Okay, so this is only half true. I slept. I just forgot to go to bed until, like, 4 am. (Which is why I ended up not blogging yesterday.) In truth, this has been happening a lot lately.
I did have a pretty good sleep schedule, at one point. Go to bed at 12:30. Get up at 8:30. Slyly refuse questions as to why I get up so early when I never work until 4 in the afternoon. Watch Live! with Kelly and Michael (and get frustrated when I can't answer the trivia question for Holiday Escape Travel Trivia, despite the fact that I am not actually in the running to win the trip to Florida or whatever the wheel happened to land on). Pretend to write when I'm actually not (but shh don't tell anyone). Work. Come home and try to decide what slightly useless but incredibly fun activity I should do before bed, only to spend 2-3 hours bumming around on my phone, thus wasting the opportunity to do something slightly useless and incredibly fun and get slightly frustrated at myself for that.
And that in a nutshell is my life. Woo hoo.
What was I talking about? Right, sleeping. Sleeping is great. Too bad I forget to do it.
My dad left the front door open because he has clearly forgotten that this is Manitoba in the dead of winter and we as a species cannot survive if we leave the door open all willy nilly. (He claims that he was taking out the garbage but I think he could have at least tried to close the door.)
This was going to be a more informative blog post but it just sort of turned into me rambling. Such is my life. (I blame the sleep deprivation from last night.)
Until later,
- Justyne
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Spreading the Christmas Cheer
4 more days! My annual Christmas Countdown is nearing it's end. My most favourite holiday will soon be upon us, and you know what that means...
PRESENTS!!!
Earlier this year I made a goal; to give as many presents to as many people as possible. The outcome is the picture above: 60+ Christmas-themed goodie bags, containing chocolate and lollipops and minty candies. I also wrote out 60+ Christmas cards, which have almost all been either passed out or stuffed in the mailbox. I've finished my shopping, almost finished my wrapping, and with Christmas carols blaring out of my speakers 24/7, I'm more than ready for Christmas.
I started bringing those goodie bags to work last week. I made more than enough to give to each and every one of my coworkers, and their reactions were fantastic. There were smiles and hugs and it just put me in the absolute GREATEST of moods!
I truly do love every little bit of this holiday. The music, the television, the magic. It's a time of year that brings incredibly joy, that makes it feel like anything can happen. Most importantly, I love the feeling when you have absolutely hit the nail on the head with your choice in Christmas gifts; when your colourfully wrapped box brings absolute joy to its recipient. It's beautiful, wonderful, and absolutely amazing.
If I could pass along these goodie bags to all of you reading this, I would. However, since that would involve the use of a private investigator, quite a bit of stalking, and an extreme amount of shipping costs, I will settle for this:
I wish all of you a wonderful, amazing, and truly Merry Christmas. Spend it with your family. Spend it with your friends. And have an incredibly happy holiday season. :)
Until later,
- Justyne
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Self Discipline
If there's one thing I've learned from NaNoWriMo, it's that forcing yourself to write every day is hard. How I did it last year, I'll never know--this year, November was filled with 4-5 day writeless stretches. (Which was good for my mental sanity, but not so much for my poor word count.) Blogging every week is hard enough--which is kinda-sorta why I'm posting this at 3 am. This whole experience that I began last March just makes me wonder how the hell I've managed to win NaNoWriMo two years in a row.
It also makes me wonder why, if I can do it for a month, am I so terrible at doing it for the other 11?
I'll tell you why. Because I'm weak.
"Oh hey, I haven't played Sims in a while. Just for an hour, no big deal, then I'll write."
"Oh wow, this music is from the Tangled soundtrack! Sure haven't seen that in a while. Maybe I'll watch it."
"Frozen is only going to be in theatres for so long; I better watch it as many times as humanly possible before it leaves!"
So you see my dilemma.
It's not so much a case of procrastination, as it is of just not having any self control to sit myself down and write, with no distractions. I find quiet boring; I like to be upstairs, where everyone is talking and watching TV. I like to have background noise, like music, but it distracts me to the point that I don't get a whole lot done. I would rather write out in the open, where people can pass me by and I don't feel quite so lonely and cooped up in my bedroom.
But I have the attention span of a...thing that has a short attention span. (Shush, it's late.) I get distracted easily. And I relish in those distractions--I love noise, I love chaos. (Why do you think I work in a restaurant?) I love being flexible, and hate having to structure my writing in a strict fashion.
But if I don't, it doesn't get done.
The real problem with this is that I have absolutely no self control, at all. If something tempts me, I go for it. (Exhibit A: I watched two movies on Netflix tonight, instead of starting this blog post earlier.) (Exhibit B: I am an extremely impulsive buyer.) (Exhibit C: I'll walk to Tims in half snow / half rain because gosh darn it I want my cappuccino.)
So, if I see my Sims icon calling to me on my desktop, I will most likely click it.
If I see or hear something that reminds me of how much I love Tangled, I will most likely sit down and watch it.
If I discover that both me and a friend are free on the same night and they're willing to go see Frozen with me for the fourth time, you can bet that I will be at that movie theatre faster than you can give me the showtime. (Not that that's really necessary; I have seen it three times, after all.) (Side note: I absolutely adore this movie. A+ Disney.)
This little part of me does have its pros. It means that if I'm inspired to write, then gosh darn it, I will sit my little butt down and write. It just also means that if someone were to call me up and ask me to go out for supper, well, I would probably drop everything and go.
Such is my life.
Until later,
- Justyne
(P.S. If you're wondering what happened to Snippet Sunday...well, it's turning into less of an every-week thing, and more into a whenever-I-decide-to-do-it thing. The reason being that, after a certain point, I found I was running out of snippets to share, without spoiling too much of the story. So every now and then, I'll throw out a snippet for you guys--a larger snippet, with more content and quite possibly higher quality. You'll still get them--just not as often.)
It also makes me wonder why, if I can do it for a month, am I so terrible at doing it for the other 11?
I'll tell you why. Because I'm weak.
"Oh hey, I haven't played Sims in a while. Just for an hour, no big deal, then I'll write."
"Oh wow, this music is from the Tangled soundtrack! Sure haven't seen that in a while. Maybe I'll watch it."
"Frozen is only going to be in theatres for so long; I better watch it as many times as humanly possible before it leaves!"
So you see my dilemma.
It's not so much a case of procrastination, as it is of just not having any self control to sit myself down and write, with no distractions. I find quiet boring; I like to be upstairs, where everyone is talking and watching TV. I like to have background noise, like music, but it distracts me to the point that I don't get a whole lot done. I would rather write out in the open, where people can pass me by and I don't feel quite so lonely and cooped up in my bedroom.
But I have the attention span of a...thing that has a short attention span. (Shush, it's late.) I get distracted easily. And I relish in those distractions--I love noise, I love chaos. (Why do you think I work in a restaurant?) I love being flexible, and hate having to structure my writing in a strict fashion.
But if I don't, it doesn't get done.
The real problem with this is that I have absolutely no self control, at all. If something tempts me, I go for it. (Exhibit A: I watched two movies on Netflix tonight, instead of starting this blog post earlier.) (Exhibit B: I am an extremely impulsive buyer.) (Exhibit C: I'll walk to Tims in half snow / half rain because gosh darn it I want my cappuccino.)
So, if I see my Sims icon calling to me on my desktop, I will most likely click it.
If I see or hear something that reminds me of how much I love Tangled, I will most likely sit down and watch it.
If I discover that both me and a friend are free on the same night and they're willing to go see Frozen with me for the fourth time, you can bet that I will be at that movie theatre faster than you can give me the showtime. (Not that that's really necessary; I have seen it three times, after all.) (Side note: I absolutely adore this movie. A+ Disney.)
This little part of me does have its pros. It means that if I'm inspired to write, then gosh darn it, I will sit my little butt down and write. It just also means that if someone were to call me up and ask me to go out for supper, well, I would probably drop everything and go.
Such is my life.
Until later,
- Justyne
(P.S. If you're wondering what happened to Snippet Sunday...well, it's turning into less of an every-week thing, and more into a whenever-I-decide-to-do-it thing. The reason being that, after a certain point, I found I was running out of snippets to share, without spoiling too much of the story. So every now and then, I'll throw out a snippet for you guys--a larger snippet, with more content and quite possibly higher quality. You'll still get them--just not as often.)
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Post-NaNo
YES! It may have taken 12k on the final day, I may have just squeaked by at 11 pm, and I may not be entirely done the story (even after using two NaNo's to write it...shh), but I did it! As you can clearly see from my little stats bar on the right, I (somehow) managed to pull through with a grand total of 50,568 words, thus winning my second year in a row.
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.
The thing I love most about NaNoWriMo is that it's almost like a school year. At the beginning, you're inspired and motivated. You sit down every day and you write those 1,667 words like nobody's business because gosh darn it, this year will be different! But then, as the month goes on, you fall out of the groove a little bit. Those 1,667 daily words turn into 1,600, then 1,000, then less and less until you're lucky if you get any words down at all.
The end of the month is the best--or the best, depending on how you look at it. The clock is ticking and there's all this pressure and while you're not necessarily scared of failing you just don't want to because you committed to this, gosh darn it, and if you don't follow through you will never live it down. Be the circumstances good or bad, though, some people--myself included--against all odds, manage to pull through and write thousands of words in a day.
I think I can safely say that November 30th will always be my most productive writing day.
The only problem is that after all is said and done, I'm left feeling exhausted. Say what you will, but writing 50,000 words in a month is hard--especially when over 1/5 of it is written on the final day. (I never was too good at pacing myself.) The post-NaNo period is always spent by me doing nothing except playing Sims. (And catching up on all of the TV shows I missed during November.) Seems pretty counter-productive, when you think about it; spending such a long period of time working hard, then spending a couple weeks doing nothing.
But you know what? I think I deserve it. As do all of you other wrimos; whether you wrote 50,000, or only managed 100, consider yourself a winner. You dedicated a month to writing; now dedicate three hours to playing Sims.
Until later,
- Justyne
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.
The thing I love most about NaNoWriMo is that it's almost like a school year. At the beginning, you're inspired and motivated. You sit down every day and you write those 1,667 words like nobody's business because gosh darn it, this year will be different! But then, as the month goes on, you fall out of the groove a little bit. Those 1,667 daily words turn into 1,600, then 1,000, then less and less until you're lucky if you get any words down at all.
The end of the month is the best--or the best, depending on how you look at it. The clock is ticking and there's all this pressure and while you're not necessarily scared of failing you just don't want to because you committed to this, gosh darn it, and if you don't follow through you will never live it down. Be the circumstances good or bad, though, some people--myself included--against all odds, manage to pull through and write thousands of words in a day.
I think I can safely say that November 30th will always be my most productive writing day.
The only problem is that after all is said and done, I'm left feeling exhausted. Say what you will, but writing 50,000 words in a month is hard--especially when over 1/5 of it is written on the final day. (I never was too good at pacing myself.) The post-NaNo period is always spent by me doing nothing except playing Sims. (And catching up on all of the TV shows I missed during November.) Seems pretty counter-productive, when you think about it; spending such a long period of time working hard, then spending a couple weeks doing nothing.
But you know what? I think I deserve it. As do all of you other wrimos; whether you wrote 50,000, or only managed 100, consider yourself a winner. You dedicated a month to writing; now dedicate three hours to playing Sims.
Until later,
- Justyne
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