Although I already posted today, it’s Friday, so I thought I would share something a little more light-hearted than usual.
- My mom tells me a story that I wrote one of my first stories as a kid completely mirror image. I don’t remember doing this, but she says she has proof.
- I got “in trouble” in kindergarten because I couldn’t properly write my “L/J”s or “S/Z”s.
- I wrote my first complete children’s book at age eight, and after affirmation from my teacher, I fantasized about being the youngest author ever. I later discovered I was already too old for that title.
- As a child, my mom would often come into my room during the summer and tell me to go outside and play. I preferred writing or reading.
- In eighth grade, we had to watch Armageddon and Jurassic Park in my science class. Our assignment was to watch the movies and document all the scientific inaccuracies and write an essay on it. I chose Armageddon and wrote a satirical “news article.” The journalist interviewed a very distraught asteroid who didn’t really want to blow up the earth, but he couldn’t help himself. It was full of terrible puns. My teacher loved it and printed out copies to share with all the other eighth grade teachers.
- In ninth grade, we did career quizzes to find out which career fit us best: journalist and novelist always came out on top for me.
- During my senior year of high school, I discovered that I hate journalistic writing when I wrote for my high school newspaper. That was further confirmed in college.
- All the way until college, I swore up and down that I would never use a computer as a large component of my future career. At the time, I was a slow typist and preferred handwriting everything.
- I increased my typing speed and accuracy by IM-ing my now husband. We were long distance for three years during college.
- For the record, I am not a poet. At all.
- I have one of my logo designs from college published in a textbook. I often think that I should have been more specific when I made my goal to be published. (For the record, I always meant a published novel.)
- In my creative writing class in college, I was voted “Most Likely to Write a Children’s Book.” It was meant as an insult.
- I am a grammar snob. College scared it into to me, and it’s never leaving. I will not, however, correct you. No one wants that.
- I am a recovering emoji-overuse-er. I always hated them, until I met a group of friends who constantly use them, and I discovered the love for them. I now have a hard time being sardonic/ironic/sarcastic without my favorite emojis. But, I firmly oppose Oxford Dictionary’s decision to include an emoji in their dictionary.
- Currently, I have about 5,500 words out of my 100,000 words goal for my novel, which I started writing just about a month ago. My goal is to finish a rough draft by the end of 2019 (though hopefully sooner).
Assuming you have a life… 100,000 words is a reasonable goal for the end of the year. Keep it up and enjoy. 🙂
I hope it is! Life is a bit unpredictable with a two-year-old and a four-year-old, but I’m squeezing in time when I can. 🙂
I didn’t even start writing until the kids were off to college, so good for you for even attempting it with little ones around. You’re way ahead. 🙂
[…] my novel, I purposefully set a long goal: nearly two years to complete my first draft. Two years. Someone commented on a post of mine that I could do it much faster than that, and I didn’t believe…. I’m a stay at home mom, after all. How can I take breaks to write when at least one of my kids […]