I can't say, in all honesty, that the past two years have been the most unpleasant in my life, but the experiences therein have included some tough times - the lightest of which was the double burglary of my residence within five days... The f- ahem, annoying gentlemen broke in once as a scouting mission and then ransacked the place the second time.
I will add that there were some saving graces in the experience.
1. They waited for me to go to work. These two incidents both occurred during daytime - the last during soft rain - so they really didn't want to face whoever lived in the house. I was safe.
2.They did not in any way, shape or form harm my animals. The horror stories one hears, and the fact that my animals are like my children, makes this a wonderful thing.
3. I managed to recover financially quite quickly based on the particular timing (got a bonus, got my tax money back, yay me). So yes I lost a LOT, but I did manage to fill up what I had lost initially by what I would not have usually received. One can argue that there was a LOT more that now could have been done with said funds - to which I would agree, considering some of the things coming up this year.
4. I learnt that bravery is most certainly not the absence of fear. There is something truly frightening about walking through the house with a grass hockey stick on your shoulder, searching the house for the cause of a noise you heard... And both amusing and satisfying to know that you not only imagined it, but conducted yourself in a controlled manner rather than running away screaming like a girl. Not that I wasn't terrified out of my mind, but it was a rather unique experience (Hopefully unique. I don't want to deal with that again, as light as it was).
5. The item I own that is of the most monetary value is my bed. They didn't steal that. So I can sleep comfortably still. Yay!
So yes. Miserable two years, but it's okay. I have made it thus far. And I'm here. And I'm writing. Sorta. Not fast enough in the opinion of some. But I am here. And hyper because I'm still awake after midnight. And this has been quite a tangent...
ANYHOO!
This year will be my tenth year participating. Thus far, I have succeeded at my goal five times. On top of the minimum goal I should achieve, I'm hoping to put out a blog post once every two weeks as well. No guarantees, but that's what I'm hoping for. They will not be about nanowrimo (though I might slide a little of that in here) and I won't be counting it as part of the word goal (though I am sure I will be tempted to), but it is something I need to focus on. The blog. Not nano. Oh, also, I don't know what happened to the missing pictures on some of the previous posts. I will try to fix it later. Maybe.
What is NaNoWriMo?
National Novel Writing Month is an (international) initiative to get people to start off writing whatever they please in the shape of a story for the month of November. It's all quantity of words over quality of output.
How does it work?
The original idea was that, on the first of November, you start writing on a brand new story. You write as much as possible with the goal of hitting at least a minimum of 50 000 words by the end of the month. It sounds a massive amount of words, but it isn't actually as much as you would initially think. There are some variations and 'rebellions' to the standard expected task. For example, some people would rather continue a story they're already working on, using November to churn out more material. Some student have used Nanowrimo to charge through writing their dissertations and theses. (Probably feces at the end of it that can be cleaned up into something much better).
Here are some points of clarity:
This is a race, but not a true competition. Your goal is to get 50 000 words and you are certainly going to type as fast as you can. You can interact with people in your own area or around the world and instill a competitive edge to the exercise by 'racing' each other to get the highest word count within a particular time. But, in the end, you are a winner by reaching 50 000. And you get a pat on the head for achieving it.
...Yes, you will have the ability to cheat. There are no safeguards against cheating. You are given a textbox from the beginning of the months in which to type in your word count and you can increase that number as much as you want, should you choose to do so. But really, what is the point? If you want to be an idiot about it, no one will stop you. There are enough 'veterans' participating who would be able to sniff it out, but they can do nothing but express displeasure at you. Most of them will simply ignore you as the insignificant fly you are. This is your race against yourself primarily. If you want to con yourself then... well, that's your own psychological issue.
You do not have to talk to people. If you want to play the lone ranger, you absolutely can. As said before, this is your race.
You do not have to undergo this exercise on your own. NaNoWriMo presents you with an opportunity to meet people. You can do so with the anonymity of a screen name, or your actual name (that's up to you). The people who communicate on the forums come from all walks of life. And marriages HAVE occurred because of meeting people here - I've witnessed two. You also do not have to worry about getting married, I am sure us single wolves have sufficient internet pepper spray to veer it off. Hey, I've managed for ten years. So why not?
It's meant to be fun. This is your opportunity to murder whatever language you so choose by writing a random story that can make no sense. If you want to write about a duck who crossed the road, then grew fur and shifted into a wolf who died, and became an undead human zombie who has an issue with rotting teeth and a hunger for vegans, you go right ahead and write it. No grammar required. No nothing. BS to your heart's content. You do have some serious writing folk, but you can enjoy the buffoonery on behalf of them. If you are the serious writing type, just make sure you're having a blast.
There might be no prize, but damn do you feel like a million bucks. You have achieved something at the end. You have written a story the length of some classic novels such as Animal Farm. You have spent a month allowing yourself to do something creative and in the end you've come up with a product - regardless of what utter shite it is. And let me tell you, it is often such shite that it's not worth printing it on paper and using it for toilet paper. But it's real and you made it happen.
Okay, there might be one or two prizes... sorta. What winning does allow you is to get discount on certain writing software. Which can be rather cool. But the ultimate prize is a pdf that you can scribble your own name on, frame it and hang it on your wall... or stick it to your CV... Nah, I wouldn't recommend the latter...
In the ten, non-consecutive, years that I've been taking part in nanowrimo, I have met some amazing people, and less than amazing people. I've had awesome discussions about interests that I have. Interests that I struggle to find like-minded people for in the city that I live. That sounds very dodgy... I mean like being a geek and playing games and such. Really, all innocent past times. And no, I doth not protest too much. I have also had years in which I didn't participate in the forums at all. Granted, I ended up losing motivation and without a group cheering me on, I didn't finish nano. But maybe you are better at it than I am. It's been a lovely mechanism to connect to people and broaden my horizons - and I'm not a social creature at heart, so that says something.
My enjoyment of nanowrimo exceeds any other major occasion, event or holiday. Given the time of year, it is actually insanity with work (in my country the end of the year, really is the end of the year and all the paperwork and reports that go along with it), but when committed, I find a great deal of enjoyment from this exercise.
Despite my natural ability to talk twak, I don't consider myself a "writer". Or maybe I should say I don't see myself becoming an "author". I don't care about publishing, I don't care about publicity or whatnot. I like messing around with fanfiction and that's always a large journey for me (because writing is actually hard when you're just mucking about), but that's still okay. I am not ambitious. I just like being able to play in my own mental playground and realise that I'm not the only lunatic in the asylum.
I invite you to join. The doors are wide open and the straitjackets can be found by going in by the first door on your right.
+/-1800 words. More than one needs for a daily avereage... Just saying.
1 comment:
You may not be ambitious, but maybe you should be. Your current Nano project is AHMAYZING!
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