On the Bookshelf

So, we have reached the half-way point of what is always marked as the craziest month on my calendar. I have to be perfectly honest and say that things are not going as well as I would like. My novel for NaNoWriMo is very behind on word count. I am not going to say what my word count is. In fact, I don't like saying anything about my nano at all. In a mix of superstition and low self-esteem I like to keep this novel between me and my writing program of choice lest anyone point out to me how absolutely tragic this writing attempt is. It has been a long time since I have done creative writing and it shows! But NaNoWriMo is about quantity, not quality so as long as I don't think too hard about the fact that it is absolute dribble I can keep going. My inner editor is really pissed off at me right now but no one should expect a first draft to be much good, anyway. Right?

As for NaBloPoMo, well, it has often been a struggle but I have managed to make a post every day so far. Very often, like tonight for example, I am writing these posts after eleven in the evening and trying to get it all typed out before the clock hits twelve. I have already realised that after November has ended I will most likely not be posting every single day. I do not really like forcing myself to sit and write out a blog entry when I have nothing to say. I do not like how it is impacting on the quality of my posts. For example, never before November have I borrowed summaries from the back covers and amazon.com instead of writing my own. I fully intend to replace these with something of my own wording but November so far has been a whirlwind of writing, reading, reviewing, and not to mention real life work commitments that sometimes writing those summaries calls upon precious minutes that I just do not have to spare. Some evenings I have also pushed myself to blog when I have been falling asleep at the laptop or have had major bad sinus headaches. Not to mention that being a book blog I cannot read fast enough to review a different book each day. I find myself falling back on popular culture addiction to fill the gaps because I am short of the time to do in-depth research on bookish topics. I even have a friend who, on occasion, jokingly calls me "TV Girl". Also, to be perfectly honest, some days I just plain don't want to blog or work on a fifty thousand word novel. Right now, what I really want to do is play the Sims 3. Really, truely. Good, mindless stuff.

So, why continue through all this? Because, while some days have been really crappy, others have also been really awesome. This is my first November as a blogger and posting every day has really given me some interesting insight in to my own attitude towards blogging, why I do this, and what direction I take this blog. Attempting to write my own novel provides a good dose of appreciation of authors and a good reminder as to why I love books so much to blog about them in the first place. Finally, there is the pleasure and self-satisfaction in persevering through to the end and knowing that I did my best given the circumstances and did not throw in the towel.

Terra