Cataloging UFOs

A recent email got me thinking about UFOs.  Those UnFinished Objects that collect in drawers and clutter up the work space.   Being that time of year, it got me to thinking about resolutions - new and old, and what I want (and hope) to accomplish this year. 

Sorting through some of my UFOs I realized that there are a number of reasons why different projects fell to the wayside.  I'm coming to think that the more I understand WHY a particular project got set aside, the better chance I have of determining which, if any might ever reach the coveted "Completed" state.

So I started cataloging my Reasons why particular projects end up as UFOs.  Here's my list to date:


Too Many Ideas, Too Little Time
 It's a fact: the larger a project is, the longer it takes to complete.  Not just in terms of the hours spent working on that particular project.  But also because of the times when the long-term project gets set aside in favor of smaller, quicker projects. 

The word "Done" has such a nice ring.  Done!  Bingo! Hurray!  There are some words that are just such fun to say.  That likely explains why I have more snowflakes than any other single beaded project.  They are incredibly fast - how many bead weaving projects can you finish in under an hour, and each one be unique?  So, big projects get interspersed with smaller ones, making the larger projects take even longer.

I've also found that the more time I've already invested in a project, the more risk adverse I become.  The worry about "what if I screw it up" that barely registers these days when stitching a beaded cuff, rears its head on a regular basis when working on my latest sculptural endeavors.  Bead sketching can help with this - doing little sample pieces to work out how I might move forward.

The best solution I've found is to set a concrete deadline for completion, and a reason for that deadline.  The deadline must be far enough in the future that I can reasonably finish the project.  And I need a reason for the deadline because my creative side is like a little kid, and will do it's best to find wiggle room and extensions.  Saying I want to finish it by September isn't enough.  Saying I want to finish by September so I can photograph it for a blog hop or submissions for "X" show.  Even simply telling people it will be done by a specific date is a much stronger motivator, because now someone is expecting it besides myself.


Lost without a Map
Here, I started out with a grand idea, but partway in, the project morphed into something I don't recognize.  Good, bad, it's almost impossible to tell because it simply ISN'T what I expected.  And I therefore have no clue where to go next.  Into the box it goes.  I think this is one of the most common reasons freeform beadweaving projects get left behind. 

That's okay, sometimes projects simply need time to gel.  From my own experience, my Rattlesnake Necklace is a prime example.  I'd originally designed it as a choker, but somehow the length got away from me, and it was way, way too long.  What to do?  I liked the colors, I liked the stitching, but I had no idea what to do with it.  It was several years before I thought of finishing it as a sort of Western-kerchief style choker instead.  The key is to remember to pull it out every once in a while, and keep noodling on the question "what could it be?"  (It also helped that I decided to finish this piece for a blog hop).


Too Ugly to Live
This is the second most-common reason freeform beadweaving projects get left in the dust.  The big question is whether the poor dear is simply stuck in the dreaded Ugly Duckling stage or if it has truly deadly flaws.  A cool-down period may be in order before I can make that determination.

Put it away until the disgust has faded to something more akin to pity, then pull it back out. To evaluate it's potential rebirth, I first look at the piece's stitching - is it structurally sound?  If the stitching is a mess, then it's likely toast.  Stitching is sound?  Then how's the color balance?  A quick way to play with color is to take a photo (a white or light colored background works best), print it off my computer,  then draw over the top.  Quick simple lines will do, with markers, colored pencils, crayons - whatever I have to hand.  The goal here is to play with ways to improve the color balance.

If both the stitching and color seem good, and the pieces simply seems awkward, that's a really good sign it's in the Ugly Duckling stage and I simply need to keep stitching. 


Bored Now
For me, projects that require a lot of repeats are most likely to fall into this category.  It's one of the reasons I veer away from many traditional bead weaving projects.  I get bored and I start improvising to liven things up (often with 'interesting' results) or it gets shoved into a drawer for "later".

Personally, the best way for me to work through this particular problem is to have a rock-solid, clear-cut reason for wanting to finish the project.  "I am making this as ThisYear's birthday gift for my Mom" or "I will wear it at the formal dinner on our September Cruise with my 1940s-style dress" are much more compelling reasons than "it's beautiful and I'd love to make it".  The 'it's beautiful' might get me started, but is likely to leave me stranded mid-stream as boredom sets in. 


Got It!
This is a sort of variation on the Bored Now theme, but is a little different.  When I looked at my motivation for starting these projects, I find that my true goal was simply to master a technique or determine whether something was simply possible.  Once I have the answer (either way), there's little motivation to continue.

Almost ten years ago now, I took a workshop with the artist David Chatt.  He had two Large tables covered with beading samples, mostly unfinished pieces, and explained that they were his 'sketchbook'.  They were where he worked out ideas and problems, and kept the results as quick reminders and references.  These days, I have my own 'beaded sketchbook'.  It's not as extensive as his, and I have a feeling I'm far more likely to poach from my sketchbook than he tended to be, but that's okay.  Every artists' sketchbook is entirely their own. 

One thing I have found is that it's very freeing to realize that not all beaded objects are meant to be completed.  Some are simply meant to answer a question.  Little sketches, doodles and thoughts. 



So there's my UFO Roster
Now I'm curious. 

• How many of these resonate with you?  
• Do you have UFOs that fall into other categories that should be added to the list?  What are your categories?
• Which types of UFOs are you most likely to complete, eventually?  
• What do you think of the sketchbook idea?  Do you have UFOs that are really sketches; never intended to become completed objects?  
• What would you think of joining a crafter's UFO Support Group?  A group where we challenge each other to identify, and complete one UFO at a time on a regular basis.  Say one UFO every two months?

I'd love to hear from you!  

New Year's Plans - a New Take on Freeform Peyote Beading

It's time to write the sequel to Freeform Peyote Beading!

My first book, Freeform Peyote Beading was totally a labor of love, born out of the belief that there must be others, somewhere, interested in the same crazy beading that I was.  When I began that project there were no other books out in the field.  Writing Freeform Peyote Beading I worked in largely uncharted territory, deciding what were the most essential elements necessary to be successful in this medium.  I know there have been comments that my book could have been more.  I have to agree - even then there was so much more I wanted to add.  But in the interest of actually completing the project, I decided it was 'enough to be getting on with' as one of my friends would say. 

In the past four years, my comfort and skills with the entire writing/editing and publishing process have grown tremendously.  Better yet, I'm now part of a community of individuals from around the world interested in beadweaving in general and freeform beading in specific.  And I know I'm not totally bonkers thinking that someone, somewhere might also be interested in my finished book.

So, after much thinking and plotting and planning through the second half of last year, I decided that 2014 is the time to create a new and improved version of Freeform Peyote Beading.  I committed to that first project on January 1 of 2010, so it seems only fitting that I announce my intentions to create it's sequel here on my blog on the first day of 2014.  Some of you may have seen my comment in the Freeform Peyote Beading group, but here's the formal (at least as formal as I tend to get) announcement:

The new book will be:

Larger and Longer  The new book will be a full 8 1/2 x 11” paperback topping out at 150 pages - nearly twice the length of my original!

Full-bleed photography  The full-color interior layout will include full-bleed photographs allowing me to expand the images all the way to the edges of the page. 

More Designs, More Artwork, New Projects Most of the additional pages will be devoted to more and expanded beading examples and more in-depth tutorials with new designs.

Works by Other Artists  I am in awe of the wonderfully vibrant community of artists working in this medium and hope to include and promote other artists through the medium of my book.  As such, I am and will be actively soliciting participation through a Call for Artists.   While I plan to post a Call for Artists here on my blog, let me know if you’d like to receive an email notification when it goes live.  

Not Just Jewelry  I'm adding a completely new chapter entitled “Beyond Jewelry” which will focus on freeform beading as a sculptural medium, including beading over ready made forms such as glass bottles and free-standing sculptures.

Index Amongst other things, I'm currently at work developing a list of keywords and phrases for a comprehensive index to make finding information even easier. 

Digital Publishing I am also hoping to publish in both Kindle and PDF digital versions as well.

Expected publication date: December 2014.  My plan is to have it available on Amazon by or before December 1st.

It's a long journey between here and there, with many, many steps.  To help guide me on my way, I have my detailed outline along with my somewhat daunting production plan with deadlines for each element of writing, beading, photography, illustration, editing, page layout and more.  And I'm ready to start.  Excited, a little scared, part of me wondering what in the world I'm doing, but excited to dig in.

Is there something in particular you'd really love to see in the book?  Now's the time to let me know!  I'd love to hear your suggestions.  

On January 15th, I'll be launching a Kickstarter campaign to continue building a community of supporters and to help me fund this project.  In a project of this scale, community is so important.  I want to continue to show the world what Freeform Peyote is all about and share some of the best and brightest from our community in the pages of my book.  It will also be great to have that financial support while I work on a project of this size. 

With this great new book project and my first Kickstarter, 2014 looks like it will be a fantastic year and here's wishing that yours will be just as wonderful!

Happy New Year!

Storytelling - Message(s) in a Bottle

Since I'm totally drawn to the ocean in my design themes, I've decided to play with the idea of the Message in a Bottle for next month's freeform peyote Found Objects Challenge.

First I had to find a bottle.  I scrounged up three.  The dark brown one came from Joe's grandmother's house and almost won the coin toss until he pointed out that you wouldn't be able to easily see that there were messages inside. 

On to the next: the Pyrat is a great shape, and it's RUM, but the bottle is ungodly heavy (heavy means more likely to damage any beads underneath).  And it's big!  While I'm not expecting to completely finish the piece before the reveal, I'd like to get somewhere close.

Which led me back to the third bottle in my photo.    Way back when, I came up with this grand idea of creating a six-pack of beaded Coke bottles.  Each with their own theme.  For the past several years, I've had exactly one and a half bottles complete.  This would nearly double my total!  Even better - You could definitely see a message through the clear glass, or messages, plural.....

So here's where you come in:

I want my bottle to be crammed full of messages.  Message on top of message on top of message.  Since I like making up stories, I'm sure I can come up with quite a few.  But wouldn't it be more fun if I weren't the only one?  Say there was a whole community of castaways and lost souls, with only one bottle between the lot of them - would they fight over the bottle, or decide it was community property and use it as the local post office before throwing it into the sea? 

I'm inviting you to send me messages for my bottle.  You can comment to this blog post below, or you can email (skunkhillstudio at yahoo dot com) me directly.  Funny, sad, witty, a wish, thought-provoking rambles, a story message from your imagination or from real life - anything but crudities will go in. 

Send me Messages for my Bottle - Please!

I love the little reverse on the theme, too.

Thank you for becoming a part of my latest project!

Oh, and for those of you who follow my Facebook page, the round, beaded disc I posted there yesterday is the base for my beaded bottle.  It comes from a suggestion by David Chatt.  From what I remember, he noted that a single layer of seed beads underneath a fully beaded bottle is very fragile - just the weight of the glass and the beads above can be enough to damage them.  As an alternative, he suggested using cubic right angle weave to provide a sturdier base, since it's three sandwiched layers of beadweaving.  So that's what it is: cubic right angle weave in the round.  Now it's time to start working with freeform peyote. 

Please Write Me this November

I just received an email with the title of this post as the subject line.  The email was from "Your Novel  at nanowrimo_loves_you@nanowrimo.org".  Yep,  it's that time of year again!  November is National Novel Writing Month and Nanowrimo is back to challenge us to write our novel with their excellent support and encouragement.  Here's the rest of the letter:

Dear Burgeoning Novelist,

I'm writing to tell you I need you. That's right, I've been swirling around in the breathtaking labyrinths of your unconscious mind for a while now, and I'm itching to leap into the world. The only way I can come out, though, is if you commit to writing me in November.

So, if you haven't already, please sign in for 2013 NaNoWriMo and create me. For inspiration, just read Abby's story in our 2012 Annual Report. Abby's novel was such a powerful force that she faced down naysayers, found a way to write while juggling a busy life, and then crossed the finish line on the shoulders of NaNo's amazing community.

I know we'll write a gobsmacking, mind-bending story as well, so please commit to writing me in the following ways.

  Start prepping with a NaNo notebook—just released! We have so much to decide. Who is our protagonist? What sorts of wicked plans are our tales' rapscallions hatching? Sure, I've been swimming among the stories in your unconscious depths, but we have to start working to get 'em all out onto the page.

So let's get in the noveling mood. Check out these NaNo Prep resources to get primed:

• 10 Reasons You Should Do NaNoWriMo
• Inside the Mind of a Planner
• Pantser? Planner? Percolator?

Above all, please just write me. November is a grand celebration of everyone's amazing creative powers, so let's plunge into NaNo's rollicking mayhem and give light to a riveting story.

With rip-roaring wishes,

Your 2013 NaNo Novel

Word count: Ready to go...

As you can already guess, I'm in.   What I'm wondering is who's willing to join me?  Anyone up for a month-long bout of noveling insanity?  While I can't say that I've ever managed to write a gobsmacking, mind-bending (at least in the positive sense) story, I can say from experience that it's a wild ride.

50,028 Words and the Night of Writing Dangerously

Back in early September, I made all sorts of grandiose plans for November.  Here in November, I've been scrambling to keep up.

One of those plans I made involved Nanowrimo.  As you may know, November is National Novel Writing Month, and the folks over at Nanowrimo challenge each and every one of you to write a novel over the 30 days of November.   

I find myself looking forward to Nanowrimo eleven months out of the year.  Nanowrimo.org is hands-down the best support network for aspiring writers I have ever found.  For thirty days, they provide every encouragement to simply write.  Pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, internal editor silenced – with duct tape if necessary – letting the words flow.

This is my fourth year participating.  While the goal for Nanorwrimo is 50,000 words in 30 days, this year I decided to up my personal ante.  My goal was and is to actually FINISH my story this time around.  I will not feel I have won if my characters don’t make it to their own finish line, whatever form that might take.  And so I decided to take drastic measures. 

The collage for my fundraising page

That's where the Night of Writing Dangerously comes into my story.  The wonderful folks who sponsor Nanowrimo host a gala fundraiser event in San Francisco every year during November.  That's what I want to do, I thought to myself.  If I could reach 50,000 words before I left that ballroom, not only would I get to ring the winners’ bell to the acclaim of my peers, but I'd also give my characters twelve additional days to make their way through whatever my story has thrown at them before we’re all dumped into the cold, cruel, Nanowrimo-less world of December. 

So I put together my fundraising page and contacted some of my nearest and dearest and raised enough to attend and to drag my amazing husband along with me.  And I bought our plane tickets. 

Uh, oh!  Problems ahead

Fast forward to November 10.  It's just over one week until the Night of Writing Dangerously, and I'd managed to write exactly 8,709 words.  That meant I was 7,907 words behind the recommended pace to finish by November 30th, forget about November 18th.  Ouch!  I wasn't sure I could catch up by then, let alone by by November 18th.  I nearly threw in the towel. 

But my mom, mother-in-law, sister, aunt and best friends had all pledged.  I didn't want to go back to them and say, well I tried, but I gave up.  Even if they'd understand.  I wanted to at least put in a good showing.  More, I wanted to have something awesome to share.  So I decided to give it my all.

So I wrote, and I wrote, cramming writing into every little bit of time I could squeeze from my schedule.  By the time I arrived in San Fransisco around midnight Friday night/Saturday morning, my word count stood at 25,659.  I had written just shy of 4,000 words that day; one of my best ever single-day counts in four years of participation.  I was still behind, but I figured I could at least catch up with the recommended daily word count before the end of the weekend.  And I hadn't given up!

what I saw of San Francisco

Then something miraculous began to happen.  In between short jaunts out to see snippets of the city, I continued writing and my story came alive!  By Saturday evening, I'd increased my word count to 34,096.  I wrote another 2,000 words before joining other Nanowrimos for breakfast at a local diner on Sunday.  By the time we had to dress for the event, my word count stood at 42,015.

 But I still had nearly 8,000 words to go, and only five hours during which to write if I wanted to "win" that night. 

The way the night works is from 4-5pm there's cocktail hour, with an open bar.  Joe and I showed up late, because more than one drink and my literary hopes would have certainly been dashed for the night.  At 5pm, doors to the ballroom itself opened and everyone scurried in to find their seats.

The Julia Morgan ballroom turned writers' haven

It was the funniest thing to see, everyone in their Noir themed gala finery, sitting down and whipping out their laptops.  Everyone else at our table were from the local area and knew eachother, and none of them were trying to go for the bell.  But they were very encouraging when they found out I was, and how far I still had to go.  I'd barely sat down before the bell rang for the first time and everyone burst into applause. It was Chris, one of the writers I'd met at breakfast that morning.  He'd been at 47,000+ words at that time. 

There were speeches and word sprints (where you try to write as fast as you can for a specific period of time) and raffle drawings and all sorts of other fun and interesting things and I can't tell you about any of them; I was trying to focus so hard on writing.  I did help myself to the candy bar, and spent the evening hopped up on cinnamon jelly beans, which seemed to work even better than chocolate to my amazement.  At some point, Joe went out to the buffet and brought back dinner for me.  Later in the evening he delivered a German chocolate cupcake, and at 10pm, a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie and milk.  And still I wrote (do you see a theme here?)

At 10:32pm, less than half an hour left before the evening ended, I checked my word count once again. There were the numbers I'd been hoping for: 50,028.  For a moment I simply stared at the screen.  Then I started to vibrate.  Then Joe asked me what was wrong.  I couldn't speak, so I pointed, not quite believing what it said.  He looked at my screen, grabbed my hand and literally dragged me to the front of the room.  There, a very kind woman put together my crown. Where else do fully grown adults wander around proudly wearing paper crowns?  Then I got to ring the bell.  It was large, and my hands were so numb from all the typing I had to hold it with both hands.  And the room applauded. 

Some of my writing from last night is truthfully quite awful, I am sure.  I haven't even opened my document to look at it since Sunday.  Tomorrow morning, I think, is soon enough.  To reach my word count, I'd turned the automatic spell check off, so I wouldn't be distracted by the red corrections.  I expect my entire screen to bleed red when I turn spell check back on. 

But the amazing thing is, I truly like my story!  It's ungainly, and awkward and needs a huge amount of revision, but I'm more than two thirds of the way through the plot and it's fun!  I have never made it so far into the plot in any of my other previous novels.  And now I have another twelve days (ten now as I took the past two days off) to finish the first, horribly rough draft of Jane's, my 13 year old protagonist's, story. 

I'm still stunned that I actually did it!  On Sunday I wrote 15,932 words.  To give you something to compare it to that's roughly equivalent to about 59 pages in a trade paperback.  Even today I'm still stunned and walking on air every time I think about it.  I did something I truly thought couldn't be done.  I thought I'd lost my opportunity when my word count slipped so low last week.





If you're curious about my story, you can check out the plot synopsis I wrote on November 1st on my Nanowrimo page.  The story has definitely morphed since then, but that's where it started.

30 Pairs of Earrings in 31 days, plus 2 pendants

So that's my final total for my January Earring Challenge.  I thought I had made 31 pairs, but when I counted yesterday morning, I discovered that either a set had disappeared over night, or I'd miscounted.  I'd love to think that it was the former, but I'm guessing it was actually the later.

First two weeks of the Earring Challenge

I've posted an number of the pieces to Facebook, but I'll do a recap here.  The collage above includes pretty much all of the earrings I created in the first two weeks of January.  I stuck with freeform peyote and random right angle weave for all of these. 

I found myself working in series as often as not, creating a couple of pairs of earrings from the same basic design.  The flames to the lower right were the start of my largest series.   I couldn't seem to stop stitching them.  I think it had something to do with their warmth and the snow falling outside during that particular point.  A friend wondered what they'd look like if I reversed the colors, so I made one of those too, with an orange heart instead of the ultramarine blue.

I love the warmth of these!

In the second half of the month, I branched out, with a little tassle-making and some wire working.  I made two pairs of oak leaves - one with green stone hearts, the other with smoky crystals - as well as the more abstracted oak leaf pendant.   The heart beads came from the Seedbeaders' meeting and there's a definite valentine's flair to a number of these (valentines a la me - no pinks here!)

Second half of January

But at the very end, I went created two more pairs of earrings combining peyote stitch and random right angle weave.

These remind me of green pinecones

So there you have it - I think that's the lot of them!  In case it isn't, here's a photo of them sitting in their tray. 

And if you'd like to see more earrings, go check out Backstory Beads, who's also participating in the challenge; her work is gorgeous!  And of course, there's the Bead Along gallery at Beading Daily.

Trusting the Process (when inspiration does not strike)

My travel box this time around

Right about now I'm wondering what I was thinking when I decided to create thirty one pairs of earrings in thirty one days.  Each day that I manage to sit down at the beading table, I find my mind a blank.  Reading through many of my fellow artists' recent blog posts, I know I'm not alone.  In fact, Sarah over at Saturday Sequins just finished a two-part post on her solutions to this problem

I started the month in another state, with grand plans and a very compact travel box stocked with a small selection of beads.  Working with what I had while trying to come up with designs, I could console myself that it would get easier when I got home. 

Once home, I lost that excuse.  Plenty of others I could use - trying to get the house back in order after the trip, year end accounting, the cold that has plagued my husband for nearly a month and seems to be revisiting me.  However I want to couch it, inspiration keeps slipping out the door and around the corner.  I can catch glimpses out of the corners of my eyes, but as soon as I turn to look at it face on, I lose it.

One of my favorite complimentary combinations

So I'm having to relearn to trust the process.  I'm good with color; that's one of my strengths.  I'm not afraid of it, and have always been willing to take chances.  And if I'm truly at a loss, like I have been lately, I can always refer back to my book of painted pages.  Hours and hours of work, painting out tints and shades, analogous and complimentary colors using acrylic paints - another one of those projects I used to fill time while waiting for inspiration.  An amazing resource for days like these.   

My hands know what to do, once I settle on a stitch.  Perhaps we'll use peyote stitch this time I tell myself (yes, I talk to myself - too many hours alone in the studio ;-)  ).  We'll work around a couple of larger beads, with graduated sizes of seed beads.  That could work.   I thread the needle, pick up my first line of beads.  Doesn't look like much.  But I keep stitching, employing technique where inspiration fails.  But the interesting thing is, inspiration seems to back flow in as I work. Maybe, just a little.  Time to keep stitching. 

Process photos - mix of freeform peyote and right angle weave

More process photos - freeform peyote stitch from Day 10

I wonder what will appear tomorrow....

Lots of Possibilities for January

The new year is positively brimming with opportunities, including an earring challenge and the next Bead Soup Party.

Earring Challenge

The idea here is to make a new pair of earrings every day for an entire month. That's 31 different designs which will definitely be a challenge! Beading Daily has a Bead-Along page with a gallery especially for this, but I'll be chronicling my work on my blog as well.

My plan is to upload a photo of each day's design to Facebook and Twitter, and post weekly updates on my progress along with links to friends' blogs who are doing the same. If you're interested in joining in, let me know so I can be sure to include you in my blog rolls. I'd love to have enough people to have a blog hop celebration at the end! JJ over at Coming Abstractions has suggested an earring exchange as well, so I'll organize towards the middle of next month.

Almost Time for Bead Soup

Sign-ups for the next Bead Soup Blog Party are just around the corner, January 7-9th. I almost hesitate to share the dates, because if too many people sign-up, then Lori's going to choose participants by lottery.

Lori carefully pairs all of the participants, and then the partners swap 'bead soup' mixes, which are used to create new pieces, which we share in the blog hop reveal. I've participated twice - last winter and this past fall.

I've had such fun both times, I'll be quite sad if I don't make it in. But at the same time, I'd love for others to have a chance to play as well.

45,042 words

Just caught up with my word count this afternoon!

That's my total word count so far this month for my annual attempt to write a novel, a la Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month).  The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. No holds barred, damn the torpedos, just get the story on paper as a first draft that can be edited later sort of writing.  This is my third year and like both previous attempts, I'm coming from behind for my win.

The last several months have been crazy busy; putting together samples and handouts for new classes, working on several beading patterns, dealing with unexpected vacancies at my rentals, and just life in general.  You know how it goes.  There was an entire week early this month that I literally could not find the time to write despite my intentions to write a little every day.  At my worst, the Nano stats helpfully informed me that "at this rate" I'd be finished by December 20th!  Ouch! 

Today's stats

But life has started to calm down, and as of last week I've managed to carve time in the early mornings and late evenings to write. And since we stayed home for Thanksgiving, I've dedicated this weekend almost entirely to my novel (No Black Friday shopping for me - I'm writing!) 

Are there other uses I could make of my time?  Most certainly - I've been putting in 60+ hour work weeks for over a month now, trying to catch up. My to-do list is still about a half-mile long.  Which is exactly why I'm set on carving out this time for myself.  One month.  Early mornings.  Evenings.  Weekends. Mine.


While I "won" in both 2009 and 2010, I have never actually finished a novel.  In fact this is the first time I've made it past the half way point in my plot.  So beyond the 50,000 goal set by Nanowrimo, I have my personal goal of finishing my entire story.  Will I finish it by November 30th?  Considering how much of the story is still left to tell, the jury is definitely out.

But I'll be writing fast and furiously again tomorrow, and for the next few days.  The word count graph turns off at midnight on Wednesday.  Just how far can I get between now and then?  And if I still haven't finished my story, I'll let myself keep writing through next Sunday, because I will finish the story, as trite and ungainly and misshapen as it might be.  There's something powerful about finishing a project, especially one on this scale. 

To add a little pressure, I was crazy enough to sign myself up for a pitch workshop on December 7th sponsored by Createspace.  And now I've told you to make it harder to back out.  I'm supposed to pitch my novel to two separate editors as "part of a round table format" for new authors.  Why?  Because I want the experience.  My fiction writing may never be publishable, but I want to know just how far I can go.  And it's never a bad idea to practise presenting my ideas. 

Today I wrote 6,243 words.  I think that might be a personal record.  My brain is pooped, so I thought I'd write a blog post.  Go figure!

So my question to to you is this: what crazy artistic endeavors have you always wanted to try?  And what would you need to have happen to let yourself go for it?