I have been working on my colored pencil drawing of a toad looking into a three-way mirror for almost two months now and am very excited to finish. It’s a delicate balance between hurrying and concentrating at this point. This is what my drawing board looks like; 3/4 of the way done:

There is a lot to be done with it, but the colors are really beginning to come together, at least on the main toad. I should be working on it now, but I am becoming overwhelmed by a different kind of art. National Novel Writing Month is November, which is coming up super fast. Something about the fall makes me need to write; it may be the memory of  high school. I did more writing in class than listening, taking tests, and daydreaming about David Duchovny combined. The dead leaves and early sunset just beg for an all-nighter just between me and Word.

As a person with a real  job, a kid, a house, and a desire to do art, I have little time or motivation for writing much at all anymore. “NaNo” brings millions of terrible writers together to pen their  50,000 word novel in a month’s time and share in the glory (or horror) of putting pen to paper. Last year I decided to try it for the first time.

I “won” last year with a “novel” about snake people. I liked the story, but realized after finishing I need to work on it A LOT. Writing is so unlike colored pencil drawing in that nothing is set in stone. You can always erase words; ten layers of Prismacolor not so much. Of course, my last year’s novel still needs serious help and I didn’t get very far in the revision process. It is the third “novel” I have a first draft of, and so I feel that maybe all of this is a waste. My instincts will not rest, however. The minute autumn arrives my body and brain NEED to write. So here we are. I am planning on a brand new “novel” stemming from an idea I had on a road trip in September 2008 about being on maternity leave with the devil. Drawing will no doubt fall by the wayside as I squeeze in 1000+ words of writing each day for 30 days. Join me!