Wendy Martin's Art Blog

I really tried, and in fact I am pretty pleased with what I managed to accomplish. But with only eight days to go in this month’s National Novel Writing Month challenge and my measly word count of just over 13,000 words, I don’t think it is physically possible for me to write the 50,000 required to win.

I started off the month right on track, I planned to write about 2,000 words a day, because I know there would be days when I would be too busy to make time to write. I was on track until about the middle of the second week, too. And than, as it usually does, life happened.

I was assigned my first case as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate). It is a rather complicated scenario and the more investigation I do the more complicated it becomes. I have spent several days each week in the last few weeks just making phone calls and tracking down info. I have received so many faxes, I have to go out an buy another roll of film for my fax machine. I was hoping to wait until January when the stores send out 50% off coupons and I can make a big purchase for my needed office supplies. I rerolled the film, but that’s just a band aide for the immediate future. There have also been several trips up into St. Louis to meetings and such, which because of the drive, the time spent and such, have left me with no energy left after preparing dinner for my family and making sure the house doesn’t fall down around our ears. So several nights I sat staring at my computer screen and not a word being written because my brain refused to function.

Last week, my printer also decided to misbehave again. This has been an ongoing problem since I purchased the damn thing and no one wants to take responsibility to replace the monstrosity which arrived damaged and needed a service call before I could even use it! So the service guy was here again last week, to fix it, and again could not fix it.

I finally found an electrician who wasn’t going to cost me $150 to walk in the front door. My daughter’s room now has a light switch and a new light fixture replacing the old crayon shaped ceiling fan we installed when she was 6. The ceiling still needs to be sanded and painted but if we don’t look up, it’s not noticeable so most likely will wait until I am more ambitious. While the electrician was here, I also had him rewire the studio with grounded outlets and bring the room up to code. The new outlets are on their own circuit on the breaker box as well, which should help save us from having to replace electronic equipment should we have another storm like last August’s.

AND my dentist finally talked me into getting a mouth guard. I have been grinding my teeth since I was a small child and it has gotten to the point where it’s causing me trouble. Because of the way my lower jaw is shaped what should have been an hour visit turned into several hours long visits until the guard fit properly. I wore it for the full night last night for the first time. I think it’s the first time I can remember not waking up with my jaw muscles in knots.

But all of this “life” has really crimped my writing time. So no NaNoWriMo award for me this year. I am very proud of my 13,000+ word count and may even continue to work on my story in spite of the fact I won’t be a NaNoWriMo winner this year. As a picture book writer/artist I have had to work to keep my word count under 1,000 words, so a novel of any length is quite an achievement for me. And it’s been fun to get on a roll and find I’ve written another scene and finished a chapter without struggling for perfection. I still have no title for my story, but it no longer matters. I won this year no matter what else happens this month. I have a really cool novel started and may even see it to completion some time in the near future.

I have a November coloring page in mid sketch calling to me, so I must skiddaddle off and finish that before it become December and I have to do a coloring page for next month! This year has streamed by entirely too fast!