Archive | November 2015

November 2015 Mid-Point Check-In

This post is not nearly as impressive as I had hoped it would be.

I did alright the first week of November. I took time 3/7 days to write in some way. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but considering I’ve been lucky to clock 3 days out of a full month lately… it’s a big improvement.

Last week just wasn’t a good week. I put in precisely 45 minutes worth of work on a single day for the whole week. And that day was yesterday.

I’ve been battling not feeling well (’tis the season for me to often be on the edge of a flare) and facing a combination of exhaustion and lack of motivation, tinged with a bit of depression. When I come home from work I don’t even want to put in the effort to watch a television show, let alone hold a pen.

I have excuses that are both legitimate and lazy. The point of this month (and hopefully the next few months to come) is to find a way to move past the lazy excuses and work around the legitimate ones.

I’m rededicating myself to this venture starting today. A day that started with a series of events that left me more than just “not in the mood”. I’m tired, overwhelmed, and yes, still fighting that bit of depression that has been trying to creep in. And that, my friends, is a tried-and-true recipe for accomplishing nothing at all.

But with the help of a friend who is NaNoing properly… I’m back on the horse and feeling better about the day. This afternoon, we have spent several 15- and 30-minute sprints during which she works on her NaNoWriMo project, and I work on blogging, writing, or other things on my creative to-do list. In the downtime between those sprints I’ve darted about the house and done a few chores. It has been a surprisingly productive day when structured in this manner. 

My progress is as follows:

4/10 blog posts
1/5 poems
0/2 submissions

Let’s see what I can manage by month’s end…

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Using the Energy of NaNoWriMo to Achieve Writing Goals

I first joined NaNoWriMo in 2010. I won that year. I participated again in 2011 and 2012 though I did not win again. NaNoWriMo is how I met the girls that comprise my writing group, The Rabid Rainbow Ferret Society. NaNoWriMo is also, in a way, how I discovered I am a poet more than a novelist.

nanowrimo2015-design-by-eric-nyffeler

November 1st is upon us and the writing madness has descended once again. Only I no longer participate in the 50,000 word dash. But just because I don’t participate “properly” doesn’t mean I don’t cheer my friends on as loud as I can. And just because I don’t participate “properly” doesn’t mean I don’t participate at all. Continue reading