No Stopping Me Now!

I'm in full writing mode now. The music's cranking, the fingers are moving fluidly along the keyboard and words are forming on the page. It's amazing. These folks at NanoWriMo say that you can have an outline for your novel, or you can just randomly type and see what happens. Well, I'm the latter. I tried to write an outline but I am not someone who can see the end. I can definitely see the beginning and I know some of the turns along the way, but the end, is well, daunting to me. I just don't know where my characters are going to end up.

Therefore let the adventure continue. I am just typing along and getting excited by the surprise of what starts to develop in front of me. I think this is going to be a good learning experience for me - the ultimate list maker and planner - in not only forcing myself to write every day (something, as a writer, I should just naturally do) but also to see what I can create on the fly and without so much pressure on myself to be perfect. To not have to map out, diagram and prepare for every situation, every event, every move I make, or even my protagonist makes, for that matter.

Maybe I will really amaze myself by the end of this month. Anyone else doing something in November that they are embarking upon for the first time? Want to share with me? I'd love to gain inspiration and hear those stories.

My Mission If I Choose to Accept It...

"Begin with the end in mind." Good advice from all my writing professors but somehow, when I sit here, at my computer and try to type a NOVEL, not a short story, not a poem, but a NOVEL, one that I have to write in 30 days (less, now that I started it 3 days into this adventure) is SO HARD.

When I saw the ad for Nanowrimo - National Novel Writing Month - on Mediabistro, I thought why the heck not? I have some time, I need to motivate myself to write more often, and I always say I'm working on my novel. Well, what better way to do this than to participate in a contest that entails you to write a novel in 30 days - 50,000 words long - and submit it to a panel who will not judge you for content but rather for quantity?

The next day, upon reflection of my hasty action, I'm thinking I may have had a nice plate of crazy yesterday. But, that being said, I am going forth with this task. I know I can do it - even if right now I feel like ripping my hair out of my head and screaming at the top of my lungs - because I'm a writer, I like to tell stories, and at least, at the end of the month, I can feel like I've accomplished something.

I'll leave the worrying about editing the mess I've created until December. And that's per the instruction I was given from the nice folks at Nanowrimo.

Now I'm going to go forth and write! Feel free to join me in this excursion...it's not too late! For more details on the insanity, visit National Novel Writing Month.

ShelGee Communications

Hello everyone,

Here's my first announcement to all of you that I'm going to try to start up a little "free" business. My business is going to be called: ShelGee Communications.

Let me explain some details. I'd like to provide my skills: writing, editing, proofreading, event planning, digital photography and blogging to various local businesses or people who need some assistance in these areas. I've got over 7 years of business/marketing communications experience. And while I look for the next career path for myself I'd like to gain more visibility in the local community and help others.

Essentially I'd like to provide free advertorials for small businesses who may not be able to do so on their own, or proofread and edit documents or even write up press releases or other types of collateral that might be needed. I'm providing my services for free as I'm not sure I'm ready to finance a business yet for myself and until I can get myself more established I'd like to offer my services for free.

The best way to contact me is via my email: griffis.shel@juno.com. If you want to pass along this information to anyone you know who might like to utilize my expertise, I'd greatly appreciate it. I don't have a website yet, but hope to figure out how to create one (if anyone has expertise or knowledge on this, I'd TRULY be grateful for the help) so until that time, this is the best way for me to alert and advertise my business and my skills.

Thank you in advance for letting me share this with all of you. I'm excited for this new venture! Have a groovy day!