Sunday 1 January 2012

What's happened since NaNo...

To be honest, I have been avoiding my blog.
And not just my blog, but a lot of blogs.


The reason is that I didn't complete NaNoWriMo (this was the first year I was attempting it) and have been pretty upset about it. I was doing really well and made it to 25 000 words. I was waking up early and writing every morning before work, because that was when I wrote best. Then I had some conferences I had to go to for work and lost 5 days of morning writing time. I lost two weekends because I had weddings, family functions and other occasions. And I panicked because I had research to do and no time to do it, and didn't want to write made-up crap.
Another thing I struggled with along the way was that I have never written anything of that length before, and after reading over it now, I realise there is so much room to expand on what I've written.


Coming on to blogger and seeing everyone who finished NaNo just made me really upset and disappointed with myself. So I avoided all blogs and NaNo reminders for a while. It took a lot of comforting from my friends to cheer me up about it.


Despite failing NaNo - failing is such a harsh word... lets say not-completing instead - I am really happy with the words I've done so far and am definitely going to continue with the story this year. And I will definitely attempt NaNo again next year. 


Anyway, not that I've got that off my chest, lets see what I read in November and December:


Sarah Dessen - Just Listen
Dana Reinhardt - The things a brother knows
Lisa Schroeder - Far from you
Suzanna Collins - The Hunger Games
Nina LaCour - Hold Still
Lee Child - Killing Floor
Carol Lynch Williams - The Chosen One
Laini Taylor - Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Laura Harrington - Alice Bliss
Stephanie Perkins - Lola and the boy next door. 


Now, on to 2012...

2 comments:

  1. Glad you've decided to return! 25,000 words is still awesome. It's 25k more than most people will write in their lifetime. Happy New Years. :)

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  2. I didn't even bother signing up for NaNo because I knew that I couldn't do it and that it would drive me crazy trying. But hey, 25,000 is a big step forward! That sounds like a victory to me.

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