It was a Friday and I was bored. What was I thinking?
It was a Friday at lunchtime, when I thought, what the heck. I’d always wanted to do it. But it’s in November. When I work on elections. November. Thanksgiving when I have lots of guests every year and cook for days. November when I already had a vacation planned. Oh, and November, when I planned to continue along with, you know, my life.
November, when I start getting into my pre-Holiday “just get me through to February-s.”
November, when I’d already been in a writing funk since my dog Cooper died in August. Nothing I’d written worked since then except when I was ranting (and how difficult is that?)
So naturally, with no preparation, no ideas, and precious little time, I signed on to NaNoWriMo.
What was worse was that I announced it to everybody in my office (they’re all supportive of my writing). They were duly impressed and asked for advanced, autographed copies.
I blogged about it here: https://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2013/11/01/am-i-a-total-idiot/.
The answer to the question posed was/is: Yes. A big fat Y-E-S. I am a total idiot.
But I did learn from my experience. I think the thing that I learned most was:
Look before you leap
You Nincompoop.
(Google Image)
On the bright side, I have been able to write a bit again. And that was my true goal in signing up. I wanted to force myself to write again. And I have been able to. So I did meet that goal.
And as a wanna-be funny person, I learned a valuable lesson from a true funny person:
Charlie Chaplin
Image Doctormacro.com
Failure is unimportant.
It takes courage
to make a fool of yourself.
Thanks, Charlie. I think I have that down.
FiftyFourandAHalf 