Glad I'm Not....

As I make my rounds of blog friends, Twitter and Facebook, I see tons of posts and tweets about NaNoWriMo. November is almost here for those participating. Writers are offering advice, requesting advice or sharing their exciting plans. They're getting their plots ready, making outlines and setting other things aside for a marathon of writing. And I'm glad I'm not participating.

I have so many things going on now, both with my own writing and some self-imposed deadlines and with other obligations I've been asked to take or have volunteered for. I feel a little left out of the NaNo excitement but I know my limits. I have too many other things to work on and prepare during that month of November. With Thanksgiving thrown into the month, I see no way I could commit to writing that much. I do expect to write 30K during November but it is to complete a book I've already started. My contribution to the spirit of NaNo will be to cheer on and encourage those participating.

My husband and my sons are going south for a golf holiday in November. I could go along and do come beach time but I'm glad I'm not. I'll have the entire house to myself for writing, reading, sleeping in and eating lunch and dinner in front of the TV. I'll do some Thanksgiving preparations but mostly it will be a stay-cation all by myself.

Most of you know I retired from teaching a little more than a year ago. Recently I ran into some of my former students at a football game. They were so happy to see me and assured me that they missed me. A few hugs later and I felt a little melancholy but I'm glad I'm not teaching anymore. The job gets tougher every year though those teenagers are still wonderful. Most parents wouldn't say this, but the teenage years were my favorite for raising kids.

Please visit IWSG blog today and meet a special guest. And here is a link to a cool calendar to keep track of your NaNo progress.

What are you glad you're not doing at the moment or anywhere in the near future? Do you feel about teenagers like I do? Do you enjoy being home alone? Is NaNo your November goal or do you have an alternative one like I do?

First Day of the Last Year

Yesterday I attended an inservice day at school. I may have mentioned I'm retiring from my teaching job at the end of this school year. One day down and 189 days to go. Not that I'm counting. As I worked on my desk in my office, I looked at my familiar pencil cup, the old metal desk I've used for over thirty years and the big, old heavy laptop issued to me by the school. Would I miss it?

I'll miss the students. I love teenagers. They have so much in front of them, so many things to experience, so many paths to chose from, and bright hopes for the future. But I won't miss that desk, or that laptop, or those inservice days. I won't miss the decisions made by politicians that leave programs unfunded and punish schools that need the money the most. Oops, no politics on this blog.

I won't miss getting up early in the mornings. I won't miss going out in the cold. I won't miss duties like study hall coverage or hall monitoring. I only miss teaching those kids.

Next year at this time, I will feel like a full time writer. I currently can finish about two books per year with each book having 80K to 120K words. How many will I be able to write when I'm done with the day job? Will I have the discipline to write twice that many? Three times? Will I spend some of those extra hours doing some effective promotion?

I hope so. I hope the next twelve months is when my career gets really rolling instead of going forward with fits and sputters.

If you didn't have a day job, would you have the discipline to write full time, forty hours per week? Have you had the opportunity to try that? Did it work for you? Would you even want to do it?

It's Out There

The American Dream.  The recent economy has presented many challenges to the idea anyone can achieve their heart's desire if they work hard enough.  I wonder soon if that dream will be whittled down to being about to fill my car with gas.  My oldest son is wondering if he'll be able to afford the house he's going to look at tomorrow.  We both work hard, not only at our day jobs but at our extra jobs.

For him, that's coaching, painting with his father and just about any other odd job that comes up he can make money at while still attending grad school on weekends. During the day he is a teacher. I also teach and do a number of small extra duties that earn me a few dollars by tutoring.  But my biggest 'extra' job is my writing.

You can guess since I'm not retired from teaching, I'm not pulling in a big income from being a published author.  The business is tough, time-consuming and not for the faint-hearted or anyone who isn't very self-motivated.  And some days when I'm doing some blog hopping or checking out what my friends are up to on facebook, I wonder if I'm working hard enough.  As the publishing industry scrambles, stumbles, runs and trips over itself to keep up with the changes brought on by technology, opportunities abound for those ready to leap on the speeding missile of progress.  Am I running fast enough to make the leap or will I fall behind?  Success is out there somewhere, if only I can work hard enough and fast enough to grab the opportunities I'm told are available.

Do you feel like you're keeping up?  Or are the changes too fast for you? And guesses on the future?

Fall Approaches

Every August since I've tried make my way as writer becomes a time of stress and pressure. My bill-paying job is teaching. That means in a few days I'll be back on the job from 6:45 am until around 3:15 Monday through Friday. It will cut into a huge chunk of my writing time. Not that I write much during those hours during the summer months. During those times I do all the other things that chew up time. Laundry, yard work, cooking, cleaning, shopping and blogging to name a few. Starting soon I'll be doing all those things in the evening and those hours are my writing hours.

You can't hear me, but I'm screaming, "I don't want to go back to school." Now I love my students but I want to stay home and write. I want to finish this WIP and sent it out. I want to work on book#3 of The Futhark Chronicles. I want to find a home for First Dragon. But like so many writers I don't have this choice. Not only does the mortgage need my income but so does the college tuition of two children. Let's not even talk about food. Yes I have to work so we have that stuff.

I set a goal to finish Tiger's Mate before returning to school and I'm getting to it a little early today and planning on working late. Maybe this will be the one to allow me early retirement.