Focus ? (and NaNoWriMo)

Today started out as a pretty ordinary day. My wake up, get up, get ready and go to work routine went as smoothly as it does on ordinary days. The day continued to develop as an ordinary day, and I suppose I can say that it’s ending pretty ordinarily.

Now that I’ve beaten “ordinary” to within an inch of its life, let’s move on. Don’t worry, I keep a team of wordy medical professionals around for when I use certain terms too much. Ordinary will be fine.

During my lunchtime, when I don’t spend it working, I brainstorm ideas for the blog and try to get caught up on things I want to read as well as explore news from publishers, bloggers, and bookies. And by bookies I mean people who like/talk about books – I try to keep my gambling to a minimum. Sometimes I’ll start drafts for posts (that will either be finished or forgotten), or just jot down some thoughts for stories in my journal. Today, and most of this week, I’ve had my Reading Challenge on my mind since October’s wraps up next weekend, and I’ve also been thinking about NaNoWriMo.

For those of you unaware of this crazed, adventurous, grueling (or so I’ve heard) challenge, you’re lucky because I’m about to explain it to you. For those aware, please scrupulously analyze my explanation and make appropriate corrections in the comments or share this post and type a sassy heading that reads something like “random blogger thinks she knows what NaNoWriMo is” or “blogger with picture of herself in sunglasses on every social media platform tries to tell ME what I already know.” Be creative.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a chance for creative writers and authors of all expertise levels to challenge themselves to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of November (11:59 PM on November 30th to be exact). Writers can start from scratch, build upon an idea they’ve been developing, and join in with blogging, writing, and online communities to get through this feat with varying amounts of success.

I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo before, because I didn’t think I would have been able to handle the challenge along with school work and other obligations (throughout college), but as I’ve been feeling a bit discouraged about submitted work and have a little more time on my hands, I’m going to do it! I am bound and determined.

Now along with this impending project, I’ve decided to make a few changes with my blog. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be really zoning in on my blog’s focus. It has changed drastically over the last year, along with the path(s) of my life. I feel like I have outgrown or moved away from what I first intended my blog to be, and need to focus it more towards what I now see it being. This may defy rules of marketing, Google targeting, and Blogging 101, but I definitely know that’s not why I started this blog in the first place; I’m writing about what I know and what I like and not for just the number of followers. So bear with me – I’ll be reorganizing the look, content, and even the name (most likely) – although you can still look for my October Reading Challenge post and November Reading Challenge intro, and follow my blog on Instagram and Twitter for more updates and news (links are to the right and at the bottom of this page).

Good luck to all of my writer friends and followers who are participating in NaNoWriMo, and as always, thank you for reading.