good news is I have a short story mostly done so I should be releasing that soon. I started this one after a particularly odd dream and I call it a cross between Hansel & Gretel and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. I know it sounds weird but I think you’ll like it.

If I can find some spare time, I’ll also be updating my short story blurbs. I think time has given me insights on how I can make them better, clearer, and I want to include the information that they are short stories directly in the blurb. I have seen and heard a lot of frustration from readers about the length of the stories they think they are buying. Making sure up front that folks know my stories are short and not cut off versions of a novel is only fair.

I also want to work on my website. Include some free samples of the short stories. Add my cover images to the front page. Add “Contact Me” options. I am not sure when this will happen though as I am not extremely computer savvy. I have a copy of WordPress for Dummies and a very busy friend who acts as my webmaster when he can. When I can get the two together, we’ll see what happens.

I hope you are all having a marvelous week and if I don’t get back here before then, Happy Thanksgiving!

        

The countdown as begun. Only two weeks to go until NaNoWriMo* begins. That 50,000 words in 30 days frenzy that is otherwise known as November for the non-writing part of the population. It is fun and frustrating, satisfying and nerve-wracking. And after succeeding last year at the challenge, I have been looking forward to it all year.

So now you ask; if you succeeded at last year’s challenge, where’s your novel?

Good question. December is an insane month for me. I have four children, my birthday and Christmas and Christmas break fall within those 31 days, and I work retail and I shouldn’t have to explain what happens in a retail job in December. In other words, as soon as November ended, I took a break from writing. As soon as I did the critical voice in my head was given room to speak and she is even more of a talker than I am. I’ve tried and tried to pick up the story again with no success. First I worry that I started the story too early, then I think I didn’t start it early enough; then I worry that I need to spend more time with one character and less time with another one. And all that is on top of the word by word criticism I give everything I write. And the next thing I know, I am screaming at the computer and slamming it shut. And not writing another word for weeks.

This year I am going to try to get all the way to the ‘actual’ end of the story and not just the 50,000 word mark. With that in mind, I am going to try to get 100,000 words done in 30 days. It is a big goal to set but I know I can do it, if I can just get out of my head and write the story as it flows through my subconscious.

Keep up on my progress on my NaNo profile page here or on Facebook here and let me know what you think.

*For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month