(no subject)
It's Saturday morning, I'm on vacation for a week, it's snowing, and I have a cat on my lap. In general, life seems pretty good. Except for the pain....
After a week of chest/back/shoulder/neck/arm pain, I finally went to the doctor on Thursday. I did call on Tuesday, but they couldn't see me until Thursday. After poking and prodding and other painful things, I was diagnosed with a cervical strain aka sprained neck aka whiplash. No idea how I got it, as i haven't been in any car crashes or played contact sports in a long time. So I'm on skelaxin (muscle relaxer/pain reliever) and vicodin if needed for pain. I start physical therapy on Monday, which I'm a little scared of. Never gone to PT before. But I'll go if they can make it feel better. Dr. wanted to try the meds/PT because he thinks that will work and if it's not better in two weeks, then we'll go for expensive xrays and MRIs. in the meantime, I am never completely comfortable and tend to move around a lot. Different positions will make one pain better but another worse (ie, reclining on the pillow chair makes chest pains go away but shoulders hurt, flat on my back with the memory foam contour pillow is great on the neck but increases the back pain). So, I'm a bit whiny and on drugs right now.
Writing...
Well, I quit NaNo a week ago, but hadn't actually told anyone until last night. I just kept thinking i"d get back into things but after a week, I really just don't want to. I've written 36k and could finish the other 14 in two days of hard writing. But honestly, I don't want to. I hate writing it. I hate the story. It's stupid. When I work on this stupid book that will never see the light of day, I think about all the time I could be putting into Unexpected Gifts. I really love this one. I've loved it since I started it for NaNo in 2005 and only wrote 5k on it.
My feelings on NaNo. These are only for me. In general, I think NaNo is great and I completely support it. But I am trying to write year round. I want to do this professionally. In 2004, when I first decided to do NaNo, I did it because I had never written anything bigger than 15k but wanted to write novels and thought it might be the way to actually finish one. And I did. 78k and The End in 30 days. I had done it. I had proven to myself that I can finish a novel. Since then I've finished a second one. the 50k is not a challenge to me anymore. Quantity of words? No problem! But when it's not NaNo, I'm working on quality and quality is what counts in the writing world. At least if you want to get published. So I'm grateful to NaNo for giving me the challenge and giving me the chance to finish 2 novels and get a great start on 2 others, but I just think that for me, as a writer, I've outgrown NaNoWriMo. I wouldn't discourage anyone else from doing it, but maybe it's just not for me anymore. And who knows, maybe next November, I'll do it again.
Now, my back aches and I have to go run errands, including getting a new driver's license, so I have to shower/fix hair/put on makeup so I look decent in my picture (Yes, i know my birthday was last month and it's expired....get over it).
After a week of chest/back/shoulder/neck/arm pain, I finally went to the doctor on Thursday. I did call on Tuesday, but they couldn't see me until Thursday. After poking and prodding and other painful things, I was diagnosed with a cervical strain aka sprained neck aka whiplash. No idea how I got it, as i haven't been in any car crashes or played contact sports in a long time. So I'm on skelaxin (muscle relaxer/pain reliever) and vicodin if needed for pain. I start physical therapy on Monday, which I'm a little scared of. Never gone to PT before. But I'll go if they can make it feel better. Dr. wanted to try the meds/PT because he thinks that will work and if it's not better in two weeks, then we'll go for expensive xrays and MRIs. in the meantime, I am never completely comfortable and tend to move around a lot. Different positions will make one pain better but another worse (ie, reclining on the pillow chair makes chest pains go away but shoulders hurt, flat on my back with the memory foam contour pillow is great on the neck but increases the back pain). So, I'm a bit whiny and on drugs right now.
Writing...
Well, I quit NaNo a week ago, but hadn't actually told anyone until last night. I just kept thinking i"d get back into things but after a week, I really just don't want to. I've written 36k and could finish the other 14 in two days of hard writing. But honestly, I don't want to. I hate writing it. I hate the story. It's stupid. When I work on this stupid book that will never see the light of day, I think about all the time I could be putting into Unexpected Gifts. I really love this one. I've loved it since I started it for NaNo in 2005 and only wrote 5k on it.
My feelings on NaNo. These are only for me. In general, I think NaNo is great and I completely support it. But I am trying to write year round. I want to do this professionally. In 2004, when I first decided to do NaNo, I did it because I had never written anything bigger than 15k but wanted to write novels and thought it might be the way to actually finish one. And I did. 78k and The End in 30 days. I had done it. I had proven to myself that I can finish a novel. Since then I've finished a second one. the 50k is not a challenge to me anymore. Quantity of words? No problem! But when it's not NaNo, I'm working on quality and quality is what counts in the writing world. At least if you want to get published. So I'm grateful to NaNo for giving me the challenge and giving me the chance to finish 2 novels and get a great start on 2 others, but I just think that for me, as a writer, I've outgrown NaNoWriMo. I wouldn't discourage anyone else from doing it, but maybe it's just not for me anymore. And who knows, maybe next November, I'll do it again.
Now, my back aches and I have to go run errands, including getting a new driver's license, so I have to shower/fix hair/put on makeup so I look decent in my picture (Yes, i know my birthday was last month and it's expired....get over it).