I hit the 25% point in my NaNoWriMo today! I also went crazy and edited an extra chapter yesterday night. (Aka: 3AM this morning …) I’m really enjoying the story I’m writing so far. It’s way more intense and deeply personal than I thought it would be. A happy surprise!
I’ve also been successfully infecting even my friends who aren’t doing NaNo to write thousands of words. Mwahahaha! I shall spread my madness everywhere! No one is safe!
Make good art!
Here, have a picture of a bluejay for no reason.
This little dude was giving the the side-eye while I was fetching some more coffee to fuel the headlong plunge through editing chapter seventeen this morning. The good news is: It’s done!
The bad news has nothing to do with writing but I managed to hurt my leg practising my ninjutsu rolls last night. Owie! I have my 8th kyu test coming up this month and I really want to do well. Vertigo makes rolls and flips and such really difficult but I keep trying. Overriding the body’s instinct to lock up solid when I lose my balance is something I’ve been working at. Some days, it works well. Others, it doesn’t. It can be really frustrating. You can know exactly what it is you’re supposed to do, exactly what it is you’re doing wrong, you’re determined to do it correctly … and then the body just does whatever it wants regardless of the commands you send it.
But, I won’t give up. I love the art. My balance has gotten a lot better. My rolls may not be lovely and fluid but I can still deal with being thrown or knocked down without hitting my head or hurting my back or breaking a wrist. That’s definitely something.
Now, time to see if I can squeeze some more out of the muse. Maybe I’ll do some reading to feed it first. Game of Thrones isn’t going to read itself after all!
I found a lovely little blog post I’d like to share with you here. It’s a post by Fiction Factor about word count in fiction writing and the benchmarks for each type of fiction. Take a browse over those numbers.
Now, the reason why I’ve linked this to you, is that I don’t like the idea of NaNoWriMo being a pass or fail, win or lose affair. A lot of people don’t write for NaNo because they know that the month is going to be too crazy for them to make the 50,000 word mark. Folks, I invite you to get that idea right out of your head.
If you don’t make the 50,000 word mark, do not consider yourself a failure. Instead of looking at what you didn’t do, look at what you did accomplish. If you only write, say, 8000 words, congratulate yourself! You wrote a novelette. Got really busy and only managed 2000 words? Well pat yourself on the back; you got out a short story!
Look at these bench marks and celebrate each one. It doesn’t even matter if no one ever sees what you write this month. Practising your craft is never a waste of time. Ever.
Part of being an independent artist, or any manner of successful human being for that matter, is setting reasonable goals. So maybe this month is National Novelette Writing Month for you. So what? Write that novelette! Just don’t fall into the trap of “well I can’t do what everyone else is doing so I might as well not produce anything at all.” Write what you can and be proud of it. Now go make good art. Continue reading “Milestones of Writing”
Just a quick update to let y’all know that I finished editing chapter 12. I had to add in a lot more detail and rework one of the key features of the battle which I think I did handily. We shall see what Alex thinks!
Also, I just finished purchasing the last of my Samhain and Dia de los Muertos decorations … I swear. No more. … really. Last shopping trip. Mhum.
heythisismyjob.com 