Warming Up

So I'm resisting the urge to post the ubiquitous and redundant introduction post, because nothing says narcissistic, blogger n00b better than a really long "about me".

I'll suffice it to say why I finally decided to join the collective (resistance is futile!) and start my own blog, and then let Mr. Whitman take it from there. November is national novel writing month, better known as Nanowrimo. Last year was my first year participating and it rocked my world, the most fun I've had in ages. I dove into the Nano creed of quantity over quality, and writing for no other purpose than the sheer satisfaction of it and my story just gushed out. (What a change from the maddeningly laborious, over thinking/over editing as I painfully eke out a story, which I more than half hate in the end anyway, that has been my usual process!) It was joyous, it was liberating, it made me feel all smug and cozy and writerly inside, and by the end of the month I had a 50000k story that I was actually kinda proud of and a helluva big pile of unwashed laundry and dirty dishes.

This year it is impossible to make the time to do it, for a variety of reasons (not the least of which is the fact that it isn't fair to ask the stressed out husband, with too much on the go right now, to pick up the extra slack while I write). But I wanted to do something to mark this magical Nano time of year, and to keep myself writing more (even if it is only slips of non fictional blathering here and there). So blog, it is...with the same philosophy of writing for satisfaction, relief, release, joy etc, fast and freely.

So back to the introductions, where I'll let Uncle Walt do the honours more beautifully and deeply than I ever could...

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

~Walt Whitman, Song of Myself