Tag Archives: PrepTober

Time Flies, and I lose half a year

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by in Personal Thoughts, Writing

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I honestly don’t know where the time has gone with a lot of things right now. The year seems to be flying by, and part of what doesn’t help is my 9-5 has gone from easy to 60mph and I’m barely keeping up some days.

I was given responsibility over like 30 people, all of whom have to attend a conference in December, that I will also be attending. So there’s registration and flights, and a room block to get the best price on all our rooms. And it’s been a circus and like rounding cats at the same time.

If you’ve been following my Twitter, you’ll also know this next bit, but if you haven’t been, in June I ended up falling and ended up with a small fracture in my wrist and was in a cast for three weeks. Having my dominant hand in a cast, not fun. And since then I haven’t really been writing too much.

I’m not sure if it’s a block, or a rut or if I’m just really drained after work that’s been keeping the words at bay. All I know is I sit down at the computer to write, and nothing really comes up to put onto paper. I don’t know if part of my problem is I’m putting too much pressure on myself, and on my tying to write and that’s not helping either.

I was thinking of maybe trying to go to bed at better times during the week and get up an hour earlier to try and write before work. I’m not entirely sure if this would help, or work because I’m so not an early bird, but I’m not sure what else to try because right now I’m not getting much in the way of writing done and I know something needs to change.

With it now being October, it also means we’re into PrepTober, the month that precedes National Novel Writing Month. It’s the 31 days (30 now that it’s the 2nd) where we decide on what we’re going to write during November, plot out the characters, create a list of names to choose from if we need to insert a new character, and outline the story that we’ll be slowly writing out to get all those creative juices flowing.

While I’m still trying to get myself out of this rut, what better way to try than with getting everything ready to write, working out plots and characters, and having my list complete. Also, possibly trying to do a few writer prompts during October. Someone on Twitter created the #grimlist2019 for writers to get both in the October mood and in the writing mood. You can find the original tweet here if you’d like a little more information to participate or the prompt list. I’m not sure if I’m going to post the prompts as I fill them in or keep them to myself for the time being. Part of it depends on how they flow.

And, if my talk of PrepTober hasn’t given it away, I am going to try participating in NaNoWriMo this year. I’m hoping to get one or two shorts finished, and maybe even some editing done for one story that’s almost complete but just needs a few more chapters.

And I do plan to update this blog with my progress for both PrepTober and NaNo. I didn’t mean to lapse in posting for so long, but I guess, as they say sometimes, that is life. All I can do is strive to be better and carve out a little more time for writing posts.

Are you participating in Preptober or NaNo? Leave a comment down below and let me know what you’re working on!

Wishing to be a Weather Witch

24 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts, Writing

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There is one week left in October. One week left to plan and plot out all the needs you can anticipate for your novel that will be worked on in November for NaNoWriMo. I’m sorry, did I say you? I meant me. Or We, if you’ll be participating as well.

Are you ready? Am I ready?? Are We Ready???

I’m still working on getting there, personally. This weekend, because you know nothing complicated ever happens just before a big event, after serious contemplating and thinking and planning, I decided to shift my novel again. The more I thought about the story in a Story, the more my brain revolted against it (even though you know, it created it). So for this year, I’m looking to focus on the Fantasy side of my idea and really work with everything in that world. I’ve shelved the original main characters, because right now they’ll end up being the stars of a different story that I want to plan out at a later time.

What really started to flush out my fantasy idea was drawing the map for it. I’ve been told this is a little backwards, having a world but no active plot, but creating the map (I’m still working on it but I’ve got the continents created, islands laid out, and lakes set. Tonight I’m working on the rivers, mountains, and forests. Then come the cities, towns, hamlets, ect,) has lead me to really figure out my characters. Where did they come from? Why are they on this journey? How did they all meet.

I’ve nearly finished flushing out the how they met, honestly. All thanks to working out the lay of the land, even though I don’t have it all done yet, and there may need to be some minor tweaks (like right now I have ‘they traveled to the other continent, which will later use the actual name of said continent), but over all it’s helped to be able to visualize their travels.

I just kind of started with one character, and started writing out his backstory and the other two main characters slowly weaved themselves into his story naturally and fluidly. It does mean I need to work out two more backstories, what happened before they met with the other character, but it’s a start. And with knowing how they came together, I feel more sure about where I’m going with this story which will help me to work out the plot of my story just in time for November.

The planning hasn’t exactly been easy at home either, we’ve gotten a lot of rain the last couple weeks. Lots of rain that has flooded the river close to my house, and subsequently flooded my basement as well. We went to bed one Saturday night, basement fine, and woke up to 7 inches of water. Spent the next day and a half pumping. Everything seemed fine until we got rain again yesterday, and it’s still raining today. It’s not been easy. Working a 9-5 job, and wondering how your house is doing while you’re at work, it’s nerve wrecking. To not know what I’ll come home to. Here’s hoping it stops before I get home though, that it stops before it gets bad and my worry will be for naught. A girl can dream, anyway.

I’m trying to not let the rain and water get in the way of my Prepping though, trying to find a balance for keeping the house okay while still getting everything flushed out and ready. Plus, this Thursday I have a writer’s group meeting so I’m super excited for that too. Wish me luck!

How is your October going? Have any fun Halloween plans? What are you thinking of dressing up like next Tuesday? Leave it in the comments below!