Talking in Dewey – Camp NaNoWriMo Days 6 -9

Camp NaNoWriMo Days 6 – 9

It seems like writing is so much harder to do at the beginning of the week, and somehow, that just carried forward this week. Is that just me? I think it makes sense for any writer who also has another full-time day job – where do you find the time? I am very much not a morning person, so no matter how hard I try, I can’t get myself up early to write before work, and by the time I get home from work, I’m too tired to write. Ah, one of the trickiest parts of being a writer: finding and maintaining a daily routine.

During the beginning of the week I’m in library mode – I live and breathe the Dewey Decimal System as I work multiple full shifts in a row. You don’t realize how good a job can be for your exercise routine until you work at a multi-floor public library.

Yesterday, I managed to hand write a little during my break. I haven’t handwritten any fiction in something like a year! Maybe I can become one of those writers who finishes a manuscript on pieces of scrap paper compiled from commutes and lunches.

With libraries on my mind lately, I can’t help but theme this post around Dewey.

5 Dewey Decimal Numbers Every Writer Needs

  • 808.3 – You can’t be a writer if you don’t write!
  • 641.3373 or 641.3372 – The necessary liquid fuel!
  • 398.2 – I think we all need to believe in fairy tales and dreams come true. That’s why I write fantasy.
  • 612.821 – We don’t get enough sleep – not because of our busy schedules, but because the world isn’t the most accommodating to night owls!
  • 910-919 – We may not be able to travel the world (especially not during a pandemic), but we need to put the world in our novels, and to do that, we have some studying to do!

Haiku of the day:

Someone's fingerprints
Another life loving this world
Of paper and ink

Writer Dead Giveaways – Camp NaNoWriMo Day 5

Camp NaNoWriMo Day 5

After almost having my car rear-ended during a rare outing today, I found myself feeling especially like a writer as I tried to explain what happened to family.

Of course, I had to make sure there was some exposition in there, and include some internal and external conflict – all the typical things. Then when I tried to say that the other car swerved onto the shoulder, somehow the only word that would come to mind was “footer.” Kind of a weird view to have of a roadway. “Margin” would have worked, too.

It got me thinking: there are a lot of things writers do or say that are dead giveaways of their writerly perspectives…

Things Writers Do When They’re Not Noveling

  • Accidentally type “write” instead of “right” in every school essay
  • Think how that patch of clouds really does look like a semicolon
  • Automatically start that written assignment with “Chapter 1”
  • Narrate the breakfast routine
  • Leave a conversation early to write down a really great phrase they said

Daily Haiku:

Car comes screeching by
Halfway down the eighty-five
Near-miss in the margins

My Cat is a Writer

Camp NaNoWriMo Day 4

Nothing new to report today, except for this: have you ever noticed how cats stare intently into space at nothing, just like writers can tend to do? You have to admit, there is a distinct possibility that there are worlds going on in cats’ minds that we don’t know about.

Daily Haiku:

Writers are like cats
Curling up in dark corners
Planning and plotting

Have a safe and happy weekend!