I keep getting really annoyed that I haven't really been writing any blogs for a while, but I have so much to do that I haven't even played Sims 4 or SimCity for a month, and they're my destress things, so I'm sure you can imagine that I'm a little bit of a X Track 2 (I'm a Mess - for all those who didn't get the Ed Sheeran reference).
So, what's been happening? Well, more doctor's trips because I've been having inconvenient stomach pains - not that any stomach pain is particularly convenient if you actually like doing your job and are no longer in high school wanting to miss PE - getting infuriated at the library in my university when people are requesting books that I'm using for my dissertation, getting a bit panicked by essays and deadlines, going to see Ed Sheeran in concert (twice :P) and watching the filming of Russell Howard's Good News last night. Why does life always seem to fit much more nicely into timeslots when you list it all out? I always feel so busy!!
What am I currently procrastinating from (I don't care if that's incorrect use of the word, you understand what it means)? Well, I have to choose between two really fun essays: One about HIV and contraception, the other about the ethical status of natural family planning. Considering this is one of the courses I am technically resitting - not that I failed, I just didn't do the course first time... - I would rather do the second option, as I attempted the first last time, and I don't think it went so well...
In other news, I've finally reached a decision concerning National Novel Writing Month this year, and I have decided I'm not doing it. I'm sick of the amount of Facebook spam I get about it and, quite frankly, the pressure to focus that much on my novel writing at the moment would not be a welcome thing - I actually can't think of anything worse. Last year was amazing - 3 10k days and I finished within 19 days, beating my personal record (previously 20days) - but I kicked my own ass so hard because NaNo was the centre of my world; this year it can't be, and I don't know any other way to behave with it, so rather than make a royal fluff up of my last year at uni, I would rather put NaNo onto the backburner for a bit and focus on the stuff that I really need to do.
It's been a bloody hard decision, and it's not like I'm walking away from it for good, but I guess that at some point I have to see that NaNo doesn't and can't own me, and I don't need it, I just want it. If I never go back to it, it has been extraordinary for me - not just for the writer that I want to be, but also the person that I am. I've met some amazing people because of it, and I hope to stay in touch with a lot of them for a very long time, but like I said, I have far too much else going on at the moment to be able to afford the time to it that I spend on it.
Best of luck to all those competing this year.
Anyway, best get back to it.
29 Oct 2014
11 Oct 2014
I Hate Trying to Think of Titles,
I find it really difficult to think of titles sometimes, which is why there are so many documents on my computer which are called Untitled with a number at the end, or why I stick to notebooks until I can title things.
I'm going to just warn you that I'm typing this while attacking an adult slushy (Parrot Bay's Berry Dacquiri) so if this gets a little less sensical as it goes along, that is much to be expected...
So, I mentioned that Ben and I had made a deal about my getting Yours, finished by the end of the year, and I was a little worried that I wouldn't get it done, but what might be glad to know is that it's roughly half done... And it was the difficult half. I find that when I like characters and something bad happens to them, as often does, I find those sections really difficult to deal with, and so I tend to avoid them. The obvious question that comes along there is 'why didn't you just write it differently?' but I have to explain something right now - I don't write things how I want them to happen, I write them how they play out in my head, and that doesn't always leave things how I want them.
I just want to clarify, I'm not trying to suggest I have no control over the things that happen, I can ultimately affect it all with my moods, the music I listen to etc, but if I try to change something because it's not quite what I want for the character, it never goes exceptionally well. I guess that what I have come to accept is that good things and bad things will come to good and bad people, everything is on a grey scale and it is how you learn to deal with things that is really important.
In other news, I have written the introduction for my dissertation, been to the knitting and stitching show, carried on working at the hospital and decided what I'm giving my family for Christmas whilst being grinchy about the fact that stores are already stocking their Christmas collections. Granted I had no problem with this for the knitting and stitching show, but making gifts for people can take the whole year, so it's a bit more understandable.
Basically, life is still busy, busy, busy, and now November is just about on the horizon and the question is being asked - to NaNo or not to NaNo? On the plus side, I abhor losing, so I will find the time to hit the target, but would my dissertation or my other courses suffer as a consequence? Most probably. Or I'd spend another month trying to learn how to live without sleeping. The thing is, pretty much regardless of everything on the list of why I shouldn't do it, the probability is that I will throw caution to the wind and do it anyway, because it's just become a part of who I am.
Anyway, life's calling...
I'm going to just warn you that I'm typing this while attacking an adult slushy (Parrot Bay's Berry Dacquiri) so if this gets a little less sensical as it goes along, that is much to be expected...
So, I mentioned that Ben and I had made a deal about my getting Yours, finished by the end of the year, and I was a little worried that I wouldn't get it done, but what might be glad to know is that it's roughly half done... And it was the difficult half. I find that when I like characters and something bad happens to them, as often does, I find those sections really difficult to deal with, and so I tend to avoid them. The obvious question that comes along there is 'why didn't you just write it differently?' but I have to explain something right now - I don't write things how I want them to happen, I write them how they play out in my head, and that doesn't always leave things how I want them.
I just want to clarify, I'm not trying to suggest I have no control over the things that happen, I can ultimately affect it all with my moods, the music I listen to etc, but if I try to change something because it's not quite what I want for the character, it never goes exceptionally well. I guess that what I have come to accept is that good things and bad things will come to good and bad people, everything is on a grey scale and it is how you learn to deal with things that is really important.
In other news, I have written the introduction for my dissertation, been to the knitting and stitching show, carried on working at the hospital and decided what I'm giving my family for Christmas whilst being grinchy about the fact that stores are already stocking their Christmas collections. Granted I had no problem with this for the knitting and stitching show, but making gifts for people can take the whole year, so it's a bit more understandable.
Basically, life is still busy, busy, busy, and now November is just about on the horizon and the question is being asked - to NaNo or not to NaNo? On the plus side, I abhor losing, so I will find the time to hit the target, but would my dissertation or my other courses suffer as a consequence? Most probably. Or I'd spend another month trying to learn how to live without sleeping. The thing is, pretty much regardless of everything on the list of why I shouldn't do it, the probability is that I will throw caution to the wind and do it anyway, because it's just become a part of who I am.
Anyway, life's calling...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)