NaNoWriMo 2017 – Update #3

Okay, I am feeling guilty as anything. It’s been two days since I have not written a word for NaNo. I already feel that I am out of the competition. Sigh!

So, here’s what happened: I have been doing great until two days ago. I had some nice story ideas and the words just kept flowing. I asked myself, “Is there really something called a writer’s block? Doesn’t feel like it!”

And here I am, two days later, literally searching for something to write about. The point is, I do not have a good story idea yet. An idea is like the spark to a lamp – if I have a nice idea, I can keep writing for hours. But, if not, I do not know what to do.

Through this project, I wanted to bring out the city of Bangalore, as I have experienced it. This is the first time any city has featured so prominently in any of my writing. It also happens that right now I am binge-exploring Bangalore. When I had first come here, with little money and even lesser self-confidence, I could not afford to travel much. This weekend, I made a list of at list twenty places to see within the city. I am excited about travelling extensively throughout the remaining of 2017 and through 2018.

I just hope inspiration strikes me sometime soon and my digital ink is flowing again. If you have any tips, please feel free to share!

Until later, keep writing and inspiring others! ❤

NaNoWriMo 2017 – Update #2

Hola writers and novelists and readers of the blog!

I am back again with another update on my WriMo progress. It’s November the 9th and I am done with the 15K words, very much in line with the goal on the ninth day.

Eight out of the nine days I have been able to complete the daily goal of 1,667 words, except November 7th, when I had gone to visit the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore (I might cover that in another post – let me know in the Comments if you are interested). Primarily, idea is spending more time in solo travel in the coming days and I wanted to make the start from places within Bangalore. There is a lot to Bangalore that I am yet to see and I am looking forward to cover them in 2018.

Okay, back to the writing update now: I am done with two short stories (spanning 6K and 4K words) and am working on the third, which I actually began before the 4K story, but is not complete yet. I am confident, at this rate, I would be able to complete the 50K goal with as many as ten stories. I don’t have ideas fleshed out for all the remaining seven stories yet (have only two more ideas left in my bucket list) and I am constantly looking out for inspiration to strike me. In fact, my Nov. 7th travel plans inspired the third story, which I started writing after putting a temporary pause on the second one.

In the past, whenever I have written stories, I have mostly completed them in a day. I find the process of writing a short story over a course of three to four days very helpful. First, it helps me get out the rut of being the the same characters’ skin for too long a time – I have noticed the plot points tend to suck and I end up beating about the bush too much if I am writing continuously for a long period. On the other hand, a day gives me fresh perspective and new ideas to fill my stories with. Because of my full-time job, I work with a lot of different people, coming across multiple viewpoints and thoughts around the clock. This helps me see life in a different way every single day. All these experience enrich me and by extension, my writing. Sometimes, I find the reflection of the current character I am writing in a coworker. Sometimes, I find a suitable dialogue for my character while I am in the elevator. This has helped me a lot in layering the characters. A charater who started out as docile will suddenly show streaks of mischief because I am in a different mood the next day.

As of work, we had somewhat of a kickoff call on the new project yesterday night. The pressure has not yet started building in and probably won’t as well for most of November, which only helps my cause of NaNoWriMo.

Fortunately for me, I have a senior team lead in the new project, which leaves me with a lot of time to focus on the details of my work instead of worrying about management. I am truly starting to think of it as a bliss. I had been leading a team of four people in my last account and it had kind of thrown me in a dump. It took me a long time to get over the emotional tiredness that the engagement has caused me. Right now, I find myself with a newly-found freedom at work, to do the things that I have always wanted to do.

Meanwhile, I am also continuing with the regime of exercises and good food at home. Any kind of routine makes me feel good about myself: the fact that I was able to get back to my word count yesterday after I staggered on Nov. 7th made me feel so much confidence yesterday.

It is incredible how much a day’s work can do for you: be it in your writing project, or your day job or your exercise routine. If, at the beginning of November, someone asked me to give them a book of 50K words by the end of the month, I would be like, “Are you kidding me?” But everyday, as I spend an hour on writing and consistently meet the daily word count, it feels as if the book is writing itself, without much effort from my side.

How’s November treating you guys? Let me know your NaNoWriMo progress in the Comments below.

Until later, keep at whatever you are doing one day at a time! I will bring you the next update soon! ❤

NaNoWriMo 2017 – Update #1

Hello fellow Wrimos, planners and pansters!

How is November treating you so far? It’s fifth of November and I just finished my daily quota of writing for the day. Currently, I am on 9K words. Yes, you read that right! I completed 9,000 words already! Yay!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am not working on a novel this NaNoWriMo. I am working on a compilation of short stories. I am done with #1 and currently working on #2. Initially, the target was to write stories of around 2K words. I overshot the target by 4K in the very first story (so it ended up being ~6K). The second one is already around 2K and it has quite some way to go.

Overall, I am really loving the experience. I am glad that I am still going strong in the daily target. I am especially happy because, I have been down with a viral infection and had been feeling very poorly until yesterday and even then I made sure I finish my daily quota.

The coming week might prove to be a little more challenging because my new project at work commences tomorrow and it can make my schedule go awry. But I am determined to be disciplined this November and really end on a good strong count.

In fact, this year, I feel much more confident as a writer than I ever previously have. A lot of that can be attributed to the variety of experience I have had this year which has made me a strong person and also brought me in contact with a lot more people. I am hoping it will make my writing only more nuanced. Besides, it had been some time since I had really bothered to sit down everyday and do some writing – I had been out of practice since Camp NaNoWriMo in April ’17, so it’s great to be back to the habit.

How’s it going for you guys? Are you going strong? Are you facing any roadblocks? Are you taking part in any of Virtual Write-Ins on Youtube/NaNo website? Let me know in the Comments below. I am excited to be part of this journey together!

Until later, write more, because we live to tell stories! ❤

NaNoWriMo 2017!

Hola novelists!! It’s less than an hour for NaNoWriMo to start. I hope you all have your plots, character sketches and outlines ready. How long has it been for you prepping for the start of November? How long have you been waiting for this day to arrive?

Ask me!

Unlike the last couple of years, I did not even remember NaNoWriMo arriving until last week. Needless to say, I have zero outline/plot/character sketch.

What I have currently are rough ideas for three short stories. So, I am going to cheat a little and go ahead with the idea of creating a short story compilation this NaNoWriMo. I am looking at 15 stories right now as a target, each approximately 2,000 words – so that totals to 30K. Yes, I am not planning on winning NaNoWriMo! I am focusing only on Writing Month for now. Those of you who have been followers of my blog from its early days know that I started this journey with the aim of writing more and more fiction. The idea was to use this blog as an author platform.

However, close to three years since I started this blog, I find myself going more and more personal in my entries, which have made this blog more of a personal journal than an author’s blog. I cannot promise that it will change too much in the next few months, but I do want to get back to writing more fiction.

The idea has always been to publish one book per year. Early this year, I published How I tamed the dragon named fear, a non-fiction on overcoming fear. It’s not been as successful as my first book, Bound by Life, a compilation of short stories. I have also tried my hand at multiple novels – none of which ended in a complete draft.

Yet, for quite a few days, I have been finding a strong urge within myself to form stories, and short stories are my natural way of self-expression. For those of you who’re interested, here’s a small one I shared on the blog earlier.

I will be back with more updates throughout November on how the book is going. But before I end, I want to give you guys a sneak peek into what I want this book to be:

“A collection of urban short stories, with a tinge of day-to-day humor.”

Until later, write more, stay creative! ❤

Day 28: Camp NaNo Winner

It’s 28th day of April and I am pleased to announce that I met my goal of 50K words today. I am a winner! Drumrolls!!

My book, however, is far from complete. I still have 30K odd words to write before I can call it a finished first draft, but this is the first time I have been able to complete at least 60% of my novelling goal.

Congratulations to all fellow Campers who took part in Camp NaNo this April. Whether or not you met you goal, I am sure you spend time thinking about your writing project. Maybe you didn’t end up writing anything/writing only a little in the end, but the fact that you signed up for Camp is proof that you’re one step closer to your writing goals. Keep the spirit of the Camp alive in your heart and keep writing! To all the others who met their goals, when is the book launch party?

Here are a couple of things that helped me reach my goal:

• An week of outlining – I was never someone who plotted before starting a project. I tried writing novels multiple times, but in the middle of a project, I wouldn’t know what to write anymore. Having an outline helped greatly. I spend the last week of March writing down the outline in a small pad. I didn’t follow it word by word, though – but in general, the theme remained same
• A strong start – The fact that April 1 and 2 were weekends helped. I am not someone who writes everyday, so the two day warm up gave me a head start. I wrote around 5K on the first day itself. Once the habit formed, I found it easy to keep writing everyday
• Writing almost everyday – I wrote for 25 out of 28 days in April. That is a big deal for someone who doesn’t write daily. I used to write in office every day after lunch – treating it as important as my other activities. I think once you get into the mode of writing daily, it is easy to keep up with the habit
• Great cabin partners – As I have mentioned before, I was part of an amazing cabin this month. There were some really motivated people in there who kept going on towards their goal at an amazing pace. That boosted my writing like nothing else

That’s it for now. I guess I will go watch an episode of The Mentalist before I hit the bed. If you have some tips/learnings from your Camping experience, feel free to share in Comments below.

Until later!

❤

 

Day 22: Camp NaNo (April)

I was looking at my monthly mobile pack usage earlier today. I have this Vodafone plan which gives me 500 free call minutes and 1 GB worth of internet. I never end up using the internet, but the call minutes get used up fast. You’d think in the era of Reliance Jio why still hold on to ancient phone packs? Well, my phone is approx. 2.5 years old and does not have 4G. I know it’s slowing and is probably due for a change, but right now I have other financial priorities to sort out.

Anyways, the mobile usage report told me there were two days left before the plan would auto-renew. My bill renews on the 25th of every month and for a moment, I was shocked. I went on to check the date on my phone and there it was: April 22. Wow! It feels like just yesterday that I went to pay rent to my owner. And another paycheck will be in by this time next week and again I will start paying the recurring bills. Whew! Time is flying FAST. Sometimes, it indeed  feels like I am living from one rent payment to another.

Which brings me to my current NaNo Camp project. I am into the last 10K of my 50K goal. Whoo-hoo! I still have this weekend and the next to finish off, but I am hopeful that I might end up earlier.

As I mentioned in the last post, my current book is to be divided into two parts: 1) A mother’s POV 2) A daughter’s POV.

I hit a semi-‘The End’ moment in the project when I finished the mother’s POV on Friday. I was outlining the daughter’s POV this morning – practically going over the notes I had made in the last week of March and seeing if I could still stick to the same outline. So far, I think it is going to be fine if I follow it. I was writing until 12 PM and finished up two chapters of the daughter’s POV. Currently, my word count stands at 40.7K. Hopefully, I can get it to 42K by the end of the day.

I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks already into April. I have been really disciplined this time and have written 20 out of 22 days, at an average of 1800 words. The only thing which is bothering me a little is that I might lose some interest after April 30.

I was part of a wonderful Camp time this summer – we had some great discussions where a lot of my questions about novelling was answered. By now, most of my cabin mates have completed their goals and are also editing. I don’t think I could have made this far without my wonderful cabin-mates. I hope I can extend the energy until the project actually completes – for the first draft I foresee 80K words, an additional 30K over my NaNo goal. Need to keep myself motivated.

How about you? How do you keep yourself motivated at what you do? Leave me some tips in the Comments.

The Mu Sigma Times and Other News

I recently got plunged into a number of things at work. Japanese classes were already there, and they are drawing towards an end. We shall have the ‘graduation ceremony’ in two weeks’ time. Me and my teammate are planning to do a small skit for our graduation ceremony.

Besides that, I applied for the position of field writer in Mu Sigma Times.Mu Sigma Times is Mu Sigma’s live news channel – one stop where you can get to know what is happening across different accounts in the company. It also features other varieties of articles ranging from travelogues to lives of authors to different trends sweeping through the analytics industry.

The idea behind applying for the post was to keep in touch with writing. As it happens, due to the day job, I am not able to devote much time to writing. Being a ‘jouranlist’ for the MST shall be one way to keep myself close to my passion. That said, it is an added incentive that I get to don the hat of a journalist in a workplace which has nothing to do with media/journalism. It is so cool!

We had the first meeting with the editors today and they held a very engaging session as to what the goals were with respect to Mu Sigma Times. For the first time, being among people who actually enjoy writing, I felt at home. I felt as if they were my people.

I also met a very interesting person, Debdeep Basu. He is also a fellow blogger at The Pensieve. Post the meeting we had a very lively conversation about writing, books, and movies over coffee.

Don’t be surprised at all if keep bragging about Mu Sigma Times on the blog in the coming days.

Oh, also, I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo  (July) today. I am planning to finish a non-fiction book this time, something that has been pending for about eight months now. Anyone amongst you doing NaNo this July? Let me know in the Comments.

Happy weekend, guys! Cheerio!

NaNoWriMo: 1st Update

So, like I mentioned in a previous post, I am Wrimo-ing this November. And I am already behind on my word count at 4413 words. I have no clue if I will be able to catch up.

When I started, I had just a synopsis and no plot or character sketch. Even now, I hardly have the outline of a plot. I am writing on the go. Each day I have a different inspiration and I let my imagination run with that. The writing style isn’t mind-blowing. There is no coherence among the chapters and I feel like editing as soon as I start reading the half-baked manuscript-in-formation.

On the positive side, I am writing everyday. Even if I am tired after office, cooking chappatis and cleaning up after I eat, I still take some time before sleeping to put in a few words to the Word Document on my laptop that is named as The Delayed Adulthood. I like the graph they have at the NaNo website, which marks my progress and shows how much I am behind on the Word Count. Nice also is the little tool that tells me by when I will finish the novel if I wrote at this pace. When I started writing today, my novel was apparently going to be finished on Jan 19, 2016. I ended with the date December 27, 2015. I’ll tell you a little secret: I was adding words to the novel and continuously updating the W.C. on the NaNo site today, to see how I could improve my completion date status! My silly little game! LOL.

How about your fellow Wrimos? Five days are almost up – how are things shaping up for you? Are you enjoying the challenge of sitting sown to write everyday? Or is not hitting the word count stressing you out. Feel free to share with me in the Comments below (if indeed you have the time to read this and not write your novel, in which case, I send you a scornful glare. Go Write That Novel Now!). Meanwhile, dear NaBloPoMo-ers – do not think this conversation is just about the Wrimos. I know you all are also working very hard to write a post on your blog everyday. I salute your determination. Write On!

P.S: I would like to apologize to all my fellow bloggers for not being regular on the Reader. It’s just that the college-exam type pattern is still continuing in office as I am still in training, and we have to appear for tests for entirely new topics every week – so the learning curve is pretty steep. Hopefully, post-training, when I get a project and life becomes more stable and systematic, I’ll be able to put things in place again.

#NaNoWriMo: Letter to Future Wrimo-Self

Dear Future Wrimo-Self,

I know things are tough and life is keeping you busy and you might be a little sad for not being able to keep up with the daily word count, but I am here to tell you it is okay.

Remember why you joined NaNoWriMo this year? To give your creative soul an outlet and to keep the habit of writing on-going. So, as long as you sit down to write something everyday, it’s cool!

The target is not to create a novel, but to keep up the process of writing. Make some good Wrimo friends, have a chat with them, peruse the wonderful resources that the Wrimo website provides and be happy with whatever you’re doing. Life matters, as much as the Writing. Writing matters, as much as Life. Keep a balance, maintain that smile. Yay!

With Love,

Present Wrimo-Self

My first NaNoWriMo!

2015 seems like a year of many firsts for me. I had signed up for my NaNoWriMo account probably in July. Suddenly, it is almost November and NaNoWriMo is about to start!

Honestly, right now I have zero preparation for the novel I am apparently about to write this November. I have no plot/draft planned. October was a busy month – with the big move and then the settling down. In between all these, I wouldn’t blame myself for having forgotten all about noveling plans.

Yesterday, I logged into my long-dormant NaNoWriMo account and set up the title and the synopsis of the novel. It was done quite late at night, in the span of an hour or so, so it’s perhaps not the best product that I could come up with. But I will go ahead and share the synopsis with you:

The Delayed Adulthood

Author: Arpita Pramanick

Genre: Mainstream

Synopsis

Asha is 22. She has recently completed college and moved half-way across the country to start her career.

She has a print out of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost pasted on the wall of her room. A picture of taken with her family sits on the fancy shelf of her lavish apartment.

As she delves into the nooks and crannies of the corporate world, she remembers the young girl who used to walk on the terrace of her parent’s home, talking to herself about the things she hopes to do when she is grown up, only faintly believing that all she imagined might one day come true. Or maybe not.

The Delayed Adulthood is a coming-of-age novel about a bespectacled, nervous girl who is unsure of the effect she has on people. Slowly, as the places and faces in her life change and life opens up new, unfamiliar avenues, she is faced with that itchy question that has plagued all of us at some point in our lives: Is growing up even worth it?

Honestly, I have no clue if I will be able to churn out those 50,000 words in 30 days. Yet, I want to participate in this because I need writing to become a daily habit for me. Having entered job market, I know how well time needs to be managed in order to squeeze a few minutes for our creative outlets. Just so I don’t get into the habit of eating, going to office, sleeping cycle where there is no time to write, I want to experiment with NaNoWriMo.

Writing a novel is particularly daunting for me, because I have tried that without success. I had written four-five chapter for more than one could-have-been novel, but none was completed. Most of the time, having written the first few chapters, I did not know how to proceed. So, with just a few hours to go before this noveling bee starts buzzing non-stop across laptops and papers all around the world, I am at a loss as to where to start from. Thankfully, tomorrow is a Sunday, so maybe I will be able to give it some thought and come up with a plan for the novel. Wish me luck!

What about you? How has your NaNoWriMo experience been like? What would your suggestions be for me so that I can see my novel through completion? Please share your thoughts with me in the Comments below. Also, if you like, feel free to add me as a writing buddy on NaNoWriMo! See you there!