My eye (and brain) had been successfully primed. A few weeks later, I noticed a local bookshop advertising the visit of Isobelle Carmody, the author of one of my favourite book series: the Obernewtyn Chronicles. And many, many other books besides.

(An aside: Obernewtyn is a young adult series set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world. There are adventures with teenage misfits with special mental powers and talking animals! Wonderful! This was the young adult genre before Twilight and The Hunger Games, too: think Tamora Pierce, but more depth in storytelling.)

Her visit to Hobart yesterday was part of a launch tour for her new book: the second-last in the Obernewtyn series. She talked for an hour about her books and her writing. It was wonderfully inspiring. I was rather in awe. I waited in line for about twenty minutes, offered up my first-edition Obernewtyn book to be signed, babbled a little, and ran away. *sheepish smile*

So! Her talk. I wish I’d thought to bring a pencil and paper to take notes, but instead I’ve tried to distill some of the key points that stuck with me. I hope someone might appreciate these snippets, rough as they are. My notes are in brackets and italic.

Isobelle Carmody says…

Isobelle says she thinks a lot before writing anything down, because writing things down makes things set and harder to change. When she does write things down, she writes by hand. (Maz: Presumably this means more thinking time?)

By the time she has finished her first draft, she has forgotten the beginning. Typing up the handwritten manuscript means she can better see the story arc and hold all the pieces in her mind at the same time. She can see where themes have developed, and can begin to sculpt the story.

Continuing on this line, she says she loves the editing process. Editing is like sculpting – the first draft is just dragging in the raw lump of stone. From there, it is honing and shaping. (Maz: Writing is a craft… editing is the true craft of writing.)

Writing a story is a journey of discovery. There is such joy in the discovery. She says that writers don’t need to plan themes, they will arise naturally. (Maz: But I suspect you need to recognise the themes and hone and refine them in the editing process.)

On inspiration

When asked about being continuing writing on such a long series, and over such a long period of time, she says that if you write about your deepest questions – the questions you think about and worry over, and especially those you don’t have an answer for (those that no one has an answer for!) – they will be the deepest source for your writing and you will never run out. For example, the Obernewtyn series was based on her own questions of belonging and place, as well as the deeper question of whether human morality can evolve.

When asked about her inspiration for stories, she says inspiration is everywhere, you just need to look and listen. As an example, she says when she and her daughter ride on the bus, they sit in different spots with a notebook and write what they see and hear. When they get to their destination, they compare notes. She’s always surprised by the things her daughter noticed and she didn’t. She also takes note of interesting stories people tell her, and snippets of  conversation. (Observation as a skill.)

On writing for children

Writing for younger children requires a different way of writing. They understand the world differently; in a more poetic way. She likes to listen how they describe something or ask something about the world, as they have a unique way of seeing and making sense of things. They can hold belief and unbelief in their minds at the same time. They constantly ask questions. Her stories are written with these things in mind.

When she reads her daughter stories, she will stop reading after a chapter or two if she doesn’t like the story. When asked why she didn’t like a story, she would say she didn’t love the character or care about them. When pressed further, she said that the story wasn’t beautiful, like The Mouse and His Child was beautiful. Her daughter said, “Oh yes, The Mouse and His Child was beautiful.” So children understand when a story is beautiful and has meaning. You don’t need to write down for them (that is, simplify things).

(Maz: I really want to re-read The Mouse and His Child! I had forgotten what a nice story it is.)

On oral storytelling

Isobelle thinks oral storytelling is very special, and says that telling a story out loud is saying “I love you”. She made up many stories for her daughter, some of which are now books.

She chooses character and place names according to their sound, and she knows when they are right for the character.

On being published and her editors

Publishing, for her, was quite an easy process, as she was quickly discovered and accepted. However, even by her third book, she still felt like someone might find her out as a fraud.

You need to respect and trust your editors, but you should also trust your skills and stay true the story you want to tell, not the story others might like you to tell. There is a skeleton, a core, to a story that you may need to fight for. But fighting for parts of stories – and the process of working with editors on stories – definitely makes them better.

Sometimes editors will ask for the impossible. Her latest manuscript was to be the last book of the Obernewtyn series. The editor commented that she couldn’t leave some sections as they were – she needed to write more about certain characters and story arcs – but she also said it was too long! Eventually, after much wrangling, Isobelle suggested that the last book be split into two, and they agreed. She needed to reformat the story arcs and create a new ending (for the second-last book) and a new beginning (for the last book), but it has turned out better.

–

If you’d like to find out more about the books, or Isobelle Carmody herself, here are some links!

• Isobelle Carmody’s website
• Obernewtyn.net: Information about her books, and availability for purchasing
• TLC Books: Author Interview with Isobelle Carmody

The specifics: my eReader is a Sony Reader PRS-350. I use it for just under an hour a day. I’m very fond of it, but still haven’t given it a name – shame on me!

Above: a size comparison, and a classic one-handed pose.

The Good

Small form factor

The size of the Sony Reader, with its touch screen and no keyboard, was a large part of the reason why I chose it over other brands. The touch screen means the buttons are small and minimal, unlike those of some other eReaders (such as the Kobo). With a laptop and iPhone for my portable internet needs, using it for email and browsing wasn’t a priority for me, and therefore an eReader with a keyboard (such as the Kindle 3G) wasn’t a requirement. Overall, the Sony Reader is amazingly small, slim and light – it’s no heavier than my iPhone, and slips easily into my handbag.

This portability means I can take out my eReader for a quick read while waiting for a takeaway coffee. Reading while waiting feels much more casual than iPhone gaming, which was my previous “while waiting” entertainment. With the iPhone, I always felt rushed to launch a game, and it was a pain having to split my attention – to be ready to react to whatever I was waiting for – when most games are based on timing and visual cues.

The lightness and the design of the Sony Reader helps out here, too. I can easily hold it in one hand, and the buttons are positioned so I can easily push the page turn buttons with my thumb. It feels natural and comfortable.

Travelling

This is probably a more obvious benefit of an eReader, but I still felt pretty gleeful when, the first time I packed to go away for a weekend, I realised that I didn’t have the usual dilemma of which book (and how many) to bring, and – this was a concern I hadn’t realised before – where to pack them so they wouldn’t get bent.

The Dictionary

A small perk that took me by surprise was using the built-in Dictionary to learn new words. Now, looking up words in a Dictionary while reading isn’t something I’d normally do, but given it was so easy – double-tapping on a word brings up a definition – I didn’t really have an excuse not to do it.

For added nerdiness, I must admit that I did start highlighting each unknown word (using the editor feature), with the aim of glancing through the list later to see if I remembered them. Ahem. Moving on.

The Bad

Passive information

Two things I really miss are passively knowing how far through the book you are while reading, and passively sharing what you are reading with others.

On my Sony Reader, the current page and total pages are displayed at the bottom of the screen, but figuring out the ratio in your head really isn’t the same as seeing and feeling the weight of paper shift from right to left.

With myself and the boy both embracing ereading, I also miss us being able to know at a glance what book the other is reading. I like sharing books, and the enjoyment of books, and visually displaying what book you are reading is a nice shortcut. We can always talk, but, you know…

Inability to flick around

The one thing that really bugs me is how difficult it is to jump around in a eBook. You can’t easily flick back to the start of a section on a whim, or reference another page.

Referring to maps at the start of the book – a staple for fantasy novels – required bookmarking the page, tapping the custom zoom button, choosing a custom zoom level and dragging a finger around while the E-Ink struggled to keep up. Not very fun.

The Indifferent (your mileage may vary)

eBook prices

I was disappointed and a little surprised by how expensive eBooks still are. I understand that authors and publishers still need to make the same profits, but are the costs of manufacturing and shipping really that negligible? And, if so, why have book prices in Australia always been so extremely high compared to the UK and the US? I’m sure the pricing will improve gradually, but in the mean time… *grumbles*

E-Ink refreshing

E-Ink screens refresh with a split-second, full-screen flash, and I was worried I’d find this very annoying. I’m pleased to say that I barely notice it. The only time I find it annoying is when I scroll around a larger page or image (fantasy maps!).

Unlit screen

I found the non-backlit screen quite strange at first. I kept trying to read in dim light, wondering why the screen seemed so dark. Once I got over the “technology – screen -backlit” association, however, I stopped expecting it and didn’t mind turning on a reading light.

Frequency of page turning

Trying to choose between the Sony Reader PRS-350 and PRS-650 models, I was concerned that I would find the PRS-350′s smaller screen (5″) too small. I’m pleased to say that I really appreciate the small size of the PRS-350 (see above) and that the screen is a very comfortable size. I do need to turn the page more often than a real book, but, as the device is lighter to hold, I think it’s less strenuous overall. (I am amused by the idea of strenuous reading )

Phew! So that is that. I hope some of you might come away convinced to purchase yourselves an eReader. In hindsight, I still think the Sony Reader was a good pick. I would probably also recommend the Kindle 3G for those who want to download new books and do internetty things on the go; the free 3G service seems like amazing value.

What a great thought! It put me in mind of follies, an architectural term for a grand, expensive, and possibly whimsical or fantastical building that has no practical purpose. They were an extravagance, often silly, but they certainly communicate something of the imagination and passions of those that commission them.

So, imagine that you have a disgusting amount of money. You have already spent money on anything you could possibly wish to spend it on. Cars, houses, ponies. Cars and houses and ponies for your children, and your family and friends, and their family and friends. Around-the-world trips, donations to charities and worthy causes, paying off debts of struggling countries, research in every field of human endeavour. And yet you still have a never-ending supply of money. What now?

Say it in llama! Did you know that llamas have banana-shaped ears, while an alpaca's are curved? *nods*

My first thought was not grandiose architecture, but perhaps a whimsy. I would develop a breed of mini alpacas. What? I adore the idea of a little alpaca romping around our yard! I think it would be grand.

And then: a breed of large, intelligent rabbits. I like rabbits a lot. And then a breed of conveniently-sized dogs that are intelligent, attractive and not too naughty (this seems to be an unfortunate failing of dogs that fall between “small” and “medium” size).

And so it seems that, in my heart of hearts, I want to be a mad geneticist.

Three further ideas occurred to me:

A real-life recreation of The Land of Treats from Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree stories, complete with soda rivers and jam tart flowers. I must admit to reading these books over and over as a child, which may explain my great excitability over food as an adult.

An array of every computer gaming system ever invented, installed with every computer game ever created, that I could peruse at my leisure. (There is this terrible-but-amazing dinosaur-mystery-adventure game called Lost Eden that I have a yearning to re-play.)

A chocolate bar invented by myself. This would involve much research, experimentation and expert consultation. Possibly it would be named the Mazfolly, and involve some combination of raspberry jelly (jello), caramel, peanuts, oats, white chocolate, cookie dough, or cookies.

What would your grand folly be?

I signed up to GoodReads, added a few books, and that was pretty much it. I wanted to be enthralled, but I just wasn’t. The design was – as it still is, admittedly – a little bit brown and dated. And something more shiny had caught my eye: Shelfari.

Shiny!

So shiny!

Shelfari was what I was looking for, as a bright-eyed social-networker of the book-reading variety, with a (supposedly somewhat) refined taste in web and user interface design. My shelf was shiny! I could add books to it! And lo, they would look like books! I exported my GoodReads book list and imported it into Shelfari and I was happy with what I saw.

Two years later, however, Shelfari had barely changed. An iPhone app had been requested by many people, but had never appeared. It was feeling a bit stale and dissatisfying. I hadn’t noticed any major improvements for a long time, and I found the interface – though very pretty – a little awkward in practice. It was time to try out GoodReads again.

(As an aside, after a bit of digging around, I discovered that Shelfari had been acquired by Amazon a few years back. Having heard about other acquisitions by big companies, I wouldn’t be surprised if this were a typical case of the parent company taking over and letting the original product languish.)

Returning to GoodReads

I found returning to GoodReads pleasantly surprising. I logged in and added a new Twitter friend. His updates appeared and I immediately saw some books he’d commented on that I was interested in reading. Up until that moment, I hadn’t considered that I might enjoy the social aspect of the site. I was just there for the book-tracking – or so I thought!

Sadly, this book is could not be found.

I added the book I was currently reading. It was such a joy to click, type, press enter and have the book appear instantly in my “currently reading” section.

The process is admittedly very similar in Shelfari, but somehow the experience isn’t quite as smooth. In Shelfari, instead of adding your current book, you search for a book, and then specify that you are currently reading it. That distinction seems to matter – in my mind, at least. Also, during the adding process, you are taken away from the home page and you need to navigate back to see the result. It feels less responsive and immediate.

And finally, a bonus: GoodReads had an iPhone app! The first time I loaded the app, I clicked my way onto a list of Best Kick-Ass Fantasy Female Characters from YA and Childrens and added many more books to my “to read” shelf in moments.

Shelving Shelfari

So, I was convinced that GoodReads was the way to go. Shelfari had a last laugh, however: something I had noticed in passing, but dismissed as irrelevant, was Shelfari’s annoying “profile completion” message. It annoyed me as a designer, because it was displayed prominently in the top right of the home page – prime visual real estate – and couldn’t be dismissed. It also annoyed me as a user because, even though I’d tried, it seemed I couldn’t complete my profile.

Ugh! How do I get to 100%?

When I started looking for how to export my Shelfari books, I couldn’t find the export link that was supposed to be on the user settings page. I finally discovered that, to export a list of your Shelfari books, your user profile must be 90% complete.

How obscure! I had completed the easy steps to reach 70%, but from that point on, I needed to add friends and add “facts” to books. Each fact and friend you invite (and who joins) is worth one percent. I had to edit a book entry 20 times, adding a new character or fact each time.

Anyway, I passed that trial, and I am now happily ensconced in GoodReads. I would highly recommend it to any and all avid readers – it’s a great way to track your reading and discover new books. Even if you don’t think you’ll enjoy the social aspects of the site, you might be pleasantly surprised. I certainly was!

And if you do sign up… add me! See you over there!

To begin with, I should explain that I’ve always loved drawing. When I was young, it was always animals. And then I grew a little older. And I drew more animals.

In Grade 6, I won an “illustrate your favourite book” competition. My entry was an illustration of Watership Down. The librarian laminated it and put it up on a wall, and there it remained when I left for high school. (I wish now that I’d thought to ask for it!)  But that was probably the pinnacle of my artistic skills. For some reason, from there, I never really progressed with my drawing.

Over the years, I always wished my drawing was better, but I never actually tried to improve it. So that was my resolution: to go back to basics and work on my drawing. It was a fairly loose resolution, but I managed to draw a few times a month for most of last year.

Starting Out

As is my tendency when starting something new, I first turned the internet for information, ferreting out countless websites, tutorials, forums, books, blogs and videos. Two things stand out for me as being extra inspirational and encouraging at this time: MindCandyMan’s sketchbook on the ConceptArt forums, and a book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. They are great resources in many ways, but the primary message I took from both of them was: anyone can draw.

Drawing is not a magical talent that some people have and others lack. Just like any other skill, drawing requires practice to improve (time and effort). This can be a bit daunting, but luckily there are so many resources that can help you out—on the internet, and in the real world.

Hard Work

The most disheartening aspect of working through my resolution last year was that each drawing was hard. Each new piece brought a new challenge, a new element to struggle with. Surely, I thought, this should be getting easier?

Eventually I found an inkling of an answer in this blog post: Draftsmanship: Increasing Your Visual Vocabulary. It really resonated with my decision to “go back to basics” with my drawing as well as my ongoing struggle. For any new object that I drew, I needed to study it and learn how to draw it: the sky required studies of clouds, a forest required a study of trees. This was (and is) tiresome, but I think it’s what is necessary.

Gradually, I think, you build a strong enough visual foundation in your mind to be able to understand and represent new objects more quickly, based on what you’ve learnt already. At least, that’s what I hope, and I hope I’ll get there.

Keeping on Going

As mentioned above, there are many resources online to help you with improving your art. Perhaps a little less directly useful than videos, tutorials and online classes, online communities can be invaluable (if a little distracting).

There’s nothing like a group of other people to motivate and inspire you, right? Why is that?? Anyway! Go find yourself a social network, a forum, or just somewhere to hang out and post your sketches.

How I Went

So, how did I go? Well, you can see these pieces I’ve posted on DeviantArt over the past months (though they are only a small sample), and you can also compare them to this retrospective meme I put together. I think I have improved a little, but oh so slowly!

As an aside, I was looking through my files just now and was curious why the drawings seemed to stop in October. And then I realised, “Oh yeah. That would be four words. Or one long acronym of doom: NANOWRIMO.”

In what was maybe a fitting return,  early on last year I drew a piece inspired by Watership Down. Later in the year, I drew a piece inspired by my other favourite book, Duncton Wood. Neither of them are finished, sadly, but here you go.

Resources

So finally, here are some resources that I’ve enjoyed and found useful in the past year. If you’re on a drawing journey, please share your favourite resources in the comments

Books

• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
• Imaginative Realism by James Gurney
• Anatomy books – you need to know what’s going on under the surface!

Blogs

• Gurney Journey – Dinotopia creator James Gurney (check out his articles on colour and composition)
• Indistinguishable from Magic – Dresden Codak creator Aaron Diaz
• Evan Dahm – creator of Rice Boy
• Your favourite artists – invaluable for inspiration and advice

Communities

• DeviantArt – search around for some great tutorials
• ConceptArt Forums – check out the tutorials and references forums

Resources

• Pose Maniacs – 30 second figure drawings. Great for loosening up and practicing human anatomy.
• Google Images – the place for reference photos
• TL;DR (Yet Another Anthro Art Tutorial) – Ahem. I think this is a great read for an enthusiastic beginner.

The first thing I hear from people who see it, which I was totally on board with before I got the Kindle, is “I like to feel the book in my hand”. I have a HUGE bookshelf in my house of paperbacks and signed hardbacks, so I’m a girl who was also skeptical of the idea of a newfangled electronic thing. Isn’t that what the 2-3 hours a day I spend on the internet is for; reading stuff?! Shouldn’t I reserve my pleasure reading to real life? … Evidently I could be persuaded otherwise.

Indeed, I was always firmly in the “but I like books!” camp, and this is still the most common reaction I get when discussing eReaders with my book-reading friends. But I think there are two different questions to consider:

Do you really like reading (and do you want to read more)?
Do you really like owning books (and do you want to own more)?

The answer to the first questions, for me, was most definitely yes. The second? Not so much. Yes, I want to own copies of my favourite books: the books that I want to sigh over in happy nostalgia and re-read obsessively every few years and force pass on to my friends and family. But that paranormal romance that I’m just a little embarrassed to admit I’m interested in? Or that non-fiction book I’d like to read “one day”? Or the classic novels that I should read? Do I want those sitting on my bookshelf for the rest of all time?

Getting with the Digital

Connecting my eReader to my laptop for the first time, I felt a strange mixture of liberation and loss. It was a similar feeling to when, as a wee teen, I first realised I could download music from the internet. That any music I wanted—and more music than I ever wanted—was at my fingertips (the only limitation being our 56k dialup connection!). And that my CD collection, each CD painstakingly decided upon and saved for, was now redundant.

I also felt a little gluttonous, which seems fitting, as I think the main benefit of the eReader is consumption. My eReader will allow me to consume far more books than our physical bookshelves at home would allow. It will also allow me to consume more than my finances would otherwise allow (an average paperback in Australia costs around 20 AUD/USD), thanks to Project Gutenberg and other sources.

Hopefully it will also allow me to read more, and more widely. I have already loaded up my little eReader with two fantasy novels, one NaNoWriMo novel, one non-fiction book, one open source novel, and have high hopes of downloading many, many old classics.

Anyway, it’s early days yet. If only Shelfari had a graph feature, it would be interesting to see how my reading rate is affected over the next few months.

—

And just for reference, if anyone’s curious…

Happy nostalgia and obsessive re-reading: Duncton Wood
Paranormal romance: Bitten
Non-fiction: Cosmos
Classic novel: Pride & Prejudice
Two fantasy novels: Dragonriders of Pern
NaNoWriMo novel: Obsidian Throne
Non-fiction (the second): The God Delusion
Open-source novel: Little Brother
Old classics: What Katy Did at School and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

* I really don’t know much about this, but I’m guessing it’s low

Badger trail, by staticgirl

So, in my last post I talked about setting your goals and planning how to keep them. I should admit right now that one of the goals was to write regular fortnightly blog posts as part of a newly formed Write Club. Oops. I have also failed to do any drawing whatsoever, and my poor NaNoWriMo draft is gathering dust on the floor next to the bed.

Where there are failures there have also been some successes, though. While I have failed to progress on what I thought were my goals this year, other goals have shouldered their way through. I have finished a large batch of website work for a client—my first “real” client. I have nigh-finished work on a new website for my local frisbee association. I’ve helped organise the frisbee girls team this year too, the largest we’ve had in Tassie.

I’m not meaning to brag. I guess I’m finding it interesting to look back on how things have turned out. As an aside, this might be a bit weird, but I have been known to add things to my to-do list and cross them off straight away, just for the satisfaction of seeing them crossed out… I wish I could do it in this case! I think you should always keep around a few complete items on any to-do list, just to remind and reassure you that you’re making progress.

Perhaps this is another key to being successful in your goals? Retrospection and revision, some satisfaction and a little adjustment. You need to know where you are right now, to know how to best get where you’re going!

But last year I did something slightly different. A friend had mentioned the idea of setting “half-year resolutions”… and this sounded pretty good to me, as there were two areas I wanted to concentrate on: drawing and writing. I’ll save a review of those for later, but, in summary, I set out last year to work on those and I’m pretty pleased with what I managed to achieve.

So basically, I’m very much in the “yay resolutions” camp now. I think resolutions and goals help you review your priorities, re-focus, re-balance and challenge yourself, and generally achieve more in life.

Get in line, please

Looking back, I think being able to concentrate on one at a time was crucial to the success, given that the scope of my resolutions was so similar—both were creative endeavours, requiring a chunk of uninterrupted time for creative focus and fighting for the same evening and weekend timeslots. When you’re picking your goals, I think it’s important to be aware of clashes for your time.

Countability and Accountability

I also think more concrete resolutions (such as “draw for one hour each week”) would have helped me reach higher goals. One great thing about countable goals is that you can track your progress. Tracking your goals gives you immediate feedback, reminds and motivates you if you’re lagging, and gives you a sense of achievement. My progress graph for NaNoWriMo kept me obsessively checking and updating my progress, and pushing for those last few words to meet my daily target.

As a more relevant, admirable and inspiring example, @m_fitzpatrick set himself some very clear and (ac)countable goals for the year and has been tracking his progress on his blog, This Geek’s Goals. If only there was a website for everyone to do this kind of thing—I assume there isn’t? Someone really needs to get onto that!

Tracking your goals in a public space and talking about them to other people also seems to help. If your friends and family aren’t interested, perhaps you can find a group of like-minded people online. The Saucy Wenches Forums gang has been a great motivation for my writing, and DeviantArt has served as a pretty good source of inspiration.

Getting Serious

I think one of the more important things I’ve realised is that, if you really want to get serious about meeting your goals, then you need to change your day-to-day habits. And that this is a bigger hurdle than actually fulfilling the new goal. (The habit is the process, the goal is the outcome?)

I think people’s habits evolve over the years towards an optimum balance of time for each activity according to their priorities. If you take an extra hour out of the day to fit in (or emphasise) an activity, everything else has to shuffle around. Something is going to lose out, so you need to look at your habits and decide what you can change. Do you need to watch TV for two hours every night? Maybe you do, maybe it’s your bonding time with your partner, or maybe it’s your relaxation time. But it is worth analysing yourself a little—for instance, maybe your new hobby will also be relaxing, so that time isn’t as crucial as you thought.

If you can’t change anything, then maybe the goal just isn’t possible and you need to decide to downgrade or postpone. Or maybe you need to up the stakes, to make it a higher priority than another activity. (Why do you want to achieve this goal? What happens if you don’t? Write that down in your copy book now.)

Even if the goal isn’t practical this year, you could set yourself a meta-goal with the aim of setting you up for the next year—for example, if you want to take art classes but don’t have enough money for the fees, maybe you can aim to set aside enough money in time for next year. (As an aside, I wish real life had achievements and meta-achievements like in World of Warcraft, Xbox games and similar.)

Last year, my new goals luckily coincided with a declining interest in World of Warcraft. Cancelling my account instantly freed up many evening and weekend hours. (Actually, maybe I’m not giving myself enough credit there—I think my decline in interest was due my decision to prioritise other things.) But my priorities are more difficult to weigh up this year, as I don’t have a big time-sink that I can push aside.

In Summary

These are what I’m going to try and keep in mind when setting my goals this year:

0. These aren’t just new goals, they’re new habits to achieve these goals.

1. Specify my goals
Make them as concrete as possible. Be realistic, but aim high.

2. Plan to keep the goals
How much time do I need to set aside to make my goal happen? What do I need to give up? (And can I do it?) Look ahead for problems and plan how to avoid them.

3. Track my progress
Find a way to track progress: a website or blog, an app, a diary, a calendar, so I can look at what you have achieved. (I found the Don’t Break the Chain method pretty interesting.)

So, what do you do to achieve your goals? Please share!

Edit: Daytum (web/iOS) and Dayta (iOS) look like they could be good options. Thanks @jasedepuit!

As Steve from Kestrel’s Aerie has mentioned—the only regret I have is that I didn’t take part last year. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who has ever said they would write a story “one day”. And to do it with a good support base. The gang over at the Saucy Wenches Forums have been my greatest source of inspiration, advice and encouragement. But, even if you don’t have a captive audience of forum-goers that you can pounce on, NaNo has this “built in”—there are official community and regional forums that you can take part in.

In no particular order, here are a few things I have learnt from NaNoWriMo.

3. I can write.

Not necessarily well, but I can sit down for hours upon hours and write. And, more importantly, enjoy it. I think both of those are a great first step. Though I do harbour a small hope that other people will enjoy my writings too…

2. Things that are worth doing take time and effort (and a dose of stubborn).

I have read some blog posts recently about creativity and achieving your goals that both really resonated with me. NaNoWriMo has also highlighted what has been filtering through my brain for a little while—that you need to work for your goals and stick to them, even when things seem hard. Sometimes you will need to give things up temporarily to keep your path and vision clear. Sometimes you might need to downgrade your goal. But the stubbornness, or obsessiveness, or self-motivation is—I think, I hope—what will get you where you want to be.

1. If I want to do something, I can do it.

A month ago I thought I could only barely make the 25,000 word mark for my novel writing. I actually sat down and calculated the time I had during the week, estimated how long it would take me to write. I thought 25,000 words would be… possible. Yet here I am, sailing past 27,000 words, on track to meet the grand 50,000 word goal just handful of days past the end-of-month deadline. And I am still sane. Mostly

So, to anyone who might be reading who has toyed with the idea of writing a story one day: you can do it! And there is no better time than November.

Writing a story is partly the creation of a new world in your mind, but for each creative decision, you are defining what is not.

When I start writing, the world is wide with possibilities. The map of possibilities for each character is endless. As the character takes form, as I pin down the details, these possibilities – the infinite alternative dimensions – narrow down into one possibility, one dimension. The dimension. The way things are in the universe that is the story.

The best artwork and designs are also an act of taking away. The question is not how the lines should be drawn, but whether a line should be drawn at all.

In creative work, it is worth questioning: Why that line? Why that reality?