The Last Hundred Days of 2009. Am I crazy to do another project? I guess so.

the grapefruit tree in the garden this morning the kids bring me flowers
art journal
9/23/09
watercolor, pen, acrylic

I've been absent. Yes.

I combination of resting from the flu and resting from the end of 100 in 100 days project. Plus the chaos of life and a trip to the zoo which taught me that I wasn't quite over the flu and if I pushed myself, I'd get knocked back on my butt again.

I haven't painted in a while. I'm okay with that. I'm learning that I don't need to hang onto the painting everyday thing out of fear that I will lose my painting.

It's a discipline, being a creative, it is, but it shouldn't feel like something you are yoked to.

Anyway, it has come to my attention that today is the 100th day until the end of the year.

Some of my buds from the 100x100 days project are taking on these last 100 days by challenging themselves in a new creative project, and I am, I think, joining in.

I've changed my focus though.

I'm going to let myself paint when I feel like it. Let myself do art journals more and maybe some larger paintings which take more than a day to finish.

My new challenge to myself is to write one hour every day for 100 days.

It's not a real challenge, because I know I can write easily for an hour. And I know I can write fast for an hour.

But it IS a really real challenge because I have not been able to set up a good, every day, lasting writing practice ever since I had kids. It's either feast of famine. I write all the time in a frenzy, or not at all.

So hopefully, when we ring in the New Year, I will have developed a solid writing practice.

Hey. Anyone else want to join in on this last 100 in 100 days of 2009? I'll do another side bar if you're interested... although I am totally slacking on my sidebars, and need to revamp the whole thing. Damn kids. Always getting in the way of stuff.

Now they want goldfish crackers. Goodness.

Well, I guess I'll start my plan by setting up a chart for myself.

Being a visual thinker, charts are nice for me. I'll mark out 100 days, and put the time I start and the time I finish and what I've done. I'm looking to revise my novel, so I really shouldn't be looking at page number,but I'll have a place for it.

When to carve out an hour a day when I wake up with the kids and one of them doesn't nap anymore? I guess it has to be when they go to bed... although I always get so tired at night.

This of course, may be my usual tactic to avoid. "I'm too tired." "I don't feel well." Yes it is. So I guess I need to conquer through my tiredness, and just write.

Really, it's about showing up to the page, showing up for the creativity. Just keep going, day by day, hour by hour, page by page, word by word.

This is how novels, how bodies of work are created.

Phew.

Wish me luck.