Blog Fasting and Novel Ideas

Sometimes you have to figure out what’s best for you. And sometimes you simply have to do what you do best.

I secretly made a New Year’s Resolution to not blog anything for a month. Not even write a blog to post later. I went so far as to not think about what I was going to blog about when I restarted in February. There were times I was tempted to disregard my fast and post a random tidbit or recipe (of which there are a few I’d really love to share soon!) but decided against it. Why would I stop blogging for an entire month? Quite simply, it was taking away from the entire reason I started blogging in the first place, which was a daily writing exercise to get my creative juices flowing towards young adult fiction or sci-fi or children’s books. Allow me to explain this perturbed troll logic.

Writing is writing, right? Apparently not so much. I’m not exactly certain as to when it happened, but somewhere along the way I realized that writing a daily blog actually sucked away any real creativity that I normally would have put towards storylines and characters. I mean, this isn’t the first venture I had into writing non-fiction, but it is the first time I was writing from my own perspective. I’ve written articles on important figures in history (such as Oliver Otis Howard and Sequoyah to name a couple) for a magazine about famous Howards. However, these are a bit different and more like writing research papers than, say, a novel. All of these different styles take different skills and when I was trying to force myself to write a blog about cooking and cleaning and quilting and chicken-keeping to entice my brain to write about murder and mayhem and drama and comedy, it just wasn’t going to happen.

To counteract the trap I got myself into, I decided the only way out was a fast. I had to put this blog on hold to get back to my roots. It was time to return to the fictional town of Ravenwood where a majority of my books for children, teens and adults are set. It was time for me to stop waiting for something to happen and start doing something to make it happen. It was time for me to start thinking about what I really want to be when I grow up… and that is a writer.

One Thousand Days

The last few months my blog has been, well, a little blah. I think I need some time to refocus.

Today marks my one-thousandth day of continuous blogging. A lot has happened. A lot has changed. A lot still needs to be done. However, I feel like this last two to three months has been a struggle to simply write down anything. Every once in a while I’d get inspired, and then there are times I’m simply fumbling for words and it shows. In the words of a mother to her three year old child once overheard in a Kmart, “It’s time to focus, regroup, and make a better decision.”

So starting today, I will no longer kick myself to come up with something to blog about. Starting today, I will stop worrying about making sure I have internet access whenever we go on vacation so I can post. Starting today, there will be some changes.

Now, this does not mean I’m signing off for good, just that I won’t be posting a new blog every day. There will be quilting updates, recipes, chicken and duck news, pet information, cleaning ideas and the works, but all without the mundane “sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy” poetry crap. Okay, so perhaps there will still be a poem or two if it is relevant. Honestly I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my mornings while I drink coffee and try to wake my brain up, which was the main reason for starting the blog in the first place. That and the fact that I was an unemployed homemaker feeling the need to connect to others even if it was only in a virtual universe.

Perhaps this will allow me more time to write what I’m passionate about. Perhaps this will give me more time to focus on getting my children’s books or young adult novels published. Perhaps this will get me motivated to come up with a dozen new quilt designs and make a book. Perhaps this will allow my passions for cooking and baking to blossom into a new or second career. Perhaps I better just savor these last few sentences before I publish this entry, because over the past few years this blog has been a huge part of my life. It started off as a way to motivate myself into fixing up our old house and turned into a challenge to get up every morning and write. I for one can’t wait to see what tomorrow may bring.

Today's To Do List

With so much stuff needing to get done, I’ve decided to make a To Do List for stuff I need to get done and also want to do. It would only be fair.

I will drink coffee.

I will blog.

I will clean the litter boxes… but not take a picture of the litter boxes because that is just disgusting.

I will make something with fabric.

I will play with the dog.

I will vacuum the floors… but not take a picture of the floors because they are disgusting.

I will be productive.

Alas, this is only a fraction of what I actually want to get done, but I suppose if I keep it simple the possibility of actually accomplishing everything on the list has a greater chance of happening. That and I have stuff I didn’t list that I really need to get done but I’m afraid listing it will only make me want to put it off even longer. Ugh.

A Time to Quit

Sometimes it is best to quit while you’re ahead. Other times it is best to quit in order to get ahead.

I’m quitting this blog. There, I said it. After eight-hundred-twenty-five consecutive days of blogging, it is time to close this chapter and move on. To what, you might ask? Well for starters, to spend all that money I won in the Mega Millions lottery!

Thank you to all for the support throughout the years!

Cory

April Fools!

In all seriousness, I think I’m going to refocus my efforts to finishing my husband’s clown vest, making three puppets for an upcoming high school play, work on That 70s quilt and make a block or two from The Desperate Housewife’s Quilt (http://quiltjane.blogspot.com). With him being sick, our plans to go to his mom’s for a few days have been scrapped, but I still have the time off. Who knows, maybe we’ll take a day trip if he’s feeling better in the next few days.

Changes

There is nothing like New Year’s Eve. A time to reflect and a time to move on.

With the New Year just around the corner, I’ve decided it’s time for a few changes. For one, I’ll be more adventurous. Being complacent is one thing, but not living life due to fear or looking foolish is, well, silly. For that reason alone, and after talking to my sister-in-law who said I should definitely do it, I’m going to devote one blog a week to be a video blog. I have no idea how this will work or even what day of the week I should post it on, but I’m sure after a few trial and errors I will be able to figure out the kinks.

Speaking of kinks, the Jägerbombs I had last night with a bunch of my husband’s old classmates still feel like they are working their way through my system. It’s going to be an interesting day at work.

Tempted

Do you ever come up with a brilliantly evil plan and can’t wait to execute it? I’ve just conceived one.

Since the old house is back on the market, albeit as bank owned, my husband and I checked out the pictures online. Needless to say it was all cosmetic and doesn’t look like they addressed the bigger issues such as the mold or even the lake under the house. However, after checking the website there is a place to link your blog if you’ve blogged about this property. I am so tempted.

Perhaps I should link up all of the blogs about mold, mildew, standing water under the house, leaking roof that drips into both the garage and the kitchen out of the ceiling vent, the fact that you can’t burn a fire in the fireplace and any other damaging information. Or perhaps I should just let it go. I mean, the bank, while still owning the property, will eventually make back all the money thanks to federal guarantees and once the house sells will be making a hefty profit, so it isn’t at all surprising that they have it listed for fifty thousand dollars less than we owed. With that being the case, what would be the point?

Of course, the best part about it is that it comes with a two year warranty. That’s nice. I mean, I could wait until someone buys the place and then tell them all the issues that the house has, but by then a home inspector will have gone through the house and probably noted at least half of the major problems. I know the one the bank sent last time when we refinanced was on crutches and had leg braces so he couldn’t go up into the attic or even check out under the house, so hopefully the potential homeowners will hire somebody who can actually do an inspection.

As much as I’d love for it to remain on the market for years, it is a cute house in a great location with a large yard, so the chances are slim. However, with that being said, it is on a major road which is about to have some major construction going on for the next few years. Location is great, but traffic nightmares are not so much.

The healthy thing to do would be to let it go. Why bother airing out the dirty laundry of the past? I suppose the main reason is that I could possibly, just possibly, consider this as an act of kindness to any potential buyer as a way of letting them know just what they are getting themselves into. Who am I kidding. I’m evil.

Camp

I never went to camp as a kid. This weekend will be my first.

I’m not exactly sure what to expect at an all church camp, but hopefully it won’t be horrifying. I mean, let’s just say that while I like the idea of camping, going with a lot of people has its drawbacks, whether it was having a flaming marshmallow fly into my eye as a kid or trying to cook meals for three adults and five kids on a camp fire while they were all gallivanting in the lake or nature or something. Okay, so perhaps I shouldn’t be talking about personal camping experiences when about to go do this on a larger scale.

Honestly, I’m looking forward to the trip. Not looking forward to working all day today and then having to drive to the rural site, but alas, it shouldn’t be too bad. On top of that, I’m also not looking forward to the fact that I may not have Wi-Fi, which means no blogging, which means my run of consecutive days blogging will only be up to today, which means only a mere five-hundred-eighty something days in a row. Oh well. However, I’ll pack the laptop just in case.