So the 50,000 word count seems a lot bigger now that the writing has begun. Math whiz that I am, I realized that I'd need to be cranking out roughly 1,500 words per day to reach my quota by month's end. As of today, the 7th day, I should be upwards of 10,500 words. I am currently sitting at 1,475. Oops.
Really, though, I am proud of those 1,475 words. It is daunting to get started on such a huge undertaking as a novel, especially when I've never written anything of this scale AND my prewriting consisted of a 20-minute session of haphazard note-taking. I took solace in the fact that J.K. Rowling plotted Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on a piece of notebook paper, creating a very brief plan for the fifth book in such an amazing series. Crazy to some, but it turned into gold. I don't presume I'll be nearly half as successful as Ms. Rowling, but it is nice to know my lack of organizing planning puts me in such esteemed company.
In other news, I made dinner last night. Before you think I'm just one of those bloggers with nothing of substance to say, look back to my very first post and you'll remember that I do not cook. I began my summer with the goal of trying one new recipe per week, and by summer's end I think I'd made maybe 3 meals total. I'm trying more often, though, and with much less trepidation. Take last night's creation, for instance. I'd seen a commercial for Unsloppy Sloppy Joe's, and I thought that was a perfect idea for kids. I decided to try it. I snagged some ground turkey, sloppy joe mix, Grand's Flaky Biscuits, and steamable peas. The end result was quite tasty, but certainly not as perfect-looking as the little pockets on TV. For one thing, the commercial is clearly advertising crescent rolls, a key ingredient I somehow forgot to use. I was able to flatten the Grand's and attempt to fold them into little triangle pouches, but meat kept falling out, and half of them unfolded during the baking process. Still, it was a nice take on the traditional Sloppy Joe, and we were able to spoon the remaining meat over the baked pockets for a not so sloppy fork and knife meal instead. We discovered that Levi loves peas during our family dinner, so that was another win. He fed himself at least 50 peas, one at a time, and looked quite pleased doing so.
At school, I'm gearing up for this year's Academic Superbowl. I am the English team coach, and we are studying Greek drama and epic poetry (one of my favorite topics). We're working with Homer's The Odyssey, in its entirety, and the story of Antigone. I teach a shortened version of Antigone to my sophomores, so I'm doubly excited about this. The only tricky part is I lost all but one member of my team to graduation last year. I'm on a mission to recruit, and I slammed out a kooky little poster this afternoon with Homer, a word bubble, and a dorky English take on the ubiquitous "Call Me Maybe." Pretty proud of myself for that little gem.
Anyway, I have the Word document of my novel currently open, so I should probably stop writing this and start writing that. Have a fantastic Monday, everybody, and GO IRISH!
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