I cannot handle the anticipation.

*This was meant to have posted last Wednesday, but due to a temporary lack of interwebs and then a lack of time, I'm just now posting it*

There are some really, really good things coming up this next month, and I’m SUPER excited about all of them. And good things have happened this week, so I’ll fill you in on that too.

First this past week. I started a second job hosting at a café downtown, and it’s been really good so far. For one, they feed me during my break, which I have to take during my 5.5- or 8-hour shift and it’s really good food. Sandwiches, salads with goat cheese, pizza (on the weekends!), and sometimes pastries or sweets if the bakery has some to offer. YUM. My four consecutive days of training from Thursday to Sunday took up a lot of my time this weekend so if I were to offer an excuse for not having written in a week, well, that would be it. But I’m not doing that anymore! Here’s cool thing #2 and the reason why.

I signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November. (I know, November is a little ways away, but bear with me and I’ll get to the reason why this matters already and part of why I feel great.) The goal is to write 50,000 words between November 1 and 30 – for the unfamiliar, a page is about 250! – and there’s a website where you can join a community of sorts based on your city. The people here will basically serve as your support group for the month, because with a task as daunting as writing a novel period let alone that quickly, God knows a support group is necessary. I struggle to crank out these 1,000-word or so posts once a week. Good grief, what have I signed up for.

Anyway. I realized when I registered on the site a month ago that good Lord will I need help. I brainstormed my story options: build on a smaller work of fiction I’ve started (though fiction has never been my strong suit), come up with a new fiction idea, or decide on a timeframe for a complete memoir (a complete account of Australian adventures? I wondered). Since it’s a “novel” challenge, I leaned away from the memoir and am thinking about working with a short story draft I did for my Intro to Fiction course two years ago.

With an idea in mind, I decided I need to begin planning. And that I need help with that too. How do you create a sustainable story arc? Compelling characters? Convey a believable and enchanting setting? And in one month?? I confess this is part of the reason that I prefer nonfiction. The story is already there, so it’s just a matter of telling it. I’ve struggled a little here about what to tell, who to identify, and what photos to use, mostly because I want to respect people’s privacy and also because I don’t want to provide a reason for future employers not to hire me. With fiction, however, an entire world and characters are created from scratch. I admire that kind of imagination, so I've chosen fiction in an effort to challenge myself. It's also why I believe I need even more help than if I were writing nonfiction.

Cue the “Writing and Publishing” section of Barnes and Noble. I bought 90 Days to Your Novel this weekend by Sarah Domet. I chose it over the 30-day version and the several varieties of basic novel how-tos because of the introduction.

Domet basically says that the difference between a writer and a wannabe writer is that a writer actually writes. Go figure, huh? She emphasizes that in order to actually pen a novel, you will probably have to skip out on some social outings, write when you don’t feel particularly motivated, and ultimately park yourself at the computer for extended periods of time. That part was kind of a wake-up call for me, because I realize that though I do write I don’t invest nearly enough time like I should. There’s always something else going on and it’s easy to put it off until the next day, much like working out – but I’ll save that issue for another time.

So, no more excuses. I’m doing a modified version of Domet’s 90-day plan, and I hope to have my outline, for which she allots 4-5 weeks, finished by the end of October. Then it’s write write write for thirty days. Which will include a visit from a friend in New York, the end of my internship, and flying back to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving. Yikes. But my goal is to write every day. Fingers crossed, nice thoughts, and any prayers you can spare, please!

Along with this pledge came a revelation. Working in publishing, I see so many works, contact so many bloggers, and send out so many books that it’s been a wake-up call to get on my game. Last week, I received an email from a blogger I reached out to for a review of one of our books, and he asked me if we would be interested in publishing his book that is similar to the one I was looking to send out. Being a lowly intern of no authority whatsoever, I asked my publicist boss (who is really so wonderful). Her answer was simply that we don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts, but he should try going through an agent. It was honest, but entirely discouraging for an aspiring writer.

It felt like a real blow to have to tell this guy no without ever having seen his work, and I realized that I was projecting. I’m enjoying being in the publishing industry, but I become more and more convinced every day that I want to write for a living. I get that this isn’t something that happens overnight, but I’m hoping that I’m getting closer to figuring out what I want and also how to get it. For now, I’m happy where I am, but I need to figure out more direct avenues to get to what I want and how to get my work into other people’s hands. Which brings me to the next bit.

While I’m taking on NaNoWriMo in November, I’ve (mostly) decided that I’ll take to posting pieces of the novel to the blog and occasional updates and rants on my progress. For the rest of October, I’m looking forward to writing my outline, but I’ll also keep posting my general musings much like I have been. In an effort to get out and start exposing what I like to write best, I might start including excerpts from the personal essays and memoir-type things I’ve written that I hope will be my primary focus one day.

While I’m prepping for NaNoWriMo, I have some other things to look forward to, mostly in the form of playing host. First guest: KATHLEEN! My Australian bestie (okay, she’s American, but we met in Australia) will arrive this weekend. We haven't seen each other in a year, and my excitement is not containable. Short version: I. CANNOT. WAIT.

The following weekend: MY PARENTS ARE COMING! AND my uncle and my cousin! YAY! Okay, enough exclamation points. Bold font and capital letters aren't adequate expression of my excitement, so I don't know why I'm even bothering with the exclamation points. Still, I get to show them around this wonderful city that I have the privilege to call home. It’s especially cool, because I really miss all of them a whole lot. Hooray impending reunions.

I feel like I’m going to be particularly all over the place over this next month, so I sign off with the utmost sincerity:

Here and there,
Kiley

The Met and Motivation

I have officially been in New York for two weeks, and I have completed my second week of work (funny potentially Freudian slip – I typed “school” first instead of “work”! Weird…). Anywho!

Last Sunday, I got up early and made my way to the Met. I got off the subway and was excited to walk through Central Park, like my maps app told me I would which would also allow me to see Central Park for the first time, but then I realized it actually had me walking on the street bordering the park and not actually entering. Central Park Fail. There were heaps of people running, on bikes, with strollers, and all other kinds in the area, so I’m thinking my new Central Park plan will be to go for a run there soon.

I got to the Met after a short walk and was amazed by all the little street vendors right outside the museum and by the architecture of the building itself. So beautiful!

Once inside, I got to the ticket counter where they “recommend” a price, but really you can pay as much or as little as you like. Cool, right? I felt awkward asking to pay less, so I bit the $12 bullet and got my little metal Met-pin and museum map. Good grief is/are there a ton of artwork/exhibits/rooms/wings/statues/beautiful things! I mean I shouldn’t be surprised that it was on par with the Louvre, since it’s a world-famous museum in a metropolitan hub of the world. Maybe I just assume that all things foreign have a different kind of feel to them than what we have in the US. Regardless, I was speechless.

I started in the Egyptian section, then made my way to the American portion. I did a quick lap around the European sculptures and exited through the medieval section, reading and appreciating as much as I could in the couple of hours that I spent there, but there was just so much. Maybe I’ll give a tour a go one of these times or devote an entire day to museum-ing and catch the Guggenheim and the MoMA (although modern art isn’t exactly my scene, it’s still something worth checking out!) too. As always, there seems to be so much to see and do.

After my morning at the Met, I made my way back to the subway, largely because it was the Bengals’ second game of the season. Having missed an entire football season last year, I’m making it a point to catch as many games as possible this year. Only problem: I’ll be watching most of the games online seeing as the general New York population doesn’t seem to be all that interested. I figured that out this weekend. Oh well!

Interesting happenings of the week so far include braving the Harlem Costco. Not just because it’s Harlem, and not just because it’s Costco, but because it’s the two together. You know how most families in the mid-west bring their mini-vans, pick-ups, or SUVs to Costco/Sam’s? That’s not possible for me here, because I don’t have a car and I do have public transportation. My roommate and I trekked out there and $175 later (and hopefully a month from having to make that kind of purchase again…) we filled up the massive duffle bag and took a strap each while I lugged a sack of potatoes in the other hand, she a box of Sunchips. Much sweat, lots of breaks, and five – no seven, including the subway – flights of stairs later, we actually made it back to the apartment! Mission accomplished, savings acquired, work-out gotten. Although I did an ab routine that morning, Tuesday, so double work-out points for me.

I ran today too, and am happy to report that I’m definitely getting in better shape because I’m covering more distance in the same amount of time, about thirty minutes, though I don’t actually have any clue how far that is. Based on the landmarks I’ve given my roommate, he reckons it’s about a four-mile run. I’m skeptical, because I was dying at home doing less than two miles, but my parents’ house is in a pretty hilly area and this is flat, so maybe that’s the case. I should figure out a way to map it. Any ideas or handy apps that will do it for me, anyone?

Socially, I found a great website for all kinds of clubs and "meetups", so I’ll be playing soccer twice this weekend with a coed pick-up team and joining a language conversation group (espanol and review français here I come!). There are writer’s groups and book clubs that I’m looking into too, but I want to be able to meet at least a few times, and most of them only meet monthly. Figuring out what to do about those.

On the work-side of things, Monday brought with it a lot of online blog research focusing on pregnancy and infancy, which otherwise known as “mommy blogs”, or “mom blogs” as one blogger is trying to advocate for the sake of being taken more seriously. Good point well made.

Even though I’m only scheduled for Monday and Wednesday, I made my way back in for a Brown Bag meeting on Tuesday (where, by the way, NO ONE actually ate lunch...so my stomach just grumbled and my sandwich remained tucked in my bag) to listen to a guest speaker on the transition and relationship between books and television/film. And it was really interesting! There are so many more dynamics not only in publishing but in production in general, especially when it comes to the transition from paper to the screen. So much more intricate than I thought – or maybe I just hadn’t given the adaptation process and logistics of such a thing that much thought. Either way. Very informative and a very engaging speaker!

Wednesday at work brought on more blog research, but also led to emailing a number of bloggers and reaching out to them with copies of one of our books, hoping they’ll review and discuss our product with their readers. And I got some decent responses! Looking at these blogs, these successful, well-read, and popular blogs, whatever the target audience and topic, made me realize that I need to step up my game. I really want to take writing seriously and be successful with it, and over the last year with the traveling and finishing school, I just really haven’t focused on my personal writing.

That’s going to change now. Over the next few weeks, I plan to restructure and revamp this site to make it more user-friendly and more organized. I’m going to start writing like my personal writing, as in using the kind of language I normally use – children beware – and telling the kind of stories I want to tell. I’ll still be updating on my whereabouts and what I’m up to, but just in a more me kind of way.

That being said, if you’ve been reading or following me, let me know! Comment, follow me, subscribe (that might not be possible just yet, but I know it’s a feature that I want here so please bear with me while I get a lot more blog-savvy!), let me know that you’re there. I really enjoy writing this, and I want to be more diligent about my postings and make improvements all around. If you’ve got suggestions, I’ll gladly take those, too. Shit just got real, son, and I’m going all out. Here’s to the forth-coming and improved Everywhere at Once. Thanks for reading, and I hope you stay with me for the long haul.

Here and there,
Kiley