How woefully unprepared and overconfident can one be before and during the Nanowrimo writing challenge? I think I answered it satisfactorily for myself. I was looking forward last week to updating you on my amazing progress, how it would be a close finish, and that I was barely on track to get my 50,000 word draft of a novel written by next week. This isn’t that update.
The good thing about the writing challenge, which is obviously not my pitiful writing output, is that when I put my butt in the chair and started writing it has been fun. I’m learning a lot about what I like to write, which in turn makes the process more enjoyable, in turn getting me to write more. I’ve been focused on witty dialogue (for some reason in the past I would write dialogue like “Yes that sounds good. See you Friday.” and many other boring bits), thinking about the conversations I would like to hear vs. just portraying normal reality.
My family visited me for Thanksgiving here in Puerto Rico which was nice. I only see them twice a year, and I didn’t factor this into my writing marathon fantasy. I realized instead of harboring the guilt of either writing and not spending time with my family when I’m hosting them, or spending time with them and not writing feeling that guilt, I tapped out on the competition. On the bright side I have a story I’m planning to still write (just not finishing in the next few days) and I’m enjoying it.
The crypto world has been blowing up, which set me back with writing as well. I don’t have much commentary on it other than it feels like the purge that started at the beginning of the year is finally getting close to finishing, and in some ways healthy. It’s getting a bit out of hand, but at the same time for my work it’s good for business. Bad action is better than no action. It has been tough mentally to handle the swings (and losses), but one thing that has been coming back is my mental toughness. I have a more long term view of the space, and if I’m disciplined there will be some really good opportunities for me now in the short term.
Other than that I finally got to visit Culebra (a different Puerto Rican Island) and a few other things I’ve been wanting to do. U of Michigan lost the final game of the regular season, getting blown out against Ohio State as usual (except unusually we were favored and expected to beat them handily), but in many ways it was relieving. I have been able to avoid caring about sports the moment the game was done, and a lot of mental energy has been freed up.
With that I’m going to go back to the writing and crypto world. Wishing you all a great post-Thanksgiving, and hopefully we can all get some good things done before Christmas.
Andrew Manser 