On goals, the road to them, and life in between.
“Pursuing being better lead me to the therapy of writing. Through writing, I’ve been able to have synapses connect and connect with people who inspire and teach me. I’m a better person for it. Now, writing is something I do because I have to.Writing has become a solace for me… Writing has become a burden for me.”
Read my brother Nick’s post on writing called For the Sake of Becoming.
You know the moment, you’ve got this image in your mind of how the scene should play out. You can feel the emotions, you’ve got the best lines… but you’re on the metro and you’ve got to get it down.
Evernote has saved many of these scenes for me. I recently tried out Byword which is also a great app because it syncs through Dropbox.
I wanted to point you to a post from the Evernote Life Blog about how an employee/novelist keeps track of his writing using Evernote. He says he uses Evernote to:
What about you, writers? What do you use?
I found out about Scrivener through Nanowrimo a few years ago. I can’t really imagine my life without it. It’s so unbelievably handy for writing a novel, a book, or even for keeping a blog. I have a blog called The Righteousness Project this year that did a bunch of research into themes, kind of like the Happiness Project did. I would have gone mental without Scrivener. It neatly held all my research, my links, my files, PDFs and kept them all nice and tidy. And then I had all my drafts and plans nicely divided by month/topic etc. Glorious.
I got a deal thanks to Nano and now would have zero problem paying whatever the full price is for this thing. I highly recommend it if you want to keep your wits about you when you write and manage a bunch of info. It’s far more powerful as a program than you might think you’d need, but man are those features great.
This year you can get 50% off Scrivener if you win Nanowrimo, and get 20% off for all participants. Check it out here.
I’m in. I was on the line because I have no clue what to write about. I can write things that have already happened, but write things that are make-belief? We’ll see. I have no plot ideas, but No Plot, No Problem, right?
What this means: probably a whole lot less blogging during this month. But I have a few fun things planned for November that you will like, I promise.
So: goals for November include writing a novel, continue my morning routine (ie: running), hold down a full-time job, and not die.
Perfect.
In two days National Novel Writing Month begins. It’s a month where a bunch of aspiring writers/creatives get together online and in
their communities with the goal of writing a 50, 000 word novel in the 30 days of November. That’s a small novel around the size of the Great Gatsby which you likely read in High School.
I first found out about it online when I was just two months into my degree. I was eager to try but I thought, ‘this is crazy, I’m super busy with my university classes, how could I ever find the time?’ and then I realized something important: my life was only going to get busier and busier from that year on (which I was right about). So I decided to do it.
It was marvellously thrilling. Not every step of the way, there were times when I hated it and wanted to quit. But 30 days isn’t that long. The story itself was crap and I dealt with the concept very childishly, but hey, I was 18 and I wrote a novel.
Like I said, when I look back I knew my story was pretty awful. The point was never to be a good writer, but to get the process of writing started. I had to kill the snob in me who said, “I will only write if it’s good.” You’ll probably have to kill the snob in you too. THAT’S ALWAYS A GOOD THING. Writers who don’t write aren’t writers. They’re just people who like literature.
So go sign up and maybe even get connected with people in your community who are doing it with you. Maybe you’ll find a kindred spirit writerly friend!
As an aside, every year I contemplate doing it again. After browsing that website, it really made me want to do it again. I have approximately ONE day to decide. Gulp.
When Willy and I were dating it was pretty clear that we were coming from two distinctly different planets when it came to our music taste. He shared with me a song by Corb Lund, I shared with him a song by Broken Social Scene. The sole things these two artists shared in common was that they’re both technically Canadian Indie artists.
That day when we exchanged those texts, I think we both had a moment of shock like, “Ok, so this is different.” In fact, Willy tells a story of how growing up he always thought marriage was about ‘sacrificing’ by repainting the living room a different shade of beige to appease the wife who desire change. “I didn’t think it would mean I’d have to listen to this!”
To his credit (and my great pleasure), Willy has never complained about my music. But I have also really tried to make sure I don’t drive him to it, either. Since music is tremendously important to me (it’s a life-giving force, even!) I’ve tried to find a middle ground of music that we both enjoy.
Guess where we found it? Hipster-Pseudo-bluegrass/country!
Here are some of the artists we like best:
As this is being published we’ll be en route to a marriage conference put on by Family Life in Mont Tremblant. I plan on introducing him to the Great Lake Swimmers (concrete heart) as we drive through the gorgeous Quebec countryside. I’m confident he’ll like the band.
Just like the in our relationship sometimes we need to find the middle road in order to find moments of peace and enjoyment, we also need to chill out, step away from pushing towards our goals and being productive and just enjoy life.
That’s what I plan on doing this weekend with my husband. You should, too. (Except not with my husband).
