Day: November 7, 2009

Seven Days

Alyssa5 Comments

So, the first week of NaNoWriMo has come and gone. I started on the 4th of November and have decided that next year I’m definitively NOT kicking off late again. I feel as if I’m in this constant race behind the others. None the less, I’ve clocked about 7000 words in four days which isn’t bad. If I had started on time, I might actually be on target.

But, I didn’t and I somehow, someway need to survive it.
I’ve discovered on this journey a few invaluable things that gets me through this period and I thought that I’d share a few:

  1. The Forums – I love reading about people’s progress and again, I’ve discovered that knowing that there are people in my town doing the same thing as I do, really helps take away that edge of loneliness that I sometimes feel whilst writing. Or, loneliness isn’t the right word exactly. Rather, the sense of isolation that carrying my own world inside my head brings. Make no mistake, I love it. But, I also love knowing that there are a few people out there who also likes it.
  2. Ricoffi and Rusks – For those of you who don’t know – Ricoffi is a brand of Coffee we have here in South Africa and Rusks is a truly South African… dish? Delicacy? Way of life? Here’s a link to explain what it is. That would be better than explaining: Ouma Rusks – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    I honestly don’t know how the rest of the world can survive this monsterous task without it. Ricoffi is the best brand of coffee (according to me…) in the world and rusks are just invaluable to fill up that empty hole of something that you crave when you’re typing. And, if they are my recipe, they aren’t even that fattening…
  3. Comfortable room – Chaos. Pens lying around everywhere. Clothes from work. Unmade bed and shoes cluttering up everywhere. My definition of paradise. At the end of the day. I love my room and it’s ambience makes it easy for me to write in.
  4. My Roof Fan – Summer. South Africa. Heat. The fan helps.
  5. My Horse – a good distraction to take my mind off of the rising or rather falling word count vs. target scedual that I have.
  6. My Partner – Who deserves a lot more than I can give for understanding that sometimes, I need to be on my own to do something that seems entirely pointless to the rest of the world. I can’t describe my love and respect for this person.
  7. Procrastination – yes, it deserves a mention. I mean, here I am – blogging when I should be writing.

Bad Alyss, bad…