It occurred to me that this year, I’ve added a new playlist to this blog to celebrate NaNoWriMo, but have also completely forgotten to actually, uhm, mention it. Considering the fact that I hadn’t changed the old playlist in more than one year, I suppose it was high time that I did so. Since I incidentally added a couple more songs between November 1st and now, here are the titles of what you can listen on it.

As a little game (and because I was asked in a comment on my ‘writing excerpts blog’, which has locked entries due to various reasons, and is mostly used during the NaNoing month anyway), I also added alternative titles. These are not to be all viewed as specific scenes in the novel, nor ar they in any particular order, but they’re the kind of titles I would give if I were to compose my own soundtrack—I cannot write without music, and I’m a sucker for soundtracks, really. If you wish, feel free to toy with these and imagine what kind of scenes they could correspond to. It’s a game I like playing as well.

It took me one year to come up at last with a new lil’ playlist for the radio.blog here… And given the time of the year, what could be more suitable than one that I will use to keep me pumped up for NaNoWriMo! Of course, once again, this is only but a glimpse of what I’ll be listening to in November.

My genre this year is Fantasy, without dragons and all the fluff. It’ll be more focused on the characters, as well as on the magic in that particular world, its rules, and what being a mage really entails. So, don’t be surprised if there isn’t much… epic in that playlist.

A quick note tonight to let you, faithful readers, know that I’ve reached my goal of 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo about half a hour ago. My word count proudly stands at a mighty 50,306, and I’m feeling pretty proud of myself right now.

The story itself isn’t completely done, so I’ll go on finishing the last remaining half-chapters during the last week of November, if only because I really want to be done with it, and not file it as some pathetic attempt at a novel. I’ll do the editing part in January-February probably, given that I have this need to get my hands on a serious, scientific book or two regarding viruses to make sure I haven’t spewed too many inaccuracies in it.

To tell the truth, I’m not feeling fed up. I’m at peace. I don’t have any fears anymore regarding my ability to write a lot and keep on liking it. I’ve learnt a lot during these past three weeks, and the most important part of it all is that if I plan my story, I can go far. Some people can write without a plan, just by letting the inspiration flow. I can’t do that. I need to “force” myself to write even when I’m lazy, not inspired, invoking the writer’s block and whatnot, and having a thorough plan is what works for me. It works just like in my job; as long as I know where to go and what I’m going to write about on a given day, I can do it. This is probably my satori of the year; it fills me with confidence, and even though my style needs lots of improvement, I can now look at myself in the mirror and tell to myself: “I’ve written a novel. In English. Isn’t that great?”

This said, if everything goes well, updates on this blog should resume at a more regular rate now.

Y Tags: NaNoWriMo | writing

I probably mentioned this in passing a few times here: shall I go on with writing “depending on my inspiration”, or adopting a more thorough way of planning? I was never sure of what method would be best for me. Would I need to plan carefully, or just run with the inspiration? After a few weeks of trying to change my ways of doing, I’ve started to wonder if, in this like in many other aspects of my life and work, it’s not the middle ground that would work best. And recently, it occurred to me that the problem for me exists in two forms: I don’t need outlining for a short story, but I sure do for a novel.

I thought I’d make an entry about this. Tomorrow, NaNoWriMo starts, and you can expect me to be busy enough during the upcoming month. However, I’m not sure of how often I’ll keep the blog updated (and my other blogs as well; it all goes in the same basket). I’m not going to make a “will update on such-and-such days only, blah-blah” disclaimer, because I’m pretty sure I will have the opportunity to update more regularly than I thought, or less often, or at different times than I normally do… Not going to make a fool out of myself with a false statement. If I update, it means that I had the time, if I don’t, it means I didn’t have it.

What is sure is that:

• I’ll do my best to keep things updated more than only once every two weeks.


• I can be a damn fast writer when I need to, trust me. I may actually end up becoming a power engine with words shooting out of my fingers at light-speed. The downside is that I’ll probably not edit, nor even re-read anything, so expect typos.


• I may go the road of short posts, instead of long essays. These will likely resume in December.


• Long live the laptop, the WiFi and the 20m CAT 5 cable that allows me to write wherever I want to in the house, including the cellar, and bathroom, and even in front of a movie. No, I won’t be asocial, only multi-tasking!

This said, good luck to every NaNo participant. Thanks goodness November 1st is a national holiday here, this way I can start like a rocket.

Y Tags: blogging | NaNoWriMo | posts | updating