beating myself up

So, there is a chance that you will be hearing from me more often. If you don’t know, I’m currently working on a 101 in 1001 days challenge. I love it oh so much, and it has seriously enhanced my life. If you haven’t checked out my other blog, you might as well make your way over there right now to check it out. That is where I document all the fun things that I’ve done while working on my 101 goals.

Anyway, because I like to torture myself, I’m going to try to do a double goal combo starting November 1st. NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo. If you don’t know what those are, you can find more info out via the links, but basically it means I need to post on this little blog of mine every single day. In the past, that has either been really difficult or super easy, so I am going to keep my fingers crossed for this one. I don’t know why I’m trying to torture myself like this, but I am hoping it will also help me with my writing.

Here is the problem. NaNoWriMo only happens once a year- in November. My 101 in 1001 challenging will be finished on 10/1/11. So if you’re a quick thinker, you’ve already figured out that this is my final November that I can participate. So its now or never. Either get on the horse or quit complaining.

I decided to go for it.

So, obviously it needs to be tweaked a bit to make it work. I’m not writing fiction. I don’t even know if fiction is what everyone does or not, but since its the National Novel Writing Month, not the National Memoir Writing Month, I’ll just assume fiction is the status quo. But, I like to be different. Which means I will try to complete the first draft of a “memoir”. The reason I through that in quotes is because I’m not quite sure what that even means to me. I know the goal is 50,000 words at minimum. To be considered victorious, 50, 000 words must be written by 11:59pm on November 30, 2010. So, what I’ve decided to do is try to outline some type of memoir-ish collection of essays. I think that will help me the most in school right now, and while it isn’t the most marketable type of book, I’m not doing this to get a writing deal. I’m truly doing it to become a better writer, scratch that… I’m doing this to become a better student.

And god knows I need some help with that. With every packet I have turned in for graduate school, things have gotten easier. Its just so hard for me to figure out a schedule. I don’t know how to work with deadlines, how to schedule time for writing, etc. I’m working on it, and I see improvement, but I need more. So, while torturing myself to write 50,000 words in 30 days, I’m doing it so I can learn how to be a better writing. 1,667 words a day is structure. I need some type of structure.

You know whats funny? I have a deadline on 11/1 and 12/1 for school. I also will be going on vacation for about 5 days before the end of the month. I mean, seriously…I don’t get why I make these choices, either. I just can’t control myself.

So, the goal is to complete a collection of nonfiction essays for NaNoWriMo.I bet you’re wondering why I mentioned NaBloPoMo before. Thats because I have one more month to “complete” for my 101 in 1001 goal. I figured that since I will be writing all day, I might as well be on here writing as well. There is really no excuse not to do it. So… I will also attempt to complete NaBloPoMo in November as well. I thought it would be awesome if I could post little excerpts of my writing on here… and since the goal of NaNoWriMo is to produce, not edit, it really will be little excerpts.

Wish me luck.

2 comments

  1. Racquel Henry says:

    Erin,
    Great Post! Thanks for stopping by my blog last week. Also, I will be writing fiction, but I may be scrapping my idea completely! :-/ I think it’s cool that you’re applying memoir writing to NanoWriMo! Good luck with all your goals! 🙂

  2. Lianne says:

    Good luck with your goals! I’m going to check your day zero blog out! I started a Day Zero Project too, but kind of neglected it. So I’m going to give it a fresh start with more interesting goals. If you have brilliant ideas for things I have to do, please share!
    Your blog is lovely by the way!

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