I Heart The Mudflats

From Mudpuppy Shorebird:

Location:Pisa, Italy
Here I was just trying to take a picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa when this moose jumped in front of my camera….

From Mudpuppy Ghostdancer, in Wisconsin:
“Brian browsing the fall harvest”

This guest post was submitted by Kyra from Kyra of the moment.

November is National Novel Writing Month and if you have never heard of Nanowrimo and have always had the urge to write a novel, this is a great opportunity (excuse?) to give it a try with all kinds of kindred spirits to cheer you on. As of now (3:38pm Pacific Time, Friday, October 23, 2009), 70,186 authors world-wide (including yours truly) have signed up for the 10th year of “30 days and nights of literary abandon.”

It’s simple, fun, and the prize is the joy of accomplishment. And, it’s free. It begins at midnight on Nov. 1 and ends at midnight on Nov. 30. To win, you simply write 50,000 words (175 pages) in that period. The goal, is to write without worrying about plot development, grammar, spelling, continuity, or whether you really know anything about the technical aspects relating to some plot feature.

Each day, you simply cut and paste your days product to nanowrimo and a bot counts your words and deletes it (nobody reads it, evaluates it, critiques it, or keeps it - in fact, if you’re concerned about your “baby” they even give you instruction about scrambling your novel before posting to ensure your security. Your total word count is then tracked and if you reach the 50,000 word goal within the allotted time, then you win!

Your prize? The satisfaction of achieving a goal. And yes, if you want to cut and paste Wikipedia, you can. But what’s the point? Why cheat? There’s no “winner.” If everyone that joins completes the goal, then everyone wins.

As far as the quality of your novel? You can always go back later and fix those problems, but how often have you started a project and stopped because it was too daunting? Or shuffled it aside never actually quitting, just meaning to get to it “later” when you had more time? Or maybe you’ve done all the research, have tons of notes (have you ever heard the story about how J.K. Rowlings wrote the Harry Potter books?) but never had the nerve to actually start.

Writing a novel is an overwhelming prospect to many of us. Just the thought of writing a short story is enough to make us decide that writing is too hard. But wait! Look at how many of us are bloggers? What are we doing? What are we? We’re writers. To take it further, to write a novel or other kind of book or even to just write for a living, as a professional writer once said, you have to write.

Forget writer’s block. Forget procrastination. Forget what you feel like doing, or not doing. You have to sit down at your computer and go. Put the fingers on the keys, have a general idea of what you want to say, and start. And that is what nanowrimo is all about. To make it easier, there are forums, writing buddies to buddy up with, mentors, and write-ins if you’re so inclined.

The website has lots of helpful hints, ideas, and many cheerleaders. Full disclosure, this is my first year. My sister who is a writer has been a long time participant and as I am (still) unemployed but now writing almost full-time (blogging, etc.), she has talked me into nano’ing this year.

So, if interested, pop on over to nanowrimo and sign up. My user name at nanowrimo is Kyra, so if you decide to join and want a writing buddy, let me know!

I realize its only October and it might not sit well to think about winter holidays quite yet, I am anyway.

Every year from the beginning of November until just after the new year, I bake hundreds of batches of cookies, as well as cakes and other breakfast breads, snacks, pies, deserts and appetizers. I give boxes of cookies to friends, family and other people we work with or have frequent contact with during the year. My husband and I also often cater or at least help with several holiday parties as well as a Thanksgiving dinner in our own home.

So as I am thinking forward to what I am going to bake, how many pounds of flour, sugar, butter and nuts, how many dozen eggs, how much time I will need, who are we gifting to and what should we package them in I am thinking of my joy. It can take a lot of planning to bake this much, but I don’t mind, I don’t mind spending the money or the time and I don’t mind that the gifts often aren’t reciprocated, the whole thing is so warm and wonderful.

Holiday season baking is my favorite part of the late fall early winter. It brings me so much happiness when I bake the cookies and when I give them away, the smells and the smiles. As the days get darker and the temperatures are plummeting anything that brings some joy is a good thing.

Where does your end of the year (late fall early winter) joy come from?

(if you want to contribute a winter Joy piece for the blog click here)