![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
End of November 2019 Update
Saturday, November 30th, 2019 09:36 amCW: Chronic illness, regular illness, hospitalization, seasonal affective disorder, executive dysfunction, procrastination
First of all, I've been sick almost the entire month with a really bad cold that morphed into pneumonia. I'm much better and almost over it, but it doesn't feel completely gone, and it seems to have created some other problems and maybe exacerbated other, previous ones.
NaNoWriMo -- Partway through this year, I realized that I was nowhere near meeting my word count goal for the year. Shortly after that, I realized that my word count goal for the year wasn't realistic. Later, I realized that my word count goal for NaNoWriMo wasn't realistic, either, so I decided to revise it to 5,000 words instead of 50,000. I didn't expect it to let me input a custom word count goal on the NaNoWriMo website. But this year, they changed the way the way the website works. I'm still getting used to it, but there are a lot of changes positive and negative. One of the positives it that it will let you choose a custom word count for a project now -- but it seems like if you specifically label it as a NaNoWriMo project, it will default to an unchangeable 50,000 word goal. So I input my project as a custom project (which is another positive -- it seems like you can have projects on there now that aren't limited to falling within the NaNoWriMo dates) with a 5,000 word goal, except that I set the dates to align with NaNoWriMo. I also set myself a goal of finishing the devotional short story I'm working on and ideally starting and finishing another short story as well over the course of the month. It's the last day of the month and I haven't written 5,000 countable words during it, finished the short story I've been working on, or even started another short story -- much less finished one. I'm disappointed with myself. I did work on the one short story a bit, and I really was extremely sick (plus there are my other health issues to factor in), but I could have done more if I'd applied myself. As of write now, I've written 2,055 words during the month that I consider countable. However, I did write on all but six days this month, which I'm pleased with. Almost all of them were writing in my journal, but there were a few days when I did creative writing and at least one or two days when I did both.
Get Your Words Out -- This is my second year participating in Get Your Words Out and it's also the second consecutive year I've done it. I love it. It really helps me and motivates me. Both years I chose the Habit Goal and both years I also chose 120 days. I'd already decided to do the same goal again next year, whether I meet my goal this year or not. I believe I'm further along with my goal this year than I was at this time last year. I also wrote much more consistently this year than last year. I also wrote or worked on writing at least one day a month every month this year. That said, there were several months where I only wrote a handful of days, and many months when I wrote less than my monthly goal of at least ten days a month. And I am still cutting it very close at the end of this year. There is tons of room for improvement, and I hope and plan to do much better next year. But I'm pleased that I made progress and was more consistent this year. Both this year and last year, I wrote a tremendous number of days in November compared to most or all other months. It is interesting to me, as both years I was very sick in November -- last year with an intestinal bacteria infection that lasted for three months and that had me hospitalized for part of a week, and this with the cold that evolved into pneumonia that I mentioned. Yet I wrote a lot both months, even though most of it wasn't what I consider countable words. However, I think that is much more a function of me procrastinating on writing throughout the year and then writing a bunch in Novemeber in an attempt to meet my GYWO goal for the year, than it is of me naturally being particularly productive in November. In fact, in previous years before I started participating in GYWO I believe I was particularly unproductive in November. While I have years when I don't accomplish anything during any of the three NaNoWriMos a year, most years I am most productive in April's Camp NaNoWriMo, next most productive in July's, and I accomplish nothing in the main NaNoWriMo in November. Part of that is that I disliked the old NaNoWriMo sire more than the CampNaNoWriMo sites (I think I still do), and that I didn't have another convenient place or way to track my word count otherwise (whereas now I use the secondary tracking function of the GYWO spreadsheet to count my words in addition to my days writing -- and I also keep more general track with the NaNo tracker widget from 'Language is a Virus"). But mostly, it is that I am naturally less productive in Autumn and Winter than I am in Spring and Summer. Summer sometimes lowers my productivity by virtue of me going out more and writing less, but in general it's one of my two most productive times. I also have seasonal affective disorder, and November is usually when it seems to start getting really bad. It does usually hit me earlier than that, but it's been much better for me since the daylight savings time change got pushed back. Additionally, I really love both Halloween and Samhain, and that helps me power through the beginning of it, along with a few other things.
Annual Word Count Goal -- My word count goals for last year and this year were wildly unrealistic, which is something I finally admitted to myself. I've accordingly drastically lowered my annual word count goal for next year -- primarily by lowering my Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo goals (which were also unrealistic, especially the latter). My goal for next year is still ambitious, and possibly too ambitious, but it's much more easily achievable, and I'll see how it works out. If I need to readjust it again next year for the following year, I will. In the meantime, I wrote many more countable words last year than I did this year, but still nowhere near my goal -- and I had a much better, more consistent, and more productive writing year this year overall, compared to last year. While I'd like to do much better with both my habit goal and my word count goal next year, if I had to choose, I'd much rather have a writing year next year that's more like this one was than last year was, overall. But I'd really rather do much better on both fronts.
Reading and Beat the Backlist -- I've changed a lot of the books I'd planned on reading for Beat the Backlist again this year. Though I don't think I made as many changes this year as I did last year, but that may just be an entirely subjective feeling. I read prodigiously during this November. At the very beginning of the month, it was because I needed a break from a series I was reading and was desperately trying to finish the book in that series I was on (which was an excellent place to pause) in order to give myself a break, and because there was a book in another series that I really wanted to read. I also wanted to try to finish the main series I'm reading before the end of the year (which probably won't happen). And towards the end of the month, it was because I wanted to have finished reading at least two out of three specific books I'm currently reading by the end of the month -- and so far, I haven't. But mostly, it was a combination of two other factors. The first was being so sick for most of the month. For a lot of the month, I was too sick to read physical books -- or even listen too audiobooks -- and just laid around, slept, and sometimes watched TV shows or movies (but a lot of the time I was too sick for that, too). However, there was a good portion of the month when I was well enough to listen to audiobooks and/or to read physical copies of books, but not well enough to do anything else. So I read. A lot. Which I love to do, and am glad I was able to do so much of, but I wish I'd been able to do other things as well. I even read a lot in ebook format over the course of November, which is unusual for me -- it's my second least favorite format (my least is reading off of a computer screen or website) and I also usually can't read much in ebook anyway, due to having somewhat whimsical physiology issues. But I did get a lot of reading done in audiobook and physical formats in particular this month, which is great. And even though I didn't finish two out of the three specific books I wanted to finish reading by the end of the month, I did finish one of them and I'm very close to the end of a second of them. I also finished an audiobook that I'd been listening to for a really long time, started and finished another physical book, and finished an audiobook that I began in either November or the end of October. And I started another two or three physical copies of books. So far, I have read slightly more books over the course of this year than I did last year, which I'm very pleased with. I'm still not back to my previous reading levels and rates, and I probably never will be, but I'd still like to read more books next year than I did this year. I don't want it to be at the expense of absorbing them, though, insofar as that's possible anymore.
Planning for Next Year -- I set up a tentative combined to-be-read and Beat the Backlist reading list for 2020. It will need to be adjusted and it's probably too long/ambitious, but it's a good start and at least it's up and put together. I have a specific daily planner I use every year that I love and that I have deep nostalgic and sentimental value attached to. I use it to keep track of doctor's appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, and secular and federal holidays, along with any other rare engagements. But for the past few years, I've been attempting to set up a religious planner and a writing planner. I was only ever partially successful with the religious planner. Next year, I'm going to try setting up a combined religious and writing planner (as well as a few other things). For one thing, it's because I can't afford a separate planner for each, but I also think it will work better this way. I'm still going to maintain my regular planner for mundane activities. My mundane planner is a gift from a relative every year, which I'm incredibly grateful for, and I just ordered my other planner for 2020 yesterday. I even splurged and paid extra for expedited shipping so it will get here faster. I've already started organizing things for it for next year. I've also already chosen my GYWO habit goal and my personal word count goal for next year. I am working on trying to tie things up that need it and that I can tie up. I'm trying to finish reading what books I've been working on for a while that I can before next year. I have other plans for next year as well that I'm hopeful and optimistic about, and I'll see how they go.
First of all, I've been sick almost the entire month with a really bad cold that morphed into pneumonia. I'm much better and almost over it, but it doesn't feel completely gone, and it seems to have created some other problems and maybe exacerbated other, previous ones.
NaNoWriMo -- Partway through this year, I realized that I was nowhere near meeting my word count goal for the year. Shortly after that, I realized that my word count goal for the year wasn't realistic. Later, I realized that my word count goal for NaNoWriMo wasn't realistic, either, so I decided to revise it to 5,000 words instead of 50,000. I didn't expect it to let me input a custom word count goal on the NaNoWriMo website. But this year, they changed the way the way the website works. I'm still getting used to it, but there are a lot of changes positive and negative. One of the positives it that it will let you choose a custom word count for a project now -- but it seems like if you specifically label it as a NaNoWriMo project, it will default to an unchangeable 50,000 word goal. So I input my project as a custom project (which is another positive -- it seems like you can have projects on there now that aren't limited to falling within the NaNoWriMo dates) with a 5,000 word goal, except that I set the dates to align with NaNoWriMo. I also set myself a goal of finishing the devotional short story I'm working on and ideally starting and finishing another short story as well over the course of the month. It's the last day of the month and I haven't written 5,000 countable words during it, finished the short story I've been working on, or even started another short story -- much less finished one. I'm disappointed with myself. I did work on the one short story a bit, and I really was extremely sick (plus there are my other health issues to factor in), but I could have done more if I'd applied myself. As of write now, I've written 2,055 words during the month that I consider countable. However, I did write on all but six days this month, which I'm pleased with. Almost all of them were writing in my journal, but there were a few days when I did creative writing and at least one or two days when I did both.
Get Your Words Out -- This is my second year participating in Get Your Words Out and it's also the second consecutive year I've done it. I love it. It really helps me and motivates me. Both years I chose the Habit Goal and both years I also chose 120 days. I'd already decided to do the same goal again next year, whether I meet my goal this year or not. I believe I'm further along with my goal this year than I was at this time last year. I also wrote much more consistently this year than last year. I also wrote or worked on writing at least one day a month every month this year. That said, there were several months where I only wrote a handful of days, and many months when I wrote less than my monthly goal of at least ten days a month. And I am still cutting it very close at the end of this year. There is tons of room for improvement, and I hope and plan to do much better next year. But I'm pleased that I made progress and was more consistent this year. Both this year and last year, I wrote a tremendous number of days in November compared to most or all other months. It is interesting to me, as both years I was very sick in November -- last year with an intestinal bacteria infection that lasted for three months and that had me hospitalized for part of a week, and this with the cold that evolved into pneumonia that I mentioned. Yet I wrote a lot both months, even though most of it wasn't what I consider countable words. However, I think that is much more a function of me procrastinating on writing throughout the year and then writing a bunch in Novemeber in an attempt to meet my GYWO goal for the year, than it is of me naturally being particularly productive in November. In fact, in previous years before I started participating in GYWO I believe I was particularly unproductive in November. While I have years when I don't accomplish anything during any of the three NaNoWriMos a year, most years I am most productive in April's Camp NaNoWriMo, next most productive in July's, and I accomplish nothing in the main NaNoWriMo in November. Part of that is that I disliked the old NaNoWriMo sire more than the CampNaNoWriMo sites (I think I still do), and that I didn't have another convenient place or way to track my word count otherwise (whereas now I use the secondary tracking function of the GYWO spreadsheet to count my words in addition to my days writing -- and I also keep more general track with the NaNo tracker widget from 'Language is a Virus"). But mostly, it is that I am naturally less productive in Autumn and Winter than I am in Spring and Summer. Summer sometimes lowers my productivity by virtue of me going out more and writing less, but in general it's one of my two most productive times. I also have seasonal affective disorder, and November is usually when it seems to start getting really bad. It does usually hit me earlier than that, but it's been much better for me since the daylight savings time change got pushed back. Additionally, I really love both Halloween and Samhain, and that helps me power through the beginning of it, along with a few other things.
Annual Word Count Goal -- My word count goals for last year and this year were wildly unrealistic, which is something I finally admitted to myself. I've accordingly drastically lowered my annual word count goal for next year -- primarily by lowering my Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo goals (which were also unrealistic, especially the latter). My goal for next year is still ambitious, and possibly too ambitious, but it's much more easily achievable, and I'll see how it works out. If I need to readjust it again next year for the following year, I will. In the meantime, I wrote many more countable words last year than I did this year, but still nowhere near my goal -- and I had a much better, more consistent, and more productive writing year this year overall, compared to last year. While I'd like to do much better with both my habit goal and my word count goal next year, if I had to choose, I'd much rather have a writing year next year that's more like this one was than last year was, overall. But I'd really rather do much better on both fronts.
Reading and Beat the Backlist -- I've changed a lot of the books I'd planned on reading for Beat the Backlist again this year. Though I don't think I made as many changes this year as I did last year, but that may just be an entirely subjective feeling. I read prodigiously during this November. At the very beginning of the month, it was because I needed a break from a series I was reading and was desperately trying to finish the book in that series I was on (which was an excellent place to pause) in order to give myself a break, and because there was a book in another series that I really wanted to read. I also wanted to try to finish the main series I'm reading before the end of the year (which probably won't happen). And towards the end of the month, it was because I wanted to have finished reading at least two out of three specific books I'm currently reading by the end of the month -- and so far, I haven't. But mostly, it was a combination of two other factors. The first was being so sick for most of the month. For a lot of the month, I was too sick to read physical books -- or even listen too audiobooks -- and just laid around, slept, and sometimes watched TV shows or movies (but a lot of the time I was too sick for that, too). However, there was a good portion of the month when I was well enough to listen to audiobooks and/or to read physical copies of books, but not well enough to do anything else. So I read. A lot. Which I love to do, and am glad I was able to do so much of, but I wish I'd been able to do other things as well. I even read a lot in ebook format over the course of November, which is unusual for me -- it's my second least favorite format (my least is reading off of a computer screen or website) and I also usually can't read much in ebook anyway, due to having somewhat whimsical physiology issues. But I did get a lot of reading done in audiobook and physical formats in particular this month, which is great. And even though I didn't finish two out of the three specific books I wanted to finish reading by the end of the month, I did finish one of them and I'm very close to the end of a second of them. I also finished an audiobook that I'd been listening to for a really long time, started and finished another physical book, and finished an audiobook that I began in either November or the end of October. And I started another two or three physical copies of books. So far, I have read slightly more books over the course of this year than I did last year, which I'm very pleased with. I'm still not back to my previous reading levels and rates, and I probably never will be, but I'd still like to read more books next year than I did this year. I don't want it to be at the expense of absorbing them, though, insofar as that's possible anymore.
Planning for Next Year -- I set up a tentative combined to-be-read and Beat the Backlist reading list for 2020. It will need to be adjusted and it's probably too long/ambitious, but it's a good start and at least it's up and put together. I have a specific daily planner I use every year that I love and that I have deep nostalgic and sentimental value attached to. I use it to keep track of doctor's appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, and secular and federal holidays, along with any other rare engagements. But for the past few years, I've been attempting to set up a religious planner and a writing planner. I was only ever partially successful with the religious planner. Next year, I'm going to try setting up a combined religious and writing planner (as well as a few other things). For one thing, it's because I can't afford a separate planner for each, but I also think it will work better this way. I'm still going to maintain my regular planner for mundane activities. My mundane planner is a gift from a relative every year, which I'm incredibly grateful for, and I just ordered my other planner for 2020 yesterday. I even splurged and paid extra for expedited shipping so it will get here faster. I've already started organizing things for it for next year. I've also already chosen my GYWO habit goal and my personal word count goal for next year. I am working on trying to tie things up that need it and that I can tie up. I'm trying to finish reading what books I've been working on for a while that I can before next year. I have other plans for next year as well that I'm hopeful and optimistic about, and I'll see how they go.
