Accomplishment Friday

I often find lately that I miss doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). NaNowriMo is a project in which one commits to writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, the month of November. I wrote my first novel in 2002 while simultaneously studying for Level 3 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam. I completed the novel but failed the exam... which suits me fine, actually.

I miss the sense of having a project going in my head, as well as the sense of accomplishment from meeting my word goals and being on target with getting something done. As much as I want to write, though, the looming sense of wedding deadlines keeps me from really immersing myself in a project. There is too much money involved, too many people I'm accountable to with regard to this wedding, not the least of which is my fiance David. A wedding isn't the most important thing in the world, but it's certainly the biggest party I'm ever going to throw in my life, and I'm not what you'd call a natural-born party planner.

Writing a novel is more fun than planning a wedding. You don't have to listen to anyone else's opinions (at least in draft stage), and you don't have to please anyone but yourself. There's a lot less stress with money involved in writing a novel. As long as you have something to write on (a PC, a typewriter, a notebook), you're off to the races. There's no agonizing over whether you can afford to buy this or that, which fits with the theme. If something fits your novel's theme, you just write it.

All of the things I've been working on this week for the wedding seem to be still in progress. We haven't made a decision yet on the rehearsal dinner location, the invitations, the wedding bands, or the ceremony music. We did finally get our engagement photos back, and they turned out pretty well. David and I are going in to make the final decisions on picking out the wedding invitations tonight and hopefully shop for wedding bands. Reception dinner tasting is tomorrow. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon many things will be resolved.

Still, I remember last year when I was doing the Poetry Postcard project, writing a poem a week (more or less). They're doing one for August this year, but I don't think I will be able to do it. I feel an acute sense of responsibility when it comes to taking on a project like that--if I say I am going to do it, I'm darn well going to do it. As it is, I know how uninspired I feel and how generally stressed out with looming deadlines and the fear of forgetting something.

One thing I did accomplish this week was starting this blog, which I had been considering doing for quite a few months. I don't know if it will turn into anything of value, but I won't know until I try.