The End of NaNoWriMo 2011

NaNoWriMo has officially ended in Japan!  How did you all do?  Did you finish?  Will you try to edit and publish your new masterpiece?

To all of those who participated; whether you made the 50,000 words or not, congratulations on such an incredible accomplishment! I'm proud of everyone who took part, and I hope you'll join me again next year! Good job and good luck!  To those of you who didn't participate but are considering it for the future, perhaps you'll join us in 2012?

-Lana

P.S. Happy December 1st!

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY (slightly belated) THANKSGIVING! I hope it was a good one. Although we didn't have the day off here, I was able to have a large Thanksgiving-style dinner last Sunday evening with a bunch of other English teachers in the area. Also, we had the day off on Wednesday due to a Japanese national holiday so it was a good week all in all.

To top it all off, I finished my NaNoWriMo novel last night at 50,121 words! I've updated my "NaNoWriMo 2011 participant" badges to the "2011 NaNoWriMo winner" ones. Anyone who crosses the 50,000 word finish line is a winner. Towards the middle of the month I was feeling less motivated, but I got a final burst of motivation triggered by comptetive spirit and I finished. The novel needs a lot of work, but perhaps someday it will turn into a published short story. For now, it is just a rough draft and will probably stay that way for some time. I think I'd like to do some planning throughout the next year and write another novel next November. Hopefully I'll have time to think up a fun plot-line and some interesting characters before then.

Here is a very short blub from my 2011 NaNoWriMo novel:

H&F

Sometimes I wonder if I could change things still. Even now.

There are light-brown stains on the index and middle fingers of my right hand. My hair is brittle from dye. I try to tease it for volume but it’s pretty useless. The cheap cloth of the uniform I’m wearing is wrinkled and discolored from overuse. It hangs loosely on my frame. Cigarette burns, beer stains, and oil marks from the dirty men who grope me as I walk through the isles form a visible pattern on the blue fabric, like they’re part of the design. God I hate this job. I hate those men. I hate their smoke and their money and their crude language, and everything about them. The people who come before the doors even open and stay until we kick them out are the absolute worst. Where do they get the money to gamble all day? Every day the same people come. They’re as addicted to pachinko as I am to not coming to work.

------------------

All for now. Good night!

NaNoWriMo

Good morning!  Even on non-work days I find it difficult to wake up late.

My hopes for this fall/winter are to stay inside, read as many books as possible, study for the JLPT, and figure out what I want to do with my life once I leave Japan in approximately nine or ten months.  I have the study and leisure books already prepared, but I don’t really have enough information on job hunting.

Last night I met up with a friend in Kofu.  She is also in the process of trying to make a career change, so I asked her to bring along the books she has regarding employment.  We talked a lot about our interests, and what kind of markets cater to them.  She has been talking to various career coaches and had a lot of useful information to share with me.  The main book that she’s been using is called Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0.  I’m also interested in learning a little about this on my own, so I looked online only to discover that there are about 20 different versions of this book, all geared towards different needs and occupations.  For example there are some that focus on using technology, some for using social media, for entrepreneurs, writers, and the list goes on.  There are a few that I’m really interested in reading, but I was unable to find any copies that were cheap enough to be worth my while.  I also checked the e-libraries and couldn’t find them for free for the kindle.  I’ll either have to suck it up and buy some of the ones I’m interested in, or find equally useful information for free on the Internet.  I’ll consider this a little longer before I make a decision.  At this point, I'm trying to avoid buying anything new because I’ll have to spend a lot of money to bring it back with me to the US.

Lately I’ve been trying to expand my writing ability, so I’ve been doing some volunteer writing.  I mentioned this in my last entry about the AJET online magazine.  For those of you who guessed that my nom de plum is “Rosie - the advice columnist,” you’re right! I’ll be writing the advice column monthly, as long as there is an interest from the editing staff and readers.

In addition to article writing, I found out about this event in November called NaNoWriMo.  It stands for Nation Novel Writing Month.  From midnight on November first to midnight on December first, a group of individuals from all over the world will make a pledge to dedicate the month of November to writing a novel.  Each person will attempt to write 50,000 words, or approximately 175 pages, in 30 days.  The purpose is not necessarily to walk away with something you can publish on December 1^st, but to write for the sake of writing.  Many people who want to write often let doubts get in their way of ever sitting down to the task.  “I’m not good enough, I don’t have enough time, and I don’t know what to write.”  The deadline constraints of this event force people to write as much as possible, creating a writing flow that is important for practice and idea generation.  The point is to get people away from using excuses, and simply WRITE.

I will be participating in next months NaNoWriMo.  Anyone can join (as long as they have access to the Internet), and there are various communities within the event to help motivate one another with the task at hand.  Although my schedule is busy and  I may not pass the 50,000 word finish line, I figured it was still a good chance and opportunity, so I'll give it a try.  Ultimately, anyone could make this a project for themselves at any time of the year, but having a community going along through the same process at the same time as you is integral to getting the job done I think.  Getting inspiration and motivation from others is often important when trying to push yourself toward a seemingly unachievable goal.  Every year people “pass the finish line,” so perhaps I will join them either this year or next!  Also, maybe the work I produce this month will eventually be turned into a novel.  You never know!  Check out the website if you’re interesting in the program, and please let me know if you decide to join in!  I have put a “participant’s badge” at the bottom of my website.  I’d love to share this experience with you!  We can share ideas, story lines, and encourage one another along the way!  I will try to keep my word-count up on my blog during November to let you all know if I’m making any progress or not.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/about/whatisnano

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/about/hownanoworks

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/dashboard

http://blog.lettersandlight.org/