My Nano-Style Blog-a-Day Kickoff

I’m floundering. This pretty much always happens when I’m between projects. For the record I just finished a revision of a novel, something I’m really excited about but trying to push out of my mind while feedback from my awesome first readers trickles in. I also have TWO very cool potential ideas for new novels but don’t feel the timing is quite right to begin either one of them. Thanksgiving and our hosting of an annual (growing) family dinner is just around the corner. And then there’s December. Do I really want to throw myself into a new project? This could be lazy, resistant me talking, but the answer, I fear, is No.

But I know myself well enough to know that I can’t NOT write just because the holidays are coming up. What to do? What to do? Or perhaps more to the point: WWSKD? By which I mean, of course, “What Would Stephen King Do?” I surely know the answer to that one: he would write his 2000 words a day regardless. And here’s another thing that I almost hate to put down in words because it might jinx things: I’ve got a teeny tiny nibble on a manuscript that’s been floating around the NYC publishing world for the past two years. Such a teeny tiny nibble that it could easily drift away or disappear or pop like a bubble in the glaring light of reality.

So I’ve come up with a plan that will (hopefully) keep my mind off Things Outside My Control, give my writing muscles a workout, provide a challenge for my goal-oriented self, and most importantly allow me to retain my sanity as I navigate the busy holiday season. I’m not joking about the sanity part. When I don’t write every day, I quickly become an anxious, (b)itchy mess. Ask anyone.

In the spirit of WWSKD, I have devised the following challenge: Write five blogs a week for the next four weeks, sort of a Nano-esque Blog-a-thon. (For the uninitiated, Nano is short for NaNoWriMo, which is short for National Novel Writing Month, in which participants pledge to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. I’ve “won” Nano every year for the past four years. Maybe this is another reason I’m floundering at the moment. Because I didn’t sign up for Nano.)

So my dear and faithful readers, please join me in my quest. Sign up to “Follow me” and/or to get email posts (See the handy dandy tab on the left hand side for instructions.) Keep reading and find out if I can sustain this blog’s usual high level of entertaining, humorous, inspirational value you’ve grown to expect. Plus, there will be pictures…