My plans for November: reading, writing, Facebook fasting
This November is already off to a wacky start, isn’t it?
First we celebrated Halloween, then we “fell back,” and today we’ve got a whole extra hour to write our NaNoWriMo novels!
Well, we would have if we’d actually gotten up at the usual time, instead of sleeping in. I decided to sleep in, ’cause I’m lazy like that. What about you?
A word on NaNoWriMo Updates
In case you’ve been wondering exactly how many NaNoWriMo updates I’m going to be doing this month, here’s the good news (or bad news, in case you really like them…): not that many.
See, I do think that writing about the thing you’re currently writing is a bit of madness that sucks the joy out of your writing. Unless you’re trying to write your way through a problem or writer’s block, it’s just not terribly helpful to the creative process. It’s more like you’re talking about writing instead of actually writing. And that’s a huge waste of time!
So, I only plan to write two dedicated NaNoWriMo updates this month, on the 15th (the halfway point) and the 30th (at the finish line).
While you may see a few posts about what I’m reading, or something vaguely related to Paris, Notre Dame, the Catholic church, nuns, rabbis or weird sex cults, I’m not going to dwell on my daily word counts here.
I might, however, post snippets from the book if I think they’re really funny or interesting on their own. But I’ll probably do that on Twitter (@originaloflaura) to keep it brief.
Nonfiction November
This year I’ll also be participating in Nonfiction November, which is a reading event focused on – you guessed it! – nonfiction. I’ll be posting weekly themed posts on Tuesdays, and some #HumpDayReviews on Wednesdays focused on the nonfiction books I’ve been reading. Most of these books will be about the business of writing and publishing, since it is NaNoWriMo, and themes always help keep me focused.
You can check out my first post this Tuesday on the topic of My Year in Nonfiction!
Facebook fast
Last, but not least, I’ve decided to do a Facebook fast. In short, this means I’m not going to read or post on Facebook throughout the month of November. It’s just become a huge time-suck for me, and although it’s a great way for me to easily keep in touch with my friends from all over the world, it’s mostly devolved into me scrolling through the timeline at random hours of the day, getting lost in all the negativity, un-fact-checked political memes (’tis the season!), and people who just want to pick a fight.
It’s unproductive, and since my goal in November is finishing my novel and doing a lot of nonfictional reading, I’ve decided to cut it out of my life for 30 days and see how that works.
If all else fails, I’ll check in again in December. If I like it well enough, I might continue my FB hiatus indefinitely!
What about you?
So those are my plans for November… what will you be up to this month?
One Comment
Katie @ Doing Dewey
I’m excited you’ll be joining us for nonfiction November! Looking forward to your post tomorrow :)