To-Do God

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Morning devotions--something precious, yet so often skewed or misunderstood. When we're told as children, "Read your Bible and pray every day" instead of "Get to know the Lord and chat with Him", the idea of morning devotions or sitting down to pray can seem nothing more than vacuuming the house or washing the dishes. 

I woke up this morning with a task mindset. I threw God a "Good morning", walked downstairs, made some hot tea, and grabbed my Bible with the mental list, "Psalms, Proverbs, Ephesians and then I can get to some writing." I caught myself like a fly under a swatter. I don't ever want to approach friends, family, or Daylen with a task mindset, so why do I let that slip into my relationship with God? I think He enjoyed waiting folded-armed next to the kettle with me better than He'd like a brain-dead Bible reading. 

I apologized and decided to allow myself to get "distracted" without feeling guilty. An hour of computer-time later, I am joyful and have an un-interrupted mindset on Him. I read blogs. Blogs of people who love Him. Their verses, stories, hopes, and adventures inspired me to think about mine--to think about my love, my dreams, my God. And I'm closer and more real with Him than I would have been from to-do-list reading.

The key is to be real with Him. He's real with us, why do we think we can fake genuine time with Him? He calls our bluff. It's only now, with the right mindset, that I can enter into reading His words and really get it--really be with Him. And I'm excited.

NaNoWriMo Turtle

Why is it so difficult to sit and write 10,000 words about characters that I adore, yet so easy to write a research paper on evidence-based practice guidelines for prosody in dysarthria (bored yet?)? Day 1 of my November challenge found me completing dull, brain-scorching homework in the same amount of time it took me to spit out one word of lovely novelness.

Day 2 found me grappling with the keyboard at 10 minutes until midnight (still, success was mine!).

Day 3, I crouched between the wall and my bed with the space heater on high and the sound of outside drizzle for inspiration. I turned on my electronic coaster (dorky, but amazing!) and sipped Huckleberry Hot Cocoa (my writing drink!) with 35 minutes until I had to leave for work.

Day 4: Lost track of time writing--best moment of irresponsibility ever!

Day 5: Time ran away and not a single letter was birthed on my computer. :(

Day 6 was momentous, as if someone else was writing and thinking for me. Not only did my mental outline break through writer's block, but my fingers typed out a whoppin' 700 words! Compare that to day 5's giant glowing "0".

The conclusion:

We are at the halfway mark--us WriMo-ers (day 15). . The past four days have slipped through my writer-less fingers and I was jumpstarted by a pep-talk e-mail from the NaNoWriMo website. It kindly patted the backs of those who've been diligently writing and politely scolded those who have given up hope. It nudged those of us who've lost track of time amidst busy lives and encouraged us to start up again. So here I sit. The computer screen remains daunting, but I've had four days of inspiration build up in the storehouses of my mind. I will continue to push, though the going is slow. The turtle won the race, right? I can be a turtle. Steady...gradual. I am turtle.

NaNoWriMo Rhino

Welcome to November! A time of hot cider, pumpkin pies, red maple leaves, and crisp weather. Cloudy days with the temptation of words falling like raindrops and pre-Thanksgiving Christmas celebrators secretly blasting Christmas music. It's glorious. Normal people call it November. The writing world calls it NaNoWriMo.

Sound it out: Na-No-Wri-Mo

Sounds kind of dorky, doesn't it? Makes me think of Rhino's and noses. Still, this year I shall embrace the dork (only because it's the first year I've actually known what NaNoWriMo stood for). NaNoWriMo is the shortened version of National Novel Writing Month. I previously knew it as a weird name for a time when all authors-to-be freak out and try to write 50,000 words in a month.

People would ask me, "Are you doing NaNoWriMo?"

"No," I'd blurt, only because I didn't want to associate with a silly name and I hate forcing words out when my mental word-sponge is empty. *shudder* There's no less pleasant feeling. 

Once I knew the true name for NaNoWriMo, my writer-starved brain instantly conjured a set schedule and a glorious excuse to write for 30 days straight. 

"You don't have to reach 50,000 words," it said to me with a crazed look. "Just engage in National Novel Writing Month and try and write more. That's all."

"But it sounds silly," I argued.

"YOU NEED TO WRITE! Your high horse is collapsing anyway."

It's true. I've been dying to write. I fall asleep thinking about writing, I count down the days until I have that extra hour on Thursday to sit before my novel. *sigh* NaNoWriMo is an excellent excuse to work myself even more to the bone (and like it!). So I chose to humor my twitching, anxious, writer-desperate brain. I handed it a cookie jar of words and started scratching out a schedule and a strategy for the month of November. 

The plan: Write every day (even if it's for 5 minutes for 5 words).

The goal: REACH 50,000 words with my current novel, A Time to Die. (I wasn't going to have a goal, but it's no fun entering a challenge without one, right?)

Starting word count: 39,182 (10,818 words to go). To put you in perspective, I've written 10,000 words over the past 5 months. *shame*

According to the NaNoWriMo novel statistics word count tracker, I need to average 361 words in a day. That's one page a day. A single page. That's like a sneeze. Today I sit down at my computer with some Cheez-its and tea and enter my "Stories and Stuff" folder without a tinge of homework-guilt. God may have called me to Speech Therapy, but He's also called me to write. I will follow through (but I'm still going to call this month November).