Star Wars, NaNo and The Middle

Last week, I did something that I've been putting off. I finally showed Emily Star Wars.

I had been putting it off because Star Wars was my first real fandom. I was born in 1977 and my dad loved Star Wars. I grew up playing with Star Wars toys and one of my early memories is going to see Return of the Jedi in the theater. I wanted Emily to love it, or at least like it, so I kept putting it off and putting it off.

She really enjoyed it. We've only gotten through A New Hope but hopefully this weekend we will watch Empire and Jedi as well. Her favorite character is R2-D2 and she actually quote Star Wars to me out of the blue yesterday making my geek heart soar.

I do have a confession to make though. As a kid, I never really liked Empire Strikes Back too much. The majority of the movie is either Luke and Yoda training or everyone else running and hiding. To kid Mandy, all of this was boring. The best parts of the movie to kid Mandy were Hoth and Cloud City. I still loved Empire, but I loved A New Hope and Jedi more.

As an adult, I can see why Empire is so great. But childhood preferences still linger. As I was thinking about this, I came to a realization. Middles are hard and I'm not super fond of them.

I'm taking part in National Novel Writing Month for the 8th or 9th year. NaNo is where you try to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I'm writing the middle book of my trilogy and the words have not been flowing. I came to the realization that the words might not be flowing because it's the middle!

I'm sure all the words will come out and I will continue to watch Empire Strikes Back. But it is funny how childhood preferences can hold over to adulthood.

Writing, NaNoWriMo and Chronic Pain

There is nothing else I would rather do than write. Unfortunately, I’m not to the point where writing pays any bills. Some days, I can eek out a blog post or some writing between calls while doing my day job. But some days it’s just too busy.

Once I get off from work, I tend to nap especially on days that my pain level has been high. On those days, once I wake up I try to do housework type things or just rest depending on how bad the pain is. The pain usually makes it hard to think so I have a hard time getting any writing done in the afternoons and evenings.

Despite this, I try and do NaNoWriMo every November. This year, I’ve only written about 3500 words, but it’s good to be trying to write on a daily basis again. I’m not working on a new story but instead working on the 2^nd draft of my already finished novel. I’m really hoping to have the 2^nd draft finished before the end of the year so I can start finding beta readers.

Someday I’ll be a published author. Chronic pain just makes it harder to try and get the words out.