Beaches and lighthouses… and exploration and memories

Let’s explore that trail and see where it goes.

Okay; well, that didn’t take long.  The trail stops at a garbage can!

...

We had scheduled a beach day for the last day of September. 

 

Beach walking - a couple miles of it.

Beach sitting and relaxing.

The traditional bucket of chicken...

A bit of exploring - mostly ending up on dead-ends with “no outlet.”

Lots of comfortable conversation and camaraderie.

Reminiscing on old times and speculating on future times.

…

We never did find the lighthouse we were searching for.  Some would say that a trail ending at a garbage can should have served as an omen.  Others would say that at the very least it was an enigma.

Either way it added humor to the adventure. And I think we’ve learned by now that exploring need not be fruitful to be fun.  And that adventures most certainly do not always go as expected.  We didn’t find THIS lighthouse, but we are grateful for all the others we’ve visited and especially the one we lived in for a couple weeks!

Time to get serious

I recently shared about how a couple times I prepared for NaNoWriMo during the preceding month, October.  That was so helpful to get me in gear.  To get my writing muscles built up again.

I was thinking I could start even earlier this year - like in September!

What a great idea; right?

Well, I just noticed that September is half done and I have not yet started. I asked myself why.  The answer was simple and profound: I did not have a plan in place…  meaning that it was not on my calendar, my to-do list, or my schedule.  

So I will start now.  Today.  I’ve been reminding myself of the things that have worked for me in the past.  One of the biggest factors is to write the very first thing in the morning - before everything else distracts me.  

Now I realize that not everyone has the luxury of writing in the early morning, but it’s what works best for me - and I have no excuse not to do it.

Second factor:  word count goal.

My September word count goal is 500 words/day.  

That’s really not that hard, but it’s a good start.  

And so I did.

I sat down and got started… first thing this morning.

I wrote 500 words and then another 300 or so.

I guess I can say that I have officially begun.

And... there’s one other thing that might be helpful... And fun!

I need some writing buddies.  Somebody that will check in now and then so we can compare notes about our writing times and word count goals.

So... is there anybody out there who would like to go on record and speak your intention.  Tell the world that you are going to write and when.  Maybe you want to set a specific time of day or a number of minutes you will type or how many words or pages…  Whatever works with your systems!

Let’s do this thing; shall we?