On the Bookshelf

Please be merciful.

Today I started my new full-time job, which I think started off well. I'll be spending the next six (6) months working in an university library so it's all very different, new, exciting, and occasionally confusing and exhausting. When I got home today I promptly collapsed in a heap on the couch and immersed myself in Battle for Middle-earth II for several hours.

As a result I have not written a word for NaNoWriMo and I have for you no witty post or insightful review planned for NaBloPoMo. November is always my favourite month for creativity but it just isn't going to happen today. In fact...

Dear November,

Would you mind maybe going away and coming back later?

Kindest, yet somewhat frazzled, regards,

Terra

It is the thirtieth of November meaning that it is also the final day of National Novel Writing Month and National Blog Posting Month.

Okay, so I never did get even remotely close to the NaNoWriMo goal of fifty thousand words but at least I have finally started getting this story down and hopefully will continue on with it past November. At this stage I do already plan to be back for NaNoWriMo in 2010 as well.

As for NaBloPoMo, count those posts - this one makes thirty. I have managed one post for each day this month so I am counting this one as a success. However, I do not think that I will be returning to NaBloPoMo next year. At the end of the day, I prefer to blog because I have something to say rather than scrounging for a topic because I feel like I have to make at least a post a day. Not to mention that I blog all the time but I do not get to do nearly as much creative writing as I would like to. I look forward to November as a time when I can get down those stories that I otherwise do not get to invest the time in to writing. I also find a non-fiction/imformative format easier to write than a creative one, however much as I enjoy it, so I love NaNoWriMo for the quantity over quality philosophy which lets me feel free to just go for it and get in some good writing practice.

Which brings me to my End of November Resolution. 'They' say not to make New Year Resolutions because people make them half-heartedly and don't follow through. Instead, so 'They' say, make your resolution and start on it straight away. Why wait for the new year? So, as of now, I want to get in more creative writing time. While November will still be marked on my calender for writing madness, I want to make sure I am finding time for creativity throughout the year. I feel like I spend too much time, while on the bus trip to work, writing stories in my head but never spending the time or developing the skill to actually put them down in words. This years NaNo started off as a short story that had been in my head for over a year, after all.

Don't be surprised if I do not post any reviews this week. I can feel the November hang over coming on.

Terra

So, the original intent had been to have a review up and ready for today. Instead I have found myself caught up with cleaning out excess junk. It's turned into a pretty big job. I have dared to venture into The Vortex, otherwise known as the space under my bed. Holy carp! The amount of stuff that fits under there!

Hopefully all this hard yakka will pay off and a clean space will equal a good writing space to try and sprint through the last few days of November. I am not going to hit 50K for NaNoWriMo but at least I have posted something everyday for NaBloPoMo!


We have also been getting a lot of spiders around lately so better not to provide them with too much clutter to hide in. It's a great thing living in a country with so many poisonous things. =D

Not to mention that I am terrified of cockroaches so I definitely do not want to be attracting them to my personal space. De-clutter away!

My apologies, by the way, to the arachnophobes.

Terra

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

Okay, just a quickie post and then I am going to bed.

It is approximately 12:35am of November 1st which means that both National Novel Writing Month and National Blog Posting Month have begun!

I have just churned out the first 500 words of my nano, oddly enough starting with what I had originally planned to be a chapter two scene, not chapter one. I am so tired right now so I am sure that when I look back at it I will think that it is a truly poorly written start so I will have to be sure not to look at it until November is done with or else my inner editor may get the better of me. I will continue with the rest of today's quota in the morning after some much needed sleep.

Nobody knocked on our door tonight for lollies (we didn't really think any would) so I have plenty of left over chocolate to keep me fueled to write. Yum yum.

This post also kicks off my contribution to National Blog Posting Month!

To November - the month of insanity!

Terra

If you are just the right kind of insane, this time next week you will have turned your back on your normal social life and spare time activities in favour of the pursuit of writing a novel in thirty days.

For those who have never heard of Nanowrimo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month and it takes place throughout November. The goal is to write fifty thousand words by midnight on November 30th. Bind and gag your inner editor and lock him in a closet. Remove the backspace key from your keyboard. The aim is not quality but quantity. Come December you can edit until your heart is content but November is the time to write without abandon.

I first discovered Nanowrimo in 2005. At that stage in the month it was too late for me to really get in to it so I waited a year to try my first Nanowrimo attempt. To be perfectly honest, I failed miserably in both 2006 and 2007. In 2008 I decided to skip Nano and focus on wrapping up my TAFE course with good marks instead. But this year I plan to attempt it yet again. I have attempted to increase my chances of success by doing some planning and research ahead of time. I've managed to plan out a [sarcasm]whopping[/sarcasm] three chapters so far and have somehow found myself reading up on the Yucatan Asteroid and the Gaia Hypothesis. Hopefully I'll make a bit more planning progress before November comes.

The Nano website is also home to a wonderful community who will provide you writing challenges and dares, word wars, support, and of course some very important procrastination. This year expect pep talks from authors such as Tamora Pierce (!!!), Kristin Cashore, and Peter Carey to grace you email inbox.

Do not be fooled by the word "national" either. Nanowrimo is very much an international event but I guess Nanowrimo sounds catchier than Inanowrimo. Take a look and see how many Nano'ers are active in your region. You may find kick off events and write-ins taking place somewhere nearby that you can attend.

This year I am working with a new writing program called StoryBox. It's still being updated and tweaked but I absolutely recommend that you try it out. It's great for planning your novel as well. It's free to download the complete program. Paying for the program is your choice. Take a look at the StoryBox website here.

Regardless of whether or not you achieve fifty thousand words or one hundred, Nanowrimo is a great event and I think that everyone should try it at least once in their lifetime.

You can learn more about National Novel Writing Month and sign up to join the madness at nanowrimo.org. My username there is JellieBeanie if anyone should wish to say hi.

Terra