You may have noticed that I haven’t posted any reports for October and November, but it doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned 365k Club’s challenge. Quite to the contrary. The last months of 2015 were busy for me, both writing-wise and life-wise, so I might have not updated my “A Month of Writing” reports, but I definitely kept writing. (more…)
My friend asked me recently whether I ever feel like indulging myself with a day without writing. Looking back at my writing journey with the 365k Club and those 9 months of consecutive writing without a day being missed, I replied: yes, sometimes I feel like not writing or writing less. Over the days, weeks and months I’ve build up enough “extra” words to take even a week off if I wanted, but… it just doesn’t feel right. Of course, if I had a major life event interfere with my writing, I’d find it justified to skip a day or a month, but with life being somewhat steady, I’d feel like cheating with skipping a day without a good reason. But I’ll tell you a secret: sometimes I do procrastinate and then writing is the only thing I get done in the evening. (more…)
Summer is the time when people think of the sun, long-awaited vacation in some nice place and focus on relaxing if they can. Those of us stuck in the day jobs can only dream of the sea and beaches while glancing at the patch of the blue sky through the office window. And with the weather being moody this year in Ireland, I got my heat only from my projects, because July was quite challenging. (more…)
If you’re here in hope of finding news of disasters, missed deadlines and too low word counts, I have to disappoint you. So what happened in the fifth month in my 365k Club challenge? I probably should have report May has been dull, filled with steady progress, and nothing more, but I’ve made several discoveries about my writing process along the way, which I’d like to share with you. (more…)
It feels like I just have been writing the March post, looking forward to April’s challenges, and now I am here, at the beginning of May, thinking of how crazy April has been, and ready to tell you all about the fourth month in the 365k Club’s challenge.
As you might remember, I was planning to visit Pyrkon (you can read more of the convention in the “Little Melfka on a big Pyrkon” post), and considered I might break the writing streak during the trip. I didn’t expect the life to lay its traps for me at the very beginning of the month…
Oh look! Another month went by. Compared to the bumpy February, March had proven more understanding, allowing me to add the words at a steady pace, and to appreciate the effects of the long-term commitment. It reminded me of hiking in the mountains where the peaks always seemed to be as distant as in the beginning of the journey, but once you’ve looked back, you saw the whole stretch of valleys and narrow paths you’ve scaled already. And writing felt similar: a thousand word on its own doesn’t seem that much, but when you look at a month, then two and three months of such thousands, they grow into stories, blog posts and novels. (more…)
I didn’t intend “A Month of Writing” to be a monthly post, but I think some people might be curious how my adventure with 365k Club goes – and whether it goes at all. Just as I expected, February turned out a bit rough, due to both life circumstances and distractions I brought onto myself. Believe me, buying the video game you’ve been waiting to play so badly really can mess up your writing times… (more…)
Not so long ago I’ve explained how NaNoWriMo, although great initiative, wasn’t really working for me and how I’d be more eager to participate in something to build up the writing habit instead of speeding into a book within a month. And there it came, the opportunity to challenge myself, commit to writing and make friends with a group of people who do the same: the 365k Club.
The idea, originating from Jane Steen, was brought to life by Katherine Grubb and Jessica White from 10 Minute Novelist group. They invited fellow writers, professional and not, to partake in the challenge of writing 365,ooo words in a year, which meant to produce on average 1000 words every day. I thought I’m not capable of meeting such a goal. I thought that life will surely interfere preventing me from even trying. And I thought that a hopeless plotter such as me won’t be able to plot quick enough to meet the daily word count.
And with all these thoughts… I signed up. (more…)