Pen, Spoon & Dagger

How long does it take to discover if you're no good at something?  Three days into the 30-day NaNoWriMo challenge I discovered an interesting fact about myself:  I'm not cut out to be a speed writer.Twenty-two days have done nothing except substantiate that fact. This should come as no surprise to those who know me.  I'm your typical, garden variety Virgo:  shy. reliable, practical, intelligent and analytical.  Oh, and did I mention fussy, overcritical, perfectionist and a worrier?  These are not the traits of a successful NaNo marathon writer. I understand the principles of the NaNo. Obviously you have to get something down on the page -- anything -- before you can try and revise it into something polished and publishable. As a journalist I learned to just put a piece of paper in the typewriter (yes, I'm that old) and start typing.  Eventually the "good" stuff would start flowing and you could strike out the bad beginning.   But the wh...

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow so don't expect to hear from me for a while. For those of you unfamiliar with this event, National Novel Writing Month is a writing challenge -- a seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. Over 120,000 world-wide will participate this year. But how many will finish? And let's be honest, the aim here is quantity not quality. Since I generally write between 500 and 1,000 words per day, the 1,667 words/per average is going to be more than slightly challenging. Thankfully I have a plot in mind, mixing a Victorian Inn with psychics, food, and, of course, murder.  Stay tuned to see how it all turns out. In the meantime, I won't have time for much cooking, so I'm sharing the world's easiest soup recipe. It's delicious and makes a huge amount! A mug of this will keep you typing all afternoon. Pumpkin Soup     3  10-...