NaNoProgMo…. How’s your “Prog”?

Okay! Time to get serious here. I have barely completed three days of my goal for the past 14 days. The good news is that there are still TWO full weeks left in this wonderful month.

I want to encourage everyone participating with us for NaNoProgMo (or anyone who wants to start now!) to pick up your proverbial pen and finish the month writing. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or have not done so far. I doubt anyone can be as far behind as I am, so let’s bring up the rear together!

I also want to send each of you who are NaNoProgMo-ing a little gift. I don’t want to wait until the end of the month. I believe in rewarding artists for the process. So, send me your address and your gift will be in the mail. I’d love for you to have it while there’s still at least a week left. Even if you just join up now or if you haven’t completed a minute of your goal yet, send me your address and get in on this. Send info to: tree@momgrooves.com

This is about Progress, after all. There is no finish line necessary, no word count to define success or failure. Just progress (which I, personally, will re-define to accomodate exactly as far as I get.)

I do still want to get somewhere.

I could list some pretty fancy “reasons” why I haven’t been writing every day. Extremely valid. Extraordinarily compelling. Yes, I have reasons not to write. But I also have one simple, vital reason to write. I’m a writer. It’s stamped on my ticket to this incarnation. Writer. Whatever else I might be or do will not change that. It is a “Prime Directive” for my soul.

Honestly, I’m afraid to start. I’m afraid to try and get into it. There’s no time. I have no brain anymore. I’m so foggy. Why didn’t I write before I had a child?!!!!

Breathe…

Today I will read what I have written so far. Just read it and find my way back into the rhythms of this particular story. There’s already a vibration all its own that exists in the pages I have. Every word I write, every chapter, every character I snatch from the ethers and bring into existence creates this almost unbearable joy in me. Sometimes I start and get so excited I have to get up and walk around. Then I tend to eat, probably to try and ground myself. But after that I usually get tired and just stop.

Two weeks left and I will resist the urge to increase my daily goal to 2 hours just to catch up. I’m still aiming for an hour a day.

I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite quotes and anecdotes from For Writers Only by Sophy Burnham (the book that has been in every bathroom I’ve had for the past 15 years.)

In ancient times when a singer stood before the banquet table, lyre in his hand, and struck the chord that hushed the assembled guests, what were his first words? “O Muse, fill my mouth with your songs. Make me silver-tongued that my words may pierce the hearts of men…”

Later, college English teachers would tell you that this was no more than a literary tradition, the requisite invocation to the Muse.

But writers know it’s real. At some point, consciously or not, we invoke our gods, the daemon of the Greeks, the genius of the Romans, the genie, the Muse, the spirits of past Masters calling to us, called back by their love of words. We invoke the Lady in white, our angels, our guides, asking for the highest levels of creative power.

-from the book by Sophy Burnham

I have to constantly balance “being a writer” with being a wife and mother. It’s a matter of putting two different things first, simultaneously.

-Madeleine L’engle

No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanence of what he has written; he may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.

T. S. Eliot

Rainer Maria Rilke left his wife and baby, so much did he need to listen for his inner voice, his Muse. Years later the poet would not even attend his daughter’s wedding, and when the newlyweds asked to come visit for a few hours during their honeymoon, he refused. He had no boundaries, apparently, as if he were so open that he became the world around him. He had no way to guard his inner voice.

-from the book by Sophy Burnham

Every day you are afraid. Every day you move through fear to your desk, and as soon as you pick up your pen, or read the sentence left over from the night before, incomplete, needing an adjustment in rhythm – a stronger verb, a slash of color or the taste of bitter herbs – in that moment of solving the problems all fear dissolves. You are writing again.

-from the book by Sophy Burnham

Here is a shout-out to our linkied participants (if you haven’t linked up, you can still do so!):

• Stephen @ Poptrope.net = 1 hr. per day finishing novel
• Zoie @ TouchstoneZ – 30 minutes per day
• Moorea@ Mamalady- 30per day
• From My Mind to the Page: 1 hr per day
• Lisa @ My World Edenwild = 15 min/day or more
• Tree @ Mom Grooves.com / Write On! Mom = 1 hr. per day finishing novel
• Lauren @ LaurenWayne.com / Hobo Mama = 2 hrs per day

And here are our tickers. (If you want to get one, see how here, or let us know where yours is to grab!) Notice that we are all behind, so don’t worry about it — just keep making your progress!