NaNoWriMo 2019

I realized that since I hadn't updated this blog in like a year, I hadn't had a chance to talk about NaNoWriMo last November!

So, a brief history: NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month) is held every November. The goal is to write a 50k novel in 30 days. I've been participating since 2003. I have only won once in 2004. I took 2016 off because I was beyond busy with school and two jobs and everything that even thinking of an idea was overwhelming! And 2018 was starting to be a year I thought I might actually win. Then the stupid fire happened. I didn't write for THREE days. I wound up managing to get 30k that year. So I guess that was a win, being I was homeless and all.

So that brings us to 2019, last year. Now if you've followed me in any of my writing circles, you know that I suffer from this awful plague of never finishing ANYTHING! Well, I guess I just needed a "tribe" of other writers to propel me. Because suddenly, in April of last year, I began to *gasp* finish things. So I thought that maybe this year for NaNoWriMo, I MIGHT finish a story!

After toying around with ideas, I settled on this one:

Essentially, the plot was my usual idea: Destroy Brian's life! (I do this a lot in many different ways!) But this time, I wanted each chapter to be a song title. And since DNA was their latest album and I had seen them in concert in August (that pic is MINE from the nosebleed seats!), I figured that the chapters should be titled after their songs. (All but one is.)

So I undertook this idea. I planned. I created a playlist. I wrote the minimum amount of words and more on some days. There were days I totally didn't think I was going to be able to do this. I had those in my "tribe" not understanding that, yes, I was pushing myself extremely hard, but I wanted to! And yet, I persisted. And I actually did two things:

1. Wrote 50k in words by the 28th of November!
2. Finished the story!

This was a huge deal in my mind. I hadn't won NaNoWriMo in 15 years! I had literally dozens of started stories that I had never finished! (Including the one from 2018!) Sadly, most of those were lost in the fire. But SOME survived in the cloud or email. So I've been able to salvage some of my works in progress.

But THIS. This was monumental! I actually FINISHED a story AND won NaNo in the same month!

Wanna read my NaNo winner? It's here!

BuJo Update: Back at It

I've been using a Bullet Journal (BuJo) for a while. I quit using one after the fire for a bit and then have attempted to use one for a while now. I was doing well back in the fall. But then work got crazy in January and I kinda quit using one.

Now that I'm in quarantine, I'm using one again. It's kinda become my all-purpose thing right now. Being I don't do a whole lot right now except work from home and manage the kids' school schedule, I've gone to weeklies. It seems to make life a little easier to just list what I'm doing daily in a smaller box.

I've also attempted a habit tracker again. I'm trying to do stuff every day (or nearly every day) so why not track it! Oh, note on the "Do Something." Brian Littrell (yes, the Backstreet Boy) set a challenge on April first to "Do Something" physical every day. Yeah, obviously his routines are more vigorous than mine because well, I'm a freaking lightweight. But I am trying to do something active every day. I have found I spend way more time in front of my computer now. (Problems that come with working remotely.) So I'm trying to get outside, when the weather is good, and do something, even if it's playing with the kids. So far, so good. Only missed Saturday, but even then, I did go walk around the grocery store and since I don't know that store, it took me a while. Otherwise, I think the other ones are pretty self-explanatory.

The other thing I've been doing in my BuJo, as you saw in my habit tracker, is journaling. Yes, historians are saying, "Write it down! This is history, people!" I decided after week one that I just needed to start writing things down. Things that frustrated me, things that were going well, whatever. It's truly just me getting my thoughts out on the page.

Probably the biggest reason I've gone back to bullet journaling is that it helps me actually do stuff during the day. Otherwise, I think I would end up just binging Netflix and not doing anything at all. So all in all, it's a good thing really.

Blogger Problems

Oh do I have a lot of them it seems!

Problem #1: Time! This is a HUGE problem of mine. I don't usually have a whole lot of time to post or make graphics or anything like that. I've found that if I can do it in small increments though, things go better. I've also found that I can schedule posts on Blogger! YAY! This makes things GREAT for me! I'm able to write posts ahead of time and schedule them to post.

Problem #2: Forgetfulness! Okay, maybe not forgetfulness, but sometimes I just "forget" I have a blog (or 2). But I've found that by getting social with Facebook groups and stuff, I tend to post more! It's like they hold me accountable in some way. Not that they are breathing down my neck "did you post?" or anything but they have challenges (like this #bloggerPJparty one) and things like that to keep me posting!

Problem #3: Content! I'm not out to change the world with my blog posts. Quite the opposite. I'm out to just share things. Maybe they get read, maybe they don't. I'm not really concerned about it. I just want to get stuff out of my brain! And maybe someone else will have the same thoughts as me.

So those are my top 3 Blogger Problems. What are yous?

And the Last WriYe'er Standing Was.....

Not me!

But I made it farther than I EVER have before!

Last year I didn't do it.

In 2012, I made it through 2 rounds.

In 2011, I made i through 3 rounds.

Here are this years results that I actually placed in the top 3:

Week 2

Week 4

Week 5

Week 7

And the finals, Week 8

This year, I took 3rd!!!!! As in, I made it through all 7 rounds and into the finals!!!!! I cannot believe this! Yes, there were weeks I hovered around the bottom. There were weeks I really thought I was going home. But there were even a couple weeks where I won! It was kind of amazing! And I'm even looking at expanding one of my short stories into a novel. It will probably be for November, but I need to plan it out more. I'm very surprised I made it as far as I did. There were a couple of pieces that I wrote that I REALLY liked. A few that I wrote in the middle of the night the night before they were due and some pieces I really didn't care for. So I feel pretty good about this year. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad I got as far as I did. Now I just have to get back into the habit of writing EVERY week and not just every other! Honestly, I looked forward to the prompts because they gave me a focus. Right now I feel like I'm floundering around looking for something to write!

Last WriYe'er Standing

This challenge is like Survivor for WriYe! Every other week, there is a prompt posted. They can be pictures, words, or just about anything really. You have a week to write a short story (< 3,000 words) and submit it. Then the fun starts! Voting! Anyone can vote. So the more votes the stiffer the competition, I imagine. There's a week for voting. By the end of the week, those who have voted have picked their top 3 and last place story. Feedback is a MUST! Then, points are given for how many top 3 stories you got picked. Story with the most votes wins the week. Story with the least number of votes gets axed.

Well, this week, I couldn't get on to view the prompt until Monday as I was out of town and tablet + hotel Wi-Fi does not equal good Internet. Then life ate me until about, oh, Friday. I'd had a little time here and there to get started. Well, on the due date, I realized that there was NO WAY IN THE WORLD I was going to finish the story I had started. Not to mention, the story I had started was trying to be a novel in my mind and wasn't going to be under 3k. I never really reached 1k on it, but what I had set up was going to be L O N G! So I set it aside and wrote something else. This was kind of like an 11th hour story. It by far wasn't my best work, but I'm hoping I don't get kicked out the first week. I haven't read any of the other stories, as the thread was just posted a few hours ago, so I couldn't really say one way or the other. And no, I'm NOT telling you which one was mine! For me, I'm just glad I got it in. I was thinking I sent it to the wrong email or I got the email address slightly wrong. I kept checking my inbox for a "bounce" message that never came. And when I checked the thread my story was there!

So now I have to remember how in the world I did voting the last time I did this. I know I had a rating system and a way to do it that made it easier on me. I don't know. I'll have to see what I come up with when I sit down to vote. Anyway, I'm off to go take the kiddo to her dad, so maybe this afternoon I'll get some time to either write or vote. Writing would be good, as I still need about 1500 words for the 5k Weekend.

Crawling

I have come to realize that a week of Word Crawls SUCKS! Especially for someone who has kids.

So this week for the "I Have a Dream" Challenge, the mods are posting a bunch of Word Crawls. Essentially a Word Crawl is a bunch of tasks that you do in order. Usually there is a theme to the writing of the Crawl itself. I thought I would be able to do some of these Crawls. Boy was I WRONG! Here it is 3 days into it and I'm just about a THIRD done with the FIRST one!

Here are the tasks:

Complete 3 consecutive 5 minute sprints.
Sprint to 100 words.
Double your current word count.
Sprint to the end of your current song (or a 3 minute sprint if no music).
Sprint to the nearest 1000.
Do the 3-Digit Challenge.
Complete a 15 minute sprint.
Sprint to 1000 words.
Finish your scene.

The next ones get even HARDER! We're talking like 60 minute and even a 90 minute sprint! Yeah, I may not finish these this week. As a result, I changed my Dream Challenge goal to finish ONE CRAWL! Yeah, these may work to increase your word count (I have no doubt on that!), but they certainly aren't something to do if you have a life that is more than just work and you don't have a few hours of free time to kill. I seriously feel like I am CRAWLING through this first one. I'm working on doubling my word count now. It's taking some time. Sprinting to the nearest 1000 is going to be another one that kills me! But the 3-Digit Challenge sounds like fun. I hope to do more of those as time goes on. At least I am up over 1,000 words now! Off to go feed the baby and get everyone dressed. Oh and probably start some laundry as I need clothes!

WriYe Reading Challenge 2014

Okay, I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to be able to complete this, but I'll fill in what I can on this list now. 

Horror/Thriller: "Under the Dome" by Stephen King
Mystery:
Mainstream/Literary:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
Romance:
Steampunk:
Young Adult (any additional genre accepted): "Teen Idol" by Meg Cabot
Banned Book: "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger
LGBT:
Non-Fiction (subject is your choice): 

Okay, this list is WAY incomplete! I'm going to work on it.

And as for the Author Alphabet Soup, I think I'll make that page. I think I'll just update that page as I read books.

Book to Read

Okay, Words n Books put the challenge out there to create a list of "To-Read" books on GoodReads. I have my list on there, but here is what I'm REALLY aiming to finish by the end of the year:

1. "The Princess Diaries" series. -- I'm on book 10 and am now working on getting the supplemental books through the library. This series should be done relatively soon.
2. "Shade" trilogy. -- I have book 2 waiting for me at the library.
3. "Star Trek: Terok Nor" trilogy. -- Book 3 is on my eReader. I want to finish it!
4. "Vampire Academy" book 1. -- I just got this book from the library and am curious to see about the series. I may add more from this series, but we'll just have to see.
5. "Left Behind" series. -- I am 2 books away from the end of the series. I still have the "Before They Were Left Behind" trilogy" but I'll worry about that later.

So this is the start of the list. I'm sure I'll be adding more to it later.

Cross posted on One in a Million

March Madness! Or How I have totally lost my mind

WriYe is having a CRAZY challenge. Essentially, you can redo all the challenges from the beginning of the year. Here's the catch: you only have a week and a half to do them all and they can't count double! So, like a good minion, I signed up. Here's my list:

-- 01,085 / 01,000 - Write-A-Thon
-- 00,000 / 02,500 - January 5k Weekend
-- 01,216 / 01,000 - January FMM
-- 00,000 / 05,000 - MLK WriDay
-- 00,000 / 05,000 - Valentine's WriDay
-- 00,000 / 02,500 - February 5k Weekend
-- 00,000 / 05,000 - Leap Day WriDay
-- 00,000 / 05,000 - St. Patty's WriDay

I've already managed to get TWO done. But when you add it all up, that's 27k worth of words! Plus I plan on doing the 5k Weekend THIS weekend as well. I must have lost my mind or something.

Cross-Posted to: krazikrys writes!