Post NaNoWriMo Blues

Edit: This article was edited at 7:50am on Thursday December 6, 2012: I found out that the months for Camp NaNoWriMo were different, so I fixed that, and I changed my personal nano month to January.

It really is very difficult remembering that NaNoWriMo has ended. I feel kind of lonely, knowing that I can't go to the website and update my word count ever few minutes while I am writing really bums me out! I am still working on my novel, but it feels a bit sad now. I am excited that there is Camp NaNoWriMo, but that is not going to be here till summer time. I will be having my own personal NaNoWriMo during February, just because it seems to be the right time in the middle of all of the other official NaNoWriMo's. I have decided that my writing goal for the new year is going to be intense.

400,000 words in 2013

0 / 400000

January (personal) 50K

February - 25K

March - 25K

April (camp) - 50K

May - 25K

June - 25K

July (camp) - 50K

August - 25K

September - 25K

October - 25K

November (nanowrimo) 50K

December - 25K

I am so excited! I know that I can do this, because of how well I did this year. The only thing that has held me back in the past, is fear of failure, and of what people think of me. But, I don't have to worry so much about this anymore. My experience this past month has shown me that I can write every day and hate that days draft, or that I can write a little bit one day and love it. A few days in November I wrote 5K, 3K, or 7K and each time I really enjoyed what I was writing. I even liked it when I reread it. Even though my writing plan starts January I am not going to slow down on writing during December.

 I will try to finish my first draft to "The Flatlands," which is my NaNoWriMo 2012 project. I estimate that the completed first draft will probably be about 100,000 words. So, here is my little word count meter!

51073 / 100000

WINNER!!

Yes, I am a winner :D

It feels so good to be finished with NaNoWriMo a whole day early! I won three years in a row, 2007, 2008 and 2009, and then I lost 2010 and 2011. In 2010 me and Travis got engaged halfway through the month, so my novel writing plans kind of got thrown out the window... I did not mind AT ALL hahaha. Then in 2010 I didn't win, because being married, you don't exactly want to spend countless all-nighter's typing away in front of the computer. It's more fun to spend your time together, snuggling, laughing and what-not. 

Of course, we did plenty of that this year too, but I was determined to get to my goal of 50,000 words by the end of November 30th. I did it!!!!!!! Travis has been a big help throughout this whole month. He is encouraging and totally believes in me. He has helped me tremendously!!!

Also, my Mom is absolutely amazing. She let me come to work with her three different times. I was able to use her little office computer, because she has a separate area that she has to be at most of the time, so it worked really nice! I used to work with her, so it was like old times, except I got to do whatever I wanted... namely, write! During those days I wrote 2K (because I had to work on a job as well), 5407, and then 5182 words. My Mom bought me coffee on the way to work and treated me to lunch. It was a wonderful experience being able to spend the whole day with her again like that. She is one of the reasons why I was able to catch up so much on certain days!!! So happy :)

I planned my novel all though out October this year, and I had everything worked out perfectly. But, when I actually started writing, it all changed. The middle is kind of wacky, and I will have to cut and rewrite most of it, but the beginning and end parts are really good. My story has changed a lot, there are some really major changes, but I am liking where this novel is going. I have a lot to finish, so I am going to keep on writing until this first draft is DONE! 

Okay, now I'm gonna go eat the rest of my yummy, dark chocolate! Yummmmmmmm

Aww Man! NaNoWriMo's almost Over!

In the past three months, we moved into a nice little duplex, we got to have our cute little kitty George back, I got a manuscript proofreading job, we created a small hydroponics garden in our sun room, I am writing regularly for iwriter.com and still an elite writer. It has been a pretty busy three months, and nothing is slowing down. It always seems like, when you want peace and quiet the most, then that is when everything goes sideways. 

The other day, we were alerted to someone from all the way across the country using our debit card, they actually swiped it at the check out station in three different places. Thankfully we didn't have the massive amount of money in our account that they were trying to charge, but still it was terrifying. We cancelled that card and looked through to make sure that they had not succeeded in using our money. 

These sort of experiences just go to show how hectic and unknowable this world is. There is no way to know if something like this could happen to you. Just imagine, if we had been paid that day, all of our rent, bill and food money would be gone. We are so thankful that it did not happen that way. Still, even though that card has been shut down, I still worry that it could happen again. 

Well, let's move on to more exciting things! We have moved into a wonderful, cute little duplex. It is a two bedroom home, with a kitchen that has room for our neat little table. One of the best parts about this little home is that it is right next to the house that I grew up in with my Mom and my little sister. I lived next door for about ten years, and now I am living right next door with my lovely husband, and adorable kitty. Oh yeah, and guess what! My Mom is still living next door, so we get to text one another or show up at the front door to either of our houses and say, "Hey, wanna play dice?" 

Here is the scene of one of our games... 

It is one of the most fun experiences ever, to be able to just play a bit of Yahtzee and drink Dr. Pepper with your Mom, just whenever you feel like. We chat and laugh our heads off over silly things. It is so much fun! If I were feeling better (I've been sick with a cold, and now a stomach thing *grrrr*) I would definitely go over and demand that we play dice... but I would provide the snacks.

In other news, NaNoWriMo is almost over! Today is day 28, so that means that there are only 2 days left, not including today, since it's already passed 5pm... I am at 40,000 words. So, I have 10,000 words to write by midnight on Friday. I know that I can do it, but I am not feeling that great, so I'm kind of anxious. 

Oh you know, just George lounging against my bookcase...

I planned my novel this year, I usually just go for it on November 1st and fly by the seat of my pants. But, this year I decided that I was going to know exactly what my story was going to be like, from the beginning to the end. Well, I discovered that even if I plan, outline and write milestones it just doesn't work out all the time. 

By the time I hit 25,000 words I had created a dragon who had been shunned by her dragon clan, all of the clan's, a sparkling underground city, and I completely cut out one of my most important characters. I even decided, on day 26, to completely move around the place where my main character is taken to after she is rescued as a child... there isn't an alternate dimension at all! It is only on the other side of the world!!! So, as you can see, there will be a lot of editing in December. I am having so much fun with this project, and I have to say that writing this blog post has actually rejuvenated my want to finish this novel! Yay! I can do it!!!!

Originally I had planned to write a post every day during November, but, life got in the way... it's hard enough to write 50,000 words in 30 days hahaha... Oh, here is a picture of my messy writing space.

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. I think it's been something like two weeks, or possibly a month? Yikes!!! Well, I've been pretty busy. Car trouble, different stressful things going on. But, also something fun. I decided that I wanted to be a freelance writer... and so I am. 

It has happened a lot easier and more quickly than I thought it would. I tried doing freelance writing before, it was about a year ago and it lasted for a few months, but, the pay was so minuscule, and there were a lot of scams. So, I stopped and had only made about $40 in the whole six months that I had been trying to do it regularly. 

A few weeks ago I decided that I would try again, and this time I researched the best sites out there for freelance writing work. I have so far tried using iWriter and oDesk. I like them both and will be blogging my review for each of them soon.

I have been thinking about interesting business card ideas. I will probably use something like vistaprint, since they are free ( I'm not making the big bucks yet, at all ha ha). If anyone has any neat ideas please let me know. 

Thursday Again?!

Oh wow! I didn't realize it had already been a week since I posted my last blog article. It's been pretty busy lately. You wouldn't think so what with not having a car to drive, but I really haven't had time to just sit down and work on my blog. But, now I do. Let me see what have I been up to?

Saturday we went to my in-laws 40th Anniversary party, a bit late really, they've been married 40 years, 6 months and I think 18 days... but that was Saturday, so now 22 days. It was lovely. So nice to have all of the family together, laughing and eating and having fun. My Mom came with Travis and I. The amazingly cute thing is, that my Mom has known Doug and Jan, Travis' folks way before she had me. I was a preemie, very little, so at my baby shower Jan and Teri made me little preemie clothes. I just love how our family is connected like that. It's so funny to think, they had no idea that years later Travis and I would be married.

The past few days I have been a baking machine! I made crusty bread, on Tuesday. I mixed the dough on Monday and left it to rise for the 12 to 18 hours, then put it into the oven Tuesday... it was horribly salty. We ate it with breakfast and it was bearable, but then we decided that it was just tooooo salty. I realized my mistake, I had not put enough flour in the mix. No wonder it was veery wet and not a shaggy dough like the recipe had stated.

This bread loooooks amazing, but it's the horribly salty one.

I tried again. That same day, mixing the dough so that it would be read, after rising, the next day. So, Wednesday, my Mom came over. I made breakfast and we ate the crusty bread, which ended up being amazing and so so yummy. I was overjoyed, because it tasted just like the kind of bread I like buying at the store.

The next day! Success has been had!!!!! :)

Here is the link to the recipe: Crusty Bread Recipe

Make the Most of What you Have!!

Apartment living is hard, but we do what we can to make it less stressful and more comfy. Travis has decided to build me a window seat in our bedroom. There is a large window there and the view is not much to look at, but I have plans to make it into a nice vegetable garden. There is a long, skinny sidewalk and then rocks around our small apartment complex. Definitely not pretty. We are going to have some fun with this. I have a very cute planter box and some nice flowers next to our front door and soon (a few months or so perhaps) I will be able to look out my bedroom window, from my window seat and look at my pretty tomato and pepper plants. 

I want my kitty George so much, but I know he is safe and very very happy with my Mom right now. So, I don't have to worry. Here's a picture of him. Isn't he cute?

Budget Your Money!
I am in the process of creating a budget binder. This is the envelope system, where as soon as we get our check I put the designated amount of money in each envelope. Some bills we pay with an online system, but I will still keep track of those in my binder as well. I've tried this before, but not since Travis and I have been married. It is such a practical way to keep your budget on track. I am very excited to start with this system again.


Remember, it's important to write down all of your bills and budget needs, that way you can find out where all of your money is going and where it really needs to be going. I discovered, which, I already knew but did not want to admit, that Travis and I eat out way too much. So, that is one area that we are going to work on. 


Meal Planning
Plan your meals in advance, buy groceries on sale and refrain from eating out unless you've planned it into your budget. I like to plan our meals on Mondays, make my list and go to the grocery store. It doesn't always happen like that, but the general idea is to plan and have all the ingredients at hand. That way, I'm excited about my recipes and I'm not sitting around wondering what I should make for dinner. That can so easily end in ordering pizza...

I must confess, we did this last night.

The Search Continues

We were passed over for the rental that we really, really liked. It was very cute. The two car garage already had the work benches Travis needed for making furniture, there was a little laundry room attached, there was even a window seat in the bedroom... plus we could have had George. I'm thinking she already had someone in mind, because when we looked at the place she told us not to get too excited and to calm down. Who does that unless they know you aren't going to be chosen?

Travis is so sweet. I was bummed out, because the place was exactly what we had been looking for and was very affordable. He told me not worry and we will to find the perfect little house. We just have to be patient.

To help with my mood I've been working on my little sister's present. She picked out the yarn for me. I am loving the colors and the stitch. It reminds me of candy.

Also, I will be making Funfetti Cookies in a few minutes. There will be pictures and a recipe on tomorrow's post ;)