Can I Write 50,000 Words in November? | Prepping for NaNoWriMo as a “Pantser”

Hello Friends!

It’s that time of year once again where people all around the world try to write 50,000 words in one month, AKA NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)!

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo twice before. The first time I was successful and managed about 60,000 words, but the second time I gave up at around 20,000 when I fell out of love with the story that I was writing. However, something about this third attempt has me a little more anxious than usual. Not because of my schedule or from any concerns about fitting the writing into my day, but because of just how long it has been since I have sustained any writing routine. I haven’t written regularly for about 3 years, so the challenge of 50,000 words is a significant one!

However, I am in desperate need of a way back in to my writing routine. Goals are a source of motivation and inspiration for me, and I am hoping that this target will be a way of propelling me forward throughout the month.

If you are interested in what I will be writing, you can add me as a buddy on the NaNoWriMo website.

If you want to know a little bit more about how I’ll be tackling this challenge, check out my video below where I build my writing desk, bake some writing snacks, and talk about my project plans!

Write With Me | How To: Blackout Poetry

Blackout poetry is one of my favourite ways to experiment with words. It forces me to string together words that seem, at first, awkwardly placed, and form them into a sentence or phrase that I would not have originally thought up.

So what is Blackout Poetry?

A type of poetry that can be created by taking written pieces of text from another part (e.g. a book or newspaper) in order to create your own poem.

What does Blackout Poetry look like?

Here are some examples from Pinterest…

Blackout poetry can look like anything from blacking out most of a page to leave just a few words to pop out, to creating a piece of artwork around your chosen words.

Personally for me, I prefer to black out the entire page and leave the selected words to do the talking.

Why do Blackout Poetry?

1. It serves a great writing prompt or warm up
2. It can challenge you to find new ways to describe or say things, using words in ways that you would not normally in your own writing
3. It can make you read a book that you have read before in a new and unique way. I often find that I pick out new things about a character or theme

What do I need for Blackout Poetry?

This depends on the style you are going for, but some basics are:

1. A book/magazine/newspaper etc. that you don’t mind defacing (I use cheap copies from charity shops)
2. A marker pen
3. A pencil

Want to try this style of poetry?

Why not watch my video below and join me in creating a poem from someone else’s words (in this case, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby).

WHAT IS INSTA-POETRY?

What is ‘insta-poetry’? It’s more than simply posting a poem on Instagram. There’s a certain power in sharing any form of art online, where it can be accessed by anyone, shared by anyone, and commented on by anyone. The Instagram scroll also means that a few seconds is often all that your post can expect to pull from someone.

I’ve been able to ask my questions about Insta-poetry to some poets currently sharing their work on Instagram. In this post, they share what Insta-poetry means to them, the importance of online community, and the Instagram-poetry style.

HELLO TWENTY EIGHTEEN | CHALLENGES AND BLOGGING PLANS

It takes me a week to properly think about my New Year’s resolutions, or challenges (I don’t do resolutions – they’re too resolute and solid and therefore impossible!).  It takes me a few days to feel the year out, I think. The first week of the new year hasn’t been anything particularly spectacular or different. Other than a step-up in my dissertation research, and more exams and study, the first half of my 2018 looks like it’s going to be much like 2017 in it’s day-to-day-ness. (And then we don’t think about the after-graduation half). When I make goals before the new year has even begun, I run the risk of creating a list of goals that don’t fit into my year. ‘Write a blog post every week’ doesn’t fit into my year. I’ve trialled writing a little bit of my novel in a journal every day so far this year. I wanted to write a couple of pages a day. ‘A couple of pages’ doesn’t fit into my day, every day. A few lines, however, does.

So these are the goals I have settled on. The ones that feel like they can be carried along with me through the day-to-day of my 2018:

☆ Write every day – I plan to write something each day towards my novel, in a little notebook. Be that one sentence, or one piece of dialogue, a description, or a character’s thought. This is more manageable some days than opening up my laptop and following a chronological outline. So far, I’ve managed to write at least something each day all week. One day that was a few pages, another day it was three sentences. I’m hoping that this will keep me in my characters’ heads and their stories all year, even if I don’t get the chance to finish a typed-up novel.

☆ Read a broader range of genres – I don’t have specifics for this. I just want to give anything and everything a try, rather than my usual go-to’s

☆ Post on my blog at least twice a month – Twice a month doesn’t sound a lot, but posting even once a month has become a challenge for me over the last few months. I posted a lot less on here over November/December due to some intense deadlines (final year problems!). So I’m making a plan to post at least twice on here each month this year. And in the months where I’m not suffocated by essays, hopefully that will be much more!

☆ Combat feeling guilty for relaxing – By this, I mean that, rather than working 9am-11pm (that’s seriously what I was doing Monday-Saturday for the last few weeks of last term), I’m going to stop after dinner and read for an hour, or write for fun for a few minutes, or even just make myself a hot chocolate and listen to music. And I’m going to challenge myself not to feel guilty for doing it!

☆ Read my Bible more – my goal every year is to read my Bible every day, which is still my goal, but I am very bad at doing this. So I’m just going to carry on trying to read it more.

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Those are my five challenges for the new year, bookish and otherwise.

Have you set any challenges or New Year’s resolutions this year? What are you hoping to achieve/challenge yourself to do?

welcome to my reading corner.

Welcome to the place where my reveries burst out from ink, soak into my skin and settle in my daydreams. Welcome to my reading corner.

National Poetry Month | On Making Inspiration

April was National Poetry month, and I set myself a challenge of writing a poem every day of the month. I was expecting to give up quite early on, but I made it to day 25!? Okay, so I didn’t make it through the entire 30 days, but I nearly did – so I’m counting it as an achievement. I clearly have very high expectations of myself.

HOW TO: Blackout Poetry

I very recently (as in today) started doing blackout poetry.

Poetry is something that I have been increasingly enjoying to read and write for a little while. I would still call myself a big Amateur (with a capital A!), but I still find it really therapeutic and fun.

I came across blackout poetry a long time ago, but have only just started it for myself. And I am loving it, and already feel like I have gained something from doing it. So I thought I would share a little about it, what you need to do, and why I am loving it so much (from a very clearly experienced poet, obviously!!).

2017 Bookish Resolutions

Happy New Year!

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me, or joined me in 2016! I have been so blessed to get to know so many wonderful people in the bookish community over the past year, and I can’t wait to begin another year of blogging and bookstagramming!

I didn’t set myself many reading goals in 2016, other than to finish certain series, and to read 50 books. I don’t think I did actually finish many of those series. I also didn’t read those 50 books.

So for this year’s bookish resolutions, I still want to challenge myself, but I also need to make the goals realistic.

NaNoWriMo 2016 | Update #1

I thought today would be a good day to write my first NaNoWriMo update, given that today is the day I actually started writing. Yes, it has taken me four days to finally write that first word! And I haven’t even reached the daily word count.

But let’s be positive: I finally started!

I also wanted to give an update on what I’m actually writing, because my plans have changed a bit!

NaNoWriMo 2K16

This year is the year I plan to kind of do NaNoWriMo.

I say ‘kind of’ because I’m not particularly following the rules…

For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo (or, National Novel Writing Month) happens every year in November, and the goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in that month. That’s a lot of writing – especially in amongst studies and work! Which is why I have never participated in it before.