Tag: NaNoWriMo

This and that

An update on how I’m doing with my challenges.

I’ve got a few things going on now. I’m still thinking about and planning for Iceland. I spoke to the photography teacher today about taking photos in RAW, but that’s something she also doesn’t know too much about. She’s going to find out for me. I’ve remembered I’ve got the Bradt guide to the Northern Lights – I got it free a while ago – so I’ve been looking for it, but can’t find it anywhere. I’ll have to keep looking.

I’ve also started writing seriously for NaNoWriMo. Now it’s nearly the end of the month I doubt I’ll get my 50,000 words done. It’s not fiction either. But I’m doing what I wanted and getting a lot of words input to my computer. I only started yesterday and I have over 5,000 words already. I had worked out that I would need to do 2,000 a words a day for 25 days. I only allowed 25 days, as I knew there would be days when I wouldn’t get round to doing any and so I built these word-free days into my timetable. To finish in time now, I would need to write more than 5,000 words a day, so I know that realistically that’s not going to happen.

I’ve also just got round to ringing the local college to book my next leg-waxing appointment. The receptionist (who is also a student and told me this was her first day on reception) seemed to be struggling to find any appointments on her computer so she took my number and rang me back. The earliest she can do is the 13th December. I’ve booked it, but I know it means I won’t get my waxing challenge finished this year. The first time I went, it was just for a lower leg-wax. This time it’s for the full leg. My final appointment will also include my underarms and bikini line. After that I’ll tick the challenge off and probably not bother any more as it seems much easier just to shave. So when I go in December I’ll make the next appointment whilst I’m there. Probably for late January.

Not doing much

Where am I up to with my challenges?

I’m feeling like I’m not doing much towards my list at the moment. NaNoWriMo started at the beginning of the month and I’ve only written a couple of hundred words. I needed to do about 2,000 words a day and so I should be on 20,000 by now. I’ve just felt far too knackered when I’ve got home in the evening. I was also going to get another leg waxing appointment made and go for the whole leg experience this time. But I never got round to making the phone call, got fed up with hairy legs and shaved them. So now I’ll have to wait for them to re-grow. That’s the bit that puts me off waxing – the inbetween times when I have to have a couple of weeks of stubble and hair before it’s long enough to be successfully ripped off. Last time I only left it a week and that wasn’t really long enough, so this time I’d left it two weeks. But now I’m back to the start again. I’ve also not read any more books from the ‘Big Read’ as I’m still reading Bill Bryson’s At Home which I started to read in Norfolk.

At least I’ve got Iceland booked and so have a chance of seeing the Northern Lights and I’ve been able to get out walking again.

This and That

Preparing for the Norfolk Coast Path and lots of other things.

Three more getups and then I’m off to Norfolk for half term. I’m looking forward to walking the Norfolk Coast Path and I’m intrigued to find out what sort of weather I’ll get. Every weekend has been so different recently and now I keep hearing talk of snow. Bring it on! – I’ll enjoy the walk whatever the weather.

I’ve been googling and searching Amazon looking for books set in Norfolk that I can read whilst I’m there, but haven’t had any luck finding anything. Then this evening my eyes alighted on my copy of Bill Bryson’s ‘At Home’. A bell started to ring in the deep recesses of my mind – didn’t he settle in Norfolk when he moved back to the UK? A quick check, and yes, the book is about his house in Norfolk. So that’s the one I’ll be taking with me. It’s very chunky and so I doubt I’ll get much of it read, but at least I can start it. My habit of reading books set in, or about, the places I visit isn’t helping me get through the BBC Big Read challenge, but I’ll get round to that at some point.

To prepare for the walk I’ve been very good about going to the gym. I hadn’t been for ages as life just kind of took over and ate up all my time. But this past few weeks I’ve been going regularly and feeling good for it. I’m surprised that my fitness level is still pretty good, but maybe all the walking I did in the summer has paid off there.

I had been hoping to go back to the local college this week for a bit more waxing, but decided I’d rather spend my available evenings in the gym instead. So stage two of that challenge will have to wait until after half term.

By the time half term is over it will be almost November and time for me to start NaNoWriMo. I still haven’t thought about what I’m going to write, but that’s ok. I’m just going to use the month to let my thoughts flow free and see what happens. I’m going to concentrate on quantity not quality. If I’m able to write 50,000 words in a month then at least I’ll know that I do have the stamina and patience to think seriously about writing in the future. Then I’ll think about quality.

I finished my first aid course last week. This is only a basic course, but has given me confidence to tackle the more full-on course that I’ll need to do for walking group leader’s qualification. I’ll think about doing this in the spring. That’ll give me plenty of time to read up on first aid and consolidate what I’ve learnt.

So all in all, things are ticking along quite nicely.

NaNoWriMo

Can I write 50,000 words in a month?

I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo. So from the 1st November, for a month, I will be typing furiously trying to write 50,000 words for a novel I have no idea about yet. I’m consciously trying to not think about it till then as I just want to write whatever comes into my head and not worry about quality or if it even makes sense.

This may sound like a crazy way of doing things and the usual advice is to have a plan, write a draft, check the plan, blah, blah, blah. But I’ve always found when I start with plans I over think and struggle to actually get any words down. When I was studying, once I’d finished researching an essay I’d just sit and write for an hour. I found that not only was this good exam practice, it was the only thing that worked to actually get me started. And once I had an hour’s worth of words, I’d read over it and then make my plan and do the next draft and all the rest of the blah, blah, blah stuff.

NaNoWriMo actually encourages my way of writing. (Though I think I’m maybe supposed to have an idea of what I’m going to write about). It’s a month of quantity and not quality. So I’m just going to go for it and see what happens. It’ll be a test of my patience and dedication to actually sit down each night and write. If I can’t do this and write when I don’t have to care about the quality then I’m really going to struggle to write anything in the future where quality is important.

NaNoWriMo

Thinking about NaNoWriMo

I’m not disciplined enough to write a book. But I would like to have a go. If I ever do write one I don’t think it will be fiction as I’m not imaginative enough. It’ll probably be more like a fictionalised account based on a true story. Because I think this will be very hard for me to achieve I’ve included ‘writing a book’ as a separate challenge to actually being a writer on my 60 things to do before I’m 60 list. If I write a book but never write anything else, I’ll only tick off the book task. If I write and get published regularly, but don’t write a book, then I’ll only tick off the writer challenge.

I heard of NaNoWriMo recently on another blog. I had no idea what it was about but a bit of googling soon sorted that out. It stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place each November. It started as an American thing, hence the ‘national’, but is now global.

Basically you register, and then spend November trying to write a 50,000 word novel. By the end of the month you have to upload your novel to their site and their special counting machines do a word count. If you’ve achieved the magical 50,000 you get to copy and paste an online certificate. So no big prizes, but then it is free. And it gets people writing. The best reward of course is that by the end of the month you have 50,000 more words than you had at the start and so have something to play around with and try to turn into an actual novel.

When I was a student and had to write essays I always struggled with the traditional ‘make a plan first’ approach. I agree, this is a very sensible and practical approach and I can’t fault it. But I couldn’t do it. I would write my plan and then stare at the page not knowing how to turn it into an essay. So I came up with my own technique. After doing some research around the subject area, so I at least had a bit of a clue about what I was doing, I would sit down and time myself for one hour. In that hour I had to write my essay. This killed two birds with one stone. It was great exam practice and it meant I had something on paper that I could then edit and turn into an acceptable essay. After reading it through I’d have a good idea of what I could actually do with the essay, what changes needed to be made, what needed to be added (or left out), and so on. Then I’d make my plan and write my essay in the conventional way.

With NaNoWriMo I’ll have to use this technique. There’ll be no time for edits, drafts, research, plans, or any of the other stuff that you’re supposed to do first. Sounds perfect for me!

So depending on my workload, and how my college courses are going, I’ll be giving this go. Hopefully this November, but if not, then the one after.