I officially “won” NaNoWriMo as of writing this post on November 23.
Won and Done?
Fighting Through Burnout
As I mentioned last week, I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month. As of writing this blog post I’ve reached 37,000 words in my novel, which I’m quite happy about. I found the first week or so pretty easy to manage, and I consistently went above the official daily word goal.
The last week has been a bit tougher. I set a personal daily goal of 2000 words, and I have managed to hit it every day so far. But it’s been tough at times. Many nights I’ll have only written 800 words or so, and think about just calling it for the day since I’m ahead of the official mark. But part of this month is being disciplined on my own; the official goals aren’t that meaningful, they are just a guide. I want to do this with internal motivation, that’s the real challenge.
One trick, or probably more of a strange placebo, that I have found works is using an app like Forest (or really, just some count-down timer) to do what cool writers call “word sprints”. I’ve found fifteen minutes is the sweet spot for me. I get locked into trying to write as much as I can in fifteen minutes, which is really the length of a YouTube video that’s a bit longer than average. It’s a unit of time I can easily wrap my head around. And in each sprint I tend to get at least 500 words. I then take a short break, and repeat again. I’m not sure why it works, but it doesn’t leave me feeling burned out; I tend to feel more energized in my writing after accomplishing one.
I don’t have much else to say (I’m in the middle of one of those days where I’m at about 1200 words and it’s 9:30 pm) except try playing around with ideas for avoiding burnout. I find that setting up systems to avoid short-term fatigue can be incredibly beneficial in staving off long-term issues as well.
National Novel Writing Month
November is National Novel Writing Month, referred to as NaNoWriMo by the cool kids. The official goal of the event is to write 50,000 words of a brand new novel. More loosely, it’s to write 50,000 of some novel (perhaps you’re finishing last year’s, or revising your current one.) Or if you’re not in the novel game, maybe just write 50,000 words. Or write a graphic novel with some constraint. In reality, it’s an event designed to get people writing and to build the habit of writing every day. The word goal is just to encourage you to silence your inner editor for a while, and let your brain throw crap on paper.
That’s exactly what I’m doing. You can keep track of my progress by going to the NaNoWriMo page (linked in the sidebar menu). There you will find a PDF of my work updated each night. I don’t have any cool live word-counter (the updates on the website require you to have an account to view), but I suppose if you really cared you could copy and paste from the PDF and check.
As of writing this post (the evening of 11/9) I’m at around 20,500 words, which is a bit ahead of pace. I’m aiming to be done around November 20 if possible, to avoid needing to do anything while traveling around Thanksgiving. If all goes according to plan, I’ll have at least another 2,000 words by the time this is posted on Monday morning, and maybe even be halfway done by Monday night.
I’m sure this is not something most people are interested in, but it can be good to have an excuse to let your creativity flow a bit more than you may allow it to, or may allow time to. For me, I’m spending most of my free time that I would normally spend on podcasts or other media just writing. It’s been fun so far, and I hope to keep up the pace.
Diving into Discomfort – Part 2
You can read last week’s post to get a feel for what this very short series is about. Broadly speaking, in my quest to read more modern literature, I’m finding myself grappling with modern issues in a way that is rather different than when I’m having broad conversations with others, or reading news stories. Books are affecting to me, and always have been. I’m typically more emotionally moved by a book that just about any other stimulus. So, I take the stories they tell seriously and look for what the author wants to say with it.
Continue reading “Diving into Discomfort – Part 2”Diving into Discomfort – Part 1
As I mentioned last week, I’m trying to make a concerted effort to read modern fiction books. What tends to come along with this are modern takes on old issues in society, and modern takes on modern problems. This is perhaps the strongest argument for reading difficult modern literature: it makes us confront issues in a new way, and become warier of issues facing our current society.
Continue reading “Diving into Discomfort – Part 1”Reading Modern Literature
Over the years, I’ve read very little modern fiction. I went through some of the main young-adult fiction of my generation (Harry Potter, Eragon and the likes) but have rarely read any modern literature published this century. There are a few exceptions, such as the work of Neal Stephenson. Yet throughout school, most books we read were much older. This caused me to become more interested in older literature, and believe that the ability to read it was some sign of maturity.
There are many reasons for this. One is that in the limited time we have available to us, we want to maximize our experiences. Taking a chance on a newer book that is unproven, without any immediate obvious cultural impact, can be a tough sell. It is easier than ever to find old books, to determine what you’ll enjoy, and be told that certain classics have had a profound effect on the world. Within that context, why wouldn’t you focus on older, profound literature as opposed to anything written by a modern author?
But I’ve realized that there’s always new literature coming out, and much of it speaks to the current state of our world. Other bits are just informative and interesting. So, I’ve been trying to make a more conscious effort in my various reading binges to find newer books. The first of these (among the conscious effort) is a National Book Award runner up in 2018, The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Next week I plan to write a much more in-depth review of the book and its impact on me. Suffice it to say that it’s an engaging book that took me a bit out of my comfort zone, and it affected me deeply.
This helped confirm my decision to read more modern literature. That doesn’t mean I’ll stick to these highly-recommended books. In the past I’ve had luck doing a random sort in my library book reader app, and taking out the first thing that seems interesting. I hope to maintain some sort of cycle, reading an older book, then a newer book that seems promising, then a random newer book. This will keeps things interesting and give me a wide range of books to read, which helps improve the flow of ideas I consider.
A Humorous Event
I was informed by a friend that someone I went to high school with made national news after getting kicked out of a Trump rally in Minneapolis. It made me consider the hundreds of people I no longer know much about since I left high school, and how many different paths they’ve gone on. The news of this particular classmate of mine was hilarious, and largely in character based on what I knew of them. However, seeing them in the context of the real world and not just talking to them adds a different, more intriguing element to it.
We live in an interesting time where it is largely possible to keep up with a massive number of people to some extent (at least the parts of them they are willing to share on the internet, for better or worse). You come across people you know in unexpected places, and see more snapshots of a life than has been possible until the most recent ten years or so. With regards to this specific part of social media, I don’t have particularly strong feelings. I personally enjoy seeing the whereabouts and major events of the well-adjusted people I was friendly with in school, but wouldn’t necessarily keep in direct contact with afterward. It provides me with a positive feeling for them. I can silently root for them, and assume that a few moments of thoughts are similarly directed at me from time to time.
I also know I had the privilege to go to an excellent high school with some absolutely amazing peers. I have no doubt I’ll continue to see others show up in the news every so often. It’s exciting to see what interests were developed or maintained, to get a glimpse of how people have grown since I last saw them. And, if I’m lucky, I may get one degree closer to Kevin Bacon. Or if I’m really lucky, Erdos.
Playoff Time
It’s finally the playoffs for the MLB. It’s an exciting time, particularly since the Twins are finally back in the running, albeit it once again against the Yankees, whom we’ve lost 15 straight playoff games to.
It’s a bit disappointing, and this weekend was rough, but we have another game tonight to try and keep the dream alive. I’m hoping for the best. This is my favorite time of year, and I’d like to be able to enjoy it first-person, rather than by jumping on another bandwagon.