It’s been a very good alternative for me to the HSC which would have rendered my EDS riddled body with irreparable permanent damage and the need for surgeries that probably wouldn’t work.

Open Universities Australia (OUS): https://www.open.edu.au/public/home

Tumblr: http://owlsdragonsstuff.tumblr.com/

Blog: http://owlsdragonsstuff.blogspot.com/

I just realised that iMovie had this set up as an “entertainment” category so sorry if the past few videos have been that too they’re meant to be “people and blogs”

Things NaNoWriMo has taught me 

I’ve learnt a lot over the course of my 3 NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) events and I’m sure I’ll learn even more in my 4th, which just so happens to be starting today (June 1st if I update this at the right time). A quick “And that’s what you missed on Glee” before we continued. NaNo is usually in the month of November and involves writing a 50,000 word novel of your choosing in one month to win. Easy, anyone can do it, even a professional sick person and part time cripple like me. Camp Nano, or just Camp as I refer to it, it the exact same thing except you do it in June and/or August. Simple, right.

I originally heard about Nano through my first internet (and now long term and one of my best) friend Julia. So I looked up the website and signed on sometime in September or October of 2010. At that point in my life undertaking such a huge project as a 50,000 word novel was no big deal. I was finishing a whole lessons worth of work in about 10 minutes…this in every class except math (I hate math and math hates me) and to top that off I almost never got homework and the big assignment rush was over. So, I had a lot of time on my hands and I had my government provided laptop. 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Easy. Except it wasn’t. For one, I was 3 days and 5,001 words behind at the start because I couldn’t settle on an idea. Then there was the whole issue of people are nosy. I did not exactly want to reveal my nerdy fantasy writing tendencies to a class full of the most teenager like teenagers I have ever come across. Finally I just wasn’t prepared for what a complete and total emotional trip it would be.

That first year I used every dirty trick in the book to finish my 50,000 words on time. I left out hyphens, purposely added in lengthy descriptions that I knew would be axed later, gave people two names, had  characters repeat things. I even copy and pasted in old pieces to edit to suit the story. I know, cheating, breaking the rules, how very Slytherdor of me. By the end of the month I was so exhausted with the plot, characters and my shitty prose that I wasn’t even excited or proud that I’d completed this monumental task. I remember sitting in my recliner, on my second rate school provided laptop just staring at the screen as I was taken to the winners page. No whoops of joy, no sense of pride. Just, oh I did it, it’s over. My mother, however more than made up for my lack of enthusiasm. She was more excited than my sister and I combined that we had completed this task. She bought us NaNoWriMo notebooks and paid the exorbitant shipping fees to boot.

I did better in the first Camp event of 2011. I was even a little bit proud when I finished, with less cheating than before, but a pre-meditated idea used. The story expanded more than I expected so I spent NaNo of 2011 finishing what I had to leave out. Which in itself is cheating because technically you are meant to bring in a new idea that fits between 1 and 50,000 words. That time though I was pretty excited when I finished. You’ve all heard my story about the 10k in two days and the weeks in double wrists braces that followed. The last line of that manuscript was “she leaned down over his neck and bit, clamping down with growing fangs and ripped it out. Blaise was dead instantly.” It wasn’t the end of the novel, but it was the end of what I hadn’t gotten to in July. It was a pretty dramatic finish. I was sore all over, my headphones were playing “I am the Doctor” so loud everyone could hear them and some family friends were over to hear me leap loudly from a large chair screaming “I WON!”

My point is this. Each event I learnt something new. The first event, I learnt that even though I wasn’t excited I could do something everyone thought I was crazy for attempting. The second event I learnt I didn’t need to cheat so much to win and that I had ideas that could expand past my wildest dreams. In the third event I learnt to enjoy myself in the process, to stop taking myself and my writing so seriously and just have fun. So what will I learn this time? Well I’m going in with a brand new, unexplored idea. Characters I know next to nothing about and a couple of chapter titles. This time I am attempting Camp with the full spirit of Nano behind me. I’m even doing it with some friends. Something tells me this will be the best event yet. After all if my track record is anything to go by, each event is better than the last.