Contribute

Well, hello there!

In order to further expand my online writing horizons, I've been looking for places to contribute in my spare time. Well, I found the easiest one: the Yahoo! Contributor Network. My understanding is that you contribute original content, following Yahoo's guidelines, and wait for it to be reviewed and, hopefully, published.

For my first article, I decided just to claim a "story assignment" and get to writing. My post, "8 Low-Maintenance Winter Beauty Tips," was published yesterday! I'm excited, even though this contributor network is kind of like a black hole for content. It's at least out there, and it didn't take me long to create. It's something else to add to my portfolio, and something besides credit and personal finance (not that I don't love writing on those topics).

I'm still researching and looking for other places to write, but for now, it's a start.

And I promised a giveaway this week, didn't I?

Don't worry, there's one a-comin'. Its just been a bit delayed, thanks to a busy birthday week. (By the way, 29 feels eerily similar to 28.)

Well, I'm off to a Christmas party!

Gap sweater, Old Navy tee, vest, pants and boots, gifted scarf, H&M bracelet

Speed reading? Try speed writing.

With NaNoWriMo in full swing, blogging has become a secondary priority. I apologize for the neglect, but it's a necessary neglect, you know?

As for my progress, I'm doing better than I expected, which means I'm still about 10,000 words behind. But I have learned something about myself. I'm a speedy writer, y'all! Well, as long as I have an idea, I'm a speedy writer. For instance, I just spent about 25 minutes writing over 1,000 words. If I keep it up, I can actually finish NaNoWriMo, which is the goal, after all.

The really cool thing is that I'm actually enjoying my story now. I think I've got something. It may not be terribly original, but it's a story. A cohesive story with characters, settings, action, drama... and I'm really enjoying it.

I still don't know if anything will come of it. In other words, I'm not sure that I'll be showing this story to anyone but myself and maybe the hubs, but I'm at least proving to myself that I can formulate a story and get it down on paper (Word doc). That's pretty cool.

I hope to at least share an excerpt with you blog readers sometime soon. I think you deserve that for sticking around here, even when I neglect you.

To give you a quick idea, I'm writing a young adult fantasy/adventure novel (surprised?) about a boy who has adventures in his daydreams (not to be confused with night dreams, of course). He enters a world and meets lots of characters and has to figure out who is lying and who's telling the truth, and who is evil and who is good. I'm having fun crafting a fantasy world and characters, I tell ya.

Top from Azalea (I forget the designer), Gap jeans, Old Navy boots and bracelet

Support System

Well, we're more than halfway through NaNoWriMo, and I'm nearly 1,000 words behind. Hey, that's not so bad! Especially considering I didn't even know what my story was about a couple of weeks ago.

Today I have a plot, characters and a developing story. (I even have a spreadsheet to help me remember the names of characters and places.) For those reasons, 1,000 words doesn't seem like to big of a hurdle. I also have a support system. Two of my coworkers are doing NaNoWriMo. I mean, it makes sense. They're also writers at work. And apparently gluttons.

We're all at different stages, as far as word count goes, but it's nice to know I have a couple of people I can check in with from time to time.

I should be writing right now, but I'm too busy blogging and catching up with "The Walking Dead." (Have you seen this show? It's pretty amazing. That is, if you zombie apocalypse dramas. I, for one, do.)

Gap tunic, Prana leggings, Old Navy booties, gifted scarf