Broadening My Horizons: Understanding That I'm an Idiot and Camp NaNoWriMo

Alright, in my recent attempts to better myself, I have very quickly come to terms with the fact that I am an idiot in many respects. Thank god for the Internet. I'm sure my search history is insane this week. Luckily, I tend to commit fun little tips and tricks to memory easily and can usually pull them out when I need them (or I pin them to Pinterest!) Unfortunately, I don't know many bloggers, or if I do, I don't talk to them enough to get some insights on their success. I have found a few helpful sites though and was even brave enough to put in for a transcribing job! Hopefully, I will work up enough nerve to put in for an actual writing job, but I've got to start somewhere.

I've also been practicing writing everyday. It has been easy because it was the weekend and I took today and tomorrow off of work. The real struggle will be later in the week once I go back to work. I'm especially excited about Camp NaNoWriMo that starts in July. For the last 9 years (wow, I didn't realize it had been that long) I have been participating in National Novel Writing Month, which takes place each November and challenges the participants to write a 50,000 word novella in just one month. For some reason or another, November is always a terrible month for me to focus on that sort of thing, so I have never made the 50,000 word goal. I don't really expect that I really will, but this year they have introduced a summer version of the competition. Luckily, July is a particularly slow month for me this year, so there is a chance I might actually make my goal. On top of that, I came to the conclusion that I want to be a writer just a few weeks before the challenge starts. I feel like this confluence of events is just what I need to get myself started and force myself to get those ideas fleshed out into actual stories. In order to keep myself accountable, I will try to update my word count here, as well as the Camp NaNoWriMo website.

I'm not sure how pertinent this is, but I'm including a list of the websites that helped my find some directions in regards to freelancing and blogging. Honestly, this list is here for my own good more than anyone else's. I hope to find more as I continue researching.

• Odesk a website to find freelance writers and to put in for freelance jobs
• Elance similar to Odesk, but it seems to have more searching capabilities when seeking jobs
• The Write Life a site for writers, packed with helpful articles, tips, links, and anything else I might need to know
• WikiHow Gotta love WikiHow, found this article about getting blog subscribers.

Really, what I'm learning is that I need to start commenting on the blogs that I read. I can link my site to my comment, therefore generating more traffic. Lord knows I read enough blogs and have plenty of comments on them, so that can be part of my practice with daily writing. On a side note, I have to tell everyone about Feedly, this is the best RSS feed I have ever used! It took me forever to find one that I liked and it makes keeping up with the 20+ blogs I follow easy as pie. It even helps me to follow YouTube channels and my friends personal blogs.  I highly recommend it.

Just one more day of easily finding time to write. I want to wish myself luck writing for the rest of the week, but I know better than anyone that it is just going to take dedication and forcing myself to stick with it.

Writing for More Than My Sake

This past two weeks I have been crazy busy leading day camps and I met some amazing women through this experience. One woman was particularly interesting to me. She works from home as a freelance writer. My understanding was that she works primarily for a travel magazine, in addition to regularly reviewing products sent to her by various companies, and publishing two ebooks, all while working on a novel. I was really blown away by her creative spirit and the freedom that she had created for herself through choosing such a nontraditional career path. She talked about traveling for work, getting excited about new products sent to her in the mail, writing a chapter of her novel that she liked so much she forgot she was reading her own words. I was fascinated by her, I struggled to tear myself away to take care of my camp director responsibilities, and moreover, I wanted to be like her.

I came home and declared to my husband that I was going to be a writer. I have an English degree, I write for my own pleasure, why couldn't I get published? Primarily, I am afraid to put my ideas out into the world because I assume that someone has already had the same idea and said it better or that my ideas are basic and obvious. I know that this isn't true, it is just difficult to force myself to look and the mirror and say "you are smart and interesting, of course people would want to read what you write." Since I have decided that writing is going to become something that is a part of my daily life, I've actually had some really solid ideas. This weekend, I got a huge confidence boost when I was out to dinner with my husband and in-laws. We were talking about religion. I'm a former Catholic, turned atheist and my husband jokingly takes credit for this fact. I was lightheartedly sharing a rather personal story with my family about the first time I had major doubts about my faith. After finishing the story, they were quiet for a moment before saying "That is a really beautiful story, you should write that into a poem." I was so touched, I struggled not to cry right there at dinner. Simply because I was growing more confident with myself and sharing stories about myself and as a reward for that, I got the praise that I am so hoping I can earn as a writer.

I've always carried around a notebook to write down ideas or interesting experiences that I have in the hopes that I will go back and make them into part of my novel. Sometimes I do and sometimes, I forget that I've even written anything down. This week, while driving an hour to and from camp everyday, I started listening to what I thought was an audio book by David Sedaris, Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules. While listening to the prologue by Mr. Sedaris, I was informed that this was in fact an anthology of short stories that he thought needed to be read. I had a revelation while listening to this beautiful collection, I could write short stories, I could write essays, my "novel" that I had been working on for years wasn't coming along because it wasn't the story for a novel, it was the story for a shorter work. While I'm still not quite sure what to do with this information yet, it excites me. It has made me interested in my own ideas. It has made me want to write every day and share my work with other people. It has emboldened me to take risks and damn the consequences or learn from them.

Here's the beginning of being a writer, of taking risks, of putting myself out there, and of eventual success stemming from hard work and a dedication to craft.