The 12 Things in my Life that Reading/Writing Gave to me

Tis the season for cold winter weather and holiday cheer. I'm feeling particularly in the holiday spirit tonight because snow decided to make an appearance. Yea! I might be in the minority but that makes me happy. So I call for CHRISTMAS THEMED BLOG POSTS! Yes!

So I would like to talk about the 12 things in my life that reading and writing gave to me, minus the partridge in a pear tree:

12 thousand new friends
I have made so many new friends just through the shared love of writing. Whether you're in real life or here in the Internet life I appreciate you guys so much for inspiring me and keeping my creative fire burning.

11 hundred lost pencils
I promise, it's like every time I turn around I can't find a pencil. Even if I was just using it then it would be gone in two seconds. I'll blame it on a tiny pencil thief.

10 hurting fingers
From typing to writing and back to typing these fingers keep moving and they can get a little tired. I've mentioned that I write by hand before. That wore my hand out this past month especially.

9 ways to procrastinate (at least)
I can find any reason to drop what I'm doing and read a book. And when I start reading I can spend forever in the pages no matter what has to be done. Is it wrong that I find that fantastic?

8 half empty journals
Probably more than that really. I like finding journals from when I was a kid and seeing what it was that I thought was so important back then. They were never full though, always had a bunch of empty pages sitting at the back.

7 days of 'vacation' a week
Have you ever heard someone say something about escaping into a book? How you can go anywhere when you have something to read? That's true. I lose track of time when I'm in a good book and even when I'm writing. I'm not thinking about anything that's going on in real life, just what's in my own made up world.

6 dollars of library fines
Unfortunately that's not a grand total. That's more like a bi-monthly thing. I told you I have problems with procrastination...

5 GOLD PLOT BUNNIES!!
If you do NaNoWriMo then you know what I'm talking about. OK, so I don't know if they're really gold and I don't believe there are only 5. When I get those creative juices flowing it's like plots populate my brain like bunnies reproducing. It's fantastic and horrible all at the same time. How am I suppose to write all these ideas at once!?

4 favorite snack foods
Chips, hot chocolate, tea, and candy. Anything hand held. Enough said.

3 hurting body parts
Most recently it has become my wrist. I may have carpal tunnel. Yea... Then when I'm staying up late reading or writing I usually get a headache and that's followed by a stomach ache. No fun.

2 sore eyes
Reading for a long amount of time can be really bad on my eyes and usually leads to one of the three things before. Not to mention looking at a computer screen for just as long when I'm typing something up.

And a binder full of short stories
The binder I have full of my stories from years ago till recently is one of the things that I love the most. It not only shows just how much work I've put into what is now going to be my career but a reminder of how I have so much fun with it. Most of the stories that I have in there is from before I ever thought of writing as a career. I see those and I remember why I do what I do.

What's a few of your twelve things that writing has given you?

Welcome December!

Yes, it is December the first which means that both November and NaNoWriMo have come to an end. How did I do? *makes drum roll noises* I didn't quite make it. :/ 38333 words was my stopping point, and you know what? I don't think I'm as disappointed as I thought I was going to be.

I pushed hard that last day. It wasn't until someone suggested that I start typing that afternoon that the words really started pouring in. I never thought that I was that fast at typing. I have always been a hand writer and always will be, but somehow when I was typing the words just came out all that much faster. I managed to get just over 14k words in just that one day.

I don't like that I didn't make it all the way, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy with the epic number of words that I pulled off. I didn't quit, I kept writing till the very last second and got way closer to the finish line than I thought I would. I'm proud of myself. If you didn't finish this year, then I'm still proud of you too because you tried or at least got started. Congratulations to the ones that did win! And to those who didn't join us this month I do hope you'll be able to do so next year.

Anyways, thank you guys so much for putting up with my sporadic posts. I know I haven't been posting like I should because November has been such a crazy month, but we will now return to the regular schedule this month. I'll see you all next Saturday! :)

Week number....?

Number 3? It's the 18th so I'm suppose to be at 30k so I'm going to say yes. This is disorienting. I hope you'll forgive me for messing up my regular posting schedule. It's been pretty hectic around here. Everything will be normal when December comes around.

Any who... 30k. That's where I'm suppose to be. Where am I actually at? Just broke 15k an hour ago. This is going to be a long month. Actually, it won't be and that's the problem. It will only make me insane... Even more so than usual.

But it's OK because I think I've figured things out. Today is another of my personal NANO MARATHON DAYS! Last time I tried that I did a ten minute sprint (seeing how many words I can write in that time limit) ever 30 mins. It got me the daily word requirement which is good but I needed more if I'm going to catch up. So I was reminded by someone on the forums about something that Mr. Chris Baty himself said in his book No Plot? No Problem!

He suggested that you take a day where you have time 2 hours of spare time at least three times during the day. Get up early, eat, then write three times in 30 minutes blocks separated by 10 minute breaks. (So 30 mins writing/10 mins break /30 mins/10 mins/30 mins)

After that you can go do whatever you want. Then come back after lunch and do it again and the same after dinner. If it goes well you should get about 6k that day. Awesome, right? I write by hand so I think I'll be doing good to get 4k.

I figure it like this.* At the end of my first round I got 1087 words. If I get that the next two times I'll have 3261. If I get that for the 7 days of my Thanksgiving Break I'll only have 3000 a day to still be able to win.
*This should not be confused with me liking math.

Ugh... This is starting to look improbable. Not impossible, just improbable. But I'm not giving up! And neither should you. Let's keep going! I better get back to work.

Behind after week one.

And so begins week two of NaNoWriMo. Just a really quick update from where I am. You may notice that the title doesn't seem as excited as Day 1 did. That's because it's been a very tiring weekend for NaNo.

I started off fine. I was on track every day and I thought I was doing pretty good, but Friday night I didn't reach my goal before midnight. You see, me and my sister have this bet going on that I will owe her a dollar for every day that I'm behind on my word count. (And just a side note in case she reads this, from where I'm at now that bet seems highly unfair. We will have to rewrite the rules of this thing.) That was when the motivation stopped driving me from that end. I had stacked up all these days that I was doing good and then it stopped. Don't get me wrong, 50000 words is still my main motivation and goal. I'm going to carry on but maybe not so hardcore.

It was a bitter sweet moment losing that four day streak of awesomeness. The next day my allergies caught up to me and I didn't feel like writing a thing. So you know what? I didn't. And it's OK. I told myself that I had 5 hardcore days of awesome so I deserve a day of rest. Sunday was a write-in so I went and wrote 2000 words that day taking me over 10,000 and only a day behind!

Where am I at now? Let's not talk of such things... OK, so I'm at 10,255. Not bad and not great if you like to be on schedule. But who needs a schedule anyways.

Hope you all are doing well on yours. Onward toward 50k! After a piece of 10k celebration pumpkin pie. :)

Day 1!

Whew! I'm wore out.

Surprised to see me? It's Monday you say? Well, I neglected to mention that I will be trying to post here every so often during November to let you know how I'm doing and to see how you're doing! Surprise! And now I'm about to pass out.

Yesterday was Halloween of course so I went trick or treating with some relatives and some little ones. I got home at a pretty good time actually. I had enough time to get comfy with my notebook and a little coffee as I waited for the minutes to pass to midnight with a pencil in my hand. As soon as it hit I started writing. I think I got a few hundred as a head start but now I'm proud to say that I'm ahead! 1774 words on day one. Complete awesomeness for me anyway. I'd say I'm off to a good start.

Anyways, how are you doing?! My NaNo friends, are you on schedule, ahead, behind? How'd you spend your last free day? Non-NaNo friends, how is what you're working on?

Off to sleep while I can now. Keep those words coming!

NANOWRIMO!!

That’s right, it’s that time again. November 1st is coming. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about let me introduce you to National Novel Writing Month. (www.nanonwrimo.org)

About twelve years ago Chris Baty and a few friends thought it would be fun to see if they could write a novel in a month. That is the day NaNoWriMo was born. National Novel Writing Month is a challenge where you try to write 50,000 words in the month of November. It is NOT a competition. You’re not going against anyone and no one’s going to judge your writing when you’re done. It’s just you and that empty page… or Word document... or typewriter paper.

50,000 words in 30 days. That’s 1667 words a day. That may sound like a lot but let me tell you that it’s not impossible. Last year was my first time participating and I never wrote anything that long. I never thought I could. But I won. It was down to the last hours but I did it. I edited and printed that book out later and I have never been happier to be holding that much paper in my life. I had so much fun doing this.

My friends thought I was crazy, family was cheering me on, and everyone on facebook was confused by all the numbers when I would post my word count. I also discovered an entire group on the site from my city that gets together regularly throughout the month to write. I never knew many people that wrote, people who I could talk to and they know exactly what’s going on because they’re going through it too. I was so happy to find a group of like minded people. I just went to a Kick Off information meeting today and it was great seeing old friends and new faces.

I got so much from doing this last year! Inspiration, motivation, and a manuscript that I never thought I’d have. This month I’ll be all about quantity and not quality. Worrying about making a perfect first draft is what stops people from writing sometimes and NaNoWriMo takes that worry away. If you have ever thought about writing a book, check out their website, sign up for NaNoWriMo and give it a try.

Any NaNoers here already? Are you ready? Are you excited?! I know I am. Well, I’m excited anyways. :)

Come on down! You’re our next contestant on the Price is Write!

(Before I start, I want to say that I’m so sorry for being late on posting this! I went out of town and had the best weekend taking pictures of and with a couple awesome bands that I totally ran out of time.)

I became a fan of reality shows recently. There’s a few of them that I try to remember to watch online when they post them (because my dad doesn’t really like them so I can’t watch them on tv). What I noticed during my video surfing is that there is a game show for everyone. Almost. I’ve seen shows for artists, gamers, chefs, designers, and singers, but where is the one for authors?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there is one. So that got me thinking, ‘Hey! What’s up with that?!’ Then I thought about it some more and realized that, as insulting as it might sound, writing isn’t that fun to watch. Seriously, I’ve written in public and no one stopped to look at me. I’ve written with at least ten other people around me doing the same and still no one stayed to take pictures. Well, there was one person with a typewriter that I found really cool but that’s beside the point. So I picked my brain a little more and thought about what could make writing interesting to watch and here are some challenges I came up with so far.

Poetry Jam – Contestants must write a poem and perform it in an ‘open mic night’ type of setting.

Children’s Book – Contestants will write a kid’s book and work with an artist to do the illustrations. Kids from different schools will vote on what book they like best and would like to keep in their classroom.

Internet presence – Build the biggest fan base that you can on facebook, twitter, or whatever.

Book trailer – Create a super exciting trailer for any previous or future project.

Book release party – I think this would be the official end of the show event where the winner is named every season. I don’t know about everyone else, but one of the things I think of when I’m daydreaming about the day that my first novel has a date to come to stores is the big ole party I’ll have just before midnight.

These are just a few ideas. Of course we’ll have to switch it up every season so we’ll need more ideas to work with but I’d say this is a good start. If anyone knows someone in the television business (or has a bit more ambition than I do) please feel free to take this idea and run with it. All I ask is that you notify that it’s in the works and invite me to the season finales as a VIP. But we’re still missing a name. How about The Release Date? Authors Unleashed? I don’t know. That’s all I’ve got. How about you? Have any name or competition ideas? Well, while you guys are thinking about that I’ll be working on my acceptance speech for the ‘Greatest Game Show Idea’ award. Don’t worry, you’re all definitely included.