What Did I Do Today?

Well, mostly I sat here at the computer rereading last November's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) manuscript and deciding what part of it to take to The Clearing at the end of the month for critique. It's 276 pages so it's a full day's reading, um, skimming. No, that's not right, I do read most of it for typos and to change things like "let us" to "let's". See you get credit for each word in NaNoWriMo so I don't use contractions or abbreviations when I first write it so I get the most words per day. It takes a lot of words to get to 50k in 30 days so every word is important. Then I have to go through and make them all like real speech which is a pain but necessary. The exciting thing that happened today is I thought of a title--Island Dreams. Oh man, I was thrilled when that little two-word phrase came to me and I wondered why it's taken 10 months. I also think I might have a plot which I've been sure I didn't. Now if I could only figure out how it's supposed to end...

Late in the afternoon I went for a walk around the block because I've been sitting around all summer and need to motivate my flab into some muscle. I had to put on a light jacket to carry my house key and cellphone because the pants I'm wearing don't have pockets. Why make denim pants without pockets? Can someone tell me that?

Then I sat down with my sketchbook and yesterday's lesson from the 30 Seconds book and drew the penguins...

 

...and the ant. None of these are originals but I enjoyed drawing them and mine seem to have different personalities than the examples in the book. Does that mean I'm finally developing a style?

I didn't toss anything and I didn't paint anything, I just spent the day working on my manuscript.

 I solemnly swear that I will remember to post this blog entry tonight instead of having NH text me in the morning asking if I'm alright since I didn't manage to post last night's blog and she was worried. I sincerely appreciate the concern and I wonder about my mental acuity.

--Barbara