Hooked on Books 24 hour Readathon

I casually, participated in the Hooked on Books 24 hour readathon this past Saturday, November 28, 2015. I say I casually participated because we had other things to get done and caused some interference with reading.

It also didn't help that I admittedly got a late start to the day. We got to bed late and it didn't help that our 'monster puppy' came and woke me up after maybe 4 hours of sleep to go outside. I'd say he's still having trouble adjusting to the time change, but it's only the morning alarm that keeps going off early.

We had planned on raking leaves, but things never really dried up. Even yesterday when we did finally rake the leaves, we were unable to fill the bags any further than half way because the leaves were so wet. Wet leaves are heavier than you might think.

I also fell asleep for a nap...that wasn't really a nap in the end. I slept for around 3 hours. Yes I know this doesn't constitute as a normal nap, but it does go to show how tired I was. Especially since I could have slept longer, but once again the 'monster puppy' came looking for attention. (I should mention 'monster puppy' is our dog AJ, and he's actually 10 and a half years old, but acts like a puppy so one of his nicknames is 'monster puppy'.)

All in all, I think I did well enough. Certainly better than I thought I would do. I didn't finish any books, but I only worked on one book and that book was Queen of Shadows. I read roughly 150 pages. I don't remember what page I started on exactly, so I'm not sure of exactly how many pages I read.

Overall, this was not my greatest readathon, but the day didn't go exactly as planned, and I didn't give myself much time for reading.

Giving Thanks!

I'm thankful for many things. I'm thankful for books, for taking me places I never would have thought of going, and for giving that sometimes needed escape from reality for a while. I'm thankful for the job I have that allows me to pay my bills, and put food on the table. I'm thankful for my family and friends who are always there when I need them, and are there to cause problems when I'm bored. (No I don't seriously believe they cause problems on purpose.) I'm thankful for my two dogs who remind me to play everyday. I'm thankful for the men and women, both near and afar who work to protect their cities, states, and this country.

NaNoWriMo Update Week 3

Well, some may say there is no way I could win NaNoWriMo at this point. I've only managed an average of a little over 700 words per day, and now need to write an average of over 3,000 words in order to reach the 50,000 mark.

Do I think I can write over 3,000 words in a single day? Yes. Do I think it will actually happen? No. Why not? Unfortunately that would be due to the responsibilities of my day job, and family. However, the weekends will hopefully help some, and having the additional Thanksgiving and Black Friday off to write, may help me make up some ground.

Today we got some holiday shopping done - in fact we are probably 90% done. SCORE! That is one less thing on my mind, distracting me from writing.

Currently I am sitting at a total word count of 15,301. This is the most I have ever written before. It may not be looking good for me making it to 50,000, but I'm still sitting pretty with myself happy I've made it this far.

I still am hoping to hit that sweet 50,000 word mark so I'm going to excuse myself now, and try to go put some words into my novel now before my brain turns off for the day.

NaNoWriMo Update Week 1

Why is my dog covering her face? Well, that's because week one of NaNoWriMo hasn't exactly been smooth. I had a rough start, not really knowing what my story was going to be about. I at least did figure out before going in that I don't really do outlines.

The hardest part about accepting myself as a pantser - writing without an outline or much planning - was I was expecting to write in a linear fashion. Here's the beginning, here's the middle, here's the end. Instead what I'm slowing accepting and allowing to happen is I will jump between scenes going on in my story. I'm not done with the beginning, I still don't know how my characters meet, but I'm already writing the middle and what I think may be one of the ending scenes.

Once I accepted how I wanted to write and not how I thought I should write, the words started coming more freely. Now I'm just dealing with that inner evil voice saying that I can't do it or that the story is no good. But then I look over at the Picachu doll I have sitting on my desk and think "Picachu, Thunderbolt!" This brings a little of my logical side forward, and I start to remember, of course no one will want to read this, it's just a rough draft. When I polish it up, it will be a shining gem. Right now, it's a diamond in the rough.

I still haven't put in any writing time on my story yet today - I have that planned for later this evening when my fiance will be at work and I'll have the house to just myself and one of our dogs. (Our oldest is still staying at the Vet, but we may be able to bring her home for at least a few days soon. She's the one in the photo to be honest.) I'm looking forward to catching up in word count, by the end of today, to be back on pace I should have 11,666 words...I'm only a little over 4,000 now so I don't think I'm going to fully catch up today, but I also have Monday off from work.

How is your NaNoWriMo experience going? Please let me know, I'm curious to find out. Or if you have any tips, again, whatever you have please share. This is my first year participating in NaNoWriMo and I'm sure there are many others out there. Thanks for reading!

October Wrap Up and November Goals

October wasn't quite as busy as September, but there was still more going on than I was expecting from work. There doesn't appear to be an end in sight either so November will be quite interesting; but before I get too far ahead of myself, let's talk October goals and how I did.

1. Read 6 or more books - COMPLETE! I managed to read 7 books during October. While I failed to finish the Throne of Glass series, I only have Queen of Shadows left.
2. Post on this blog at least once a week. PASS. I managed to do this for 3 of the 4 weeks in October. So while not complete, I'm giving this a passing grade.
3. Post on YouTube at least once a week. COMPLETE! It was hard, I'll admit, but I managed to record and edit to get a video posted at least once each week.
4. Post on Twitter 2-3 times daily. PASS. I missed less than 10 days in the month, but that still isn't daily. Hopefully I won't get too busy with NaNoWriMo to try this again.
5. Create a Facebook page. COMPLETE! This was done before I originally posted my October goals.
6. Post on Facebook at least once daily. PASS. I missed less than 5 days after creating the page, but that is still not posting daily. I'll try again in November.
7. Complete a story outline. TRASHED. So, I think I've learned that I don't do outlines. Whenever I sat down to outline the story forming in my head it felt forced, and I wasn't really feeling where the outline was going. It felt like an assignment I'd turn in and receive a C on rather than the A I know it can be. Long story made short, I'm going into NaNoWriMo with just a rough idea of what I'm writing. I think I'm more of a sculpture, the blank page is my slab of marble, and I'll let it show me what it wants kind of deal. As I go along, I may create notes or outlines of characters to keep me organized.

Overall, October was very successful, and I'm looking forward to an even better November.

1. Read at least 4 books. These will probably be audiobooks listened to at work since I will be home writing for NaNoWriMo most of the rest of the time.
2. A blog post at least once weekly. Still trying to plan these out better so I can start writing and have them ready. This will be extra important to do during NaNoWriMo.
3. Post on YouTube at least once a week. I think I've decided to try to post on Wednesdays, so that will help since I have a deadline. Will I keep this deadline as Wednesdays into the future? Don't know yet.
4. Post on Twitter 2-3 times daily. This may not be that hard as I will probably be sharing my joy at writing so many words in a day, or sharing my struggle to find time.
5. Post on Facebook at least once daily. I didn't miss that many days last month, but there is still room for improvement.
6. Write 1,667 words a day. This is probably the most important. 1,667 is the number of words you need to write daily (on average) to win NaNoWriMo. Think I can do it? I'm not to sure of myself with this one, but I don't want to be thinking that it's okay to not make this, otherwise I may not seriously try. So, here we go!

Here's to you and good luck on reaching your goals for this month. I'll let you know next month how I did with mine. And good luck to all participating in NaNoWriMo!

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