Perpetual Ruminations

Wednesday

It feels kind of weird to be in here this early in the day. Not that I'm always running late, but most of the time it seems I am. Last night was terrible, I had forgot to sign in here to write my journal entry and almost missed the midnight deadline. I don't write this in WDC, but in a site named 750 Words that is set up for just writing anything and everything, as long is it's 750 words long or longer, and your suppose to write daily.

Not that anything bad happens if you miss a day, but it does count your words and days that you write and complete the 750 word challenge. If I had missed a day, like I almost did last night, I would have a nice record of where I was, but my daily counter would have reset and I would be writing for my first day, again. I had done pretty good when I first signed up here, making a whopping one hundred and twenty nine days in a row. That was pretty good, but then I started my new job and things got kind of hectic and messed up, so I stopped writing in here. It wasn't intentional, I just missed a day and decided to wait until the first  of the next month to start writing again. But, when the first came I missed it, problems at work again.

I did start writing a few times, but always something came up and I didn't get in here to write before midnight and I would find myself starting over. This was pretty frustrating, and I finally just gave up. I didn't log in or do anything in here for quite some time, and kind of put the whole idea on the back burner. I had a lot of stuff going on at work, had been promoted to supervisor and inherited a whole lot of problems, and just did not have time for much of anything. In the process of cleaning things up at work, I lost a few employees, which was fine, it saved me from firing them, but it also left us very short on help, and again I did not have time for much of anything outside of work.

I didn't get much done in WDC, either, but was trying hard to get in there as often a I could, just too look around and I did manage to get a few things done. It was around Christmas time that I had to renew my membership, and I was having a difficult time coming up with the money. I did manage and at the last minute renewed my membership. I received a thank you from both the Storymaster and the Storymistress, and in answering them, explained how I had so little time, and barely managed to get my membership renewed because of the cost, but wanted to eventually save up and upgrade to a premium membership.

I was very surprised when I logged in the next day to see I had been gifted an upgrade and my membership fee had been converted to gift points. I had also received a message from the Storymaster telling me to save up for a renewal of the upgraded membership so that I could continue enjoying the upgraded benefits. It was a wonderful gift, and I decided that I would not waste this awesome act of kindness.

I had not had much for time to read, to review, or to create anything, and I did not see this changing anytime soon. So, I decided to start a journal and write in it everyday. I could record events, ideas, anything and everything that floated around in my head. It was easy enough to create the item and I started writing, trying to get in everyday. I did good, but did miss a day here and there. Most of the time I didn't actually miss a day, I just got in there after midnight WDC time, but before midnight in South Dakota time. There were a few times I missed completely, but not many.

I had all but forgotten 750 words, and what I did remember was buried under a lot of other thoughts and concerns. November came and I decided at the last minute to try my hand at Nanowrimo. I managed to come up with a last minute outline for a story and Rhonda set about proving as much time and support as she could to me writing and winning at Nano. I did get my novel written, but as yet, unrevised. I also received an e-mail from 750 Words, stating they had changed things a bit, but because I was a member already, I would receive a lifetime free membership. It also had some information on Nano, and I checked it out.

I'm not sure just when I decided to combine the two sites into one task, but I did eventually put it all together and started writing my journal entry in 750 words. The reason was two-fold. First, it would hold me accountable to write everyday, something I wanted to do very much. Secondly, it would require me to write at least 750 words in my journal entry. This is important, because it's pretty damn difficult to write 750 or more words without putting a lot of thought into it. I will admit there have been times when I was half asleep and what flowed out was probably pretty confusing and scattered, but the fact remains, I tried and succeeded at writing at least 750 words, and I did my best to make it make sense.

It may not mean much to anyone reading this, but it does to me. I have received a very wonderful gift, and I don't want to waste it, so I write in WDC every day, or at least I give it a good try. Some entries, as I said, came in later than midnight, but they made it in. I can't say I haven't missed a day, but I do know, by my counter in 750 Words that I have not missed a day in the last one hundred and forty -- and counting. Also, I'm a writer. I may not be creating anything right now, and I don't know when I will get an opportunity, but when it comes, I know I can write a novel in a month, and I know I can write at least 750 words a day.

I almost lost my count last night, but at midnight when the site saved my writing and closed out my day, I was just over 750 words, not by much, but I had made the deadline.

It may not mean much to anyone else, but it means a whole lot to me.