Halloween
My “little Pumpkin” might be a teen, but he doesn’t feel like he’s too old to go trick-or-treating, so last night we enjoyed another year out as a family.
We did a lot of walking last night, and my feet are paying the price, but I loved it! We went with a big group. So much fun!
Hate, Politics, and Depression
I’m still limiting my screen time, especially with the election next week. This is the first year I’ve had people harassing my cell phone with text messages regarding candidates. Seriously? As if an unwanted text, pestering me at odd hours, would do any good??? All those commercials and the PILES of political junk mail…it seems like such a waste of resources. I’d be more likely to vote for a candidate if they used the millions earmarked for self-promotion and put it towards something good, something tangible, something that helps other people. I don’t even look at the junk mail these candidates and their organizations are sending. I don’t even allow it inside my house! Why would I allow all that negativity inside my home, my sanctuary??? It’s not healthy.
Hate floats in like weeds in a garden. Uninvited. However, we don’t have to water and nurture them!
We don’t use regular television in my home, only Amazon Prime and Netflix, so at least I don’t have to watch all the hate with every commercial break. Even still, I find political posts leaking hate on my social media accounts.
It’s ugly.
As human beings, I feel like we should be coming together, to become the very best versions of ourselves. It’s a LOT easier to do this if you surround yourself with things that uplift you: music, books, things that bring you joy. Add family and loved ones to the mix, and who knows what can happen, what we could do, who we could become?
NaNoWriMo
I’ve decided NOT to worry about writing 50,000 words in 30 days for NaNoWriMo. I’ve participated in the past. I think it’s a fun challenge, but instead of focusing on word count, I’d like to practice writing something, ANYTHING, every day in my current work in progress for the next 30 days. I’d like to practice letting go of my perfectionism and practice writing when I don’t feel like writing, just to see what will happen. I’d like to try to write at times I wouldn’t ordinarily write, in places I wouldn’t usually write in, just to prove to myself that I don’t need the “perfect” conditions to write a novel. I’ve got my novel plotted. I’ve been sending each new chapter to my Beta Readers as I finish them. It’s just a matter of consistently getting the words out of my head on a regular basis.
What are you working on?
What’s going on in your life? Let me know in the comments.
Take care of yourselves and each other,
xo Juli
JULI HOFFMAN 
I so agree with you on the politics, and I’m glad the election is over. Here in Tennessee, the commercials by both the Republican and Democrat candidates for Senate were so ugly toward each other that I didn’t want to vote for either of them. And the Democrat running for governor was really ugly toward the Republican running (although, in the case of governor, the Republican didn’t slam the Democrat.) So here in Tennessee, it was terrible. Three different dirty campaigns. It was so disheartening. But what was worse was people on FB acting so ugly. I hate confrontation and meanness. So I stayed away a lot. Maybe now that it’s over….
As far as NaNo goes, if I didn’t have a full time job, I might do it. I did it and finished two years in a row…a long time ago. But that kind of furious writing isn’t really for me.
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I agree! Glad the election’s over…until 2020. UGH!
I’m averaging around 300 words a day and I’m happy with this. No, I’m not going to get 50,000 words in a month, but I’m happy with the words I do write. They won’t need much editing. The story I’m writing is plotted out. I know what I’m writing each day. Slow and steady is better for me than too paranoid to even start. 😀
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