November 01, 2013

1st November - 2013

So, NaNoWriMo begins! Finally. And scary.

Since there're lots of series this season I want to watch, I'm willing to take a break from a few of them, but there are still 3-4-5 ah, I mean- anyway, a couple of them I must follow. But it's nano. So I decided that I can watch an episode every 1k words. If I couldn't write during the day, then I won't watch until I reach the daily wordcount, only on very special, rare occasions (where it might help overcome some plotholes or a writing block). But those will be very rare.
We'll see if it's enough motivation (and the T-shirt and badges and coupons waiting for me at the beginning of December).

ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH, DEAR FRIENDS, ONCE MORE!

October 29, 2013

November, here I coooooome~!

It's that time of the year, again. November. The smell of drying, colourful leaves and new TV series in the air, and the perfect time for a cup of hot cocoa or tea, writing your novel in 30 days.
I won't describe Nano again, if you don't know what I'm talking about, nice to meet you, my name is Tika and you can check out this website.

This hopefully means there'll be more posts for the up-coming few weeks AND some whining about the hard life of a novelist with a 42-hour workweek and whatnot. But I'll try to be interesing, or amusing or something so that you won't feel like you're wasting your time reading my lines.
Ahem. And then, thinking back, I still haven't finished my creative writing course series, have I? (No, I haven't.) So maybe I should make it my goal to finish it this year. Say, I'll write those posts in December and finally, I'll be happy I shared the experience with you and I can procrastinate on something else.
Yeah, that sounds like a plan :)

Oh, right. Here's a brand-new website for the Hungarian region of Nanowrimo: HuNoWriMo. This is in Hungarian, though. But don't worry, if you're in Hungary and would like to connect with us, you can find me here, on my blog or pop in to our English speakers' corner on the regional forum. We'll be happy to see you :)
Or if you're Hungarian and can't find infos, then just click that link, please.

Anyway~ See you in November! I'm off to see the wiz- preparations for the Kick-off! ;)

July 14, 2013

Completion - and guilt (warning: honesty rush)

I have great news! On 28th June, I finished the second volume of Successors of Time! I'm very happy and have resumed revision of the 1st volume, though it's been on and off since then.
When I get home from work, I usually feel exhausted and the last thing I want to do is to pick up the red pen and read through all that I've written 2,5 years ago and fix it. But when I do get to do it, somehow, I feel better. I guess it's one of those obligations that you try to avoid, but can't, and end up enjoying it in the end. Like training.

I think I should try to concentrate on editing and writing every day, at least a little bit. Maybe I can train for November this way? Plus, there're so many stories I've left half-finished and still want to finish and I just don't know how to juggle them. I didn't know how to juggle all those when I was out of job for 1,5 years and now that I've a full-time job, I'm at a loss as how to balance everything. And I feel guilty.
Today, I remembered to log in to a particular google account of mine which I haven't used in... gosh, well, after swimming through endless e-mails, I realised it's been almost 6 months. This is an e-mail address I used to check every couple of hours 'back in the day'. I moved on from those days, but some things -which are still dear to me- remain and... well, if you log in... say, every week to an unused account, you probably get an e-mail or two in a month maybe a review of one of your stories every couple of months and it's nice, but when you remember when you had several of these in only a day 'back then', you can't help feeling sad. Then you also remember that 'back then' you updated these stories several times a week. So, of course you'd get that much feedback after awhile.
And now you feel guilt. And if you get to continue those old stories and update them, you wait in nervous anticipation, an unpleasant feel in the pit of your stomach - would they still like it? Would they leave a short message? Will those be happy that I've updated or angry that I've abandoned them for so long?

I need a plan. Actually, I need several plans and try which one of them works, so I can concentrate on my original stories (their revision and writing), and on finishing my old pieces of fanfics (writing and then I think they'd need at least a mild editing before I'm OK with them - of course I edit before I publish them, but there're usually nasty mistakes that go unnoticed by me, the writer, because, you know, I've written it and know what I wanted to write and sometimes read what I wanted to write, not what I wrote).
And I need a new notebook so that I can keep track of these plans of mine.

So, you see. I want to concentrate on my writing career - which means focusing on my original pieces rather than old fanfics. But I don't like disappointing people, I don't like abandoning projects halfway - I like finishing things I started. Plus, I imagine my old readers want to read my stories. That's why I still get those messages every Blue Moon. Maybe they'd be even interested in the new (original) ones? They certainly deserve to know how my stories will end.

But how the heck do I juggle full-time day job with my originals and fanfics? Or even with just writing? It took me 8 months to write a fragment of what I wrote for NaNoWriMo in a month. 8. frickin'. months.

How do you juggle all these things? It's very hard to find the balance...
(Don't suggest coffee, please, I can't drink it.)