fabled_librarian

 

22010 / 18000 words. 122% done!

CW: Brief and vague mentions of chronic illnesses and health issues and (indirectly) autism, brief and vague mention of cold or flu

 I missed the third quarter update by a lot, but I have some thoughts I want to put down. Also, it's Nanowrimo, and -- ideally -- I'll have three planners to set up and a detailed to tarot spread to do and record in December, plus signing up for both GYWO and (hopefully) Beat the Backlist again next year. I also have a cold or a flu, which is not helping matters, so I want to get as much taken care of as early as I can.

* I vastly prefer keeping track of all of my writing in one main sticky post, as opposed to quarterly updates, and using the updates more casually and to elaborate. It's much easier for me to find things and track my progress. I think it will make it easier for me to compare from year to year. I also like having all the detail of word count, monthly, quarterly, and (eventually) annual days written all in one place, plus any marathons I do.

* Likewise, I also prefer how I am keeping track of the books I read this year as compared to last year. Last year, I organized them by genre and made no distinction when I began reading them, even though the Beat the Backlist challenge is technically only for books read in a calendar year that were published before that calendar year. I like participating in Beat the Backlist, but this way feels more honest to me because not all of the books I read qualify for the challenge. It also gives me more detailed information. Finally, I didn't like organizing by genre because it made tracking more complicated. Additionally, several books fit into multiple genres -- for example Young Adult Fantasy that also happens to be a reread. This way is simpler and much more detailed, even though it doesn't specify genre.

* I have stayed much more on track with books I wanted to read this year than I did last year -- at least insofar as finishing books I'd begun previously. I still deviated quite a bit when it came to new books -- that is, books I hadn't started reading in a previous year or years.

* I discovered I read nonfiction books much faster and process them better when I can switch between them and fantasy. That's actually probably true of all reading for me. This is probably something that should have immediately been obvious to me, but wasn't.

*I'm largely pleased with the books I deviated from my reading list for, and I think I made good choices, though I'd still like to stick to the plan a little better. Part of that is flexibility, and part is coming up with a better plan. Without flexibility, I wouldn't have read nearly as much as I did this year, and if I had been flexible sooner I may have managed to read even more (though possibly not. But maintaining structure is good, too.

*Regardless of whether I meet my GYWO goal this year, I've decided that I'm going chose the habit goal for 120 days again next year, which will make it my third year in a row. I did not meet my goal last year. I may or may not make it this year. It's very possible I will, but I'll have to continue to apply myself. 

*I wrote and worked on writing far more consistently over the year this year than I did last year, and I am pleased with that, but I still didn't write and work on writing as much as I would like. Additionally, I still find myself in Autumn realizing that I have procrastinated a good deal and that if I'm going to meet my word count goal for the year, it's going to be tight. 

* I am hoping to have a medical issue partially resolved in the coming month, and two-thirds to completely resolved in the following year. If I'm right, I believe that getting this health issue resolved will help me be able to write more consistently and reliably. I may be wrong, but I really hope I'm right. Of course, it won't solve all of my writing problems, and for the most part, I'll just have to really apply myself and push through procrastination, perfectionism, fears, anxieties, and (when possible) executive dysfunction. Some days, due to other health issues, I am genuinely unable to push through, but that makes it even more important to push through on the days when I can. And some days, mercifully, I don't have to push through at all -- I just write, or work on writing. Those days are a blessing and I am profoundly grateful for them.

* I significantly reduced my annual word count goal for next year. I used a similar formula to what I used for the last two years, but I drastically reduced the number of words I am hoping to meet or exceed for writing for the next year. I did this mostly (if not entirely -- I'd have to look at my plans in detail right next to each other, which I'm not up for right now, for a few reasons) by drastically reducing the number of words I expect to write during each Nanowrimo. I halved my April and July goals and I chose the same goal for November, despite it being nowhere near 50,000 words. I came nowhere near meeting my goal for the last two years, so I think this is significantly more attainable and less likely to be setting my self up for failure. I still worry/wonder if, with all the health issues I have, if I should give myself more days "off" for next year in case I need them. It's something to think about. And regardless of whether or not it works, I can change the goal again next year, if I need to or want to adjust it for the following year. This still only applies to the word count goal, though, not my daily GYWO goal, which, as I stated above, I'll keep the same.

*I think I want to try to set up my 2020 Beat the Backlist list early, and adjust it as it gets closer to time. I don't know if Novel Knight is planning on holding the challenge again next year, but regardless I plan on doing something similar. If there is a challenge for 2020, I'll officially sign up, and if not, I'll just keep track on my own. But I find I really like keeping track. I'm both goal and detail oriented, and it helps keep my brain more organized and helps keep me on track. I like having a record of things, as well. This is even nicer given the brain fog and memory problems I have developed. 

*I'd like to be less ambitious with my reading list for next year, but we'll see. I'd also like to finish books I've started reading this year or in previous years but didn't finish reading this year next year. I made good progress with that this year, but there are still more I'd like to finish. There are also books that I meant to or wanted to read that I didn't (which seems to be the main goal of the challenge), as well as books in series I started reading this year but wasn't able to finish this year. Additionally, there some broad, but yet niche categories of books that I would like to read books from next year, but I think I'll wait until next year or closer to it to make definitive decisions on exactly which books in those categories I'll read.

*I've read more books by the beginning of November this year than I did in the entirety of last year, but not by much, and there are still several more I'd ideally like to finish before the end of the calendar year. I'm not sure how successful I'll be at that goal. 

CW: hospitalization, chronic illness, dysfunctional relationships, ableism

 For Get Your Words Out, I'm really pleased with and proud of myself. I managed to write or work on writing all but two days in November and also for a lot of days in October. October is the first month where I actually met my quota for days writing, though in one other month I wrote for nine days which was one shy. I don't want to be in a rush to meet my quota at the end of next year. I also want to pace myself and I want for writing to be a regular, daily thing for me -- not something I do every once in a while. Having a deadline really helped. So did two books: The Right to Write by Julia Cameron and Write-A-Thon by Rochelle Melander. Those books really helped me to write more often, more fluently, and to be less perfectionist about it. I haven't finished either of them, yet, but I plan to. They both have unintentional ableist elements, especially the latter (which I have done less work from) and many of the exercises are the same or similar, but I found them both to be helpful. I'm hoping to dig into Write-A-Thon in March of 2019 to help me get ready for CampNaNoWriMo in April 2019. I'm also hoping to finish The Right to Write before January, so that in January, February, and March, I can focus on doing the exercises laid out in another book by Cameron, The Artist's Way, which I've read has a writing program in it that takes three months.

I participated in NaNoWriMo in November. I only officially wrote 714 words during it, but as I said earlier I wrote our worked on writing all but two days in November. I even managed to write when I was admitted to the hospital for four days, though to be fair, if I hadn't written shortly after midnight the day I went in (which was before my health crisis hit the tipping point) I probably wouldn't have written that day. I also probably wouldn't have been able to do it if my partner hadn't picked up a notebook and pens for me at the drug store and brought them to me. I am also going through a difficult breakup with someone I've been with for a very long-term relationship. My other (and now only) partner and I are moving out of the house we've lived in for the last five years and that we hoped to live in for the rest of our lives, and my former husband's girlfriend is moving in with him when we move out. There are lots of other complications, too, mostly involving health, but not all of them. So because of those things, I'm considering NaNoWriMo 2018 a win and a personal victory for me.

I didn't even come close to meeting my personal word count goal for the year. I believe I'm at about a quarter of the way done. When the deadline for the word count goal arrived, I decided to extend it until December 31st, which I had been debating doing. That gives me more time to meet my goal (though I still doubt I will) and it also lets me start my future word count goals on January 1st, which makes more logical sense and is when most people do them from. It'll also let me keep track of them as a secondary stat along with my writing days for next year's Get Your Words Out. The days and the words still probably won't line up, but it'll be more even and easier to keep track of.

Writing more frequently has definitely made it much easier for me to write and to want to write. Not that it's necessarily made my writing any better, but it's helped me write more often, in more places, and with less difficulty. It's made it much easier for me to get over resistance to writing.


I've missed too many days of writing this year to meet my Get Your Words Out habit goal of at least 120 days this year. But I'm going to try to be as few days short of my goal as possible.

I'm disappointed that I've only read fifteen books so far over the course of the year, which works out to one book and a quarter each month. It particularly irks me because before I got sick, I used to read a book a day -- occasionally every other day or every three days if it  was a book that was long, complicated, dense, or difficult to understand, or if I had more things to do than normal, which cut into my reading time. I am really peevish about this, and wrathful that I don't remember nearly as much as I used to -- including what I read. It is largely internalized ableism on my part, and I'm trying to get over it, but it really aggravates me. It seemed like Novel Knight stopped running the Beat the Backlist challenge partway through the year, though I could have been mistaken. I kept keeping track on here, though. But there is a signup for next year, so I'm definitely going to do that, as well as the Get Your Words Out writing challenge again. And next year, I'll also attempt to participate in both CampNaNoWriMos, NaNoWriMo, and the 3 Day Novel Contest. For Get Your Words Out, I'll do the Habit Challenge again, if it's available. I am not sure if I'm going to stick with 120 days, or if I'm going to move to 240 days. Additonally, I'm going to set an annual word count goal for myself that I've already worked out the math for. And I'm going to try to take part in The Writer's Games, if I'm able to, if I remember in time, and if I can figure out how to, because their website really confuses me for some reason.

I listed my mood as "irritated", which is true, but it has more to do with life circumstances and hormonal fluctuations than it does with the lion's share of what I wrote about.