Monthly HapPENings: November + NaNo Recap

Hey! Hiya! You guys remember me? I know, I've been gone for pretty much a whole month, so I may not be very recognizable. But here we are, at the beginning of the end. Before we really get into the whole post, I just want to say that I'm only going to be briefly touching on the Monthly HapPENings aspect and focus more on NaNo and writing. Let's breeze through what the month was like!

Life was pretty normal, all things considered. I worked, and when I wasn't working, I was writing. I attended my work Christmas banquet with Tracey, and that was a lot of fun. But really, besides that . . . I didn't much on the life side of things. Just lots of writing.

Bookish HapPENings

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I finally finished another book! While it wasn't my favorite Klavan book, or even my favorite series of his, it was still great. And it felt good to read over half of it in one day, something I haven't done since . . . I dunno, my summer vacation? But anyway, I enjoyed it. I would've liked a longer denouement, as it felt a little rushed. I also think that first-person is more of Klavan's forte than third-person is. All-in-all, it was probably four out of five stars for me.

HapPENings on the Screen

I think my youngest two sisters and I watched shows once, maybe twice, this last month. It was our usual line-up: Flash, Ninjago, and Avatar. (I'm too lazy right now to bother putting up all those pictures.) To be honest, I don't even remember where we ended off with those, so I don't have much to say about them. I also want to get back into watching Trollhunters, because I've only seen one episode so far, and it was supposed to be my alternative show to watch until I can see S4 of The Flash. I'll have to sit down and watch another episode this week.

Gaming HapPENings

Honestly, I didn't do a whole lot of gaming in November. Trust me, I wanted to, as a way for me to relax and refresh myself, but NaNo refused to give me that time most days. Or I wasted that time on my phone. *awkward cough*

I did do a bit on my laptop closer to the end of the month. Chloe watched me play some games, such as Euro Truck Simulator. I'm so bad at that game, not only because you have to drive on the left side of the road, but also because I was horrible at backing up and staying in my lane and whatnot. I even tipped the whole semi a couple of times.

I also played with Preston, one of my Kiwi friends. We hadn't done that together in so long. It was great to reconnect and laugh our heads off about the stupidest stuff. We played Terraria and Worms W.M.D. together, which is always a blast. I hope we can do it again soon.

Writerly HapPENings/NaNoWriMo Recap

So a lot--and I do mean a LOT--of last month was spent writing. When I was at home, and I wasn't eating, sleeping, or getting distracted by my cell, I was writing. But allow me to start from the beginning.

A few days before November began, I Tweeted that I was entering NaNo this year. Boy, did that Tweet blow up, for whatever reason becoming my most liked post. So many people were encouraging me and being all like, "Yeah, you can do it!" It was pretty crazy.

With a bit of nervousness, I entered November 1st, anticipating the craziness that people often spoke of. Having not have written terribly much since my novella last December, I was a bit rusty at first. It took me a few hours to write 1.1k, but I enjoyed it. In fact, the more I wrote, the more I wondered why I had waited so long to get back into it.

Now, I know some people probably have crazy stories of all the things that they did and accomplished in the month of November. I am not one of those people. Things were pretty routine from one day to the next. I worked full-time from 8am-4pm every weekday, and went home with every intention of writing as soon as possible. Often, my phone--especially Twitter--would distract me until after supper, when I would put on my writing shoes. The first . . . I dunno, week or two involved many a late night. I would stay up past midnight because I was so focused on writing and lost track of time.

Weekends were a bit different. When I wrote on those days varied, and they tended to be my most productive days of the week. Which is understandable, because my job is more mentally exerting than anything else.

But as the days went by, I became more and more tired. I wasn't taking the time for proper self-care. Work and writing occupied my life, and I felt as though I had no time for relaxing activities. (And yes, playing on my phone is not refreshing to me.) The burnout was definitely showing in the last ten days of writing, as I didn't even hit 1k most of those days.

That's why, in the end, I did not reach the mighty goal of 50k. Instead, I wrote 31,246 words--an accomplishment that has felt measly at times. On my Twitter timeline, I saw people proclaiming how much they'd written, and here I was barely managing to write even a couple hundred words some days. Truth be told, it was very hard at times. I felt like I was a failure and not good enough. I had to eventually realize that as long as I was writing, and as long as I reached my personal goal--going back to a daily writing habit--then I had won.

Another thing I had to realize is that I did so much better than I did for my last major project, Digital Pulse. I started that novella on July 25th and took until December 29th to finish writing and editing 20k, whereas I had now written 31k in the span of thirty days. A big improvement, I'd say.

Two other notable things that I did in November were the two days I went to the library to participate in their NaNo events. It was nice to get a change of scenery, though I didn't really talk to/connect with any of the other writers there. On the second time I went, I also visited a nearby café for a lunch and an hour-long writing session. Unfortunately, I chose a booth with a table that was far too high to comfortably write at, and I felt it would be awkward to, as soon as I sat there, get up and move to a different spot. So I stayed there and added only a small amount to my word count for the day.

So in the end, what did I learn from NaNo? That I love writing and have no idea why I continually abandon it for long periods of time, that I want to develop my own plan for how I can write daily, and that Shattered, the first book in the revamped Portal Chronicles, is turning out swimmingly thus far. In case you're curious, my new plan is going to be to set aside an hour or two each weekday to write. Once that time is up, I stop and do something that relaxes me, something that benefits me and my mental health. Weekends can be longer sessions, since I'm not working those days. I also found that going in 30-minute word sprints helped, which is probably what I'll do.

However, I'm still feeling weird burnout sensations. I say weird because I want to keep writing my story, but I've had absolutely no motivation to write this blog post. Also, as of the time I'm writing this (Wednesday the 5th), I have not fully slept through the night for the past week and a half, which is abnormal for me and is affecting my energy levels. (If you think of it, keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I try to find out what's wrong.)

Well, I don't think I really have anything to add . . . All in all, I'd say that I would definitely participate in NaNo again, though with more reasonable expectations depending on my life's circumstances. I'm looking forward to doing more writing this month and seeing how my characters' journey progresses. There've been some unexpected turns, so seeing the rest of this book and the other two titles in the trilogy play out will be loads of fun.

That was my November! What was yours like? Did you participate in NaNo? If so, please share all the details, or link to your blog post/social media post where you have talked about it! And if you have any questions about Shattered or my experience this last month, feel free to ask.