Hope, Loud and Online: AugustBreak2015

Monday, August 31, 2015

August Project Wrapup!

Waaaay back at the beginning of the month, I wrote about my August projects. I am quite happy with all three of them.

For the first time in the entire time I've had an account at 750words.com I actually wrote Every. Single. Day. Squee!!! {imagine happy dancing here} I am grinning like a loon just thinking about it.

I wanted the Summer Slowdown to be a pleasant moment each day, and it really was. The organizer sent lovely emails each day, and had a lot of thoughtful, soothing contributors. I'm on the mailing list, so I'll be able to sign up for it again next year. Another win!

It was a blast to post a picture each day for the August Break 2015. Most of the days I posted a snapshot I'd taken that day. I'm thinking about starting a series of Photo Phridays, to remind me to keep taking pictures. I may not keep the phunky spelling.

Somehow, I didn't post about my fourth August project! That's totally bonkers, as it was the most important one. I began training for NaNoWriMo! NaNoWriMo challenges the writer to do a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I've attempted it many times, and have never even come close to it. Mind you, it's always a good for me - I am a happier, stronger person when I'm writing. In late July I thought through doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I knew it would be good to prepare, but I didn't think it would help to spend 3 months outlining. I was at a loss, until it dawned on me that preparing for NaNoWriMo is like preparing for a marathon. That's when my plan came together. In August, September, and October I'll set a word count goal, and go into each month with at least a little bit of a plan for what to write. This lets me build up to the NaNoWriMo word count, and lets me try out different types of pre-writing and planning before I aim for the big fifty thousand.

In August I planned to write 12500 words (1/4 of a NaNoWriMo) of game fiction based on my dragons in Flight Rising. I wrote 63% of that word count goal, which is infinitely more than I wrote in July, so it's a total win. I'll edit and revise that into a readable narrative sometime soon.

I learned a lot about what works and doesn't work for me. Most importantly, I learned that I really do need to write. When I'm not writing, the stories get backed up and fester. When I'm not writing, it gets harder and harder to start again, which totally sucks. I am clearly at my emotional best when I'm writing as close to every day as possible.

How was your August?