Out of the frying pan and into the fire…yes, I’m doing NaNoWriMo!

It’s very possible that I have lost my mind, but I have made the decision to participate in NaNoWriMo this year.

But what on Earth is it, I hear you ask?

For those of you that are unaware of what I’m talking about NaNoWriMo is a online creative writing challenge. Every year you have to write a novel of 50,000 words in November. A couple of years ago I decided to participate with an interesting little story called ‘The Whitehall Vampire’ which was based around the idea of a puritan detective investigating a series of brutal murders at the court of Charles II .

In fact it was that which started off the whole novel writing process for me. I just loved the idea of plunging into writing a novel and since I always said I was going to write one the time had come to put up or shut up. I never managed to finish my story in the right timescale (in fact I’m still kind of working on it), but I liked the story so much I carried on.

This year I’ve got a couple of really good ideas that I would like to explore and I really want to do this to prove to myself that I can do it and I want to work on something other than ‘Dischord’ . Not that I don’t love my novel (which I’m not ashamed to say I do!) but I suspect a bit of a change might do me some good frankly. ‘Dischord’ has mutated into a bit of a 180,000 word monster which is so NOT what it was originally intended to be.

I’ve got a while before the challenge starts in November so I’ve got time to decide which story to tell and time to do research, if I need to. I also thought if I make the decision to enter for it now then I can’t back out if everyone knows about it,can I?

This is where you guys come in. I’m thinking about getting sponsored possibly, I haven’t decided yet. Any encouragement and comments will be welcome. This is a bit of a step into the unknown and I hope that this year I can achieve my writing goal. It might make me more motivated at work now that I have something I enjoy to work on and look forward to rather than feeling like all I do is go to work, come home and fall into bed in order to do the same thing hours later!

I feel quite stoked about it. After all, I’ve got the equipment I need now I’ve invested in my laptop, I’ve been finding it easier than ever writing the novel using MS Word 2007 and it should be exciting! If I manage to do it , I will feel as if I’ve done something worthwhile for me and that’s what’s important.

Job Wanted

Today I wanted to do something worthwhile, just so I wasn’t wasting the last day of my holiday from work just surfing aimlessly on the Internet and wasting time rotting my braincells. Failing that, I knew I would end up sat in front of the telly watching some mindless pap like ‘My Super Sweet 16′ which isn’t good for me.I decided I was going to spend a couple of hours searching and applying for a new and better job. Rather than just moaning about it and complaining about how short of cash I am every single month, I was going to look for something new and take charge of my so-called career.

It didn’t take long before I felt even worse than I had before I’d started my search. Not only did I start to feel as if I had no skills at all which is untrue as I do have a job and have been in it for over two years, but I was having trouble finding a decent paying job that I wanted to spend eight to twelve hours of my day at. So often when you’re searching for a job you tend to feel like you so desperately want them to like you and take you on that you forget that you have to feel comfortable as well. It’s a two way street.

I’m a bit concerned at the fact I still haven’t worked out at the age of thirty what I want to do. I feel like I SHOULD have decided what I want by now. I should have my ideal job, I should be moving on with my life. At the moment I feel like I’m in arrested development. I suppose this is the root of my dissatisfaction with where I currently work.

Would I really want to work from home, though? That’s the question. Although I sometimes wish I had a job that enabled me to do that, would I actually be able to motivate myself to do anything? What I’ve noticed is that I do get easily distracted when I’m at home. There is always something that needs doing now, and that’s when I’m at home by myself. Normally I’m doing something and then someone will call me to come downstairs and that’s it. Game well and truly over. The only reason I’ve managed to write as much of the novel is because I write very late at night like at two o’ clock in the morning. While it’s not very good for my sleeping pattern and being inspired to write a lot is tricky when you’re peering at the screen in the wee hours of the morning I know it’s what I have to do.

What I need is a job that allows me to work and have some work/life balance so I can do my writing , but I can earn a decent wage. It MUST be out there. I just have to keep searching under every rock and stone if I have to.