Thursday, October 1, 2009

Limed Lemmings


Lemmings are lame. Followers, the lot of them…well… except the one in front, but for the most part. Lame. A friend of mine, I’ll call her Tara, lectured me on lemons once, and assured me lemons are also lame, but there was a surefire way to unlame a lemon… you lime it. So I am going to make an attempt here to lime lemmings.

Bear with me. I’m probably insane, but co-morbid conditions aside, there is a reason for my lemmingness in many instances that I think makes it less lame.

DIAGNOSIS: FOMS

I have dueling drives that have resulted in this diagnosis.

1) Far be it for me to miss out on some great experience just because nobody else has tried it.
2) Far be it for me to miss out on some great experience just because everybody else is doing it.

I’m not a follower so much as I simply refuse to miss out on anything.

FOMS=Fear of Missing Something

I’m the first one at a party and the last one to leave. I did everything I was supposed to in high school (student council, math through calculus, heck, I was even a Junior Miss, but don’t tell them or they may come to revoke it), AND I did everything I WASN’T supposed to do… all the parties, boys, parties…

It’s not a bad résumé for a writer, though you probably won’t see me running for office (too many witnesses), but I’d rather be wagging the dog anyway.

[Do you HAVE a point?]

Do!

NaBloWriMo

Some of you have probably heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where thousands of apparently independently wealthy people write a book in a month. I used to not believe it was possible, but after my LEGACY whirlwind, I now believe it could be done. But even with major inspiration and mojo, that book will have taken me… probably two months for the bulk of it, not to mention all the plotting I did last winter while my writing peeps were critiquing CONFLUENCE (at which time I also wrote the first chapter of what will now be book 2).

But it has been an INSANE pace. No way I could write a whole book in ONE month while still holding a day job (never mind my family).

So for those of us unable to drop life for a month, we’ve been offered a reprieve with NoBloWriMo (which wins hands down for the innuendo alone—exactly the kind of thing a Tart gloms onto). But it STANDS for National Blog Writing Month, whereby a group of us commits to writing a blog every day for the month of October.

If you want to check out ALL the writers blogging for this event, this is where I saw the idea, and Amy has linked us all at the side (and I see two of my Burrowers have joined too! *squeeeeeee*) NaBloWriMo

So I am committed to a daily blog. The only obstacle I foresee is Mari’s visit, as we will be having too much fun, but pic and a paragraph should suffice for a few days. And since she is participating, I figure we can sit in the basement for half hour a day, parallel blogging.

As I prepare to dive in, I’m excited at the prospect of a group activity. I love my other social networking, but only my closest friends check up on me if I disappear (not that I disappear… FOMS, you know…) But my writer’s profile passed 600 friends on FB last week, and it is feeling more anonymous—plus, that isn’t the same level of commitment to all doing something together.


Accounting Tart is an Oxymoron.

It’s true. Probably because my mother is an accountant. I don’t even balance my checkbook (oh, I try. I do STATISTICS , not adding and subtracting. Especially when there is so little adding involved.)

But accountability is another thing altogether. I finished my first novel length work as a fan fiction because people were WAITING for it. Make no mistake… rebel or not… I still don’t like to disappoint. So this group activity is PERFECT, and I think adequately limes the lemmings!

[note to my pre-blogging friends: It’s a good time to dive in! The water is TART!]

3 comments:

Cruella Collett said...

A pic and a paragraph sounds good - and parallel blogging too. And then of course there is the fabultastic "scheduled blog" alternative (I swear, it's making me a better person).

Natasha said...

Don't you just love scheduled blogging!! Till I discovered it, I used to really drive myself insane.

And NaBloWriMo is a brilliant idea, isn't it?

Hart Johnson said...

teehee... it's fabulous, but I seem to have scared people off. Maybe liming isn't a concept everyone can understand... I do have a new follower though... that is something!