Given I am a bit of a compulsive striver it’s fair to say that I love a challenge. But recently I have (deliberately) been cruising along, taking things relatively easy and not putting myself under a lot of pressure.
But for November, I have decided to throw that out of the window.
First of all, I have been caught up in the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) excitement emanating from all my writerly friends. I had zero plans to do NaNoWriMo as I just didn’t want to put myself under the pressure of writing 1667 words a day in November for a grand total of 50,000 at the end. I don’t mind failing at things, but if I set my mind on doing something, I want there to be some chance of success!
But then Al Tait introduced the concept of NENaNoWriMo (Near Enough NaNoWriMo) where you just commit to writing what you can and anything you finish up with the end of the month is more than you will have started with. Now that was something I could be ‘successful’ at. And of course once the pressure was taken off, I managed to write for 2.5 hours straight yesterday (no editing!) which was exhausting but netted me 3405 words. Sweet.
While NaNoWriMo is technically about getting the first draft of your novel written in a month, I am using it to hopefully get the whole first draft of my book done. Then I can start releasing it faster than once a month for all you people who have been telling me you don’t want to wait a whole month for the next chapter!
And the second challenge for November? Well I am determined to do Fat Mum Slim’s photo a day challenge for an entire month. This challenge has been running all year and I always seem to get halfway through before running out of steam. Which is pathetic because the challenge simply requires me to take just one photo a day revolving around a certain prompt. And it is a creative challenge so I should be all over it! So damn it, I am doing it this month come hell or high water!
Speaking of being creative, I have been doing quite a bit of writing elsewhere than on this blog and in my book and while I have been sharing away on my Facebook page … blessed Facebook has recently made changes that mean only 15% of people who follow me are seeing what I post. Which is fun! So here’s some stuff you may not have seen from me:
- I’ve been writing regularly at KidSpot for a while now and you can see all my posts here. The general theme I write on is about getting organised and two of my favourite posts for them are about how I organise my memories and how I eliminate rush points from my day.
- I am also writing weekly at iVillage as one of their iVillage Voices and if you consider yourself a bit of a control freak or you have a lot of weird foibles like me, you will like this post and this one!
And finally, one quick word about Facebook. Earlier this week I got a bit annoyed that I wasn’t seeing much activity from Facebook pages I had specifically signed up for so I went and made an Interest List called ‘people I want to see’. And let me tell you, I was a bit shocked to compare what was showing up on my Facebook wall (very little!) compared to what was actually being posted (quite a lot!). If you want to make up your own Interest Lists it’s pretty easy –just go to ‘Interests’ in the left hand menu (when you are logged into your personal page on Facebook), then click ‘Add Interests’ and then click ‘Create Lists’. It will bring up a window showing all the pages you follow and you can then choose the ones you want to see.
And that my friends is it for today! Have a lovely Friday and an even lovelier weekend!
good luck! sounds like so much to do!!
i don’t get very far with the #fmsphotoaday challenge either…
looking forward to more book updates
xxx
Josefa @always Josefa recently blogged: Lessons from my two Zombies
Thank you Josefa! Chapter 3 coming next week!
Kelly Exeter recently blogged: November is all about the challenge
I tried the photo a day challenge last month. I think I lasted about 10 days. I love photo’s but Instagram is just overload. Needless to say I won’t be challenging myself with it again this month. I think NaNoWriMo is enough!
Jodi Gibson aka Lipgloss Mumma recently blogged: Dear Blog
I have no idea why I have decided that this is the month that I am going to do the photo challenge given I am already NaNoWriMo … but I am determined!!
Kelly Exeter recently blogged: November is all about the challenge
I am the queen of losing steam! Totally tempted to try out that photo challenge as its not likely im going to get much writing done over this month
sjp recently blogged: Follow Swap
I am determined to see them BOTH through this month!!
Kelly Exeter recently blogged: November is all about the challenge
Good luck with the photo a day challenge! I haven’t missed a day since I started. Have a lovely weekend
Ali recently blogged: October: the month in photos
Serious Ali?!! That’s amazing!!
Kelly Exeter recently blogged: November is all about the challenge
Some juicy creative challenges there Kel, look forward to sharing the NeNaNoWriMo journey with you x
Donna @ Nappydaze recently blogged: An evening with my author idol – Ms Paullina Simons
Ditto Don!! Hey are you in our NaNoWriMo FB group?
Kelly Exeter recently blogged: November is all about the challenge
Der – just saw that YES YOU ARE!
Kelly Exeter recently blogged: November is all about the challenge
You’re rocking the word count. I had no plans of doing NaNoWriMo until you brought me into the fold. But I’m so glad you did. I’m really enjoying it.
Wanderlust recently blogged: NaNoWriWTF?
I’m rocking the word count for now! I am doing this the same way I run a marathon … go hard at the start and build up a nice buffer!
Kelly Exeter recently blogged: November is all about the challenge
I did NaNo last year and felt really pleased with what I accomplished. Not joining in this year, I thought about it but decided to work on the editing of last year’s 50 000 words instead. I like the sound of Ne En Na No though.
You know, I don’t get your posts via email anymore? Something must be wrong there, I thought you were on a blog break! Strange?
That sounds like the perfect plan for this year’s NaNoWriMo
And very strange about not getting the email updates any more. I have just re-subscribed you … I think you will have been sent an activation email
Kelly Exeter recently blogged: November is all about the challenge