101 Goals in 1001 Days | DutchBeingMe

Category Archives: 101 Goals in 1001 Days

Dayum, I finished #NaNoWriMo…

Written on December 2, 2011

As I mentioned last month, I was going to try to write a book in the month of November as part of National Novel Writing Month.

Well, guess what.

I did it.

Yup.

After giving up on say… oh… about day 15, I was inspired by a couple of things – specifically one of the ML’s (Municipal Leader) Darla – who asked me during one of the write-ins if I wasn’t going to be reaching 50,000 words, what would my goal be?

At the time I told her that I would probably aim for 25k. My little pea-sized brain (at the time) didn’t think I could come up with more words than that in 8 days. Then Thanksgiving came… and went… without a single word written the entire weekend. Instead, I enjoyed spending time with family on Thursday, Friday & Sunday and just for good measure a long shift working at the healthclub on Saturday. So really, there wasn’t time to write.

And then came Monday.

Sometime mid-day I got this overwhelming urge to see how far I could get with writing. To see just how close I could get to 50,000 by midnight Wednesday night. That afternoon/evening I think I wrote about 8,000 words, putting me close to 24k (although I didn’t log some of the words until after midnight, so… yeah. Darn.) Tuesday morning I woke up and decided I could do this. I could finish.

So I wrote Tuesday night. I went to the write-in early and wrote like a crazy person. By the time I closed my computer that night, I was all the way up to 36,000 words and really on a roll. I had even worked to find someone to work my shift at the healthclub on Wednesday so that I could *REALLY* give it a go.

Wednesday came just like any other day… except with so much anticipation and adrenaline I didn’t really know how to handle it. And by the time I wrote at lunch mid-day at work, I had wished that I had taken the day off so I could write. Ideas were coming to me & I couldn’t do anything about it. I then had to wait until 5pm came before attacking what I had left of my word count. Except I had a work thing to finish & didn’t get out of there until close to 5:30. At which time I drove to the next write-in I was attending & got my fingers a movin’.

And boy did they move. At a couple points that night, I had been writing about 2,000 words an hour. Seriously.

Because of this… at 11:57pm on Wednesday, November 30… I validated my word count and was a qualified WINNER during #NaNoWriMo 2011.

My #NaNoWriMo chart and progress.

What was the best part of this process?
Honestly, it was meeting the people from the “Ottawa County/Grand Rapids Region” that I now call friends. The support, laughter and just all around good times we had at the write-ins, Day of Knock-Out Noveling and in the chatroom… I am truly blessed to know them and am happy that I will be able to continue the friendships and writing support throughout the year.

The other fun thing? Someone posted about this website – I write like on our forums (and here’s the answer it gave me!)

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I can honestly say this process of writing a book (albeit a REALLY HORRIBLE one) got me motivated to continue to write. Motivated to continue to develop plot lines and think about character. And maybe, someday soon, write a book that is worth reading.

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#NaNoWriMo

#NaNoWriMo: Where are you from…

Written on November 17, 2011

This morning, after 2 days of essentially being “stuck in the mud” (so to speak) with my writing, I had a revelation of sorts. And just for an update for those of you who aren’t doing NaNoWriMo and are buddies with me there… my official word count (as of midnight on 11/17/2011) is 15,737. Keep in mind that to put me back “on track” according to the NaNoWriMo website, I need to have about 28,333 by the time I go to sleep tonight.

And I can tell you that ain’t happening.

I’m simply hoping that I can get to about 18,333 (or about 2,600 words written today).

Let’s see how this goes.

Hopefully easier after the aforementioned “revelation”.

My character has been travelling the world and meeting new people this way. But I’ve been struggling because I sent her to places that I haven’t been and probably either 1) won’t ever go to or 2) it’s going to be a while before I get there.

So essentially, I’m “starting over”. (Keeping my word count but scrapping the other book.)

So I’m bringing her back to the states – and possibly to places I’ve been here recently – and need your help!

The goal is to have her hit up all 50 states in this novel – or at least the lower 48.

Here’s where I need your help:

I need ideas for great cities (and possibly things in those cities to do). Where are you from? Where do you live now? What is your favorite place to visit? What has been your least favorite place to visit?

Once again I’m excited about this project… the first time all week (since at least last Saturday) where I can say that.

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#NaNoWriMo

#SOCSunday: An update to #NaNoWriMo…

Written on November 5, 2011

I needed to start writing something today, so I am starting with a blog post. I didn’t know where else to go in my story… so I’m just taking a 5 minute writing warm-up here with Stream of Consciousness Sunday again {even though it’s Saturday}.

The writing is going ok. I’m at about 3,500 words as of this moment and *just* figured out that in order to catch up for the day, I need to have over 8,000. And I’m writing this after 10pm EDT (which yes, the clock does roll back an hour tonight… so yay, another hour of sleep!) so that pretty much means that I have to write about 2250 words an hour. Or more like 2500 since I’m already starting late.

I wonder if that’s even possible.

Maybe I should try for it.

4500 words in 1 hour and 45 minutes.

*pausing blog post*

*45 minutes later*

So apparently I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no way I can make that deadline. In 45 minutes I’ve written another 850 words… and now pretty much know that I’m not going to make – or rather – catch up on my quota today.

At least I tried.

Now back to writing.

Oh… and don’t expect to read this book. It’s creative, just not that good.

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I’m joining in with Stream of Consciousness Sunday with All Things Fadra…

Want to play along? Here are the rules…

Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
Link up your post at All Things Fadra.
Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

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#NaNoWriMo, Stream of Consciousness Sunday

#NaNoWriMo: Things I’ve learned already…

Written on November 3, 2011

I’ve learned a few things during #NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) already.

So I thought I’d pass them along to you.

It doesn’t matter where in the book you begin each day, just that you write.
It doesn’t matter if the story makes sense, just that you write.
It doesn’t matter that you change the names of the characters or the tense that you are writing in, just that you write.
It doesn’t matter how many spelling or grammatical errors there are on the page (even if you are completely obsessed with not having them), just that you write.
Check out Write or Die if need a helpful site to keep you writing, primarily so you don’t hear babies crying, someone screaming or Hanson sing “MMM Bop” over and over, just so that you keep the motivation to write.

So if you decide to do #NaNoWriMo in the future, remember that it’s all about the writing.

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Prompt: 3.) Write a post in just eight lines.

This post is linked up with Writer’s Workshop at Mama Kat’s Losin’ It.

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#NaNoWriMo, MamaKat's Writers Workshop