Day 8

Day 8

My Current Word Count: 23,934 words

Words Written Today: 4,275 words

Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 13,336 words

Blog Post – Day 8

Day 8 – Further Refinements to the Plan

Tags: self-directed learning, Camp NANOWRIMO, The Office of Letters & Light, writing, goals, word count, blogging, NANOWRIMO, priorities, editing, publishing, 

My Current Word Count: 23,934 words

Words Written Today:  4,275 words

Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 13,336 words

This blog was originally designed to chronicle my experiments with self-directed learning in general (through predominately openly available and free resources) and also with language learning specifically (usually through commercially available resources but free materials will also be discussed and used as time allows). My desire is to document, both for myself and for others who share my interests, what methods I use, my successes and any changes that I make along the course to mastery, assuming that I actually get that far! Nobody can master everything and sometimes along the way you discover that you aren’t that interested in the first place; no one should expect anything different from anyone else either. 

So far during this introductory month I have been forced to make many changes to the structure of my experiment, predominately in order to accommodate all of the other factors that are a part of my life. There are only so many hours in a day. As such I wanted to address where I stand now and how I intend to progress—as of now anyway—until the end of this month. 

This first month of my blog is being written in conjunction with Camp NANOWRIMO, or for the uninitiated, Camp National Novel Writing Month. This is a semi-annual even put on by the folks at the Office of Letters & Light, a non-profit organization founded for the purpose of promoting writing. The basis of the annual NANOWRIMO, which takes place every November, is that virtually anyone can write a fifty thousand word novel in thirty days. Since the initial years of NANOWRIMO, the event has continued to increase in popularity and a July “Camp” was added to the plan. As popularity continues to grow, a second Camp has been started in April with the ability to select not only genre but also word count goals. If fifty thousand words in a month intimidates you, you can set your sights lower and write towards a smaller goal now.

My initial goal was to edit and publish my writing as I went along this month. As it turns out (and I really should know better) this takes too much energy and time so I am reverting to a back-up plan that I have since created. As originally envisioned, this month’s blogging event was designed as a test for my language learning and writing skills. It seems that I have only twenty-four hours in a day and so while I continue to write, I will be limiting my posts until after this month is over. As of now, my posts will include my current word count (I will also be adding these refinements to my older posts), the number of words I’ve written that day, and the recommended NANOWRIMO word count goal for the day. I am including this last metric as a means to quickly assess my current word count based upon the recommendation of the fine folks at the Office of Letters & Light. This daily cumulative goal is simply created by multiplying the day number against the average words per day it takes to reach fifty thousand words in a thirty day period. It is included here simply as a guideline and to help maintain focus on the bigger goal. 

Currently I am also planning to go back through my writing and select portions that I have written for any given day and, after editing them, post them on the appropriate day. But that will have to wait until after May. I will probably also post a few things from time to time during the month but I will no longer be focusing on this as it takes too much time away from my other priorities. 

I apologize for repeating anything that I’ve already mentioned but I wanted to be clear here. I also don’t want anyone to be too disappointed about my failure to post more regularly but everyone has to have priorities. 


Best wishes on your own learning journey!

Day 6

Day 6

My Current Word Count: 16,034 words

Words Written Today:  3,464 words

Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 10,002 words

Day 5

Day 5

My Current Word Count: 12,570 words

Words Written Today: 1,642 words

Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 8,335 words

Day 4

Day 4

My Current Word Count: 10,928 words

Words Written Today:  1,382 words

Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 6,668 words

Day 2 - Technical Difficulties & Work-Arounds

Day 2

My Current Word Count: 7,036 words

Words Written Today:  1,569 words

Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 3,334 words

08:00 EST

Technical Difficulties & Work-Arounds

I am not getting up as early as I would like but I’m pretty sure this has something to do with the fact that I’m staying up too late. I put the finishing touches on my second post, added it to my combined document (something that I always create so I can easily see what my current word count is for NANOWRIMO events) and updated my word count on the Camp NANOWRIMO website shortly before midnight. I officially wrote 5,467 words yesterday but that does not take into account anything except my blog postings. 

I do not intend to write so much each day; I simply wanted to get my backstory out of the way and it took far more writing than I thought it would (not to mention far more time).

I have tentatively decided that I will create a new Blogger account (here it is!) so that I can cut and paste directly from Word into it. I hope that I can resolve the issue with WordPress—I have been overwhelmed by the response to my blog so far and I certainly love the infrastructure and community that WordPress has—but as mentioned in yesterday’s second post, I have a legitimate need to be able to cut and paste my document. And while it’s nice that I still have the ability to attach my file, who likes opening unknown attachments? I certainly don’t. I will post my new Blogger address as soon as it is ready. I will also post my previous posts there as Blogger does allow direct cutting and pasting from Word, or at least they used to!

I would also like to apologize now and in advance for not checking back with those fine folks who have liked me and/or are now following me or will choose to do so—I will get to you but it’s not too likely to be this month. I am inundated with the writing and the Spanish, which for day one at least, did not get nearly the attention it deserved. Add all of that into the mix of day-to-day normal activities I need to do along with my job search and well, things are just a little bit hectic on my end this month. Please understand; I sincerely want to read what you are writing too, for it is in reading that we gather inspiration for our own writing.

17:15 EST

Editing & Revision

I just spent the better part of the past two hours rereading, editing and otherwise fine-tuning my second blog entry from yesterday. I thought that I was pretty much done with it but that was last night when I was exhausted. Now that my writing has had time to rest as did I, it needed some work. I added a bit here and there and basically tweaked it pre-publication.

While there are plenty of things that didn’t get mentioned you will get the overall idea that I want to convey here: I have had a life-long affinity for foreign languages and for most of my life I have been stymied in my pursuit of studying them at virtually every turn. This has, as I now believe, essentially led me to a form of what Martin Seligman termed “learned helplessness,” in that I came to unconsciously believe that I never would be able to do what I wanted to do most—learn foreign languages.

After regaining my perspective from my recent loss of employment, it has become increasingly obvious to me that I have everything I need right now to learn all of the languages that I want to learn. I do not need to go back to school to do this; I do not need more money and I do not need to have a native speaker as they are already in here in the audio components of my many language programs. Should I look for native speakers to speak with? Absolutely. Is it necessary to have them present with everything else at my disposal? Absolutely not. And I am not even taking into account the mother-of-all-resources, the internet.

We are at a place and time in history unlike any before. Through the modern miracle of the internet, Google, Bing, YouTube and social media, you can locate someone at any time of the day or night who is teaching or otherwise illustrating what you want to do. All you have to do is pick your subject and find them. If you aren’t interested in my journey, create your own path; you are sure to have followers and fellow travelers along the way.

Welcome to Language, Learning & Life

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Day 1

My Current Word Count: 5,467 words

Words Written Today: 5,467 words

Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 1667 words

Buenos dias! Welcome to my blog and to this chronicle of my adventures in language and learning (and possibly a little of my life). I would like to start by introducing myself to you so you know my background and have a better understanding of this project but before we get to that, I would like to explain NANOWRIMO to all of those who are unfamiliar with it. I will get back to this project and my background in subsequent posts.

First of all, I am writing this to you in conjunction with Camp NANOWRIMO. For those of you who do not know what that is, the name NANOWRIMO is derived from National Novel Writing Month, which is held every November (see www.nanowrimo.org for more details and to sign up – it’s free!). The brainchild of Chris Baty, this annual event is hosted by The Office of Letters & Light and has become a global phenomenon. Based upon the success of the original NANOWRIMO, an additional month of writing was created in July and it was dubbed Camp NANOWRIMO. Spurred on by increased success, too much caffeine and (I’m guessing but I’m pretty sure) continued demand for even more, the folks at The Office of Letters & Light have created a second Camp in April.

National Novel Writing Month is a free writing marathon that lasts for thirty days. During that thirty days successful “WRIMO’S” (as we writers are dubbed) will create a novel (or other form of writing) that is at least fifty thousand words in length. While at first blush fifty thousand words seems like quite a daunting task, it gets easier if you break it down into smaller chunks (as do all big goals, by the way). Fifty thousand words equates to 1667 words per day, written every day for thirty days. Of course you can write more and you can write less at times, as long as you catch up later. Through the website, WRIMO’s can choose to get involved in any of the various forums which include writing prompts, advice for first timers and much, much more. There is a single day every November where writers gather both in person and online to kick out as many words as possible during that time (dubbed The Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-Thon). There are also local groups which writers can get involved in creating their own days or nights of writing frenzy, and as many as they choose. Or they can just share their stories and bounce ideas off one another too, either online or in person. Joining a local group in no way means you have to participate, either online in the forums or in person at meet-ups. Everything is optional and everything is free.

National Novel Writing Month’s founder Chris Baty wrote a book published by Chronicle Books in 2004 titled No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days. Those of you who also either write or aspire to write have probably noticed a run of books in recent years espousing to teach you how to write a novel in thirty, sixty or even ninety days; Chris Baty (as far as I can tell) started this trend and it is the success of NANOWRIMO that compels would-be authors to find their own way to novel writing success in such a short time.

As in all major projects, writing a novel in thirty days does not mean that you will come out the other end with a complete manuscript. It does mean that you can come out the other end with a complete rough draft, and this is all you should hope for. Banish your inner editor during the month. Seriously, do not, under any circumstances, stop to edit as you write. If you have a better idea for something you just wrote, add it on as soon as you think of it; you can remove what you don’t want later. Stopping will only impede the flow of your thoughts and it will allow doubt to creep in. National Novel Writing Month is not the time to start thinking how you “will never amount to anything as a writer” or that “this is utter garbage—no one will ever want to read what I write!” If you start to doubt yourself and you do not nip that particular demon in the bud you will end up drinking too many margaritas down at the local watering hole and blathering on about the tortured soul of a writer and that is what is total garbage. (You don’t even have to drink to be a writer! Tortured souls are optional.)

Now if you find yourself reading this and you think something along the lines of, “Well, I’ve always wanted to write a novel…but fifty thousand words? Wow, I could never do that in a month. That’s just too much!” You are in luck; Camp NANOWRIMO (www.campnanowrimo.org) now has the option of selecting your own word count goal. If fifty thousand words seem like an additional mountain on top of the mountain of other things you already have to do, sign up for twenty thousand words or whatever other number seems more appropriate for you. You’ll never know if you don’t try and if you reach your smaller goal of twenty thousand words (or whatever you choose), keep going! See just how many words you can write in a month and use that as fuel for your next CAMP NANOWRIMO in July or for the longer goal of fifty thousand words in November. You just might surprise yourself and find that you can write fifty thousand words in a month without even trying (well, there is some effort involved).

As you may have guessed, novels are not the only thing that you can choose to write during your time at Camp NANOWRIMO. While National Novel Writing Month was initially begun for creating a novel in a single month, it has now spawned WRIMO Rebels who write in other genres besides fiction. And as you can tell, I am definitely a Rebel, although I wrote my first novel during my first NANOWRIMO in November 2009. I have successfully written fifty thousand words or more every subsequent November and last year I also wrote at least fifty thousand words in both April and July also. That’s seven attempts and seven successes; what might you accomplish if you sign up for NANOWRIMO or Camp NANOWRIMO?

You may already know this, but every poll that I’ve ever seen on the subject says that the majority of Americans (and perhaps people in general) secretly believe that they have a novel or other book inside of them, just waiting to get out. And just as secretly, most of these same people will die not having written that book. Why die with your story untold? Take this opportunity to write what’s on your mind; let your story be told, you’ll be happy that you did.

Sit down, grab your pen, laptop, typewriter (hey, no judgment here; write in whatever way that makes you comfortable) and start writing. Sign up first, of course. www.campnanowrimo.org Prove it to yourself, your mother, your ex-boyfriend/girlfriend, that English teacher who annihilated everything you ever submitted for class—but most of all, prove it to yourself. You do have a story in you and people want to read it. Do it now.