ROW 80 R1 - Final check in

This is actually my third check-in for Round 1. Told you that writing a blog wasn't my forte...

Ahem, anyway~

My last check-in was on 15th January. Let's see what happened after, a quick summary:

The week starting with 16th was all right. I met my goal to write at least 500 words 4 days per week. Even the week after that was successful! But after that...

I wrote on 30th January, then nothing that week.

The week after I was back again to writing more than 500 words for 4 days per week. Then, I wrote 301 words on 19th, 206 on the 20th, then nothing for a long time. It was almost a month later that I managed to get back to writing. I've continued on 16th, 18th, then this week, 20th and today, 24th.

I know Round 1 was finished on Wednesday (21st), but since I already had a month-break, I figured I would continue.

Truthfully, I'm a little ashamed that I didn't manage to reach my goal every week in Round 1. I purposefully set a lower wordcount, so if I had a bad or a busy day, I would be still able to write that amount. But the end of February and beginning of March proved that I was slacking off.

It wasn't that busy. Sure, we had 1 birthday and there was this 4-day trip to relax and enjoy ourselves in a hotel on the countryside, but it wasn't like I couldn't do it if I wanted to. The thing is, I felt I had little energy and hardly any inspiration. I guess the weather was getting to me, finally, plus it didn't help that everything I've started to work on (including my 'brilliant' idea mentioned in the earlier post) ended up in failure or didn't make any difference. My mood was terrible and during those times, sometimes it's better to let the gray, depressing clouds pass and not force myself. I would accidentally end up with a manuscript which needs a whole lot more afterwork than my NaNovel...

So, that's what happened. Still, I feel it was worth it to participate in ROW80, because: I wrote 17 184 words, which is approximately 17 184 words more than I would've wrote otherwise. This is 79 890 characters and currently, I'm at the beginning of page 32. Not as much as I would've liked, but it's still better than what I did the beginning of last year.

So I guess I can think of this as a half-success, right? And I want to participate in Round 2, as well. Even if my check-ins are irregural or my writing in not frequent, I want to continue and ROW gives me support to reach my goals. Just, you know, the thought that this is an event others partake in and that I see a goal in front of myself. It strenghtens my resolve, I think.

Especially that everyone around me (I mean, family members) still think I waste my time the entire day. As if that when I say 'I'm writing', it translates to them as: 'I'm too lazy to do anything, so I'll just play on the computer and don't do anything productive'. It's rather irritating, but I can understand them somewhat. From their point of view, writing probably does seem like that, however much it hurts me to say this.

That's why I need something to hold on, to strenghten my resolve, so I can continue what I really want: write. And I feel ROW80 gives me that something.

Hope you had a more successful Round 1 than I! It's time to plot, draw some conclusions from Round 1 and think about our goals for Round 2.

Good luck, everyone!

Oh, it's Sunday! - ROW80 R1 #2

I almost forgot to do the check-in this week...

What I did accomplish: writing 4 days a week! Yay! Though only 3 days had I wrote more than 500 words. I don't know what it was with me on Wednesday (actually, I do, it was some boring stuff about wondering my place in the universe, how to get a job and things along that line and I was under the weather and struggling with everything, not just writing), I only wrote 285 words. And I was pretty tired, as well.

And I didn't manage to fix that 9th chapter in my 2010 NaNovel - again! I must make some serious planning regarding that chapter.

Which reminds me... today I added two scenes in chapter 1 in my newest novel. I might have to do some more planning on that part, as well.

Next week or the week after that would be all planning, I'm afraid. I hope I can get some writing done, but... well, we'll see...

But what I was successful with (outside of my ROW80 goals) this week:
1) I've talked with a friend almost every evening in English, so we could both practice speaking it. Sadly, I do not have much opportunities to speak English, so this was good :)
2) It seemed that the deep pondering I suffered from on Wednesday had some results in the end: I woke up with a brilliant (?) idea formed in my head on Friday. No, not a story idea, but an idea how to get a job (which I would hopefully enjoy). I must work on that before I can make a move, so that was the other thing I did from Friday to Sunday this week. I hope it works out. <knocks on wood thrice>

Well, I hope you had a productive week and wish your inspiration continues! Good night!

ROW 80 - R1 #1

This is my first ROW80 check-in. So I'm sorry in advance if this will be awkward, I'm still familiarizing myself with the whole thing.

And as I said, I'll probably do 1 check-in per week.

My goal was to write at least 500 words for 4 days per week - ticked. I wrote almost 2,5k in 4 days. I didn't write from Wednesday to Friday, because I caught the cold. These words all go to fiction; I've started a new novel on 2nd January.

And this also marks the end of the first chapter!

As for my other goal, it was to revise a chapter of my 2010 NaNovel. Because of my cold, it all came down to Sunday, after I've written my at-least-500-words for today. And I was like 'Ooow, don't wanna! I have fun with the new story!' because I knew it needs so much work. But to start with failure? Nah...

In the end, I opened the document and tried to find where I was the last time I revised (because it was in September...). Chapter 8 didn't have a title and the beginning of chapter 9 had many blank paragraphs, meaning that was where I most likely stopped in September.

I re-read chapter 8 to give a title and found myself laughing at some parts. And realized that I still love this story very much! But it took a different turn from the first draft around chapter 6-8, so I would need to think on chapter 9 as much as I would need to think on my new story...

That said, I decided to leave it for next week. But at least I've found a title for chapter 8, fixed some awkward-sounding sentences and picked up the thread of the story, again. So, until next week, in between (or after?) writing my new novel, I can think on how to continue this old one.

I think I've started off well and because I aimed for a lower wordcount and not for everyday, the cold didn't disrupt me much (though I had to make a conscious effort to sit down and continue the story after I got better)...

Next week, I want to continue the new novel as I did this week and want to plan and write the new chapter 9 for my earlier story. If I can write more (than for 4 days) for the new one, then great, but it's not priority at this point. Haaaaah, why do you give me so many things to revise, earlier novel?!

ROW 80 - Goals

You can find more info about ROW 80 here. Basically, it's a writing challenge where you set the goals for 80 days. There are four (80-days) rounds in a year, the next one starts tomorrow.

And since I have a degree now, NaNoWriMo is over and I'm still looking for a job, this seems the perfect time to finally join! So here're my goals for the 1st round of 2012:

• write at least 500 words 4 days per week
• fix at least a chapter per week from my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel

This might not seem much, but I know about myself that I don't like repetitiveness - which means writing each day isn't a good advice for me. Cue the 4 days I didn't write a word during November. You can call it 'laziness', I call it 'rebelliousness' and I can't really do anything about it.

Anyway, I'd rather start with smaller steps and with a plan than greater ambitions and failure in the end. I can always write more if I have inspiration, right? Right.

Let's see how this ROW80 challenge works for me. Good luck to you, if you're also participating!

Do you make any New Year's resolutions?

Happy New Year! \^o^/

PS.: I think I'm going to do one blog post about this per week (check-in). That, in itself is a challenge for me...

November summary

Okay. So the Christmas preparations and a little contest on DeviantArt took my attention away and I realized that I won't be able to remember in detail , so... with my little NaNoWriMo postcard before me (which has wordcounts and happy or neutral or sad smileys on it and even some red worms) I'll try to sum the whole month up.

I mean, what remained after the 1st week (since I already have a post on that one).

There were all in all, 4 days in November where I haven't written a word (including the one on the 1st week), my best day was 27th, with more than 6k words written.

I struggled to catch up with myself in the first half of the month, so I can have 75k words at the end of November. But I had to learn that MLing and writing a novel isn't such an easy feast. It pained me, but I think it was around the 3rd week when I gave up on my 75k goal and decided to pursue 50k, which I aimed for in the earlier years. And I think that helped greatly.

I let myself lower my aims. I gave myself permission to write less, permission to suck, permission to just write and don't care about expectation - whether they be from myself or others. The only expectation I held onto was the 50k goal.

I wanted to finish on Sunday, but something came up during the weeked, so I wanted to finish on Tuesday, then. The 29th. I didn't...

I crossed the 50k line about 45 mins after midnight, so I finished on the 30th. So, in some ways you could say that I disappointed myself, but if I look at it in another way, then... I wonder if I wouldn't set such high expectations in the beginning, would I still be called a NaNoWriMo winner? Or would I watch the goal line from far away, below 50k?

We might never know. It doesn't matter. What matters is, that I reached 50k and had a wonderful month, with several write-ins, organizing events and encouraging Wrimos and it was exhausting during November, but when I look back on it now... I wouldn't change it in any way.

I'm looking forward to MLing with Poggi next year, too! And to spend a month of crazy writing with my fellow, wonderful and brave Wrimos!

So, Wrimos, let's meet again next November!

If you do NaNoWriMo, do you check on the regional forums once in awhile during the non-Nano period?

I do ;)

NaNoWriMo summary - Week #1.

I... wanted to write every few days or at least once every week, but... well, yeah, it's been hectic. So I'll do a series of 5 posts for every week in the following... weeks. I hope it'll be every few days, then again... I'll try.

We had the Kick-off party on 31st of October, from 4 PM till 8 PM at a café in downtown (the same one we used last year). 16 people showed up and got a little package to survive November, I mean, NaNoWriMo and we had a great time, I think.

Then when we got home, we had a virtual Kick-off from 22 PM until after midnight on the regional chat. Loads of people showed up there, as well. So, I was very happy when I went to sleep after the first wordwar of 2011, which started at midnight ;)

I aimed for 75k this year and to finish my novel. But, it turns out, it was hard enough to write and ML a region. I postponed my 75k challenge to next year or the year after (because, you know, I'll be writing in English next year).

MLing is fun, we created a Facebook page and tried to post there every day (sometimes more than once per day) something that would be useful or inspirational or fun. And we had a regional website this year, which is maintained by Poggi, my senpai ML :)

I think it was the first week when I went around looking for place to have a write-in. I was really excited when a smaller library wrote back - we had 2 write-ins there - and the café near my home was open to us, as well. So all went well, except the 75k goal escaped from me. I don't exactly remember what happened on the 3rd day, but that's when all started to go down. Then I didn't even write on 4th. Not. A. Word.

It's really been like a wavy ocean - this NaNoWriMo :)

I thought I got the second week depression (SWD) earlier, because I wrote more than the minimum average wordcount.

That is, until the third week, but I'll tell you more about that later.

Non-NaNo related events: a birthday get-together at a teahouse on Friday. Ooooh, right! That's when I didn't write a word! It was only in the afternoon, but now that I think back on it - it was hard for me to write before nightfall. Maybe because of the nature of the novel I was writing?

The first part is definitely horror. In the dark.

And I took a day or two off from MLing at the weekend - I needed to get my energies stored back up again (as I've mentioned, MLing is fun, but it's also exhausting) - and Poggi was doing all the work that weekend. Thank you, again, Poggi! That really saved me; actually I think I had sore throat.

Ah, sore throat... it followed me around the entire month...

How did your NaNoWriMo start this year? Did you also struggle with sore throat or other illness during November? :(

PS.: The picture shows the days when I wrote in November and how much I wrote (I mean, the minimum, more, or just something little or even smaller amounts or none).
Feel free to decode it :P
And for my Hungarian friends, especially Poggi: a (piros) pöttyös az igazi!!! ;)

Historical (Regency) Novels & PREPARING!

My notes are very short on this genre, that's why I try to cover more topics in this post.

I) Historical (Regency) Novels
Historical novels became popular in the romantic period. Its characteristics includes the accuracy of details and language usage.
...
And this was it. Plus, books from this genre, e. g. Possession by A. S. Byatt, The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfield, Waterland by Graham Swift (which has parallel editing - there are 2 families' stories which are connected from time to time, by people's stories). Like this:

Looks interesting, doesn't it?


II) Preparation for NaNoWriMo
November is just around the corner and this year, I'm a co-ML of my region. And there're quite a few helpers, so we have manymany new things this year! For example, the 'HuNoWriMo' facebook page we made for our region('s Wrimos), which you can find on the right side of this page.
We're planning the Kick-off party, write-ins and other, online-events. It's so exciting!

As for my NaNo novel, this year, I'm writing it in Hungarian. I decided I change what language I write in, every year. I mean, one year it would be in English, the next in Hungarian, then English, then Hungarian, etc. You get the point.
I see some details quite clearly about the story, but then again, I should probably write a draft down to see how it looks and where I need to put some 'bridge' between two scenes. And to clear up a few things, as well. It's kinda... like a floating fog around my head right now.
It's going to be dark, (hopefully) frightening (horroristic?), and of course, the usual: supernatural elements and romance! And the line between darkness and light is blurred, again. Hmmm, I should really write down my ideas to clear it up!

Are you going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year? How do you prepare for it?

Utopias & Distopias

Continuing the series about the creative writing course which I attended a year ago, the next topic is about utopias and distopias.

They are about ideal (utopian) and non-ideal (distopian) societies. Distopias are always warnings. 

Most utopias deal with the meaning of life.

Who makes your decisions in your life?

                                                 /  \
                                       utopias  distopias

Individualistic utopias are, well, a mess, but collectivistic utopias are well-organized and can even overthrow dictatorships.

There are two kinds of utopias; 1) you don't have to work 2) you must work. If it's the former, then it deals with the meaning of life. What would you do with your life (if you didn't have to work)? For example it fits the description of 'heaven' in religions.

I gave an example for utopia from the Bible, but you can also find distopia there. Like Sodoma & Gomorrah.

...

For some reason we didn't have enough time for distopias, so I have a couple of books here listed and that's all. 1984 and The Brave New World. So let me talk about distopias from my experiences.

Everybody knows about 1984, even if they haven't read it. But not everybody knows it was inspired by a Russian novel, 'We'. It was written by Yevgeny Zamyatin, in 1920. It was published in New York, in several languages, before it could be published in Russian. 1988 was the year when it was finally released legally in the Soviet Union, in Russian.

Orwell was very inspired by this work and he wrote 1984 in 1948. So if you read both novels, that's why you might see some similarities.

I find it curious that while 1984 is world-wide famous, the story which inspired it isn't that well-known. 'We' became one of my favourite novels.

There's one more book I must mention. It's also a favourite; a young adult distopia, The Giver by Lois Lowry. I read it when I was around... 13? It's a bit hard read for a young teenager (I mean, emotionally - it's a bit dark and very serious), nonetheless, I still think it's one of the best books out there.

If you haven't read it already, I recommend you both The Giver and We. You won't be disappointed if you're looking for a good distopian read ;)

 ~~~

We have these topics left: Historical novels (Regency novels), Fairytales and Humor! Maybe I should challenge myself to write these posts in October.

... If I can't (because you know... it's almost that time of the year! Yes, NaNoWriMo!), then I aim to finish this series this year. Knowing that I'm not a frequent post-writer and November with all those preparations is just around the corner, that feels like a more possible goal to accomplish than in October. Nonetheless, I will try :)

What is your favourite utopian and/or distopian novel?