A to Z II - T is for Time

Welcome to the twentieth day of my personal A to Z challenge for the month of May. Since today is day twenty, it means we are on the letter t. T is for time.

Time is an interesting concept in Trajectory.

You have time where Joe observes for hours and days on end, yet the story does not drag.

You have the expenditure of time for the complications of his situation with Claudette, as well as the unfolding of events between Joe and Michael.

You have the passage of time while Joe recuperates and rehabilitates  after Michael's attack.

When you're writing about a sniper who can lay still for hours or even days at a clip, but who also suffered serious injuries and has a long road of recovery ahead of them, time can be a tricky thing. It is sometimes difficult to write about the passage of time, this new and improved Trajectory, though, handles it perfectly.

NaNoWriMo: The end is just the beginning!

Happy November, everyone! For many people November equals NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month. It's a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. I want to take this opportunity to go through NaNo with you, and to look at the writing process in great detail.

It's the end of the month, so it's time to look at the end of NaNo and where we go from here.

The end on NaNo is not the end of your story. In fact, it's just the beginning.

                                           

We've talked about quantity and quality, and the importance of editing and polishing your piece. The end of NaNo marks the beginning of that.

But I don't want to beat a dead horse. I'm just as sick of the repetition and redundancy as you are.

Let's look at the other beginning the end of NaNo brings us.

Having accomplished NaNo, we can say that we have written a novel. It doesn't matter if we're seasoned or not. We've done it. That's an accomplishment in and of itself. It's the beginning of feeling pride in our work and our victory.

It opens the door for us to write more. Novels, short stories, poems, whatever we want! NaNo opens up our creative channels to write and write and write.

If you discover that writing isn't your thing, it still opens up those creative channels. It encourages us to try new artistic endeavors - to begin other challenges and begin learning other art forms.

The end of NaNo is not the end. Not even close. The end of NaNo marks the beginning of many wonderful things!

A to Z '14 - Youth

For this year's A to Z Challenge, I am honoring my grandfather who passed away on April 3, 2013.


Y is for Youth.


You're probably asking what a 93 year old man could have ever taught me about youth.


He taught me a lot, actually.


He taught me that youth is not something you lose with age.



He still loved the same movies and same slapstick comedy that he adored as a child.



His sense of humor and ability to laugh were one of they keys to his longevity.



He remained as active as he could. Age gave him a back surgery and two bad knees, but he continued to drive (fairly well, all thing considered), go to church and keep himself relatively busy. He didn't let his age keep him down or use it as an excuse to NOT do things.


My grandfather lived life as fully as he could at every age.


Even at 93 laying in the hospital bed, I could see the little boy behind his blue eyes.


Youth is not restricted to age. It is only restricted if you allow it to be.

Y is for Youth.

A to Z '14 - Time

For this year's A to Z Challenge, I am honoring my grandfather who passed away on April 3, 2013.


T is for Time.

My grandfather taught me a few things about time. He told me about the importance of time. How time with friends and family was far greater than time spent working. He showed me the value of an hour.



Living to 93, he also taught me that we don't have the time we think we do. He and I had always talked about me writing his memoirs. I figured I had enough time. He never got sick. If I had, I think I would have started to work on it with him. No, he fell and broke his neck. He was in the hospital for about a week. I got a call the day before he died. I was there by 7 am the next morning and stayed with him till he passed that evening. There was no preparation time. I couldn't just ask him to give me all the details he wanted in his memoirs. Even after 93 years, there wasn't enough time.




Time is a very fragile, precious gift. We never really know exactly how much time we're going to have. So value your time. Celebrate your time. Enjoy every moment in your life.

Time is important.



T is for time.