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 8: Camp NaNo (April)

It was a good first week of Camp NaNo. I am slightly over halfway through my goal for this April: 25K. I wrote about 1.9K words today. Will be doing some more writing in the evening. By the end of the weekend I expect to have at least 75% of the goal done. Besides, I am having a really good time in the Camp. We are a bunch of pretty active people: I love to log in to the NaNo website and see how have the word counts changed for my fellow campers. It a very fulfilling experience. Besides, we have some very good conversations going on, which I find very educating.

The book I am currently writing is about a two women: a mother and a daughter. There will be two different POVs set in two different time frames. The daughter’s POV is based on present times. When I set out to writing this for this NaNo, I did not intend to go beyond 25-30K. I have faced difficulties writing too long books with my last two books as well – and for me anything to write beyond 20K sounds too long.

However, today I was researching popular word counts and it appears that for a novel, 80K is the commercial standard. I am a little uncomfortable with that because I don’t know if I have enough to say in a book to make it 80K words long. At best, I am targeting 60K words. Would publishers even consider me? Haha.

Thing is if I at all complete this book, I will have completed 3 books in total. And for this 3rd book, I am actually considering being published traditionally. I have published two books directly through Amazon KDP program. I have realized that as a writer, at the moment I want to focus on bettering my writing skills. I require more time to understand my own writing: identify strengths and weaknesses and work accordingly. Besides, being accepted at a major publishing house is a validation of sorts. It is less about the money I make than the fact that somebody considers my writing good enough to put into publishing.

When I started outlining the book in the last week of March, I was thinking of going the self-publishing way only. But as I progress into the story and the word counts pile, I feel like if I am able to manage a decent word count and finish a story which feels complete when read, why shouldn’t I really go to a traditional publisher and try out my luck?

Well, wish me luck! Will keep you posted on whatever happens.

NaNoWriMo: 2nd update

For the first time in the last seven days, I completed the daily word count in WriMo. The goal for Nov 7 was to double up the word count. I aim to achieve that goal today.It would not only mean reaching the day’s goal for, but also reaching the overall goal of completing the entire word count of the first seven days of Wrimo-ing.

Though there are still more than 3000 words to reach that goal, I am under no pressure. The word count is the least of my headaches right now.

The main worry is to have a story to tell. Like I said before, I had not started out with a plan for the novel, so I am kind of writing on the go. I only pray that by the end of the thirty days, irrespective of the word count, I will be able to tell a complete story. Oh, what thrill it would give me to put the words ‘The End’ at the end of the Word document!

I’ll go read up some stuff on my Reader now. I feel to bad for neglecting it in so long! Oh and for those of you who have no seen the latest header on my blog, here it goes! I made it today on Canva. Let me know what you think of it.

Have a great weekend, folks!

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!