In some ways it hardly seems worth summing up again when I did a summary of sorts yesterday. But I traditionally end Motivember with a post in which I discuss how the month as a whole went so… Here we go.
I started out fairly well, being above par on day one and not far under for most of the first week. Unfortunately after that things just went down hill and I was consistently very behind schedule.
I have a lot of respect for those people who manage to complete NaNoWriMo whilst working a full-time job and reliably meeting their other commitments. I did not manage that this year. I expect a lot of it was related to lack of planning. When I realised the most recent scene I wrote was, in hindsight, too similar to a scene I’d read in a story I drew inspiration from, I think I mentally stumbled and found myself having difficulty with continuing.
This lack of success is not going to put me off from competing in future years. I still enjoy taking part in NaNoWriMo. I do think I need to do a better job of planning ahead. Planning the story so I know what I’m doing and where I am going with it would definitely help me with my work flow, and will allow me to roughly plan out the scenes to be written.
Also planning my writing sessions would probably be highly beneficial. I’ve always approached NaNoWriMo with the idea that I should be writing to meet the 1667 every day. I realised (when someone in a forum I frequent was talking about it) that it would make more sense to plan based on my schedule, so that I can fit my writing sessions around my other commitments. For example, a day when I am working late could have a shorter 500 words writing session planned, whereas a weekend day with nothing else to do could have a longer 3000 word session.
I am going to try to keep writing through December, but mostly because I want to get my work in process novel finished by the end of the year. Is it likely? No. Will I try anyway? Well… that’s the idea.
Again I had a strong start. I never succeeded at getting a day ahead on my posts, but I did manage to post pretty consistently for the majority of the month. I am pretty pleased with how I did, especially as I was trying to avoid falling back on posts about cats!
Of course the last week was less successful, but I didn’t expect to end up getting ill!
I will definitely do NaBloPoMo again next November. I enjoy doing it, and it definitely helps me keep posting more regularly. I get good feedback to my posts, and I do find it rewarding.
I say this every year (and last year actually had some success!) – I am going to do my best to continue posting to the blog regularly. I don’t expect to achieve daily posting for ever more, but I think I will aim for every 2-3 days. I still want to get sub-blogs set up – one for blogging about cooking creations, maybe another for my writing. I would want to move things over from this site (for example, old recipes from here would go to the food blog, and the drabble challenge to the writing blog.) It might be a lot of work to get set up… And I’d probably want to get a bit of a buffer of posts going before I get started with it. At the moment this is little more than pie-in-the-sky ideas… Let’s see if it comes to anything.
Other Goals
This year’s other goals were getting up on time, using my light box, and reducing treat spending. The last of those was added about half way through the month.
Getting up on time is something I’ve always struggled with and I continue to do so. I will continue to fight with it. I wish there was some magic solution that would make it happen for me, but I know it is ultimately just down to willpower. I need to make myself do it. I’ll keep trying.
Light box was going well for the first few weeks, but not so much recently. I do think the time I was doing it for has reduced my SAD symptoms, and that has lasted even during the time that I haven’t been using it. I do think I should try to start doing it more again.
I’m not going to say I’ll try to keep treat spending at zero this coming month. Having a treat once in a while is a good thing. Plus it’s Christmas season, and we also need to get treats to take with us to the cinema when we go to see Star Wars!
That’s all for Motivember 2015. Over all… Not the most successful year I’ve had, but I feel it was worth the effort I put into it.
Love,
Lady Joyful
Did you take part in NaNoWriMo / NaBloPoMo / Motivember? How did it go for you?
The Joyful Soul 
If you put the SAD light by your bed and plug it into a timer I am sure it will wake you up. :p
I’m sure it would blind me in the process! Actually one of the shops we frequent has an offer on an alarm clock that is a wake up light. I’m thinking of getting that to try 🙂
Trying a project like NaNoWriMo is typically worth it. Even if you fall short of what you hoped to do, you get cooer to what you wanted.
I wasn’t aware there was a blogging project going on for November, which shows about how far out of the loop I usually am.
Yes, I agree. Giving it a try is definitely better than not doing it at all! Thanks for commenting 🙂