Writing Journal Entry: Words for January

word for January

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog!

Today I want to experiment with a new kind of blog post. Something in the lines of the traditional blog entries from the beginnings. Kind of like a journal entry… Tell me what you think in the comments below, if this is interesting enough for a blog post.

This is the Writing Journal Entry for January 2023

… and hopefully I’ll be writing more of these as I go along. January has been a tough month. You might say “as they all are”, to which I don’t agree.

There are events, or clusters of events, that do change everything at once and that throw us off course. And even though these events have a huge impact in my life and, consequently, in my writings, they don’t relate to it per se, so I won’t be sharing those here (those will go into the proper paper journal).

But I do want to do a profound review of what this January has been and what it means to me to work on these projects.

I have started this year putting into paper my goals for my writings. Creating and sharing the free workbook Plan Your Creative Year Workbook for 2023, was part of my personal efforts to create some balance in my life, and keep myself aware of my ongoing writing projects, as well as reading and mind-growing projects. This was important for me, it has helped me cope with the always latent overwhelming feeling of having so much to do, and not controlling the creative output as I envision doing, among other more distasteful things. To be an author and to show up for it, whatever the situation, has costs and it takes a big toll on our health. All of our health.

Again, this is the link for the free download… [No dropbox account is needed to download it] It’s never too late to draw some plans.

During January I have been pondering about what I want this blog to be really about. Not that I haven’t thought about it before, or made my kind of impromptu planning of it, because I have and I did.

This blog’s service will remain aligned with my will to share more about themes related to Writing, in a broad sense of this area of expertise.

I just keep depositing high hopes in this little corner of the web, and working on it as a kind of repository of ideas about the writing practice, and what it entails in this world of speedy images and an important need for the right words.

In January, this Writer’s blog saw a few of my favorite themes:

It might seem weird but I’m pretty proud of these blog posts. I do love to write in this format/genre and about the craft. 

To me, writing exists in a full spectre, and each writing project has its form, function and gift associated with it. Blog writing is just one piece of the large array os pieces that make this puzzle.

As for Long Fiction Writing efforts:

January was a month for the ‘The Shapeshifters’. I have defined some goals and I’m keeping my word on it. As times passes, and I keep attentively looking at The Shapeshifters #1, I notice other things I need to take care of.

It’s not just about writing the manuscript and crafting the story as I want it to be: as a good starting point of a series… It’s also about the vision for the whole series, the proper way to do other non-related writing work, the acceptance of what I can’t change and the going with my gut while discovering these stories inside me.

I have set a few goals for book #1 and #2 and I’m keeping my word on those. But also, I’m finding that I need to do other exploratory works on these and, even change some things on the first book.

This is my first series materialising itself. I have written other projects that were thought as series but this one is my first full out attempt right at doing so. And this is fun and scary at the same time.

And not just because is my first serious attempt at writing a series but also being out of my comfort zone in so many ways. I have chosen some things for this story that will need a careful editing process and I keep finding things to stress about.

Short-Fiction and Poetry

I always have parallel projects on these formats. There are goals set for some works in progress, but it has been six months since I have devoted the time to constant practice.

I do not like it. Nop.

In my defense, I have been channeling a lot of energy into ‘The Shapeshifters’, but this should be no excuse for my lack of attention to my other writing practices. After all, poetry has been with me since my teens, and I do have a few published poems and a (very ignored by now) poetry blog.

As for short-fiction…

Again, I’m always working on something. This is the elected format for the current writing contests around me, so it’s something to think about if I want to publish any of my stories through the usual channels.

I have put some of this on hold until I figure some things out.

How can people do it all? Frankly, I do not know. Planning only takes us so far… But this is my journal-type of vent, to put the questions out and give them the chance to be answered in a timely manner. 

This was the Writing Journal Entry for January 2023… about writings and feelings and stuff.

How was your January?

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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I tried writing in NaNoWriMo for 12 years

12 years experience

Hello all! Welcome back to my blog.

Have you seen any of the videos “I tried writing like (famous author) for (whatever) days or months”?

It’s kind of a trend on YouTube and I always find them inspiring, educational and fun!

This is kind of a “I tried writing in NaNoWriMo for 12 years”

Today’s article is kind of an overview about the 12 years I have been registered in NaNoWriMo website and all the times I decided to write a book in November.

First, let’s go over some stats:

✍️ I have been registered on https://nanowrimo.org/ since Oct.29, 2010.

✍️ I have entered the November’s challenge for 7 times.

✍️ I have completed the 50K, and then some, for 5 times.

✍️ The website says that I have wrote 343,660 words for NaNo projects.

Is this an impressive count? Nop. I don’t think so. But it’s good to know all of these things.

Let’s go on this memory lane, shall we?

I recall finding this challenge online and starting to mull over it. Back in the day, I had so much fear of being tricked that anything new gave me tons of food for thought.

Contrary to my later developed tendencies, which are to see something fun online, subscribe it immediately, and then ask the questions.

For NaNoWriMo contemplations, I really took my time deciding if I wanted to make an account on https://nanowrimo.org/ and enter the challenge. Back in those days we had to put all our written text on a word counting window, only available on the website. So it was a bit strange to reveal the text like that.

I decided to enter the 2010 challenge, only after I had all my stuff worked out in my head, and was willing to try the 50K in one month.

I registered at the Oct.29 and started writing at the Nov.01.

📣 I would like to mention that I already had one book in the midst of being self-published, which happened in Nov. 2011. And it wasn’t any of my NaNo writing projects.

I remember talking to a few people about this challenge and being quite freaked out about it. But I pulled through and wrote ‘Amria’ a fantasy novel about angels and demons and really bad (and good) people in between.

Amria, with a word count of 63,472, was my debut novel in NaNoWriMo and I quite liked it… so I stuck it in the drawer.

In 2011, I didn’t managed to enter NaNo. Fast-forward to some conclusions, I find that it takes me a good two year period to develop an idea into a book and make it come alive.

But, in 2012, I was back with ‘O Pária’ (‘The Pariah’). I had a full sketch book reeling with characters, and plot twists, and big ideas for a greater universe of… shapeshifters (does this ring a bell?!?)

Then it came 2013. It was a truly shitty year! My life changed so much during that year, and the ones that followed, and I felt so badly that I really tried to write my NaNo novel but just couldn’t do it. 2013 saw the beginning of ‘Road to Nowhere’ but it fell through the cracks of poor planning and not enough mental space to create this story.

Next NaNo novel came in 2018. ‘At risk’ was also a failed experience. Why I thought I could change day jobs, have a toddler in my hands, and be overwhelmed about it all, and still write a book, I do not know.

‘At Risk’ was my first try at writing a sequel for my self-published book… which didn’t happen.

Moving on to 2020, I was back with the proper drafting in place, plans and projects and all the twists and turns of a new fantasy novel. ‘Fire and Ice’ word count was 54,933 in a universe full of vampires and monsters ready to strike back. I loved writing this book, and I still feel it has so much I can expand upon… so it went straight to the drawer.

2021 saw ‘Os Metamorfos’ aka ‘The Shapeshifters’ come to life. In November of 2021 I wrote my second draft during NaNoWriMo. It was a book imagined, planned, and executed in Portuguese. Word count? 50,412.

2022 saw the biggest change of all. During my first Camp NaNo, in July 2022, I started rewriting ‘The Shapeshifters’ but in English. I went with it and after a not so successful Camp NaNo, due to some health issues, I got all in this project, planned and plotted, and managed to write 77,420 words for this book in this year’s NaNoWriMo.

What did this 12 years writing experience taught me?

🪄I have so much to learn it pains me to think about it. This seems the appropriate lesson to put here first. I need to get my bearings on my schedule, and to define better goals, and to devote myself more to this writerly life.

🪄Fear of showing up trumps all efforts. I have the best intentions in regard to my writing but if I am afraid to show up for my writing practice, there are no efforts that can subsist and produce good outcomes.

🪄Go all in. I have been doing this thing, this dance with my writing, for more than two decades (I am almost too good at waiting!). Deciding to write a book and leaving it unfinished isn’t going all in. Deciding to write as a life choice, path, career, and then refuse to do the work isn’t going all in. Go all in.

🪄Work in small increments every day. Have specific goals, and a major goal, and work myself towards every day completion. This challenge is very good to help us set a writing pace.

🪄I need a lot of prep time. I take, at least, two years until I am ready to write a story. There are a few steps, a few long steps I need to work on before I can write a book (or any story). There’s no jumping ahead or ignoring some parts of this process. Not if I want it to be valid for my learning purposes.

🪄I can work in more than a project at a time. I have been doing it for a long time now. And if I don’t count the time (a few years) when I got my life turned upside down, I am able to see that these ideas kind of lived in a parallel form inside my head. It’s just the physical effort of putting them in paper that has to be separated from each other. I can work in more than a project at a time, I just have to be more organised.

🪄These 12 years helped me see that I am here for the long haul. There was no way I would get back to writing, after some of the sh** I have been through, if stoping entirely was remotely possible.

🪄It has help me define my writing goals, setting boundaries for my writing time, focus on my writing projects, and create a space through which I share my writing journey online (I share a lot in Instagram and Facebook).

I tried writing novels with NaNoWriMo for 12 years and it taught me to feel less alone in pursuing my writing goals.

What doesn’t work for me?

💭A sustainable rhythm is imperative if we intent to keep writing. This daily quote requires that I spend some hours devoted to writing… and then life gets in the way, and I am unable to do all the other stuff that helps me stay creative. And this isn’t positive for me.

💭I am a slow writer… reader… whatever. I am. If I speed things too much I end up making stupid mistakes and feeling depressed about it. Having to maintain a great window of time to devote to actual writing doesn’t work for me in other phases of the writing projects. So this isn’t a good thing to adopt out of NaNoWriMo month.

I can’t work out anything more as a downside… Maybe just being nagged by people when I’m unable to attend to their stuff in November. Hey! Sorry (not sorry). It’s called priorities.

I don’t intend to stop entering NaNoWriMo, as long as life permits me to, and I do recommend it. 

Have you entered this year’s NaNoWriMo? Can you share your experience with us?

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼