TGIO!

Across the world, writers - both professional and amateur alike - are celebrating the end of another NaNoWriMo. It's been a helluva month for everyone involved as always and as a first time Municipal Liaison, it's been particularly stressful for me! While I'm sure that MLs across the world will say that too,  I wanted to share some of my triumphs and hardships on here as a means of reflecting on my MLness so I can improve for next year.

1. I was way under prepared. 

I really had no idea what I was getting myself into at the time. My region hadn't had an ML for a few years for one reason or another and the Wrimos had gotten used to that, I think. Yes there were a lot of first timers but at the same time, they had about as much clue as to what they were doing as I did! They did do exceptionally well though, and they were really understanding when I was in a flap.

To combat this, I'll do the following things:

Next year, I'll make sure I've got all my resources sorted well before NaNo actually starts. I'll not rely on the shoddy library printer either - I've been meaning to buy my own so I'll be using that.

I'll book rooms ahead of time in pubs, cafés, bars etc so that we always have somewhere to go. I tried that this year but my group size was just too unreliable.

2. I got stressed and hopeless when my Wrimos didn't show up for meet-ups.

This triggered my depression and I really struggled for a couple of weeks during November. I pretty much just stopped writing because I just didn't see why it mattered. Of course when I actually finished, after clawing it back for a few days, it was amazing. Loads of my Wrimos finished ahead of time so that was lovely too.

I realise that next year, I'll just have to take the numbers as they come. I know now not to expect a huge turn out or even a reliable one. I know that people will say by text that they'll do something or they'll help out but then, a lot of the time, they actually don't when it comes down to it. It's a shame but that's just people I guess!

3. I didn't look after myself enough.

I spent that much time worrying and staying up until ungodly hours that I didn't get enough sleep at all. And, on top of that, because I was staying up so late, I kept forgetting to take my medication. On top of the new hormones from getting the coil out and the implant in, by the end of the month, I was a paranoid, stressed, emotional wreck. I was even hallucinating yesterday and the day before!

Next year, I'll endeavour to (at the very least) take my medication on time. I'll try to keep my bed time as regular as possible too.

4. I could have scheduled more Wrimo time.

I only sent one email a week and I wasn't really that omnipresent on the forums either. To be honest though, my Wrimos felt that the OLL sent out too many emails so in a way I was  glad that I wasn't part of that problem.

I did however, post my mobile number, email and twitter addresses so that my Wrimos could get in touch at any time. If they didn't utilise that then, frankly, that isn't my fault.

5. My college work took a back seat, to my detriment.

Although I didn't fail my module, by any stretch, I didn't do as well as I could have either. I could have planned my photoshoot in advance and researched more, I could have done the shoot on time and not handed everything in late.

All of these things I could have avoided and gotten a better grade. Never mind though, I suppose, it's passed now so there's nothing I can do but do better at the next module.

All in all, I still feel that it was a success. I crossed that 50,000 word finish line with a few hours to spare and a whole bunch of my Wrimos were successful too. My meet-ups were attended, even if numbers were low, and people had fun and made friends too. Obviously, I want to do it all again next year and, hopefully, I'll have less work on at college then too.

NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo

Now apparently, according to 20SB (twenty-something bloggers) NaBloPoMo is a thing. It stands for (I believe) National Blog Posting Month. Now I've heard that it's a thing that runs all year round, rather than just for one month a year, like NaNoWriMo.

When I was on WordPress, I posted every day for a year the first six months (ish) of 2011. I'm aiming to do that again but for just a month. Then maybe two months. Then maybe a year. We'll just see how it goes.
I left the WordPress blog for a few reasons. I wanted a fresh start. I wanted a bit of privacy (ironic, I know). I wanted to get rid of a follower troll. I hated the new layout. The list goes on...

I spent a few minutes going back over my WordPress blog when I wrote this post. While it was only two years ago, it feels like a lifetime. I am nothing like who I was in so many ways. I mean, I haven't changed a lot but, especially since starting the meds and getting therapy, I'm just different somehow. Sometimes it's fairly obvious but at others it's sort of intangible.
I guess it's a good thing. Sometimes I feel like I haven't got much of an identity, much of a personality, but I know that that's not really true.

What's a shame though, is everything that I've lost. The friends I've moved on from or the friends who've moved on from me. It's sad but I suppose it's just the way life is. People grow apart. Especially when they're living in different cities, doing different things, hanging out with different people. There's always more that can be done to stop it happening. I could call more, text more, message more. But so could they. I imagine they've been busy. But so have I. It's no one's fault, not really. But it's still sad.
I imagine, with a few of these cases, that everything could be fine if we could just hangout a few times. Unfortunately, that's unlikely to be a thing in the near future. That old lack of money and time to go down the country thing is rearing its head again.
It's time to stop living in the past. It's no good for anyone.

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." - J. K. Rowling.

Well that escalated quickly!
What I meant to post about was my progress with NaNoWriMo but I'm finding that my blogging topics are getting a little hard to control. Much as my novel is getting a little hard to control too...
Thus far, I've managed to keep up with most of the word count. I've fallen behind a little in the last couple of days however. My mind just hasn't been in it. I don't know why really. It's just difficult to focus. I guess it's the only thing I've really had to focus on since my gran died and I'm just struggling with it.
To be honest I'm just struggling generally. Life is fucking hard. It should come with a manual...
In lieu of a manual, I'm going to stick with this blog. And writing. A bit of escapism always helps.

Holy Crap!

Evening folks!

I've just had a wonderful revelation as I loaded up my blogger homepage this evening. As of 7.30pm today, I've had 1,005 views on this blog! Now granted that I've had this site nearly a year now, that doesn't really seem like all that many.
However, nearly a quarter of those views have been in the last 30 days.
30 days!

Now that seems like a canny spike to me. It may well be because I've had a link to my site in a obvious place (not Facebook, which I am contemplating, however).
But anyway, I just wanted to say thank you.
Thank you for making this blog a pleasure to write. For showing that people are at least vaguely interested in what I have to say. I'd love some comments that were more substantial than my 'posted to Google+' ones that happen automatically to every blog I post when I post it but not to worry! These things will come in time, I don't doubt.

I'm going to get back to NaNoWriMo now, I've still got a couple of hundred words to write before midnight to keep up with my word total. This is the first time I've managed to pretty much keep up the entire way through the month - I know it's only the 12th but still. That's a big achievement for me!

Thanks again, for being awesome! I'll do a proper post once I've hit 20k in NaNo which should be in a couple of hours.

Until then, au revoir!

NaNoWriMo and Being An ML

As many of you will know, it's NaNoWriMo in a few days time. For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month - a phenomenon that started in America in the late 90s, by a guy called Chris Baty and a few of his friends, and has spread across the world like wildfire since then.
I discovered NaNoWriMo in early 2010 because of a girl in my english language class. I didn't end up keeping in touch with Charlotte and I regret that deeply but at the same time, she's led me to meet so many other people that I'm almost glad I didn't know anyone else doing it when I started. Because I didn't know anyone, I got to know people on the forums and started going to the in-person meet-ups in cafes and things last year.
It was also the year I found out that we didn't have a Municipal Liaison.
Now MLs aren't essential. They're handy for organising things and getting people together as well as creating goodies and incentives for the Wrimos to reward their hard work but largely their job can be done by the Wrimos themselves. They don't get paid and the only real reward is a tonne of extra work, occasional angry rants from writers and a load of fretting over whether everything is going to turn out fine with their Wrimos and  the 50,000 words they're churning out on top of their real lives.

Now up until last year, I'd never 'won' NaNo. And by won I mean I'd never hit the 50k word count in the 30 days of November. Last year, however, I decided it was time. Come hell or high water I was going to hit that ambitious target and thus earn a purple banner under my avatar and the ability to legitimately buy a winner's t-shirt in the beginning of December.
And I did it. Just.
I succeeded and over shot the 50k by 506 words. Happy just isn't what I would use to describe that feeling. When I hit 50,506 on the evening of November 30th, it felt curiously like the world had ended and started all at the same time. I'd finished that one thing that I'd been striving to do. It was all over. I had achieved my goal and had no where to go and nothing to do afterwards. But at the same time there were so many new opportunities. I still needed to write the actual ending - I may have hit my targets and deadlines but I was still a few chapters short of the final scenes. I needed to edit - oh boy did I need to edit that baby. With plot holes that could engulf small nations, there was some serious explaining and patching up to do. I finished my baby and started editing in May - I was just too devastated by the fact that NaNo was over that I couldn't pick it back up. That and the time flew by so quickly that I barely even realised that we were in 2013! I finished writing and editing in June - I didn't edit much, it's still my raw, raw NaNo baby, but I put away the document and haven't opened it again since. I will, for sure, finish editing and get a copy printed - for myself if nothing else - but for now, it's resting. We're getting some separation so that I can look over it objectively.
In the summer the ML applications opened.

One of my major driving forces for finishing NaNo last year was so that I could apply to be an ML. Even if my application was rejected, I still wanted to try. I knew that I could bring a better, more communal, more involving NaNo to Newcastle and Durham and I wanted to give it a shot. I filled in the application, sent it off and waited. And waited. And waited.
It went on and on until finally, when I was out shopping, I got an email saying that my application had been successful and to look out for other important emails in the weeks to follow.
So far I've had a massive number of really, really helpful emails as well as buckets of encouragement. Over the last few days, I've been writing packs and booklets for my region of Wrimos by hand and on the PC to put together little (hopefully) helpful writing kits to kickstart word counts and battle the dreaded writers block. I tied up the first half of the NaNo packs with string and a sticker and handed them out today - I think they were gratefully received by most. I think they're pretty cool to be honest and  there's the promise of foamy dinosaur stickers when people hit word count targets and slay the procrastination dragon and banish the writer's block bats.
Our haunts are mostly going to be the Settle Down Cafe and Bar Loco this year, with the possibility of Clayton Street Caffe Nero on Saturday afternoons. The food at both the Settle Down and Bar Loco is amazing and who can fault a good hot caffeinated beverage to get the creative juices flowing?