sirithduriel

What a week of disaster, considering the amount of writing I got done. I started out well, crossing the 8000 words border on Sunday already (record number of words for one day!).
But then, on Monday, I started a new course at uni, a tough one. It's considered something of a small thesis, and you're basically doing full-time practical work and associated activities. Comparing to lectures and the occasional practicals, this is a lot more intensive. Still, on Monday and Tuesday, I was able to write a little.
Then on Wednesday I got a migraine, which lasted until Friday morning. And instead of writing Friday night, I played Borderlands :P.

It seems this November will be the month of writing a lot during the weekends. I'm going to try to have a 10k weekend, hopefully more, just to write myself another cushion and hopefully I'll be able to keep up next week.

We'll see!

Due to all the exams and other things going on during the previous weeks, I haven't drawn much. And I noticed how much I missed it when I started doing some simple exercises. But, of course, NaNoWriMo is about writing, not about drawing ;).

It still served its purpose though. I think both in images and in words, but if I can't visualise something, it seems unreal to me. Then the words just hang in vacuum, with nothing to hold on to. Only until I visualise it, see it in my mind's eye, it becomes something I can use.
Since, in preparation for NaNo, I've focussed mostly on words, everything I came up with seemed flat and uninteresting. I couldn't think up a plot, because everything seemed to float around in that vacuum. It made me very anxious, I just couldn't put 1 and 1 together, and somehow come up with 2.

Today I noticed again how long I've not been drawing, like I have noticed during the past few days. A flash of insight later, and I decided to draw a bit. Just poses from Pose Maniacs to get back into the groove. It felt as if a load fell away from my brain. Something I had been dragging with me fell away, and I could finally relax.
Suddenly, having no plot for NaNo seemed like less of a problem. I had a much easier time visualising my characters, the possibilities my world provides and what I can add and leave out. It didn't really fall into place yet, but thinking about it has become a lot easier now.

It doesn't really come as a surprise, that drawing helps me relax and think more clearly. In preparation for exams, for example, just reading the books never works for me. I need to write it down myself, ideally make schemes and graphs that show me how stuff works. It helps me visualise, in a way.

In any case, I have no plot yet, but I am a lot more confident about just starting to write at midnight (or tomorrow) :)

Well, November 1st is drawing closer. I'm less confident than I was last year, a few moments during the past week I even thought of just not doing it, since my November will be really busy. But, I will at least give it a good shot, see how well I do. The excitement is slowly coming back again :).

I don't have many concrete ideas yet, but I hope to change that this week. I hope to write a few character bios, think of a couple of scenes I could write, and work out the world a bit more. Other than that, I'm just going to dive in like last year :).

Left: a guy at one of my courses, during a break. Pencil. Right: various sketches from presentations of another course. Ballpoint.
It's really uncomfortable to draw someone who is looking at you, while they're not really aware of you sketching them. So my eyes float around their face, and I never get to drawing that.

I want to play a druid in D&D or Pathfinder one day. Having a helmet with antlers would be cool (or perhaps it's a leftover from transforming back from a wild shape, that didn't go well).

Also, those ballpoints from Hema are so very good for sketching.

Like the title says! This was done today, you can read some of my notes. Yes, I was still paying attention ;P. And yes, I sometimes use my notebook on its side.

Trying to divide one's attention between drawing and listening to a lecture is tricky, but it gets easier when the lecture isn't that interesting and you're sitting at the back of the room anyway :P. It was something about protein-protein interactions (biochemistry), I believe, not my favourite subject. The sketch made me happy, I like it a lot.



I missed a week of posting. After that painting, I didn't feel like drawing, and only yesterday picked up a pencil again. Hopefully I'll be back on track :).