“A deadline is, simply put, optimism in its most kick-ass form. It’s a potent force that, when wielded with respect, will level any obstacle in its path. This is especially true when it comes to creative pursuits.” — Chris Baty
Every year for the past 7 or 8 years I've participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I've won it all but the first year. For those of you, if anybody is actually reading this, that don't know what I'm talking about NaNo comes around every November. The goal is to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. Sounds like a hard thing to do, right? Well, when you break it down it works out to be 1,667 words each day. At times it seems kinda daunting, especially if you get a day or two behind and the words needed per day start adding up, that damn daily word count line on the graph gets away from you, or the "At This Rate You'll Finish On" section is followed by a date in the next year. For the past couple years I've found that getting off to a big lead helps to keep me going for the rest of the month and I've been able to actually finish early!
During the TGIO (thank God it's over) party for NaNo someone threw out the idea that we should do a whole year of NaNo. Now there is no earthly way I could write 600,000 words in one year and still be able to grip a pencil considering that I've got carpel tunnel in both my wrists, and once the actual NaNo can around I doubt I would have any ideas left, so Jules (one of my best friends and our ML for NaNo) suggested we put in easy months where the goal is to read so many books. I love that idea and decided that in addition to reading during those down months I'm also going to work on craft projects. Almost all of the craft projects will be for gifts and the bulk of those will be holiday gifts so I can attempt to get done early. For once in my life. As my family can tell you about the years they had to wait (and yell) for me to come open presents while I frantically tried to complete my projects.
January 1, 2013 will kick off what I hope to be a successful year of writing and crafts...
To prepare for the big year ahead I'm going to take today and tomorrow to work out a schedule for myself. Hopefully having, at the very least, a penciled-in outline for the year I'll set myself up for success. Fingers crossed.
During the TGIO (thank God it's over) party for NaNo someone threw out the idea that we should do a whole year of NaNo. Now there is no earthly way I could write 600,000 words in one year and still be able to grip a pencil considering that I've got carpel tunnel in both my wrists, and once the actual NaNo can around I doubt I would have any ideas left, so Jules (one of my best friends and our ML for NaNo) suggested we put in easy months where the goal is to read so many books. I love that idea and decided that in addition to reading during those down months I'm also going to work on craft projects. Almost all of the craft projects will be for gifts and the bulk of those will be holiday gifts so I can attempt to get done early. For once in my life. As my family can tell you about the years they had to wait (and yell) for me to come open presents while I frantically tried to complete my projects.
January 1, 2013 will kick off what I hope to be a successful year of writing and crafts...
To prepare for the big year ahead I'm going to take today and tomorrow to work out a schedule for myself. Hopefully having, at the very least, a penciled-in outline for the year I'll set myself up for success. Fingers crossed.