What was I thinking...

Actually, I was thinking that I've always wanted to do this and this is the first year in goodness knows how long I'm not working full time.

 

So in November I will be...

• finishing Lucy's gloves
• making Denise's crochet hook roll and my knitting needle holder
• continuing The Artist's Way
• freelancing - there's a job sitting on the table waiting for me right now
• finishing the commissioned quilt (90% quilted, needs to be bound) and making a couple of spares
• making stock for, and launching my website and market stall (I say that so glibly!)
• knitting that lace scarf for my mum's birthday
• considering knitting socks for my husband's birthday but kind of hoping that sanity prevails on that one

and writing a 50,000 word novel while also going about normal life.  So expect a lot of blogging about shredded nerves, ripped rows, stiff fingers and a Jupiter sized sense of achievement if I achieve even the half of it. There are many ways of thinking about how to go about writing 50k words in thirty days - and without the benefit of the Thanksgiving holiday, which of course applies to most of the US-based Nanoers.  Some participants snowflake their novels, others research historical periods or rely on the forums at Nano to provide help.  It turns out that my method is much like last year's - I have some random Post-its and the vaguest of concepts, the twist at the end and some vague ideas of historical period.  I have also given up the idea of getting this published - some might say that this a bit defeatist before starting but actually it's quite liberating.  For one, I know how difficult it is to get published and writing solely to get published is a highway to failure.  And it also makes it harder to follow one of Anne Lamott's best pieces of advice - write a shitty first draft.  My only goal is to finish, even if it's 50k of utter rubbish.  I will use any method to do so, which will include random time travel for the characters, monologues, characters reciting their shopping lists, and subplots about anything from fireworks to Pocahontas to EU directives on appropriate shapes for bananas.  Don't worry, I won't be asking anyone to read it!

At knitting group this morning I had a rather lovely phone call - it turns out that when I was at Origin,  I filled in a form - perhaps a questionnaire - and I've won a pair of tickets for the next major Craft Council exhibition, Collect in February.  Hurray!

It's noticably colder here today.  Or perhaps it's just because we haven't had the heating on at all yet.  Not that we can as the bodgy job that the plumber did on the new radiators upstairs in the bedroom came unstuck on Saturday in a DIY nightmare.  I suppose we should just be grateful that we hadn't decorated downstairs yet, and just live with the big stain that now resides on the sitting room ceiling (well, that's what we will be doing). So I'm sitting here like a little grandmother with a rug over my knees.  Oh well, I'm doing my bit for energy saving week. 

PS  can anyone tell me how I save the Nano participant icon on to my server so I can put it in my sidebar???

Comments

[Denise]

I am getting psyched about NaNoWriMobut really wondering if I'll be able to do it...sure I might give it a lash, nothing ventured nothing gained eh. I like the snowflake idea - where do you find all these things> Is that part of The Artists Way?

[Flibbertygibbet]

go on, go on, go on, go on, go on...(ah will ya have another cup of tea father)

Sorry folks, me and Denise go back far too far... I saw something about the snowflake method on the Nano forums and googled it. Go on, do it again so we can buddies...

[Denise]

Yes, Ms Flib and I were roomies back in college, many miles, seas and oceans from where we sit today...still hear from Una/Robbie/Paul ??? :)
Have signed up again for NaNo - dcrre is my username - you MissMouse again?