Life Post-NaNoWriMo

This blog post was begun on Sunday, November 30th—the last day of NaNoWriMo and DigiWriMo (Note: at the time of writing that sentence, I still needed about 4,000 words!  So close but so far…But I made it! 54,200 words by Sunday evening!).  One of my friends challenged me to three 1,000 word sprints, which really helped.  She has informed me that for that challenge, out of all her current writing ideas, what she settled on writing was a “Harry Potter/Discworld” fanfiction.  So the world is a funner place, no matter which of us finished each set first. 

On Saturday, November 29th, I had only written about 2,000 words towards NaNoWriMO.  I had also gotten (happily) sucked into watching the entire 1999 Mini-Series adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters (it is impossible to watch just one episode...).  I was able to turn that time into "research" by writing a review of the mini-series the next afternoon, though!

Full disclosure: I have watched the mini-series, but I have not read the book yet.  So I can't compare them.

But I had really enjoyed Elizabeth Gaskell’s short novel Cranford, as well as the TV mini-series that was based on that book and on some of Gaskell’s other stories and her letters and essays about her hometown.  And I think that “Cranford,” both the novella and the mini-series, each of which is made up of several everyday scenes in a little town that is threatened by change, was an inspiration for my NaNoWriMo creative writing project.  My piece focuses on the every day activities in a small town and in a city library, and how both react when a mysterious “Sleep Sickness” starts spreading.  And the mysterious bracelet that one character acquires:

My ROW80 Update for the week:
WRITING-SPECIFIC GOALS
1, 3. Blog Sketches, Vlog Idea: I still like the idea of having an alternative creative outlet, but the vlog idea has still been pushed to the side.  I did 10 sketches in the last week and a half, and am beginning a "Book to Art" wearable piece inspired by Cranford.
2. Blog Posts (10+ blog posts for November & December (Two ROW80/NaNoWriMo update posts & one crafts-based post per week):  My writing has definitely slowed down post-NaNoWriMo.  And I think that with NaNoWriMo over, I may only aim for one ROW80 post and one crafts post each week.  But I wrote two posts today, so that's great.
4. Creative Writing:  I still have several points that have not been resolved in my story.  But several more scenes were written during the final November weekend push, which was exciting.  Having to focus on the story and think of more scenes to up my word count for NaNoWriMo and DigiWriMo really helped me stay focused on this story and its possibilities.  Now that the time pressure is off me, I need to figure out how to resolve my story gaps--and keep the momentum.  So I need a new fiction goal to aim for.  And I would like to continue fleshing out my novella before I think of revision or anything like that.
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ONGOING SOCIAL MEDIA/PERSONAL GOALS:
5. Tweet more Original Content & Reply to at least one ROW80 post or comment per update interval.  This was not a challenge to keep up with.  I enjoyed browsing other people’s progress, and engaging in little supportive conversations.  And it helped me to keep writing when I could see other people’s writing challenges being dealt with or just acknowledged.  Now that we're in December, there haven't been hourly NaNoWriMo updates on Twitter or in the writing forums to keep encouraging me to just write that little bit extra during each writing session, so I will have to rely on myself more…
6. Keep Up with Minimum Exercise Goals: I have gotten back into this (a little), now that I’m not sitting in the easy chair attempting to write a couple blocks of a thousand words every day…Small surprise, I'm sure.  I still need to get back into regular activity and increase my overall fitness.

I finished  the last evening of NaNoWriMo in a friend’s living room with the same group of people on laptops that had kicked off my 2014 NaNoWriMo jaunt on November 1st.  So that was a lovely writing bookend to finish off the month!