Learning From NaNoWriMo

It's been a while.  I've neglected you for a couple weeks now.  I promise it was not intentional.  I just decided to take the craziest ride of my life, and bit off more than I can properly chew.  I reached a critical point, not long ago, where my synapses went into overdrive.  I realized that if I kept working full time, catering to family, and attending school, I would have no time to actually write.  For an aspiring author, this is obviously distressing news.

Not distressing, that term is not strong enough.  I'd probably say it was catastrophic news.  This came after many other issues had decided to make their way to me and plop themselves onto my already full plate.  The only available answer was to quit my job and NOT get another one.  Crazy?  Yes, very.  Necessary in my case?  I think so.  The true question is what happens from here?

As things stand, I'm not finished with my B.A. in Creative Writing.  I wanted to have my degree before I was in this position.  We all know how plans are though; they never go where they are supposed to.  I'm still taking my classes (I actually only have a few semesters left, which will no doubt fly by) and trying to make my way through the possibilities of earning income, which is in some way related to my field of study, rather than throwing away my time at a job which will not build a portfolio.  Somehow, "I can help fix your internet", does not seem to garner points on a writing resume.  Weird.  It has been a long couple of weeks crammed with various duties.  Things are beginning to settle down, so the real struggle begins.  Oxymoron, I know.

I've been doing NaNoWriMo this month, a very valuable exercise in writing insanity, which will hopefully produce something of quality.  In addition to this, I need to edit another manuscript (my first edit!).  It is probably time to drag out all those nifty writing links I've been saving up for the future.  As they say, it is "go time".  I've already learned that this journey is not for the scared, or the faint of heart. It is not for those who dream of a "someday".  NaNoWriMo is teaching me that every moment is THAT moment, every day can be a step towards "someday".  I've always been able to write without worrying about writer's block (this may be due to my ADD-esque writing style), but NaNoWriMo challenges this.  To meet my goal, I need to write a certain amount of words per day.  If I fall behind, I have to write more during the following days to catch up.  The writing lags and it can be depressing watching the spillage of word junk accumulate on the screen.  I can understand the desire to stop at that moment.  To go hide from the manuscript you are writing and which seems to mock you and your dreams.  Don't hide though!  Keep going, press onward! Truly, it is a pain in the butt, yet it works.

Writing is a sport. You heard me...(figuratively speaking).   A sport requires intense training, dedication, perseverance and practice.  Sound familiar?  I thought so.  Writing takes skill, but if you have the determination, you can learn to acquire the skill.  If you want the "trophy", you have to do the work.  No one ever expects to have a perfect sprint, or three-point shot, without first working towards the completion of those goals.  As writers, we cannot expect to write the perfect book, or even the perfect scene at the first draft.  NaNoWriMo is teaching me the value of pressing on, though the work might be substandard, to reach the end goal of completing the first draft.  Once the first draft is done, I'm able to go back and edit.  More practice.  You can always rewrite once you finish, but if you get distracted or depressed about the work, you may never finish.  Remember to allow your writing to suck.  Don't look back, keep going.  Whether you're doing NaNoWriMo or other writing, keep going.  There's obviously times to take a small break, but if you find yourself avoiding your story, you'll probably just have to plunk yourself down and continue to write.  Then make sure to give yourself proper credit, no matter how crappy you feel your writing is, for the dedication and perseverance you exhibited in finishing a manuscript.  That is a HUGE accomplishment, whether you were able to do it in a month or ten years.

It starts with just the dedication to write something each day.  Perhaps writing thoughts in a journal, or creating a poem would be a good start.  If you dream of writing, it is NEVER too late to begin.  Minutes a day.  I wish you all the best luck and will continue to share as much as possible of this crazy journey.  If you've never done NaNoWriMo, or are not sure what it is, check it out!

I want to know about NaNoWriMo!

Writers And Other Sedentariness

This year I decided to do NaNoWriMo.  The decision happened rather unexpectedly. It is something I have known about for a while now, but this is the first year I really wanted to look into it.  I view NaNoWriMo as a valid writing excercise, but beyond that as a way to force myself to really plan out a novel and complete it.  

Strangely enough, things have coordinated in my life to require me to quit my job with nothing but faith in the hope that I'll be successful (with God's blessings).  It's very scary and I may end up working at a retail place, which as long as I can make enough to live is fine.  I'm rather tired of being literally tethered to a cubicle.  There is something so disheartening and inhumane about that.  What's even more odd is that humans do it willingly.  If we chained animals to a post for eight to ten hours a day, animal rights activists would be working hard to get special breaks and longer tethers and any number of things.  Humans?  Eh, whatever.  So what if the risk of heart attack increases for men by 64% with a sedentary job?  No one gets fired up about that. 

You can check about the article about the potential health effects of sedentary jobs here: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135575490/sitting-all-day-worse-for-you-than-you-might-think

The article by Patti Neighmond at NPR.org interprets the effects of stress, solely on men.  While men and women are different, women also may have increased risks as well.  Percentages may be different, but it is obvious that our current mode of office-related work is a health hazard.  You sometime used to hear people saying, "a little work won't kill you".  With these numbers we have to consider that unless there is a drastic change in how the workplace is managed, there could be significant health issues and a general decline in overall health.  Work takes up increasing amounts of daily life which does not leave much time and/or energy for trying to exercise.  

Why does this matter?

Well, as I mentioned above I recently quit my job.  I'll be pursuing writing in addition to some other sedentary work.  Writers, who sometimes sit for hours furiously typing or scrawling, also need to be mindful of these statistics.  This is a timely reminder for me to take breaks from writing and other work to get a bit of exercise.  I know that I feel more alert and tend to get more ideas when I'm walking around, so I'm happy to try this out.  I can definitely see how it would be so easy to just sit for hours, especially when I get engrossed in the material I'm writing.  Last night I wrote until around 4am before I realized I should go to bed.  I'm probably going to have to set an alarm and force myself to jog in place or do jumping jacks or squats or something.  If I can squeeze in ten minutes every hour or something like that I'll be getting more exercise than normal.  I'll have to see how that works.  

Happy days everyone!  More crazy ruminations later!

Multitasking in Writing

Not sure if multitasking is the greatest thing for a writer to do, it is like self-inflicted ADD.

Random Thoughts from The Ninjawriter

There has been a lot going on lately so I apologize for the lack of posts.  I recently purchased a new camera and will be testing it out and looking for good shots to post on my blog.  It is so interesting what can end up being inspirational.  Hopefully, I will get some great shots. At the very least I'm hoping to update my profile a little bit.

No sage advice today, I am just keeping my eyes open for bits of inspiration that fire up my brain cells. It is one of those quiet, reflective days or maybe I just need to drink more of my cherry Amp. That is probably more the case.  Sorry that this is so unexciting.  I am really excited about my camera.  It will be the first really nice camera I have had.  Last night when I was trying it out, I discovered that it automatically takes pictures when it "sees" that the subject is smiling.  That is pretty much full of awesome in my book! Okay, I'm going to go and read the camera manual.

Happy Ninjawriting Everyone!

Back to Writing, Randomness and The Chronicles of Jane Windall

~GASP~

Oh no! I have left you poor souls in the lurch for a number of days without random writing or ranting craziness! I apologize and sincerely hope no one has been ill-effected by this turn of events. I had my computer in for repair. Nothing serious, no need to panic. The protective plastic coating on the bottom was coming off. and I must say that there is a certain feeling of incompleteness when one’s laptop is missing. I found it more difficult to write on my desktop. Terrible excuse, I know.

My laptop is back though, and in the meantime I was working on an additional installment of a free online story which I have decided to call The Chronicles of Jane Windall. I posted a little bit about what I want to do in a previous blog post: http://camikahayes.blogspot.com/2012/07/writing-decisions.html

The idea is to use our wonderful internet as a means to help improve my writing on a consistent basis, while also offering anyone who has a few moments to waste, the opportunity to read free content.  This stems from a time when periodicals included short stories, or a long story broken into intervals.  Readers were able to follow a story a little at a time until its conclusion and I thought it sad that this trend fell by the wayside.  I know there are fanfiction sites, and other writing sites but I don’t feel that it is quite the same. The first section of The Chronicles of Jane Windall is not great, was just a writing exercise for like 15 mins and unedited.  Bad idea.  Second section is hopefully better.  If you want you can check it out here:

http://crampedwriting.wordpress.com/storystuff/

Also, I had a slight epiphany yesterday having to do with writer’s grief. I figured out I was grieving for a manuscript which turned out quite different from what I originally had envisioned.  I literally could not jump into the editing process and finally realized I had needed time to grieve for what I knew would never be.  The story still has potential, but my characters sent it in a completely different (albeit, better) direction. Aside from my epiphany though, I will list my other accomplishments of the week:

1)    Sliced the tip of my finger on an aluminum foil cutting edge (that serrated thingy)

2)    Wore my coffee to work

3)    Barely made it home when my car died in the middle of a turn

4)    Finished my 2^nd installment in The Chronicles of Jane Windall (sorry, redundant but I’m proud of finishing another section)

5)    Hit myself in the eye with a clothes hanger (don’t ask)

6)    Had an epiphany about writer’s grief (also redundant but I have to put a couple good things on here)

7)    Got my laptop repaired

8)    Got an unexpected day off, and not in a “don’t come back again” way either, which was very cool

9)    Wrecked my challenge by forgetting to freewrite yesterday (The Chronicles of Jane Windall could count for that though, right?)

As you can see, it has been an absolutely riveting week! Still not done with the books I am reading, so I guess it will be a while before I’ll be able to do a review.  In the meantime if you want to read about my epiphany regarding my writer’s grief you can read my post:

http://crampedwriting.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/grief-chronicles-of-jane-windall-and-other-such-coolness/

< pic of my manuscript in its box 

Happy Ninjawriting!