Why NaNoWriMo is Making Me More Productive

It's that crazy time of year again, where hundreds of thousands of writers sit down to write 50k words of a novel in a month. Some write more, some write less, but everyone's sitting down to write. Or not write as the case may be.

For me, NaNo goes a bit like this.

I sit down at my desk and pull open my lap top. Hang on, I can't write when my desk is such a mess. So I close the lid of the lap top again and tidy the desk. There, now I can write.

But what about the stuff on the floor? Now that my desk is all nice and tidy, shouldn't I make sure that the rest of the room looks just as nice? It'll only take a few minutes and think how much better I'll be able to write with a nice clean room. So I scurry round and clean up.

Mmm, what's that smell wafting out of the kitchen? I follow my nose out to find one of my sisters baking. "You can help if you like," she said. Soon we're concocting muffins and brewing coffee. There's plenty of time to write later.

Goodness, is that the time? I've spent so long eating muffins and drinking coffee that it's time to make dinner. Oh well, writing will have to wait until after dinner now. This really has been a busy afternoon!

Now, what shall I get done today? Maybe I'll redesign my blog. Or I might teach the cat how to play the piano. Maybe I'll actually get some writing done. Who knows...

Outlining to November

Now that it's October, NaNoWriMo is well and truly on the horizon. And that means that writers around the world are getting their novel outlines ready for the big day. That includes me. Normally I wouldn't be thinking about my novel yet, or preparing anything. I'd be sitting back, letting the planners plan, and waiting for November 1st to roll around so I could start pantsing my way through my novel. But not this time.

No, this time I've decided to have a go at being one of those planners myself. This time I want to see if taking the time to plan before November will leave me with a better, more coherent story at the other end of the month. And so, like every other NaNo planner, I'm working on an outline of my novel, hoping it'll be ready in time.

Of course, I've never actually planned anything before. Always before I've jumped in feet first and made everything up as I went along, which is exciting, and very fun, but not really that good for having a solid plot by the end of things. So I don't actually know a lot about planning at all.

Which is where my new favourite writing book comes into it. I've been reading K.M Weiland's "Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success". I've never much liked the idea of outlining before, but this book has definitely helped me find a style of preparation that I actually like.

With the help of this book, I'm working out my plot by writing out every idea I have in a notebook, and allowing myself to come up with every sort of ridiculous idea, and finding the good ideas among those. I'm even starting to get an idea of my characters by just writing down everything I think about them. With this style of planning, I think I'll definitely have a good idea of my plot before November.

I can't say I'll come out of this knowing every scene, every character, every event, or even every chapter. The pantsing side of me doesn't like the idea of that. But I will hopefully get to November and have a good idea of where my plot is supposed to go before I start. And maybe, just maybe that'll help me have a not quite so completely rubbish first draft.

Are you preparing for NaNoWriMo? Have you read this book? What writing books would you recommend?

Of Blogging Breaks and Surgery

Before surgery

It's hard to think that it's been nearly two weeks since I last wrote a post. My unannounced blogging break was due mainly to the fact that I had wisdom teeth surgery a week and a half ago, and I've spent the time recovering from that.

Having surgery and being in the hospital for the first time ever was exceedingly interesting, and very different to anything I could have imagined before. The hospital gown was frankly comical. It was like wearing a sack, kept closed with ties. And the hospital staff were nice, talking to me the whole way to theatre, explaining the process to me, and generally keeping me very calm.

Coming out of the anaesthetic was more like waking up from a sleep than anything else. In fact, I'd even been dreaming before that. And then I had to spend the next quarter of an hour reminding myself how to swallow, and how to tell the nurses that I was in fact perfectly alright. Though the constant taking of my blood pressure was annoying.

After surgery

And after that, I proudly dressed myself, even down to tying my shoe laces, which felt like such an achievement, and headed to the lounge to dribble custard down myself as I battled with a numb face. And then it was off home  for a week and a half of soft food, and armchair rest. Which included impersonating a pumpkin as my face swelled, wearing an ice helmet to combat the swelling, and talking non stop from the moment I left the hospital.

Now, the stitches are coming out, and I'm back to normal.While I can't say I enjoyed the experience too much, it's certainly been interesting. And I am now very thankful for the power of chewing. How I miss solid food!

Photos thanks to my Mum.

Back to the Bush

Throughout the winter my family and I have been running on out treadmill inside, while outside it's cold, often rainy, and certainly not nice weather to be out running in. And the treadmill has been good. We've enjoyed training on it.

But there came a nice day this week, where the sun was shining and the air, if not exactly warm, was at least not too cold. And we decided to venture out to have our first run in the bush since autumn.

I'd forgotten how it felt to run through the trees, with the sun warming you, and a breeze keeping you just cool enough. I'd forgotten how you breathed in the smells of the bush as you ran. I'd forgotten how distance didn't seem to matter when you were running with a group of sisters. And I'd forgotten how good it felt to be outside and running through the bush.

Running on a treadmill is great for keeping up your fitness during the cold months. It's good for running when it's too wet to go outside. But it still can't compare to running through the beauty of the bush, with your family around you. Somehow, running with other people around you just seems to complete the experience.

It's still not warm enough to do this every day. It's not light enough to resume getting up and running first thing in the morning either. But there the promise of more bush running to come. And I can wait, however impatiently, for the time when we'll be out there every day, running down out secret bush tracks.

The Importance of Being Elvis

When your last name is Elvis you get to expecting interesting things to happen because of it. I doubt many people I meet forget my last name, and it's not like I really have to tell anyone how to spell it. But sometimes the name of Elvis gets my family into some interesting situations.

My Dad is a primary school teacher. Earlier this year his school was putting on a concert. All the classes were involved. And the teachers decided that they were going to join in and do an act themselves. They chose to do a song. An Elvis Presley song. And who better to get to play Elvis than, well, Elvis. My dad, Mr Elvis, was voted in to play the part of Elvis Presley.

And, being my dad, who has a great sense of humour, he laughed and agreed to play the part. He learned the song, much to the surprise of the other teachers, who expected him to only mime. But, as my dad said, what's the point of just miming, when you can actually sing the song.

On the night of the show, Mr Elvis donned his blue rhinestone jumpsuit, fitted on the wig and sideburns, pulled on the oversized sunglasses, and became a school super star as the all singing, all dancing, Elvis Presley.

My mum has written the full story HERE, and, as an added bonus, she's got an audio file of my Dad, Elvis, singing Elvis Presley's Blue Suede Shoes. Please come and share the story of my amazing Dad.

Running and the Art of Perseverance

I have to confess, I haven't run in five weeks, due to injury and general laziness. And that means that the level of fitness I've worked so hard to build up has all but vanished. I struggle to make it past one kilometre. And it's very discouraging to be watching my sister and mum run 5km when I'm struggling so much.

It'd be so easy to give up, to say 'I can't do that.' I could just turn my back on running and forget even trying to build myself up again into a 5km runner. It's very tempting to do that. After all, it's going to be hard work. It's going to hurt. I couldn't go through all that getting fit again.

Well, those are my excuses anyway. So why am I back on the treadmill, persevering with running, puffing and sweating my way past 1km? Why am I bothering to try again? Because I want to run.

The key to perseverance for me seems to be to want to do it, to be willing to push past the hard beginnings to get to the good stuff beyond, whether that means getting on the treadmill every morning and struggling to run further each day, or writing through the difficult beginning parts of a novel. I want to be that 5km runner again. I want to finish that novel, and it's that want, that caring about getting to the end that pushes me on. This is why I persevere.

What make you persevere? Have you got any stories of times when you've persevered, even though it's been hard?

Guest Posts and NaNoWriMo

Since first participating in NaNoWriMo last November, I have fallen in love with the NaNoWriMo events. From Script Frenzy in April (no longer running unfortunately), to Camp NaNoWriMo in June and August, I've been in everything. And I've certainly written plenty of posts about my adventures with these events.

So when I was asked if I'd be a guest poster for Jeff Hargett's August is Awesome theme month, I knew at once what I would write about; my favourite challenge.

Today my post is live on his blog, Strands of Pattern. In this post I'm telling the story of my first ever NaNo event. I'll meet you there.