• Home
  • blog
  • speaking
  • Published Work
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

eunice ann

tales of a girl trying to make sense of it all.

a writer’s challenge.

December 2, 2018 by euniceann

Well, it’s safe to say that I completely failed at Write 31 Days for a second year in a row. Although to be fair and a little less negative, I did complete one more day this year than I did last year. So that’s a win.

I ended up drafting a few ideas and failed to be organized enough to see it through. I also realized that my idea was far more emotionally challenging than I expected. 

As much as I love to write, I’m finding it to be more of a challenge to commit to a writing schedule. It’s hard finding time when I run a business for the majority of my week and also work two other part time jobs on the weekends. Plus I have a middle school aged child and book club and, and, and….

It’s so easy to find excuses not to make the time to write. 

About a week before the end of October, as I was lamenting my inability to uphold a commitment to myself, yet again, I decided that I was going to do something about my writing. I took on an even bigger challenge than Write 31 Days: I committed to NaNoWriMo. 

I’m pretty sure that makes me crazy. 

Thanks to an amazing coach and support from one of the writers I met in H&L Writes, Sandra Hults, I got excited about NaNo, despite thinking about maybe doing it back when I first started this blog in 2005. I had no idea what in the hell I was going to write about, even up to the moment I sat down to write the first words (in NaNo speak, that makes me a Pantser) of this novel I had committed to writing in a month. 

The first few days, thanks to Sandra’s amazing coaching skills and the cheerleaders from some fellow H&L Writers who had joined, were really easy. I was blowing through my daily quota with ease and I was thinking, “Yeah, yeah, I got this.” 

That excitement lasted for about a week. 

Then I had a day that was incredibly busy and as I crashed into bed at 11:00 pm, I realized I had not written a thing. I contemplated getting up and spending some time writing, but my body just didn’t want to cooperate. The next two days were equally busy and I didn’t write. 

Before I knew it, 5 days had gone by and I hadn’t written a word. And it was easy for me to just stop writing because I still wasn’t sure what the hell I was writing and that it just didn’t matter anyway. 

But the guilt of missing all of Write 31 days got to me and I sat down and put some more words on the page. And then I didn’t write for another 8 days. 

I could have just as easily given up a second time, but I was determined to get it done, no matter how shitty my first draft ended up being. I committed to hitting my 50,000 word goal before the month was out. Having missed almost half the month, I now had to write upwards of 3400 words a day to finish on time. 

Some days were a real struggle and others came with just as much ease as the first week did. I had a couple of marathon writing nights, but I did it. I won NaNoWriMo 2018. 

I still can’t believe that I did it. I’m not sure if what I put on paper will actually become anything, although in my late-night delirium a few nights ago, I came up with a whole twist that I really loved and think I could run with. So we’ll see. I’m going to put it on the shelf for a couple of months and then come back to it. 

Now that I’m not busy with that, it’s my hope that a much more regular writing practice is in the cards for the future. 

current mood: surviving.
showing compassion.

Kindred Convos Podcast Interview

Going There Podcast Interview

Dear Grown Ass Women™ Ambassador

dear grown ass women ambassador

instagram

eunicebrownlee

Sometimes I wonder if people notice the stack of b Sometimes I wonder if people notice the stack of books in the background of my zoom calls. And if they notice that it started out with only two at the beginning of quarantine and now it’s up to a dozen.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Sometimes I wonder if they notice that they change because I am constantly rearranging my “to read” stacks—this is actually my 3rd wave of “up next” books (the other two are on my nightstand. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I love to read, and I hate that 2020 was so hard to read the books I want to read. I have admittedly collected more books in the past year than I have read, and no book diet seems to be making a difference in my desire to buy books. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I think I learned that books are my coping mechanism. Book store, library, @littlefreelibrary, friends—I don’t care where I get them, I want all the books.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I didn’t hit my reading goal last year. In 2015, I was determined to hit my reading challenge of 40 books, and with a week to go and 16 books behind, I binged 16 books and made it with hours to spare. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I’ve since upped my goal to 50, which I had a plan to read 29 books in the month of December to make it, and I fell back into my reading slump.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This year, I upped my challenge to 60. Go big or go home, right? Even if I don’t hit this number, I do hope to get rid of this stack, along with one of the ones on my nightstand, this year. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
What are your reading plans for this year?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Image description: Stack of books (top down): Laziness Does Not Exist, Never Change, Wow No Thank You, You Had Me at Hola, Just Mercy, The Idea of You, Shame and Glory, The In Between Is Everything, Grown, On Writing (The other two titles are not visible in the title) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
#BookwormForLife #ReadersAreLeaders #IlluminateWriting
Follow on Instagram

top essays

beauty isn’t skin deep.

Growing up, I can’t say that I ever felt beautiful. I was tall and scrawny with big, frizzy hair and a gap in my front teeth wider than the Grand Canyon. Most of my clothes were hand-me-downs from the girls at church, so they were often out of style and far too short for my gangling limbs (when capris came back in, I cringed, recalling all of the jokes about

[ Read More ]

time is irrelevant right now.

I wish I could press pause right now, I really do. That might seem crazy when the whole world seems to be on a collective pause, thanks to this crazy virus and our even crazier government that can’t seem to get a handle on it. But life hasn’t slowed down for me since COVID came crashing into our lives. Very much the opposite, in fact. While I am unbelievably grateful

[ Read More ]

vaulted

© 2005-2020 Eunice Brownlee