NaNoWriMo – But Not Only | November 2011, Day 5

The First NaNoWriMo 2011 Mid-Weekend Review

I’m beginning to have second thoughts about mixing a-post-a-day with writing a nove (even though I lowered my novel-goal to 25k)…but I’ll stick to it, for this year – maybe it gets better.

The problem? Basically, writing a blog post takes not more time than writing fiction… but my novel is first draft, and nobody will read it as it is.

My posts are published right away, which means revision, perhaps finding images or quotes, linking everything, formatting, editing and updating a few times because I keep finding flaws or forgot to add the right categories and tags. I should have thought that after 50+ posts this would be a routine procedure, but it’s still slow – and all those details eat a lot of my writing time. – My choice, my problem = challenge to find a solution.

“Magnifica” develops slowly, but I’m still satisfied with how it goes. The new scenes are interesting to write because I look at my characters from a different angle this time.

What also helps is my last year’s experience – mainly that I’m not worried anymore about getting stuck, and up to now it didn’t happen. I’m also much more relaxed – having practiced all year round how to switch my mind chatter off is paying off now: no total immersion, no early burn-out symptoms, getting other things done as well, and turning on writing mode within a couple of minutes.

It flows gently, but it flows.

How is it going for you? Have you met with specific problems or surpassed your expectations?

Maria

My word count Day 4: blog posts: 0 – novel: 750 = 3 pages

Btw: You can still join the Writing Buddies – and it’s not too late to sign up for NaNoWriMo 2011, either

Easy access to all posts this month via a new menu category: Specials >> November 2011: NaNoWriMo – But Not Only.

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The Enermazing Weekly Ticker (11) 17th – 23rd October 2011

+ +++ +++ Site News +++ +++ +

This week a couple of gales slammed some doors shut on The Enermazing Project – including side entrances. Shocked by all that noise, it took me a while to recover.

While standing there, I noticed a gentle breeze from the back… Hidden by a heavy curtain was not a built-in storage closet as I had believed, but a door, slightly ajar and fastened with a chain and lock. I haven’t yet discovered the key to it, but what I’ve seen through the gap promises something far better than I had planned

My apologies for this short note (and if I haven’t visited your latest posts) – I’m off searching for the key, or a “chain saw”

 Don’t focus on the noise – listen for the breeze:)

Maria

+ +++ +++ Quote of the week  +++ +++ +

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.

 Jiddu Krishnamurti

The Enermazing Weekly Ticker (10) 10th – 16th October 2011

+ +++ +++ Site News +++ +++ +

The Enermazing Project is dragging its feet, and there didn’t seem much that I could do about it but wait when I remembered one of my favourite quotes by Richard Bach (below).

Asking “What’s the gift I’m getting here?” gave me a different perspective. I shifted from what I can’t do at the moment to what is in place already – which is loads, and ready to go.

I’ll pass on the “big” launch idea for this year (which will also free a considerable amount of time and energy for what is important) and focus on preparing a little starter package – more on this next week

For today, I’ve got two pieces of site news:

• a new page in the About… section of the menu “With a pinch of salt” which – despite its title – got nothing to do with cooking
• a poll in the sidebar

Have a great week

Maria

+ +++ +++ Quote of the week  +++ +++ +

There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.

Richard Bach: Illusions – The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

+ +++ +++ this & that  +++ +++ +

If you are still looking for a video for your bucket list, this might be it: Tari Brand’s (Celebration of Now) latest post This Could Save Your Life

What’s The Score? | Keeping Track Of Personal Progress

Do you know this? Busy all day, tired in the evening (or around noon ), next day the same, and the following day, and the day after…wondering WHY, because all that busy-ness never seems to lead to anything, at least not to anything of importance.

Dreams are lost on the way, occasional enthusiasm drowns in a workload which has only significance as far as quantity is concerned.

I have been living like this for years. No, not living. Existing. And it seemed normal to me, as most people around me existed the same way. It was so normal that I didn’t even question this lifestyle, until, well, until I couldn’t keep it up any longer. After several warnings (which I pushed aside, of course) I broke down completely. My strong will (or stubbornness, as I would call it) which used to supply me with sufficient energy to move from one day to the next was broken.

With the help of family and friends I recovered enough to decide on a radical change (in that case it was moving country and cutting off most connections to my former life – and no, I would NOT recommend it, there are much easier and more fun ways of turning one’s life around). This sudden change threw me off balance, but revived my stubbornness which resurfaced and kept me afloat. I began to heal.

Then just a few years later, I found myself in the same treadmill again, in a different country, with a different job, but nevertheless I recognized old patterns slowly reappearing.

And that was the point of change:

The Enermazing Weekly Ticker (9) 3rd – 9th October 2011

+ +++ +++ Site News +++ +++ +

You may or may not have noticed the additional page in the menu: Enermazing Quotes, where I collected all quotes from this blog on one page – it’s not that many yet

I don’t know about you, but when I come across a quote which attracts my interest I want to find out more about the person who said or wrote it. Therefore I have linked the authors’ names to websites which I hope will tell you a bit more about who’s behind the quote. Click on the links, they should open up as a new page in your browser.

Hope you enjoy browsing

Maria

+ +++ +++ Quote of the week  +++ +++ +

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.  Douglas Adams: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

+ +++ +++ this & that  +++ +++ +

Are you where you want to be? If not, maybe you are going in the wrong direction? Or perhaps, like Douglas Adams, you are exactly where you need to be this moment?

Nicole (Purpose and Dream) has posted some interesting thoughts on Collective Consciousness which may give you some insight on why it’s often so difficult to choose a path and to stick to it: We are not alone…

Is There Something “In The Air” Today?

While I scanned my subscriptions, I came across these excerpts, all from different blogs (eight in a row in total):

“Is anyone else having issues with WP today? All I’m getting is blank pages without links to new posts and comments.”

“Here [I] am sitting in front of a blank page just typing because I seem to have nothing to write about that has the making of anything like a five hundred word post.”

“Normally I have an idea of what my post will contain but today I know there’s something that is wanting to be expressed and written but I’m not quite sure what.”

I myself cleared my schedule for today of anything not related to The Enermazing Project. What happened? One power cut this morning from about 10:30 to noon, and another one from 14:00 to 14:45.

synchronicity is "in the air": everything is connected - in some way or other

Three out of eight, or four out of nine, whatever. I’m sure there’s a unique and reasonable explanation in every instance (like: WP is restructuring the site, writer’s block, inspiration in the make, the whole area being rewired), but synchronicity often appears in strange disguises:

We Shall Naturally look round in vain the macrophysical world for acausal events, for the simple reason that we cannot imagine events that are connected non-causally and are capable of a non-causal explanation. But that does not mean that such events do not exist…

Carl Jung: Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle 

How was your experience today? Any blocks or obstacles – or quite the contrary?

Have a sunny day

Maria

Image source: wikimedia.org

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