All posts tagged: NaNoWriMo

Hello, old friend…

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I’m back. I can’t even remember when was the last time I posted anything here, although a quick look at the posts tells me it was almost a month ago. Given the fact that I was writing around three times a week, I feel like I owe you all an explanation… Possibly I really don’t, but let’s be transparent and all that. Now it all seems far away, I’m OK telling you all about it. If I remember correctly, that last post was scheduled. On that same day, after being a couple of days off sick, I found out my role was being made redundant. If it has never happened to you, trust me, it’s not a nice feeling. I’m not going to discuss all the details here, but any redundancy has a consultation period which, in my case, lasted for about two weeks or so. That meant I was off work during that period, not really knowing what was going to happen. I told my brother straight away, since we share a flat, but …

Entering the last stretch!

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Tomorrow I’ll be in Strasbourg for a long weekend. I can’t wait. For some reason, it feels weird. I’m travelling from Stansted, and I’m not sure how I’m getting to the airport from the other end of the planet (or so it feels, anyway). I thought I was being clever by booking a flight late afternoon, so I could have the morning to myself and do stuff at home. Oh, how confused I was! Turns out it’s going to take me over 2 hours to get to the airport, and since you have to get there earlier, and I don’t know the route, or the actual place… Ugh. Just ugh. At least, I’m going to catch up with The Pack, the group of friends that were always together at university, here in the UK. I haven’t seen two of them in ages, and the other one, well, I see her pretty much every couple of months (hi Aissa!) It should be a fun weekend. Aissa wants to go running this weekend, and I’m a bit …

Little Mean Voice

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You’re late, said the mean voice in my head. You’re never going to finish on time, as usual. It was getting way too normal, much like a habit. The voice kept on making snarky remarks on my life and my choices, all the time. I failed to set it aside, it just wouldn’t keep quiet. Do you know what date it is? It kept reminding me. I was straining myself to not bite the bait and begin a conversation. It could keep its monologue for as long as it wanted, I would not respond. Still, the words burnt on my tongue while I gritted my teeth. You said you would finish your jumper in October… Well, did you? I opened my mouth to reply, but stopped. I. Would. Not. It’s now November, and you haven’t finished it yet. Shall we speak about NaNoWriMo? Ouch. That hurt. The mean voice knew exactly where to hit me. Day 6. That’s almost 10,000 words behind… Does that feel like failure yet? You can’t even say you’ve been busy …

You don’t have to be great to start…

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The joke’s on me. For a few days now, I’ve been talking to my friend about the fact that the only way to get over a writer’s block is to write. Thanks to NaNoWriMo, I’ve realised that we are our own worst critics and that if we edit and proof read as we write, chances are we will stop half way through. How many unfinished posts I have hanging around on my dashboard. How many texts I have in notebooks, on my phone, on any scrap of paper. Ideas that I save for later but that I never revisit. His problem was (is?) that he’s to tough with himself. He wants to create a perfect post, so if it doesn’t reach his standards, he just deletes it. My answer was, has been, and will always be to just write. That’s pretty much the topic of his last post (hello there!) Well, the joke’s on me. I can’t write today. I’ve started this post many times already, and each with a different topic. See, I have …