Have just taken leave of my senses and signed up for this year's National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo), which basically entails writing a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. Piece of cake. Or not. Particularly when your diary is already chock full of unavoidable commitments (writing 1,700 words a day is not easy at the best of times, but it certainly does help to have some actual free time in which to do it). Oh what the hell, my rationale is this (clearly need to state it here as a point of reference for week three when I'm a dribbling, sleep-deprived mess wondering what the hell I was thinking): for months now I've been droning on about finishing my novel (Kilifi - which, coincidentally, started its life as a NaNo novel back in 2005) but failing to back this up with any kind of action. As time has passed I've set myself goal after goal, the latest one being to submit the first three chapters by the start of November. Hmm. Given that I've barely edited the first one I guess this is going to be yet another deadline I miss. Which is disheartening to say the least. So now it's time to try a new tack. Instead of working on the old one and allowing the inner critic to wear me down with her cries of 'it's not good enough! Where's your creativity, loser?' I'm going to down tools and start afresh, gain some perspective and allow my creative juices to start flowing freely once more. I firmly believe there's a kink in my (creative) hosepipe (if you'll excuse the metaphor) and that NaNo is just the ticket to smoothing it out and restoring me to my former prolific self. Okay, maybe I'm getting just a little carried away. All I know for certain is that in the hour since I made the decision to sign up I have felt lighter, less burdened, considerably more creative and even just a little bit excited. I can do this. It will be good.
You may have noticed I've switched this blog back to being public access. The reasoning behind this is simple: I just decided I wasn't all that fussed who read my innermost thoughts after all. I make no secret of my Bridget Jones-esque psychotic tendencies, and those that know me best also know that 90% of the time (oh alright then, 60%-70% on a good day!) I'm a perfectly rational and sound of mind human being. If I scare people off then those people are clearly never going to get me in the way I need to be got (you can tell I'm a writer, can't you?)
On a completely unrelated topic (am feeling particularly scatty today, so please excuse me if I jump around, in a literary sense), have been enjoying a fair amount of live music of late, which I'm finding makes me very happy indeed. On Friday it was Vampire Weekend (who I saw at Glastonbury and absolutely loved) followed by a live Brazilian band in Camden until the wee small hours, then on Sunday I went to a McFly gig that was organised by Maccy D's for its happy meal competition winners (should point out I took a guitar to get signed by my Charity, which was my main reason for being there, but I'm not going to lie to you - it was fun!) and tonight I'm off to a writer friend's gig at Cargo in Shoreditch with some friends from my writing group.
Now for a really exciting piece of news: last Thursday my netball team won its first match so far this season! A staggering result - 12 goals to 3, no less! And every one of them deserved. We started a man down but in spite of that our collective determination was such that, on this occasion, losing was quite simply not an option. The opposition - Team Trafigura - put up a valiant fight but the night belonged to ESS, who were on fire! A special mention to the whole team for their sheer grit - Penny, Barny, Tom, Tegan, Vicki, Bege, Charlotte and Steph, Beth and Phil who watched (and inwardly cheered!!) from the sidelines. Ah, victory is so, so sweet!
No time to write more I'm afraid (was that a sigh of relief I heard? Honestly, how rude!) as have to dash to the gig. To be continued...
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