One Hundred Days...Thirteen Days In...Part III

In early May, another idea began to form in my mind. I needed another push to propel me forward in my writing. I’ve just recently returned from Dayton, Ohio, where once again I participated in the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop where writers of all genres, not just humor, gather to celebrate the life of the late Erma Bombeck at her alma mater, The University of Dayton. It was a grand time and I wrote about it in this post. One of the many highlights of the conference was spending time with my friend, the brilliant Gina Barreca, and being in the presence of someone who definitely brings out the best in others. If you ever get the opportunity to hear her speak, do it, because you’ll leave with more than just a new best friend—you’ll leave exhausted from the camaraderie you feel around her, the inclusiveness and support of someone that has done what you’re trying to do and the message that it’s okay to speak up, to be heard and to make trouble. The idea that I came up with was what if I could do another version of the NaNoWriMo, but this time do it during the summer months. I can recall seeing an ad somewhere about a hundred days (more or less) of summer and all of the activities that one could do. Why couldn’t I write every day? After a few days of thought I came up with the idea of writing 100k words in 100 days. It’s fairly simple mathematically to figure it out—it’s a thousand words a day for 100 days. The hardest part was figuring out a day to begin. I kept putting it off and finally settled on June 1. June, July, August and a few days in September—sounds like a fun summer to me. Most people take the summer off but not me, I’m calling this the summer of my discontent and there are certain things I want to accomplish other than just kick back and relax. (Plus, I’m turning 50 on my birthday next year and there have always been certain things that I wanted to have accomplished by then and I seem to have fallen behind in the last ten years.) The main thing I want to accomplish during this summer of writing is to finish my second novel and be nearing the finish line on my third to wrap up the trilogy. Doable? I hope so, because that’s what my plan is—and sometimes, the hardest part for me is just coming up with the plan. The first few days of my journey have been a challenge. I started out the month in Savannah where I had time by myself to get started on the writing but spent two full days in the car trying to get through Atlanta traffic. After returning from there, the plans were put in motion to do work on the bathroom so I would need to bring the cats up to my Mom’s house for the duration. The man said it would only take about four days to redo the bathroom and we are already on the eighth day.  I’ve made several trips back to my house to see if I could be of any assistance (to make sure he knew what he was doing and wasn’t stealing anything) but after the fourth trip I showed him where the key was and to be sure and turn the lights off when he leaves for the day. The goal is to be finished sometime in the next few days, but I'm not holding my breath about it. Besides, I’m not really in that big of a hurry to go back to my house because Mom has central air (I don’t) and the cats (me too) love it. So welcome to my summer of discontent. Not only do I want to write 100K words in a hundred days, but I also plan on having 30 minutes of daily activity and eating better, which I hope, will help me lose 20 pounds. I’ll be checking in throughout the summer to let you know how I am doing and if you would like to start your own one-hundred-day challenge—whatever it may be—feel free to leave a comment or you can always email me at gianettapalmer@gmail.com. The more the merrier and good luck. It’s June 13, and so far, I’m on track. Only 87 days to go—not that I’m counting.