NaNo Freak Out!

And the nervousness sets in...

In approximately 2 weeks I will start writing my novel for National Novel Writing Month, or as it's more commonly known, NaNoWriMo. This will be my second attempt, my first attempt was last year and while I wrote a ridiculous amount of words, 16,250 to be exact. I was quite a bit short of the 50,000 words it takes to win.

I've taken a week of vacation in November for the express purpose of writing my novel.

This year I will win.

I am determined. I am driven. I am adamant. I am saying the same thing in different ways because I am also not sure what I'm going to do.

I have no plot. I have no main character. I have no conflict. I have nothing. Well I suppose that's not completely true... I have panic. I have nerves. I have apprehension. I have cold feet... And I have fear that the entire endeavor will end up an entire flop... like last year...

Darn you over thinking brain!

50,000 words. 1,667 words per day. 

When you break it down it doesn't seem that scary. It truly doesn't... at least to me it doesn't... until I start thinking about my lack of plot, character, crisis, etc.

Where is my inspiration dammit! 

Last year I jumped in, started a story, got stuck, hated it, started a new one, didn't totally feel the new story, get stuck, and finally quit writing when not even half way completed. This year I really wanted to be prepared. Ready. 

So... 2 weeks... I can come up with an outline by then right? A plot? At least a character? Right?

Right?

Oh dear...

Much love.

E

Do What You Love!

I don't think I say this often enough but I have really amazing and inspiring friends. I have friends that unabashedly love the things they love. I have friends that are geeks and proud. I have friends that are not geeks and are proud of that. I have friends who are sports nuts and friends who are book freaks. And I love it. I just love it.

So today I want to share with you some of the things my amazing friends are doing.

Let's start with Jason. He has a website and has started blogging again. I can't tell you how excited I am about this. Jason's blog used to be one of my favorite things to read back in the day (back in the Myspace Days... yep... it was forever ago...) Anywho he's started a new one and it's phenomenal! You should probably check it out.

Fluxtaposed

Next I'll move to Lucas. Now I've plugged Lucas' site before. He has started a production company with his business partner. First of all I'm so proud of Luke for pursuing something he's passionate about, it's unbelievable inspring.

True Myth Media

New to the blogging world with brand new blog pages are Jess and Dannette. Dannette and I worked together to set her page up and I'm looking forward to reading some great things about her teaching adventures. Jess posted her first post the other night and I can already tell I'm going to love it. Jess has a unique perspective on everything and oh yes, she can tell a story!!

Jess - And P.S.

Dannette - This Super Life

Amanda! Oh Amanda. She has one of the most unique outlooks on life and her passion for her art is insane. I am forever inspired by her. She recently created a website that you should absolutely check out... like now!

Amanda's Site

On the subject of photography Chris! My good friend and former roommate Kendra married Chris last year (the wedding was adorable) and recently I have had the pleasure of being his student while learning the fine art of photography. Chris' pictures are absolutely stunning! I bet you can guess what I'm going to say next, eh? YES!! Check it out!
Chris Vanderlip Fine Art Photography

Okay I could probably go on and on and on with more and more people who do amazing things, but for now it's sleepy time.

Much love

E

OMG! This is my 30th post. YAY! Good times. Thanks for reading :)

Surprise!

I'll say I hate surprises, but that's not actually true. I want a surprise. Surprise run in with an old friend. Surprise party thrown in my honor. Surprise present "just because". Surprise me!

But make it a true surprise. Make it something that I have not even the slightest of inklings about.

Don't tempt me with little details here and there.

That kind of surprise drives me crazy!

For example, let's pretend it's my birthday month (I'm really digging deep into the depths of my imagination for this scenario) and you know what a friend of mine is getting for my birthday. Don't tell me I'm going to love it. Don't tell me it's the greatest ever. Don't tell me it's perfect for me. I don't want to know.

Anything.

At all.

I don't even want to know that someone got me a present until it's literally being put in my possession.

Then you can tell me all about how you knew I would love it. 

Just leave the suspense out of it.

This might be why I hate suspenseful movies... I don't want to anticipate. I don't want to wonder what it could possibly be. I just want to know... and I want to know NOW!

Yes this might make me the slightest bit of a brat... 

I'm okay with that because it's just a tiny flaw and it's one of the more lovable ones, right?

Oh also... You can take your horrible surprise that will make me hate everything about everything and shove it. I don't even want that in my life in any way.

This has been your daily uplifting message about hope and love brought to you by Ericka...

Okay really I'm not even crabby today. Today was a good day. I just really wanted to share my aversion to surprises and I thought today was the day to do it.

The real kicker?

I absolutely, positively love love love to surprise other people! HA! Isn't that just the most ridiculous thing even. It's probably because when I'm surprising others I am "in the know". And by golly I just love being "in the know". Overload me with information. It's good. I can handle it. In fact, the more info you have on something, the more I want!

Much love

E

To be clear, this is not based on real or true events that are currently taking place in my life. Just a rant that needed to happen.

New Adventure!

One of my favorite things to do is write.

Writing is calming.

Writing is cathartic.

Writing is... well it's just wonderful.

This year I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo for the second year (and hoping to win this year) so I was looking for ways to get into the habit of writing every single day.

Then!

I remember BEDA! Really I remember Kristina Horner talking about BEDA in a video once upon a time, BINGO! I've got my answer.

What better way to get into the habit of writing than to Blog Every Day in August. It's literally perfect. Literally!

So tomorrow starts my latest adventure in blogging and I'm more than a little excited about it!

I'm a little nervous about this commitment... but so incredibly excited!!

Wish me luck!

Wishful Thinking?

So... I'm a semi-Apple geek. 

(Knowing this will have little to do with the rest of this post, I just wanted to put that out into the world.)

What I mean by that is I love all things Apple, but I do not own all things Apple.

Sure I have my iPhone, and my iPad, and even my iPod Touch (which is not exactly like an iPhone contrary to popular belief among my *clearly* uneducated friends).

When I purchased my iPad one of the things I was excited about was the portability. I was going to take that thing everywhere and I was going to write! I was going to be able to document my life as it was happening and document for the world to see. That was two years ago. Clearly things did not go as planned!

Recently (as in two days ago) I found this fantastic little blue tooth keyboard that's solar (yes solar for the quasi eco-geek in me!) and it was on sale and it's an integrated case + keyboard so I thought "well hey... why the heck not!" and I bought it.

NOW! NOW IS MY TIME!

Now I'll be able to tote this bad boy around with the greatest of ease. I'll be able to take a minute and write and feel good after, because it's a proven fact that *I* feel better after writing. (Although even knowing this I fail to write as often as I should.)

So here's hoping I actually follow through on something I want to do. August is coming up and I am planning on participating in BEDA (Blogging Every Day in August) so I need to knock the ring rust off now, eh?

Wish me luck!

Nostalgia... Or Something Like It

Again with the best of intentions I fall flat.

My plan had been to write like a mad woman last year. Write until my fingers fell off. Write until all of my thoughts were outside my brain so I could think of new thoughts and keep writing.

Alas.

It's now been over a year and while I have written quite a bit in the last 13 months, I did not write anything here.

So what did I write you ask?

I don't so much know what to call it. I participated in NaNoWriMo last year and wrote 16,250 words which I believe is the highest number of words I have written on my own in 30 days. And truly I only wrote for 20 days because then I got distracted and I ended up just letting the whole project fall to the wayside.

I'm not so much happy with the writing I did, I think looking back on it, it was sloppy and jumbled and not very well put together. However! I am VERY proud that I even attempted the project AND I'm pretty excited to try again this year. (With a week of vacation scheduled during the month of November I should have plenty of time to write!)

So while reflecting on the past year of non-writing I started thinking about the writing I used to do. Remember Myspace? Yea... me neither... Ok just kidding. But really I hadn't logged onto Myspace in AGES and I wondered if all my blogs had disappeared into the great abyss that is the interwebs. There's a good two years of my life documented there for all the world to see!

So I started looking... it took me awhile to find them but I'm happy (and slightly embarrassed by the content) to say I've found them! And I'm posting a link to them which seems like a good thing to do, just in case anyone has feelings of nostalgia like I did and just wants to remember a simpler time...

We've come to the part of the blog were I share with you my new commitments. (Although I'm tempted not to share them in hopes that keeping them secret will make me follow through with them more.)

• Starting now I am committed to updating this blog once a month with new content. 

• In August my plan is to participate in BEDA, however I'm not completely committed to this one... I'm about 94.3% sure it's happening.

• This April I will be participating in VEDA, and will be posting a new video each day to my YouTube Channel. I'm pretty excited about it because I've missed vlogging in my 3 month hiatus since my last video on January 31st.

• November as I've already said will mark my 2nd attempt at NaNoWriMo.

• June I will be traveling to Portland, OR for LeakyCon for the 2nd year in a row and vlogging the trip.

There's a few other things I'm pretty excited about this year, but they will have to wait until another day because I've got places to go and promises to keep.

Much love to you,**MUAH**

Oh yea... Here's the link to my Myspace Blog in case you truly do want to relive my life from 2006-2008.