Non-NaNaWriMo Update

Hey folks!

Hopefully, you guys are doing well since we last met. Things are looking up at my side also. I am sorting through the priorities of life.

Priorities is a funny thing. It’s amazing how something that we hold important or exciting today is no longer important or exciting after some time. Back in 2015, when I had first started the blog, the one and only thing in my mind was to set up an author’s platform. My aim was to get published, as soon as possible, through traditional means. I focused less on college work and more on the book I was writing at the time. Once published, I would check the KDP Dashboard daily to see how I was doing on the sales front.

Almost 3 years later, my goals have changed again. My blog, to an extent, explains the shift in priorities.

Now, I am earning and almost on the verge of paying off the student loan that had been weighing on my mind ever since I went to college. I have also started investing money in mutual funds – which is another thing that is occupying my mind, because I am trying to understand how the money market works. Financial security is one of the biggest priorities for me right now.

Priorities have also shifted towards health. I would look at myself carefully in the mirror and take a mental note of losing inches from the waistline. I have started spending time on the treadmill and adopted healthier eating habits.

Some of my girl friends are getting married (the boys still have a bunch of years to roam free), so marriage also has come up in the list of priorities. I am still trying to understand what I expect out of relationships and how to find the person who I can spend the rest of my life with.

Besides that, for the first time in my life, I have an option to do the things the way I want to do, thanks to the financial security. I am no longer dependent on my parents for money. So, I want to give travelling a chance. I have been planning in my mind to go to Mumbai. My brother, who is studying in Kolkata, might end up visiting the city late December/early next year. If he comes, I might go visit him and the city for a weekend. I have never been, even though I have family in Mumbai. So I am really looking forward to it. I have also started planning a list of places that I want to visit on the trip. Let’s see!

NaNoWriMo, of course, has taken a backseat. I don’t have enough ideas to finish what I started. I might get back to it for a bit when towards later this month, if I find some catchy idea to work on. Besides that, I do not see any progress on that front. However, the good thing is, I have something beautiful started through the NaNo project this year. Hopefully, through the course of the next few months, I will be able to finish it, and publish it sometime in 2018. I still have a vague goal of publishing a book per year.

That’s about it in this post – I really need to go get ready for office right now.

Until later, enjoy and live your life guilt-free! ❤

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! ❤

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.