Jackie Dana

Crossing the finish line

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snail crossing finish line
Photo by Tim Norris (Creative Commons license)

Today is a big day.

Today is the day that (when I hit the “Publish” button on this post) that I will have completed my colleague Justin’s month-long blogging challenge. Every day for the past 30 days I’ve posted a new blog post with some sort of original content. Some days have been pretty good posts, some were posts for the sake of posting. I’ve learned that daily posting is not my style, and I’d rather have more time to think about what I’m going to post, and then craft it a bit, than worry about just getting a post done. Then again, before this challenge, almost all of my previous posts have been photos. This is the first time I’ve written anything substantial for (this) blog since I started it.

Screen Shot 2014-04-30 at 8.05.42 PMToday also marks the end of Camp NaNoWriMo, where for the past 30 days I have been writing fiction and adding to the novel I began last November as part of that month’s NaNoWriMo challenge. The goal was 50,000 words and writing every day (like with the blogging challenge), and I’ve reached both of those goals as well. My official word count as of this moment is 50139 words, though I’m hoping to add a bit more to that before midnight. Something I find a bit amusing is that I found participating in NaNoWriMo ‘easier’ than daily blogging. Not sure what that says about me… maybe I’m just a better fiction writer than a blogger? 🙂

And today also marks the second anniversary of my Automatttic journey. Two years ago today I started my Happiness Engineer trial that successfully concluded with me getting a job doing support for users on WordPress.com.

For me, it’s a good day to look back at my accomplishments with a bit of wonder and amazement. Honestly, there were days when I didn’t think I’d achieve any of these things. It feels good, though, to take on challenges even when you’re not sure you’ll complete them, and compete with yourself to improve. In this case, I’m proud that I was able to keep to a daily writing schedule even when all hell broke loose in my life. It shows that there really is time to get writing done, even when life is chaotic and busier than I’d like.

Now I’m wondering what I should take on as my next “daily” challenge. What new mountains are there to climb?

 

50K and the light at the end of the tunnel

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I’m writing like a fiend.

Despite all odds, I have managed to write every single day this month. Even when I ended up in the ER, through the death of a pet and the adoption of a new one, and the last minute frantic planning of WordCamp Austin, I have found time to put words down on virtual paper, and to stay at or above “par” almost every day.

For proof, here’s today’s stats:

Screen Shot 2014-04-22 at 9.31.36 PM

The diagonal line represented “par”, or the total number of words I needed to log in order to stay on track to reach 50K by April 30. Each bar is the total wordcount to date, and whether I was above or below par by that day.

As you can see, I’ve cut it close. When I did NaNoWriMo last November, even with traveling out of the country for a week I made much better progress:

Screen Shot 2014-04-22 at 9.36.32 PM

I attribute the differences to a few things. Of course it goes without saying that the chaotic life I’ve led this month has hurt me. Beyond that, though, I think it was easier to write the first time because it was my first time doing NaNo; it was a brand new concept and I was discovering things and inventing characters constantly, which kept me excited; and perhaps most of all, there was an active community of fellow writers who had write-ins,  and chatted a lot on forums and on Facebook, and we received almost daily writing encouragement from novelists. This time it was much more of a solo effort and much of my writing has focused on solving plot holes or character development, which is both more challenging and less thrilling than the original spurt of creative energy.

Source: Austin Kleon (CC licence)
Source: Austin Kleon (CC licence)

Even so, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve accomplished so far, as my characters continue to surprise and delight me, and most days I don’t know what I’ll be writing until it’s already completed.

One thing I have discovered, though, is seeing that graph and the objective total I need to reach every day has caused me on many occasions to push a little harder. What, only 1200 words today? Come on, you can make it to 1500. You’re below par, keep writing until you reach it. And even though the numbers are ultimately meaningless, challenging myself in this way has brought about some fantastic bits of writing. “Just 200 more words” has sometimes generated a gem.

For now, the biggest question is, can I make it to 50K with a very long, exhausting 4 day weekend ahead?

Stay tuned, and we’ll all find out together! 🙂

 

Halfway through and still alive

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keep calmThe month is halfway over now. Fifteen days of blogging for Justin’s blogging challenge, fifteen days of writing as part of Camp NaNoWriMo.

Is the glass half full? After all, look at everything I’ve accomplished! So many blog posts! 26,371 words written towards my novel! Or is the glass half empty? There’s still 15 days to go. Where will the ideas come from? What will be my motivation?

Well, one thing’s for sure. It’s hump day. And today, I declare that the glass isn’t half full or half empty. It’s just a big cup of steaming hot coffee. 🙂

To all my fellow writers this month, let’s keep going. We can do it!