So long, 2012

I think I just want 2012 to be over already, which fortunately happens in another couple of hours. Clean slate, coming right up. Before that, though, I have to write one last blog post to say goodbye to 2012.

NaNo Prep 2012: an introduction

For some reason I decided try blogging every day during NaNoWriMo 2012. I can see why - it was a resounding success during Camp NaNo earlier this year. Well, I'm doing it anyway. Fun times lie ahead, everyone. Now, on with the introduction.

Yeah, but how do you pick just one project?

This is sort of a 'part 2' to my previous post so you may want to read it first.

In 2010 I did NaNoWriMo for the first time and wrote a 75k draft that I've since realised probably should be expanded into at least three books. Inspired by my NaNo success, I went on to finish the vampire story I'd started writing for a dare.

I don't know what I was thinking when I signed up for a 1kk WriYe (a million words) in 2011. I have even less idea what made me think I could write 12 drafts in a year. Somehow I actually managed to do both things, which left me with a stack of 14 complete drafts, any of which could probably be picked up as a 'serious' project in 2012.

Siana Blackwood's insane plan

A random picture of Gypsy the kitten.

I'm trying to get my writing life in some kind of order, so I spent part of yesterday typing random stuff until I started to draw conclusions about myself. It works surprisingly well - everyone should try it once in a while. I call it 'wandering down the psycho path' after a joke I heard once:

Q: How do crazy people get from place to place?

Just a quick update...

Six days left until I'm allowed to write again. I'm not sure if I'll be able to hold on that long. At first there was enough pain to warn me off, so I buried myself in reading. Then I started to feel edgy. My brain was tossing out ideas and I found myself wondering if it was really going to be that bad going back to the computer. I held that off for a few days by handwriting, with the result that I now have four stories in the planning stage. By the end of June there could be more. I have a fair-sized back catalogue to choose from.

First blog post of 2012!!!

Blogging is apparently not something that comes easily to me. All through last year I used the excuse that I was writing a million words for WriYe and blog posts didn't count, so I'd do one after I'd met my word count goal.

Yeah, that went well.

This year, I told myself, is going to be different. Two posts a week every month. So how did it get to the ninth without a single post?

Therefore, hello and welcome to the first post of 2012. No, make that the first of many posts of 2012.

Things I'm going to blog about in 2012:

• 2011. Last year I wrote 12 first drafts and a million words and told nobody about it. That achievement deserves at least a couple of blog entries
• My 2012 projects. This year I'm aiming for the only thing that could possibly be more awesome than a million words. What's that, you ask? Publication.
• Writing software. I've recently started trialling Liquid Story Binder, the first piece of writing software I've actually met that I didn't hate on sight. Whether this continues or not is still open to debate. I also like full screen text editors and I'm looking for an operating system that lets me have light text on a dark background system-wide. I'll give Windows 7 a chance, but I know Linux can do what I want, so we'll see...
• Writing. It wouldn't be much of a writing blog if I didn't talk about writing, would it? One of the big things here will be my 'seat of the pants' attitude and how it fares as I move into rewriting and editing. I've got some first drafts to do this year as well, though, so maybe we'll see the development of a detailed creative paradigm here.
• Books. Reviews, electronic v. paper, book-binding projects, book repair... I really don't know what, but I love books in all their forms and I really think everyone else should share my passion.
• Other stuff. Music, writing groups, writing months, random things about writing, cute pictures of my cats and goats (who are of course the most awesome cats and goats in the universe), and I guess the occasional link to something I think is awesome and needs to be shared.

So anyway, look! First blog post of 2012!