Friday, November 16, 2012

Not In My Good Books

Since the beginning of November, I had been trying to write a book based on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing for a little challenge called "National Novel Writing Month." Of course, if you follow my blog, you probably already knew that. But what you probably don't know is that a couple of days ago, I stopped writing. (At least, I stopped writing that book. I can never make myself stop writing in general, no matter how defeated I feel.) I feel like I owe you faithful readers an explanation, so here is a list of factors that contributed to my decision to stop my Nano challenge:

I work two jobs, which leaves very little time for much else. Sadly, this has affected my writing more than I like.

The story wasn't going as well as I'd planned. I think I was expecting this experience to be like last year's, but it wasn't.

I couldn't force myself to keep writing, which is the whole point of Nanowrimo.

And lastly, I tragically lost my my book file because the only place I had it saved was on a USB stick that consequently died. I had most of it in some emails, but at that point, this was pretty much the straw that broke the camels back.

A part of me wanted to keep going, but I could find little reason to do so, particularly since the whole thing was stressing me out more than it should have. So I've stopped writing and gone back to other books and characters that need me more right now. (Or maybe it's that I need them more?) Maybe some day I'll resuscitate my neo-Shakespeare guys, but for now, I'll leave it to time and space, or wherever it's disappeared to.

Thank you so much for reading, for understanding, and for your support. It means so much to me that people think I'm capable of such expectations, and I also appreciate that people appreciate me and what I do. And don't you worry folks, this will not be my last Nano challenge, and My Best Friend's Brother won't be my last book.

- Natasja



P.S. Have you bought this yet?

Friday, November 02, 2012

This Book Is About Nothing

With Shakespeare in mind, I've set my quill to the screen and begun a new chapter of my life...

Too many metaphors? Yeah, you're probably right. But truly, I have started my new novel, entitled This Book Is About Nothing, which is of course a play on William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. As I noted in my last post, I'm hoping to be able to let you guys read along with my writing through Smashwords's support. I haven't yet uploaded anything, since I only have about 2000 words so far (and counting!) But once I've done that, there will be links and happy times!

So far, the writing is going well! I'm more than keeping up with my quota of 1667 words per day. (Of course, it's only been a day and half, so it's not like it was that hard.) I've also let a couple of my friends know that they should definitely be pestering me every day to make sure I've actually done so. Apparently I work well under pressure

Someone told me yesterday that I was "plagiarizing" and so I pointed out to her that one of her favourite movies is Bride and Prejudice. That title should sound extremely familiar to you, since it's a take on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Just sayin.

Okay folks, I have no more words to spare for you today. Happy Movember!

- Natasja