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- Mrs. Y. (Yep, I'm doing a stupid parody.)Remember Remember the First of November, the NaNo, the Outline, the plot. I know of no reason that coming this season, NaNo should be forgot
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I was talking to a friend recently, and she was commenting on how life takes journeys. She said that some were good, others were tedious. I thought about it, and she's got a point. In my 20's I took a journey that was for my heart, and I ended up married to my wonderful husband, and now we have kiddos. At the start of my 30's I decided to become better educated, and I got 2 college degrees done by the time I hit 37. I did that while working full time, getting a significant promotion at work, having my children and taking care of my disabled parents.
So this got me thinking about journeys of self, I have taken many and yet in all that time I haven't really chosen one that was for my creativity. That is until this year. I decided in March I wanted to do something for myself aside from education, and I wanted to just be more of myself, a whole person as it were. I retired from my job to take care of my family more closely last year, and this year, I'm working on my goal. I started like most do, first catching up on books I'd missed along with shows I hadn't seen in the last 10 years because I stuffed so much life into my day there was nothing left. Then I ran out of that, got into some video game things, and then I got kind of bored.
That's when I had the brilliant idea, I wanted to become a book reviewer because, at the end of the day, I love books. I have feelings, intense and centered feelings on story structure, character development, world-building, lore and mythos in a story, and I knew that would be the best possible job for someone like me. Sure, I'm an amateur now, but eventually, I'd like this to be my full-time paying job, a professional book reviewer, someone people can trust to have done research and have some insight into books.
Which leads me to my next goal, I want to also be a real writer. Not just any kind, eventually I'd like to be an author, but first I have to be an accomplished writer. So how does someone do that? That's what I asked myself in March.
That brings me to this post and my goals for the end of this year. This year I'm planning on doing my first NaNoWriMo, and I will admit now I am intimidated. All of my life I've been an overachiever. When I was in grade school, I did extra worksheets for my teachers. When I got to middle school, I volunteered to help people and spent extra time working on projects. When I was in high school, there were a required 36 credit hours to graduate, I ended at 52 because I did extra classes. In other words, I'm notoriously an overachiever.
But for some reason, NaNo has me intimidated. I'm not sure if part of the issue has to do with the nagging perfectionist issue I have, or the problem I have with climbing big goals that look too huge. Whatever it is, I need to get the heck over my BS if I'm going to do this.
So, with that in mind, here is what I'm going to promise myself and you who read my reviews.
1. In November, no book reviews. While I love books, I need to focus on my project for once and be sure that I'm ready to go.
2. In November, I need to just sit down and work. I need to make sure youtube is off (well maybe not youtube music), but regular youtube is off, and focus on my project.
3. In November, no C or K dramas. Sorry Dramafever, sorry Viki, I'm not watching you for 30 days. Not even in the background, not even if you dangle Wallace Huo with more episodes of "Love me if you Dare" in front of me, will I watch you in November. That's a huge struggle, but it's one that I think I can manage.
4. In November, I will only check Twitter 4 times a day instead of living on it for the entire day every day. That one will be tough, but it needs to be done.
And lastly
5. In November, no watching, playing, discussing or thinking about gaming. No Twitch, no gaming video essays, nothing. I need to not get distracted.
So now I ask you all, what do you do to prep for NaNoWriMo?
Do you make any goals or have any stipulations?
Do you think there are things that a first timer should do to stay focused?
Leave me your thoughts in the comments. I look forward to them.
- Mrs. Y.
