A bad habit I'm going to break: stop being anal about things I can't change
A new skill I'd like to learn: alter clothing
A person I hope to be more like: Christ
A good deed I'm going to do: when I think of something nice about someone, I'm going to say that thing to them--immediately!
A place I'd like to visit: Oregon
A book I'd like to read: the entire Sherlock Holmes collection
A letter I'm going to write: query letters to publishers!
A new food I'd like to try: anything Indian or spicy
I'm going to do better at: keeping my goals
I know this image says 2013, but what will you do in 2014 to make it a real spectacular year?
word count: 50,285
page count: 85
Oh my gosh, that's a true statement all right! Yup, I managed to succeed in
this year's NaNoWriMo challenge. I apologize for those of you who were
wondering where the heck I disappeared off to once November drew to a close. As
some of you know, it's already a bit stressful trying to write a novel's
first draft during the busiest month
of the college semester. Sooo, once November ended, I picked up the pace to
keep up with my studies.
But here's the story:
Over the entire month of November, I ended each day questioning myself,
"Why are you doing this, anyway? The book won't be done, anyway, plus you
have so many other things that deserve your attention. What's the point?"
I'm glad I didn't give in, even though there were days where the words didn't
come and I wasn't focused on the plot or characters at all. But on the last day
of November, I found myself sliding across the finishing line! For those
reasonably skeptical folks out there, you're probably like, "So how do they
even know that you wrote all those words anyway?" Well, they have a word
counter thing and to validate your manuscript, you copy & paste your work
and their word count is apparently different from the word count used in
Microsoft Word, because they thought
I was 100 words or so behind! That didn't stop me, so on the last day, I wrote
almost 300 extra words so that I could satisfy the word count. And it felt
great! My brainchild and I survived!
So what's next you ask? Well, even though I won the challenge, I probably
won't use any of the "winnings"—that being all the various resources
where I can self-publish my novel in e-book format. I don't want to give out a
first draft of ANYTHING I write, and the novel itself still isn't done, believe
it or not. I have this great relationship between two characters that spans
over a few years and I want to make it seem real rather than a "So we just
met, wanna get together?" type of thing.
It's not the end of the world; I won in many ways, because I have a new novel
which I didn't have a month ago, and I pretty much proved to myself that any
excuses I make up about not having enough time to read or write for pleasure
are just bogus. So I hope to be able to still right every day—maybe not the
same intensity—but I'll get somewhere with this project and my other project
that has taken me years to get about 300 pages fleshed out.
If anything, take my advice when I say: if you have a goal or a hobby, if
it's that important to you, than it deserves your time and efforts. I always
think "Oh, I'll have time to write over the summer or during the
holidays" but I don't get as much done as I hoped I would and I always
think that I'm too busy or stressed to write during school. Everyone has their
own way of prioritizing their lives and how they use their precious time, but
if you have a goal, it's important enough. That means not always listening to
others who think that you should spend more time with studies or work or
something. It's not like I didn't go to classes or finish my school work for
the sake of this novel—ugh, my parents would kill me—but I made sure I had two
solid hours each day to write and I found ways to get everything done. It just
happens; you get smarter about your planning and prioritizing and everything
falls into place.
So if you're a writer and time doesn't seem to be on your side—try to make
it work, anyway. You really get better at it every day, and taking time to
think about your project and what you want to say is really beneficial.
So write on, people, write on.
Well hey!
Most of you that are reading this probably want a quick & easy reason as
to why you want to read—and keep reading—this blog. It’s quite simple:
I’m trying to complete the NaNoWriMo challenge among other challenges that I
want to accomplish as a writer & editor.
What’s NaNoWriMo you ask? You can check out http://www.nanowrimo.org, but it’s a
challenge to celebrate National Novel Writing Month. SO, the challenge is to
write 50,000 or a novel (whichever comes first) during the month of November.
I want to post a bunch of cool stuff that I do to make this goal. AND, I
feel like if the entire Internet comes together to hold me accountable for this
goal, then I can’t back out or give up so easily can I!
In posts ahead, I’m going to divulge my ideas for the book I’m
writing—because it isn’t just a word count; it’s an idea that took root in my
brain like, two years ago and I’m taking the challenge so I can see the darn
thing on paper for once. Yeah, that’s the prize—I get my own paperback copy!
ONLY every author’s DREAM!
Does anyone have writing goals they want to accomplish? Have you ever wanted
to write a book, and if so, what is it about? I hope to pass along ideas that I’ve
used in keeping the dreams alive and having fun with writing. It’s a beast; but
you can pet it like a kitten.
