The Retired Biker Housewife Blog October 24, 2009

NOVEMBER IS NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH

I recently signed on to participate in the National Novel Writing Month (“NaNoWriMo”) and November is the month it happens.  For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a compelling urge to write and it never waned. Even as a 38 year old grandmother with a son just entering high school I couldn’t kick the writing yen, so I packed up my youngest son, Rob, when he was beginning high school, and we moved to Sonoma County so I could pursue a degree in English and Creative Writing; we graduated a day apart from each other in 1993.

The majority of my writing since college has been technical writing and nonfiction for my employers, so it’s been a joy for me to be able to quit my job and be able to stay home and write — I owe that pleasure to my wonderful and supportive husband, Marshall. Besides being able to work on my ongoing project of writing about the West Virginia stories told to my family over the years by my father, I’ve begun this recent venture of blogging. Yet, I still haven’t pursued what I always wanted to do – write a novel. Well, folks, I’m going to do it now thanks to the momentum of my learning about NaNoWriMo.

I found out about NaNoWriMo one day last month when I was internet surfing for writing venues.  As I scanned the home page at the National Novel Writing Month Website, I knew this was just what I needed. I tend to spend an inordinate amount of time editing and rewriting my stuff, a good thing to do, don’t get me wrong, but I stress so much on the quality of my writing that I haven’t been happy with the amount of my writing.  I can’t blame this on distractions, because I can let the house fall down around my ears and keep on writing, so why wasn’t I writing more per day than I have been?  It certainly wasn’t because of lack of support; my husband was always telling me I should write a novel. I can only say that I must have needed a kick in the butt and I finally got it in the form of my NaNoWriMo discovery.

NaNoWriMo is really a writing program, according to their home page, and they preach quantity, not quality.  I think my greatest challenge will be to concentrate on quantity without stopping to research, check my work and edit; I do these things in the first draft stage as if I’m afraid of appearing stupid to myself!   So, I will be parting from my anal retentive writing ways and, instead, concentrate on nothing but cranking out 50,000 words of a first draft novel.  Not that I think I’ll ever win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but Ernest Hemingway, who did, said, “The first draft of anything is shit”. I have printed that quote and it is hanging over my desk along with my draft outline and character names and notes.

After November 30, this organization helps winning authors who have crossed their 50,000 word end of race finish line with editing and publishing help, so they don’t just leave you hanging at the end of the deadline. It is a fantastic organization and they spend a great part of their time helping and encouraging kids and teen writers in their Young Writer’s Program. They are able to do this work through corporate sponsors such as Amazon.com along with private donations. I believe that good writing and being able to express oneself in an intelligent manner is an important tool that young people must learn in order to be productive members of society. I had two teachers as a child who encouraged me to write, one in grammar school and one in high school and I give much credit for my achievements throughout my life to these teachers and the pursuit of writing.  If you are interested in learning more about NaNoWriMo’s work with young writers, donating, signing up to participate yourself or just looking around, click on the link above and, remember, tax time is coming up and your donation will be a tax write-off.

The NaNoWriMo website is brimming with words of encouragement and with over 100,000 participants I will have a huge amount of support from fellow writers alongside me.  In addition, I have signed up for the NaNoWriMo Application on Facebook, where they will post my progress and other information on my profile.  If you’re interested, you can follow my progress in November and give me a shout out, an occasional word of encouragement or a verbal kick in the ass if it looks like I might be slacking.  It would mean a lot to me coming from friends and family. So if you don’t hear from me much in November, you’ll know why…I must WRITE ON!

Peace to you all whatever you may choose,

Nancy Frye-Swope “The Retired Biker Housewife”

Nancy Frye-Swope 2009 © All Rights Reserved

Posted by Nancy Frye-Swope at 3:37 PM 1 comments Links to this post

Labels: NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month

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June 30, 2009

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Why is Nancy’s Virtual Office Your Business Solution? May 4, 2009

THIS is a Tale of Success:

I fell in love with paper pushing at an early age, but it is my father who I credit with the success of my administrative endeavors.

Growing up poor in a coal mining area in the Appalachians of West Virginia and surviving the depression, Dad learned the value of, 1) finding solutions for problems and, 2) having a trade to fall back on.  I can’t tell you how many times I heard Dad say, “Don’t say I can’t.  Just find a way to do.”  On top of this code of belief, from the time I entered Junior High School until I graduated from High School and got married, Dad insisted I learn to type and take shorthand and bookkeeping classes in case something were to happen.  I suppose nowadays most people wouldn’t consider excelling in office prep classes as much of an accomplishment as I did, but that’s exactly what I did.  I typed like a whiz, took great short-hand (a lost art now) and learned good basic bookkeeping skills.  In those days, coming from the “old-timey” background of which I was raised, it was expected that a young girl learned how to take care of a family, husband and house and that’s what I did – I just had something to fall back on just in case.

When my children were aged five, seven and ten, my husband died in an unexpected accident and I realized I had to be the sole wage earner for my family.  Providentially, I had the background to get me started.  Up until then I hadn’t even thought about Dad making me take those classes.  I went out and bought a book on resume writing and wrote a killer resume that nicely presented my meager background of high school honors classes, office prep classes, some volunteer work and my penchant for always having a book in my hand.  I landed a job as a receptionist in an extremely busy orthodontist practice in Palm Springs, California – no small feat in the 1980’s when our country was experiencing a stock market crisis and economic downturn that rivals the one we’re in now.  I remember I started at $8.00 an hour and felt fortunate.

Soon I was managing a satellite office in Palm Desert and did so well I wanted more.  I enrolled in part-time classes at the local college and took Small Business Management and Computer Bookkeeping.  With A’s in both classes I decided I wanted to keep going, so I took some general education classes toward a degree.  I soon landed a scholarship to Sonoma State University and earned my Bachelor’s Degree.  Dad didn’t live long enough to see me graduate from college but he was there in my heart and my mind.  He was the one who instilled in me the desire to succeed in life and master the art of whatever I chose to do by finding the right solution.

I carried my degree on to the corporate world and went on to become a first-class administrator.  One day I decided that the ultimate success for me would be to be able to do what I enjoyed and was good at, stay at home with my family doing it, and be able to help others find solutions for their own success – So my solution was to establish my own business – And I did!

So now you know why I say, “My Business is Your Business Solution.”