Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Wednesday Insecure Writers Support Group

Today I am only insecure about my internet connection....

Yesterday, on day one of NaNoWriMo, I had a migraine that ended around noon.  At 3:00, just after I peeled myself out of bed, promised here to get in my 1700 words before the sun set, and after taking a shower, there was a boom.  A very loud boom followed by a terrifying silence. 

The telephone guys were laying fiber optic lines down our street - underground lines.  Apparently they tagged the electric lines.   Our street was paralyzed.  Everyone stood outside and stared at the workers.  In the evening, people set fires in fire pits in their driveways.  People got grouchy.  My worry - how would I wake up at 6:00 without my alarm clock and where would I get coffee that early without making my daughter late for school?  

I am proud to say, I wrote 750 words at the coffee shop while fielding homework questions from my 5th grader.  After only 30 minutes, we had to go back home to find a protractor for his remaining homework.  We searched the house with flashlights.  No luck. 

My husband ran out to the store for a protractor and hair clips for my daughter (no hair straightener with no electricity).  The trucks were gone.  They did not give any kind of ETA on the repairs.  Our expectation was we were going to be out of luck for at least 24 hours.

My husband had been working at home and was working on solving some technological issue in Africa or maybe India when the power went out.  I heard him promise his coworkers that he would work on it in the evening when the power was restored.  After he returned from the store, I encouraged him to go to work if he wanted to. 

I hand-washed the dishes and my son did his homework with a combination of candlelight and flashlight.  The teenager had long since given up and gone to bed.  The baby apparently sleeps great in perfect silence and with just a trace of flashlight-powered light in the hallway outside his room. 

Once everyone was asleep and the house was as sparkling clean as it could be with no light to prove it wasn't, I wrote.  I got to 1964 words with a minimum of battery on my laptop and only a flashlight to give a little more light.  Just as I finished chapter two, the electricity came back on.  I was very thankful.  I would have coffee in the morning!!

I feel very confident today that I'm going to have no problems finishing NaNoWriMo, a confidence I didn't have yesterday morning.  I thought I was doomed, even moreso after the power went out.

My advice to any insecure writers that don't think they can meet a large goal like 1667 words a day:  Just do it.  Have fun with it.  It will feel great.  Type fast.

I will hopefully read your posts tomorrow.  The power guys apparently didn't fix the problem and only ran the lines over the ground.  We are expecting another outage soon, so we are cutting power to our network preemptively so it doesn't fry our techno-nerd equipment. 

9 comments:

  1. Oh my....good luck. Smiles and hugs!

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  2. Just do it and type fast, lol. What great advice. Best of luck with NaNo. You can do it :)!

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  3. They are still digging with shovels now instead of power tools. Apparently when they fixed it, they actually just laid the lines on the ground. My street looks like it's been invaded by giant moles.

    Shelly and Isis - Thanks!

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  4. Knew you could do it! But glad your power is back.

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  5. Alex - The power is apparently only temporary. It's pitch black out and they are still digging. I'm still typing fast....

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  6. I'm always inspired by NaNo, even though I don't actually participate. My competitive juices get flowing and I just gotta try and keep up with all those fast writers out there! Glad you didn't let a little thing like the power going out serve as an excuse not to write. :)

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  7. I don't especially love what I wrote tonight, but I made it to 3600 words! Still waiting on the next outage. I can still hear people working down the street....Laptop has full charge.

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  8. Yesterday sounded like a terrible day. Glad the power is back on, and woot on the word count. Go, Tonja!

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  9. wow, what an 'adventure'. I'm impressed you managed to get so much writing done during all that.

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