Camp NaNoWriMo Day 13 – A New Experience

An exciting thing happened today I ACTUALLY MADE IT to the regional NaNoWriMo Write In!  It was such a scorching day today that it took a while to get ready, so hot and I ended up deciding to take the bus- to save getting lost and also the car park fares in the city are more than a bus fare! Using public transport is something I rarely do nowadays (I spent over 20 years using it!)

I decided I’d treat myself to nearly 2 hours reading… not exactly how it worked out – but the paperback play was a decent (and much needed) fan.

I spent an hour charging all my tech this morning and needn’t have worried as there were powerpoints at the Coffee Lounge.

I also spent sometime last night getting directions and using google street view. I walked there with ease.

We were in the basement of the Coffee Lounge – which was lovely and cool in this weather! Everyone knew each other and it was a smaller group than Write Ins usually are according to Sue. In the November (main Nano) they have filled the entire level and even had wrimos upstairs!

It didn’t matter that there were only two of us who were new, I joined in the banter & enjoyed the experience. I have some ideas for motivation – just seeking permission from the group to share some NANOWRIMO inspired ideas with you.

An artist paints the latest structural development in the City.

I stayed for 3 hours and managed just under 1600  words. I had planned twice this for the day, envisaging I’d have time to write in the evening… but

• the bus home was late.
• I had arranged to pick up some household supplies from the supermarket & tea.
• it was STILL boiling hot.

We still need to fix the wardrobe… by fix I mean build (didn’t pick up the screws until Thursday and we have been working/ putting off such a big job.)

I get to the supermarket and I know which supplies I need – but it is hot and it is summer – and I miss fresh fruit (this week we have eaten food we have in. The only fresh fruit has been home grown strawberries and raspberries) and I fall for the supermarket lay out trick, start with the fruit, past the bakery, then a beeline for soft drinks aisle (heavy basket) then I think about the new things I bought last weekend  * like this BARGAIN £3 Summer dress and how I now need a pair of shorts (that fit me) so I can wear my legs 😉

• Supermarket clothing is not expensive,
• It is taking me over an hour to get ready as I struggle with various bags of clothes – as apart from a few work clothes (less than a capsule wardrobe) hanging off a bed base, the rest of my stuff is in bags all mixed up – I didn’t even get to use wardrobe boxes because they forgot the rails!
• It’s hot – really hot (not complaining) but you can’t wear the same thing twice or spend ages rummaging through plastic bags!

Our washing machine now works thanks to Mr G & Marcus. (THANK YOU)

• but I need pegs (you know there is always something you forget? #listless shopping!)

So there I am amongst lovely looking cooling clothing and I pick a few summery things.

Try them on.

Discard.

Repeat

four or five times,

an hour goes past.

I do get some shorts and enough summer tops, thin dresses to last me. Hoping now the sunny weather lasts longer than a week!

I pick up tea, and arrive in a heap on the doorstep! Adrenalin got me through the evening but I didn’t have the sort of energy needed to write good fiction!

Still long story short (unlike my short story) I managed  to write over 1500 words & broke my 10,000 word count today  in the NaNoWriMo Write In!

Except in July we get a sneaky extra day!

* cooling off in the garden after a hard day of writing, weight lifting & shopping!

NaNo Write In #1 Done!

Will post properly later. Waiting for bus home. Missed previous one by 10mins (wasn’t aiming to catch it!) now the bus is 10mins late! I forget how public transport works now I drive. But on a weekend & after coming into the City a different way every week to writing classes I thought it would be safer and with parking and petrol costs… Cheaper!

Managed over 1500 words which means I crash through the 10,000 barrier! So happy apart from the short story being twice the length!

Camp NaNoWriMo the 13th Day – Lucky?!

In 6 hours I will be on my way to a write in. I really should sleep. Last post.
Just wanted to update my Nano stats before the big write.
This past week I have not put enough time aside to write for camp, I could barely keep on top of all that was happening this week as it is, however, IT IS FINE!

• I know 1 week before camp ends I am off work and can dedicate time to the writing.
• I only have a 35,000 total (I say this as I managed 54000 in April, that was hard!)
• I am nearly at the end of the first (LONG) short story!
• I am finally attending a regional write in – after missing both opportunities in April.

 

When I actually posted these Stats (yesterday Friday – after a write before work) my deadline was 15th August, I am now behind that again – but hope to manage a few 1000 at the write in meet later! I know I will ultimately end on the 31st July!

Average Words Per Day 1,130

Your Average Per Day 708

Words Written Today 0

Target Word Count 35,000

Total Words Written 9,213

Words Remaining 25,787

Current Day13

Days Remaining 19

At This Rate You Will Finish On August 19, 2013

Words Per Day To Finish On Time 1,358

Night Campers! 

FWF – Free Write Friday – And That’s Why We Have Memories

I have missed taking part in the challenges – I think I have missed 2 Friday’s as I have been offline for 10 days. I am so happy to be back in the mix & so many more bloggers have found Kellie Elmore’s beautiful blog and the FWF Challenge in the past fortnight.
Click the button to find out more.

Here’s this week’s fantastic prompt;
Today you have been granted the opportunity to go anywhere, do anything, meet anyone, travel in time…whatever you wish, it is yours. Now, there’s a catch. (Isn’t there always?) When you wake up tomorrow… you will not remember any of it.

Although I surround myself with things I have never been a materialist. The things I have are not priceless family heirlooms, rather things members of the family no longer want or need which they offer to me, the magpie, to save a trip to a charity shop or perhaps so they get to see their things without having them in their own home.

The things I have kept from my own life spill out of the memory box into every part of my living space. I will never forget a friend of mine’s son asking if it was a pastie I had on my bookshelf… they were filled with books and randomly packed with life’s little treasures – but even a mad hoarder of memories like me keeps food in the fridge. It was a brown paper bag filled with Easter decorations, it was September.

As I packed my life into boxes to move house for the 16th time and hopefully the last time, I did a mental audit of realisation and I realised how much of my past I have held onto, to fill that hole that was created somewhere along the way.

How many of you have pencils that you wrote with as an 8 year old? Books you had as a child, notebooks that you have saved using pages from so you have the excuse of keeping them for the next few decades? Nothing is valuable, nothing needs to be saved. Nothing has any worth not even to me, unless I was to lose my memory and then perhaps the parchments would bring a spark of something back to me.

I am not a materialist. I spend on experience, on running away and travelling – I have stopped running – in my twenties I realised when I ran, I was still there and if it was part of me I was running from I really should stop and deal with it because like a shadow on the inside, it would always be there otherwise. Attached to me until I did something about it. But the wanderlust is sown deeper than the internal shadow and no matter how many times I hide my passport, I find it again. I choose to spend my money seeing things I wasn’t born next door to, rather than brands to wear on my back or fancy cars to drive. I live within my means so that I can create the most majestic memories, parts of my life. Experiences. And then I share them with others.

So I have the chance to meet anyone, go anywhere, experience anytime… like the rest of the world reading that I had lots of places I could choose and ideas didn’t take long to come to mind. And then I re- read the rest of the prompt – I wouldn’t remember it.

At first I decided that I wouldn’t take the wish – what would be the point if I couldn’t remember it?

Then I knew what to do. There are plenty of things I wish to do that I think would scare the life out of me – those things I am in two minds about. What a perfect opportunity to experience those and not have the memory of the fear or pain.

As for those list of things, I don’t remember doing, funny… now I can’t recall what was so important to me. I have no idea what it is I did.*

 

 

* How do you feel?

That’s the true treasure of life – memories and sharing them in the present.